The 3rd Guards Panzer Corps was able to appear on the West Coast of the United States in a matter of weeks like a rapid reaction force, which greatly exceeded the expectations of Clark, the commander-in-chief of the US Western Theater.

But after most of the U.S. and Canadian troops were already in place, and President Truman had given the order to implement the "Highway Guard" program, Clark did not make much of a change to the combat plan. The main direction of attack of the Central Route Army was still an area about 40 kilometers wide on both sides of the Reno Highway.

Heavy tanks are powerful, but they are also very demanding on the road. If you want to achieve the battle goal of quickly tearing through the Allied formation with armor, you must have good road conditions in the high-speed area to advance quickly.

To this end, before the general offensive was launched, Clark also secretly arranged two special operations to coordinate the frontal offensive of the American army. One was to arrange for paratroopers to be parachuted behind the Allied positions in the highway area, taking advantage of the fault formations near Lake Tahoe that could not be reached by Allied armored forces, and to complete the gathering of paratroopers and seize the road junction between the Allied forces on the front line and Sacramento, at least temporarily cutting off the Allied forces from the rear. The risky use of paratroopers in large-scale battles was a tactic that Jiang Yunzhi first began to use when he landed in Japan, and then shined in the "Battle of the Big-Eared Fox" that landed in Tunisia. It was also after that time that the U.S. military began to pay attention to the role of paratroopers in raiding and blocking behind enemy lines in the campaign. Clark named the Bustard, the most common bird of prey in North America and the best aerial hunter in North America for their first official operation. Not only do they feed on small mammals, but they can even catch rattlesnakes or copperheads.

The code name of the operation pinned on Admiral Clark's high hopes for the American paratroopers, "like the paratroopers of the Han Army, they can play a contractual role in the battle." ”

Another operation, codenamed "Cowboy West", was carried out by the 6615 Ranger Unit, a special forces unit of the United States. This is a unit with a glorious tradition, and after being reorganized from cavalry to armored units, they continued the title of "Ranger", "Ranger is the vanguard, Ranger rushes to the front!" It's a slogan that is being recited by this unit.

Nearly a regiment of Ranger units changed into Allied uniforms, disguised as Allied armored units, and infiltrated Allied positions before the arrival of large American forces, and Admiral Clark asked them to create as much confusion and disruption as possible in the days leading up to the general offensive, whether it was Allied communications or communications, or even to occupy some strategic points.

However, the U.S. military has overlooked one issue. They had thought that there should be a considerable number of whites among the allies, and it would not be too difficult for the rangers to infiltrate.

But in reality, among the Allied forces on the Western Front, in the northern Nevada theater, there were only Han Chinese and Vietnamese. The appearance of the rangers is like a "mountain" wearing a robe and talking about cross talk, which is so eye-catching and ridiculous. The 1,900-strong ranger troops, barely achieving any results, were surrounded and annihilated by the First Army of the Western Regions. This was the first relatively large victory of the Vietnamese after they appeared on the North American battlefield, and the First Army of the Western Regions was also rewarded by Ye Shuai and the Allied General Command.

But at this time, no one thought that this was only the beginning of the prestige of the Western Regions troops in North America, and in the eyes of the Han Chinese, the Western Regions people who were like "monkeys" soon became a nightmare for the Americans in the next few months.

On May 11, the U.S. Army's mid-lane armored group at Reno forced into the Allied forward position on the highway at Chico, and left an overly advanced Han army in the encirclement on the shores of Lake Truqui. On the left flank, the US 3rd Army crossed the Truqui River.

On 12 May, Canadian forces on the right flank made a series of advances on the west side of Canerson City, occupying the eastern shore of Lake Hawthorne. Nearly 50,000 Allied troops of the 29th Guards Mountain Division and the 3rd Army of the Indocorps faced a two-sided attack from Canadian forces and American paratroopers.

Within three days, the US forces had completely torn apart the Allied defense line and formed a salient that was 100 kilometers wide from north to south and more than 30 kilometers deep.

