The news of the defeat and flight of the British fleet was soon reported by the natives in the vicinity of the battle, and finally to Shah Jahan of Delhi.

"What?" When Shah Jahan heard this, he was immediately shocked, and hurriedly confirmed, "A lot of warships came from the Ming Kingdom and defeated the British fleet?" ”

After receiving an affirmative answer, Shah Jahan felt tricky.

The Mughal Empire was founded by the Mongols, and their focus was naturally on warfare on land. Not to mention that there are no naval divisions or the like, even on the inland rivers, there is no large-scale fleet. Now if you want to attack the Ming army on the seaside, you can't do it without warships.

After some deliberation, Shah Jahan was forced to send someone to find allies at sea. And he himself, of course, is still preparing for war. The collected northern troops, food, etc., were continuously gathered in Delhi.

The weather in Delhi is the scorching heat season from January to September, and only the locals can tolerate the heat.

But even so, these troops who had gathered in Delhi were hiding in their houses, tents, and under the shade of trees, sticking out their tongues and panting. As for marching and fighting, or on a large scale, it is impossible.

Just when Shah Jahan's army and supplies were almost assembled, and the weather began to slowly turn cooler, the British took the initiative to send messengers.

This time, the messenger, in fact, Britain and the Netherlands sent representatives to communicate with Shah Jahan's side, saying that Britain was ready to form a joint fleet with the Dutch, so that there would be hundreds of warships, and they would not be afraid of the combined fleet of the Ming Kingdom and Portugal, and even ensure the victory of the naval battle.

However, the Dutch were also to participate in trade, and the British and Dutch were given special preferential trade, allowing them to do business in various parts of the Mughal Empire, and so on.

When Shah Jahan heard this, he agreed without hesitation. As long as you win the battle and do business, there is no threat. If they feel problematic in the future, they can be expelled by a will.

So, in this way, at the beginning of October of the twenty-fifth year of Chongzhen, Shah Jahan finally waited until the weather was not so hot, and immediately ordered the army to be drawn.

5,000 cavalry of the Imperial Forest Army, 10,000 cavalry of Shiyi and 5,000 cavalry of Fengyi, a total of 20,000 cavalry, as for the infantry army, it was all decreed to be requisitioned to the southern provinces, and it must be elite, and they went to the provinces near Mumbai to assemble first, a total of 50,000. In addition, there are 10,000 craftsmen and 50,000 people.

In this war, Shah Jahan personally drove the expedition, a total of 20,000 cavalry, 50,000 infantry troops, 60,000 people, a total of 130,000 horses, known as 500,000 troops. The momentum is very loud.

It was about 2,000 miles from Delhi to the province where Bombay was located, and it took more than a month for Shah Jahan to arrive even if he led the cavalry.

After resting and recuperating, the troops were busy with their work, and on November 11, the 25th year of Chongzhen, the campaign against Mumbai officially began.

When there were still about 200 miles away from Mumbai, the sentry of the Mughal Empire encountered the Ming army at night, but there was no scout battle, and the Ming army withdrew on its own.

Shah Jahan got the retribution, just sneered, and ordered the army to continue to march. When you get to the beach, see where you Ming soldiers are going?

"Father Khan, we have to be careful that the Ming army lands from somewhere else and sneaks up on our back road!" Darashiko, who was driving with him, saw it on the side and hurriedly reminded him.

When Shah Jahan heard this, he just glanced at him and said with a sneer: "The Ming army has come from afar, how many men and horses can there be?" Ben Khan let them come and sneak attack, and they couldn't see their teeth broken! ”

Having already learned the lesson of Darashiko, how could he not be careful to guard the rear of the army. Now he has enough troops. He was not afraid of anything, he was afraid that the Ming army would shrink on the island, and that would be the worst.

On this day, Shah Jahan led the army to finally arrive in Mumbai, and looking at the scene in front of him, his heart suddenly felt a little awe-inspiring.

You know, when Darashik was defeated, there was nothing on this shore. However, what Shah Jahan now sees is an earthen city built on the coast. Although it is not high, there are various defensive measures, including on the periphery of Tucheng, and there are various defensive measures.

It's probably only been about three months, and the Ming army has built such a well-defended earthen city so efficiently. It can be seen that the strength of the Ming army should not be underestimated.

Earlier, the sentry had already reported the situation to him. Shah Jahan, however, was not convinced. It was only now that he saw it with his own eyes that he had to believe it.

Although Shah Jahan sighed at this time, he didn't care much. He brought enough troops, 10,000 craftsmen alone. Originally, I wanted to build more rafts and lay them out to sea. But at this time, it seems that they can build siege tools first and drown the Ming army with their troops.

With this in mind, Shah Jahan ordered the construction of siege engines while waiting for the arrival of the allies.

