Originally, Li Yongji thought that his counterattack would be a vicious battle, after all, the appearance of these American soldiers before made him very jealous, but when he really launched a counterattack, Li Yongji suddenly found that the Americans were also the last of the crossbows, and they collapsed as soon as they hit.

Moreover, it was clear that Li Yongji's counterattack troops only gathered together to launch a counterattack in one direction, but not only did these counterattacked American soldiers surrender one after another, and there was no resistance at all, but even the other two US attack groups that were not attacked actually took the initiative to stop the attack and sent messengers to raise white flags to surrender on their own initiative.

At the beginning, Li Yongji was still afraid that they would deceive, so on the one hand, he still asked the defending troops to be on guard, and on the other hand, he urged the counterattack troops to continue to attack, but later on, these attacked Americans really had no intention of fighting, as long as they rushed over, they raised their hands high, and even the people in the rear took the initiative to lay down their arms and surrender, which made Li Yongji very surprised.

Immediately afterwards, when Li Yongji heard that the Americans in the other two offensive directions had also taken the initiative to lay down their weapons and line up in front of the formation, Li Yongji believed that the Americans were really going to surrender.

Despite this, Li Yongji was still cautious, and it was not until he led the army to the headquarters of the New Virginia Regiment of the United States Army and captured their commander in it that Li Yongji completely relieved himself.

Out of curiosity, Li Yongji deliberately rushed to this headquarters to meet this "famous general" who caused heavy losses to himself and even almost made himself lose the battle, but finally surrendered lightly!

Looking at the commander of the New Virginia Legion in front of him, who was a little bald, with two beards, deep-set eyes, an indifferent expression, neatly dressed, and no panic at all, Li Yongji was also embarrassed.

Li Yongji knew that the full name of the person in front of him was Ambrose. Everett. Burnside. The military rank is a major general of the Volunteer Army.

Of course, although Bernside is a major general in the volunteer army system, not a major general in the regular army, he is not in the least treated as a major general in the regular army, because the current American volunteer army is actually the federal army, which is basically Lincoln's private army, but the regular army of the United States, which basically belongs to the marginal military branches.

To say that before, Li Yongji had also heard a little about this General Burnside. However, because he is not a famous general in history, he is not very famous in another time and space, and he is not comparable to Grant, Sherman and the like, so Li Yongji doesn't care much, only knows that this person seems to be an inventor, and once invented a Burnside-style rifle with rear-loading metal cartridge casings.

However, it was this passer-by who Li Yongji didn't pay much attention to, but this time he fought a beautiful battle, and his invincible expeditionary force suffered a big loss. and even almost lost the battle.

It can be said that the danger of this battle made Li Yongji also frightened, and this battle alone was enough to make Li Yongji admire the other party. It is not an exaggeration to say that the other party is a famous general.

Even now, the other party is obviously a captive, but he is light and well-dressed. Even his beard has been groomed, and he looks very gentlemanly, and he doesn't look angry at all. This is somewhat different from what Li Yongji thought.

In the end, Li Yongji decided to get straight to the point: "You are Major General Burnside?" The supreme commander of this American legion? ”

"Yes, I am." Burnside nodded, and then asked rhetorically, "If I'm not mistaken, you are the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, General Li, right?" ”

"That's right." Li Yongji nodded.

"Congratulations, great general, although you don't want to admit it, you have won this battle in the end, a great victory." Burnside said lightly.

"Thank you." Li Yongji said, "You and your army also surprised me, in Chinese words, even if you are defeated, you are still glorious." To tell you the truth, after this battle, I have a much better opinion of you Americans, and you are indeed a respectable opponent. ”

"yes, that's a real pleasure." Burnside still nodded faintly.

"I'm a little weird, though." Li Yongji said, "You fought so bravely before, and your strategy and tactics were quite exciting, why did you completely give up resistance at the last moment?" You know, if you continue to resist, I won't come here so easily, and take you prisoner so easily......

To tell you the truth, the original purpose of my counterattack this time was just to repel your attack, and then continue to have a good fight with you, I didn't expect to be able to sweep you all away, but suddenly you all surrendered, so that I suddenly won a complete victory......

