Although General Grant did not get the information of the Sherman army from his own cable telegraph system quickly, so that he could not know the situation in the rear in time, fortunately, in the early morning of the next day, he obtained a group of defeated troops who had fled from the south.

This group of routs actually included many senior commanders, one of whom was the former cavalry commander Colonel Smith, and it was because of this that Grant was able to know the truth about Sherman's defeat for sure.

Although he was sure that Smith would not deceive himself, Grant was still a little uneasy when he heard that the Sherman Legion had been completely destroyed, because he really couldn't believe what kind of troops could completely defeat the Sherman Legion, which had 30,000 men in less than an hour.

You must know that originally Sherman was only the commander of the 15th Army, and his commander was only in his early 10,000s, but later Grant sensed that the situation had changed, and added two more corps to him to form a Sherman Corps.

According to normal circumstances, if an army of 30,000 is gathered together, even if there are 100,000 people, it is impossible to eat it lightly, and if you simply defend, you can hold out for at least a day or two.

As a result, according to that Smith, the Chinese were just a charge, and they did not suffer any losses at all, and the famous Sherman regiment was completely dispersed, and the situation after that completely became a unilateral pursuit by the Chinese.

In fact, the key reason why Smith was able to escape again in that situation was due to the fact that the other party had contacted the Chinese army in advance and knew how powerful the Chinese army was.

It was precisely because Smith knew the horror of the Chinese army, so when he was relaxed for various reasons, he immediately took advantage of the chaos of the battle to start the idea of fleeing before the Sherman Corps had broken up, or when the Sherman Corps first began to take the initiative.

At that time, because Sherman was busy directing troops to resist the invasion of the Chinese army, he did not have time to ask Smith about it. So he asked one of the guards to escort Sherman back to look at it, intending to wait until the battle was over.

However, until Smith, who was powerful in the Chinese army, knew that Sherman's men could not stop him, so this time, he was no longer honest and obedient, but suddenly attacked the guards guarding him halfway.

This is also due to the fact that Sherman's people did not shackle him, and the reason, of course, is that Smith is a high-ranking officer, even if he makes mistakes. Those who will not be shackled will have to rely on their realization.

Of course, regardless of whether you are a high-ranking officer or not, if you refuse to obey orders, such as if you are not so conscious, and do not obediently go to the place of detention, but want to resist, then it can be enforced, and even shackled you.

Before that, though. Smith was quite obedient and self-conscious, and this behavior confused everyone into thinking that he would continue to be obedient. That's why he wasn't shackled or roped, and there was only one guard guarding him.

Unfortunately, what they didn't know was that Smith was obedient before. That's because of the deterrent power of the Sherman Legion, because Smith has returned to the barracks if resisted. If you can't run away at all, you will suffer hardship.

But now, everyone is busy resisting the attack of the Chinese, and there is no time to care about him, and Smith is sure that Sherman's people cannot stop the Chinese, so for the sake of his life, he can only resist.

Anyway, he knocked out the guards guarding him halfway through and quickly searched for the key to the detention site, and by the time he did so, the Sherman Legion's garrison had already begun to be bombarded, forcing Smith to find a place to hide for the time being.

When the Chinese bombardment was over, Smith decisively got up, returned to the place where he had been detained, and used the guards' keys to open the door and release the men who were also being detained.

Rescuing his own men was an idea that Smith had thought of early on, not entirely because he was nostalgic, but also for more realistic reasons. Because he knew very well that he couldn't run alone, then he would really be a complete deserter, and that would kill him.

On the contrary, if he can go with a group of men, then he can talk to these people in advance, so that they can be counted as a rout.

Don't look at the rout and deserters, the meaning is completely different.

Deserters flee without a fight, or flee before the battle is decided, and this behavior is punishable by court-martial.

The rout is different, that refers to the disorderly flight after the complete rout of the army, it is a general trend, it can be regarded as the battle has ended, and the flight during this period is equivalent to retreat, as long as you can run away, you are still a good man when you return to the rear, and the United States will not punish you in any way.

Smith knows very well that Grant and Sherman have a good relationship, if he escapes alone, it is really unclear, maybe he will be used as a punching bag and scapegoat, and he will be shot directly, after all, everyone knows that Sherman's relationship with him is not very good.

However, if he can run away with many of his men, then when the time comes, there will be so many men who testify to him that he has to flee after fighting, then no matter how angry Grant is, he can't do anything to himself.

In this way, Smith rescued his previous group of men in time, and by this time, the soldiers of the Sherman Regiment had begun to launch a counter-charge, that is, to launch a charge against the Chinese who were stopped four hundred meters away, hoping to decide the victory in a white-knuckle battle to avoid further bombing.

Unfortunately, this courageous behavior stimulated Smith and his men, because others did not know how they did not know how powerful the Chinese's continuous firepower was when they had just been beaten by the Chinese.

