On the road to Richmond, regiment after regiment of troops, marching towards Richmond, without exception, all had the air of a veteran: serious, quiet, and calm. There weren't many young people among them, most of them were veterans in their thirties with beards, and when they looked at the boots on their feet, the worn-out boots and beards proved their identity - veterans!

This is the reinforcement of Petersburg led by Philip Henry Sheridan, with his arrival, under the city of Petersburg, Grant can mobilize more than 125,000 troops, and at the same time the total strength of 125,000 Potomac Army led by General Mead and the 100,000 army group under the command of Sherman are attacking in one direction - Richmond.

Their opponents, Robert Lee, who is regarded as the "myth of the South", only had 60,000 troops, and even the troops led by Joseph Johnston were less than 80,000 troops, and more importantly, Grant had formed a siege against them.

The South is already cornered!

Because of this, since Grant and Sherman joined forces, most of the soldiers in the Union Army have looked happy in the face of the South that has fallen into the border, and in their opinion, the war seems to be over, and it is precisely because of this that they seem to be very relaxed.

Sometimes, however, an ideal is just an ideal.

The sound of artillery and gunfire still echoed in the air, and for the past ten months, Petersburg had been like an impassable wall, blocking the southward march of hundreds of thousands of Northern troops.

Petersburg is an important city of the Confederacy in southeastern Virginia, which is not only an important rail and road transportation hub and tobacco distribution center in the South, but also the last barrier of the Confederacy's capital, Richmond. The Union army began to besiege it in June 1864, and due to the stubborn resistance of General Lee and his men in command of the defenders of Petersburg, the besieged Southern Army built a five-kilometer chain of trenches and heavily guarded civil engineering works to defend against the well-equipped and powerful Northern Union army and hold Petersburg. In the past ten months, the Northern Army has failed numerous offensives and suffered numerous losses. And this line of defense still stands tenaciously here.

When Sheridan's reinforcements arrived in Petersburg, another smaller army also arrived in the city, and their arrival immediately caught the attention of the desperate Southern defenders, who were starved of food and clothing, not because of their neat uniforms, but because of their very different appearances.

Longgang and his comrades, who had entered Peterspou with their rifles, were accustomed to this kind of strange gaze, but they saw excited eyes in the eyes of these ragged and even somewhat malnourished Southern troops.

"Chinese!"

I don't know who suddenly shouted, and then the streets were full of cheers, and some excited southern soldiers rushed over excitedly, throwing these reinforcements from afar into the air, for them in despair, the arrival of this support army gave them hope.

And for these soldiers, the real hope is - canned!

The 1st Marine Brigade didn't come here empty-handed, they also brought thousands of tons of canned food!

The soldiers of the Southern Army were no strangers to canned whale meat from Panama. Until last year, cheap canned whales had been their favorite food, and since last year, Panamanian canned food has disappeared from the south because China has banned its own merchant ships from attacking areas of engagement.

No one in Petersburg's Southern Army understood the importance of canned food and food better. Although the Union forces did not perform well on the battlefield during the ten-month siege, and they had no choice but to deal with the Southerners on the other side, they were adequately supplied. Following the decision to besiege Petersburg, the small town of Sitty Point on the banks of the James River had been transformed by Union forces into a munitions supply base of unprecedented proportions. Relying on the wide river and the fact that it is not far from the mouth of the sea, all kinds of materials are continuously transported here through the inland river routes upstream or from the sea, and the masts of cargo sailing ships are lined with them, and the swift steam engine ships are also spitting black smoke. Some Yankees even boast that it has become the busiest port in the world. Countless vats of flour, biscuits, corned beef, cured pork, ammunition, clothing, tents, medical supplies, livestock fodder, and other military supplies were brought in to keep the Union troops fed and clothed during the protracted siege.

Compared with the Northern Army, the Southern Army at their doorstep looked extremely pitiful, they couldn't even fill their stomachs, let alone hot bread, and they didn't even know when the coarse corn flour they deserved every day would be delivered to their hands.

And these soldiers, who lacked food and clothing, and were malnourished, when they saw the canned food, they suddenly felt as if they saw the hope of holding on, and they had not eaten meat for a long time. When they saw the cans, they immediately "snatched" the food.

"For hungry people, the charm of canned food is endless!"

After learning of the "confusion" caused by the fact that the cans had been assigned to various units, Robert Lee looked at the Chinese officer in front of him and tried to explain the actions of his subordinates. Compared to this limited number of reinforcements, he welcomed these cans more, and more than a thousand tons of canned food gave the soldiers hope and hope to continue fighting.

Therefore, in China, there is the phrase "charcoal in the snow"! ”

As the commander of the 1st Marine Brigade, he just smiled slightly and did not continue to talk about canned food, as a soldier, he was naturally able to understand the soldier who caused hunger.

However, he didn't come here just to "deliver canned food", he came here to "maintain peace", and as a defender of peace, he didn't believe that a single flag could stop the attack of the Yankees.

"General, this is just the first batch of supplies, in the future - as soon as the transportation of the James River is opened, a steady stream of supplies will arrive here, of course, there are reinforcements, now, a huge peacekeeping force is being formed, in the coming months, more peacekeepers will arrive in the Union State, but it's all up to you!"

His eyes were fixed on Lee, a general with a high reputation in the Confederate States, and he said bluntly.

"It's up to us to hold Petersburg and Richmond!"

"Colonel, you should know that now Grant has nearly three times as many troops in his hands as ours, and our soldiers are also tired, when will your army arrive?"

