In the dark night sky, the sparse stars shimmered faintly, the dense forest covered the vast East North American continent, two fast horses galloped through the forest path, and the two knights on horseback kept waving their whips, thinking "faster, faster." Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

The two knights came from a militia called the "Sons of Liberty", which was founded relatively recently but had a lot of influence. The main program of the Sons of Liberty was to carry out anti-British activities, and to gain freedom and political democracy for land reclamation through the struggle against colonial oppression. Their members were mainly workers, small craftsmen, city dwellers and petty bourgeoisie, and they were more radical and advocated the use of violence.

It all started with the Seven Years' War more than a decade ago, when the British won the war and laid a solid foundation for themselves to become the new empire on which the sun never sets, France was forced to cede all of Canada to Britain in the Treaty of Paris, the area from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River (formerly part of New France) was also ceded to the British, France withdrew from all of India, leaving only 5 towns, and Britain became the new overlord of the overseas colonies.

But all this came at a cost, the British paid a lot of blood and money for the victory of the war, and their national strength was greatly damaged, and in order to recover as soon as possible, the British had to increase the pressure on the colonies. And the most elite colonies of Britain are none other than the thirteen colonies in North America. Soon, the British discovered that the development of the Thirteen Colonies in North America was at odds with the development strategy of the overlords, and that the Britons wanted it to be a mere source and market for raw materials, but the Puritans developed their own industries there and secretly traded with other hostile British nations. This was intolerable to the British, and the colonists continued to expand westward, which made the British uneasy, and the expansion of colonial power would affect the influence of the homeland. After all, it already has 2 million inhabitants, an area much larger than the British mainland, and has superior resources and environment.

Under the throne of the British king, there was no room for rebellion, so the Hanoverian dynasty issued a series of policies to restrict the development of the colony, hoping to make the colonial people fear with authoritarian power, so as to re-establish the absolute dominance of the British in the colony. However, mere authoritarianism is foolish, and can only provoke stronger resistance from the colonized people, who already have a desire for independence.

Since after the Seven Years' War, the British crown recognized the land west of the Appalachian Mountains (appalachian_mountains) and east of the Mississippi River as the private property of the Crown, so the British issued the 1763 Proclamation (proclamation_of_1763) prohibiting colonists from cultivating land west of the Appalachian Mountains, which limited the colonists' space to colonize westward.

In 1765, the Stamp Duty Act (stamp_act) was promulgated, which stipulated that all official documents, contracts, licenses, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, documents, wills, etc., must be affixed with revenue stamps before they can be effective and circulated. That is to say, everything written on paper has to be paid for the huge cost of the British war. This bill can be said to have caused a lot of complaints from locals, seriously increased the cost of living and business, and limited the development of many industries. The colonists rebelled fiercely, boycotting British goods, smashing the tax authorities, and eventually the British were forced to repeal the bill.

The British suffered a loss in the Stamp Act, but still claimed absolute taxing power over the colonies. Then, in 1767, Chancellor of the Exchequer Townsend enacted the Townsend Act (townshend_act), which imposed heavy taxes on paper, glass, paint, and tea imported into the colony, and established the General Administration of Customs and Excise in Boston. Apparently the colonists would not just admit it, and the merchants signed an agreement to refuse to import British goods in favor of goods from elsewhere, which reduced British exports to the colonies by as much as half in 1769.

In order to save the situation, the British began to take many measures, including sending more troops to the colonies, which led to greater resistance among the people of the colonies.

At that time, the colonies were resisting the Townsend Act, and Samuel Adams, a radical democrat in Massachusetts, and others issued a circular letter demanding that the people of Massachusetts not only oppose the Townsend Act, but also take practical action. The Governor of Virginia soon dissolved the Legislature, which declared that "it was the Colonial Parliament, not the British Parliament, that had the power to tax Virginia", but the members of the Legislature were unwilling to settle it, and they went to a hotel to continue the "dissolved Legislature" and signed an agreement that no one could buy British goods until the Townsend Act was repealed. The names signed on the agreement were: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, ......

