1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 926 The Mughal Army of the "Local Tyrant"

November 1676, 11, Gujarat, Chandravati (now Vadodara, Gujarat, India).

General Guangwei (Major General) Ren Maoyong, commander-in-chief of the coalition landing force, entered Chandrawati City surrounded by many coalition generals on a steed horse.

"Send someone to inform the navy, and ask them to collect nearby small boats, and prepare to build two pontoon bridges on the Mershi River with our army engineering unit, so that the army can attack deep in the northwest inland."

"Order the cavalry to detect the movement of the Mughal army within a radius of [-] kilometers."

"Order the military police to immediately maintain order in the city and stop any private looting activities."

"Order the Ninth Battalion of the Army and the Third Battalion of the Champa Army to move out quickly to sweep the area to the southeast; order the Seventh Battalion of the Army and the Second Battalion of the Guardian Fire Army to sweep the area to the southwest; order the Zuo Battalion of Shunguo and Luzon The Fifth Battalion of the Firearms Battalion swept the area due south and guarded the rear of the army."

"..."

Ren Maoyong continued to issue orders as he marched into the city. After several combat staff officers recorded them, they asked them to sign their names, and then rushed out to convey the orders of the commander-in-chief.

The expedition fleet wandered at sea for nearly a month, and arrived at Shanghai Fort ten days ago. After only a short rest for three days, they rushed straight to Cambay Bay.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, the coalition forces did not directly attack the most important port of Surat in the Mughal Empire. Instead, they sailed into the depths of Cambay Bay, reached the mouth of the Mershi River, and then went up for more than [-] kilometers. Landing near Dravati city.

The city of Chandrawati is just a small city with a population of 2. The Mughal army stationed there is no more than a few hundred people. Facing the attack of more than 15 coalition forces, it only resisted for less than [-] minutes before surrendering the city. Abandoned all resistance.

You know, in order to prevent the Qi State from attacking the city of Surat, the governor of Gujarat has assembled almost all the troops in the area near the city of Surat. A large-scale landing counterattack.

Unexpectedly, the people of Qi State did not follow the established script of the war to cooperate with the performance. Instead, they took a cold breath and touched the city of Chandravati and attacked the rear of the Mughal army.

Also, in this war, the Qi people have absolute maritime superiority, and they can indeed choose any weak point of the Mughals' defense and give them a fatal blow.Relatively speaking, the Mughals are completely inferior to the Qi people in terms of mobile combat, and are in an extremely passive situation.

In addition, according to news from the Bengal area, Qi's army has demonstrated strong attack power, with many firearms, and its ability to attack fortified areas is particularly outstanding.In just over ten days, several important cities in the Bengal area were easily conquered by them. The local garrisons were also vulnerable to the Qi army.

When the emperor heard that the Qi State expeditionary fleet had abandoned Bengal and headed straight for the northwest coast, he ordered the governor of Gujarat to prepare for battle, and must deal a head-on blow to the Qi State landing force.At the same time, His Majesty the Emperor also dispatched troops from Afghanistan, Sindh, Punjab, Rajasthan and other regions, and gathered them near Delhi one after another. According to the changes in the battlefield situation, he supervised heavy troops to deal with the attack of the Qi army.

It has to be said that the mobilization ability of the Mughal Empire's troops is still very strong. Before the Qi expeditionary fleet circled the northwest coast, Aurangzeb had already gathered 12 troops in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. The army, as well as a large amount of logistics, quietly waited for the arrival of the Qi army.

In order to boost morale, Aurangzeb announced that any Mughal soldier who beheads a Qi soldier will get a reward of [-] rupees, and beheading a Qi officer will get [-] to [-] rupees depending on his rank. At the same time, he will be promoted to various ranks of Mansar Abdar officers.

Of course, His Majesty's promise is definitely not empty talk, but based on countless real gold and silver. In all the barracks, hundreds of thousands of money boxes were carried to the soldiers one by one. The silver coins were scattered all over the ground, which was full of strong stimulation and temptation for all soldiers.This instantly raised the fighting enthusiasm of all Mughal Empire soldiers to the extreme.Those soldiers of Qi State who tried to attack the empire in vain, what kind of enemy are they, they are clearly moving human-shaped coins one by one!

During this period, if you want to ask which country's army is the most capable of fighting, there must be different opinions and no consensus.But if you want to ask which country's army can burn the most money and have the lowest cost performance (yes, it is cost performance), it is naturally the Mughal Empire army.

Throughout the centuries-old history of the Mughal Empire's military, its comprehensive record level is at most silver, but its money-burning level is the level of a well-deserved king in the world. Known as the No. 200 Young Master Legion in Eurasia within [-] years.

As for the Mughal army, in terms of combat power, it is far behind its counterparts in Central Asia and the Middle East.Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire and the builder of the army, was repeatedly defeated in Central Asia, and was beaten by Shaybani. In the end, he relied on Ismail I of the Persian Safavid Dynasty to make a move. Killed the old opponent, and served as the leader of the Persian army, raiding Afghanistan and northern India.

