1825 My New Daming

Chapter 342 Is it a glorious retreat, or a humiliating surrender? (ask for subscription, ask for monthly pass)

Temasek Fortress is about to finish. But it's not over yet!
It is said that the Temasek Fortress is about to end because after losing the loyalty of the Indian Asan, the white-skinned British soldiers of the Viscount Beresford really have no way to maintain the defense zone. In the early hours of March 3, after a day and night of "fierce fighting" that was not intense, 11 of the 10 British and Indian troops on Temasek Island were killed by shells, bombs, or bullets. It is to bravely raise your hands high and surrender to the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and the Japanese devils.

According to the statistics of the Ming army and the Japanese army, they captured a total of about 7.5 Indian third brothers during this day, which is really a lot!There was too much time for transshipment, and there was not enough food supply for them, so they had to give each of them a handful of white rabbit toffee (all kinds of toffee and chocolate are easy to store because of their high calories, so they are very suitable as emergency military rations) and a piece of compressed Biscuits, let him sit in the embankment of the Johor Strait while eating sugar and biscuits to satisfy his hunger, while waiting for the transshipment after dawn. It has to be said that the Ming Dynasty these years is really a "celestial dynasty".

And it is said that the Temasek Fortress is not over yet, because the Viscount Beresford finally managed to gather about 5000 British soldiers and 7000 Asan soldiers into the core area of ​​the Temasek Fortress built on Bukit Timah Hill-abandoning the Johor Strait defense line and all coast batteries.

However, the reason why the Temasek Fortress is not finished for the time being is not because of the more than 1 remnants and defeated generals and the seemingly solid core area of ​​the fortress. The core area of ​​the fortress was built in 100 years and took 30 years to complete. According to the standard of 80 years ago Speaking of which, that's great.But now the Ming army has an "Island"-class shallow-water heavy gunship equipped with a 320mm naval gun.After the coastal defense fort on the south coast of Temasek Island is lost, this kind of gunboat can sail to the shore of Temasek Island and bombard the core fort of the fortress with 320mm cannons.How could the strong fortress seven or eighty years ago withstand the fierce bombardment of 80mm cannons?
Therefore, the real reason why the Temasek Fortress is not finished is that the Nanyang Corps Command and the Nanyang Fleet Command received orders from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy at the same time-suspend the attack, encircle without fighting!
As for the purpose of this order issued by the Ministry of the Army and the Ministry of the Navy, Zhuge Weidao on the King of Shu Zhong can think with his heels that it must be that the Ming Dynasty in Beijing wanted to give the British Empire a decent chance to admit defeat and at the same time take advantage of the opportunity to negotiate Set a trap for the British to create favorable conditions for the next military operation.

In fact, for how long the ongoing war should be fought and where it should be fought, the gentlemen in Beijing also have three strategies: upper, middle, and lower.

Of course, the best policy is to make a quick decision and accept it as long as the British Empire can "gloriously retreat" from Malacca, Oceania, and western Oregon, and persuade the Dutch from the Dutch East Indies, the Spaniards from the Southern Luzon Islands, and the Portuguese from the Imperial Empire. A glorious retreat together with Wen Island.The Great Tomorrow Dynasty allowed Emperor William to continue to rule the Indian Empire.

In fact, the Great Ming Dynasty does not want India, which has a large population and little money (gold and silver), and its internal problems are particularly complicated.What the Ming Dynasty liked were lands with a small population and a lot of money, such as Oceania with the new Jinshan (not yet discovered), Oregon on the west coast of America, and of course southern Africa.Of course, Daming, the oil-producing area in the Persian Gulf, also likes it greatly!
Therefore, if Emperor William admits defeat now, it is fine for the Indian emperor to let him continue.

And the medium strategy, of course, is to capture the annoying India after capturing Oceania and Oregon. This printing seems not difficult, but the problem is what to do after it is captured?
Liberate it. Too much trouble!Abolishing caste, equalizing land, and running education are all thankless tasks!

Don't be liberated, it's too unnatural.If Daming wins India and doesn't engage in "abolishing caste and equalizing land", it will be the same as the United States on another timeline and won't export M masters after winning some place. Da Ming always feels that it is wrong to do so
In addition, there is not much market in India right now. She just has a lot of people, not many gold and silver reserves, and no oil.At present, the whole world is still engaged in a convertible currency, that is, the gold and silver standard system.Without gold and silver, and without high-value commodities such as oil, there would be no market, so we couldn’t just give them away, right?

As for the worst strategy, of course it is to go all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, drive the strong ships and guns into the Thames River, bombard London and capture Victoria alive!

This will take a long time, and it may not be finished in ten or twenty years!

And what will happen after Britain is defeated?
Is it to establish Ming Dynasty Britain, or to establish a British Overseas Province?Or arrange for a Ming prince to forcefully marry Victoria and establish a small Ming Dynasty in England?Doesn't seem appropriate?

So this is a bad idea!
To pursue the best strategy, Ming should give Emperor William a chance to "surrender and lose half", and by the way, adopt some strategies to mislead Emperor William and the British Empire authorities.

And Zhuge Weidao's guess was confirmed on March 3. On the morning of that day, he received a secret telegram from the Naval Staff Headquarters, and this secret telegram was sent in the name of Naval Chief of Staff Zhuge Weiyi.

Zhuge Weiyi ordered Zhuge Weidao and Zheng Guoxian to preside over the persuasion of the Temasek Fortress together, and at the same time tentatively talk to Emperor William of India about "glorious retreat" and "land cession and compensation".

And Colonel Humphrey, who has become "Da Ming's own man", has of course become the best candidate to travel between the two armies.

"Colonel Humphrey, I didn't expect you to be alive, which is great!"

In the commander's office in the core fortress of Temasek Fortress, Viscount Beresford, who was already in a hurry, gave him a very warm greeting when he saw Humphrey.

Humphrey smiled bitterly, and said, "Viscount, to be honest, the current situation for you and me is not good at all!"

Viscount Beresford smiled bitterly: "Yes, you are right. It is indeed very bad. We lost the battle. The fortress that the empire has worked so hard for for 100 years will soon be lost to us!"

"That's not the worst," Humphrey said.

"Yes, yes, there are worse ones!" Viscount Beresford burst into tears when he thought that he would be captured or even be honorably martyred. If not, he might be court-martialed in the future.

He sighed again and asked, "Colonel, what do they mean? Are they trying to persuade me to surrender?"

"Surrender?" Shaking his head, Humphrey took out a letter written by Zhuge Weidao, and handed it over with both hands, "Viscount, you don't have to surrender humiliatingly, you can also retreat honorably."

"Glorious retreat?" Viscount Beresford reached out to take the letter, while looking at Humphrey in surprise, "What does this mean? Those Chinese want me to hand over the fort, and then flee with the remnant soldiers in despair Going back to India?"

Humphrey shook his head, and said: "The meaning of honorable withdrawal is, of course, the British Empire's honorable withdrawal from India and Malaya."

"What? Withdraw from India?" Viscount Beresford immediately shook his head, "No, it's impossible! Humphrey, you know that India is the jewel in the crown of the British Empire, and the British Empire will always It is also impossible to give up India!"

(End of this chapter)