In the eastern part of the Gandhara Basin, the city of Mardan.
The flag of the Commander-in-Chief of the East India Company's Army flies high over the second largest city in the Gandhara Basin.
Groups of East India Company mercenaries or Sikh soldiers holding turbans were coming in force one after another along the road from outside the Gandhara Basin. Although these troops had marched for days from Lahore and Multan, they had traveled more than 400 kilometers in ten days, and they were already exhausted. But their morale seems to be relatively high. Whether they are Hindus, Tianfang Christians or Sikhs, when they march together, they all have their chests and belly protruding, as if they have been injected with chicken blood.
Obviously, in order to boost the morale of these Hindus, Devadanists and Sikhs, the East India Company has spent all its money!
On the city wall of Mardan, Lieutenant General Hugh Gough, commander-in-chief of the Army of the East India Company, finally showed a satisfied smile on his face as he looked at the troops entering the city in a steady stream. This famous British general who once led the British Army to fight "Yiya" in history has now received the rank of lieutenant general in advance. Probably because he had obtained the coveted lieutenant general title, Hugh Gough also performed extremely hard this time. Thirteen days ago, he took a streamlined command and boarded the train bound for Delhi. After arriving in Delhi, he took a carriage and drove all the way to Lahore. After staying in Lahore for a day and negotiating with the Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, Ranjit Singh, on the conditions for sending troops to regain Peshawar, we met with the ruler of the Sikh Empire (his Twenty thousand troops trapped in Afghanistan) left Lahore together and rode in a carriage for several days before arriving in Mardan three days ago.
When Hugh Gough and Ranjit Singh led a small number of cavalry to arrive at Mardan, the second largest city in the Gandhara Basin was already in chaos. Officers and soldiers of the East India Company Army who retreated from the Wa line. Morale was low, people were panicked, and supplies were difficult. The white officers were hiding in the city drinking to drown their sorrows, while the Indian soldiers below were busy fighting and looting. No one was in the mood to fight the golden soldiers in Peshawar.
Under the command of Sir Amesh, these troops originally stationed outside Peshawar had the courage to counterattack twice. As a result, they were overwhelmingly crushed by the golden soldiers of Peshawar and lost all the way to Mardan. .....Sigh, I lost everything, I lost so much that I doubted my life.
The army officers and soldiers of these East India Company are accustomed to fighting against the wind. Relying on the superior firepower of the British and the organizational skills of the white officers, they suppressed the weak soldiers of the local Indian states who wanted arms but no weapons, and needed training and training. Basically, The victory is guaranteed.
But this time in Peshawar, the enemy's firepower actually had the advantage! They hit accurately and hard - all the artillerymen under Wu Zhenzhen are good at pinching and counting. The officers among them are all graduates of Xiandao University. They are all humanoid fire control computers. They can shoot Zhu Yuan with just a pinch of their fingers. Got it!
What's even more exaggerated is that Jin Bing actually has air superiority!
During the two major counterattacks by British and Indian troops around Peshawar, several airships flew over their heads and dropped bombs! Although those airships flew very high and the bombing effect was not good, they had a huge impact on morale!
After several rounds of shelling and a round of airship bombing, the attacking British and Indian soldiers were definitely unable to hold on. At this time, Peshawar's militiamen, under the supervision of the "Yellow Jacket" cavalry of the Kingdom of Jin, fought out of Peshawar to fight back. How could the British and Indian troops, which had been defeated by artillery bombardment and airship air strikes, be able to withstand it? The two counterattacks were defeated in the same way.
After the second counterattack of the British and Indian troops was defeated, those "yellow mantle" cavalry were still "unyielding in victory" and chased them with their rifles, killing the two to three thousand British and Indian soldiers who were watching Peshawar. It hit Mardan.
However, Hugh Gough was not too worried about the Jin soldiers' shelling and air strikes, because he knew that the Jin soldiers used four 6-inch howitzers for shelling - they were artillery used to support the Khyber Pass fortress, and they were quite powerful. , but there is not much ammunition, only more than a thousand rounds. Moreover, the cannons of this level of the Ming army are all 155 mm in caliber, and there are no 6-inch shells to supply the Jin soldiers, so after the shells are fired, the four 6-inch cannons are just decorations. As for the airship dropping bombs, it was just a sound to scare people.
