Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 616: Asansol Night Battle
As the ticking sound of the charge horn rang out in different directions of the battlefield, the already frightened Indian soldiers all heard the thunderous shouts of "Victory!"
Amidst the overwhelming roar, countless Ming soldiers in dark green uniforms and wide-brimmed hats leaped out began a full-scale charge against the occasional sporadic fire from the Indian army against the pitch-black background.
The first to be defeated was the Indian Army : the old-style army of the Mughal Empire was stationed here. The reason why this army was defeated so quickly was that, on the one hand, the original elite officers and soldiers were drawn away to build a new army, and the newly added soldiers were ordinary farmers a few months ago. On the other hand, there were too many animals in this army.
More than one hundred war elephants, more than three thousand excellent war horses capable of carrying heavy cavalry, more than two thousand horses used as draught power, and more than one hundred docile female elephants - there is no way, cows are the boss in India, even the Mughal empire, whose state religion is the Crescent Moon, did not dare to ignore the feelings of Hindus and use cows as the most laborious porters.
With so many non-human creatures gathered together, daily management was already difficult. At night, they were bombarded by the Ming army's unscrupulous cannons: there was no caliber problem with this thing, the size of the explosive pack could be as large as the diameter of the iron barrel. If you really want to be picky, the caliber of the Ming army's batch of unscrupulous cannons tonight all exceeded 400mm!
After three o'clock in the morning, when the first explosive pack exploded, the livestock in the Indian army camp in the south began to have convulsions. When the Ming army's artillery fire got closer and closer, it was of no avail no matter how the elephant drivers and knights tried to comfort their companions who they had been living with day and night.
At 4:05, the Ming army launched a general charge. When the Ming soldiers rushed into the southern camp of the Indian soldiers with submachine guns and began to indiscriminately pour fire on the Indian soldiers holding muskets and even swords and spears, the elephant drivers and knights finally gave up their companions and began to run around like headless flies.
The entire livestock camp was in complete chaos. The hot-tempered male elephants began to run around. Some male elephants smelled the scent of the female elephants and simply ran towards the area where the female elephants were. In the process, the already frightened horses became even more panicked... For a while, people and horses collided with each other, and the elephants trampled back and forth. The entire Indian army's southern camp had completely lost its organization. The smarter Indian soldiers simply threw away their weapons, raised their hands high, and took the initiative to run in the direction of the Ming army.
That night, the main force attacking the Indian Army's southern camp was the Ming Army's Third Division. The exclusive title of this division was the Guards - from the day it was established, the children of royal families and nobles accounted for a large proportion of its officer corps.
The one who is leading a company and rushing to the front at this moment is the third son of the current Duke of Wei, Xu Hongji, the Duke of Xuzhou.
"Fire into the air and drive these animals as far north as possible. I will set up a fire elephant formation against the remaining bandits in the north!"
"Hey, young master, you've listened to too many storytellings, right? There's also the Fire Elephant Formation. Hurry up and have the brothers calm these beasts down. These guys will be of great use next!"
"Huh? Zhu Cunjin, you're not dead?"
"Excuse me, you're not even dead yet, I don't dare die in front of you."
The two company commanders started arguing, but the soldiers in the two companies ignored them and continued to charge, kill the enemy, and control the livestock: These two had been trying to be brave since they were in the military academy, and now they were still courting death on the battlefield...
Oh, forget it. There are two company commanders. One is a member of the Ming royal family, a descendant of the King of Qin, and has the title of Lieutenant of Fengguo. Although the other is a bastard and has almost no chance of inheriting the title, he is at least a child of the Duke of Wei. When the two of them are talking nonsense, it is better for us, the soldiers of civilian origin, to stay out of it.
"Humph, as expected of someone from a wealthy family like Duke Wei, he doesn't know how to be thrifty at all. Lord Xuzhou, don't you think that if these horses and elephants can be left behind, wouldn't it be a great help when we build a port at the seaport after the rainy season ends and the ground dries up?"
"Humph, you poor lieutenant Fengguo, you have been poor for too long and you are reluctant to give up anything. When the rainy season is over, can't you just get a few steam engines from Yangon to use as power and a few cranes? Even if the steam engines are too slow to move and reset, didn't you see that there were so many cattle along the way when we came? Just pull them over and use them."
"Hahaha, so you are an uneducated dude. In this damn place like India, are cows considered ordinary livestock?"
"Of course I know this is some kind of Hindu rule, but I've eaten so much beef since I was born, so what? Damn, I just have to use cows... What's the matter?"
