In the city of Delhi in August of the Western calendar, the sun was like fire, and the entire ancient city of Delhi seemed to be scorched, and even the most watery banana leaves in the past were wilted.

On the west tower of Derry, several soldiers from Yorkshire, England, stood listlessly under the scorching sun, sweating so wet that they could only drink water non-stop.

However, this is not always the case. On the other side, on the low wall of Delhi to the south, there are a dozen or so black spots, and if you look closer, you can find that they are not patrolling and guarding soldiers at all, but several wooden frames and disguised in various clothes, and the real soldiers, at this moment, are undressing and hiding naked in a stinky puddle with thatched huts under the city to escape the heat.

These were native Hindu soldiers recruited from the city of Mumbai in Maharashtra, and although they were also soldiers of the British Governor-General in India, they were only indigenous troops, and their military discipline and training were not comparable to those of the British native soldiers. To put it bluntly, they're just living for that little paycheck. Everyone knows that those noble British officers from Europe have never looked at their native indigenous soldiers, and it is no wonder that the military skills and combat effectiveness of these local indigenous soldiers, not to mention that they cannot be compared with the native British army, even the Nasikh soldiers and Gurkha soldiers are unattainable, and can only scare those weak Indian natives.

If it weren't for the fact that the expeditionary force had drawn more than 20,000 European soldiers from Delhi, Kanpur, Jhansi and Gwalior, Kolkata, Mumbai and other places in India, the British soldiers in Europe would not have been so short and so bad, resulting in a shortage of troops in Delhi today, and they had to send these Indian soldiers to help defend the city.

At this moment, hundreds of horses suddenly galloped from the wilderness outside the city, and the sound of galloping horses' hooves woke the drowsy Indian soldiers. They climbed to the low wall in a panic, only to find that it was the soldiers of the 4th Native Cavalry Regiment, who were supposed to be stationed on the banks of the Yamuna River, and had come to Delhi for some reason.

The cavalrymen were ragged, covered in scars and blood, and looked like they had just been defeated in a vicious battle. Before he could ask, the cavalry leader under the city had already let people shout: "Brothers in the city, listen, the army of the Sikh Kingdom is coming, hurry up and open the city gate and let me wait to enter." ”

While shouting, the cavalry jumped off their horses in a mess and crowded to the city gate to wait to enter the city.

The soldiers on the city wall had already panicked, how dare they open the city gate at will, and hurriedly asked people to notify the British officers above.

At this moment, far away from the city, in the southwest direction, a black line pressed over like a dark cloud, kicking up a flying dust, rolling in the empty skyline, and a dull sound like thunder came, and the sound was amazing. The cavalry under the city looked behind them in panic, they were cavalrymen and naturally knew that it was a cavalry team of more than thousands of people galloping to have such a momentum.

When the cavalry under the city saw that the city gate had not been opened, and the pursuers behind had begun to approach again, they cursed and began to climb the city wall directly. It is no wonder that this wall is said to be a city wall, but in fact it is just an earthen fence made of wooden stakes more than one person high. The walls of Delhi, which were originally tall and strong, had already been destroyed by several wars in the great Indian rebellion of the previous two years, and this wall was only erected after the recent rebellion was quelled.

It's just that those war horses can only stay outside the city, looking a little down.

The Sikh cavalry outside the city did not attack the city directly, but stopped four or five miles outside the city, and while encamping along the city walls, they continuously dispatched troops from behind, sweeping away the entire British garrison outside Delhi. Outside the city, the commanding height of Delhi City is located in Delhi Hill, not far west of the city, a British artillery battalion that has received the news was quickly broken under the rush of the Sikh cavalry regardless of the casualties, and the entire artillery battalion was slaughtered, and even the 20 cannons erected on the commanding heights of Delhi Hill only had time to blow up 14 of them, leaving 6 cannons captured by the Sikh cavalry.

The commanding heights were taken, and the cannons on the Delhi Hills were aimed at the Kashmir Gate of Delhi. Unfortunately, the ammunition was destroyed by the British artillery battalion before it died. However, this did not seem to bother the Sikhs too much, and the rest of the Sikh army captured a large arsenal in the north of the city that the British had not had time to destroy, and not only captured a large amount of gunpowder and ammunition of more than 3,000 barrels, but even weapons such as Congreve rockets.

Brigadier General Edward, the British commander in Derry, was soon surprised to learn of the Sikh attack, and hurriedly ordered all the troops inside and outside the city of Delhi to gather on the city walls and prepare to defend the city. At the same time, a distress telegram was sent to Agra and Kanpur to the southeast, through a communication line that had not yet had time to be destroyed by the Sikhs, and finally reached the Governor of Calcutta, requesting that the surrounding garrisons be sent to help.

Edward was apprehensive, he didn't know how many Sikh troops there were outside the city, only that there were at least more than 30,000 men. However, the British army in the city of Delhi plus the Indian indigenous troops had only more than 14,000 people, and the British army had less than 8,000 native soldiers.

However, Edward remembered that the walls of Delhi City had been damaged in many places, and in this case, he was afraid that the defensive ability of the city walls was much weaker, and he mainly relied on urban street battles to resist the attack. But he couldn't escape. It's not that he doesn't want to escape, it's that he can't escape at all, the Sikhs have a lot of cavalry, and escaping from the city of Delhi is undoubtedly sending them to death. After thinking about it, Edward decided to send an envoy to meet the Sikh general outside the city and ask for peace talks, on the one hand, to preserve the strength of the British army in the city, and on the other hand, to delay some time and wait for reinforcements to come to support.

