On 23 October, the 9th Army captured the city of Dhaka, the capital of East Bengal and Assam, and then the 9th and 18th armies occupied other parts of the two states, leaving the British out of control of both states. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

By mid-November, the Xia Empire controlled the entire state of Assam, the eastern part of the Ganges in East Bengal, and the northern part of the Ganges in West Bengal, confronting the British with the Ganges as the boundary.

The Xia Empire's destroyers and fast torpedo boats, as well as transports, shuttled back and forth on the Ganges, causing the British to feel the pressure; At this time, the Four-Nation Coalition had just finished gathering in Rome; The navy of the Xia Empire has already controlled the central, eastern and southern parts of the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal is also blocked, without the protection of the navy, the British army and the servant army in India alone will not dare to confront the regular army of the Xia Empire.

In the hands of the feudal lords of these two states, the Xia Empire's army confiscated a large amount of wealth, just gold, silver and jewelry worth nearly one billion Xia Yuan, which made the front-line officers and soldiers enthusiastic, hoping to plunder more feudal lords, and each division applied to fight across the Ganges.

In early November, after Fang Liang set up a former enemy headquarters in Dhaka, he felt that if he did not occupy the other side of the Ganges, it would be very unsafe for ships to sail on the Ganges, and they would be vulnerable to attacks by the British troops on the other side; If the British cut off a point of the Ganges, the officers and soldiers of the Xia Empire in the upper reaches of the Ganges River would easily lose supplies and become lonely; For this reason, Fang Liang asked Qin Fei for instructions to let the army cross the Ganges River and occupy more territory to ensure the smooth transportation of the Ganges.

At this time, the reinforcements of the remaining 4 armies had arrived in Chittagong and Dhaka, Qin Fei was very confident, and he also hoped to occupy more territory, after all, it was the ideal of every general to expand his territory, but he did not dare to make his own decisions, so he made a more detailed plan with Fang Liang and asked the General Staff for instructions.

Zhang Wei saw Qin Fei's plan, and felt that Qin Fei's courage was also strengthened with soldiers, and he actually wanted to occupy the Ganges Plain and the Indus Plain, and drive all the Indians to the Deccan Plateau; The plan is a good plan, the area that Qin Fei wants to occupy is very fertile, Zhang Wei also likes it, and he also wants to occupy it, and he can plunder more feudal lords and get more wealth, but in this case, it will change too much from the original plan, and more troops need to be sent to achieve the goal.

Zhang Wei hesitated.

Lu Weimin, chief of the General Staff, suggested: "Your Majesty, there is no need to be in a hurry, although Qin Fei's plan is good, but you can't be in a hurry, if you increase a large number of troops now, I am afraid that the Four-Nation Alliance will be scared back, if they don't dare to come, it will not have the effect of war; Therefore, my suggestion is to allow Qin Fei to occupy the area north and east of the Ganges before the arrival of the Four-Nation Alliance, advance 100 to 200 kilometers to the other side of the Ganges, and occupy Delhi to the west, or take the present method to grab all the wealth, and then shrink the battle line and only occupy an area of about 50 kilometers on the opposite bank; to drive all the natives out and become outcasts, to let them all enter the areas controlled by the British, and to make them a heavy burden to the British; After the four-nation alliance and the combined Anglo-French fleet are eliminated, His Majesty can go to India once and release 40 defense divisions, and Qin Fei's plan can be easily completed. ”

Zhang Wei was very satisfied with Lu Weimin's plan, and when the four-nation alliance and the combined fleet of Britain and France were eliminated, it was estimated that it would be difficult for Britain and France to send troops to India, and India would be the territory of the Xia Empire in the future, and the forces could smoothly enter Central Asia and the Middle East.

Seeing that Zhang Wei was tempted by this suggestion, Lu Weimin decided to add fuel to the fire and continued: "Your Majesty, as long as you occupy both sides of the Ganges without the interference of the British army, you can speed up the migration of the Indian displaced people from the east and north of the Ganges to the other side, and when the war is over, under the double blow of plague and lack of food, how much the Indians can survive depends on the will of heaven, which is very conducive to the empire's future rule over the Indian region." ”

Zhang Wei suddenly woke up to the fact that in his previous life, India was less than one-third of the territory of the Huaxia Kingdom, but it could feed more people than the Huaxia Kingdom, relying on the large amount of grain produced in the Indus River Plain and the Ganges River Plain, as long as these two plains were controlled, India would never develop into a population of the same scale in the previous life; If India's population declines badly after the war, it can continue to compress the living range of Indians, so that they will always be in a state of food shortage, never able to develop, and will always be vassals of the Xia Empire.

Even if we drive them to the southern plateau region, we will not make them feel better, and we must adopt the method of the Kashmir region in India and Pakistan, divide them into many living areas according to their different races and beliefs, and form different factions, so that they will always be in the midst of wars, conflicts and riots for the sake of survival, race and creed.

Zhang Wei decided to adopt Lu Weimin's suggestion and said: "Your idea is very good, send it to Qin Fei for implementation after it is perfected, and notify me in advance if you need my cooperation." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Lu Weimin was happy that Zhang Weineng could figure it out so quickly and accept his opinion.

