Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1239
But he never expected that Dashun was so proficient in siege skills, and there was no way of deploying troops on the north side like a textbook, approaching the trenches, and attacking the city after shelling.

Instead, on the south side, relying on the elite grenadiers in his eyes, he directly launched an attack.

He had to admit that Dashun's attack was well-organized, and everything was like a scene change after the curtain on the stage was drawn.

While the battle for the Fort Lob was still going on, there were engineers constructing the parapet along the road from the Gowerm River to Fort Lob.

There is an endless stream of teams passing materials and soil baskets behind.And those engineers danced their shovels so fast that at a distance of more than 400 meters, the parapet seemed to suddenly rise from the ground.

And obviously these soldiers are very confident in the battle ahead, making the parapet completely a straight line, and did not adopt standard zigzag trench tactics.

The premise of directly repairing the straight parapet is to be sure that the front can quickly capture the salient fort.Otherwise, this north-south parapet dedicated to defending the firepower of the middle embankment on the east side will be strung with candied haws by the cannons on the salient fort facing it.

At the beginning, the commander of the British army was not sure what Dashun was going to do. He didn't realize it until a few cannons crossed the Gowam River from the south when the tide was low.

The hot air balloon floating in the sky helped Dashun's commander find the weak point of the entire bastion, and formulated corresponding tactics.

Because the salient fort on the south side is too isolated, once the protruding fort is occupied, then this protruding fort is an independent defensive unit, and because there is no height difference in the main fort, once the protruding fort is occupied Pulling the cannon up along the way can form suppression on both sides, and even directly bombard the command post.

The British commander couldn't blame the builder, because the builder's design was absolutely qualified according to the situation at that time and before.

Due to the existence of the ancient Worm River on the south side, it was impossible to deploy troops on the south side. The soldiers who crossed the river had to form a team after crossing the river, which happened to be a target.

Artillery cannot be deployed in large numbers on the south side, and the factor of high tide must also be considered, making it meaningless to build more buildings on the south side in theory.

But for one thing, the gunboats of more than 100 years ago were indeed unable to bombard threats from the sea on the south side, but now it is different.

The warships on Dashun's side used the flint puller structure.This not only speeds up the speed of the battle columns, but also greatly improves the accuracy of the ground bombardment.

After all, the warship is swaying back and forth on the sea, and an excellent gunner needs years of experience to fire at a certain moment of shaking in order to achieve a fairly good bombardment effect.

The difference between ignition and flint pulling is also reflected in the difference in ground bombardment.

Another one is that when the British army faced off against the French army, or fought against Indian envoys, they never thought that professional elite grenadiers would be sent on the opposite side.

Companies need to be profitable, and good designers are everywhere.From Dashun to Paris, from Amsterdam and even to Siberia in Russia, excellent engineers can be found, and they can design theoretically perfect real bastions.

Including enough triangular forts, bulging forts, anti-cannon slopes, main forts, and perfect bastions with height differences.

Drawings are not a problem.

The question is, how much will it cost?Is it worth repairing?
India has a lot of people, but the level of their cannons is ridiculous; the French can use cannons, but the number of French is too small; the French navy often stretches its hips, making it difficult to deter and intercept the siege on the sea fleet.

Without considering the fate of Dashun, this fortress should be said to be extremely cost-effective.And, generally speaking, it is enough.

However, no one could have imagined that Dashun would directly participate in the battle.

The fleet directly blocked the sea.

A large number of heavy artillery and very good artillery were transported from Temasek's naval base to assemble heavy artillery shelling.

Thousands of professional reserve soldiers can be called up at a single order, and they will cross the sea by boat to dig trenches here.

As well as an unexpectedly elite professional siege force, there will be India.

Now, everything is too late.

Seeing that the cannon was being dragged closer to the salient fort under the cover of the parapet, the British commander signaled his subordinates to surrender.

"We have fulfilled our obligations. It is meaningless to continue fighting. Once the Chinese pull up the cannons, the backs of all our buildings and forts will be exposed to the firing range of the Chinese cannons."

He explained the reasons for surrender, and his subordinates did not question this.

Now, the only tactic that can turn the situation around is to counterattack and retake the Fort on the south side.

However, after the soldiers of Dashun boarded the salient fort, they built breast walls and emplacements at a speed that astonished the British.

After all, those people are just grenadiers in a broad sense, and their real name is combat engineers.

What's more, Dashun's small cannons that can shoot curved, light, and fire grenades have left a deep enough impression on these British troops.

It's like the mockery of Sweden in the 30 Years War many, many years ago: If you don't have leather guns, you won't fight.

After the 30 Years' War, leather cannons were eliminated.

But more than a hundred years later, this portable cannon that can be carried by two people has been revived again in a special form.Although it is completely different from the leather cannon.

In addition, those mast shooters and skirmishers with excellent shooting skills also made the British army no longer want to launch an attack to recapture the salient fort.

Because, there is no way to win.

If you walk from the middle dike, you will be directly covered by muskets and grenades, and you will not be able to form a horizontal team at all to give full play to your firepower advantage.

Walking from the inside, the Dashun army on the salient fort looked down on the open space inside.