Just when the British soldiers in Derry were a little worried and hesitating, Delhi ushered in the first night after the siege. The Sikhs had already prepared some internal responses, as well as several princely soldiers of the city of Delhi were sent out in all directions, and that night, many city gates in Delhi were on fire, although the British had already taken precautions, but they were still exhausted and remedied everywhere, but the internal response was wave after wave, and even among the Indian defenders in the city, some soldiers began to mutiniate under the instigation of some princely soldiers. At the same time, the Sikh army outside the city began to cooperate strongly, a full-scale attack, especially the Kashmir city gate, which was heavily bombarded by the artillery on the Delhi hill, although the city gate was strong and did not collapse, but the rumbling cannon woke up the entire city of Delhi, and the defenders fired indiscriminately in fear, trying to stay up until dawn, but the truth was not as they expected, the central city gate and the Bengal city gate were opened by the family soldiers of the Maharaja of Dongge alpur and the Maharaja of Baroda respectively, and the Sikh cavalry braved the rain of shells from the British soldiers on the city wall, After losing hundreds, they stormed into the city, and the whole city of Derry groaned under the iron hooves of the Sikh cavalry.

- The British army, who thought it would be able to hold out for many days, is still defending in two shifts in turn. When the Sikh cavalry entered the city, there were still thousands of British soldiers sleeping soundly in the barracks in the city, until the barracks were burned and the killing cries were everywhere, and then they hurriedly rose up to resist, but at this time it was too late, and the whole city fell into a sea of blood. Countless British and Indian soldiers were killed, and even some innocent residents of the city were looted and set on fire by Indian soldiers and some of the princes' family soldiers. The entire city of Derry was plunged into bloodshed and fire.

The British commander-in-chief, Edward, is missing, and is estimated to have died in the chaos. Only more than 1,000 British troops in Delhi, led by a major, tried to flee down the Yamuna River to the city of Arag downstream, but before they left the city, they encountered a large brigade of Sikh cavalry besieging Delhi and constantly cruising, and finally only more than 200 soldiers of the British cavalry regiment escaped, and the rest of the British army fell under the sharp scimitars of the fierce Sikh cavalry.

By the morning of the next day, the entire city of Delhi had been occupied by the Sikh army. Dozens of Indian maharajahs and Hindu chiefs and mosque imams who were taken hostage in the city of Delhi led thousands of people to the main gate of the city of Delhi, where the Indian gate led the Sikh army into the city and welcomed them to the Red Fort, the royal palace of the former Wommore dynasty in the center of the city, so that the entire city of Delhi was occupied by the Sikh army.

Soon, news of another rebellion by the Sikh kingdom and the capture of the city of Derry reached Calcutta.

Canning, the British governor in the Indian colony, was shocked.

He grabbed the collar of a British communications captain officer who delivered the letter and shouted, "Is this true? Captain, tell me this is not true! ”

The poor captain officer was strangled so much that he could only nod his head again and again.

Canning shoved the captain away, his face gloomy and pale. He knew that if he did not quickly extinguish the Sikh rebels, not only would he soon lose his position as Governor of India, but he was afraid that even his title and the wealth he had accumulated over the years would be lost.

The Indian rebellion in the past two years has made him see clearly that the princes and princes of these states in India are all grass on the wall, not to mention that there are still a few places where the original rebels were defeated, but they were not completely wiped out, but hid in the remote mountains. Now that the Sikh rebels have made a fuss and captured the city of Delhi, it will surely make all the wavering Indian princes have a bad idea, especially the hidden rebel leaders, who will definitely take the opportunity to make trouble, and the recruited Indian native soldiers, who may be instigated to rebel and be instigated to rebel, for these stupid inferior peoples, he never expected how loyal they would be to the British Empire.

Most crucially, the British Empire had too few troops in the Indian colonies, and it had to continue to send troops from the mainland to support.

It was only then that Cunning proposed to the Cabinet and Congress to send troops to the Chinese Empire, causing heavy losses to tens of thousands of British expeditionary forces to China, where would London believe in itself? However, this time it was a matter of life and death for India, the most important overseas colony of the British Empire, and in any case, a large number of British soldiers had to be sent to quell the Indian rebellion. But the arrival of these reinforcements, with Canning's quarrel with the MPs and the cabinet in London, would take at least four or five months or even half a year to reach India, but I am afraid that half of India by that time was already out of the control of the British Empire.

Moreover, Canning knew very well that he could not wait for reinforcements from the British mainland to arrive and that if he wanted to retain his governorship and title, he had to put down the rebels as soon as possible.

Therefore, Cunning immediately ordered that more than half of the British native and Gurkha soldiers, including Bombay, Ceylon, and Kanpur, be mobilized to Delhi and defeat the Sikh army. He didn't send anyone to contact the untrustworthy Sikh Maharaja anymore, he knew that since the other party chose this time to launch a rebellion, he must have the support of that eastern country. Even, he doubted that the Eastern Empire and neighboring Burma and other countries would take the opportunity to send troops to start a war and attack the area around Bengal. For this reason, he did not even transfer the nearly 20,000 native soldiers of the British Empire stationed in and around Calcutta to support Delhi, just in case Calcutta would not be broken by the Burmese army again.

However, what Canning didn't know was that when he ordered the transfer of troops to quell the Sikh rebels in Delhi, the cavalry troops of the Sikh Kingdom had already broken through and captured the important city of Alag located in the lower reaches of the Yemuna River and Moradabad, an important town northeast of Delhi, and entered the two regions of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in one fell swoop.