Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1243 Three Battles to India ([-])
The reasons for objecting from the purely military perspective of Clive are different.

Jafar also resolutely opposed Lieutenant General Watson's strategy of holding on to the bastion and ordering Dashun to fortify the city.

The reasons for his opposition are more political.

Bengal doesn't have a navy strong enough to scare Dashun.

The Ganges...the Ganges is not the Hooghly River.

Where the lower part of the Ganges is wide, it is twenty or thirty miles wide.Not to mention that the fleet is passing through, even if the fleet is turning around inside, it can turn around.

Dashun held Siraj in his hand, the orthodox Bengal Jiedushi, the heir appointed by the old Jiedushi before his death.

At the beginning, the military chiefs and tax collectors worked together to push the old Jiedushi up. In order to thank the British East India Company for their help, Jafar emptied the treasury.

They had to cede other places to the UK as collateral. In theory, they could return them after collecting the tax and the number of contracts, but this has already aroused the dissatisfaction of those people in the country.

Another one, the British support Hindu businessmen.

The original Shia and Sunni businessmen, or the Moors in general, were quite dissatisfied.Anyway, the Mughal Empire also levied taxes on non-Muslims during the heyday of Aurangzeb.Now when the British come, those Indian businessmen tremble, can this be tolerated?
Jafar's betrayal is really not a good reputation, and there are many people who scold him in private.No matter what, such things as defection in battle are notorious in all countries and cultural circles-you can rebel in advance, and that is better than the reputation of defecting as a subordinate.

And therein lies the problem.

Dashun completely controls the sea control, and its transportation capacity has already been reflected.It can quickly transport the troops of Ceylon and Malacca to the mouth of the Hooghly River.

Then, after they saw the British scuttling warships, sailors ashore, and gunboats strengthening the defense of the bastion, why did they insist on attacking Fort William?
Why not go up the Ganges and let Dhaka, Rajshahi, etc. surrender without a fight?

Relying on the hope left by Siraj's grandfather, and Jafar's many excessive actions in order to please the British, especially the behavior that touched the interests of the formerly privileged Muslim businessmen, it is almost no difficulty to go up the Ganges .

At that time, Bangladesh will be on the side of Dashun. Siraj will lead the Bangladeshi army to cooperate with Dashun and then slowly attack Fort William. Is there any difficulty?

Would Jafar have to rely on himself to fight against Dashun's tens of thousands of troops on the banks of the Ganges?
Once Siraj is restored and Dashun is in Bangladesh, if you want money, you have rice, if you want labor, you have labor, if you want gunpowder, you have gunpowder. At that time, wouldn’t it be easier to lose?

Or did the British army prepare to trap Jafar and run back to South India on foot while Dashun was attacking Bangladesh?
Not to mention whether he can go back or not, even if he goes back, will Dashun use all his troops here?Is there no garrison in Fort St. George?
Did the British army think that with their infantry and sailors, they could reproduce Dashun's martial arts in quickly breaking through Fort St. George?

Besides...

Jafar didn't understand modern warfare. He didn't know how Dashun captured Fort St. George, but he knew that Dashun captured Fort St. George very quickly.

Therefore, in his opinion, it may be difficult for the British army to hold Fort William.

Therefore, whether Dashun crossed the Ganges River and used Siraj to gain the support of the Bengali nobles; or insisted on attacking Calcutta first and breaking Fort William... it would not be difficult.

Lieutenant General Watson's proposal was strategically opposed by both Clive and Jafar.

After listening to the opinions of both parties, he also had to admit that what he said seemed to make sense.Dashun is now in control of the sea. This is a difficult situation for the UK, and they don't know how to deal with it.Therefore, the initiative is in Dashun's hands. Even if Fort William is impenetrable, what if Dashun doesn't attack Fort William first?

What if we take the Ganges first?
After that, Lieutenant Colonel Kurt's words made Watson even more speechless.

"Master Lieutenant General, all your plans are based on the premise that the Chinese will take the initiative to attack."

"But, will they definitely choose to take the initiative to attack?"

"You have to know that the time they choose to start the war has always been so shameless. Just like the previous war against the Dutch, they chose the time of the Austrian succession war."

"And now, Europe is in chaos. The French have captured Menorca, and the army is approaching Hanover..."

With the speed of news transmission at this time, of course they didn't know that the French offensive in Hanover had failed, and they didn't know that Dashun had assembled a fleet to go to Europe.

Therefore, Kurt's idea is naturally correct.

"Master Lieutenant General, the Chinese don't necessarily have to take the initiative to attack. What if they stationed on Sagar Island? It's like the Dutch built a city like they did in Penghu back then?"

"What if they send out their fleet, which is enough to fight a decisive naval battle in Europe, to attack the company's merchant ships? You must know that in Aachen, we did not sign the anti-piracy and anti-private shipping convention they advocated."

"What if they want to demonstrate their force to the whole of India and transport tens of thousands of troops from their empire here?"

"If they choose to fortify Sagar Island, blockade Bengal with their navy, and slowly take Pondicherry, Mumbai, Fort St. David, Goa in Portugal, Tranquiba in Denmark, and even Mozambique, the trading post of , Persia’s trading posts have been gnawed down?”

"Their naval power is invincible east of the Cape of Good Hope. They only need one-tenth of the naval power to bankrupt the company-just like the disgusting economic means they used to deal with the Dutch."