Seriously, until now, I have felt that this great victory feels very unreal, so, my Excellency General, can you tell me why? Why was he so brave and fearless at the beginning, so hard-working, but in the end he came to such a hasty finish? ”

"Because there's no point in it anymore." Burnside shook his head and sighed, "Now that I'll be honest, in fact, we don't have any military rations, and the last food was used as dinner last night." Therefore, last night's attack was our final blow, I have long made it clear to the people below, if we win, we will eat your food, and if we fail, we will take the initiative to surrender to avoid unnecessary resistance and losses, and then eat your food as a prisoner, I believe that your Chinese's reputation for preferential treatment of prisoners will not be fake. ”

"Oh, I see." Li Yongji suddenly realized, "It turns out that no matter whether you win or lose, you all want to eat our food?" ”

"Yes." Burnside nodded, "That's what I was going to do. ”

"But we've only been fighting you for less than seven days." Li Yongji said, "You menacing suddenly came to beat me, did you only bring seven days of food?" No, plus the rush on the road, it should be a little more, right? ”

"Yes." "In fact, because of the cold and slippery roads, we couldn't carry much baggage, so we had to ask the soldiers to bring some dry bread with them as food. Although we did our best, we only brought eleven days' amount, which is already the maximum limit. ”

"Then I really admire you enough, and I came to fight us with eleven days' food." Li Yongji said, "Are you really so confident that you can eat us within seven days with your 300,000 people?" ”

"Actually, I almost beat you, didn't I?" Burnside smiled suddenly, "If it weren't for the lack of food......

"Even if there is enough food, you will not be able to defeat us." Li Yongji interrupted him, "I admit it. We were negligent and caused us a big problem with one of your sneak attack troops. But don't forget, we have far more weapons than you, as long as you hold your ground and be careful, you won't have a chance to win!

In other words, even if you can cause us a little trouble temporarily, but the difference in strength between my troops and yours is there, and even if you can really let people rush into my camp, I can make the camp completely turn into a millstone. Swallow all of you, believe it or not? ”

"Believe it or not, what's the point?" Burnside shook his head suddenly, "I failed anyway, and now I'm your captive, that's the truth." ”

"Actually, what I admire most about you more than your strategy and tactics is your fearless courage, although it seems to me. This courage is somewhat stupid and wastes a lot of your lives, but it is absolutely commendable in itself. ”

"Well, I've got great lads under me. They were brave indeed. Burnside nodded.

"So I'm weird." Li Yongji said, "I have dealt with you before, and when I first took Smithland, I remember that you brought troops over. But at that time, you would only shrink into the distance, and you didn't dare to take the initiative to provoke us. Even later on, you chose to retreat on your own initiative.

So, what made you change your mind and come to us again? Is it because of the weather? Think in this weather, our weapons will be ineffective? ”

"Yes, the weather factor is indeed one of the main factors I consider, because I also think that under this kind of snowstorm, your vehicles should not be able to move, and there will be problems with muskets and artillery, of course, this is just a guess on my part, and there is no actual evidence to prove this."

"So, you brought troops over halfway, in fact, you were gambling?" Li Yongji smiled, "Are you betting that our weapons will not work because of the cold?" ”

"That's really a reason." Burnside shook his head, "But actually, if it was just the weather, I wouldn't have bet on it, I came here on behalf of it, and there was a reason why I had to come." ”

"Why did you have to come? What is it? Li Yongji asked curiously.

"Before, my legion encountered a snowstorm on the road." Burnside sighed softly, "Because it came suddenly, and we didn't have enough cold supplies, so many people got the flu, and we had to stay where we were." However, the number of flu patients increased, and we had to implement quarantine measures in order not to break out of the flu even more. ”

After a pause, Burnside continued: "There are so many people with the flu, tens of thousands, that we can't do anything about it, and we have to abandon them for the safety of more people.

However, when I gave up on them and walked back with the healthy people, my conscience was tormented, and one day, it occurred to me that in fact, they are not certain to die, as long as they use your special medicine made in China, they can survive.

