However, not all of Scrooge's companies are working for the ultimate victory of the United States, and there are also those who take advantage of the chaos to dismantle the federal Taiwan. For example, the McDonald Entrepreneurship and Investment Bank made a fortune. When General McDowell was about to attack, Scrooge, who was well versed in history, had already sentenced him to death for this attack. Scrooge knew that such a defeat would cause a trolling in the capital market in any era. In the event that the capital of the North is likely to be lost to the South, stocks in all industries related to the war will plummet, and the price of gold will skyrocket. Before the start of the war, due to the influence of public opinion, almost everyone believed that the Union army would win a big victory. This kind of propaganda is simply preparing for McDonald Ventures' plan to make a fortune.

If you don't take advantage of such a good opportunity, you will be a traverser in vain. So Scrooge gave the order, and McDonald Ventures immediately threw itself into the battle of shorting the stock market and buying gold.

As a result, General McDowell really lived up to Scrooge's expectations of him, and simply lost neatly. As a result, all kinds of rumors struck, the stock market fell again and again, and the price of gold grew wildly. As a result, it was natural for McDonald Ventures, which had been prepared in advance, to make a lot of money.

With such a big market trend, everyone knows that there must be black hands behind it. In fact, some newspaper reporters have also discovered that MacDonald Venture Bank is shorting the stock market, speculating on gold, and so on, and they are even ready to write a manuscript to denounce MacDonald Bank's behavior of making a fortune. However, when they handed in the manuscript, they were called back by the editor-in-chief without hesitation. The apparent reason is that "Mr. Scrooge is a model of patriotism personally praised by President Lincoln, and he is now fighting for his country on the front, and it is inappropriate to accuse him indiscriminately at this time because of some rumors", but in fact, the more important reason is that the editor-in-chief has been subjected to various coercion and temptation.

Of course, as the saying goes, "there is righteousness in heaven and earth", there are still great journalists who do not bow their heads under the silver bullet. The list of those who did not give in was given to Scrooge, and it is said that Scrooge, when he saw the list, sighed: "Good people, it's a pity ......" and? And then a lot of these people take long vacations for some accidents, and then, well, there is no then.

So in the end, only a few small newspapers ran articles blaming McDonald Ventures. But their sales are so small, well, they don't have any decent impact.

……

The Blackwater Force, oh no, is now known as the "Cleveland Volunteer Corps." They built positions in the most critical positions on Washington's periphery.

Compared to the position of the Sardinians in the battle with the Austrians, or the trench position laid out by Jackson of the "Stone Wall" not long ago, the position of the Cleveland Volunteer Regiment was much more luxurious, except for the absence of Maxim heavy machine guns and mortars, it was almost a replica of the defensive position of the First World War: in the firing range in front of the position, all the large trees were cut down, and all kinds of obstacles that hindered the firing boundary were removed. From about a hundred meters from the first trench, every thirty meters, the Cleveland Volunteer Regiment erected a snake-bellied barbed wire, and between the barbed wire, they planted a large number of new defensive weapons, mines.

This mine is a new product of the MacDonald Infantry Weapons Company. It's a small iron box with a little explosives and a pressure fuse. In this iron box, there is not much explosives, only a few grams of TNT. Unless the unlucky guy detonated the mine with his own head, he would definitely not be able to blow up anyone, at most it would blow up the opponent's soles, well, just the soles of the feet, and even the calves would probably not be a big problem.

This practice was very popular in later generations. The reason is very simple, because if there is too much charge, not only will the cost rise (in later generations, this can almost be ignored), but more importantly, if an enemy is killed, the enemy army will only need to prepare a small box for him with ashes at most, well, maybe there is fuel for cremation, of course, if it is not done well, if you meet a black heart, it is not impossible to decorate something in the small box to deceive the family by posing as ashes.

But if the soldiers had just blown off the sole of their foot, it would have been a lot more troublesome. First of all, this soldier has completely lost his combat effectiveness, and for the combat effectiveness of the army, he is practically no different from dead, and even more troublesome than dead. Because a soldier is wounded like this, on the battlefield, two soldiers will carry him down, and there will be three fewer soldiers on the battlefield. And when he was carried to the back, he still needed to be bandaged or something, and it took a lot of manpower and material resources to take care of him. And the painful wails of these wounded soldiers will make the morale of the side plummet MAX.

