"Bagua machine gun formation?" Daoguang suddenly became interested, "What kind of formation is this?"
Zhuge Weidao did not answer, but turned to look at Mu Zhongjun and Zheng Guoxian of the Ming Dynasty Army, "Sir Mu, Brother Shenshan... The army's barbed wire, trench, and machine gun combination tactics are not a secret, right?"
Mu Zhongjun shook his head and said with a smile: "No, it's not a secret."
How could he not know it was a secret? He is the director of the Operations Division of the Training Bureau of the Army Staff Headquarters! But he had never heard of the tactics of barbed wire, trenches, and machine guns—even though the Ming Army already had barbed wire, dug trenches, and equipped platoons with machine guns. However, "trench tactics" did not appear. The Army now still uses tactics from the Napoleonic War (equivalent to the Franco-Prussian War), which focused on offense and mobile warfare and paid little attention to trench defense and static attrition warfare.
Zheng Guoxian smiled and said nothing - he actually had nothing to say, so he stopped talking.
Emperor Daoguang asked at this time: "Disciple Dao, how should we set up the Bagua machine gun formation you mentioned?"
How to put it? I can’t explain this clearly!
Zhuge Weidao turned his head and glanced at the fairy beside him, "Junior sister, can you bring me some pens, ink, paper and inkstones?"
"Come as soon as you go, little sister." The fairy bowed, moved her lotus steps lightly, and walked out of the hall like a gust of wind. After a while, she came back with two white eunuchs holding a small table with pens, inks, paper and inkstones. .
Then the two white eunuchs moved the table in front of Zhuge Weidao and placed the small table with the Four Treasures of the Study in front of him, while the fairy half-knelt beside Zhuge Weidao and began to grind ink.
Zhuge Weidao took the opportunity to look at her carefully and found that this fairy was not the Orchid from the Western Regions. She should be the "best fairy" that the old fairy said did not have much blood from the Western Regions. At first glance, she was not as good as Nalandili and Nata. Li is so beautiful, but more delicate and attractive. Moreover, she is younger than the Empress Dowager Zheng. In later generations, she was still in her prime, but now she is considered "lightly mature"... Although Emperor Daoguang is "poor", his enjoyment is better than in history. That one is too strong!
When Zhuge Wei was "appreciating" Daozheng and was a little entranced, the ink had been sharpened. The fairy whispered "Brother, it's sharpened", stood up and stepped aside.
Zhuge Weidao smiled faintly, picked up the brush and began to draw on a piece of rice paper. After a while, he drew a circular array map that looked a bit like a Bagua pattern.
Zhuge Weidao put away his brush and said with a smile: "Junior sister, show this picture to the emperor."
"yes."
The fairy responded with a smile, and took Zhuge Weidao's "painting" to show it to Daoguang.
Zhuge Weidao began to explain on the spot: "Brother Daoguang, this Bagua array consisting of barbed wire, trenches, and machine guns is arranged like this. The outermost periphery is several barbed wire arrays used to delay the advance of infantry, and can also be used in conjunction with mines. Laying. After the barbed wire, there are one or more trenches connected by communication trenches...Infantry can carry machine guns and mortars, maneuver through the communication trenches, and then deploy on the trench line, using machine guns and mortars Artillery hits the enemy trapped in the barbed wire formation.
In addition, these trenches themselves can be protected from artillery, and anti-blast holes can also be dug in the walls of the trenches. In this way, when the enemy launches artillery fire, our people can hide in the artillery holes. When they finish the artillery fire and the infantry comes up, they can use machine guns to kill the enemy.
If King Pingxi could set up this Bagua machine gun array outside Peshawar, he should be able to severely damage the tens of thousands of troops commanded by Wellington with two to three thousand men! "
"Is it really that powerful?"
Emperor Daoguang obviously couldn't believe it.
In the original plan, Wu Zhenzhen would lead two to three thousand dead soldiers to withstand the fierce attack of the British and Indian troops in Peshawar in order to buy time for Daoguang's army to clear out the British and Indian troops in Afghanistan.
But if Wu Zhenzhen can defeat tens of thousands of British Indian soldiers in the defense battle of Peshawar, then... taking over India is not impossible!
Thinking of this, he thought about it carefully again. This Bagua machine gun array looks good! Today's army attacks are all about letting the infantry form a skirmish line to attack upwards after the artillery fire. If the infantry can't break through the barbed wire barrier at once, then the machine gun fire will be very powerful.
