As Emperor Chongzhen himself said, transportation along the Guizhou, Yunnan, and Dongwu lines is inconvenient. Even though they have vigorously developed infrastructure in recent years, due to the limitations of the times, progress has been limited. Moreover, these provinces are not yet grain-producing provinces, and their own grain needs support from other places. If the army sets out from here, logistics will definitely be a big problem.
In addition, Emperor Chongzhen knew the general battle situation on Dongwu's side from the eavesdropping system, that is, the invading army of the Mughal Empire had retreated on its own and was defending in Bangladesh; Zhang Huangyan's side had assembled heavy troops and rushed to the border. With his steady and cautious character, it is impossible to invade Bangladesh on a large scale before getting his own will. The situation here is likely to be a stalemate for a period of time.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen decided to detour from the west. There are several advantages to doing this.
First of all, in terms of railway infrastructure, because it was previously necessary to support the Tianshan side, it is a key section. Except for some natural chasms that cannot be turned into roads due to terrain reasons, railways have been opened in many places. The army can go westward by train.
Secondly, over the Tianshan Mountains, Hong Chengchou had already wiped out several small surrounding countries. Although there is no clear boundary line, the area that the Ming army can control at this time is already very large. Emperor Chongzhen decided to follow the same route that the founding emperor of the Mughal Empire took when he invaded India, entering India from the Central Asian Plateau and directly threatening the ruling center of the Mughal Empire, the Delhi region.
The first advantage of doing this is that in Bombay and Dongwu, the war should be ended in a short time. It will definitely attract the attention of the Mughal Empire and disperse their forces. In addition, the logistics of traveling from the Tianshan Mountains are similar to that of nomads. In addition to being able to transport part of the food, you can also drive cattle and sheep to provide military food. This is an advantage that other routes do not have.
The last reason is that the Mughal Empire would never think of launching an offensive against the Mughal Empire from here.
For these reasons, Emperor Chongzhen decided to go westward and enter the Tianshan Mountains first, meet up with Hong Chengchou, and then mobilize the cavalry here. In this way, the total strength of the cavalry could reach about 30,000. In terms of troop strength, the mobility is high and the troop strength should be sufficient.
Also, when Emperor Chongzhen set out, he did not forget the foreshadowing he had laid for the Mughal Empire. When he set out, he sent a messenger to Tibet to deliver a message to Gushi Khan, asking his army that had previously gathered on the border of Tibet to go south to the Mughal Empire. They did not ask to capture cities and territories, but they wanted to act as a diversion to attract the Mughals. The role of empire.
………………
Let’s talk about Bombay. On this day, the British colonial warship finally appeared. Not to mention, the British colonists really spent a lot of money this time. In terms of warships alone, more than fifty came, which was almost their entire strength in the east.
A fleet of sail warships appeared in a mighty manner, spread out on the sea, and approached Bombay provocatively, trying to usher the Ming Navy out for a decisive battle.
However, Li Dingguo was not inexperienced in fighting, so how could he be fooled? He did not let a warship go out at all.
Seeing this, the British colonists did not attack immediately, so they docked on the shore and went to join the Mughal Empire's army first.
Dara Shiko was actually a little impatient with waiting. When he first arrived, he was hit head-on by the Ming army, which made him lose face. He was in a hurry to destroy the Ming army in Bombay to save his face.
Therefore, when he saw Max, the British colonial governor of the Far East, he turned dark-faced and urged Max to launch an attack immediately to destroy the Ming army or drive the Ming army to land.
After hearing this, Max certainly would not independently undertake the task of attacking Bombay, so he said to Dara Shiko: "Dear Prince, I believe you should have seen that the Ming army in Bombay is heavily guarded, and their shore defense guns and They are everywhere. If only our army attacks Bombay, I am afraid that the losses will be huge, and it will be difficult for me to explain to my subordinates. What do you think of this? While I am attacking Bombay, I will send ships to transport your army to land. In this way, we will attack by sea and land. If we go down, we will be able to capture Bombay easily and destroy the Ming army, what do you think?"
After hearing this, Darashiko agreed without hesitation, and immediately arranged his men to prepare for the attack according to Max's instructions.
For him, there is no need to take this opportunity to consume the strength of the British and make both the British and the Ming army suffer losses. His purpose was to destroy the Ming army as soon as possible so that he could go back and give an explanation to Shah Jahan as soon as possible.
As a result, the British colonists didn't even have a chance to take a break for a drink of water. Darashiko drove the Mughal infantry on board the ship to prepare for war.
