Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 789 The Enemy is Running Away
January 1, 1648, Delhi, the former palace of the Mughal Empire, Zhu Youdong’s temporary palace.
It was early in the morning, when ordinary people in the city yawned and walked out of their houses to start their daily lives. A piece of news shocked hundreds of thousands of Delhi residents like thunder: now, countless Brahmins, Kshatriyas dressed in various traditional Indian costumes, as well as countless high-ranking officials, princes and nobles who had not dared to look up to them before, were now kneeling outside the gate of the Delhi Palace!
Soon, the Indians who loved to watch the excitement surrounded the gate of the palace from a distance. Everyone stretched their necks and looked at the old man who used to always look up at the sky and kneeled obediently. The feeling in their hearts was really complicated to the extreme.
How could this happen? Those noble white European gentlemen were actually driven away by the not-so-white Chinese. And those noble Brahmins and Kshatriyas in India actually knelt down before the Chinese who didn't even have a caste?
The temperature in Delhi in January was only about 10°C, and it was still a bit cold to kneel outside for a long time. Although most of these Indian nobles wore thick silk, they had to kneel here for such a long time. At most, they could only twist their bodies slightly, and they dared not do any other big movements. After a long time, it was really unbearable - what was even more annoying was that there was no cushion under everyone's knees. Kneeling on the cold stone for so long was really miserable.
However, the more miserable they were, the less they dared to express any dissatisfaction. Their kneeling postures became more and more humble and pious as they kept adjusting.
"Captain, these guys have been kneeling for most of the night, why hasn't the emperor summoned them yet?"
" Why ? You can't bear it?"
"Hey, I'm a major battalion commander, why should I worry about these things? But you are different. Although you are only a regiment commander in terms of military rank, you are also the Duke of Qian. The emperor treats these Indian natives like this. Will our dynasty rule here in the future? Lord Mu, won't you give advice to the emperor?"
"Hmph!" Mu Tianbo, who just turned thirty this year, snorted lightly: "These rubbish, the harder you treat them , the more obedient they will be. Our dynasty used to treat them too well. I will not make suggestions to the emperor at this moment. If the emperor shows leniency to them, then I will make suggestions to the emperor as a duke."
Leaving aside Mu Tianbo and others who were responsible for maintaining order outside the palace, at this time in the Delhi Palace, Zhu Youdong, Zhu Ciyi, Cao Wenzhao, Liu Zhaosun, Sun Chuanting, Man Gui, Inukai Dongji, Toyotomi Dongxiu, Zhu Yousong and others gathered together, all with smiles on their faces, and stood up to greet the two elderly men in their twilight years.
"Wen Ru (Yang Lian), Yi Zhi (Zuo Guangdou), you two have worked hard. You have been lurking in the enemy camp for nearly ten years, developing Confucianism with tens of thousands of followers, and provided extremely critical intelligence during our army's conquest of India. You two have made great contributions to our country's rapid victory in this conquest of India."
"We thank the emperor for his affirmation. As citizens of the Ming Dynasty, this is our duty."
"Now that the Indian campaign has been decided, what do you two think?"
"Your Majesty, we are all old men in our seventies and on the verge of death. Now that our Ming Dynasty has conquered India, it is certain that we will be at the top of the world. So I have no regrets in this life. All I want is to return to my homeland and be buried there in the future. If there is anything else I want to ask Your Majesty, I only want to ask two things."
"Speaking."
"The first is the more than 30,000 Confucian believers here. Your Majesty, these believers have remained steadfast after nearly a decade of European occupation. These people are a great help to the stability of our dynasty's rule in India. Please treat them well. The second is..." Yang and Zuo looked at each other and bowed in unison: "We sincerely ask Your Majesty to allow the reopening of Donglin Academy."
"..." After a moment of silence, Zhu Youdong asked Fang Zhenghua to help the two of them up, and then said, "According to the court's plan, Punjab will be handed over to the Sikhs to establish an independent country, and most of the Deccan Plateau will be divided among the vassal states and ministers who have made meritorious contributions over the years. The court will directly govern the entire Kashmir and the Ganges River Basin. For these more than 30,000 Confucianists, I will allocate land for them to cultivate in the areas directly under the court in the future, and those who are truly talented will be given official positions. But I have said in advance that as a means of countering Hinduism, Confucianism can only be spread in India and is strictly prohibited from being introduced into the mainland. Do you have any objections?"
"I have no objection."
"Okay, as for reopening Donglin Academy. Haha, I have never issued an order to close Donglin Academy, so how can I reopen it? Although Donglin Academy is now unattended and the building is abandoned, it is still there after all. After you return to your homeland, you can enroll students and give lectures there, please feel free to do so."
"Your Majesty, I thank you for your kindness."
It's not a great favor. In the current situation where local public elementary schools in the Ming Dynasty basically cover all county towns, and middle schools basically cover all prefecture towns, and the content of the national civil service examination is closely related to the textbooks of primary and secondary schools, private schools have no students except for vocational and technical schools. You reopened Donglin Academy, in fact, you want to make a living, right?
However, even if it is just like this, your hard work over the years is indeed worthy of admiration. As expected , there are still true gentlemen in the Donglin Party.
After Yang Zuo and the other two left, Fang Zhenghua came to Zhu Youdong and said, "Your Majesty, seven or eight of the Indians kneeling outside have fainted again."
"Let them continue to kneel. I still have many things to arrange here, so I don't have time to meet them. Ignore those who fainted and let them lie on the ground. No, let the guards wake them up and write down their titles. In the future, we will confiscate their land on the grounds that they are in poor health and cannot perform their duties."
