June 25, 1861, outside of Philadelphia, former enemy headquarters of the Confederate Northern Virginia Regiment.

Admiral Borthen stood in front of a huge Philadelphia-style map with his hands behind his back, silent and silent. Around him, heralds came and went, reporting the latest state of the battle - the battle was not ideal! The Confederates didn't have the guts to fight the Northern Virginia Legion in the open terrain, but they didn't fall behind in the street battles in Philadelphia. The Confederates had artillery and machine guns, but the Union Army and the armed citizens of Philadelphia were able to resist in the streets, in the ruins of buildings, in all places where they could! Every inch of the Union army's advance had to pay a considerable amount of bloodshed. Although the losses on the defender's side were greater, the number of Confederate troops was at a disadvantage after all, and the total strength of the current attack on Philadelphia was only 35,600 men. And the number of defenders, including armed citizens, must have exceeded 100,000!

On the map, the situation of the battle has been marked in detail, the two sides are intertwined, completely mixed together, the entire west bank of the Schuylkill River, everywhere fierce fighting! This style of play also made Boregaard, who was born in the regular army, feel very prickly. He sighed and turned his head to look at the young and old couple who were arguing in Chinese. Peel and Chen Yucheng, these two people don't know what's going on, and they have been bickering as soon as they get together recently, and they seem to have great differences about how to conduct this war?

"Your Excellency! Your Excellency, Marquis! Beauregarde interrupted the two in a loud voice, "How do you deal with such big cities in Europe and Asia that resist to the end?" ”

"It is possible to surround them and force them to surrender with hunger!" Chen Yucheng said "kindly", "This can not only reduce your own casualties to a minimum." You can also force enemy reinforcements to fight a decisive battle on open terrain! ”

"No, I can't. No way...... We can't do that to paycities. Because time is not on our side! "Jérôme. Peel waved his hand, "It's obvious, time is on the Yankees' side!" They could quickly mobilize an army of 1 million and rely on the industrial power of the North to create a replica of the Jason rifle...... If they get a Jason-style machine gun, I think they can also come up with a replica in a month. ”

Boredad nodded silently. In this era, the manufacturing technology of the United States is not backward, and the reason for the loss is only because the wages are too high - three times higher than that of the United Kingdom! Therefore, there is no such thing as being too competitive. But if you want to make a weapon, it's really not a problem! In fact, one of the key technologies for the manufacture of Jason-style rifles and Jason-style machine guns, metal fixed ammunition, is the American Smith. Developed by Wesson!

Jérôme. Peel continued: "And. The expression of the people of Philadelphia has already illustrated the fact that the people of the American North have been completely blinded by Lincoln and his ilk, and I am afraid that reason alone will not be able to make them change their minds. ”

When Chen Yucheng heard this, he glanced at Old Peel, and said in his heart, the old man really knows how to pretend to be garlic...... If it works, how can a civil war start in the United States? Many of their parliamentarians and politicians are professional and reasonable lawyers, and we want to teach us fighting men to teach them reasonable things?

"So we need to take some drastic measures to ...... Reasonable! "Jérôme. Peel laughed.

"Drastic means? Duke, you mean this means. Will it be against the honor of a soldier? ”

"No, of course not!" Jérôme. Peel is colored. "Admiral, I know what the honor of a soldier is, the Emperor Napoleon himself taught us French soldiers, and we do this better than anyone else! We will never kill a civilian for no reason, nor will we ever destroy a city for no reason...... But it makes perfect sense to destroy facilities and buildings that have the potential to be used directly in the military or military industry. ”

"Duke, what do you mean ......"

Jérôme. Peel walked to the map table covered with a map of the northeastern United States, took a baton, and gently tapped the Appalachian Mountains on the map, as well as the industrial cities of Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Bethlehem and other industrial cities around the mountains, and said, "It's the age of coal and iron!" Whoever has more coal and iron will have a stronger military industry, and if there is enough more population, then the country can become a world empire! The center of the coal and iron industry in the United States is located around this Appalachian mountain range...... It's really a pity that the territory of the Yankees here is their roots. Iron mines, coal mines, steel mills, arsenals, railways, bridges, etc., in these areas are all important military facilities! All of them can be used, directly or indirectly, to produce weapons and equipment or to mobilize troops to attack the Confederate States of America. So they are all our legitimate targets for sabotage...... If the people of the industrial heartland of northern Pennsylvania are as unreasonable as the people of Philadelphia, I propose to use drastic means to temporarily deprive them of the means to make weapons of murder. ”

"Duke, what about Philadelphia?" Borlegard frowned, "We only have more than 35,000 people......

"We only took the Left Wing Army north, and the rest of the troops returned to Baltimore."

"Wilmington doesn't want it either?" Beauregarde seemed a little reluctant, "As long as we hold Wilmington, the entire Delmarva Peninsula will be ours!" ”

The Delmarva Peninsula is a large peninsula in the eastern part of the United States, where almost all of Delaware and part of Maryland are located. Wilmington is right at the entrance to the peninsula.

Jérôme. Peel shook his head slightly and said, "Admiral, our main task now is not to occupy territory, but to destroy the war potential of the north as much as possible!" Our Northern Virginia Legion has less than 50,000 troops, and the most combat-ready Left Wing Army is only 22,300,000. And in this way, we will lose the initiative and can only fall into the predicament of being beaten passively. ”

Boregarde took a deep breath and nodded heavily, "Okay, let's go here tonight and go to Harrisburg!" ”

Jérôme. Peel added lightly: "We should also burn down the Philadelphia city we occupy, which were used to resist our attack, and all the public buildings in Wilmington!" I guess this is the way the New World fights, right? ”

Peel Sr. refers to the 1812 Anglo-American War, when the U.S. military set fire to Toronto (Fort York), which was retaliated by the British, who set fire to the White House after occupying Washington.

Hearing this, Beauregarde glanced deeply at Old Peel, "Duke, will we go to the gallows for such an act?" ”

Jérôme. Peel smiled faintly, looked at Boregard seriously and said, "You won't go to the gallows for setting fire to any city in the north, but you will go to the gallows for losing the war...... The so-called war crimes have always been used to punish the vanquished! Anyway, I've never heard of a victor being judged. So, in order not to go to the gallows, you must win! It doesn't matter what means you use to win. ”

Beauregard let out a long breath, and his whole person seemed to suddenly refresh himself, and ordered in a loud voice: "Order the troops to stop the attack, and let all the troops in Northeast Philadelphia withdraw across the Schuylkill River...... Then set fire to all the buildings east of the Schuylkille River that we were accusing about! Remember, drive the residents away before burning the house, and try not to harm civilians as much as possible. ”

Before burning people's houses, you have to drive people away...... This Boregaard still has a bit of a conscience. But the people of the North who were burned down and homeless were not thankful for Boregard and his Northern Virginia Legion. The nickname of the Scorched Earth Legion soon spread throughout the northern lands, and wherever they passed, they burned and looted, factories, mines, railroads, bridges, cities, everything that could be destroyed and burned, all became a scorched earth, and the war in America was fought in the most brutal way from the beginning. (To be continued......)