Salt Lake City

The fortress city of the central Rocky Mountains, where the Central Pacific Railroad passes, has been put on high military alert since the outbreak of the First U.S.-Japan War, keeping an eye on the fierce fighting east of the mountains.

The daily westward train into the Rocky Mountains undergoes a rigorous check-in at the foot of the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in the small town of Lyman before winding its way into Evanston in the Rocky Mountains, passing all the way to Salt Lake City, which is about 240 kilometers through the mountains from the small town of Lyman.

The small city of Lyman is the only small city in the east of the Rocky Mountains under the Northern Confederacy, guarding the entrance of the Central Pacific Railway to the west into the Rocky Mountains, and its 30-kilometer semicircular area belongs to the Northern Confederacy, which is a military fortress city at the forefront of entering the Rocky Mountains.

In the city, a semicircular defense pattern was formed with large and strong pillbox towers as the core of defense, and there were many clear and dark forts, and the large concrete poured pillbox towers could carry 280 mm caliber heavy artillery bombardment, and a total of 5 were established, numbered from No. 1 to No. 5.

At the top and upper floors of the tower, 210 mm artillery positions can be set up to control the surrounding area of more than 10 kilometers, and the middle floor can be stationed, and there are small medical centers, grain and water storage facilities, which can provide a reinforced battalion of more than 1,000 people for three months of fighting.

The large bunker tower is 42 meters high, divided into 9 floors, especially the outer façade with a concrete thickness of up to 1 meter, making it extremely sturdy and can be described as the backbone of the defense.

Tunnels are located on the lowest floors of large bunker towers to support small bunkers nearby, forming a complete defensive line. On the outer layer, there are 3~4 layers of barbed wire fence defense line, wide anti-tank trenches, moats leading into streams and other defense facilities.

In the event of wartime, the Central Pacific Railway can be cut off at any time to form a headache-inducing fortress-type defensive position, and two large pillbox towers at the foot of the mountain, one south and one north, are set up with wide passages that allow armored tanks to drive directly out.

Usually sealed with a steel gate, when necessary, directly open the steel monster, and gallop freely in the empty central plain.

"The commander arrived, and all the officers and soldiers stood up and saluted......"

After the loud voice, all the officers and soldiers in Tower 3 put down their work and stood up in salute, with a look full of respect.

Marshal Li Xuanzhu strode over surrounded by a large group of generals, and the marshal's scepter in his hand lightly tapped the brim of his hat as a return salute, and continued to walk forward without stopping, asking as he walked; "Brother Qixiang reported a few days ago that he wanted to connect the towers of Lyman City with a city wall, so I wanted to ask, whose bad idea is this?"

"Great Marshal, the lowly rank is conceived to be more solid and more conducive to defensive operations."

"Now is the era of artillery thermal weapons, the built city wall must be able to withstand heavy artillery bombardment, otherwise it can only bring psychological comfort, the city wall is not built firmly, and the rubble flies when the heavy artillery bombardment will cause heavy casualties to the defenders, have you considered this?"

"After thinking about it, there are a number of old battleships and cruisers to be dismantled on the west coast, and we want to cut their armor plates into small pieces and transport them and lay them on the reinforced concrete surface around the city wall, so that with a concrete layer of more than 1.2 meters and a rammed earth layer 5~6 meters wide, it can resist the frontal bombardment of 280 mm heavy artillery, and the cost-effectiveness ratio is also higher."

"Oh, this idea of waste utilization is very novel, have you calculated how much is needed?"

"The main armor of large armored ships and battleships is more than 100 meters long and 5~6 meters high, and basically a ship can lay a city wall more than 500 meters long, with the size of a small city of Lyman, that is, a matter of more than a dozen ships. If it is mainly front-based, supplemented by sides, including ammunition depots, conning towers, and other armor steels on the deck, it can also be used. The amount needed is even less. ”

"Then you can make a report, anyway, the dismantling of those old US ships is waste utilization, and it doesn't cost much."

Marshal Li Shunzhu agreed with a wave of his hand, and he stepped up the stairs with a "swish" and climbed the stairs, and the officers and men passing by along the way stood up and saluted.

If the walls of the small city of Lyman were built, they would be about 3.5 meters high, and the bottom layer would be about 1 meter high with a smooth slope, and next to the slope would be a circular trench up to 2.2 meters deep, so as to avoid the siege ladder from being erected.

In this way, the siege ladder can only be placed diagonally in the trench, and it must be more than 7 meters, otherwise it will not be able to reach the top of the city at all.

