George. William. Brown is General Burnside's new aide-de-camp, and a young man who is only twenty-five years old, and the reason why he can become Burnside's new adjutant at this age and become the de facto second-in-command of the entire legion is not only the name of a top student at Harvard Law School, but also related to his luck.

Originally, George. William. Brown was only the son of a blacksmith, and because he didn't want to inherit his father's profession, he studied hard and finally entered Harvard University, where he became a student at Harvard Law School.

Entering Harvard University was the first turning point in his life, and then, he studied hard, grew and was handsome, and he encountered the second turning point at Harvard University, that is, at a dance party on the eve of graduation, he successfully soaked in a white rich and beautiful classmate who opened a bank at home, and was also affirmed by the female classmate's family.

It was with the help of this rich and beautiful classmate, or the family of the female classmate, that when George graduated from Harvard University, he took the letter of introduction from the female classmate's father and went to a law firm in Washington as an apprentice, which was actually a miscellaneous job.

Originally, he was quite satisfied with that kind of life, after all, all lawyers start from miscellaneous jobs, and lawyers are a relatively respected profession in American society.

But the good times didn't last long, and soon Mr. George's idol, President Lincoln, suddenly issued a series of new laws, such as compulsory military service, and the financial rectification bill.

It's nothing else, but the rectification of the financial bill, or the forced paper money reform, is tantamount to killing the rich and the poor, and the poor are just that, they don't have much money in their hands, and they can't see the Tao clearly, as long as paper money can buy things. It's acceptable, but the bankers are different, they are well aware of the consequences of forced paper money, which is clearly plundering their wealth.

The reason is very simple, at this time, there were no real big chaebols and big bankers in the United States, not to mention that Rockefeller didn't know where to live in poverty, and even the Morgan family, which later became famous, was just an inconspicuous small role at this time.

The reason for this qiē is not only the lack of influence of the United States, but also related to the mainstream monetary policy of the whole world during this period.

this era. The national credit currency or paper money is not yet popular, and the popular is the gold standard or silver standard and other metal currencies, of which the gold standard is the mainstream, the silver standard is the auxiliary, and the United States is the gold standard, the silver standard is supplemented by the monetary policy.

In other words, the key to measuring whether a country has money or not is how much gold it has. If you have enough gold, you have money, and if you have less gold, you have no money. Gold and silver are the hard currency of the world, and they are also the mainstream foreign exchange reserves of all countries, and there is no gold and silver. You can't buy really good stuff in the international market.

This situation is a bit like another time and space in China in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, where foreign exchange was in short supply, so in order to accumulate foreign exchange. Desperately trying to attract foreign capital, until there is enough foreign exchange and the country's strength is strong enough, it begins to restrict the entry of foreign exchange and regards foreign exchange as hot money.

The United States during this period is the same, since the founding of the United States, after all, the background is still relatively shallow, although not long ago with Mexico had a war, a large amount of territory in the west, but from the map to see the territory area, directly became the fourth in the world, second only to Britain, Russia and China, but in fact, because of the small population, plus mainly concentrated in the traditional thirteen states, so it is only a vain second-rate power, in the eyes of Europeans, the real strength of the United States is not even as good as Austria, the top five can not be ranked.

At this time, most of the real bankers in the United States were investors from Europe, and these people were either newcomers, or their fathers or grandparents, and they were still inextricably linked to Europe anyway.

Therefore, in the United States during this period, because foreign bankers controlled a large amount of gold and silver, and controlled the largest amount of foreign exchange reserves in the United States, it is not wrong to say that foreign bankers controlled the financial affairs of the United States, and only in this period can the legend of the Rothschilds be reliable, after all, it is related to the national conditions and financial policies of the United States.

However, now President Lincoln's demand that the banknotes printed by the government be linked to gold and silver, so that those banknotes that the government can print at will can be freely exchanged with gold and silver, which is tantamount to the robbery of money with open fire, which is nothing to the ordinary American people, but to the capitalists who control the most gold and silver, it is a real heartache, and it is to cut off their lives.

For this reason, these bankers, who had large gold reserves, began to rebel, and they began to explicitly refuse to exchange huàn dollar notes, and only accepted gold and silver coins, especially the Mexican eagle and Chinese dollars.