"Captain, we have killed all the mad animals and brought the others under control."
"You bastard, don't you know to drive them north? Forget it, forget it, just leave them here. This poor guy is lucky."
At 5:30 in the morning, when the night sky in the east began to fade, the Guards Division had ended the battle of the Indian Army's South Camp. At this time, the resistance of the Indian Army's North Camp continued.
"Da da da, da da da~"
"Damn it, there's a machine gun position here. Is the mortar crew coming up? Fire one shot over there!"
"Enemy troops are coming, ready with grenades!"
The troops responsible for attacking the Indian Army's Beidaying were Huang Degong's Second Division and Zhang Hong's Marine Corps. When the Indian Army arrived in Patna, these two divisions had already withdrawn from Asansol Town in advance, making a big circle and jumping to the periphery of the battlefield. At 8 o'clock the previous night, after the night fell, they began to move towards Beidaying, and at 3 o'clock in the morning, they launched the attack on time.
During the entire offensive, the Second Division attacked and charged hard. Although the progress was fast, the casualties were relatively high. Zhang Hong's Marine Division fought more patiently: Are there any heavy machine guns? Don't panic, wait for the mortar group to come up and knock them down before moving forward.
So, at six o'clock in the morning of that day, when the front regiments of the two armies met inside the Indian Army's Beida Camp, the Second Division had probably penetrated two-thirds of the enemy's camp.
"Captain of the 1st Marine Regiment, Lu Xiangsheng!"
"Captain of the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Division, Huang Fei!"
"My Lord, next, I will have to work harder and sweep north. You, on the other hand, should turn around and head south."
"Okay, okay. Judging from the situation, it seems that the enemy commander is still in the north. Then I would like to ask Captain Huang to hurry up and not let the enemy leader escape."
"Hmph, Prince Consort, please stop bullying our school. Look at your progress. The enemy chieftain in the north should naturally be captured by our Second Division."
"Hey, this is the difference between those who first learn the Four Books and Five Classics and then go to military school and pure warriors." Of course, Lu Xiangsheng did not say this: as a son-in-law, this identity helped him to quickly get promoted, but it also restricted many of his words and deeds. What he was thinking just now would be fine if other generals said it out loud, but if he said it out loud, people would misunderstand that the emperor still looked down on warriors in his heart - that was beyond doubt. In order to eliminate this bad influence, Zhu Youdong had no choice but to let him hand over his head and apologize.
Therefore, when Huang Fei wanted to take the credit, he had no choice but to give in. No matter how dissatisfied he was, he had to hold it in.
However, Huang Fei, who had successfully obtained the qualification to continue attacking northward, was surprised to find, after leading his troops forward for a while, that the remaining troops near the enemy's tent had hardly weakened their fighting spirit and put up a very strong resistance!
In fact, the new army led by Shuja was composed of soldiers from three ethnic groups: Sikh, Pashtun, and Uzbek, all of which were known for their bravery and fighting skills. Therefore, although the Ming army rushed into the Beidaying and caused great casualties to the enemy due to the advantage of light weapons, the remaining troops of this army still relied on five-shot rifles and a small number of heavy machine guns to resist the attack of the Ming army tenaciously.
However, although the soldiers fought bravely , Shuja knew that this battle was a complete defeat for his side, and it was time for him to retreat.
As a commander who had experienced many wars, he had won many battles and suffered many defeats. Therefore, when his side was doomed to fail, he had some experience in how to escape smoothly.
"Murad, I will lead the guards to retreat now. Next, please lead the soldiers to resist for at least an hour. After the time is up, if you are surrounded, you must surrender. Don't be in a hurry to shake your head. I need you to stay alive and find out what kind of artillery broke our defense line tonight. Don't worry, you are not really surrendering, you are carrying out the task I assigned to you, so I will protect your family."
"...Understood, Your Highness."
…
"General, the enemy's southern camp has completely stopped resisting. The Third Division is cleaning up the battlefield, taking inventory of supplies, and escorting prisoners. There is still sporadic resistance in the northern camp, but the organized counterattack has completely stopped."
"Yeah." Nodding with satisfaction, Liu Zhaosun looked down at his watch. "It's 7:30. Thirty thousand people besieged us from three sides. It took four and a half hours to get to this point. Not bad."
Then he looked up at the sun in the east that had already jumped out of the clouds and illuminated the sky. He turned around and smiled at Li Chunzhong, "It's a good day today."
"Yes, it's a nice day today."
