It was November 28, the sixth year of Daoguang reign of Dajin.
Outside Peshawar.
The East India Company-Sikh Empire coalition forces have completed their early stage siege tactics, and the attack on Peshawar is about to begin!
The allied forces of the East India Company and the Sikh Empire came from the direction of Mardan two days ago. The first was the cavalry from the Sikh Empire. They fought with the Afghan tribal cavalry sent by the city of Peshawar (provided by tribes near Peshawar) on the flat terrain of the Gandhara Basin for most of the day. Then the Afghan tribal cavalry who were at a disadvantage slowly retreated, and instead of returning to Peshawar City, they dispersed to the tribes around Peshawar City.
The confrontation between the cavalry on both sides was not long and the fighting was not very fierce. Wu Zhenzhen was reluctant to send out his own Eight Banners soldiers. He just asked the Pashtun tribal knights called by Abbas Khan to go out to test the British's authenticity. These tribal knights are not familiar with regular cavalry combat, but they are good at sneak attacks and harassment, and they are very familiar with the terrain. Therefore, Wu Zhenfa did not let them return to the city to waste food. Instead, he asked them to retreat and lurk around Peshawar, waiting for the British to move away before pinching their logistics line.
Abbas Khan, the saint wearing a black turban, left Peshawar early in the morning and hid among the mountain tribes a little further away. He remotely commanded the tribal cavalry and "slipper infantry" from the Pashtun tribe to fight the British. Ass up...
But Hugh Gough doesn't care about these "slippers" at all. How can a majestic and heroic heavenly soldier lose to the "slippers"? cant! Moreover, in his opinion, the scattering of these "slippers" showed that the people in Peshawar were unstable. It was estimated that the number of Jin soldiers was not enough, and they were no match for the 18,000 British-Sikh coalition forces.
So Hugh Gough immediately ordered his men to deploy and prepare to besiege Peshawar. By late night on November 27, his coalition forces had controlled the starting positions for the attack and the access to mobilize troops at the front.
Because the East India Company's troops were basically lightly armed and did not carry too many artillery. The Sikh Empire's army was already restricted by the East India Company and had a limited number of cannons. However, after Hugh Gough gathered the barrel artillery from various coalition forces, he was able to collect eighteen 12-pound Armstrong breech-loading guns and thousands of rounds of artillery shells. He gathered them all and prepared to use them to bombard the city wall of Peshawar... ....Although this firepower is not strong, the ancient Peshawar city wall and the outer wall of Peshawar Castle cannot withstand the bombardment of such advanced breech-loaded artillery!
As long as the city wall is destroyed, are you afraid that you won't be able to capture Peshawar?
In the early morning of November 28, the coalition commanders at all levels began to observe the positions, and the artillery began to move into firing positions covertly. However, when Hugh Gough and his staff officer, Colonel Charlie Brown, saw in front of them the low and yet low-pitched structure composed of horse-barriers (there wasn't enough barbed wire, so Wu Zhenshan ordered people to build a batch of horse-barrier guns), barbed wire and trenches. The strict defense system is a bit refreshing.
The traditional defense system of this era was passed down from the Napoleonic Wars more than ten years ago. Bastions and city walls were no longer popular, and were replaced by a combination of obstacles, trenches, parapets, and bunkers.
However, the defense line placed by the Jin soldiers outside the city of Peshawar did not include parapets, and there did not seem to be any relatively large bunkers. At the same time, many wooden stakes were nailed to the front of the position, and there were also things like wires pulled on the wooden stakes... ...
"Charlie, what's that hanging on those stakes?"
Hugh Gough, who had been fighting for a lifetime, unexpectedly didn't think of "barbed wire" at all.
"It's barbed wire," or his staff officer was familiar with Charlie Brown. "It's just cutting the thin wire into small pieces, then wrapping it around the wire fence, and cutting the ends of the thin wire into spikes."
"Ah, the ends have to be cut into spikes... Such a dangerous and unethical thing must have been invented by the Zhuge family, right?" Hugh Gough asked.
"General, I don't know who invented barbed wire," said Charlie Brown, "but I know that most of the barbed wire on the market was made by Ming Dynasty... Ranchers in Australia, the United States and Europe like to use it. It is used to divide pastures. Some rich people also use it to prevent thieves and theft."
