James. McPherson was a heavily-minded commander, capable of both offense and defense, with a high level of tactical literacy, and a talented fellow among the many officers on both the North and the South. ¥°F Top Novel,www.

But it's a pity that he has been working hard in the middle and lower levels in the past, and the most experience in command is to command a division or an army.

That is to say, James. A person like McPherson, due to his lack of experience, is quite qualified as a tactical commander, can reasonably organize troops, deploy the battlefield well, and obtain the greatest results with the least losses.

However, his strategic planning ability is slightly insufficient, to put it bluntly, he has too many concerns, is not decisive enough, and is still a little immature when he is a commander who needs more strategic thinking.

For example, he wanted to lead troops to break through a long time ago, but he didn't act on his own, but reported to the White House in a proper manner, and when President Lincoln did not approve it, he gave up his original plan in a tangled situation, and actually continued to stay in Nashville.

This waste of precious time, eventually allowing the Chinese and southerners to break through Cairo and Smithland, and completely using the shape of the detachment to cut off the train line, making Nashville an isolated city.

Originally, he wanted to hold on, but when the supplies in the city became scarcer and colder, and he heard that the troops in Memphis had moved, he keenly felt that things seemed to be slipping towards a worse situation, and if he didn't leave, it was likely that he would not be able to leave.

Therefore, at this time James. McPherson, who has grown up rapidly in a sinister environment, especially in the face of life and death, no longer intends to completely obey the orders of the White House.

After all, the White House's order was for him to stay on standby, but he knew it well. With Nashville's current material reserves, especially food reserves, he can't hold out for even a week.

Why? Because James. McPherson had already run out of military rations, and he continued to maintain the army's expenses by buying food from the local people, which is why he had to deal with so many local bureaucrats such as the mayor of the House before.

However, at this time, the citizens of Nashville simply could not reach the kind of ideological realm of sacrificing the ego for the sake of the big self, and most of the powerful local bureaucrats and businessmen were intertwined with both the north and the south, and they were confident that even if they surrendered, they would not lose much. McPherson died together.

Past. Because James. McPherson had soldiers in his hands, and everyone still gave him some face, accepted his white slips, and gave him a little food, but now anyone with a discerning eye can see that the situation is getting more and more unfavorable, and the food can no longer be transported, so even if he doesn't hoard Juqi, in order to survive. These rich people who still have food in store are not happy to continue to collect white slips for food.

In this way, the army will not receive food, and will soon go hungry, as soon as the restrictions on food begin. Then with the current atmosphere in Nashville City, these soldiers are likely to have problems, after all, these soldiers are not very ideologically conscious, and it is impossible to expect them to fight hungry.

Of course. The reason why James. McPherson's fear of a mutiny among the soldiers was also related to the ideological propaganda of the Memphis side.

As early as a month ago, Memphis was constantly sending people to launch hot air balloons into Nashville. The hot air balloon carried a large number of notes, which, in addition to the dangerous situation currently facing Nashville, also wrote about the conditions of the Union Army and the Chinese, or the treatment of Nashville citizens.

The deposit of these notes zài, let James. McPherson's plan to block the news from the local military and civilians came to naught, and the Coalition Army's slogan of "war makes civilians go away" was also quite inflammatory, shaking the determination of many local citizens to resist.

The so-called war to keep civilians away is a recent policy put forward by the South, which avoids issues such as slavery, but only focuses on the war itself, and explains that war is the duty of soldiers, and the interests of citizens cannot be hijacked.

Of course, those are all false vacuums, and the real meaning of this sentence is to directly refer to the compulsory military service system of the federal government, which strongly requires that soldiers must be voluntary, not coercive, and the government cannot forcibly kidnap free people, serving a very small number of careerists who accuse the government. In short, compulsory military service is a very barbaric, tyrannical and unfree act, which not only violates the Constitution of the United States, but also violates the original intent of the exploits of the founding era of the United States.

All in all, these propaganda are adding to the blockage of the compulsory military service system in the United States, so that they cannot continue to recruit soldiers in peace and stability, and there is no way to obtain a steady stream of soldiers.

Although the compulsory military service system in the United States cannot be shaken by such a little propaganda, it will at least shake some people, and the Allies have not paid much, so it is a good thing to benefit without cost.

