India is a magical country. Neither Fang Lang in his previous life nor Fang Lang as a South American in this life knew much about India. In Fang Lang's imagination, with the escort of professional mercenaries of the Whip of God, the difficulty of this mission should no longer be the attacks that may be encountered on the road.
Rather, such a huge amount of materials may require a large number of vehicles, and India’s backward transportation conditions may make the transportation of these materials difficult.
But the facts were completely opposite to what Fang Lang had imagined. India's traffic conditions at this time were actually much better than Brazil's, and were definitely ranked among the top four in the world.
That’s because India was Britain’s most important colony. As early as 1853, India began to build its first railway, which was the first railway in Asian history. The first railway in my hometown was built 17 years later than in India.
By 1929, India's railways had covered the entire country, with a mileage of 66,000 kilometers, making it the only country in Asia with a complete railway system.
It ranks fourth in the world, only after the United States, the Soviet Union and Canada.
Of course, these are superficial data. In fact, Indian railways also have serious problems. That is, a country's railway system actually has two completely different size standards.
The railways that India first built from Mumbai had a track width of 1.7 meters. However, due to the change of the British Governor-General in India, the new Governor-General believed that India's railways should be in line with international standards, and all the railways built later were changed to one meter wide.
This resulted in two different sizes of railways on the same line, severely restricting the train's carrying capacity.
...
...
The transport team of Suleiman Brom, which Fang Lang was paying attention to, encountered such a problem. Suleiman Brom originally thought that he had a strong armed escort team to escort him, and the operation should be very smooth even without the help of the British army.
But when their train departed from Hyderabad and traveled less than 200 kilometers to a small town called Shahabad and needed to change trains, they ran into trouble.
Yes, they had to change trains, because the railway they departed on was a one-meter narrow-gauge train, and after arriving in Shahabad they needed to change to a 1.7-meter wide-gauge train. All the goods on the train needed to be unloaded first and then transferred to the wide-gauge train to Mumbai.
The problem Suleiman Brom now faced was that all the stevedores at Shahabad railway station seemed to have chosen to go on strike.
The originally bustling train station was now in an embarrassing situation with no one loading and unloading.
"Mr. Bloom, what's going on now? Why is the train stopped?"
Dalhousie, the battalion commander sent by the Whip of God military contracting company to escort the cargo, had obviously never encountered such a situation before.
As the employer, Suleiman Broom also had a very grim look on his face at the moment. After hearing Dalhousie's doubts, he also felt a little ashamed. After all, the other party was only responsible for escorting, and the route and transportation were arranged by his subordinates who were familiar with the situation in India. Now they encountered an unexpected situation less than a day after setting out.
“We need to go to Shahabad railway station to change trains, but there are no workers responsible for loading and unloading goods at the railway station.
Those damn bastards must be using some tricks to create obstacles for me."
Dalhousie is a typical American officer who has participated in the European War and has rich combat experience. This time he received the task personally from his boss. For him, this is the boss's trust in him and also a rare opportunity to show his abilities.
Although he didn't know why cotton and grain needed professional soldiers like them to escort, since someone paid him, he didn't care what others thought.
It was said that the owner of the goods, Suleiman Brom, had offended some big shot in India and was threatened to attack him and his goods, so he hired them.
Now he found that the opponent's strength seemed to be stronger than he expected, and he could even make all the loader and unloader workers at the train station go on strike. Alarm bells immediately began to ring in his heart.
He stopped asking Suleiman Brom about the details and quickly ran to his team and roared:
"Everyone get off the train, build defensive positions at the train station and on the train to prevent the enemy from launching a surprise attack. Quickly...quickly..."
Suddenly the whole train became lively. Fully armed Whip of God mercenaries opened the doors of the sealed carriages, ran to the platform in an orderly manner and began to set up defensive positions. Heavy machine guns were deployed on the platform, and machine gun positions were built with sandbags.
This sudden change scared the train station staff who were still at the train station. Suleiman Brom was also a little confused, but he quickly realized that Dalhousie was aware of the danger and made a warning arrangement.
He was very satisfied with this and felt that his escort fees were not in vain. At the same time, he began to worry whether there would be any unexpected situations next.
I have to say that sometimes Murphy's Law is really correct. The more you worry about something, the more likely it is to happen.
Two hours after the defense positions at the station were arranged and it was about to get dark, Dalhousie noticed that a large number of people began to gather outside the train station. These people had large turbans on their heads and although they did not carry any lethal weapons, they clearly had bad intentions.
He quickly ordered the soldiers to be on high alert and to eliminate all enemies who attempted to approach them to escort the supplies as soon as they received the order.
At the same time, he informed Suleiman Brom of his findings, hoping that he could determine the next direction as soon as possible.
Suleiman Brom did not expect that the enemy's action would start so quickly. He was trapped in the train station by the enemy less than 200 kilometers away from Hyderabad.
If they were not escorted by a professional security team, these people might have rushed into the train station and taken away all their supplies!
After receiving the news from Dalhousie, Suleiman Brom immediately contacted British officials in India again to prevent the situation from further deteriorating. He knew very well that if these Indians really attacked the railway station, he would have to launch a counterattack.
Once things develop to this point, even if his family has a mortal enemy with India, his properties in India will most likely be confiscated by the Indian government, which is something he does not want to see.
But it turned out that he was too optimistic.
After receiving his notice, the British colonial officials in India contacted the Indian government authorities, but all Indian officials said they were unaware of the situation and said they would immediately arrange for personnel to investigate. Then nothing happened.
After learning about this situation, Suleiman Brom could only sigh helplessly and informed Dalhousie of the situation.