In fact, Hugh Gough guessed it right. This immoral and smoking barbed wire was "invented" by the Zhuge family, and they also applied for patents in the Ming Dynasty, Europe and the United States!
The patent protection period has not yet expired, so the barbed wire fences on the European market are still made by Daming.
However, except for the Ming army, no one used barbed wire for military purposes. However, animal husbandry and security industries would need to use barbed wire. Charlie Brown's family is relatively wealthy and has a large manor in the Irish countryside. In order to prevent the despicable Irish from stealing the family's cattle and sheep, the Brown family's manor was surrounded by barbed wire made by Ming Dynasty...
"Then how should we break it?" Hugh Gough said, holding up the telescope. "If we can't break it, it may be difficult for our people to pass."
"Clamp it with iron pliers," Charlie Brown frowned, "But we don't seem to have iron pliers... It's definitely too late to place an order now."
"What else can be done?" Hugh Goff asked again.
"How about chopping wood piles?" said Charlie Brown. "The cook has an ax to chop wood."
"Okay!" Hugh Goff nodded, "That's it... distribute axes to all the infantry companies participating in the attack!" He thought for a while, "At three o'clock tomorrow morning, the attacking troops will have meals and prepare dry food. In the early morning, Artillery preparations will begin at four o'clock, and each cannon will first fire a base amount of ammunition...At five o'clock tomorrow morning, the first wave of attacks will be launched!"
"Yes, Lieutenant General!"
...
The so-called "Bagua Machine Gun Formation" set up by Wu Zhenzhen outside Peshawar is actually an octagonal position, with numbers on each side, namely "Qian", "Kan", "Gen", "Zhen", " "Xun", "Li", "Kun", "Dui".
This octagonal position was set up around the city of Peshawar, and criss-crossing communication trenches were dug behind the position, leading all the way to the outer trenches of Peshawar City. Outside the four gates of Peshawar City, thick earth walls more than one person high were built so that the troops entering and exiting the gates could have cover and not be discovered by the enemy.
In addition, there is a headquarters behind each of these four earth walls, responsible for commanding the defenders on the two "sides" of the front.
As for the cannons of the defenders, they were placed in the square outside the fortress in Peshawar and were directly controlled by Wu Zhanzhen's headquarters.
On the night of November 28th, Wu Zhenzhen, who sensed that the British army was about to launch an attack, issued an order to guard the outer positions all night! In the early morning of the next day, as the movement of British troops was reported from the front, the alert was once again strengthened. All the officers and soldiers entered the position and stared at the dark area in front of them with wide eyes. Mortars and machine guns also entered the position and were placed in shooting positions located throughout the front.
Everyone held their breath, watching the passage of time.
The headquarters of Pingxi King Wu Zhenzhen is located on the tower of Peshawar Fortress in Peshawar City. Zhuge Weidao, Zheng Guoxian and Mu Zhongjun were in place at around three o'clock in the morning and almost four o'clock in the morning. The three of them boarded a turret together. Three large-power telescopes had been set up. This turret It is the commanding height of the entire city of Peshawar, overlooking the entire battlefield. No matter which direction the British and Indian troops attack from, the three of them can see clearly.
Zhuge Weidao held the telescope and looked for a long time, but because it was too dark, he saw nothing, so he had no choice but to put it down. He looked back at Zheng Guoxian and Mu Junen. The two elites of the Ming Dynasty army seemed to have a good relationship. They were already smoking cigars together (they all knew that Zhuge Weidao did not smoke, so they did not give him cigarettes. ), they both also noticed that Zhuge Weidao had turned his head and laughed.
"Hey, barbed wire blocking the road, machine gun fire... now there's something exciting to watch!"
"Yes! The war situation will change drastically! Brother Daozi... It's a pity that you don't want to join the army! But this time we both benefited from you, and the lieutenant general has hope!"
Zhuge Weidao patted the stone wall of the turret and said with a smile: "I just calculated with my fingers and I know that the two of you have a future as generals, generals, or even marshals. Because..."
As soon as he said this, the corner of his eye suddenly glanced at a golden ball of light rising in the eastern sky.
Zhuge Weidao looked at the group of light that suddenly appeared in the starry sky, his spirit was suddenly shocked, and he whispered: "Daying, times have changed, your era is about to end!"