It may be said that this propaganda is a double-edged sword, once the argument that this war makes civilians go away, then it will be equally difficult for the Union to implement compulsory military service, which does not seem to be a good thing for the Union with a smaller population, after all, the potential of the Union State is far worse than that of the Union State by conscription alone.

Although this seems to be the case, in fact, because the Union State was a government temporarily established for the sake of profit, it did not have a deep background, and it belonged to the rebels controlled by the slave owners, and still practiced the slave owners' estate system, so they could not implement the compulsory conscription system at all.

Otherwise, it would be terrible to engage in this compulsory military service system again with the foundation of the United States, and in time, wait for the United States to recover and start a full-scale mobilization.

In any case, since this kind of ideological propaganda has only just begun, its practical effect is limited on the whole, but in some areas, especially for local forces like Nashville, which are caught in the trap of encirclement, this kind of thinking is very demagogic.

Yes, people are afraid of death, and Nashville was originally inclined to the Confederate States, and they used to be Confederate states that joined voluntarily, but when the Union Army became more fierce, they immediately changed their position and rejoined the Confederate family.

Since it's been repeated, I don't mind repeating it again, so when the situation is unfavorable, the powerful people in Nashville will not be happy to continue to cooperate with the Union Army, if it weren't for the fact that they still have a large number of troops here. They have long since turned their backs.

These Nashville people also have confidence, because in addition to having a lot of supplies, the most important thing is that they have a lot of militia organizations.

These militias are locals, and many have families, so even if they have been forcibly incorporated into the so-called Nashville Legion, they must obey James. McPherson's dispatch, but in the event of an incident, these people are likely to turn their guns around and turn against them.

In fact, for the nascent Nashville Legion, due to the complexity of the origin of the soldiers. There are both regular troops and temporary troops transferred from other places, as well as local militia units, so there are many internal contradictions, and at present they are only temporarily safe and sound under the current pressure of foreign enemies, but this does not mean that they are really fine.

Now, when the local militia found that even if they surrendered to the Union army, there would be no problem, and if they continued to fight, they would probably lose money and lose their lives, so they were naturally not happy to fight.

As for the temporary troops transferred from outside, their will to war is not strong. Because they feel that this is a Nashville business, and it has nothing to do with outsiders like them.

Only those regular troops, which have the smallest number of people, have some sense of national sovereignty and so on, and they are also very patriotic. So he still maintained a strong fighting spirit, even in this extremely unfavorable situation.

It should be said that since most of the main force of the Nashville Legion was composed of the original reinforcements, that is, there were more outsiders. So for the time being, I am not afraid of the riots of the locals, after all, their numbers are too small to make waves.

But it's a pity. Although there are many foreign soldiers, most of them are temporary soldiers who have no fighting spirit, and these people's ideological consciousness is very low, and the main reason for being a soldier is to eat and eat, what kind of patriotism and the like, for those of them who have just solved the problem of food and clothing, it is too luxurious.

As for the kind of regular army with strong fighting spirit, the number is too small, and most of them are officers, and the treatment of low-level soldiers is completely different.

The so-called food and clothing are sufficient to know honor and disgrace, this saying is not only useful for Chinese, but also for foreigners. What patriotism, what morality, these things are very fashionable and popular things for those young masters who are not short of food and drink, but for those ordinary low-level soldiers who have just solved the problem of food and clothing, and their lives are still arduous, they are meaningless at all.

Although in another time and space, in the country under the red tide, ordinary people seem to be very passionate, but it is because they have been brainwashed and can no longer think freely, or they dare not think freely under power, so they have to do it.

However, the United States at this time was different, although they had just implemented a compulsory military service system with a compulsory meaning, but because it was not a centralized country in its bones, it had always emphasized the freedom and democracy of white people on the surface, so even if everyone was poor, they could basically think freely.

This is indeed a good thing, but during the war, if the soldier can think freely, it is not a good thing, because it will affect the will to fight and combat effectiveness of the whole battle.

The current Nashville Legion is this kind of disheartened situation, and the direct reason for this is the ideological offensive of the Union Army, which let them know the situation in the outside world and the dangerous situation they are facing, but the fundamental reason is that their desire for war is not high and they have begun to be war-weary.

It is indeed war-weary, if at the beginning, the federal army was quite confident, and everyone also recognized what justice, freedom, etc., and was also interested in what "Homestead Law", "Property Confiscation Order" and other decrees, and felt that being a soldier could make a profit, so they spontaneously joined the army.

