Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 628: The Ming Army Goes on the Defence
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Looking at the deserted Indian army camp, Mao Wenlong's face looked extremely ugly.
At nightfall on March 30, the Ming army sent out sentinels keenly discovered that although the enemy's camp was still brightly lit, there were fewer people and noise. So the brave sentinels began to approach the enemy camp, and then suddenly discovered that the enemy had withdrawn silently.
In the afternoon of that day, Mao Wenlong received messengers from the Rochong Group in the east and the Kanpur reinforcements in the west via the Ganges River: both troops stated that they would arrive in Patna late tonight or early tomorrow morning.
Mao Wenlong, overjoyed, immediately replied: Don't come to Patna city, you all find a place to land, and then we will encircle them from three directions and annihilate this army completely.
But? But the other party actually ran away in the first half of the night?
I have gathered all my strength and was about to throw a satisfying combination of punches, but you actually ran away?
No matter how much internal injury Mao Wenlong was holding back, Aurangzeb finally escaped unscathed. Although he did not take Patna and completely cut off the Ming army's logistics and transportation lines, his disturbance still seriously delayed the Ming army's offensive. While giving Agra more time to reorganize the army and strengthen its defense. More importantly, it significantly frustrated the offensive momentum of the Ming army, which had been advancing rapidly since landing.
Morale is a very mysterious thing. At first, when the Ming army was rushing along the Ganges, no one thought it was a big deal. But when Patna was attacked and the retreat was almost cut off, everyone suddenly realized: Oh, we have penetrated so deep into the enemy's territory?
Then the commanders looked at the narrow strip of land controlled by their side along the Ganges River, and then saw that the surrounding area was all Mughal territory. They immediately broke out in a cold sweat: although this transport line of more than 1,000 kilometers was connected by a large river, as long as there was a problem at any point in the middle, the danger to our side would increase dramatically.
On April 7, Cao Wenzhao convened a meeting of generals in Kanpur to discuss the next phase of the battle plan.
The first topic of the meeting was, of course, to investigate the responsibility for almost destroying our Patna logistics supply point.
The final result was that Jin Guan and three other chief officers of the Fuguo Division were sentenced to death according to military law for deserting the battlefield. Several regiment commanders and battalion commanders of the Fuguo Division were also sentenced to death. As for the merits and rewards of the Fuguo Division for its tenacious defense of Patna, they will be given, but you will not be able to enjoy them. Leave them to your descendants.
This time, the Ming Dynasty was going to India, which was too far away from the mainland. If they had to ask for instructions and report everything, they would not be able to fight the war. Therefore, Cao Wenzhao, the commander, was given a golden order: he could execute first and report later!
After a burst of gunfire, the soldiers below went to pick up the bodies of Jin Guan and others. Then, all the generals returned to the meeting room with heavy faces and their own thoughts.
After sitting down, Cao Wenzhao nodded to Luo Sigong, and the intelligence chief stood up and said, "Everyone, according to the intelligence recently sent by the Bengalis, Ariels, and Chats under my command. The national mobilization of the Mughal is still continuing, and manpower and materials from all over the country are continuously concentrated in Agra. Combining intelligence from all parties, the Jinyiwei roughly estimated that in addition to the 80,000 so-called Mughal new troops only five or six kilometers away from us. At present, about 200,000 people have gathered around Agra.
Of course, most of these 200,000 people are just ordinary people, but what is worrying is that this number is still increasing.
Therefore, from the position of an intelligence officer, my suggestion is: either immediately gather all the soldiers who can fight, defeat the 80,000 strongest new troops in front of us, and then continue to advance westward for 300 kilometers to capture Agra. Or, retreat and rest. "
"Retreat?"
When Luo Sigong said this, many generals expressed doubts. But it was obvious that they were just doubts. No one was disgusted or yelled. The generals of the Ming Dynasty were generals of a big country, and their natural strategic direction was stronger than that of many small countries. At this time, everyone had fully realized that a big country like the Mughal was not a country that could be destroyed by two or three big victories like the conquest of Japan and Siam. There was really no hope of ending this war in the short term.
"Everyone." Before senior commanders such as Cao Wenzhao and Liu Zhaosun came out to answer the question of where to retreat, Ye Shixian, the director of the military medical department of this expeditionary force, stood up and said, "It is already the end of March, and this place has entered the dry season. It is said that the dry season here is dry, with little rain and high temperatures. In April and May, the temperature can soar to over 35 degrees. In June, the temperature is generally 40 degrees. If we cannot end the war in the short term, we will wait until the temperature rises. Obviously, our soldiers' ability to adapt to high temperature and dryness is far inferior to that of the enemy soldiers. By then, I am afraid that the troops will suffer from heat stroke on a large scale."
"Everyone." Cao Wenzhao glanced at the silent generals and said, "The current situation is very clear. Our army cannot see the possibility of a quick victory for the time being. Although the enemy is generally at a disadvantage, it still has the ability to cause us danger. We have entered too deep into the enemy's territory, the logistics line is too long, and the upcoming climate is not favorable to us. Therefore, I mean to retreat and rest first. As for where to retreat, after discussing with General Liu Zhaosun, the initial location selected is Patna City."
