Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 682: The Battle Report
"What? My Great Ming Dynasty actually suffered a defeat in India? Oh my, this loss is incredible!"
"What? What's going on? We lost the fight? Oh, it was that damn son of a bitch named Li Yongfang who betrayed us!"
"Li Yongfang, you bastard, I'll beat your mother!"
It was October of the 21st year of the Tianqi reign. Starting from Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Wuchang, Guangzhou, Nanjing... With the skillful reporting of the six major newspapers controlled by Zhang Shize, the people gradually learned the news of their dynasty's defeat in India.
Zhu Youdong disdains to conceal defeat as victory and whitewash peace. Besides, it is almost impossible to completely conceal such a disastrous defeat. Let's say that the world has entered a large-scale decisive battle between time travelers. In the future, no matter whether the Ming Dynasty wins or loses, the number of casualties will definitely increase. Instead of taking advantage of this great defeat to let the people of the country gradually get used to the large number of casualties, they insist on saying that our army has won a great victory and has moved to Myanmar victoriously. It's not that the people are stupid, but the rulers themselves are stupid!
Of course, a great defeat and huge losses of troops must be reported truthfully, but how to report it is a skill.
In the reports arranged by Zhang Shize this time , the six major newspapers all unanimously attributed the cause of failure to Li Yongfang: In short, the main problem of our Ming Dynasty's failure this time was because of a traitor - the chief of staff, who was in charge of all the army's combat plans and was responsible for their implementation. How could our army not lose the battle if such a person betrayed us?
"Your Majesty, the public opinion is generally under control. The news collected by local newspapers, the East Factory, the Imperial Guards, and the shops controlled by the Royal Group all show that although the people of the Ming Dynasty are shocked by our defeat in India, they are generally optimistic about the final outcome of the war. At the same time, everyone thinks that the reason for the defeat is Li Yongfang, but they don't have any bad words for our navy and General Mao."
"That's good."
"And Your Majesty, after the court's propaganda, the people are now enthusiastic about donating money to build ships and signing up for the army. Recently, military service bureaus in various places have reported that the number of young and strong people who voluntarily asked to join the army has increased by at least 30% compared to before."
"Hahaha, very good, very good. The people of our Ming Dynasty are indeed kind-hearted."
Speaking of which, among the seven time travelers, Zhu Youdong was confident that he was absolutely ahead of the other six in two aspects: one was naturally medicine. The Ming Dynasty not only had various antibiotics, but also a complete medical system and standardized medical operations. As a result, the average life expectancy of the Ming Dynasty has been rising in recent years, and the neonatal mortality rate has been declining. Even on the battlefield, more and more wounded can be saved - this is definitely a huge advantage in subsequent large-scale wars.
Secondly, as the only time traveler who grew up under the red flag, he was best at dialectics. After traveling through time for nearly forty years, Zhu Youdong had seen the good side of bad things countless times and turned funerals into happy events.
The propaganda of the six major newspapers this time focused on the enemy's brutality, the waste of the Indians, the loyalty and bravery of Mao Wenlong and other soldiers, and the shamelessness of Li Yongfang. With such reports, the emotions of the people were naturally ignited.
In short, public opinion was under control, and the people still had full confidence in the royal family and the court. But confidence is just a multiplier. Without strength, no amount of confidence is useful.
Speaking of strength, judging from the war in India, the army on the ground, even the army that has been corrupted in India for three years, can fight on par with the European army. Therefore, the only thing missing now is the navy.
Of course, as Zhu Youxiao said, no matter how anxious we are, a 10,000-ton warship is not something that can be obtained overnight. So, we have to wait for this thing.
However, the navy is a technical military branch after all. In addition to the warships themselves, other technological configurations on the warships are also very important.
So, recently, he would go to Fangshan Science Academy whenever he had time.
Since Fangshan Academy of Sciences solved the resistance problem, in the past year or so, Fangshan's electrical research has been mainly divided into two directions: one is to study power plant related equipment and power grid transmission. The other is telephone and telegraph. The person in charge of the former project was Song Yingxing, and for the latter project, Zhu Youdong directly used Zhu Kuiyou, a member of the royal family.
Judging from the recent research progress of Fangshan, it will take a long time for large-scale power plants and widespread application of electricity. However, the telephone and wired telegraph have seen the dawn of hope. Fangshan Academy of Sciences has even begun to write Chinese telegraph codes.
That's it. The next round of technological explosion in the Ming Dynasty will take at least three to five years. Before that, the Ming Dynasty will have to continue fighting the enemy with relatively backward technology.
However, will we not fight because of backward technology? What a joke. As a time traveler from the Celestial Empire, although I have not experienced it personally, I have seen and heard it since I was a child. In most of the six wars after the founding of the Celestial Empire, the equipment was inferior to that of others. So what?
Therefore, although the loss of India was a bit painful, the entire Ming Dynasty, from Zhu Youdong onwards, was not too depressed. Everyone was full of confidence in the future.
It was November 1638. Starting from Beijing, Tian Ergeng traveled by railways, roads and even winding mountain roads. After two months of continuous running, he finally arrived at the Mubang Military and Civilian Mansion of the Ming Dynasty, exhausted.
