"Bell...... Clang...... Bell ......"

On March 25, during the confrontation between the armies of Ming and Mozambique, a bell rang in a city located in the upper plains of the Indus River.

Standing on the plains of the upper Indus River, the city is surrounded by a two-foot high red masonry wall, with fourteen gates, and a moat dozens of steps wide outside the wall.

Just looking at his appearance is enough to see his prosperity, and the city's many large and small mosques, as well as the stalls lining the streets with all kinds of local snacks, explain the city's prosperity.

There are not many such cities in the South Asian continent, and it happens to be the most prosperous one.

This city was the capital of the Mughal Dynasty, Lahore......

Under the repair of the Mughal successive "Patisha", dozens of mosques, tombs, shrines and other religious facilities were erected, reaching the peak of urban culture in the southern subasian continent.

Although it is not so prosperous compared to the cities of Beijing, Nanjing, and even Chengdu, Yangzhou, and Suzhou, it is enough for the Mughal monarchs.

As the center of the dynasty, it has also proved that in a sense of busyness, it is not inferior to the city of Beijing......

"Reinforcements? Didn't the Ming people come from afar? How many troops can they have? How many artillery? ”

"Mirza already has 120,000 troops and 730 artillery pieces in his hands, doesn't he have the confidence to eat the army of the Ming people?"

"Write back to him and tell him that the wild dogs on all sides are ready to move on us, let him deal with the Ming army by himself, and don't miss this good opportunity to capture the south."

In the castle of Lahore, the tallest building in the city, a richly dressed man with almost no Mongol features, but rather a somewhat Persian, threw the letter in his hand onto the table.

This Persian-looking man was the ruler of the Mughal dynasty, Shah Jahan.

Thirty-eight-year-old Shah Jahan was in the prime of life, an age when an emperor was obsessed with expanding his territory, and the appearance of the Ming army gave him the opportunity to occupy the entire subcontinent.

The Ming Dynasty, who could not integrate into the religious atmosphere of the South Asian subcontinent, was destined to become a public enemy of the whole people.

At the time of their extermination of several Hindu countries in the south, the atmosphere was not yet apparent.

But when they made a move on the five major *** sultanates, the atmosphere in the whole region changed.

In the past, these countries that had disobeyed the Mughal because of religious "differences" threw olive branches one after another, and the courtiers of the five great powers fled north, creating rebellions in the rear of the Ming army while instigating the Mughal army to move south.

For this group, religion represented a stand, and they did not want to submit to the Mughals because of their disagreement over their doctrines.

But when this kind of disagreement is faced with outsiders who don't believe in anything, they are instantly forgotten.

They were more willing to throw themselves into the arms of the Mughals than the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Shah Jahan, who thought he had won the hearts and minds of the people, gathered an army of 90,000 and went south, taking advantage of the internal and external troubles of the Ming army to launch a surprise attack and seize the vast territory north of the Godavari River.

The untouchables who had rebelled against the dynasty in the area were now unusually submissive, much to the delight of Shah Jahan, who increased his army by 35,000 men.

However, judging from Mirza's letters, the Ming army, which had obtained gunpowder, was not weak, and they relied on the Godavari River to counterattack the dynasty's army, and the two sides were now in an atmosphere of confrontation.

Shah Jahan is not a fool, on the contrary, he has his own strategic and political vision, and he is also very keen to support Mirza to take the south.

Because once the south is taken, the dynasty will be able to release the 90,000 troops stationed in the south for a long time, and use the army in Bengal and Afghanistan.

It's just that although he understands, he can't do it, because of the imminent action of external forces at the moment......

"How much of the Persian army in Kandahar has gathered?"

Shah Jahan frowned and looked at the minister in front of him, and the minister also said eloquently:

"At present, there are 60,000 people, and it is estimated that there will be more troops in the future, and they probably want us to fall into a situation of being flanked."

"Once we withdraw our troops to the south, then the northwest will increase our troops, so we will have to increase our troops to deal with it."

"Once the northwest increases the troops, the south is empty, and the army of the Ming people will go north again."

"The current situation is difficult, ...... Patissa"

The minister's words basically explained why Shah Jahan could not increase his troops in the south.

Since the outbreak of war between the Ming army and the Mughals, the Safavid dynasty of Persia began to gather heavy troops on the border, and they were ready to move.