However, we don't have many of these anti-flu drugs on hand, and even if we have them in the cities we are going to later, it is only a drop in the bucket, and there is no point at all. ”

"So, I thought, we don't have many medicines, and we can't get them from the rear in the short term, but you have ah, after all, everyone knows that these magical universal medicines are all spread from your China, they are your Chinese products, since you are Chinese, it is impossible not to carry these anti-flu drugs on your body, and there should be a lot of them."

"You're right, we have to carry these antiviral and anti-infective drugs with us, and there are quite a few of them." Li Yongji nodded, and then looked at Burnside a little strangely, "Wait, do you want to say that it was for the anti-cold medicine in our hands, so you changed your decision halfway through, and no longer go back to your rear city, but want to start a war with us in turn?" ”

"Why not?" "In fact, when I chose to abandon the infected and lead the healthy soldiers back, I found a big problem, which is that there are far more soldiers with the flu than the soldiers we gave up before.

It's just that there are many symptoms that are not obvious, such as just a sore throat and shivering all over, but there is no large amount of coughing, they chose to hide it in order to avoid being isolated and abandoned, but in the process of marching, these people who concealed their illness gradually couldn't hide it, and I learned their true situation.

At this point, it occurred to me that since we have more infected people, and many of them have chosen to hide it, then we are actually a group of flu infected, and once we return to Evansville, maybe the whole city will be infected, what a terrible scene it will be? ”

"So, you chose to turn back? Chose to go to war with us? Li Yongji nodded, "Let me guess, once you start a war with us and win, you can get our spoils and anti-cold medicine, and if you lose, you can also be our prisoners, and we won't watch you die and leave it alone, isn't it?" ”

"Yes, that's it." Burnside smiled, "Since going back to Evansville will infect more people, then we will just go back to war with you, so that whether we win or lose, it will be a good result."

Of course, it is precisely because of this that our soldiers are so brave, because in their opinion, if they can't win, the possibility of getting medicine is also very slim, and the people below don't think that you Chinese will use such expensive medicine to give a group of prisoners. ”

"I see." Li Yongji nodded, "I said, why did you suddenly fight like chicken blood, one after another, if you kept doing this, we wouldn't have fought so easily before." ”

"Yes, one qiē, one qiē, it's all because of fear." "They are not afraid to die on the battlefield, but they are afraid to die of sickness, so when I want to bring them to fight you, they are so oblivious." ”

"There's a problem, though." Li Yongji said, "As far as I know, when you retreated at that time, there was still a legion, not only yours, why is it that you are the only one legion who came this time?" Didn't the other legion get the flu? ”

"How could it be that you weren't infected?" "Actually, I also persuaded them to come with us, but anyway, the commander of the other side is not optimistic about my methods, he just wants to return to safety as soon as possible, and he doesn't care if his soldiers have a large number of infected people who hide their illness." As for me, I can't command their legions, so I can only act on my own. ”

After a pause, Burnside continued: "That's why I have to win, because only by winning against you can I get more medicine, and even take you as a prisoner to ask China for more cold medicine."

In other words, as long as you are defeated, you will be able to get enough medicine, and even if Evansville is infected, it will not be a big problem. ”

"Is everything you say true?" Li Yongji frowned, "I feel a little unreliable no matter how I hear it, didn't you fight us because you were afraid of Lincoln's punishment or something?" ”

"How is that possible?" Burnside sighed, "Our Mr. President, although he has become more and more authoritarian recently, he is not an unreasonable person, on the contrary, he is also very smart. Therefore, even if I hadn't fought with you and went back first, but I brought the whole army back, Mr. Lincoln wouldn't do anything to me, and even if he wanted to make me take the blame, it wouldn't be too difficult for me. Anyway, if it weren't for the cold medicine, I wouldn't have come back. ”

"That's a ridiculous casus belli." Li Yongji shook his head, "We fought here for a long time, and I paid thousands of casualties and a lot of money and materials, and you estimated that you also lost at least more than half of your troops...... I originally thought that you were for the sake of the country and the nation, and I admired you quite a lot, but it turned out that I was wrong! You guys are suddenly so able to fight, it's just for cold medicine? (To be continued......)