Nanyang Storm 1864

In Denver, in the north, the headquarters of the U.S. Army is located, and the entire city is filled with U.S. military personnel in uniform, resembling a huge military camp.

The city, which had been quiet, suddenly became bustling, with all sorts of vendors and women moving about, creating a distorted scene of prosperity.

Denver is the capital and largest city of Colorado. Before the war, the city had a population of 5.32. It was mainly engaged in agriculture and ranching, and its meat and beer were renowned in the American Midwest, but it did not have much industrial output.

after the war

This place quickly became a forward base for gathering a large number of troops. Large numbers of soldiers and massive amounts of supplies were continuously transported from all over the United States to Denver in order to deal with the full-scale invasion of the Chu Kingdom.

Before the outbreak of war in mid-February, the US military expansion had been slow, with less than half of the planned 600,000 troops completed.

This sluggishness had serious consequences.

When war truly broke out, the United States, like a bison stabbed in the back, suddenly awoke and reacted, quickly initiating a full-scale military mobilization.

As of June

The United States has mobilized approximately three million troops, who are training in thousands of military camps across the country, with various weapons, ammunition, and tarpaulin equipment being transported to the front lines day and night.

Like a shot in the arm for America's weak industrial base, many factories resumed operations and increased production, and millions of American workers found new jobs, creating a scene reminiscent of springtime revival.

Its overall industrial development did not linger at the bottom of the Great Depression for long before showing strong signs of recovery, thus driving the overall US economy to rebound.

This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

The good thing is that it finally pulled the US economy out of the mire of the Great Depression; the bad thing is that it lost nine states west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and more than two million square kilometers of territory, which may never be regained.

The Americans panicked and their defenses were completely breached.

Calls for a war response are rising throughout the country, especially in the northern states of the United States, where the desire for war is strong. They are condemning the Great Chu Empire's brazen invasion, but completely ignoring why this worst-case scenario has occurred.
This situation is not surprising. The Americans themselves feel wronged, and the same is true for other countries.

current stage
The U.S. military has amassed approximately 37.6 troops on the Denver front. Around Chicago, the largest city in the Great Lakes region, more than 86 U.S. troops are training, distributed in Davenport, Cankage County, Rockford, Milwaukee, and Grand Rapids.

In other cities in the American Midwest and in Texas and Oklahoma, varying numbers of U.S. troops were also gathering, preparing for a full-scale counterattack against the invading Chu army.

President Hoover, as the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military, along with a number of senior military and political officials, has now arrived at the Denver front to personally cheer on and supervise the U.S. military!
Fortunately, Denver is an inland state that produces meat and grain, and it can still sustain the food and clothing supply for the 37.6 troops on the front lines, so there is no need to import large amounts of food for the time being.

Otherwise, Denver's current single rail line simply cannot sustain transporting soldiers, weapons and ammunition, and various military supplies.

This is why there are fewer than 40 troops on the Denver front.

How could this city in the American Midwest, with its poor conditions and small town area, withstand the sudden influx of hundreds of thousands of American troops?
Housing shortages, soaring food prices—bread, alcohol, women—these are all seeing prices rise, and this is perhaps the most vivid description of Denver right now.

This issue is not the most pressing one. The biggest headache for the US military right now is the logistical supply problem for its southward advance, which has become a critical bottleneck that cannot be avoided.

The road south from Denver to Rio Rancho is a rugged desert road, without even a gravel surface.

It's just that the roadbed is relatively compacted due to the rolling of covered wagons moving westward year after year.

Given these road conditions, the answer to maintaining hundreds of thousands of American troops on the front lines can be summed up in five words: "completely impossible."

Denver is 691 kilometers from Rio Rancho. The entire road is located in the red rock area of ​​the arid desert, with few rivers and lakes. The nearest lake is more than 100 kilometers away along the road, and there is no human habitation for hundreds of miles around.

All that exists is a stretch of Gobi desert and cacti, along with reddish-brown mountain rocks. The arid climate with little rain and intense sunshine is the biggest obstacle to its survival.

There are solutions, and we are currently working on them.

Tens of thousands of construction workers, mostly conscripted U.S. military personnel, were working tirelessly to widen roads and build railway embankments south of Denver.

But such a large project cannot be accomplished in a short time.

It wasn't until mid-April that the U.S. frontline command realized the serious bottleneck in logistics transportation.

