Nanyang Storm 1864

The series of battlefield defeats and the secession of the southern states have dealt a series of blows, making the White House like a rat in the street and a target for the American people to vent their anger.

With the Hoover administration's approval rating plummeting to 13.2%, Democratic lawmakers are brewing a new no-confidence motion to impeach the president, blaming the Republican government for the defeat and the division of the country, demonstrating a willingness to kick a man when he's down.

Due to the current critical stage of the Battle of Chicago, and for the sake of the overall situation, the proposal had to be postponed.

It is entirely conceivable
If the Battle of Chicago had ended in a disastrous defeat, President Hoover could have become the first U.S. president to be impeached and forced to resign.

Nobody expected it

When the Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force conquered the south, it planted two major time bombs for the newly independent Allied United States of America.

The first mine is Wight Island, which was originally part of Virginia. It is located on the Atlantic coast in the northeastern corner of North Carolina, a good port area, and is at the border of the two states.

The region has a well-developed shipbuilding industry, with three steel mills and a number of other businesses, making it one of the shipbuilding bases on the East Coast of the United States.

The Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force expended considerable effort to defeat the local American forces and seize the territory.

The second "mine" is Bath County in the west, a former agricultural and ranching county in Georgia, known for its high-quality beef cattle and wheat. The local beer industry is thriving, with more than 20 privately owned breweries.

After the establishment of the Confederate States of America, the civil and social affairs of the aforementioned regions were naturally transferred to that country, and the Imperial Expeditionary Force continued to be stationed there, establishing multiple land, sea, and air military bases.

In time
These two territorial disputes were enough to keep the Confederate States of America and the Union in constant conflict, as friction would breed discord and alienation.

These territorial disputes, large and small, are quite numerous in these small southern countries, and they are all intentional.

These territorial disputes will be a major problem to resolve in the future, but they are a good thing for the Great Chu Empire, as it can take this opportunity to intervene in regional affairs and demonstrate its significant regional influence.

If everyone is harmonious and even bands together to exclude the imperial forces, wouldn't that be doing the work for the Europeans?
Kevin McMillan, a reporter for the Southern Metropolis Daily in Mississippi, discovered something amiss and wrote an article exposing the matter in his own newspaper, but unexpectedly lost his life as a result.

On his way home, Kevin McMillan was robbed and stabbed to death.

His article was also suppressed and was not officially published in the newspaper.

Eastern forces from the Great Chu Empire have rapidly infiltrated the small countries of southern North America, especially in the areas of public opinion and news agencies, where they have become dominant forces wielding influence.

Such news reports, which clearly incite confrontation, could not possibly be published under any circumstances.

Among the more than 20 million people in several small countries in the southern part of North America, was Kevin McMillan the only one who noticed something was wrong?
the answer is negative.

However, others are smarter than him and know that keeping quiet is the only way to live longer, and that some taboos should not be touched.

Early November

After four months of arduous fighting, the Great Chu Empire forced the US military's defensive line to Rockford, from Will County to Cankagi County, with the closest point only 96 kilometers from Chicago.

Once this defensive line is breached, Chicago will be completely exposed to the Imperial Expeditionary Force.

During this period

The total number of U.S. military casualties reached 1,345,900, which includes all U.S. military casualties since the start of the Battle of Chicago, accounting for about 30% of the total number of U.S. military personnel.

Logically speaking
At this point, the U.S. military should have basically lost its ability to fight continuously, with divisions, mutinies, and even severe war-weariness within the ranks, resulting in a large number of deserters and facing the brink of collapse.

The actual situation was surprising: the total number of US troops did not decrease but increased, slowly growing from over 450 million to around 468 million.

The reason was that the United States had conducted its 8th and 9th national war mobilizations, resulting in the presence of many teenagers, as well as white-bearded old men in their forties, fifties, and even sixties carrying guns and going to the front lines.

This reflects, to some extent, that the United States has completely exhausted its reserve forces.

It must be admitted that these white old cowboys were quite brave and fearless of death. Unfortunately, their physical bodies could not withstand the bombardment from the air and the artillery fire from the ground, and they were wiped out in the combined strangulation of modern weapons and ammunition.

He was brave, but his mistake was recklessness.

On the battlefield, one often sees a scene like this: charging white American soldiers, shouting, surge forward like a tidal wave, only to be met with relentless aerial bombardment and combined ground artillery fire, before falling one after another in a hail of bullets...

Even Marshal Zheng Zhongyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, was deeply moved, saying, "The spirit of sacrifice of the North American devils is something I have never seen in my decades of military service; they are no less than that of the Russians!"