After receiving the war report from Salt Lake City, the White House presidential office was full of jubilation. The successful completion of the breakthrough in the early stages of the campaign, with two more Allied armies encircled on the shores of Lake Truki and Lake Hawthorne, seemed to indicate the success of the "Highway Guard" program. President Truman had even seen the Allies expel the Allies from the United States and force the Grand Alliance to make peace with the United States.

Well, being able to preserve the United States with dignity and to be able to bring the envoy of the Han Emperor back to the negotiating table again is already a huge victory. No one has the luxury of defeating the Han State anymore, "Landing in South China?" Crazy people don't think like that! ”

"Perhaps, you don't even need to use that doomsday weapon to force the Han Emperor to accept the negotiation and negotiation!" The smile on the president's face was the brightest since the implementation of the Allied "Hou Xi" plan.

Bradley, the chief of the General Staff, also joined in the joy of the crowd. It's just that, from the point of view of a military man, he is far calmer than others. The three-day battle can only be said to have taken the Allies by surprise. When the Allies reacted and redeployed their forces to counterattack, then the real decisive battle would be.

"What kind of victory is the encirclement of tens of thousands of Allied troops? In Phoenix, the casualties of the armies on both sides combined almost every week do not fall below this number. Bradley was not a pessimistic man, but a hint of foreboding haunted him, "Such a victory seems to have come too easily." "Having fought with the Allies in Africa with Eisenhower, he did not believe that the commanders of the Allied forces would make such a mistake of underestimating the enemy." At the junction of the Allied forces between Lassen Peak and Chico, the forces are too weak, which is equivalent to leaving the American army with the best point of attack! Could it be that the famous Marshal Ye Weixun of the Han Kingdom is just ...... In vain? ”

If the commander-in-chief of the Western Front of the Allied Forces is Jiang Yunzhi, then I believe that the Americans will definitely not underestimate his command ability. And Ye Shuai has always been on the Siberian battlefield, fighting the Russians. The Americans suffered a lot under Jiang Shuai, but they didn't know much about Ye Shi.

As a matter of fact...... Ye Shi was really careless this time. After the 3rd Guards Panzer Army landed in North America, Ye Shuai had been planning a major campaign to attack the central United States in one fell swoop. However, the Americans, who did not have air superiority, actually struck first and penetrated the weak defensive line of the Allied forces in one fell swoop, making Sacramento and Stockton both extremely threatened.

In this case, Ye Shuai decisively took remedial measures and ordered Ji Youqian to end the renovation in Sacramento and lead the 3rd Guards Panzer Corps to aid Chico Town; ordered Zhang Houqun to command the mountain cluster to defeat the American paratroopers parachuted into the mountains at any cost and rescue the troops trapped in Lake Hawthorne; The Liangzhou Corps in the Lassen Peak area was resolutely blocking the attack of the American army.

Of course, Ye Shuai's vision is not limited to solving difficulties and holding positions. Just as MacArthur, who has been dismissed, said, such a frantic offensive by the US military has also left too many loopholes. At least, on the southern front, in Phoenix, the American army no longer had enough rotational troops and had to send more recruits into the trenches. However, in the Phoenix meat grinder, most of the recruits do not survive for more than twenty-four hours. A large number of living forces in the United States will be consumed by Allied artillery fire and bombardment before they can adapt to the brutality of the battlefield.

And in the Sierra Nevada, the air forces of the allies, which gradually gained superiority in air battles, with the support of AWACS aircraft, began to make large-scale sorties. Whether it is the so-called US encirclement on Lake Truke or Lake Hawthorne, they must endure the ferocious bombardment of the Allied air forces while facing the decisive counterattack of the besieged Allied forces.

On May 15, the U.S. military sent a representative to deliver a letter of surrender to the 94th Division of the Liangzhou Corps, which was holding on to the shore of Lake Truki, in which the commander of the U.S. Army, Admiral Clark, wrote: "You have been surrounded, and you will either surrender, or you will be annihilated or driven into the lake......

Senior Colonel Lu Zhiyuan, commander of the 94th Division, said very gracefully in his reply: "You better look at the top of your head and butt first!" ”

In the sky overhead, countless "Weilong" attack planes were roaring, and the long-crowned Penguin-6 ground-to-ground missiles and Ruby-2 precision-guided bombs were like a scythe of death, falling on the battlefield and frantically harvesting the lives of American GIs.