Once upon a time, Smith's men were so heroic, they once led the cavalry troops to charge the Chinese convoy with great courage, and they actually used swords.

At that time, Smith had already stopped his escape, stopped his horses, planned to see how his men fought against the Chinese, and even had the idea of turning around and charging the Chinese with his men.

But soon, he discovered something that shocked him, that is, the Chinese's continuous fire was too fierce!

At that time, on the ironclad cars of the Chinese, tongues of fire suddenly burst out, and as long as all the charging cavalry were swept by this tongue of fire, they were immediately turned on their backs. You can't get close to each other at all.

In that kind of airtight rapid-fire firepower, you can rush to the opponent for up to 200 meters, and if you go further, you will not succeed at all, and even if you rush to 200 meters, it will be a journey of death.

Suffice it to say that in the rapid-fire fire of the Chinese, you have to be at least five hundred meters away from the other side in order to have a glimmer of life, otherwise. Within five hundred meters is a complete death zone, and the closer you get to the Chinese tank, the higher the chance of such death.

Therefore, after witnessing that battle, Smith quickly realized that when the invulnerable chariots and powerful repeating machine guns appeared, the brave and fearless white-knuckle battle between the two armies was a thing of the past, and the battle was no longer honorable. It's just a matter of seeing who has the more firepower.

In short, Smith believes that in the face of Chinese weapons, any white-edged charge is futile. will only let themselves die faster, and those tanks of the Chinese are still very fast, not to mention two-legged people. It's hard for even horses to run, so it's impossible to get out of the way with your life. One can only count on someone to be a backing for you.

That's right, no matter how powerful the Chinese are, the small number is their fatal injury, in this case, Smith does not need to run faster than the Chinese, he just needs to run faster than his own people. In this way, their own people can stay and involve the Chinese, and they can escape in advance.

When Smith led the cavalry regiment to do reconnaissance before, the key to escaping his life was that the Chinese only had one armored battalion at that time, and the result was on the same page as the cavalry they saw for the first time, which gave Smith a chance to escape.

That is to say, before Smith was able to escape, the key was to rely on his large number of men to delay the Chinese attack for him, and this time, he decided to let Sherman's men drag the Chinese, and he had to flee in advance.

Things have come to this point, Smith doesn't care about any shame, honor is not honorable, and it is most important to escape a life, so he rescued his subordinates and said his concerns selectively, with only one meaning, that is, when the US military is fighting with the Chinese and has no time to take care of them, they find an opportunity to run first.

Smith's group of subordinates, since they could escape with Smith at that time, were not ordinary clever, so when they heard Smith's words, they quickly agreed, and then secretly touched the stables while the American soldiers in front were rushing towards the Chinese.

Although these people were taken into custody, they were all wearing the blue military uniforms of the United States, so in Sherman's barracks, it was quite confusing.

When they arrived at the stable together, they made a casual excuse to go back to report the news, forcibly snatched the horses, and then rushed out regardless of it, looking really in a hurry, but in fact they were running away.

As a result, before they could run out of the barracks, the guns and artillery in front of them were loud, and the Chinese began to counterattack, and Smith looked back, sure enough, his own people were being swept down by the Chinese like wheat cuts, but his own people could not do even the slightest harm to the Chinese.

This situation made Smith heartbroken, but at the same time, he quickly whipped the horse, speeding up the horse, and wanted to run away immediately.

Since it was a premeditated escape, Smith knew very well that this army was finished, so it was impossible to return to the Grande Bay base, in that case, they would have only one place to go, and that was the Black River Bridge outside Vicksburg, where Grant's main force was stationed.

In fact, at this time, Smith did not expect Grant to stop the Chinese, his real purpose was to go to the Heihe Bridge first, and then with the help of that railway, find a way to go to Jackson City in the east, and then find a way to go back to the north.

In short, Smith is not going to fight against the Chinese, because there is no chance of victory.

It was with this intention that Smith took his original cavalry men and fled directly to the area of the Black River Bridge, and after a day and night of escape, he finally arrived at the barracks of the Grant Regiment at three o'clock in the morning of the next day.

When Smith arrived, it was still the middle of the night, and Grant had just fallen asleep, and Smith only said that there was something important at first, but he didn't say anything, so Grant's adjutant didn't take it seriously, and he didn't want to wake up his commander, and wanted Smith to come back during the day.

It's a pity that Smith's eyes were red at the time, and he couldn't wait, so he simply told the truth of the matter. It is said that the Sherman Legion has been completely destroyed, the Grande Bay has been lost, and the matter is urgent, and General Grant must be met immediately.

As a result, the young adjutant did not believe Smith's words at all, and instead thought that Smith was deliberately alarmist to scare himself so that he could meet General Grant.

