Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 632 The Role of Civil Officials
"Tsk, t ...
At five o'clock in the morning on April 15, 1634, at the Ming army's artillery position about five kilometers east of the first line of defense of the Indian army's Kanpur defense circle, 1,200 75mm guns, 240 105mm guns, and 60 150mm cannons were stacked up. Then the artillerymen at each gun position shook the handle desperately, gradually raising the gun barrel.
When the time reached five-thirty, countless red flares soared into the sky, and the Ming army's artillery positions roared collectively.
The ground began to tremble again, dust flew everywhere, smoke filled the air, and deafening explosions came one after another. The Indian army's position quickly fell into a dense rain of bullets.
The most basic principle of modern artillery precision shooting is actually trigonometric functions. The reason why it is trigonometric functions is, of course, because modern artillery shooting is always related to a triangle.
Our artillery, our observation point and the enemy's target form a triangle. During the bombardment, the observation point continuously transmits the changes in the enemy's artillery position and the effects of our own bullet impact points. Then our artillery continuously corrects the firing parameters based on these values through trigonometric calculations.
Of course, this requires a prerequisite: reliable radio technology, or the fact that the wired telephone is not cut off on the battlefield.
But at this moment, the Ming army's artillery fire could not use trigonometric functions to guide shooting: Even if the Ming army's scouts lurked in the enemy's artillery positions , how could they quickly transmit the relevant data back?
Therefore, the Ming army's artillery bombardment at this time was very simple and crude: covering fire, repeated covering fire.
After the overwhelming bombardment lasted for an hour, the Ming army's artillery was raised again, and the range was further extended, crossing the Indian army's first line of defense and conducting isolation bombardment on the area between the two lines of defense of the Indian army.
The artillery fire continued, and at the forefront of the Ming army, on a 20-kilometer-wide front, countless charges were blown, and a green wave surged towards the Indian army's defense line.
It was at this time that flashes of fire began to appear on the Indian positions: their artillery finally began to counterattack.
In the green tide sweeping across the land, occasionally one or two shells would land in the green tide and explode, creating a certain gap in the green tide. But it wouldn't take long for the green tide to automatically return to normal.
Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the Indian army had too few artillery pieces. And because they were afraid of the Ming Dynasty's artillery, they did not dare to deploy their artillery too far forward. This resulted in the Indian army's artillery being unable to cover the entire front line, and unable to suppress the Ming army when it was far away from their own defense line. In short, the effect was very limited.
At 7:10 in the morning, the Ming army's vanguard had already approached the Indian army's first line of defense, only 700 to 800 meters away. The sound of heavy machine guns was heard from the Indian army's positions. However, because of the one-hour bombardment, the Indian commanders knew the power of the Ming army's artillery fire and did not deploy many troops on the front line. Therefore, relatively few Indian soldiers survived the bombardment. Even if some machine gun points cost the Ming army a certain price, they were quickly knocked out by the Ming army's mortars or soldiers who took turns to cover the assault.
"Hurry, hurry, the enemy trench is just ahead. After we jump in, I'll go left and you go right. Let's each fire a burst of bullets first."
"Okay!"
As the words came out, Cao Bianjiao and Zuo Menggeng jumped up together and jumped into the enemy's trench almost at the same time. Then, before their feet landed on the ground, their submachine guns in mid-air rang out.
After the two men regained their balance and covered each other with their backs to each other, they discovered that in their sight, there was no living enemy except their corpses.
"The artillery was so accurate? They killed them all?"
"Nonsense, some must have died, and the rest saw us coming and ran away!"
After saying this, Cao Bianjiao blew a whistle, and more soldiers jumped into the trenches: "Old rules, first row left, second row right, sweep the trenches. Third row forward, hold this section of the position."
"Yes, sir!"
After the order was issued, he and Zuo Menggeng tacitly led their teams to sweep forward along the trenches dug by the Indian army. Along the way, thanks to their mutual cooperation and the fierce firepower provided by submachine guns and grenades, his platoon killed about twenty Indian soldiers along the way, and only one person on his side was injured.
Cao Bianjiao, who had been feeling full of energy during this period, became even more excited. After connecting with another company in front, he jumped out of the trench, called his brothers, and continued to charge forward bravely.
…
"Your Majesty, we have taken the first trench."
"Hmm..." MD, I only saw a green wave sweeping up. I had no idea where it was hitting or how it was hitting.
Zhu Youdong looked away from the large telescope on the fixed mount, nodded pretentiously, and said calmly: "The boys fought well."