Li Dingguo could see all this clearly through the telescope, but he just sneered. After preparing for such a long time, it would be really stupid to not even think of the enemy's method of attacking the island and not make preparations.
Therefore, the military orders from his side were passed down accordingly, and then he waited for the enemy's attack.
About an hour later, the British colonists mounted about a thousand Mughal infantry and began their first attack.
The British fleet surrounded Bombay from all sides, not caring that the number of warships in any direction would be less than the number of Ming warships, and just started the attack with such arrogance.
"Boom, boom, boom..." The British warship faced the island with its side, approached from the side, and fired at the same time, the sound shaking all directions.
Iron bullets roared towards the seven islands in Mumbai, destroying many flowers and plants on the islands.
However, there was no movement on the Ming army's side, and the British warships opened fire as if there was no one on the island.
As a result, the British warships slowly got closer and closer to the island. Even the ships transporting troops were approaching, but they were not attacked by the Ming army on the island.
When Dalashiko saw it, he couldn't help laughing and said: "You see, the British are more powerful after all. They beat the Ming people so much that they were too scared to fight back. It seems that before sunset, I am afraid that I will be able to board the sea." Let’s take a look at the island!”
"Thanks to the power of His Highness, he first frightened the Ming army and broke their courage!" Upon hearing this, the local governor standing next to him immediately flattered the future emperor.
However, Max from the British fleet did not see it that way. There was no movement from the Ming army, which made him worried. He kept observing the Ming army on the island with a telescope.
In fact, he knew very well that although the bombardment of warships at sea sounded lively, it actually caused very limited damage to the Ming army on the shore. Not only were the warships heaving and the artillery's accuracy was poor, but the enemy's defenses on the shore were also well built and could not pose a threat to the shore defense batteries at all. The Ming army did not fire artillery, and some obscure shore defenses were not exposed. All these made him feel unsure.
If the fleet was approaching with such force, the Ming army on the island would fight back, and both sides would fire artillery vigorously, which would give him a lot of peace of mind.
Slowly, closer, closer.
The warships in other directions could stop and dare not move closer and continue to test, but the five warships equipped with the Mughal Empire's infantry had to continue to approach.
Seeing that they were getting closer to the island, the Mughal soldiers on the battleship shouted excitedly. In their view, the Ming army had been huddled on the island and no longer dared to go ashore, which was a sign of incompetence. Besides sneak attacks, what else could the Ming army do? Come and fight if you have the ability, fight head-on, no one is afraid of whom!
When the warship was only about ten feet away from the island, these infantry troops held their weapons and prepared to land, but the British fleet was even more nervous. The surrounding warships also came closer and fired their artillery fire at the predetermined island area to cover their warships that were getting closer and closer.
Several places where the flags of the Ming Army were planted were hit by artillery shells, but the Ming Army still did not fight back, as if there was no one on the island.
Close, close, finally here.
No matter how worried they were, the British warship equipped with Mughal infantry finally reached the shore. However, it did not dare to run aground directly. It just urged the Mughal infantry to disembark quickly.
Small boats were being lowered one after another. The Mughal infantry had to take the small boats to the shore before landing. Otherwise, if they jumped directly, the sea water was still very deep, and these landlubbers who couldn't swim would drown directly.
But even so, these landlubbers didn't think much of it when they were sitting on a big warship. But under the background music of "boom boom boom", sitting on a rickety boat, all of them were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they clung to the side of the boat. Afraid of falling.
Of course, it's not like there was no unlucky guy who made a mistake at this tense moment and fell off the boat, causing his accomplices to rush to rescue him.
In short, from the battleship to the small boat attack on the island, it can be said that it will be chaotic.
This scene made the British on the troop carrier curse in anger, but there was nothing they could do. They had to send these landlubbers up there. Otherwise, would they still have to attack by themselves?
While they were busy, suddenly, the sound of "boom, boom, boom" sounded on the island, and the Ming army finally fired back.
Max, who had been paying attention to the battle here with his telescope, suddenly discovered that several conspicuous coastal defense guns were fake, because there was no counterattack at all. Instead, there were Ming army artillery roaring in several unexpected places. .
"Boom boom boom..."
In just the first round of shelling, several stopped British warships became living targets. Either their masts or their armor were penetrated, sawdust flew everywhere, and their masts collapsed.
Max gasped when he saw it, how could the Ming army hit so accurately? Shouldn't it?
In his impression, the artillery skills of all the eastern enemies he encountered were really average, far inferior to the British. However, judging from the current situation, why is the artillery fire of the Ming army almost the same as that of the British?
Tragic, tragic!
