Chapter 287: Thomas's Countermeasures

Day 2!

"Bastard! These devils have looted civilians. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info. Winfield Scott Hancock, the famous Northern Army general in Dayton, let out an angry roar, slapped the table and asked, "Where have these bastards gone, why haven't they continued to attack Richmond, have they returned to Indianapolis?" ”

"General! Last night they had suddenly headed south to Cincinnati. ”

"Yes! When they went to Cincinnati, what were they going to do, why didn't they come back to Indianapolis, did they see through our plan and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to escape? Send a telegram to General Thomas, telling his troops to defend Cincinnati, and I will lead the army to chase after him. ”

When Hancock's telegram arrived, Thomas, who was sitting in Frankfurt, was also roaring: "How is this possible, how can Cincinnati be lost, how can it be lost so quickly, is Bedan a pig?" I'm going to take him to a court-martial. ”

"General! According to intelligence, the enemy forces have crossed the river and are rapidly advancing towards us, but is it now. ”

Thomas, who was calm, was also aware of his crisis, and Cincinnati, who was still guarding the egg, hurriedly sent a message asking Hancock to hurry south, and at the same time sent someone to quickly inform the troops who had entered the city of Indianapolis to return for reinforcements.

The telegraph was connected to the wires by the New People's Army, and it would take at least a day to spread the news, and it would take at least two or three days for the reinforcements to come back, and Thomas began to worry.

Although the number of the Eastern Army is small, it has always attacked everything, and the battle is not invincible, which also makes him jealous, you must know that no matter where people fight, they will not take it for more than a day, and he does not have much confidence in how long he can defend here.

The most important thing is that he does not know what the goals of the enemy forces are, what their strategic intentions are.

Looting or attacking the city, there are many big cities nearby, who knows where he is going to fight, the only thing he can do is to gather troops and deploy between the three major cities.

Soon the battle reports continued to be sent from the front.

"Report! Checkmate! Florence is captured by enemy forces! ”

"Report! Checkmate! Fort Lawrence was breached by the enemy, and hundreds of ships, large and small, were captured by the enemy! ”

"Report! Checkmate! The Devil of the East has descended down the river, captured Vey, and is now bombarding Carrollton! ”

One bad news after another came, the New People's Army has simply become a ship killer on the Russian River, regardless of the size of the ship, regardless of commercial military use, all of them have been seized and occupied, and the important towns along the river have been attacked one after another.

The local militia could not withstand a single charge and broke up, so they had to flee to Frankfurt and Louisville.

"Report! Checkmate! Good news, the Eastern devils have stopped advancing at Carrollton. ”

Thomas almost spurted out a mouthful of old blood, Nima! That's good news, Carrollton is the confluence of the Okio River and the Kentucky River, and stopping here is the most uncomfortable, along the Okio River west to Louisville, and along the Kentucky River south is what is now Frankfurt.

Soon after, however, he received a reason for the New People's Army to stop there, as Daniel had taken over Cincinnati, and one of Hancock's divisions had been pursued to Cincinnati.

The two sides are likely to have an offensive and defensive battle in Cincinnati, but the roles have been reversed.

Thomas guessed at his men: "Carrollton, who is now wandering in the Eastern Army, is probably worried that General Hancock will break through Cincinnati, and is considering whether to return reinforcements and repel General Hancock first." ”

A staff officer below said happily: "General, do you mean that this group of Eastern devils is going back and will not attack us." ”

Thomas nodded, but the next day, he received the opposite news, which hurt him very much, and Yang Dongfang went west along the Okeio River to attack Louisville.

And Cincinnati, where it was said that the troops of ten regiments were divided into two, and six regiments rushed from land to Frankfurt, not afraid of Hancock's siege.

The Southern Army also took revenge on the North for its explosive activities in the South, learned from Sherman's behavior, and began a policy of killing, robbing, and burning! Towns and cities south of the Okio River in Kentucky have been devastated.

For a while, the land was red for hundreds of miles, and a knife was ruthlessly inserted into the Washington government, and public opinion was further in an uproar, adding a bit of chill and slaughter to the already cold season.