Such an assessment is very apt. Marshal Zheng Zhongyi participated in the Eastern Front of World War I, engaging in a series of bloody battles against the Germans, Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians, and Russians, and is therefore the most qualified to speak on this matter.

These North American cowboys were naturally rough and straightforward, easily provoked and prone to losing their temper. The Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force knew this all too well.

Because the Imperial Army had the North American Volunteer Corps, which was the first choice for cannon fodder in overcoming difficulties, they knew the temperament of these cowboys all too well.

In short, whoever provides the benefits is the mother.

This is the biggest drawback of immigrant countries: insufficient national cohesion. Internal racial issues remain their biggest weakness, bar none.

Prejudice has always existed. Irish Americans hate British Americans, look down on French Americans, regard Italian Americans as trash, are wary of German Americans, and do not treat Mexican Americans or Native Americans as their compatriots at all.

Similar problems exist to varying degrees among other ethnic groups.

This leads to a lack of patriotism, a prevalence of egoistic culture, and a willingness to readily accept switching sides.

The Battle of Chicago lasted for more than four months. The attacking expeditionary force of the Great Chu Empire lost more than 400,000 troops, with total casualties estimated at between 430,000 and 440,000.

Of these, the North American Volunteer Corps suffered over 300,000 casualties, approximately 307,400.

However, the North American Volunteer Corps, which numbered over 400,000, did not decrease in number; instead, it grew to over 550,000. A large number of American prisoners of war turned against them, and local young men were also forcibly conscripted.

The North American Minutemen, belonging to the Empire, were accustomed to forcibly conscripting young men to replenish their ranks, taking them away regardless of their willingness, and killing those who dared to resist on the street—that was how barbaric they were.

Many young white men in the occupied territories were forcibly conscripted while traveling, watching the commotion on the street, working in the fields, or simply passing through.

The process is simple and brutal; everyone's just cannon fodder anyway.

The armies of the Great Chu Empire mostly turned a blind eye to this situation.

Prioritizing the needs of the front lines, the expeditionary force disregarded political and economic stability; winning the war was the only concern. After June...
The annual retirement of military officers and soldiers of the Great Chu Empire is always on the agenda, but with the great war raging, this important task can only be postponed.

Hundreds of thousands of new recruits from the Imperial homeland and overseas states have arrived at various bases in North America as planned and are undergoing advanced high-standard military training, ready to replenish the troop strength at any time.

As a world power with a total population of over 200 million, the State of Chu still seemed to be in a state of ease in the third year of the war, which was in stark contrast to the United States' exhaustion.

It was precisely this keen awareness that led Marshal Zheng Zhongyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Corps, to submit a report to the Royal Army General Staff in the UK during the third phase of the Battle of Chicago, aiming to change the current form of warfare.

The strategy shifted from solely compressing the living space of the US military to focusing on large-scale annihilation of US forces, employing tactics such as encirclement and suppression of reinforcements, and flanking maneuvers to completely cut off the Chicago battlefield.

This top-secret operational plan was approved by the Army General Staff and submitted to the Prime Minister's Office for approval, and was quickly implemented at the front.

The Chu 6th Army, which had just captured Cancage County, sent a powerful flank force eastward, defeating several American forces in succession. On June 29, they captured South Bend, east of Chicago, cutting off the vital rail line supplying Chicago from the east.

The Seventh Army then redeployed its main force eastward, concentrating over 20 troops along the South Bend line, prioritizing the equipping of all 58 Tiger tanks currently in service with the Expeditionary Force, and waiting in ambush for a large-scale American attack.

The Seventh Army's move indeed touched a nerve in the United States.

South Bend was the only remaining major rail transport artery for the Chicago garrison, with two important rail lines passing through it.

A main railroad line ran eastward to Detroit, and military trains continuously transported weapons and ammunition to the Chicago battlefield, serving as a vital lifeline.

Another main railway line led east to the eastern coastal cities along the Atlantic coast, including important cities such as Akron, Pittsburgh, Washington, Wakeland, and New York. It was able to transport large numbers of troops and various supplies to the front lines in Chicago day and night, and was also the main route for the withdrawal of wounded and sick American soldiers.

The severing of these two major railway arteries meant that the Chicago battlefield was completely surrounded by the Chu expeditionary force, and defeat was not far off.

For a large-scale military operation involving millions of troops, losing their rear railway and waterway supply lines would obviously lead to dire consequences.

So the US military went crazy, mobilizing a large number of troops to launch repeated attacks on South Bend in an attempt to retake this strategic location.

