The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2766 Dantu's Defeat (Part 1)
2765. The Defeat of Dantuin (Part 1)

On the planet Dantuin, the Galactic Empire was in complete chaos, with its three major cities and corresponding defenses on the planet's surface, as well as its space stations and spaceports in outer space.

However, the Kingdom of Dawn did not seize this opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to the Galactic Empire's deployment in outer space, mainly because it lacked the strength.

The main warships of the Dawn Kingdom here are the Gray Horse-class escort carriers, along with some frigates and a few destroyers. Such forces are no match for the Galactic Empire's massive space station.

After all, the Galactic Empire had established a base on Dantuin a long time ago. Even though it wasn't taken seriously at first, there were still some light cruisers there, and initially there were even two Victory-class star destroyers!
Before the Galactic Empire realized the Dawn Kingdom's determination to attack the area, the two Victory-class Star Destroyers were suddenly attacked by a group of Ghost and Viking fighters and were eventually destroyed.

However, that was back then. Now, it's still unrealistic to think that a simple fighter squadron could launch a surprise attack on a heavily guarded Galactic Empire spaceport.

The firepower of fighter jets is still a bit too much to accomplish the task of attacking strongholds.

Therefore, after completely disrupting the Galactic Empire's strategic plans, the Kingdom of Dawn immediately increased its reinforcements for its ground forces. Numerous transport ships arrived, fully loaded with large numbers of troops, combat robots, armored vehicles, and heavy weaponry, heading towards the orbit of Dantuin.

Furthermore, taking advantage of the current gap in the Galactic Empire's inability to launch a counterattack, whether on the ground or in space, they sent another Dawn's Radiance-class industrial mothership over.

To allow this industrial mothership to enter the hyperspace passage, the Dawn Kingdom's shipping was even suspended for a full day. However, this cost was worthwhile; with two industrial motherships operating simultaneously, their production capacity would be incomparable to that of having only one!

However, just as Commander-in-Chief General Dai Hongkui was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the second industrial carrier, he received a message from the Supreme Command—this second industrial carrier would not be used for ground combat support. The army, in order to break through the encirclement, would still have to rely as much as possible on its current strength.

Then, the Dawn's Radiance-class industrial mothership flew alone to an asteroid belt on the outskirts of the star system, and went off to do something unknown.

Despite his doubts, General Dai Hongkui remained unaffected and continued with his counterattack plan.

The four Golden Beetles that the Protoss reinforcements have arrived are being deployed by him, two on each side, in Konda City and the Mosa settlement, and are constantly harassing the Galactic Empire's front lines.

The Galactic Empire had no choice but to concentrate its long-range artillery fire on a large scale. As soon as the Golden Beetle appeared, it would immediately concentrate almost all of its long-range firepower to bombard the location of the Golden Beetle.

General Maximilian Wells, one of the commanders on the Galactic Empire's side, saw this very clearly. He discovered that, generally speaking, as soon as the mobile deflector shields protecting the Golden Beetles were destroyed, the Golden Beetles would immediately be loaded onto transport planes and quickly leave the battlefield, never lingering in combat.

Therefore, he concluded that the Golden Beetle's physical form was likely quite fragile; otherwise, the Dawn Kingdom would not have used such a powerful war machine with such caution.

Therefore, the Galactic Empire's army could only passively repel the golden beetle attacks using this method. However, this also prevented them from launching large-scale offensives unless more reinforcements were sent down from outer space.

There was no other way, because in addition to the Golden Beetles on the main battlefield, the Galactic Empire also had to guard against the potential threat from the Kali army.

If the rear landing sites are attacked again, then the Galactic Empire will truly be unable to fight this war.

Even now, one of the four landing sites established by the Galactic Empire has been destroyed, which has greatly increased the defensive pressure on Kunda City.

The other three landing sites are located behind the Mosa settlement and two near the capital city of Garang.