"As you wish."
After Fang Zhenghua left, Zhu Youdong first turned his attention to Xu Xianchun: "Did the Jinyiwei arrest Li Yongfang and his family?"
"Your Majesty, it's done. Not only Li Yongfang's family, but also more than a hundred officials and their families who betrayed the court and stayed in India when India fell have all been captured."
"It seems that the Spanish have completely abandoned them."
"I think so. Your Majesty, how should we deal with these people?"
"The leader will be executed by lingchi. The rest, those who are adults, will be beheaded! As for minors, well..." He hesitated for a moment, "For those under sixteen, you Jinyiwei can find a way to make their death easier, and let them go with ease."
"As you wish."
"Xia Wanchun?"
"I am here."
"You are now in charge of my daily records. And remember that since I became the Crown Prince, there have been people who wanted to poison me. But although I exterminated all of these people's clans, I never used the punishment of lingchi. The reason for this is, of course, that I think this punishment is too detrimental to the harmony of nature. However, this punishment can be applied to Ming and Han traitors who are disloyal and collude with foreign races to harm our Ming Dynasty. Other than that, it is best not to use the punishment of lingchi. In the future, whether it is me or my successor, when you want to use this punishment, remember to bring out what I said today to give an admonition."
"I have made note of it."
After all these things were arranged, Zhu Youdong stood up and said to Liu Zhaosun: "Now let's report the battle situation."
"Yes." As Zhu Youdong stood up, a group of young staff officers moved the wooden model of the 3D map of the Indian Peninsula to the center of the hall. After quickly splicing it together, Liu Zhaosun approached with his baton in hand: "Your Majesty, Your Highness the Crown Prince, and colleagues. The current battle situation is actually very simple. The enemy's army has not yet been surrounded and annihilated by our army. Except for a few stragglers who have lost their radio stations and are running around everywhere, most of them are desperately running towards Mumbai. The enemy's navy has also left Ceylon Island and is stationed in Mumbai Port."
"How's the navy doing? Can they take over the Port of Bombay?"
"Your Majesty." Inukai Touji stepped out and said, "The enemy still has five battleships that can participate in the battle. With the cooperation of the fortress artillery in the port, we cannot break into the port. Moreover, before the Western bandits retreated, they had destroyed all the docks and shipyard maintenance equipment in Colombo, Cochin, Goa and other places. Once our warships are damaged, they will have to return to Kolkata for repairs, so..."
"I understand. The navy should not take risks for the time being. On the one hand, allocate manpower to repair the shipyards and docks in Goa, and on the other hand, guard outside the port of Mumbai. When the enemy retreats, attack their transport ships. By the way , how many enemy troops are pouring into Mumbai now?"
"According to the intelligence we obtained from interrogating the captured senior officers, there are currently 20 divisions from the second batch of EU troops entering India and 10 Indian local divisions in Mumbai. These 30 divisions, with 450,000 people, have basically complete personnel and equipment. In addition, there are about 150,000 to 160,000 people who retreated from the Osman Boris Group, about 100,000 people from the original EU Turenne Group, and 2,000 to 3,000 people from the Conde Group on the southern front, all of whom have fled to Mumbai. In total, there are about 700,000 enemy troops gathered near Mumbai. However, at least 250,000 of them do not have any heavy equipment at all, and their firearms and ammunition are extremely limited."
"So many people have escaped into Mumbai. So our army has captured about one million people in the past month of pursuit?"
"According to statistics from my ministers, as of midnight yesterday, our army has killed 350,000 enemies and captured 630,000 prisoners in the past month. If we count the missing, those who got lost in the wilderness and were fed to tigers, and those who are still resisting in some places with the support of the European nobles who were transferred from the local area, we have wiped out more than one million regular enemy troops in total."
"What about our losses?"
"Your Majesty, our army has participated in this battle with more than 2.3 million soldiers. As of last night, more than 130,000 soldiers have been killed, nearly 200,000 have been injured, and 382 are missing."
"What are you going to do with the isolated city of Mumbai?"
"Your Majesty, in addition to the troops deployed to various places, the army has mobilized 1.5 million troops to surround Mumbai from the north, east, and south. As long as Your Majesty gives the order, we can launch the Battle of Mumbai."
"An army attack is definitely necessary. But I think the reason why Philip lingered in Mumbai is that he wanted to gather more manpower to bring back to Europe. Now, almost everyone who can get to Mumbai has already arrived. There is no point in holding on there any longer. Therefore, it is very likely that the enemy will escape in the near future."
"Your Majesty is right." Inukai Touji stepped out again: "Since late December, the destroyers sent out by the navy have discovered that a large number of transport fleets are gathering towards Mumbai. The navy's light cruisers and destroyers have exchanged fire with the enemy's escort fleet many times, and both sides have suffered losses. And in my opinion, the enemy's retreat should have actually begun on a small scale in the past few days."
"Time is running out! The Western bandits are about to escape. Send out orders, the army will immediately launch a full-scale attack, and the navy will be fully mobilized to try to intercept the enemy's main transport fleet. Ladies and gentlemen, I know that after fighting for so many months, everyone is very tired. However, it is much easier to eliminate a young and strong man in Europe here than to eliminate a young and strong man in Europe in the future. The more we work hard here, the less we will sacrifice in the future!"
"Your servants obey your orders and will definitely keep all the Western bandits alive!"