On another plane, the Confederate Robert. Edward. Li is famous in history, and the reason why his fame is so great is that he is often able to win more with less, and the reason why he can win more with less is not how high his command quality is, nor how high his strategic and tactical level is, but that he makes fewer mistakes.

Therefore, Robert. Lee was able to win again and again, and a lot of it was because his opponents in the early stage were too poor, always too light to show their flaws, and let Robert. Lee finds an opportunity to just do it, but if he makes fewer mistakes, let Robert. Lee couldn't find much of a chance to beat this Robert. Lee is not difficult either.

For example, the generals who defeated him in history, like George who defeated him in the Battle of Gettysburg in another time and space. Mead, as well as the famous general Grant of the United States, etc., have an average level of leading troops, but they are stable and make fewer mistakes, so let Robert. Lee couldn't find a chance.

That is, to deal with Robert. People like Li, don't play any tricks, because that will make you leak flaws and let the other party take advantage of the opportunity, you only need to bring enough troops than the other party, and then set up a position and defeat him in a dignified manner.

If it is said that Robert. If there is anything commendable about Lee's tactics, it can only be said that he is good at sports warfare. He is particularly adept at concentrating superior forces in local locations, attacking the enemy's weak points, and then breaking through the surface with points, or eating the opponent little by little.

Just like this time, obviously before Robert. Lee's central breakthrough tactics had failed, and the losses were heavy but did not achieve the expected results, but due to the enemy's rash advance, it was given to Robert . Li had an opportunity to surround a force in front of him in time, and with this move, he attracted the other party.

Sure enough, the other party quickly responded. But they did not give up the surrounded troops, nor did they take advantage of the situation to launch a large-scale attack, but instead played the tactic of adding fuel to the enemy, little by little to increase the number of troops to the location surrounded by themselves. Lee's encirclement grew larger and larger.

It should be that General Hook's calculation was not bad, thinking that the fish would become bigger and the net would break, but he didn't know that this was actually a rather stupid idea.

The reason is simple, the besieged troops are, after all, light enemy prominent. There are no perfect fortifications to rely on, and the number of people is small, not to mention anything else, and the supply is not a little bit worse.

Moreover, General Hook could only resupply from one line in the rear, and Robert . Li is surrounded on three sides, he doesn't need to force an attack, he just needs to surround this army, and then bleed little by little.

In the absence of strong fortifications. It was definitely not a good idea for a Union soldier to deal with an enemy on three sides at the same time, so General Hook was actually clever in this matter. Some overestimate the combat capabilities of their own soldiers.

Sure enough, after discovering that the other party's reinforcements were coming, Robert. Li was not ambiguous, and immediately ordered a three-sided attack on the encircled enemy.

The battle began. It was a white heat, and the four brigades attacked which Union Army in the pocket from three sides, although the Federation Army was outnumbered. But in the face of a three-sided attack, he could only support himself, and he couldn't do anything else.

Especially, when Robert. After Lee ordered four more corps to go up and added independent artillery groups to the attack, the situation of the besieged troops of the Union Army became even more dangerous.

In Robert. In Li's opinion, the besieged troops of the Federal Army were already exhausted, and after suffering such a big blow this time, although they were still struggling to support, this kind of persistence could not be delayed for long. As long as this army is defeated, he can take advantage of the situation to counterattack, and also chase after these routs to charge, and then he can take the high ground of the cemetery ridge in one fell swoop.

However, the tenacity of the besieged troops was beyond the reach of Robert. As Li expected, the battle lasted all day, and his own casualties were getting higher and higher, but the besieged army remained firmly in its original position.

This surprised General Robert very much, so he was not afraid of danger, and personally came to the position to see the army opposite, and found that their position was already in disarray, but as soon as someone rushed forward, people would immediately pop up on that position and fight his own soldiers to the end.

When General Robert again transferred two regiments up and watched the battle for the position with a telescope in front of the position, he had to shake his head and give the order to stop the attack.

Robert. Li had already seen that although the situation of the encircled troops was dangerous, they were highly motivated, and their technical and tactical skills were also very high, and the two trenches they dug also played a great role.

When their own artillery hit, they hid in the trench, and when they stopped shelling and the infantry attacked, they relied on the trench to shoot outward, and finally their own men attacked the position, and they would take advantage of the situation to launch a counter-charge in the position.

Since the outside of their trench was an earthen slope, the attacking troops were actually from a low position, so their counter-charge was actually condescending and very advantageous.

In other words, their own artillery fire is of limited use to them, and if the soldiers attack, they will hide in the trenches and shoot outward, while their own soldiers have too big targets outside, and they will suffer from this kind of shooting with the other side.