In this way, all industries related to banking, especially factories and government departments, will not be able to obtain real money from banks, and without real money, they will not be able to stabilize the domestic financial market, and they will not be able to continue to let the war go on.

For this reason, Lincoln implemented coercive measures, he first interviewed the bankers, but they did not buy it, and then, Lincoln decisively sent an armed police force to arrest these disobedient bankers, and all the family property was confiscated.

At the same time, Lincoln also ordered a blockade of the coast and strict investigation of people who smuggled out of the country with gold and silver.

Such an act caused those bankers to lose their vitality, and unfortunately, George's girlfriend father, or prospective father-in-law, happened to be in the list of this wave of rectification personnel, and was unfortunately arrested and imprisoned, and all the family property was confiscated.

Losing the backer of his wealthy father-in-law, George's status plummeted, from a promising trainee lawyer to an unemployed.

That's right, it's the unemployed, because of his relationship with his father-in-law, George was also affected, and the lawyer acted to get out of trouble, so he found a reason to fire George in advance. William. Brown, lest those men in black in the White House come to the door and ask for trouble.

The so-called black men in the White House are the common names of the White House intelligence agency agents in the United States, these people are the so-called spies, who only obey the orders of the president and can bypass the judicial department to arrest anyone.

In short, in order to get rid of suspicion, George was fired, and what about it after that. He returned to his hometown, but as soon as he returned home, he met a conscription officer, saw that he was old enough, had no formal job, belonged to the unemployed, and was arrested without saying a word and went to compulsory military service.

Fortunately, he is highly educated and is a college student. is still Harvard, so after entering the army, he did not start as a small soldier, but became an officer, and directly entered the corps commander, becoming one of the many pen secretaries.

Originally, he was inconspicuous, but because General Burnside's adjutant caught a cold a few days ago, he was ruthlessly abandoned by Burnside, and then he couldn't do without an adjutant, so he casually found a pleasing one from the headquarters secretariat to take with him as an adjutant.

Other words. George was one of the lucky ones chosen by Burnside, and the reason why he was able to do this is, of course, has something to do with his handsome appearance.

In any case, it can be regarded as George's who has suffered from twists and turns. Brown cherishes the opportunity now. The work was also quite serious, for example, now, he found Burnside, who was looking at the sky with his hands behind his back, and began to report the situation to the commander:

"Report to the Commander. The second and third offensive clusters have departed on time, and the offensive preparations of my first cluster are also being prepared in an orderly manner, and it is expected to ......"

"Enough. George. Burnside waved his hand, "I'll talk about these things later." ”

"Yes, Commander!" George. Brown immediately gave a standard salute.

"Hmm." Burnside didn't look at him, just nodded slightly, "By the way, George, what do you think we have a chance of winning this battle?" Can we win? ”

"This," said George. Brown wanted to say that of course we could win, but after all, he was not as ignorant as the people below, and he still knew some inside information, so he hesitated instantly, "Commander, we, we ......"

"Forget it, I don't have to say it, I know." Burnside shook his head, then turned to look at George. Brown, "So let me change the question, how much confidence do the soldiers below have in victory?" ”

"Report to the General." George. Brown saluted again and said sternly, "According to the survey, the morale of the officers and soldiers at the grassroots level is high, and it is generally believed that the next battle will be won!" ”

"Well, that's good." Burnside nodded, then put his hands behind his back again, looking at the sky again.

Now, even George. Brown could also see that the general was probably in a state of distraction at the moment, just as he had just finished his college exams and was waiting for his results to come down.

In fact, George. Brown was right, Burnside is very nervous and uncertain about the future.

Although the Americans did not have the allusion of one go, then declining, and three times exhausted, since the beginning of the Civil War, the Union Army has been tested by war for a long time, although on the whole it has been defeated again and again, but it has been defeated again and again, and it has more or less summed up a lot of war experience, especially those senior commanders who have fought and lost battles.

Obviously, General Bernside is the kind of rational officer who has lost battles, but is very good at summing up the experience of failure, normally, it is difficult for such an officer to make crazy moves, but this time, in addition to madness, Bernside himself can't find any words to describe his actions.

