The British and the French were worthy of being known as the world's leading powers at this time, and after making up their minds to fight, they soon had their first victory, and this result was the so-called Boston victory.

In this battle, the British and the French joined forces, gathered a total of 42 capital ships, 52 troop carriers and supply ships, including 27,000 naval officers and men, and more than 130,000 army troops, and headed straight for Boston.

In this process, the US Navy's Third Fleet stationed in Boston Harbor, knowing that it was not an opponent, still made a decisive attack, and outside Boston Harbor, it fought with the British North American Fleet and launched a naval battle of Boston Harbor in which battleships bombarded each other.

Because the U.S. Navy's Third Fleet in Boston Harbor had only 12 warships, most of which were wooden sail warships with a tonnage of less than 2,000 tons, it was simply unable to resist the Anglo-French coalition forces with 42 warships, most of which were tripolar ships and ironclads of more than 2,000 tons, so it suffered a tragic defeat.

The naval battle lasted more than four hours before it ended, and a total of seven warships of the US Navy's Third Fleet were sunk, and all the remaining warships were seriously wounded and captured.

However, when the difference in strength is too great, the so-called heroic battle is of little effect, especially when they are facing the Anglo-French coalition with a large number of ironclad ships, so there is no suspense at all.

But in any case, this spirit of fighting even though they knew they were invincible still added the only bright spot to this great victory in Boston, at least compared with the subsequent land battles, these American naval officers and men were much more reliable.

After the end of the naval battle, the British and French forces continued to march towards Boston Harbor, relying on strong firepower, especially the four second-class ships of Britain and France, to bombard Boston Harbor directly.

After that, the 50,000 vanguard of the Anglo-French army began to land on the ground under the cover of the navy and began to tentatively storm the city of Boston.

Originally, the British and French forces thought that when they attacked Boston, they would encounter a fierce battle, after all, the spirit of resistance in Boston City can be said to have a long history, and the French are just that, but the British still remember the fighting spirit of the Boston people back then.

However, what no one expected was that when the British and French forces cautiously approached Boston, there was no decent battle, and Johnson, the commander-in-chief of the local Boston Defense Army, sent an envoy to negotiate, and after a short meeting between the two sides, Johnson soon announced his surrender the next day.

In this way, the Anglo-French forces occupied the city of Boston without firing a single shot or a single bullet and through negotiations. Combined with the time of the naval battle, the battle lasted less than two days, which can be said to be a great surprise to the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-French forces. Originally, in their thinking, if they wanted to take Boston, they would have to fight for three or five days, and it would take a lot of manpower and material resources to do it.

In any case, the occupation of Boston is a fact, and the capture of Boston City is considered to have allowed the Anglo-French forces to formally establish a bridgehead on the North American continent.

Boston is the capital of the state of Massachusetts in the United States of America and one of the most important cities in the United States. Not only is it steeped in history, but it is also one of the most famous port cities in the United States because it is the closest major city to Europe, and has been one of the most important ports in the United States for more than 100 years.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, to be exact, after 1840, although the status of New York Harbor had already surpassed Boston, with the rise of Boston's manufacturing industry, Boston's manufacturing industry had completely surpassed port trade, making Boston from the original trading city to an industrial city.

In 1863, Boston became one of the most important industrial cities in the United States, especially its garment processing and manufacturing accounted for more than one-third of the whole North, and was known as the garment city.

In addition to garment manufacturing and processing, Boston is also the most important center of leather manufacturing and machinery manufacturing in the United States, at least more than one-third of the steam engines in the United States are made in Boston, you can imagine how valuable it is.

At this time, although the United States of America had a strong industrial strength, it was actually concentrated in a few large cities, including New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia.

Among them, each city has its own characteristics, such as Pittsburgh, which is currently mainly based on steel, building materials and munitions manufacturing, New York because it is the naval base of the United States of America, so it is mainly shipbuilding, Boston is mainly garment processing, machinery manufacturing and other light industries, Philadelphia is generally concentrated in textile, shipbuilding, food processing and other comprehensive industries.

Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that Boston is one of the four major industrial centers of the United States at this time, and once it is taken, the industrial blow to the United States will be extremely heavy.

In addition to the economic and industrial aspects, Boston also has a very important strategic position, and the reason for this is mainly related to New York.

The naval base of the United States of America was New York, which was heavily defended and had not only a large number of warships, but also a large number of coastal defense batteries, so it would be very unwise to attack New York Harbor directly. On the contrary, Boston's economic position is just as important, but it is far inferior to New York in terms of defense, so it is relatively much easier to play.

Because of this, as soon as the British and the French combined, they decided to join forces to take Boston first, and then radiate outward from this center.

