I can find treasures in my dreams.

this moment.

Jason, the highest-ranking official of the Duchy of Desa, saw with perfect clarity thousands of vertical white trails descending from the high sky, like divine punishment from a supreme deity.

Half of the white trail plunged straight into the area east of Odin City, forming a peculiar "forest".

The other half of the white trail encircled Odin City, forming a ring around it.

This scene was so magnificent that it will be unforgettable for a lifetime.

The garrison's barracks and the temporary defensive positions built around them no longer exist.

The area where the military camp and positions were located had all collapsed, leaving only a series of huge craters of varying sizes.

The largest of these craters is crescent-shaped and at least two kilometers long.

If rainwater fills it, it will become a group of lakes.

There is no doubt that General Richard, the garrison commander who just issued the ultimatum, has vanished without a trace.

Dessa was originally a large state in the federal government, with a population of over 6000 million even before the catastrophe.

After the arrival of the era of natural disasters, due to the continuous influx of immigrants, although people were dying every day, the population of Desa State remained stable at over 6000 million.

Therefore, the garrison in this prefecture is quite large, with a total of six divisions and more than 70,000 men.

Jason won over one division, while the remaining five divisions, following the orders of the Azure Palace, surrounded Odin City.

This round of attacks, according to the most conservative estimate, killed at least 40,000 soldiers.

The soldiers who survived were undoubtedly terrified.

The entire garrison was practically non-existent.

soon.

The other officials followed and were all dumbfounded.

"Oh my God!"

"What happened to the garrison?"

"Was this done by the Great Xia's Lingxiao Palace space-based strike system?"

Jason snapped out of his shock and burst into laughter: "I told you so, didn't I? The people of Great Xia are willing to spend a fortune to buy bones, so Great Xia will definitely protect the safety of the Duchy of Desa."

"General Richard is a complete fool. He thinks he's issuing an ultimatum to the Duchy of Desa, but he's actually issuing an ultimatum to Great Xia. So he's doomed!"

He then turned to his subordinate Jacob, his smile widening: "I've told you before that the history of Great Xia contains wonderful Eastern wisdom. Now you should understand, right?"

Jacob was so shocked he couldn't speak, he could only nod repeatedly.

The other officials present, who had previously thought Jason's actions were too risky, have now all changed their minds.

This wasn't an adventure; it was clearly a very successful independence movement!

Jason admired the traces left by the space-based attack for a while before issuing an order: "Issue an ultimatum to the remaining soldiers of the garrison, demanding that they surrender to the Duchy of Desa immediately."

"Yes!"

Someone immediately responded.

Jason looked at Jacob again and instructed, "On behalf of the Duchy of Desa, you should express your gratitude to the External Relations Department of Great Xia for helping the Duchy resist the evil tyranny of the Federation."

Jacob hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded and said, "Understood!"

Jason thought for a moment and then changed his mind: "Forget it, I'll call the External Relations Department of Daxia myself."

He originally felt that he was now the leader of a country, and according to the principle of equality, he should have a dialogue with the leader of Great Xia.

But then he thought again, the Great Xia had become a super hegemon, and the Duchy of Desa was nothing in front of the Great Xia.

The leader of the Duchy of Desa actually holds a lower position than the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Great Xia.

Therefore, it is better to be humble in front of the Great Xia, so as not to make an international laughing stock and make the world think that the Duchy of Desa is the Yelang Kingdom in the story of "Yelang's arrogance".

*
at the same time.

Galliola Oblast.

The state's governor, Mr. Swart, gave a public speech a quarter of an hour ago, expressing his eternal loyalty to the federal government.

In his speech, he also harshly condemned the state of Dessa, calling its leaders a group of traitors who betrayed the Union.

A quarter of an hour later.

Thousands of orbital gravity strike weapons, nicknamed "golden cudgels," descended from the sky with immense kinetic energy, precisely striking the state capitol building and the surrounding area.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

A dense barrage of thunderous explosions resounded.

The state capitol building vanished in an instant, without even a speck of dust rising.

Centered on the building, the area within a 500-meter radius collapsed into the ground in an instant, leaving only a huge crater 100 meters deep.

