America 1881: Legend of the West

Washington, D.C., is very beautiful on a sunny day with green grass.

President McKinley was walking out of the White House, preparing to attend a discussion on military reform.

He glanced at the sky.

Clear skies.

Mr. President felt refreshed instantly.

"Aha, what a nice weather!"

The carriage had stopped at the door of the White House, waiting for him.

McKinley straightened his clothes, walked down the steps, and walked toward the carriage.

But just as he was about to board the carriage, his assistant suddenly came over with a large envelope.

"Mr. President, this is for you." The assistant handed the envelope to the president.

"Who sent it?" McKinley turned around and asked.

The assistant shook his head.

"I don't know. There's no signature on the envelope, sir."

McKinley already had one foot on the wagon.

He suddenly felt like laughing for no reason.

"Mike, as my assistant, you should know that there are hundreds of letters sent to me every day, including some psychopaths and extremists. How did you pick out an anonymous letter from so many letters to What about mine?"

The assistant named Mike said nothing and just turned the envelope over.

The envelope was sealed with wax, and the stamp on it looked familiar to McKinley.

Compass and square ruler.

Masonic emblem.

McKinley took the envelope and the letter opener handed by his assistant, looked around, then bent down and got into the carriage with the envelope.

In the carriage, McKinley opened the envelope.

A note floated from the envelope and landed at McKinley's feet.

McKinley bent down, picked up the note, and unfolded it.

There are a few words printed in ink on it:

Chen Jianqiu occupied the port of Guantánamo and is transforming it.

The president's brow furrowed.

Guantanamo port? What does Chen Jianqiu want with that place?

That port has no advantages as a commercial port, because Cuba behind it is now poor, and if shipments need to be made, the Havana Port in the north is better in terms of geography and topography.

But Guantanamo Bay is a good haven.

It has natural inner and outer bay barriers, and Caimanera City is like a lock that can lock out enemies.

In the previous war with the Spaniards, if it weren't for Chen Jianqiu, he took the lead in conquering the non-urban areas of southern Cuba and surrounded the city of Caimanera as quickly as possible with absolute force.

In addition, Roberto is timid and the Spanish fleet is too stretched.

It's hard to say whether the US fleet can enter the inner bay.

Therefore, Guantánamo is an excellent military port.

What? naval port?

Thinking of this, McKinley was suddenly startled by himself.

Chen Jianqiu took advantage of Cuba's own government to occupy a military port and is still renovating it. What does this mean?
He touched the envelope and found that there was something else inside.

The president poured out the contents of the envelope.

It's a stack of black and white photos, a bit blurry, but you can vaguely see workers renovating the port.

McKinley silently stuffed the photo and note into the envelope.
The carriage swayed along the way, and his heart also swayed.

From the moment he first came into contact with Chen Jianqiu, McKinley felt that this person was very capable and could even be said to be able to turn his hands into clouds and rain in the southwest region.

He was able to ascend to the throne of president because of his great help.

But this was also something McKinley feared.

If this person is purely for his own power and wealth, it is not actually scary.

But he didn't.

McKinley deeply understood that Chen Jianqiu was not so easy to get rid of.

He wants to repeal the China Act himself.

This request itself is actually not too much, because the status of Chinese in the United States is no longer what it used to be.

Because of this, McKinley is now deeply worried.

After driving for a while, the carriage stopped.

"Mr. President, the munitions building has arrived." The coachman's voice came from outside.

McKinley snapped out of his thoughts.

He resealed the envelope and stuffed it into his clothes.

As if nothing had happened, the president got off the carriage and walked into the munitions building.

Unlike Chen Jianqiu, a frequent visitor here, McKinley rarely comes here.

Under normal circumstances, the Secretary of War would report the results of their discussion to the President, and McKinley would just say yes or no.

But regarding the meeting on military reform, McKinley expressed his hope that he could participate in the whole process.

The President walked up to the third floor without any entourage and entered the conference room.

There were a group of soldiers in military uniforms sitting in the conference room.

These people come from the administrative bureau, technical bureau, supply bureau and other internal agencies of the Army Department, and they are all experienced officers.

And their Minister of War, Root, was standing in front quietly communicating with an officer.

McKinley went to the front row and sat down.

There was an empty seat there just for him.

"Let's begin." Mr. President motioned to Root.

The assistant began to distribute documents to the crowd.

Root did not hesitate and began to talk about his military reform plan to everyone, including the president.

"Not long ago, we just experienced a war."

"Although we won the war, the various problems exposed during the war were shocking."

"Our army is poorly prepared, its training level is worrisome, its chain of command is chaotic, and there are serious problems with its logistics supply, all of which have cost us a price we should not have paid."

"After research and analysis, we believe that unclear responsibilities are the main reason for these phenomena." "In this regard, I think we should learn from Germany and set up a general staff and a chief of staff. The latter will replace the commander-in-chief and serve as the president's main military adviser, exercising the secretary of state's supervision over the military."

“The former develops plans and ensures their implementation, providing support to the chief of staff.”

McKinley held his cheek in his hand and waited quietly for Root to finish speaking, then thought for a moment and asked:
"So where do these people for the staff come from?"

"I think these people should all be experienced front-line officers. Professional people do professional things. Only they understand the situation faced by the front-line troops best, and only they can make the most reliable plan."

