At this moment, the west of Calcutta is already full of artillery fire.

More than 40 warships of the Indian Ocean Fleet and the South Ocean Fleet were arranged in two rows, staggered in a row, and on the river that stretched for more than 3 kilometers, all of them were horizontally facing the city of Kolkata and began to bombard fiercely. This is also because there are really no warships lined up on the river, and there are still several British East India Fleet in the upper reaches of the Ganges tributaries that need to be guarded, otherwise all the warships are all covered in the river, and I am afraid that the artillery fire will be fierce.

But even this is not something that Calcutta can afford.

I saw two ironclad battleships and four wooden-hulled battleships in the middle taking the lead, and hundreds of shells rumbled and fired into the sky above the city of Calcutta. Other warships followed suit, and smoke spread throughout the river. The sky above the city of Kolkata entered the magical world like a meteor shower, and thousands of cannonballs crossed an arc at the same time, smashing into the city of Kolkata. Countless wooden houses, brick houses, trees, and hills were blown up, and the whole earth shook, as if the whole world was trembling.

And in this trembling city of Calcutta, countless British soldiers did not have time to shout, and they were torn apart, and their bones were gone. No one could have imagined that the war could be like this, thousands of shells fell like half of the rain, falling on various places in the west and even the center of the city, and after more than 30 rounds of artillery, nearly two-thirds of the city of Calcutta, which had been combed by the accumulation of 40,000 or 50,000 shells, completely became the grave of the British army.

Like a huge slaughterhouse, at least more than 10,000 British soldiers were wounded and killed in these dozen rounds of artillery. The streets and alleys covered by artillery fire are completely in ruins, full of devastation, there are no intact houses and trees, the whole city of Calcutta, like a cornfield trampled by wild boars, has completely lost a trace of intact, everywhere is the screaming and wailing of wounded British soldiers, and under the rubble, there are countless corpses of local people and British soldiers in Calcutta.

........

In fact, as early as when the fleet of the Chinese Empire sailed into the port of Calcutta and bombarded William's Castle, Canning knew immediately that the commander of the Chinese Empire had no intention of negotiating peace with him, and that the British Governor's Office in India had to fight to the death against the incoming Chinese army.

For the British Empire, there was no way back. Canning knew very well that this Chinese Empire was not a Bengali rebel, and since he dared to send it to attack Calcutta, which was heavily guarded by the British Empire, it must be the most elite troops of the Chinese Empire.

Canning and Admiral Colin Campbell analyzed that the biggest advantage of the Chinese army was the firepower of large-scale warships, but the disadvantage of the Chinese was also obvious, that is, the infantry was too small, with a total of only more than 20,000 people. The advantage of the British Empire is that it is familiar with the streets and alleys of the city of Calcutta, and the British Empire has a large number of soldiers, nearly 80,000 troops, in addition to the lack of naval strength, both artillery and infantry have an advantage. The only variable is the Bengali rebels.

Unfortunately, the Bengali rebels, a total of nearly 200,000 rebels, only the leader of a group of more than 40,000 rebels in the northeast agreed to a truce, while the other rebels did not reply at all.

Hearing the rumbling of artillery in the west of the city, Canning, who was standing in a military camp in the west of the city, felt gloomy in his heart. Today was probably the most tragic day of his life, as even the East India Company's earliest stronghold in Calcutta, William's Castle, was bombarded with artillery by enemy fleets, a landmark of the British Empire's rule in the Indian colonies.

Canning looked at Admiral Colin Campbell, the commander of the British Empire's highest rank in India, who was also frustrated, and asked, "General Campbell, we must fight to the death, there is no way back!" Damn the Easterners, don't give us any chance, and we don't want to make them happy, they must step over the corpses of our 80,000 British warriors if they want to take Kolkata! We are determined to fight to the death, but we cannot fight to the death, we must win, and we must teach these damned Chinese a hard lesson and let them die here in Calcutta. General Campbell, can you and your men do it? ”

Colin Campbell snorted, "Mr. Governor, we're going to fight as hard as we can, to the last bullet, to the last of our warriors!" ”

Canning heard the sadness in Campbell's mouth, Campbell didn't have a trace of confidence at all, too, the two fleets of the Chinese alone, thousands of guns, were equivalent to the firepower of several artillery divisions, and judging from the fact that the fleet broke through Fort William, the artillery in Calcutta could not fight against it at all. In this way, half of Calcutta would have to be discarded, and only the eastern part of the city of Calcutta, where the fleet on the Ganges could not reach, could be defended. Moreover, this had to be done if the Bengali rebels did not work with the Chinese army against the British.

