Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1244 Three Battles to India ([-])

After repeatedly confirming the news of the British and Jafar's troops dispatched by Qingqi and Bangladeshi merchants, Du Feng felt that his desire to find a prince would soon be fulfilled.

Bangladesh is very important to Dashun Royal, and it is also very important to China.The emperor naturally wanted to collect taxes, and apart from collecting taxes, Du Feng also remembered discussing it with Liu Yu and others in terms of geography.

A long time ago, Herodotus of ancient Greece described a magical animal called the gold digger ant in his "History".

According to Herodotus' description, this kind of gold-digging ants probably lived in the Ali area. They were smaller than dogs and bigger than foxes, and they specialized in digging for gold.This kind of legend has been passed down to the Middle Ages, and many versions have been derived, including Indians who will use beautiful ponies to carry gorgeous boxes and approach gold digging ants. The mother of the horse is calling in the distance... Wait, wait, wait for the strange legend.

When the British came to Calcutta, they also tried to find gold digger ants, and found that there were no gold digger ants, but those who came from Shigatse to sell goods such as borax in Bangladesh looked like gold digger ants from a high place. Same.

The stories of these gold-digging ants have instigated Europeans to have various fantasies and ambitions for the snow-capped mountains since the Greek era.

Dashun naturally doesn't care about the legend of the gold-digging ants, but he is very concerned about the trade from Shigatse to India, as well as issues such as Gurkha and Nepal.The frequent trade exchanges here, and the trade of a large amount of salt, borax, cinnabar, musk, etc. in Shigatse, Lhasa and other places also give Bangladesh an important geographical significance in addition to tax collection and raw material bases.

Going to Lhasa from Rajshahi in Bangladesh is almost the same as going to Lhasa from Qamdo.Not to mention the farther Chengdu.

From the mouth of the Ganges River to the capital of Myanmar is half the distance from Kunming to Myanmar.

Fight a few beautiful battles in this kind of place, and can really quickly implement the imperial court's strategic intentions of tax collection, garrison, expansion, surrounding snow mountains, and deterring Myanmar, then of course it can be knighted.

Du Feng also knew that this might be his last chance, and it was also the last window period for Dashun to produce military nobles and titles on a large scale.

Because the size of the earth has been determined, there are only a few difficult enemies to fight. Once this wave of expansion is over, a large number of new and old military nobles will completely monopolize the upward path of military merit.

They were lucky enough to catch up with the Dashun military reform and the subsequent expansion.Otherwise, since I was not born in troubled times, I'm afraid it will be difficult to be a knight.

When the next wave of ascending passages for titles opens again, it will definitely be the time when Dashun is on the verge of collapse.At that time, it was another way of saying it.But no matter what, if you become a Marquis at this time, even when the next wave of world chaos comes, the starting point of the family will still be higher than others.

Many officers in the army who came to Boqiancheng understand this simple truth, so these officers who went to the frontier have a very high sense of war.

In view of this situation, after many parties verified the accuracy of the news, Du Feng issued an order.

Let the assault companies of the No. 13 and 14 engineering battalions, as well as some of the intern officers and students, under the command of the deputy governor of the Ceylon Army Town and the Zhidu Yingtian envoy, and under the leadership of the Bangladeshi guide, the donkey supported by the Bangladeshi nobles With the help of the German Army, Fort William was raided without artillery and naval support.

Everyone earns meritorious deeds, and the deputy should also be given opportunities. Those military officers sent by the emperor to intern will gradually replace them, the group of people who followed Liu Yu in the early years.

This point, Du Feng, who was ignorant in the early years, has gradually understood these years, so he should make a point of attitude, and send the trainee military students and the emperor's people sent by the emperor to earn some great credit. In the eyes of the emperor, there is a price for eyesight.

Otherwise, in the field battle, the credit will not be easy to divide.

After dispatching the surprise attack force, Du Feng assembled the main force at the mouth of the river, and made a gesture similar to breaking the boat.

Abandoning the camp near the coast that could be supported by the fleet, the supply battalion moved forward slowly with a strange "roller tactic" following the large troops.

The striker drives in front, and the main force moves like maggots in the back, running 15 to 20 miles a day.

At that point, the main force began to set up camp, prepare camps, and rest.The vanguard retreated to the camp to rest and sent out cavalry to scout.

In the morning, the forward troops moved forward, and the main force set up camp, dug camps, and deployed guards not far away.

Anyway, Du Feng was not in a hurry, he just moved like this, after six or seven days, he also moved to a key place.

Sometimes I might walk an extra mile or so, avoiding swamps, crossing rivers alive and so on, but otherwise just wriggling along.

