New Shun 1730

After repeatedly confirming the news of the British and Jafar’s dispatch of troops from the intelligence of the light cavalry and the merchants in Bengal, Du Feng felt that his wish to seek a title would soon be fulfilled.

Bengal is very important to the Dashun royal family and to China. The emperor naturally has to collect taxes, and in addition to collecting taxes, from a geographical point of view, Du Feng also remembers discussing it with Liu Yu and others before.

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

According to Herodotus' description, this kind of gold-digging ant probably lives in the Ali area, is smaller than a dog and larger than a fox, and specializes in digging gold. This legend was passed down to the Middle Ages, and many versions were derived, including that Indians would use beautiful ponies to carry gorgeous boxes and approach the gold-digging ants. The gold-digging ants would put the gold into the boxes by themselves, and then let the mother of the pony call in the distance... and so on, and so on. Wonderful legends.

When the British came to Calcutta, they also tried to find gold-digging ants, but found that there were no gold-digging ants. However, people who came from Shigatse to Bengal to sell goods such as borax looked like gold-digging ants from a high place.

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

Dashun naturally did not care about the legend of gold-digging ants, but was very concerned about the trade from Shigatse to India, as well as Gorkha Nepal and other issues. The frequent trade here, the large amount of salt, borax, cinnabar, musk and other trades from Shigatse, Lhasa and other places, also gave the Bengal region an important geopolitical significance in addition to collecting taxes and being a raw material base.

Going from Rajshahi in Bangladesh to Lhasa is about the same as going from Qamdo to Lhasa. Not to mention Chengdu, which is farther away.

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

If you fight a few good battles in such a place, and can really quickly implement the court's strategic intentions of collecting taxes, stationing troops, expanding, encircling the snow-capped mountains, and deterring Myanmar, then of course you can be conferred a title.

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

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

They are lucky to have caught up with the military reform of Dashun and the subsequent expansion. Otherwise, since they were not born in troubled times, it would be difficult to be conferred a title.

When the next wave of the ascending channel for conferring a title is opened again, it must be the time when Dashun is shaky. At that time, it is of course another story. But no matter what, if you win a title at this time, even if the next wave of chaos comes, the family's starting point will still be higher than others.

Many officers in the army who came to seek a future understood this simple truth, so these officers who ran to the border had a strong desire to fight.

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

Let the assault companies of the 13th and 14th engineering battalions, as well as some trainee officers, under the command of the deputy governor of the Ceylon military town and the envoy of the supporting camp, under the leadership of the Bengal guides, with the help of donkeys supported by the Bengal nobles, surprise attack William Fort without artillery and naval support.

Everyone will earn merit together, and the deputy should also be given a chance. The trainee officers sent by the emperor will gradually replace the group of people who followed Liu Yu to get ahead in the early years.

Du Feng, who was ignorant in the early years, has gradually understood this point in recent years, so he should show some attitude and send the trainee officers and the emperor's people sent by the emperor to earn some great merits, which can be regarded as having a discerning eye in the eyes of the emperor.

Otherwise, if there is a field battle, the credit will not be easy to divide.

After sending out the surprise attack troops, Du Feng assembled the main force at the river mouth and made a gesture similar to burning the boats.

Abandoning the camp near the coast that could be supported by the fleet, the baggage camp followed the main force and slowly moved forward with a strange "roller tactic".

The vanguard advanced in front, and the main force moved like a maggot in the back, running 15 to 20 miles a day.

At the appointed time, the main force began to set up camp, prepare fortifications, and rest. The vanguard troops retreated to the camp to rest and sent out cavalry for reconnaissance.

In the morning, the vanguard troops moved forward again, and the main force did not go far before setting up camp, digging fortifications, and deploying guards.

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

Sometimes he might walk three or five miles more, avoid swamps, cross the river alive, etc., but other than that, he would crawl forward.

When he was in Ceylon, he considered Dupleix and Clive, who had emerged later, as imaginary enemies, and thought about how to deal with them all day long.

Dupleix was outstanding in strategy and diplomacy, but he did not have a good general under him. His own tactical level was okay, but he was better at military management and diplomacy.