The Xia Empire advanced by land and water, with the navy occupying many colonies of LinkedIn and France in the Indian Ocean, and the army occupying large areas east and north of the Ganges, and the speed of the attack stunned the British and French.

And the information about the Xia Empire was also summarized and quickly transmitted to the Expeditionary Force Headquarters.

Knowing that the Xia Empire had only sent 6 armies of land into India, the Four-Nation Alliance did not feel any pressure; It was only fearful of the Indian Ocean Fleet urgently established by the Xia Empire, and the combined capital ships of the Indian Ocean Fleet and the Central Fleet far exceeded the strength of the combined Anglo-French fleet; If the navy does not have an advantage, or even if the navy is defeated, their coalition will become a lone army even if it arrives in India, and will eventually be wiped out by the Xia Empire due to the exhaustion of ammunition and food.

After the British Admiralty analyzed the intelligence of the Xia Empire, it felt that the Xia Empire had incorporated all the warships it could use into active service, and it was difficult to replenish the warships in a short period of time, and the British Empire had at least 4 battleships in active service every year, and Britain was developing battleships with larger caliber guns, as long as Britain could hold on to this most difficult moment, it would definitely be able to smash the Xia Empire's navy. This is the greatest power that Britain can exert outside of protecting its homeland.

In his telegram to the commander of the Combined Fleet, the British Prime Minister warned that he could only win, not lose, otherwise Britain's naval strength would be surpassed by Germany, and it would lose its maritime hegemony and empire, and it would lose its Indian colony, and the British Empire would decline from now on. Careful! Be careful!

In view of the grim situation on the front line, the prime minister urged the expeditionary force to speed up its march, enter India as soon as possible and fight a decisive battle with the Xia Empire, strive to wipe out the five armies of the Xia Empire in India, and then move eastward to recover the occupied colonies.

In mid-November, the plan of the General Staff was issued to Fang Liang, who then issued an order for the 9th and 18th armies to build fortifications along the Ganges, and the newly arrived 4 armies crossed the Ganges and began to loot.

These 4 armies arrived a little late, did not arrange the corresponding tasks, could only watch the rich capture of the 9th Army and the 18th Army and covetous, the desire for wealth and military merit was suppressed for so long, the passion was raised, the four armies lined up along the Ganges, swept across the Ganges, like a rake, no wealth was spared.

By late November, the troops advancing west had reached Agra along the river and were advancing towards Delhi; The army in the center occupied Allahabad, Aurangabad, Ranchi, etc.; The army in the east has already occupied Khulna and Jessore.

Wealth, such as gold, silver, and jewelry, was transported back to the Xia Empire by ships, and grain, cloth, etc. were transported to Daka, Chittagong, etc. by ships; Large numbers of displaced people were driven west and south.

The hungry homeless people have stolen, robbed, burned, killed and looted along the way, seriously damaging the local economy and the normal life of the people, making more people join the ranks of the homeless; The exiles brought with them the plague, which began to spread in the west and south.

The British stationed very few troops in India, and now let alone resist the attack of the Xia Empire's army, even the exiles have no way to manage it.

The secret of British rule in India lies in the words "divide and rule", India is a large country in South Asia, on the surface, India is a unified and huge empire, in fact, India has never achieved unity; Not only did the feudal kingdoms fight each other, but even the central government was full of contradictions; Coupled with the traditional caste system, the contradictions between various social strata are very acute; Under these circumstances, after the British colonialists occupied India, they made full use of all kinds of contradictions in India and let "Indians fight Indians", causing an extremely chaotic situation, before Britain stepped in to clean up the mess and then establish its colonial rule, so as to reap the benefits.

The British also trained mercenaries, that is, servants, which were ostensibly owned by the feudal princes of India, but because they were "protected" by the British Empire, they were trained and commanded by British officers, and in fact this force was in the service of the British.

These servant armies suppressed the resistance of the civilians very majestic, and they could fight among themselves, but they would be very timid if they faced the regular army of the Xia Empire, they knew that they were not the opponents of the Xia Empire's army, and they did not dare to fight at all.

The city of Kolkata was in danger of being surrounded, and at this time the deputy governor of India, the deputy commander-in-chief of the army stationed in India, and the chief of staff of the expeditionary force were in a hurry, they originally thought that the army of the Xia Empire would occupy the banks of the Ganges River and fight a decisive battle with the British, but they did not expect the enemy to suddenly exert force, cross the Ganges, and march faster than they imagined.

At the end of November, the chief of staff and the deputy governor of the expeditionary force asked the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force and the cabinet to relocate the capital, temporarily avoid the advance of the Xia imperial army, go to Mumbai to join the expeditionary force, and then counterattack together.

At this time, the front of the expeditionary force had already reached Bombay, and the commander of the expeditionary force was also afraid that the Indian capital would be breached, and if the deputy governor and others were captured, he had no way to explain to the cabinet, so he agreed to the application to move the capital.

The British cabinet also had similar concerns, if the Indian capital was breached and the Indian governor and others were captured, the British Empire would not have the face to rule India in the future, and also agreed to the application for relocation.

It's just that no one expected the serious consequences of a hasty relocation of the capital. (To be continued.) )