Volume XXII The Route to Victory Section 19 The Poor General

After reading this top-secret document forwarded by the Navy Command, Tan Renhao's mood was not better at all. To be precise, few far-sighted imperial admirals were in a better mood at this time, and if they were to blame, they could only blame the United States for its unique geographical advantage.

If the United States is to be completely defeated and the United States surrenders unconditionally, then it is necessary to defeat the United States on land, and as long as the Americans have enough will to resist, with the vast territory of the United States, its abundant strategic resources, and its self-sufficient resources, it is almost impossible to defeat the United States through naval blockade and strategic bombing. If there is a real ground war with the United States, there are only three lines of attack.

One is to land from the Pacific Ocean, you can choose the west coast of the United States, or Canada in the north, or the Queen Charlotte Islands, anyway, you can directly attack from the Pacific Ocean, which is the western front. The second is to directly attack the southwestern region of the United States from Mexico and advance along the Gulf of Mexico to the southeastern region of the United States, which is the southern front. The third is to directly attack the east coast of the United States from the North Atlantic, and can choose to establish forward bases in Cuba, the Bahamas, or Newfoundland, which is the eastern front.

These are the three lines of attack on the continental United States, and there is no other way. Among them, whether it is the Eastern Front or the Western Front, it is extremely difficult to launch a large-scale landing operation in the end, which is far more difficult than attacking Guam, the Solomon Islands, Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, and Panama. Tan Renhao has not specifically calculated how many troops need to be invested to land on the US mainland, but this number will not be less than 1 million. It is only the size of the ground forces, if you count the aviation, fleet, and logistics support forces, I am afraid it will exceed 2 million. Strength should not be an issue, whether it is an army or a navy. can easily draw a large number of troops, but the problem is. How to solve the problem of the equipment, materials, and transportation capacity needed by so many troops?

It can be said that if you really want to go to war with the United States on land, the Mexican route is the most ideal choice. As long as Mexico was in the war, there was no need for a landing campaign, and Mexico's ports could accommodate Imperial convoys. War supplies can be conveniently sent to the front line, and troop projection can be done with transport fleets instead of landing fleets. In addition, Mexico itself is an forward base, without the need to obtain another forward base before landing on the continental United States, and a large number of airfields can be built in Mexico and a large number of air forces can be deployed.

The most ideal is not the same as the most realistic, anyway. Tan Renhao, as a naval general, does not want to defeat the United States through ground warfare, if the goal can be achieved through strategic bombing, then why should millions of imperial soldiers be sent to death? As for how the government persuaded Mexico to enter the war, this is not what Tan Renhao should be concerned about, but how to fight the battle in front of him.

At the end of the top-secret document, a personnel document was attached. Tan Renhao thought that he had sent him a new subordinate, but when he took a closer look, he found that this was a personnel information of an American general, a material of an American four-star general whom he had not been in contact with before, and who did not know much about him, and this person was General Eisenhower, who almost reversed the outcome of the war. Tan Renhao didn't pay much attention to this personnel information at first, but when he saw the ground behind him, he immediately realized that this was definitely a general similar to Nimitz who could cause huge trouble to the imperial army on the battlefield.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in the nineteenth century in the nineteenth century. That is, in the year 1272 of the Tang calendar. Graduated from the U.S. Army Military Academy, later known as West Point. Unlike the vast majority of American officers from that era. Eisenhower's choice to become a professional soldier was motivated not by his personal hobbies or the will of his parents, but by his poor family. None of his six brothers had a higher education or even finished high school, and Eisenhower began his career as a military professional after receiving a full scholarship to attend West Point for free. What's even more dramatic is that before entering the U.S. Army Military Academy, Eisenhower was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy, that is, the academy from which Nimitz graduated, but he was not admitted because of his overage.

After Eisenhower entered the West Point Military Academy, his luck did not improve, because among the 168 graduating cadets of his class, 56 generals were born, and they were called the "star-studded class", and among the 168 graduating cadets, Eisenhower was just a very ordinary one, and it can even be said that it was the most ordinary one.

At the time of Eisenhower's graduation, the first global war had broken out, and the United States did not directly participate in the war, but there was no restriction on soldiers serving in the armies of European countries in their personal capacity. At the age of 26, Eisenhower was promoted to major and took advantage of the opportunity to organize training at his nephew Antonio to start the U.S. Army's first tank training camp. Subsequently, because of the appreciation of Major General Connor, commander of the Panama Canal Zone garrison, Eisenhower went to Panama to serve for three years. During these three years, Connor gave Eisenhower special care, obtained many opportunities for further study, and greatly improved his military knowledge and talents. Later, Connor sent him to the Army Command and Staff College for retraining, and by 1308, when Eisenhower was 36 years old, he graduated first in the school and was sent to the Army Military Academy for another two years.

Because of his humble background, as well as the economic crisis during the interwar period, the large-scale disarmament of the U.S. military, and other factors, Eisenhower did not get the opportunity to rise quickly. For 20 years, from the age of 26 to 46, Eisenhower graduated from several colleges and participated in many special trainings. And all of them have achieved excellent results, and have worked in many institutions, held many positions, and even got the opportunity to go to Europe for field trips, and even worked with MacArthur for 6 years, but as a result, a full 20 years. Eisenhower was promoted only once, and that was at the age of 46. Promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel. This was a very unexpected promotion, and at the age of 30, Eisenhower had actually passed the maximum number of years to be promoted from major to lieutenant colonel, and was even designated as a "major" as his permanent military rank.

