18th century total war

Chapter 321 European Expeditionary Force

Gulag, an untouchable Indian Sudra, stepped off the British warship that had been sitting for an unknown amount of time.

He was carrying a marching rucksack, and Gulag clearly remembered that the British instructors during his training in India beat him with a stick thirteen times to remind him of the rules and importance of using the marching rucksack!
However, as a Sudra who was born and struggled at the bottom of society, Gulag didn't feel anything wrong with this, and he even preferred to stay in the British army.

At least there will be no discrimination among the Vaisyas!

In Gulag's hometown, it is difficult for a pariah like him to see Brahmins and Kshatriyas, and the nobles of that high caste will not deliberately come to make things difficult for them, but those who make Gulag uncomfortable are those who are only inferior to Suda. Vaisya is a higher level.

Beating, cursing, spitting and even unspeakable torture are the 'games' that the Vaisyas often take on Sudras.

Vaishyas are not qualified to live in high-end wealthy areas, so they can only live together with Sudras. It seems that only wanton bullying of Sudras can make Vaishyas who are not rich feel superior in caste status.

This is indeed the case!
Even the worst Vaishya can beat a Sudra like Gulag wantonly!
However, in the British Indian Army, Gulag did not have this experience of being discriminated against and humiliated, because all his companions were Sudras, and there were even lower-level Dalits who were not worthy of being called human beings!
In Dalit soldiers, Gulag found a long-lost sense of being human.

At the same time, Gulag finally understood why those Vaishyas always liked to find reasons for his discomfort.

In the British Indian servant army, there was not a single Vaisya, let alone Kshatriyas and Brahmins.

Brahmins are a group of Hindu gods, and it is understandable not to join the army.

Kshatriya did not join the British Indian servant army, mainly because this army was intended to be used by the London government on the European battlefield.

How can the arrogant Brits let the Indians who they easily conquered lead the army?
Sending military records to the Livi regime is not the way to go. At least the Livi regime’s army must suffer losses!
The London government does not care about the casualties of the Indian servants, but they care about how many casualties the Indian servants can cause to the enemy.

As a matter of course, the British refused to allow the Kshatriyas from the Indian state to come over as high-level military officers.

Unable to become senior military officers, will the Indian Kshatriyas still come to serve as lower-level officials and top soldiers?
Don't be kidding, didn't you see that the army is full of Sudras and Dalits? !
The Kshatriya was unwilling, and the Vaisyas were naturally unwilling, and the Vaisyas in India were actually the common people, with no military talent at all, and no one had attended a military academy (at this time, there seemed to be no regular military academy in India).

Therefore, in the eyes of the British, these Indian Vaishyas are not even worthy of being junior officers.

Of course they are not happy to let the Vaisyas be soldiers like Sudras and Dalits!

Vaishya is not a pariah who can't get enough to eat!

As a result, all of these Indian servants were Sudras and Dalits.

The British, who are not bound by the caste system, don't care that these dirty castes will bring bad things, and even feel that these obedient and well-behaved Sudras and Dalits are very easy to discipline.

Although it is clumsy during training, as long as it is tapped several times with a stick, the memory is still good.

Moreover, no matter how the British instructors punish these Sudras and Dalits, the Sudras and Dalits who have been restricted by their own thinking mode by slavishness will not dare to resist in the slightest!
In order to make these Indian servants useful on the battlefield, except for the junior officers with a high death rate, all the middle and senior officers are British.

The commander of the corps where Gulag is now is the chief officer when he was originally trained.

As the French National Defense Forces won repeated battles on the European battlefield, the military systems of various European countries began to copy the establishment standards formulated by the Li Wei government.

The establishment of divisions, regiments, battalions and companies began.

This newly established Indian servant army was established according to this type of organization.

There were no weapons in Gulag's marching backpack, they were just personal items he used while marching.

