Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 622 The Desperate Crown Prince
"Reporting to the General, our army has successfully broken through the enemy's first line of defense and is advancing to the second line of defense."
"Hmm..." He looked up at his watch and said, "Not bad, I took down the first one in an hour and a half. How strong is the enemy's counterattack?"
"It was very weak. Even though some of the remaining artillery fired, it caused some damage to our army, but our artillery quickly launched suppressive fire and knocked them out."
"Okay, tell the commanders of the three groups ahead to continue their attack. I will have a midnight snack in Kanpur tonight."
"Yes, sir!"
Because of Cao Wenzhao's order, the Ming army's attack became more fierce. However, as the Ming army got closer to the walls of Kanpur, the enemy's resistance became more and more organized and tenacious.
The biggest reason for this situation is that His Royal Highness Shuko, the Crown Prince of the Empire, is still standing on the city wall of Kanpur.
This kind of behavior is extremely morale-boosting no matter which country it is in. Although the three brothers are a little confused in their daily work, they still know how to fight hard at this time.
Of course, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's refusal to retreat only prevented the complete collapse of his army. The real reason for organizing the soldiers to put up an effective resistance was the large number of middle and lower-level officers from brave and warlike ethnic groups such as Sikhs, Pashtuns, and Uzbeks.
The so-called Kanpur Line of Defense is a defense system consisting of three lines of defense. The first line of defense against the Ming army was a trench that was not dug professionally, and the old-style troops were also guarding there. The second line of defense was a low wall cut out of stone, and a defense force of 100,000 people, with 20,000 new troops as the backbone and 80,000 old-style troops as the auxiliary.
In general, the Mughal Empire's high-ranking officials were not stupid. On the one hand, they learned a lot from the battle with Datar, a time traveler. On the other hand, through the early battles, they roughly deduced that the Ming army's artillery firepower was very fierce.
Therefore, in terms of troop deployment, Shuko placed the 80,000 new troops with the strongest combat effectiveness behind the city of Kanpur, which was the real marble defense line.
However, even though Shuko had made what he considered to be the most conservative arrangements, the fierceness of the Ming army's artillery fire still exceeded his imagination. In the morning's artillery attack, most of the 100,000 old-style troops in the first line of defense of the Indian army were buried in the sea of fire, and even those who survived were shot in the subsequent infantry assault of the Ming army. Even in the second line of defense, many places were breached by artillery fire, and the defending soldiers also suffered heavy casualties.
However, as I said before, the Mughal Empire was still in its ascendant at this time, the government was strict, the army was well disciplined, and the crown prince was always on the top of the city for everyone to see. Therefore, the Indian army did not collapse at this time, but woke up from the initial bombardment.
Especially after the first line of defense bought them a certain amount of time, the officers of the second line of defense had already organized the soldiers.
"Huff~Huff~" On the shoulder straps with two bars and one star, a head wearing a steel helmet had beads of sweat on his forehead, his brows were tightly furrowed, and his teeth were clenched tightly. It was obvious that the major was in great pain at this moment.
Although they had been charging and fighting for more than two hours, this was their first battle, so there wasn't much fighting. Logically, as a model soldier in field training during his time at the military academy, Cao Bianjiao's physical strength shouldn't be so poor. But his life depended on it. He was hit hard in the abdomen by a stone that was blown away by a shell. Although the wound didn't look big from the outside due to the high-speed impact of a blunt instrument, it was actually very painful for the person himself.
"Captain, is this ok? How about you go down first, and I will lead the brothers to charge forward."
"Hoo~hiss~ damn Zuo Menggeng, what's wrong with your boss? After this battle is over, we will find a brothel and then I will show you if it's okay. Ouch~ Damn, that rock just now was really big."
The captain and deputy captain were arguing with each other, but they were moving at a fast pace. Led by the two captains, the entire company continued to move forward quickly.
"Da da da, da da da." When they were still two or three hundred meters away from the Indian army's second broken line of defense, the enemy's heavy machine guns began to spit out flames. On the ground seven or eight meters away from the two men, the bullets stirred up clouds of dust.
"Puff!" The two men quickly jumped into a nearby bomb crater. "Damn Indians, are you stupid? Shooting from such a distance."
