Canton. It was the center of America's Southwestern Defense. It connects Cleveland on Lake Erie with Pittsburgh, the center of heavy steel industry in the United States, two cities of great significance to the United States. It was originally just an ordinary little place, and it was entirely because of the war that turned the dozen or so hours after the end of the last war into its urban catalyst.

With the huge investment of human and material resources from the U.S. government, Canton quickly changed from a small city to a fortress-like defensive fortress complex in the shape of a balloon. It is a vital point in the entire U.S. military's southwest defense line.

In the late spring of 1916, the shadow of the North American continent was shrouded in the delicate situation, and the flames of war seemed to be faintly igniting again, and New York placed an entire army here, two main divisions and a general division, and a large number of auxiliary forces, totaling more than 60,000 people.

Opposite it is a small town called Chenlou, a town that has gradually gathered over the course of a decade for its 'export' trade, rather than an equally impregnable cluster of reinforced concrete. The town numbered less than 2,000 people, not only Chinese, but also many white, black, and brown people, and the origins were very complicated—naturalized people from various vassal states, Americans, a small number of Europeans and Latinos, and Cao's garrison here was only a small squadron.

This is a ridiculous figure, and together with the guards of the town's police station and the tax department, the Chinese armed forces in Chen Lou do not exceed 130 people. Compared with the garrison of Lao Mei on the other side, this is a very funny number. All of them became an anecdote, and they all landed in major European newspapers.

The disposition of Cao's military forces is a strong reflection of their government's strong self-confidence. It sets off a lot of New York's 'trembling heart'.

……

There are still many taverns and shops in Chenlou Town, and the population here is much smaller than the 2,000 people at its peak last year. There are less than 800 people. These 800 people are all doing business with a 'last hand' mentality, and the shadow of war does not frighten them. On the contrary, many people also believe that it will make their interests greater.

And the people from the Chen Lou Police Station are even more determined that among the remaining 800 people, there must be more than a few spies.

Chen Lou is a 'foreign trade' point that goes to Lao Mei, how convenient it is to transmit information. The police department has already identified the most suspects.

And are the prey that is about to fall into the net really unaware? No one knows. Anyway, the depressed Chen Building is still running.

It was noon, and several restaurants in the town were busy. Especially the old Huainan shop in the center of the town, the owner Liu Zhaoxing is a native of Anqing Fucheng, who helps with miscellaneous items in the stove and hangs an authentic Huainan beef soup. And his luck is not bad, Zeng Guoquan won Anqing when he was five years old. It can be said that I had a fairly stable childhood. But life is hard, when Liu Xian raised troops to fight in Anqing, Liu Zhaoxing was thirty years old and still an old bachelor, so he was the first batch of people to immigrate to Hawaii.

Liu Zhaoxing has been working in the room for decades, except for boiling soup, the level of cooking is very ordinary, and Hawaii is mostly Fujian and Guangdong immigrants, which is not the right taste with Anhui cuisine. Liu Zhaoxing's life can only be said to have improved slightly, and he married his daughter-in-law and passed on the lineage.

Until the war that year, Liu Zhaoxing, who was already middle-aged, mustered his last strength to North America, and then came from California to the shores of the Great Lakes. settled down in the small town of Chenlou, relying on the unique taste of Huainan beef soup, the reputation is resounding.

It's not just Chinese who come here to drink the soup. Even a lot of white people from Lao Mei are also crowded in Liu's shop.

This man moves with the world.

When the fortunes of the West were at their peak. Westerners don't bother to change their tastes for the sake of Eastern food. But now the land of North America is prosperous in the east and declining in the west. Just like many banana people and petty bourgeoisie who infinitely respect Western food, because of the changes in the world, many Westerners also 'think' that Chinese food is extremely delicious.

The old Huainan store is just a small and inconspicuous example.

Since the end of last year, the atmosphere in North America has become tense, and the first people who are afraid to leave appear at the end of the year. Then the spring left one after another, and in the summer, the rest of Chen Lou was all greedy ghosts who were 'determined to make money'.

