Chapter 12

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Chapter 12: Angel Investments

(Preface: Alright, that’s all for the rambling. For those who still can’t understand, living like they’re a century behind, I can’t help much. Insisting on magic maneuvering, Psychic Divination, or charlatan fire control won’t work. However, war is no longer about who has the biggest guns. The battle ends before the shooting starts. The choice of weapon only decides how the inevitable outcome is announced. If you lose in electronic and information warfare, you’re already doomed. It’s just the execution delayed based on the opponent’s weapon performance. Like Irap’s million troops and iron tide couldn’t protect her from being crushed by America after failing at information warfare.)

"He who wins without a fight makes many calculations beforehand." — Sun Tzu’s Art of War: Calculations

This quote perfectly describes the failure of the imperial fleet. Deception, counter-deception, inducement, counter-inducement, interference, counter-interference — a competition that runs through human history of warfare. In this competition before the shooting starts, the losers end up being crushed, even with a million troops and terrifying iron tide. They will still end up with a 10:0 loss (Saddam:…). The empire made a straightforward decision: forfeit the match, resulting in a magical aftermath – not knowing what happened, their fleet disappeared just like that.

"Wars aren’t played like this~"

Faced with taunts from these hairless monkeys, Caste chose silence. He could come up with countless excuses:

Such as inferior weapons, their gunpowder weapons might not even reach the enemy after waking up from a nap.

For example, their protection is not as good as humans, they are just battleships with a layer of steel armor, wooden hulls, only a few cutting-edge battleships are fully metal structured.

For example, their observation is not as good as humans, their centimeter wave radar didn’t detect the enemy’s position at all. By using radar stealth structure and materials, human warships are almost invisible on their radar.

However, no matter how many excuses there are, they can’t overcome the opponent’s natural reasons for winning: they won, yes, they won. There are no "ifs" on the battlefield, no excuses, they won. Therefore, their tactics, their equipment, their military technology are correct.

"I know you are not content, but do you know? We have a saying here: in war, the outcome is decided outside the battlefield before the war even starts, and the subsequent battles are just about how the victors declare their victory, and how much value that victory holds."

The hairless ape-like creature pulled a chair and sat down, "Let me give you an example: in our world, there were two countries that went to war. One side almost wiped out half of the other side’s fleet through a surprise attack. They continued to win victories in the following battles, almost winning all the way. Guess what the final result was?"

"Did they lose?" Caste asked, although he didn’t think they would lose, but since the other party said so, the result must be different from what he expected.

"Yes, they lost because the outcome of the war was decided at the beginning…!" The hairless ape, no, this human being, stared straight at Caste, "If I explain in a way you can understand: if they lose one warship, they can immediately build ten; if one aircraft is shot down, they can replace it with a hundred. So, even if the former wins a hundred times, it will ultimately lose completely in the hundred and first time. This result is not determined by the soldiers on the battlefield, the tactics of the generals, or the sharpness of the weapons, but by their factories, research institutes, farms, and even the city’s financial exchange."

"Similarly, the battle itself, even if both sides use the same weapons, the same armor, the same spacecraft, as long as we discover you first, see farther than you, see more clearly than you, and can make you unable to see clearly or far, we win – even if our weapons, armor, spacecraft are exchanged, as long as you continue with this strategy, this mindset, you will still lose. For us, the only difference is how you lose the battle, and how much we have to pay."

"Therefore, in this conflict between the empire and humans, your homeland will not have the slightest chance. Your choice can only determine how it ends, but cannot change the result."

"So, are you trying to convince me to betray my country?" Caste stood up abruptly, "No, we are just presenting this choice to you. You can see it as saving the country in a roundabout way. If it makes you feel better. But I won’t deceive you by using that phrase. Yes, we are asking you to betray your country, but you can also save your people and nation."

"The empire will never surrender! We will fight you to the end, on every street, in every castle! Even if you want it, you’ll have to fill the entire Golden Street with your bodies!"

"Pfft…" This person seemed amused, "Don’t be silly, we’re trying to persuade you to surrender, just… don’t want you to get hurt too much. It’s like not wanting your hard-earned money to suffer losses. If you don’t cooperate and choose this path anyway… let me tell you, we have experience dealing with tough cookies."

"……."

"Don’t believe me?"

"You seem to overestimate the loyalty of your people to the so-called royalty. Let me give you an example, do you think it’s difficult for us to quietly enter your star sector with our technology?" Caste shook his head, from the brief battles and encounters, he knew the technology of these aliens was unbelievable, even the Empire’s supposed secret weapon, the "electromagnetic wave detector," couldn’t detect them. Did they expect those star watchers with their big eyes to notice? That’s a joke.

"So, what if we directly deploy a weapon that burns your capital to ashes? Destroy your palace, kill all your royal family members in an instant, then quietly leave. What will happen next?" Caste broke into a cold sweat, "Obviously, your star sector governor will initially be bewildered and then start competing for power. Well, there’s only one throne, but many capable nobles to contend with, what will happen?"

A civil war, Caste knew, would definitely be a civil war that would engulf the entire empire. But what benefits were there for these hairless monkeys?

