Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 679: Differences between North and South India
"The guilty minister Mao Wenlong bows his head to the emperor:
When I was young, I was a bad boy and did not study hard. When I was young, I was rebellious and disrespectful to my elders. Fortunately, the Prime Minister did not abandon me and selected me from the ranks. Since then, I have been driven by the Emperor for thirty-two years.
During the 32 years, I suppressed the rebellion in Jianzhou, defeated the invaders from Tokugawa and Siam, expelled the Western bandits entrenched in Luzon, and made an expedition to India. I, a sinner, was trusted by the Emperor and was lucky enough to participate in every campaign, accumulating some minor merits.
Alas, although I have made a small contribution, my emperor has rewarded me with great rewards, and the grace of heaven is immense! In the expedition to India, there are many people whose military exploits and qualifications are higher than mine. My emperor has given me the important task of guarding India alone, and has granted me the title of general. This honor is enough to make my family shine, and my descendants should also be loyal to my emperor and the Ming Dynasty for generations to come.
However, since I was ordered to guard India, I have lost my ambition and committed many old and foolish acts. I was unable to discipline the soldiers, which led to the growing disharmony between the garrison and the local natives. I was unable to make friends with the local princes and nobles, which led to frequent rebellions. If it were not for the mediation of Prime Minister Wen, the situation in India would have been in trouble.
In the 21st year of Tianqi, the Western bandits invaded India. As the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty in India, I was indecisive and made inappropriate moves when the enemy invaded. As a result, we fell behind the enemy step by step, and our friendly forces were in dire straits. Our headquarters also suffered the biggest and most humiliating defeat of the Ming Dynasty since Tumu Fort!
On the night of the disastrous defeat at the Deccan Battle, I wanted to die in the chaos. However, my subordinates took me away from the battlefield. Later, I realized that since the Western bandits invaded India, the disastrous defeat of our army was mostly due to my stupidity. However, the result of today has its cause yesterday. If I do not report this to my emperor, I will be adding guilt to guilt.
The reason why the Ming Dynasty was defeated in India today is that I am old and confused, and I am indecisive and hesitant. The second reason is that the naval battle was not going well, and the enemy landed at will. The third reason is that I was too lenient to the Indian natives and trusted them too much. When I first came to India, I was arrogant and ignorant, and I wanted to find a group of elite soldiers from the Indian natives. After the disastrous defeat today, I realized that the Indian natives are the stupidest and lazy people in the world. Such people can be slaves and maids, and can be used as cows and horses. But they cannot be used as soldiers. They must not be used as comrades of the Ming Dynasty soldiers!
I know that I have committed a grave sin, and I will do my best to apologize before I die. I hope that the emperor will not regard my words as vulgar, and pay attention to my last words. I believe that if the emperor strikes, India will be restored overnight. I hope that the emperor will remember that the Indian natives cannot be trusted!
I know very well that I will be defeated today. My death alone cannot atone for my crime. Therefore, I have sent a letter to my family. After my death, my whole family will confine themselves and hold their breath to wait for the thunder...
The criminal Mao Wenlong wrote his last words in Mumbai, the Governor-General's District of India of the Ming Dynasty.
July 3, the 21st year of Tianqi. "
After the disastrous defeat on the Deccan Plateau, Mao Wenlong was led by Li Yongfang and a group of staff officers to retreat northwards. Without the Indians to drag them down, and with all the heavy equipment discarded, the retreat was very fast. Soon, they returned to Mumbai.
After arriving in Mumbai, Mao Wenlong had fallen into a state of complete stupidity. Li Yongfang, on the other hand, was relatively normal: he sent messengers to report the emergency to Wen Tiren in Delhi and Huang Degong in Kanpur. He also sent someone to watch Mao Wenlong to prevent his old colleague from committing suicide. Then he reorganized the defeated troops that had been gathered, and sent a small-scale team back south to support the subsequent defeated troops: Don’t mention it, he really received more than 2,000 people one after another - the Indian Peninsula at this time was still vast and sparsely populated. There were no roads everywhere, but there were also roads everywhere. As long as you have a little ability to survive in the wild, a few people can stick together, and with a submachine gun that is invincible to animals, there are still many lucky people who can get out.
However, once Li Yongfang was busy, he paid less attention to Mao Wenlong. Besides, for more than ten days, the old man was locked in the room alone, not yelling or making a fuss, just sitting quietly. Gradually, everyone relaxed their vigilance, and then...
Before Mao Wenlong wrote his last letter to Zhu Youdong, Li Yongfang's report had arrived in Delhi on June 24 and in Kanpur on June 27.
Huang Degong was extremely shocked after receiving the report from Li Yongfang, and he rushed to Delhi without stopping.
"Prime Minister Wen, the situation is urgent! Please make arrangements as soon as possible. I will send a division to escort you and the people of our Ming Dynasty to retreat."
"Retreat? General Huang is saying that the matter in India is no longer feasible?"