"The French say we always confuse war with trade, but in fact, we are in Asia and we have like-minded people."

"Let's look back at their several wars, Ryukyu, Japan, Southeast Asia, Batavia, Holland... They are also a group of people who confuse war with trade."

"Last time, they used such disgusting tactics to create a stock market crash in Amsterdam and the destruction of VOC."

After these words, Watson was speechless.

Yes, he himself felt, was he a little too wishful thinking?
Before the rainy season came, Dashun had enough time to take over the French inheritance and also gnaw down all the forts and castles in South India, including Mumbai.

Dashun did destroy the Dutch East India Company, but did that prevent them from being so close to the Dutch that they smuggled together?

If Dashun concocted according to the law and destroyed the London East India Company, then would this prevent them from cooperating with West Indian merchants to smuggle to England?

If so, why did Dashun insist on capturing Calcutta before the rainy season?

Why not build a castle on Sagar Island, blockade Bangladesh by the navy, and take advantage of the inability to support India in the European war to take over all of India's colonies little by little?
If you think so, of course you are right.

However, even if this group of people thought about it, they didn't expect that Dashun's strategy didn't want to repeat the story of destroying VOC at all.

It is to completely destroy the British navigation regulations and completely integrate Europe into the so-called "free trade" customs agreement.

Therefore, without knowing this grand strategy, doubts naturally arose as to whether Dashun would take the initiative to attack Calcutta.

Of course, in Bangladesh alone, Watson must be wrong in terms of tactics and strategy.

Clive's analysis from a purely military point of view is correct. Sailors going ashore and gunboats entering the fort are actually of no use.

Jafar's analysis from a political perspective is also correct.Defending Fort William, the Bangladeshi army watched from a distance and waited for Dashun to get tired, but Dashun could really walk the Ganges and directly enter the core city of Bangladesh.

If you have to make an analogy, Rajshahi and Dhaka along the Ganges are similar to Jinling and Zhenjiang before the Dashun Shipping.Calcutta, at this time in Bengal, is not important.

Dashun also has Siraj in his hand.

Or, this analogy: Emperor Yongli in the original history successfully escaped, and a few years later, he took the crusaders and Japanese shogunate reinforcements and captured Nanjing and Zhenjiang.

From Jafar's point of view, how could he accept this strategy?

So, after some debate, the British army and the Bangladeshis reached an opinion acceptable to both sides.

Gather the coalition forces of Britain and Bangladesh, and take the initiative to attack before the follow-up troops of Dashun continue to arrive.

This, perhaps, has a chance.

Whether the field battle can be won is unknown.

But if you stick to Fort William, you will definitely die.

Defending a city without the ability to win a field battle, or without reinforcements, is a siege.Breaking the city is only a matter of time.

The crux of the problem is what is going on in Europe?Even if everything goes well in Europe, it is greatly beneficial to Britain, the French fleet is completely destroyed, and Britain sends a fleet to support India, how long will it have to wait?

And, how large a fleet is needed to fight the Dashun Navy and destroy the Dashun Navy not far from Malacca?

Just relying on George Anson's fleet, two-thirds of the logistical supply level of long-distance voyages around the world?How to win east of the Cape of Good Hope?
After figuring this out, taking the initiative to attack became the only correct choice.

In military terms, once winning, Dashun may choose to attack other places.Although it is blocked, the British army can work together with the nobles of Bangladesh to use a year or two to train a super-large-scale new army and build bastions in Dhaka and Rajshahi.

Politically, once victorious, the nobles who vacillated between Jafar and Siraj will show their loyalty once again.

However, the only flaw is that even if the two sides reach an agreement, they will not be able to gather many troops.

Jafar didn't dare to pull all the troops loyal to him to the front line. He wanted to reserve enough troops to prevent the nobles from "anyway" copying his old place and making a vote.

As for those swinging nobles, Jafar dared not use them, and the British did not dare to use them either.The previous battle that pitted Siraj was a defection on the battlefield. Neither the British nor Jafar wanted to repeat the story at that time.

A battle that will determine the fate of Bengal and even India in the future is about to start south of Calcutta.

In this battle, the British and Bangladesh coalition forces totaled more than 12000 people.

Among them, there are 1400 British soldiers and Indian soldiers trained by the British.Weak Bengal infantry, 6000 people.Jafar's cavalry and elephant soldiers, 4000 people.

Cannons over 6 pounds, 22.

On Dashun's side, excluding the soldiers of the supply battalion, there were a total of 15000 people.

Among them, there are 6000 soldiers from Ceylon's anti-line army; 2200 elite combat engineers; 2000 regular Nanyang cavalry from Dashun; and 2000 marines from four battalions supported by Malacca, belonging to Temasek Army Town, Borneo Military Town and Java Military Town; the Bugis light cavalry supported by the tributary countries in the direction of Nanyang and the noble cavalry of various Nanyang tributary countries totaled 600; 400 elite rifle hunters.

Cannons over 6 pounds, 90 pieces.Rapid mounted guns, 12.Battalion artillery, and engineers' portable mortars or projectiles are not counted.

The surface firepower that the navy can support, standard French 74-gun battleship, 4 ships; standard fast and cheap 36-gun cruiser, 18 ships, equipped with 24 26-pound guns and 12 10-pound guns. It is said that its main task is to walk around and catch British merchant ships, but for the time being, they were all captured and wiped out the British Indian Squadron first, and then scattered around to catch British merchant ships.

(End of this chapter)