The tremors were so strong that they were felt throughout Larki, the state capital.

One hundred kilometers to the north.

A base was also attacked by horrific forces from space.

Because this was an improved version of the Golden Cudgel, which greatly enhanced its stealth capabilities, by the time the base discovered it, the Golden Cudgel was already moving at a terrifying speed of 60 times the speed of sound.

That translates to 20 kilometers per second.

Although the golden cudgel was still more than 100 kilometers above the ground, the base only had five seconds to react.

What can you do in such a short time?
I can't do anything!
Therefore, when General Douglas, the base's commander, heard that "an orbital strike is expected in four seconds, please be prepared," his old face was filled with bewilderment.

He paused for a moment before standing up from his chair.

Douglas walked to the office door, looked at the panicked crowd in the lobby, and opened his mouth to try to calm his subordinates down.

But the words were on the tip of his tongue, and he swallowed them back.

He had studied the Lingxiao Palace space-based strike system of the Great Xia Dynasty more than once, and few federal soldiers knew its terror better than him.

With only two seconds left, everyone in the base could only passively await the arrival of death.

"Shet!"

Douglas finally muttered a curse under his breath.

He wasn't cursing his subordinates, but rather the high-ranking military officers in the Hexagram Building, as well as the Azure Palace and a small group of elites who controlled the Federation.

Bastards!
The Federation is clearly the world's number one superpower, how did you manage to turn it into this?

next second.

Douglas felt a jolt beneath his feet, and then he completely lost consciousness.

Not only him, but all three thousand soldiers in the base who were within the range of the attack suffered the same fate.

From an observer's perspective, it looked as if a giant a hundred meters tall had extended his thumb and pressed it down on Douglas's entire body.

"Snapped!"

Douglas turned into an extra-large pie.

Apart from a slight dent where he was standing, there was nothing unusual about the rest of the room; the table, chair, and computer were all intact.

The thousands of soldiers in this base followed in the footsteps of their commander, turning into bloody, mangled pieces of flesh.

The reason it has such a magical effect is because this is the latest model of the Golden Cudgel, Type III.

Compared to the old Type I and Type II Golden Cudgel, although these two weapons have not been around for long, the Type III has two more words in its name - Directional!
Its full name is – Targeted Gravity Strike Weapon. As the name suggests, the Golden Cudgel Type III can target specific targets with supernatural gravity attacks, rather than simply and brutally striking a certain area.

This represents a more refined level of control.

This also represents a higher level of technical expertise.

According to the results of on-site verification by the Great Xia military, the lethality of one Type III Golden Cudgel is equivalent to that of twenty Type I Golden Cudgels.

Another advantage of the Type III Golden Cudgel is that it causes very little damage to infrastructure, greatly reducing the series of troubles that will arise from subsequent reconstruction.

*
White Rock, the federal capital.

The country's military center, the Hexagram Building, was now in complete chaos.

The military leadership received shocking news: in the past 15 minutes, more than 300 military bases within the country had been subjected to powerful attacks by orbital weapons.

To date, the Hexagram Building has no information about the attacked base, let alone how many people have been killed or injured.

Because all the attacked bases lost contact without exception.

Even under the worst-case scenario, if more than 90% of the soldiers die at each base, the final death toll could reach a horrific 4 million.

Even with a less-than-worst estimate, if the death rate at each base reaches 50%, the total death toll would not be less than 2 million.

Regardless of the cause, this is an exceptionally heavy blow to the federal military.

Worse still, many bases also store large quantities of weapons and equipment. The loss of these vital resources will lead to a shortage of equipment for the federal military.

At this moment.

A large group of high-ranking federal military officers gathered together, engaged in a tense discussion about how the Federation should respond next.

No, using the word "discussion" is too mild a word.

A more accurate way to put it would be – to argue.

Many officers appeared red-faced and visibly angry, speaking in a manner more akin to shouting.

Even more extreme, some people slammed their fists on the conference table in front of them.

"Oh!"

The table was slapped again.

A tall officer shouted, his voice hoarse: "It now appears that the Federation has seriously misjudged the military strength of Great Xia."

