The so-called "honorary lieutenant general" is a "substitute lieutenant general", which is half a rank lower than the lieutenant general and half a rank higher than the major general.

Before the Battle of Chattanooga, the highest military rank in the U.S. Federal Army was Major General, and the only honorary lieutenant general, the commander of the U.S. Army in the Mexican War and the former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army, Grandpa Scott, has retired.

As soon as Grant arrived in Washington, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, the first and only rank of lieutenant general in the U.S. Federal Army.

That is to say, Guan Zhuofan has now become the second-highest ranking person in the entire federal army after Grant, and no one is tied with him.

What Guan Zhuofan felt was not surprise, but a slight confusion: Will it be over? Did Lincoln mean or Grant meant? What do the other generals think? In particular, what will Sherman think?

Lincoln, of course, seconded Grant, and Sherman, not only did not have an opinion, but was even more refreshed.

Sherman, the person who said it nicely, is called "passionate", and if it is not good, it is "emotional", he has a little nervous breakdown, his state fluctuates greatly, and when he is in a good state, he fights well; When you're not in good shape, sometimes the fight is bad. Chattanooga Sherman's battle was not very good, and it had a lot to do with the death of his beloved son not long ago.

So, Sherman needs a moderate amount of benign stimulation -- that's what Lincoln knew about Sherman. And awarding Guan Zhuofan the honorary rank of lieutenant general is just the right "stimulus" for Sherman.

and Guan Zhuofan are the joint commander-in-chief of the Western Theater of Operations, and Sherman is a little weak-minded. The reason is what Grant had considered: the Battle of Chattanooga. The Xuan army fought better than the Xie Department. As for seniority or something. Guan Zhuofan sprinkled the "Eight Strategies of Pingnan", but he didn't really know his image among the American soldiers: a legendary commander in the East who had made outstanding achievements and was able to calm the chaos. In Sherman's mind, there was no concept of Guan Zhuofan's "qualifications are not as good as his own".

Therefore, Guan Zhuofan was awarded the honorary lieutenant general, and Sherman breathed a sigh of relief in his heart; At the same time, this delicate gap has aroused his enthusiasm to fight hard. This is called a "benign stimulus".

And Guan Zhuofan's honor because of the accident, whether it is out of pressure or motivation, has to fight harder.

This was Lincoln's wishful thinking.

Of course. There may still be some US generals who will have ideas, but everyone also understands that this Chinese army will return to China after the war, so no matter how high Guan Zhuofan's military rank is, it can be said to be "temporary", and there will be no interest entanglement with senior generals in the United States in the future. So ideas are ideas, and no one is really dissatisfied.

Lincoln had another consideration that was quite realistic. Although it is said that Sherman and Guan Zhuofan have similar strategic thinking, when it comes to the specific campaign and tactical arrangements, it cannot be completely ruled out that there will be different opinions, and when reunification is not reached, one of them must prevail. on this issue. Judging from the battle of Chattanooga, Lincoln trusted Kwan Zhuofan more.

Sherman's strength is his strategic clarity. Resolute execution; In terms of leading troops, campaign command is somewhat of his shortcoming, and he is better at managing the army and logistics. Sherman's troops were never short of equipment, and his sappers were the strongest in the entire Union army.

Guan Zhuofan's military rank is half a level higher than Sherman's, which implies that if no consensus can be reached in the event of an incident, Guan Zhuofan's opinion should be decided.

However, the probability of this kind of thing happening is very low, when going south, the Xuan army and the Sherman department must be divided into two ways, and the chance of a conflict between specific campaign and tactical actions is very small, just be prepared.

Guan Zhuofan added the "Honorary Lieutenant General" to the fold and sent it out.

At the same time, there were two letters sent home, one in Beijing and one in Shanghai, and Guan Zhuofan had a thousand words to say, but the telegram was received by Libin, and then forwarded to the two families in Shanghai and Beijing, so he could not say anything that might cause suspicion, and he just reported his peace in general.

Cameron was sent away, and another piece of good news came from the field hospital to the headquarters: Wu Jianying woke up.

I've been in a coma for days! Guan Zhuofan immediately rushed to the hospital.