And he had been captured by the French, so there was no need to consider this.

Clive, like him, had a strong gambler mentality and liked to make surprise moves. He stood out by besieging Wei to save Zhao, and the first battle with the Bengalis was a surprise attack on the central army, and the second time was a bet that Jafar would betray and even gave up the flank.

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

He just huddled together and gave up the camp in the rear.

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

If the camp is abandoned, the soldiers will think that the warship is the rear.

So, is it possible for the Dashun navy to fail?

Obviously not, because under the condition of three to one tonnage, there is no possibility of failure.

Then, if there is no rear, there is no chance for the opponent to attack, and naturally the opponent will not be able to use any tricks against the logistics camp.

Every day, they crawl forward fifteen miles, and the scout light cavalry keeps spreading out, like a relay to completely investigate the surrounding situation.

Du Feng is also a gambler, otherwise he would not have robbed Liu Yu and followed Liu Yu to gamble on his future.

However, Du Feng thinks that the highest level of gambling is to keep increasing the stakes until the opponent can't follow.

The troops he sent to surprise attack William Fort were a trick, but he had too much capital on the field side, so he just followed the tactical manual, learned from the turtle, and moved over.

If the capital is large, it means increasing the stakes to force you to be unable to follow, which is also a gambling method within the rules.

Between the mouth of the Hooghly River and Kolkata, there is a river port called Diamond Bay. According to the naming method of Dashun's general villages and counties, this place is generally called a three-way intersection.

The Lubunayangla River and the Hooghly River meet at this place called Diamond Bay and flow into the sea together. There is a river port and a fort at Diamond Bay.

As long as you set up camp, build a city, and repair a fort there, you will force the other side to take the initiative to attack.

Because the fort there can block the river and control the fire attack ship from the direction of the Lubunayangla River.

In other words, if you build a fort there and pull the 24-jin or 36-jin heavy artillery over, Dashun's fleet can enter the Hooghly River, which can not only fully cover the flank of the legion, but also provide artillery support.

So this drum-like tortoise shell tactic is a way to constantly increase the stakes and force others to take the initiative to fight.

Because, what if Dashun doesn't want to rush to attack Kolkata? Instead, they only wanted to build a city, a fort, and a battery in Diamond Bay to lock down the British Indian Ocean Fleet and free up the main force of the Dashun squadron in India?

Who dares to say that Dashun will definitely attack Calcutta?

After three days of moving, they finally moved in front of the British-Indian coalition.

The vanguard troops and scouts had enough understanding of the terrain ahead. There was no strange terrain, and it was a good place to deploy troops.

This time, Du Feng did not let the main force camp early, but accelerated the march a little, ran to the front to join the vanguard troops, and deployed camp 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 Bengal camp opposite at night. After hearing the sound, they asked all units to rest normally and issued an order to move camp at 3:30 tomorrow morning.

The next morning, all units finished breakfast on time. According to Du Feng's order and the marching plan formulated by the staff, the main force was divided into three marching columns.

The three marching columns set out in parallel, and it is expected to arrive at the designated location at six o'clock and deploy.

A battle of 10,000 people also requires a wide front. Concentrating a marching column will reduce the speed of deployment.

No army was deployed within the enemy's artillery range, and they all began to expand to the two wings a few miles away.

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

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

The Ceylon soldiers who resisted the line were divided into two teams on the two wings.

The non-assault companies and fire support companies of the 13th and 14th combat engineer battalions were also deployed on the two wings, digging pits, deploying breastworks, and configuring those small cannons.

Two of the four Marine Corps battalions that came to support from Malacca were deployed on the two wings, and two were deployed in the second line behind the central army.

The remaining two engineer battalions were also deployed on the central line. The Bugis cavalry and the noble cavalry supported by the Nanyang tributary states did not expect them to fight at all. They were used to capture people or pursue the defeated soldiers after the war. Normally, they came to visit and confirm their continued loyalty to Dashun.

It seems that this is a variation of the turtle formation, and it does not seem to be a situation that wants to take the initiative to attack and annihilate the enemy.