"The intelligence department originally estimated that the maximum ammunition limit of the Lingxiao Palace space-based strike system of the Great Xia Dynasty, equipped with the Golden Cudgel, should not exceed 20,000 rounds."

"The cost of deploying space-based weapons is too high, as can be inferred from the frequency of rocket launches by the Great Xia Aerospace Department."

"Based on the orbital strike data detected so far, it is possible that the Great Xia people launched at least one million Golden Cudgels, or even two million."

The officer roared, "The Federation has made a very, very serious strategic miscalculation. The Great Xia people actually fired fifty to a hundred times more weapons than we expected!"

He used the word "very" twice, which shows how serious he thought the mistake was.

The others couldn't keep up with his volume, so they had to stop and listen to him.

The tall officer took a breath and clenched his fist forcefully: "But this is not the worst-case scenario."

"The worst-case scenario is that there may be more golden cudgels floating in the orbit of Azure Star, aiming at various military targets within the Federation."

"Perhaps the Great Xia people have the ability to launch another two million Golden Cudgels, maybe even more, launching four or five million would not be a problem."

He said this with even greater anger: "The Federation should not have launched a plague blood sacrifice against the Azik Alliance."

"We believed the Federation was capable of withstanding the attack from the Lingxiao Palace, but the fact is that the Federation army was almost paralyzed by the bombs."

The tall officer exhaled and concluded, "The Federation has made an unprecedented and serious mistake."

These words were clearly directed at the person who initially proposed using the plague blood sacrifice.

That is, General Bauer.

The eyes of many people in the conference room were all on the instigator.

Many people understood that, despite the tall officer's indignant shouts, he actually wanted to shift the huge blame onto General Bauer.

Bauer sat blankly in the sofa chair, looking completely lost.
The Union Army's top commander, Wiggs, maintained a spectator's stance throughout.

He initially opposed the use of plague blood sacrifice, but Bauer won the support of the majority, leaving him with no choice.

Now, of course, Wiggs wouldn't say a word in Bauer's defense.

This is the current state of the federal military.

It has never been a harmonious society; the internal conflicts are far more numerous than outsiders imagine.

Several seconds passed.

Bauer seemed to come back to life, and his eyes suddenly twitched.

His gaze swept across the faces, finally settling on Viggs, his eyes filled with utter indifference.

Viggs looked down at him and immediately defined the matter: "Bauer, you must take responsibility for this crushing defeat."

Bauer ignored him and continued, "To be honest, Wiggs, I really hate you."

"I always wanted to replace you because I believed that the military would have a better future under my leadership, but unfortunately I failed."

“I have told many people in private that the federal military, under your leadership, will only decline step by step.”

Bowlton paused, then emphasized, "Facts have proven my judgment correct."

Wiggs frowned, wanting to argue with him.

The entire federation is declining, and the military has become like this. Is it all my fault?
Azure Palace is wrong!
The federal leadership is also at fault!
Everyone here is at fault, including you!

But Wiggs understood that there was no need to pay attention to the barking of a loser, so he simply ignored Bauer's words.

He sat up straight and said loudly, "In my capacity as Chief Executive Officer, I hereby formally announce the suspension of all of Bauer's duties."

Bauer didn't panic. Instead, he shrugged and said, "Viggs, you did beat me, but you won't live much longer. I'll be waiting for you in hell."

Viggs sensed something was wrong and quickly asked, "Bauer, what are you doing?"

Bauer did not answer, but quickly reached out and pressed a brooch hanging on his chest.

"Crack!"

The brooch made a soft click, as if there was some kind of mechanism inside.

next moment.

Bauer's face darkened visibly, and his eyes completely lost their luster.

An indescribable stench emanated from his body.

This is the smell of a corpse.

It is clear that Bauer committed suicide by some means.

The meeting room became a mess.

Wiggs covered his nose and sat there blankly, his face showing only deep exhaustion.

Although he won the game, he felt no joy whatsoever.

The federal army suffered defeat after defeat, failing to kill any of the Great Xia, and instead losing millions of its own people.

The most ridiculous thing is that, even at this point, the infighting within the military never stopped.

How should this battle be fought? (End of Chapter)