Chapter one hundred and thirty seventh reinforcements
"General, you just came to India not long ago. If you stay a few more years, you should be able to get used to these Indians!" said a tall, middle-aged soldier with short blond hair. His name is French, and his full name is John.
Denton Pinkstone French, brigadier general of the 28th Infantry Brigade of the British Army, is one of the commanders of the four infantry brigades of the British Army in India. This time, it was he and Henry?
Lieutenant General Wellesley was jointly responsible for the attack on the Shannan area in western Sichuan. He had served in India for many years, and he naturally had a deep understanding of the offensive power of these Indian indigenous soldiers.
In the previous Battle of Volta Mountain, tens of thousands of Indian soldiers attacked the Western Sichuan Army, which had only more than a thousand soldiers. They fought for two days without defeat. Later, it was his 28th Infantry Brigade that was dispatched, which forced the Western Sichuan Army to suffer heavy casualties.
Had to retreat.
"Damn, we have been blocked here for ten days. The Western Sichuan Army must have reacted. It is no longer possible for us to quickly break into the Shannan area. It's all these damn Indian natives!" Henry Weir
Slee cursed bitterly. As the grandson of the Duke of Wellington, he was very eager to establish achievements similar to his grandfather's. Therefore, he took the initiative to request to be transferred to serve in the Indian Army. In order to be able to make a difference in Asia. Britain
He has long coveted the plateau. Henry Wellesley believed that if he could capture the plateau province, or the tens of thousands of square kilometers of land south of the Himalayas, he would have achieved considerable success.
But now he was beaten like this, which made him very angry.
"General, I have long said that the Western Sichuan Army is not the Manchu and Qing army decades ago, and they are not that easy to deal with. With just our small army, especially the majority of them being indigenous Indian troops, if we want to defeat the Western Sichuan Army,
That's basically impossible!" Brigadier General French replied.
"Then what should we do now? Give up? No! Absolutely not! Now the whole world knows that our British Empire is attacking the plateau. If we retreat, what will other powerful countries think of us? This will make Britain
The empire has lost all face internationally." Henry Wellesley roared angrily. In fact, what he considered most was his own reputation. As the grandson of the Duke of Wellington, he came to India with great ambitions
, without notifying the British mainland, he and the Governor of India, Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, sent troops to attack the plateau. If they won and occupied the plateau, they would naturally win supreme glory. If they lost the battle, or were unable to
If he returns with merit, then he may have to take responsibility. Considering that he is the grandson of the Duke of Wellington, he may not be allowed to go to court martial. But it is inevitable that his military career will end here. Henry?
Wellesley would never allow such a thing to happen, which would undoubtedly add stain to his family's honor.
French shrugged and said nothing more. Henry Wellesley, like other British nobles, was arrogant and conceited and could not listen to the advice of others. In this case, he only had to wait until they suffered.
Will suddenly wake up. Compared with Henry Wellesley, his military rank is two levels lower and he is still a civilian. Of course Henry Wellesley will not listen to him.
"Commander! Send someone to inform the Governor that the strength of the Western Sichuan Army is beyond our expectation. We cannot win with the current strength alone! We hope that the Governor can send as many reinforcements as possible to support us! Remember, what we need is
Soldiers of the British Empire, not Indian natives who just know how to run away!" Henry Wellesley planned to ask for help from Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, the Governor-General of India. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice once served as
The fifth Governor-General of Canada was also an ambitious guy. He hit it off with Henry Wellesley and launched this attack. If it failed, he would also bear the responsibility. He and Henry Wellesley were
No one can escape a line of grasshoppers. Therefore, he could only fully support Henry Wellesley.
As the most important British colony, the construction of various infrastructures in India is relatively in place. Northern India is mostly plains. It is relatively easy to build railways and roads. Moreover, there are also telegraph lines between the northern border towns and Delhi.
Connected. Therefore, Henry Wellesley could easily contact Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, the Governor-General of India in Delhi.
Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, who was far away in Delhi, also had a headache after receiving Henry Wellesley's request for help. Originally, he thought that the Western Sichuan Army was vulnerable and that they could attack the Western Sichuan Army before it could react.
The occupation of Chinese territory south of the Himalayas has become a fait accompli. When the time comes, the British government will put pressure on Western Sichuan, and Western Sichuan will inevitably admit the British occupation of this area. But now, the British and Indian troops have failed.
What he did was that he was in trouble. Withdrawing and pretending that nothing happened was obviously impossible. If he couldn't succeed, maybe he should face domestic censure. Now that he has taken action, he must win.
