"Boom—"

"Bang bang bang-"

On the eighth day of the seventh month of the tenth year of the Apocalypse, with the sound of artillery, the war in the South Asian continent, which had been silent for more than three months, was ignited again.

Many changes took place in the course of three months, the first of which was that Lu Xiangsheng successively regained Bangalore and other large and small city-states, further inflicting heavy losses on the rebels, causing the number of rebels to plummet to 40,000, and fled into the Deccan Plateau in an attempt to conduct guerrilla attacks.

After further reducing the scope of the rebels' existence, Lu Xiangsheng drew six battalions of 18,000 men from his remaining 48,000 southern counterinsurgents to support the Godavari River defense line.

Secondly, the second batch of soldiers and horses promised by Zhu Youzhen was also in mid-June, and Qi Yuanbi landed in the ruined Nellore with 120,000 immigrants.

With three battalions of soldiers and horses left, Qi Yuanbi personally led seven battalions of soldiers and horses, with a total of 21,000 people, to the north to support the Godavari River defense line.

By the first day of July, the Ming army had numbered more than 93,000 men on the defense line of the Godavari River, with a total of 31 battalions.

In addition to them, the non-combat attrition of the Ming army reached more than 4,000 people, and while they were recuperating in Yanan, they exchanged guards with Qi Yuanbi, who arrived in Yanan.

Perhaps because they were northerners, a series of generals such as Li Zicheng, Li Zijing, and Liu Zongmin were not accustomed to the soil and water, and could not return to the Nidro defense line at all, so they could only take the 3,000 soldiers and horses who had recovered from illness to work under Qi Yuanbi.

The increase in the strength of the Ming army, counting the naval army close to 140,000 troops, and such an increase in troops naturally made the Mughal Deccan governor Mirza feel the pressure doubled.

Fortunately, in early May, Murad IV of the Ottoman Empire accepted Shah Jahan's invitation, and the two sides became short-term allies.

After a month's regrouping, Murad IV ordered the armies of Syria and Mosul to invade western Safavid Persia and attack the Yinlaq region in a vain attempt to capture Baghdad.

Hearing the news, Shah (king) Safi could only withdraw 40,000 troops from Kandahar, leaving only 20,000 to contain the Mughals, and Mughal Shah Jahan saw this, and immediately ordered to mobilize 60,000 soldiers and horses to reinforce the Godavari River defense line.

By July, a war provoked by the two largest empires of Ming and Mozambique had spread further to the Middle East.

If you stand from God's point of view, you can see that there are wars on a large scale in various regions at the moment.

In Northeast Asia, the Ming and Jin armies began to move each other, and the number of troops participating in the battle on both sides is expected to reach more than 300,000.

In Southeast Asia, Hong Chengchou has been stationed in western Yunnan, with a scale of 100,000 people, facing the scattered 200,000 Burmese soldiers, and the total number of troops participating in the war is also about 300,000.

In South Asia, the strength of the Ming and Mughal armies in the confrontation also reached 330,000.

In the Middle East, nearly 120,000 Ottomans and Safavids were playing in the Yinlaq region.

As for the European battlefield, not to mention, although the Spanish Habsburgs achieved a Bohemian victory with the blessing of the Great Ming saltpeter, France could not tolerate such an outcome.

The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Denmark share the same idea as France.

Thus, what was originally just a Bohemian war against the Habsburgs began to evolve into a widespread all-European war.

France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands formed an anti-Spanish Habsburg alliance with Denmark, with Denmark sending troops and Britain and the Netherlands ambushing Spain's naval fleet in order to cut off the importation of saltpeter purchased by Spain from the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that with the saltpeter of the Ming Dynasty, Spain has become the country with the largest production of gunpowder in Europe, and there is no need to save money to fight wars when there is more gunpowder.

Therefore, in the face of the offensive of the four countries, Spain not only held the territory it had taken, but even faintly counterattacked.

The only thing that upset Spain was the British and Dutch fleets, so he planned to build a larger number of ships to protect the saltpeter trade routes between Spain and the Ming Dynasty.

I have to say that the "support" from the Ming Dynasty gave Spain a sigh of relief, and then disrupted the overall situation.

Spain was victorious on the battlefield, so there was no desire to organize a fleet in the Baltic, and without a fleet, the Kingdom of Sweden in the north could continue to maintain control of the Baltic.

