The terrain of Central North America is unusually open, and there is basically nothing to call dangerous terrain. Before the whites arrived www.biquge.info this was an endless steppe, but similar to the topography of the Central Asian steppes and the Mongolian steppes, it was theoretically very conducive to the invasion of large armies. The so-called mobile operations of large corps should not be a difficult problem at all, and in the last North American war, I do not know how many classic examples of mobile operations of large corps occurred. But a decade of railroad construction made mobile warfare out of the railroad line difficult, because it was difficult for an army without the support of the railroad line to deal with an army that could receive a steady stream of support through the railroad. Therefore, before the start of the North American War, both the American Empire and the Donghua Kingdom were planning to use the railroad to quickly mobilize troops to deal a fatal blow to the enemy. But now that the two sides have reached a close fight, the only way to break the deadlock is probably to find a way to get the troops out of the railway line and maneuver.

Zhu Juan had already told his thoughts to the senior staff around him, and he had also organized several war games. However, no matter how you deduce it, the result is the same, the side with the support of the railway line can easily beat the mobile corps without the support of the railway line to the ground - whether it is Donghua, the American Empire, or the Confederate States of America, when building the railroad, they all take into account the need for large-scale troop transportation. Several key railway lines have been built with four rails in parallel, and the transportation capacity is very impressive.

But Juan's instincts told him that the Americans would find a way to break the deadlock. Because human life for Donghua is only a matter of transportation in the Pacific Ocean, but a matter of production in the shipyards of Shanghai and Guangzhou. And for the Americans, it will take 20 years to produce a living Yankee to replace a dead Yankee!

King Donghua was in his office watching the bitter front-line battle reports. I heard the staff report: "Chief of Staff Yang and Marshal Han have arrived." ”

Zhu Juan stood up suddenly: "Han Shuai has arrived?" I happened to have a question to ask him! ”

……

Henry Brown, Prime Minister of the American Empire. Bush left New Windsor Castle on Long Island, New York, in a fit of rage. He tried to convince Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to give up Malacca. Once again, efforts to bring the flames of war into the Indian Ocean have failed. In addition, the American Empress proposed to move the capital of the empire to Toronto. This clearly shows that the American Empire and the Canadian Union are going to merge it, and these British people really want to rule the United States forever!

After returning to Manhattan, he did not go to the Prime Minister's residence on Wall Street, but went straight to the headquarters of the Imperial Army of America in Central Park. Sherman had just returned to New York from his former enemy headquarters in Deinmay to report to Empress Victoria and the Imperial Cabinet of America on the progress of the Battle of the Missouri River.

In the conference room, the huge sand table is surrounded by beauty. The officers included Castius from Richmond. Admiral Li and others gathered together. The first was Ulysses. Major General Grant, as chief of staff of the Army Command, briefed Prime Minister Bush on the current war situation in a somewhat solemn tone. His mood was visibly low. This time the battle plan was for him and William. Sherman single-handedly formulated, originally wanted to take the Donghua Army by surprise, and attack the main force of the Donghua Army in Kansas City by flanking, and fight a large-scale annihilation battle. Unexpectedly, the plan was discovered by the other side, and the war of annihilation turned into a war of attrition, with daily casualties of up to 20,000 people on the front line! After 22 days of fierce fighting, nearly 450,000 people were lost, including more than 245,000 killed, missing or seriously wounded, and more than 100,000 seriously wounded were lying dying in the hospital in poor conditions in the rear. The huge casualties were already beyond the capacity of the front-line troops, and the high morale quickly fell after August 25. The morale of some front-line troops was no longer enough to continue to support the offensive, so they had to do so. William. Admiral Sherman had no choice but to give the order on 27 August to suspend the offensive on all fronts.

The progress of the war can be said to be clear at a glance on the sand table. Donghua occupied almost all of the three states of Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma through previous offensives, thus forming a huge salient that broke into the United States (Imperial and Union). It is the northeastern edge of the salient that is now being fought, where the Imperial American Army and the East China Army are fighting along the Missouri River. The Confederate Army, on the other hand, confronted the East China Army at the border of Kansas and Missouri, and there were occasional skirmishes. Farther south, on the border between Arkansas and Oklahoma, there were occasional battles, but in small cavalry encounters. Texas and Louisiana, on the other hand, remain neutral, so there is peace on the Texas border for the time being. According to the information available to the U.S. military, the Donghua Army has now concentrated at least 12 armies along the Missouri River, and even after suffering considerable losses, the total strength should be no less than 550,000 (taking into account supplementary factors)! In the area of Kansas City, the Donghua Army had no less than 4 infantry corps of nearly 200,000 soldiers. Further south, Okhorama is weaker, estimated at around 100,000. No less than 300,000 Chinese reinforcements are likely to have joined the Central North American theater as a general reserve.

In addition, the Donghua Kingdom can now mobilize at least 100,000 new soldiers every month, and the troops from China by sea are no less than this number! And with the continuous construction of large steam sailing ships in China's shipbuilding industry, which arrive in North America every month. The number of people will continue to grow. If calculated according to the average speed of 10 knots, a 10,000-ton steam sailing ship that can carry at least 1,500 fully armed soldiers at a time will take about 54 days to sail between Shanghai and North America at sea, and if you count the docking time, the fastest is a round trip every two months. That's six round trips a year, which can transport 9,000 soldiers and their equipment to North America. For each additional steam ship Chinese, an average of 750 more soldiers were transported to North America each month. If Chinese had 100 more of these ships, they would be able to transport an additional 75,000 soldiers to North America every month......

In the math problems that Prime Minister Bush did for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, he did not take into account the fact that China now has the most powerful shipbuilding capacity in the world! That kind of steam sail hybrid wooden-hulled ship is really a piece of cake for China's shipbuilding industry!

So if the United States wants to win the war, there are only two ways. The first is to fight fast and slowly, and drain the blood of the Donghua Kingdom before China's shipbuilding industry builds a large number of troop carriers; The second is to distract China as much as possible and open two more battlefields in the Indian Ocean and Australia. The possibility of the latter does not seem to exist for the time being, and now it can only find a way to fight a large-scale war of annihilation on the North American battlefield.

"From the map, the rear of the Chinese seems to be very empty! Can you find a way to organize a raid? If we can rush and capture the city of Lordan, we will be able to cut off the retreat of the 1 million Donghua army! Admiral Sherman, Admiral Lee, is this suggestion worth trying? ”

As soon as Major General Grant gave a briefing on the situation on the front, Prime Minister Bush presented his views on the war. The boilermaker-turned-prime minister actually had some experience in war, and he had been the head of the militia in the last war. So at a glance, I saw the fatal weakness of the emptiness in the rear of the Donghua Army.

William. Admiral Sherman and Castis. Admiral Li glanced at each other, Sherman wrinkled his brows and thought for a moment, then nodded: "Your Excellency, the long-distance attack plan has been being formulated and prepared, and it has been discussed since before the war!" However, it was also very difficult to carry out this plan, and the main problem was that the troops carrying out the long-distance expedition did not carry enough supplies to support the ...... of a truly fierce battle" (to be continued......