"The people under Le Bao are really cruel!"
Zhongdu Imperial Palace.
The report on the war in India has been sent to Emperor Zhu's desk.
Several important ministers under his command were also reading copies of the battle report.
The brows were all wrinkled.
"My lords, the British Empire has requested the Indian Ocean Fleet to send warships to control the Ganges waterway. What do you think of this matter?"
Emperor Zhu put down the battle report hesitantly and asked.
This matter is indeed troublesome, because Emperor Zhu's strategy towards India is "limited intervention."
The Indian vassals were all vassals with considerable autonomy.
There are only vassal obligations with the Ming Dynasty.
Ming Dynasty was determined not to directly intervene in the Indian battlefield.
However, Sun Shiyi stated in the memorial that if the battle to control the Ganges River basin was to be fought with the help of Indian vassals, it would take at least two years to build warships and rely on inland transportation of shipbuilding materials.
This is just the preparation period for the battle.
Therefore, if Ming Dynasty does not intervene directly, the direction of the situation in India will be unpredictable.
Moreover, controlling the Ganges River Basin is something that Emperor Zhu has always asked of the Indian vassals.
"Your Majesty, if the Indian vassals want to control the Ganges River Basin, they do need an inland river fleet. However, the alliance of the vassal armies is easier to say. The key is that if the inland river fleet is also a coalition, how will the vassals distribute the benefits in the future? If it is the British vassal, Monopoly, wouldn't it mean that the entire Ganges River Basin is monopolized by the British Empire?" Zhao Si said.
"Old Zhao, do you mean you can intervene?" Emperor Zhu's expression changed.
"The veteran believes that the imperial court should directly control the Ganges waterway in India rather than letting the vassals fight over it."
Emperor Zhu nodded and looked at Gu Song.
"Your Majesty, if the British are completely driven out of India, they may strengthen their power in North America."
Gu Song reminded.
Emperor Zhu nodded.
India is a small hit.
But the future.
There will definitely be a big hit in North America.
The United States today is not qualified to compete with Ming Dynasty.
The only people who can fight against the Ming Dynasty are the European coalition forces led by Britain.
So Gu Song's concerns are reasonable.
If the British had completely withdrawn from India, their power would have been more concentrated in North America.
Most of the interests of this India belonged to the vassals.
For Ming Dynasty.
India's interests are limited.
The interests of North America are unlimited.
Emperor Zhu thought for a while and said: "North America is the future, and India is the present. A thousand birds in the forest is not as good as a bird in the hand. He ordered the Indian Ocean Fleet to establish a Ganges inland river fleet to control the main channel of the Ganges! In the future, this The fleet will not be abolished. The Ganges River Basin is the most densely populated area in India. Ensuring Ming Dynasty’s control over the main channel of the Ganges River is the key to Ming Dynasty’s interests in India!”
"The imperial court agreed to establish the Ganges Fleet, but it seems that the imperial court will directly intervene in India and control the main channel of the Ganges. The interests of the channel will not be left to the vassals."
The news quickly reached Sun Shiyi through the Clippers.
He frowned and handed the official document in his hand to Pan Shien.
After Pan Shien looked at it, he smiled slightly and said: "Master, returning the Ganges waterway to the imperial court is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it is a great thing!"
"how do I say this?"
"If the imperial court does not take away the benefits of the Ganges waterway, the current unity of the vassals may be shattered."
Pan Shien reminded.
Sun Shiyi is certainly a smart man.
He understood it as soon as he heard it.
Now the vassals can gain a foothold in India and even overwhelm the British. Why?
It's not because of the unity of the vassals.
But the basis of unity is interests.
The reason for disunity is naturally due to interests.
If the Ganges waterway belongs to the British vassal.
It is inevitable that the vassals will not be jealous.
But if the benefits of the waterway are equally shared by everyone, how to distribute them is also a matter of debate.
On the contrary, now that the imperial court has directly intervened, no one has to think about the interests of this waterway, and a lot of troubles have been reduced.
"The interests of the Ganges waterway cannot be exclusively obtained by the British, but the prince can request to occupy the upper reaches of the Ganges and the area around Delhi." Pan Shien said.
Sun Shiyi nodded.
By occupying the territory around Delhi, they can expand to the northwest and southwest in the future.
As for the other vassals that entered the Ganges River, there were not many places where they could expand.
If they expand again, can they expand towards the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau?
The purpose of occupying the territory around Delhi was for future expansion.
In fact.
