Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 625 Agnar's Peace Talks
"If your country wishes to ask our Great Ming to cease fire, it must meet the following requirements of our Great Ming.
First, your country’s officials killed our envoys without reason. Your country needs to hand over the murderer to be punished by our country.
Article 2: Bengal and Bihar were ceded, and Calcutta, Nellore and Chennai were opened as concessions for a period of 99 years. Within the concessions, the Ming Dynasty had full administrative and judicial power.
Article 3. Compensation. In view of the different currencies of the two countries, the silver content is quite different. Therefore, your country needs to compensate my country with 300,000 tons of pure silver or 30,000 tons of pure gold.
Article 4: When our Ming Dynasty products are sold in your country, the customs fees shall not exceed 5% of the value of the goods.
Article 5. Our Ming Dynasty has obtained your country's most-favored-nation treatment. In the future, when your country signs any agreement with other countries, as long as other countries enjoy the same benefits, our country will automatically obtain them.
Article 6: Our Ming Dynasty merchants are allowed to enter your mainland to carry out business activities, and our Ming Dynasty scientific researchers are allowed to enter your country to carry out scientific research activities.
Article 7. If a Ming Dynasty citizen violates your country's laws, your country shall not handle the matter alone. You must inform Ming Dynasty officials and let them handle the matter.
Article 8. In order to promote and avoid misunderstandings in future exchanges between the two countries, the two countries should establish embassies in each other's capitals.
Article 9: In order to ensure the implementation of the agreement, your country should hand over sufficient hostages to our Ming Dynasty. Our Ming Dynasty now specifically requests that your third prince Aurangzeb go to Beijing as a hostage to ensure that your country fully implements the above eight articles. "
On March 23, 1633, in Agnar, Shah Jahan's palace, Ming envoy and Embroidered Uniform Guard pacification envoy Luo Sigong faced a group of angry Mughal monarchs and ministers, and read out Ming's armistice conditions fluently and fearlessly.
On March 15, the Battle of Kanpur broke out. The battle lasted all day and ended with the Ming army defeating two lines of defense and successfully taking Kanpur.
After this battle, the Ming army counted the battlefield and found that they had killed more than 70,000 Indian soldiers and captured more than 80,000. As for the various weapons and supplies obtained on the battlefield, they were countless.
Of course, the victory was glorious, but the price paid was not small: more than 7,000 Ming soldiers were killed on that day, and more than 20,000 people were wounded of various types.
Of course, with the world-leading medical technology of the Ming Dynasty, most of the 20,000 wounded soldiers were able to return to the battlefield: this was also a very important reason why the Ming army was able to maintain its combat effectiveness. But in any case, the recovery of the wounded soldiers took time.
Compared with casualties, Cao Wenzhao was more worried about the artillery shells: the eleven artillery regiments fired at full force for two hours, which was great, but the artillery shells that the logistics troops took nearly a month to deliver to the Kanpur front were mostly useless. Facing the enemy's third line of defense built with marble and guarded by 80,000 "new troops", the Ming artillery that entered the sage time could provide very limited support to its own infantry.
The Indian Army's Kanpur defense line is fan-shaped, with the outermost line being the longest and the last line being the shortest. So when Shuko arranged the troops, the three lines of defense from the outermost to the innermost had 120,000, 100,000, and 80,000 troops respectively. Now, although this third line of defense has the least troops, its density is the highest in terms of both troops and firepower.
With such a line of defense, we can definitely take it down, but what about the casualties?
Cao and Liu had been with Zhu Youdong for more than 20 years and were already among the most powerful military officers in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, they had no intention of using the lives of soldiers as a stepping stone for their own official positions. Therefore, after the battle on the 15th, Cao Wenzhao and Liu Zhaosun discussed the result of: the whole army rested on the spot for five to ten days, and launched a strong attack after the artillery shells in the rear were replenished.
However, the two of them had never expected that they would meet their match: in the early morning of the 16th, Crown Prince Shuko sent an envoy to express his desire to meet some conditions of the Ming Dynasty in order to cease fire. This move really made Cao and Liu overjoyed.
Of course, although they were soldiers, they had been immersed in the power field for a long time. So when they faced Shuko's envoy, they put on a show, and finally, after accepting the two large bags of gems from the envoy, they reluctantly agreed to temporarily cease fire and send an envoy to present the letter of credence to the emperor of the other side.
Since the Battle of Tumu, civil officials began to take charge of the army, which led to a lower status for military officials and a weaker combat capability for the Ming army. Therefore, when Zhu Youdong rebuilt the armed forces of the Ming Dynasty, he went too far: he strictly distinguished between civil officials and military officials, and strictly prohibited civil officials from commenting on the combat of military officials. Even a commander like Xiong Tingbi, who had proven his ability on the battlefield, had to be granted the title of military general before he could obtain the position of Privy Councilor.
As a result, in the Ming Dynasty's Indian expeditionary force, except for some low-level clerks in logistics and documentation, there was not a single civil official of sufficient weight among the hundreds of thousands of troops.
