Just as the Tang people were intensively preparing for the snake plan, the second meeting of the Continental Congress was also a major success, and the anti-British old men signed the iconic "Declaration of Independence", and the United States of America officially became independent. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

At the beginning of the year, with the help of the Tang Army, the Continental Army led by Washington defeated the British, and the British were greatly shaken, and spies from all walks of life rushed to find out who caused the British to suffer such a big loss at sea. Although the Tang Republic is a newly established country and is still established on the west coast of the mainland, the news of their existence is not completely closed.

The British soon learned from the Spaniards that the Tang had beaten the Spaniards in California, eventually forcing King Carlos III of Spain to pinch his nose and recognize their presence on the west coast of North America and give up all the lands west of the Rocky Mountains in northern Mexico.

Then the British East India Company, which ran the Far East route, also sent information that the trade of the Tang people in the Qing Kingdom had exploded in the past two years, and the rare Tang goods sold in the Guangzhou market were very popular, but because the Tang goods did not overlap much with the British goods, it did not particularly affect the sales of British goods. It's just that British goods have always been not very easy to sell, and basically the goods of the Tang people come in batches. At the same time, due to the huge purchase of tea by the Tang people, the supply and demand of tea in the market have changed, which has raised the price of tea, which has made the purchase cost of the British rise.

In short, the information was collected piece by piece, and the British side also generally had a vague understanding of the Tang State -- this was an inexplicable appearance. Founded by the Chinese on the west coast of North America. The population is not large. But there are new countries with terrible technological power and armies. In addition, judging from the behavior pattern of the Tang people, they are different from the traditional Chinese, they seem to be very aggressive and positive, and it seems that they have accomplished a lot of things in the years since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

King George III asserted: "This new colonial power poses a challenge to the British Empire!" ”

His Majesty the King was very dissatisfied, and William. General Howe's defeat cost him his command of the British army, despite his hard work. In addition, no one expected the appearance of the Tang Army, and Howe was more familiar with the situation in North America, so the British cabinet still decided to keep Howe in North America, and the British General Henry, who had been suppressed by Howe. Clinton took command of the British army. Howe's brother Richard. Howe served as commander of the Royal Navy's North American fleet.

Considering that the intervention of the Don Army complicated the situation and the huge losses of the British troops in the Battle of Boston, George III, after consulting Prime Minister North, Secretary of War Barrington, Secretary of the Navy Sandwich and others, decided to send troops to North America again. This time the British not only mobilized part of their forces from their homeland, but also received some mercenaries from the Italian countries. It is expected to be in August and September 1776. The British forces in Halifax were able to increase to more than 30,000 troops, again gaining a significant advantage over the Continental Army.

At the same time, the spies of the British also played a significant role, after all, not everyone in the Thirteen Colonies supported the revolution, and in many places it was composed of half and half forces of royalists and traitors. Since Jiao Qiang defeated the British army in March and withdrew after a short rest in New York, there has been no information on the presence of the Tang Army in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and other places, and British Commander Clinton believes that the Tang Navy should have been evacuated from the East Coast. Later, I received information that a British merchant ship had encountered a ship flying the red dragon flag and emitting black smoke in the waters north of Guyana, so it could be judged that the Tang warship had returned to the west coast.

In fact, if possible, the British would like to find someone who can speak to the Tang government, at least to see what their position is. From beginning to end, the Tang people ruthlessly attacked the British Empire without saying a word. The British could not even determine why the Tang people on the west coast would go in such a big circle and run to the Atlantic to join the colonists against the British.

The British were also quite interested in the weapons of the Tang Navy, and before that, the British could not believe that there would be a kind of warship that faced more than a dozen British ships at sea, and their faces did not change, and they continued to carry out long-distance and accurate artillery bombardment, sending the Royal Navy ships to the bottom of the sea one by one. According to the accounts of the Royal Navy sailors who participated in that naval battle, during the entire naval battle, the Royal Navy did not try to fire cannonballs at this Datang Navy battleship, but the distance was too far, and this Tang ship always maintained a distance of 3,000 to 4,000 yards from any enemy ship, ensuring that it could shoot freely and achieve a good hit rate, which also made the Royal Navy unable to threaten her at all.

Lord Sandwich analyzed that this Datang warship uses steam power (heard from the Spaniards), the speed can reach more than 12 knots, and it is quite flexible, and the commander who controls the ship is also very experienced, and can repeatedly evade the encirclement of the British ships with superior numbers, and the opponent's artillery is accurate and has a long range, and it is not excluded that the opponent's gunners are very good.