But until now, although the federal government has repeatedly declared how righteous it is, and has introduced some new regulations, such as the war captured by itself, and after the victory, the meritorious personnel can also share the land for free, but these things are too far away, and in the face of successive defeats, everyone began to lose their enthusiasm at the beginning.

Yes, let's not talk about justice or not, let's talk about how much you can divide in the south after the war, these decrees sound good, but the premise is that you have to win, you have to win the war, and you have to win a total victory.

But now, the Federation army has been defeated and retreated one after another, and the enemy is growing more and stronger.

One or two failures, everyone can accept it, do you fight, it's normal to win or lose. But if you're three, four, five, six. If you even keep losing, that's a big problem.

In such a situation of continuous defeat on the battlefield, not to mention the blow to the people's will, at least it has a great impact on the morale of the officers and men on the front line.

The army is a monster that needs to be watered with money and honor, and honor is more important than money. And what is the honor? The most important thing in the honor of the army is victory, and only victory, continuous victory, can keep the army at a higher morale. Cultivate the so-called good traditions.

Once an army has formed a so-called fine tradition and can be passed down from generation to generation, then such a unit is often the so-called ace army, and such a unit, even if the situation is unfavorable and the weapons are poor, they can still maintain a strong fighting spirit.

On the other hand, if an army is constantly defeated, then even if the army is well supplied. But if you lose your fighting spirit, your combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

The combat effectiveness of an army, in general, is the material base multiplied by the spiritual outlook.

Thereinto. The material base is the base, and the spiritual outlook is the percentage, although the material is fundamental, but if the spiritual outlook is too poor. If the percentage is too low, there is also a chance that a unit with advanced weapons will not be able to defeat a unit with outdated weapons but high morale.

The troops of the Nashville Corps are now like that. They were no longer able to compare materially with their enemies, nor could they compare with their spiritual outlook, so how could they fight head-on with people who were stronger than themselves in all aspects except for their numbers?

It can be said that now everyone is facing each other, and if they don't fight each other, they can't figure each other out, and they can still bluff each other, but once they really fight each other and let the other party understand their own reality and reality, the collapse will not be far away.

James. McPherson had already found out about this situation, so he didn't agree with Kent's plan to attack the whole army and eat the remaining troops in Memphis, because he knew that with the current state of the Nashville Legion, the defense was okay, and it would be an absolute disaster for them to take the initiative.

However, it is not possible to stay here any longer, even if the enemy does not attack, even if there are still a lot of weapons and ammunition, but they are about to run out of food, and this is the biggest problem.

Ordinary people have no food to eat, it's not terrible, after all, they don't have weapons and can't make big waves, but if those soldiers don't have food, it's not as simple as child's play, it's fatal.

James. McPherson doesn't have much to play with patriotic education, he doesn't play brainwashing, and he doesn't play this set, so what he needs to think about is how to jump out before the situation is the worst to avoid tragedy.

Thinking about it, I can't fight it, I can't defend it, and the only way is to retreat.

Although it is not a good time to retreat now, after all, there are many Union troops on the periphery, but there is still a gap, if it is faster, it can still be withdrawn, at least James. That's what McPherson thought.

However, if you want to retreat, you must act vigorously and resolutely, and you must not leak the news to the enemy to know.

Now in Nashville, people's minds have changed, many people have been rebelled, and they have become the eyes and ears of the Union army, and even there are many in the army. McPherson was so cautious that he didn't leak a word of voice until the order was given, even in the face of his own adjutant. 、

Sure enough, just sent his adjutant, James. McPherson finally made up his mind, no longer paying attention to the White House's order to hold on to backup, but immediately led troops to break through.

For this reason, under the pretext of organizing an armed exercise, he began to assemble troops, and the interesting thing is that the troops he assembled were all foreign soldiers, and those local soldiers all stuck to their posts and did not participate in the process of this armed exercise.

After the assembly of an army of 120,000 outsiders, James . . . McPherson immediately led the force out of the city and retreated eastward.

James. McPherson admits that he is doing it very secretively, and no one knows that the real goal of this operation is to escape, normally speaking, his strategy is quite useful and feasible.

Unfortunately, his luck was so bad that the troops had only left Nashville for a day before they encountered a once-in-a-century blizzard, so this sudden retreat quickly turned from a genius tactical retreat to a stupid tragedy. (To be continued......) R527