In the United States, there have been many calls for the resumption of the Chinese concessions.

The Grant dictatorship deliberately steered American public opinion and diverted domestic contradictions in order to enhance the people's ability to resist the Chinese Empire.

It can be said that Grant has been plotting for world hegemony, and his ambitions are inflated, otherwise he would not have launched a military coup.

A dictator's regime, with its extreme hatred of the Chinese Empire, and the country in the stage of imperialist expansion, will inevitably result in the whole country embarking on the road of Nazism.

With the economic aggregate and industrial power of the United States, once it embarked on the path of the Nazis, it would have a profound impact on the future of the whole world.

In Newport, Rhode Island, the new governor of the Chinese Empire, Lieutenant General Shi Dakai, arrived by order to take over military and political power.

Before leaving, Shi Dakai was personally summoned by Li Weiguo and Wu Yong, respectively, to give him an opportune lecture about the strategic importance of Rhode Island and the risks he would encounter as governor of Rhode Island.

In this regard, Shi Dakai happily accepted the order and accepted it without complaint.

More than 20 years have passed since the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Shi Dakai has also gone from a self-taught genius general to a 10-year military academy career that has finally completely integrated actual combat with theory, and his military command and combat capability has been qualitatively improved.

In more than a dozen large-scale annual military exercises of the Shence Army of the Chinese Empire, Shi Dakai became the most dazzling general in the Shence Army with excellent results.

Li Weiguo and Wu Yong thought about it for a long time, and finally appointed Shi Dakai as the governor of Rhode Island, hoping that Shi Dakai could hold on to the strategic location of Rhode Island, and always threaten New York, Washington, D.C., and other most prosperous cities in the United States, and contain the American army, so that it would not dare to leave the mainland easily and plunge into the war against the Chinese Empire in the Far East.

Shi Dakai was well versed in the art of war, and of course understood the strategic importance of Rhode Island, so he issued a military order to defend Rhode Island at all costs.

Li Weiguo and Wu Yong both spoke highly of Shi Dakai's ability, so I believe he can do it.

In terms of Rhode Island's military and political affairs, Li Weiguo directly granted Shi Dakai the right to minister Qincha, and the Duzhi Division provided full support with funds to provide Shi Dakai with the most powerful and advanced weapons and equipment and war materials.

At this moment, standing in the Newport military port tower, through the glass window, Shi Dakai chose a reasonable location for building fortifications against the contour battle map in his hand.

Next to him was Chen Yucheng, a Taiping Army general who had died several times and miraculously survived, retransferred to Rhode Island and worked as an assistant to Shi Dakai. The two of them are old, so it is much easier to cooperate.

"The whole Rhode Island is divided into four large islands and six small islands, of which there are only three large islands that can garrison divisional and regimental troops, which are exactly in a triangle, and the focus of our defense is Newport, Portsmouth, Middletown and Jamestown, four large cities, of which Newport has a complete naval shipbuilding industry system, which is the top priority of defense."

Chen Yucheng pointed to the exit of Newport Port and said: "Newport Port is surrounded by three large islands in the middle, and there are one or two islands in the sea between each of the three large islands. ”

Shi Dakai nodded and said: "That's true, the location of these big islands and small islands is really wonderful, for the defending side, the conditions are unique, and they are comparable to the pass that can not be opened by a husband." ”

Chen Yucheng said with a smile: "I thought that Rhode Island had only one island, and it would be very difficult to defend. Now it seems that the three big islands here alone just form a triangle, build three fortresses respectively, artillery support each other, plus the surrounding islands, a small number of garrisons on them, block the sea, connect several pontoon bridges, and then spread water radium, so that the defense will be much easier, only the elite divisions of the three towns of the Shence Army are enough to defend here. ”

Shi Dakai shook his head and said, "You're too naïve to think about!" But you ignore Portsmouth, northeast of the main island of Rhode Island, which is less than 2 kilometers from the Tifferton coastline in the United States, where American artillery shells can easily strike from the opposite shore, and where the most dangerous place is. If I were the commander of the US army, I would have to choose that side for the beach-grabbing landing. With the fastest landing craft, the infantry can be brought ashore in five minutes, and it will become a place of bitter fighting. ”

Chen Yucheng was stunned for a moment, and then realized that the northeastern tip of Rhode Island is indeed very close to the American mainland, with an average of only a few kilometers of sea surface. Just now, he was only concerned with observing the horns of the three large islands, but he ignored that the entire Rhode Island was surrounded by the American mainland.

Hey!

Chen Yucheng suddenly exclaimed, pointed to the combat map and said: "General, you look at the contour line, although the northeast location of Rhode Island is too close to the American mainland, the contour line is very low, which means that it is a depression!" ”

Depression?

Shi Dakai's eyes lit up suddenly, and he hurriedly checked the contour line, and sure enough, he found that there was a large depression.

