It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 253 | Collapse and Devastation (Part 2)

gold!

Are they already eyeing gold?

On the surface, the telegram was merely a reminder to stay alert, but how could Xijing possibly send a confidential urgent telegram just to 'remind' someone?

Therefore, some things are said in a grand and noble way, but what they really mean is something that the person involved has to figure out for themselves.

In addition to reminding people to transfer the gold, the telegram also instructed Shank and several diplomats to prepare to depart for America ahead of schedule, to take the lead in establishing an expeditionary liaison office and liaison office, and to serve as advisors.

Shank wasn't really happy about this job, but then again, it was better than staying on the island.

Shank then went to the island garrison's barracks, chose a room, and summoned the military attaché and foreign ministry officials who were with the troops.

"Has the higher-ups considered everything so thoroughly? Now they want us to pay special attention to the gold transfer operations in America," he said in surprise.

"Precious metal reserves directly affect economic stability and are related to the fate of the nation. Those in politics certainly value them more than us who are busy fighting and killing," the military officer casually remarked.

“It’s definitely a good thing to pay more attention. Maybe the central government is also thinking about it. If there’s an opportunity, they can detain a group of people without any regard for the consequences.” Counselor (a mid-to-senior level diplomat) Wu Jiuman didn’t care.

Shang Ke laughed and teased, "Counselor Wu, you certainly have a domineering way of speaking."

Wu Jiu said matter-of-factly, "And if something really goes wrong, like if the American government wants to surrender, we can go all out and 'take over' everything. We can't leave it to a puppet regime, can we?"

“That’s true.” Shank then asked, “How much gold reserves does America have in total right now?”

"Five or six thousand tons? I remember it was a little less than six thousand tons."

"Is that all?"

"Isn't that enough?" Wu Jiu clicked his tongue in admiration. "The current president of America is quite ruthless. On the one hand, he dares to collect such high taxes, and on the other hand, he forcibly collects gold from the people. What a ruthless person."

Shang Shang's mind wasn't on what he said.

The original plane had nearly 10,000 tons of gold reserves in the United States during the same period. In 1939, there were more than 9,000 tons. How come there are less than 6,000 tons now?

The answer is obvious—the existence of the Great Unified Federation disrupted the balance, and the United States could no longer easily make a fortune, whether in peacetime trade or in arms sales during the European War.

The transfer of gold is of paramount importance. Whether we fight or surrender, these thousands of tons of gold must not fall into the hands of the United Kingdom and the Ivanos Empire.

Although countries around the world have gradually abandoned the gold standard, precious metals remain a key anchor, and in the minds of the general public, nothing is more convincing than gold.

After all, there's a saying that goes, gold and silver are not naturally currency, but currency is naturally gold and silver.

A similar event actually occurred 40 years ago in history, known as 'Operation Fish'.

The original name of 'Operation Fish' is Operation Fish, but for some reason it was mistranslated as 'Operation Torpedo', and the two are completely unrelated.

After France's defeat and surrender, Churchill urgently approved a plan to resolutely resist and transfer precious metals. Even if Germany attacked the British Isles, Britain would fight to the end, and members of the royal family would evacuate to Canada to establish a new wartime government and fight to the bitter end.

At the same time, Churchill approved the secret transport of approximately $70 billion worth of gold and securities to Canada as a preliminary step. This plan was named "Operation Fish," and subsequently, more than 1500 tons of gold were escorted to Canada by the Royal Navy fleet.

Fortune changes, and now the United States is in dire straits, to the point that it has started to turn its fortunes around by trading gold.

Shank leaned over the table and searched carefully for a long time before finally finding a secluded location near Louisville, Kentucky—Fort Knox.

After a moment, he imagined the scene and muttered to himself, "What would it look like if thousands of tons of gold were piled up together?"

Wu Jiu casually laughed and said, "It's nothing more than magnificent and resplendent."

"Alright, then I'll have to broaden my horizons. When do we set off?"

"This doesn't seem to be in a hurry. It's too uncomfortable for the military to sit on transport planes. Let's wait for passenger planes to be sent from the mainland."

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Quebec.

dawn.

Looking around, the riverbanks were littered with all sorts of debris, the handiwork of American bombers.

With small bombs every three days and big bombs every five days, Quebec residents have almost gotten used to it.

Several docks are still under repair today, with only two available. Unloading is extremely slow. Boxes of ammunition are being loaded onto trucks, and dockworkers are operating cranes to lift artillery from ships onto shore.

