1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 710 Death Latitude and Longitude

"From last night to this morning, I have sent three delegations into the city to negotiate with McClellan, demanding his unconditional surrender." Seeing Liang Yao, Kruger put down the coffee cup in his hand and reported the latest progress to Liang Yao.

"McClellan seems to still have hope and wants to fight to the end."

Stanford has also shared the casualty data of the Omaha Corps with Kruger. Even with the most conservative estimate, the casualties of the Omaha Corps yesterday exceeded 2.7.

The thickness of the dumpling wrapper of the Western Army surrounding Omaha City has hardly changed, but the Omaha Corps, as the dumpling filling, has lost a lot. The dumpling of Omaha City is no longer so thin and the filling is so large.

Given the current situation, the Western Army could capture Omaha even by force.

In other words, McClellan no longer had the capital to fight to the end.

"Since McClellan is still hoping for the best, let's break down his last psychological defense." Liang Yao took a sip of the coffee handed to him by Kruger's orderly, and after just a small sip, he frowned.

"Kruger, your coffee tastes terrible."

"This coffee is specially used by me to refresh myself. The new orderly is ignorant and gave you the coffee originally made for me." Kruger scolded the orderly and continued to discuss the battle in Omaha with Liang Yao.

"We have advanced to the edge of Omaha. Most of the blocks in Omaha are within the range of our artillery. I really want to know whether the will of the Northern Army in Omaha is stronger or our truth is stronger."

The city of Omaha is already in its hands. What the Western Army is now considering is not how to capture the city of Omaha, but how to capture the city of Omaha at the lowest possible cost.

Kruger knew that the Union Army in the Omaha Corps had already become a frightened bird and was in a state of panic all day long.

The best way to completely destroy their will is to drop ammunition into the city and use it to crush their will to resist.

"We have more than one truth." Liang Yao raised his eyebrows and looked at the flames of war in Omaha City. "There are still many rockets and machine gun ammunition in the warehouse. Give them all to them."

Now that they have advanced to the edge of Omaha, the machine guns can definitely penetrate into the city.

The range of the machine gun is not as good as that of the Sacramento gun, and the area of ​​the city that the machine gun firepower can cover is also relatively limited.

However, the Western Army’s primary goal now is to destroy the Omaha Corps’ last psychological defense line with firepower, and casualties are secondary.

The Omaha Corps had just experienced yesterday's massacre, and now the sound of machine gun fire might be more deterrent than the sound of Sacramento guns.

As for rockets, they are even better at hitting targets as large as urban areas. All you have to do is shoot the rockets into the city and there is no need to worry about accuracy.

After arranging the attack on Omaha City, Kruger asked Liang Yao whether he had seen the relevant intelligence on the Eastern Front today.

"Have you seen the intelligence on the Eastern Front?"

"I was busy accompanying Napoleon III this morning and didn't have time to look at the intelligence from the east." Liang Yao shook his head and asked, "Are there any new developments in the east?"

"There has been no new progress for the time being." Kruger said worriedly, "Robert Lee and Beauregard have different opinions. Robert Lee advocates stopping the troops outside Washington and forcing Washington to negotiate peace with Richmond. Beauregard believes that Washington will not negotiate peace unless Washington is captured."

As the Confederate Army advanced rapidly and reached the outskirts of Washington, divisions began to emerge within the army.

Robert Lee advocated resting while forcing Washington to negotiate peace, on the grounds that the Confederate Army had just experienced a great war and the soldiers were tired and exhausted.

Beauregard believed that although the Confederate Army was exhausted, it had just won a great victory and its morale was high. It was better to continue to advance northward and capture the capital of the Northern Confederacy to expand its victory. Moreover, the Confederate Army was exhausted, but wasn't the Northern Army, which had just suffered a crushing defeat, also exhausted?

Of course, these are just superficial reasons. The deeper reason is that Robert Lee still had illusions about the Northern Union and believed that once Washington was captured, the North and the South would become enemies and there would be no room for maneuver.

Robert Lee hoped to show goodwill to the North in order to resolve the hatred between the two sides, separate peacefully, and live in peace.

Although Liang Yao and Robert Lee had a better personal relationship, Liang Yao believed that Beauregard was right on this issue.

Robert Lee's idea was too naive. Once the cannon fire from Fort Sumter sounded, this civil war was destined to be a life-and-death struggle. There would be no reconciliation without a winner.

Historically, after the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Confederate Army had a chance to take Washington, and the Confederate Army on the south bank of the Potomac River could even clearly see the top of Capitol Hill.

The triumphant Confederate soldiers believed victory was within reach, but they did not know that this was the closest they had ever been to victory. After the Second Battle of Bull Run, facing the return of the Union Army, the Confederate Army was no longer able to bring the war to the Union territory.