Wu Jianying was still very weak, his face was miserable and white, without a trace of blood, he smiled at Guan Zhuofan reluctantly, almost speechless. Guan Zhuofan really encouraged him a few words, and told him that he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the National Assembly, and the excerpts to the country also recounted his merits, and asked him to meditate and recuperate.

Can't stay too long, after Guan Zhuofan withdrew, Wu Jianying fell into a deep sleep again. The military doctor said that in fact, Colonel Wu's dangerous period had not yet passed, but after all, he was developing in the direction of haode.

Coming out of the field hospital, Guan Zhuofan was in a good mood, and finally had the energy to sum up his experience and think about the future of Xuanjun.

First of all, he can be sure that although this Xuan army still has all kinds of deficiencies and has not yet undergone the most cruel test -- the offensive formation has been bombarded with intensive artillery fire, but it has already broken the psychological fear and superstition of the foreigners, and it has even established a certain degree of psychological superiority over the foreigners because of the advanced weaponry, and of course, the foundation of this superiority is very unreliable and may be completely lost at any time because of a disastrous defeat.

This Xuan army can be regarded as a modernized army, with fully modernized weaponry and equipment, fully modern training and tactics, and, more importantly, initially possessed the two most important qualities of a modern army: a high degree of organization and discipline and a high-intensity ability to resist attacks.

Now pull it out, even if the opponent is Britain, France, and Prussia, you can still fight.

If there is any glaring flaw, it is the question of cultural quality and weishenme to fight and for whom.

The more advanced weapons and tactics become, the more complex they become, and the higher the requirements for the cultural quality of the soldiers, the users of the weapons and the executors of the tactics. As for the question of Weishenme fighting and for whom, there is no essential difference between the Xuan army and any other army in China: "being a soldier and eating food" is just that. The concepts of nation and state are basically very weak in the minds of soldiers.

In order to build a truly modern army, China cannot always be one family with one surname. The state and the nation must be on top, and "I" can only serve it as the representative and executor of this community of interests below, rather than "I am the country".

Solving these two problems is not an overnight effort, and the previous problem can be started now; The one in the back, step by step.

Second, he profoundly felt that national strength is the foundation of war, and steel and gunpowder are the entire content of modern warfare. Any strategy and tactics, intrigues, if there is not enough steel and gunpowder to base it, it is all scum. Do you really think that you can copy a large blade and rush left and right to cut down a dozen soldiers of a modern army armed with rifled guns? Do you really think that an anti-Japanese drama can be staged in reality?

The consumption of ammunition and weapons in the Battle of Chattanooga is extremely staggering. When it is said that "75,000 people" were annihilated, this means "75,000 people were defeated", and the number of enemies actually killed was far from so many. It's hard to make accurate statistics, but Kwan feels like it would take at least a few hundred rounds to kill an enemy. The supply of ammunition to the Northern Army was almost endless, while the Southern Army was dwarfed. According to the captives, ammunition was tight to such an extent that a soldier was not allowed to shoot without an officer's order, otherwise a fine of 25 cents plus hard labor would be imposed.

Guan Zhuofan was dumbfounded.

The density of firepower of the southern army was obviously inferior to that of the northern army, and this was the main reason for this, in addition to the backwardness of weapons and equipment.

Weapon wear is also very high. The development of weapons is basically characterized by the following characteristics: the more advanced the weapon, the more parts; The more parts there are, the more likely they are to fail. In addition, the earliest models of new weapons are always the ones with the most problems. The firing pin rifles equipped by the Xuan army are either British or German; There are also Spencer serial guns, rifle versions, carbine versions, all of which are in this case.

According to post-war statistics, about one-sixth of the firing pin rifles are unusable due to breakage and malfunction, and the failure rate of Spencer repeaters is even higher. However, the firing pin rifles were all purchased from Europe, and although a telegram was sent to the European Department and the Legation in Prussia as soon as the war was over, it was certainly not in time for the Battle of Atlanta. Fortunately, the vacancy can be filled with a new Spencer, which does not affect combat effectiveness.

But this is in the United States, the north has a strong military production capacity, how much is lacking, how much is missing, and what about returning to the country in the coming days?

*(To be continued......)