That would work. Therefore, he could only agree to Henry Wellesley's request and pray to God, praying that Henry Wellesley would win.
In order to support Henry Wellesley, Henry Petty Fitzmaurice mobilized as many troops as possible to support him. Among them, two British infantry brigades in India, 30,000 Indian native troops, and another
The total number of reinforcements of the famous Langka Infantry Brigade reached more than 40,000. Including the previous 30,000 troops, the number of troops invading the Chinese Plateau reached more than 70,000. This is already Henry Petty Fitzmaurice
The maximum amount of troops that could be mobilized. If Henry Wellesley still could not win, there would be no other way but to admit defeat.
These reinforcements will travel to northeastern India via the railway in northern India, and then walk to the southern foothills of the Himalayas to support Henry Wellesley. However, it will take about a week to arrive on the battlefield.
After receiving the news that reinforcements were coming, Henry Wellesley seemed to have taken a piece of reassurance and was no longer as nervous as before. That afternoon, he ordered the army to launch another attack, and even the British 28th
The infantry brigade also coordinated to launch an attack. This attack was obviously much more threatening than the attack by the Indian indigenous soldiers. Under the leadership of the British soldiers, these Indian Asans seemed to have been inspired with great courage.
Braving the hail of bullets from the Western Sichuan Army, they charged forward and even threatened the Western Sichuan Army's forward positions, causing a lot of casualties to the Western Sichuan Army. However, after the British 28th Infantry Brigade retreated at the cost of hundreds of casualties, the Indians
Ah San collapsed immediately as if his backbone had been ripped out. If Wang Yuze hadn't been short of troops and took the opportunity to launch a counterattack, he would have achieved considerable results.
In the next two days, the British and Indian troops did not launch attacks. It seemed that their losses were not small after consecutive days of attacks. Especially the morale of the Indian Asan was getting lower and lower. If they continued to fight, they would collapse at any time.
Maybe Henry Wellesley was also concerned about this and did not dare to put too much pressure on the troops.
On April 12, the Ninth Brigade of Western Sichuan arrived in Mara, which immediately enriched Wang Yuze's troops. The Ninth Brigade is a mountain infantry brigade, which is more adapted to mountain operations. It fights at the southern foot of the Himalayas and has strong combat effectiveness.
On April 13, after a day of rest, the ninth brigade commander Du Qizheng, deputy brigade commander Zhang Ruifeng and chief of staff Qian Tailin all approached Wang Yuze and asked to join the battle.
Wang Yuze can also understand the eagerness of these generals to fight. After all, in the war between western Sichuan and the Qing Dynasty last year, the 8th and 9th brigades had been guarding the plateau and did not win a single battle. This made them
I am very disappointed. Now that the British have finally gotten in touch with me for no good reason, why not seize this opportunity to give them a hard blow and strive to make contributions?
"Young Marshal, please let our Ninth Brigade go up. Although the British still have more than 20,000 people, we guarantee that we can break through their defense lines and drive them out of our territory!" Du Qizheng, commander of the Ninth Brigade
Du Qizheng said in a deep voice. Du Qizheng is a middle-aged man who is somewhat skinny and dark. Although he has no education, he started from a small soldier and made a lot of contributions in more than 20 years before he grew from a small soldier to a brigadier general.
Although I have received training from the Army Academy, I still have many habits that cannot be changed.
"Lao Du, it's not that I won't let you attack, but that I'm waiting for the opportunity. The British dare to invade our territory, how can we just repel them like this? According to the intelligence we received, the command of the British army on the opposite side
The officer is a duke, the grandson of the famous Duke of Wellington. If we catch him, then this war will be over!" Wang Yuze said.
"Duke? Okay! Young Marshal, you give the task to me, Lao Du, and I promise to complete the task. If you can't complete it, I, Lao Du, will come to see you!" Du Qizheng immediately patted his chest and said. He knew that if he could
Catching the opponent's duke commander would definitely be a great achievement. Maybe he could be promoted to a higher level, from a brigadier general as a reserve general to a major general, and become a real general.
"Don't be busy! The 7th Brigade is about to arrive. After they arrive, we will not be at a disadvantage in terms of strength. We will be more confident by then. The 9th Brigade is one of our two mountain infantry brigades in western Sichuan. We
I will give you the most important task!" Wang Yuze said.
"No matter what the young marshal orders, our Ninth Brigade will definitely complete the mission!" Du Qizheng directly assured.