The reason is simple, the strength of the Sherman Legion, the adjutant is quite clear. Moreover, he also knew that there was a telegraph line between Grande Bay and this side, and the telegraph room was on duty 24 hours a day, so if something really happened over there, it was impossible that the telegraph room was not moving, but they ran over first.

Of course, if it was any other time, the adjutant would not have made such a low-level mistake, after all, it didn't matter whether the other party was scared into talking nonsense. Since he was forced to say this, then he may really have something important to talk to the commander.

However, at that time, the adjutant had just fallen asleep and was sleeping hazy. I was woken up all of a sudden, and I was feeling unhappy, so I ignored Smith's words, obviously with affection.

Originally. After the adjutant said this, he planned to go back to sleep, but who knew that the blood-red Smith had already pulled out his revolver without hesitation. Then he fired three shots into the sky.

After that, Smith decisively threw away his pistol, raised his hands high, and then shouted at the guards around him who were pointing guns at him, shouting that the Sherman Legion was finished, and he demanded to meet General Grant immediately.

At this moment, the adjutant also came to his senses, and felt that since the other party had reached this point, he was afraid that there was really something serious, so he asked Smith to be tied up, so that he would not mess up again, so he went back and called Grant and informed him of what happened outside.

To be honest, General Grant, who was called, was also in a rather bad temper at the time, but after hearing that it was Smith who came to ask for a meeting, he hesitated.

The reason is simple, Colonel Smith knows that although some people are not in sight, he is quite disciplined and not a lawless person, so since he can personally come here from the Sherman Legion to report the news, no matter what, it is always good to meet and ask.

After all this little twist and turn, Colonel Smith finally met Grant, and after that, he poured beans into a bamboo tube, adding fuel to his previous experience. Of course, he made a lot of changes in this, such as obviously that he ran away in advance, but he said that he couldn't do anything, so he brought someone to report it.

Sure enough, Colonel Smith's words scared Grant so much that he couldn't believe it at first.

In order to confirm Smith's words, Grant sent someone to the telegraph room to inquire, and found that there was no signal from Grand Bay, so he asked someone to send another signal and ask how the situation was there.

The result was that there was actually a signal transmitted from the direction of Grand Bay, and the content was actually normal over there, General Sherman was leading troops to engage the Chinese, and at this moment the Chinese attack had been repelled by General Sherman, and General Sherman was leading the troops to pursue the Chinese's rout.

At this moment, Grant's adjutant breathed a sigh of relief, and felt that there seemed to be nothing wrong with Grande Bay.

Obviously, these telegram messages were certainly not sent by the original telegraph operator in Grand Bay, but were a deceptive tactic by the Dream Division's communications troops.

Long ago, before the Dream Division occupied Grande Bay, they cut off the telegraph line around Grande Bay in advance, but they not only simply cut it off, but also connected their own telegraph decoder to receive information from the outside and send messages from here at the same time, so as to create a false impression that Grande Bay was still in the hands of the American army.

These telegram decoders are digital, the operator does not need to master the complex Moss code, only needs to know English, spell out normal short sentences with English letters, and the telegraph decoder can automatically convert into Morse code and send it to others.

Because of this, Grant did not notice the anomaly in Grande Bay before, and did not know that the Sherman Legion had been completely annihilated.

You know, even if the telegraph room in Grande Bay doesn't have the opportunity to send accurate information like the Grant Corps station, under normal circumstances, the two places have to send regular signals to each other to report safety.

This kind of timing signaling is not only as simple as reporting safety, but also has an important reason, that is, to test the patency of the line and ensure that the telegraph line can be used normally.

As mentioned earlier, the telegraph lines at this time were all copper cables erected with wooden poles. Due to the technical level, the diameter of these copper cables is quite thick, and there is no insulator outside, so even a simple Mosmi code can travel a very limited distance for telegraph signals.

In order to ensure the smooth flow of the call, every other distance, it is necessary to set up a transfer station for these communication cables, and there will be a signal amplifier and battery pack in the transfer station to facilitate the smooth transmission of the signal.

The transit station will be staffed with patrols with guns, and these people will usually be at the transit station. Once you find a problem with the call, you need to inspect the line, and then troubleshoot and solve the problem in time, such as dry connecting cables.

Therefore, these transfer stations actually play the role of relay stations, and these transfer stations are generally responsible for the original post station.

It's just that the telegraph line traveled a long distance. There was no need for a dense post station, especially on the telegraph lines like the one outside Grande Bay and Vicksburg, which were not far apart, less than thirty miles. So there is no relay station in the middle.

It is precisely because there is a relay station between Grande Bay and the Grant Barracks at the Black River Bridge that as long as you have a grasp of the telegraph point in Grande Bay, you can send a camouflage signal to the outside without any scruples, so that the other party thinks that Grande Bay is still under control.

