President Woodrow Wilson, on the other hand, drove to the War Department early in the morning to meet to study countermeasures because of the large-scale movement of enemy forces in the Rocky Mountains, which was suspected of being the prelude to a full-scale attack.

What Sheng Yeyun met at the White House was not the president, but the White House Chief of Staff Foster, who was a close friend of President Woodrow Wilson, the new White House Administrator, who received Sir Sheng Yeyun with the purpose of the inspection and talked privately for more than an hour.

Since he had a stammering mind, Sheng Yeyun tried his best to tell him some suggestions that he had been thinking about for a long time, which aroused Foster's great attention and made a decision on the spot...... Sir Sheng Yip Wan was appointed as the President's personal policy adviser.

This is a job of the nature of a senior White House staff, directly under the jurisdiction of Foster, with the opportunity to advise on important issues, a regular White House employee, and a good salary.

The rest of the time is spent filling out forms and formal entry procedures, you need to establish a personal file, take photos and file it, from the name of your place of origin to what kind of occupation you have engaged in, what achievements you have, what kind of commendation you have received, etc., and write a personal resume statement, without any ostentation or self-humility.

This is a lot of work, and I was busy until dark.

Sheng Yeyun took a few assistants to a nearby hotel to settle down, and became one of the senior staff members of the White House and started a new life resume.

This day is April 2, 1909.

Early the next morning, at six o'clock

The Rocky Mountain Line, on the perimeter of Salt Lake City Fort

The positions of the expeditionary force erupted in earth-shattering shelling, and the dazzling light of fire reflected half of the sky, smashing the dense shells into the American positions, the barbed wire was blown up, the fortresses were destroyed, the trenches wailed in the ravages of the artillery, and the positions were blown to pieces.

It didn't take long

The artillery positions behind the US positions also roared angrily, and the aerial shells were intertwined into a network of fire, whistling and flying towards the positions of the expeditionary force, and the shelling of the two sides became fierce.

At the moment, the sky is slightly bright

The observation balloons on the US artillery positions were raised one after another to determine the position of the enemy's artillery positions, and then the 152-mm and 203-mm large-caliber army heavy artillery was mobilized to suppress the artillery fire, in an effort to not lose ground in the artillery confrontation.

After more than 20 minutes of back-and-forth artillery bombardment between the two sides, the US military positions observed enemy reconnaissance planes shuttling back and forth in the sky, and the artillery fire of the Ocean Empire suddenly became accurate and effective, destroying several artillery battalion positions on all sides in succession.

After an hour and a half of artillery battles, the US long-range heavy artillery was basically dumbfounded, and most of the strength of almost one artillery division was destroyed, with a total of more than 40 152-mm and 203-mm large-caliber field guns and 17 105-mm guns, and hundreds of casualties.

At this time, the US artillery fire was no longer sustainable, and it had no choice but to stop shelling completely.

The attackers' artillery fire continued to rage for more than half an hour, and then a ferocious infantry attack was launched, and the soldiers of the California Independence Army and the Oregon Division joined forces to attack, wave after wave, rushing towards the American positions.

On the bombed-up US military position, many soldiers buried in the mud were dragged out by the officers, punched and kicked into the trenches to resist, and soon fierce gunfire rang out, and the two sides fought.

The American soldiers fighting on the first front were very tenacious, and despite the heavy casualties caused by the enemy's artillery fire, they still gritted their teeth and repelled two waves of attacks, and suffered great losses themselves.

The expeditionary force attacked the defensive positions of the US 7th Division, located in the hilly area between the vast salt lakes and the remnants of the Rocky Mountains, crisscrossed by barbed wire, trenches and pillboxes built by relying on geographical advantages, but most of them had been destroyed in artillery fire.

Because the trenches were not dug deep enough, more than half of the more than 8,600 soldiers of the US Seventh Division who defended the defense suffered more than half of them in the two-hour heavy shelling, and the 3.7-kilometer-wide defensive front was blown up like the surface of the moon, and there were broken arms and debris everywhere.

After the California Independence Army launched an attack, the surviving soldiers of the US 7th Division fought hard to resist, repelled two large-scale enemy attacks in succession, and were forced to retreat after leaving a large number of corpses at the front of the position.

After the bloody battle, the US 7th Division also paid a heavy price.

Only more than 2,700 people were still able to persist in the battle, and many of them were still suffering injuries of varying degrees of severity and heavy machine guns, and all the heavy machine guns and other firepower were destroyed.

The enemy's attack was very sharp, especially the fire support of the California Independence Army came from the expeditionary force, which was equipped with 60mm field guns and mortars that were very accurate, specializing in hunting heavy machine guns and infantry guns and other heavy firepower, as long as they dared to show their heads, they would soon be blown into a pile of parts.

In the command post of the US Seventh Division

The division commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kate, was yelling at the rear command for reinforcements, and he knew it very well in his heart; The 7th Division, having lost heavy firepower, could not cope with the next attack.

The commander-in-chief of the U.S. forces on the Rocky Hill Line was Lieutenant General Fred C. Ainsworth, Chief of Staff of the Union Army, and Lieutenant General Rune, who had been defeated in the Battle of San Francisco.

Reinforcement of front-line positions at all costs and repulsion of enemy attacks.