When he was in Ceylon, he regarded Duplex and Clive, who was emerging later, as imaginary enemies, and he thought about how to deal with them all day long.

Duplex is outstanding in strategy and diplomacy, but he doesn't have a good general under his command. His own tactical level is not bad, but he is better at managing the army and diplomacy.

And he has already been captured by the French, so there is no need to consider this.

Clive, on the other hand, has a strong gambler mentality like him, and likes to make strange moves.What stood out was the encirclement of Wei and the rescue of Zhao. The first battle with the Bengalis was a surprise attack on the central army, and the second was the entire army betting that Jafar would betray and even give up on the flanks.

Therefore, Du Feng thought about it, and felt that it was safest to let the opponent have no chance to make a strange move.

Just shrink into a ball and give up the camp behind.

If the camp is not abandoned, the soldiers will feel that the camp is the rear.

But if the camp is abandoned, the soldiers will feel that the warship is the rear.

So, is Dashun's navy likely to fail?

Obviously impossible, because under the condition of three to one tonnage, there is no possibility of failure.

Then, since I don't have a rear, I don't have a chance for the opponent to sneak attack. Naturally, the opponent doesn't have any tricks to attack the logistics camp.

Climbing forward for fifteen miles every day, the scouting light cavalry continued to spread out, completely scouting the surrounding situation like a relay.

Du Feng is also a gambler, otherwise he wouldn't have robbed Liu Yu back then, and followed Liu Yu to gamble on his future.

It's just that Du Feng felt that the highest level of gambling was to increase the stakes until the opponent couldn't keep up.

It is a strange move to send troops to surprise Fort William, but the capital is too high for the field battle here, so just follow the tactical drills, learn from the bastard, and just move over.

The cost is high, even if you increase the price to force you to be unable to follow, it is also a gambling method within the rules.

Between the mouth of the Hooghly River and Calcutta, there is a river port named Diamond Bay. According to the nomenclature of ordinary villages and counties in Dashun, this kind of place is generally called Sanchakou.

The Rub Nayanla River and the Hooghly River meet at this place called Diamond Bay and flow into the sea together.There is a river port in Diamond Bay, and a battery.

As long as you make camps, build cities, and build forts there, you will force the opponent to take the initiative to attack.

Because of the fort there, it can block the river surface and control the fire attack ships from the direction of Lubu Nayangla River.

In other words, if the fort is repaired there and the 24-jin or 36-jin heavy artillery is pulled over, Dashun's fleet will be able to enter the Hooghly River, which will not only fully cover the legion's flanks, but also provide artillery support.

So this kind of tortoise shell tactics like a roller is a way to constantly increase the size and force others to take the initiative to fight.

Because, what if Dashun doesn't want to rush to Calcutta?Instead, they only want to build a city, build a fort, and build a fort in Diamond Bay to lock down the British Indian Ocean Fleet and liberate the main force of Dashun's squadron in India?

Who dares to say that Dashun will definitely go to Calcutta?
After moving like this for three days, it finally moved to the front of the British-Indian coalition forces.

The vanguard troops and the reconnaissance cavalry have enough understanding of the terrain ahead, and there is no weird terrain, so it is a good place for deploying troops.

This time, Du Feng did not let the main force set up camp early, but sped up the marching speed a little, ran to the front to join the forward troops, and deployed the camp for defense.

At this time, the main forces of the two armies were less than ten miles apart.

In the evening, a wave of light cavalry was sent to throw two grenades at the opposite Bengal camp at night. After hearing the sound, they asked all the ministries to rest normally, and issued an order to pull out the camp at 03:30 tomorrow morning.

Early the next morning, all ministries finished their breakfast on time, and divided the main force into three marching columns according to Du Feng's order and the marching plan formulated by the staff.

The three marching columns set off side by side, and were expected to arrive at the scheduled location at six o'clock and unfold.

A battle of tens of thousands of people also requires a wide front, and concentrating a marching column along the way will slow down the speed of deployment.

No army was deployed within the range of the enemy's shelling, and they all began to expand to the two wings at a distance of several miles.

However, when assigning columns, Du Feng deployed a somewhat strange formation.

Half of the artillery is concentrated in the central army.Almost all the regular cavalry were also concentrated in the central army.

The Ceylon soldiers on the resistance line were divided into two teams, on the two wings.

The non-assault companies and fire support companies of the No. 13 and 14 combat engineer battalions were also deployed on the two wings, digging pits, deploying parapets, and deploying those small artillery.

Four Marine Corps battalions supported by Malacca, two on the two wings, and two on the rear of the central army for second-line deployment.

The remaining two engineer battalions were also deployed on the center line.The cavalry of the Bugis and the noble cavalry supported by the Nanyang Tributary Kingdom did not expect them to fight at all, and waited to use them after the war to arrest people or chase down the defeated soldiers. Normally, they came to visit and confirm the continuation of Dashun loyalty.