Behind the US troops, the 3rd Guards Panzer Corps, equipped with the latest "Tiger" overhaul tanks, is approaching at full speed, and the US 12th Army in the center, if it cannot take Chico Town in a short time, they will face a frenzied counterattack by the Allied air-ground alliance.

However, both the 3rd Army under the command of Lieutenant General Defuss on the left flank and the US-Canadian forces under the command of General Kruger on the right flank were stubbornly resisted by the Allies. Not to mention continuing to break through the Allied positions, even wanting to destroy the tens of thousands of Allied troops that have already been surrounded has almost become a luxury.

"What about our planes? And what about our air fleet? What the hell is that bastard Carl doing? Admiral Clark of Salt Lake City roared with his fist, spitting out saliva that almost spat on the face of the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Lawks.

—Carl Spatz, Commander of the U.S. Army Air Corps. In the United States during this period, the air force was not an independent branch of the army, but belonged to the army air force or the naval air force.

Carl Spatz, who also graduated from West Point, proposed to "raise the status of the Air Force, and like the Han Dynasty, make the Air Force a separate branch of the armed forces, and the Army and Navy as the top branches." This proposal was supported by President Truman, and a large amount of funding was requested in Congress to help the U.S. Air Force become independent and actively develop advanced warplanes and air combat weapons to eventually deal with the growing threat of the Royal Han Air Force.

However, Spatz, who was bent on the independence of the Air Force, became a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh of army officers. Most army generals believed that Spatz's move would greatly weaken the army's influence.

But the Allied invasion interrupted Spatz's plan for "independence", and to this day, the Air Force remains under the command of the US Army.

In the skies above the Sierra Nevada, the planes of the allied countries arrogantly ravaged and ravaged the US military, but at this time, the planes of the air force could not be seen. Kerge's new hatred and old grudges are counted together, and it is reasonable to scold Spatz angrily at the headquarters.

Lieutenant General Lawx, Chief of Staff, smiled wryly and took out his handkerchief and wiped the spit off his face, "Half an hour ago, we got in touch with Commander Spatz, and he promised to do his best to support us in future battles. ”

"Promise? That bastard's commitment isn't as good as a bitch's love. Tell him that if he doesn't attack again, even if he has the protection of the president, I will kill him with my own hands! ”

The battlefield is the most maddening place. Seeing that his soldiers suffered heavy casualties under the attack of Allied aircraft, Admiral Clark, who was usually more elegant, couldn't help but be as hot as a cowboy in the west.

A week later, on May 22, the U.S. Air Force finally regrouped and reappeared over the Sierra Nevada after suffering a major blow.

Lieutenant General Spatz used the week to assemble 400 fighters and more than 600 bombers to plan a massive bombing campaign against Allied airfields on the west coast. The operation had some effect, with air strikes on several Allied airfields in Oakland, Yukea, and Salinas, and nearly 200 Allied aircraft were blown up or shot down. However, under the strong counterattack of the Royal Air Force, the price paid by the US military was that 640 fighters of various types were shot down. What makes people even more desperate is that although all the US fighters are equipped with ejection seats, so that when the US planes are hit, the escape rate of the pilots is greatly improved, but because almost all the areas of air combat between the two sides are controlled by the Allied forces, very few US pilots can be rescued.

Seeing one parachute after another in the air, the Allied ground forces laughed and said, "The U.S. Air Force successfully organized a pilot airborne operation." ”

Lieutenant General Spatz didn't care too much about the loss of the plane, the United States was not the Japan of the year, and it had obviously successfully developed an advanced fighter, but because of its production capacity, it was bullied by the Han to the point that there was no aircraft that could take off. The production capacity of American aircraft enterprises can meet the losses on the battlefield in a few years. However, this time in the Nevada air battle, the downing of more than 600 US planes, was still a devastating blow to the US Army Air Force.

Because for Spatz, even if the president gives him more planes, the Army Air Force will face a shortage of pilots.

The more advanced the fighter plane, the more high-quality pilots must be required. A pilot who can control a sonic fighter is definitely not something that can be trained in a few weeks.

