"The expeditionary force of the Chinese Empire? Oh my God, is this revenge for the expeditionary force sent by the British Empire to conquer China? "Isn't there a Fort St. George's in Madras, which is said to be never breached?" How did the damned Wolseley promise me that as long as 3,000 British soldiers were stationed at Fort St. George, even if 20,000 enemy troops attacked for two months, they would not be able to break through, but how could this be now?

General Campbell, I remember that after Madras brought 15,000 troops to Calcutta to help quell the rebellion, there were nearly 8,000 troops, right? In addition, there were thousands of native troops sent by the Maharaja of Salem and the Maharaja Dutigorin. How could it be that you can't resist it in a short time and surrender? ”

Canning thought differently and asked Colin Campbell, commander of the British Army in India.

Campbell was also surprised.

It was he who issued the order to transfer troops from Madras to Calcutta. Fort St. George's fortification and location are notoriously strong. In his opinion, with 5,000 British soldiers defending Fort St. George in Puerto Madras, even if the British Empire's Mediterranean Fleet or Atlantic Fleet came, it would be quite difficult to capture it, and it would be impossible to take it without ten days and half a month's effort, and even, if it was forced to land and attack, it would be a loss of troops.

Judging from this news, it was simply a day or two for Wolsley to surrender, and for Wolsley, Campbell knew very well that he would not surrender if he did not fight until the last moment of despair.

Campbell then turned to the Bengali who had sent the message, "By the way, how long did it take for the enemy to go from the attack on Madras to the surrender of Wolseley?" Also, how could Fort St. George, so strong, be attacked so powerlessly that Wolsley could not guarantee to surrender to the Orientals in the evening? ”

Canning was also concerned about the issue, and looked at the Bangladeshi who had reported the news.

"My Excellency, the exact information I have received is that the fleet of the Chinese Empire not only attacked from the port of Madras, but also organized a large number of small and medium-sized ships to land on the northern beach of Madras, and a large number of infantry and artillery attacked Fort St. George from the north. Under the attack from both sides, Madras's defenders had little to fight back, but two hidden batteries in the shadows sank two enemy sentinels, and dozens of guns in Fort St. George, although aimed at the two battleships at the front of the enemy, bombarded the battleship in a fierce manner, but the battleship seemed to be a legendary iron-hulled ship, and the shells had no effect on it at all. On the contrary, the enemy's iron-hulled ship was under heavy artillery fire, which seemed to be more fierce than the shore defense guns in Fort St. George, and all the fortifications along the line were bombarded to pieces, and most of the defending soldiers behind the fortifications were killed and wounded.

From the large-scale onslaught of the enemy fleet and the landing force to the surrender of the Madras defenders, I heard that it was only two or three hours in total! ”

"What!?" Campbell and the Chief of the General Staff, Major General Robert Napier, who had been listening all the time, shouted, completely incredulous.

Robert Napier's eyes widened even more, and he looked at the Bengali messenger viciously and said, "How is that possible? Take Madras in two or three hours? Could it be that the enemy's fleet has hundreds of ships? There are not so many warships in the entire Guwom estuary of Madras! How many troops and how many artillery were there in the landing force? ”

The Bengali man was stunned, and hurriedly poured out everything he knew: "General, general, what the villain said is true, it was all told to me by a Salem officer who escaped from Madras!"

The Imperial Chinese army in the east was like the devil, with terrible artillery, and the Salem officer told me that the whole process was like a nightmare. There were only 12 warships in total, but they were all with strong firepower. Their landing force was only 5,000 men in total, and their artillery pieces were 25 in total, but when they fired shells, it was like the end of the world.

