However, not all the companies under Scrooge are working hard for the final victory of the United States, and some take advantage of the chaos to demolish the Federation's Taiwan. For example, McDonald's Entrepreneurship and Investment Bank made a fortune in national distress. When General McDowell planned to launch an attack, Scrooge, who was familiar with history, had already sentenced him to death for this attack. Scrooge knew that such a big defeat would cause a tsunami-like shock in the capital market in any era. In the case that the capital of the north may be captured by the Southern army, the stocks of all industries related to supporting the war will plummet, and at the same time, the price of gold will skyrocket. Before the start of this battle, due to the influence of public opinion, almost everyone believed that the federal army would win a big victory. This kind of publicity is simply preparing for the fortune-making plan of Macdonald Venture Capital Bank.

If you have such a good opportunity and don't take advantage of it, you will be a time traveler in vain. So Scrooge gave an order, and McDonald's Venture Capital Bank immediately threw itself into the battle of shorting the stock market and buying gold.

As a result, General McDowell lived up to Scrooge's expectations of him, and he lost in a snap. As a result, all kinds of rumors came, the stock market fell again and again, and the price of gold soared. As a result, it is natural that the Macdonald Venture Capital Bank, which had been prepared in advance, made a lot of money.

With such a big market trend, everyone knows that there must be black hands behind it. Some newspaper reporters also discovered that McDonald’s Venture Capital Bank was shorting the stock market, speculating on gold, and so on. They even prepared manuscripts to denounce the behavior of McDonald’s Bank for making a fortune. However, when they handed in the manuscript, they were called back without hesitation by the editor-in-chief. The obvious reason is that "Mr. Scrooge is a patriotic model praised by President Lincoln himself, and he is now fighting for the country on the front line. At this time, it is inappropriate to accuse him indiscriminately because of some rumors", but In fact, the more important reason may be that the editor-in-chief has received all kinds of threats and temptations.

Of course, as the saying goes, "There is righteousness in the world", there are still some great journalists who don't bow their heads to silver bullets. The list of those who did not surrender was handed over to Scrooge. It is said that after seeing this list, Scrooge sighed: "Good man, what a pity..." Then? Then many of these people took a long vacation for some accidents, and then, um, there is no more.

So in the end, only a few small papers published articles blaming Macdonald Ventures. But their sales are too small, well, basically there is no decent impact.

...

Blackwater, oh no, it's called the Cleveland Volunteer Corps now. They built positions in the most critical positions on the periphery of Washington.

Compared with the position of the Sardinians in the battle with the Austrians, or the trench position set up by "Stone Wall" Jackson not long ago, the position of the Cleveland Volunteer Corps is much more luxurious, except that there is no Maxim heavy machine gun and mortar The artillery is almost a replica of the defensive position during World War I: in the shooting range in front of the position, all the big trees have been cut down, and all kinds of obstacles that hinder the shooting range have been removed. From a place about 100 meters away from the first trench, every 30 meters, member of the Cleveland Volunteer Corps set up a concertina barbed wire, and between the barbed wires, they even buried a large number of new defensive weapons—— mines.

This mine is a new product from McDonnell Infantry Arms. It's just a little iron box with a little dynamite and a detonation fuse. In this iron box, there are not many explosives, only a few grams of TNT. Unless the unlucky guy uses his head to detonate the landmine, it will not kill anyone. At most, it will blow up the soles of the opponent's feet. Well, it's just the soles of the feet, and most of the calves won't be able to kill them. There is a serious problem.

This practice is very popular in later generations. The reason is simple, if there are too many charges, not only will the cost increase (in later generations, this can almost be ignored), but more importantly, if an enemy is killed, the enemy will only need to prepare small ash for him at most. The box is enough, um, maybe there is fuel for cremation. Of course, if it is not done well, it is not impossible to put something in the small box to pretend to be ashes to deceive family members if you encounter black people.

But if those soldiers only had one foot blown off, things would be much more troublesome. First of all, this soldier has completely lost his combat effectiveness. As far as the combat effectiveness of the army is concerned, he is actually no different from being dead, and even more troublesome than dying. Because a soldier suffered such an injury, two soldiers had to carry him down on the battlefield, and immediately three soldiers were missing on the battlefield. And when he was carried to the back, he needed to be bandaged, and so on, and a lot of manpower and material resources were needed to take care of him. And the painful wailing of these wounded soldiers will make the morale of the side drop to MAX.

