"Liu Qing, is there any news from North America?"

"Back to Your Majesty's words, yesterday the North American Army reported that Des Moines and St. Louis were heavily surrounded by American troops, but the defenses of these two cities were quite strong, and the defenders were the elite of battle-hardened formations, so it was no problem to hold on for three or four months. When the time comes, the hundreds of thousands of American troops besieged in Kansas City will definitely not be able to support it first. Therefore, the Americans did not dare to fight steadily, but chose to besiege Des Moines and St. Louis while advancing to Kansas City with a strong force. The North American Army adopted the tactic of opening up the main road and occupying the flanks on the northern route, and the 8th, 9th, and 10th armies deployed along the Missouri River to occupy strong positions and threaten the enemy's flank. The tactics of resisting and retreating along the Missouri River were adopted on the southern route, and the 13th Army was currently engaged in fierce fighting with the American forces in Pacific Town, about 56 kilometers west of St. Louis. ”

About half an hour ago, Zhu Jishi asked this question, and the last time was an hour ago, since the beginning of the North American Armageddon, Zhu Jishi seemed a little uneasy, and he had already asked about the military situation seven or eight times today. And Liu Jiong, who served as the military attendant of the Emperor Taishang, replied in detail every time, as if Zhu Jishi was asking about this matter for the first time.

Liu Jiong gave a military salute to Zhu Jishi, and then left the Taishang Imperial Study to wait for the latest news in the Wude Palace, leaving only Zhu Jishi sitting behind the desk.

This decisive battle in North America will take several months, right? Involuntarily, Zhu Jishi's mind turned to the key point of the North American ** battle.

This time it was a big battle with five million people, and the outcome would determine the ownership of North America - a bit of a big bet, although Zhu Jishi seemed so calm before the war began. But I was still nervous in my heart.

This is by no means unfounded. There's a lot of news coming out right now. It's not all good things - the mobilization of the Western Roman Empire seems to be a good thing, but the female Caesar Mathilde herself did not give Zhu Jishi any letter, and the mobilization of the Western Roman Empire was also nominally against the rebellion in Brazil. And the news that Britain is massively sending troops to North America must be bad! According to reliable intelligence, the British are preparing to send more than 500,000 troops to North America in three months! It is clear that the chariots and horses are going to make a last fight - this is not 500,000 British and Indian troops, but serious British white skins, and the combat effectiveness is still passable.

If you count these 500,000 men, the total number of troops that the Britannica-American Empire can devote to this battle is more than 3 million! That's an unprecedentedly large force! The burden on Juan's shoulders was extremely heavy...... And if he wins this battle, his prestige will also be pushed to the extreme.

Don't say it's Zhu Guoxiong. Even he can only watch him grow up in North America. If these 3 million young and middle-aged men are lost, how much of a situation will white North Americans be able to maintain? Maybe most of the territory that originally belonged to the United States of America will be swallowed by Jujuan in one bite, right?

However, this is definitely not a bad thing for the entire Chinese nation. It's just that Zhu Guoxiong will have to govern the country more carefully in the future. It is impossible for two army powers across the Pacific Ocean to fight a hot war, and hundreds of thousands of troops have crossed the ocean to each other's land to deliver food. No matter how much it is, there will be no such capacity in a hundred years. In the future, the competition between Daming and Donghua should still be in the economy and population......

At this time in Des Moines, the battle was at its worst. The most convenient point for the US military to go south is here. The railroad lines westward from Chicago and southbound from Minnesota meet here. The Des Moines River, which is connected to the Mississippi River, is also blessed not only by the flats, but also by the water systems that crisscross it. There is not only the Mississippi River, which runs north-south to the Gulf of Mexico. There are also the Missouri River, the Des Moines River, the Russian Impeachment River (leading to the eastern United States), the Illinois River (which flows into the Great Lakes region and is also connected to the eastern part of the United States by canal), and the Arkansas River. Moreover, all of these rivers are not weakly navigable, and even without a rail network, the Americans can use water transport to transport supplies from the east to the central front. So this point that stuck this natural water transportation system is that the counteroffensive U.S. troops are desperately trying to fight down!

The attack lasted from the early morning of 20 September to the early morning of 24 September, and the heavy firepower of the US troops gradually moved up. The artillery fire caused smoke to rise from the defensive positions of the Des Moines Chinese army. The U.S. infantry launched an attack on Sun Mei's position all over the mountains. But he was beaten again and again. The Americans seem to have taken no care of casualties this time. But in front of the intact and strong field fortifications of the Chinese army, the blue corpses were almost paved with a layer. In the obstacle zone in front of the position, there were stumps and severed arms of US officers and soldiers everywhere. The Chinese army not only laid out barbed wire and deer barricades here, but also dug many traps, large and small. When the American officers and soldiers rushed here, they were hit one after another, and they were blown up by the grenades falling like raindrops from the defenders. Inside the pits, there were corpses everywhere, and the blood had stained the ground red.