Thus, the Kingdom of Sweden did not join the coalition against Spain, as is the case in history, and the elite Swedish army did not join the war, which once again tipped the balance of victory in favor of the Habsburgs.

On the European battlefield, the strength of the anti-Habsburg coalition and the Spanish Habsburgs remained at about 300,000.

These five battlefields are almost all related to the Ming Dynasty, three of which were directly intervened by the Ming Dynasty, one was fought because of the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Mughals, and finally the farthest European battlefield also had the figure of the Ming Dynasty.

It can be said that wars were raging everywhere in Asia, Europe and Africa, and at the same time, nearly 1.4 million troops were fighting on this vast continent.

This kind of complicated situation is that Zhu Youzhen is very confused when he listens to it.

He only wanted to sell saltpeter to make foreign exchange, but he ended up with Spain suppressing France, England, German Protestant princes, Denmark and other countries.

Of course, things in Europe are too far away, and the current collision between the two world's first and second economies, the Ming and Mughals, is more noteworthy.

Not surprisingly, the first force to launch the attack was the Ming army, which had long been holding back the fire.

The 1,600 Yanshan five-pound guns and 300 Yanshan ten-pound guns in the hands of the 93,000 army launched an artillery bombardment in the early morning.

The cannon rumbled, the stone projectiles flew, and a large number of Mughal troops were frightened by this sudden artillery bombardment, and they were caught off guard by the Ming army's shelling.

In the trenches of the Mughal army, a large number of corpses lay down in the shallow trenches, and some Mughal soldiers who were awakened by the shelling were scrambling to put on armor and stomach while only running towards the rear line of defense, and there was chaos everywhere.

"Don't riot! Haidir, let the European artillery return to their positions and counterattack! Fight back for me! ”

Mirza's figure appeared in the trench of the riot, he was wearing a Mongolian and halal style armor, and after shouting loudly, he lay on the edge of the trench, holding the binoculars in both hands, looking at the position of the Ming army, his face was already iron-blue.

He never imagined that the army on which he relied would become so vulnerable when attacked.

In the Mughal army today, apart from the Mongol and Persian cavalry, and the European artillery, which gave the Mirza some confidence, the light infantry composed of native Indian races was overwhelmed.

"Whoever dares to retreat, the whole family will be killed!"

Mirza's confidant Haidhar, with the cavalry of the Mongols and Persians, intercepted the routs as they were about to flee.

Several of the officers who led the run had their heads cut off by Haidar and hung on the flagpole.

There was still a hint of fear and unwillingness on the faces of those people who had been cut off, and the routs couldn't help but settle down a little when they saw this scene.

At this time, the first round of artillery bombardment of the Ming army ended, so the light infantry on the position returned to the trenches.

The European mercenary artillerymen cleared their positions as they returned, and then, in accordance with Mirza's military orders, they operated 1,200 artillery pieces and began shelling the Ming army's positions.

"Put!"

"Bang bang bang-"

The whistling stone bullets slid across the valley and smashed into the first line of defense of the Ming army, but compared to the frightened Mughal army, the psychological quality of the Ming army in the face of artillery bombardment was too strong.

Mirza held the binoculars and stared at half a cup of tea, but he did not see any Ming soldiers fleeing away.

"It's not easy to deal with, it's all elite ......" Mirza wrung his brow a little tiredly.

Of course, he knew the combat strength of the Ming army, if the Ming army was not strong, it would be impossible to calmly retreat from the Wentia Mountains to the Godavari River in the face of tens of thousands of cavalry pursuits, and build a defensive line to block the enemy army several times his size.

Such an army, the Mughals also have it, but there are not many of them.

Therefore, Mirza also agreed that Da Ming came from afar and was unlikely to project too many elite troops, and after this elite force, it should be a servant army of other races.

But the facts gave Mirza a resounding slap in the face, because the Ming army not only did not have a servant army, but also sent the same elite as the previous Ming army.

Faced with such an enemy, Mirza's heart sank to the bottom.

The test firing of 1,200 pieces of artillery soon ended, and when the sound of artillery stopped, the Ming positions began to get busy without waiting for Mirza's order.

"Order the corps to hide from shelling."

When Mirza saw this, he immediately gave an order to Haidhar, who was not far away, and Haidhar hurriedly picked up a wooden whistle and blew three long and two short whistles.

In his whistle, many Mongol and Persian officers began to whistle, and the whole army began to hide.

