readx;

As soon as Henry Harry left, there was an indescribable silence in the room. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoThe atmosphere is oppressive and breathless.

After a long time, Alan Arthur turned his head to look at Ulysses Simpson Grant, who was wearing a dark army general's uniform and a white beard on his right hand, and asked, "General Grant, do you have any thoughts on what Henry Harry just said?"

Hearing this, a fine light flashed in Grant's originally dim eyes, the first military president who once graduated from West Point, the American hero in the Civil War, is now the oldest general in the entire American world, and is also an optimus pillar in the current US Army.

Therefore, even if he took nearly 300,000 troops to the periphery of New York for more than a month, he could not defeat the small number of Huo Jiajun troops who occupied there and recapture New York, the center of the American economy, but neither Congress nor the government dared to have too much harsh criticism, which can be seen how lofty this old man's status within the United States and political circles is.

"What can I think, a bad old man, who has been out of breath, and besides, General Henry Harry's words have been made very clear!" said Grant with a mocking tone in his tone.

Since ancient times, no matter what country it is, it seems that soldiers and literati are born with an element of opposition.

Even Grant, who used to be president, is still a soldier at heart. He is very dissatisfied with the current behavior of Congress and the government in blaming the military for the defeat of this war and all the faults, and even using Henry Harry as a scapegoat to drive out of the government.

So even if he has a lot of respect for President Alan Arthur, who insisted on fighting the Chinese and recovering American territory. But in the tone of this speak, it can't help but carry a thick mockery.

After listening to his words, Alan Arthur could certainly hear the dissatisfaction in the old general's heart.

However, he can't help it now. As president, he has to think about the big picture. Balance the various opinions within the government and Congress. So, he needed someone to take responsibility for the defeat of the Battle of Erie.

And in the case of the commander of the Northern Front Corps, Joseph Johnston, had already died. That person could only be the Minister of War, Henry Harry Adeno.

"General Grant, now that the United States is facing the greatest difficulty since its founding, I hope that you will be able to maintain the loyalty of an American citizen to the country, and give us a detailed explanation. The difficulties we are now encountering in this war, and what our government and army need to do next, can win the next war with the Chinese!"

Looking at the earnest look on the president's face and the respectful words in his tone, although Grant was dissatisfied, he also knew what it meant to stop in moderation.

So at this time, he just thought about it briefly. He nodded quickly.

He then stood up, walked behind Alan Arthur, and reached out to open the curtain that hung on the wall, and then covered more than 40 states in the continental United States. In addition, in red and blue, the precise military map that appears in the form of military confrontation between China and the United States and the ratio of troops.

"According to the intelligence gathered by the Military Reconnaissance and Intelligence Department of our forward positions, the Chinese army, after winning the battle at Erie, has retreated along the Northern Railway to the west bank of the Wabash River, a tributary of the Ohio River. Compared with before, this time their defense line has retreated by more than 600 kilometers! And this also means that the defensive density of the Chinese has been further improved! And the efficiency of their logistics supply has also doubled!"

"Of course, these are not the most important, the most important thing now is that if we want to continue to fight the Chinese and recover all the former American territories west of the Mississippi River, then we first need to face a problem, the problem of logistics!" said Grant here emphasizing the word "logistics".

Hearing his words, everyone nodded, they can become high-level people within the government, although they are not proficient in marching and fighting, but war needs logistical support, this eternal truth is still clear in their hearts.

"General Grant, we all know the importance of logistics to the army, but does this have anything particularly important to do with the next war? Haven't our previous wars with the Chinese been going smoothly? Moreover, we have never heard of any problems with the logistics of the army before!" Secretary of State Frederick asked.

Hearing this, a trace of contempt flashed in Grant's eyes that was not easy for others to detect.

However, considering that these politicians really don't know much about military warfare, they didn't say anything more, but continued to explain: " According to the information we have, the Chinese did one thing before retreating from the Erie front, that is, they removed all the rails and sleepers of all the branch railways in the three states between the Erie-Harry section of the Northern Railway, the Huiling-Trehott section of the Pacific Railway, and the upper Ohio River to the Wabash River, and even blew up the roadbed of these railways in order to prevent us from pursuing them later and to prevent us from continuing to use these railways in the future!"

