West Bank of the Mississippi River, Fort Madison.

Early in the morning, Ulysses Simpson Grant sat in the castle somewhat bored.

He is only forty years old, just in the prime of life, he graduated from West Point 18 years ago, participated in the war against Mexico, but has always been a small person, depressed he can only retire 7 years ago, although he married his beloved girl, but relies on the small farm left by his father-in-law to make a living, although there are 4 black slaves to help him farm the farm, but the meager income can not support the heavy family burden, Grant wanted to sell black slaves, but his wife did not agree, so he had to find another job, After doing odd jobs in St. Louis, Missili, but still unable to make ends meet, his family moved to Galena, Illinois, last year to work as a laborer in his uncle's shoe factory.

Just when he thought he was going to be ruined for the rest of his life, the civil war between the Confederate States of America and the Southern states began. Because he had been a federal officer, he was promoted to colonel commander of the 21st Regiment of the Volunteer Army, responsible for recruiting and training the Union Volunteer Army in Galina, Illinois.

Not long ago, due to the turmoil in Missouri, the Confederate army attacked the Illinois border along the Mississippi River, and the 21st Regiment of the Volunteer Army under his charge went to the front line, which was located at Fort Madison on the Mississippi River. Because Fort Madison is located at the junction of Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa, and is located at the mouth of the Des Moines River that flows into the Mississippi River.

But the eastern front and the western states of Missouri and Kentucky have been ignited, but there has been no movement at Fort Madison, where Grant is located. This made Grant, who was eager to become famous in a war and was promoted to general through a great victory, very uncomfortable.

Just as Grant was about to go back to his bedroom to sleep, his assistant ran over and said with an anxious face: "Colonel Grant, a large number of troops have been found in the town of Hamilton, twenty kilometers downstream of the Mississippi River, suspected enemy troops, have passed through the town, and are going up the Mississippi River, and will arrive at our Fort Madison in about half a day!" ”

"What? Enemy forces appear in Hamilton Town! Grant jumped up suddenly: "That's great! Pass the order down and assemble and prepare for battle! ”

Seeing that the assistant had black eyeliner on his face and wanted to cry without tears, Grant came to his senses this time: "What!? A large number of enemy troops? How many people are there? What about the sentry ahead, idiot, I have not trained them, and the sentinels have to detect the enemy's situation, not to come to warn them when they come to me, but to find out the detailed information of the enemy's troops, the number of enemy troops, the composition of soldiers, weapons and equipment, the logistical situation, morale, commanders, and the marching route and combat intentions, etc., instead of telling me that there are a large number of enemy troops as they are now! ”

The assistant was speechless, he himself was a recruit who had only been in the army for three months, so he had been training for a long time, so he was selected to be the assistant to the commander of Grant, and he was given the rank of lieutenant, replaced by those sentries, and only trained for a few days, and he didn't know what it looked like, no wonder they were, but he couldn't explain, so he could only say indiscriminately: "Colonel, there are a lot of enemy troops, probably the strength of a division." ”

Grant just felt that the joy of fighting a battle suddenly came to naught: the strength of a division of the attacking enemy army, even if the enemy army was a small division with a small number, at least tens of thousands. He only has a regiment of 1,000 soldiers. Ten times more troops, how can this be fought? Not to mention taking the initiative, even if you hide in Fort Madison to defend, I'm afraid it won't last a few days. Fortunately, there is also a federal naval river fleet base on the Mississippi River more than ten kilometers next to Fort Madison, where three gunboats are docked and can jointly defend the Mississippi River with Fort Madison.

Thinking of this, Grant hurriedly ordered to send people to contact the Navy River Base, and at the same time sent people to urgently ask for help from the federal government and General Fremont, the commander of the military district stationed in Springfield, Illinois, and at the same time ordered a strict guard to prepare to defend Fort Madison.

At noon, Grant received a report from his men that the dock of the nearby Union Navy Inland Base had been captured by unknown cavalry and rafts, and that three gunboats parked at the dock had also been captured.

Grant was taken aback. Before he could inquire more closely, the enemy had already been spotted outside the castle.

First, a group of nearly 1,000 cavalry stopped 3 kilometers in front of Fort Madison along the west bank of the Mississippi River, which seemed to be an outpost, and then more than ten roaring steam merchant ships arrived on the river, and nearly 1,000 strong soldiers came down the boat, all wearing short skirts with Irish characteristics and shiny black leather boots, which were very strange but amazing. I saw these Irish soldiers shoulder to shoulder, unloading a field gun from the ship.

At this time, the cavalry of the nearly 1,000 outposts began to set off north, in two formations, and began to surround the entire Fort Madison around the western side of Fort Madison.

Grant, who was standing on the castle, looked into the distance with a telescope in hand, the smoke and dust were billowing and the sound was like thunder coming from afar, but it was a mixed force of infantry cavalry rushing this way. After a while, I saw that it was tens of thousands of infantry, followed by a large group of horses pulling artillery, slowly marching towards the castle.

