1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 466, The Darkness Chen Cang (7)

Although the emergence of heroes restored the morale of the US military, a war cannot be won by morale alone. Of course, if the opponent is a Saronbas logistics company, it is certainly not included. Generally speaking, although the Spaniards are not a fighting nation, their combat effectiveness is definitely not bad. Especially considering the possible revenge of the US military, these Spaniards are more motivated to fight. Just like later in World War II, even if they were beaten to Berlin, the German army still had the determination to resist to the end. On the contrary, although the German army guarding the Ruhr area was personally commanded by experts in defense warfare, hundreds of thousands of troops surrendered after the United States attacked. Without him, just because he surrendered to United States, maybe he could escape the revenge of the Russians. What if the U.S. army does not surrender when it comes, and the U.S. army repels it, and then it is replaced by the Russians. What should I do?

Since the Spaniards are going to fight to the end, then the attack is inevitable. To defeat the Spaniards hiding behind the fortifications, Mr. Roosevelt needed something louder and more convincing. This thing is a heavy artillery. Only heavy artillery can knock on the Spanish defenses.

The State Apparatus of the United States with the separation of powers suddenly showed super high efficiency. In just one morning, the Senate and House of Representatives passed a series of bills to prepare for emergency loans. Of course, it also includes Scrooge and Morgan. The Fed bill that has been busy for a long time.

Not only state institutions have shown extremely high efficiency, but the capital market has also shown extremely high efficiency. It can be seen that the free market is the real source of efficiency. What? You said that this time is no longer a real free market? Scrooge and Morgan are both engaged in monopoly? You must be the Communist Party that took Jewish money!

In the morning, all the agreements were passed, and in the afternoon, all the funds were in place, and by the evening, a full twenty of the latest 8-inch (203 mm) caliber artillery had begun at a factory of the McDonald Infantry Weapons Company. The inside was loaded with a flatbed train.

The railway department is also well coordinated. From the north to the south, the train only took a little over two days. Then the loading was very smooth, and even the sailing to Cuba and ashore was considered smooth. The Cuban insurgents have ports in their hands. Although the port conditions are not very good and the throughput capacity is limited, this batch of munitions as the highest priority material still landed smoothly.

Only after landing, trouble came.

The basic design of MacDonald’s latest 1895 8-inch howitzer is based on the Soviet B4 howitzer known as Stalin’s Hammer in World War II. Only because of the difference in materials, this gun weighs up to 19 tons, which is heavier than the original B4 howitzer. In order to facilitate the movement, the Macdonald Infantry Weapons Company also gave it a set of tracked gun mounts. Of course, this gun mount is a bit heavier than the original, and weighs 13 tons. As a result, the entire system weighs 32 tons.

At that time, Cuban roads were designed for carriages with a load of no more than one ton, so the transportation of such heavy objects became a big problem. Although the wide track of the tracked gun carriage ensures that this giant gun will not sink on the road, it is not easy to move it. It is natural to use horses to pull things like this. Fortunately, the McDonald Infantry Weapons Company, which has always served in place, also brought heavy artillery tractors with the ship—in fact, it was the Shenniu-type crawler tractor of the Fengshou Agricultural Machinery Company under MacDonald. Name, and then triple the price by the way.

Under the traction of these sacred cow-type crawler tractors, these giants are slowly advancing towards the Sacred Land port at a speed of five to six kilometers per hour, and all around these huge guns are United States soldiers in charge of security work.

After traveling twenty kilometers, they encountered the first problem-crossing the bridge.

Like roads, in the design of Cuba’s bridges in this era, it was never considered that one day something weighing 32 tons would be pressed from above. They are also built for the purpose of allowing heavy-duty carriages to pass. So the engineers from McDonald’s Infantry Weapons Company who provided after-sales service with these artillery just took a glance and confirmed that the bridge in front of me, not to mention the entire artillery, is the tracked gun carriage. It can also be crushed. So, there was no alternative, everyone had to stop and strengthen the bridge.