Their wood and soil homework is basically to draw cats according to tigers, and they learn the surface, but not the inside.

As an important bunker on the position, the trench is related to the lives of soldiers and its role cannot be underestimated.

After a large number of officers of the Ming army in Yanshan joined the army, civil engineering operations were greatly improved, such as Li Zicheng, Zhu Yujian and others, all of whom had studied civil engineering courses and understood how to build trenches.

In general, building a trench does not mean simply digging a trench, it still has some requirements.

In the composition of the trench, it is mainly composed of stragglers, communication trenches and other links.

A skirmish is actually a kind of combat bunker where soldiers can shoot at the enemy.

The depth of the skirmish trench is appropriate so that a person can walk inside the trench and not see it from the outside.

The dimensions of the Ming army's skirmishers were six to seven feet deep and five to six feet wide.

But this is not to let people really dig six or seven feet deep, but when digging a skirmish, under normal circumstances, you only need to dig four feet deep.

Because the soil in the trench can also build fortifications, the mound of soil raised from the ditch to the front of the trench can form a slope of two to three feet, which is very convenient for the Ming soldiers to shoot conveniently.

In order to avoid enemy artillery fire, the Ming army would also dig some cliff holes in the side of the skirmishers.

The shape and size of these holes are determined by the soldiers, but when digging, care should be taken to determine the size according to the actual condition of the soil, so as to prevent the trench from collapsing.

In "Yanshan Military", every officer from Yanshan is required to dig a long straggler's trench, and the shape of the trench is also divided into snake shape, zigzag shape, horizontal wall shape and other shapes, but only can not be dug into a straight line.

This is easy to understand, if the enemy attacks from the side of the position and shoots along the trench, if the trench is straight, then the soldiers in the trench have no cover and are completely exposed to enemy fire.

Of course, this is only one of the many trenches, in addition to how to dig trenches, Yanshan Military Academy also teaches a lot of knowledge of trench warfare.

This knowledge is not usually used, but when it is on the battlefield, it will become a sharp weapon for Yanshan officers to save their lives with their soldiers.

As now, after the soldiers of the Ming army built civil engineering fortifications at the request of the Yanshan generals, the shelling of the Mughal army did not kill a single person.

The only person injured by the Ming army was because the stone bullet rebounded and rushed into the cliff cave and accidentally hit the tail vertebrae of an unlucky egg.

Fortunately, after two unloading, the stone bullet no longer has much strength, otherwise it would have made him paralyzed on the bed for the rest of his life.

It's just a few days of rest right now, which is a blessing in misfortune.

"Governor, news from the artillery battalion that the second round of artillery firing is ready."

Under the civil engineering under the trench, the Ming army used leaves and branches to hide the underground headquarters, and Huang Long was at the moment in the gap between the headquarters and the outside world, constantly looking at the battlefield on the opposite bank with clairvoyance.

Zhu Changqing, who had returned from his illness, reported to him, and Huang Long said without thinking about it:

"Let General Qi command the whole army, unless there are local troops who have broken through the enemy's defensive line, you don't need to tell me."

The defense line of the Godavari River is very long, more than 2,000 miles.

However, due to the dense network of the Godavari River, there are not many places to break through, which is why Mirza did not choose to storm in the spring.

It's just that he dragged it until the summer, and he was dragged by the Huanglong navy, and now that the long summer is coming, the river flow is decreasing, the water network is degrading, and there are naturally more points that can be broken through.

"The summer in this hellish place is really long......

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Huang Long simply took off his helmet and observed the battlefield in this way.

In South Asia at this time, even during the Xiaoice period, the temperature reached more than 30 degrees for six months.

When the temperature is at its highest in June and July, it can reach 389 degrees.

That is, Huang Long didn't know what a thermometer was, and he didn't have a thermometer in his hand, otherwise he would definitely scold his mother.

"Fixed-shot loading...... The direction does not change...... Preparation...... Put! ”

"Bang bang bang-"

The sound of fierce artillery fire continued to sound on the positions of the Ming army, although the pound was not as good as the Mughals, but the artillery of the Ming army was better than the number, and the victory was easy to cast.

The Mughal bronze cannon shot far and was powerful, but it took a lot of time and energy to return to the furnace once, and they did not dare to fire too many rounds of artillery fire in a day.

Comparing them, the gunners of the Ming army don't know what it means to "love artillery", but whenever the temperature of the artillery drops, the first thing they do is definitely another shot!