However, the two landing sites near the capital, besides their daily troop replenishment, were mainly responsible for sending back wounded soldiers, replenishing food for local residents and laborers, transporting high-precision parts to factories in the rear, replenishing engineering robots and machinery, transporting medicines and even entertainment facilities, etc., and were not entirely used for military purposes.

Therefore, the destruction of the landing site in Kunda City greatly increased the difficulty of resupplying the Galactic Empire, forcing them to continuously transport more engineering materials over the next few days.

But in order to suppress the attack of the golden beetles, the front-line troops urgently needed more powerful long-range artillery support. And what was long-range artillery aimed at? Logistics!

So even though the Galactic Empire discovered that for more than a day, the Kingdom of Dawn was stabilizing the hyperspace route and no more transport ships were arriving, there was nothing they could do.

However, while the Galactic Empire was struggling, the Kingdom of Dawn had no intention of giving him an easy respite. Taking advantage of the Galactic Empire's dispersed forces and strained supplies, General Dai Hongkui was quietly deploying the reinforcements he had acquired during this period.

……

9BBY, September 20th, a turning point that determined the course of the Dantoin planetary campaign.

The two commanders of the Galactic Empire's Dantoin Planetary Theater, Lieutenant General Maximilian Wells and Lieutenant General Zell Johnson, returned to the capital city of Garang to discuss the next steps in the operation with the Chief of Staff and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In the Dantuin theater of war, the Galactic Empire's command structure is very unique. There is no single commander-in-chief. Instead, General Wells and General Johnson, who are of equal rank, jointly command the frontline troops, forming a dual command system that both cooperates and checks each other.

To coordinate the operations of the two commanders, a position of Chief Operations Advisor was created. The Chief Operations Advisor was not responsible for deploying operational plans or issuing operational orders; his sole role was to mediate between the two. This coordination was limited to logistical support and troop movements. If the two commanders disagreed on these matters, the Chief Operations Advisor held the final say only on these issues.

After that, how the two men used their troops was entirely up to them, and the chief operational advisor had no right to interfere.

This method was actually a bizarre creation of Lord Dunn Wessex, King of the North. It demonstrated his strategy of checks and balances on his generals, but also revealed his deep-seated fear of losing absolute power. This design, which separated power and responsibility and fostered internal strife through its system, seemingly stabilized the political balance at home, but sowed the seeds of fatal delays at the front. Ultimately, it stemmed from Dunn Wessex's fear of having his power usurped. Since the Thrawn incident, he absolutely would not allow another officer under his command to become disobedient and powerful.

With the exception of Gerard Perrin, the young general was genuinely obedient and truly grateful to Dunn, always maintaining his own stance, never getting involved in politics, and acting in a very low-key manner, never overshadowing Dunn.

Most importantly, Admiral Perrin is very capable and has outstanding talent, which allows him to play a very crucial role in the North, but not to the point that Dunn Wessex is afraid of him.

At the same time, Gerard Pereanne himself is from Corellia and comes from a military family in the inner circle, making him extremely close to Dunn Wessex in terms of class.

You won't find another person like that in the North.

The two army generals from Dantuin, of course, did not receive such treatment.

This is why Lieutenant General Maximilian Wells was so furious when he learned that the Konda landing site had been destroyed—because it meant that the forces under his control had been greatly weakened, and he was immediately at a significant disadvantage in the competition with Zell Johnson.

Regardless of the outcome of the battle on Dantoin, the humiliating scene of having one's rear raided by the enemy will be a major negative factor for Dunn-Wessex.

Just like in the Kingdom of Dawn, it was incredibly difficult for army generals to rise to prominence, and they all wanted to seize this rare opportunity.

This time, both General Wells and General Johnson were promoted to lieutenant general at the same time they were transferred by the Imperial Army. This promotion was also seen as a test for the two of them. If the results were not good, then not to mention the lieutenant general rank, it would be a question whether they could even keep their major general rank!
In the conference room of the Garonne City Operations Command Center, Wells and Johnson were arguing fiercely, each wanting more supplies to support their next operational plan.