As Zhu Youdong traveled to this era and flashed his butterfly wings, he first expanded his territory and conquered the land. Over the past 30 years, thanks to the growing jade business, the entire Mubang Prefecture is now very prosperous, and the local people are generally wealthy. Naturally, the people here are also extremely loyal to the court.
Now, due to geographical reasons, this place has become the first stop for the Ming Dynasty to receive many officials, officers, businessmen and their families who retreated back from India.
"Your subordinate greets Prime Minister Wen."
"You are too polite, Commander. I lost India. Now I am waiting to be killed when I return to China. I am not worthy of being called Commander Wen Xiang."
"Prime Minister Wen, you are too kind. This time, I came to Mubang on the orders of the Emperor. My main task is to interrogate and identify the returnees. Before leaving Beijing, the Emperor specifically told me that Prime Minister Wen has made great contributions to the country, so when the time comes, all he needs to do is submit a letter of apology."
"This is such a great favor from heaven that I am moved to tears of gratitude!"
After Wen Tiren finished kneeling in the direction of Beijing, Tian Ergeng spoke up, "I have met some messengers from Yunnan along the way, but I still want to hear from Prime Minister Wen about the recent war situation."
"This is a serious matter, and I should do my best to cooperate."
Simply put, after the Deccan Campaign in June 1638, the Ming army, which suffered heavy losses, had to shrink its defenses and deployed its main forces in Kanpur, a major transportation hub in the middle reaches of the Ganges. The European coalition forces in South India also had to suspend their offensive due to widespread epidemics.
On July 20, the last batch of EU troops, 200,000 men, arrived. Gustav and Wallenstein assembled 350,000 troops, landed in Bombay with the help of the navy, and quickly swept Delhi and Agra.
On July 30, the coalition forces began to attack Kanpur. Under the command of Huang Degong, the coalition forces' attack was not smooth. At the cost of about 30,000 casualties, they still failed to break through Kanpur's defense system.
Gustav then changed his tactics: on the one hand, he surrounded Kanpur with his main force. On the other hand, he sent a small number of troops to bypass Kanpur downstream to cut off Huang Degong's logistics line. At the same time, India had entered the rainy season at this time, and the Ganges River was swollen. The Spanish 2,000-ton destroyer went upstream from Dhaka and completely controlled the shipping on the Ganges.
On August 13, Liu Zhaosun's 15 divisions of soldiers and all kinds of heavy equipment finally crossed the Arakan Mountains and arrived near Kanpur. The Ming Dynasty's 20 divisions, nearly 300,000 people, and the European coalition forces of more than 300,000 people launched a decisive battle near Kanpur.
The battle was extremely fierce at the beginning. The Ming army commanded by Liu Zhaosun, Huang Degong, Zhao Lujiao, Lu Xiangsheng and others were not inferior in tactics when facing European generals such as Gustav, Wallenstein, Raimondo and Turenne. However, when the war lasted for the tenth day, the Ming army lost control of the sea and could not even use the Ganges shipping. Its logistics could not hold up. All the troops appealed to the higher authorities: the base number of ammunition had dropped to an extremely dangerous level. Even the food accompanying the army was running out.
As a last resort, the corps commander-in-chief Liu Zhaosun was forced to order a retreat.
During the retreat, the European coalition forces pursued them relentlessly. Although the Ming army's alternate cover retreat was executed very well, in the battle, one side could unbridledly pour out firepower while the other side had to count how many bullets they could fire in a battle. Such a battle was not fair at all.
Therefore, although the Ming army had repeatedly set traps for the enemy during the retreat and organized two large-scale counterattacks, the Ming army suffered far greater losses than the European coalition forces when they were almost out of ammunition and food.
On September 3, Zhu Youdong's order from Beijing, allowing Liu Zhaosun to completely abandon India and withdraw to Burma, arrived. At this time, Liu Zhaosun's troops were less than 50 kilometers away from the Dongge Pass in the Rakhine Mountains.
On September 6, the Ming army retreated to the Dongge Pass and defended the pass. The coalition forces gave up the pursuit and began to build fortifications along the Dongge Pass. Thus, the first Indian campaign between Europe and Ming ended.
In the first phase of this campaign, the European coalition suffered about 40,000 casualties and defeated nearly 200,000 of the 260,000 Ming troops stationed in India under the command of Mao Wenlong. Among them, the number of deaths from the Ming, Japanese, and Fuguo countries exceeded 40,000, and nearly 20,000 were captured.
In the second phase of the battle, Liu Zhaosun and Huang Degong's group lost more than 70,000 people, and more than 20,000 were missing or captured. Among the remaining more than 200,000 people, more than 70,000 were seriously injured. All kinds of heavy equipment were lost.
At this stage, although the European coalition forces suffered more losses than the Ming army when attacking Kanpur, they quickly reversed the casualty rate in the subsequent pursuit. In the end, Gustav obtained the data: more than 53,000 killed, less than 1,000 missing or captured, and more than 50,000 lightly and seriously wounded.
Anyway, after a long and brutal battle, both Ming and Ou were out of breath and had to stop temporarily to treat their wounds...