As for the reason why the Safavid dynasty is so radical, the reason is that the Abbas the Great, who received Xu Xiake, died of illness last year, and his eldest grandson Safavid succeeded him and became the "Shah" of the Safavid.

After Safi ascended the throne, he immediately transferred troops from the country and placed some of his troops in Kandahar, not only to prevent the invasion of the Uzbeks in the north, but also to show his authority as a "Shah".

Local forces have changed, and Shah Jahan can only increase his troops on the northwestern frontier in order to stabilize it.

Originally, the number of Mughal troops was only 400,000, and the country and the frontier needed stability, so after sending a total of 125,000 troops to the south, the Mughals did not have any mobile troops.

Now you have to recruit more troops, but even if you do, it will take at least a few months.

Shah Jahan had already sent merchants to spy on intelligence, and it would take a full six months to reach India from the Ming mainland, so it was necessary to fight quickly.

Of course, the soldiers who should be trained still have to be trained.

"Order the governors of each region to recruit another ten thousand recruits, and the artillery factories and musket factories in each place are also producing vigorously, and in three months I will see sixty thousand troops go south."

"Also tell Mirza that in three months I will see him drive the Ming army to the south bank of the Barral River!"

Shah Jahan gave orders to his minister, and what he called the Barar River was the third river from north to south from the Deccan Plateau.

The eastern coastal plain between the Godavari and Barral rivers is home to tens of millions of acres of plain arable land.

By losing these tens of millions of acres of arable land and the inland areas of a province, the Mughal army could better advance southward.

It has to be said that Shah Jahan's idea is very good, but the minister also reminded him of the current situation:

"Padisha, although we have more troops in the south, the artillery of the Ming army is not bad, and the number is not small."

"In addition, the Persians are stationed in Kandahar, and it is difficult to say when it will cause war, I think that at this time, we can send an envoy to win over the Ottoman Sultan Mudra, and let the Ottoman send troops to attack Persia to alleviate the predicament."

"If the Ottomans are willing to send troops, then Persia will definitely send troops back, and we can transfer the army from the northwest to the south, and the recruits to the northwest."

The minister gave a very good suggestion on the current situation, and Shah Jahan was very satisfied with it, but in order to win over the Ottomans, the Mughals had to show sincerity.

"Take 600,000 rupees, send some men to intercede for us, and say that I am willing to form an alliance with the Sultan of Mudra."

Shah Jahan gave sincerity, although 600,000 rupees were only converted into 200,000 taels of silver, but you must know that the annual revenue of the Ottoman Empire at this time was only more than 12 million taels of silver.

At this time, the annual income of Britain was only more than 4 million taels, and Spain was more than 25 million.

200,000 taels is a small amount for the world's largest and second largest economies, except for the Mughal and Ming dynasties, but for these countries, 200,000 taels is not a lot.

In the Ottoman Empire, where there were not many gold and silver mines, and in inflationary Europe, 200,000 taels of silver was enough to train a new army of 6,000 men, or to maintain the salary of a 10,000-strong army.

Although in Shah Jahan's opinion, this amount of silver was not much, but it was enough to tempt the Ottoman Empire, after all, the land that was defeated belonged to them.

Shah Jahan's orders were soon handed down in layers, and the ships loaded with six hundred thousand rupees set sail with the news delivered.

Mughal governors also began to recruit new soldiers, and on the southern battlefield, Huang Long arrived at the front with four battalions of soldiers and horses.

The Ming and Mozambican armies confronted each other at the Godavari River, and the Ming army, after fighting and attrition, still maintained an army of 48,000 men at the end of March, with 35,000 flintlock pistols, 300 Yanshan 10-jin guns, and 525 5-jin guns.

Although the Mughal army under Mirza also suffered combat attrition, the total number remained at about 115,000, with 20,000 arquebuses and 20 32-pounder cannons, and 700 artillery pieces of 24-pounder, 18-pounder, 12-pounder, and 6-pounder guns.

Judging from the firearms, the Mughal army had a large caliber, but the number was inferior to the Ming army's artillery, and as for the muskets, the Ming army had the upper hand steadily.

It's just that in terms of short arms and cavalry, the Ming army is obviously in a weak position.

The Mughals still had 20,000 short soldiers and 30,000 cavalry, while the Ming army had only 10,000 flintlock pikemen.

In terms of troops, Mirza has the advantage, while geographically the two sides are about the same.