"It's all because of the emperor's personal presence that the morale of these monkeys has been raised to the extreme. Hey, emperor, I'm not flattering you. Since the emperor landed, the morale of the army has been getting better and better. People like me who have commanded troops for many years can clearly feel this."
"Yes, Your Majesty. With the morale boosted, the various tactical actions performed by the soldiers on the battlefield are closer to the ideal state. This can not only quickly expand the results of the battle, but also effectively reduce their own casualties."
Hey, why else would I come all the way here? Isn't it just to give you a BUFF?
In short, the BUFF of Wu Qu Xing Jun is very useful. The only drawback is that it has a distance limit, forcing me to lead the army in person from time to time.
However, to be honest, the reason I came here this time is not just to boost the morale of our soldiers.
"Mr. Wen, you've never been on a battlefield before, right? How does it feel ?"
"How magnificent! I can brag about this to my children and grandchildren when I return home. But Your Majesty is worth millions of dollars, so it's best if you don't go to the front line."
"It's okay. I'm at least three kilometers away from the enemy. And I didn't follow your advice and came out with the Nine Dragon Umbrella." After laughing, Zhu Youdong didn't pretend to be brave, but retreated to the rear under the protection of the generals: he just stayed here to watch, if he stayed too long, it would seriously affect the generals' command. He still had some self-awareness of this.
After retreating to the base camp at least ten kilometers away from the front line, Zhu Youdong and Wen Tiren sat down leisurely and began to play music.
"How are the connections between the Indian princes going?"
"Overall, it's not bad." Old Wen smiled slightly: In his opinion, the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty did bully the military commanders too much in the past, so that the Ming Dynasty's external combat capability continued to decline. This must be changed. However, the emperor's complete separation of civil and military affairs, so that the civil officials did not participate in the affairs of the military commanders, was really an overreaction.
In the past, when fighting against small countries like Japan and Siam, it was fine for the emperor to do this. But when fighting against a big country like the Mughal Empire, how could he not let the civil officials come up to cooperate with the military generals? Would those military men know how to negotiate? Would they know how to form alliances? Would they know how to divide and alienate?
When fighting a big country, you must make the enemy's allies fewer and your own allies more numerous. Like these warriors, they just go up and hit hard without saying anything, which will not last long.
Fortunately, it seems that the emperor has realized this and finally allowed us civil officials to participate in the war. I have to do a good job in this regard, which is to earn a future for us civil officials!
"Your Majesty, I have met with representatives sent by the governors of the three Mughal states, about thirty noble families from various places. They all agree that as long as Your Majesty respects their beliefs and protects the interests of the upper castes, they don't mind changing the emperor."
"This is just a neutral statement at best. Is there anyone who has taken the initiative to approach us?"
"Yes. The Sikh leader, Gopind, expressed his willingness to call on his people to abandon the Mughals and serve the emperor now."
"What do they want from me? An independent country?"
"Your Majesty is the wisest. What Gebind meant is that if the Ming Dynasty can replace the Mughals as the master here, they want the entire Punjab to establish an independent country. After the establishment of the country, they are willing to pay blood tax to the Ming Dynasty."
"Hmm..." Sikhs are the most hardworking and bravest among the many ethnic groups in the Indian mainland, right? The Sikh religion they believe in is more positive than Hinduism (monogamy, opposition to caste, mutual help). But the territory they want is Punjab: this is not the pitiful Punjab in India in the 21st century. The so-called Punjab means the land of five rivers. Before the partition of India and Pakistan, it was a vast and fertile land.
However, if a big country like the Mughal Empire were to be conquered by force, it would take a long time. Why did I come here in person? Isn't it because the generals can't see the most fatal part of this country?
There is no dominant ethnic group on this continent. The only thing that can bring together so many inexplicable ethnic groups, most of which are lazy, is religion.
However, the number of followers of the Xingyue Sect, which is regarded as the state religion, is at a disadvantage here. There are a large number of Hindus, as well as the unique Sikhs, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism... There are so many deep sectarian conflicts among religions. Isn't it stupid not to make a fuss about it and insist on using pure military means?
"Mr. Wen, tell the Sikhs that I have basically agreed to their demands. By basically, I mean whether or not I will give them a complete Punjab after the war so that they can establish an independent country. I want to see how they perform next."
"I've made note of it. In addition, Cunzhi (Gao Panlong) and others have seized everything they can read to study India since they received the emperor's order. After arriving here for a few months, they made a suggestion to me."
"What suggestions?"
"In this place, we should make Confucianism a religion, establish Confucianism, and spread it. Otherwise, our Chinese civilization cannot spread here, and we will definitely not see the hope of assimilating the local civilization."
