The west bank of the James River was filled with a cloud of white smoke, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of gunsmoke.

More than 300 artillery pieces were deployed on the positions along the river, and in the rumbling sound of cannonballs, rained down on the city of Richmond across the river.

The hundreds of thousands of American troops guarding here have been completely defeated in several field battles, and only need to cross this James River, and the chariots and iron cavalry of the expeditionary force can completely annihilate the remaining 200,000 or 300,000 American troops in a thousand miles.

Without the US airships in the way, poison gas bombs can easily threaten the US anti-aircraft artillery fire with a tailwind, and the airship units of the expeditionary force are just as majestic as the scenery they had just landed in North America these days. Even the emphasis of Commander Zhao Haishan's speech was a little bigger!

The three reconnaissance airships frequently came and went to the position, and the shells fired from this artillery position by the river kept falling on the heads of the American troops, as if they had long eyes. With radio, communication between the two sides became much more precise and faster.

Amid the rumbling of artillery, Lieutenant General Mario of the U.S. Army stood on the top of a hidden fortress and looked grimly at the other side. The situation in downtown Richmond was terrible, the whole city was shrouded in dark and brown billowing smoke, and large orange fireballs rose from the skyrocketing firelight, and there was not a safe place in the whole city. Moreover, there were airships throwing bombs and paratroopers back and forth above their heads. The Chinese blew up land and water communications, blew up railroads, and their airborne troops cut off supply lines in Richmond again and again. What you are fighting is a completely loseable war. The bloody sacrifice of the soldiers is just for time, delay as much time as possible, and let the city of Norfolk behind him complete all the defenses!

-- The latter is the largest naval base on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

In the last two years. Norfolk developed rapidly, successively establishing huge army, navy, and air force facilities and supporting industries. There are industries such as shipbuilding, ship repair, food and meat processing, automobile assembly, wood, paper, chemicals, building materials, etc. Together with Portsmouth [non-British], Newport News, etc., it forms Hampton Royals Harbor. It is an extremely important military trade port on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

So, the war in Richmond was to go on and on. No matter how brutal the fighting is going on here. Mario has no reason to back down, either. He just didn't expect the enemy in front of him to be so tenacious.

During the field battle outside the city, it is good to say that the armored forces of the Chinese are indeed not comparable to the slow American tanks like snails. Moreover, China's individual rockets are a great threat to the little nomads, and they are completely accurate. It is not surprising that there were several defeats in the field. However, in the city on the west bank of the James River, the crazy offensive of the Chinese made Mario feel deeply. This kind of attack that is not afraid of death is not something that the US military can fight.

On the west bank of the James River, Mario commanded his troops to resist for two days, and today the day is not over. The Chinese launched three attacks, and although they were all driven back by themselves, the American troops suffered heavy casualties.

Liu Xian did not come to the front line in person, Xiang Fa still stayed in the north, and Song Zuo was the commander-in-chief of this battle. Looking at the red blood stains floating everywhere on the James River and the remains of the fallen soldiers, Song Zuoxian's heart was like a knife. The three attacks were carried out by the most elite troops of the expeditionary force, a total of five battalions, and the number of casualties accounted for one-third.

The bodies of the soldiers of the expeditionary force floated and sank in the river with the waves. Just like his heart. There are also ups and downs.

The distance of the James River was only one kilometer in a straight line, but the defenders opposite Richmond had 120,000, and the casualties of the elite of the 4,000 expeditionary force were exchanged for at least 20,000 American lives. Because of the loss of air supremacy, the fortifications and positions arranged along the river. I had already been blown up by the bombs in the air and the shells that fell on my head like Long Eye. The Americans today are blocking the advance of the expeditionary force by their own flesh and blood.

Mario also knows how many formed regiments have collapsed and broken up the U.S. Army in this flesh-and-blood defense line before he can stand firm in the attack. The expeditionary force with a strong will to fight praised.

Song Zuoxian felt sorry for the deaths and injuries of the five top battalions, but he knew better that the US army insisted on blocking the west bank of the James River regardless of the casualties. For what! A short distance east of Richmond is the Norfolk area, where the shipbuilding industry accounts for 40 percent of North America's entire Atlantic coastal shipbuilding. If the Americans are to eventually drive China out of North America, the shipbuilding industry must be guaranteed.

Now the dockyards in Norfolk are half of the 10,000-ton warships, cargo ships and small-tonnage warships, and submarines. Its neighboring Portsmouth and Newport News were also important shipping and shipbuilding centers in the United States, and one of only two tank factories on North American soil was also located here. If the Norfolk area is lost, the trauma to the US military will be great.

Richmond is the gate of Norfolk, and whether it can completely take possession of what is inside after opening the door is still two words. But regardless of whether you can occupy all the things inside, whether you can open the door or not is the first thing.

