Rough Landing

On April 3, 1901.

Washington State, already under the Van Der Linde Government, officially welcomed the invasion of the Tsarist Russian army.

"Choo Choo Choo..."

The bugle call for the Tsarist Russian army's attack had already sounded.

The general serving as the overall commander of the Tsarist Russian army for this operation was Admiral Yevgeny Ivanovich Alekseyev, a general with numerous titles: a Tsarist Russian soldier, an admiral, an aide-de-camp general, the illegitimate son of the previous Tsar Alexander II, and the uncle of the current Tsar Nicholas II!

This fellow had also participated in the Eight-Nation Alliance, suppressed the Boxer Rebellion, and other actions; he could be said to be rotten to the core.

Yevgeny held deep influence within the Tsarist Russian court, which was why he was able to serve as the supreme commander for this war.

Yevgeny was a dashing, charming, and captivating figure. How captivating, you ask? During the Russo-Japanese War, he embezzled military funds from the Tsarist Russian navy to buy large diamond rings for his mistress, and even on the night of his defeat, he was still attending to his mistress.

So, upon accepting this mission, Yevgeny immediately embezzled one-tenth of the military funds allocated by the Tsar.

"Oh, it won't have much impact."

It's only one-tenth; it's just a little less food, a little less medical care. Anyway, the soldiers are all damned serfs; they didn't consider these nobles when they rose up against their empire before, so why should the esteemed Mr. Meyegov consider them now?

"Mr. Meyegov, according to the messages sent back by our previous fleet, the Dutch Van Der Linde government possesses artillery with an extremely long range, but the quantity is slightly insufficient.

I believe we can deploy our warships in a widely dispersed manner, so that even if their artillery has an extremely long range, it will be difficult for them to target multiple directions simultaneously. With the warships forming a suppressing fire, they can not only cover the soldiers' landing but also create a certain amount of suppressing fire against the enemy," Mr. Meyegov's assistant and troop command assistant suggested from the side.

Before coming, he had already understood the results of the previous battle and Dutch Van der Linde's firepower deployment, and thus formulated a new combat plan.

This plan was correct; such a method is generally adopted for large-scale landing operations to find a breakthrough point and reduce casualties caused by excessive personnel density. At the same time, the warships' firepower can suppress the enemy's rampant bombing and defense.

Although a certain number of warships would be lost, there were no naval landing craft or aircraft carriers in this era, so this was the only way to fight.

However, Mr. Meyegov disagreed with his assistant's view.

"Damn it, if I listened to you for everything, what would I be here for?"

Yevgeny waved his hand, stroked his bald head, and said, "Nonsense! The Empire's warships are not for you to clear the way! The value of each warship is extremely expensive, and even losing one would be a huge blow to the Empire!

But on the contrary, soldiers are worthless.

Therefore, directly send soldiers to land; a high number of soldiers can also make the enemy's firepower unable to cope!"

The assistant became anxious: "Then if we fight like this, we will lose a large number of soldiers, General Yevgeny."

"If we lose them, we'll just recruit more! Soldiers can be quickly replenished if they die, but if warships sink, it will cost the Empire a huge amount of time and effort! As citizens of the Empire, they should dedicate their lives to the rise of the Empire; this is their greatest glory in this life! As for you, Mr. Meyegov, I think your current stance has a big problem. Don't forget what class you are!" Yevgeny said sarcastically, burning with anger.

Damn it, the noble class empathizing with a bunch of serfs, what's the difference between that and a person empathizing with pigs being slaughtered for meat?

This remark left Mr. Meyegov feeling self-isolated.

He sighed deeply, then lowered his head, only daring to curse bitterly in his heart.

This damn old bald man, he's such a fucking idiot!

Mr. Meyegov's resistance failed.

Under the main guidance of Mr. Meyegov, this landing battle ultimately proceeded according to Mr. Meyegov's plan.

"Choo Choo Choo..." The charge bugle sounded on the sea.

Then, one after another, wooden landing boats were lowered from the warships, and landing soldier teams of six or seven people, like swarms of ants, landed densely towards the port of Washington State on the vast sea without any cover or assistance.

This scene was extremely magnificent. Tens of thousands of ships on the sea were like dense black dots, and the number of landing personnel in each batch reached a terrifying 30,000!

However, what awaited these 30,000 people were dense artillery shells!

"Boom, boom, boom…"

Explosions echoed across the sea, tens of thousands of shells continuously bombarding the water.

Human wave tactics were effective before World War II, and even for most of World War II. Because in this era, there were no thermobaric bombs, no nuclear bombs, no various high-tech weapons. Without overwhelming firepower, human wave tactics could still be effective in short-term amphibious assaults and positional warfare.

However, Mr. Dutch Van der Linde lacked everything except artillery shells.

Since occupying Saint Denis and establishing an arms factory, Dutch Van der Linde began stockpiling weapons.

For instance, if thirty Tanks could be produced in a month, only ten would be sold to Germany, while he kept twenty for himself. This terrifying storage method meant Dutch invested almost all his disposable money into armaments, using the exorbitant profits from arms sales to produce even more weapons.

By now, the sheer quantity of weapons was so immense that there was no place left to store them.

Thus, human wave tactics met their greatest enemy: overwhelming firepower.

On land, the Tsarist Russian could find places to run, or lie down to avoid severe damage from explosions, but on the sea, they had nowhere to go.

The speed of controlling a ship was far less convenient and fast than marching on land. At the same time, the small wooden boats of this period could not withstand damage like the steel troop transports of World War II.

