Bao Ling's task was successfully completed, but he felt as if he had done nothing.
This experience in the homeland of the Fuxing Army was very rare, because at this time, it was very difficult for a foreigner to enter the mainland.
His own purpose is to promote armistice negotiations between the two sides.
Now that Dong Shuheng told him that the negotiations had begun, his task was considered completed.
As for the conditions for the armistice, a retired old man like him is not qualified to ask.
That's not something he should care about.
"Your Excellency, thank you very much for your profound righteousness. I believe that our two countries will eventually be able to embark on the road of cooperation." Bao Ling bowed and said.
After being delivered, this batch of "Taishan-class" armored cruisers of the Navy will go south and join the First Fleet.
The extra old warships from the First Fleet will be handed over to the Navy. For example, the Nanyang Navy needs a large number of warships to patrol the entire Pacific Ocean south of Hawaii.
Moreover, those old-fashioned sail warships are perfect for cruising, as their endurance and maintenance costs are much lower.
The Renaissance Army now has nearly fifty large sailing warships, most of which were captured from Spain and the Great Empire.
Dong Shuheng assigned them to the Beiyang Navy and the Nanyang Navy. These two navies took the Hawaiian Islands as the boundary and cruised the north and south sides respectively.
Among all naval divisions, these two naval divisions have the heaviest patrol tasks.
Turning the Pacific Ocean into an inner lake in the Greater China Circle is not just a matter of words.
It doesn't mean that everything will be fine just by occupying all the surrounding lands and islands.
As long as the enemy is willing, there are many sea routes that can lead to the Pacific Ocean.
It's just that the enemy must be able to pay the corresponding price.
Du Hang has been waiting for this batch of new ships for a long time.
The original First Fleet and Second Fleet formed a combined fleet and ended up in the Indian Ocean.
Bao Youzhi came to ask Liu Bei to borrow money from Jingzhou, but he never returned the money.
The Combined Fleet became the Second Combined Fleet.
The headquarters of the First Fleet instantly became a mere commander, and Du Hang was reduced to commanding only the offshore fleets composed of the navies of those small Chinese countries in Southeast Asia.
Fortunately, the main force of the Indian Ocean Fleet, which the Koreans were hiding in Singapore Harbor, surrendered along with the city.
In this way, Du Hang re-erected the First Fleet.
However, many of the original officers of his First Fleet have joined the Second Fleet.
Du Hang not only wants to build a new fleet, but also needs to train a new group of fleet team members.
Alas... Du Hang was lamenting his ill-fated life.
The first fleet was brought out by himself with great difficulty.
Fortunately, Liu Dahai came forward to help him get justice, and the captains of the four battleships of the First Fleet were transferred back, and they happened to serve as the captains of the four armored cruisers.
After the delivery of these four warships, the First Fleet will become a shock fleet.
With the Second Fleet holding the front line in the Indian Ocean, it would be difficult for the First Fleet to find a fight.
Moreover, the Second Fleet does not need the support of the First Fleet. They are about to take over the entire Pacific Fleet after major repairs.
By then, the entire Second Fleet will have more than thirty ironclads, as well as the so-called battleships of the Chinese. The strength of one of its fleets will be comparable to that of a powerful country in Europe.
The submarine detachment will also continue to be deployed to the waters of Ceylon after repairs.
During this time, Zhang Yong led his two cavalrymen upstream along the Yangtze River.
Looking at the endless stream of steamships on the river, Zhang Yong felt as if he was in another world.
While Zhang Yong was lamenting, Sun Xiang was carefully writing down the number of ships he encountered every hour in his notebook.
When the passenger ships docked, he would go to those ships to chat and brag about the goods they were transporting.
At present, the most developed areas in the mainland are along the Yangtze River and the eastern coastal areas.
What they witnessed was the most prosperous and powerful side of the Renaissance Army.
On the battlefield of North Amelia at this time.
Wall's Kansas Army also came to the prosperous land of America. In front of them was the big city of Chicago.
