The English's actions in the city were not small. After all, they had to build a large number of fortifications in the city. Without enough fortifications, they would not be able to defeat the Chu army even in street fighting.

After all, this is not the future, and infantrymen do not have many rifles that can shoot accurately. It is not easy to shoot black guns.

The so-called street fighting actually relies on the complex terrain formed by the many buildings in the city to carry out defensive operations, thereby avoiding the threat of a large number of artillery pieces from the Chu army outside the city.

After all, the artillery of the Chu army was deployed outside the city, and most of the artillery trajectories these days are relatively straight.

When the city defenders hide directly behind the city wall in the second direction for defensive operations, the tall city wall itself will form an obstacle to prevent the large number of shells fired by the Chu army's artillery from falling directly into the second line of defense behind the city wall.

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This is the British army’s plan!

However, the British army obviously did not know enough about the Chu army, and it was not clear enough that the Chu army was equipped with a large number of light howitzers.

The so-called light howitzers in the Chu army are actually smoothbore mortars to a certain extent, with very short barrels... The purpose of the Chu army's equipment is to use the large curved trajectory of the mortars to launch explosive grenades

Attack enemies hiding inside fortifications and behind them.

Because after this thing is shot out, it may fall directly on top of the enemy's head and explode, or it may simply explode in the air.

Ordinary fortifications against solid artillery shells are actually not very effective against the Chu army's deflection grenades. If you want to better defend against the Chu army's explosive grenades, the best solution is to build some relatively narrow trenches, or simply

Construct a covered grenade-proof fortification.

This is what the Ming army and the Dongji people did back then... They were beaten too hard by the Chu army, and the battle between the two sides took a long time, so they gradually developed a relatively complete anti-grenade fortification system.

But it is obvious that the defense concepts of the indigenous people abroad, including these European colonists, still stop at defending against solid artillery shells, and mainly use bastion fortifications.

Whether it is the Dutch or the English, their bastion-like fortifications are particularly useful when facing other indigenous people, and they are also very useful when facing their European counterparts, but when facing the Chu army with a large number of howitzers, what are these?

Bastion defenses are useless.

Why was the bastion defense system that had been prevalent for hundreds of years finally abandoned?

It is because grenades have become popular on a large scale, and the defensive effect of traditional bastions in the face of explosive grenades... is not as good as digging a ditch (trench).

Of course, bastions are also gradually developing, and eventually evolved into a fortress defense system that is integrated with the terrain, but this is no longer a bastion.

The English's outdated defense system in Bombay Castle was severely beaten by the Chu army, and they were eventually forced to abandon city defense and switch to street fighting.

To be precise, building a second line of defense behind the city wall is not the same thing as street fighting in the later sense.

As a result, when the infantry of the 72nd Division began to move forward cautiously and tentatively to attack, they found that the British army had given up the defense of the perimeter and even the city walls.

Just when the Chu army thought that the British army in the city had been defeated like the He army in Colombo, Ceylon, they immediately discovered that the first batch of their own troops who tried to cross the city to continue the attack were hit by fire from within the city.

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Because the situation was unclear, the Chu army began to withdraw from the city after suffering a small number of casualties.

When Major General Bai Zhen learned that the troops entering the city had been counterattacked not far from the city wall, he immediately laughed: "These English barbarians still want to fight in the streets..."

Then he said to the officers behind him: "Gentlemen, now the barbarians in the city are trying to resist through street fighting. What do you think we should do?"

Immediately, a major staff officer said: "Simple, follow many previous battle examples, directly pull small and medium-sized artillery into the city, get close and fire!"

"At the same time, the heavy artillery troops outside the city continued to conduct covering howitzer bombardments on the city, supplemented by large-scale arson."

"Blast the buildings in the city into rubble, burn them to ashes, and then just clean the battlefield."

Major General Bai Zhen nodded slightly after hearing this. His subordinates' answers were quite satisfactory. They didn't even need to think of a solution, they could just copy many previous battle examples.

Facing the strong artillery firepower of the Chu Empire, especially the large-scale howitzer bombardment, the English were not the first army to want to abandon the city wall and retreat to the city to engage in street fighting.

Before the English, the Ming Army, the Eastern Banshee Army, and even many indigenous armies had done this.

During the Unification War, during the Battle of Jinzhou, which destroyed the Dongchu people, because the Dongzi people tried to retreat to the city and engage in street fighting with the Chu army in the final stage, the Chu army directly resorted to bombardment and arson, directly reducing Jinzhou City to ruins.

When the Chu Empire was expanding in Southeast Asia, the Kingdom of Johor also tried to retreat to the city in its last stubborn resistance... As a result, the Chu army again reduced the city to ruins.

As for sending troops into the city to fight for a street or a house with the enemy?

Only a fool would do such a thing.

Therefore, after discovering that the British troops retreated to the city and tried to fight in the streets, the Chu army on the one hand opened up the area around the north city gate and adopted the method of surrounding three and one to reduce the determination of the defenders in the city and try to shake their morale and morale.

They left the city.

The tactical purpose of besieging three enemies and one enemy is to leave a way for the enemy to retreat and then shake their determination to defend the city. This is an honest conspiracy.

In addition to encircling three and one, the Chu army sent troops to garrison the city walls and gates, and began to bring a large number of small and medium-sized artillery closer to the city.

