In mid-December, the Xia army plundered all the supplies that could be plundered across the Gangetic plain, the western army as far as Punjab, and the southeastern coastal areas from Kolkata to Madras to Madurai with the assistance of the navy. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Thanks to the courageous efforts of the army, a large amount of loot was plundered, but the transportation was still a big problem, and the transportation capacity was insufficient, and it was not possible to transport these materials back to China or within a safe range in time.

After Lu Weimin reported the situation to Zhang Wei, he suggested cutting off the transportation line between Mumbai and Europe in advance, so that Mumbai's army would not dare to come out to fight, so as to buy time for the army to transport the looted materials away.

Zhang Wei asked: "How many materials have not been transported?" ”

"Your Majesty, there are nearly 400,000 head of cattle, horses and other large animals, more than 5 million sheep, more than 10 million tons of grain, a large amount of cloth, opium, agricultural tools, workshop and industrial machinery, daily necessities, etc., according to the current transportation conditions, it will take about two months to complete the transportation." Lu Weimin replied

"It's all worthless things, if you really can't destroy it, I think it's important to completely annihilate the Four-Nation Alliance." Zhang Wei said.

Lu Weimin did not think so in his heart, these materials were very important to the empire, especially those large animals, which could speed up the agricultural development of Burma and Vietnam, and suggested: "Your Majesty, gold, silver, jewelry, and other valuables can be transported to the empire by ship at any time after they are transported to Chittagong by airship; Now the Combined Fleet has reached the port of Bombay, and there are more than 400,000 troops on arrival; As for the army, now that they have sufficient troops, they won't care much if they are completely annihilated; In today's naval arms race, as long as the combined fleet of Britain and France is annihilated, it can serve the purpose of deterring Britain and France. Only by preserving these grains can we greatly increase the international sales price of grain, and we can also disguise the source of grain channels; These large cattle and horses can be distributed to new villages of immigrants in Myanmar and Vietnam to speed up the development of local agriculture, otherwise it will be difficult to import so many cattle in a short period of time, even if you have money. More importantly, as long as the Four-Nation Coalition retreats in Mumbai, the situation in India will not be alleviated, and it will continue to be turbulent, and when the war is over, there will not be many people left in the whole of India. ”

"What was the harvest of the submarine some time ago?" Zhang Wei asked.

"Your Majesty, after a few more successes, the British organized a convoy of transport ships to act together, and there were destroyers and other escorts, so in order not to startle the snakes, they stopped the night attack on merchant ships." Lu Weimin replied truthfully.

"Why don't you first pull the Indian laborers who are building the fortifications to load and unload the supplies and take care of the livestock? and put laborers in charge of transporting grain and other materials to the port cities along the river. Zhang Wei suggested.

"Your Majesty, about 400,000 laborers have been arrested on the south bank of the Ganges River, and the difficulty now is the problem of transport ships, at the beginning of the 5,000-ton cargo ship could reach Banat, but now the water level has dropped, and only 3,000-ton cargo ships can be used, so the transportation efficiency has decreased." Lu Weimin explained.

Zhang Wei considered Lu Weimin's suggestion for a while, and felt that it made sense, there was no need to stick too much to the previous war plan, or to make flexible changes according to the actual situation on the battlefield, so he agreed to Lu Weimin's suggestion.

Lu Weimin got Zhang Wei's permission and began to formulate a detailed naval battle plan with Li Zhaoshui.

Dispatch all submarines and lay a large number of mines around the port of Mumbai to cut off the sea passage out of Mumbai; Dispatch high-speed warships such as battle cruisers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers to guard the Gulf of Aden, capture all passing merchant ships, and sink those who resist; After the British and French support fleets crossed the Suez Canal, they let the mine-laying submarines lay mines in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, cutting off the convenient waterway from Europe to Asia, and making the Indian coalition army alone; Then arrange for the cruiser to shell Mumbai.

The submarine squad has not had a record for so long, and they are very envious when they watch the army and other fleets attacking the city, and now they are letting them go to mine laying, which feels a bit overkill, and their hearts still hope to attack warships or merchant ships and obtain direct combat achievements.

However, it was difficult to disobey the military order, so they had to obey the order, and five submarine squadrons went to sea at the same time to lay mines off the coast of Mumbai, and left non-mine-laying submarines off the coast of Mumbai to monitor the navy in Mumbai, and to be ready to sink the warships that escaped the net at any time.

On 22 December, the battle cruisers and cruiser formations arrived in the waters of the Gulf of Aden, launched an attack on the escort warships of the passing fleet, sank a total of 12 destroyers and light cruisers of the two convoys, captured more than 140 British and French merchant ships, captured more than 50,000 allied land forces, and captured a large number of weapons and ammunition and other baggage.

When the Expeditionary Force Command learned that the convoy was attacked by the Xia Empire's navy and suffered heavy losses, the commander of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Charles Beersford, immediately ordered the reinforcement fleet to rush to Bombay as soon as possible, and after the convergence, it would fight a decisive battle with the Xia Empire's navy as soon as possible.

