PS: The second update is here! Ask for a subscription, ask for a monthly pass! It's the end of the month, so I'm asking for a monthly pass!!

The battle of Calcutta lasted from November 27 to the evening of the 28th, and hundreds of thousands of troops of the Anglo-Indian 2nd Army were all wiped out in the battle. All the senior generals, including Lieutenant General Adrian, commander of the 2nd Anglo-Indian Army, and Major General Cecil, chief of staff, were killed or committed suicide, and none survived. The main force of the Anglo-Indian army in eastern India was almost completely annihilated in this battle!

In addition to the 11th Army of the Chinese Army and the 20 divisions of the Japanese mercenaries annihilating the 2nd Army of the British and Indian Army in Balekpur, the 18th Army of the British and Indian Army was also blocked by 10 divisions including the 221st Infantry Division of the Chinese Army and 10 divisions of the Japanese mercenaries in the process of rushing to Balekpur. Although the 18th Army of the Anglo-Indian Army had 500,000 men, these troops, all composed of Indian Asan, could not be compared with the 2nd Army of the Anglo-Indian Army in terms of combat power. The two sides fought fiercely twenty kilometers west of Balekpur, and the attack of the Anglo-Indian 18th Army was thwarted and had to turn to the defensive. When it was learned that the Anglo-Indian 2nd Army had been annihilated, the Anglo-Indian 18th Army immediately fled westward and got out of the battle! After this battle, all the plains near Kolkata fell under the control of the squadron.

When the news that the 2nd Anglo-Indian Army had been completely wiped out, hundreds of thousands of British troops, reached the commander of the Anglo-Indian Army, Admiral Kitchener, it was like a thunderbolt from the blue, and he could not believe it. He had great confidence in the 2nd Army. It is believed that even if the squadron has invested hundreds of thousands of elite troops in Calcutta. But there was the 2nd Army. With the other 18th Army and the 24th Army, even if you can't defeat the squadron, it is no problem to resist the attack of the squadron!

"General, what should we do now? After the Chinese capture Calcutta, hundreds of thousands of Chinese will be able to attack north, and our battle situation in the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges will be completely eroded! The Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General De Frerell, said with an ugly face. Originally, in order to block the hundreds of thousands of people in the second cluster of the Chinese army, the British and Indian troops had to mobilize at least two or three million people. Now in the first battle of Calcutta, even the Anglo-Indian 2nd Army has been wiped out. If the British and Indian troops were to resist the huge force of more than 1.2 million troops of the Chinese Army, it would be impossible at all if they did not mobilize several million troops. Moreover, it now seems that even if the Anglo-Indian army has tens of millions of troops, it is completely insufficient under successive losses.

"The Punjab war is imminent, and we don't have enough troops to commit to the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges!" Admiral Kitchener said with some embarrassment. Previously, their plan was to mobilize about 3 million troops in the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges River with the 2nd Army as the core to resist the attack of the second group of the Chinese army. Worried about the present. The 2nd Army had been destroyed, and even the 24th Army had been wiped out. There has been a huge hole in the defense of the Anglo-Indian army in the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges, and more than two million troops deployed in the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges can no longer stop the attack of the squadron!

Lieutenant General de Frell was silent for a while, the Battle of Punjab was a major battle planned by the British and Indian troops, for which they did not hesitate to persuade the Indian Governor-General, Baron Hardin, to transfer the 1st Army of the British and Indian Army stationed in Delhi to the Punjab Plain, in order to completely defeat the squadron attacking from the northwest of India in this major battle and relieve the crisis in Delhi. After defeating the enemy in the northwest, you will fight a decisive battle with the squadron in the east!

"Let's make sure we win the Punjab battle first! Wait until the Punjab battle is over and then deal with the enemy from the east! Order several army groups in the east, shrink the defensive line and prepare for the attack of the Chinese! Wait until the Punjab battle is decided! Admiral Kitchener pondered for a moment, then said.

Lieutenant General De Frell nodded, he knew that this was the best thing to do! If the British and Indian armies can win the squadron in the Punjab Plain, then India will still have a chance to win the war! If the Punjab war is lost, then the defeat of the Indian battlefield is inevitable!

"Commander, Chief of Staff! Your Excellency the Governor is here! "It was at this time that a junior officer came in and reported!

Admiral Kitchener hurriedly grabbed from behind his desk, and Lieutenant General de Frell also got up from the couch. Both of them looked a little unpleasant, and Baron Harding was now here, and it was clear that he already knew the outcome of the Battle of Calcutta!