"They will fight each other, and then what? How will the recently conquered alien races see this? Even if they want to obey the empire’s rule, they won’t know which governor to obey or which prince to choose. Will they choose… independence or perhaps restoration?"

"I don’t know if you have onions, a kind of vegetable, where you live." The person pulled up a picture of an onion on the tablet. "Hmm, it’s a vegetable made up of many layers stacked on top of each other. If you eat it directly, it will be tough and hard to cut, so you need to peel off the outer layer."

"First, we will encourage those different people to become independent, or they might do it on their own without our encouragement. We just need to… make the chaotic imperial fleet disappear halfway. Peel off the first layer of your empire."

"Then, for those peripheral governors, we just need to contact them. Considering our industrial capacity, we can almost support everyone in their entire territory. With our support, they can choose to compete for imperial rule with the powerful forces in the core area, or choose to become independent as a duke or a king."

"Next, for the governors in the core area, the empire is not yet theirs. To sit on the throne as an emperor, what promises do you think they would make to obtain the assistance of a human fleet, or to receive food, energy, and industrial goods without worries? These things are not free."

In a daze, Caste seemed to see a demon from a legendary myth talking confidently in front of him. "Before I take over your entire empire, I will have taken away most of your wealth. And then, when one of your governors steps on the throne surrounded by countless white bones, what will he do with a poor country?"

"……."

"If he is a great man, with exceptional vision, he will choose to tighten his belt a little and compromise bit by bit, striving to establish his own system as much as possible, even if it is modeled after ours. If he does not make mistakes, and we become complacent, perhaps one day in the future, he might regain the leading position of the empire. But, it requires him to be a great man, someone whom the people would follow even if they had to bear hunger – which of them do you think is like that?"

"The second option is to rely on us. We will enter at the right time, of course, don’t make that expression, we are not bandits." Caste showed a cunning expression.

"No no no, we really are not bandits, because if we were to steal, it would be too slow and the profits too small. You can call us… Shepherds." The person smiled. "We will provide you with loans, factories, and modern, happy lives for your people. Don’t misunderstand, we are not saints – we will have a share in all these. Well, maybe you don’t know what shares are, that’s okay, as long as you understand why Shepherds raise sheep."

Of course, it’s to cut the sheep’s wool every year, and when there’s a disaster, we can kill them for meat. Otherwise, what else can we do?

However, Caste couldn’t say anything anymore. He knew that if these hairless monkeys really did that, then every person living in the lower levels of the empire would sell their Emperor and their country without hesitation because the empire only brought them heavy labor, poverty, high taxes, child laborers dying before 15, and filthy slums.

And what this tribe brings them is clean food, sweet water, and a relatively wealthy life – but, just like this human said, they are only doing this to make the sheep grow faster and fatter, nothing more than necessary investment.

"You will harvest an empire far more prosperous than now, with lots of friendly and kind neighbors, where your people can live happily, and the value they create belongs to us. Like stealing pennies from a beggar is meaningless, but investing in this beggar, having him build a business empire, and then squeezing him out as a founder, that is the most profitable approach. Well, if you find ‘Shepherd’ unpleasant, feeling like you’ll be slaughtered sooner or later, you can use a brighter title – how about ‘Angel Investor’?"

"You… are simply demons!"

"But we demons can bring your people a happier life than now. So, would you like to make a deal with a demon?"

"…I… I need to think." Caste was clearly shaken. He was loyal to the Emperor, but he didn’t have much affection for the empire itself, especially for the aristocratic governors. However, it was a bit difficult for him to just betray his country like that. At the very least, he needed to find a reason to convince himself.

Control room

"What? Did he agree?"

"No, but soon," said the unknown ordinary speaker as he loosened his tie and relaxed a bit. "He needs a reason to break through his mental defenses. This reason cannot be directly given by us but must be something he comes up with himself, so that he will willingly do things for us, of course, under our guidance."

"But do you think it’s necessary? There are many choices for selecting a proxy or puppet."

"But we prefer a race that looks more like humans."

"That’s a reason too, but not sufficient."

"Well, it was actually the report from the scientific academy that led us to make this decision. Besides him, we need another candidate, someone who should be easier to convince."

"Who?" the young man asked curiously.

"I don’t know either, but we’ll find out when the advance team returns."

"You haven’t told me what the report from the scientific academy is about."

"It’s nothing, their reproductive cells are not isolated from ours."

"Are you kidding?" Finding a humanoid species in the vast sky is like hitting the jackpot, with no reproductive isolation? Is God your employer?

"Well, it’s kind of like horses and donkeys, no reproductive isolation."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"It means that the offspring of mixed races cannot reproduce with each other, and can only give birth to one of the two races."

"So?"

"With so many singles among us, maybe in a few decades there will be a new minority group, and then? And then, we could easily unite."

"Wait, what about those orange cats?"

"I can’t believe you are that kind of person!!!!"

"No, what about those orange cats?"

"What else can we do? We have so much profit to share among us all, but we need someone to exploit. Of course, we will choose the least likely person to exploit."

"Are you sure things will go so smoothly? I mean, in that aspect."

"Young man, let me teach you something wise. Civilization always spreads from advanced to backward, but women are the opposite, understand?"