During this period, he naturally also sent a cavalry army to search along the coast, on both sides, so as to have a good idea of the surrounding terrain.

………………

On the side of the Ming army, they naturally also saw the arrival of Shah Jahan. Especially seeing that his camp is well organized, regardless of the front and rear camps, they are all in an orderly manner, just these arrangements, you can see that Shah Jahan is used to fighting, and his troops are mostly elite.

On his side, there are only about 20,000 infantry and cavalry, which is a bit different from the strength of the Mughal Empire. However, there was a psychological expectation of the strength of the Mughal Empire, so it was not very shocking.

After Yan Yingyuan observed the enemy formation, he saw that the soldiers under his command all had grim faces, so he said loudly to his personal guards: "Pass the order, the emperor has already expected this battle, and before the official set off, he has already received the emperor's clever plan." Everything now is expected by the emperor. In this battle, the enemy army will be defeated! ”

When the guards heard this, they were all overjoyed, and hurriedly went to the various armies to give orders.

Not to mention, although I don't know how far it is from the Ming Jingshi, the soldiers of the Ming army suddenly cheered up when they heard it.

Originally, Emperor Chongzhen's prestige was high, invincible, and his reputation as a god was spread through various channels, and it was already detached from the facts and mythologized.

At this time, Yan Yingyuan's news, although it seems a bit outrageous, can be calculated from such a distance, Zhuge Liang doesn't have the ability, right?

However, the soldiers of the Ming army just believed that their emperor had this ability!

Since the emperor has already calculated, there must be corresponding deployments. Thinking about it this way, the morale of the Ming army can be seen to have improved a lot significantly.

Li Dingguo, the chief soldier of Mumbai, and Zheng Chenggong, the chief of the navy, also confirmed the truth of the words of the governor. In this way, the morale of the Ming army was higher.

Since the emperor led the army to fight, the Ming army has been winning battles, and the confidence in victory that has been cultivated in a row is not too much even if it is a blind step.

In short, the Ming army is not afraid of the Mughal Empire army on the other side at all, this is true.

This was quickly sensed by Shah Jahan, who often observed the movements of the Ming army, which surprised him very much.

In the few battles he fought against the Safavid for Kandahar, when he led a large army to attack, he could feel the psychological impact of a huge army on the enemy. However, now he didn't feel this in the Ming army.

If it weren't for the arrogance and arrogance of the Ming army one by one, then they were all elites and were no longer moved by these. However, will the Ming army be arrogant?

Thinking of this, Shah Jahan came to a conclusion in his heart that Ming Guo would be his biggest rival in life. War with such an enemy is not necessarily a blessing for the Mughal Empire. If possible, it would be better to have fewer opponents to provoke!

Thinking so, after thinking about it for a long time, Shah Jahan finally sent someone to Bengal to deliver a decree that Aurangzeb should not attack Dongwu again, so as not to further stimulate the Ming Kingdom.

No sooner had he sent the messenger than he heard many of his men cheering. Just as he was about to be questioned, he saw the guards outside the camp come in and say, "Great Khan, the allies on the sea have arrived!" ”

Hearing this, Shah Jahan was also overjoyed, and he paced out to watch.

I saw that along the coast west of Mumbai, there were all tall sail warships, many of them, which were very spectacular.

Seeing this scene, Shah Jahan's heart suddenly moved, and he couldn't help but think: Should he also prepare to build a fleet at sea, otherwise if there is an old foreign enemy on this sea, he will always be very passive if he does not have a fleet at sea!

Thinking so, he hid this thought in his heart and prepared to start preparing after this battle.

About an hour or so, in Shah Jahan's tent of the Chinese army, he saw the heads of the Dutch and the British.

"I am Max, the commander of the British fleet, and I am more than happy to serve the Honorable Great Khan!"

"I am Anthony, the commander of the Dutch fleet, and I am more than happy to serve the venerable Great Khan!"

None of them mentioned the position of governor, which would be more sensitive, so they only reported the identity of a fleet commander.

On the side of the Dutch fleet, it was Antony, the former governor of Batavia. Because he had fought with the Ming army, he was more familiar with the Ming army than anyone else, so he was already imprisoned for losing the Far East, but he was sent over again to atone for his crimes.

The low profile of the two of them made Shah Jahan very useful. Especially when he heard these two Westerners say that with the strength of their current fleet, it would be absolutely no problem to defeat the fleets of the Ming Kingdom and Portugal.

With the assurance of these Westerners' fleets, Shah Jahan made up his mind to destroy all this Ming army, so as to calm the restless thoughts of the Ming Emperor as much as possible.

So, Shah Jahan also wanted to encircle the two fleet commanders, and when the two sides were talking happily, they heard the sound of hurried footsteps outside the tent of the Chinese army.

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