Three or four months ago, the news that Britain was likely to send an expeditionary force again reached Feng Yunshan's ears. Even if this news was just gossip among the upper nobles in Europe, Feng Yunshan still didn't dare to take it lightly, while he was waiting for Guo Songtao's accurate news in Europe, he knew that with Guo Songtao's layout in Europe over the years, as long as he spent a lot of effort, he would definitely be able to find out the authenticity of the news, and on the other hand, he also began to prepare to resist the offensive strategy of the British expeditionary force.

Because the distance between the troops from Britain was too long, the time to transport troops would not be too short. The British expeditionary force had already experienced a crushing defeat, and Feng Yunshan guessed that they would not be too light on the enemy, as they had done before when they only sent tens of thousands of troops to conquer the entire Far East.

And they have to send more than 100,000 troops, so the food, drink, and transportation of troop carriers along the way are very huge problems.

At the beginning, the Chinese Empire only transported some hard-working people from the mainland to immigrate to other places, and it took a lot of trouble, not to mention these British soldiers now!

But it didn't take long for news from Europe to come that Britain was very likely to mobilize two batches of troops in front of and behind, first hoarding them in the port of Aden, and then attacking and recovering India and other places from the port of Aden. In addition, Britain not only dispatched nearly 140,000 troops, but also mobilized most of the main warships of the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet and one-third of the warships of their Cape Fleet on the British mainland, with a total of 200 warships and a total tonnage of 220,000 tons of naval vessels. Fortunately, almost all of the 367 British troop carriers and supply ships that could be dispatched were dispatched, and no matter how crowded and overcome, they could only transport 80,000 horses at one time, so they could only be transported in two batches, so that the Chinese Empire had more time to prepare!

Feng Yunshan immediately convened the General Staff and the Admiralty for discussion, and finally came to the conclusion that Britain's primary target this time was the Indian colony. This was their minimum and primary goal, and for this reason, the British fought almost with all their own strength. Moreover, it may be because of the lack of troops, they also temporarily transferred troops back to Europe from North America, West Indies and other colonies, and then integrated in the second batch of troops, and Australia, originally wanted to draw some troops, but first, Australia's troops themselves are weak, and second, now the sea areas passing through Australia have been controlled by the Chinese Empire, and Britain is worried that it will be intercepted halfway before it has sent troops, so it did not transfer troops from Australia.

The Admiralty directly proposed that because both the Beiyang Fleet and the Pacific Fleet had been transferred to North America, the Oriental Fleet was a little better, and it was still in the Pacific waters, so it would immediately rush back and barely be able to reach the South China Sea within two or three months. The main force of the Pacific Fleet, except in the middle reaches of the Mississippi River, is also in the Gulf of Mexico, all of which are in the Atlantic Ocean, and it is very far away to return to the Indian Ocean, and it will take nearly half a year to arrive, so the Pacific Fleet is basically too late to reinforce.

But the Pacific Fleet is the main fleet, and the warships of the Beiyang Fleet are relatively weak, which makes the Admiralty very depressed. Therefore, the Admiralty carefully analyzed the naval fleets of the Chinese Empire in the waters of the Indian Ocean - the Indian Ocean Fleet and part of the South Ocean Fleet. The Indian Ocean Fleet is the most powerful, with 45 warships, including 2 ironclad battleships, 4 ordinary wooden-hulled steam battleships, 18 large and medium-sized cruisers, 12 small and medium-sized frigates, 9 gunboats and gunboats, and a total tonnage of barely 70,000 tons. This part of the fleet of the Nanyang Fleet has a total of 27 warships, including 4 ordinary wooden-hulled steam battleships, 9 large and medium-sized cruisers, 6 small and medium-sized frigates, and 8 gunboats, with a total tonnage of less than 40,000 tons.

In this way, the naval forces in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea have a total of only 72 warships, less than 110,000 tons of tonnage, compared with the 200 warships of the British Expeditionary Force, the tonnage of 220,000 tons, a difference of more than double.

Therefore, the Admiralty did not consider it advisable to engage the British Expeditionary Force head-on, but to delay the engagement as much as possible, and to wait until a number of warships had been launched in the four major shipping bureaus, as long as they were equipped with weapons and final repairs, they could be used as warships; Mobilize the Eastern Fleet, the Northern Fleet, the Pacific Fleet, and other fleets to come to support, and gather all the naval forces to attack together.

The General Staff Headquarters has put forward an operational plan for the coordination of the army.

Their proposal also shocked Feng Yunshan's heart: the officers and men of the 7th Infantry Division of the 6th Field Corps, which occupied Ceylon, would defend Ceylon Island, and the 3rd and 6th Infantry Divisions and the 8th Infantry of the 6th Field Corps would defend the city of Calcutta and along the Ganges River, using fortresses, fortifications, and infantry artillery to fight the British warships.

Feng Yunshan knew the heavy cost of the army's doing this, and it was undoubtedly a great loss to use infantry to compete with the naval fleet. After all, the naval guns on the warship are extremely powerful, and if the entire fleet is bombarded with hundreds of shells, even the soldiers hiding behind the fortifications are very easy to be killed and injured. And artillery on land, because of its inconvenience, does not have an advantage in fighting against the fleet. Therefore, to delay the speed of the British Expeditionary Force with infantry is to delay the attack with the lives of the soldiers.

In particular, the 7th Infantry Division led by Lin Shifa on the island of Ceylon, which was isolated and helpless, and holding on to the island was undoubtedly risking the annihilation of the entire infantry division. And the General Staff knew this, and resolutely did so, undoubtedly for the sake of the overall situation of the empire.

Feng Yunshan didn't have any other good plan, he approved this plan of the Admiralty and the General Staff, in fact, to put it bluntly, it was to exchange space such as territory and land for time. As long as the pace of the British offensive slows down, there will be a chance to assemble naval forces to resist the powerful British expeditionary fleet.

Thinking of this, Feng Yunshan asked directly: "What is the situation of the main fleet and infantry of the British army now?" And what about our situation on the Indian side? ”

Luo Xuan pouted at Zuo Zongtang and motioned for him to report it.

Zuo Zongtang understood and said: "Your Majesty, the main force of the British Naval Expeditionary Fleet is now concentrated in the Ganges River channel outside the city of Calcutta, and nearly forty or fifty ships are bombarding the fortifications of our army in the city of Kolkata every day at the port of Calcutta in the inner river of the Ganges, and nearly a hundred warships are sweeping Chittagong, Dhaka and other places.

Secondly, there were two sub-fleets, each with about 30 warships, and one fleet was distributed around the island of Ceylon and Madras, probably to search the navy of our Chinese Empire; Another fleet has arrived in the vicinity of Yangon and is attacking the base of the Indian Ocean Fleet of our Chinese Empire in Yangon. ”