"Almost there. We really need to be able to smell the stench in the enemy's mouth before we shoot." Looking down at Cao Bianjiao's abdominal bandage and seeing that there was no new bleeding, Zuo Menggeng breathed a sigh of relief and then shouted, "Where's the mortar squad?"
"Lieutenant, we are running too fast. Lao Jiang and his men are still behind us."
"Shit, where's the heavy machine gun?"
"Here I come."
"Set up, suppress and fire."
"yes!"
Just as the Ming army's heavy machine guns were set up and fired a few times, the firepower point on the opposite side quickly went silent. Then Zuo Menggeng pressed Cao Bianjiao down and jumped out of the crater where the two of them had just hidden: "Brothers, follow me and destroy that machine gun point!"
…
The company led by Cao Bianjiao and Zuo Menggeng was just one of the many companies in the Ming army's assault that day. Although their progress was the fastest, the other companies were not slow either. In short, by one o'clock in the afternoon of that day, the entire Indian army's second line of defense was already shaky.
"Your Highness, our defenses have been breached in many places, especially in the north and south. The enemy has shown signs of outflanking us. So please retreat! We are ten miles west of Kanpur City, and there is one last line of defense that needs your personal command."
“…”
"Your Highness!"
"Hey, Singh, we have deployed 220,000 people in the first two lines of defense. But, in just seven hours, these two tight lines of defense were breached?"
"Your Highness, these Zhendan people are indeed powerful. But we still have a third line of defense and 80,000 new troops! We can still fight. So, Your Highness, please retreat as soon as possible!"
Shuko, with a confused look in his eyes, said nothing, but raised his telescope and looked at the battlefield again.
On the vast Ganges plain, on the 40-kilometer-wide battle line, there were bursts of gunfire. Cannons roared. Countless Ming soldiers holding red flags were advancing bravely. In the near distance, our soldiers, wearing turbans or traditional Mughal narrow-sleeved clothes, were fleeing in panic. In the distance, on the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, the enemy's floating bridges were already crowded with people. Occasionally, gun barrels could be seen on the floating bridges - there was no doubt that the enemy had begun to deploy troops and concentrated the artillery in the rear to the middle, preparing to concentrate fire on the city of Kanpur.
Although there was still a third line of defense, Shuko knew that this battle was lost. The defeat was quite complete.
The difference in strength between the two sides was too great. In terms of equipment and firepower, the difference was even greater. He could see clearly from the telescope on the tower that the artillery of the enemy had just fired a few shots when the artillery of the enemy had accurately covered the artillery positions of the enemy. In the infantry confrontation, the soldiers of the Aurora people would either use a small cannon with a curved trajectory to knock out the firepower points of the enemy. Or after the heavy machine guns were suppressed, other soldiers would take turns to cover and quickly approach, using the firearms in their hands that could continuously fire bullets to kill the soldiers of the enemy...
On the other hand, his soldiers and artillery were slow to react, and now the artillery of the first two lines of defense was basically wiped out. As for his infantry, he used to think that these elite imperial soldiers were fearless and highly obedient. But after such a comparison on the battlefield, he felt that his soldiers were extremely stupid compared to the various flexible tactics of the other side.
In this case, even if there is a third line of defense, how long can it last?
The entire empire only has 400,000 standing troops. But the empire has so , and these 300,000 troops are already the limit of the empire's mobile forces. If such an army can't stop the Aurora people, then who can?
"Hey, let's retreat. Singer, in 20 minutes, give the soldiers in the first two lines of defense a general retreat order. Then send all our war elephants out to charge."
“…Yes, Your Highness.”
"Order the commanders of the third line of defense to try to accommodate the soldiers retreating from the first two lines of defense. We cannot afford too heavy a loss."
"yes."
"Finally, send an envoy as soon as possible to have a good talk with the other side's commander to find out what the other side wants!"
…
Although the Indian army had only more than a thousand war elephants, they were quickly knocked down by the fierce firepower of the Ming army soon after they were released. However, it still bought a little time for the Indian army to retreat.
At 3:45 p.m. that day, the Ming Dynasty's Yanhuang, Sun and Moon flag was hoisted on the city wall of Kanpur!