At this time, a cavalryman on the south side of the castle gestured, came to within a mile of the castle, and signaled that he had something to say: "Colonel Grant, I am the envoy of the Hexi United Regiment of the Republic of Missouri, and I also ask Colonel Grant to come out and speak!" ”

Naturally, Grant would not come out, and motioned for his assistant to appear on the city wall and replied: "Why did you Missouri violate the border between Iowa and Illinois? ”

"Listen, people of Fort Madison, we in the Republic of Missouri are ready to reclaim the territory of the West Bank of the Missisli River and restore sovereignty over the former part of Louisiana. And your Fort Madison has become a stubborn rock that stands in the way of our journey, and must be uprooted! With 15,000 soldiers and hundreds of large and small artillery pieces, you are a small castle and it is difficult to resist, so it is better to surrender and hand over the castle as soon as possible, and allow you to go safely to the east bank of the Mississippi River. ”

Hearing such a threatening persuasion, Grant was irritated for a while, and directly asked his assistant to drive away the persuasive surrender and prepare for defense.

Two hours later, the enemy offensive began. Hearing the cries outside the castle, Grant felt a pang of anxiety in his heart.

But then, something happened that left him stunned!

I saw that the thirty or so cannons unloaded from the ship roared angrily, and dozens of shells smashed above the castle like meteorites falling from the sky, and several of them hit the batteries erected on Fort Madison, and suddenly, one of the cannons was destroyed. Grant hurriedly ordered a cannon fire back. As a result, the artillery company commander told him that the effective range of the artillery on the citadel was not enough, and it was so far away that it was impossible to hit at all. Grant was not an artilleryman, but he didn't expect that the Federation's artillery would be so far behind the enemy! When did this little Missouri artillery shoot so far?

This bombardment lasted two hours. To the surprise of Grant and the Federation soldiers on the castle, the bombardment of these thirty or so artillery pieces was so dense and so fast, almost one shell a minute, that it lasted for two full hours without the slightest stop!

Only the artillerymen on Fort Madison knew in their hearts how terrible it was! If the artillery on their castle is replaced, they are afraid that if they continue to fire for more than half an hour, they will have to be watered and cooled down for a while. Moreover, these half-hung artillerymen, who have only been trained for a long time, are simply not able to fire continuously and quickly, let alone with such accuracy. However, these artillerymen have long been out of their minds at this moment, a small half of them have been killed and wounded by the continuous bombardment of enemy artillery, and the rest have sought shelter.

The constant rumble of artillery exploded the entire castle to the deafening ground of Union soldiers. Just when they were deaf, outside the castle, dozens of other artillery pieces next to them were slowly pushed into position. The federal defenders in the castle found that these cannons were obviously of a similar range to the guns in the castle. Grant hurriedly ordered to return fire, but he didn't see a few cannons for a long time, only to find that there were almost no more artillery pieces left on the top floor of the castle, and the artillery in the castle, because it was mainly aimed at the Mississippi River, had no defensive significance at all.

Grant's heart began to flood with despair. has been beaten passively, even if Fort Madison is strong, there will always be a time when it will be conquered. He didn't know how long the masonry of the castle would last, maybe a day, maybe a few hours, maybe an hour or even half an hour before the city was blown down.

Grant was often around, and his assistants and several other soldiers were also desperate. Anyone can see that the fall of Fort Madison is only a matter of time.

Just as Grant was hesitating whether he should lead his men to surrender, outside the castle, the sound of artillery suddenly stopped. It's as if the whole world is quiet! But it didn't take long for the outside to suddenly remember a language that Grant didn't understand at all, and it seemed to be howling something, and the cries of croaking and dying or goga kept ringing out.

The assistant rushed over to report: "Colonel, the enemy has launched a charge, ready to attack the castle head-on!" Colonel, shoot or ...... Or ask for a truce? ”

Grant naturally understood what his assistant meant, and when he looked back, more than a dozen captains, lieutenants, and officers were staring at him, and naturally understood everyone's thoughts. He could only sigh abruptly and said, "In that case, stop fighting back, send someone to plant a white flag on the top of the castle, and ask for a truce!" ”

...........

A few days later, outside Iowa City, on some muddy gravel roads on the banks of the Main River, a mighty army marched unhurriedly.

In the middle of the team, Lin Qirong, who was riding a war horse, looked at the two people who were also riding tall horses not far away - the tall Lu Ernan and the short and sturdy Saigo Takamori, and a strange feeling surged in his heart.

This time, he led 14,000 troops from all over the world, named the United River Corps, from New Mexico into Texas, then turned to Mississippi by sea and sailed up the mouth of the Mississippi River, until it entered the territory of the Republic of Missouri.

As for the Hexi Combined Army, only about 1,000 of them were real soldiers of the Chinese Empire's Capture Army, and the other 3,000 Irish soldiers were recruited from Ireland by the Chinese Empire in recent years, and they were all personally selected by him as the commander of the 11th Infantry Division of the Capture Army. The other 10,000 soldiers all joined and pieced together according to the plan: the first to arrive was the 5,000 soldiers of the Hara Saga and Mosa domains from the Japanese island of Kyushu led by Saigo Takamori, who crossed the Pacific Ocean to reach the province of New Mexico; As they passed through Texas, 5,000 Indian warriors from five tribes in Kansas and northern Texas joined the army under the leadership of the Indian Sachs tribal leader.