Go outside, go out at the door on the east side, assemble, and attack, even if you don't consider the terrifying accurate shooting of those skirmishers and mast shooters... Gather in the open space on the southeast side, that's not directly for Dashun on the sea A chance for the fleet to kill?
Theoretically speaking, behind the salient fort, there should be a main fort about two meters higher, so that the protruding fort was breached, shot from the main fort, and launched a counterattack from the main fort at the same time.

But the reality is that such a main castle does not exist.The only similar structure, the deconstruction of the triangular fort with the protruding horn behind it, and the height increasing in turn, are all on the north side.

60.00% of the construction cost of Fort St. George was spent on the north and west sides.

This is confidence in its own navy.

This kind of self-confidence has just become a fatal weakness at this time.

Since there is no such thing in theory that should exist in reality, the only choice is to surrender before Dashun's cannon is pulled up.

Soon, the commanders of the British army reached an agreement, and everyone signed the surrender document, and everyone shared the possible future responsibilities.

Soldiers holding white flags were sent out to walk towards the Fort Protrusion.

Probably because they were afraid of being shot by those terrible rifled skirmishers or mast shooters, the British soldiers holding the white flag kept waving the white flag, and shouted loudly in French, sometimes mixed with Dutch.

Because they believed that the officers in Dashun should be able to understand French or Dutch, but not necessarily English.

The officers following behind the white flag, after many prayers, at last reached Fort Lux.

After temporarily handing over the weapons for safekeeping, the officers on Dashun's side skillfully presented the terms of surrender.

Dashun guarantees the belongings of the surrenderers except weapons, but not the rest of their real estate here.

Dashun promised not to mistreat the surrendered British troops.Surrendered soldiers need to work, mainly to rebuild and strengthen the fort.

After the war, Dashun will not detain any surrendered soldiers.As long as the British side, whether it is the East India Company or the British government, sends a ship to pick them up, they can be released without any ransom.

The documents proposing to surrender are all in English, not in French or Dutch. Obviously, Dashun has been plotting for a long time.

After the British commander who came to negotiate the surrender read the document, the officer on the Dashun side told him bluntly: "I suggest you sign this. You know, you can't win. As long as the cannons are pulled up, you Until tomorrow at most."

"Our fleet has completely controlled the sea, and land rescue is impossible. Given the relationship between the French and the Jiedushi in southern India, and their hostile attitude towards you, don't have illusions."

"We don't need you to praise the fighting qualities of our soldiers, because your praise is too cheap. Our soldiers have been trained for many years to conquer real fortresses. This place is not worthy of being called a real fortress. Colony The defensive forts and the military qualities of the colonial soldiers do not deserve our praise."

After a few words, the British commander nodded helplessly.

"We accept your terms."

The officer at Dashun looked at his watch and said, "Before 02:30 in the afternoon, put down your weapons and gather below. During this period, we will not take the initiative to attack. However, our artillery will also be deployed."

The two checked their watches, adjusted the time difference, and confirmed whether the said 02:30 was 02:30 in Madras or 02:30 in Ceylon, and the representatives of the British army withdrew.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the battle at Fort St. George ended, and the British army surrendered their weapons two hours earlier than scheduled.

In this battle, Dashun suffered 43 casualties. Although it was slightly worse than when Duplex captured Fort St. George at the cost of six casualties many years ago, this moment is not that moment after all. The British army at this time It is not the same as the British army back then.

Du Feng is quite satisfied with this result, but he also knows that Dashun is still one step away from creating a military myth in India.

Military myths such as being invincible are meaningful after all, and can seriously deter others.The advantage of the French in South India back then was also based on the military victory of Duplex's six casualties in breaking Fort St. George.

Moreover, after the establishment of this myth, it has been strong for more than ten years. Even if the French army makes strategic mistakes repeatedly, it can still attract enough allies.

Now, if Du Feng wants to establish Dashun's military legend in India, he must capture Fort William in Calcutta as soon as possible.

What makes him uncomfortable is that Fort William was breached by Siraj, the small governor of Bangladesh, a few years ago.

But fortunately, shortly after Siraj broke through Fort William, he was defeated by the British army with traitors, at least giving him a chance to create a myth.

Otherwise, it would be embarrassing—Bengal could attack Fort William by itself, and even if Dashun was able to attack beautifully, it would still make people feel that they were all attacking Fort William?
Now that Fort St. George has been captured, Ceylon also has a supplementary battalion dedicated to replenishing personnel, and the losses of the combat engineer battalion can be quickly replenished.

After thinking about it, Du Feng and the staff said: "The reason why I want to capture Fort George as soon as possible is to squeeze out time and use a real siege to fight Calcutta."

"Since Siraj is in our hands, he can invite the lords of Bengali to watch this battle. This will help them sober up, and when they wait for the court to collect taxes, they will choose to pay taxes instead of resisting .”

"If Fort George is fast enough, then Calcutta can be slow enough."

"We must give the British the opportunity to gather the rebellious lords of Bengal and try to fight us. Anyway, sooner or later we will fight, so we should take this opportunity to knock out their resistance."

"The time given by the imperial court is enough, and I also grabbed the time in Fort George. It is more convenient for the navy to work hard. It is best to set sail the day after tomorrow, transport the vanguard, and build camps and fortifications."

"Nanyang side, I believe he can easily attack Bengkulu. Soon, he will also have military support. Send a fast boat to Temasek to let me know that I have finished fighting here. According to the second a scheduled plan."

(End of this chapter)