At this time, the direction of West Virginia also telegraphed to the whole country, saying that it had occupied Charleston, swept dozens of kilometers of towns near the capital that supported the Union, and the guerrillas in the state who supported the Union quickly converged on Charleston. The strength of the original two regiments grew to four regiments, and they directly fell into the glasses of most people.

Only then did the Americans know that the Yugoslav Army, which was about to die, was suddenly resurrected, and it grew and developed in several states, and even Petersburg, which was captured a month ago, was recaptured by the Yugoslav Army.

And Robert Lee's army of 30,000 has not yet surrendered, and is still resisting vigorously.

This greatly displeased the middle and lower classes, which had suffered from the economic depression caused by the war, and the supporters of the alliance became active.

In North Carolina, the only base camp of the Western Front Corps in Rocky Mountain City, Johnston raised his head to the sky and shouted to his generals, "See? Robert Lee hasn't surrendered yet, so why should we! You see this is a letter from Commander Lee, he is going to counterattack, Petersburg has been recaptured, and we still have hope.

Sherman, this guy didn't have long to be arrogant, and he told the good news to Hood in South Carolina, Nathan in Alabama, and more.

Pierre, you go and look for Mr. President by platoon, we still have hope, he must get back on his feet, we still have hope, we still have hundreds of thousands of troops, it is impossible for the North to defeat us, we will never be defeated. ”

"What? Louisville's 2 brigades were all defeated, how could this be, 2 brigades plus three militia regiments were 8,000 people, and the other side was only a few people, more than a thousand people, how did they do it. "Thomas was getting worse and anxious in Frankfurt.

The messenger said cautiously: "General! They're really not human! They are the devils, they suddenly appeared in the city, and our army has been guarding the ferries and rivers, and even blocked the river. However, the Orientals did not appear for a long time, and as a result, they appeared in the middle of the night, attacked our barracks, occupied the city, and then shelled our garrisons outside the city. At this time, our army was distraught, and after being bombed, they dispersed and withdrew to Frankfurt. ”

Thomas felt that he was listening to myths again, and since the appearance of the Orientals, this invincible army was shrouded in mystery, the cliché blossomed in the city, and the inexplicable airborne landing, he did not know how many times he had heard it, and he had always scoffed at it, and now he believed it.

Fortunately, a brigade fled back in the direction of Louisville on this turn, and the Easterners only shelled and did not charge hard.

Feeling a great threat, Thomas immediately gave an order: "Order the armies of Lexington, Georgetown, Paris, and Shelbyville, whether they are volunteers or militia, to reinforce Frankfurt and defend Frankfurt." Starting this evening, the city will be patrolled 24 hours a day, and the patrol strength will be increased fivefold.

Sleeping soldiers are not allowed to take off their coats, all weapons are loaded, in case of emergencies you can shoot first, all the cavalry are released to me, I want to know the news of the neighborhood at all times, especially the news of the Eastern Legion. ”

"General, we have concentrated all our forces in Frankfurt, so don't we open up the defense line? The crazy army of the Southern Army took the opportunity to go directly south, they would burn down all the houses, all the towns would be robbed, the people would. ”

Those who opposed it immediately persuaded that they knew in their hearts that the Eastern Army was threatening, but at least they could not give up a large city like Lexington. In this way, the Southern Army could directly enter the hinterland of Kentucky unimpeded, and even storm into Tennessee, a southern allied state.

Isn't this a violation of the military department's containment plan?

Thomas didn't know the consequences of doing this, which was tantamount to letting the tiger go home, but otherwise, he would be broken one by one because of the dispersion of his forces, and the Eastern Army would destroy his Frankfurt army, and the same result would be in the fight against Nexington.

Rather than this, it is better to gamble, bet that they have more concentrated troops, and the Eastern Army will have scruples and dare not use that strange siege method, after all, the number of troops is always limited, only more than 1,000 people, and there will be casualties if they can fight, this is his flaw, but it can be said to be a shortcoming.

As commander-in-chief of the two states, Thomas, who was in charge of garrisoning Kentucky and Tennessee, had a keen sense of smell and caught the point.

Of course, the result was that he had to sacrifice various cities, and he knew that even if he kept Frankfurt in the end, his military career would be added to a disgraceful white stripe, and he would even lose the power to command the army. (To be continued.) )