McKinley nodded and motioned for Root to continue.

"Second, in order to cope with the current and future international situation, we need more troops to consolidate the rights and interests of the United States overseas. Therefore, we recommend increasing the number of conventional troops."

After hearing what Root said, the officers below became excited.

The larger size of the federal army means more officer positions, which is undoubtedly good news for them.

But McKinley's expression remained calm:
"So what is the Army's current plan for selecting regular troops?"

"At present, priority is given to retaining those troops that performed well in the Spanish-American War, such as the Second Independent Cavalry Brigade, which was formed by integrating the First and Second Volunteer Cavalry Brigades," Root replied. "They are currently stationed in Cuba."

"We recommend keeping two to three standing divisions for training and exercises."

McKinley fell into deep thought again.

If Root's plan goes according to plan, among the next 30,000 to 40,000 regular troops of the United States, at least nearly 10,000 will be Chinese soldiers.

Didn’t the War Department see the problem?
But as a qualified politician, the President did not immediately raise sharp questions, but waited until Rutte finished his plan.

Experience and intuition told him that this plan would be difficult to pass in Congress.

"Mr. President, do you have any other opinions on the military reform plan?" Root asked the president very respectfully.

The President shook his head.

"Very good. Let's communicate with Congress."

When the meeting was over, McKinley walked out the door.

Instead of going downstairs, he went straight to the Admiralty upstairs.

The Navy Secretary's office was still closed with a sick sign on it, so the President went to the Deputy Secretary's office.

Of course, all the naval officers knew the President and greeted him.

Since his election, McKinley has always given people a feeling of being in the spring breeze.

But today his smile seemed a little hasty.

Not long after, he arrived at the door of the deputy minister's office.

The door was not closed, so McKinley walked right in.

The person who succeeded Theodore Roosevelt as Deputy Secretary of the Navy was a middle-aged officer with a mustache named Brandon Miller.

This man studied under Mahan and served as deputy commander of the North Pacific Fleet. It can even be said that he was from the same school as Roosevelt.

The Navy's evaluation of him is that his ability is indeed not comparable to Roosevelt's, but he is quite diligent.

When McKinley walked into the office, Secretary Miller was writing furiously, revising the plan for the second half of the year.

Hearing someone coming in, he raised his head, and when he saw it was the president, he immediately stood up.

Although he was not nominated by McKinley, he agreed and approved it.

It cannot be denied that Miller is a member of the Cabinet government and a subordinate of the President.

In theory, he was also McKinley's man.

"President McKinley, what brings you here?" Miller asked.

McKinley did not reply, but closed his office door.

He walked to Miller's desk and asked in a low voice:

"Did you know about the capture of Guantanamo Bay?"

When Miller heard this, his expression became a little strange.

He opened his mouth, but seemed unable to organize his words, so he closed it again.

Seeing this, McKinley took out the envelope from his clothes and pushed it across the table in front of Miller.

The wax seal with a stamp on the envelope had been torn off by the president, but Miller didn't pay much attention to this detail and directly took out the contents of the envelope.

After taking a look, he actually looked happy and said to himself:
“I didn’t expect it to be so fast!”

"What did you say?" McKinley didn't hear clearly.

"Oh, Mr. President, I'm sorry I didn't understand what you meant at first." Miller breathed a sigh of relief, "I thought the Spanish had fought back again."

Mr. President almost couldn't help himself.

"It seems that you know about this matter. Would you like to explain it?" He stared at the Deputy Minister of the Navy.

However, Miller looked unconvinced:

"Mr. President, Mr. Chen is not occupying the port. He is renovating the port of Guantanamo. The Navy has signed a contract with him. It will be used as a military port for the Atlantic Fleet."

"Subsequent ship maintenance work, port logistics, transportation and so on will all be contracted by him."

"What? You don't bid for this kind of thing?" McKinley asked, suppressing his anger.

Miller shrugged.

"Except for Mr. Chen, we can't find another company in Cuba that has this capability, so how can we bid for it? Moreover, he has so many workers. If we hand it over to him, both the construction period and quality can be guaranteed."

McKinley was unable to refute for a moment.

Yes, in Cuba, there is no one who can take on this project.

The subsequent maintenance, logistics, etc. are considered as free gifts.

He could only walk out of the office without saying a word.

When the president returned to the second floor, he ran into Root who was handling the matter.

"Mr. President, are you here alone? Do you want me to find a car to take you?"

He pointed to a four-wheeled vehicle parked in the backyard of the Quartermaster Building. It looked a bit like a carriage, but the wheels were equipped with rubber pneumatic tires.

"New stuff, two cars just purchased by the War Department. They are much more comfortable than horse-drawn carriages."

"Car?" The president asked in confusion.

He had heard that Germany had this thing, but the car outside the window obviously couldn't be from Germany.

The president's worries deepened.

"Yes, I heard that the two models we got are improved models. They are now faster than horse-drawn carriages and have shock-absorbing designs." Ruth said.

"Which company produced it?" McKinley asked eagerly.

"Well, Ford, yes, it's called Ford." Root thought for a moment and replied.

McKinley then breathed a sigh of relief.

Oh my God, it seems like there are finally things in the army that are not produced by Chen Jianqiu.