Chapter 1398 Is the Fish Dead Broken Net?
Zhu Jishi walked briskly on the long corridor in the hot spring palace, followed by only Kusumoto Takako. His face was very ugly www.biquge.info and Gao Zi looked at the emperor's back with red eyes. Last night, Zhu Jishi didn't sleep all night, just waiting for the battle report from the front line in his imperial study. Gao Zi persuaded two sentences, and let Emperor Zhu, who was unhappy, scold. However, this woman really has nothing to say to Zhu Jishi, and she is absolutely free to beat, scold, and punish. Emperor Zhu's heart softened when he saw her infatuated, and he comforted her with a few words of comfort and asked her to rest first, but Gao Zi couldn't sleep, so he stayed up all night with Emperor Zhu.
The news of the defeat in the Battle of the Mekna River had already arrived, and although only 10,000 men had been lost, it was a wake-up call to the entire Ming army's top brass, including Zhu Jishi. Hamming! The first chief of staff of the Ming Royal Army, and now more than half of the generals and generals of the Ming Army were his students in his early years. If he really didn't have the ability, how could he hand over so many good students and help Zhu Jishi play a show?
Regarding Zhu Guowei's defeat in the hinterland of Bangladesh, the Ming Army Department and the Army General Staff immediately organized a diagram deduction and came up with four plans: A, B, C, and D, but the basic principles were the same. Avoid a battle with the Indian army, pull the Indian army front through movement warfare, look for an opportunity to withdraw to the Donghui Kingdom or go south to Chittagong to join the army of the King of Siam - the idea of avoiding a decisive battle seems to be a matter of course, and now Zhu Guowei's Northern Route Army has gone through many battles ~ one ~ Ben ~ read ~ small ~ said ~ and the consumption of long-distance marches, not counting the people and the wounded and sick, the strength of the army is already less than 85,000, and the consumption of ammunition is very large. It's hard to support a really fierce big fight anymore. In this case go and have an absolute advantage in the forces of Will. Isn't the decisive battle of Hemming looking for death?
There were also people who proposed a decisive battle. It was Zhu Jishi's "son of the god of war" Jujuan who sent a telegram from the front line in Kansas City. It was pointed out that the Indian Front Army's North Road Cluster should take advantage of the fact that the Indian Army had not yet completed the encirclement network to start a decisive battle with the main force of the Indian Army, and show the determination to break the net and defeat the enemy in front of it, and then it would be possible to return to Donghui safely...... Anyway, Zhu Guowei is not his son, and even if he is killed on the front line, he doesn't have to worry about having no way to account in front of the old man.
However, now the three army commanders such as Shi Dakai, Jiao Liang and Liu Lichuan, who are now gathered in the Wuwei Hall of the Hot Spring Palace, as well as Wang Dehu, the secretary of the Admiralty, and Tong Haifeng, the chief of the general staff of the Navy, do not dare to risk the life of a king. Wuwei Hall is one of the several main halls of the former dynasty of the Hot Spring Palace. In fact, it is an independent three-story building that combines Chinese and Western styles, which is the operational command center shared by the Ming Emperor and the General Staff of the Army and Navy, and there are more than a dozen telegraph antennas of different heights on the top of the building, and the wired telegraph and telephone are also used to maintain contact with the Ming army in the north and south of the world. The instantaneous changes on the battlefield will be reported here as soon as possible, so that Zhu Jishi and the commanders of the Daming Army and Navy will know.
When Zhu Jishi arrived, the generals and staff officers in the command center all stood up and raised their hands to salute, as if a certain head of state had arrived. Zhu Jishi nodded slightly at everyone, and everyone looked at him. This great tomorrow looks a little haggard, and everyone understands it in their hearts. The war on the Indian side was a bit of a mess, and the attack of the 320,000-strong army had failed. The loss of personnel is approaching forty thousand! It doesn't seem to be much, but the cluster commanded by Zhu Guowei, the king of Dali, is already in danger, and it would be good if half of them could return safely in the end! This battle of Bengal should have been a complete failure.
