Chapter 007 The bloody battle with Rajmohar (Part 2)
On the city wall of Rajmohar, Gao Yuan watched nervously the movements of the Mughal Empire's vanguard army below the city. At this time, the enemy's vanguard had arrived near the city, with flags fluttering and dust flying, showing their strength and
The confidence to avenge shame.
It must be said that the vanguard army led by the Imperial Padishah Jahangir himself was like a giant black dragon stretching its body at this moment, and the scene winding for miles was indeed menacing.
Gao Yuan's left hand tightly grasped the hilt of the sword hanging at his waist. He knew that this was a battle related to the morale and honor of the Western Expeditionary Army in Southern Xinjiang. He could only win but not lose. But in any case, he had no real command after all.
Quan, so he could only turn to Liu Xin and ask in a low voice: "Auntie, although Gao Shizhong's troops are elite, we can't just watch them defeat the enemy in the tower, right? Should we do something now?"
Compared to Gao Yuan, Liu Xin's eyes were much calmer, with almost no emotion at all. However, when she heard this question, there was a hint of relief in her eyes.
She nodded lightly and said softly to Gao Yuan: "What Yuan'er said is true. Although we have decided on a strategy to use a small number of cavalry to defeat the enemy to quickly demoralize the enemy and boost the morale of our army, but if we just send them out to force
If they charge into the formation, then these more than a thousand troops are indeed weak.
If after they successfully break the formation, our army will press on them, that would be okay. But at the moment, the main force of our army does not intend to go out, so their broken formation will not receive reinforcements. As long as the enemy discovers this,
Hold your ground and start to surround them. No matter how elite they are, they will be tortured to death."
Gao Yuan became anxious when he heard this. The more than a thousand cavalry of Gao Shizhong were personal soldiers given to him by his father, and they could not be left here. So he quickly asked: "Now..." At this point, Gao Yuan suddenly felt blessed.
He thought to himself: I don't dare to kill the soldiers sent by my father, how dare my aunt? Since she is so calm, it seems that she must have had a backup plan.
Gao Yuan was only halfway through his words, and Liu Xin naturally noticed it. She glanced at him, smiled slightly, and nodded: "It seems you have thought of something... Yes, my aunt does have other means to defeat Gao Shizhong and the others.
Cooperate. Yuan'er, you must listen carefully to every order given by my aunt. Afterwards, my aunt will test you. What are the uses of these orders? Do you understand?"
Gao Yuan tensed up and immediately said: "Yes."
Liu Xin then turned to Gao Musan who was standing aside and asked: "Musan, how long does it take for the fleet to arrive?"
Takagizo is the deputy chief of staff of the Nanyang Fleet and chief of staff of the Western Expedition Fleet. However, he has always been specialized in naval warfare before. This is the first time he has conducted combat planning for inland warfare. Judging from Liu Xin's questions, it seems that the fleet also has tasks this time, even
It had been arranged in advance.
Takagizo performed a military salute, looked at the fluttering state of the flag used to measure wind speed, and replied very confidently: "Back to deputy commander, if there are no accidents on the way, it will only take two seconds to reach the river here."
In ancient China, a day was divided into 100 quarters, so one quarter is equivalent to 14.4 minutes, which is slightly different from later generations, but not much, so two quarters are basically equal to half an hour.
Liu Xin nodded and said: "Get ready, wait for the fleet to approach, use flags to send orders, and let them launch artillery bombardment on the enemy's vanguard outside the city on their own. We don't want to be effective, but we want to be powerful."
"Yes, deputy commander." Takagi San agreed immediately, then turned and walked quickly towards the city wall on the river side.
Liu Xin turned to Gao Sigang and said: "Sigang, you have the most artillery and the most sophisticated artillery. Please deploy it. The west and north city gates will make artillery troops go out of the city to establish artillery positions. Note that the accompanying infantry should be reduced.
To half of the requirements of the Code of Conduct... No, reduce it to 30%."
Gao Sigang was the second town commander of the Dingnan Garrison Army, which was approximately equivalent to the division commander level in later generations. Since the Dingnan Garrison Army was the absolute core force with the largest establishment among the garrison forces in southern Xinjiang, Liu Xin said that his unit had "the largest number of artillery pieces and the most sophisticated ones."
As for Liu Xin's order, Gao Sigang knew as soon as he heard it that it was to lure the enemy. Although the bait was indeed a bit big, he could understand it, so he nodded in agreement, then resigned and went to take command in person.
Liu Xin also said to Gao Siyao, the commander of the third town of the Phnom Penh Guard Army, another pillar of the Western Expeditionary Army: "Siyao, you temporarily unified command of the city's defense artillery. After Sigang's troops leave the city, the enemy forces begin to have some control.
When there is any abnormal movement, launch a long-distance artillery bombardment. This artillery bombardment also does not have to be effective, but only requires a huge momentum."
At this point, Gao Siyao also knew the purpose of these arrangements, so he responded to the military order, loudly agreed, and then personally took over the command of the city defense artillery and began to direct the city defense artillery to concentrate on the west and north walls.
Why are they both facing the west and the north? Because to the south is the Ganges River, and to the east is the entire Bengal behind it.
Everyone knows the reason why the Ganges River does not need to be fortified. Jinghua has a water advantage. Then why does the east side, as the most critical land "food road", not need to be heavily defended?
In fact, the reason is very simple. Although the strength of the Southern Xinjiang Western Expeditionary Army in Rajmohar City is far less than the 100,000 troops dispatched by the Mughal Empire this time, it cannot be encircled by just one of their vanguard troops.