"Prime Minister Wen, according to the reports sent by Yukimura Sanada and Li Yongfang a few days ago, the Western bandits have landed no less than 300,000 soldiers in India during this invasion! Now, except for the 40,000 miscellaneous troops stationed at the mouth of the Indus River, the other most powerful troops in India, such as the three Ming divisions, and the five Japanese and Fuguo divisions, have all been destroyed one after another. And General Liu's troops had to cross the Rakhine Mountains because the sea route was cut off... In short, in the next month, the only troops that can fight in the whole of India are the five divisions under my command. This amount of troops cannot cover all the exits from the Deccan Plateau to the Ganges Plain!"
"So what does General Huang mean?"
"We must shrink our defense line and wait for reinforcements. Prime Minister Wen, the Ganges is too long and the area is all plain. Once one point is breached, there will be no defense at all. Therefore, if we still want to save India at this time, given the huge disparity between the enemy and us, we cannot dream of saving a line. What we can do is to save at least one point. As long as this point is there, there is still hope."
"...Hey, the emperor asked me to come to India to be the governor-general. I really owe him a lot of favors these years... Well, then, General Huang, which point do you think we should defend?"
"We should defend Kanpur first. After all, it has a very complete defense system. It is also a major transportation route in the middle reaches of the Ganges. If the enemy wants to continue to move east, they must take this place first. And if we regain sea power in the future, or if General Liu's main force arrives and we want to counterattack, it will be very convenient to go anywhere from here."
"Defend first? General Huang means that if we can't defend this place, there is another candidate?"
"Prime Minister Wen, if we can't defend this place, we can only retreat to Bengal. Alas, although I have not yet led my troops to fight against the Western bandits, judging from the battle reports I have received so far, without the navy, the enemy can land at will. Our army is defenseless and is mobilized by the enemy everywhere. This is the biggest reason for our defeat! It is also because of this that although Asansol and Kolkata have complete defense systems, those places are dead without naval support!"
"I understand. In that case, please ask General Huang to send a capable general to Mumbai with my handwritten order and ask Mao Wenlong (Mao Wenlong has not yet committed suicide) to bring back the remaining 10,000 or so Ming soldiers."
"Yes! Then, Prime Minister Wen, have you deployed four divisions to the mouth of the Indus River?"
"It's too late. I will write to them later and ask them to retreat along the Indus River to Zhang Xunzhai in Khyber. If it is impossible, let them retreat through Kashmir and return to the snowy area of our Ming Dynasty."
"If we retreat along this route, I don't know how many people will die along the way." Shaking his head helplessly, Huang Degong bowed and said, "I understand. Then please ask Minister Wen to quickly ask the people in Delhi to prepare. I know that our Ming soldiers have been here for three years and have many family members. If we really want to retreat, it may take at least one or two months."
Huang Degong was right: the officials stationed in India by the Ming Dynasty had lived a life of luxury for three years. The accumulated wealth, concubines, and servants they had brought in made them feel like ordinary people. It would take a long time for these people to withdraw. Moreover, if a person is lazy in an environment for a long time, his will will naturally weaken.
Sure enough, as Wen Tiren issued the order to retreat, the whole of Delhi was in complete chaos. Among the locals, some were wailing, some were secretly rejoicing, and some were taking advantage of the situation to loot. There were even quite a few Ming officials who went to the Indian kings, whom they had previously looked down upon, and asked them to give them a reasonable price to buy their manors...
Huang Degong was too lazy to care about these chaos: at this moment, the most powerful troops in the entire Ming Dynasty in India were the five divisions under his command, and he had a lot of things to do.
When the ruling order of the Ming Dynasty in North India began to loosen up because it was forced to abandon Delhi, the allied naval and land generals gathered in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh in South India, to summarize the first phase of the battle and discuss the next phase of the war.
"Ladies and gentlemen, after nearly a month of continuous fighting, our first and second landing troops have successively annihilated 58,000 enemy troops and captured 113,000. Of course, those killed were mainly Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, and those captured were mainly Indians."
“Hahaha~”
After laughing with the generals for a while, Wallenstein said, "I have sent some officers to manage the 90,000 Indian prisoners and have them build roads and telegraph and telephone lines for us... As His Majesty Philip told us in advance, these Indians are really docile and have a natural admiration for us white people. Ladies and gentlemen, we have really come to the right place this time."
"Praise your Majesty Philip."
"Praise your Majesty Gustav ."
"Praise to Master Wallenstein."
"Hahaha, everyone, we also have to praise our young Raimondo and Durreni. It was their powerful attack from the enemy's back that quickly opened up the situation for us. At the same time, we also have to praise the invincible navy. It is because they basically control the sea power that we can gain the upper hand in every step of arranging our troops."
"Praise to the youthful Raimondo and Durenne, praise to the invincible navy."
"As for the remaining 20,000 Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, their mission before the end of this battle is to work as coolies for us in mines across India. As for the prisoners of war who are still alive after the war, I will ask their emperor for a expensive ransom."
"Hahaha, your decision is very wise!"
After tugging at his upper lip mustache with pride, Wallenstein turned his attention to Count Alfonso, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary navy: "Your Excellency, what is the current situation of the navy? What is the next stage of the combat goal? When will our third batch of troops arrive?"
