For the past two days, Chattanooga's federal Tennessee theater commander William Brown. General Ross Krans was depressed.

The reason was the Chinese army that came to report a few days ago.

Getting reinforcements is certainly not a bad thing, the problem is that he doesn't think he needs them.

His own Cumbran Legion totaled 55,000 men, and the rebels assembled not far from Chattanooga were mainly the Confederate Tennessee Legion, numbering about 40,000 people, and they had a certain advantage in strength.

What's more, the commander of the Confederate Army and the commander of the Tennessee Corps, Blackton. Prague is still a defeated opponent of his own men.

When Rosskrance was ordered to lead the Cumbran Army to attack Chattanooga, Prague was stationed in the city with a division of his Tennessee Army, and when he saw the combined attack of the Northern army, he immediately abandoned the city. Without any decent fighting, Rosecrans took this transportation hub on the Western Front, and was promoted to commander of the Tennessee theater of operations.

Prague gathered their regiments and turned their heads to get back on the field, but Rosscrance had already made a careful plan and was confident enough to win the next battle.

What does it mean that Washington is sending a foreign army over at this time?

It was rumored that the attack on Chattanooga was suggested to the federal government by the commander of the Chinese army, a young marquis, which made Ross Krans feel quite uncomfortable.

In the military, Ross Krans belonged to the line of Commander-in-Chief Halleck, and Harleck's shili in the army, although deep-rooted, was not a direct descendant of the president - those people were all rising stars. Some people say that this Chinese army is "a political public relations act of the government", and Ross Krans understands that it is here to grab credit.

And also. Can the Chinese fight?

Hum.

But Ross Krans also knew. Now the Chinese army is gaining popularity in Washington. Public opinion is also at a climax, although it is assigned to the Tennessee war zone and is considered his subordinate, he cannot be obviously neglected.

So how to place this army in the next campaign is a nerve-wracking thing.

Marquis Guan Zhuofan didn't know that General Ross Cralands was having a headache for himself, and His Excellency the Marquis was busy.

The first thing is, of course, to urge the soldiers to familiarize themselves with the newly received equipment as soon as possible, which is the responsibility of each military commander, and Guan Zhuofan does not need to bother too much.

His energy is focused on three main things.

First things first. Under the guidance of the artillery training team, an artillery regiment was formed as soon as possible.

The captain of the artillery training team was a man named Tom? Anderson's major, with a low military rank, is not young, and has a bigger background: an artillery instructor at West Point, and many senior generals of the Northern Army and the Southern Army have come from his disciples.

The federal government is quite face-saving.

Guan Zhuofan used this artillery training unit as a "field artillery school," fighting and learning while studying, hoping to finish the war with the United States. It is really possible to invite the artillery, the "god of war", to garrison the Xuan army.

The second thing is to enact stricter health regulations. And personally grasp the implementation. There are two important points: one is not to defecate in the open, and the other is not to litter.

Many pits were dug around the camp of the legion, tents were set up on them, lime was sprinkled around them, and it was strictly ordered that large and small solutions, especially large solutions, could only be solved here. The size of the pit and the number of squatting positions were actually determined by the marshal, and after the construction was completed, the Marquis Guan also came to inspect it in person, making everyone look at each other.

In addition, several special sites were designated as "garbage dumps", and lime was sprinkled around them, and garbage in the barracks was not to be discarded at will, but was collected by special personnel and transported to the place.

In fact, the officers didn't know much about Guan Dashuai's painstaking efforts, but reprimanded the soldiers according to the same set of rhetoric every day: "The guns of the rebels only killed one of our brothers with one bullet, and one shell only killed several brothers." Your mother's 'unhygienic' has a plague, and one is good to put down dozens and hundreds of brothers! ”

The punishment for "not paying attention to hygiene" is ridiculously heavy, and the heaviest punishment is the death penalty.

The officers were foaming at the mouth: "If you want to swing, you can defecate anywhere!" ”

In order to avoid "indecent international viewing", Xuan Jun's death sentence will not be cut off for the time being. A dozen or so two-person tall wooden shelves were erected on the side of the school yard, and a wooden board was propped up under the shelves. The foreign soldiers naturally knew what this was, and soon, the Chinese soldiers also knew: gallows.

Hanging it is a "swing".