After the establishment of the Mughal Dynasty, Babur's successor Humayun also relied on the support of the Persians to restore the country.During Shah Jahan's reign, in order to fight for Afghanistan, the Mughal dynasty and the Persian army had three contests, but all ended in failure.Whether it is direct or indirect record, the army of the Mughal Empire is obviously inferior to Persia.

However, the Safavid dynasty was at a disadvantage in the contest with the Ottoman Empire. Tabriz, the old capital of the empire, was captured by the Ottoman Empire four times in the 16th century. , The army of the Safavid dynasty generally cannot defeat the Ottoman Empire.Calculated in this way, the record of the Mughal army is obviously ranked behind Ottoman and Persia. Even if it is not regarded as the five scumbags in the world, it is at most silver level.

But when it comes to local tyrants and the ability to burn money, the Persians and Ottomans must kneel down and worship the Mughals.In the second half of the 16th century, the annual income of the Ottoman Empire was about 600 million ducats of gold coins. In the early 17th century, it was reduced to 200 million ducats of gold coins due to the collapse of silver coins.The Persians who fell in love with the Ottomans had similar financial resources. In the middle of the 16th century, their income was 500 million gold coins, which dropped to 16 million gold coins by the end of the 300th century.

Of course, gold coins were not the main currency of these two empires, but silver coins, and the comparison of silver coins is more straightforward. In the middle of the 17th century, the financial revenue of the Ottoman Empire was more than 5 million Akqi silver coins. By this period, the revenue had reached 5.8 million Akqi.The silver content of Akche was 16 grams of silver in the 17th and 0.85th centuries, which means that the fiscal revenue of the Ottoman Empire was converted into about 1600 million taels of silver.

In the era of Akbar at the end of the 16th century, the financial revenue of the Mughal Empire reached 1.3 million rupees; in the period of Aurangzeb, it reached 3.3 million rupees. income.The weight of the rupee silver coin of the Mughal Dynasty was 6000 grams, and the silver content was about 11.5%. Almost three rupees could be exchanged for one tael of silver.In other words, the fiscal revenue of the Mughal Dynasty during this period was 1 million taels to 1.1 million taels converted into silver, which was six times the income of the Ottoman Empire.

The local tyrants of the Mughal Dynasty also paid frighteningly high salaries to officers.It implements a military contracting system for commanders, leaving aside the necessary expenses, each Mansar Abdar officer who commands a team of 500 can get an income of 1000 rupees, and the monthly net income of a 5000-man Mansar Abdar officer It is 18000 rupees (that is, 6000 taels of silver).

As for the salaries of the low-level soldiers, they are also settled every two months, and there is a fine tradition of never defaulting on wages. Not to mention that the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty at the same time will burst into tears when they hear about it, even their European counterparts cannot match it. For a conscientious employer.The musketeers of the Mughal dynasty had to get double wages, and according to the tradition of the dynasty’s army, they would give priority to hiring Persian and Ottoman soldiers. The Portuguese and Dutch were often poached by the Mughal army.

The salaries of artillerymen are even more local tyrants. Any European mercenary with artillery who has served in the Mughal army for more than ten years can return to his hometown, marry Bai Fumei, reach the pinnacle of life, and become a proper winner in life.

What is even more exaggerated is that when the Mughal army was dispatched, there were as many as six figures of servants and young ladies accompanying them in and out of the barracks, turning the entire barracks into a huge mobile and noisy city.

The inherent local tyrant nature of the Mughal Empire army made them unwilling to fight the impoverished Persians in the barren Afghan region, which was too uneconomical.

You know, the poor Afghan region can only bring it an income of 200 million to 400 rupees a year, but a random war will cost 4000 million rupees in military expenditures. This input-output is obviously not directly proportional!Therefore, the Mughal Empire simply threw most of Afghanistan to the Persians.

For more than ten years, the Mughal Empire has continued to use troops in the northwest region, fighting endlessly with rebel local tribes there.But there were basically no large-scale wars. Under the strong military deterrence, the empire mainly relied on political and economic means to gradually disintegrate the will of local tribes to resist.

By appointing tribal leaders who obeyed Delhi one by one, and then rewarding them with a lot of money and goods, the empire exchanged for temporary peace in the northwest region.The governor of Afghanistan, Amir Khan, who was praised by His Majesty the Emperor as talented, is not good at force.When he served as governor, in order to win over the local Pashtuns, he gave a lot of bribes, so that he was able to gain the loyalty of the local people, as well as local appeasement and unimpeded roads.

This time, the Qi people came to fight, and the Mughal Empire was going to continue to use their local tyrants to "smash" Qi's army with money in exchange for the final victory.
-
November 11, Ankleshwar.

Muhammad Adil, the governor of Gujarat of the Mughal Empire, was riding on a majestic Mawari horse, holding the rein in his left hand and holding a binoculars in his right hand, looking across the Narmada River.

A week ago, news came from Chandrawati that after capturing this small town, the Qi army only stayed for less than two days to rest, and then led the troops across the Mershi River to the southwestern Gujarat town of Ai. Ahmedabad (now Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat) rushed forward.

