The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

2339: Outer Ring Collapse

But now, because the 17th Army of the Galactic Empire was completely destroyed, the 15th Army of the Galactic Empire was also completely exposed to the attack range of the Kingdom of Dawn fleet.

The 15th Army, also known as the Hook Nebula, was established at the beginning of the Clone Wars and is one of the 20 major legions established by the Galactic Republic. However, the strategic location of the 15th Army is relatively remote, and most of the time there will be no battles, so they are actually just a reserve legion.

There are no developed planets in the 15th Army's jurisdiction, only a few agricultural planets and planets that provide labor. This includes the 15th Army's capital planet, Qeimet, which was originally an uninhabited planet, but the hyperspace route on this planet is quite convenient, mainly because it can monitor the Five Veils Route, so a military base was set up here.

The Wusha Channel is a relatively prosperous trade route within the 15th Army, and it can be said to be the greatest value of the 15th Army. The Galactic Republic originally hoped that the trade volume generated by controlling this trade route would bring in some fiscal revenue, but later facts proved that this meager income could barely maintain the expenses of the 15th Army.

After the military base on the planet Kemit was established, the Galactic Republic gradually immigrated here and established a colony, with a permanent population of about 5 to 8 million and a floating population of to million.

Therefore, after the 17th Army was destroyed, the 15th Army had no power to resist at all.

After occupying the planet Vogel, Severance Tann sent a fleet consisting of a Revelation-class battleship, 70 Hell's Angels-class battlecruisers, and 40 Minotaur-class heavy cruisers into the Five Yarns Route, and quickly broke through the defense line of the Galactic Empire's temporary organization and arrived at the planet Kemit.

The imperial army on the planet Kemit still wanted to continue to resist, but the army of the Kingdom of Dawn was not very interested in this planet which did not have much strategic value, and directly carried out orbital bombardment on the imperial colony on the planet.

Two days later, the leaders of Kemit who were hiding in underground fortifications could only crawl out and surrender. However, by this time, the planet's population of more than 7000 million had been reduced to less than 20.

At this point, the 15th Army of the Galactic Empire was declared destroyed!
On September 9, King of Dawn Tang Xiao personally went to the planet Vogel, where he held a surrender ceremony at the former Galactic Empire Naval Academy.

Those who were captured to attend the surrender ceremony were the president and vice president of the Vogel Imperial Naval Academy, instructors at all levels, and about 7000 students. In addition, there were also senior officers of the Galactic Empire who were captured or surrendered in the military operations in the past month.

Among them, there are 12 lieutenant generals, 35 major generals, and more than 700 colonel-level officers. Officers of lower ranks are not eligible to be presented as trophies to the King of Dawn.

The Imperial Naval Academy on the planet Vogel has a long history. It has existed since the beginning of the Galactic Republic and has trained a large number of naval officers for the Republic and the Empire. This naval academy is located on the planet Vogel 7 in the central ring and often recruits civilian students, so it also has a high reputation.

Now with the destruction of the 17th and 15th Armies and the occupation of the Vogel Imperial Naval Academy, it means that the Galactic Empire's forces in the Central and Outer Rim have once again suffered a devastating blow.

During the surrender ceremony, King Tang Xiao of the Dawn looked at the instructors and academies representing the future of the Galactic Empire Navy, as well as the senior officers representing the current Galactic Empire Navy below the stage. He laughed heartily and appointed Severance Tann as the Admiral of the Navy on the spot.

And Tang Xiao told everyone that when Fangduo Planet fell, she would become the second naval marshal of the Dawn Kingdom Navy! Second only to Matt Horner who was now living in seclusion in the unknown star field.

After the 17th and 15th armies were destroyed, the fleet of the Kingdom of Dawn had swept across the entire southern part of the Milky Way. Now, except for a few planets that were still resisting, the rest of the world was completely under the influence of the Kingdom of Dawn.

However, because the jurisdiction of these two legions is too large and there are very few planets with developed economy and industry, the Kingdom of Dawn, which currently puts all its energy into Operation Zero, has not spent too much effort to rule these places.

