After listening to Ding Xinghao's words, everyone shook their heads and smiled bitterly. Although the current Mughal Empire is the most powerful period in history, it must decline, and this is also a strange circle that all the huge empires of this era cannot escape.

In another ten years, Aurangzeb, the most controversial emperor of the Mughal Empire, would succeed to the throne, abandoning the religious tolerance policy of the early Mughal Empire, especially during the Akbar era, and strengthening the religious status of Islam in an attempt to completely Islamize India.

Aurangzeb reinstated a poll tax on non-Muslims, expelled Hindus from the government, and demolished Hindu temples and idols. These short-sighted policies led to a sudden sharpening of contradictions between non-Muslims and the government within the empire, which soon turned into armed struggle.

Although the territory of the Mughal Empire expanded to the maximum during his reign, and he waged wars against southern India, annexing the Deccan region to the empire and becoming the supreme ruler of southern India. However, he was never able to completely annihilate the numerous Hindu princely tribes in southern India, and instead exhausted his country's strength, and the empire soon fell apart after his death.

In this Indian campaign, all the Far Eastern armies participating in the battle were divided into three directions of attack.

The task of the Eastern Route Army was relatively heavy, and it was also the top priority of the Indian campaign. The Eastern Army will be divided into the Southern Army and the Northern Army, the Southern Army will land in Kolkata and quickly sweep the Bengal region, and the Northern Army will organize an elite army to attack Agra, the royal city of the Mughal Empire, along the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, and sweep Agra and the surrounding areas of Delhi.

The Southern Route Army will land in Sutra, Diu, Daman, Cochin, Mumbai, Goa, Puducherry, Madgars, Yanam, etc., and use several rivers in central and southern India, such as the Nabada River, the Taputi River, the Godavari River, the Cauveri River, and the Mahanadi River, to attack all the way inland and occupy the southern coast of India, as well as the inland areas of south-central India.

The Western Route Army will form a fleet to rush into the Indus Valley and attack east along the Indus River. Occupy the area along the Indus River and advance in the direction of Agra, joining the Northern Army of the Eastern Route Army under the city of Agra.

There are more than 10,000 rivers flowing through India, and the Far Eastern Army will naturally make use of the well-developed inland water network in India. Since the company occupied the island of Ceylon, a shipyard was established in Trincoxil. The main production company standard of 150 tons of sloops and 350 tons of clippers, the output is not large, and there are only about a dozen ships launched every year.

This shipyard was built mainly to strengthen the strength of the Ceylon Coast Garrison, but within a few years, the Ceylon Coast Garrison had been equipped with more than 100 150-ton sloops and 350-ton clippers, plus hundreds of improved sailboats, junks, and Arabian dhows of several guerrilla detachments, making the Ceylon Coast Garrison the largest standing independent fleet of the Far Eastern Admiralty.

Since the company's decision to launch the Indian campaign began last fall, the Admiralty has carried out a large-scale expansion of the Ceylon shipyard. A large number of small dockyards have been added. The company shipped a large number of modular standard components of offshore and inland steam deck barges from Liaodong, and the timber required for the ship was harvested on the island of Ceylon and then assembled at the Trincoxel shipyard.

In the past six months, the Ceylon shipyard has assembled more than 1,000 river steam deck barges, as well as a large number of unpowered deck barges for towing. To this end, the company mobilized a large number of experienced crew members of inland river deck barges from several inland river shipping companies and the Navy Department in eastern Liaoning to participate in this campaign.

In order to support the Indian campaign, the Admiralty also mobilized a large number of warships from various coastal garrisons. A combined fleet was formed. This is also the largest combined fleet of the Admiralty since its establishment. It includes a huge fleet of more than 30 cutting-edge sailboats, more than 50 improved sailboats, more than 200 150-ton sloops, nearly 100 350-ton clippers, and more than 60 large sail carriers.

In addition, there are hundreds of ships of various guerrilla fleets cruising the waters of the Indian Ocean, as well as a large number of offshore and inland steam deck barges and towed unpowered deck barges.

In order to secure the large quantities of coal needed for a large number of steam-powered ships, the company's trading base in Calcutta, India, was located in Rani Ganj, near Asansol, north of Kolkata, and bought off the heads of local Hindu tribes to find a rich open-pit coal mine there.

The large coalfield of Raniganj in modern society. Located on the north bank of the Dammodr River southeast of Azansol, it covers an area of about 1,300 square kilometres and is the second largest coal producer in India. There are 17 layers of mineable coal seams with a thickness of 1.2-12 meters, and shallow coal reserves of 18.9 billion tons above 600 meters.

Employees of the Kolkata trading outpost. Communicating with the local Hindu tribal chiefs, hiring local natives to dig coal for the company at a "high price", and using the most primitive way to prepare and wash coal, these are the methods taught by the company's employees to the local natives, and strict standards are given, and only those who meet the standards can be purchased by the Far East.

Because the Kolkata trading stronghold offered the leaders of several nearby tribes a "high price" that they could not refuse, a large number of local natives left this open-pit coal mine every day to dig coal in the morning and night, and several tribes also fought several small-scale wars because of the grabbing of coal-rich areas, and suffered many casualties among the local Hindu natives.

In order to compete for orders from the Far East, several leaders of Hindu tribes drove the indigenous people of the tribe to dig coal like crazy, and then used the dug coal to be prepared and washed by hand, loaded onto the river deck barge of the Far East Company anchored along the Damoder River, and transported a large amount of coal to the Kolkata wharf by using the Damoder River, and finally loaded onto the sea ships of the Far East Company to transport it to the port of Colombo and the Trincoxil military port in Ceylon.

After months of tireless digging by the indigenous people of the local tribe of Ashasor, the current coal warehouses in the ports of Colombo and Trincoxil in Ceylon, as well as in various trading posts along the coast of India, are piling up.

The company has not only stockpiled a large amount of coal in various trading bases along the coast of India, but also established facilities such as trestle docks, coal water supply points, and machinery maintenance stations. All ships of the Combined Fleet participating in the Indian campaign can easily obtain coal and water supplies in the coastal areas of India, ensuring the supply of coal for the steam power of many ships of the Combined Fleet. (To be continued.) )