On the neighboring dock, Imperial Russian soldiers carrying Mosin-Nagant rifles filed off the ship, many of them too weak to even stand after nine days and nine nights of sailing.

On September 14, the Imperial Russian 305th Field Supplementary Regiment and the 24th Independent Tank Brigade arrived in Quebec City. These were the last troops to arrive in Cannavaro before the formal offensive began.

The colonel asked the liaison officer, "Has the battle already begun?"

The latter took out his pocket watch, glanced at it, shook his head and then nodded, saying, "Not yet, sir, one minute left."

At this very moment, on the border between America and Canaan…

Along a front of approximately 130 kilometers, the Ivanros Expeditionary Force launched an attack from three directions simultaneously. Unlike previous battle reconnaissance missions, this time the attack began with an unprecedentedly fierce barrage of artillery fire.

According to General Ivanovich's plan, each key breakthrough direction was to be centered on a tank brigade, supplemented by an infantry division reinforced with at least two to three hundred trucks.

In addition to the first echelon, General Ivanovich also personally commanded a tank division and a motorized infantry division, ready to be deployed to key areas to rapidly expand the gains.

Further west, a small town called Rockairan had been torn apart by fierce artillery fire, with orange flames and thick gray smoke engulfing the remote town.

The artillery preparation lasted for an hour and a half.

Thousands of shells of different calibers rained down like hail, severely damaging the US defenses, especially key breakthrough areas, where many fortifications were completely destroyed!

Although the Imperial Russian troops were arrogant, they still strictly followed the regulations and conducted thorough reconnaissance of the target before the battle.

The success of reconnaissance missions directly impacted the course of the battle. Over the past ten days, Imperial Russian tank forces had repeatedly dispatched patrols and reconnaissance teams, selecting primary and secondary attack routes and marking minefields. Some Imperial Russian reconnaissance teams were exceptionally skilled and daring, not only bringing along mostly Type 1 soldiers but also donning camouflage nets covered with branches and leaves to maximize concealment. In this way, they quietly infiltrated American defenses, with some teams even reaching 20 to 30 kilometers behind enemy lines to conduct reconnaissance, all without the American side's knowledge.

The advantage of having extensive combat experience was already evident before the outbreak of large-scale ground battles.

The town of Rock Island is located next to Highway 91. The surrounding terrain is flat and boundless, with hardly any forests. The town is defended by the 3rd Regimental Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division of the American Army.

As soon as the artillery preparation ended, a large number of tanks eagerly drove out of the attack launch position, with infantrymen carrying submachine guns clinging to the tanks, acting as the spearhead of Ivan Ross's characteristic combined arms assault.

Red signal flares soared into the sky, and the Imperial Russian offensive forces quickly completed their tactical deployment, charging aggressively towards the enemy on an attack front of about one kilometer.

The wide tracks rolled over the soft ground, and the diesel engine roared deafeningly!

The open field was filled with trenches and various field fortifications, and was now riddled with shell craters of all sizes, many of which were still emitting wisps of smoke.

The soldiers gripped their Springfield rifles tightly, anxiously awaiting the enemy's arrival. Some were so tense that they bit their crucifix pendants and muttered to themselves.

The air was thick with the smell of dirt and gunpowder, the sound of tank engines was clearly audible, and even the ground beneath us trembled slightly.

Is that a tank?!
Since the dawn of human civilization, this is the first time that flesh and blood have fought against steel beasts on the American continent.

The 7th Regimental Combat Team was unaware that they were facing the battle-hardened 2nd Guards 'Orlova' Tank Brigade of Imperial Russia.

This is a decorated unit that has been invincible since the Battle of Walland, with an average exchange ratio of one to eight in all battles!

"Enemy attack! That's a tank, Sergeant!" a private exclaimed, his bolt-action rifle trembling slightly.

"Calm down!" the sergeant growled. "We have machine guns and mortars. Hold the line and fire on the infantry on those tanks!"

It's unclear who fired first, but the crisp gunshot quickly spurred others into firing as well, as if to vent their emotions.

At this point, the Imperial Russian attacking forces were still six or seven hundred meters away, and their indiscriminate firing had almost no effect other than boosting morale.

During the Cold War, the Chinese military had a practice of including several unarmed assistant soldiers in infantry squads, especially since light machine guns relied heavily on assistants, sometimes requiring two unarmed soldiers. Based on long-term experience, soldiers were very prone to firing haphazardly due to panic in actual combat, resulting in extremely low accuracy. However, having assistants to supervise and remind them significantly improved this situation.