I wonder what the retired Southern veterans in Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina who lost their homes and black slaves would feel many years later when they think back to the time when they missed the opportunity to see Washington, the capital of the Northern Union, on the south bank of the Potomac River?

"Robert is such a pure and stupid guy." Liang Yao sighed helplessly.

Compared to McClellan, McDowell, and Robert Lee, who used the battlefield as a political show, they were much purer soldiers. However, soldiers who were too pure in this era generally did not end well.

"To be honest, I'm very worried about the peace talks between the North and the South. If they achieve peace, the Northern Federation will be able to concentrate its resources to deal with us." Kruger expressed his concerns.

This is also what Liang Yao is most worried about and what he is most unwilling to see.

"I'll find a way to add fuel to the fire." Liang Yao already had an idea in his mind.

Robert Lee was the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army and Beauregard was the deputy commander-in-chief. If the two sides were deadlocked, Robert Lee's opinion would most likely prevail in the end.

If the Confederate Army was to continue moving north to attack Washington, they could only start from Richmond.

There were quite a few radicals in Richmond, especially representatives from radical southern states such as South Carolina and Georgia. Their proposal was not to capture Washington, but to fight all the way to New York or even Boston.

Confederate President Davis was slow to take a stand in the dispute between Robert Lee and Beauregard.

Liang Yao speculated that Davis did not want to fight Washington, but that he was willing but unable to do so.

To put it bluntly, there is a lack of military funds and military supplies.

And these are what Liang Yao can provide to the South.

The South provides the men, the West provides the weapons, and using the blood of the Southerners to consume the blood of the Northerners has always been the most ideal combat mode in Liang Yao's mind.

Hundreds of rocket launch vehicles and launch pads have been set up on the outskirts of Omaha.

The Western Army had an independent rocket regiment, which had the same status as the machine gun regiment.

The rocket launcher can usually be pulled by animals or humans to launch small and medium-sized rockets weighing 64 pounds or less.

As for large rockets, they cannot be launched using a launch vehicle and can only be launched on a launch pad specially built for launching large rockets before launch.

Therefore, the application scenarios of large rockets are relatively limited, and they can only be used for defending and attacking cities.

After a full five hours of preparation, with the help of the engineering corps, 5 rocket launchers for launching large rockets were built.

Under the command of the regiment commander Wang Shengqing, the soldiers of the rocket regiment lifted the tarpaulin covering the launch pad, and the Sacramentov rockets on the 72 rocket launchers glowed with the cold light of cast iron in the dazzling midday sun. These 1.2-meter to 2-meter long light rockets on the rocket launchers had walnut tail fins to help the rockets stabilize their flight.

The large rocket on the launch pad was scribbled with white paint by the officers and soldiers of the Rocket Regiment with various black humor slogans and slogans to persuade surrender, such as "Warm greetings from the Rocket Regiment of the Republic," "Hello, City of Omaha!", "How are you, General McClellan," "There is no point in continuing to fight, please choose to surrender!", "We treat prisoners well!", "Surrender and you will get a train ticket home!"

"Everyone! Free fire and launch!!"

Following Wang Shengqing's order, the soldiers of the Rocket Regiment used long-handled torches to light the rocket fuses. Their movements were like lighting a cigarette for the devil.

The moment the rocket's tail flame gushed out, the cast iron support instantly plowed deep grooves in the black clay, and the launch site was illuminated in a pale white by the rocket's tail smoke.

When the first wave of rockets passed over the city of Omaha, the Union soldiers who were ringing the alarm bell on the clock tower saw a scene that they would never forget: hundreds of steel pikes with sulfur-colored tails weaved lines of death on the blue sky, and then crashed into the building and exploded!

The power of these steel barracudas is even more terrifying than the Western Army’s heavy artillery!

The moment the three lucky cast iron warheads crashed into the cotton warehouse in the city, they ignited the long-staple cotton wool in the warehouse. The cotton wool mixed with phosphorous fire burned in the air, as if God had sprinkled a rain of fire in the cotton warehouse.

A few seconds later, before the Northern Army near the warehouse had time to escape, a huge explosion sent the entire warehouse and them into the sky.

Except for a few iconic buildings such as churches, town halls, parliament buildings and courts, which are made of brick and stone, most of the buildings in cities in the central border areas, especially civil buildings, are made of wood and are extremely easy to ignite.

After four or five rounds of rockets, more than a quarter of Omaha's city area was engulfed in flames.

The soldiers and residents in the city were busy running around with their safes and gold and silver jewelry, or drawing water from the well in an attempt to put out the fire.

The Northern Federal Congressmen and their families in the city entered the church cellar under the protection of their servants.

McClellan's performance was satisfactory. Unlike Astor and Livingston, he did not hide in the basement or cellar. Instead, he urgently organized the soldiers in the city to defend, built a temporary defense line in the urban area, prepared to meet the attack of the Western Army, and was ready to fight street fighting with the Western Army.

(End of this chapter)