On 25 December, the submarine was mined in the waters around Mumbai, and merchant ships and warships patrolling outside the country were continuously bombed and sunk, and a few warships that had slipped through the net were also sunk by a number of submarines.

On December 28, the battleship formation reinforced by Britain entered the waters of the Red River, and the Xia Imperial Navy, which learned the news, immediately laid a large number of mines in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait outside Djibouti, and left four mine-laying submarines to continue to lay mines in the waters of the Gulf of Aden, and the battle cruisers and some destroyers left to protect the submarines and supply ships.

Taiwan's island-class heavy cruisers and Hainan Island-class light cruisers, as well as destroyers and some mine-laying submarines, rushed to Mumbai to prepare for a complete blockade of the outer links in the waters of the port of Mumbai and not to allow any ships to enter or leave Mumbai.

Heavy and light cruisers could strike at minesweepers going out of Bombay at a great distance, and shell Bombay off the coast close to Mumbai, while the range of the combined fleet's guns was not as long as the range of the cruisers of the Xia Empire, resulting in the combined fleet being passively beaten, although it could not cause any damage to the battleships, it was a fatal blow to the other warships in the harbor, and it was a heavy blow to the morale of the coalition forces in Mumbai.

Of all the artillery in Europe in this era, the firing range was not so far, and this situation of being able to be beaten passively made the commander-in-chief of the coalition army feel a headache, let alone ordinary officers and soldiers; Soon, however, worse news came.

On the 29th, after the escort destroyers of the British reinforcement fleet were constantly sunk by mines in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and after losing three destroyers and one light cruiser in succession, the frightened fleet commander immediately ordered the fleet to stop advancing, immediately retreat, and return directly to Rome.

The cargo ships that followed the group did not dare to cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait again, but returned to Rome with the battlefleet, waiting for further orders, after all, no one wanted to risk their lives and possessions.

On the mainland, the Indian refugees continued to rob and riot, the sea off Mumbai was blocked, and now even the Red Sea was blocked by the Xia Empire, and the reinforcements and logistics baggage could not be replenished, and the Xia Empire's navy continued to shell the port of Mumbai.

Field Marshal Roberts, commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, had a sad face all day long, and could not think of an effective solution, and commanded the present crisis to be reported to the British and French governments.

The Chief of Staff of the Expeditionary Force, Admiral Horatio Herbert Kitchener, after much deliberation, came to the astonishing conclusion that everything was the layout of the Xia Empire, and that in luring the British to take the bait, the Four-Nation Alliance and the Anglo-French Combined Fleet completely fell into the trap of the Xia Empire, and in his impression, the Orientals were masters of playing conspiracy.

Admiral Kitchener's conclusions shocked not only Field Marshal Roberts, but also himself.

Field Marshal Roberts, thinking on the basis of Admiral Kitchener's analysis, rejects the conspiracy theory, perhaps just a coincidence.

According to Marshal Roberts's reasoning, he believed that it was a complete mistake to organize the Four-Nation Alliance to retaliate against the Xia Empire, and if there was no Four-Nation Alliance, the Xia Empire would definitely stop in Burma, because their strength had reached the limit, not only to maintain the order of the newly occupied territory, digest the newly occupied territory, step up immigration, but also to set aside enough troops in their northern theater to guard against the Russian army. All the armies were officers and soldiers who crowded out other theaters, especially the transfer of three armies from the Northern Theater at one time, which sharply reduced the pressure of the Russian Empire in the Far Eastern Military District, which was one of the reasons why the Russian Empire was reluctant to participate in the coalition forces.

According to his reasoning, the Xia Empire relocated people from the area east of the Ganges to the west of the Ganges River and created a large number of displaced people, which was actually a manifestation of their weak heart, and they wanted to rely on the displaced people as the pace of the coalition army's advance, and later they plundered the other side of the Ganges River purely to increase the number of displaced people.

All kinds of performances show that the Xia Empire does not dare to confront the coalition forces head-on, and if the coalition forces attack, they are likely to shrink their defensive lines, or even retreat to Burma, relying on the defensive lines built in the Rakhine Mountains to block the advance of the coalition forces.

No matter how you analyze it, the current crisis is not easy to handle, and the Xia Empire has completely grasped the initiative.

On New Year's Eve, the airship that took off from the port of Colombo came to the skies over Mumbai and carried out the first bombing of Mumbai in the dark of night, this time using all explosive bombs, although not as horrific as incendiary bombs, but it was a fatal blow to the coalition forces.

The bombs that fell from a high altitude were more powerful and numerous than the shells fired by the cruisers, and in Mumbai, where the barracks were densely packed, there were basically no misses, and each bomb could cause dozens or even hundreds of casualties among the officers and men of the coalition forces.

In the days that followed, airships bombed Mumbai from time to time.

Due to the lack of medicines, even bandages, wounded officers and soldiers were not treated in a timely manner, and the barracks were filled with the groans of wounded soldiers.

Gradually, news of the blockade of the coalition forces in Bombay spread among the officers and soldiers; If you want to go ashore but are afraid to cross the more terrifying plague zone, you can only stay in Mumbai and be bombed.

An atmosphere of terror spread within the coalition forces. (To be continued.) )