Finally, Cao and Liu discussed it and said: Well, Luo, the pacification envoy, you go ahead?
Then Luo Sigong became the envoy of the Ming Dynasty and came to Agna, the residence of the Mughal emperor at that time.
The fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, Shah Jahan, was sitting in the main seat at this time, looking at Luo Sigong who had a proud expression on his face. He was furious, thinking repeatedly in his mind whether he should cook or grill the thin middle-aged man opposite him.
Of course, as an emperor of a great country, such an idea could only be thought of: after all, both his second son and his eldest son were defeated, and they were defeated miserably. This made him, although he was an emperor, have to cowardly hold back his temper.
"What is the messenger's name?"
"Your Majesty, my surname is Luo."
"Okay, Mr. Luo. I heard clearly the so-called ceasefire conditions just now. In my opinion, this is very rude and unreasonable. I would like to ask, is this what your emperor meant, or is this what you meant?"
"Before this expedition, our emperor had already drawn up the basic strategy. Although some of the above conditions were written temporarily by our expeditionary commanders, overall, they strictly followed the emperor's strategy."
"Mr. Messenger?"
"Who are you?"
"I am Vichiltivedi of the Empire."
"Oh, hello, Prime Minister."
"Well, Mr. Envoy, I think that your country's armistice agreement is insincere and is a blackmail against our country!"
"Haha." Luo Sigong was not angry either: "Why did the Prime Minister say that?"
"First of all, the biggest reason why your country sent troops to our country is that we killed your envoy. But this matter has been carefully investigated by our country from top to bottom. We did not send troops to invade Kathmandu, let alone kill your envoy. On the contrary, not only did your country not send envoys to our country to inquire, but it quickly sent hundreds of thousands of troops to invade our country. This fully shows that your country's coveting of our country is a long-planned plan!"
Glancing at Luo Sigong who was smiling but not saying anything, Tiwedi took a deep breath and said, "Let's take a step back. Your country thinks that our country has killed your envoys, and your emperor wants to launch an invasion from the Ganges Delta. But you actually sent an army to invade our Indus River Basin... Haha, two-way invasion, what else could this be if it's not a long-planned plan?"
It turned out that Man Gui's detachment had successfully crossed the Himalayas and entered the Indus Plain? Why did it deviate so far from the original plan? Well, in a long expedition, a small mistake can lead to a big mistake. Anyway, Man Gui's troops not only survived, but also achieved great results. Haha, this is really good news.
Luo Sigong, who was at peace in his heart, smiled even more at this moment: "Mr. Prime Minister, I wonder if you know that my Ming Dynasty had a military saint two thousand years ago, named Sun Wu. He once wrote a military book, and the first sentence of the book is: 'War is a major event for a country, a place of life and death, a way of survival and destruction, and it must be carefully considered.' My Ming Dynasty is the overlord of East Asia, with countless vassal states... If a country kills my Ming Dynasty's envoy, then my Ming Dynasty will not send envoys again, but will directly send troops to attack. Of course, sending troops is a big deal, so we must fully consider the battle plan... In short, your country killed my Ming Dynasty's envoy, we will not send envoys to discuss, but will directly send troops. Isn't it normal to send troops directly and divide them into two groups?"
"Your Excellency is a man of great eloquence. I have just said that we did not kill your envoy."
"Tsk! Your Majesty, is the attitude of your Prime Minister the attitude of your country? Then what are we still talking about here today? Can't we all go back to Cawnpur, set up our positions, and have a good fight?"
Fight again? This option was unbearable for Shah Jahan: starting from Calcutta, the Ming army on the east route had penetrated thousands of kilometers into the heart of the empire, and the entire Ganges Plain was in chaos: it was summer, the most important planting season of the year. For the empire, which was founded on agriculture, poor production in the Ganges Plain often meant that the whole country would starve!
Moreover, the enemy's western army is now rampaging across the Indus Plain: the Empire has repeatedly withdrawn its troops from Balochistan and Punjab for the Battle of Kanpur, and the remaining troops there are completely unable to stop the enemy's advance.
In short, the two most important plains in the empire are now under the enemy's military peak. If this situation continues, there will be a nationwide famine in the rainy season.
What was even more annoying was that our army was no match for the enemy! If we really angered the enemy and continued the war, what would happen if the last line of defense in Cawnpore was breached? From there to Agnar, the road was flat and there was no place to defend!
Of course, facing the threat from the enemy envoy, it was impossible for the emperor to just give in. So at this time, the second prince Shujia took the initiative to stand up and said, "Haha, don't be anxious, envoy. Since you are willing to come to us to talk, we have to discuss it repeatedly."
"... Humph, the Second Prince is quite obedient. Then, Your Majesty, everyone, you are the one who said you wanted a ceasefire, but you think the conditions we proposed are unacceptable. So please tell me, how do you want a ceasefire?"
