After tidying up the mood and tidying up the road, the Sherman sappers were ordered to repair the road that opened the road to the south of Aratuna.

This is really the busiest unit in the southbound army, and it has not stopped since Dalton, looking at this group of troops who are rolling in the mud all day long, and their military uniforms have turned earthy, Guan Zhuofan thought to himself, he really should award them a "collective first-class merit". Of course, there is no such statement in the honor system of the US military, so what is similar to it? I, the commander-in-chief, really don't know, go back and find out.

The idea of this army should also be fought well. So, Sherman, for his sappers, Guan Zhuofan became more and more unsparing in praise of his sappers.

For the next two strongholds of the Southern Army on the road, New Hope Church and Kennasso, Sherman and Guan Zhuofan discussed that they hoped that the Right Army would attack Kennasso. Naturally, the remaining New Hope Church was the responsibility of the Left Route Army.

The New Hope Church is located at the choke point of transportation, and the defensive position is composed of several different parts in the front and back, left and right, which can support and take care of each other, and the "system" is relatively tight and complex.

But when it comes to the terrain, there is nothing special about the New Hope Church, and although the defense system of Kennaso Hill is relatively simple, it is a traditional left, center, and right formation, but the terrain is far more steep than the New Hope Church, so Kennaso Hill is more difficult to fight than the New Hope Church.

The New Hope Church will be a little more "cumbersome" to fight, but as long as it is done step by step and one position at a time, with the strength of the Northern Army, it will always be able to take it without making big mistakes.

Sherman is well aware of this. Guan Zhuofan understood the reason why he took the initiative to undertake urgent, difficult, and dangerous tasks: the Right Route Army had not won any decent battles before, Newton's division was defeated for a while when pursuing the Southern Army, and Sherman needed a strong victory to prove himself. Gagged other people's mouths.

This is indeed the case. But there is a point. Guan Zhuofan didn't think deeply: a month of endless heavy rain. It almost suffocated Sherman, he needed a hearty battle to vent, and the kind of battle that fought against the New Hope Church was, in his eyes, really "not happy enough".

Guan Zhuofan of course agreed to Sherman's proposal. Originally, he wanted to remind Sherman about certain matters, but thinking that although his military rank was half a level higher than Sherman, Xie was not his real subordinate, and some words were not so easy to say. He hesitated, but still didn't speak.

So the left and right armies split up.

The road was opened, and the Left Army successfully reached the New Hope Church.

It was a small town, named after a church of the New Hope Baptist denomination in the town, and the Confederate army was stationed outside the town.

Guan Zhuofan carefully observed the defense system of the Southern Army and thought: It's a bit interesting.

The position of the Southern Army was divided into three parts, two in front and one in the rear, roughly in the shape of an inverted "pin", forming a certain defensive depth.

And that's not all. Each position itself is not a simple one-line defense, but several fortifications in front and behind. Each fortification was separated by a distance of more than 100 meters, that is, each position itself formed a certain depth of defense.

In this way, when the Northern Army attacks the two positions in front, those who hit the left will be blocked by the right flank, and those who hit the right will be blocked by the left flank.

The terrain in front of the southern army's position was open, and when the northern army advanced in an attack formation, the flanks were completely unprotected, and if they were attacked, they could only stiffen up, which would inevitably cause serious casualties.

In addition to being blocked by the defense line itself and slowing down the progress, the time of the blocking from the flanks was also greatly extended, further increasing casualties and slowing down the progress.

So, instead of attacking head-on, go around the flanks of these two positions?

Don't forget, there is still a position behind the people, really bypassed, is it to hit the front two pieces or the back piece? No matter which side you play, your back is sold to the other side.

So, go a little farther around, make a big detour, and go around to the back of the position behind?

Can't do it. Because, on the right hand side of the Confederate army's rear position, on the left, it is the transportation artery to Atlanta in the south, and on the left is Kennaso Mountain, and the Confederate troops on both sides are staring at it together.

This defense system, at the time, could be regarded as almost the most advanced. There should be an eastern front, and a western front, Guan Zhuofan has seen it for the first time.

