At the high-level military conference held in Davenport, Lieutenant Colonel Fan Pengju was an eye-opener, not only did he see many legendary famous generals with his own eyes, but he really knew so many high-ranking generals in the whole army.

In the army establishment of the Tang Kingdom, the commander of the ace division must be a major general, the commander of a first-class field division must be a brigadier general, and the commander of a second-class field division must be a colonel, and the military rank can be high but not low.

What positions can a lieutenant colonel officer hold?

In the Army General Staff Headquarters, there are lieutenant colonels and colonels with senior staff members, they can serve as intermediate lecturers in the Chang'an Lecture and Martial Arts Hall, they can serve as chief of staff or regiment commanders in the second-class field divisions, and they can serve as division commanders whose main responsibilities are training in supplementary divisions that are mainly composed of new recruits, but they generally do not receive direct combat tasks.

Fan Pengfei, a cousin who is now a lieutenant general, served as the commander of a supplementary division mainly composed of mainland recruits in 1852 when he was a lieutenant colonel, and went to the Crimean battlefield in Europe.

It was a mercenary division formed at the expense of the British, which later evolved into the main body of the British Foreign Legion due to its outstanding performance in the Crimean War.

This kind of supplementary division is only a temporary formation, the third-line troops are not counted, there is no official number given by the army, the number of troops is about 5000~6000 people, and the main role is to replenish the troops for the field troops that have lost in battle.

Generally, military training is the mainstay, and combat missions are not undertaken.

The situation of Division Commander Fan Pengfei is an extreme exception that cannot be replicated, and before the main field army of the Tang Kingdom is exhausted, it is impossible for the supplementary troops to have a chance to go to the battlefield.

The military conference lasted for two days, and immediately after the meeting was dismissed, the huge military machine began to operate at high speed and entered a tense state before the war.

At about 5 a.m. on May 15

More than 3,170 artillery pieces belonging to the coalition army opened fire fiercely, and the scorching shells pierced the dark night sky and smashed fiercely on the positions of the Northern Army.

The fierce shelling lasted from about 5 to 8:30 a.m., and after pouring more than 800,000 shells on the positions of the Northern Army, the coalition forces began to drive a large number of cannon fodder to the enemy positions, and fierce fighting began.

The black-pressed coalition cannon fodder successfully passed through the first-line positions that had been severely damaged by artillery fire, and did not encounter much resistance, just as they cheered and continued to go deeper with old-fashioned smoothbore guns, they encountered a tough counterattack by the second-line troops of the Northern Army.

After the "crackling" dense gunshots, the thick black powder smoke covered the battlefield, and countless soldiers were chiseled by bullets and piercing blood holes, and their bodies were weak on the battlefield.

The indiscriminate gunfire continued, with heavy casualties on both sides of the battle, and the cannon fodder troops, unsurprisingly retreated after encountering strong resistance, leaving large numbers of corpses on enemy positions.

It didn't take long

Under the strong pressure of the Overseers, the cannon fodder troops once again launched an assault, and fierce battles broke out in the north, west and south battlefields on the outskirts of Chicago at the same time, and the battle became white-hot from the beginning.

The 181-kilometer-long perimeter front in three directions around the metropolis of Chicago was particularly fierce on the southern front.

In just two days' work, the entire front had been dented to a large block, and the lost outlying positions were only 37 kilometers from Chicago, and the rumbling of artillery could already be heard in the city.

The south is the direction of the main attack of the Colorado Corps, and the main attack is about 50,000 remnants of the former General Sherman under the Colorado Corps, plus the tens of thousands of cannon fodder collected in the past two months, the total strength of the servant army is about 100,000.

Its combat effectiveness is undoubtedly much stronger than that of other cannon fodder units.

The troops of the Northern Army, which was in charge of the defense, suffered a great loss at the first encounter, and were caught off guard by this ruthless white servant army, not only did the first-line positions fall, but the second- and third-line positions were also lost one after another under its ferocious offensive, and only the last fourth-line position barely blocked the attack of the coalition forces.

If the fourth-line position falls again, the coalition forces will be directed towards the city of Chicago.

Grant, commander-in-chief of the Northern Army, was horrified and had to use the city's strategic reserves to counterattack.

With the reinforcement of 50,000 reserves, the Northern Army suffered tens of thousands of casualties before regaining the third-line position and re-consolidating the defense.

After several days of fierce fighting, General Grant, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Army, relied on the strong reserve forces under his control to put out fires everywhere in the siege on three sides, and barely passed the most difficult start.

A week of bloody battles

The Northern Army, which held the city of Chicago, repelled numerous enemy attacks, killing and wounding nearly 100,000 enemy troops and 82,000 casualties of its own.