The main force will be the two types of infantry support artillery, the 65mm field guns and the 115mm light howitzers. In addition, some 115mm field guns and even 150mm light howitzers have also been brought in.

These artillery pieces will fire shotgun shells, grenades and even solid artillery shells at close range to bombard enemies along the way one by one.

This kind of gameplay is equivalent to bayoneting the artillery...

This two-pronged approach, coupled with the fact that the Chu army was still firing incendiary bombs, was actually firing red-hot solid cannonballs. This is a type of traditional naval gun ammunition, specially used to hit wooden sail warships.

Yes, the effect is very good.

When it comes to doing this on land, the effect is actually quite good... After all, in cities these days, except for a few areas where wood is lacking, there are relatively few wooden buildings. In fact, in most places, except for a few official or official buildings,

Except for religious buildings, other buildings are basically made of wood.

Even many official buildings and even fortresses are mainly made of wood.

Civilian buildings are dominated by wooden buildings. This is true whether in the East or the West. As for the reason? There is no reason, it is that wooden buildings are cheaper. (Exceptions are in very few areas that lack wood, such as desert areas.)<

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As for later generations who think that there are many stone buildings in Europe... that is because stone buildings last longer, and Europeans like to build various religious sites. At the same time, wars are frequent and various lords will also build stone fortresses, so the remaining stones

There are many buildings.

However, most civilian buildings and even some wooden forts are still the mainstream, but they have been preserved and gradually disappeared from history due to frequent wars.

In the 19th century, after entering the stage of rapid industrialization, more and more civil stone buildings began to be used. After the emergence of cement, the entire city was dominated by stone and cement buildings.

The entire evolution process is actually similar to the evolution process in China after the 20th century. Cities gradually changed from wooden buildings to cement buildings.

The city of Bombay in the mid-to-late seventeenth century was no exception. A large number of buildings in the city were still mainly wooden buildings. Only a few special buildings such as fortresses, residences of high-ranking officials, and churches were stone buildings.

Such a city with a large number of wooden buildings would inevitably burst into flames when it was bombarded by the Chu army and even launched a large number of arson bombs!

The British defenders were dumbfounded when they saw the fire all over the city...

They didn't understand. A war is a war, but why did the Chu people burn the city?

Even if the two sides are fighting, what the two sides are doing is just to seize colonies. After breaking the city, they will loot, loot and then set fire to it. The British can actually understand...

But the problem is, you don’t even have a gun to rob, you just set fire to Bombay. What are you people from Chu trying to do?

This is purely a thankless waste of money.

Is it possible that you Chu people are here just to fight us English people?

Naturally, it was difficult for the British to understand some of the thinking of the Chu people. Their guess was indeed correct. To be precise, the Chu people did not come to capture Bombay, but to expel the British.

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What the Chu Empire wanted was to expel all European colonists from the Indian Peninsula, control all the colonies of coastal countries on the Indian Peninsula, and then monopolize all foreign trade and the internal market of the Indian Peninsula.

As for one or two colonial cities, that actually doesn't matter...at worst, we can just go back and rebuild.

Even if it is reconstruction, it does not cost the military money. The army will not let its soldiers and indigenous barbarians fight at close range for the possible reconstruction costs in the future, and then fight for each house one by one.

What?

Just burn it on fire, it’s simple, convenient and trouble-free!

The fire in Bombay burned for three full days, burning most of the city to ashes. Many British soldiers and their servants, the indigenous soldiers, were not killed or injured in the Chu army's attack, but died in the fire.

Next.

At the same time, the Chu army's combat method of direct burning and continuous shelling panicked countless British troops, which in turn triggered a large wave of fleeing. Many people began to retreat towards the north city area, and even crossed the northern city wall and went directly to

North Escape.

Under such circumstances, even if the top brass of the British army wanted to continue to hold on to Bombay, it would be impossible.

Three days later, the senior leaders of the English East India Company were forced to order a full retreat. They tried to escape back to Surat, more than 250 kilometers north of Bombay.

Surat is also the first colonial stronghold of the British East India Company on the Indian Peninsula, and it is the place where they have been operating for the longest time.

Now that the British were defeated in Bombay and fled, and the sea was completely blocked by the 31st Squadron of the Chu Empire Navy, they were unable to escape by sea. Naturally, they had no choice but to flee north and try to escape back to Surat.<

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However, Major General Bai Zhen naturally dared to form an encirclement formation, and even did not deploy a large number of troops to the north for an ambush in order to reassure the British that they could escape.

But this does not mean that Major General Bai Zhen is not prepared.

Surrounding three people and one person is a conspiracy. If you don't escape, you will die, but if you escape, it is actually death.

As soon as the British army fled, two cavalry posts of the Chu army's 72nd Cavalry Regiment, totaling more than 500 cavalry, chased after them!

When a cavalry unit equipped with two horses maneuvers over short and medium distances, its speed is not comparable to that of ordinary infantry, nor can it be compared to a fleeing team carrying a large number of guns, ammunition, supplies, or even a large group of old, weak, women, and children.

In just two days, the British army, with their families and their families in tow, had only traveled 45 kilometers north when they were overtaken by the 72nd Cavalry Regiment.

At this time, the British army still had hundreds of mercenary infantry, plus hundreds of militiamen, with a total strength of about 1,300 people... As for the indigenous servant soldiers, they had long been in Bombay, either dead or wounded, or routed.
To be continued...