All the Indian soldiers who disembarked from the British warships had no weapons. The London government did not have the ability to arm more than [-] troops in the Indian subcontinent in a short period of time!
Therefore, these Indian soldiers were transported to the Egyptian area before receiving weapons.

While training in the Indian subcontinent, the Gulag and other Indian soldiers used a batch of muskets in rotation for training.

British instructors do not have high requirements for them to use muskets, and it is enough to be able to skillfully load ammunition and raise the gun to shoot.

In addition, these Indian soldiers in the Gulag also conducted cold weapon training.

Of course, they are all the most basic cold weapons - broadswords and spears.

Train the basic movements such as thrusting with spears and chopping with broadswords.

Spear training and musket and bayonet training are also combined!
The British instructors' requirements for the proficiency of these Indian soldiers in using weapons are really very low, they just require them to be able to use them.

On the contrary, the obedience and discipline training requirements of Indian soldiers are very high, especially during queue training, if there is a slight mistake, they will be served with sticks.

The Gulag was particularly impressed by one training. Their British instructor asked them to carry out actual combat drills with wooden sticks, saying that anyone who dared to disobey orders this time would be executed in public according to battlefield criminal laws!

Then, the Gulag group heard the British instructor order them to walk towards a cliff!
After that training, more than a dozen people in Gulag's company were dragged out and shot!

Since then, the Gulag has had a bone-deep fear of battlefield orders.

Under the leadership of the British officer, the Gulag team quickly formed a marching column and arrived at a military camp.

After resting in the military camp, the Gulag knew that they had arrived in Egypt, Africa.

Of course, the Gulag had never heard of Egypt as a country...

At this time, Egypt was still a colony of the Ottoman Empire, but since the Ottoman Empire joined the Fourth Anti-French Alliance, the Ottoman Empire allowed the London government to use Egypt as a rear base to attack Greece.

There was no need for the London government to transport Indian servants from the Indian subcontinent across the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and into the Mediterranean in a wide circle.

British warships and transport ships need to transport the Indian servants to Egypt, and then let the Indian servants reach the Mediterranean from land, and then they can land on the Greek peninsula again on the British Mediterranean fleet.

After the Hellenic Republic 'returned' to the fourth anti-French alliance, the British overbearingly occupied a large number of islands in the Aegean Sea and used them as offensive outposts.

As for the navy of the Hellenic Republic?

Well, in the eyes of the Royal Navy, the navy of the Hellenic Republic is only good for fishing!
After several days of trekking, the Gulag finally came to a seaport city... in a military camp on the outskirts of the city.

Here, the Gulag finally saw the real weapons issued to them!

Then, Gulag received a machete...

After receiving the machete, Gulag was full of question marks. Looking at the companions who received the muskets, he couldn't help asking in confusion, "Why don't I have a gun?"

Like Gulag, it is not a minority who raised questions, but the majority. Only [-]% of the soldiers in Gulag's company received muskets, and they were all second-hand!
The London government made a calculation. They felt that the lives of Indian soldiers were not worth the expensive muskets they provided. Even the London government’s chancellor of the exchequer publicly pointed out at a cabinet meeting that the price of a musket was higher than that of an Indian soldier. !
In addition, the London government believes that Indian pariahs and slaves who are naturally timid and cowardly cannot use the Red Shirts' queuing and shooting tactics when they go to the battlefield.

In this case, why do they spend a lot of money to equip Indian soldiers with muskets?
Of course, if some Indian servants perform well on the battlefield, you can consider equipping all of them with muskets.

In Gulag's company, the soldiers who could get muskets were the handful of people and officers with the best shooting scores during the training!
Gulag swung the big knife and found that it was very light, a bit like the long knives he had seen used in gang fights in his hometown city.

Obviously, the quality of this big knife is very problematic...

I don't know how many people can persist until the first person is hacked to death?

However, the obedience brought about by the torture during the training made Gulag afraid to go to the officers to ask this question. All of them, including his companions, just complained to each other.

The obedience of the Indian soldiers was once again praised by the British generals. They had no complaints about receiving low-quality, cheap swords and spears in their hands.

