A large fleet crossed the Bay of Bengal and came to the sea near the mouth of the Pajileti River, which was the East Route Detachment of the Combined Fleet of the Indian Theater of Operations of the Far Eastern Military Commission.

The establishment of the Eastern Route Army was extraordinarily large, including two field brigades, two Outer Northeast Indigenous Cavalry Divisions, two overseas divisions, and four Death Army divisions, which were almost equal to the sum of the Western Route Army and the Southern Route Army.

It was late at night, and the fleet was anchored about thirty kilometers from the Indian coastline, waiting for the next instructions from the theater command. The Combined Fleet has sent a large number of sloops and clippers, as well as a dozen guerrilla fleets, to blockade the coastal areas of India.

Qiao Haipeng stood on the bridge of the No. 1 landing ship, the flagship of the United Fleet, looking into the distance with a solemn gaze. Clusters of light dotted around it, dotted with the darkness of the night.

He turned to Lin Hua, the chief of staff next to him, and said, "Where is the offshore barge fleet now?" ”

"Commander, the offshore barge fleet has been contacted, the fleet is in normal condition and is accelerating along the coast of India, they will arrive as early as tomorrow morning."

Qiao Haipeng nodded and said, "Has Calcutta been contacted?" ”

"Two hours ago, a telegram had arrived from the Kolkata trading stronghold, and they had already begun to move. Before daybreak, they were to take control of Calcutta and the area near the mouth of the Hooghly River, and to open several landing grounds for troops along the coastline and along the Hooghly River. ”

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Hooghly River was very wide and the upper reaches were not silted, and it was possible to enter the Ganges directly by boat from Calcutta at Jinjipur.

If you enter the Ganges from the mouth of the bustling Megna River and surprise the Northern Army of the Eastern Route Army in Agra, the huge fleet of river steam-deck barges may have just entered the mouth of the Meghna River, revealing the whereabouts of the troops. Therefore, the theater command decided to let the Northern Corps of the Eastern Route Army choose to enter the Ganges from the relatively remote Hooghly River. In order to achieve the suddenness of the battle.

During the reign of the Mughal Empire, agriculture was the basic sector of the economy, and the collapse of feudal state land tenure and rural communes was accelerated as a result of the infiltration of commodity-money relations into the countryside. The feudal lords of the Mughal Empire gradually seized conditional, non-hereditary or tax-inclusive lands for themselves by giving gifts to the court, and turned them into feudal landlords.

There was also a class divide within the village community. The vast majority of peasants were impoverished and bankrupt under the exploitation of feudal princes and tribal leaders, while a small number of upper strata used their economic and political power to occupy the public land of the village community and the land used by the members, exploited the residents of the same village, and turned into small feudal lords who did not work for food.

The banks of the Hooghly River belong to the western remote part of the Ganges Delta, and although the population is small compared to the bustling areas along the Meghna River, the vast majority of them are landless agricultural people, and some bankrupt farmers. Engaged in heavy handicrafts.

The company's intelligence department also took advantage of this, dispatched a large number of intelligence officers to this area, and established good relations with the local feudal princes and tribal chiefs by means of trade relations and other means, and with the connivance of the feudal princes and tribal chiefs, they vigorously developed their forces in Calcutta, and gradually took control of many wastelands around Calcutta.

After more than two years of construction, the company's trading base in Kolkata has already taken shape. Not only was a military castle along the river built. There is also another river wharf and a storage area with a small area. The company's trading post in Kolkata also purchased large swaths of the Hooghly River from local tribal leaders at high prices.

Nearly a few kilometres along the Hooghly River now belong to the company, and a large number of local natives have been hired to level the land. A large number of open-air freight yards were set up for the House River, and several kilometres of fenced barbed wire were connected on both sides of the Hooghly River.

As early as a month earlier, the company had sent a field regiment to the Kolkata trading post in batches, and stationed it on both sides of the Hooghly River with an overseas battalion there. The Admiralty's Combined Indian Theater Fleet also sent a fleet of river steam deck barges, equipped with dozens of river deck barges. Thousands of officers and soldiers of the Far East are currently stationed in Kolkata. Ready to attack.

Before the war, the Ministry of Intelligence was also prepared, and sent a group of second-line intelligence officers who were good at assassination, and carried out a series of assassinations against some powerful feudal princes and tribal leaders in the local area. With the exception of a few unsuccessful targets, the vast majority of them were stabbed to death on the eve of the Far Eastern Army's offensive. The area around Kolkata was thrown into chaos.

Many forces that hated each other because of conflicts of interest, because feudal princes and tribal leaders in various places were assassinated, which led to a series of fights and killings. Anyway, the banks of the Hooghly River and its tributaries are now as chaotic as they are. By the time the Far Eastern Army, which was stationed in the company's trading base in Calcutta, launched its offensive, the situation had not improved in the slightest.

Thousands of officers and men of a field regiment and an overseas battalion of the Far Eastern Army, with the cooperation of the airboat unit and the barges of the river steam deck, ended the battle in only a few hours, and before it was completely dawn, they had basically taken control of the area near Calcutta and the vast area along the Hooghly River and at the mouth of the sea.

The next morning, Hikten and his comrades were woken up by the sound of a cacophony of sirens. Everyone hurriedly and quickly draped all kinds of equipment on their bodies, and then quickly ran to the stall of their war horses, put on harness for the war horses, and fed the war horses some fine materials and drinking water.

Hikten packed everything up and lay on the side of the ship next to him with his comrades and looked at the sea. At this time, it was the time of sunrise, the morning sun was rising, the sea was without wind and waves, and the scenery was very beautiful, so that the officers and men on the ship were fascinated, and everyone was immersed in such a beautiful scenery and could not extricate themselves.

"Look...... Is that our navy? ”

Suddenly, one of Hikten's comrades next to him pointed to the distance and shouted loudly. Everyone turned their heads in the direction of his finger and saw clusters of black smoke rising from the sea in the distance.

Behind the countless river steam deck barges are towing several unpowered barges, which are heading towards this sea area at great speed. A long fleet of barges was formed, covering the sea all over the world.

This was the barge flotilla of the Eastern Route Detachment, escorted by the patrol warships of the Eastern Route Detachment, and they drove all the way along the coast of India at great speed, and finally arrived at the assembly area at the mouth of the Hooghly River. (To be continued.) )