However, Scrooge and his subordinates would not say such sinister reasons. They have a more grandiose and even somewhat compassionate version of this.

It was shortly after the Cleveland Volunteer Corps had completed their defensive position. Confederate troops, who decided to launch a tentative attack, appeared in front of their positions.

"The layout of the Northern Army is like this... The Cleveland Volunteer Corps is in this position, in the center of the enemy's defense. From here, the enemy's artillery can cover the entire battlefield. If this point is not taken, any Because of its existence, every army will be exposed to the danger of flanking. Therefore, if the defense of the Union Army is to be breached, the position of the Cleveland Volunteer Corps is necessary." General Pierre Beauregard said.

"It seems that Lincoln trusted the 'Cleveland Volunteer Corps'. Does anyone know anything about this unit?" General Joseph Johnston asked.

"I know a little bit." "Stonewall" Jackson replied, "As far as I know, the backbone of this force is the mercenaries of the 'Blackwater' company." Jackson looked up, and he saw the faces of the two bosses There was a look of disapproval on all of them. He knew that in the eyes of most military officers, mercenaries were just gangsters, and their combat effectiveness was not worth mentioning at all. So he had to remind him further:

"The mercenaries of 'Blackwater' are not the same as ordinary mercenaries. They even have a certain influence on the world. Not long ago, the Sardinian army they directed was in a war with the Austrians I was victorious in this battle. And not so long ago, the trench defense tactics I used to crush the enemy were derived from this mercenary force."

Hear an introduction from "Stonewall" Jackson. The two generals put away a little contempt for mercenaries.

"Jackson, have you visited their defensive positions?" General Joseph Johnston asked.

"I've seen it," Jackson said, with a pained look on his face.

"How?" said General Pierre Beauregard. In the Confederate Army, "Stonewall" Jackson was the absolute authority on trench defense, so General Pierre Beauregard, although he had checked the positions of the Cleveland Volunteer Corps with binoculars, was eager to hear Hear what Jackson had to say about this defensive position.

"It's a damn hard bone. Looking at it, I almost don't dare to attack." Jackson shook his head and said, "Their tactics have been improved again. This Scrooge? MacDonald, What a defensive genius!"

"Scrooge MacDonald, is that genius chemist? Could it be that he invented this tactic first?" General Pierre Beauregard said. But he immediately realized that this was not the time for gossip, so he immediately said, "Let's talk about those Yankee positions first. We will talk about these things later when we have time."

"Okay, general," Jackson said, "they've laid some barbed wire around the position. Although these things are not indestructible obstacles, they will take time to break through. And because of it, they stay within the range of the enemy's rifles.", that was a nightmare. You know, even with the same weapons, a man standing in an open space and a man hiding in a trench shooting at each other is looking for death. If it weren't for the fact that we got here, if Retreating without any action will damage morale too much, I wish I could take the soldiers back directly."

"Jackson, you are an expert in this field, and we all trust your judgment. However, if you retreat directly, the blow to morale is too great. In any case, we still have to try to attack." General Pierre Beauregard said, "But don't invest too many troops. Just try it out."

"Can we use something to let our soldiers quickly cross the barbed wire?" General Joseph Johnston asked.

"Can you put something on top of that thing, and let the soldiers rush over it?" General Pierre Beauregard said, "For example, a long wooden plank, what do you think? So? Anyway, the previous battles have proved that when you use a dense formation to attack, you will kill yourself. Well, Jackson, you can practice the tactics of skirmish attacks."

"Well, I'll think about it," Jackson said.

...

Early the next morning, the Southern Army led by Jackson appeared in front of the position of the "Cleveland Volunteer Corps". Jackson once again carefully observed the opponent's position: there are four trenches, barbed wire fences one after another, and dozens of cannons behind all of them.

"I don't want to eat something like this." Jackson thought. At this time, he saw a cavalryman holding a white flag running out from the opposite position. This is the military envoy of the Northern Army. At this time, what does it mean that the Northern Army sent envoys to their side?