The James River: This is the iron lock of this gate. This is the largest river in Virginia, with a length of 547.160 kilometers. It originates in the Appalachian Mountains and flows eastward into the Chesapeake Bay. The upper reaches flow through the Blue Mountains region, mostly with steep valleys of rapids. The 160-kilometre-long stretch of river from below Richmond to the mouth of the river is not navigable. The cities near the estuary, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Newport News are all maritime and shipbuilding hubs.

In the estuary area, there were no powerful river gunboats, and if it were not for the airships of the expeditionary force, the hordes of river gunboats would not be afraid of the artillery of the expeditionary force. Even if there are no gunboats cruising on the James River now, the occasional gunboat is a great threat to the river crossing troops!

Whether it was a large-scale assault or the smuggling of small troops from other places, the American troops were driven back. Hundreds of thousands of defeated Americans defended the river very tightly.

"We are now taking advantage of the night to airship the airborne troops and part of the elite army to the back of the US army......

Song Zuo first felt that his face must be iron-blue. Now he has to deal not only with the US troops in front of him, but also with small groups of US militia, and these hit-and-run guerrillas are the main force of the US army in delaying the advance of the expeditionary force. They are tenacious, accurate in marksmanship, and have a good popular base, and the expeditionary force has carried out many large-scale encirclement and suppression, but they cannot eradicate the roots.

Every young white or black man in Richmond is likely to be a hostile guerrilla.

"Then keep attacking. War is a game of casualties. Whichever side fails to support it first will lose. In the headquarters, Liu Xian comforted Song Zuoxian, "Now the casualties of the US army are three or four times that of ours. They are all defeated, their morale is low, and the continuous heavy casualties will weigh on their mental burden. As long as that line was breached, the American forces on the east bank of the James River would have completely collapsed. ”

"Of course, the airship unit cannot be idle. Don't take advantage of Hampton Royalty Harbour just because it's about to become our trophy. What should be bombed is still going to be bombed. That place hasn't been gotten hands on yet, after all. ”

If you don't get your hands, you can't count it as your own. Although Liu Xian is also heartbroken for Hampton Royalty Port, who knows how far the next war will go? Maybe Norfolk will be captured, and hundreds of thousands of European volunteers will come to sea. As the gap between the East and West weapons narrowed day by day, Liu Xian did not dare to win every war even if he held the golden finger.

It's like the James River in front of you. He could see every position of the U.S. military on the other side of the river, but what was the use? Lao Mei is now outnumbered, and there are no obvious loopholes and weaknesses in the defense line along the James River. All the expeditionary force wants is a face-to-face collision. Only when the US troops in one place are hurt and the German reserves in the old United States are all exhausted, will the US troops be transferred from other places to fill them, and this will create a gap in the number of troops and a hole in the defense!

The larger the scale of the war and the greater the number of troops, the fewer opportunities there are to take advantage of. The fight between the two sides is more and more important - strength!

This is like the unusually smooth war against Russia fought by China and the army, if the armored forces really can't have a crushing absolute advantage over the Tsarist army in terms of combat effectiveness, even if Liu Xian goes to personally command, he will not be able to fight a record-breaking war of annihilation and encirclement and annihilation again and again!

Now the Chinese and US militaries have formed a platform for a head-on collision on both sides of the James River. This is the time for the expeditionary force to truly show its strength, fighting spirit and spirit.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

Orange fires lit up in rows across the James River, and thirty airships poured cannonballs overhead on the land.

On the James River, small boats are struggling to row to the opposite bank. The vanguard of a brigade once again launched an attack on the landing field, which was strewn with corpses. This is already the third time that the expeditionary force has launched an offensive here. The U.S. army's bunkers and hidden firepower have all been cleared, and a U.S. regiment stationed here has long been defeated, and Mario has transferred two divisions of troops here, and now there are only six or seven thousand capable soldiers left.

Without artillery fire, the only thing the US army can rely on is machine guns. Even though every light and heavy machine gun had to be quickly changed to another place after every two minutes, the US troops still relied on their superior forces to stop the expeditionary force to the death.

Torrential bullets poured down from the first moment the attacking troops landed. The U.S. soldiers, who had not been able to see their figures at all, came out of the invisible place one by one and raised the guns in their hands.

Gunshots!

Mortar shells rang out on the beachhead with the sound of gunfire. The soil had been stained with blood, and the soldiers of the vanguard brigade were either lying in craters, or half submerged in the water, and even had to build bunkers with the corpses of their fallen comrades, they did not need to rush to counterattack, the artillery positions behind them were more useful than the spears in their hands, not to mention the airships hanging overhead.

The expeditionary force launched four attacks in a row, and although the number of troops invested in each time was not large, the offensive side was very open. forced Lao Mei to expose more covert firepower and machine gun bunkers. Then it became the target of artillery salvo and airship bombing. The U.S. military has also reached the end of its crossbow...... (To be continued......)