After 500 rounds, the artillery was transported back to the Ming Dynasty to be reforged, which sounds a bit laborious, but the number of artillery in the Ming army was far more than this 1,600 guns, and there were enough artillery for the artillery to replace.

The reason why all the artillery was not pulled up was because the number of more professional artillery of the Ming army was too small.

Since the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the gunners of the Ming army have been matched according to one officer of the military academy plus four skilled gunners.

The ballistics of artillery requires the application of mathematics, which is somewhat evil to many experienced veteran gunners.

At this time, the officer would teach his four skilled gunners, and this situation has lasted for three years, but the number of qualified artillerymen in the Ming army is still small.

1,600 artillery pieces, this is not the limit of the Little Western Army, but it is already the limit of the gunners of the Little Western Army.

In their hands, the Yanshan artillery constantly roared.

The cannons of the Mughal army could only fire six rounds in half an hour, while the Ming army could fire ten to twelve rounds.

In addition, the number of artillery pieces was 400 more than that of the opponent, so on a long front of nearly 2,400 miles from the Western Ghats to Yanan in the east, the Ming army could rely on firepower to suppress the Mughal army on every defensive line.

It seems that there is only a difference of 400 guns, but in reality the difference in firepower between the two sides is almost two.

The Mughal army simply did not dare to bombard indiscriminately like the Ming army, regardless of the life of the artillery.

Maintaining superiority on the frontal battlefield, it is necessary to create the battlefield from the flanks and behind enemy lines.

Therefore, on the third day of the counteroffensive, Qi Yuanfu found Huanglong:

"Governor, on the current frontal front, our army has suppressed the southern captives, but both our and enemy armies rely on the river valley to establish a defensive line, and whoever wants to attack must face the condescending suppression of the enemy army."

"Therefore, Admiral proposes to ask the brothers of the Twelve Guards of the Navy to attack Surat, Visakhapatnam, in the rear of the enemy army."

】

"At the same time, the mobilization of small naval forces into the rivers of Mohadina and Narmada will create the illusion that our army is going to strike a large-scale roundabout annihilation on the Deccan plateau"

"Mirza has long been weak in his heart, and he doesn't dare to force himself with us."

"The last general estimates that as long as our army forms this illusion, the southern captives will immediately waver, and if the southern captives' killer tiger (Shah Jahan) does not continue to send reinforcements, then Mirza should abandon the south of the Narmada River and retreat to the Vindya Mountains."

"At that time, our army will be able to return to the front of last year's Layue."

After all, Qi Yuanfu was a person who trained soldiers from the first year of Taichang, fought bloody battles with Jianlu, and pacified Jiaozhi, and in terms of land warfare thinking, he was even better than Huanglong.

Although he was not as good as his eldest brother Qi Yuangong and not as good as his father Qi Jin, he was enough to deal with Mirza.

Mirza had no sense of sea power at all, or he did, but the Mughal navy was not powerful, so the vast Mughal coastline became the biggest flaw in his defensive line.

The more than 60,000 navies of the Ming army could land on the Mughal defense line at will, and the 30,000 men arranged by Mirza in the rear alone could not stop the Ming army at all.

The Mughal cavalry, along with their Persian musketeers, and European artillery, were good, but their light infantry, at best, was as good as the Japanese ashigaru, and they were crushed at the touch of a blow in the face of tough battles.

Qi Yuanfu saw the weakness of the Mughal army, so he suggested to Huang Long, and Huang Long also touched the beard on his chin after hearing this:

"This is a good way of playing, I will transfer Huang Fei and Li Dan to command the left and right navy now."

"Governor Mingjian!" Hearing that Huang Long agreed to his suggestion, Qi Yuanfu bowed, and Huang Long also waved his hand and said:

"The military affairs on the front are busy, and I have to worry about the general soldiers."

"The last general has just done his duty, and in that case, the last general will return to the front line first." Qi Yuanfu heard the meaning of evicting the guests, and after hesitating, he prepared to leave under the pretext that the front line was busy.

"Go ahead." Huang Long waved his hand, and Qi Yuanfu also retreated with interest.

Looking at his retreating back, Huang Long, who was sitting in a simple civil engineering project, put away his smile.

"Uncle, His Royal Highness sent Lu Xiangsheng, Qi Yuanfu and Qi Yuanbi in one go, is he ......?"