Liu Zhaoxing had no son or grandson in the shop, only a cook and a group of helpers, and his son, grandson and female dependents were all transferred to the rear of Cao Guo. Liu Zhaoxing, who couldn't do without the huge profits of the old store, didn't dare to put all his family in Chen Lou. As for the apprentices and helpers, as well as his old life, if he is really unlucky, he will admit it. The Liu family has money to lose!

"Hmph, I'm a soldier of the Heavenly Empire, so if I don't take the initiative to find trouble with foreigners. Do these yellow-haired foreigners dare to reach out to me first? ”

is different from Liu Zhaoxing's thoughts, the assistant chef who is not yet thirty years old is a person who was born in the new era and grew up in the new era, and he has no fear of foreigners in his bones, and some are just endless pride. The Yankees, who were cowering in the two corners at all, dared to take the initiative to attack Cao Guo. As for the helpers in the store, there are many of them who think the same way.

These young people have not experienced the era of oppression, they have not felt the taste of first-class foreigners, they hold the strength of the country behind them, and they don't think that the Americans dare to reach out first. Even if a war really breaks out, it will be their own army that will fight the United States first.

"We have tens of millions of troops, and tens of millions of reserves. How many foreigners are there? The United States has desperately expanded its army, and there are more than 2 million, but these more than 2 million have been exhausted, can the Yankees pull up another 2 million? ”

At half past two in the afternoon, the last batch of customers also left, and the old Huainan store entered a cold period, and the clerks began to clean up the seats and be clean and hygienic. Then it's their turn to eat.

Liu Zhaoxing, holding a bowl of wide noodles, sat alone at a table, with only a little chopped green onion and a few spinach floating in the soup bowl, no meat, no other vegetables, and the soup below was ordinary white soup instead of beef broth. For Liu Zhaoxing, who has been playing at an old age, he didn't feel much about beef decades ago. Now the meal is more light.

Across the table from him, two large basins of meat and bones rested on the table. There is never a shortage of this in the old shop, and a group of helpers who have been in the store for no more than three months are far from getting tired of eating beef. It's the cook. A plate of fried peanuts and a plate of fried yuba. Like Liu Zhaoxing, he stopped eating beef for a long time and drank beef soup.

The voice of the radio in the hotel was dialing the storytelling "The Complete Biography of Yue". It used to be absolutely attractive, but now it's not very attractive to the people in the store. A group of young people are most interested in war, armies, strength, and contempt for the Yankees on the other side.

Liu Zhaoxing listened to the discussion of the helpers in his ears and felt that he was really old. What I was thinking about was not on the same bar as these young people.

And at this time, Lewis, who had just come out of a freezer warehouse. Marcy, with a relaxed mood, walked towards the hotel where he was staying. The business is finally settled. 100 pigs and 20 cows, ready to follow his call this afternoon. Now Lewis has to go to the tax department first to deal with the tariff problem.

Canton was stationed with a large number of American troops, and by the way, a large number of American civilians had gathered, and almost twenty years had passed since the war. The peace lasted a bit long, and restaurants and hotels appeared in the military fortress.

And because the consumption level of American GIs is quite high, pork and beef are not at all marketable in Canton.

Of course, Lewis could import the meat he needed from Pennsylvania, but it was definitely not as convenient as Chen Lou, and the price was much more expensive than Chen Lou. After all, the Chinese have much more living space on the North American continent than the Americans.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Lewis led the convoy back to Canton. After unloading the frozen pork and frozen beef, the Chinese master who drove the car went to a hotel with a familiar relationship to stop and rest. The road has been closed and they will have to wait until tomorrow morning to return to the Chen Building.

Lewis holds a huge burger and a cup of milk tea in one hand. Came to a place he was so reluctant to go.

James. Gillespie waited in his office for one of the white doves he had released to fly back. Yes, this is another identity of Lewis, an identity that cannot be seen in the dark.