This also resulted in a decades-long battle for Kashmir between the British vassal of the Ming Dynasty and the Governor-General of India in the Qing Dynasty.
Of course, this is a story for later.
The Ganges River has not been conquered yet.
It is probably too early to talk about the distribution of territory.
Right now.
A British civil servant wearing a red official uniform came in a hurry.
"Sir, news from the front line! The British troops are marching in large numbers and arriving at Agoura City!!"
Sun Shiyi and Pan Shien were both shocked.
"So fast?"
Upper Ganges River.
A small city east of Agra.
Groups of lobster soldiers stepped in.
Occupy this small city about thirty miles away from Agoura City.
Because Yang Yuchun and others did not expect it.
The British would march so decisively.
So no troops were stationed in this small town.
But actually
After the British captured the city.
Only then did Yang Yuchun realize the importance of this city—the location of this small town was stuck on the main road leading in and out of Agoula City to the Ganges River!
If the British were allowed to build a permanent bastion here and install fortress guns that could block the river.
Then the significance of taking Agura is completely reduced.
"The Chinese will definitely take the initiative to attack. What we have to do is to hoard as many troops as possible here before they attack, build fortifications, stockpile weapons, and completely turn this place into a hedgehog! Let the Chinese smash their heads here. Blood flow!”
Arthur Wellesley is now on a gunboat in the middle of the Ganges channel, holding a telescope and looking towards the south bank.
"We lack rifled guns, and our opponent's artillery performance is much better than ours, so we need to avoid field battles with the opponent as much as possible!"
Arthur Wellesley said.
He was a little helpless.
When were the troops of the British Empire afraid of fighting the enemy in the wild?
But now he had to take this strategy and let his army shrink within the fortifications to defend the city.
Because the Mingyin army on the opposite side was equipped with a large number of rifled guns.
Although the British Army also had rifled guns, they were not popularized in the hands of the line infantry, but were equipped in the hands of the chasseurs.
at the same time.
The British wooden pallets bombarded smoothbore cannons, and their range was far inferior to the Ming army's rifled howitzers.
If the two sides are facing each other in the wild.
The British people will definitely suffer a big loss from this.
so.
Arthur Wellesley came up with this idea.
Force the Mingyin vassal army to take the initiative to attack the city! !
Luo Dingshan lay on the city wall of Agoula City, held up a telescope and looked at it for a long time, and then said helplessly: "The Britons have already built a bastion structure on the city wall. If they are allowed to continue to stay, I am afraid that a large bastion will be built." Once it is built, the losses will be huge if we want to attack! I suggest that we reorganize our forces as soon as possible, launch an attack, and remove the enemy's stronghold!"
Yang Yuchun nodded.
"What General Luo said is what I think! Then we won't wait for follow-up reinforcements! Send an order to the entire army to rest for a day and launch an attack early tomorrow morning!"
The war between the Ming-Indian vassal army and the British Governor-General of India came quite unexpectedly.
On the morning of May 13, 1796.
The fortress on the south bank of the Ganges that the British had hastily built was shrouded in smoke and fire.
One after another, the four-inch cannons were approached to a distance of less than 800 meters from the fortress.
As the gunner pulled the cable, the gun group shook.
Fire burst out.
Then came the thunderous sound of cannons, and the cannons retreated violently.
In the blink of an eye, large swaths of smoke and fire were rising from all over the fortress. The fragments exploded by the shells rolled through the city where the lobster soldiers were entrenched like a storm. Human limbs, gravel, soil or other debris were scattered everywhere. Flying, the bricks and stones on the top of the city also fell straight down.
When the gunfire sounded, the Japanese ronin Mouri Takayaga who was lying in the trench also trembled.
He was in the trench at the launch point of the attack - the Ming army's tactics had been updated a lot. Although the queuing and shooting style had not been completely abandoned, the squatting and obscenity style was becoming more and more mature.
Now this temporarily dismantled trench was full of soldiers and officers. When they heard the sound of the cannon, everyone straightened up from the trench and looked forward.
Maori is also one of them.
In fact.
Except for the Japanese Armed Forces of the Ming Dynasty.
Many samurai ronin in Japan also went to the Ming vassal armies to look for opportunities to fight.
no way.
There are too many samurai in Japan.
These over-energetic samurai were a huge hidden danger to the Tokugawa shogunate.
Therefore, they welcomed Indian vassals to go to Japan to recruit samurai to fight abroad.
There was also a Japanese samurai brigade under the British Empire.
