Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2194 The Little Marquis (Twenty-four) goes with the flow
The departure of the Arakan fleet from Chittagong actually boils down to the natural reaction of a small country when faced with a powerful threat.

In fact, when the countries in southern Xinjiang were fully controlled by Beijing, Arakan, as a small country adjacent to southern Xinjiang, was already very worried about its own security situation.

If you think about it, you will know that decades ago, it was only the rise of the Toungoo Dynasty in Myanmar. Arakan was once attacked by Myanmar. In the end, it was mainly due to geographical advantages and the help of Portuguese mercenaries that they were able to push back the Toungoo people, but then With this war, the awareness of crisis has taken root in the minds of the Arakanese people.

Later, Jinghua controlled the entire Indochina Peninsula. Although the nominal total military strength was only slightly more than that of the original Toungoo dynasty, the Arakanese people knew very well that the area ruled by Jinghua at that time exceeded the territory of the three Toungoo dynasties in their heyday.As for why the total military strength is relatively small, it is obviously because the equipment is better and there is no need to maintain the huge scale of the old-fashioned army in the past.

The Arakanese people can understand this, because they have Portuguese mercenaries themselves. The combat effectiveness of these people far exceeds that of the local Arakanese army. Isn't it because of their better equipment of muskets and artillery?Therefore, the Arakanese people feel the crisis is even more serious at the moment, and therefore have to send spies to lurk in some key areas in southern Xinjiang to monitor for prevention.

Since the unification of Nanyang, this sense of security crisis has directly exploded in the minds of the Arakanese people. They believe that the invasion of southern Xinjiang is only a matter of time, so the spies they dispatched to various parts of southern Xinjiang work harder and even form a regular reporting system.

In this western expedition, due to the intention of building up Gao Yuan's prestige, Southern Xinjiang did not keep many arrangements strictly confidential.Although the specific military plans are only known to a group of senior officials, there is not much cover for the mobilization of troops and supplies.

Groups of troops that were not originally stationed in Dingnan City moved into Dingnan, some troops originally stationed in Bago gathered in Bathein, a large number of warships from the Nanyang Fleet returned to Dingnan for emergency maintenance after completing their cruises, etc. These things are You can find out by just asking around.As for the mobilization of some supplies, although it is a little harder to detect than directly observing the movements of the army, it may not be considered secret to those who are interested.

As a result, the Arakanese spies reported the changes they observed back to the country, and the country naturally knew that war was about to begin.However, there is a time lag: first, the spies must send back the news, then the kingdom's top brass will make a judgment and give orders to the army, the army will urgently assemble and mobilize supplies after receiving the news, and finally, the military mobilization will officially begin - these are all necessary Time.

The transmission of news by the Arakanese people was obviously not as fast as the flying pigeons in southern Xinjiang, and the final expedition of the Western Expedition was temporarily advanced due to changes within the Mughal Empire. When the two met, the Arakanese people's Some actions were unexpectedly delayed by half a beat.

They originally planned to transfer the Chittagong fleet back to the seaport near the capital Mrauk-U, intending to build a maritime defense line in Mrauk-U, just like they launched an attack on Mangshweti, the founder of the Toungoo Dynasty 60 years ago, to conduct a two-way joint defense on land and sea.

However, due to the gap in the timeliness of information transmission between Arakan and southern Xinjiang, the final result was that the Arakan fleet in Chittagong had just left the port when it ran into the leader of the Western Expedition fleet. Mobile fleet.

In order to ensure the surprise of the attack on Chittagong, the mobile fleet launched an encirclement and annihilation operation against the enemy fleet almost without hesitation. However, the Arakan fleet, which was absolutely weak in strength, also wanted to raise suspicions and tried to use its own seemingly non-threatening actions. Eliminate the use of force by the mobile fleet, and then take the opportunity to disperse and escape.

The result was obvious. Their slow movements caused them to be quickly surrounded by mobile fleets. After only a brief bombardment by both sides, the damaged Arakan fleet recognized the situation and chose to surrender with a white flag.After the surrender of the Arakan Fleet in Chittagong, the Mobile Fleet immediately dispatched two second-class cruisers to turn around and report the battle situation to the Grand Fleet.There are two points that need to be explained here: First, it is impossible to carry out effective "flying pigeons" while the two fleets are sailing, because although the homing pigeons have biomagnetic positioning capabilities, their destinations are fixed. If they are all maneuvering, the homing pigeon will not be able to accurately find its destination.

The second point is that according to the combat rules of the two ocean fleets, except under special circumstances, reporting work cannot only send one ship, but a "two-ship formation".This is done firstly to ensure that when intercepted by the enemy, one ship can be used to deal with the opponent, while the other ship urgently leaves the battlefield to continue reporting. Secondly, the two ships will have more tactical options. When intercepting but not strong enough, defeat the opponent to ensure successful reporting.

After Gao Yuan and other generals of the Western Expedition learned the news, they were both surprised and happy, but overall they were more happy than surprised.The Arakan Fleet, which is happy to be in Chittagong, has announced its destruction, but Chittagong does not yet know about it. This means that the attack that is about to be launched will have two additional advantages:
First, the enemy no longer has a navy to cooperate with the defense of Chittagong, and even harassment and containment no longer exist, which will of course greatly reduce the difficulty of the attack; second, the enemy in Chittagong does not know the sea situation, and may not know that they will encounter a surprise attack. At this time, the attack will be certain. It will catch the opponent off guard.

As the Chief of Staff of the Western Expeditionary Army, Gao Lian did not hesitate to propose a temporary revision to the battle plan. He stood up suddenly and said: "Commander-in-Chief, the staff suggested that we add one step to the original battle plan for the seaport: Our sailors manned the ship, piloted the Arakan warship captured by the mobile fleet, hoisted the Arakan flag, but also carried our infantry or marines, sailed back to Chittagong Port, and captured the port immediately after entering the port.

If everything goes well, we can also consider breaking into the city directly from the seaport; if not, for example, the enemy reacts quickly and resists fiercely, then we can first occupy the port dock area and wait for our main force to arrive.In short, the staff department believes that this is an excellent opportunity that must not be let go. "

Gao Yuan almost agreed on the spot, but suddenly remembered the warning he had received, and finally calmed down and asked: "The chief of staff's quick response is commendable, but... do you think this whole thing is possible? An Arakanese conspiracy?”

"Conspiracy?" Gao Lian thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "The staff thinks it's impossible."

"What's the reason?"

"The reason is that the strength of the Arakanese is far inferior to ours, and they do not have the capital to catch up with the Chittagong fleet." Gao Lian said with confidence: "Throwing out enough bait to lure the enemy to take the bait is indeed a good way. tactics, but the implementation of such tactics requires at least two prerequisites: First, the strength of our army exceeds that of the enemy, and the bait thrown out is enough to attract the opponent, but even if the bait is lost, it will not have a big impact on our army.

Secondly, after the enemy eats the bait, our army must be able to ensure the annihilation or at least severely damage the enemy. Otherwise, if the loss of the bait cannot be recovered, then what is the point of using this tactic? "

Gao Yuan heard this and felt that it made sense, and finally agreed with confidence.
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(End of this chapter)