Thomas did not bring many people this time, less than 20,000 people, but this has changed the balance between the two sides. If it were not for the river gunboats deployed along the river.
This time the losses of the Kansas Army were likely to be even greater.
Wall led the regiment to retreat to the base camp of St. Louis City.
Although the city of Chicago was not captured this time, the gains were not small. The entire Springfield, including its southern and western regions, and almost all towns and farms were looted by the Kansas Army.
Half of Illinois has been destroyed.
When Rosecrans returned to Springfield with the remaining Springfield Army and Thomas' reinforcements.
Only the ruins of the city remain.
It took northerners hundreds of years to build this city.
But it only took the Kansas Army three or five days to destroy it.
Of course, the Mississippi National Army and the "demolition team" sent by Zhao Sixi from Xinzhengzhou City also played a huge role.
The essence of this war lies in breaking the attack.
Wall had made it very clear to Davis before that what the North relied on was its strong industrial system.
If we want to finally defeat the North, we must destroy the North's economy.
Only by the ebb and flow of one thing can the South finally defeat the North.
Now only the Kansas Army can fight deep into the heart of the North, and only they can do this.
The Grand Army on the Eastern Front, facing off between Washington and Richmond, could not do this.
Because the capitals of both sides are too close together, it is still the main battlefield. Both sides are constantly increasing their positions there.
From the beginning, each side had only 50,000 to 60,000 troops, and later each side had hundreds of thousands of troops, and now both sides have nearly 200,000 troops facing each other on the front line.
The artillery purchased by both sides was even placed here.
Relying on its strong industrial strength, the Northern Army raised more than a thousand artillery pieces in a short period of time.
The Southern Army is no less generous. You have factories and I have money.
Waving real money and silver, the southerners quickly invested more than 800 artillery pieces here.
The confrontation between the two sides is still on both sides of the Benniu River. The last time the two sides fought here.
But the battle at that time seemed like a parade on both sides, or a child's play exercise.
The current battle is called the real battle.
These immigrants in the New World once again felt what real iron and fire are.
The closest war they had was when the Chinese burned down Washington fifty years ago.
After that, they also massacred the Yin Di'an people, or bullied the Moxicans from time to time.
But those were all one-sided battles. Ordinary immigrants have no intuitive impression of these wars.
They just know how much more land they have gained.
How much did the territory of Milicia expand to the south?
But now, the war is happening around them.
Washington and Richmond, the capitals of the North and South, all became the front lines of the war.
The distance between the two is already very short, and no inch of land can be given to the other.
The northerners dug a trench hundreds of kilometers long on the north bank of the Benniu River.
The soil excavated from the trenches almost built a new embankment on the north bank of the river.
For this trench, the north mobilized millions of people and built a solid defense line in just half a month.
Secretary of War Stanton of the Northern Army said that this line of defense was as much a wonder of the world as the pyramids of Egypt.
Abraham said that this magnificent line of defense represents the determination of the American people to maintain unity, rather than the gap between the north and the south.
In his speech, he persuaded the southern states to abandon their illusions of secession.
Returning to the arms of Millikin is their only way out.
The southern states refused to give in at all, and President Davis made a speech to fight to the end.
Naturally, no one would be at a disadvantage in the war of words in the newspapers.
Anyway, the newspapers on both sides are speaking for their own people. If you say I am splitting, I will say you are seeking to centralize power.
You say I engage in slavery, I say this is my freedom.
As for right or wrong, it seems that it no longer matters. What matters is that the people under your rule recognize it.
Even many black slaves in the South opposed returning to the North.
Because those black factories in the north are portrayed more like hell.
Relatively speaking, the manors in the South provide food and accommodation, and are more like the Garden of Eden for slaves.
Objectively speaking, not all plantations maliciously oppressed slaves.
At that time, there were indeed many manors who treated their slaves well and even allowed them to study.
Although this is also to allow some slaves to help manage the manor.
However, in addition to being property in name, these slaves were actually considered life-long employees.
The Southern Army also established its own trench positions on the south bank of the river.
A large number of black slaves were even mobilized to help dig trenches.
This is definitely a great provocation to the North.
The two sides launched several offensive and defensive battles around the Benniu River.
However, both sides lost a large number of soldiers, but achieved nothing.
The confrontation here has become a dead end, and no matter how talented a general is, it is difficult for him to have room to show his talents.
Even Robert E. Lee couldn't find a way around it.
It seems that breaking through the defense line is really impossible.
The only way is to take a detour by sea or land.
The Northern Army preferred to advance by sea and land to open a second front.
The warships of the South have not yet been purchased, and there is a big gap between the navy and the North.
However, several large ports in the south now have Yinfu's ships stationed there.
Although the two countries promised not to interfere in the war between the North and the South.
However, they actually never stopped supporting the South.
At least Yingfu's weapons have been imported to the south.
Of course, if northerners want to buy, they will also sell.
At present, in the war between the North and the South, powerful countries such as Yingfu are the winners.
The money that southerners have accumulated through so many years of hard work in farming is being lost little by little.
The northerners are even worse off. They can't sell their own goods now, and they have to use their reserves to buy arms.
Southerners can at least continue to export cotton, cane sugar and other raw materials.
The North is now in a wartime economy, and most of the factories are producing weapons.
The cost of raw materials is also increasing, and the goods they produce simply cannot compete with Europa.
Washington.
Abraham was sitting with his head buried in his desk, and the documents on his desk were piled as high as a hill.
On his thin face, his cheekbones protruded, and he wore a pair of silver-rimmed glasses on his tall nose.