At least, it is not a classic formation of two-wing encirclement and trying to fight an annihilation war.

Moreover, on the whole, the deployment is also very conservative.

There was no attempt to march to the side of the British and Indian coalition forces, block their retreat, and force them to fight a decisive battle. Instead, it was like driving sheep, that is, pushing forward, and deploying after reaching the position. Even the cavalry was not deployed in large numbers to the flanks to cut the retreat road during the battle, but the British and Indian coalition forces’ retreat route was completely left.

This gave the British and Indian coalition forces the right to choose.

You can fight.

You can also not fight and retreat.

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

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

Although I had known for a long time that the Dashun side was fighting in a cowardly way, I didn't expect it to be so cowardly.

The reason why they formed this formation of obvious defensive counterattack was that, in Clive's view, Dashun was taking advantage of the special characteristics of the British and Indian coalition forces and making a shameless tactic.

The Bengal infantry could only squat and not move to resist the line. It was impossible to take the initiative to attack because they did not have the ability to do so.

Infantry that can defend the line and shoot back is far from infantry that can line up and attack. And infantry that can line up thirty steps and beat drums to form a team and then advance to attack, and infantry that can line up and move quickly in a marching formation, are still two or three steps away.

As for the status of the Bengali infantry, Du Feng basically recognized that it was only at the level of defending the line and shooting back.

The British army can line up to attack, but the number is too small.

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

Placing them in the center is simply courting death.

Once the attack is not smooth, the cavalry will retreat in a mess. Placing them in the center is likely to break up their own formation. Moreover, the weak infantry on both wings is likely to be flanked by the Dashun, eat dumplings, and finally all die here.

Moreover, there were those flashy elephant soldiers. Facing the dense cannons of Dashun, the only possibility was that they would be startled and run back and trample their own camp.

Dashun put up such a wretched formation, which was forcing the British and Indian coalition forces to line up according to the formation expected by Dashun.

Because if Dashun did not take the initiative to attack, but shrank and did not move, that is, defend, then this wretched formation would be unsolvable.

The only way for the British and Indian coalition forces to win was that Dashun took the initiative to attack, and the central army of the British and Indian armies could hold on, and in a state of retreat without defeat, let the main force of the central army of Dashun fall into it.

At the same time, the Bengal cavalry deployed on the flanks broke the flanks of Dashun.

This was the only theoretical possibility of winning.

And this possibility of winning required three conditions.

First, Dashun would take the initiative to attack, and it was obviously attacking from the central army.

Second, the British and Indian central army withstood the attack of Dashun, slowly retreated, but did not retreat, and stuck to the main force of Dashun's attack, so that Dashun threw all its reserves in.

Finally, the Bengal cavalry must tear open the flank of Dashun and outflank it before the center of the army is broken through.

These three conditions are indispensable.

Or, an accident happened, and the shells hit the command post of the center army, and the commander and chief of staff of Dashun were all killed...

So, in fact, the formation that the British-Indian coalition forces can choose has been locked after the column of Dashun began to deploy.

It can only be that a part of the Bengal infantry is deployed on the right wing near a small river to ensure that the flank will not be attacked, so as to resist the attack of Dashun.

The main force of the British army and the new native soldiers are deployed in the middle, together with a part of the Bengal infantry and some cavalry, to prepare for the possible attack of Dashun on the center army.

Jafar's cavalry is deployed on the left wing. In theory, if the coordination between Dashun's cavalry infantry and the flank is out of sync, Jafar's cavalry does not have to attack the flank, but can seize the opportunity to counterattack when the attack is out of sync.

Of course, it's just in theory. In fact, with this kind of 1.3 times superior manpower, 5 times the firepower of artillery, and absolutely superior infantry quality, the formation is obviously a defensive counterattack. This theoretical opportunity to seize the opportunity of attacking and disengaging does not exist.

Or, there is another choice.

That is, the British and Indian coalition forces choose not to fight and retreat directly.

After a brief discussion, the British and Indian coalition forces chose to retreat without fighting, temporarily disengage, and retreat a distance to avoid fighting.