When their own troops attacked with huge casualties and their numbers had been scattered, they launched a counter-charge and crushed their attacking troops in one fell swoop.

In other words, the opponent's trick is very simple, it is nothing more than hiding in the trench and shooting, and when the attacking troops reach a certain distance from the trench, they will jump out of the trench and charge, but they are stunned that there is no way to do this tactic.

In fact, except for the beginning, the troops of the Union Army once rushed to the position, and when they reached the rear, his troops could not rush at all, and at most they had to retreat when they reached a distance of about a hundred yards from the opponent's position.

The reason is simple, the opponent's firepower is too fierce!

The reason for the heavy firepower was that the besieged troops of the Union Army used the old method of General Mead, that is, only the first platoon was responsible for firing, and the men under the trench were responsible for loading ammunition, which increased the continuity of firepower.

At the same time, because of lying in the trench, the exposed surface becomes smaller, so when shooting at the opponent, it has a great advantage.

Comparatively speaking, Robert. Although the courage of the coalition army commanded by Li was commendable, it still held its head high when attacking. And most of them are in dense formations, still playing the same set of line infantry as before, and the result can be imagined, but they have just become the target of those soldiers in the trench formation.

Of course, the tenacity of the Federation Army is also a big reason, after all, the Alliance Army has attacked many times before, and it was they who made timely sorties and launched a counter-attack, so that the attacking troops had to retreat.

Since the other side has used the dishonorable tactics of trench warfare, it is no longer the same as before, and they are no longer lined up face-to-face to play counter-shooting. Robert. Li had no choice but to order a complete halt to the offensive and to continue the siege instead.

Robert. Li thought about it for a long time, but he didn't think of a good way to deal with this kind of trench warfare, because in his opinion, unless more troops were mobilized and a more resolute frontal offensive was launched, it would be possible to drown out this dishonorable positional warfare by numbers, but, in this way. Casualties are bound to increase dramatically.

However, there are more than 10,000 people on the other side, and if he wants to break through this position, how many people he has to fill in. If the casualties are too great, then does this attack still make sense?

Obviously, the emergence of this kind of trench warfare directly changed the shape of the battlefield. Let General Hook's faint move actually turn into a clever hand, of course. This was something that General Hooker himself did not expect.

You know, in this period, there was no trench warfare in vogue, not even Robert . Li led the troops, usually sent troops to line up in a dense line, and then approached each other and fired together, playing a line of up and shooting.

This method of queuing for shooting is a test of the courage and endurance of both sides, and generally the higher the suzhì, the stronger the endurance, and the more dominant they will be in this kind of firing process.

Moreover, although it is the era of queuing to shoot, it is actually the bayonet, that is, the white-knuckle charge, that determines the victory or defeat, and in this regard, the Southern Army has a rather obvious advantage due to the fact that there are more professional soldiers and are more prepared.

All in all, although the weapons of this period have advanced to the point where they can play trenches, the tactical aspect of the West is actually still stuck in the eighteenth century, even if the two sides do not play rigid queues to shoot, but generally the two armies are facing each other in a dignified manner, and do not play trench warfare.

As for defensive warfare, although there are pillboxes, they are generally built with a stone wall more than half a person high, and then shoot from behind, and rarely dig trenches on the ground.

In the face of a stone wall as high as a person, the artillery can be torn apart lightly, but in the face of the trench, the role of the artillery is very limited, which is also the reason why the Union Army has an artillery advantage, but there is nothing to do with this prominent besieged Union Army.

It needs to be said that the besieged army that stood out and advanced, because of their limited time, only spent one night to build two temporary trenches, and in terms of completeness, they were far inferior to the trench positions behind, but these two temporary trenches gave the coalition army a headache.

So to say, in this case, why was General Pickett able to break through two trench lines in a row when he led the troops before?

The answer is very simple, that is, when Pickett led the troops to attack, it was the result of using the method of brute charge and using human lives to rush out, and the defenders of the first two lines of defense of the Federal Army at that time were not the troops that are now surrounded, their will to resist was poor, and once the enemy approached, they slipped away, and did not dare to launch a counter-charge, so they led Pickett to win twice.

However, Robert. Li is different, although he is the commander-in-chief, he cherishes the lives of his soldiers very much, and he can't bear to enjoy this kind of victory that is purely driven out of human life.

In addition, although the Union Army has won successive battles, it is limited by the population base, and the replenishment of soldiers is insufficient. Li didn't dare to take human lives seriously like the Northern Union Army.

After another tentative attack, it was found that it was too costly to eat this zigzag trench position. Li simply gave up the practice of eating this army here and continuing to bleed the other side, and instead tried to attack in other directions.

