Dominate the Country

There was a bloody conflict between the Chinese and American border guards.

Although the calm American lieutenant officer did not believe that the arsonists were the British and the Indians who were instigated by them, he even calmly received the condolence representatives sent by the Chinese military station opposite. But he could not tolerate the Chinese "like this" to occupy the territory belonging to the United States.

"The Chinese took advantage of our difficulties to advance the location of the military station. This is a provocation to the glorious United States and a great stain on the honor of American soldiers. At this time, should we choose to face them bravely, or stick our heads in the sand like ostriches, and ignore and remain indifferent to the behavior of the Chinese?"

The lieutenant waved his fist to encourage the American soldiers at the military station.

"Of course we have to face them bravely. No matter how great the difficulties are, they cannot stop our determination to defend the glory and interests of America. They must return to their original position. No, they must withdraw from the Great Lakes. This belongs to America, and this is the legal rights and interests granted to America by the contract. They must completely withdraw from our land..." The militia company commander echoed him.

No matter how brave the Americans are, they dare not say that China should completely withdraw from America. All they can clamor for is to ask the Chinese to withdraw from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Basin connected to it. This is what the British lost to them in the last war.

Then the Americans killed a military horse, and everyone had a full meal. The Americans would not even give up the bones. The remaining horse meat was cooked and distributed to the American soldiers to keep a piece each, which was equivalent to their next rations.

Then the aggressive Americans started a real fire in the verbal shove with the Chinese. The muskets in this battle were fired at the last moment. At first, the two sides were fighting freely, and then they evolved from fighting freely to hand-to-hand combat.

The Americans paid the price of 37 lives and 25 were captured, while Chen Han's American garrison lost a total of 7 people in the battle, which was exactly a fraction of the Americans.

The news of the bloody conflict quickly spread back to their respective upper-level leadership organizations. Some people were ecstatic, some were furious, and some were stunned, even sad and desperate, but the war was inevitable after all.

"Warriors are a disaster to the country, warriors are a disaster to the country..."

"Audacity, audacity."

"This is a conspiracy! This is a crime! These warriors are too much!"

In a small village outside Tokyo, several middle-aged men with gentle faces and elegant temperaments cursed in their hearts, and on the other hand, they had to take care of their image and try their best to express their anger.

These people had just learned about the bloody conflict between China and the United States, and they were so angry that they could not maintain their gentlemanly image.

They were the retainers of a noble family of Chen Han. They had been working hard for many years for the "enfeoffment" of their master's family. Now they were about to achieve their goal, but someone provoked the Americans at this time. In their opinion, this was really a crime worthy of death.

Moreover, from their own emotional standpoint, these people would subconsciously suspect that the whole thing was a conspiracy by some pro-American war factions of the garrison army. But the truth has already happened, and war is inevitable. What can they do if they curse?

After the news came, the whole city of Tokyo was restless. In the city, officials of all levels sitting in high-end carriages shuttled back and forth, and from time to time they hurriedly walked into the door of a big boss's house, and after a while they hurriedly left with excitement, calmness or gloom on their faces. Everyone's face was very serious, as if something big had happened.

But in fact, this was indeed a big thing. Many representatives of noble families gathered in the whole city of Tokyo, and most of these people believed that the whole bloody conflict was completely deliberately provoked by the garrison army's border defense forces. War is inevitable, unless the Americans are willing to be cowards and turn a blind eye to the bloodshed. In that case, the Chen Han American Garrison, which has taken advantage, may be able to suppress the war. But this possibility is really small.

Now many people are concerned about how the garrison will deal with this matter.

Is it just a matter of letting it go and pretending to be confused? Or is it a thorough investigation? Many people advocate that it must be investigated to the end and never tolerated.

If ten or eight nobles demand a thorough investigation, the garrison can still bear it, but if one hundred or eighty noble families demand a thorough investigation, the garrison can't bear it.

Let's not talk about the final result of the thorough investigation of this matter, the war between China and the United States is inevitable.

Yang Dewang arrived in Washington amid the welcome of the American high-level officials, but left the United States amid the intensive gunfire between China and the United States.

But he had no regrets in his heart.

As a simple Chen Han citizen, in Yang Dewang's eyes, the Lighthouse Country is a threat to Chen Han in the future vassal states in North America. It is the right choice to nip the threat in the bud while it has not fully grown.

The Chesapeake Bay was gradually left behind by the sailboat. Yang Dewang left Washington by boat, but Washington is not a coastal city by the sea. Yang Dewang first went along the Potomac River to the Chesapeake Bay, and then entered the Atlantic Ocean.

It was also this river. When Yang Dewang arrived in Washington by sailboat through the Potomac River, he only encountered three or five British ships along the way. But now when Yang Dewang and his party left Washington, he jumped into more than ten British merchant ships along the way.

Behind his boat, an American warship was faintly visible.

The war came so fast, so quickly. Just when the Americans and the British were strengthening their "trade" exchanges, the American fleet that had captured Key West Island left two battalions of dispatched troops to garrison the port, and the main force set sail northward, and had already taken the largest and most important port in the southern United States-Charleston.

The latter is the largest port in the area south of Philadelphia in the Lighthouse Country. It is a mixed use of military ports and commercial ports. Half of the American navy's small navy is stationed here. It is also the capital of South Carolina, one of the thirteen states.

