Burnside and Benjamin. Since Butler and the others can be the commanders of the corps, the ability to weigh the pros and cons is still quite good, especially when it comes to heavy issues, they can have a relatively clear understanding.

Even Benjamin, who seemed to be against it at first, didn't really disagree with Burnside's opinion, but he couldn't throw away face for a while and find a step for himself to prove that his morality was a little better than Burnside, at least he hesitated and retorted, didn't he?

Therefore, after the opinions were finally agreed, the two of them quickly joined hands and made a more detailed plan for the action of throwing away the burden lightly, and studied every detail thoroughly.

After half a day of studying the details, in the afternoon they began to act in groups, that is, to persuade their subordinate officers separately so that they could accept their ideas.

This is the most important step, after all, whether it is Burnside or Benjamin, although they are the supreme commanders of the two legions, they have to rely on their officer corps to control the army, so if the officer corps is not strong, or opposes their opinions, then their plan will not work.

In this era of underdeveloped communications, the importance of the officer corps to an army is undoubted, and many times, the commander clearly issues orders, but because the officer corps below cannot fully understand the will of the superiors, or there is a large deviation when transmitting orders, then the actual appearance is often a mortal danger on the battlefield.

For example, in another time and space history, Robert . The fundamental reason why Li won successive battles in the early stage and made mistakes one after another in the later operations was that in the early stage of the war, his subordinates were able to fully comprehend his strategic intentions and implement them perfectly. And in the later stages of the war, he lost a few people who could understand his meaning one after another. and good subordinates who can carry it out, such as Stonewall Jackson, as a result, when the army implements strategy and tactics, it is often very different from his meaning.

Even tens of thousands of troops, not to mention the New Virginia Regiment and the James River Legion, two strategic troops with a combined strength of 500,000 men, is simply more than the population of many medium-sized cities in the United States.

In fact, in order to cope with the supply of these two large legions, the United States of America also made great efforts, not only opening many new arsenals in Pittsburgh City, but also setting up many supply depots along the Ohio River.

For example, Evansville, mentioned earlier. In another time and space, the city was only a medium-sized city with a population of less than 30,000 in 1864, but in order to cope with the 500,000 army, it not only gathered a large amount of military supplies, but also added more than 20,000 troops to the city to supply the James River Legion and the New Virginia Legion.

Of course, the U.S. Army in this period needed relatively little supplies, and the most needed was food, and the amount of ammunition supplies was not as outrageous as that of later armies. Coupled with the reliance on the capacity of the Ohio River, these two armies did not have any major problems.

Conversely, if supplies are delivered only by land transport, then there are no railway lines. By road alone, even the United States of America would be unable to supply half a million troops for operations at the same time.

In the history of another time and space, the Civil War period was at the beginning. Because the scale of the troops dispatched by both sides is not large, at most tens of thousands of people, so mobile wars occur from time to time. But in the middle and late stages. With the addition of their respective mobilized troops, the size of the army is getting bigger and bigger, and the scale of the battlefield is getting bigger and bigger, coupled with the emergence of trench warfare, the movement war is no longer the mainstream, and the war of attrition is the mainstream, and once the fight is attrition, the south will not be able to fight the north.

But in this time and space, because of the timely action of the Chinese, coupled with the participation of the British and the French, the scale of the Civil War was expanded in advance, and Lincoln had to change the conscription system and accelerate the mobilization of mobilized soldiers, so in the short term, the size of the Union Army increased like a balloon.

Although it must be admitted that the mobilization system of the United States of America is still relatively good, after all, there are only about 20 million people in the northern region, and although most of them are concentrated in a few large cities, the rapid recruitment of so many mobilized soldiers still hurts a lot of vitality, so that in many places agricultural production is mainly supported by women.

If it weren't for Lincoln's timely use of the military and spies, relying on iron-fisted means to control Congress and the White House, setting up the courts, forcibly promulgating and enforcing many decrees, and basically only one voice could be heard throughout the country, then judging from the blow that the United States is suffering now, it should have been unable to support it a long time ago, and then obediently sued for peace with the South.

But it was because of the emergence of an iron-fisted president, who suppressed the opposition in time and started a dictatorship, that the United States of America began to burst out with new power.

The present United States of America, from the middle class onwards, is almost universally hostile, and although it is not comparable to that of France at the time of the Revolution, it is only slightly worse.

The reason why it is said that France is inferior to the Great Revolution is because France is a country with a relatively single ethnic composition and an early ideological enlightenment, so when foreign enemies invade, the ability to unite is relatively strong.