However, such a sinister reason would not have been uttered by Scrooge and his subordinates, for whom they had a more high-sounding and even somewhat compassionate version.

Shortly after the Cleveland Volunteer Regiment completed their defensive positions. The Confederate troops, who had decided to launch a tentative attack, appeared in front of their positions.

"The arrangement of the Northern Army is like this...... The Cleveland Volunteer Corps was in this position, at the center of the enemy's defense, from where the enemy's artillery could cover the entire battlefield, and if this was not taken, any unit would be in danger of being flanked because of its survival. Therefore, if you want to break through the defenses of the Northern Army, it is necessary to take the positions of the Cleveland Volunteer Corps. "Said General Pierre 61 Beauret.

"It seems that Lincoln has a lot of trust in this 'Cleveland Volunteer Corps.' Does anyone know anything about this force? General Joseph 61 Johnston asked.

"I know a little bit." "Stonewall," Jackson replied, "as far as I know, the backbone of this force is the mercenaries of the Blackwater. Jackson looked up, and he saw the disapproving looks on the faces of both superiors. He knew that in the eyes of most officers, mercenaries or something were just gangsters, and their combat effectiveness was not worth mentioning at all. So he had to further remind:

"The mercenaries of 'Blackwater' are not the same as ordinary mercenaries. They even have a certain influence around the world. Not long ago, the Sardinian army under their command had won a war against the Austrians. Not long ago, the trench defense tactics I used to crush the enemy actually originated from this mercenary force. ”

Hear from Jackson "Stonewall". The two generals put away a little disdain for the mercenaries.

"Jackson, have you been to see their defensive positions?" General Joseph 61 Johnston asked.

"I've seen it." Jackson said, while giving him a pained look on his face.

"How?" Pierre 61 said General Borlegard. In the Confederate Army, Jackson "Stonewall" was definitely an authority on trench defense, so General Pierre 61 Beauregard himself had used a telescope to check the positions of the Cleveland Volunteer Corps, but he was eager to hear Jackson's views on this defensive position.

"It's a damn hard bone, look at it, I'm almost out of the courage to attack." Jackson shook his head and said, "Their tactics have been improved again. This Scrooge 61 MacDonald is really a genius in defensive warfare! ”

"Scrooge 61 MacDonald, that genius chemist? Could it be that he first invented this tactic? "Said General Pierre 61 Beauret. However, he immediately realized that this was not the time for gossip, so he immediately said, "Let's talk about the positions of those northern Yankees first." I'll talk about these things later when I'm free. ”

"Okay, General." "They've put some barbed wire on the position, and while it's not an indestructible obstacle, it's definitely going to take time to break through it," Jackson said. And to stay within the range of the enemy's rifle because of it would be a nightmare. You also know that even with the same weapons, shooting at someone standing in an unobstructed open space and someone hiding in a trench is simply looking for death. If it weren't for the fact that we had arrived here, if we didn't make any moves, it would have done too much damage to morale, and I would have liked to go back with the soldiers directly. ”

"Jackson, you're an expert on this, and we all trust your judgment. However, a direct retreat would be too much of a blow to morale. Anyway, we're going to try to attack it. General Pierre 61 Beauregarde said, "But don't commit too many troops. Just test it. ”

"Can we use something to get our soldiers to jump over the barbed wire?" General Joseph 61 Johnston asked.

"Can you put something on top of that thing and have the soldiers rush over it?" General Pierre 61 Beauregarde said, "What do you think, let's say a long plank and drive on it?" Anyway, previous battles have proven that attacking in dense formations is self-defeating. Well, Jackson, you might as well practice the tactics of skirmishers. ”

"Well, I'll think about it." Jackson said.

……

Early the next morning, the Southern Army led by Jackson appeared in front of the position of the "Cleveland Volunteer Corps". Once again, Jackson carefully observed the opponent's position: four trenches, barbed wire after barbed wire, and dozens of cannons behind this qiē.

"I really don't want to gnaw on something like that." Jackson thought. At this time, he saw a cavalryman holding a white flag running out of the opposite position. Obviously, this is the envoy of the Northern Army. At this time, what does it mean that the northern army sent emissaries to its side?