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At 7 a.m., most of the U.S. troops had just gotten up, washed up, and were waiting in line to get breakfast. However, the sudden and dense sound of explosions made the US officers and men panic. Although they know that sooner or later the Chinese will call. However, when this moment actually came, it still made them feel terrified!

"Quick! Prepare for battle, the Chinese are coming! Some U.S. military officers reacted and ordered loudly. Driven by them, some ignorant American soldiers began to drop the bowl of breakfast they were keeping, took their weapons and rushed to the position. And those American soldiers who had been sticking to their positions immediately hid in the anti-artillery holes that had been built before.

Admiral Pershing's headquarters, which is on the edge of a small lake five kilometers north of Laredo. It's a beautiful place with a large area of woods. Setting up the headquarters here can effectively prevent the bombing of the Chinese Air Force. The antenna of the headquarters can also be hidden in the woods, which is more difficult to detect by the Chinese. In the previous war, there were several times that the command of the US military officer was discovered, and then the Chinese Air Force used fighter planes to strike at the US military command, and when the commander was killed, the command of the US military was also confused, giving the squadron the opportunity to break through the US defense line. Therefore, Admiral Pershing is now very focused on this aspect of defense. After all, it doesn't matter if he dies, but if the U.S. military is broken through by the squadron because of the confusion in command, it will not be what he wants to see!

At 7 o'clock in the morning, Admiral Pershing had already gotten up. Simply move your body. After washing up, I walked into the office. Begin to eat breakfast while flipping through the latest information. Admiral Pershing's breakfast was very simple, a slice of bread with a little butter and a glass of milk. Now, because a large number of young and middle-aged people are conscripted into the army, there is a shortage of labor in the United States, and food production is inevitably affected. Now, Theodore. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had already ordered the United States to start saving food. If you continue to squander food with impunity, it is very likely to cause famine. This is very detrimental to the domestic stability of the United States!

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! Explosions rang out, and Admiral Pershing got up from his chair at once.

"What's going on? Did the Chinese start attacking us? Admiral Pershing shouted loudly out the door. With his experience, he could naturally hear the sound of heavy artillery bombardment by the squadron. Although, after the crushing defeat of the US Army Air Corps, he had already expected that this day would come soon, but after the squadron really began to attack, he was still a little worried. Can the defensive line he presided over and build really withstand the attack of the squadron? If he can't stop it, what will he do? What should the United States do?

"General. Shelling by the Chinese. They launched a fierce artillery bombardment of our line of defense for hundreds of kilometers. Preliminary estimates. They threw at least a thousand heavy guns and more than two thousand small-caliber guns! The soldiers holding the line had already retreated into the dugouts, and our losses were not large. It's just that some of the fortifications were destroyed by shelling by the Chinese! Admiral Davis ran into Admiral Pershing's office and reported to Admiral Pershing. He had arrived at the Rio Grande line only three days earlier. Admiral Pershing personally addressed Theodore. President Roosevelt interceded, so he was exempt from court-martial. And his chief of staff in the Mexican theater, Lieutenant General Cole, was not so lucky, and was sentenced to five years in prison by a military tribunal directly for command errors and evading war crimes. This filled Admiral Davis with gratitude to Admiral Pershing from the bottom of his heart. If Admiral Pershing hadn't managed to save him this time, he would have died.

"With more than 3,000 artillery pieces, it seems that the Chinese are preparing to attack this time." Can they be sure of the location of their river crossing? Admiral Pershing asked. Now, what the U.S. military can do is probably to resist the attack of the squadron after the squadron launches an attack, and not let the squadron have the opportunity to set foot on the north bank of the Rio Grande!

"At the moment the Chinese have not started to cross the river. However, we suspect that there are two main places where the Chinese crossed the river, one is 20 kilometers west of Laredo, where the river is relatively narrow, only more than 140 meters. The other is ten kilometers south of Laredo, where the river is more than 200 meters wide, but the river is relatively gentle, and there is a sandbar in the center of the river, which the Chinese are likely to use as a place to cross the river! Admiral Davis said. Although the squadron launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the hundreds of kilometers of defensive line, the US military was still able to judge the general location of the squadron's crossing of the river based on the terrain.