"Hello, Your Excellency the Governor!" Both Admiral Kitchener and Lieutenant General De Frell greeted Baron Harding!

"I'm bad! General Kitchener, you sue me, what the hell is going on now? Why did we suffer another crushing defeat in Calcutta, losing millions of troops, including the most elite 2nd Army! Baron Harding said angrily. Although the size of the Anglo-Indian army expanded to tens of millions of people, the main force was still the 1st Army and the 2nd Army, which were composed of the British, which was also the foundation of British rule in India. But now, the 2nd Army has been annihilated in just two days, how does this make him not angry?

"Your Excellency the Governor, we didn't expect the 2nd Army to lose so quickly!" Admiral Kitchener said.

"General Kitchener, then, how do we resist the attack of the Chinese now? The Chinese who landed from Calcutta, plus the Chinese who attacked from the direction of Bengal, were at least one two or three hundred thousand! Do we still have enough troops to withstand their attacks? Baron Harding asked, staring at Admiral Kitchener. If the British and Indian forces could not withstand the attack of the Chinese, then British rule in India would end, and he would become the last Indian governor and vice-king of India in British history! Baron Hardin would never allow this qiē to happen to him!

"Your Excellency the Governor, we plan to fight the Punjab battle first! If we can defeat the Chinese in the Battle of Punjab, then we still have a chance to hold India! If we had lost the Battle of Punjab, we might have been prepared! Admiral Kitchener said!

"In other words, the Punjab War was a decisive battle for our fate in India?" Baron Harding asked.

"Yes, Your Excellency the Governor!" Admiral Kitchener nodded, the Anglo-Indian army can be said to have decided to make a desperate bet in the Punjab area, and put all their hopes on this battle! If it fails, then the Anglo-Indian army will lose completely!

"So, General Kitchener, are we sure we will win this battle?" There was some hope in Baron Harding's eyes.

"Your Excellency the Governor, in the Battle of Punjab, we will concentrate the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th armies, a total of four million troops. The Chinese, on the other hand, have only about 800,000 troops, including 400,000 mercenaries from the Japanese! Therefore, we still have a good chance of winning this battle! Admiral Kitchener said. This is already the largest force he can muster! The remaining forces were needed to defend against the Chinese to the east and other strategic points in India.

"What about Delhi's defense?" Baron Harding asked.

"The defense of Delhi will be taken over by the 5th Army!" Baron de Frell said. Originally, the task of defending Delhi was entrusted to the 1st Army, but in order to ensure the victory of the Punjab Campaign, Admiral Kitchener decided to send the 1st Army to the Punjab area as the main force in this campaign!

"Transfer the 5th Army to the front as well! Delhi's defense is left to those policemen! If the Battle of Punjab is lost, it will be useless to leave the 5th Army behind! Baron Harding said.

"Yes, Your Excellency the Governor!" Admiral Kitchener said happily. If he can have one more group army, the strength in his hands will be more sufficient, so why wouldn't he do it?

"Also, is there anything else I can help with? Now, we must unite and defeat the Chinese first! Baron Harding said. In order to defeat the Chinese, he is also going to do his best!

"Your Excellency the Governor, we need more troops. It would be very beneficial for us if you could consult with the leaders of the Congress Party and the Muslim League to mobilize more Indians into the army! Lieutenant General de Frell said. Although India's combat strength is weak, if the number of troops is large enough, quantitative changes can still cause qualitative changes. Although 13 million Indian A3 have been mobilized to join the army before, it is completely feasible to mobilize millions of people to join the army with India's population base!

"Well, I'll talk to Tilak, Gandhi and Ali. Jinnah will discuss it! Baron Harding said. It's just that he also knows that if he wants those Indians to die willingly, it is unlikely to happen. The Anglo-Indian army was defeated one after another, and a large number of Indian Asans and civilians died in this war, which has made Tilak, Gandhi and Ali . Jinnah and the others were a little skeptical about victory!

For the Anglo-Indian army, the only thing they can rely on now is the superiority in troops! In particular, the troops they gathered in the Punjab campaign were already five to six times the size of the first cluster of the Chinese Army! It also included an army group consisting entirely of British. If the British and Indian armies fail to win this battle, then they may never have a chance to win again, and there will be no way to keep India! The most dazzling diamond in the British crown will fall into the hands of the Chinese! (To be continued......)