The Datang Navy took advantage of the advantages of firepower and speed, and just relied on a ship to defeat a fleet of the Royal Navy, and was a respectable and terrible enemy. Lord Sandwich also believes that if the Tang Navy is all this kind of warships and this kind of combat quality, then even if the Royal Navy invests one-third of its fleet in North America, it may be difficult to win in the end.

George III was so shocked that he did not hesitate to spend the royal treasury, and at the same time asked the cabinet to increase the allocation of funds for the development of a new generation of warships for the Royal Navy, which must have steam power and better artillery.

After all, the Tang Dynasty was too far away from the Thirteen Colonies, and after the British found out that the Tang people had withdrawn, they speculated that maybe the assistance of the Tang people would be limited to this, and it was not completely hopeless to quell the rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies. Therefore, the British cabinet told Clinton that after the troops were in place, they should quickly resolve the war, end the war as soon as possible, and not tolerate the rebels, nor engage in peace talks with the rebels, and defeat the rebels with an iron fist.

It can be said that the British judged the situation very accurately, but their understanding of this "quick solution" was still based on the eighteenth century. Even if they want to solve it quickly with superior forces, their backward logistics system and a large amount of material deployment are problems, and the British cannot fight in winter, and various conditions limit them.

But Henry. Clinton than William. Howe is more vigorous, General Howe is a general who likes to be steady, rarely makes mistakes, but often misses fighters. Clinton was more proactive, and when he was convinced that the Don forces had left the East Coast, he decisively launched a new offensive, even though the latter reinforcements had not yet arrived, and he was only in the middle of 20,000 men.

A little later than the other plane, at the end of July, Clinton, who had the superiority in strength and naval superiority, launched the Battle of Long Island. In this time and space, because the British army suffered huge losses in Boston, the Continental Army was more encouraged, and the British army was also quite contemptuous, and more importantly, Washington made a mistake, he believed that the British army would not carry out a large-scale attack from the sea in the short term, which was out of fear of the Tang.

Although Washington still sent Charles. Lee was deployed in New York, but General Lee was not as well defended as in another plane, and many Continental Army soldiers believed that the victory in Boston had laid the foundation for their victory in the war, so many had left the Continental Army, and the militia had a worse sense of urgency in training, even though Washington was focusing on training a more elite Continental Army with Tang-made weapons, but the average combat effectiveness of the Continental Army was even worse.

In New York, two-thirds of the land was in the hands of loyalist royalists, and Clinton's naval intelligence advantage allowed him to land on Staten Island in late July with little resistance. Later, Clinton ordered the Navy to go up the Hudson River and let 2,000 British troops land in Manhattan.

The battle for Manhattan was fierce, the American had the advantage of building a fortress offensive, and even had a militia armed with SC-1 rifles, while the British attacked with determination and the cover of naval guns. Washington himself was in Manhattan, and he organized the Continental Army to resist the invading British troops, but the British troops rushed up one after another, and Clinton flexibly used the navy to allow the British to land in multiple locations, disrupting the deployment of the Continental Army.

In the end, Clinton finally conquered Manhattan with great casualties, and the Continental Army also paid a lot of casualties, and what was even more tragic was that a large part of the Continental Army was unorganized and scattered when retreating, which made it difficult for them to be organized again. At the last moment, Washington took advantage of the night fog to create suspicion and led 400 elite "fast gun regiments" armed with SC-2 rifles to withdraw from Manhattan.

The loss of Manhattan caused the British to cut off Long Island's back route to the mainland, leaving about 7,000 Continental troops trapped. Clinton wisely did not choose to pursue Washington's defeated forces, but turned around and marched from Manhattan while Royal Marines landed from southern Long Island and attacked the Continental Army led by Sullivan and Stirling in two directions.

The Continental Army on Long Island did not resist for long, Sullivan had just arrived in New York from the Canadian battlefield, he was completely unfamiliar with the situation, and he was not proficient in military affairs, so Washington used him improperly. However, Sullivan commanded two regiments of the Continental Army's most valuable Tang-made weapon, the "Rapid Rifle Regiment", and although several companies were withdrawn by Washington in Manhattan, the main force remained in Brooklyn, Long Island, with about 1,000 men.

Although the use of Tang-made weapons by the Rapid Gun Regiment caused great casualties to the British army, due to the wavering morale of the army and Sullivan's improper command, more than 7,000 American troops who remained on Long Island eventually fled on the right, and after hundreds of casualties, more than 5,000 surrendered to the British army. (To be continued.) )