After knowing his situation, Dalhousie did not panic. After pondering for a while, he asked directly:
"Mr. Brom, first I want to know if you can find a train to Bombay. Secondly, can we find the stevedores who will handle the cargo.
If these two issues can be resolved, we only need to protect the transportation process from accidents.
But if you can't solve these two problems, then we will have to take the initiative to seize a train that can go to Mumbai, and at the same time find enough stevedores.
However, I am a little worried that even if we seize the train to Mumbai and find enough stevedores to transfer the goods, our train will not be able to go to Mumbai smoothly.
After all, trains are not like cars. No matter where they go, they need the cooperation of various track teams.”
Suleiman Brom looked at the growing crowd outside the train station with a grim expression, and finally gritted his teeth and said:
“My people have just asked the railway station dispatch center, and their reply is that there are no broad-gauge trains going to Mumbai now, but this is all a lie.
According to our observation, there are two idle train sets in the railway station. If you can allocate manpower to control these two train sets, I can ensure that our train can arrive in Mumbai smoothly.
The current train lines are still under our control in the UK, and I don’t believe they have the ability to control all the train lines.”
From Suleiman Broom's words, Dalhousie could easily hear that he was not absolutely sure that the train could arrive in Mumbai smoothly, and he did not even mention the problem of the stevedores. Obviously, he could not solve this problem either.
This means that from now on, their road to Mumbai will become less certain. In order to reach Mumbai smoothly, they will have to rely on their own means.
In India, a region where they are unfamiliar with the place, if they want to escort such a large amount of supplies to Mumbai smoothly with just a battalion of troops, they must treat this as a battle.
But India is still British territory after all, and he must ensure that they will not be held accountable by the British if they use military means in India.
So, he looked seriously at his employer this time, Suleiman Brom.
"Mr. Brom, we are all very clear about the current situation. If we want to ensure the smooth operation, we may have to enter a combat state next, which will result in the death of many people.
I wonder if you can handle the consequences if that happens.”
Suleiman Brom was obviously very annoyed with the current situation. After listening to Dalhousie's words, he understood what the other party meant. It was obvious that he was preparing to push forward all the way.
The reason why he found Fang Lang and invited God's Whip Company to be responsible for escorting this batch of supplies was also based on this consideration. Although he did not want to just go ahead and push forward, the current situation did not allow him to think any further.
Now that Dalhousie had already taken the initiative to take action, he agreed with the other party after just a brief thought.
“No problem, if not many people die now, these damn Indian bastards will think I’m easy to bully!
You can act boldly and confidently! I can bear any consequences. "
Seeing the other party's expression, Dalhousie realized that the other party had also made up his mind, so he no longer hesitated. He nodded seriously to Suleiman Brom and said:
"Then I hope that Mr. Brom and your people will obey my command until our team arrives in Mumbai safely."
"No problem, from now on, all of us will obey your command."
After receiving a positive answer, Dalhousie no longer hesitated. He nodded directly to Suleiman Brom, turned around and began to assign tasks to his soldiers.
As the orders were conveyed, a battalion of mercenaries quickly took action. The first to set off was a platoon of soldiers. They were fully armed and moved along the train tracks towards the train dispatching center on the other side.
When they entered the dispatching center in standard battle formation, several Indians inside were hit hard by several rifle butts before they could understand what was happening. Then the soldiers of this platoon took control of two train sets parked on the wide track.
Dalhousie, who was about to engage in a firefight, obviously didn't understand what was going on. This was completely different from what he had imagined.
Immediately afterwards, another company of soldiers rushed into the crowd gathering outside fully armed. These people, who were obviously heading for the train station, seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive.
Without even figuring out the situation, as a light machine gun fired a magazine of bullets into the sky, all the Indians consciously put their hands on their heads and squatted on the ground.
This made Dalhousie even more confused. This seemed to be a little different from what he had imagined! Although so many people didn't have firearms, they shouldn't just lie down like this! This made him feel a little embarrassed to take his salary.
However, he did not have much time to lament these things. The soldiers rushed into the crowd and dragged out some Indians who looked relatively strong. These people seemed to be a little confused about the situation and thought that the soldiers were going to execute them on the spot.
They were trembling with fear and begging for their lives in English with Indian accents, but the soldiers didn't care what they said and drove them directly to the side of the train carriage, where several of Suleiman Brom's men directed them to transport the supplies.
After understanding what the soldiers meant, these Indians did not obey the orders obediently. Instead, they chose to pretend not to understand what they meant and looked at the soldiers with pitiful faces.
Among the mercenaries of the Whip of God, there seemed to be people who had come into contact with Indians. They had some understanding of the Indians' character. When they could not command these Indians, they began to look for those high-caste people with fair skin among these Indians and ordered them to organize people to transport supplies.
These people were unwilling at first, but after two people who disobeyed orders were executed in front of everyone, all the Indians became obedient.
However, the work efficiency of these Indians was so low that it was outrageous. Not only were they very fond of cheating, but they were also not very clean and tried to steal goods many times. Fortunately, Suleiman Brom's people knew these Indians very well and they had anticipated this situation.
As soon as they noticed the Indians' small movements, they would rush up and start beating them with rattan sticks.
Suleiman Brom was also worried that the Indians would discover the real goods hidden in the cotton, so he kept a close eye on the goods and even stepped forward to personally supervise the transportation of the goods.
As time passed, the goods on the train were slowly transferred. Just when everyone thought everything was over, two cars and more than ten trucks drove up to the train station. Several Indians in suits and many Indian soldiers equipped with rifles got out of the cars.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