For this kind of battle situation, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Army, Admiral Grant, looked grim, because he knew that the real test had not yet come, and the Northern Army had been fighting cannon fodder troops this week, and the casualties were still so heavy.

In particular, against the fierce enemy in the south, half of the losses were in the southern battlefield of Chicago, and the temporarily recruited militia of the Northern Army was obviously not an opponent, and the casualty ratio was almost more than double that of the other side, which was very difficult.

"I curse them, these cold war machines who have lost their faith, who are more murderous and more active in their service to the Orientals, who have really caused us a lot of trouble." Admiral Grant held his head with a headache, he was not very old, but he had a migraine.

"Your Excellency, Commander, we have done everything we can, and God will leave the rest." Major General MacDonald-Knox, the commander of the artillery, poured a steaming cup of coffee, brought it over, handed it to Admiral Grant, and then sat down beside him and said without complaint;

"Our artillery equipment is a whole century behind the Tang State, my artillery has lost 1/3 in this week's time, and soon the front line will not be supported by artillery fire, and the war will become more difficult."

"That's really bad news." Admiral Grant took a large sip of his coffee, his face worried.

The new artillery equipped by the Tang State appeared as early as the Crimean War, leading the new development of European artillery technology, and the army powers of Britain, France and Prussia successively introduced the artillery equipment and technology of the Tang State to replace the old equipment in the army.

The Ottoman Empire, in particular, introduced 680 artillery pieces and 1.2 million shells at one time, enough to equip 8 artillery divisions.

The problem is that the armies of the European powers are equipped with a large number of obsolete artillery, and it is impossible to throw it away directly as scrap copper and rotten iron, so they can only gradually introduce a small amount of advanced artillery equipment, and most of them have to rely on their own strength to develop and produce, which has a lag period.

It has only been a few years since the end of the Crimean War, and the US military is not ignorant of the new artillery of the Tang State, but due to the limited military allocation, it has not paid enough attention to the new artillery technology that represents the highest level in the world, and now it has suffered a big loss.

During the Civil War between the North and the South

Due to the extremely tight military budget, the US Allies only imported more than 100 Colt breech guns for the defense of Richmond and several important fortresses, and they could not be fought openly, it was all money!

Now in the face of the army of the Tang Kingdom, which is armed to the teeth, the artillery fire that only assists the attack ravages makes the northern army miserable, and the strength of the entire division and regiment is wiped out by the artillery fire.

General Grant felt bitter, the cannon fodder troops were so difficult to deal with, and he didn't know the bottom of his heart whether he could withstand the attack when it was the turn of the Tang Kingdom army.

"How many more guns do you have in your artillery?"

"There are less than 1,200 guns, most of which are on the front line, and there are only 480 artillery pieces in our hands, which is our last artillery force, and it can not be used easily."

"I can't keep Chicago, everything is empty, and I have to use it when I need to!"

"If we continue to fight like this, I am afraid that the artillery in my hand will not last for two weeks, and it will be completely destroyed by the enemy's counterattack artillery."

"The British still have some artillery in stock in Canada, and they promised to unload some of the guns from the sail ships and send them to us, so that as long as we hold on to the big urban fortress of Chicago, we will get a steady supply of artillery and personnel."

"Can the troops be replenished?"

"Yes, President Buchanan has carried out further mobilization, we can receive volunteer militia from the port, and now the Chicago front line has the highest priority for replenishment of troops, and 2~30,000 reinforcements can be obtained every week through the Great Lakes route to support us to fight the war."

"One Eastern Front, one Chicago, when will these two bleeding wounds heal?"

Admiral Grant couldn't answer this question either, and he silently drank the coffee in his hand, his heart gloomy.

Perhaps, this is the catastrophe that the United States must go through, right?

The sound of gunfire from the suburbs has been going on for a week, and millions of troops on both sides are fighting in Chicago, and people are falling every minute, and the battle is in full swing.

In a week or so, the casualties of the Northern Army were as high as 82,000, and the remaining strength was less than 500,000 (note; the original total strength of 560,000 was continuously replenished through the Great Lakes region in the future, and the total strength was a dynamic attrition ~ replenishment process), and the pressure was increasing.

The field troops of the Tang Kingdom, which really made General Grant jealous, have not yet officially appeared, the western theater is the headquarters of the Hill Corps of the US Confederate States, the southern theater is the servant army composed of the remnants of the Sherman Corps, and the north is a typical white cannon fodder unit.

What injured the northern army the most was the sharp artillery fire of the Tang Kingdom and the white servant army in the south, so the southern theater was the focus of repeated contention between the two sides.

Admiral Grant threw a large reserve into the area, vowing to fight for every inch of land and never take a step back.

But so far in the bloody battle, almost all of the dead and wounded on the battlefield are whites, how can people feel embarrassed?

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