If Jahangir really used this vanguard army to surround Rajmohar on three sides, then his troops in each direction would be seriously insufficient. Once the Southern Xinjiang Western Expeditionary Army mobilized its elite to directly attack the Mughal vanguard army outside the West City,
This unit will inevitably be short of support. As a result, the Mughal vanguard army's food route will be cut off by the Western Expeditionary Army.
A large amount of food has been prepared in the city of Rajmohar. Even if the east city is blocked by the Mughal army and the food road is temporarily cut off, you can still eat and drink with the food stored in the city, so it will not have a significant impact on morale.
Influence.
But conversely, the Mughal army marched eastward from Agra. The distance between the two places was more than 2,200 miles (this is a straight line distance, the actual distance is about 2,500 miles), which is almost equivalent to coming from Beijing.
to Hangzhou, or from Beijing to Lanzhou. This means that their logistical pressure is already very high, and if the food route is cut off, it is almost certain that they will die.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Of course, some people may ask, didn’t this come along the Ganges? Wouldn’t the Mughal army use the Ganges to transport food? Of course it would.
Yes, it is a pity that the friend who asked this question probably rarely reads Indian news (le) news (zi) and does not know much about the shipping situation of the Ganges River.
In fact, the shipping value of the Ganges River is indeed very low. The main reasons include the following aspects:
First of all, the hydrological conditions of the Ganges River are unstable. The Ganges River Basin has a tropical monsoon climate with distinct rainy and dry seasons. The rainfall in the rainy season accounts for more than 80% of the year, while the rest of the time is the dry season and the water volume decreases sharply. This seasonal water volume
The changes have greatly reduced the shipping value of the Ganges during the dry season, making it difficult for ships to pass.
Secondly, the sediment content of the Ganges River is extremely high. The amount of sediment transported by the Ganges River every year is as high as 1.5 billion tons, exceeding that of the Yellow River. This makes the river bed continue to rise, the waterway becomes shallow, and large ships cannot pass. In addition, the main flow of the Ganges River
The tributary Padma River also carries a large amount of sediment into the sea, further restricting the development of shipping.
Third, there are the terrain and bridge problems of the Ganges. The Ganges plain is flat with almost no drop, and it is impossible to build large reservoirs to regulate the water volume. The river is winding and full of shoals and islands, which brings inconvenience to navigation. In addition, later generations
The Indian government built many bridges on the river, further increasing the difficulty of navigation.
Of course, the Indian government seems to have taken some measures to improve the navigation conditions of the Ganges. For example, it implemented the National Waterway Project No. 1 to desilt and dredge the river... But even after treatment, the Ganges is only
It can handle ships of less than 3,000 tons, but its transport capacity is still not as good as that of railways - note, it is not as good as Indian railways.
Of course, the above is the situation of later generations. At this time, some conditions still need to be looked at separately. For example, it is now the rainy season of the Ganges River, and the flow is still very sufficient, even almost too sufficient. For another example, the current surface of the Ganges River
There is no bridge to speak of.
Therefore, the current situation is that the Ganges River has sufficient water flow and a gentle river channel (of course there is a lot of sediment, but this river does not affect combat or transportation), making it suitable for boating.
Hey, wouldn't it be convenient for the Mughal Empire to use the Ganges River to transport food? Yes, but Jahangir was an "ally" of Southern Xinjiang before, and he knew the power of Southern Xinjiang's water power, and the Mughal Empire could
Today, we don’t rely on water power at all.
Therefore, Jahangir did not dare to rely on waterways for food, lest he be blamed by Southern Xinjiang instead. The giant ships of the Nanyang Fleet did not dare to go deep into the inland rivers, but small and medium-sized ships were not afraid. They could sail freely in the lower reaches of the Ganges River.
avoid.
[Note: By the way, the Yangtze River, a golden waterway, is not naturally as "invincible" as it is today. It is the New China that has taken many measures simultaneously and spent a lot of energy and financial power to achieve what it is now. If you are interested
Friends can understand for themselves, instead of simply mocking India, and then boasting that the Yangtze River is the "ancestral selection." Rather than saying that the land of China is the ancestors' strict selection, it is better to say that our civilization is the true ancestors' selection.]
After Liu Xin arranged this, she finally stopped temporarily, turned to Gao Yuan and asked: "Yuan'er, tell me what my aunt was doing with these orders just now?"
Gao Yuan nodded. He felt that he already understood Liu Xin's plan, so he replied without thinking: "My aunt is trying to create suspicion in the past to distract the enemy. Once they take the bait, Gao Shizhong's troops will probably attack.
"
Liu Xin was very pleased, nodded and said: "It seems that you did not read those military strategies in vain, so congratulations."
Gao Yuan said: "Auntie, military strategies are certainly useful, but this time I go south, I can really see my aunt use the troops, and I can have my aunt analyze them one by one for me afterwards. This is more important."
Liu Xin just smiled and did not take any credit, but Gao Yuan said with some expectation or regret: "It's a pity that I never had the opportunity to follow my father and observe his military skills..."
Liu Xin thought for a while and said with a little regret: "If you want to talk about this matter, it will be difficult for even my aunt to help you. After all, it is difficult to have any big war now, and your father is actually needed to take action."
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PS: I received an impromptu obituary notice on Wednesday morning, and immediately rushed back to my hometown to attend an unexpected funeral. I only rushed back this afternoon. Alas, several elders in the family (clan) have passed away this year... Although this is the way of heaven, but still
Quite emotional.
Routine acknowledgments:
Thanks to the book friend "Qiu Shuang Wan Yue" for the reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "malyvu", "Easley2023", and "doni" for their monthly support, thank you!