At that time, the Great Chu Empire had heavily besieged the San Francisco Bay Area, and everyone's attention was drawn to that major battle, with people hoping for a lucky break.
If we can withstand the northern invasion of the Great Chu Empire's army, the most important thing is to send weapons and ammunition to the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as more reinforcements.

It wasn't until the San Francisco Bay Area completely fell that the top U.S. military and political leaders were forced to confront Denver's problems.
We must take advantage of Denver's geographical location and launch a major offensive to the south.

The biggest problem is that the logistical support for the southward advance cannot be solved. What should be done?
By this time, it was already May.

The United States was constantly led by the nose by the military offensive of the State of Chu. In addition, the government's mobilization system was not perfect, and the efficiency of governance was a step behind. Moreover, these high-ranking military officers had never experienced such a large-scale battle.

With so many factors combined, the situation appears extremely passive.

The southbound road was only mobilized for extensive repairs and expansions in mid-May, and the railway had not yet received congressional funding, so there was still a lag.

After repeated discussions

At a high-level military and political meeting, President Hoover made a decisive decision to first build large forward outposts, relying on which troops, weapons, ammunition and supplies could be transported forward in stages.

The US government is now in a critical situation; it needs to launch a full-scale counterattack as soon as possible, as each month of delay will put it in an increasingly passive position.

The immense pressure from both domestic and international sources is driving me crazy.

The plan was to build one large supply depot every 40 kilometers, with 16 depots to be built to the south, which would barely be enough to meet the needs of 20 to 25 troops fighting on the front lines.

Subsequent road expansion and repairs have been ongoing, but the priority now is to send U.S. troops to the front lines; otherwise, the government could face impeachment by Congress and collapse prematurely.

40 kilometers is the limit for an infantryman to advance in a day. At a walking speed of 4 to 5 kilometers, it would take more than 9 hours a day to walk, plus rest time, and it would take at least three weeks to reach the front line.

This is the ideal scenario; if we travel one day and rest the next, it would take a month to reach the front line.

A large supply depot must be able to feed at least 2 soldiers at the same time. Timber, building materials, food, vegetables and water must all be transported from Denver, requiring an astonishing amount of transportation capacity.

The U.S. ordered 3.2 trucks and collected more than 8 four-wheeled heavy-duty horse-drawn carriages from various places, and immediately began large-scale construction.

On the road heading south, one could see endless rows of heavily laden horse-drawn carts, herds of cattle and sheep, and American soldiers marching on foot, as numerous as countless army ants.

From this point alone
This demonstrates that the United States, as a global superpower, possesses extremely strong military mobilization and logistical capabilities, and its war potential should not be underestimated. The US troops in Denver differ from those in the San Francisco Bay Area; they are well-equipped, with no shortage of weapons, ammunition, or artillery, but they struggle to get these supplies to the front lines.

The vast distance in the desert became the biggest obstacle.

From mid-June
Large-scale construction began on roads and military outposts south of Denver, the capital of Colorado, and west of Norman, a major city in Oklahoma.

Compared to Denver, Norman was much farther from Rio Rancho, which was occupied by the Chu army, a distance of 837 kilometers, requiring the construction of 20 outposts.

The US military is simultaneously undertaking this task, sparing no expense in terms of manpower and resources, in order to overcome this bottleneck that has been troubling them.

Based on the current movements of the US military, the Arizona Army of the Great Chu Empire assessed...

Due to the slowdown in the US military's actions, the second phase of the war, which was originally planned to take place at the end of June, will likely continue until at least the end of September or the beginning of October.

If the pace is slower, it will be late October.

This is good news for the Chu expeditionary force, as the railway line from Los Angeles through Las Vegas, Gallup, to Rio Rancho is expected to be fully operational in October.

In a fierce battle involving two to three hundred thousand troops, the daily consumption of ammunition would require at least five or six special trains, as well as roughly the same amount of food, vegetables, and so on. If transported by trucks or horse-drawn carriages, the amount would easily reach tens of thousands.

A four-wheeled carriage transported two tons of supplies to the front line. Along the way, the people and horses ate and drank, and with the provisions reserved for the return trip, it would be good if a third of the supplies were delivered to the front line, which was thousands of miles away.

Logistics has always been the main factor limiting the number of troops that can be deployed to the front lines, as clearly demonstrated by the World War more than a decade ago.