Mouri Takayaga is the commander of this samurai brigade!
"Kui-kun!"
He turned around and loudly called Katsura Taro to his side. Katsura's first battalion of military soldiers and a company of engineers were one of the two reinforced battalions leading the charge tonight.
"Don't fall behind Akito. You must show off the majesty of the Japanese samurai! That bastion is actually nothing special. I order you to capture the wall in one charge!"
At the same time, in another trench.
Qian Daji, a brother of Wu Hou Qian Dazhao and commander of the Wu Fan Brigade, was holding a rifle and personally lecturing several battalion and company commanders.
"Repeat the order. Charge as soon as the shelling stops. The first and second companies are responsible for fire cover, the engineer company is responsible for building the bridge, and the third company brings ladder grenades and climbs the city wall with me! I will personally lead you to charge today! The supervising team is here. In the trenches, if anyone dares to retreat, the gun will not recognize him!"
As time passed for fire preparations.
The battlefield suddenly became quiet.
At this time, Qian Daji was the first to jump out of the trench with a rifle, and at the same time raised his arms and shouted: "The Ming Dynasty will be victorious! Forward!"
Then a group of grassroots officers of the Ming Army came out, followed by soldiers.
It was a common practice in the era of "queuing to shoot" for officers to take the lead. If you don't have such courage, you can't be a mid-level or lower-level officer!
"Onboard! Onboard! The emperor is onboard, Ming is onboard!"
Japanese slogans also sounded at the same time.
Although it may seem absurd to later generations, it seems to be perfectly justified to people in this time and space.
Japan is already a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.
The Emperor of Japan was also invited to Zhongdu and became the Prince.
The King of Japan is now also the sixth prince of the Ming Dynasty.
It is only natural that the Japanese samurai fight for the sake of the emperor.
These Japanese samurai actually benefited a lot from this process.
Even if you didn't join the Ming Dynasty Japanese Samurai Legion.
Under the Indian vassals, they could get enfeoffed territory in India and become local nobles. Moreover, the land in India was much better than that in Japan, and the lower class in India were docile than those in Japan. Being able to be a noble in India would be a world-class achievement. Wealth from generation to generation.
so.
These Japanese samurai are not just humanoid weapons full of loyalty to their emperor.
In fact, they are fighting for their own interests.
Take India!
Be the noble lord of India!
Whether Chinese or Indian.
Now we are carrying this dream and moving forward bravely.
The first wave of attacking troops carried planks and ladders and shouted loudly as they advanced. Their starting position was only five or six hundred steps away from the fortress in a straight line.
The attacking troops did not charge with all their strength at the beginning, but advanced slowly at a walking pace in a skirmish line formation.
At this time, the fortress defenders also recovered from the overwhelming artillery fire just now and began to counterattack!
"Get to your positions and prepare to fight!"
The heart-rending roar of the fortress commander, Lieutenant Colonel John Clara, rang out from the top of the city.
His arm holding the telescope was shaking.
Within the field of view of the telescope.
There were corpses scattered everywhere.
Those were lobster soldiers transferred from London, the most elite army soldiers in the British Empire.
In the process of the British Empire conquering the world, it was very rare for people to be beaten to death in large blocks without the ability to fight back like it is now!
The Anglos were not only technologically advanced, they were also quite advanced in military organization.
"Damn it!" John Clara cursed. The losses of the troops far exceeded his calculations.
Although the British knew that the Ming Dynasty's artillery firepower was very fierce.
But now we have just transitioned from the era of smoothbore solid bullets to the era of bombardment artillery.
Innovation in tactics is always slower than innovation in weapons.
Changes in tactics always come after lessons of blood and fire.
The British have always bullied opponents whose firepower was inferior to their own. Now they have become an army with far greater firepower than their own. They are not very good at fighting at first. In this round of shelling just now, the British lobster soldiers were stupidly on the city wall. bombed
but.
Even if there are heavy casualties.
The British lobster soldiers are worthy of being a powerful contemporary soldier.
Muskets were set up one after another on the city wall.
The cannons that had escaped the bombardment in the city also began to roar.
but.
What is showing its power now is the British smoothbore cannon, which fires solid bullets, and its firepower cannot be compared with the Ming army's grenades.
Therefore, the firepower density is not large, and it has little impact on the Ming army, which is now completely advancing in a skirmish formation.
The officers and soldiers of the Ming army rushed to the moat under the city in one breath, and a large number of mortars began to be deployed.
(End of chapter)