They came to California very early, and most of what they saw was endless wilderness and uninhabited wild land.
Everywhere is full of wildness and adventure.
But at this time, the place they passed was full of factories, and chimneys emitting black smoke could be seen everywhere on both sides of the railways and rivers.
Wall took his 50,000 main force and headed north.
At first, the attack went very smoothly, but their target was only a small town between St. Louis and Springfield.
Wall first attacked northwest along the Mississippi River.
He was faithfully pursuing his strategy of destroying the North's economy.
Wherever they passed, not even a lamb was left for each other.
The captured supplies were continuously transported south through the Mississippi River.
These supplies will eventually be collected in New Zhengzhou City, some will be sold locally, and some will be handed over to the Canadian government along the railway.
The Canadian government is the main investor in this war, so it naturally gives priority to receiving returns.
Wall's style of play is to use his firepower and manpower advantages to push through towns one by one.
Any town that resisted would be severely punished. There were no laws of war at this time, and no one would supervise the Kansas Army.
Wall had a light infantry regiment composed of white Kansas men.
They all had a deep-seated hatred of northern liberals.
Therefore, whenever a town was captured, Wall would release these light infantry regiments.
These people will kill wantonly in the town, and often after releasing these people, it will be difficult for anyone to survive in the entire town.
However, the Northern Army also responded quickly. They established a stronghold in the Springfield area and moved all residents from surrounding towns to the state capital, Springfield.
This way Illinois no longer has to disperse its troops to garrison in various towns.
It is also possible to concentrate more militia troops.
Wall also sensed the northerners' plans.
He did not attack the state capital Springfield as the northerners expected, but continued north along the Mississippi River and captured the city of Davenport.
In this way, the Kansas Army cut off the connection between the states west of the Mississippi River and those to the east.
And to the east of Davenport is Chicago.
Davenport is also a transportation hub connecting the east and west.
The Kansas Legion could even take a direct train to Chicago from here.
Wall's tactics were somewhat like a leap-frog tactic. According to common sense, he should capture Springfield first to deal with this flank threat.
But now, Wall skipped here and attacked Chicago directly behind the Union Army.
At this time, the Union Army stationed in Springfield was led by Rosecrans, who was one of the main generals of the Union Army in the west.
The general stationed in Indiana was Robert, who had fought against Wall and others during the Kansas Civil War.
His Kansas Pistol Regiment still retains its original title.
Many of Robert's generals were originally freedmen from Kansas. They always wanted to fight back.
But at this time they were not the ones confronting the Kansas Army.
Rosecrans is a brave man.
Because of the previous battle in Missouri, Illinois had already mobilized in advance, and now had nearly 60,000 volunteers in its hands.
This kind of force is almost as strong as the Union army that attacked Richmond before.
So Rosecrans didn't ask for help. He felt that he could completely destroy this enemy.
Since the war began, the North and the South have won and lost each other, but generally speaking, the northerners have suffered more.
As an ambitious general, it is understandable that Rosecrans wanted to achieve his first great victory.
Rosecrans's tactics were very direct. Since the Kansas Army was going to Chicago, he took his army to Chicago to find a decisive battle with the Kansas Army.
In the early days of the war, many Northern Army generals were straightforward.
Fortunately, in the original history, most of the generals of the Southern Army were also straightforward.
Both sides can send hundreds of thousands of troops to each other to fight head-on.
It was not until Sherman appeared in the north that the situation of the war changed, because Sherman knew how to fight in a roundabout way and also invented the invasion war that destroyed the southern economy.
Now these tactics have been demonstrated first in Wall.
When Rosecrans led the main force of the Springfield Army northward.
Wall left one division behind and continued to march toward Chicago. He also collected a large amount of train skins and combat supplies from Davenport.
It does look like they're going to attack Chicago in a big way.
Rosecrans also knew the value of Chicago. It was the center of heavy industry in the entire northwest, and one-third of the Union Army's weapons were manufactured here.
