"The Philippines?" Puzzled, Warhes asked, "Why are we attacking the Philippines?" ”

"What does the Philippines have?" Butz asks a second question. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Spaniards." Vane was the first to answer. "I heard it from a friend in the Navy."

"So, our target is the Spaniards? Why. Zhang Biao wants to know why—in fact, everybody wants to know why.

All eyes are on Wen Dehe. "A U.S. Navy warship was sunk by Spanish spies in Cuba," he slowly recalls what he heard at the base command, "and there are demonstrations in the United States every day demanding that the government declare war on Spain." ”

"Damn Spaniard!" Several Americans shouted at the same time, and immediately began to curse the corrupt, evil, and dictatorial Spanish government in all sorts of vicious terms that Wen Desi and Zhang Biao did not understand. This seems to have been an instinctive reaction - because in the eyes of the other two, the sinking of the American warship by Spanish spies clearly had nothing to do with corruption, evil, or dictatorship.

"Quiet!" After forcibly enduring it for a few minutes, Wen Desi finally shouted, "What the hell are you trying to say?" ”

"Nothing, uh...... Just wanted to express our anger. Vane looked at the other three and then made a gesture that seemed to mean "don't mind."

"I think ......," Bun wanted to ask, but Butz interjected and diverted the subject in what he thought was quite clever. So, have we declared war on Spain? ”

"What I heard at Command was, no." "It seems to be negotiating. ”

He did not know the real situation, and indeed no one in the Far East really did. The United States did not engage in any kind of negotiations with the Spanish Government, but only sent a strongly worded ultimatum to Madrid, demanding that Spain sign a comprehensive armistice agreement with the Cuban rebels by 5 October, immediately repeal the decree on concentration camps, and close all existing concentration camps - in order to delay as much time as possible.

Now that McKinley had decided to declare war on Spain in obedience to the will of the corporations and the people, the war was bound to begin. The only question is, which day.

"When will Washington declare war on Spain?" Both Butz and Vochs were a little impatient and seemed to want to make their way to the Philippines.

"A fast gunner with a head full of gunpowder." Vane muttered under his breath, but at such close distance, everyone could hear what he said. The two of them rolled their eyes at him at the same time and raised their middle fingers, then turned their gaze back to Moon-Too--only he was the most well-informed now.

But when war will be declared, only the US Congress and the administration can decide, and this is a military secret of the highest order. How is it possible for an ordinary mercenary to know?

All he could do was raise his hands. "Don't look at me, I don't know anything."

"It's a shame." That's exactly what Butts and Vochs meant. They are tired of the peaceful life they are living now, and they are not patient enough to wait for news, and they will surely scream with joy if the war can start immediately...... But no matter what, they can only continue to wait.

"Be patient." Wen Desi comforted them, "I have another news, this time, the boss will personally direct us to fight. ”

On the faces of the two gunpowder-filled gunners, disbelief and euphoria quickly replaced the frustration that had been seen only a few seconds earlier. Look at the other three guys, too.

"The boss is coming." Vane looked out the window, but the focus of his gaze was not on the mercenary who was slowly running by, but on a farther away. After a moment of silence, he turned his head. "We've got to tell the rest of the story."

"Yes, that's it." His voice hadn't fallen yet, and Lee. Thompson had rushed out of the room.

This guy is a man of action.

Among the mercenaries, there are many action-goers like him, as well as a doubling number of boring people who like to inquire and spread all kinds of gossip. "The boss will go to Canton Bay to personally direct the new mission" is spreading like a plague in the base, and the mercenaries are so concerned about the news that they all ignore another, more important news, that is, their target will be the Spaniards in the Philippines.

Compared to Qin Lang's arrival, that news was so inconspicuous that it was hardly worth paying attention to.

"The boss is coming."

"The boss is here."

"The boss has arrived."

In the playground, at the shooting range, in the dining room, in the barracks, wherever there was activity, the mercenaries gathered in groups and whispered about it.

"It's only been half a day, and this base is full of people talking about that news." Casper. Fan. Commander Dean leaned against the window, condescendingly surveyed every nook and cranny he could see, and asked in a critical tone, "Interesting, isn't it?" ”

"Definitely. If you think about it, there are at least nine thousand people here who have not met their boss. "Another commander, Jack. Kiprin quite agrees with Fan. Dean's comment: Things are really interesting.

One is called Alexander. The same was true of Ludvig's commander - he proved it with his nod.

But someone disagrees with them, but Randy. Wayne didn't want to express his opinion on the issue, so he bluntly changed the subject. "It looks like our soldiers are too lax. I recommend some intensive training. ”

"I agree, the Navy has been training." Ludwig said.

The training of the Navy has been going on for almost two months. Just in George. After Dewey arrived in Nagasaki, Japan, where he boarded his flagship "Olympia", except for a period of overhauling the battleship and returning to Guangzhou Bay to replenish ammunition and fuel, the Far East Fleet either conducted shooting training at sea or practiced formation maneuvering and steering in the narrow sea area in the bay of the concession. The frequent activity not only affected the operation of the port, but for a time even caused Chinese officials who had an unfortunate experience to panic: they thought that the U.S. Navy was conducting another demonstration.

