Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 730
The population of the Ming Empire reached its peak in the Wanli period, about 4000 million, while India at this time had a population of [-] million. In terms of area, the Mughal Empire was not inferior to the Ming Dynasty in the Wanli period, and even larger than today's Daming on the remaining half of the south of the Yangtze River made a round. No matter how you look at it, they are all at the same level as the great empire of Daming.

Before the expedition, Song Qingshu was very cautious about the South Asian empire that dared to challenge the Ming Dynasty under the instigation of the French. Li Dingguo and Wang Fuchen were still dumbfounded as they watched the surging Mughal navy approaching in front of them.

"Is this the navy of the Mughal Empire?"

In terms of quantity, it is worthy of the name of an empire's navy. 42 Yingtian-class three-tier and four-tier battleships lie across the hot Bay of Bengal. On the opposite side, hundreds of Indian warships rush forward like crucian carp crossing the river. Similarly, these warships are not as backward as the native canoes in Southeast Asia, after all, there is also a long history here.

But, it didn't go too far.

Indian civilization has a long history, but it is also full of disasters. The earliest Aryans invaded and destroyed the earliest native Indian civilization, and established a caste system. Afterwards, nomadic forces also invaded India wave after wave from Central Asia. Today's Mo The Woer Empire is the descendant of the Timurid Empire with a trace of blue in Central Asia. These nomadic Turks brought the civilization and technology of Arabia. The big-bellied dhows of Arabia also affected the ship industry of India. They sailed since the Zheng He era. Ships in the Indian Ocean already look like this.

The largest three masts are more than 30 meters long and have two floors. The shortest is only about ten meters and one mast. The tallest ship is only three or four meters out of the water, and the shortest is only more than one meter. There are more than a dozen doors on the deck, and they are the most backward copper artillery. Even looking from the top to the bottom, many ships should not belong to warships at all before. The soldiers of the Wo'er Empire steered the boat and pulled the sails unfamiliarly, roaring and rushing forward.

To be honest, before the Battle of Poyang Lake, Wu Sangui's navy was at the same level, but after being abused by Song Qingshu's cannon giant ship for a long time, Wang Fuchen's vision has improved now. Putting down the binoculars, Wang Fuchen turned to look at Li Dingguo in surprise.

He also put down the binoculars in a little surprise, Li Dingguo simply stretched out his hand and put on Daming's newly custom-made and beautiful officer's hat, and immediately tilted his head at the adjutant beside him who looked like a future General Patton.

"Order, catch up with the tide, and collect seafood!"

Facing the Mughal Navy who were still waving their spears while shouting that they couldn’t understand the local language, the Imperial Navy of Ming Dynasty ordered to move the rudder made of oak, which would be heavier and taller than the Mughal Navy. How many three huge masts turned around, amidst the creaking and moaning of the wood, the sail battleships turned around, revealing the densely packed gun ports on the side to these three buddies.

…………

The setting sun is like an oily red duck egg yolk, half-sinking into the sea like a bowl of soup. The exuberant egg oil shakes the edge of the water blurred. What to do, row the boat to unload the supplies and cannons from the transport ship and merchant ship to the shore.

In Calcutta, the British trading post fortress could not accommodate [-] troops, so they built a barracks area surrounded by fences outside Fort St. George, and set up military tents woven by large textile machines from Changzhou like tofu blocks in the camp.

After all, they used to be soldiers, and they had a few months of concentration camp training before going out. Wearing a black button-up uniform and chain armor on the outside, the infantrymen of the Expeditionary Army carried flintlock rifles and walked neatly in the barracks. Patrolling while chanting, the quartermasters had a headache looking at the bills in the warehouse, how many rounds of ammunition and how many rounds of shells were left.

Since Song Qingshu established the begging army, war horses have always been a shortcoming. Daming can carry [-] base bullets in his hands, and artillery can bombard the opponent in the dark, but it is really impossible to equip each soldier with a war horse. Jiannu sometimes has two horses for one person, and the mobility of three horses is much lower.

However, in the two wars, a large number of war horses were seized from the northern army. In addition, Song Qingshu has been learning from the later generations of Japan over the years, and introduced explosive and tall Arabian horses to improve the horse breed. There are only ten cavalry divisions in the country. In the case of about sixty cavalry battalions, two cavalry divisions were extravagantly equipped. Wang Fuchen's third Shaanxi division to the fifth Shaanxi division were also equipped with new hybrid horses that were taller than Mongolian horses.