Before either Britain, France, or Germany could launch an unprecedented war, they would need to prepare for several months or even half a year, especially ensuring that they had sufficient stockpiles of weapons and ammunition.

Why did the Americans take so long to prepare for war?
Taking the road south from Denver as an example,

The U.S. military built forward outposts every 40 kilometers to not only replenish the food and water supplies for the southward-bound American soldiers, but also to provide medical and other logistical support.

Fresh water alone is a major headache for the U.S. military.

If the US military numbered 200,000 and marched south, they would need to consume at least 10 liters of water a day on foot in this hot weather, otherwise their bodies would not be able to withstand it.

In addition to the logistics personnel at the military outposts, the civilian transport workers, and the soldiers or laborers who build roads and bridges, at least another 100,000 people would be needed to ensure that 200,000 US troops could move south.

As a result, the daily consumption of fresh water alone would be astronomical.

It's impossible for all this fresh water to be transported from Denver, so the nearest water source to the outpost, perhaps a lake more than 100 kilometers away, or a river even further away, becomes the main way for the outpost to obtain water.

In this desolate place, the military post had to build a road leading to a water source, which greatly increased the amount of construction work, making it much more than just 691 kilometers.

A rough calculation shows that it would take at least 2,300 to 2,400 kilometers.

Even if the construction standards are slightly lower, in this era where everything is done by hand, it is still a huge undertaking.

At this moment

Even the dumbest Americans would realize that the invading Chu army had placed its main battlefield in Rio Rancho, waiting for the enemy to come to them, thus naturally putting them in an absolute advantageous position.

This strategy was so shrewd that even the Americans were secretly alarmed.

The US military also discovered through reconnaissance aircraft that the Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force was carrying out large-scale construction in Rio Rancho, building a strong fortified area, and even sparing no expense to hollow out the red rock mountain to create a network of artillery batteries.

All of this is causing the US military a great deal of trouble.

On this battlefield set up by the State of Chu, the American soldiers who had traveled thousands of miles were exhausted, yet they were to take the initiative to attack. It was an impossible task for the enemy, who were hiding in the fortified defensive positions.

Even so, the US military had no choice but to bite the bullet and go ahead.

Otherwise, they would have to admit the loss of nine western states and the defeat, a result that the United States could not accept under any circumstances.

Finally, a word

When the San Francisco Bay Area fell, Vice Admiral William Scott, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, ordered the fleet to be scuttled in a horrific manner to prevent the valuable warships from being captured by the Chu Kingdom.

Vice Admiral William Scott also sank with the warship into San Francisco Bay, while the rest of the fleet officers and men traveled north by train in batches, passing Seattle and entering Vancouver, Canada.

This means that the United States naval forces have been completely wiped out, and it has completely lost the possibility of countering the Royal Navy of the Great Chu Empire.

Starting from mid-May

The main force of the Royal Navy of the Great Chu Empire is already patrolling the Atlantic Ocean, imposing a blockade on all foreign trade with the United States and inspecting any ships that dare to violate the blockade order, which has aroused considerable protests from European countries.

On the one hand, the Great Chu Empire increased its foreign trade exports to European countries to fill the gap left by American products. For example, the Italian automobile market, which was 80% dominated by major American automakers, was now being taken over by automobiles exported from Chu.

On the other hand, the State of Chu actively engaged in diplomatic lobbying, expressing its willingness to see peace. The empire did not plan to further expand its occupation and would only impose minor punishments.

If the US can accept reality, the door to negotiations for the Empire will always be open, and the war could end at any time.

Anyone with eyes can see

The Great Chu Empire speaks grandly and eloquently, but looking back at its actions over the past sixty years, it has never relinquished any of the land it has swallowed; the possibility of it ever doing so is extremely slim.

Forcing Americans to bow down is by no means an easy task.

The British, French, Germans, Soviet Russians, and even Italians secretly hoped that Chu and the United States would fight to the death, satisfying their narrow-minded and dark desires.

During World War I, you watched from the sidelines. When the fighting was almost over, you all rushed up to pick up the spoils, taking territory and trade, which made the European powers grit their teeth in hatred.

Now that a fight has broken out, let's fight it out to the death.

It's not a big deal if ten or twenty million people are killed or injured. We'll just sit back and watch the fight, then come and scavenge when things are more serious. (End of Chapter)