Although Mizar was condescending, the Ming army had the Godavari River as a shield, and in terms of civil engineering, the Ming army's construction capacity was second to none.

In the previous blockade battle, the Mughal army under Mizar suffered in various civil and engineering defenses of the Ming army, losing 5,000 men and horses.

Therefore, in general, the situation of the battle on the front line of the Godavari River is about seventy-three, with the Mughal army occupying a seventy-percent advantage and the Ming army occupying thirty-tenth.

As for the logistics baggage, the Ming army mainly took the sea by sea, and then transported it by river to transport various materials to the front line.

Due to the inability of the local warships, almost all the Mughal warships hid in their own ports, and did not dare to step out of the harbor, for fear of being sunk by the Ming navy and the Huangdian armed merchant ships with a total tonnage of nearly one million tons at sea.

Unable to supply by sea, Mirza had to rely on the people on land.

In order to maintain the 110,000 troops at the front, Mirza recruited 260,000 people, while compared to them, the number of people in the Ming army in the north was less than 60,000.

These 60,000 people are all the people of Tangor who have been pacified, who believe in Hinduism, and they choose to help the Ming army fight against the Halal on the "great right and wrong" of religion.

Of course, there are not a few people who hate the Ming army and disobey the yang, but they often become a corpse after being discovered.

Therefore, in the logistical problems of the northern front, the logistical pressure of the Mughal army was far greater than that of the Ming army.

In such a situation, it is not impossible to storm the army, but the Mughal army will suffer heavy losses, and Mizar has under his command the courtiers of the five major sultanates who have fled north, and they have brought a lot of information from the south.

He knew that the Ming army still had 50,000 troops in the south who were responsible for encircling and suppressing the rebels, and there were more than 40,000 elite sailors at sea.

Once the two sides started fighting, or if the forces were drawn from various places and the Godavari front was heavily assembled and the rear was empty, Mirza had no doubt that the 40,000 elite of the Ming army at sea would launch an attack on the long coastline of the Mughals.

As he had predicted, Huang Long immediately commanded the navy to launch a tentative assault on the coast of the Mughal Deccan region upon arrival at the front.

Such attacks forced Mirza to divide his forces in coastal cities, and by early April, the number of Mughal troops on the Godavari River front had dropped to 90,000.

Under the pressure of various problems such as logistical problems and coastal defense pressure problems, the scales of war on the Godavari River were tilted, and Huanglong took advantage of the superiority of the navy to pull back the disadvantage of the army.

On the frontal battlefield, the Mughal army and the Ming army reached a five-five situation.

Such a situation, coupled with the situation at home, Mirza did not dare to order an offensive, and the two armies continued to stalemate......

"The army in Bangalore was wiped out by the counterinsurgency forces of the Ming army, and the number of the southern army dropped to 90,000......"

On the 10th day of April, when a sultanate minister spoke, in the Provisional Governor's Palace in the city of Nizamabad, on the north bank of the Godavari River, officers of all levels of the Mughal army looked at the sand table with frowns.

On the sand table, the defense line of the Ming army was like an iron barrel, especially the civil fortifications composed of various horses and trenches, which gave the officers commanding the cavalry a headache.

The man who spoke was a sultanate minister who had fled north, and the army he spoke of was the remnants of the armies of the nations entrenched on the plateau.

The number of these troops has plummeted from more than 200,000 in February to 90,000 now, and more than 100,000 have been encircled and annihilated.

This news made everyone feel bad, and they all knew very well that once the southern rebels were completely annihilated, the 50,000 counterinsurgents in the south could completely transfer 30,000 to support the Godavari River defense line.

At that time, the number of Ming troops on the front will reach 80,000, which is basically the same as them.

Therefore, after hearing these news, all the officers subconsciously looked at Mirza.

In the face of their inquiring eyes, Mirza did not panic, but said very calmly:

"The rear is already recruiting 60,000 troops, and it will be able to reach the front line in six months at most."

"But "Padisha" allows us to push the front within three to the Barral ......"

A Turkic officer couldn't help but speak and reminded: "It's only two months now. ”

"On the front, I have already replied to "Padisha", we are facing a Ming army of less than 50,000 on the surface, but in fact they are more than 90,000 people on land and sea, and we have less than 140,000. ”

"Not to mention the 20,000 ...... navy"

Mirza walked around the sand table and talked about the situation on the battlefield, but when he talked about the navy, his face was a little unpleasant.