The bulletproof armor plate is mainly laid at the bottom of the city, and there is a height of 2.5 meters that is about the same, and there is no need to build a smooth slope more than one meter below, because large-caliber heavy artillery shells are very expensive, and it is impossible to use them to blow up the root of the wall.

What if you dig a hole in the wall?

The city wall with monolithic steel armor will not collapse, let alone blow through a passage, because the middle rammed earth layer will collapse after being blown loose below, blocking possible holes, which is meaningless in actual combat

Generally speaking, if you want to blow up the city wall, you have to push hard to the middle of the city wall.

5 large towers are 5 fortified fortresses, and if you follow the idea of building bulletproof steel plates inside, the completed city walls can indeed greatly strengthen the defense of Lyman City, and as for the money spent on this, it is not a problem.

The expeditionary force controlled the main transportation routes for transporting supplies to the east, and the transit goods of the Republic of California had to be taxed and exported in the name of the Northern Union, and the same was true for imported materials from the United States, and the customs declaration was in the name of importing the Northern Union, and then re-exporting to the Republic of California.

This is because the United States has never officially recognized the independence of the Republic of California, so naturally there is no bilateral relationship, and can only trade in the way of saving the country, which has benefited the expeditionary force a lot.

Someone will ask?

The United States has not officially recognized the Northern Federation, so why can it conduct formal trade?

It's hard to say about this thing, this is a compromise in desperation, although the people of the United States do not admit it verbally, they actually say one thing and do another, forming this tacit understanding that cannot withstand scrutiny.

After all, you can't afford to provoke the powerful Ocean Empire, and if you are annoyed, you will be taught to be a person in minutes.

Come to the top of Tower 3

Four 210-mm guns, four 155-mm howitzers, operated by two heavy artillery batteries, are displayed in the four corners of the building, and there are also six 95-mm rapid-fire gun emplacements and more than twenty heavy machine gun emplacements on the lower floors of the building, facing the tower in three directions, forming a complete fire cover.

Marshal Li Lianzhu condescendingly overlooked the vast land around him, and he had an unobstructed view of the surroundings.

Directly east of the small town of Lyman is the train marshalling station, lined up on eight railway lines, three of which have trains waiting to be inspected, and the inspected trains enter the main road through the turnouts and head west into the winding railway line of the Rocky Mountains.

On the northernmost railway line of the train marshalling station, a hideous-looking armored train is parked, with a 210 mm large-caliber howitzer at the front and rear of the locomotive, and two 155 mm guns, four 95 mm guns, four 60 mm rapid-fire guns and a dozen heavy machine guns in the middle of the hull.

The entire armored train is a reinforced artillery battalion, under which a heavy artillery company is equipped with two 210 mm guns, two 155 mm guns, a 95 mm gun company and a 60 mm gun battery, plus a heavy machine gun company and two infantry companies, with individual combat capability.

Such an armored train is directly under the headquarters of the expeditionary force, there are three in total, one in Salt Lake City, one in Evanston, a city in the Rocky Mountains, and one in Lyman, which is the armored train in front of you.

You can see it

The soldiers of the expeditionary force on duty within the barbed wire fence were fully armed, loaded with live ammunition, and patrolled two large wolf dogs in squads to check whether the barbed wire was damaged, whether there were enemy agents infiltrating, whether there was any hostile situation, etc., and the steel helmets on the soldiers' heads and the shiny rifles behind them filled the air with the smell of iron and blood.

This is the front line of the border confrontation, and there is no room for sloppiness at all times.

"How's the fortress garrison?"

"Returning to the commander, the defense of Lyman Fortress and Evanston, which belongs to the Qingdao Division, was changed in June this year, and the garrison period was half a year, and now 5 months and 1 week have passed.

Next up is the Shangri-La 2nd Division, which is scheduled to enter in two weeks' time.

At present, the Lyman Fortress has a total of 6 artillery battalions, 4 infantry battalions, and a service company, with a total of 5,882 troops, 17 people on sick leave, and 5,865 people.

Commander...... Brigadier General Liu Dongqiang, deputy commander of the Qingdao Division, reports to you. ”

"Well, the matter of changing guards is put on hold for the time being, and we are waiting for a new order from the General Headquarters."

"Yes." Brigadier General Liu Dongqiang saluted with a standard standing upright salute and replied simply.

Marshal Li Shunzhu nodded, asked about some defensive arrangements and trivial affairs of officers and men, inspected the maintenance of equipment, and was quite satisfied with what he saw.

The reason why the Lyman front-line fortress did not adopt the establishment of a fixed garrison division, but the troops were on rotation duty, was to let the field division not slack off, always be vigilant and ready for battle, and maintain a high fighting spirit.