But the United States of America is different now, this country is actually a country of immigrants, many people are immigrants, most of these people are middle and low-level, they don't really care about who is in power.

Moreover, the original reason for the outbreak of this war was to emancipate the black slaves, and although most people in the North were in favor of this idea, to be honest, they only understood it from a moral point of view, but did not really accept that the black people were on their side. Therefore, when the war did not affect their lives too much, they could still show their moral cultivation and support Lincoln to some extent, but if the war affected their own lives, the situation was different.

Obviously, the present situation, because successive mass defeats, and successive mass conscriptions, has affected all aspects of the United States, and the arms capitalists are happy, because they can make a windfall, but the people at the bottom are not happy at all.

In the past, in the United States, you could still march and demonstrate, and you could go to the government to protest, but since President Lincoln enacted the special security law. Demonstrations were forbidden, and all those who refused were to be arrested and sent to prison to work as free laborers, under the watchful eye of whips and muskets, to produce all kinds of supplies for the army.

Isn't the U.S. government a Second Amendment, perhaps? Doesn't this bill restrict the federal government? Isn't it true that most people can have guns, and then if the government bullies the people, they can rise up and resist?

yes, that's what I said. Not to mention later generations, even in the sixties of the nineteenth century, the American people were unable to resist the government, after all, the people were too loose, and the organization, organizational ability, and execution ability were far inferior to the government.

Plainly. Even if you are a common man who can legally carry a gun, it does not mean that you can stand up to the government, even if all the people in a town take up a gun and resist, but because of a lack of training and organization. In the face of the government troops who came to clean up, they were often crushed at the first touch, and they were powerless to resist at all.

In fact, since Lincoln announced the Special Case Explosion Act. After the introduction of compulsory conscription, many revolts broke out in various parts of the United States, but the result was brutal repression without exception. Those ordinary Americans who rebelled. Instead of gaining more power because of the armed protests, they were thrown into prison and became prisoners, or cheap laborers.

Therefore, in the final analysis, all countries in the world are actually the same, the bill is dead, and the person is alive, for example, the Second Amendment, when the ruler approves it, he is effective, but when the ruler does not approve it, then the common people as the ruled class can't do anything about those high-ranking old men.

Of course, it is not so simple to achieve this kind of high-pressure rule, after all, the traditional power of the United States is still very strong, but Lincoln is very clever to take advantage of the special circumstances of the wartime, master the gun of the army, and in turn use the army to threaten and control Congress, and then empty the court, which makes the situation of separation of powers into a one-man dictatorship.

In other words, the current United States of America, although the system of government is still the same as before, there is Congress, there is a government, there is a court, and it seems that there is a separation of powers as in the past, but in fact, all three institutions must completely obey the orders of Lincoln alone, Lincoln issues an order, no one dares to disobey, and once they disobey, those suit-clad agents in high hats attached to the president's office will quickly break down the door and arrest you and your family.

If you are stubborn and dare to resist openly, then maybe an accident awaits you.

If nothing else, let's just say that some time ago, after the news of the Nashville tragedy reached Washington, the vice president immediately planned to hold a press conference on the streets of Washington to give a public speech in which he criticized Lincoln's wrong policies.

But who knew that before he could get out of the house, a group of agents wearing high hats broke into the door, arrested him and his family directly from the house, and then left the scene without causing a burglary.

Since then, the vice president has not been seen again, and the results of the police investigation have also ended in burglary, for which the White House has issued a strongly worded statement against robbers and bandits, and has also taken advantage of the situation to establish martial law throughout the city, not only prohibiting any form of assembly, but also not allowing people to go out on the streets at will, even at night.

In Washington today, police and gendarmes can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys, and ordinary people do not dare to speak ill of the president casually, and if they are not careful, they will be arrested or thrown into prison to work as laborers -- that is a happy thing, but if they are thrown into the army as cannon fodder, it will be a tragedy.

However, those who were arrested as soldiers were generally incorporated into the reserves, and they would not be put into the front-line troops, so whether it was the New Virginia Legion led by Burnside or the James River Legion led by Benjamin, the proportion of such people was very small, basically not large, and almost negligible.

Because of this, the officer corps of these two regiments is still quite good, especially the New Virginia Regiment, and the officers are almost all politically correct, fully supporting President Lincoln, and cherishing a young man who loves his country and is willing to shed his blood for the country.