As for the original imaginary Indian princely uprising, there were some, but the scale was not too large, and most of the frustrated princes were making trouble, although they occupied many Indian towns, but they did not really threaten the British rule in India. And the princes who really still hold the territory are watching - even the adopted son of Queen Bayi, King Chamsi, has not launched an uprising, and is still gathering troops...... Feeling that she had a great responsibility, Queen Bai did not have the heart to stay in Nanking to accompany Zhu Jishi, and yesterday she had already returned to India on a French steam sailing. I don't know if the Bayi in this time and space will be the same as the Queen of Jhansi in the original history?
Seeing that everyone had gathered around the huge sand table, Zhu Jishi sighed slightly. Busy fighting world wars all day long, it is false to say that you don't feel tired. And a son is in danger again! But in the blink of an eye, Emperor Zhu restrained his mind and slowly glanced at everyone, "The Indian war has reached a critical moment, the offensive of the King of Dali has been frustrated, the King of Siam has been blocked in Chittagong, the Western Qing army has just entered Afghanistan and is currently progressing smoothly, and the army of Zheng Yongyi and Su Yanfa is meeting in the Brahmaputra River Valley.
In addition, our progress in the South Seas is very smooth, and the 8th Army has advanced to the periphery of the Singapore fortress. A division of the 9th Army had already successfully landed on the island of Java, while the Dutch on the island of Java had retreated to Batavia, abandoning even such a key point as Surabaya. The Chinese militia on the island of Sumatra (owned by the United Rubber Company) also held their ground. The Dutch and British soldiers also retreated into cities near the Strait of Malacca. Overall, it's a mixed bag. Ladies and gentlemen, what are your thoughts on the current situation? Is it time to launch Armageddon at sea? ”
Tong Haifeng, who had just been promoted from the position of commander of the Pacific Fleet to the post of chief of the general staff of the Navy, hurriedly replied: "The Navy's Nanyang Fleet is already seeking a decisive battle, and now the British Eastern Fleet is cowering in the Singapore fortress and cannot come out. ”
"If they don't come out, we won't have anything to do?" Zhu Jishi frowned. From the point of view of the strategy of advancing to India by land, it was a mistake! Of course, the current failure is due to Zhu Guowei's command error, but the bigger problem is still in strategy. Although the Ming Dynasty had taken Dali (Burma) and Donghui (Assam), the more than 2,000 kilometers of transportation lines without railways still tied the hands and feet of the Ming army. Let the Ming army only barely fight with insufficient ammunition and heavy weapons! And the total number of troops that can be committed is similarly limited. The army of 300,000 people can still be fed by food, but if the total number of troops is as high as 1 million or 2 million, can it still be fed by the enemy?
And the great uprising of the Indian princes, who originally had high hopes, also changed, not that those princes released pigeons, but that the efficiency of these people is really hard to count on! For example, the Champhi princely states have been planning rebellion for 10 or 8 years, but when the matter comes, there is still a lack of armament and a lack of personnel. And that that. Sahib, Tandia? Frustrated princes such as Toby and members of the Confederation Party of India, such as Gandhi, Hume, and Banaji, launched a series of successful uprisings and occupied many cities in Meerut, northeast of Delhi, Gwalior and Agra, southeast of Delhi, and Nagpur in central India. But after the capture of the city, that and that. Sahib and others had no intention of uniting to march on Delhi or Calcutta, but were busy establishing power and allocating land to their followers. For the lower classes of the people, they don't know how to launch - those who are untouchables of the lower castes, how can they be worthy to fight with the noble Brahmins and Kshatriyas?
It seems that it is impossible to take India by stratagem and speculation, and the only way is to fight steadily, take Singapore, defeat the British Eastern Fleet, and open up sea transportation lines!
Understanding what Emperor Zhu meant, Tong Haifeng, chief of the general staff of the Navy, frowned and said, "Your Majesty, the British fleet is not unwilling to come out, but it is unwilling to stay away from the Singapore Fortress...... The purpose of their existence is to blockade the Strait of Malacca, and if we start a landing war on a series of islands south of Fort Singapore, they will still be at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca. It's just that the narrow sea area in that area, and the mines laid by the British Navy and us, are not conducive to the maneuvering of our fast cruisers. And we also got information that the British have already completed three 14,000-ton ironclad ships! They've probably been sent to Singapore! (To be continued......)