The Maine sank, and as it ended in history, it became a casualty of the Spanish-American War.

It's just that the impact is different, and the historical Maine was blown up and sunk by the United States on its own initiative, in order to slander the Spanish army and make excuses for invading Cuba.

But this time it was different, the USS Maine, as the most advanced all-steel battleship of the American Navy and the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet of the American Navy, was sunk by the Spanish Army's water radium during the military invasion of Cuba.

Not only that, the Atlantic Fleet of the American Navy commanded by Harris suffered heavy losses when attacking the port of Havana, in addition to the sinking of the USS Maine, it also lost two armored cruisers, 23 troop carriers, and four frigates, and more than a dozen other US capital ships were also damaged, and more than 40,000 US troops were killed, including more than 30,800 in the army, more than 1,240 in the navy, and more than 8,000 missing, which can be described as a heavy loss.

This was a fiasco, disgraced the mighty United States, and the countries of the world were surprised by this, and they had previously thought that the United States would soon defeat Spain and seize the Spanish colony of Cuba, and the countries were ready to take advantage of the fire to seize the other Spanish colonies. As a result, as soon as the Havana landings began, the United States suffered a crushing defeat, forcing all countries to rethink.

When Grant learned of the defeat, he was so angry that he flipped the table, removed Harris from his position as naval commander, ordered the gendarmes to arrest Harris, and escorted him to the Washington Military Tribunal for trial.

Harris, who was on his bed in the Miami Military District Hospital, was pale, covered in white gauze, oozing blood, and was very frightening.

At this moment, Harris had a high fever, drank a stomach of filthy seawater, his lungs were severely inflamed, and every time he coughed violently, he would cough up half a lung lobe and a bowl of blood, which was already extremely miserable, and when the gendarmes came to arrest him, he immediately vomited blood and passed out.

Grant wanted a good admiral to return command of the American Atlantic Fleet, but could not find a candidate, and finally someone recommended to him the resigned former naval commander, Admiral Fagracy.

Fagrarates was an admiral of the United States of America, defeated in the Civil War, and followed Lincoln's Long March to the south, but Lincoln had no money to build a navy, so he had to make Fagrarates the chief of staff of the army. Five years ago, the United States of America collapsed, and Fagrarates was convicted of war crimes and imprisoned.

So Grant met with Fagracy, and after using both soft and hard measures, he finally asked him to come out of the mountain and serve as the commander of the Atlantic Fleet of the Confederate States of America, and reorganize the army to attack Cuba.

By the time Fagrarates arrived in Miami to take over the Atlantic Fleet, Grant had redeployed six brigades to Miami to make up for the shortfall in American forces that had previously been killed.

Fagrarates personally inspected the front lines and studied the new type of water radium laid by the Spanish navy. Soon he came to the conclusion that attacking Havana from the front was stupid and wrong, and that a different way should be found and the landing site should be refounded.

This landing site must not be too far from Havana, otherwise the supply of the US army to attack Havana will be too long and vulnerable to attack. But it should not be too close, because the main Spanish army in Havana will be reinforced at any time, and the landing operation of the American army will fail.

Fagrarates was not as brainless as Harris, so he avoided the important and finally chose to carry out a landing operation in Prachi, 200 kilometers west of Havana.

Praci was a small fishing village that Fagrarates had visited in his early years as an officer in the American Navy, knowing that the water was suitable for troop carriers to land, and that there was no danger to defend around, except that only a local garrison company of the Spanish Army was stationed, and the defense was the weakest.

In fact, the Imperial Chinese military repeatedly reminded the Spanish Governor of Cuba, Fernando, to increase his forces to defend around Havana from places that could provide for the landing of American troops. It's just that Fernando is still too feudal, and he just wants to put more troops in Havana, so he is worried that Havana will not be able to hold it, so he only symbolically sends a small number of troops. At the same time, Fernando does not think that anyone in the US military knows about such a small place as Praci.

As a result, three days later Fagrarates sent troops to raid Prachi and succeeded in establishing a stronghold.

When Fernando learned about it, he was taken aback and regretted it, and hurriedly mobilized a large army to counterattack, intending to take advantage of the fact that the American army was not firmly grounded and drove the American army back into the sea.

"I don't recommend that you send a large army to fight back, because that could be a trap for the US military!" Zhu Bin made a suggestion to Fernando.

Fernando burst out laughing and said, "You must be too cautious! ”

Fernando did not listen, and transferred five divisions to counterattack Praci, in an attempt to crush the American landing force in one fell swoop.