George Picket immediately asked from the sidelines that the general, who had lost almost all of his subordinates at Gettysburg, had been unable to get out of the shadow of the charge and to mourn his friends and brothers who had died on that battlefield. And has always regarded this as a huge mistake on the part of Lee. Every time he saw Lee, he called him "the man who ruined my army."

Already desperate for the war, he, like everyone else, also put his hopes on the Chinese army, but to his disappointment, the Chinese army that arrived in Richmond was only a brigade, less than 5,000 men.

His question put everyone's eyes on them, and although they welcomed the arrival of the Chinese Marine Corps colonel, they knew full well that these thousands of reinforcements would not make any sense to this battle.

"Yes, Colonel, when will your main forces arrive, and how many troops will there be?"

For the generals of the Confederate states in the Petersburg command, they desperately wanted this answer, hoping to get an accurate answer.

"Soon, since winter has arrived, will spring be far away?"

After uttering this very philosophical sentence, he looked at Robert Lee and asked.

"General, where are my troops invested?"

After a night of rapid marching. Lu Yi's 1st Marine Brigade arrived at a small town of Kemons before dawn, this southern town is not large, because of the impact of the war, it looks very dilapidated, when they arrived, only a few peasant families looked curiously at these troops with different skin colors from them, but despite curiosity, they all knew that this was reinforcements from China.

Under the guidance of the guide, Lu Yi's first regiment was deployed in the southwest of the town, and his second company was deployed on the periphery of the town. As soon as the troops arrived at the designated area, they immediately began to dig trenches in accordance with the requirements of the combat drill code. Every soldier bent over the land and dug trenches vigorously, even if there were trenches left by the Americans, but in their opinion, these trenches were substandard and far from meeting the needs of the war.

The weather in North America is similar to that in China, and the weather at the end of March, although it was still a little cold, after digging trenches for several hours, the sweat of the soldiers quickly soaked through their military uniforms.

The red soil in the south is very soft, and the trenches are also very easy to dig, from foxholes to trenches, to communication trenches, and reserve trenches, after digging trenches for half a day, when his back and legs are swollen, Sun Dinghai straightens up and moves. Sweat poured into his eyes, astringent. He wiped his eyes with his cuffs, then looked around for a moment. His surroundings were strange to him, and he was also a little curious.

For him, who grew up in the mountains of the southwest when he was a child, he never imagined that one day he would reach the other side of the world, tens of thousands of miles away from home. Even the Tang monk in Journey to the West did not go so far.

And now, he has come here, to such a distant place, just to "maintain peace", or rather, to fight the Americans, to protect another country. He never thought about why, in his simple thoughts everything was very simple, a soldier, just obey orders.

"I don't know what this American looks like when he fights?"

With that thought to himself, he looked at the six-year-old rifle that was sitting aside. The three-foot-long gun is beautiful, and the butt made of Siberian birch has a beautiful luster, this is a new five-shot gun that only the Marine Corps has, this gun is much better than Hanyang-made, although this gun is also Hanyang-made, but no one will call him Hanyang-made anymore, at most it is called "New Hanyang".

Glancing at the gun, and thinking of the one hundred and twenty rounds of ammunition in the cartridge box at his waist, he felt a little more grounded, so he bent down again and dug the trench with all his might, for a warrior, the depth of the trench determined his life.

Because the trench is related to their own life, so everyone is very serious, when digging the trench, they will from time to time with the sapper shovel to compare their own trench, every once in a while, there will be a sergeant to come, with the sapper shovel to compare the depth and width of the trench, they even have a ruler to measure the trench, they will think that the trench is too narrow, it is difficult to transport the wounded, and the machine will think that the trench is too wide, shrapnel will fly in; After a while, they would think that the breastwork was too low, or too thin, and in short, they could find out 10,000 faults and have the soldiers rework.

Despite the demanding demands of the sergeants, the soldiers did not complain, after all, their lives were at stake in the construction of trenches, and they had seen with their own eyes what unqualified trenches would become under shelling - the wooden figures in the trenches would be blown to pieces.

Another early morning, the sky was dyed red by the morning sun, and in the red morning glow, there was a burst of artillery in the distance, which was the Northern Army attacking the Southern Army's defensive line, but they always seemed to ignore the 1st Marine Brigade guarding this defensive line, intentionally or unintentionally.

"The ...... of the Turtle Son"

After spitting, Wang Xiping, who hadn't slept well all night, couldn't help but curse again, as the commander of the second battalion, the sound of artillery in the distance always made him unable to sleep, who knows, when the Americans will call.

"It's been three days......"

It's been three days since the brothers came here, but in the past three days, in addition to repairing trenches, they have also repaired trenches. As for the Americans, it seems that they did not pay attention to them at all, as if they had not been noticed at all.

"It seems that we may not be able to start this, the Yankees are their idiots, and they know that we are not easy to provoke......"

"It's like, as long as we shoot it quickly, maybe the Yankees will run back to Washington with a sad face......"

When the soldiers said this, Wang Xiping, who came out of the bunker of the battalion headquarters, stared into the distance with a frown, and could vaguely hear not only the sound of cannons, but he could even hear the smell of gunsmoke in the air, the fighting was so fierce over there, but there was no movement here.

Are the Americans afraid?

Wang Xiping, of course, does not believe that the Americans deliberately ignore their existence out of fear, and in his view, this strange silence often harbors a hidden danger of being known.

What idea did the Americans fight?

Just when Wang Xiping was thinking so much in his heart, a message suddenly came out of the trench - the southern army on the flank left the trench and took the initiative to attack the northern Yankees!

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