Relying on the siege alone, relying on the offensive and psychological warfare, Deng Shicai did not dare to guarantee that the American army could surrender, even if it succeeded, it was just a fluke, he didn't want to gamble. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info his time is running out, he must do everything he can, he must attack, keep attacking and putting pressure on the US military.

But the will to fight of ordinary soldiers has really reached the limit, the US army has reached the limit, and the Ming army has also reached the limit.

Lu Yunqi repeatedly demanded to launch a counterattack in the direction of New Orleans, believing that where the US army's will to fight was underground, it would be easier to achieve victory.

Although he was not at ease with the belligerent psychology of a young officer like Lu Yunqi, at this time Deng Shicai really hoped that there would be more people like Lu Yunqi in the army.

Thinking of this, Deng Shicai suddenly felt that his mouth was suddenly opened, it was not that there were no militant troops like Lu Yunqi, on the contrary, there were quite a few, but these people were scattered among the war-weary and war-timid soldiers, so they were buried for a while. As for how many such people there are, Deng Shicai felt that he had to pick them out to know.

So with all hopes, he began to mobilize in the army, calling on the officers and men to fight the last battle for the country, calling on the officers and soldiers to be loyal to the emperor, calling on the officers and soldiers to avenge the death of their brothers, in short, he used any slogan that could arouse the courage of the vast number of officers and soldiers and propagated it among the troops.

He also used the trick of a brave man under a heavy reward, promising that the soldiers who dared to charge would be given an allowance of 100 taels at a time, the families of the war dead would be given an additional 1,000 taels of consolation, and the government would arrange work for the disabled and give them an allowance of 500 taels.

But there is only one requirement, that is, those who are completely voluntary, willing to be loyal to the country, take the initiative to sign up with the officers.

Under the combined effect of these conditions, people soon began to sign up, and there are really a lot of them. There are even people who strongly demand to give up allowances and subsidies in order to show their loyalty, they just want to dedicate themselves to the country or be loyal to the emperor.

Under the education of patriotism and nationalism in recent years, as well as the education of loyalty to the monarch in some traditional families, there are a large number of such people in the army, which may not be the mainstream, but the number is still quite objective, and out of several million people, a total of 300,000 people have signed up.

This made Deng Shicai very pleased, and he selected these officers and soldiers, carefully reorganized them, and formed 30 armies, which were named the Serving the Nation Army.

With such a dedicated army in his hands, and avoiding the risk of collapse of the army caused by forcibly ordering an attack, Deng Shicai could defend himself.

Moreover, he does not intend to use this army directly to force charge, good steel is used on the blade, and he must use this last unit that can be mobilized to give the US army the greatest blow.

The battle plan was carefully drawn up, and it was decided to break through directly from Houston and the port, not to cut off Houston from the port, but to divide the enemy forces in the entire encirclement in two, to separate the Lili, and once the cut was completed, it would be the biggest blow to the opponent's military morale.

He once again asked Zhang Kaishan to take charge of the specific command.

A month later, all preparations were in place, and Deng Shicai ordered an immediate attack, which he could not afford to wait.

It was still a heavy artillery bombardment, then an infantry charge, followed by heavy casualties, and after three days of continuous attack, throwing down more than 10,000 corpses, there was no result.

Deng Shicai couldn't sit still at all at this time, he rushed to the front line with Zhang Kaishan, and watched the soldiers from the starting position fearlessly charge again and again from the front position. After many charges, it was these soldiers who dared to die, they also began to retreat, but they could not retreat, in order to cut off their retreat, Zhang Kaishan arranged a large number of supervision teams in front of the position, once their own soldiers retreated, directly machine gun shooting.

But this persecution still has no effect.

"As soon as our artillery stops, the opponent's machine gun will sound, and there is no point in rushing down like this."

Zhang Kaishan sighed.

Deng Shicai was silent, all the methods that could be used were exhausted, the two sides had spent more than a year here, and they had a very thorough understanding of each other, digging trenches here and there, and not giving you the opportunity to dig under their own positions at all, and this place is close to the river, the groundwater is very shallow, it is difficult to succeed in digging tunnels, even if they are lucky enough to dig near the other party's trenches, they will release water and flood, such things have happened many times.

So in the end, everyone found that the frontal attack was still the same old routine as only the artillery covered the infantry charge. But when the cannon roared, they hid in the tunnel, and as soon as the cannon stopped, they got out of the mountain and entered the battle position again.

"What if the shelling is not stopped? Our artillery stretched until the soldiers rushed into the enemy's trenches. ”

Deng Shicai asked.

Zhang Kaishan was surprised, didn't this mean that his own artillery would shoot his own soldiers, and it was likely to kill more of his own soldiers than the other side's soldiers hiding in the trenches, just to cover them for charging into the enemy line. Not to mention that it is too cruel, that unit can endure this kind of encounter, this is not giving people any way to live.