Well, the upswing pose. General Sherman, you haven't seen it with your own eyes, it's no better than Kennaso Mountain.

What to do? Come on.

The artillery of the Northern Army spoke first.

Like the previous bombardment of the Northern trenches by the Southern Army during the Battle of Aratuna, the Northern Army's shelling looked earth-shattering, but the actual effect was not good. At that time, artillery, whether it was solid bullets or flowering shells, except for the human body exposed in the open ground, was only effective against large three-dimensional targets, such as city walls, buildings, ships, etc., and was basically helpless against the new thing such as trenches.

The shelling of the positions on the right side of the Yugoslav army was endless, but the shelling of the positions on the left stopped, which meant that the official assault on the left positions was about to begin.

The continuous artillery bombardment of the right position, of course, was intended to force the Southern Army on the position not to calmly attack the Northern Army on the left position from the flank - it would have a little effect, but it would not be of much use, because the Southern Army was shooting outward from the trenches, not climbing out of the trenches to attack.

Soon, the Confederates discovered the presence of the Northern Army in the open space in front of the position on the left.

But it is very strange that the North Yankees did not line up in a normal horizontal attack formation, but in twos and threes, cats with their waists, walking two steps and stopping two steps, like monkeys, jumping and jumping forward.

What the hell?

Leave him alone, fire!

Countless puffs of white smoke rose from the left and right positions of the Southern Army.

But the pace of the group's march has hardly slowed down.

Missed.

The Southern Army had never hit such a target, it was too short, too scattered, and it moved without any regularity. Also, although the terrain in front of the position is open, it is by no means as flat as a playground, with the same ups and downs, and the Northern Army Cat can find cover at any time by lowering its body or squatting down.

Therefore, whether it is on the front or the side, the bullets fired - not to mention the inaccurate ones, even if they are accurate, they either fly over people's heads, or hit obstacles, and the trench ping-pong guns on both sides are lively, and after a few rounds, they have not knocked down a few northern Yankees.

And the soldiers of the Northern Army, who were scurrying around like monkeys, were able to shoot anytime and anywhere on the way, and in the trenches of the Southern Army, soldiers were constantly hit, and the casualties of the defenders were far greater than those of the attackers.

The Southern Army was in a commotion: how to fight this battle?

The Northern Army was already approaching the front of the position and was about to launch a charge from Zuihou.

At this moment, the war drums on the northern army began to sound, and countless blue figures stepped out of the formation—but they were lined up, but they were not in an offensive formation at all, but as soon as they came out of the formation, they began to run at full speed, shouting and rushing towards the enemy formation.

The Southern Army on the left could not take care of the new offensive of the Northern Army, because the Northern Army at the front of the position had already rushed to the position.

The southern army on the right shot desperately, but it also hit some northern troops, but this group of northern troops did not advance in the normal offensive formation and speed, and the southern army had limited gains, let alone effectively stopped the northern army's life-threatening run.

The positions of the two armies were not far apart, and as soon as the southern army in the left trench and the attacking northern army fought with bayonets, a large group of northern troops poured in behind, and the southern army's position was submerged at once.

The southern army retreated, the northern army covered from the rear, the depth of the southern army's position, compared to the crowd of the northern army, the space was really limited, the second trench was quickly lost, and then the third - less than an hour from the time the northern army stopped shelling, the southern army's left front position was lost.

In the process, the situation changed too quickly, and the scrambling right front position did not help much.

The results of the Xuan army's experiments with skirmish tactics were satisfactory.

After the Battle of Chattanooga, Guan Zhuofan drew a complete Spencer battalion from the 2nd Division Pioneer Regiment to plant his "skirmish experimental field". In the battle of the missionary heights, the Xianzi Regiment attacked Lookout Peak on the eastern flank, but it was not the first echelon, and the losses were smaller than those of the Kezi Regiment, and the establishment was relatively complete. This unit had been working behind closed doors and training hard before, and they were not assigned jobs, and the New Hope Church tried its hand and succeeded in one blow.

A battalion was limited in number and could not attack on both the left and right sides at the same time, so it had to pick one and fight it first.

*(To be continued......)