Similarly, information on the lack of Union forces on the north bank of the Potomac River was detected by other Confederate forces. The Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info, YBDU, and coalition spies lurking inside the Federation have also stepped up their activities to urgently reconnoiter the movements of the main force of the Federation Army. And all sorts of intelligence was quickly gathered to the Chief of the General Staff of the Union Army, Robert Brown. Lee's desk.

This time, although the number of troops invested by the Federation Army in the eastern battlefield is unprecedentedly large, as many as 800,000 people! But it was not enough to launch an onslaught on all fronts. Therefore, the commander-in-chief of the Union Army, Admiral Scott, devised a plan to concentrate his forces to recover Washington, and then, with the cooperation of the Union Navy, cross the Potomac River and attack Richmond. And in order to achieve the goal of recovering Washington, the Union Army has amassed more than 500,000 troops around Washington! Therefore, in the rest of the entire front, there will inevitably be an emptiness in the number of troops. This also seems to have given the Coalition forces the possibility of concentrating their forces to carry out a counter-assault.

After all the information on the deployment of troops on the Eastern Front of the Union Army was aggregated to the Confederate General Staff in Richmond, the Chief of the Confederate General Staff, Robert Brown, was instructed in the Confederate General Staff. In front of General Li's eyes, such a map marked with military symbols and unit numbers appeared. Around the city of Washington, D.C., there are dense symbols representing the federal army. Just the troops whose numbers have been ascertained have fifteen corps and thirty-eight divisions!

And the Union Army has also concentrated an artillery group of unprecedented size around Washington! There may be as many as 300 large-caliber Dahlgren heavy guns alone! Counting the rest of the cannons of various models, there are even more than 3,000 of them! This must have been the largest artillery build-up ever made. It seems that the Union Army is trying to raze Washington to the ground with 3,000 cannons and millions of shells - and now the entire perimeter of Washington has been trembling in the sea of fire from the Union artillery for two whole weeks!

That's an unbelievable amount of industrial prowess! No wonder the British, French, and Chinese Troika would be so zealous in supporting the Alliance's war against the Union. This is probably their last chance to nip a superpower in the bud......

Robert. Lee took a deep breath with mixed feelings. Take your eyes off the map. Looking at the two generals under his command. Thomas. Lieutenant General Jackson and James. Lieutenant General Longsteite, as well as the commander of the Ming Expeditionary Force, General Shi Dakai.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the fate of the Confederate States of America is likely to be decided this winter! According to the report of Lieutenant General Borlegard (commander of the Washington Corps), over the past week, the Washington Outer Line has been under continuous onslaught by the Union Army, and after making the opponent pay a heavy price, the Washington Army has decided to abandon the perimeter and withdraw into the Washington Core Defensive Line. In the past two weeks. The Washington Corps has already paid a heavy price of 20,000 casualties, and the Union Army casualties are estimated at more than 50,000. ”

Listened to Robert. When Li's battle situation was introduced, the generals in this war room couldn't help but gasp. The 1:2.5 ratio was not good news, as it was achieved with the Confederates holding their positions and the Federation forces taking turns to attack. Moreover, the strong outer defense line of Washington, under the attack of the powerful federal army, only held out for a little more than a week! This does not bode well.

Robert. Li frowned and said: "Now, there are three choices in front of us, one is to fight a war of attrition with the Federation in Washington, maybe we will lose in the end." But the loss of a Union army will be accompanied by two or five or two Union troops. Although the population of the Alliance can support such casualties, it relies on the industrial strength of the Alliance. I'm afraid it's hard to support it.

According to intelligence, the war greatly stimulated the industrial development of the North, and the production of coal, steel, ships, weapons and ammunition all reached a level unimaginable before the war. Moreover, our friend, the British Empire, was still making a fortune in the war, and did not carry out any blockade of the North at all, allowing large quantities of copper and saltpeter to flow into the Union through Canada. So I'm not going to continue to consume in Washington and the Federation.

The second option is to abandon Washington and retreat to the Potomac River. However, the offensive of the Yankees will not stop there, and it is estimated that they will move the main force to the front of the Shenandoah River, and continue to use the sea of fire and the sea of people to consume me.

The third option was to venture across the Potomac River with an elite legion, break through the weakest link of the Union Army, and then attack all the way to Baltimore, taking the back path of the main forces of the Union Army around Washington...... If we can annihilate 500,000 Union troops on the plains of Maryland, there is no doubt that the war will be won or lost! However, the leakage of the Federal Army's defenses on the north bank of the Potomac River is likely to be a trap! ”

In order to make Shi Dakai, who was trained by French instructors, understand, Robert. Lee spoke fluent French, which was almost an international language in an era and graduated from the West Point Military Academy. Naturally, Lee is proficient in this elegant language. As for Thomas. Lieutenant General Jackson and James. Lieutenant General Longstritt is also a top student from West Point and can also understand French.

Shi Dakai nodded and said with a smile: "If it's a trap, this trick is really big." 500,000 Union troops and 3,000 cannons have become bait! I guess they should have another army of the same amount lurking on the north bank of the Potomac River, right? ”

Robert. Li Shen groaned: "The information obtained by reconnaissance is not necessarily accurate, and the enemy's strength may be expanded or reduced. Maybe there weren't 500,000 federal troops around Washington...... It is still possible to use 300,000 or 350,000 to fight 500,000 people. And there is such emptiness along the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers that there may be only 100,000 people holding on to a few points. In this way, it is still possible for the Federation Army to concentrate 500,000 men to engage in a field battle with us. However, they should not be able to concentrate 3,000 more cannons. ”

Shi Dakai smiled faintly: "It seems that the real situation is like this, the federal army is also tired of the endless war of attrition, and wants to end the war through a big gamble!" So, should we take a gamble with them? ”

Robert. Lee looked at the two American lieutenant generals present.

"Bet!" James. Lieutenant General Longstritt lowered his head, "The industrial strength of the north is exerting its might, and in next year or the year after, the situation will be even more dangerous!" Why don't you take advantage of the decisive battle now! ”

Although on the territory of the Confederates there were Birmingham Iron Works and Richmond Arsenal. But the gap between the two sides in terms of industrial strength has not narrowed because of this! The reason why this situation occurred was mainly because of Zhu Jishi's promotion of this space-time industry, especially the chemical industry and heavy industry technology! So that the current era is already on the threshold of industrial warfare! After oil dynamite and starch explosives, a wide variety of nitrate substances were developed and put into production by Jason Central Laboratory, which greatly promoted the development of explosives and smokeless gunpowder. The advance development of the rubber industry has brought about the progress of the transportation industry and the machinery industry. As for the early emergence of the Bessewheat steelmaking method and the alkaline steelmaking furnace, it has brought great opportunities for the development of the iron and steel industry. The American Civil War became the biggest driving force for the development of northern industry.

What's even more terrifying is that the emergence of steel, automatic weapons, rear-loading cannons, and high-performance explosives has turned the war into a contest of industrial strength. Without the industrial support of France, Britain and the Ming Dynasty, the Confederate States of America would have been defeated by the United States of America long ago! But after all, these three countries are too far away from the United States, and Britain is still trading at both ends. This made the generals of the Confederate States of America feel the disadvantage of a protracted war.

Thomas. Lieutenant General Jackson's thick eyebrows kept furrowing, as if he was thinking hard, "If you want to gamble, you should have the determination to make a desperate bet!" Win big or lose cleanly! So there is no need to leave any room for it. We should mobilize all the troops we can, and we should be prepared to make a last-ditch effort! (To be continued.) )