Burnside knew very well that in the current situation, the New Virginia Legion led by him was forced to come with an unwilling momentum, but due to the rush of action, the lack of prior preparation, and the lack of logistical supplies of the guide troops, it would be good to be able to rush to Smithland.

That is to say, the New Virginia Legion does not look at the large number of people, but in fact there is almost no way back, if you can't rely on the courage of blood and numerical superiority to press over, completely defeat the Chinese, and then get the Chinese supplies, once it falls into a war of attrition, then there is no need for the Chinese to fight, only rely on cold and hunger, the New Virginia Legion will also be finished.

It has to be said that Burnside was a real adventure this time, and it could even be said that it was a reckless act at all costs, but he did not regret it, at least so far.

The reason is very simple, that is, Burnside once deduced that if you want to fight seriously with the Chinese, there is no chance at all, only to engage in this kind of attack without retreat, and let all soldiers understand that they have no way back, only after victory, can rely on the courage of blood and energy to fight with the other party, and then rely on the huge numerical advantage to overwhelm the other party, even if the sacrifice is huge.

In Burnside's thinking, in the face of the overwhelming firepower superiority of the Chinese, it is useless to play a regular battle with the other side, especially the kind of line-lined assault, which is completely suicidal.

The only way to do this was to turn the troops into several long scattered columns, and remove a single unnecessary fragment. Then he did not play against the Chinese, but regardless of the charge, rushed to the enemy, and took advantage of the white man's height and strength to play hand-to-hand combat with the other party.

In other words, the situation is like a war between a Western army and an indigenous army, and the indigenous army lacks firearms, and the only way to win is to charge to the death regardless of a single qiē. Come and fight each other closely, relying on numbers and great sacrifices to win. It's just that here, the Americans have become natives with rudimentary weapons, and the Chinese have become Western invaders.

It cannot but be said that Burnside's idea is very correct, because in the history of warfare in ancient and modern times, the side with inferior weapons has indeed had to pay greater sacrifices if it wants to defeat the side with advanced weapons. To put it bluntly, it is a comparison of huàn, using human life to fight for the opponent's firearms consumption, and whoever can't bear it first will fail.

Theoretically. A legion of 300,000 people, if it charges forward ruthlessly, is enough to crush the Chinese army of more than 20,000 people, but there is a premise for this. That is, these 300,000 people really didn't want to die, and they didn't have any fear at all, and they weren't frightened by the huge sacrifice they were destined to make at the beginning.

Before that. Burnside has no confidence in his troops, he thinks that in the face of tens of thousands of Chinese troops, if he wants to rush up and fight with the other side, he will have to pay at least tens of thousands of casualties, and once there are so many casualties, the troops are afraid that they will collapse, and they will not be able to continue to fight with the opponent in hand-to-hand combat, so he obviously came to Smithland at the beginning, but he has been restraining himself, desperately restraining the troops, and not letting the troops attack lightly.

Especially when after the contact battle of the reconnaissance unit, one of his own battalion of cavalry units was actually defeated by less than a platoon of troops from the other side, which further aggravated his thinking, that is, he could not fight head-on with the Chinese, at least not in the field.

The reason why I think this is because Burnside found that the Chinese have too strong mobility, have such a strong mobility, in fact, it is a cavalry with strong firepower, once they pay great sacrifices to charge, the Chinese feel that they can't hold on, they can also easily use motor vehicles to retreat, continue to maintain the combat distance conducive to the Chinese, so as to continue to kill a large number of American living forces, until they break through their own psychological defense line, and finally let their own people collapse first, and then, It's the hunting time for the Chinese.

Judging from the contact battle between the reconnaissance cavalry battalion and the Chinese reconnaissance team, things were basically the same as Burnside imagined, because that time was also the first heroic attack of the American cavalry, and after the attack was frustrated and began to collapse, the Chinese began to pursue again, and finally caused huge casualties.

If the Chinese had not pursued that time, the casualties would not have been so large, of course, if it was Burnside himself, he felt that he would have ordered the pursuit, and it would be foolish not to pursue.