What really worried Hugh Gough was the Jin Army's airlift of additional troops to Peshawar via airship.
According to investigation, a dozen or twenty airships arrive in the sky above Peshawar about every two days and use ropes to lower soldiers and some supplies - which should be weapons and ammunition.
According to Hugh Goff's information, the Ming army's largest equipment was the Feilong III airship. This kind of airship has a long range and a large carrying capacity. It should have no problem transporting twenty or thirty fully armed soldiers at a time.
In other words, each batch of airships can transport approximately three to four hundred gold soldiers to Peshawar! If one batch is calculated every two days, more than a thousand people can be transported in ten days, and at least four to five thousand people can be transported in thirty days...
If this number really exists, then what Hugh Gough has to consider is not to recover Peshawar, but how to secure the Khyber Pass and reserve a retreat channel for George Cotton's army.
So today I saw that the large group of East India Company mercenaries and Sikh troops finally completed a continuous march of several hundred kilometers and finally arrived at Mardan with high morale. Lieutenant General Hugh Gough finally felt relieved.
Thinking of this, Hugh Gough turned his head and said to the chief of staff beside him: "Charlie, ask all officers above the battalion level to come to my headquarters. I am going to arrange a combat operation to attack Peshawar."
His chief of staff, a forty-year-old British aristocratic officer, was stunned when he heard this: "General, are we going to organize an attack now? Our troops are quite exhausted! They all marched two to three hundred miles from Lahar Those who drove over from Multan...should we let them rest for a few days?”
"No, it's too late." Hugh Gough shook his head, "Charlie, we now have 10,000 East India Company mercenaries and 8,000 Sikh soldiers... It is estimated that there are less than two Jin soldiers in Peshawar. Thousands and five hundred people, but they will increase by three to four hundred people every two days. If we rest for a few days, then the garrison of Peshawar will be close to three thousand people! And these are real golden soldiers, excluding the local Peshawar area militia. According to intelligence, Abbas Khan has defected to the Jin Kingdom and announced the War of Gods, so the Pashtuns in the Gandhara Basin support the Jin Kingdom. We do not delay for a day, and the enemies will become more Strong, and we have no backup behind us…and there won’t be one for months!”
"General, I understand!" The colonel and chief of staff stood at attention, gave a military salute, then turned around and ran down the city wall to arrange a military meeting.
At the same time, Zhuge Weidao had emerged from the cabin of an airship that had landed in the square outside the Peshawar Fortress. He stood in the center of this ancient city. He looked up at the yellow floating on the white castle in front of him. Long Qi seemed a little emotional - the war on this timeline is about to reach India!
As soon as he thought of this, he heard Wu Zhenzhen's hearty laughter: "Commander Zhuge, I have been waiting for you... If you have a military counselor to help me, I will be sure to win the battle to defend Peshawar!"
Zhuge Weidao heard that the other party called himself "Zhuge Military Advisor" and quickly waved his hands and said: "Your Majesty, I am not a military advisor yet. I cannot afford to be a Zhuge Military Advisor like you."
Wu Zhenzhen smiled and stepped forward, grabbed Zhuge Weidao's right hand, pulled him and said: "Daozi, don't be humble... When the battle of Peshawar is over, won't your position as military advisor be guaranteed? Don't do it?" Not to mention, this time’s plan of divine weapons descending from the sky and the Bagua machine gun array, can you still be considered a strategist?”
Zhuge Weidao heard what Wu Zhenshan said and quickly asked: "Your Majesty, how is the Bagua machine gun array deployed? Will the Yingyi launch a massive counterattack soon? If the machine gun array is not deployed well, Peshawar will be difficult to defend. "
Wu Zhenzhen smiled and said: "Daozi, since you asked, let's go to the scene together and see... If there is anything wrong with the layout, tell me immediately and I will have someone correct it immediately."
"Okay, that's it!"