"Patna? General, are we going to give up Kanpur and retreat more than 400 kilometers?"
"That's right. Otherwise, we can't effectively shorten our army's transportation lines and concentrate our forces."
"General, I have no objection to retreating to Patna to rest. But there are two things to worry about."
"Oh? General Rochon, well, your attack on Bengal was very successful. We took it without much loss. What are your concerns?"
"First, if our army retreats to Patna to rest, we will avoid the dry season and then face the rainy season which will last for more than four months. If it is too hot, we will not march forward. If it rains too heavily, we will not march forward either. In the long run, will too delicate?
Second, it is easy for our army to retreat. But after our army retreats, the Mughals will definitely dispatch heavy troops to the Indus Plain to cause trouble for General Manshang's troops. You must know that there is no . Food and other things are easy to deal with, but what about guns, artillery and ammunition? "
"General Luo, these two questions are good." Liu Zhaosun stood up and said, "The first question is, how come our army didn't fight in the rainy season? Weren't the Battle of Asansol and the First Battle of Patna fought in the rainy season? The reason why we had a hard time fighting in the rainy season when we first arrived was because during the rainy season, rivers everywhere swelled, and it was very difficult for our small boats to go upstream to transport logistical supplies, so that our army lacked heavy equipment. But now it's different. A well-equipped port has been built in Kolkata, and the road from Kolkata to Asansol has also been repaired. In short, after we rest in Patna for two or three months and replenish sufficient weapons, we can launch a powerful offensive in the rainy season.
As for the second question, I have discussed it with General Cao, and our opinion is: We don't want Kanpur, but before we really retreat to rest, we have to fight one more battle! "
"May I ask where should we attack, General?"
"Head northwest and attack Moradabad. Make a gesture to bypass Agra and attack Delhi from north to south. And General Man's detachment will attack from west to east from Punjab. In the end, the two sides will meet near Moradabad."
"According to General Cao's strategy, have we already contacted General Man and his men?"
"Yes. In the past two days, the Gurkhas sent by General Man contacted us, escorting several Ming soldiers. So General Liu and I worked out this plan."
"I see. Then I will have no objection."
"Okay." Seeing that many generals on the scene had no intention of continuing to speak, Cao Wenzhao clapped his hands and said, "Then the rough strategy is decided. Now read out the orders for each army after the strategic adjustment."
After all the generals stood up, Cao Wenzhao said calmly: "First, reorganize the deployment of each group. First, form a new Northwest Group. The task of this group is to march to the northwest and take over General Man's detachment. Its force composition is three fully staffed Great Ming Divisions, and the commander is Lieutenant General Huang Degong.
Second, before receiving the Mangui Detachment, Kanpur still needs to continue to defend. Therefore, the Kanpur Cluster is retained, with a total strength of five divisions. These five divisions are not fully staffed due to the losses in the early battles, and the actual strength is only more than 53,000 people. The commander of this cluster is personally appointed by me.
Third, rebuild the Patna cluster, draw three Great Ming divisions and two vassal state divisions from the original Kanpur cluster, and re-establish the cluster. The task of this cluster is to rebuild the Patna defense line, completely fortify the city, and try to expand our actual control area to the north and south, and strive to form a bulge here as a reliable base for our army to launch another offensive later. The commander of this cluster is General Liu Zhaosun. The original Patna cluster's 11th Great Ming Division, Fuguo Division, and Japanese Division all retreated to Myanmar for rest and recuperation.
Fourth, reorganize the Bengal cluster. Since the entire state of Bengal has been taken, as the greatest achievement of this expedition so far, we must protect it well. Therefore, three vassal state divisions were drawn from the original Kanpur cluster to cooperate with the two divisions of the original Bengal cluster to do a good job of local military control and wait for officials from the Ming Dynasty to come and take over.
Fifth, Marine Corps Division, it is the dry season now, please ask the Marine Corps to move to Chittagong in Bengal to urge the local people to repair the waterway. This will require the entire middle and lower reaches of the Ganges to be completely unobstructed from Patna to Chittagong! "
"I will obey the general's order!"
"The next one is the second one, Luo Zhenfushi."
"I am here."
"In addition to continuing to strengthen intelligence gathering, negotiations must continue. In my opinion, negotiations can both buy time for our military's mobilization and weaken the enemy's will to resist."
"Well, although the Indians didn't take Patna, the battle there did raise the morale of the entire Indians. Now that we have to negotiate, the other side is more confident. Forget it, I will obey your orders. It's just a matter of wrangling anyway."
"Well, the Indians are getting angry now, and their attitude is definitely much more arrogant than before. What we can come up with in the negotiation now is definitely not as good as the last time. However, the negotiation now is not the goal, but just a means."
After all, Cao Wenzhao was not a real military man, so he could not give orders to Luo Sigong directly, so he patiently explained. Then he raised his head again: "The last one, except for Huang Degong's group, the other troops will focus on defense and local governance. This general and General Liu will jointly report the recent war to the emperor later today. Before the emperor's order arrives, our army's first priority is to consolidate the current results!"