He seemed to have concluded that the Kansas Army was going to attack there.
But just as Rosecrans led the army to approach Chicago, he was preparing to encircle the Kansas Army with the defenders in the city.
Wall had taken advantage of the darkness to take a boat south along the Mississippi River. They turned into the Illinois River at St. Louis and then went straight to Springfield.
At this time, in addition to several thousand left-behind troops, there were only some old, weak, women and children left in Springfield city.
The Kansas Army marched into the city like wild wolves.
This was the first large city captured by the Kansas Army after its expedition to Illinois.
After the city was captured, Wall ordered a full-scale military operation to evacuate Springfield.
Everything that cannot be moved is burned.
Rosecrans knew he had been fooled and retreated hastily.
Because many of the soldiers in the legion are from Springfield City.
Therefore, when retreating, some teams in the legion were very fast, while others maintained a normal marching speed.
This led to a result, that is, there was a disconnect between the entire Springfield Army.
Of course Rosecrans was aware of this, but the Northern Volunteers at this time were not very mature yet.
Commanders do not have very strong control over their subordinate officers, and junior officers do not have very strong control over their soldiers.
So this resulted in Rosecrans' orders not being implemented well.
When Rosecrans sent someone to tell the troops in front to stop and wait for the troops behind to move together.
It's too late.
The Kansas regiment, which had indulged itself in Springfield, was now in high morale.
They attacked Springfield without much effort.
After letting their moods fly in the big city, everyone was in high spirits.
The vanguard of the Second Division of the Army of Kansas first encountered the Springfield soldiers in the field who were eager to return home.
Such encounters are closely related to the soldiers' tactical training, the weapons and equipment used, and the soldiers' status.
First of all, the Kansas Army has experienced hundreds of battles, and almost all of them are veterans. Their tactical training is exactly the same as that of the Renaissance Army, surpassing these Northern Army volunteers by more than one street.
The Northern Army was said to be a volunteer army, but in fact it was a newly recruited militia. Many of them didn't even change their clothes, but just got a gun and went to the battlefield.
Secondly, the equipment of the Kansas Army is now updated simultaneously with that of the Renaissance Army.
Not only are the rifles the latest model, they are also equipped with machine guns, mortars and various army artillery produced by the revived military.
Finally, the Kansas Regiment had just spent two days in Springfield, and the soldiers of the Springfield Regiment had just run to Chicago and then back from Chicago.
Therefore, at the beginning of the encounter, the Kansas Army pressed against the Springfield Army.
By the time Rosecrans arrived with the follow-up troops, his leading troops had been defeated.
Rosecrans is worthy of being a brave general of the Northern Army.
He was not deterred by the defeat of the vanguard.
Instead, they reintegrated the troops in their hands, and then launched a decisive battle with the Kansas Army in a hilly area north of Springfield.
At this time, Wall had about 40,000 troops that could be used in the decisive battle.
Although Rosecrans lost his vanguard, he still had nearly 50,000 troops in his hands.
Rosecrans set up his base camp on a hill on the east bank of the Illinois River.
Then he gathered troops in the center and deployed only a small number of troops on the two wings to hold on to some strategic locations.
His purpose was very clear: to break through the Kansas Army's blocking defense line from the center.
Wall originally did not have to fight this battle, but he wanted to cover the people in Xinzhengzhou City and the Mississippi National Guard to evacuate the city.
It will take three days to evacuate the city. After all, Springfield is a relatively large city. It is also an industrial city.
Of course, Wall also had another consideration, that is, he hoped to defeat the Springfield Army in the field, so that he could go directly to Chicago.
They even took advantage of the situation and captured the city.
In that case, his strategic intention will be realized.
On the third day of the battle, Robert led his Indiana regiment to suddenly attack.
For a time, Wall was caught off guard.
The Kansas Army lost more than 5,000 people. Wall could only lead his troops to retreat along the Illinois River toward St. Louis in the south under the cover of gunboats.