In short, after the bridgehead of Boston was laid, Massachusetts was basically in the hands of the British and French, and the Anglo-French coalition forces after that had actually seized the strategic initiative.

The reason is very simple, after occupying Boston, an important port city, the British and French can not only increase their troops here more smoothly and turn it into an important base, but also give their navy an important port of call, which can more easily obtain supplies, and facilitate the blockade of the United States Navy by the British and French forces.

In addition, taking Boston, controlling Massachusetts, and Maine in the north and other New England regions have become enclaves, and they can no longer get support from the US military in time, which gives the British army in Canada an opportunity, they can easily send troops to Maine, and smoothly occupy all the American areas east and north of Massachusetts.

Another point is that Boston is very close to New York Harbor, once the British and French troops are stationed here, they do not need to take the initiative to attack, they only need to hold this place steadily, which can put great pressure on the US troops in the New York area, so that the US troops in New York can no longer go south without scruples and participate in the battle of attacking the Union forces.

Of course, the most important point is that by taking Boston Harbor, the British and French Navy will be able to use it as a naval base to blockade New York Harbor, so that the US Navy stationed in New York Harbor will no longer be able to leave the harbor and become a veritable survival fleet.

Once the American navy became a fleet, it could no longer blockade the coastline of the Confederate Powers, which was tantamount to reopening the sea lines of communication between Britain and France and the Confederate States of America, and resuming maritime trade between the two sides.

All in all, Boston is a very important city, a city that the United States must not lose, so knowing that this city is occupied, the US military will inevitably find a way to retake the city, but in that case, the British and French forces will become a leisurely and labor-ready army, and the US army will become a labor expedition, and it is difficult to say what the final result will be.

"I can't imagine that the strategic vision of the British and the French is quite good." After hearing the news that the British and French forces had captured Boston and continued to increase troops in Boston, Li Yongji also nodded in admiration, "I can think of attacking Boston directly instead of directly touching New York, it seems that there are still people in their army who understand." ”

"That's as it should be." Shi Dakai, who was wearing a lieutenant general's uniform, stared at the map and said, "Although New York Harbor is more important, it is heavily defended, and if Britain and France want to attack there, they will definitely suffer heavy losses." On the contrary, this Boston, the geographical location is only slightly worse than New York Harbor, but it is better than having no troops, it can be said that it is very weak, it is a soft persimmon, as long as it is not an idiot, it will definitely choose here. But ......"

Speaking of this, Shi Dakai paused, and suddenly pointed to Boston's place with a teaching rod and said: "What makes me strange is that Boston is also a big city according to its economic status, whether it is an economic position or a strategic position, it is quite important, why are the Americans so careless and don't strengthen their defense there?" It's really surprising that he sent the army lightly, and he didn't even build some coastal defense batteries before, and he was so bold. ”

"It's not that the Americans are ill-conceived, it's that the Bostonians themselves died." Li Yongji shook his head.

"Die by yourself?" Shi Dakai raised his head, "Why did Your Majesty say this?" ”

Although Li Yongji claimed to be called Li Yuanzheng to the outside world during his time in the Americas, his close subordinates all knew his identity, but generally when there were outsiders, they would not say the word Majesty, and only on private occasions did someone call him so, even if Li Yongji had proposed it many times, in fact, it was not necessary to call it Majesty.

"It's all about war." Li Yongji said, "The war in the United States came together, and the demand for arms and materials was on fire, and since Boston is a famous clothing manufacturing center, orders for military uniforms naturally fell to Boston." Originally, this was a great thing, after all, because the war severed the connection between the south and the western world, and it was impossible to import cotton and other raw materials from Europe and the south, so their cloth and clothing could rise sharply.

However, Lincoln soon introduced a policy to limit price increases, and when buying military supplies, he used a bunch of dollar notes and war bonds to pay, but those dollar notes and war bonds did not have a market in Boston, and many business owners could not use these things to buy raw materials after receiving them.

So, the impact of the war on Boston was not a positive, but a negative, and many people not only did not get rich from it, but had to pay a lot of money for it.

Of course, that's just it, they can bear it to some extent, but Lincoln later introduced a compulsory military service system, as long as the age is appropriate, you must unconditionally enter the army to serve in the military, and it is this incident that off the Bostonians. ”

"Military service?" Shi Dakai was puzzled, "Will military service off Bostonians?" Why? Aren't they Americans? Aren't they patriotic? ”

"It's not that Bostonians are unpatriotic, it's that the unfairness of the military service system is unbearable." Li Yongji smiled disdainfully, "The compulsory military service system that Lincoln engaged in looks very good, but unfortunately this is the United States, where democracy is supreme, not an imperial country, so the common people resist the word coercion from the bottom of their hearts."

