Chapter 364: The Great Migration_1

Sophon began to change the attack strategy of The Waterdrop and started to rush towards the Moon and Mercury.

Zhuang Yue was well-prepared, having left another "Waterdrop" on Mercury.

It was because the First Legion's defense area spanned from Mercury to the main asteroid belt that it couldn't achieve an overwhelming advantage on the Earth battlefield.

Jiang Yu assigned the First Legion the task of preventing Waterdrop sneak attacks, safeguarding the interests and industrial systems of the Solar System State within the star system, and ensuring that neither PDC nor Fleet International had any excess capacity to protect the warriors of all humanity resisting the Trisolarans.

Zhuang Yue interpreted this command as stabilizing the rear and fully supporting front-line combat.

At this time, the furthest frontline of humanity's battle with the Trisolarans was in the Kuiper Belt, not Earth, nor Jupiter.

In the eyes of high-ranking commanders like Zhuang Yue, waging war against PDC and Fleet International meant not wanting to be held back by these two "pig teammates"; the Trisolarans would naturally deal with them.

If they wanted to completely eliminate them, it would only take the redeployment of two divisions from the Kuiper Belt.

However, headquarters had long concluded that unless the Kuiper Belt fell, not a single soldier could be withdrawn.

The Second and Fourth Legions were responsible for confronting the Trisolaran vanguard squad, while the Fifth Legion began to divide its forces, attempting to clear out the Trisolarans' signal jammers.

The Sixth Legion was the reserve corps, ready to be deployed at any moment into the battle with the Trisolaran Second Fleet. The frontline was short on manpower given the unknown enemy strength.

One month after the war began, the Earth side of the conflict saw a new change.

On one hand, the immense industrial power of the Solar System State within the Earth's cultural sphere began to manifest, with the J135s suitable for Earth's environment starting to roll off the production line for the first batch of "civilian to military" conversions, and were extensively equipped at Desert North Farm.

The ground armed force advantage of PDC gradually dwindled.

Additionally, warships from Fleet International that had retreated from Jupiter were now beginning to head towards Earth, which undoubtedly was a major variable.

So the Third Legion, responsible for the planetary defense zones on the outer perimeter of the Solar System, strained to pull together three divisions' worth of troops, which would successively support the First Legion over the next three months.

At the same time, the national mobilization order also began to take effect. The first batch of retired military personnel, after simple training, were sent back to combat positions, somewhat alleviating the understaffed state of the First and Third Legions.

Afterward, a large number of personnel and equipment would be replenished every day and, although prioritizing the Kuiper Belt, the advantage of the fully mobilized Solar System State would increasingly become evident.

Meanwhile, Sophon's support for PDC also became stretched thin, with PDC's new model of individual combat equipment, S15, showing significant improvements over both J89 and J97.

But to form an effective combat force would take some time.

To prevent S15 from developing into a collective combat force, the outnumbered First Legion repeatedly launched proactive attacks.

Although both sides suffered casualties, the Solar System State did not fear losses, as the J135 was fully autonomous combat equipment—if destroyed, they could simply be remade.

However, the intelligent industrial systems of PDC and Fleet International would take at least a year and a half to produce fully intelligent combat weapons; they had no choice but to man the S15s for combat.

At first, this was considered an honor, but soon the pilots found that S15s were the primary targets of J135, and no one wanted to pilot S15s anymore.

PDC could only use novices to pilot the S15s, so the combat losses of the S15 skyrocketed, with the destruction rate far exceeding production, and PDC did not gain much in combat strength.

The other weapons Sophon supported PDC with also weren't very effective in battle, leaving the Trisolarans somewhat clueless about the Earth combat situation.

They had technology superior to that of the Solar System State, but the industrial systems of PDC and Fleet International were too poor; without a decade's worth of effort, it was impossible to mass-produce weapons capable of securing an overwhelming advantage.

With those ten years, the Trisolaran fleet would have already reached Earth, who would still be counting on the PDC?

Moreover, the industrial system that Fleet International had built over the past half-century was now all handed over to the Solar System State. With this give and take, the PDC and Fleet International had no chance of victory!

Apart from attacking the military targets of Fleet International, the Third Legion's policy towards its Space Cities, colonies, and other civilian targets was quite lenient.

Rediaz even personally explained the policy towards the civilians of Fleet International during a live broadcast, stating that those willing to follow Sophon's arrangements to Mars would not be obstructed by the Third Legion.

However, the vacated Space Cities and all space industries would immediately be taken over by the Solar System Congress to resist the invasion of the Trisolarans, and you shouldn't expect to get them back later.

As for those who chose to stay, the Solar System Congress would recognize and protect their property and grant them citizenship of the Solar System State.

Yet, of the nearly two hundred million people of Fleet International, only a few thousand remained.

This greatly disappointed Rediaz. He said to his assistant, "There were several times when I saw people praying to and worshiping Jiang Yu's portrait, and I found it quite amusing.

"Now I even want to praise Jiang Yu! He preserved humanity's backbone!

"Look at the Solar System State, despite knowing there's a clear gap between us and the Trisolarans, the people are still eager to join the military, eager to produce, with a determination to fight the Trisolarans to the bitter end.

"Then look at the citizens of Fleet International, one with a long face complaining about this, complaining about that, but in the end, they chose to follow the arrangements of the invaders!

"They had so many interstellar ships, if they had scattered and fled, 'The Waterdrop' wouldn't have been able to catch up with them.

"The PDC and Fleet International are guilty of heinous crimes! Their propaganda has caused the people to lose the will to resist, they don't even have the will to flee anymore!

"Now that we of the Solar System State stand up to resist the Trisolarans, a few thousand people are willing to stay. If it weren't for the Solar System State, not a single person would remain!"

...

About fifty days into the war, the Desert North Farm's J135 had already achieved overwhelming superiority. Under Jiang Yu's instruction, Desert North Farm began to expand its territory in a planned manner.

Sophon didn't oppose this; on the contrary, she even used the military pressure of the Solar System State to evacuate all the people surrounding Desert North Farm and send them to Australia.

Because the First Legion of the Solar System State had arranged such a strong military presence on Earth, the forces of the PDC on Mars and the Moon didn't retreat to Earth, continuing to face off with the First Legion instead.

However, Earth's mass migration had been delayed until now, which was causing much dissatisfaction to Sophon.

The citizens of the PDC were long accustomed to responding nonchalantly to orders from anyone, but Sophon wouldn't indulge them, directly ordering "The Waterdrop" to attack human cities.

A massacre ensued, resulting in a million casualties.

Jiang Yu did not send any reinforcements; instead, when "The Waterdrop" was leaving, he launched a siege against it.

Yet the armed forces of the PDC were helping "The Waterdrop" escape Earth. Angered, Zhuang Yue engaged in another major battle, where a batch of J135 accumulated over more than a month was completely exhausted.

The PDC also suffered heavy losses, and both sides entered a standoff phase again.

Nobody paid attention to this battle; they only saw the cities destroyed by "The Waterdrop."

Thus, the large-scale migration commenced, with all civilian transportation vehicles being organized to transport the migrants.