The authorities of the Kingdom of Dawn only dispatched local officials to some relatively obedient and stable planets, or directly appointed some local bosses who were willing to obey the Kingdom of Dawn to manage these planets.

In addition, at least half of the planets under the jurisdiction of these two legions are in turmoil, and many planets have even been occupied by the rebels.

After the rebels occupied these planets, they immediately established autonomous governments on the planets. All internal affairs of the planets were decided by the planets themselves, and no external forces were allowed to interfere.

The emergence of these autonomous governments has made the situation in the star regions under the jurisdiction of the 15th and 17th Armies even more chaotic and complicated. However, neither the Kingdom of Dawn nor the Galactic Empire intends to pay attention to these places.

第14、15、17、18、19军全部覆灭，并且第14军重建失败，现在银河帝国在这片区域的力量，只剩下13军、16军和20军。

The 13th Army, "Iron Lance", with its capital at Ord Pardron, is the largest legion in terms of territory, and also the most awkward one, because its territory covers the entire Hutt space... and the Hutts are naturally never going to obey.

Moreover, the 13th Army ranks behind the 20 major armies in terms of strength, and its main function is to monitor the Hutts to prevent them from doing anything wrong during the war. The planet Odd-Padron is just a military base built on an asteroid, and it does not have any industrial base.

Therefore, the 13th Army has basically been abandoned now, and it is completely impossible to resist the powerful front of Severance Tann. When Severance Tann feels that she needs to add a small mark to her military medal, then it will be the end of the 13th Army.

The 16th Army and the 20th Army now respectively control the hyperspace routes leading to the inner ring of the Milky Way. The 16th Army is deployed on the planet Chardan to block the Hydia route; the 20th Army is deployed on the planet Fangduo to block the Rema trade route and the Corellia trade route.

So far, the Galactic Empire has lost three-quarters of its sphere of influence in the outer ring of the Milky Way.

The entire Southwest and South Territories have been completely lost; the Southeast and East Territories belong to Hutt Space, nominally monitored by the 13th Army, but even in name it is only monitoring. The Northeast Territory was once the core control area of ​​the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and now the remnant separatist forces in that direction are revolting everywhere in response to the war of the Kingdom of Dawn; the Northwest Territory has long been completely controlled by the Fourth Group, the Interstellar Banking Association and the Trade Union, plus the help of the Geth.

Therefore, the only Outer Rim Star Regions that the Galactic Empire could still barely control were the areas where the 9th, 10th, and 11th Legions of the North were located. But even these places were not peaceful. Now the Commercial Combined Fleet led by the famous Neimoidian general Mal-Touk was advancing towards the Outer Rim Star Region of the North, with the momentum to sweep across the Outer Rim Star Region and completely drive the Galactic Empire out.

Faced with such a complete retreat, the Galactic Emperor Palpatine was naturally furious.

He personally ordered the arrest of Lynch-Hauser, the governor of the 17th Army, and more than 40 senior naval generals who were defeated on various fronts, and then executed them publicly!

Afterwards, Palpatine issued a death order to stop the Kingdom of Dawn from entering the inner ring of the galaxy at all costs! Anyone who retreats will be killed without mercy!

In other words, even the Central Star Region was regarded by him as strategic depth.

In addition, although Lynch-Hauser, the governor of the 17th Army, was executed, Kintaro, the governor of the 15th Army who also lost his legion, was not punished.

Although Quintano was not on the front lines when the 15th Army was destroyed but was in the center of the Empire, his position as the governor of the 15th Army was only a part-time position. He was promoted at the end of the Clone Wars and served as the governor of the 15th Army and the Minister of Defense of the Republic.

After the reorganization of the Republic into the Empire, Quintano continued to serve as the Minister of Defense of the Empire, holding a high position. At the same time, he and Dunn Wessex were close friends, so they colluded with each other and had great influence in the military.

So even if Palpatine wanted to purge a group of officers, he couldn't target him.

At the same time, since most of the Outer Rim star regions had either fallen or lost contact, the Galactic Empire also transferred fleets that were suppressing rebellions from various places to the Central Rim and star regions for defense.

It just so happened that most of the planets where riots and uprisings occurred were in the Outer Rim Star Region. In this way, the Galactic Empire got rid of many burdens and was able to gather more troops.