In other words, if you spend money to encourage you, or come up with a bunch of slogans to fool around, people can still try to join the army with patriotic enthusiasm, but if you are forced to conscript, the nature changes.

Americans naturally love freedom and oppose power, so this compulsory military service system is actually a bad law, and it has also encountered many problems in its implementation, especially a lot of corruption.

As far as I know, after the introduction of compulsory military service, the children of wealthy people can pay money and be exempted from military service, while civilians who cannot pay will be forcibly dragged to military service, whether you want to or not.

Sadly, Lincoln is now very short of money, but he still has to build a big army, and he has to forcibly conscript another three million troops! With the addition of the original 1.5 million, this adds up to 4.5 million people!

How many people are there in the entire United States of America? In the early 22 millions, 4.5 million people were recruited at once, and the proportion of soldiers was almost equal to one-fifth of the entire population!

With such a high ratio of soldiers to civilians, you can imagine what would have happened then! ”

"Four and a half million? The ratio of soldiers to civilians reached one-fifth? Shi Dakai smacked his tongue and said, "The Americans are really big." ”

"yes, it's a big deal." Li Yongji continued, "Such a high military-civilian ratio has already affected the production of the United States, and with the productivity of the United States, they simply cannot equip the four million troops with armaments. In fact, not to mention ordnance, even military uniforms, the U.S. government can't come up with so much, so the three million recruits, all of them are militiamen, that is, they have to bring their own weapons, and they don't pay their salaries when they bring their own clothes, do you understand? ”

"Bring everything by yourself, and don't pay your salary, can these soldiers agree?" Shi Da said, "Besides, even if you bring everything yourself, some money will have to be spent, after all, it will cost money to reorganize the army." ”

"If you don't agree, you can't help it, who let this be an order from the government." Li Yongji said, "In addition, you are right, it costs money to rectify the troops, so this financial pressure, Lincoln pressed to the following states, especially the cities.

That's right, Lincoln's order was that all major cities should complete their conscription orders and use local finances to support the newly drafted troops, especially some wealthy cities.

Places like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc., which have large populations and developed economies and heavy industry is not particularly important, are all key recruits; In arms producing areas like Pittsburgh, where large amounts of labor are needed to flood factories, recruitment is relatively weak.

Originally, this matter was nothing, from the overall point of view, Lincoln did the right thing, but unfortunately others didn't think so, they felt that this was a strict unfairness. ”

"Oh, if Your Majesty said so, could it be that Boston was dissatisfied with the U.S. government because of this forced conscription, so this resistance was so-so?"

"That's right!" Li Yongji smiled and nodded, "I'm afraid you don't know, when the British and French forces attacked Boston, there was actually a total of 150,000 troops in Boston, called the Boston Legion. ”

"A force of 150,000 men?" Shi Dakai was taken aback, "Are you saying that all of these 150,000 people surrendered without firing a single shot?" ”

"That's pretty much it." Li Yongji nodded.

"How is that possible?" Shi Dakai said in disbelief, "150,000 people, such a strong force, they didn't even resist, they all surrendered?" It's incredible. ”

"Actually, there is nothing impossible." Li Yongji said, "This Boston legion seems to have 150,000 people, but it is actually a temporary conscription corps, and it is a second conscription unit, and they have already provided 50,000 young people for the government before. Therefore, because it is a second call-up, the age of the soldiers of this legion has been greatly reduced, from sixteen to fifty years old.

In addition to the poor quality of the army, the weapons and equipment of this army are also insufficient, and the gun ownership rate of the 150,000-strong troops is less than 20%, which means that only more than 30,000 people can own guns, and the others are using a wooden fake gun as a weapon, and it is a bit too much to say that it is a militia. ”

"Won't it?" Shi Dakai didn't believe it, "Isn't the United States an industrial power?" They can't even be self-sufficient in weapons? ”

"No matter how strong an industrial country is, there is a limit." Li Yongji said, "4.5 million troops, with the current military production capacity of the United States, it is impossible for Lincoln to arm all these people in a year or two.

But weapons are easy to say, just work overtime to produce, qualified soldiers are different, so Lincoln's method is to let people wait for weapons, and when they can't wait for weapons to come out, there are not enough soldiers, so they call up troops in advance and conduct routine training.

Lincoln's plan was simple, that is, even if so many troops were not well armed, it was enough to at least be used as reserves, or as cannon fodder to play charge.

Once the casualties on the front line are too great, these reservists can use the weapons of their predecessors and continue the attack, so that they can give full play to the manpower advantage of the north. ”

"I see." Shi Dakai nodded, "But this surrender ......"