As a result, as Zhu Bin expected, Fagrarates was a famous general, and the raid on Prachi was to buy enough time to deploy heavy troops for defense. When the Spanish army arrived in Praci, they were immediately met with stubborn resistance from the American army.

However, the U.S. army's resistance was tragic, because the Spanish army opposite them was all Chinese-style equipment, from rifles to artillery, from pistols to heavy machine guns.

The first batch of US troops to land was only 5,000 people, which is the limit of the number of US troops that can land in the Prachi area as soon as possible, and in other shallow water areas, it would be good to land at most two or three thousand people in a day, because these people have to build a beachhead defense position first, and they have to transport heavy equipment ashore, and they can't get up quickly at all.

But Fagrarates did, and his shrewd judgment allowed him to fight a good battle when he took office, with 5,000 American troops holding back a frantic onslaught of 50,000 Spanish troops.

Of course, this is related to the combat quality of the Spanish army, if it is replaced by the Chinese Imperial Shence Army, it only takes half a day for 5,000 American troops to be completely annihilated. But in the case of the Spanish army, the commander who dragged his feet failed to destroy the American beachhead defense position in a single day.

As time passed, the US military continued to speed up the landing, and after the temporary trestle was built, the US troop carriers could directly dock. A large number of American troops came ashore and quickly reinforced other American units on the high ground on both sides. And heavy equipment was also brought ashore one after another, and American artillery came in handy.

For three full days, the American army consolidated the landing zone of Praci, all the surrounding heights were under the control of the American army, the defense was strengthened, and the Spanish army lost the best time to attack, and it was much more difficult to drive the American army into the sea again.

However, the U.S. army also suffered heavy losses, although they faced the Spanish army, and their combat effectiveness was very weak, but the Spanish army was well equipped! All Chinese-style equipment, large-caliber artillery salvos, shells fell on the US positions without money, and a large explode, even if the accuracy was poor, it was enough to cause huge casualties to the US troops.

There was also the bloody heavy machine gun, which the Spanish army fought so happily, with tongues of fire spewing out at the muzzles and bullets shooting densely at the US positions, causing huge casualties to the US soldiers, not to mention causing a psychological shadow that was difficult to heal.

That's a bloody heavy machine gun!

The culprit of the meat grinder in Guam, the executioner who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of British troops, is famous all over the world, and the army of any country is afraid from the bottom of its heart when it hears the bloody heavy machine guns.

But it was cool, and soon the commander of the Spanish army found a problem, the Spanish soldiers were very happy, the shells were rarely aimed at the artillery, and the artillery of the Spanish army was happy to jump high, and did not pay attention to the situation that the shell boxes were getting fewer and fewer.

Similarly, the Spanish machine gunners who used the bloody heavy machine guns also screamed and pulled the trigger, swept wildly at the American positions, and had to fight high, but they didn't notice that the bullet boxes behind them were getting fewer and fewer.

It wasn't until the shells ran out and the heavy machine guns ran out of bullets that the Spanish discovered that they were running out of ammunition.

"Where's the ammunition? Move ammo! ”

"The ammunition hasn't come up yet!"

The Spanish soldiers were dumbfounded, this Nima was fighting in a hurry, and suddenly the ammunition ran out. This is a battlefield, and if the ammunition is gone, it will be gone.

Until this time, the commanders of the Spanish army were suddenly drenched in a cold sweat, which they had never seen before. The logistical pressure on the Spanish army was never high, and a little food and ammunition transported by mules and horses was enough to support a large-scale campaign. But now it is different, modern warfare is fought with military consumption and logistical supply.

The Chinese Empire was well equipped and consumed an astonishing amount of ammunition. The Spanish army used to train in the barracks, and did not realize the difficulties of logistical supply, the Cuban jungle is dense, the roads are not smooth, resulting in trucks can not transport ammunition at all, and mules and horses alone cannot be supplied at all, it is really all the units of the Spanish army are in high spirits, and the original three-day ammunition ration is used up in a few hours.

In the trenches on the opposite side, the American soldiers trembled and did not dare to raise their heads at all, because the other party's firepower was too fierce. The U.S. soldiers who were not convinced before had just come up, and they were either blown away by the wave of artillery shells or had their heads blown out by machine gun bullets, and the bloody scene was really terrifying.

"Look, how the firepower of the Spaniards is weak!"

"Haha, they run out of ammo!"

"Also, we only have five bullets alone, and the Nima Spaniards have been shooting for several hours, even if there are hundreds of thousands of bullets, they are estimated to be gone!"

"Fack! It's finally our turn! ”

"All fight back!"

The U.S. commander gave the order, and the U.S. troops began to counterattack.