Even. As the Dream Division had previously quickly occupied Rio Grande, they had captured the defenders of Rio Grande Bay, especially the telegraphers. Therefore, the Chinese communications troops later brought these US military telegraph operators to act as internal ghosts.

Because although the Chinese army was able to use technical means to perfectly cut into the telegraph communication between Grande Bay and the Heihe Bridge, disguised as a telegraph operator in Grande Bay, the telegraph operator between the two must have a set of identification system.

This identification system may not be a deliberately created secret language, but the telegraphers of the two places usually talk about public and private use when they have nothing to do, so after a long time, the situation of each other's telegraphers has basically been figured out, which also makes it difficult to fake each other.

Therefore, the left-behind telegraph operator in La Grande Bay is to further confuse the other party and make the other party completely believe that this side is normal.

As for the problem of cooperation, it is nothing, because the Chinese threaten them that if they find out that something is wrong with you, they will not only kill you, but also kill your whole family.

It should be pointed out here that because the telegraph operator has to guard the telegraph line for a long time and is engaged in technical personnel, the telegraph operator usually lives near the telegraph room, and his family usually comes with him.

Therefore, if you threaten to kill your whole family after failure, you can't afford these telegraph operators to be uncompromising, after all, most Americans at this time are immigrants, and their sense of belonging to the United States is not so strong.

For example, the two telegraph operators of the United States in Grande Bay were originally immigrants from two Austrians, and the reason why they joined the army as telegraph operators was only for high salaries, but not for the reason of some great war.

In fact, throughout the Civil War, although the war between the two sides was quite cruel, that cruelty was generally aimed at low-income people, that is, the so-called powerless ordinary people.

And like those who are above the middle class, they can become officers as soon as they join the army, regardless of whether you have experience and talent.

Once you become an officer, even if you are a second lieutenant, then as long as you are not particularly unlucky, or particularly brainless, if you are defeated, there is generally no danger to your life, because once you are defeated, as long as you surrender, the other party will not embarrass the officer, this is tradition.

This is true for officers, as are some high-tech talents, and telegraphers are precisely this kind of high-end technical talents that both sides need, and they have always been in a state of short supply, so even if they are soldiers to participate in the exhibition, their lives are very secure, which also causes these people to be quite afraid of death and cherish their lives very much.

In short, precisely because they were afraid of death, these left-behind telegraphers in Grande Bay began to cooperate with the Chinese to send false news to the Grant Legion, which also led to the fact that more than a day had passed, but the Grant Legion had not found anything wrong on the Grande Bay side.

Now, when General Grant asked the telegraph operator to send some confirmation messages to the other party, and received a normal fake message again, he felt much more relieved, and instead became angry with Smith, thinking that he was deceiving himself.

In this way, Grant, who didn't sleep well, and the grumpy Grant, who had a bad temper, put Smith into custody without saying a word, and continued to sleep soundly, wasting precious time in vain.

When Grant woke up again at seven o'clock in the morning, he suddenly felt that something was wrong when his mind had calmed down, so he called Smith again and began the detailed questioning process.

Originally, Grant just asked Smith why he came to report the fake news, but Smith was impassioned and said that what he said was true.

Seeing the other party's appearance, Grant, who was already suspicious, became more and more frightened, and then he summoned Smith's men to ask, and they all said in unison, saying that Grand Bay had been lost and the Sherman Legion had been destroyed.

So many people were saying that Grant couldn't believe it, because he couldn't think of a reason for Smith and the others to lie.

So, he sent someone to the telegraph room again to inquire about the news of Grand Bay, and the result was still normal.

However, by this time, Grant, who had already begun to be suspicious, would not be deceived lightly, he personally took people to the telegraph room, and then kept asking about Sherman's situation in different ways.

When Grant noticed that the other party's reply was much slower than usual, and the content was a little strange, he finally began to believe Smith, and felt that Sherman might really be defeated.

It was at this time that Grant began to decide to adjust the deployment of his troops, changing the original all-round encirclement to a focused encirclement.

In other words, Grant intended to regroup the troops originally scattered around Vicksburg in case of a surprise attack by the Chinese, but alas, he had no time to do this.

Because, just when Grant was convinced that the Chinese had defeated Sherman, and the Grande Bay base had been lost, and he planned to be safe and supreme and regroup his troops, the forward troops of the Dream Division were already less than fifteen kilometers away from Grant's corps!

Since the forward troops of the Dream Division are all highly mobile paratrooper assault vehicle units, with an average speed of about 45 kilometers per hour, although they are still fifteen kilometers apart, the smoke and dust rising into the sky can be clearly seen by Grant with a monocular!

After seeing this, Grant actually put down the telescope gently, and then shook his head calmly: "So, the cable telegraph is unreliable." (To be continued......)