Speaking of which, Grant even gritted his teeth on his face.

"General Grant, would the absence of these railways have a great impact on our next war?" Alan Arthur hurriedly asked, thinking of the advice given by Henry Harry when he left at the end.

"Yes, the mode of warfare in modern warfare has been very different from the previous cold-weapon battles, and the dependence on logistics is not only food and medicine, but more importantly, the supply of weapons and ammunition. If there is no this, then no matter how high the quality of this army is, it will be a toothless tiger. ”

Therefore, in every battle in this era, as a commander, the first thing you need to consider is not how strong the enemy is, but whether your logistics are sufficient, which is the basis for ensuring that a battle can be won in the end. ”

"Take our battle with the Chinese as an example, we concentrated more than one million troops in the Yili war, and in order to support this army in the battle, in just two months, we consumed 5 million jin of grain, 500,000 tons of beef, 420,000 tons of vegetables, 80,000 tons of medicine, as well as 1.8 million sets of quilts, 750,000 sets of leather boots, and so on. ”

"In addition to these, we have shipped more than 1.2 billion rifle rounds, 50 million machine gun rounds, 15 million artillery shells of various calibers, as well as 520,000 rifles, 1,500 Gatling cannons and 3,500 artillery pieces of various calibers to the Erie front. ”

"And in order to get these weapons, ammunition, food and other materials into the hands of the soldiers in the front-line troops, we ended up using more than 250 trains and transporting 2,500 trains. And it has never stopped since the beginning of the war. ”

After saying this, Grant paused, glanced at the various senior US government officials sitting in the conference room, and asked: "If there is no railway, and all these materials are transported by manpower, how long will it take us to be able to transport these materials that can ensure the combat use of millions of people to the front line battlefield and hand them over to every soldier?"

After listening to his words, the expressions on everyone's faces changed, and those who were able to be selected from the more than 60 million Americans and sit here were naturally the elites of the entire United States, and with their ingenuity, it was naturally easy to understand the meaning of Grant's words, and realized the serious logistical problems faced by the US ** team on the Western Front battlefield.

"Guys, if we can't fix the railroad as soon as possible, then our war on the Western Front will be stagnant indefinitely, unless we can make a breakthrough from the Mississippi River at the cost of hundreds of thousands of soldiers!" Grant said in a deep voice with a serious expression.

As for organizing manpower to ensure the next logistical supply of the Northern Front Army, Grant never thought about it. In addition to the huge consumption of food when personnel transfer materials, with the organizational ability and credibility of the current US government, it is simply impossible to organize five or six million people in the later stage.

And it's important to note that the current U.S. government can't afford to pay five or six million workers.

"Mr. Secretary, I would like to know how long it will take us to rebuild a 600-kilometer railroad now?" asked Alan Arthur, turning to him, with a serious expression.

Hearing the president's words, Frederick also realized the seriousness of the matter. Therefore, after cautiously bowing his head and pondering for a while, he raised his head and said to the eyes of everyone who were paying attention to him: "Half a year, it will take at least half a year!"

"Half a year, isn't that too long?" asked Vice President William Wheeler.

And Alan Arthur has the same question, as the president of the United States, he clearly remembers that before the economic crisis, the United States built a total of 12,000 kilometers of railroads in one year. Although he knew that it was a number of multiple railways combined.

However, 12,000 kilometers is too big a gap from 600 kilometers in half a year.

"Mr. President, a large part of the cause of this economic crisis is the repetitive over-construction of railroads, so the railroad industry is also the hardest hit industry in all walks of life in society now, including railroad giants like the Union Pacific Railroad, basically more than 95 percent of the railroad companies have collapsed. ”

"So if we want to build a railroad now, we have to have enough time to reassemble the railroad workers and engineers. In addition, the railway that was blown up by the Chinese is already doomed to be unusable, and we need time to re-plan the construction route of the new railway, plus the time to lay the railway, half a year is already the most optimistic estimate!"