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Just when Aurangzeb and Sengge's army of more than 100,000 were about to engage in a life-and-death battle at the city of Karnar in Punjab, in the city of Jabalpur in the south, the four generals of Orissa, Babuken, Chhattisgarh, Hurod, West Bengal, Helsinki, and Jharkhand, Simba, all found Hai Rufeng and asked him to order the attack to continue to the north.
In their view, the Dzungar army in the north was now approaching Delhi, and Aurangzeb was forced by the situation to continuously withdraw troops from the southern front to the north. Most of the hundreds of thousands of troops originally stationed on the southern front were withdrawn.
Moreover, Delhi has just experienced a coup, and the people must be unstable. Now is the best time to advance northward and expand the territory.
Even Samantha urged, "Husband, what are you still hesitating about? Isn't now the best time to attack?"
Hai Rufeng fanned himself with a feather fan. He glanced at Babuken, Huluod, Helsinki, and Simba, and said calmly, "If you want to launch an attack at this time, I won't stop you, but I don't think this is the best time to go north, so I won't command the battle to the north. You can elect someone else to lead the army, or each of you command your own country's army, it's up to you."
Babuken, Huluod, Helsinki, and Simba looked at each other, not knowing what to say. It was not that they did not want to command their own army, but when they went to war, the kings of each country had an order that they must obey Hai Rufeng's orders.
If Hai Rufeng was an ordinary person, it would be fine, but he was the admiral of the ocean-going fleet of the great country Qin. Just one ocean-going fleet was enough to give the four small countries a hard time.
No one knew whether Hai Rufeng was speaking from the heart or testing them. If he was testing them on purpose, and they really led their own army north, then Hai Rufeng only needed to say one word to make them suffer.
The four of them did not dare to act rashly and looked at Samantha together. Although Samantha married Hai Rufeng, she was the princess of Orissa after all, and she always cared about her country. Seeing that Hai Rufeng was going to quit, she became anxious.
"Husband, why? Why do you say this is not the best time? No matter what, you can't abandon our four countries..."
"Shut up!" Hai Rufeng interrupted her seriously, "I'm warning you. Pay attention to your identity and don't speak for the sake of momentary pleasure. Do you think you are still the princess of Drissa
"Remember this, you are now my wife, Hai Rufeng, and the wife of the admiral of the Great Qin Royal Navy's ocean-going fleet. Apart from this, you have no other identity. If someone with ulterior motives heard what you said just now and passed it back to the ears of the ministers in the court, it would bring disaster to your husband, do you know that?"
"I... ... ."
"Um?"
Seeing Hai Rufeng was about to get angry, Samantha's beautiful face suddenly turned pale, and she quickly shut up, not daring to say another word.
Hai Rufeng turned to Babuken, Huluod, Helsinki and Simba and continued: "Although the Mughal army on the opposite side only has 30,000 soldiers, you should know that we only have 26,000 soldiers. Further north is the flat plain area, and we will not have any advantage.
Although the Mughal army in the north is under the invasion of the Dzungar army, as the saying goes, the army that mourns will win. At this time of national crisis, I am not sure whether the 30,000 enemy troops on the opposite side will burst out with stronger combat power.
Moreover, the current situation is very complicated. We have no idea what actions Shah Shuja in Bengal and Murad Bach in Gujarat will take. If you think carefully, we actually have the least troops. I cannot predict what the consequences will be if we rashly join such a melee.
But as you said, this does seem to be a rare opportunity, perhaps the last chance. It would be a pity if we give up, so I will hand over the command to you.
Don't worry, I will write a letter to your king to explain it clearly. You can decide your own actions. Your king will not punish you for not obeying my orders. "
Helsinki spoke first: "Admiral Hai, do you also think this may be a rare opportunity, or even the last chance?"
Others followed suit and asked, "Yes, Admiral Hai, do you really think so?"
"Admiral Hai, if you think so, why..."
Hai Rufeng waved his hand and said, "What I said just now was indeed from the heart. I was just undecided and afraid that I would make a wrong decision because of my hesitation, so I gave up the command of the army. You are all very experienced generals and are more familiar with the local situation than I am. If you think it is feasible, you can command the army to attack northward. Maybe there will be significant gains. Of course, war is always full of variables, and the results are not necessarily good. Don't say in the future that I didn't tell you."
What Hai Rufeng said was basically the truth. If he was commanding 20,000 Qin troops, he had the confidence to reach the city of Delhi in one fell swoop. However, these 26,000 troops were not Qin troops, and they were adapted to mountain warfare, but not very suitable for plain warfare. Moreover, they came from four countries, and they would inevitably have different thoughts when encountering a fierce battle. Commanding such an army to attack the plains, and facing the enemy's superior forces, Hai Rufeng was really unsure.
There was another reason, of course, that he had reached a private agreement with Aurangzeb, and he did not necessarily believe that Aurangzeb would keep the agreement;
But he believed that after a series of mutations, the Mughals would no longer be the same Mughals, and would inevitably be greatly weakened, or even split.
By that time, with the Mughal Empire surrounded by enemies and the Mughal emperor no longer powerful, would he still dare to deny the agreement signed
He stopped commanding the battle just to avoid being criticized, but he still hoped that Babuken, Hurod, Helsinki and Simba would cause trouble for Aurangzeb. So, his words were ambiguous.
The four of them were a little hesitant and didn't want to miss such an opportunity, but Hai Rufeng's withdrawal made them feel a little uneasy.
Just when they were hesitating, a major news came from the province of Bengal. Shah Shuja suddenly proclaimed himself emperor in Bengal.
Shah Shuja was Shah Jahan's second son. After the death of Crown Prince Radashuk, according to the rule of succession from eldest to youngest, it should indeed be his turn to become emperor.
Shah Shuja was not stupid. His father had just removed Aurangzeb from the post of Governor-General of Deccan under their lobbying, which was equivalent to taking away his military power. How could he suddenly pass the throne to him
Anyway, he insisted that Aurangzeb was a treasonous usurper of the throne. Of course, his guess was correct, so he was dissatisfied and proclaimed himself emperor in the province of Bengal and declared that he was the orthodox one.
But what’s interesting is that after Shah Shuja proclaimed himself emperor, he only issued an edict to attack Aurangzeb, but did not immediately send troops back to Delhi. What was he busy with
You may not believe it, but he was busy minting coins, minting coins in his own name, as if this would make him, the "orthodox Mughal emperor", more convincing to the people.
Shahshuja's declaration of emperorship triggered a wave of emperorship. Following him, his younger brother Murad Bahri of Gujarat province also declared himself emperor.
Murad also claimed that he was the legitimate Mughal emperor, and followed suit by minting coins in his own name.
Aurangzeb had sent people to persuade his younger, simple-minded brother, and he even wrote a personal letter to Murad:
Aurangzeb wrote in the letter: "I have no interest in governing this fraudulent and unstable world and my only wish is to go to the main temple for pilgrimage.
But whatever you do, you can consider me as your sincere friend and ally. Together we will fight against our shameful and foolish brother (Shashuja), and after that, I will go to the main temple for pilgrimage, and you will take the throne of the emperor. "
Interestingly, Murad was crowned emperor on this basis!
He wrote a letter to Aurangzeb, which was very simple: "Brother, since you don't want to be the emperor, then I will be the emperor. You can go to the main temple for pilgrimage now, and let me handle the rest."
I wonder if Aurangzeb, who was fighting a bloody battle with the Junggar army, would vomit three liters of blood on the spot after receiving this letter... ...
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.(To be continued..)
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