The three armies were solemn.

The third thing is to inspect the terrain and the enemy.

Guan Zhuofan led a sentry cavalry every day to understand the hydrological terrain and enemy situation along the Tennessee River. Of course, many scouts were also released, but Guan Zhuofan thought that he had to grasp the first-hand information, which was the proper duty of the general. Besides, the history books are shallow.

It was indeed quite rewarding, and once saved a Chinese who was chased and killed by a group of Irishmen.

Chattanooga can meet Chinese in this place, and it is a big surprise to pass Zhuofan. This young man named Ye Mao asked to join the Xuan Army, and was willing to saddle the horse and die for the handsome. But Guan Zhuofan has another jihua for him. Since this Ye Mao was born as a Chinese worker and worked as a "personnel manager" in California, there was a more suitable job for him to do. As for the fact that he offended people in California, it doesn't matter, does anyone dare to sabotage the federal government's recruitment efforts?

It's just that this will have to wait until the battle is over.

The war clouds are getting denser.

The cavalry of both sides had already begun to make small contacts, with each other killed and wounded and captured. The atmosphere inside and outside the city was getting tense, and everyone knew that a great war was about to break out.

Guan Zhuofan was in the tent and was meeting with Walr Daniel Zhang Forrest Bai Qiwen and others, the guards entered the tent to report, and the headquarters came.

Please.

The arrival informed the Marquis of Guan to go to the headquarters to attend the pre-war military meeting.

This was the first time Guan Zhuofan was invited to a formal military meeting, and he didn't dare to slack off, so he took several guards and went straight to the Tennessee Theater Headquarters in the city.

When I entered the headquarters and registered at the door of the conference room, I saw Rosskrance greeted him with a smile on his face, and really exchanged a few words of greeting.

Guan Zhuofan saw that the three commanders of the Kumbran Legion in the house were there. The tall and dignified one was the commander of the Twentieth Army, McCook, and the medium-sized, kind-looking one was the commander of the Twentieth Army, Crittenden, both of whom had been seen.

The third was the commander of the Fourteenth Army, George? Henry? Thomas, not tall, but with a strong look. This Guan Zhuofan is the first time they met, Thomas is quite similar to him, and he also took people to hang out all day long, so he has never met.

Several people greeted each other, and then gathered in front of a huge sand table, and Ross Krans began to explain.

The sand table of this era is limited to jishu means, and the degree of fineness cannot be compared with the military sand table of later generations, but it is also coarse and large-scale, but it is only used in combination with the map.

"The main force of the rebels has moved to the line of the Chikmoga River northeast of Chattanooga, and I judge that their purpose is twofold, one is to seize the missionary heights east of Chattanooga from the north, and gain a condescending advantage over our army; One was to swim across the Tennessee River from Chattanooga, cutting off our army's supply lines from the north and west. Either scenario would pose a serious threat to our army, so I decided to launch an attack as soon as possible in an attempt to crush the rebels along the Chikmoga River. ”

Guan Zhuofan frowned slightly, Chik Moga River, this place has complex terrain and dense vegetation, if the enemy has already set up a formation here, it is really not too much choice for the attacker.

In the language of the local Indians, "Chikmoga" means "place of death".

"Our army is divided into three routes," continued Roskrance, pointing to the sand table with the handle of his horsewhip, "the McCook's army will take the left road, Thomas's army will take the middle road, the Crittenden army will leave a brigade to defend the city, and the rest will be with the troops directly under the legion, and I will lead the right road." ”

After saying that, he raised his head.

The three commanders of the Kumbran Legion were silent.

Guan Zhuofan hesitated slightly, but still spoke: "General, with all due respect, the mountains in this area are all narrow and narrow from the northeast to the southwest, and the three roads chosen by our army are between the two mountains, and it is difficult to take care of each other, and if they are attacked, they will be very passive." ”

The muscles on Rosscrans's face twitched imperceptibly, and he said, "The enemy's strength is limited, and if we divide our forces to block it, we will not be able to stop our army." ”

Guan Zhuofan thought to himself: "Why do you see that the enemy must 'divide his troops to block'? Although the total strength of the enemy army is inferior to ours, if the combined forces are in one place, they are more than any of our troops along the way. ”

I endured it, but I still didn't hold back: "If the enemy joins forces......"

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