It seems that this is a variant of the tortoise formation, and it does not seem like a posture of actively attacking and wiping out the enemy.

At least, it's not the classic formation of outflanking the two wings and trying to fight a war of annihilation.

And, on the whole, it's deployed very conservatively.

They did not try to march to the side of the British-Indian coalition forces, blocking their retreat, and forcing them to fight decisively. Instead, it was like driving sheep, pushing forward, and then deployed after reaching the position. Even the cavalry did not deploy in large numbers to the flanks. , so as to cut the retreat route during the battle, but keep the retreat route of the British and Indian coalition forces intact.

This gave the Anglo-Indian coalition forces a choice.

You can fight.

It is also possible not to fight, but to retreat.

It seems that this formation is a bit weird, and the choice of launching this campaign is also extremely conservative.

At five o'clock, the three marching columns gradually arrived, and before they were fully deployed, the commanders of the British-Indian coalition forces on the opposite side all cursed.

Although he knew that Dashun's war here was wretched, he never expected it to be so wretched.

The reason for this obvious defensive and counterattack formation, in Clew's view, is that Dashun is using the particularity of the Anglo-Indian coalition forces to engage in a shameless tactic.

The Bangladeshi infantry could only squat and move to resist the line, and it was impossible to take the initiative to attack because they did not have this ability.

The infantry who can resist the line and shoot at each other is far from the infantry who can attack in formation.However, there is still a difference of two or three steps between the infantry who can line up [-] steps and beat the drums as a whole team before advancing to attack, and the infantry who can line up and move quickly in a marching formation.

As far as the state of the Bangladeshi infantry is concerned, Du Feng basically thinks that they can only resist the line and shoot at each other.

The British army can attack in formation, but the number is too small.

Jafar's cavalry is the only Bangladeshi army in the Bangladeshi army that has the ability to actively attack. The problem is that these cavalry can only be placed on the flanks.

In the Chinese army, it is simply courting death.

Once the attack does not go well, the cavalry retreats in a chaotic manner, and the Chinese army is likely to disperse all of their own formations.What's more, the weak infantry on both wings are likely to be surrounded by Dashun's flanks, eat dumplings, and finally explain everything here.

And there are those flashy elephant soldiers. Facing Dashun's densely packed cannons, the only possibility is to be startled and run around, trampling on their own camp.

Dashun put up such a wretched formation, which was forcing the Anglo-Indian coalition forces to line up according to Dashun's expected formation.

Because, if Dashun didn't take the initiative to attack, but just stayed still and defended, then this wretched formation would have no solution.

The only possible way for the British and Indian allied forces to win is for Dashun to take the initiative to attack, and the Chinese troops of the British and Indian armies can hold on.

At the same time, the Bengal cavalry deployed on the flank broke through Dashun's flank.

This is theoretically the only possible way to win.

And this possibility of winning requires three conditions.

First of all, Dashun will take the initiative to attack, and obviously attack from the central army.

Secondly, the British and Indian Chinese troops withstood Dashun's attack and retreated slowly, but did not retreat, and stuck to Dashun's main offensive force, causing Dashun to throw in the reserve team.

In the end, the Bengal cavalry had to tear open Dashun's flanks and outflank their own central army before it was broken through.

These three conditions are indispensable.

Or, in an accident, the shell hit the command post of the Chinese army, and the general Dashun and the chief of staff were all killed...

Therefore, in fact, the formation that the British-Indian coalition forces could choose was actually locked after the column on Dashun's side started to unfold.

It could and could only be that a part of the Bangladeshi infantry was deployed on the right flank close to a small river to ensure that the flank would not be attacked and thus be able to resist Dashun's attack.

The main force of the British army and new-style native soldiers was deployed in the middle, together with some Bengali infantry and some cavalry, to prepare for Dashun's possible onslaught against the Chinese army.

Jafar's cavalry, deployed on the left flank.Theoretically, if Dashun's cavalry and infantry are out of touch with the flanks, Jafar's cavalry does not have to attack the flanks, but can seize the opportunity to counterattack while the attack is out of touch.

Of course, only in theory.In fact, this kind of wretched 1.3 times superiority in troops, 5 times the artillery advantage in firepower, and the absolute superiority of infantry quality make this formation obviously defensive and counterattack. Chances don't exist.

Or, there is another option.

That is, the British and Indian coalition forces chose not to fight and retreated directly.

After a brief discussion, the Anglo-Indian coalition forces chose to retreat without fighting, temporarily disengaged, and retreated a certain distance to avoid the battle.

(End of this chapter)