The first thousand four hundred and eighty-three chapters
Dong Qiankun captured the city of Colombo in eighteen days!
This time is not too long for conquering a bastion.
If we include the time it took to land in Mali City, accept North Colon City, land and attack the strongholds around Nega, and cross the sea and land in Colombo City, the total time is nearly two months.
However, even two months is a very short time for the Indian Ocean battlefield of this era, not to mention that the losses of the expeditionary force were very small. After more than two months of fighting, the battle casualties were less than a thousand.
However, the non-combat casualties exceeded a thousand!
There were few casualties in battles because the Tang military, regardless of whether it was the army or the navy, was very powerful.
Especially the army, they always use artillery to attack the enemy's city. Before the infantry launches a charge, they often use a large number of artillery to smash the enemy's city to pieces.
The subsequent infantry charge to attack the city was actually more like a mopping up operation in a sense.
In this way, the battle casualties will be so small.
If there is no such powerful firepower, especially a large number of grenades, and only ordinary solid bullets are used to launch artillery attacks, if the infantry charges and attacks these fortresses, it will take at least tens of thousands of troops and besieged for several months.
It is impossible to win with more than 10,000 casualties.
Fortunately, Datang has mature and reliable grenades!
Even though these grenades cannot be compared with the grenades of later generations. The charges are all black powder, but don't underestimate black powder. Black powder is also very powerful. Historically, it has been used until the mid-to-late 19th century.
It was gradually eliminated by yellow explosives and TNT, and was even used in some countries until the early twentieth century. During the Russo-Japanese War and even during World War I, black powder was still active on the battlefield, and in some backward countries, even during World War II
During this period, you can still see examples of black powder being used on the battlefield.
Therefore, even black powder is very powerful.
In particular, Datang's black powder was tested and developed by teachers and students of the Royal Institute of Technology in the early days, and a relatively good formula was obtained. Later, the R&D departments affiliated to the three major weapons companies continued to conduct in-depth research and development and adjusted the proportions.
, upgrade the processing technology.
The black gunpowder of the Tang Dynasty is now very different from the black gunpowder of the pre-Ming Dynasty, and even the black gunpowder used in the early Tang Dynasty, and its power has been greatly improved.
As for Datang's grenades, in order to pursue the power of the explosion, the explosive charge has always been relatively large, and they also like to use larger-caliber artillery to launch the grenades.
The Tang Dynasty military had short-barreled howitzers specifically designed to launch large-caliber grenades. Among them, the 48-pound short-barreled howitzer had a caliber of 200 millimeters.
Although the accuracy of this kind of short-barreled howitzer with a caliber of 200 mm is very poor, you basically don't need to count on it when carrying out artillery bombardment. However, the Tang Army has never used them as precision strike weapons, and they are usually aimed at the enemy.
If the city fires directly, it will be considered a hit when the shells land in the enemy's city anyway.
Because of the huge explosive power of such large-caliber grenades, they don't have to deliberately pursue hit accuracy at all.
Moreover, the damage is not only based on shrapnel, but the shock wave is also extremely lethal.
This 200mm short-barreled howitzer has always been the great weapon of the Tang Dynasty Army. Basically, it will be carried with it whenever it comes. This time Dong Qiankun led the army on an expedition, naturally it is no exception. In addition to the army's own 200mm
In addition to howitzers, we also requested multiple 200mm mortars from the Navy.
Navy battleships have always been equipped with 48-pound short-barreled mortars. Although the Navy calls them mortars and the Army calls them short-barreled howitzers, they are actually the same thing, and even the size is exactly the same.
The Army has no problem using it.
In addition to these powerful 48-pound and 200-pound howitzers, there are also a large number of 24-pound, 18-pound, 14-pound, 9-pound and other artillery pieces. These artillery pieces are all capable of launching grenades. Although their explosive power is
It's comparable to a 48-pound grenade, but it's not that weak.
Facing the fierce artillery fire from the Tang army, basically no army these days can withstand it!
Even the bastion, which is said to have the most powerful defensive capabilities in the modern era, is powerless in the face of large-scale howitzer bombardment. After all, the original design intention of the bastion is to resist the siege of enemy infantry and the bombardment of enemy solid artillery shells.
For the defense of grenades, the bastion is also inadequate.
To defend against grenades, one can only use trenches or simply completely surrounded fortresses, as later generations did. However, most contemporary fortresses lack this kind of design. Even the Tang Army itself is actually not very good at resisting its own forces.
Artillery method.
After the use of artillery by the Tang Army and the advancement of technology, artillery has truly become a decisive force that affects the direction of battles.
Under the artillery bombardment of the Tang Dynasty, the Portuguese even relied on the bastion to resist, but in the end they had to succumb to the artillery of the Tang Dynasty!
The capture of Colombo City does not mean that the first phase of the Indian Ocean decisive battle plan has been successfully completed. The next step is to rely on Colombo, Nega City, North Colon City and other strongholds in the waters surrounding Ceylon Island to completely blockade
The waters around the island of Ceylon, especially the Palk Strait, were used to cut off the Portuguese's maritime connections on the east and west coasts of India.