"That's it!"

Huang Fei, who accompanied Huang Long throughout the whole process and listened to Qi Yuanfu's report, finally couldn't help but open his mouth, and as soon as he opened his mouth, Huang Long stopped.

Huang Long looked at Li Dan, who was also accompanying him throughout the whole process, and Li Dan also said with interest:

"It's normal for Your Highness not to be at ease, after all, according to the previous situation, as long as the governor wants to, it is not impossible to divide half of the small Western Ocean, the old port, and Nanzhou."

"His Royal Highness sent people, not only for the court, but also for the governor."

"Huh?" Huang Long frowned, after all, he was also a figure like Qi Jin who was in the Governor of the Five Armies.

Although he is not as good as the other four in terms of age, or even as good as Qi Yuanfu just now, his status is here.

If Zhu Youzhen sent Lu Xiangsheng a few people, it was really to supervise himself, and he couldn't think of any benefit to him.

However, Li Dan, as a former maritime merchant, understood very well what this kind of transfer meant, so he explained to Huang Long:

"Mobilize these three people to Xiaoxiyang and balance the forces of Xiaoxiyang, so that no one in the DPRK will think that you will be the governor of the country, and your position can be stable."

"Don't forget, Governor, you are the Governor of the Navy, not the Governor of the Infantry Army."

"The navy is needed to lead to the South Seas and the Little Western Ocean, and the easiest way for the navy to control is to prevent the navy from having a stable income."

"Once you have a stable income, it means that you have the strength to divide the territory."

"If you divide the territory, the kingdom will lose tens of millions of taels of silver in revenue and tens of thousands of miles of territory......"

"Lao Tzu is not an idiot!" Huang Long heard Li Dan's analysis and couldn't wait to interrupt:

"The seven major shipyards have nothing to do with Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu is independent today, and in three years at most, the imperial court will be able to pull out a new navy to fight me."

"At that time, I will not only have to fight against the Nanyu, but also against the imperial court."

"The way to die is to be self-reliant, whoever does it will die!"

Although Huang Long is not good at politics, he is also a governor anyway, and militarily, especially in naval battles in Shanghai, few people dare to say that he is not good.

He simply thought from the perspective of a general, and he didn't think that he could withstand the pressure from Daming after he became self-reliant.

Not to mention that Yan Siqi, Zheng Zhilong, Liu Xiang and other people who are good at naval warfare are still in Daming, and not to mention that the seven major shipyards can launch dozens of 9,000 warships every year, just saying that the one in the Qi Wangfu is still there, it is impossible for him to rebel.

Judging from the various naval textbooks written in the Qi Palace, Huang Long did not believe that his Royal Highness did not understand the navy.

If he is self-reliant, it will not be Yan Siqi, Zheng Zhilong, Liu Xiang who will lead the troops south to quell the rebellion, but it is very likely that his Royal Highness will lead the troops to quell the rebellion in person.

Although Huang Long was very confident in his naval combat ability, he still had some apprehension in his heart when he wanted to face his own highness.

Therefore, after scolding, he dissipated his anger a little, although he was still a little uncomfortable with his highness sending someone to look at him.

In his opinion, after all, he is a person promoted by King Qi, and he has nothing to do with all parties in the court, and King Qi should trust himself the most.

"Governor, this is not His Highness's concern, but His Highness's move to block the mouths of hundreds of officials."

Li Dan had a bit of a headache about Huang Long's political IQ, so he deliberately explained:

"No matter how much Your Highness believes in you, but Baiguan and Banzai always have concerns, in case you divide the territory, then ......"

"It's time to chop up all his mother's officials and feed them to the sharks! That emperor ......" Without waiting for Li Dan to finish speaking, Huang Long broke his mouth and scolded, and then he wanted to scold something, but finally endured it.

After enduring it, he couldn't help but mock:

"Incompetent stealing! The location should be occupied by those who can live! ”

"If you can't do it, just retreat obediently and give it to someone who has the ability!"

"......" Huang Long's words made Li Dan dare not take the stubble, and after finishing speaking, Huang Long also looked at Li Dan and Huang Yu and said:

"Qi Yuanfu's idea is good, you guys are ready, go to Bombay and Yanan to command the left and right navy, attack the coastal cities of the Nanyu, occupy two rivers, and block the mountain pass to encircle and suppress the Nanyu."

"If this Mirza does not retreat, I will destroy him all here!"