It would be unimaginable to put this kind of thing in the red shirts!
A few days later, after being reprimanded by the officers and familiarized with the weapons he had received, the Gulag, holding a large turban, followed the large army to board the warship that made him sick again.

Even if he was used to vomiting, Gulag still didn't have any good feelings about crossing the ocean.

You know, when boarding the ship, the company where Gulag was in was overstaffed. As a result, when they arrived in Egypt, the surviving company became a shortage...

Obviously, the British officers even counted the problem of reducing the number of sailors.

As the Finance Minister of the London Government said, Indian soldiers are really too cheap. They do not need any military pay at all. As long as they take care of food and housing, there are many Sudras and Dalits rushing to join the servant army.

Oh, by the way, in the British army, the official title of these Indian servants is the European Expeditionary Force.

With the British as the brains and the Indians as the hands and feet, the seemingly endless European expeditionary force began to advance toward the Aegean islands controlled by the British.

Naturally, it is impossible to hide from the Greek Republic next door!
The diplomatic department of the Aristotle government strongly condemned the British minister, and the British minister left Greece with an ultimatum!
The content of the ultimatum is very simple, let the Greek Republic return to the Fourth Coalition against France and declare war on the Holy League!
At that time, this European expeditionary force will not be the enemy of the Greek Republic, but their ally!
If Aristotle had not been enlightened by the administration, perhaps he would have really agreed.

After all, this time the London government relied on its strong financial resources and deployed a very large formation.

After saving a lot of musket consumption, the London government found that they could recruit far more than 10 Indian soldiers!
As long as those Indian princes are dealt with, the colonial government of British India can continuously use food to lure a large number of Sudras and Dalits to join the army.

And according to the feedback from India, these Indian soldiers have almost no defects except for some cowardice, and they are very obedient!
The Aristotle government, which received the British ultimatum, turned around and fell into the arms of the Holy Alliance.

Aristotle publicly declared in Athens that the Greeks hoped to have a peaceful homeland, but the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland threatened war. For the integrity of the territory and sovereignty of the Greek Republic, the Greek Republic will join the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The kingdom's rival side.

For good reason, the enemy of my enemy is my friend!
Although many people in Greece feel uncomfortable about joining the Holy Alliance, the British have even prepared the European Expeditionary Force. Is it possible to resist the British invasion alone?

For the same reason, the government of the Kingdom of Serbia also has great objections to the accession of the Greek Republic. The local government of the Kingdom of Serbia jointly petitioned Li Wei, the King of Serbia, in order to let him refuse the Greek Republic to join the Holy League and let the Greek Republic fend for itself. !

Obviously, this is very naive behavior in politics!
Even if Aristotle and his cabinet had been enlightened by Livy's administration, once Livy made such a move, it would inevitably arouse extreme hatred within the Greek Republic, and it would be difficult to launch a revolution to overthrow Aristotle's rule. Not necessarily impossible.

Anyway, as long as the Hellenic Republic jumps back quickly enough, it is not unacceptable to the London government.

In fact, many people in the Greek government prefer the Anti-French Alliance to the Holy Alliance. If it were not for Aristotle, Greece would never have embarked on the path of joining the Holy Alliance.

Naturally, the joint petition from the local government of the Kingdom of Serbia was sternly rejected by Li Wei. He also reprimanded those local government officials and warned those local government officials that if they meddle in their own business, they will all go home and eat old rice!

At this time, the French Empire was at its peak, and the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Bulgaria had to face the Ottoman Empire's attack together, so naturally they did not dare to go against Livy's will.

The Kingdom of Romania needs to be wary of the Russian Empire moving south, and it cannot provide much help to the Ottoman Empire's war.

However, when the three small powers in the Balkans faced the invasion of the Ottoman Empire, their fighting will was beyond Li Wei's expectations. The Li Wei government did not need to do any mobilization and encouragement at all!
(End of this chapter)