Those who can be selected into the cavalry are mostly captured Mongols. Relatively speaking, the Manchus actually produce better assault infantry. The hand-to-hand combat ability of the walking light cavalry, these guys are not good. There are about [-] Manchu captives in the expeditionary army, and almost all of them were broken up and distributed to various infantry divisions.

It is well known that the Mongolians love horses. In the end, more than a dozen horse boats unloaded more than 6000 war horses. Regardless of the fatigue of the boats and carts, the soldiers of the expeditionary army of the two cavalry divisions led the horses for a walk in the nearby pastures, looking for They were happy to buy some fresh pastures and brush the horses by the river, but the sailors in charge of the horse boats were depressingly pumping sea water, washing the excrement on the boat, and cursing the smell that could not be washed away.

Not far from where the fleet was moored, messy pieces of wood, exposed sails, masts, barrels rising and falling with the waves, and the corpses of Mughal soldiers were densely floating on the sea.

With the delivery of war horses to the shore, the first batch of supplies with the army was basically exhausted, and the fleet’s help to the expeditionary force almost ended here. After all, although the Mughal Empire was facing the sea on three sides, it was a landlocked country, and the expeditionary force still needed more supplies. Relying on their own pace to rush to Delhi, except for a small number of battleships protecting the rear, most of the frigates will soon return to Daming to guard Southeast Asia and deal with the military pressure from the north.

However, Li Dingguo, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary army, and Wang Fuchen, the deputy commander-in-chief, were not worried about this. The two of them sat in the tent of the Chinese army with sad faces, worrying about the yellow-covered battle report together.

The battle is going well today. On the first day after arriving in the Bay of Bengal, they defeated the main fleet of the Mughal Empire, sank more than 60 Indian sailing ships on the spot, and injured countless people. They killed more than 700 Mughal troops and captured More than 500, which is considered a big victory.

However, this is all due to the escort fleet, and the difficulty factor of the battle is really not high. Thirty battleships are arranged in a horizontal formation, and the sails are lowered to form a sea fortress on the spot. There were too many, and twelve battleships formed two deep teams, cutting into the two wings of the Mughal fleet from the left and right sides of the horizontal team, and the artillery fire disturbed them even more. The battle lasted less than half an hour. , More than 500 large and small Arabian dhows that have not yet exchanged fire have fled.

In a big battle, only a dozen iron cannonballs hit the sideboard, which was worse than the damage caused by a storm.

This battle process really made the two feel embarrassed to report the victory, and finally looked at each other for a long time, and the old fried dough stick Wang Fuchen took the pen to write down a few items in the battle report, encountered pirates, and wiped out a few.

The reason why the British chose Calcutta to gain a foothold is because there are water sources nearby, transportation, and dense farms. Even if there are more than 4 troops, they can still support them with ease. The army was not well prepared, and on this first night, not many could rest in peace in the heat and humidity.

However, an army is an army. In the early morning of the next day, the wake-up call still sounded at the same time. The soldiers who were still a little sleep-deprived reluctantly got up from their tents and opened cans under the assignment of the quartermaster. A full bowl of mung bean soup.

The Ming army paid great attention to personal hygiene and camp sanitation. When Napoleon conquered Egypt, his subordinates were once trapped by the plague, which greatly affected a series of wars in Syria, resulting in a failure. However, for the Ming army expeditionary force, drinking boiled water The water and the food we ate were domestically prepared canned food, and tropical diseases such as dysentery have not troubled our heads for the time being.

There were only about fifty patients who were not acclimatized or suffered from heatstroke. At [-]:[-] in the morning, after washing and having breakfast, the neat expeditionary army, under the chorus of drums, started their journey westward with divisions as units. on their military campaigns on this equally ancient imperial frontier.

The invasion of the Ming Dynasty was no less than a political earthquake to the entire Mughal Empire. It has only been three months. Before the supplies from the shop could be delivered to the construction site of the Taj Mahal, Ming’s army actually attacked its own land, and gave the Imperial Fleet a lesson in the Bay of Bengal. The news spread to Delhi, and the whole of India was shocked.

However, this time can still be regarded as the heyday of the Mughal Empire, and the princes of the various states are still obedient. As the expeditionary army marched towards Delhi, the princes of the various states on the Ganges Plain also followed the emperor's orders and followed the Moghuls. According to the military tradition of the Warlord Empire, military units called Padisha were formed to fight southeast.

The first to bear the brunt is the Bengal prince Jafar and his [-] infantry cavalry, which is almost double the expeditionary force...

(End of this chapter)