The most terrifying thing is the huge cannon on the warship, I heard that the shell is bigger than my size, and a single shell can blow up more than 10 meters in the trench of defense, killing more than 10 or 20 soldiers. Moreover, the warship's artillery fire was very frequent, and in just one or two hours, tens of thousands of shells covered Fort St. George's and the surrounding fortifications, not only the fortifications of the Madras defenders were all blown up, but even Fort St. George's was perforated and collapsed in many places, and the 3,500 defenders in the fort were also killed and wounded more than 1,200 people, while the more than 3,000 defenders of the fortifications outside were heard to be killed, and only less than 1,000 people remained. More than 4,000 state soldiers led by the Maharaja of Salem and Dutigorin, who hid far behind, were also killed by more than half of the bombing, and fled before the war was over. ”

After listening to the words of the Bengali messenger, the hearts of Campbell and Robert Napier were as cold as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.

They have commanded operations for many years and naturally understand the power of artillery. Isn't the power of artillery in Bengalis' descriptions exactly the kind of scene where thousands of cannons are fired at once? But the problem is that now the owner of this artillery is the enemy, and the target of the fire is himself.

Canning suddenly remembered that when the British East Indies and the Chinese Combined Fleet were fighting with the South Sea Fleet of the Chinese Empire in the East Indies, they had captured the warships of the South Sea Fleet, and that there were a small number of rifled guns called Krupp on those warships, which were not only extremely powerful, but also had a long range, a fast rate of fire, and accurate fire. Could it be that the fleet of the Chinese Empire is equipped with this kind of Krupp artillery, so it will have such power. If it were a large fleet equipped with this kind of artillery to attack the port of Calcutta, would it ....... Canning shuddered.

Canning asked the Bengali to be taken away, and hurriedly asked Campbell about countermeasures: "General Campbell, in this way, the firepower of the Chinese Empire should be very fierce." On the one hand, the other side blockaded the mouth of the Ganges River with massive warships and cut off the supply of Calcutta; On the other side, the Organized fleet captured the island of Ceylon, and all the way north, and also captured Madras. And all this was done immediately after the declaration of war on the British Empire. In this way, it is clear that the target is Kolkata! I'm sure that when the fleet that captured Madras arrives in Kolkata, the two fleets will become one, and then they will collude with the Bengali rebels and the Burmese army to attack Kolkata!

General Campbell, what can you do? ”

Campbell, who frowned, nodded and said: "If the enemy's firepower is really so fierce, and the two fleets attack in turn at any cost, I'm afraid that even Calcutta may not be able to hold it!" After all, the city of Kolkata is too big, and it is close to the edge of the Ganges River, so it is difficult for the army to attack, but if the naval fleet is replaced, it will be easy to attack. Alas, I just thought that the fleet of the British Empire was the largest in the world, and who would have thought that one day the enemy fleet would attack the port of Calcutta! ”

Canning looked at Robert Napier next to him, and Robert Napier nodded: "Mr. Governor, it is true that Calcutta has never considered guarding against warships attacking from the port. Who would have thought that the dignified British Empire would be attacked from the sea by a backward Eastern country and be attacked to such an extent! Moreover, even Fort William in Calcutta, which defended against the army's attack, was built on the edge of the Ganges, less than 1 kilometer, in order to rely on the fire support of warships in the harbor. Not even a few shore forts on both sides of the Ganges have been built!

What is even more worrying is that even if there are many artillery batteries and shore defense guns, the coastal defense guns on the Indian side are all artillery that was eliminated from Europe twenty or thirty years ago, and the firing range is completely incomparable with the latest artillery! What's more, I heard that the reason why the artillery of the Chinese Empire has performed miraculous feats every time is because of its long range and high accuracy, and the defenses on our batteries in Calcutta and William's Castle are not as good as the Fort Madras and Fort St. George, how can they resist it? ”

Canning was dumbfounded.

It was then that he remembered Calcutta's predicament. It is precisely because the navy of the British Empire is so strong that it has always been the navy of the British Empire that attacks others, and never thinks that one day an enemy army will enter the port from the sea to attack Calcutta. As a result, Calcutta's coastal defenses were the weakest, and the establishment of Calcutta itself was intended only by the East India Company for commercial trade, from which goods from India could be transported back to Europe. The construction of William's Castle, and later the expansion of the city of Kolkata, were also to protect against the attacks of the native Bengali natives, which I thought would be today!

"So, is it really possible that Kolkata will not be able to hold on?"