After such a busy schedule, it took a full eight hours, and then the artillery team started to rush overnight, and walked for a few hours, and then they encountered a bridge…

Bridges are not the only trouble. In fact, in addition to bridges, the reliability of the machinery itself also brought a lot of trouble to this march of less than 100 kilometers. Facts have proved that the sacred cow-type crawler tractor of the pull-up version is not suitable for long-distance running at all, nor is it suitable for long-distance running under full load conditions. In a short distance of 100 kilometers, on average, each heavy artillery tractor broke down more than five times. Twenty tractors broke down a total of 112 times. The roads in Cuba are very narrow. After all, it is only designed for horse-drawn carriages. Something as super wide as the McDonald’s 1895 6-inch howitzer is never within the scope of design considerations. Therefore, the narrow road makes it impossible for the rear artillery to pass the front artillery, or the rear tractor to pass the front tractor. As a result, any tractor has a problem, other vehicles must stop and wait. It is repaired. On average, the entire artillery team needs to stop and repair the tractor every one kilometer forward. As a result, the artillery team walked for a whole week in a short distance of more than 100 kilometers!

“God bless you! You finally got here!” Looking at these twenty mighty and majestic cannons, Theodore Roosevelt said to Edward, the blackwater mercenary leader in charge of the artillery battles, “God, the evening before yesterday. I saw you through the telescope, but damn it, until today, you are crawling over.”

“No way, the road conditions in Cuba are too bad.” Edward shook his head and said, “Your Excellency, if there are railways everywhere in Cuba like the United States, we would have arrived a week ago.”

“Okay.” Roosevelt didn’t intend to really pursue this issue. “How about, can you fire two shots over there to show us? I think this should not involve the problem of exposing the target. Those Spaniards also I’ve seen you a long time ago. I’m afraid they haven’t slept much since the night before. In the past two days, they have been working on fortifications day and night.”

…

Indeed, as Roosevelt said, the Spaniard discovered the United States’ artillery team two days ago. Relying on the high-powered telescope set up on the top of the mountain, they saw the artillery team a little earlier than Roosevelt.

The Spaniards are not totally aware of the new weapons that may appear on the US military. At least the Spanish soldiers in Cuba will never. Because for so many years, they have been torturing Cuban insurgents who use United States weapons. Although the Cuban rebels would never have such a terrifying cannon in their hands, the Spanish commander Leonardo knew that he might one day face the United States army. Therefore, he is very concerned about any Army weapons manufactured by the United States.

After the Macdonald 1895 six-inch howitzer was developed, it was not equipped for the United States Army, but it was exported to many countries. Therefore, Lieutenant Colonel Leonardo still knows something about this cannon.

“Damn it! This thing will definitely kill us!” Lieutenant Colonel Leonardo gritted his teeth. He knew that the fortifications on the high ground, even the strongest reinforced concrete main bunker, would definitely not survive. It was hit by the one-hundred and ten-kilogram shells fired by the 8-inch caliber.

“Immediately let the soldiers and all those who can help move, and quickly reinforce the fortifications!” Colonel Leonardo issued an order. However, they don’t have so many steel bars in their hands, and they don’t have enough cement. Even if they do, they don’t have enough time for the concrete to set to the best strength. Therefore, the so-called way to strengthen the fortifications is to spread soil on the top of the bunker, ram it hard, then pave a layer of logs, and then put a layer of soil on it. But damn it, the wood is just as scarce. In order not to block the horizon, the trees on the mountain have been cut down long ago. And ran down to the mountain to chop down trees? Are you kidding me? When the United States guys and Cubans at the bottom of the mountain are dead? Fortunately, there were a lot of wood in the buildings in the port. By forcibly demolishing a lot of houses, the wood problem was finally solved.

Another thing that made Leonardo thankful was that the movement speed of the United States guy’s artillery team was so slow. They didn’t come to him for two days, so he had more time. So far, he has covered the top of the main bunker with a three-meter log-soil composite structure. But whether this structure can block those terrible shells, Leonardo still has no idea.

…

Twenty Macdonalds began to enter the gun position one after another in 1895. This artillery has a range of 17 kilometers, far beyond the artillery in the hands of the Spaniards. Considering that the Spaniards only had some heavy mortars on the mountain, even with the help of altitude, their range was only about four kilometers. Therefore, the American gun position is quite close to the Spanish position, less than 7 kilometers. At this distance, both safety and high shooting accuracy can be guaranteed. Of course, if the 11-inch guns on the Spaniard’s coastal defense turrets were moved to the top of the mountain, they would be able to reach the gun positions. It’s just that those fortress guns are much heavier than McDonald’s 1895 and can’t move at all.

“Okay, let’s say hello to the Spaniards!” Seeing that all the cannons are in place, Edward said: “Each cannon fires two shells. First, Owens and your battery will fire the first shot. Test fire, and then we make adjustments according to the situation of the landing…”

I suffered a loss in the stock market today and I was in a mess. I can’t write more, so today there is only this chapter.