Surprisingly, attacks in other places were successful, such as Komp Ridge, one of the three highlands, which was quickly captured.

Soon, Robert. Lee was given a specific battle report.

It turned out that the defenders in other places on the opposite side were still the same, that is, once the battle started, the two sides lined up in arrays, and then came in rows to fight face-to-face. It is conceivable that such a battle would be quite beneficial to the Southern Army.

After taking Kopp Ridge and the previous Cemetery Ridge, the whole situation was favorable to the Southern Army. Lee immediately ordered the whole army to launch a large-scale offensive against the Gettysburg defenders, opening up the center and attacking both flanks of the Gettysburg defenders at the same time.

Under this attack, the sluggish Hook had no choice. Instead of giving full play to the advantages of their own internal operations, they concentrated their forces to break through each one, but sent troops to reinforce wherever there was a problem, and they still played the tactic of adding fuel.

In this case, if there was no army on the cemetery ridge to drag down, Robert . Li was able to fully mobilize the forces at hand to fight hard, but because there were still two columns of defenders on the ridge of the cemetery in the center, the guide was Robert. Li didn't dare to use all his strength, and he had to draw troops to monitor this place. This also made the troops attacking the two flanks insufficient, the guide attack was not sharp enough, and they were unable to achieve a breakthrough in the battle, and the two sides showed a white-hot stalemate.

At the height of the battle, a Confederate unit once broke through to Gettysburg, but General Hooke, although he did not react well, was brave and brave enough to be on the front line, which greatly boosted morale. This wave of attacks was quickly repulsed.

When the battle was fought to this point, it could be regarded as a fire on both sides, but this fire was all on the two wings, and the central area was very calm. Everyone is still in a state of mutual surveillance.

Soon, however, even the central strip broke the lull, and this time, it was the first time that the Federation Army had attacked.

Originally. When General Mead found that the flanks were already fighting fiercely, he took the initiative to draw a corps down, and then crossed over the encircled corps. Strike directly in the direction of your left flank.

In fact, there was only one brigade of the enemy in the direction of his left flank, and when he was beaten by one army like this, he was immediately crushed and retreated in defeat after defeat.

After repulsing the brigade, the unit continued to attack in the direction of Cemetery Ridge, with a great deal of intent on cutting off Jackson's rear route.

Upon discovering this, Jackson immediately withdrew his forces from the front and re-repelled the Union army that was attacking his rear, and then the Union army quickly retreated back to the cemetery ridge.

After such a fight, the two sides feared each other, and the battlefield calmed down again, and by this time, four full days had passed since the beginning of the entire Battle of Gettysburg.

This evening, when Robert. Lee was still worrying about how to open up the situation, how to take Washington before the harsh winter, but the casualty statistics sent him made his eyelids jump.

"What? The total number of casualties of our army is as high as 27 thousand? "Seeing that number, Robert. Li opened his mouth wide, he never expected that there would be such a high casualty.

"Yes, General." The adjutant who handed in the statistical form looked helpless, "After many verifications, it should be correct." Of course, there were not many killed, less than 3,000, and most of the others were wounded, mostly gunshot wounds.

However, as you know, in the current situation, the situation of the wounded is not optimistic, and if you can't use special anti-infective drugs such as yellow powder (sulfonamide) from China in time, I am afraid that at least one-third of these wounded will die due to infection. Thank God, it's winter, and if it's summer, it's even worse. ”

"So, you mean to say that at least 10,000 of my soldiers will die?" Robert. Li Tieqing asked.

"I can't say that." The adjutant with the rank of colonel shook his head, "But based on past experience, in the end, if not ten thousand, at least eight thousand." ”

"I remember we still had a lot of yellow powder in stock, so why not use these drugs when they can treat this infection?" Robert. Lee asked.

"I'm sorry, General." The adjutant said, "Those drugs are too expensive, and our principle of medicine is to pay out of our own pockets, so except for the more wealthy officers, ordinary people can't afford to use them at all, and the most injured are the soldiers, who don't have the money to buy this medicine." ”

"Bastard!" Robert. Li immediately became angry, "Send these medicines down immediately, and give them to the most seriously injured soldiers for free, this is an order!" ”

"Well, I'm sorry, General, I can't do it." The adjutant smiled bitterly, "I also want to do this, but unfortunately these drugs do not belong to our army, but there are special people in charge." Let's put it this way, the people who provide this medicine are just drug suppliers in the army, and when we need medicine, we pay them, and they give us medicine, and if we don't give money, there is no medicine. ”

"How so?" Hearing this, Robert. Li was stunned for a moment.