In their hands, as many as 50 infantry divisions were piled up on the perimeter of Mount Rocky, but only 4 artillery divisions were left, and one was crippled.

Before the cause was ascertained, the General Command of the Rocky Mountain Defense Line did not dare to devote large-scale artillery to the enemy, but provided sporadic support on the scale of artillery battalions and artillery batteries, and even then, it was often met with fierce enemy counterattacks and blown into parts by the roaring artillery fire.

At this time, it was already past 10 o'clock in the morning, and I couldn't hesitate any longer.

Since the trenches leading to the front had been completely blown up, the American reinforcements in gray-blue uniforms could only advance along the surface positions, and they spread like a tidal wave, and were immediately blocked by the artillery fire of the expeditionary force.

All kinds of long-range and short-range artillery fire formed a series of fire nets, tearing the US soldiers who were exposed on the surface of the position into pieces, and the stumps and severed arms were mixed with dirt in the violent explosion and rose into the sky, and the battle was bloody and cruel.

A U.S. 105-mm artillery regiment hidden in the woods behind had to open fire in support of the expeditionary force's artillery fire and reduce casualties among the reinforcements.

As soon as this artillery regiment opened fire, it was immediately discovered by the reconnaissance plane of the expeditionary force hovering in the air, and after carefully calculating the bearing data, the pilot of the plane turned around and flew back, packed the relevant position data in an iron box in the shape of a 40-mm shell, and threw it out of the cabin.

The commander opened it and immediately picked up the phone to give a counterattack order, and soon the accurate counterattack artillery fire roared, completely destroying the US 105-mm artillery regiment hidden in the woods, and the whole process did not exceed 20 minutes.

After the counterattack

With the loud roar of the engine, the mountains and forests trembled, and a group of self-propelled artillery vehicles carrying huge gun muzzles "rumbled" out of their original positions and moved to the next established artillery position.

This 105-mm self-propelled artillery battalion, one of the secret weapons of the Ocean Empire Expeditionary Force, was never used to bombard enemy lines so as not to reveal their position. It is specially designed to accurately counterattack enemy artillery positions, using its high mobility to shoot a single shot to change places.

Combined with aerial reconnaissance, this formed an absolute superiority in the artillery fire of the expeditionary force.

On the expeditionary side, there were only two heavy artillery divisions, mainly large-caliber towed artillery (including 203 mm and 152 mm) and 105 mm self-propelled guns, and field artillery below 95 mm were attached to infantry divisions and used as fire support for divisions or regiments.

After the Battle of San Francisco, the expeditionary force captured thousands of field artillery pieces of various kinds, most of which were barreled guns with more advanced technical performance, and more than 300 old frame guns.

Among them, the most advanced large-caliber heavy guns (including 203 mm and 155 mm) were temporarily put into storage to replace combat attrition and equip subsequent artillery divisions, some of which were allocated to infantry divisions to strengthen firepower, and the other part was allocated to the California Independence Army to support the establishment of three artillery divisions successively.

Battle of Rocky Mountain

The artillery divisions of the Independent Army are mainly responsible for striking enemy positions, and this kind of large surface target is most suitable for the training of new artillery divisions, and the requirements for accuracy are not high.

In the early morning artillery confrontation

The artillery division of the Independence Army also suffered losses in several artillery battalions, with a total loss of more than 10 artillery pieces and nearly 100 casualties.

This is not that they fought better, but that the artillery support of the expeditionary force was very sharp, and immediately after the US artillery positions appeared, they dealt a devastating blow, which greatly reduced the losses of the artillery division of the California Independence Army.

The Second Heavy Artillery Division of the Expeditionary Force was responsible for counterattacking the US artillery fire, and its main force was two 105-mm self-propelled artillery battalions.

"Report to the commander, the reinforced US 31st Division was fiercely intercepted by enemy artillery fire, the first regiment suffered more than 870 casualties, the second regiment suffered 622 casualties, and the third regiment suffered nearly 1,000 casualties, and finally less than 1,300 people were able to enter the position through the artillery fire, and the remaining remnants have returned to the starting position."

"Report to the commander, the reinforced US 15th Division was fiercely intercepted by enemy artillery fire, the whole division suffered more than 2,100 casualties, and less than 900 soldiers successfully crossed the interception line.

The first company sent two infantry divisions to reinforce the front-line positions, but they were scarred by the rampant artillery fire of the California Independence Army, and were in a half-crippled state, and had to be withdrawn to repair and replenish.

Such a result

Lieutenant General Ainsworth slammed his fist on the table in anger, his eyes bloodshot with anxiety, and asked with a loud shout; "Why is this happening?"

The expeditionary force's precise artillery counterattack caused heavy losses to his artillery unit, and by about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, a total of four artillery divisions had lost one and a half, and he really did not dare to use artillery again.

If he lets it go, on the first day of the battle, the artillery power in his hands will be exhausted, and what will he do with the enemy in the future?

The problem was that the enemy's artillery counterattack was too sharp.

If this problem is not solved, and the enemy artillery fire is allowed to rage, this defense of Rocky Mountain will be very difficult, to put it mildly, it can only be filled with human lives.

In only half a day, the two reinforced infantry divisions were crippled before they could reach the position, and the battle was too bloody, with more than 10,000 casualties, which simply made his heart bleed.