"Order the troops in both places to strengthen their defenses, and if the Chinese want to cross the river, they must all be sunk in the river." I will let the corpses of the Chinese spread all over the Grande and let their blood stain the river red! A murderous look flashed in Admiral Pershing's eyes. In several battles with the squadron, the U.S. army suffered a heavy defeat, and the number of killed and captured troops was as high as two or three million. Moreover, these battles were basically commanded by General Pershing. This has always made him feel a deep shame, and this time, he seems to have a chance to be ashamed!

"Yes, General! The units on the front are ready for battle, and wherever the Chinese choose to land from, they will be dealt with a devastating blow. The Rio Grande defense line will make their heads run through the bloodstream, and the long Rio Grande will become a grave for the Chinese! Admiral Davis said confidently. Even the fiasco of the US Army Air Corps did not seem to have affected their confidence.

"Order the artillery to pay attention to concealment, not to engage in artillery battles with the Chinese. Our target is the squadron crossing the river, not their artillery. In addition, order the air defense forces to pay attention to air defense, and once the Chinese planes appear, they must not be allowed to interfere with our defense! Admiral Davis said sternly. If there is anything else he is worried about, it is probably the Chinese Air Force. In two weeks of fighting, the Chinese Air Force successfully destroyed thousands of fighters of the US Army Air Force, and their own losses were not large. This made Admiral Pershing angry and helpless at the same time. After all, compared with the Chinese Air Force, the US Army Aviation has a great deficiency in nature!

"Yes, General!" Admiral Davis nodded. The main task of the US military is to hold the line, not to defeat the squadron. In other words, the current US military does not have the absolute strength to defeat the squadron, and they must first protect themselves. One of the most critical factors in holding the line was to prevent the Chinese from landing on the north bank of the Rio Grande. As long as the squadron can't go ashore, then the Rio Grande defense line is impregnable!

The fierce shelling lasted for more than half an hour, and in this half hour, nearly 3,000 guns of large and small calibers of the squadron fired 150,000 shells, and these shells almost completely plowed the hundreds of kilometers of US defense line. The fortifications of the US army have also been destroyed quite a bit. In particular, the fortifications of the civil structures were completely bombed. As for those firing points made of reinforced concrete, they are much stronger. As long as they were not directly hit by large-caliber heavy artillery shells, they were all safe and sound.

Ten kilometres south of Nuevo Laredo, on the banks of the Rio Grande, small boats are hidden among the weeds. With the help of lush water and grass, the soldiers of a battalion of the 231st Regiment of the 23rd Division of the Chinese Army hid inside. They will be the first troops to cross the river, and after the order is given, they will rush out of the water and grass in small boats and reach the sandbar in the center of the river in the shortest possible time. Although the surface of the river is only about 100 meters at the moment, if you paddle with all your might, you can reach the center of the river in about two or three minutes. However, within a few minutes, and even after landing on the sandbank, they will be hit with heavy fire from the American troops. This battalion was doomed to suffer heavy losses in this battle. It's just that even if they knew that this would be the case, no one quit. They were all soldiers of the Empire, and they fought against the Americans on the orders of His Majesty the Emperor. Even if there is a mountain of swords and a sea of fire in front of them, even if they die for a lifetime, they will not back down.

The U.S. military had prepared to blow up the bridge along the Rio Grande beforehand, and all the ships were burned, leaving nothing for the squadron. The squadron brought in thousands of small boats from the Navy that the Marines used when they landed. This small boat is about six meters long and less than two meters wide, and can carry soldiers of an infantry squad and their equipment. In addition, during this period of time, the squadron also cut down trees and built some small boats at zero hour, all of which were hidden in the water and grass on the south bank of the Rio Grande.

At 7:36 a.m., the order to cross the river was given, and the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 231st Regiment rushed out of the water and grass in hundreds of small boats and rushed towards the sandbar 100 meters away. They all know that although the sandbar is not safe, they can at least be down-to-earth and can launch a counterattack against the US military, unlike when they are on the ship, they can only passively withstand the blows of the US military.

Hundreds of small boats rushed towards the sandbar at a fast pace, like arrows from the string. In each boat, six soldiers rowed desperately to make the boat very fast. In addition, light machine guns attached to each infantry squad were set up in the bow of the ship and began to rain bullets across the river. (To be continued......)