Without artillery support, without bloody heavy machine gun support, the Spanish army is not the opponent of the US army at all, you must know that the US army has fought a civil war for more than ten years, and its combat effectiveness is not vegetarian.

The American army was condescending, and under the cover of artillery fire, the infantry launched a counter-charge, and the Spanish army was immediately defeated.

When they came, 50,000 Spanish troops were fierce and arrogant, and when they returned, there were less than 30,000 left, more than 30 heavy howitzers were almost all discarded, and many bloody heavy machine guns were also thrown on the battlefield by the frightened Spanish soldiers.

However, the U.S. military was not having a good time, and more than 10,000 people were killed and wounded, which also made Fagrarates feel a pain in the face.

Fortunately, a large number of Chinese-style weapons and equipment were captured, which dazzled the US military units.

"Finally see the heavy howitzer again!"

"yes, I miss it so much!"

Several U.S. artillerymen caressed the captured Imperial Chinese 155mm heavy howitzer, revealing a look of infatuation, as if they were touching their daughter-in-law. When the U.S. military was friendly with the Chinese Imperial Army, it often used this kind of heavy howitzer, which was incomparably powerful. Unfortunately, with the bad relations between China and the United States, the US military could no longer import 155 mm grenades from the Chinese Empire, and the US military itself could not produce such high-explosive grenades, so it had to give up and introduce British 155 mm howitzers instead.

Whenever you are afraid of comparison, the US artillery immediately felt it after using the British-made 155-mm heavy howitzer. Compared with the 155 mm heavy howitzers of the Chinese Empire, the British 155 mm heavy howitzers are large and bulky, and they are also troublesome to operate, and the most painful thing for the US military is that the British 155 mm shells use hey medicine, and the range and power are far inferior to the 155 mm grenades made by the Chinese Empire, which greatly disappointed the US artillery.

On the other side, a group of U.S. infantry surrounded a bloody heavy machine gun, admiring it over and over again, and couldn't put it down.

"This is the legendary Chinese Imperial Heavy Machine Gun!"

"Look at the structure of this bolt, it can shoot fully automatic! Much stronger than Gatling! ”

"And this shield, this water-cooled structure, it looks really domineering!"

"The weapons of the Chinese Empire are just good! Look at this material, the barrel is black and shiny, and the quality is absolutely very good! ”

"It's a pity, it's just that there are no bullets! Otherwise, let's make a few sudden refreshments! ”

"These damn Spaniards won't leave us with a bullet!"

At this moment, the American officer arrived, and when he saw the bloody heavy machine gun, his eyes immediately glowed green.

"What are you doing? I don't care about you! Don't go around here, take a bad look at Lao Tzu's bloody heavy machine gun! ”

"Guard, hurry up and take this bloody heavy machine gun back to my tent, and I will also study this tall weapon of the Chinese Empire!"

A group of U.S. soldiers suddenly glared at the U.S. military officer viciously, but unfortunately the officer was crushed to death, and they could only stare dryly, staring at each other and resisting the bloody heavy machine gun, and suddenly sighed one by one, obviously they hadn't seen enough!

In the U.S. Temporary Command, Fagrarates was also curious about a large number of bloody heavy machine guns.

He had been watching the battle in secret before, but he clearly saw that the Spaniards used this bloody heavy machine gun to break through the American soldiers, swept away a large area, and killed the American soldiers with a river of blood, and finally could only cower in the trench and did not dare to rise up.

"Can we use this thing?"

"It's no problem to use it, but we don't have bullets!"

"This is a point 50-inch caliber heavy machine gun, at present, only the Chinese Empire in the world has the ability to produce heavy machine gun ammunition of this caliber, and our domestic heavy machine guns only imitate the Gatling cannon of the Chinese Empire, with a caliber of only 11 mm."

"But we can take it back home and copy it!"

Fagrarates' eyes lit up suddenly, but it soon dimmed again, and by the time the imitation was successful, the cucumber dishes had already cooled.

However, this is also a great achievement, you must know that at present, only the Spanish army in the world is equipped with the bloody heavy machine guns made by the Chinese Empire, and other countries do not have such weapons. In particular, the British Imperial military, who were killed by this bloody heavy machine gun in Guam, wanted to figure out this weapon the most, but unfortunately the Chinese Empire was too strictly controlled, and the British have not been able to obtain the prototype.

Similarly, the U.S. military is also desperate to get this kind of mass murder, and now that it has finally captured the bloody heavy machine gun, it will surely make the military very happy to send it back to China.

"Give this thing to the military, and then change the division with the military!"

Fagrarates laughed and said, he was already in business. (To be continued.) )