Of course, despite this little trouble, Commodore Dewey's rigorous training did pay off with remarkable results -- while the officers and sailors of the "Baltimore" and "San Francisco," which had been stationed in Canton Bay, under the management and command of Colonel Mahan, were all in good standing, the officers and sailors on several battleships transferred from mainland China were not, and now they were all new and ready to take part in a fierce naval battle.

So for the ground forces, serious combat training is also required.

"But I can only give orders to our regimental combat team." Fan. Dean spread his hands. The four regimental combat teams stationed at the Zhanjiang base have only three common superiors: Qin Lang, the Pentagon, and the base commander, one named Patrick. Ertrichton's military advisor. But Mr. Etriston excelled in logistics and lacked sufficient awareness of the importance of combat training - meaning that he did not necessarily give orders.

The commander then shrugged. "It's impossible for us to report to the Pentagon for something like that."

"That's not a problem, man." Wayne realized that Van had a good idea. Dean fell into a misunderstanding, "We don't need to let all the troops start training, it's just us." ”

"Ourselves?"

"Ourselves."

Fan. Dean thought about it for a moment. "That's it," he announced, "inform everybody, and in an hour the beach-landing training begins." ”

Beach-grabbing training is the most suitable for the combat mission to be performed, but it is a chore for the trained mercenaries. It was 1898, and there were neither LCMs, LCPLs, nor LCVPs, nor amphibious assault vehicles, and the soldiers conducting the landing operations had to paddle themselves to the beach on their own, which required a great deal of physical strength and faced with enemy shells and bullets.

Undoubtedly, this is an extremely dangerous military operation, especially when the enemy still has machine guns......

"Hell, what kind of bastard came up with this bad idea!" Vane screamed hysterically as he swung the oars vigorously - just now, a string of machine-gun bullets grazed the side of the ship, and although it was still at least a few yards away, it still made him break out in a cold sweat.

Just a little bit more off the stupid heavy...... Even if the bullet itself deviated a little bit for various reasons, there would be casualties on this broken ship.

"I hate this kind of training." An equally frightened mercenary shouted.

But this is Jack. Kiprin came up with the idea. He felt that the training should be given some real color, and the small boats used for training were not enough for the entire regimental combat team, so he suggested that the troops be divided into two parts, half of them would land on the beach, and the other half would intercept them on the beach, and then exchange them again the next time. Unfortunately for the mercenaries, this idea, which they thought was terrible, was unanimously agreed upon by the commanders, so they had to face heavy fire from dozens of machine guns - and mortars - during their training.

The column of water that constantly rises in the gap between the two dingries fully illustrates the difficulty and danger of landing operations.

"I'm fucking dead!" A mercenary, drenched in the splashed seawater, roared in frustration and threw his oars aside, as if trying to jump into the sea. But in the end, he didn't do it: the machine gunner and mortar man aimed at the wide water between the boats, and jumping into the sea was undoubtedly really killing them.

He had to stay in the dinghy again.

Of course, it is all the more frightening to watch a colleague on land fire at you from an undulating dinghy while praying that the other party will not missee the target and that the ammunition will not deviate from the intended trajectory - the most terrible thing in the world is not death itself, but waiting for it to come.

Even a guy like Wochs was trembling slightly—except that he would shift the blame to the icy waters.

"It's cold." His voice was also trembling, "Hell, why didn't the other troops conduct landing training?" I really hope that Zhang Biao and Butz are also here to participate in this extremely important combat training......"

Vane rolled his eyes. He knew what that sentence really meant: it would make him feel better if he just wanted to tear the two fox friends into the water and make everyone scared together.

“…… I hope—" Wochs's voice almost abruptly stopped, as if someone had given him an old punch right in the chin as he spoke—but in reality, it was only a bullet that happened to pass against Walch's cheek.

It is clear that such a bullet should not have missed due to natural causes, and the only possibility is that the mercenary who fired the shot had a problem with the aim.

"I'm going to kill that bastard!" Warhes felt that he had had enough and that he wanted revenge.

The automatic rifleman began to swing his oars at an unprecedented frenzied pace, then he stopped and shouted to his mercenaries who were still at the same frequency: "Speed up! If you still want to get out of this hellish place as soon as possible, and you want to give those guys on the shore a little color as soon as possible, hurry up! ”

He's right! The mercenaries, who had been driven crazy by the dense fire of their own men, screamed in a mess, and even Vane joined them. After a few more moments, the dinghy began to speed up.

It is a signal. Because soon, the other dinghys also began to accelerate.

"Our lads are so passionate." Wayne put down the binoculars and commented with satisfaction.

"That's true." Ludwig said.

"I have a new idea." Kiprin did not pay any attention to the maneuvers and the comments of the other two commanders, but was constantly thinking about his problems.

"What's the idea?"

"We can ask the Navy to participate in training." Kiprin seemed eager to make himself the mercenary's most hated target, "having the cruiser provide artillery support to the beach-grabbing forces." ”

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Note: LCM, mechanized landing craft; LCPL, Personnel Landing Craft; LCVP, Vehicle Personnel Landing Craft (to be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )