New Shun 1730

As the number of Dashun troops on the beach camp increased, the loyalty of the traitor Jafar to the British became higher.

Historically, Jafar tried to be a powerful leader and also tried to be independent because he found that the British appetite was getting bigger and bigger. He was unwilling to continue to be a puppet because he was the second in command under Siraj. It was meaningless to wait for the British to come and treat himself as a puppet.

Historically, he asked the Dutch East India Company for help. In the Seven Years' War, the Netherlands was neutral and the British did not want to involve the Netherlands in the war. The Dutch East India Company knew that the British did not want to involve the Netherlands in the war, so they took this opportunity to help. Then, the Dutch were no longer even the sunset, and after being beaten by the British, Jafar was also deposed.

After that dethronement, Jafar realized that being a dog was actually good.

So after working hard for a few years, he finally had the opportunity to show his loyalty to the British and was once again promoted to the position of Jiedushi of Bengal. Even his direct sixth-generation grandson is the first president after the establishment of Pakistan. The family can be said to have benefited from being a dog.

The current situation is different from that in history. The Dutch left early; the French had a grudge against him; the Danes themselves were trembling in fear when facing the Dashun troops, and they dared not send troops to help; the Portuguese have now become a British colony, so that historically, the reason why Spain participated in the Seven Years' War and declared war on Portugal was to rescue Portugal from British colonial rule; the Afghans were not considered external forces...

So, even if Jafar wanted to fight against Britain, the only external force he could find in theory was Dashun.

But Dashun made a decision that many people could not understand, which was to rescue Siraj.

Before, Dashun had always been very low-key, especially in the matter of Siraj. But now, with Dashun's soldiers landing and setting up camps at the mouth of the Hooghly River, there is no need to be low-key about this matter.

Moreover, Siraj also specifically let out a message that this time he would only punish the chief culprit in the restoration.

Moreover, if anyone could be an insider and chop off the heads of Jafar, his aunt and more than 20 other people who must be killed, he would be rewarded after he was restored as the Jiedushi.

As for where the reward came from... it would naturally come from the property of those 20 people.

For a time, Jafar and others were in a state of panic.

There is an old Chinese saying that if you start with this, you must end with this.

The betrayer was betrayed by the new betrayer, which seemed to be in line with the derivative meaning of "If you start with this, you must end with this."

However, Jafar was a little confused about the operation of Dashun.

After all, Jafar was also the one who controlled the most combat-capable cavalry in Bengal before. As a general, he still had the most basic vision of war.

In theory, if he came to fight this battle, he should have quickly captured Calcutta and eliminated the British with lightning speed. Then he would deal with him.

The news of Dashun's siege of Fort St. George and the news of Fort St. George's capture came almost one after another.

Even when the Dashun navy arrived at the mouth of the Hooghly River and the vanguard began to land, this side had not yet reacted.

With such a speed of attacking the fort, Fort William, which was burned by Siraj and had a damaged defense, was obviously easier to break than Fort George. The more than a thousand people who landed before, with just a surprise attack, could have directly broken through Fort William and defeated the British.

However, Dashun did not do this.

On the contrary, it slowly built camps on the coast, unloaded supplies, and gathered troops.

This seems to be wrong from the perspective of military strategy. Because this will give Jafar and others the opportunity to gather troops and join forces with the British army.

But, in fact, war is a continuation of politics.

And politics is about interests.

The reason why Dashun prefers not to sneak attack Fort William, but to slowly station troops, and even give the opponent the opportunity to join forces, so that it seems to be a taboo in military strategy, is that this is not just a simple battle.

Instead, Dashun wants to take the opportunity to get rid of the old forces in Bengal, as well as some local forces that made Dashun feel uncomfortable and obviously unable to cooperate.

High investment, high return.

The higher the investment, the more likely it is that the old forces in Bengal will be eliminated in one war, and the tax revenue will be raised next year.

Moreover, most of the merchants who cooperated with the British would lose their pants once Dashun conquered Bengal, and they would hate Dashun to death at that time.

After all, they were originally responsible for exports.

According to basic business principles, one pound of silk cloth and one pound of raw silk are actually one pound, and they also occupy one pound of load on the ship. The more finished products, the higher the profit, so the capital of the British East India Company is more inclined to buy finished products to obtain the highest profit in a capital turnover cycle.

Dashun does not want finished products at all, but wants to sell Dashun's finished products to Bengal.

This also means that Bengal's industry, commerce, import and export comprador merchants will definitely have a big reshuffle.

Stationing troops at the estuary is forcing the old forces in Bengal, nobles, princes, landlords, and merchants, to choose sides and stand in the team.

Once the election is made, if Dashun wins, they can kill, capture, rob, confiscate, and punish.

This will not cause great panic, and the rest of the people will think that this is Dashun's revenge on those who helped the British army before.

It is normal to accept the loss of the bet. Who told you to be blind before and bet on the British East India Company? The rest of the people will not worry about Dashun's methods falling on their heads.

If you start with fast and slow, and defeat them one by one, attack Fort William first and then Jafar... This will be difficult to deal with.

If the British failed, those who were dissatisfied with Dashun would not dare to take sides. Without external forces, they did not believe that Jafar could resist Dashun, which defeated the British.

By then, it would be a mess, and it would be difficult for Dashun to deal with it, and it would be inconvenient to kill people.

For some things, it might be the best solution to make up a crime and kill people, or even force those people to rebel.

Dashun hoped that they would gather together and make a cesspool to prevent flies from flying around, so that they could fight directly.

They did not disappoint Dashun. Soon, the people on the Bengal side got together with the British army in Fort William to discuss countermeasures.

Du Feng's quick victory at Fort George also played a psychological oppression effect of military myth when these people discussed countermeasures.

Because, if Fort St. George was not captured so quickly, in theory, there was another way to deal with Dashun's army.

That is, the British Navy sank all its warships downstream of Calcutta to block the waterway and prevent the Dashun warships from threatening Fort William.

The Navy moved all the cannons to Fort William to strengthen its defense.

The sailors landed and did not fight on the shore, but all settled in Fort William.

The navy's cannons and sailors greatly strengthened the defense of Fort William.

The Bengal army assembled in Rajshahi and other places.

If Dashun attacked Fort William first, then with a large number of defenders and enhanced artillery, if there was no Dashun siege myth that had been created during the Battle of Southeast Asia, which was continued by Fort St. George, it would not be a problem to defend until the rainy season in theory.

By then, the Dashun army attacking the city would be exhausted, so the Bengal army could launch a counterattack.

It is a taboo for military strategists to stop troops under a strong city.

However, the incident at Fort St. George had already happened. After Vice Admiral Watson proposed this plan, Jafar immediately raised objections.

In fact, Clive and Lieutenant Colonel Coote also strongly opposed this plan.

However, the reasons for their opposition were different from those of Jafar and other Bengalis.

Clive's reason for opposition was:

Fort William's defense system was definitely not as complete as Fort St. George.

According to the news from Fort St. George, Dashun captured the fort with no more than fifty casualties.

There were also British troops over there, so how could they be sure that Fort William could hold on for a few months?

Indeed, Dashun's navy could deter Fort St. George. If the navy sank here, Dashun's navy would not be able to reach the Calcutta River Port, and would not be able to bombard Fort William with a fleet.

However, fleet bombardment and rapid attack were only Dashun's informal siege methods.

Clive said that Dashun's siege methods were very mature, and they were obviously inherited from the Vauban system, which was beyond doubt.

This formal siege method was the norm for Dashun's siege, while Fort St. George was an accidental gambling tactic.

If Dashun adopted the Vauban system to attack the city, it would not need the help of naval guns at all.

Moreover, according to the regular siege method, Fort William has a big flaw.

Because the main defense direction of Fort William is on the side facing the Hooghly River. At the beginning of its construction, the main enemies considered were the French, Dutch, and even Danes who were equally powerful on the other side of the river.

And the side far away from the Hooghly River was originally a swamp, and it was indeed impossible to launch an attack there.

But... with the development over the years, a large number of textile industry practitioners have gathered in Kolkata. Moreover, when the tax farming rights were obtained from the Mughal, the population in Kolkata was not large, and the company also intended to gather a large number of people in Kolkata.

Now, it is really shooting itself in the foot.

A large population has drained the swamp, making the direction that originally did not need to be defended, and now the swamp can no longer make up for the lack of defense.

Moreover, according to the standard Vauban system of attacking bastions, under the dense zigzag trenches, the heavy gun carriages and naval guns that cannot adjust the angle, what use is there?

The zigzag trenches were not afraid of cannons, especially the cannons with fixed gun mounts used by the fleet.

No matter how many naval guns there were, they were fine for the Indians who attacked the city like ants, but for the Dashun people, who had a long tradition of digging tunnels, filling coal smoke, digging trenches, and building convex surfaces to attack and defend the city since two thousand years ago, these cannons were meaningless.

Especially when the Dashun attacked the city, the most disgusting thing was not their heavy cannons, but those howitzers that could fire shrapnel shells and small cannons with low chamber pressure.

Relying on the zigzag trenches to dig, as long as they got close, the cannons with heavy gun mounts used by the fleet would be targets.

And to deal with these howitzers and curved mortars that were digging close, troops had to be sent out of the bastions to counterattack.

The problem was that the Dashun side had special grenadiers suitable for trench warfare. Although they did not use the name of grenadiers, their essence was similar, and they were all specialized arms for fortress warfare. The elite grenadiers of the former Prussian king were simply on the wrong track. If we only consider field battles, the grenadiers are not cost-effective, and are not as cost-effective as the Dashun's route of specialized fortress attack and defense engineers.

Relying on a group of sailors and a group of colonial privates to fight back from the bastions and compete with professional grenadiers for positions in trenches? Such a commander could be shot.

And if they didn't fight for it, the Dashun engineers who dug pits faster and more professionally than moles would soon deploy their howitzers and mortars in front of the trenches of the bastions, and with their disgusting hot air balloon reconnaissance, they would send the naval guns into the sky one by one.

Therefore, Clive and Coote came to the conclusion: nonsense, they couldn't hold on for a few months.