The American soldiers' firing was ineffective; for the Imperial Russian soldiers who had fought their way through Europe amidst a hail of bullets, it was like child's play.

As the distance closed, the thirty or forty T-34 tanks gradually slowed down, and the infantrymen carrying PPD submachine guns jumped off one after another, spreading out into a wide formation and following closely behind the tanks.

The T-34's turret slowly rotated, aiming at the exposed firing points on the American positions several hundred meters away. Then, the guns and cannons opened fire simultaneously, and the shells fired by the 76.2 mm tank guns roared and crashed into the target!

Large swaths of mud were scattered about, and tattered khaki uniforms fluttered in the air.

"Fire! Fire!" the captain roared.

Flanking the adjacent position was a regimental anti-tank company, with two or three M2HB heavy machine guns spitting out long tongues of fire. The 12.7×99mm armor-piercing tracer rounds lashed at the tank armor like fire whips, sparks flying and producing a crisp but weak clanging sound.

"It's no use! We can't penetrate their armor!"

"Get out of here!"

"Damn it! They're targeting us!"

The conversation between the heavy machine gun squad was filled with despair and helplessness.

Those who acted quickly escaped unharmed, while those who acted slowly were instantly engulfed by incoming grenades.

A few mortar shells flew in from the second-line positions, slightly slowing down the Imperial Russian infantry following the tanks, but it couldn't reverse the one-sided situation.

The first echelon of tanks advanced like a steel torrent, ruthlessly crushing the forward positions, and rampaging through them, firing indiscriminately.

A small number of American infantrymen brought demolition charges and, with great courage, attempted to get close enough to blow up these seemingly indestructible steel beasts, but unfortunately, they had little success; only a few tanks were destroyed or damaged.

Large numbers of Imperial Russian infantry followed closely behind, using submachine guns and semi-automatic rifles to mop up the panicked American infantry.

In just a few tens of minutes, the position of the 7th Regimental Combat Team collapsed. The arrogant T-34s charged onto the anti-tank positions, and as if mocking them, they twisted and turned and crushed the abandoned M2HB Browning heavy machine guns...

Fierce fighting was taking place simultaneously across the entire front, but the situation was almost always one-sided.

The situation was slightly better in Harrisville, the westernmost region, where troops successfully lured some Imperial Russian tanks into the minefield and then brought in anti-tank guns to bombard them.

However, the 37mm anti-tank gun could only hit the turret ring of the T-34 by luck, and in the end only a dozen or so T-34s were damaged. Most of the Imperial Russian tank crews abandoned their vehicles and retreated because they could not stand the clanging sound.

Every hour, the situation was deteriorating.

Every hour, Imperial Russian troops were advancing rapidly.

The following day, General Ivanovic promptly deployed the elite reserve team.

It can be said that Ivan Ross's army made full use of the mobility of its tank units and launched a devastating offensive in central New York.

第2坦克师和第6摩托化步兵师密切配合，以迅雷不及掩耳之势切入亚美利加第2集团军的后方，将第3、第5、第9步兵师分割包围！
Albany.

One of the warehouses here is the headquarters of the army group, Douglas MacArthur's command post, where the atmosphere is extremely tense.

Staff officers ran back and forth, the telegraph machine beeped, and each message was worse than the last.

"Sir, the 3rd Infantry Division claims they cannot mount any resistance, the 5th Infantry Division is still trying to break through, and we still haven't made contact with the 9th Infantry Division." A lieutenant colonel saluted hoarsely, "The Ivan Rossi vanguard has advanced to Johnstown, only 20 miles from us. We can't hold out any longer!"

After a long silence, MacArthur ordered in a deep voice: "The 4th Infantry Division shall set up an emergency defensive line along Troy and attempt to support the 5th Infantry Division's breakout. The rest of the troops shall retreat immediately. There is no better way."

The lieutenant colonel replied somewhat hesitantly, "Sir..."

"Execute the order! We don't have time." MacArthur turned to look out the window, where distant artillery fire illuminated the night sky.

The next day.

The fierce fighting continued until dusk. After a bloody battle, although the 4th Infantry Division barely managed to hold back the advancing Imperial Russian vanguard, the 2nd Army had in fact completely collapsed.

The Imperial Russian forces' mortars were even able to reach near the headquarters, and under these circumstances, MacArthur hastily evacuated in a small liaison plane.

Before takeoff, he stood on the gangway and shouted to Major General Wainwright, who was staying behind: "I will definitely come back. The land of America will never tolerate invaders. The Britons and Ivan Rus's will be out of here sooner or later!"

(End of this chapter)