This marked the beginning of the unprecedentedly fierce Battle of South Bend, with both sides engaging in fierce fighting across a battlefield spanning hundreds of kilometers.

Taking advantage of the large number of American troops exposed in the open fields, the Chu expeditionary force mobilized more than 5,000 aircraft, 12,000 artillery pieces, and more than 700,000 troops from the First, Seventh, and Thirteenth Army Groups to engage in an unprecedentedly fierce battle with the American forces.

Along the more than 200-kilometer front from Kankaki to South Bend, the two sides fought bloody battles one after another.

On the first day alone, the defensive army of the Great Chu Empire inflicted heavy losses on the US military. Under the combined attack of air bombardment and ground artillery fire, the US military suffered more than 8.23 casualties, setting a new record in the history of world warfare.

The U.S. military's frantic counterattack lasted for three weeks, leaving a million corpses on the wilderness, yet it still failed to shake the Imperial army's strong defenses.

Truckloads of the dead were transported to Lake Missouri and dumped, the blood spilled along the way turning the roads black and red. Large numbers of American corpses floated on the lake, densely packed and stretching as far as the eye could see.

These were almost all American corpses. The Chu army, which adopted a defensive strategy, suffered far fewer casualties and instead relied more on its superior firepower to carry out one-sided slaughters, making its combat advantage increasingly prominent.

Throughout the entire Battle of South Bend, the Chu expeditionary force suffered only 7.94 casualties, while the North American Volunteer Corps, which filled the pits on the front lines, accounted for the majority of the casualties, and the Imperial soldiers suffered less than 3 casualties.

This battle completely shattered the backbone of the US military.

From then until the end of the Battle of Chicago, the U.S. military was never able to launch a counterattack with more than 10,000 troops, but instead struggled to hold on until its final defeat.

The Battle of South Bend has left an indelible mark on world military history.

This battle is known as the "Battle of Death and Hell," and is considered one of the three most famous battles in World War I, alongside the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme.

This had a far-reaching impact, as residents around Lake Michigan resolutely stopped eating fish, a practice that persisted even a century later.

Various legends about the death legions have circulated in the area, some of which are so bizarre that they defy comprehension.

Unexpectedly, decades later, it became a highly sought-after genre for thrillers, horror films, ghost stories, murder thrillers, or legendary adventure films. As long as the words "Lake Michigan" are mentioned, they are naturally associated with an atmosphere of bloodshed and terror.

By early July

The siege of Chicago by the Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force has entered its second month, and serious difficulties on all sides are becoming increasingly apparent.

There are currently fewer than one million U.S. troops in the encirclement, and four to five million local white residents, more than half of whom live in the Chicago metropolitan area, are now facing a severe shortage of supplies.

There was a shortage of food, medicine, and ammunition; almost everything was in short supply.

The protracted war resulted in a large number of American casualties, with hundreds of thousands of wounded and sick soldiers scattered in various places. Churches, libraries, theaters, and even larger mansions in Chicago have now become shelters for the wounded and sick.

But in this besieged city, where medical care and medicine are scarce, how can effective treatment be obtained?
The only possibility is a dignified surrender.

This has become a consensus among US troops, but no one dares to say it out loud. Anyone who does has been shot as a spy trying to mislead the troops.

This stage
The Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force was also unable to launch a new offensive. The previous ammunition consumption was enormous, leaving the expeditionary force's reserves almost depleted.

The weapons and equipment have also suffered extensive damage and urgently need to be replaced and repaired.

This led to an unprecedented calm on the Chicago battlefield. Small-scale battles still occurred, but at a much lower frequency.

Both sides in the war are quietly licking their wounds and rebuilding their strength.

The only remaining supply route for the U.S. military was to send warships or transport ships to force their way through Lake Michigan under cover of darkness, bringing much-needed medicine and food to the besieged metropolis.

To address this, the United States developed high-powered, fast transport ships, numbering in the dozens. Displacing around one to two thousand tons and reaching speeds of up to 26 knots, they primarily operated at night, significantly increasing the probability of breaking through blockade lines.

However, if they were discovered by patrolling Chu bombers, their only fate would be death.

The ongoing struggle between China and the United States over blockade and counter-blockade has resulted in the supply of goods delivered to Chicago by the U.S. high-speed transport ships being insufficient to alleviate the overall shortage of supplies.

At best, it brought only a tiny sliver of hope to the American soldiers and residents trapped in this metropolis.

From August to September, both Chu and Mei were engaged in this contest, the battlefield situation appearing calm on the surface, but this was merely a prelude to a larger storm. (End of Chapter)