Steel troop transports could remain stable even when artillery shells hit the nearby sea, but these small wooden boats, even far from the shells, could be directly overturned or shattered by the shockwaves.

It was better if the soldiers on board were directly blown to death; at least there was no pain.

Those who were maimed suffered the most. The salt in the seawater stung their wounds, and their injuries prevented them from swimming. They would either drown or bleed to death, a truly gruesome way to die.

To spare them such a miserable end, Mr. Dutch Van der Linde specifically issued an order.

"Arthur, bombard them with artillery, bombard them with all your might! Only by blasting them to death on the spot will they be spared the torment of suffering!"

Every time Arthur thought of this sentence, he would light a cigarette.

"Scratch!" Arthur struck a match on his shoe, then lit a cigarette, and fiercely pulled the firing mechanism of the cannon in front of him.

"Boom, boom…"

Deafening artillery fire erupted, and a massive shell, laden with gunpowder, shot towards the distant sea.

Dutch had said, "Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to oneself."

These Tsarist Russian who had not yet become prisoners were enemies, so their lives and deaths did not matter.

Only when they became prisoners would they become one of their own.

Therefore, Arthur fired these shells without any psychological burden.

Could what Dutch said be wrong? Impossible!

"Blast them with all your might! Settle the prisoners well. Dutch said that everyone has the right to a happy life. Although they were once our enemies, after being captured, they will be comrades fighting alongside us!

Gentlemen, let us treat them the way Dutch treats us!"

Arthur stood on the hilltop, giving a loud speech, letting a soldier take his place, then pulled out his binoculars and looked towards the coastline.

In the binoculars' view, although the massive number of shells could not completely cover the sea, creating three-line blockade was effortless.

Gunsmoke already permeated the ocean, making it almost impossible to see deeper scenes even with binoculars.

The entire sea was densely covered with floating corpses and fragments of ships, and the seawater was almost blackened by gunpowder.

This scale of bombardment made the Tsarist Russian amphibious assault exceptionally difficult; it was literally a human meat grinder.

If one were to ask which country's wars were the most tragic in the world, it would undoubtedly be the Russian Empire.

Not only was World War I tragic, but World War II was even more so to the extreme.

Using human lives to compensate for the gap in technology and soldier quality, they relentlessly wore down the German Second Reich through attrition.

Fighting every war to an extreme, dragging it into a war of attrition, and exhausting the opponent's finances and logistics—this was the norm for Russian Empire wars. But similarly, it was also the most difficult point to deal with.

Because it truly didn't treat humans as humans!

The same was true now.

The Russian Empire's 350,000 troops at this time were like an organized ant colony, fearlessly charging towards Seattle.

Even though casualties were horrific at the blockade line, with severed limbs and bodies scattered across the sea, the general command continued to send troops to the battlefield.

If 10,000 were not enough, then 20,000; if 20,000 were not enough, then 40,000; if 40,000 were not enough, then 80,000…

As for not wanting to charge?

Sorry, the supervisory team was not joking. The Tsarist Russian supervisory team behind them was aiming sniper rifles at the heads of those charging forward.

Were their people truly not afraid of death? No, they must have been, otherwise there would be no prisoners of war.

The entire Seattle was filled with continuous artillery fire and fighting until the sun set and night fell.

The Seattle combat zone and the Tsarist Russian fleet at sea presented two completely different scenes.

An estimated over 30,000 Tsarist Russian participated in the landing today.

Do not underestimate this number. The release of landing craft had a flow rate, and in this era, ships capable of landing 30,000 people in a single day was a number only achievable in large-scale warfare. Moreover, this was the number of soldiers landing in one day. For example, the meat grinder Battle of Verdun lasted a full ten months. Now, on the very first day, 30,000 people were sent to land; it could be said that the Russian Empire was going all out.

After all, it was a large-scale amphibious assault, and almost all of the Tsarist Russian fleets opened their gates, allowing landing craft to continuously dispatch landing ships and soldiers at the maximum flow rate. However, the flow rate of this configuration was still too slow, which led to the illusion of seemingly few combatants.

In reality, if this war continued, it would be a large-scale battle of 350,000 against 100,000.

However, subsequent operations should slow down.

The first day of fighting was too disastrous for the Tsarist Russian, with heavy casualties. Most importantly, the troop transport ships were extensively damaged, making it difficult to launch such an offensive again.

For Van der Linde's Guard, today's battle was much simpler.

The anti-aircraft artillery at the port continuously bombarded the sea, forming a three-line, covering strike to massively hit the enemy's landing forces.

Even if some ships miraculously passed through, within a thousand meters of the sea, there would be Maxim gun fire and close-range artillery bombardment.

Even if they were lucky enough to escape this double pincer attack, they would find it difficult to harm the Seattle port defenses.

This was because Arthur had already, at Dutch's command, constructed a circle of bunkers around the port.

With the machine gun fire from this circle of bunkers suppressing them, it would be quite an achievement for these lucky Tsarist Russian who landed to even get close to the positions. Daring to raise their heads to counterattack would only expose them to be mowed down.

If they stealthily crawled to the positions, it would also be useless. Because hidden within the positions were steel-armored soldiers wearing steel armor, like damn tin cans that couldn't be penetrated or blown up. They were like turtle shells, just waiting for these soldiers to approach, and then forcibly capture them.

Even if some were incredibly lucky and escaped this defensive line, raiding into Seattle, there was no need to worry.

Mr. Van der Linde's defensive line of five hundred Tanks was stationed behind the positions, awaiting their arrival.

Just hearing these words sent an extreme shiver down one's spine.