Daoguang looked around.
He Shen smiled and said, "Your Majesty, it's worth a try."
Mu Zhang'a also said: "Your Majesty, we might as well set up this Bagua machine gun array in Peshawar while negotiating with the British. If Peshawar wins, we will have more leverage to ask for money."
Daoguang nodded and finally made up his mind: "Okay, what should we do... Dao disciple, I don't seem to have much barbed wire here. Do you still have barbed wire over there?"
Zhuge Weidao smiled and said: "Of course, it has been delivered to King Pingxi today! Brother Daoguang, just wait and hear the good news!"
...
London, 10 Downing Street.
"Good news, good news... Your Excellency Prime Minister, good news!"
When Sir Harker opened the door and walked into the Earl of Liverpool's office, he looked happy and congratulated the Earl of Liverpool.
"What's wrong? Huck, what's the good news?" The Earl of Liverpool raised his head from a pile of troublesome reports about the economic crisis and banking industry failures, and looked at his cabinet secretary.
"Your Excellency Prime Minister," Sir Harker said, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs just called. The Kingdom of Jin has agreed to follow Rakshasa and send troops to support the independence of Greece... In addition, the Kingdom of Jin has also sent its chief military minister He Shen. Go to Petersburg with Qishan, the Consul General in India, to prepare for peace talks with us there."
"Okay!" The Earl of Liverpool slapped the table, "Quickly send a message to Sir Amherst and ask him to organize a counterattack against Peshawar as soon as possible. In addition, send a message to Earl Nelson and ask him to organize a fleet to visit Japan as soon as possible!"
"Yes, Prime Minister!"
The smells of cigar smoke, strong coffee, and milk tea were mixed together, floating in the small cabinet meeting room.
The cabinet members of the British Empire were all gathered together. The British Prime Minister, the Earl of Liverpool, looked at his cabinet members and seemed a little excited. There was also a bit of worry in the excitement.
“Gentlemen,” said the Earl of Liverpool, “our empire now stands at a crucial historical crossroads… If we are not to lose the world empire that has so long been won with so much blood, sweat, and tears, then From now on, we must use all our courage and determination to defeat that ambitious Eastern Empire at all costs."
"Mr. Prime Minister, is a world war about to break out soon?" A cabinet minister said to the Earl of Liverpool in a melancholy tone. "Our empire is in the midst of a serious economic recession... Production is in The economy is shrinking, banks are closing, workers are losing their jobs, everything is so bad, how can we go into a war with the Ming Empire under such circumstances?"
This cabinet minister is talking about an economic crisis that is hitting the British Empire!
Capitalism, how can there be no economic crisis?
The economic crisis currently hitting the UK is a typical oversupply crisis - this is because European industrialization has been fully launched since the end of the Napoleonic War, and the scale of industrial production, especially the production of mid- to low-end products, has far exceeded the market. The limit of what can be digested.
At the same time, due to the collapse of the Spanish world empire, the Spanish colonies in the Americas that were originally responsible for exporting gold and silver to the Old World to create inflation temporarily stopped the export of gold and silver due to the outbreak of revolution, which further intensified the crisis in Western European countries. of deflation.
At this time, the industrialized countries in Western Europe had no experience in dealing with crises... They had no expansionary monetary policy or expansionary fiscal policy, and they did not know that war needs could be used to pass on the crisis, and countries generally adopted austerity measures. means to deal with the surplus crisis.
So now Britain is facing unprecedented economic difficulties. Under such circumstances, it seems unwise to go to war with Ming Dynasty.
"Sir," the Earl of Liverpool glanced at the minister, "of course I know now is not the time to go to war with the Ming Dynasty... Not only is the economy in a slump, the army and navy are not ready. We don't have enough. There are not enough airships for the Sovereign-class ironclads, and we also face a war with the Turkish Empire!
However, we cannot show weakness to the Ming now...especially while we are in a weakened state! If we cannot show our determination to fight to the end, then the Ming Empire, inspired by the Battle of Peshawar, will definitely launch a new challenge to us! "
"Prime Minister," asked another minister of state, "what should we do?"
The Earl of Liverpool turned his attention to George Canning, who often got high on drugs. Although the Foreign Secretary was a drug addict, he often did some outrageous things. But there is no doubt that he still knows how to maintain the glory of the British Empire.
George Canning took up the topic and said: "We should raise the stakes!"