But these subsequent events have nothing to do with Dong Qiankun!
He led his army to capture Colombo. As the first mixed brigade of the Tang Dynasty Army Expeditionary Force, he also served as the commander-in-chief of the landing force. He did not care about other things. Instead, he led his army to station in Colombo City to rest and recuperate and wait for supplies.
and staff recruitment.
In the Battle of Ceylon, although his troops suffered many battle casualties, they also suffered many non-combat casualties. Although these non-combat casualties were of various kinds, most of them were due to various diseases. His troops
They were all newly transferred from China. Although they had been trained in amphibious landing operations, they had rushed all the way to India and then fought with the Portuguese. The soldiers were exhausted and they were not very adaptable to the local climate.
Basically, people fell ill every day, which made Dong Qiankun very worried. He was even more afraid that a large number of diseases would sweep the entire army, so after taking Colombo, he implemented very strict health management.
Each unit is stationed separately, and once someone gets sick, especially a seemingly ordinary disease like a cold, they are relocated as soon as possible.
At the same time, the health teams of each army are also disinfecting the entire city of Colombo. Not only the city after the war is more prone to infectious diseases such as plague, but also because the city of Colombo, which was originally controlled by the Portuguese, has a very poor health condition.
of bad.
Nowadays, whenever Datang goes to a place, the first thing they do is often to clean up the city. Sometimes, for the sake of health and safety, they will directly abandon the original old city and build a new city nearby.
However, Dong Qiankun was so cautious several times, but thousands of people still fell ill.
After the Battle of Ceylon Island, Dong Qiankun's troops lost less than a thousand casualties in the battle, and the number killed in the battle was less than 400.
However, the non-combat attrition has reached more than 1,300 people, which directly exceeds the combat attrition. Among them, the number of people who died directly from illness has exceeded 100, and a considerable number of the remaining patients may not survive.
Come.
The level of medical care these days is so poor. Getting sick is basically like stepping into the gate of hell. Whether you can survive it all depends on whether God will give you face.
The combat attrition and non-combat attrition always reached 2,300 people, which caused the total strength of Dong Qiankun's troops to drop directly to less than 10,000 people, which made Dong Qiankun quite upset.
So he wanted to rest for a while and wait for reinforcements from the rear. It was impossible to get reinforcements directly from the country. He wanted to see if he could get reinforcements from the expeditionary force headquarters!
The Datang Army reorganized the Seventh Army and Indian troops this year, and established the Seventh Army domestically. The 19th Infantry Division and other units are under the jurisdiction of the newly established Datang Army Expeditionary Force Headquarters.
Dong Qiankun and his troops are also under the control of the expeditionary force.
But the shortage of two thousand people may not be easily replenished.
The Indian Expeditionary Force Headquarters in Gehe Prefecture was also in a dilemma after receiving Dong Qiankun's request for reinforcements. The expeditionary force was actually a struggle. There were only a few real main forces. Nineteenth
Infantry Division, the 1st Composite Brigade of the Expeditionary Force, and the 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment of the Expeditionary Force, which was split from the original 7th Artillery Brigade.
Among these units, the 19th Infantry Division is located in several places, and the 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment is also split into several parts, garrisoning areas such as Gohe Prefecture.
The First Mixed Brigade of the Expeditionary Force has already been dispatched to Ceylon Island. There is no other main force on hand at all, but the losses of the Ceylon Island landing force are indeed not small.
With less than 10,000 people left, it would be difficult to cross the sea and land in Africa.
In the end, there was no other way. The main force could not be transferred. The Indian Expeditionary Force headquarters simply transferred two infantry battalions from Datang Western Trading Company to Dong Qiankun.
The headquarters of the Indian Expeditionary Force of the Datang Army not only manages the 19th Infantry Division and the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Expeditionary Force, but also the 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment, more than 10,000 ground combat troops in the company's fleet, and the 5th Marine Regiment of the Navy.
It falls under their rule.
The two infantry battalions of the company fleet were originally stationed in Mali City and another stronghold not far from Nega City. They belonged to the Ceylon Island Garrison. During the Battle of Ceylon Island, these two battalions originally cooperated with the landing.
Troops fight.
After a series of battles, the number of troops was reduced. At present, the total strength is only more than 1,500. The expeditionary force headquarters directly integrated the two infantry battalions into the company fleet's first infantry regiment, and then dispatched them to Dong Qiankun.
After replenishing the troops, ammunition and other supplies, Dong Qiankun led the Second Joint Landing Fleet to go to sea again. This time, they will cross the Indian Ocean and attack Madagascar, the largest island on the east coast of Africa.
!
This expedition is an expedition in the true sense. Just sailing on the sea will last for several months. To be honest, it is still unknown how many of such a huge fleet will be able to reach Madagascar.
If you are unlucky and encounter a storm during the voyage, it is not uncommon for the entire army to be wiped out!