It has to be said that he was disgraced by Huanglong's sea guerrilla tactics, which led to his failure to launch a full-scale attack in the summer.

"The sea power of the Ming army is not weak, in the past half a month, we have been captured by them two cities and seventeen market towns, although they have all recovered, but the plundered property is ......"

One of Mirza's henchmen hesitated to speak, and the news made the officers a little depressed.

The Mughal navy was mainly built more than forty years ago after the conquest of Bengal by the third emperor, Akbar.

The navy is divided into two fleets, the Eastern Fleet defending the shipping routes to East Asia, and the Western Fleet being responsible for the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

It sounds very powerful, but in fact it is a worrying level, and even the pirates of the Bay of Bengal can do nothing.

The warships of the entire army are basically converted from civilian ships and fishing boats, while the main warships and special warships are basically Mediterranean-type, Middle Eastern-type or Caravel-type ships.

Because Indian craftsmen did not like to use iron nails and could not master the mortise and tenon technology of the Ming Dynasty, the structure and rigidity of the ships they built themselves were insufficient to withstand the recoil of naval guns.

Coupled with the fact that the entire aristocratic community was made up of Turks, Mongols, and Persians, it was difficult to find some naval officers.

At this point, the Mughals played to their deep pockets and chose to hire experienced European sailors as their naval advisers and technicians.

But even so, European sailors could not save the Mughal navy.

If this is difficult to describe the naval gap between the two sides, then the Bay of Bengal route, which is very safe at the moment, is enough to explain it.

Before the Ming army took Ceylon Island and established the Small Western Surveillance Mission, the entire Bay of Bengal was full of smuggling ships and privateers, as well as a large number of pirates.

Not only were the Mughals helpless against them, but the European colonizers basically had nothing to do with them when they colonized the South Seas.

As a result, after the Ming Dynasty rushed out of Malacca and established the Small Western Supervision Mission, in less than two years, pirates of all sizes in the waters of Bengal sank to the bottom of the sea.

It is no exaggeration to say that the current Bay of Bengal is the pond at the door of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the 20,000 waste navy behind Mirza really did not help the war situation.

On the contrary, it was the navy of the Ming army that made them disgraced and put out fires everywhere.

Although Huanglong's simple land battle was not as good as Sun Chuanting, Sun Yingyuan, Man Gui, Xiong Tingbi and other generals of the Qi Palace, he was still the first class in terms of sea and land tactics, which was also the reason why Zhu Youzhen sent him to command the Xiaoxiyang Expeditionary Force.

The topography of the South Subcontinent determines that as long as the navy is used well, it will not be difficult to defeat the strong with the weak.

Huanglong was able to use the navy to level the war situation, which Mirza did not expect.

However, this also reminded Mirza that if Huanglong insisted on such tactics, once the Ming army finished counterinsurgency and went north for reinforcements, the Mughals were likely to be pushed back.

"The Ming army's musket armament rate is about eighty percent, which is three percent higher than ours."

Mirza looked at the Ming army's defense line and had an idea in his heart:

"Following theirs, we have also built a line on the north bank, and at the same time we have to stay 1,500 paces away from the river."

"Yes!"

Mirza was preparing for the Ming army's counterattack, and if the 60,000 reinforcements behind them were the first to arrive at the front, he would not hesitate to launch a general attack.

If the southern Ming army ends the counterinsurgency and goes north to reinforce it, then the defense line he built can block the Ming army for a period of time, waiting for 60,000 reinforcements in the rear to support.

In short, if you don't win, you will lose first, and only if you are invincible, you will have the opportunity to find loopholes in the enemy army and then counterattack.

Mirza's idea is very good, and it is really not difficult to implement.

Although neither the Ming nor the Mo armies launched a full-scale general offensive, the local tug-of-war did not stop, and they had also seen the great civil engineering of the Ming army, so they had long remembered it.

After Mirza's order, Mughal armies in various places began to build defensive positions, and the places they chose were almost much higher than the elevation of the Godavari River, and chose to build on mounds and halfway up the mountainside.

When they were building the fortifications, the Ming army was keenly aware that something was wrong.

"The distance is about fifteen hundred paces, and it seems that the distance chosen to defend our warships from entering the river to shell the defensive line."

"Basically, they are copying our army, and this group of southern captives is quite smart......"