In short, Burnside feels that the Chinese with a strong firepower advantage are actually not invincible, as long as they are willing to work hard, no matter how strong the Chinese's firepower is, it is limited after all, and they rush up to close hand-to-hand combat with great sacrifices, and the victory or defeat is still five or five.

Of course, this assertion is more similar to that of the Manchu officials who fought against the British invaders, and of course it cannot be said that this assertion is stupid, but it can only be said that it is a reluctance to make a reluctance. After all, normally speaking, when the firepower is not superior, is there any other good way than hand-to-hand combat?

Fortunately, the height of Chinese in this era is generally not high, and the average height of adult men can exceed one meter six, while the average height of American whites in this era is more than one meter six five, and the body and explosive power are also considered to be generally higher than those of yellow and black, and the ability to fight hand-to-hand is also higher than these two kinds of people, so down to white soldiers, up to Burnside and other senior commanders, they all think that if close hand-to-hand combat, a white man can fight at least three yellow people at the same time, and it is not a problem to fight five.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Americans during this period, although the Chinese have won consecutive battles, they are just cowards who rely on long-range weapons to win, and although senior officers know that it is not a problem, this does not prevent them from turning a blind eye to this trend of thought.

It can be said that if it were not for the belief and confidence that hand-to-hand combat can win, Lincoln would not have sent the New Virginia Legion, a model legion, to fight Smithland, to put it bluntly, Lincoln's original intention was not so much to open the river passage to rescue Nashville and restore the supply line between Fù and Nashville, but to let his new army defeat the Chinese once, break the myth of the invincibility of the Chinese, and restore the Americans' confidence in victory.

However, as the commander of the front, Burnside decisively abandoned the crowd tactics after discovering the actual performance of the Chinese's automatic cars, or cars, because in his opinion, if the mobility of the Chinese could not be contained, then all tactics would be in vain.

The reason is that under the Chinese firepower, no army can block it in the face, even five times the strength of the troops, so the best way to deal with the strong firepower troops is to let them become immobile troops, and then accept endless wave attacks like the tide of the sea, only in this way, can we consume the fighting firepower at the same time, consume the morale of the confrontation, and finally use huge sacrifices to gain the opportunity for close close combat, and finally turn the tide of the battle.

In the beginning, if the opponent has strong mobility, then this tactic will not work, because when the opponent feels that they cannot support it, they can retreat and escape, and with the advantage of their combined speed and firepower, any pursuit will be futile.

It is precisely because of this that after coming to Smithland for the first time, Burnside has not acted rashly, and even wants to retreat, but this time, God gave him a chance, because the cold and snowstorm made Burnside believe that the Chinese's motor vehicles should not be so flexible, and once they lose their mobility, then there is a chance to defeat the Chinese.

There is no evidence to support this assertion, and Burnside only speculates based on his own scientific experience, because he believes that it is difficult for the steam engine to start normally at this temperature, and the tires made of rubber will be brittle and frozen as a result, and the snow on the road is very thick, and it is difficult for the wheels to walk in such conditions, which is not comparable to that of a four-legged horse...... Anyway, according to normal logic, even if the Chinese's car can move in this weather and road conditions, it will be greatly reduced.

But either way, this is the only chance, at least Burnside thinks so, and the officers below think so, and since that's the case, why not give it a go?

Burnside believed that even if it was worth the huge sacrifices and casualties to win the Chinese once, at least, President Lincoln would think it was worth it and forgive him for his past mistakes.

"To live or to die, that's a question worth pondering." Burnside smiled suddenly, "If you win, you live, and if you lose, you die, it's just one of the results." ”

Speaking of this, Burnside suddenly turned his head and said to George. Brown said sternly: "Convey my words to the following, just say, this time the battle is won or lived, defeat is death, we have victory and no defeat!" (To be continued......)

PS: Something happened at home yesterday, and I have been dealing with it until today, and I haven't slept for almost a day, so I can't update it in time, and I broke it for a day. Well, I won't talk about the reason, I guess everyone doesn't like to hear it, update these first, and go back to make up for sleep. By the way, the part of the intervention in the American Civil War is almost over, and the next step will be to Asia, and the content will be more exciting, so please continue to support it.