The people of Qi took aim at the extremely empty troops in the inland area, and chose to attack and plunder the place wantonly, and ravaged Gujarat, the richest country.

After Muhammad Adil received the news, he hesitated for two days, fearing that the Qi people would attack the west, so he led them out of Surat, and then shot a feint to capture Surat with their mobile and flexible fleet.

But in the next few days, more and more information came. After the Qi army looted the small city of Chandravati, the whole army went to the northwest, and successively captured Anand, Nadiad, and Mahmuda. Wade, and then across the Wat Ak River, less than thirty kilometers from Ahmedabad.

Muhammad Adil panicked immediately. After leaving more than 20 troops to garrison Surat, he led [-] soldiers and more than [-] servants, officers, concubines, and a large number of civilians to the Qi army. .You know, Ahmedabad is the largest and most prosperous city in the west of the Mughal Empire, with a population of more than [-] and more than [-] cotton fabric factories. It is the main economic center of the Gujarat region, and it is also an important cotton spinning center.

If this city is captured by the people of Qi, His Majesty the Emperor will be furious. At that time, his official career may also be terribly hit, his property will be deprived, and he will become a pitiful and helpless sinner.

"Cross the river!"

After the sentry reported that there was no Qi army on the other side of the Narmada River, Muhammad Adil immediately gave the order to cross the river.Numerous conscripted boats were pushed into the river, thousands of peasants and soldiers quickly built several pontoon bridges, and teams of cavalry quickly rushed to the other side of the river, and then headed towards the small town of Broch ahead.

In just three days, more than 2 troops and more than [-] handymen crossed the Narmada River, then rested for half a day in Broch, and then attacked Chandrawati under the escort of cavalry .

On November 11, the Mughal army successfully "recovered" Chandrawati. At this time, after receiving news from the front, the Qi army had already entered Ahmedabad and began to storm the city, but was attacked by two thousand guards in the city. The heroic counterattack of the army temporarily protected the city.

Muhammad Adil immediately ordered [-] cavalrymen under his command to cross the Moshi River immediately, rush to the aid of Ahmedabad, cooperate with the defenders in the city, try their best to hold back the Qi army's offensive, wait for the arrival of the army, and surround and annihilate it under the city.

"Your Excellency, Surat was attacked by Qi's army."

Just as Muhammad Adil commanded the troops to leave Chandrawati City and was about to cross the river, a message from Surat City for help suddenly came from behind, which immediately put him in a dilemma.

"How many Qi troops attacked Surat City?" Adil's face was extremely ugly.

Isn't the Qi army besieging Ahmedabad ahead?Why did they suddenly go around behind us and raid Surat City?

"The number of Qi's army is between [-] and [-]." The messenger looked panic-stricken, "The Qi army's firepower is very fierce, and the number of artillery used is as many as hundreds, and its power and destructive power are also unprecedented for us. ... General Akram said that if there is no reinforcements to help, the city of Surat may not be able to hold on."

"Hundreds of cannons!" Adil was shocked by this number, "The people of Qi have so many cannons?...Did they drive their gunboats to land?"

"Lord Governor..."

"Shahzad!" Adil pondered for a while, and finally decided to divide his troops to rescue Surat, lest the most critical port city of the empire would not be captured by the Qi army. Special, we must ensure that the city is not lost!"

"Yes, Your Excellency Governor!" Shahzad promised in a deep voice.

"Your Excellency, the Qi army came from afar, and the number of troops must be small. But at this time, they divided their troops into two and raided the two cities of Ahmedabad and Surat. There must be some tricks. In this situation Now, we should not divide our troops to respond, but must resolutely concentrate all our forces, attack a part of them, and annihilate the living forces.” The artillery commander, Portuguese Nuno Mendez frowned, wanting to stop Adil’s plan to divide his troops .

"Ahmedabad and Surat are both the most important cities in Gujarat, and there is no room for any loss." Adil said solemnly: "According to the news from Bangladesh, the number of troops in the Qi State is about There are about 2 people. Now, they have divided their troops into two places, making each of them extremely weak, which can be used by us. With our solid city defense and superior force, we can definitely wipe them out under the city."

"Your Excellency, the Qi army is powerful, but it is not comparable to the Maratha army, nor is it as weak as the tribal armed forces in the northwest." Nuno Mendes said eagerly: "More than ten years ago, the people of Qi only relied on numbers. With a thousand men, you can cross tens of thousands of miles, conquer Egypt, and defeat the Mamluk cavalry that is several times larger than yourself. If we don’t have more than three times the strength advantage, we may not be able to defeat the army of Qi!”

"The people of Qi fought wars only because of the many firearms they possessed." Adil was stunned for a moment, and then said with firm eyes: "But our Mughal Empire army has no less firearms than the people of Qi, even after we divide our troops, The strength of the two armies is twice as strong as theirs. Even if they cannot completely defeat the people of Qi, they can still drag them into a stalemate, waiting for His Majesty to send troops to help."

(End of this chapter)