Lieutenant General Zell Johnson was a muscular, burly man with a background in armored warfare and a booming voice. He loudly mocked General Wells's crushing defeat, belittling him to nothing, and demanded that the chief advisor halt reinforcements towards Konda, instructing General Wells to focus on defense while he himself would handle the counter-offensive.

"...Compared to something as complicated as launching an attack, you should focus on doing the most basic defensive work right away!" Lieutenant General Johnson said. "You can't even hold the landing zone, yet you dream of leading a counter-offensive? Get out of the way! Don't delay the Empire's important affairs!"

Wells slammed his fist on the table and stood up abruptly, his face ashen but barely suppressing his anger: "My troops have just fought a fierce battle against the newly emerged elite forces of the separatists! You should be glad that this force didn't target you, otherwise you wouldn't even have your head by now!"

He turned to his combat advisor and said loudly, "What we should do now is consolidate the existing defenses and launch a counterattack only after we find a way to counter the enemy's golden beetles! This is the safest approach!"

“Nonsense! The number of Golden Beetles is limited, while my forces are more complete. I should strengthen my troops and launch a counterattack! As long as we can break through the separatist defenses, my forces can threaten the Taikaha Hills in the north. I have ample intelligence indicating that the separatists obtain at least 70% of their minerals from the mines there!” General Zell-Johnson said.

"Have you forgotten our primary duty?" General Wells retorted. "According to Governor Dunn's orders, whatever we do, our first priority is to ensure the safety of 'The Warren'! The separatists are increasing their troop strength, and their power is growing daily! If we continue to act rashly, we may not even be able to hold onto this most important target!"

"Isn't your failure to withstand the threat of separatism the responsibility for your previous crushing defeat? I didn't have my house ransacked!" Johnson scoffed. "A general who lost his landing grounds wants to talk about strategy?"

"Try mentioning the landing site to me again?!" Wells roared in anger.

"What, you want to fight me?" Johnson grinned maliciously.

Just as the two were on the verge of exchanging blows, a message suddenly arrived—a large-scale troop movement by separatists had been detected in the direction of Kongda City, and according to reconnaissance reports, a large number of unknown types of equipment had appeared among the separatist forces!

Upon hearing this news, General Wells' face turned deathly pale!
General Zell-Johnson burst into laughter, "You'd better clean up your own crotch first, General Wells! Hahahaha!"

Maximilian Wells didn't care about this bastard anymore. He stormed out and quickly boarded his shuttle, heading straight for the front lines.

Only General Zell-Johnson remained at the conference table, but his expression had turned serious. He stood up and said to the chief of staff, "It looks like the separatists are about to take action, and I must return to the front lines as soon as possible. But there's something I need to remind you of..."

He walked to the whiteboard at the front of the conference room, and with two light punches—one to the left and one to the right—he turned around and said, "Are those evenly distributed punches effective? Of course not..."

As he spoke, he threw a powerful punch with his right fist, smashing the whiteboard into pieces!

Then, General Johnson put on his military cap and walked away without looking back.

At this moment, they were not yet aware of the seriousness of the situation.

As General Maximilian Wells' shuttle took off, no one noticed that among the ground crew, an engineer subtly adjusted his glasses, a cold glint flashing behind the lenses.

The engineer quietly pressed the encrypted frequency band on the wrist terminal and sent a message.

Moments later, two Sabre-class fighter jets swooped down from outside the planet's atmosphere, trailing the burning atmosphere like two fireballs! Their objective was clear: General Wells's vehicle!
Air raid sirens blared over Garang, but by then, General Wells's Lambda-class shuttle had already flown out of Garang's air defense zone, escorted only by four TIE advanced X-1 fighters.

Less than twenty minutes later, the Dantuin planetary command center received an urgent telegram—General Maximilian Wells's vehicle had been intercepted by separatists and confirmed to have crashed 300 kilometers south of Garang!