Suffice it to say, the New Virginia Regiment and the James River Corps, the two newly formed regiments, were Lincoln's painstakingly crafted trump cards, somewhat similar to Hitler's SS in Germany in World War II. It's just that almost everyone in the SS was fanatics, and Lincoln didn't have that ability or time for the time being. Therefore, the two legions he built were only junior officers, and Lincoln fanatics were fanatics.

To put it bluntly, precisely because the junior officers were all fanatics who fully supported Lincoln, if both Bernside and Benjamin were half-hearted and wanted to oppose Lincoln, the unit would not have gone with them, because the junior officers would not have agreed.

Although, Burnside's current order to abandon his fellow infected people is not a betrayal of the president, but normally speaking. It is also difficult to get those enthusiastic young officers to accept, after all, it is emotionally difficult to accept, especially young people.

Fortunately, in these two regiments, most of the junior officers are young people, but the middle and high-level officers, for various reasons, are still experienced old-fashioned officers, so what they say about Bernside and Benjamin. They couldn't agree more.

Most of these middle- and high-level officers have experienced a lot of wars, and most of them are middle-aged and elderly men, in addition to being experienced in wars. The mind is also more rational, and it has long passed the age of impulsiveness and fanaticism.

Therefore, they are well aware of the current situation. Staying here with those infected will be a problem sooner or later, even if the whole army will not be wiped out because of the spread of infection. Then when the Chinese come, they will not have the strength to fight, and sooner or later it will be a failure.

Therefore, while the scope of epidemic infection in the army has not yet expanded, and the whole army still has some ability to act, it is the best way to abandon those infected in time and quickly leave with healthy people.

It is relatively easy to convince middle and high-level officers, but how to make the most important junior officers also recognize is the big problem.

Because of Lincoln's policy, most of the officers at the grassroots level were young people, and these people were the backbone of the troops.

It can be said that even if the middle and high-level officers agree, if the junior officers do not agree, then the soldiers below will not bypass the immediate superiors of the junior officers and listen to the orders of the superiors.

Therefore, if you can't convince those young lieutenant-level junior officers, that one will still be in vain, and it may even have the opposite effect.

Fortunately, young people are also easy to coax, especially most of these grassroots officers are strong patriots, and fanatically support Lincoln and advocate enlightened dictatorship, so if you put it another way, it is still very effective to fool President Lincoln's safety and the country's general interests.

In order to be able to unify the flickering, no, it is to unify the understanding, the two commanders, Burnside and Benjamin, also held a secret enlarged meeting of middle and senior officers, and the topic of the meeting was nothing else, that is, how to persuade the young junior officers under him.

To put it simply, this meeting is to let everyone unify their understanding and caliber, come up with a set of words in advance, explain what can be said and what should not be said, how to say it, and what to say, so as not to let someone talk the truth out with a big mouth.

After a unified voice, these officers were sent out to fool their junior officers.

Not to mention, after the middle and high-level officers all spoke in one voice and all said the same thing, those young grassroots officers were really fooled, and they really believed that this was the best way to save everyone in order to keep their vitality.

That is to say, these young grassroots officers could not imagine that the people above were going to give up those infected people, and only thought that they were letting them stay in the local area to take care of them, after all, they were all infected with typhoid fever and cold, and their bodies were not good, and if they marched forcefully, their condition would definitely worsen.

And it is not okay to continue to stay here, here is surrounded by large plains, there is no danger to defend, and there is a lack of supplies, in such cold weather, standing still is waiting for death, even if you do not starve to death and freeze to death, you will be captured by the Chinese and southern Yankees who catch up.

In short, after some painstaking deception, these young junior officers finally agreed to leave the infected people and let the healthy people leave first, and after they agreed, the matter was basically fine.

Sure enough, after the junior officers agreed, the whole army immediately went into action, and soon separated the infected from the healthy, and even those who were infected were very much in favor of this action, because in their opinion, they did drag down the troops, and it was better for the healthy ones to leave first, get the medicine and then send it over, than everyone waiting here to die together.

In this way, after two days of busyness and preparation, early in the morning of the third day, the two legions left 30,000 men in the area, enough food for 50,000 people to eat for two months, and enough firewood and tents, after which the army walked in the direction of Evansville under the eyes of the infected.

At this time, these severe and mild flu patients and the wounded and sick, not knowing that they had actually been abandoned, thought that this army would really send people back, with the medicine to treat them and the carriage to take them back, so that they could go home safely.

Pathetic? Perhaps, but this is the helplessness of those little people in this era, because they can't control their own fate, they can only go with the flow and passively accept the arrangements of the superiors. (To be continued......)