On the bank of the river, Huang Long, Qi Yuanfu and Li Dan went to the front line under the guard of the soldiers, and used clairvoyance to reconnoiter all the movements of the Mughal army.

In fact, the current Ming army was not comfortable, more than 53,000 people, nearly 8,000 of whom were sent to Yanan for recuperation, and there were less than 45,000 people on the position.

This is also the reason why after the Yellow Dragon arrived at the front line, he used the tactics of sea intrusion in advance.

Because if the Mughal invasion army is not contained, then in the continuous attrition, once the Mughal army attacks generally, the defense of the Ming army will be very difficult.

However, even if the Mughals choose to divide their forces to protect the coastal cities, the ratio of the Ming army to the Mughal army on the Godavari River front is still one to two.

Both sides were geographically advantageous, and anyone who crossed the valley of the Godavari River would face a military counterattack halfway up the hill on the other side of the valley.

The entire defense line is in a "concave" shape, whoever attacks suffers, and whoever defends is advantageous.

Although Huang Long was desperate to retake the Narmada River defenses, he also knew that the current situation did not allow him to do so.

He wanted to wait, wait for six months before the rebellion was over, and wait for six months later the Ming Dynasty to support 50,000 troops.

At that time, with 40,000 troops left in the rear, the Ming army could reach 160,000 soldiers and horses on the Godavari River defense line, and 40,000 soldiers and horses at sea were responsible for feints.

200,000 troops gathered on the South Asian continent, and once the Ming army won this battle, it would not be as simple as pushing back to the defense line of the Narmada River.

The Mughals will lose the entire Deccan Plateau and coastal cities, and will be completely blocked by the Ming army in the interior, turning into a landlocked country.

As long as his back is against the sea, with the volume of Daming's shipping, Huanglong can push back little by little.

However, for him, there is no need to fight to that extent, because this place is reserved for the feudal domains, not under the governance of the Ming Dynasty.

"It's good to leave this ghost place to the feudal domains, if we are left to govern, I'm afraid it will involve a lot of energy from the imperial court......"

Huang Long put down his clairvoyance and sighed at Li Dan and Qi Yuanfu on the left and right, and the two of them also nodded in approval.

To put it bluntly, the current Southern Subasia continent is the same as raising Gu.

Indians, Persians, Turks, and more than a hundred peoples......

Various ethnic groups have different languages, different cultures, and different religions, especially in the area of religion, and the Ming Dynasty is destined to be unable to integrate into them.

It was not very realistic for the Ming army to engage in large-scale efforts to catch up with seedlings and expand industries, because the cycle of "catching up with seedlings and expanding industries" was too long.

For example, why do you still need to maintain six to ten battalions in the old port at the moment? The main reason is that there is a conflict with the local culture, and there have been people who have been hiding in the mountains to engage in guerrilla warfare with the Ming army.

The Ming army's government roads on each island in the old port were coastal construction, which is enough to show that the Ming army's control over the interior of the islands was actually insufficient.

In the face of the old port with a population of less than 10 million, the Ming army still needs to maintain six to ten battalions of soldiers and horses, let alone facing the South Asian continent.

Slaughter people? What the Ming Dynasty needs is a population market, and slaughtering people is equivalent to shrinking the cake.

The economic potential of the South Asian continent can be seen from the Mughal tax revenue, and if the Ming Dynasty occupies this market, uses the feudal domains to rule and control, and continues to migrate and reduce the local natives, then the Ming can maintain more than 150 million taels of tax revenue for a long time.

This is also the result of the local tax being returned to the feudal clan, and the Ming Dynasty only relied on the market to conduct normal trade.

Needless to say, what is the concept of 150 million taels, and the unpaid Ming army, the paid Ming army, and the rich Ming army, are three different forms of existence.

The most that Huang Long was capable of was to solve the stubborn religious elements, and then throw India, which was full of religious problems, to the vassals.

As long as all the feudal lands are defeated, he will immediately clear the capital, ask for peace talks with the Mughals, and then let the feudal domains become vassals, train new soldiers for them, and withdraw the 200,000 troops of the small Western Ocean to the Ming Dynasty, or participate in other wars.

That's what he thinks, and that's what he does.

However, the premise of all this is that he must get a second increase from Zhu Youzhen, and then he can conquer all the feudal lands......

The Mughals were not weak at this stage, and they were colonized by the British for many reasons, especially in the area of religion......

(End of chapter)