There are more than a dozen divisions in the Northern Federation, and at least half of them are in the third level of combat readiness on weekdays, as in the current situation, they are in the first level of combat readiness, all the armies are canceled from vacation, the officers and men are fully loaded, and rifles and equipment are distributed to the company, ready to fight.

Some people don't understand, thinking that with the strong defense line of Rocky Mountain, can the people of the United States still be able to fight in?

I'm afraid that this possibility is not 1 in 10,000.

The problem lies in the fact that the alarm bell rings for a long time, and the army always pays attention to it, and the purpose of maintaining the army's first-level combat readiness is to guard against the possibility of 1/10,000, completely put an end to any luck, and not leave any opportunity for the enemy to take advantage of.

Tighten the fence and prevent wolves from worrying, this is the truth.

But at this sensitive point in time, the marshal personally went to inspect the front-line positions, and the situation seemed a little extraordinary, which made the accompanying generals smell something strange.

A long train whistle was heard ...... "Woo".

Marshal Li Xuanzhu and the other generals looked back and saw a train coming from the winding railway line in the mountains, slowly slowing down as it approached the fortress of Lyman.

The flatbed truck towed behind him was loaded with Cheetah Chinese tanks, the steel body shimmering with cold luster in the sunlight, and the raised muzzle of the gun was impossible to see at a glance.

See this scene

A smile tugged at the corner of Marshal Li's mouth, well, this is how he planned to greet the Mi Guoyan, and the generals accompanying him also suddenly realized;

There is going to be a new military operation on the peak......

According to the latest military newspaper;

The United States and Japan are engaged in fierce fighting around Abquerqui, the US army has besieged the city day and night, and the artillery fire has razed the entire city to ruins, and the Japanese army fought tenaciously on the ruins, swearing to hold their positions to the death, and dealt a heavy blow to the attacking American troops.

The two sides are like giants who can't retreat, engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat with fists to the flesh.

The strength of the Japanese army in Albuquerque is so much, and if you destroy one point, you will lose one point, and the US army will continue to exert pressure, and sooner or later the Japanese army will face the brink of collapse, and then as expected, it will be defeated and lost, and may even be completely annihilated.

This is not alarmist, the war has destroyed the entire city.

The 560-kilometer long Gobi Desert Highway from Albuquerke to Los Angeles, without cars or horse-drawn carriages, if the Japanese army retreated, what day would they go on their feet?

The Japanese army actually had no way to retreat, and stood on the edge of the cliff with their feet on their feet.

And this is the opportunity that Marshal Li Xuanzhu is waiting for......

After successively occupying the cities of Wagen-Mund and Las Vegas from north to south, the U.S. military continued to go deeper south, and after occupying Santa Fe, Bingfeng went south to Albuquerque, almost piercing most of the New Mexico region, reaching a depth of more than 1,100 kilometers.

The front has gathered 275,000 troops one after another, and the daily battle requires a large amount of ammunition, food supplies and various medical equipment, and is closely supported by a trunk road in the rear.

It can be said that this is an indispensable lifeline.

Along the way, cowboys can be seen driving large herds of cattle along the wilderness on one side of the road, all for food to be delivered to the battlefield ahead, while countless heavy wagons and thousands of trucks are on the road, moving day and night, transporting ammunition and large quantities of medical supplies to the south.

With 275,000 people fighting in the front and hundreds of thousands of people in the rear guaranteeing logistics, the Mi Guoyan has invested blood in this war, which can be described as inevitable.

Today is November 4, 1912, and the voting day for the states in the general election is the second Wednesday of December and lasts for 5 days, while the early mail-in ballots began in mid-November, which means that more than 10 days later, the people of the United States began to cast their sacred votes for the election of the president.

At this time, put forward a condition, the timing is just right!

Marshal Li Xuanzhu is going to make a small appearance before raising the conditions, show off his muscles, and threaten the rear desert highway that the Mi army regards as a lifeline, so that the Mi Guoyan can speak well.

Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed.

At this time, a confidential officer climbed up from downstairs out of breath, looked left and right, walked quickly to Marshal Li Xuanzhu, "horned" a standard upright, saluted, and then handed out a secret telegram with both hands; "Report to the marshal, this is an urgent secret telegram sent by General Gentaro Kodama of the Japanese North American Command, and the designated face is marshal, and 100,000 are urgent."

"Oh, 100,000 urgent?"

Marshal Li Xuanzhu took the telegram calmly, guessing in his heart that the east wind was coming, and looked at the content of the telegram Sure enough, isn't it a coincidence?

I thought that the bones of Fusang people could be hard, but now it seems that they still have to wag their tails and beg for mercy, and people have to bow their heads under the eaves!