British Tactics

The next day, under the cover of a fine drizzle, a group of the English Army soldiers slipped into the innermost layer of "Pa" through a breach blasted open by a cannon.

The defending Mysore soldiers hurriedly fled through the tunnel, while the man who Ignition left behind the Gunpowder barrel took out a flint, but the sparks he fired three times were extinguished by the rain blowing in from the wind.

Two United Kingdom soldiers appeared at the tower entrance and Brown Bess Flintlock Gun at him.

An hour or so later, the Marquess Wellesley stared grimly at the seven or eight corpses soaking in the rain. He had wasted a full 14 days on this shabby fortress before finally breaching it. And the Mysore had lost fewer than 30 men.

He glanced again at the more than 200 Flintlock Gun and a 4-pounder Cannon piled up not far away, and was about to return to the tent when he suddenly stopped.

He turned to the officer in charge of sorting the spoils and asked, "Why didn't we see any enemy Gunpowder or shells?"

The officer quickly pointed to about a dozen small Wooden Box under the tree. "There they are, Lieutenant Colonel."

Wellesley came from the Aristocratic Family military officers, and although young, he already held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

He asked, somewhat surprised, "That's all?"

"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel. Actually, this is the first time we've captured their weapons. They used to detonate Gunpowder during their retreats."

Wellesley squinted in the rain. This Ammunition would only last the soldiers defending the fortress for another 10 days at most. In other words, they had only prepared enough Ammunition for about 20 days from the beginning.

He wiped the rain from his face, looked at the narrow tower at the top of "Pa," and suddenly a smile appeared on his lips. He turned to Cornwallis beside him and said, "I think I've discovered this thing's weakness."

Two days later.

Forty or fifty Hyderabad soldiers, in a very loose formation, cautiously attacked "Pa" on the mound ahead.

Soon, gunshots rang out from inside the "Pa," and a Hyderabad man had half his head blown off by Lead Bullet.

The others were terrified and instinctively tried to run away, but when they turned around, they saw hundreds of the United Kingdom soldiers in red Military Uniform pointing their guns in their direction.

Their hearts tightened immediately, recalling the scene of dozens of people who had fled back that morning being shot dead on the spot. They quickly turned back, looking for places to hide, and then gritted their teeth and raised their guns to return fire.

The United Kingdom commander's orders to them were to launch a full-scale assault for one hour, after which they could retreat and be replaced by the next group of men.

However, less than half an hour later, these dozens of people were killed one after another by Mysore soldiers.

The United Kingdom officer in the distance lowered his Telescope, turned to look at Wellesley, and seeing the latter nod in acknowledgment, immediately shouted to a small squad of Maratha soldiers beside him, "Your turn! Go and take that fortress!"

Driven by the United Kingdom soldiers, the Maratha, their faces pale, shuffled toward "Pa".

"Are you sure this will work?" Cornwallis asked Wellesley, turning to the India soldiers who were falling to the ground, riddled with bullets. "We seem to have gained nothing but heavy casualties."

"Just watch patiently," the latter said calmly. "If I'm not mistaken, we can take this fortress before nightfall."

Nearly 50 Maratha soldiers were quickly killed, and another group of the United Kingdom auxiliary troops were forced to charge forward. They began using the former's bodies as cover, but they only held out for about 40 minutes before the next group arrived...

Around 5 p. m., Cornwallis looked at the corpses scattered around "Pa" and roughly estimated that more than ten squads of India soldiers had died there, at least 600 people.

He was about to say something more to Wellesley when he was surprised to find that things had fallen silent at Mysore's fortress.

"Alright, it seems my judgment was correct." Wellesley smiled and said to the officer beside him, "Let our men go."

"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel!"

Subsequently, nearly a thousand United Kingdom "Lobsterbacks" surrounded the "Pa" (a type of fortified town), but they only encountered very sporadic counterattacks.

The United Kingdom calmly used Gunpowder to blast open several layers of walls, driving the Mysore soldiers into the tunnels.

Then the retreating defenders detonated the Gunpowder keg, and a large part of the tower at the top of "Pa" collapsed.

As the setting sun cast its last rays, Cornwallis saw the English Army flag raised atop the fortress that had troubled him for almost half a year. He stared at Wellesley in astonishment. "You, how did you do that? You took it in just one day!"

"Ammunition storage." Marquess Wellesley casually pointed to the tower atop "Pa". "The main body of this fortress consists of three layers of walls, and only the middle section can be used to store Ammunition."

"Based on its narrow dimensions, I estimate that after some space was occupied by food and fresh water, they could only store a maximum of 300 artillery shells and more than 15,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as the corresponding Gunpowder."

"Therefore, I ordered my men to attack in waves. Under pressure, the Mysore will neglect their Ammunition reserves, and prolonged continuous fire will also significantly reduce their accuracy."

"Finally, they ran out of Ammunition, and our soldiers charged in. That's it."

In fact, he omitted one point. That is, after killing a large number of enemies, Mysore soldiers would enter a state of extreme excitement and bloodlust, and would only know how to keep shooting, completely forgetting about tactics.

Cornwallis listened to the young officer calmly recount the tactic of "using human lives to exhaust the enemy's Ammunition," and was stunned. He realized that his previous efforts to reduce casualties and cherish the lives of his soldiers had inadvertently given the enemy time to regroup and devise tactics.

In fact, relentlessly applying pressure is the best tactic for dealing with the militarily unskilled Mysore!

"But," he thought of another problem, "Although we quickly breached the fortress, the casualties were far too high..."

They lost at least 600 men in that day's assault. Based on that number, it would take another 20,000 to 30,000 to take down all of Mangalore's fortresses!

"They're just some India natives," Wellesley waved his hand dismissively. "They have a huge population; this is nothing."

As he was speaking, he saw the Hyderabad commander walking towards him with a dark expression, but he continued speaking to Cornwallis with a calm demeanor:

"And my goal isn't to conquer Mangalore. I just need to let Tipu know that we can quickly break through his fortress."

The Hyderabad officer approached the two men and, without even a salute, shouted in a gruff voice:

"You can't let my soldiers die like this! Nearly 400 have died today alone!"

The Marquess Wellesley smiled and looked at him, saying:

"Dying in battle is a soldier's duty. There will be many more such fierce attacks in the future, so you need to get used to it as soon as possible."