The sun is scorching, and the sun in the sky is showing its enthusiasm to the earth. The temperature on the ground www.biquge.info pen & fun & pavilion has even exceeded 40 degrees. The whole of North America was enveloped in scorching heat.

This rare hot weather did not stop the enthusiasm of the Ming officers and soldiers, from the south to the north, millions of Ming officers and soldiers advanced and advanced, trying to herd horses in the North Atlantic as soon as possible. This was a great honor, and all the Ming officers and soldiers were thrilled about it.

After the fierce fighting in April, May, and June, the vast majority of Ming officers and men believed that the main force of the US army had been defeated. The death, wounding, and capture of millions of U.S. troops, as well as the loss of numerous strategic locations, also seemed to indicate that the end of the U.S. military had arrived. The Ming officers and soldiers believed that their final day of battle was approaching.

Among the Ming troops running wildly on a frontline of thousands of kilometers, the most excited was the troops of the 1st and 2nd Armored Groups of the Ming Army that successfully captured Charlotte, North Carolina, and surrounded millions of American troops in Tennessee.

In recognition of the great contributions he made on the battlefield, the main thing was that he successfully captured the Charlotte area and surrounded more than one million American troops, which solved a lot of troubles and saved war time for the subsequent operations. Zhang Cheng, who also believed that the end of the war was approaching, specifically ordered the two forces to launch an attack on Washington, D.C.

While all forces wanted to take the credit of capturing Washington, it was clear that the 1st and 2nd Panzer Clusters had the most obvious advantage now.

Although the Ming troops in the north were progressing smoothly, the American troops in the Great Lakes region still did not give up resistance, and their advance did not speed up. At this moment, the closest to Washington among the Northern Ming troops is in Ohio. And the number of US troops they are facing is still quite large.

The Ming army in the south was busy fighting fierce battles with American troops in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina at this time, and it was even more impossible to quickly approach Washington. And the troops located behind the 1st and 2nd armored clusters were at this time busy clearing the territory of the American army in Tennessee, as well as sweeping North Carolina.

Therefore, at this moment the 1st and 2nd armored clusters, which are closest to Washington, received this great honor.

It's just that although the U.S. military has always suffered heavy losses in a row, the losses are very heavy. But they still have a certain combat strength at this time. Many of the territories on the east coast are still able to provide them with large quantities of various military supplies. It has not yet reached the point of total defeat.

Some people in the General Staff of the Ming Army also pointed out that it was somewhat inappropriate to rush forward rashly. After all, the victory of the Ming army at this time was beyond doubt, and there was no need to rush into a surprise attack at all. As long as we are steady, a complete end to the war can be expected by the end of the year.

Zhang Cheng was also overjoyed by the huge victory at first. After calming down, I realized that something was wrong. It's just that his order has already been issued, and it's not easy to take it back directly. Therefore, Zhang Cheng issued a new order to the commanders of the 1st and 2nd Panzer Clusters, admonishing them to advance extremely carefully, to be careful to keep their rear roads and flanks safe, and to maintain contact with friendly forces.

In short, be careful.

Both the 1st and 2nd Armored Clusters basically complied with Zhang Cheng's orders. But nothing in this world is perfect. After all, everyone is different.

At this time, the whole world has basically been subdued by Daming. Even several South American countries in the south overthrew the rule of the American garrison after the decisive defeat of the U.S. military at this time, and raised their hands to Daming. Thus, Washington at this moment became the place to receive the last honor before the end of the war.

Although the troops on the front line had been ordered to move forward carefully, some commanders understood that this was not an order to stop. As a result, some commanders have commanded their armies to move quickly toward the Washington area. And their commanders didn't pay much attention to it, and even took the initiative to provide logistical support and cover for it.

The most obvious of these is a unit under the 1st Panzer Group. It was a combat unit consisting of the 17th and 28th Panzer Divisions, as well as the 34th Mechanized Infantry Division. Under the unified command of Lieutenant General Li Dongguo, the commander of the 17th Armored Division, it is known as a temporary combat unit of the Li Dongguo Combat Group.

In order to seize the great honor of being the first to invade Washington, Li Dongguo desperately urged his troops to speed up and advance all the way north towards the Washington area at high speed. And in order to compete with the second armored group, the commander of the first armored group, Admiral Peng Kuo, intentionally or unintentionally indulged in his behavior.