So, for a period of time that followed, Spatz had to continue to choose to avoid the war, although the phone calls from other army generals who cursed and spat were basically uninterrupted.

The loss of air supremacy greatly affected Clark's "Highway Guard" battle plan. The 3rd Army on the left flank, when the attack was blocked and the Allies launched a counterattack, was harassed by enemy planes and had no way to retreat west of the Truqui River. Any floating debris on the surface of the river will be mercilessly blown to pieces by the "Weilong" attack plane.

It is true that the "battle against the water" can inspire the courage of the soldiers to fight to the death and never retreat, but when there is a fierce enemy in front of them and there are enemy planes bombing indiscriminately, the "backwater" becomes a neighbor of death.

On the left flank, not only were the hopes of the U.S. military outflanking Chico frustrated, but even the safe crossing of the Truqui River and the retreat to the east bank became unrealistic. Lieutenant General Devers had to command the 3rd Army to stand in place, dig trenches, and wait for reinforcements after consulting Clark.

From hunter to prey, the magnificent evolution of the 3rd Army took less than ten days.

However, Admiral Clark was temporarily unable to do anything about the 3rd Army's passive situation, and in the center, all his armored forces were already engaged in the attack on the town of Chico. Pulling out the nail in the highway area as soon as possible, penetrating the Allied positions, and pushing the front to Sacramento could force the Allied forces on both flanks to abandon their positions in the Sierra Nevada and retreat to the West Coast urban agglomeration.

The capture of Chico has become Clark's only chance to turn the tables in a passive situation. But how could the Allies not see this? The 3rd Guards Panzer Corps and the 1st Army Corps of the Western Regions laid out three lines of defense at Chico Town to deal with the onslaught of American troops. The Yizhou Corps and the 2nd Western Regions Corps, which landed on Long Beach south of Los Angeles, used the West Coast Railroad artery to quickly reinforce Sacramento, plus the Yangzhou Corps, which was already stationed in the San Francisco area, and the Allied forces in this area suddenly increased to one million troops.

"If you want to fight, then fight!"

Ye Shuai, who looks sven on the outside, but is extremely tough on the inside, clearly wants to open up a posture and fight with the US army in the northern region of the Sierra Nevada. If they win, the annihilation of half of the elite and rich Great Basin region of the American army in the west will also be in the hands of the Allies. Lost...... Is it possible to lose? In Ye Shuai's eyes, the U.S. military is just "a group of grass chickens and dogs, I will slaughter them!" ”

In Chico, the Allied 1st Army Corps of the Western Regions struggled for three days under the strong attack of American armored forces. It was not until the overhauled "Tiger" tank of the 3rd Guards Panzer Army fought its way through the encirclement of the US army and drove into the town of Chico that the defense of Chico was stabilized.

The Royal Air Force's continuous attack on the US forces on the ground reached its ultimate after the "Toei Air Wing," which was mainly composed of Japanese pilots, joined the bombing. Although it occupies a numerical advantage, it is afraid of the precision strikes of the Allied air forces, and the offensive of the US armored forces seems to be somewhat restrictive. Clark's hopes of finding a breakthrough in the middle have been dashed again.

With a large number of Allied reinforcements arriving in Sacramento, the situation has become even more unfavorable for the American military. The strategic goal of opening up the western highway and recapturing the Nevada defense line is getting farther and farther away from the US military.

Admiral Clark and Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Luxes drove to Reno, and in this so-called "city of divorces" and also known as "the smallest city in the world", the "Highway Guard" plan staged an alternative "bitter romance".

Before the battle began, all the good ideas turned into fantasies, and the next thing Commander Clark and the officers of the Western Theater of Operations had to do was not how to defeat the Allies, but how to preserve the elite troops of the American army to the greatest extent.

In Reno, there is a strange rule, that is, "divorce without responsibility", there is no reason for divorce, as long as you live for a specified period of time and pay a certain fee, you can get divorced. Thousands of Americans flocked here for a smooth divorce, making the city famous.

However, Admiral Clark knew that he must not evade responsibility without responsibility, and it was not only his responsibility to preserve more of the elite of the American army, but also the hope of the United States.