After the outbreak of the Great War, the U.S. military began to stockpile and promote military personnel, and Eisenhower's luck began to improve. September 1321 in the Tang calendar. Less than a month after the Tang Empire went to war with Japan, Eisenhower refused MacArthur's retention, left Australia, and returned to the United States alone, and successively held a number of positions, including chief of staff of the 3rd Division, chief of staff of the 9th Army, chief of staff of the 3rd Army and other prominent positions. June 1323 in the Tang calendar. A few months before the United States entered the war, Eisenhower was promoted to brigadier general in the area where he became a second lieutenant. It was also during his tenure as chief of staff of the 3rd Army that he organized many large-scale military exercises, which were valued by Marshall, chief of the army's general staff.

After the United States entered the war, Marshall recruited Eisenhower back home, mainly because Eisenhower had worked under MacArthur for six years. He is very familiar with the military problems of Australia and the Pacific region, but the most important thing is his rich experience as a staff officer. Subsequently, Eisenhower held a number of key positions in the U.S. Army General Staff, such as deputy chief of the War Planning Division, director of the War Office (upgraded from the War Planning Division), and at this time became a major general. It was also from here that Eisenhower entered the "High Command" and began a long-term cooperation with General Marshall.

At this time, Eisenhower did not actually involve the high-level strategic issues of the United States and its allies, but he was able to stand in the perspective of the supreme commander and represent the national interests of the United States to guide the global strategic actions of the United States. Like what. At that time, both the US government and the opposition focused their attention on the Pacific Ocean. He believed that defeating the Tang Imperial Navy was the key to victory, but Eisenhower believed that the focus should be on Europe first. Assist the British and French allies to defeat the weaker Germany first, and then encircle and suppress the Tang Empire. At that time, Eisenhower's opinion was not taken seriously, but he did not give up, and taking advantage of his position, Eisenhower even proposed a complete set of battle plans, such as setting Britain as a forward base, concentrating a large number of troops in Britain, and using Britain to deploy American troops. In addition, he also proposed that we should avoid dispersing forces on the European theater of operations, concentrate our forces on the Western Front, concentrate superior air forces to seize air supremacy, and destroy the foundation of Germany's ground war.

Facts have proved that Eisenhower's view of Europe as the main battlefield is correct, at least not wrong, if his opinion can be taken seriously at that time, then France will not be defeated so quickly, and at the same time, Germany will not be able to concentrate superior forces to attack Russia, and finally assist the Tang Empire to encircle and suppress Russia, in that case, the European war will drag on for at least several years, and Germany is very likely to be dragged down during this time, even if Germany will not be dragged down, it will seriously affect the overall strategy of the Tang Empire, forced the Tang Empire to put more troops into the continental battlefield and provide more strategic assistance to Germany, in the end, the Tang Empire could not gain strategic superiority so quickly in the Pacific Theater, and finally won the Pacific War!

The defeat of France was a turning point in Eisenhower's military career. At the end of 25, Eisenhower went to Britain to negotiate with Britain about common defense, which opened up a channel for the US Army Air Corps to enter Britain in a big way, and it was the US Army Air Corps that later carried out a large-scale strategic bombing of Germany, which delayed the pace of Germany's attack on British soil, so that the British persisted, otherwise Britain was very likely to surrender under Germany's strategic bombing in 26 years. Eisenhower then went to Italy to help Italy focus on the defense of its northern regions, so that the Germans could not quickly cross the Alps, and thus allowed Italy to hold out for a while longer, so that it would not surrender to Germany immediately after the defeat of France.

After returning to the United States, Eisenhower was promoted to lieutenant general and was known as a "military statesman and diplomat" for his outstanding military, political, and diplomatic talents. And because of his humble background, Eisenhower knew very well the psychology of those ordinary soldiers, and even more knew what kind of soldiers were good professional soldiers, and in Marshall's comments, Eisenhower was firm, decisive, magnanimous, and fully trusted the deployment. At that time, Montgomery and others in Britain looked down on Eisenhower, a "hillbilly," and even made some harsh criticisms.

It was his old superior, MacArthur, whom he once admired the most, who really brought Eisenhower to the front of the battlefield. With Australia falling, the Hawaiian Islands in jeopardy, and the U.S. defense line on the Pacific periphery crumbling, MacArthur had been removed from his post and replaced by Eisenhower, who had just become a general. However, Eisenhower could not turn the tide on his own after the end of the Australian Continental War, and there was nothing to fight in the Southwest Pacific. Eisenhower spent the most difficult months in Wellington, planning several large-scale counterattacks, all of which were eventually abandoned because of the strength of the American army.

After the Tang Navy captured the Panama Canal, Eisenhower received the order and soon returned to the continental United States. Before, the information Tan Renhao received was wrong, and when he returned to Zhoushan, it was no longer Eisenhower who was in charge of the overall situation in the South Pacific. Eisenhower's new mission was to go to Phoenix, Colorado, to serve as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Western Theater, responsible for the "Pacific Barrier" and the commander-in-chief of the battlefield in the southwestern direction of the United States.

After reading this personnel information, Tan Renhao's feelings are the same as when he saw Nimitz and Spruance, and like the two opponents who gave Tan Renhao a lot of headaches, Eisenhower was an experienced, strong-willed, tenacious opponent who would never admit defeat easily. It is quite difficult to defeat such an opponent, Tan Renhao has a very deep feeling, but this time, it is not for him to have a headache, but for Han Shaofeng of the Marine Corps, and the generals of the army have a headache for this.