With sufficient supplies, Su Zhizhen was ready to continue the attack, aiming directly at Boston, the capital of the Boston Empire. But what stood in front of him was the Wudalian Lake area headed by Lake Michigan. Marshal Pershing led the replenished two hundred
Ten thousand troops were stationed here, supported by the Boston Wudalian Lake Fleet with more than thirty river gunboats.
Regarding the obstruction of the lake area, Su Zhizhen also had a headache. It was not that the lake area was too big and completely blocked the way forward, but that he had to stay here and choose to fully control the Wudalian Lake area before moving forward.
The lake area occupies a very large area, and the lakeshore is long, spanning seven northern states of the Boston Empire. If the Chinese army bypasses the lake area and continues to advance, the Boston army relying on the lake area can completely engage in a water guerrilla war. They can use many ships.
Carrying infantry, land randomly on various lake shores, attack the Chinese army's logistics supply troops, and then withdraw from the water. Alternatively, they can use inland river gunboats carrying cannons to attack the Chinese army's supply convoys in the coastal areas. In this regard, the Chinese
The army was helpless. Once the forward attack failed, Su Zhizhen's troops might be encircled.
Faced with this unfavorable situation, Su Zhizhen first launched an attack on Green Bay City, which is close to the lake area. Green Bay City is not big, with a population of only more than 20,000, but this city is on the west bank of Wudalian Lake, right in the middle of China
On the road where the army is advancing, and most importantly, there is a small shipyard on the edge of the city near the lakeshore.
If you want to fight against the Bostonian lake fleet, you must have your own fleet, so that you can gradually control the lake and turn your disadvantages into advantages.
This time, the Tenth Army led by Wang Xiucheng became the vanguard. They quickly surrounded this small city. Seeing the appearance of the Chinese army, the Boston army quickly launched a counterattack. Large rockets crossed a distance of 20 kilometers.
Covering the advancing Chinese Army troops, this was the first time that the Boston Empire's 300mm 18-barreled rocket launcher entered actual combat.
The vanguard regiment was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. More than ten tanks were destroyed and more than 400 people were killed. They were forced to retreat. Seeing this situation, Wang Xiucheng put away his contempt and quickly ordered the heavy artillery unit.
launched a large-scale artillery attack on the city, but soon the Bostonians' 360mm heavy artillery launched a counterattack. Fortunately, the artillery positions of the Tenth Army were very dispersed, so the casualties were not large. There were only three soldiers from one artillery company.
A 240mm self-propelled howitzer and an artillery radar vehicle were destroyed, resulting in dozens of casualties. However, Wang Xiucheng also discovered that this attack would be difficult to carry out by the army alone.
Wang Xiucheng's report requesting air force support was quickly sent up, and the air force support arrived soon after. More than a hundred Albatross dive bombers launched precision bombings on the city. Many fortifications were destroyed by high-explosive aerial bombs, while the city
The Boston army also launched a tenacious resistance, using anti-aircraft guns of various calibers to counterattack.
After all, propeller planes were too slow, but the Boston Army was equipped with many 88mm and even 105mm caliber anti-aircraft guns. In front of the large number of anti-aircraft guns, more than 20 aircraft were shot down, but they succeeded
Destroyed four 360 mm caliber heavy artillery positions in the city.
This type of large-caliber heavy artillery is too large to be completely hidden, so bombers can easily find them and destroy them. After eliminating the opponent's large-caliber heavy artillery, the Tenth Army began to use 240
The 300mm howitzer launched a bombardment, but the Bostonian's 300mm rocket launcher could not reach the opponent because its range was too close.
The bombardment lasted for two full days. There were a large number of artillery shells provided by the Chicago industrial area. The Chinese army did not spare the ammunition. They used dense artillery shells to almost completely destroy the city of Green Bay. Those 300mm rocket launchers and a small number of Rat tanks
Because it was difficult to hide, it suffered heavy losses. The Tenth Army quickly launched an attack. Relying on Grizzly 3 tanks and a large number of Ice Bear 2 troop-carrying armored vehicles, more than one division of troops quickly entered the city.
The Bostonians who were bombarded for two days suffered heavy losses and were unable to organize effective resistance. They were quickly wiped out, and the small shipyard near the lake also fell into the hands of the Chinese army. Although the battle went smoothly
, but the successive appearance of the opponent's powerful weapons put the Chinese Army at a disadvantage, while the Bostonians took full advantage of internal operations and specialized in manufacturing weapons that were difficult to move but powerful to fight against the powerful Chinese Army.
After receiving this news, the country quickly sent some new weapons drawings to the Chicago Industrial Area, and a batch of new weapons were quickly put into mass production and transported to the troops. The new Grizzly 4 tank is a transitional type.
Weapon, it was also specially made to deal with the Maus tank.