But when the sun peeked out from the distant horizon on the 24th, the offensive of the American army became even more violent. Artillery fire began to roar from the early hours of the morning. And also a completely new way of shelling - diverting and bombarding. Every time the artillery fire shifted, the defenders thought that the Americans were about to launch an infantry attack. But whenever the troops entered the trenches, they were greeted by an overwhelming bombardment. Sun Mei's company had lost a quarter of its brothers after several casualties, which was comparable to the losses in the previous four days and four nights of defensive battles. In the end, the Chinese army, having had enough of suffering, simply put some observers on the forward positions to be bombarded, and put the main force behind to hide from the shells.

Sun Yat-sen's eldest brother, Sun Mei, is now cowering in a trench on the forward position, holding a Type 73 rifle, a pistol specially designed to fire flares, a steel helmet on his head, a Donghua telescope around his neck, smoking a rationed cigarette, waiting for another bombardment from the Americans or an eyeless shell to blow him to pieces - this is not something he can control personally, everything is days. Of the nine fighters who were left behind in this forward position with him, four of them had already been killed in the shelling just now, and one had his leg blown off, and Sun Mei personally helped him bandage his wounds, and then asked him to climb to the rear by himself.

'Don't you know that Li Jinxi is still alive? I broke my leg, I can't farm anymore in this life, I really don't know what I will live on after the war? Even if you can find an errand to make ends meet, you probably won't be able to marry a wife again. Sun Mei suddenly thought of the man whose leg was blown off, as if he was a person from the Hejian Mansion area, who originally lived in Beijing and did a small leather business, but later the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Northern Expedition, their family fled back to their hometown. Life was very hard, both parents died early, and there were only four brothers left, who had no way to live in their hometown, and they wanted to be eunuchs but had no place to collect, so they had to go their separate ways. This Li Jinxi came to North America by boat 10 years ago, and then has been farming, wanting to save some money to go back to China to marry a wife. As a result, as soon as the money was saved, he was conscripted into the war, and now he has a broken leg, and his life is over......

At this moment, the last shell landed on the forward position not far from Sun Mei that was already full of craters. The shelling of the Americans came to an abrupt end! Looking out from the six-fold binoculars in Sun Mei's hand, groups of American troops wearing new black steel helmets were pouring towards their side like a tide - after the end of the war in 1875, the American army threw away the kind of steel helmet with a pointed tip and was polished and shiny, replaced it with an ugly black steel helmet, and no longer wore bright red pants - in the smoke of gunpowder that had not completely dissipated, the attacking Americans were pressed into groups of black and pressed, and there were countless of them! Sun Mei hurriedly picked up the pistol that fired the flares and fired several red flares in succession. Then he rushed into a half-collapsed shelter, picked up the phone that had fallen on the ground, shook it a few times, and actually called through the rear headquarters.

"The Americans are coming! This time it's real, it's overwhelming like a tide! ”

The commander of the 97th Division, Colonel Lin Fucheng, loudly ordered his soldiers, who were already short on hand, to enter the position immediately, and the mortars and 75 field guns assigned to the 97th Division immediately opened fire. At the same time, it also asked the army group command for reinforcements (all divisions are now under the direct jurisdiction of the army group command), and also asked the artillery group to carry out fire blocking and firing.

The emaciated, tired, but still resilient mid-men poured out of their shelters and scurried into the front line, but the Americans charged just as quickly. Shouting "Hula! Hula! The American soldiers had already rushed to the front of them, and they didn't even have time to set up water-cooled machine guns and open fire, and the first thing that happened was the grenades being thrown at each other! The light compound grenades and the American ** Dickson grenades flew each other in the air. The sound of explosions inside and outside the trenches rang out! The soldiers on both sides were immediately blown up. But a much larger number of American soldiers rushed into the sparsely beaten trenches! Bloody hand-to-hand combat immediately began on the front-line positions of the Chinese army. At this time, the Chinese artillery group also received the order to open fire, and 24 artillery companies equipped with 120mm and 155mm heavy guns suddenly let out a roar, drowning the area between the forward position of the Chinese army and the starting position of the American army in a rain of fire and bullets again! But under the suppression of the more powerful American artillery group, the fire support they can provide is very limited! (To be continued......) R1292(.. )