"How's the harvest? My friend. ”

"It's not good. Blue Butterfly hasn't received any new news for a week. If nothing else. Friends over there have suffered. Blue Butterfly wishes she could pull out. He was terrified now, desperate to get out of that place. He thinks his identity has most likely been revealed. He may be arrested by the Chinese at any time. ”

Gillespie cursed viciously. It was a mistake, a huge mistake. I should have been informed early. That would allow Blue Butterfly to quickly retreat to Canton, rather than allowing Lewis to risk being leaked to see Blue Butterfly himself.

“ok。 I'll arrange it right away. If all goes well, tomorrow at noon at the Grove Restaurant, we'll pick up the dust for the blue butterfly. Gillespie is an American who works in the shadows, and he represents one of China's most unrelenting enemies, but a Chinese word comes out of his mouth so naturally that Lewis doesn't find it abrupt.

"The mood of the Chinese in Chen Lou is very stable, whether it is their garrison, the police station or the tax bureau, they are all working as usual. I couldn't see a hint of nervousness on their faces. "Just because he didn't get the information doesn't mean that Lewis didn't get anything.

"The price fluctuations of various materials are minimal. Even frozen pork fell by two percentage points. "This means that at least in the territory of Cao, the Chinese have not gathered materials on a large scale, and of course, this may also be a trick made by the Chinese." After all, Lewis's footsteps only stayed in the Chen Building.

Gillespie picked up the phone as soon as he sent Lewis away, and in Lao Mei's intelligence system, Gillespie was just a small shrimp. Canton is a cluster of military fortifications, and Gillespie, as the local head of the intelligence bureau, has only a small Chen Lou as the entry point to the outside world. Even except for Chen Lou and infiltrating into Cao Guo, other people are in charge.

That's why the Intelligence Bureau put the little shrimp Gillespie in the Canton place. The pattern is too small, how can you place a high position? A lot of information about Gillespie just passed it in and handed it over to the leaders at the top.

Just like the news that Gillespie urgently reported to the head now, for the intelligence bureau that has compiled countless messages, it may be just one of hundreds of similar pieces of information with similar content, and it has no value for separate consideration at all. The significance has not yet been to correct the mistakes of a certain intelligence agency personnel or the lack of seriousness of their personal attitude.

As the largest and most important intelligence agency in the United States, the most important thing that the intelligence bureau is most concerned about is the Chinese National Defense Force, which has sent troops into North America on a large scale under the sign of changing defenses.

That's what America needs to care about right now.

The Americans had not yet prayed loudly to Europe for volunteers, they were now only crying out for the fleets of the British Empire. Thinking about how to block the damn Panama Canal at the first moment of the outbreak of war?

Just as the Chinese North American garrison has always included how to ensure the smooth and safe passage of the Panama Canal as the first consideration, this point is of vital significance to both the enemy and the enemy.

In the summer of 1916, the Chinese National Defense Force, which had completed the first goal of military expansion, immediately announced the transfer of 300,000 troops to North America in the name of changing troops. This is simply an open fire for the European and American worlds, and Chiguoguo must strengthen the North American armed forces.

This act can be seen as a response by China to the massive military expansion of European and American countries. It is already an irreversible reality.

Americans have a hundred hatreds for China, but how can the current United States dare to single-handedly challenge half of the Greater China Circle?

With more than 500,000 troops stationed in North America and 11 feudal states, large and small, the Chinese National Defense Forces can easily raise more than 2 million troops, and this is also the fundamental reason why the United States is vigorously expanding its military -- they have no sense of security at all.

In order to make the whole of America feel safe, the U.S. government gritted its teeth and expanded its military, pushing the number of domestic troops towards one peak after another. Because of the current beauty, it is really glassy, like a frightened bird. Only when they maintain a certain superiority over the whole of Chinese North America in terms of military strength, even if this advantage is very small, can the whole country feel at ease.

And doing so is also showing the Americans' intention to fight to the death.

After all, the current population of Lao Mei is 2 million smaller than that of the Gallic rooster, and more than 2 million young people have been removed, and their social age is the same.

The eyes of the entire Western world are fixed on China's '300,000' army, and no country really believes that it is 300,000. The 300,000 more Wehrmacht troops in Chinese North America are only more than their opponents, but what if they are 500,000, 600,000, or even more? (To be continued.) )