The Townsend Act was eventually repealed amid a lot of criticism, but the tea tax remained. In 1773, members of the Sons of Liberty disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and poured tea brought by British merchant ships into the sea, which became known as the Boston Tea Party.

In 1774, the First Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia, and the convention drafted the Manifesto of Power, the Letter of Appeal, and the Letter to the British People. The participants agreed to meet again in May of the following year, but before the meeting could take place, a huge change occurred.

When the resolution of the Continental Congress reached the British mainland, neither the royal family nor the conference had any intention of making concessions, and the royal family believed that this was a naked rebellion, so their first reaction was to send troops to suppress it, and there were still disagreements within the parliament, and they did not plan whether to appease or suppress it.

At this time, an unexpected incident occurred, and the Governor and Commander of the British Army, Thomas Gage, wanted to wipe out the anti-British leaders, so he mobilized soldiers to search for them. At the same time, he learned that in Concord, near Boston, there was a militia arsenal, which, if destroyed, would be a heavy blow to the anti-British forces.

It's just that this news was detected in advance by the militia of the two sons of liberty.

"This is the first village, Mr. Riverl?" William Dowee asked, who was younger and opposite a small leader of the Sons of Liberty, Paul River, who was a fine silversmith.

If the British succeeded, then the Sons of Liberty and other resistance groups would lose their arms against the British, and if Adams and other leaders were arrested, the entire anti-British movement would be leaderless. Therefore, William and Paul rode fast horses and ruled the villages along the way, so that the militia could be reined to deal with the British, and at the same time, the leaders withdrew early to avoid the British army.

"I can't count it, this village seems to be called Lexington." Paul Revere, a calm silversmith, said.

Dowway shouted, "Then Mr. Adams and Mr. Hancock are here, and we need to inform them of the transfer." ”

The two militiamen approached Adams and informed him that Gage had sent troops to hunt them down.

Adams looked grim and said, "Gage didn't get orders from the locals, so he acted on his own." Now that they have forced us into this position, we must also resist, and our cause can only succeed if the British see our will and determination. ”

River and Dowee were inspired and excited. River said: "Sir, please move quickly, we will inform the militia everywhere that we are sniping at the British army, and let the British know the courage of our Massachusetts!" ”

Adams nodded heavily: "Be careful, you are all heroes!" ”

Summoned by River, Lexington's militia rose from their sleep in the middle of the night, gathered their weapons, and set up an ambush near the village, ready to meet the 700 British soldiers who arrived. Militias from other places rushed to the news, and a battle broke out in the early morning.

Dozens of Lexington militiamen were not ready to attack when the British arrived, they shouted, beat gongs and drums, perhaps hoping to scare the British away, but the arrogant British ordered them to surrender, and then the British surrounded the militia, the militia tried to retreat, and a clash broke out between the two sides, 8 of the militia were shot and killed, 10 were wounded, and the militia was broken and scattered.

The militia quickly evacuated Concord's munitions and prepared for an attack. The British arrived at Concord and did not gain much, and after destroying the Concord arsenal, they prepared to return to Boston.

At this time, more and more militia began to gather, and on the way back of the British army, a truly fierce battle broke out. The militia took advantage of guerrilla and sporadic operations, firing at the British everywhere from houses, stone walls, barns and trees. They often fired a few shots and ran away, which annoyed the British troops. After the British army arrived in Lexington, they received some reinforcements, but the strength of the militia also swelled, and nearly 4,000 militiamen launched an offensive against the British army with various weapons.

After a day of fighting, the British army suffered 273 casualties and the North American militia suffered 95 casualties, and the militia won the battle.

Adams couldn't contain his excitement when he received the news of the victory, and the Continental Congress soon took over the command of leading the militia against the British.

On June 14, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, along with a number of major generals and brigadier generals, to organize militias in various places to fight the British army. However, at this time, a very serious matter was also placed in front of the Continental Army, that is, the lack of munitions and the organizational disadvantage of the relatively well-trained British army.

It was also at this time that a businessman proposed to the Continental Congress that on the other side of the North American continent, there seemed to be a country established by the Orientals, called the Tang Republic, which had extremely advanced military weapons, and had defeated the Spaniards.