The Americans were not idle during this time, although their conscription bill was resisted, but it was easily suppressed, and then a steady stream of soldiers entered the war zone, Houston as the main war zone, they sent a million new troops here, so that the strength here reached 1.5 million, and Deng Shicai's total strength was only 1.5 million, it can be said that the strength is equal, but Deng Shicai is full of confidence in winning this war. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

It's a vicious battle, and there's no trickery to talk about.

From the moment the main force of the Ming army arrived in Houston, the frontal artillery exchange did not stop for a day, and the long trenches surrounded Houston entirely.

The trenches of both sides were staggered, almost parallel to the sea. From the very beginning, the Ming army planned to besiege Houston with trenches, and the Houston defenders used trenches to trenches, and there was a scene of the Ming army digging trenches with the French army on the battlefield in Vietnam, and later on the battlefield of World War I, there was also a phenomenon of the German army and the French army running to the sea, both sides moved to each other's flanks, and the other side could only continue to dig parallel trenches to confront each other to prevent this from happening.

After the trenches were parallel to the seashore, the two sides infiltrated each other, and the two sides who had fought for three years were no strangers to trench warfare, and no one wanted to leave the trenches and take the initiative to attack, because that would mean death.

So even if it is close to the other side, it is also by digging a roundabout trench, gradually approaching the other party, this tactic, as early as the Louis XIV period, the French army was used to defend the artillery on the city when it was working, but it is a pity that with the development of rifles, Europe developed a queue shooting tactic for a period of time, this way instead forgot, because of the queue shooting tactics, with the Western expansion of the colonial era in the face of backward African and Asian countries invincible, resulting in Westerners too superstitious this tactic, They were still used on the battlefields of World War I, which resulted in a large number of soldiers being slaughtered by machine guns.

At the same time as the Battle of Houston, the Ming army also divided its forces to capture all the ports along the Gulf of Mexico coast from Corpus to the mouth of the Colorado River, and divided its forces to defend the local batteries, not giving the American troops any chance to land from the rear of the Ming army by sea.

U.S. forces built more than 80 kilometers of multi-layered trenches along both sides of Houston's road to Galveston Port, some of which were reinforced with concrete to turn them into strong fortresses.

The Ming army built parallel positions along the American positions and infiltrated them in an attempt to capture the American positions and cut Houston off from the outside world. The artillery of the Ming army had already established artillery positions hidden in the trenches on the front line through the zigzag advance trenches, which could bombard the railway and road lines, but still could not cut off the supply lines of the American army.

Infantry charges had become impossible, both sides had invented various means of counterattack, and the large number of machine guns equipped with each side was only one of them, the Americans pulled up the electrified barbed wire, and the Ming army threw many triangular nails in front of the position, and both sides planted a large number of mines.

In this case, the infantry charge can only become a disaster.

After the Ming army launched several attacks and was unable to cut off the supply lines in Houston, it had to stop its senseless sacrifices and engage in a long-term standoff.

This is when military operations at sea become crucial.

After four months of sailing, the Ming cruiser fleet overcame great difficulties, and successively bypassed South America by means of supply ships to coal, entered the Atlantic, and then went north along the east coast of America.

On the way, it was attacked by the American fleet again and again.

After more than two years, the US Navy has been quite large-scale, although the US shipbuilding capacity continued to decline after the Civil War, but the US industrial strength is there, they have restored a large number of shipyards in a short period of time, and warships have entered the naval sequence like dumplings.

However, the young U.S. Navy obviously does not have the old way of the Ming Navy, and they have been eliminated by the Daming Navy fleet many times under absolute superiority by virtue of their speed superiority.

However, the supply fleet of the Ming Dynasty suffered heavy losses, and it had lost more than 30 supply ships successively, and each loss would greatly affect the advance of the cruiser.

They had to stay, or even retreat, to find a way to get supplies again.

In this back and forth, back and forth, they finally broke through layers of interception and broke into the Gulf of Mexico, which was tightly sealed by the US military.

The fleet finally sailed into Corpus, by which time three warships had been damaged and one was sunk, which was the price of breaking through the American blockade, and the American fleet pursued and blockaded the port of Corpus with the strength of ten ironclads.

The United States had to blockade this port with a powerful fleet, because once the Ming fleet escaped, it would seriously threaten the ports of the Gulf of Mexico, and this was secondary, and the most important thing would be to complete the blockade of Houston that the army could not complete.

Once Houston is blocked, it is obviously equivalent to a fall, and the Houstonians are definitely not as resilient as the residents of Leningrad, who can live under siege for a few years, and they may not hold out for even three or five days after running out of food.