The new Grizzly Type 4 tank is lackluster in terms of internal electronic equipment. It basically copies the configuration of the Type 3 tank, but the body is much larger. There are 520 weapons installed in the seven-meter-long body.
The powerful diesel engine provides the chariot with powerful power, allowing it to reach a speed of forty kilometers per hour.
There is a 122mm tank gun on the tall turret, and there is a special smoke exhaust device in the middle of the gun body, while a 12.7mm parallel machine gun and an anti-aircraft machine gun of the same caliber are installed in the
The vehicle body provides close combat and necessary air defense support for the tank. The 160 mm composite armor plate on the front of the vehicle body uses a five-layer composite pattern of three layers of steel armor, one layer of ceramic armor, and one layer of foamed flexible armor.
, while ensuring the defensive power of the tank, it also greatly reduced the weight. The total weight of this tank is only more than 60 tons, which is almost one-third of the Boston Rat tank.
In addition to the Grizzly 5 tank, the Python 1 train gun has also been copied. Although this powerful train gun has a caliber of only 280 mm, it is one level worse than the Boston's 360 mm heavy artillery.
, but due to the higher metallurgical level of the Chinese Empire, the artillery had a higher caliber, which could completely suppress the Bostonians in terms of range. Moreover, due to the small caliber and the lighter weight of the artillery shells, its rate of fire was far inferior to that of the Boston heavy artillery.
These were all preparations made by the Army. After the occupation of Green Bay, the shipyard began to be renovated. With various equipment shipped from the Chicago Industrial Area, the shipyard was quickly expanded, and the new three-thousand-ton shipyard
Five were built at once, and they will be used to build new river gunboats.
Since the lake is wider than the river and there are not many sharp turns, there is no need to build the 53-ton Great Salt Lake-class gunboats suitable for rivers. Therefore, the ones built by the Bostonians in Wudalian Lake are all four
The 110-ton Lake Mead-class gunboat is suitable for large-displacement gunboat activities on the open lake, and its 105-mm main gun has stronger firepower and can take advantage of its firepower.
Facing the Bostonians' more than 30 Lake Mead-class river gunboats, the Chinese Empire was not to be outdone. They directly launched the Baishan-class river gunboat. The Baishan-class was once used to name the first type of maritime gunboat in the Chinese Navy. As a result, that class
The ship was not successful, and its main guns were soon removed and converted into an anti-smuggling patrol ship.
The re-introduction of this name this time can be regarded as a kind of nostalgia for the Baishan-class gunboat. The new Baishan-class inland river gunboat has a displacement of up to 485 tons. In order to speed up production, the warship did not redesign the main gun, but directly used
The 122mm turret of the Grizzly 5 tank can be installed, which can greatly speed up production. Each gunboat is equipped with two turrets, in addition to four 40mm high-level dual-purpose machine guns, and two
Equipped with a 12.7 mm machine gun.
Since the warship is not large and the weapon system uses a lot of ready-made technology, the construction speed of the Baishan-class inland river gunboats is very fast. In just half a month, the first batch of five Baishan-class boats quickly slid off the slipway and started outfitting.
Construction of a new hull has begun again.
The Chinese army was rapidly building river gunboats in Green Bay, apparently to compete with Boston's river fleet for control, which made the Bostonians very anxious. Unable to wait for the opponent's fleet to grow, the Bostonians decided to take advantage of the fact that the Chinese army's gunboats were not yet completed.
, dispatched a small fleet of thirteen gunboats. They planned to destroy the Chinese army's shipyard first to prevent the rapid growth of the opponent's Neihu fleet.
Lieutenant Colonel Duro led his thirteen gunboats to set out at night. Using the reeds on the lake as cover, they quickly rushed towards the Green Bay Shipyard. Although the Chinese army did not have any armed forces on the lake, they did not
It doesn't mean they don't have early warning facilities.
After the Chinese Army occupied the shipyard in Green Bay, they began to install underwater speakers within five kilometers of the shipyard. These underwater speakers were actually relatively rudimentary sonar systems, and the cost of the speakers was lower than those used on warships.
Nano is much cheaper. It can convert the sound in the water into electrical signals and transmit them back to the shore through the wires connected to them. Although they do not have positioning function, they are still very useful as early warning.
When Lieutenant Colonel Duro's fleet passed the location where the underwater loudspeakers were deployed, the sound of propeller paddling and diesel engine vibration was quickly captured. The listening station on the shore immediately discovered the situation, and all the garrison troops on the shore were nervous.
At a military airport located on the outskirts of Green Bay, eight modified Albatross dive bombers quickly took off and flew towards Lake Michigan.
The eight dive bombers were specially modified for night operations. They were not only equipped with navigation radars but also infrared night vision sights. Although the installation of these electronic equipment reduced their bomb load by one-third,
But it was all worth it. As dive bombers on night duty, when the eight Albatross flew over the shipyard, they quickly discovered the incoming enemy ships.