If it is true that the U.S. military has lost all resistance at this time, then there is nothing wrong with doing so. But in reality, the U.S. military still had millions of troops at this time, and their top brass had no intention of ending the war at all.

In mid-July, the James River, the fastest advance in the region, launched a ferocious assault on the Richmond, a major city in Virginia. And just over 100 kilometers north from Richmond to Capitol Hill in Washington!

Along the way, there was a strong Li Dongguo combat cluster, and it was originally easy for a Richmond to take it. However, the actual situation was much more than they expected. The U.S. resistance in Richmond was very resolute, very different from those previous towns.

Moreover, although the Ming army also mobilized local surrender groups and intelligence personnel to join the battle, the American troops stationed in Richmond exceeded expectations, and those surrender groups were quickly eliminated, and the destruction of spies was also stopped. Not only was the Li Dongguo Combat Group not able to occupy this place quickly, but it paid a lot of losses.

At this time, the troops of the 1st and 2nd Panzer Groups were practically not replenished on a large scale because of the previous series of operations. Its scale and strength are far less than when it was formally formed. In Li Dongguo's hands, there were only more than 30,000 officers and men, and only four or five hundred tanks and armored vehicles.

After encountering stubborn resistance, Li Dongguo asked Peng Kuo for reinforcements while gathering the forces at hand to try to take Richmond in a final attack. Because the defenders in the city outnumbered him, in order to gather forces to attack, Li Dongguo even threw the 28th Armored Division, which was responsible for flank cover, into battle.

Li Dongguo's battle plan was opposed by the other two division commanders, but Li Dongguo succeeded in convincing them to devote their troops to the battle for glory. As a result, their flanks become precarious.

At this time, most of the other units of the 1st Armored Group were in the rear of the Li Dongguo Combat Group. The nearest was the 255th Mechanized Infantry Division in Petersburg on the south bank of the James River, which was about twenty kilometers away from Richmond. Such a distance is not even an hour's journey in the eyes of armored forces.

The forces of the 2nd Panzer Group are now located in the vicinity of Fort Lynch, western Virginia. It is more than a hundred kilometers away from Richmond.

However, something unexpected happened.

In the early hours of 19 July, just after yesterday's Li Dongguo Operational Cluster had successfully stormed the city of Richmond and captured about a quarter of the city. From the east and west sides of Richmond, a large number of American troops suddenly appeared, and their numbers were too large to be counted in a short period of time.

These U.S. units were led by armored units, and a large number of infantry followed them quickly cut off the Li Dongguo battle group from other Ming forces in the Petersburg area.

Because Li Dongguo threw all the troops that served as flank cover and maintained the logistics line into the city of Richmond, the rear was empty and there was almost no effective resistance at all. The distance from Richmond to Petersburg was close to the Ming armored forces, but it was also close to the American armored forces.

In just a few hours, a large number of American troops have successfully approached the opposite shore of Petersburg. They blockaded the entire James River, completely besieging the tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the Li Dong Kingdom Combat Cluster in an area south of Richmond.

The Americans moved very quickly, and the Ming army was almost unable to react. In just a few hours, the US military has completely blocked the battlefield. Even Peng Kuo only learned about these situations after receiving a report from the 255th Infantry Division.

It is simply unimaginable that the US military acted very suddenly, and that so many troops were dispatched without being noticed by the Ming in terms of intelligence. In fact, this is also the reason why the commanders of the Ming front line are a little careless.

Because the intelligence services, which have always been exceptionally accurate, did not inform them that there were large numbers of American troops massing in their path. As a result, Li Dongguo and others were not able to raise their vigilance.

In fact, when the attack on Richmond met a strong blockade, Li Dongguo was already a little confused. After all, the U.S. troops stationed here are very powerful, and they will launch counterattacks from time to time. This is not exactly what the intelligence says. It's just that he was in a hurry to get the honor and didn't care too much.

In fact, the US military has suffered a series of catastrophic failures in intelligence, not to mention themselves, and even the front-line commanders of the Ming army can detect that there must be high-level figures selling intelligence. As a result, a large-scale internal investigation has been ongoing.

Some time ago, when the two sides were fighting fiercely in Tennessee and North Carolina, the high-level moles betrayed a lot of intelligence to the Ming army, thus revealing clues. However, the US top brass did not move them for the time being, but used them to sell false information to buy themselves time to mobilize troops and redeploy.

When everything was arranged, the Americans finally struck. (To be continued.) )