"Surrender because none of the officers of this regiment want to die." Li Yongji smiled, "As I said, the Boston Army is a secondary conscription unit, and before that, they had provided 50,000 young men for the Federal Army, but almost all of them died in the battle against the Southern Army.

Originally, this high casualty made the people of Boston quite dissatisfied, and now they want to force a Boston regiment, and it is said that they will soon be dragged to Washington to be cannon fodder, which makes the middle class of officers quite dissatisfied.

Coincidentally, the Anglo-French army came over at this time, so the commander of the Boston Corps negotiated with the Anglo-French army, saying that they could let them in without resistance, but the premise was that the city of Boston would have limited autonomy, that is, it would not pay taxes and would not participate in the war between the two sides.

As a result, the British and the French agreed, and they agreed that the Bostonians would not pay taxes to the British and French, and that they would not be forced to be their husbands, as long as they did not resist, and that they would honestly be obedient citizens in Boston, and that they would agree to the occupation of the city by the British and French. ”

"Can the English and the French really be so obedient?" Shi Dakai was a little unconvinced.

"Of course, why not." Li Yongji smiled, "Westerners don't think the same way as us, their so-called occupation has many meanings, and it doesn't have to be completely conquered. The occupation of the Anglo-French forces, such as the current one, was purely for military purposes, so they did not want to have more trouble, so they agreed to this method of only occupying the city and not interfering in the lives of the city's residents.

Of course, after all, the British and the French are now the rulers, and if there are people in Boston who have malicious intentions and want to rebel, the British and French will not show mercy.

In short, the British and the French could not extract economic benefits from the occupation of Boston, but they had occupied this important strategic point, and at the same time obtained an important port, which had already achieved its goal for military purposes, so it was quite cost-effective. ”

"I'm just surprised that the British and the French are so trustworthy."

"Westerners keep their word because it is good." Li Yongji said with a smile, "In today's world, the stronger the person, the more they like to keep their promises, because keeping their promises can bring them more benefits." On the contrary, the party that wantonly destroys credit is often the weaker because they are unable to maintain it. Britain and France are obviously the strongest, so it is good for them to keep their word.

You can think of it this way, they can keep their faith in sparing the Bostonians this time, and then when they attack other cities in the United States in the future, the people in other cities will follow this example, and surrender on the same terms like the British and French forces, you can imagine how good that would be for the British and French. ”

"This is the so-called teacher of benevolence, right?" Shi Da opened the way.

"Pretty much." Li Yongji nodded, "The army will always be a murder weapon, the so-called teacher of benevolence and righteousness, just because the packaging of benevolence and righteousness is more beneficial to oneself, if the packaging of benevolence and righteousness is not good and useless, you can naturally tear off this coat at any time and replace it with another coat." Therefore, whether benevolence and righteousness are benevolent or not, the key depends on who the target is, and it is obvious that the Americans who are enthusiastic about democracy and cherish life are very benevolent and righteous. ”

"I see." Shi Dakai nodded.

"In short, Lincoln's many measures seem to have rapidly strengthened the U.S. military and allowed the power of the United States to expand rapidly in a short period of time, but in fact, they have buried hidden dangers in various places." "Boston is the first example, they are tired of the war, and they think that the things in the South have nothing to do with the Boston people, but after the war, they have suffered heavy losses, so they have long been dissatisfied with the federal government."

Now, the Anglo-French coalition has attacked, and this force has 130,000 troops and 20,000 naval officers and men, which is no less than the Boston Corps in number. Moreover, the Anglo-French forces are all regular armies, fully armed, and supported by naval fleets, so the combat effectiveness of both sides is not at the same level at all.

The commander of the Boston Corps was also a man of the times, and he saw that if he forcibly confronted the Anglo-French forces, he could only lose a big defeat, and if he failed, even if he was not captured, he would definitely be used as a scapegoat.

You know, now because of the successive defeats of the federal army, the White House has become more and more strict with the officers below, once the battle fails, it is no longer as easy as before, but it is very likely to be heavily punished and shot.

Therefore, since there is obviously a huge disparity in strength, there is no way to win the battle at all, and the consequences of defeating it will be very strict, so the commander named Johnson decisively chose to surrender. Of course, that Johnson is also very smart, and the excuse he found is very good, not to say that he is afraid of death, but to say that the surrender is to protect the lives and property of the people in the city, and the British and French also gave him very high treatment, and it is said that he praises his noble qualities everywhere or something, tsk, he is really good at acting, I can't find any other adjectives except hehe. ”

Obviously, Shi Dakai still couldn't understand Li Yongji's complaints, so he asked decisively: "Your Majesty, you specially called me over and told Weichen so much, there must be some purpose, right?" Could it be that what big action are we going to do next? ”R1152