But is this possible? Canning also began to despair.

"Damn Bengali idiots! Damn the Oriental Monkeys! I don't know what happened to the loss in the west of the city! Canning couldn't help but scold. He couldn't help but regret it, he knew that he had prepared for the worst, and directly followed the previous plan to evacuate the British troops stationed in the city of Calcutta to the east of the city or the east outside the city in advance. Who would have thought that the Chinese commander was so shameless, and while he seemed to be preparing for peace talks, he brazenly let the warships attack. It was the enemy warships that bombarded too quickly, and Campbell's orders could not be heard.

At this moment, Canning wanted to know most about how many British troops had been lost on the west side of the city.

At this time, Major General Robert Napier hurried over and reported to Canning and Campbell: "Mr. Governor, General Campbell, the situation is critical!" To the west of Calcutta, the Chinese fleet formed a line on the Ganges and bombarded the city of Calcutta, their artillery was very powerful, and the range was long, and the upward fire could shoot 3.5 kilometers, which exceeded our original expectation of 2.5 kilometers, and although we had a plan, but before the order was issued, the enemy launched an attack, and nearly 25,000 British soldiers were stationed in the west and middle of the city, and were bombarded by the artillery of the enemy warships on the Ganges, and suffered heavy losses. ”

"How much is the specific loss?" Canning closed his eyes and asked apprehensively.

"Mr. Governor, only more than 10,000 people escaped, and this is still in the first few rounds of artillery that the enemy has just launched, and many soldiers must have escaped early when they saw the opportunity, otherwise the casualties would have been greater." Major General Robert Napier replied bitterly.

"What!?" Canning and Campbell next to him screamed in unison. Campbell's eyes were red, and he grabbed Robert Napier and asked, "How is it possible, how can there be such a large number of casualties?" God, this is the city of Calcutta, how many artillery does the enemy have? ”

Canning also glared at Robert Napier with a look in his eyes that seemed to be cannibalistic.

They rushed to the east of the city to watch the 40,000 soldiers who had gone out of the city to fight against the Bengali rebels, and then they came to the east of the city in advance, otherwise they would probably have stayed in the city as well, in which case they would probably have been buried under the ruins. It was also because they were in the east of the city that they only heard the rumbling of cannons in the west of the city, as if the whole city of Calcutta was about to be blown apart, and even the whole earth was going to be blown upside down, but it was only a feeling, and they only knew that the artillery fire of the enemy fleet was extremely fierce, and it seemed to be more fierce than imagined, and it might kill or wound one or two thousand British soldiers, they guessed like this.

But they never imagined that the shelling in less than an hour would cause so many casualties among the British soldiers in the city of Calcutta. Oh my God, no wonder the commander of the army in Namadras, Wolseley, would surrender, no wonder William's Castle would fall so easily, this damn Chinese Empire, their artillery is simply the devil of this world. There are countless such cannons, how can this battle be fought?

Originally, a total of 80,000 British soldiers were stationed in the city of Calcutta, and 35,000 soldiers were led by Lieutenant General Henry

Attacking from the northeast of Calcutta against the Bengali rebels outside the city, the more than 40,000 soldiers who remained in the city of Calcutta, of which nearly 30,000 were stationed in the east of the city and in the area of the city that could be covered by enemy artillery, only more than 10,000 escaped, that is, nearly 20,000 British soldiers, either dead or wounded, remained in the streets of the city that had been bombarded by artillery fire!

"Mr. Governor, the two fleets of the Chinese Empire, totaling more than 70 warships of all sizes, of which nearly 50 warships bombarded the city of Calcutta, with an estimated 12 to 1,300 artillery pieces, and in an hour, fired at least 40,000 shells, many of which were oversized shells with a caliber of 150 millimeters, and the power was enormous. Completely bombed the streets and alleys of the west and middle of Kolkata into rubble. Except for a few blind spots, there is not a single building taller than 4 meters in the entire streets and alleys covered by artillery fire. ”

"Oh God! They are all demons! Canning cried out in pain.

.......... PS: I found that a lot of friends have no fan value, I hope to support the author, subscribe to a few chapters on the starting point website, thank you!

Keep in mind that the first domain name :.com this book. The mobile version of the mobile version of the wonderful book house is :.com