The reason for this arrangement was that Lin Qirong believed that he would definitely be able to achieve the operational goal and successfully capture Iowa and Minnesota this time, and secondly, he did not want the 11th Infantry Division led by him to lose too many of his own compatriots. This arrangement of his was not only strongly supported by Peng Yulin, the governor of New Mexico, but even appreciated by Emperor Feng Yunshan, who was far away in Shengjing, and personally named the army he led the Hexi United Army.

From this point, how could Lin Qirong not understand the emperor's intentions?

Hexi Hexi, naturally refers to the west of the Mississippi River, and it seems that the emperor's intention was to occupy the entire area west of the Mississippi River and turn it into the sphere of influence of the Chinese Empire. This is an unexplored, vast expanse of land. As soon as Lin Qirong thought that he could become a promoter in such a historical torrent, his heart was surging, and he couldn't help but feel an irrepressible pride and fighting spirit.

Indeed, the Hexi United Army, which was composed of the multinational forces led by himself, marched all the way north unusually smoothly. Not to mention the elite soldiers of the 1,000 captives, or the 3,000 Irish soldiers who joined the captives after retiring from the British army, these 5,000 original Japanese feudal soldiers and 5,000 Indian tribal soldiers alone were extremely brave and fierce, and they were not afraid of death every time they fought, so that the American federal army and local militia that resisted sporadically were crushed at the touch of a button.

The fort called Fort Madison a few days ago, and the stubborn Federated regimental commander named Grant, were already the largest enemy forces. It only lasted less than a day before it was successfully overcome. Of course, this was exchanged for tens of thousands of shells and the lives of hundreds of Japanese and Indian soldiers. But since the capture of Fort Madison, everything has gone much smoother and faster, and it has only been so short that we have reached the outside of Iowa City.

Lin Qirong thinks about the vast and sparsely populated western region of the United States, and there should not be a small number of troops. What's more, now that the Union in the North and the Confederate States in the South are at war, and even the troops of the western states have been transferred to Baltimore to defend and resist, there should not be too many troops here.

It was precisely because of this that he was a little reckless enough to occupy the entire two states west of the Mississippi River with only 14,000 troops, or in the form of a combined corps. And he knew very well that as long as he occupied these two formal states that had just joined the American Union, and the free areas of Dakota and Bunerasga further west, they would still be completely empty, sparsely populated, and only a small number of people would still be dominated by Indians, so these areas would not need to think too much about whether they would resist or not.

However, when he arrived next to Iowa City, out of the cautious habit of a military commander, Lin Qirong still asked Lu Ernan, who was the chief of staff, to send a lot of Irish and Indian detectives to inquire about the military situation in advance.

"Chief of Staff, what's going on in this Iowa? How many guarded enemy units are there in Iowa City? Lin Qirong asked.

"General Lin, Iowa sits between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and is mostly fertile farmland for farming. As a result, nearly 300,000 people live here. With the exception of the 50,000 Sark and Masquequin Indians, the other 270,000 were new immigrants who had moved here in the last twenty years, mostly Norse-Prussian and our Irish. Iowa's capital was originally the Iowa City in front of it, but it has been relocated to Des Moines, a city on the upper Des Moines River, four years ago. In fact, if we hadn't marched covertly, we could have captured Davey Porte on the Mississippi River, where we might be able to capture the train, and then take the train all the way to Iowa City, and finally to Des Moines further west. Lu Ernan replied: "As for the city of Iowa, the fine work has already investigated, there are only about 400 federal soldiers stationed, and there are 500 militia members in the city, but half of these militia are my Irish compatriots, and the people I sent have already contacted them, as long as we besiege the city, they will find an opportunity to open the city gate and cooperate with us in attacking the city." ”

"Just a few troops?" Lin Qirong was stunned! He didn't expect that the capital of a state would have less than a thousand troops. Moreover, there are also a small number of Irish people who are willing to act as internal responses, which is really trying to capture this Iowa City, which is simply a breeze.

"Yes, General Lin!" Lu Ernan explained: "Iowa was the first abolitionist state west of the Mississippi River to join the American Union, because it is a free state, and it is a newly developed western region, with vast and fertile land, a small population, and the middle of the United States, there are not many troops. And now, most of the federal forces have been moved to the northeast to guard Baltimore. There are even fewer defenders here. It may be that the new capital, Des Moines, is garrisoned with more troops, perhaps 3,000 men. ”

"So what are you waiting for? Iowa, Iowa, it's clear that I love my Hua! Love me China, well, good name! Pass my orders and besiege the city immediately! Before dark, I'm going to take down this Love Me Hwaseong! Count the days, tomorrow is the birthday of His Majesty the Emperor, the longevity festival of the Chinese Empire, just right, tonight to capture the love of my Huacheng and give a gift to the longevity festival! Lin Qirong ordered with a happy face.