"Great! Let's go and see! ”

Shi Dakai and Chen Yucheng hurriedly arrived near the northeast coastline of Rhode Island by military vehicle, and stood on a small high ground, Shi Dakai was immediately happy.

"What a depression!"

"Yes! Although it is very close to the American mainland, this depression is enough to drag down the American army in the rapid attack! ”

In land warfare, depressions are the worst place, because the terrain is low, and it is easy to be flooded by the enemy, resulting in a significant decrease in mobility.

For the defenders, if the U.S. forces launched a rapid beach-grabbing landing from the opposite shore, even if their landing craft could cross the strait in five minutes, they would not be able to pass through the depression, and the infantry would have to come down and walk out of the depression area several kilometers long.

During this time, the infantry was unable to walk in the depression and was most vulnerable to the fire of the defenders.

"Great, there's a small plateau here, and there's enough firepower to block this depression with blockade artillery and heavy machine guns!"

Shi Dakai immediately breathed a sigh of relief and solved a key defense problem.

Without further ado, after Shi Dakai and Chen Yucheng discussed, they immediately started to build the entire Rhode Island fortress defense system.

Among them, the main island of Rhodes Island is the largest and relatively long, and there are three large cities to defend, so Shi Dakai built a large fortress fortification on the north and south sides.

Fort No. 1, and the most important fort, focused on the defense of the two large cities of Newport and Middletown, the protection of the Imperial Chinese Army's naval base here, and various industrial facilities such as shipyards.

Fort No. 1 faces the direction of the North Atlantic Ocean and is built along a hillside with an altitude of 40~60 meters near the coastline, which is 2~4 kilometers away from the coastline, mainly to prevent the US military from using the large-caliber heavy artillery of naval battleships to bombard from the sea.

There are 18 batteries within 40 kilometers along the line, each battery is 1~4 kilometers away from Newport or Middletown, and the distance between the batteries is 6 kilometers.

Each fort was made of reinforced concrete cast in one piece, wrapped in a layer of 120 mm thick special steel armor, mostly built underground, with only the top exposed in the form of a flat triangle.

All the weapons and personnel of the fort were hidden underground, and a total of 500 cannons and 1,200 bloody heavy machine guns were deployed. On average, each turret has 9 105mm anti-aircraft guns, 9 155mm cannons, and 9 280mm heavy howitzers, all of which are protected by steel armor, rotate at a 360-degree angle, and can be automatically raised and lowered.

The turret was also equipped with searchlights for night fire, which could be raised and lowered like the turret, and was equipped with bloody heavy machine guns and flamethrowers to block the wilderness around the fort and the nearby dead ends.

Under the fort, there are passages and basements of all kinds, which store a large amount of food, drinking water, ammunition, medical supplies and power supply facilities, as well as equipment and accessories for the maintenance of weapons.

There were also deep protective trenches dug around each fort, and a large number of barbed wire, obstacles, and ground radium were covered with the outside of the trenches.

The Shence Army of the Chinese Empire guarding each fort generally consisted of 3 artillery companies and 1 reinforced infantry company, with a total of 800 men.

There was also a concrete road built in the wilderness between the batteries for the motorized infantry of the Chinese Empire's Shence Army to carry out mobile reinforcements.

Fortress No. 1 was the focal point of the defense, and Shi Dakai deployed an integrated town and a mixed motorized infantry brigade here, about 25,000 men.

Fort No. 2 in the north of Rhode Island, the overall defense plan is similar to Fort No. 1, due to geographical restrictions, the scale is slightly smaller, only 12 batteries, about 18,000 people garrisoned.

In addition, the fortification of Fort 3 was built on Jamestown Island, with 16 fortified batteries and 21,000 troops.

On the island of Prudence, fortifications of Fortress No. 4 were built. Since the island was uninhabited and had no vital facilities to protect, the defensive pressure was the smallest of the three islands, with only 12 fortified fortifications and 12,000 men deployed.

In addition, there are several central islands between the three large islands, and Shi Dakai also built permanent fortifications on them, because there are only one or two batteries underneath, and there are not many defenders, which are only used to block the sea area between the three large islands and prevent the enemy from infiltrating from the rear seas.

In addition, more than 30 pontoon bridges are connected between the three large islands, and Shi Dakai specially applied with the Ministry of War to transfer three mechanized infantry regiments of the dragoon regiment to garrison, and when the enemy attacks any large island, the other two large islands can use the pontoon bridges for rapid reinforcement at any time.

Shi Dakai's report was quickly sent back to the Forbidden City, and it took Li Weiguo only ten minutes to approve the plan for the construction of the defense system of the Rhode Island fortress.

Soon, a large number of materials and resources for the construction of the fortress arrived in Rhodes. Along with it will be 100,000 men of the Chinese Empire's Shence Army, who will train and help build the fortifications of the Rhode Island fortress.