The documents on the desktop were like mountains, and the applications for funding almost bent his spine.
Money, money……
Everyone is asking for money.
Without money, those soldiers seemed unable to move.
They still don't know why they are fighting.
"Thump thump thump..." The sound of leather shoes hitting the floor came.
As soon as Abraham heard the footsteps, he knew who was coming.
His secretary Kennedy is a serious and meticulous young man.
He has a composure beyond his years and is not surprised by changes.
He is very self-disciplined and keeps walking at the same frequency even when walking.
That's why Abraham recognized his voice every time.
"Mr. President, I have some news for you." Kennedy knocked on the door and got a response and walked into the room.
Lincoln could tell from his tone that this was not good news.
"Well, tell me, it doesn't seem to be good news." Abraham said.
"Lately, bad news has been coming one after another."
"President, it's not too bad news. General Rosecrans of the Springfield Army reported that they had repulsed the Confederate Army of Kansas and annihilated at least 10,000 people on the other side. However, their army also suffered losses.
It's so tragic that they hope the federation can allocate another batch of weapons to them."
"Hmph, this Rosecrans fights very fiercely, but it also requires money." Abraham said with a cold snort.
"He didn't even report the number of casualties on his side. What is he trying to cover up?" Abraham said dissatisfied.
Nowadays, various states have a tendency to carry their own troops.
In order to confront the South, Abraham had to appropriately liberalize military power to the states.
In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of various states and win more volunteers.
"President, there is a problem with this Kansas regiment. Most of them are composed of Chinese." Kennedy said.
"There's nothing strange about this. These people are the former Yangtze River Security. I don't know how Davis persuaded them. It probably cost a lot of money."
"But President, according to the report of General Rosecrans, the number of these Chinese legions has soared to 70,000 or 80,000 this time (actually only 50,000). So where did so many Chinese legions come from?
Woolen cloth?"
Abraham's brows were furrowed, and the wrinkles on his forehead looked like curly ravines.
"It seems that these Chinese in California are very restless. On the surface they tell us that they oppose slavery and are willing to stay in the Union, but secretly they are sending people to support the South." Abraham said angrily.
"Humph, these damn Chinese, President, we must take measures to prevent their schemes from succeeding. It's obvious that they want to benefit from the war between us and the southerners." He has always been very gentlemanly.
, Kennedy, who pays attention to his own words, couldn't help but use foul language at this time.
"Kennedy, calm down. These small actions of the Chinese have been expected for a long time, but we can only tolerate it for the time being. At least we must defeat the southerners first. Now these Chinese have already taken root in the west, and there are many in the Far East.
With the support of that big country, their strength is not weak.”
"I have known for a long time that the Chinese have secretly manipulated the west, but we can't do anything now. If we really push them completely to the side of the southerners, we will be attacked from both sides."
"Just like now the French and French are supporting the southerners, but we still can't do anything to them. Without a unified America, we can only tolerate it in the face of these big countries." Abraham analyzed.
There is no shortage of smart people in Washington. Although Canada has made some cover-ups, there are so many Chinese there that it cannot be contained.
Li Kaicheng and the others cannot completely block the communication between things.
So the news about California collected by Abraham has already been piled up.
"Mr. President, are we just going to watch them do these little tricks?"
"No, of course not. I will send someone to send a message to the California Congress representatives later, talking about this issue, and warning them to restrain the Chinese under their rule. If there are any more Chinese in the Southern Army, I will order the expulsion of the Americans.
All the Chinese in the territory." Abraham said through gritted teeth.
He also deeply hates these Chinese. If his two predecessors had not allowed the Chinese to develop unchecked in California, this situation would not have happened.
"President, I'm afraid this won't have much effect. They probably know that we don't dare to fall out with them." Kennedy seemed to have understood the relationship after hearing Abraham say so much. This situation really made him
Frustrated.
"We are just expressing our attitude to them. This is just the first thing. The second thing is to let the newspapers report on the situation of the Chinese in California."
"I think any smart person can figure it out. If a war between the north and the south ends up benefiting the Chinese in the west, what would that be like? I think any smart person can figure it out."
"This is a great idea. I believe people from both the North and the South will be hostile to the Chinese in the West." Kennedy's eyes lit up.
This move should be used sooner, maybe then there won't be a war between the north and the south.
Instead, the entire United States went to war against the Chinese entrenched in California.
Unfortunately, the west is too far away, and everyone focuses more on immediate benefits.
At this time, the Great Plains west of the Mississippi River was considered the west.
California is more like an enclave hanging on the west coast.
Because of this, the Chinese were able to quietly make a fortune in California and control the place before the Americans even noticed.
In fact, when the Chinese first arrived, Millikin's control over the area was relatively weak.
Abraham already knew there was a problem in California when he was campaigning, but by then it was already too late.
"President, in addition to General Rosecrans, the Governor of Illinois also submitted a report."
"And Rosecrans didn't mention this matter."
"What?" Abraham wanted to know what Rosecrans was trying to hide.
"The governor of Illinois reported that the Confederate Army of Kansas evacuated the entire Springfield and the cities to the south, leaving not even a person behind. The city of Springfield was burned to the ground.
Lost."
"What?" Abraham stood up suddenly and almost overturned the table.
"How dare they do this? Are they a group of robbers? We have to condemn it. Go back and tell all the newspapers to report this matter to me. I will ask Davis, was this his idea?" Abraham did.
Was shocked.
Cold sweat broke out on his back. These Chinese really had bad intentions. If both the North and the South fought in this way, even if the war ended in the end, what kind of America would be left?