Now the Galactic Empire is determined to defend the Inner Ring Star Region, delay for some time to allow its fleet to regroup, and then attack with superior forces to defeat Severance Tann's fleet in one fell swoop!
Moreover, although the Outer Rim was basically occupied, this situation was not unfamiliar to the Galactic Empire. In the early days of the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems also relied on the high reputation of Count Dooku and the separatist movement that swept across most of the galaxy, and almost drove the Galactic Republic out of the Outer Rim.

However, the final winner was the Galactic Republic.

Why? Because the strength of the planets in the inner and core circles of the Milky Way, whether in industry or economy, far exceeds the sum of the middle and outer ring star regions. And this excess is not just a little bit, but several times or even dozens of times!

Therefore, the middle and outer rings actually only have advantages in population and resource reserves. But in fact, the population of the inner ring and the core ring is not much different, as these places are mostly super planets with hundreds of billions of people. As for the advantage of resources, when technology continues to develop until it is possible to mine resources on stars, the inner ring and core ring with a huge number of stars will not be lacking.

The inner ring and the core circle are the real ruling center of the Galactic Empire. Since ancient times, even the once-powerful Infinite Empire, the Sith Empire, the Mandalorian Crusades, and the Eternal Empire have never been shaken!

On September 9, Darth Vader led a powerful fleet of 16 battleships to the planet Fondo, and more fleets were still arriving.

After inspecting the battlefield, he angrily denounced Governor Octavian Grant and Admiral Gideon Tarkin for being cowardly, and immediately led the entire fleet to attack General Ling's fleet.

At this moment, the defenders of the planet Fangduo already have 1600 battleships and more than 7000 small and medium-sized warships, which is an absolute advantage in numbers. But Gideon Tarkin is still worried, after all, a stargate is being built at the location of Planet No. .

If Severance Tann's main fleet suddenly appeared from the star gate, the strength of 1600 battleships would not be enough to defeat that powerful fleet!

But Darth Vader's answer to Gideon's question was very direct. He used the Force to strangle Gideon Tarkin's neck and threw him ten meters away, leaving him half dead.

Darth Vader spared the life of Wilhuff Tarkin's younger brother because of Emperor Palpatine's consideration.

Then, the army headed straight for Planet No. 3!

Faced with the aggressive Darth Vader fleet, General Ling chose to retreat directly. She did not give the Imperial fleet any chance to fight. When she found that Darth Vader was coming to kill her, she decisively turned around and ran away, abandoning the half-built star gate and the fixed base facilities on Planet No. 3, and returned to the planet Yago-Dur.

Darth Vader recaptured Planet No. 3 with almost no effort, but faced with the star gate that had not yet been repaired, Darth Vader did not hesitate and directly ordered a bombardment.

The powerful artillery fire of the Imperial Fleet completely destroyed the "Star Gate" within a few minutes! At the same time, he also ordered an orbital bombardment of the facilities on Planet No. 3, which was also completely destroyed within just ten minutes.

It was at this time that Octavian Grant discovered the problem!
It turned out that this half-built stargate and the military base that was built with great fanfare were all fake! General Severance Tann made a feint on the planet Fondo, scaring the defenders there so that they dared not act rashly. Then he turned around and wiped out the 15th and 17th armies, completely clearing out the imperial forces in the southern part of the Milky Way.

Not only that, Severance Tann's military action also made the Galactic Empire hand over a large number of troops to Darth Vader and rush to help many planets. You know, the Galactic Empire does not have the mobility of the Stargate!
The reinforcements brought by Darth Vader plus the subsequent warships that are continuously gathering towards the planet Fangduo will add up to a total of more than 3000 battleships!

Then add the 2500 battleships deployed in the north, which means that the Galactic Empire has deployed nearly half of its fleet in the north and west. Excluding the fleets that must be used to defend the center of the empire and key planets in the core circle, the Galactic Empire is now stretched to its limits with mobile fleets in other directions!
Therefore, in this situation, the defense of Parment Harbor, the battle of Odd-Padron Planet and the battle of the Mararian Alliance started simultaneously in three different directions of the Milky Way! (End of this chapter)