Shi Dakai was also fully authorized and funded to forcibly requisition all the inhabitants of Rhode Island and speed up the construction of the fortifications.

The U.S. military conducted large-scale military exercises in Tifferton, and artillery shells even landed in Mount Hope Bay, just a few kilometers away from Rhode Island.

This was a military provocation by Chiguoguo, and the Chinese Empire, while solemnly protesting through diplomatic channels, informed Shi Dakai to strengthen his vigilance and guard against a sneak attack by the US military on Rhode Island.

This incident aroused the great concern of Li Weiguo and the top level of the Chinese Empire, and it was also clearly felt that the attitude of the Grant dictatorship towards China was clearly felt, and I am afraid that war is not far off.

In dealing with the United States, Li Weiguo did not adopt a strategy of encroachment step by step, because the United States is different from England. The Chinese Empire encroached on England, and England could choose a policy of non-resistance, because what was encroached upon was only the overseas colonies of the British Empire, and for the people of the British Empire, although it was unhappy, it would not be desperate with the Chinese Empire.

However, the United States has no colonies, and if Li Weiguo uses the same tactics against Britain to deal with the United States, the effect is just the opposite, and the United States will definitely set off a powerful anti-China movement, and even directly break out into war.

At least until the Rhode Island Fortress was completed, Li Weiguo did not want a war with the United States.

If possible, Li Weiguo hoped that the United States would continue to have an arms race with the Chinese Empire, and only in this way would the United States invest more manpower, material and financial resources, and the losses in the future would be even heavier.

To be precise, Li Weiguo hopes that the United States will continue to build expensive battleships and battle cruisers, which will quickly deplete the United States' national strength, and one day in the future, Li Weiguo will use the battleships and battlecruisers of the Chinese Empire to defeat the American Navy, even if it encounters the worst outcome, it does not matter, because Li Weiguo has killer weapons, such as aircraft carriers in advance if forced to do so, and even develop nuclear weapons in advance.

Rhode Island's Shi Dakai is nervous, and he is also not afraid to fight, but he doesn't want to start fighting before he is ready.

So he dispatched the only two heavy cruisers deployed at Newport Naval Base, the Lotus Moon and the Moon, to cruise the Mounthope Sound.

Shi Dakai's original intention was to monitor the military exercises of the US Navy and prevent the enemy from taking advantage of the exercises to surprise attack Rhode Island.

However, Shi Dakai ignored the contradictions between the navy and the army, since the founding of the Chinese Empire, in the face of five Sino-British wars, almost all of them were decisive victories for the navy, and now the navy has won more than 10 million square kilometers of overseas territory, and the navy has made great contributions.

Therefore, the Navy considers itself the boss and has never looked down on the Army.

However, Rhode Island appointed a vice admiral as governor, and was able to directly command the naval fleet stationed in Rhode Island beyond the Admiralty, much to the displeasure of the two captains of the Lotus Moon and the Yuzuki.

On the bridge of the Heyue heavy cruiser, the captain Fang Boqian was complaining.

"I thought Shi Dakai was a cow, but it turned out that he just cultivated Rhode Island into a turtle shell!"

Every time Fang Boqian said a word, the captain next to him recorded it, forwarded it to the telegraph operator in the telegraph room, and then used a wireless telegraph to send it to the captain of the Xiyue not far away.

Soon, the captain of the Yuzuki replied to the telegram.

"The Americans are holding an exercise, Shi Dakai is afraid, don't you have to ask our navy to come forward?"

Fang Boqian immediately called back: "I said Fu Zhong, we have to let the army take a look, as long as our Chinese Imperial Navy appears, the navies of other countries will have to retreat!" ”

"What do you mean?"

"We are the Imperial Chinese Navy, the hegemon of the world's oceans, and other countries are engaged in military exercises, do we need to patrol and monitor? That's too much to underestimate us! If you want me to say, how about we just break into the exercise area of the American Navy? ”

"Damn, you're crazy! Beware of the American Navy firing! There are more than a hundred warships in the area of their exercises, and there are more than a dozen battleships! ”

"You're scared! If you admit it, you will press your brother and watch your brother train the American Navy! ”

"! You dead madman! How can this kind of good thing of playing hooligan be without my brother! ”

Fang Boqian was immediately overjoyed, and after coordinating with Fu Zhong, he immediately issued an order to forcibly enter the exercise area of the American Navy.

In the exercise area of the American Navy, the battleship USS Missouri, which was conducting a live-fire exercise, suddenly shouted in horror: "Look, it's a warship of the Chinese Empire!" ”

For a time, the American Navy was all messy!

President Grant, who was giving a lecture to the officers and men of the American Navy, was also dumbfounded when he received the news.

Nima, what kind of trouble is this!

~~~~~~~ (To be continued.) )