In October 1808, a Chinese fleet that was very large compared to the US Navy arrived off the coast of Charleston Harbor. The red military flag flying on the tall masts tells people that this is a fleet from Chen Han.

The entire fleet consists of 20 to 30 ships. The one in front is a powerful first-class sailing battleship-Song Taizu, which is one of the two first-class sailing battleships of the American fleet. The other is Ming Chengzu, which is deployed in the Yucatan Peninsula. It is also the flagship of the American fleet.

In addition to a first-class sailing battleship, this fleet also has a second-class sailing battleship-Wu Dao Tian Wang.

The naming of Chen Han's sailing battleships is very regular. All first-class sailing battleships are named after wise rulers in history, and all of them must be emperors of the great unified dynasty. Second-class sailing battleships are named after heroes in troubled times such as Ran Min, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Liu Yu, and Chai Rong, but there is a big premise, that is, they must all be Han people. The only one who was broken is Yue Fei!

The second-class sailing battleship named after "Yue Wumu" can be said to be the most special sailing battleship.

Finally, there are third-class battleships, which are named after famous generals in history. For example, Li Guang, Wei Qing, Wang Jian, etc.

The current fleet has a first-class sailing battleship, a second-class sailing battleship, and five third-class sailing battleships, plus twelve small and medium-sized sailing battleships of various types, and ten transport ships. Carrying a large amount of military supplies and 2,000 marines and 2,000 vassal troops and dispatched troops. The entire fleet attacked 29 ships.

It can be said that this fleet occupied 60% of the entire American fleet, and Chen Han's main force in America had been gathered here.

The commander of this fleet was Ye Tingyang, who lost in the competition with Zhu Fu. It is worth mentioning that Ye Tingyang is still a firm believer in small boats and fast ships. Zhu Fu has already become the head of the navy, and Ye Tingyang has not given up his original concept.

The invention of the steam paddle steamer gave him new fighting spirit and made him see new hope for small boats and fast ships + cannons. In addition, the role played by submarines in actual combat also made him very thoughtful.

When Chen Han's fleet arrived in Charleston, the Americans had obviously received the news. The fleet encountered more than one British merchant ship in the process of going north, but according to the speed of Chen Han's American fleet, the Americans may have just received the news for no more than two days. In fact, it doesn't matter whether they receive this message or not, because some of their warships of the Southern Navy Fleet have left Charleston during this period, but more warships have been staying in the port, and the soldiers on the fort have been watching the sea vigilantly to prevent surprise attacks.

The Americans have been preparing their troops for a long time.

They also built a stone fortress, Fort Sumter, on the south bank of Charleston Harbor. A battalion of regular American troops is stationed there.

After Fort Sumter, there is Fort Moultrie. Charleston Harbor is the largest port in the southern United States and an important military port of the US Navy. How can the defense not be meticulous?

Seeing that several warships of the enemy navy have decided to stay in the port as mobile forts, Chen Han will not wait any longer.

The formal battle started in the early morning of the second day after Chen Han's fleet arrived. Several transport ships, under the cover of four battleships, drove to the north of Charleston Bay one after another, where there is a small dock.

Charleston Bay is not big, with a depth of only 12 miles. There are two small peninsulas in the south and north of the bay, which protect Charleston like an arm guard, and the closest distance between the two peninsulas is only four miles. The Americans did not have time to build a solid artillery fort on the north side, but they carefully arranged an artillery position here. The north and south cross, which can completely block the mouth of Charleston Bay. Combined with the naval warships in the port, the firepower is very fierce.

But the Americans can only do it from the front with such a standard of defensive firepower. It is not worthwhile to attack from the front. What if Ye Tingyang changes direction and attacks from the side?

The US Army and Navy in the entire South Carolina only have 20,000 to 30,000 people. Such a small number of people have to guard the hundreds of kilometers of coastline in South Carolina, which is simply not enough. The defenders of Charleston are only about 10,000, and their commanders are arranged one by one around the city of Charleston according to the river terrain of Charleston. A slightly farther distance is no longer within the defense range of the US military.

Thirteen or fourteen miles north of Charleston Bay, there is a small but well-designed dock. This dock is probably a dock at the level of a fisherman's village, so small that it is impossible for transport ships to dock. But fortunately, unlike Charleston, where there are artillery fire everywhere, there are very few American militias, let alone cannons, which is just right for Chen Han's army to land.

After the two third-level battleships washed the ground with artillery, Chen Han's transport fleet sailed as close to the dock as possible, put down a small boat, and began to land in large numbers. The first to land successfully was the Marine Corps. They successfully boarded the dock without any obstruction, as easy as an outing.

After the successful landing, the Marine Corps quickly occupied the entire dock and occupied the small village by the sea. There was no exchange of fire during the whole process. The American fishermen in the dock and the Americans in the village had already fled, and there were not even a few livestock left.

The US Army in Charleston is only about 10,000, which is a very powerful force for America. But it is always felt that there is a shortage of soldiers and major generals when it is arranged around a city. They simply cannot draw out extra manpower to deploy and support here. Even though this place is so close to Charleston. But the old Americans are so helpless.

The entire Lighthouse Country has only 6 million people. Not counting the black slaves in South Carolina, is there 300,000 or 400,000 people? If there were not a certain number of federal regular troops, South Carolina alone would not be able to raise 20,000 to 30,000 militiamen. If the 200,000 troops of the United States could not be used in a centralized manner, they would be short of soldiers and generals for their vast country, with loopholes everywhere.