"I'm afraid that no army can withstand this kind of pressure!"

Zhang Kaishan smiled bitterly.

Deng Shicai sighed: "Form a death squad, explain the situation to the officers, soldiers, don't notify them." ”

This matter cannot be known to the soldiers, and they can only count on the group of officers who have attended regular military schools and are more determined.

Zhang Kaishan sighed, and soon went down to make arrangements, and called officers one by one to talk overnight, telling them the truth, and also only recruiting volunteers, and the next day a total of 10,000 soldiers led by more than 300 officers were selected.

The artillery fire of the Ming army sounded again, and the counterattack of the US army was very weak, and there was almost no counterattack, because although the food of the US army was sufficient, the weapons and ammunition were not as good as the Ming army, because a considerable number of weapons and equipment of the US army were imported, they had a strong industry, but the military industry was not very strong, and in the absence of a large number of standing armies, there was no standard equipment designed for the regular army, and the rifles they were equipped with were Remington rifles, Murata single-shot rifles, and the cavalry was even equipped with a large number of powers, various, On the contrary, most of the standard equipment is purchased from abroad, but it is also varied, mainly the domestic Lebel rifle, the British-made Leenfeld rifle, and even the German commission rifle.

Cannons are also insufficient, a large number of imported Krupp and Armstrong cannons, because they are not made by themselves, and they are always continuously purchased during the war, so they can't reserve ammunition for half a year to a year in advance, so after being surrounded by the Ming army, their bullets and shells are one less round, and they are about to run out of ammunition.

Therefore, the artillery of the US army has been completely suppressed by the Ming army in the recent period.

Deng Shicai and Zhang Kaishan saw that the enemy's artillery was dumb and their own artillery was unscrupulous, but they were not happy at all, as senior commanders, they were nervous for the first time for a tactical assault on the front line. Seeing 10,000 soldiers, rushing towards the American positions on a kilometer wide, their hearts tugged.

The soldiers walked towards the enemy line step by step, with guns in hand, cats on their waists, and the battle line was not messed up, absolute veterans of a hundred battles.

However, when they were about to reach the front of the local position, they found that their artillery fire had not stopped, and many soldiers had unconsciously stopped, and then their officers began to reprimand them, not only telling them not to stop, but also asking them to charge with the greatest speed.

The soldiers were surprised, but the officers had already rushed forward with the confidence of death, the middle and senior officers put out their sabers, and the junior officers took out their pistols and strode forward, shouting all kinds of shouts in their mouths, completely meaningless, just to cheer themselves up, and later an officer said that he was thinking of calling his soul so that he could find his way home after death.

The officers were seen rushing up the slope in front of the enemy's position, and then being bombarded by their own falling shells, suffering heavy casualties.

Zhang Kaishan sighed and put down the binoculars, he really couldn't bear to look at it anymore. But he found that Deng Shicai next to him looked ahead expectantly, and he didn't have the slightest heart to bear it, and he suddenly found that this war had changed too much for his friend.

After some officers died under artillery fire, their soldiers were left unled, and immediately lay on the ground and climbed into the crater, and some blindly rushed forward, often there are more human states in hell, and between life and death, people's choice is instinctive, and at this time, what patriotic enthusiasm and what loyalty to the monarch can not be taken into account.

On a slope of about 100 meters, they walked directly through the artillery fire, killing and wounding, but finally a group of soldiers rushed into the enemy position, followed by the second team, the third team, the main force rushed up, and it was seen that they had already suffered more than half of the casualties at this time, and at the cost of 5,000 men, they finally rushed into the enemy position.

Zhang Kaishan saw that Deng Shicai did not move, and he immediately ordered the rear to stop shelling. At this time, seeing that the soldiers of the death squad had occupied a short period of position, they immediately threw themselves into it with all their might, and soon tore a one-kilometer hole in the enemy's position.

A large number of troops were thrown into it, and this breakthrough continued to expand, and soon it expanded to three kilometers, five kilometers, and then began to press the whole army.

More than 200,000 men quickly took control of this five-kilometer stretch of position, which was then fortified to defend against enemy counterattacks. At the same time, the extension of American positions to the east began. The U.S. military position consisted of two parallel positions, one east and one west, and the Ming army did not intend to occupy the two positions at the same time, and it was already extremely cruel to occupy one, and now it only intends to use this section of the breakthrough to extend to the east, dig trenches and build new defensive positions, divide the enemy army into two, divide them into two encirclements in the north and south, and try to further compress them.

The position stretched to the east inch by inch, and every stretch had to be stubbornly blocked by the American army, but each time the American army was pushed back until it was close to the eastern front of the American army, and then it was flanked by the Ming army on both sides, and at a heavy price, it took the broken position, completely cutting off the American defense line.

At this time, two months had passed since Zhu Jinglun gave Deng Shicai, and he only had one month to end the battle.