Indeed, Robert. Lee had not been the commander of the Northern Virginia Legion for a long time, less than five months in total, and during this time, he was so busy fighting that he didn't have time to learn more about the following specific things, such as quartermasters.

Or rather, Robert. Lee is one such person. He is good at grasping fighters, but he is not good at details, in other words, he is good at dispatching troops, but he is not good at management or training. Therefore, Robert. If Lee has good generals under his command, then he can play Robert. Lee's talent, but if not able to understand Robert. Lee's tactical intentions were unable to complete his plan on time. That Robert. Lee's ability will be greatly reduced.

In the past, although he cared about military supplies, he only knew about it, and although he also asked about casualties, he didn't care too much because the casualties in a single battle were within a bearable range.

But this time, the casualties were too heavy, and he had also seen the wounded intuitively, so the touch was even greater. He began to personally inquire about the placement of the wounded.

"That's the way it is." The adjutant sighed, "This kind of medicine is all imported, and it is expensive in itself, and it has been monopolized by a few big people in the government. So...... In short, in every army, there is a separate supplier of medicines that we need if we need them. You have to pay for it yourself. The problem is that even the cheapest ones cost a small pack of ten dollars. The officers were fine, but the average soldier simply couldn't afford to eat. ”

"Damn it, these vampires!" Robert. Lee slammed his fist on the table.

After a pause, Robert. Li Cai said: "In this way, you can buy a batch of medicines on credit from them first, and then go back and let the rear make up." ”

"We've thought about this method as well." The adjutant smiled bitterly again, "But people don't owe credit, there's no way, we can't rob it, even if we rob it this time, next time people don't come, then what should we do?" ”

Hear him say that, Robert. Li was silent, said no more, waved his hand, and let the adjutant go out.

After the lieutenant left, Robert . Li picked up the casualty list again, looked at the string of Arabic numerals, and sighed softly.

Soon, when Robert. Lee found that there was no point in continuing the assault, so he simply led his troops back and stopped attacking Gettysburg. When Lee withdrew, General Hooke was overjoyed and immediately sent two columns with a total of 40,000 men to pursue him. Li fired a horse pistol, set up an ambush in the process of retreating, and ate more than 10,000 people of the opponent in one go, until the pursuers were too frightened to come over, and then slowly retreated.

Until I was convinced that Robert. Lee had withdrawn his troops, and General Hook breathed a sigh of relief and quickly reported to Lincoln that he had won the battle anyway.

Lincoln was happy when he won the battle, but he couldn't be happy when he saw the casualty figures.

In this battle, the Federation army suffered more than 40,000 casualties, and more than 5,000 people were killed, which can be said to be a crushing victory.

It is precisely because of the heavy casualties of this battle and the corpses everywhere that it is also called the Gettysburg meat grinder.

Of course, having held Gusburg, defending Washington, let Robert . Lee's attack on Washington, forcing them to admit that the Confederate states' intentions were bankrupt, was thus tactically and strategically a good victory.

So, since it was a victory, Lincoln ignored the casualty figures and began to make speeches everywhere, describing the Battle of Gettysburg as a great victory, a great victory, and so on.

Not only that, Lincoln also came to Gettysburg on Christmas Day and delivered the famous Gettysburg Address, in which he not only praised the tenacity of the Union defenders, but also praised the bravery of the Southern Army.

When Lincoln had finished these activities, he immediately asked General Hook to lead the Potomac Corps and continue to lead the troops to attack, asking them to attack and attack again, and not give the Union army a chance to breathe.

But alas, this time, General Hook did not listen to him and did not agree to continue the offensive.

In fact, Hook's idea was correct, now that his regiment had just gone through a big battle, the officers and soldiers were exhausted, and the weather was getting colder and colder, it was really not a good time to attack.

According to Hook's meaning, he will continue to defend on the front line of Gettysburg, and then seize the time to train more troops, and wait until February next year, when the weather is a little warmer, and the trained recruits will initially have combat effectiveness, and then lead the army to attack, so that there will be more certainty.

Hearing this, Lincoln also knew that he was telling the truth, and it was indeed difficult to force the attack now, so he agreed to let him continue to lead the troops to rest.

But in fact, Lincoln was already dissatisfied with General Hooke's appearance, especially after listening to the specific events of the Battle of Gettysburg, and his dissatisfaction with him was even higher, and he wanted to replace him with General Mead as the commander of this army.

In Lincoln's view, the Battle of Gettysburg was saved thanks to General Mead, if he hadn't held the central line of defense, and at the same time took the initiative to attack the enemy's supply lines, so as not to let the other side let go, maybe Gettysburg would have been lost.

However, after all, he led the troops to win the battle, so he didn't move him for the time being, and just wanted to find another opportunity to replace him. (To be continued......)