The Ming fleet traveled thousands of miles, tried their best to rush to the Gulf of Mexico, but faced the dilemma of being blocked, the navy was very dissatisfied with this, they thought that their fleet was not to blockade people, which was meaningless, thinking that this was the result of the army's blind command, and that it was a mistake to put the command of the navy in the hands of the army general Deng Shicai.

"Let Chen Ada come to see me."

Chen Ada is still the commander of the navy, but unless there is a large-scale battle, he is generally not on the ship anymore, because he is also old, and the sea travel is already quite difficult for him.

Chen Ada stayed more in the Ministry of War, and his position was equivalent to Deng Shicai's before, and he was both hung with the rank of squire, the head of the Navy Department.

Chen Ada knew what the emperor meant by looking for him, and he once again raised the issue of blind command of the army to the emperor, saying that the only role of the navy in this war was to maintain traffic, and without port transit, whether it was the Strait of Malacca to bypass the African coast, or the Pacific Ocean to bypass the American coast, it was not the ability of the current navy.

He thinks that the naval detachment going to the Americas to deter is a complete joke.

Deng Shicai may have made a mistake, he did not expect that the Americans would be able to build a huge naval fleet in just two years. Based on your experience, how do you think the current strength of the US Navy compares to that of the Ming Dynasty? ”

Zhu Jinglun asked.

Chen Ada thought about it seriously: "According to the current intelligence, the US Navy has built fifty ironclad ships, and all of them are first-class ironclad ships with a tonnage of more than 10,000 tons, and although the current number of ironclad ships in our army is also fifty, thirty of them are second-class ironclad ships. In terms of equipment alone, the US military is slightly superior. But their soldiers generally have no combat experience, and our army is far superior to its opponents in this respect. ”

In the war, Daming and the United States have carried out an arms race, obviously at present, Daming did not lose, and even Daming's shipyard is still at ease, thinking that Daming shipyard is only built in 30 ironclad ships, but due to financial problems, there is no crazy shipbuilding, but the Americans did complete their plan to build 50 ironclad ships, and what has not been completed at present is only a hundred armored cruisers.

"If we now have a decisive battle with the main force of the US Navy, what do you think is the chance of victory?"

Zhu Jinglun asked.

Chen Ada thought for a while: "Seventy percent, count sixty percent." ”

Zhu Jinglun heard his hesitation.

sighed: "Even if it's five or five!" ”

Chen Ada said: "The long journey has indeed greatly weakened the combat effectiveness of the navy. ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "If the decisive battle is carried out now, I think the detachment sent to the Gulf of Mexico will play a big role, and the Americans will have to at least divide a number of ironclad ships to blockade that fleet." Even if it is mixed with cruisers, the number cannot be less than ten, otherwise it will not be blocked. Just like when we blockaded the French Navy, we had to blockade Da Nang with the main force, and we could only equip some old warships to attack the French colonies. If the US Navy is separated, the main forces of our army will enter the east coast of the United States, and there will be a chance to defeat the American fleet in one fell swoop. ”

Chen Ada said: "Your Majesty, is this an order?" ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "I can give an order, but I hope you think about it carefully this time, Deng Shicai has a full stop, and you can't leave yourself a way back." If you can do it, I'll give you orders. If you can't, my order is to send you to your death. ”

Chen Ada stood up and saluted: "Your Majesty, give an order, Weichen must repay the country with death!" ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "You are a soldier, I don't blame you for saying these things of life and death, but I hope you can live and let the enemy die." ”

Chen Ada said: "Your Majesty, give an order." ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "Don't worry, you go back and prepare slowly." Throw away all the distractions that should be there and those that shouldn't be, and then come and ask for help. ”

Chen Ada spent three days to get rid of distracting thoughts, that is, the so-called cutting off the back road, he actually has no distracting thoughts, because he has neither wife nor children nor parents, his family died at the hands of the British army as early as 30 years ago, he later joined the army, the only purpose is to take revenge on the British, but his country has not given him this opportunity for so many years, he does not know whether his country has the ability to fight with the powerful British in his lifetime, and whether the navy he built can have the ability to fight with the powerful British Navy.

Chen Ada just went to the graves of his wife and children's parents, swept their graves, paid respects, and visited a few old friends, and he planned to participate in this battle in person.

Three days later, he came to the palace again to meet Zhu Jinglun.

Zhu Jinglun prepared a flag for him and a flag for the navy, which was well-made, and invested in the hands of craftsmen in the Qing Palace Manufacturing Office.

The base material is white brocade, and a circle of dragon patterns is embroidered with gold silk around it, and there are only two blood-colored characters in the middle: Chengren!