Lu Ming

Chapter 633 Allied Forces
When: August 1634.

Location: Mekong Delta, outside Saigon.

The originally bustling outer market has now turned into a noisy military camp.If you look northeast from the city of Saigon from the perspective of God, you can see that on the plain covered by tropical vegetation, there is a channel with a slightly different color, which continues from the direction of Vietnam.

The next moment, with the sound of a horn horn, a large number of soldiers wearing bamboo hats, holding their iron knives high, rushed towards the opposite city in the continuous rain.

At the Hue meeting 4 months ago, the new court of North Vietnam finally bowed its head in front of the powerful Ming people, and experienced the sour taste of my Qing Dynasty being flattened and rounded by the great powers.

Immediately after the meeting, Xingyuan, the governor of Nanyang, a great power, opened a hastily in an official residence in Hue City, and put together a grass-roots team of the coalition forces that night.

The coalition forces have 2000 Ming pioneer troops as the core combat force, and the rest of the hills include the remnants of the South Vietnamese troops, the North Vietnamese support troops, and the participating troops sent by Zhancheng Jimizhou.

Among them, the 3000 North Vietnamese support department was negotiated before.However, after discovering that the Ming people harbored bad intentions and planned to breed tigers, the support troops sent by the North Vietnamese immediately shrank.Not only has the number and quality shrunk, but the mood of the troops is also very wrong.

Followed by the Nguyen tribe headed by Nguyen Phuc Yuan.

Nguyen is sincerely seeking refuge.

The entire Ruan family escaped from the tiger's mouth this time, all relying on the support of the Ming people.In addition, the Shi Ruan family can still retain the establishment of 2000 core members, which is also the result of the Ming Dynasty's human resources protection.This result made the North Vietnamese Xin Dynasty extremely resentful, and because of this, the Ruan clan had no choice but to side with the Ming people.

Therefore, in the formation of the coalition this time, all the remnants of the Ruan family came out.

It doesn't matter if you don't come out.

Fearing the repression and persecution that the new imperial court would surely bring afterwards, the Ruan family not only accompanied the army this time, but also entrusted the old and the young to withdraw all of their own family and some of their affiliated families from the Vietnamese territory.

This is just like running away with the whole family and taking refuge in Ming people.

The Nanyang Governor's Mansion is definitely happy to see this.Having such an attached local aboriginal force as the leading party can greatly increase the speed of control over the Chao Phraya Plain in the early stage.

Finally, there is the reluctant Champa army.

The people of Champa, who live in a corner, have no good looks towards either the Ruan family or the Zheng family.They know very well that as long as a Vietnamese is in power, they are all raccoon dogs, and they will endlessly encroach on the land of Champa.

As for this group of Ming people who came out of nowhere, the Zhancheng people had hope at first, but after contacting them, they found that Ming people were not a good thing.

The Ming did not promise the Champas that Champas would not be annexed.

The Ming people only promised to "mediate" the conflict between the new dynasty and Champa during the period when the Champas sent troops.

In this way, the Champas did not want to send troops when they sent troops.

However, it is impossible not to send troops.In this matter, the Ming people's attitude was extremely tough-since ancient times, kings sent troops, and princes followed suit.If you, Jimizhou, don't respond to the call this time, then I will unite with other people to destroy you first.

The Champa people who were weak inside had no choice but to succumb after a certain force showed their vicious face, and promised to send 1500 troops and another 2000 auxiliary troops to join the coalition.

In this way, a coalition with internal contradictions and conflicts was formed.

In the next two months, the coalition forces successively assembled in a small town in Champa.

The frightened Champa people felt as if they were facing an enemy, and even slept with one eye open, fearing that they would be wiped out overnight.

In fact, the proposal of destroying Champa had appeared a long time ago, but it was rejected by the traversers: at present, keeping Champa is more useful than destroying it, and it is used to contain the Zheng court.

Theoretically speaking, such a scattered and contradictory coalition has no combat effectiveness.However, for the traversers, such a troop is enough - it's just cannon fodder, it doesn't matter if it's high quality or not.

In the past two months, Wang Bo, the commander of the pioneering team in charge of forming the coalition army, did nothing else and spent all his time on the army's epidemic prevention training.

In the future, he will operate in the tropical regions of South Asia. It is impossible for the troops to rest during the rainy season as before.

The most important thing that hinders the army's actions during the rainy season is epidemic prevention.

The rainy season was fatal to the destruction of ancient armies.The hot and humid environment with many mosquitoes and lack of sanitary protection can cause a strong army to suffer from dysentery overnight, and it can also cause the army to fall in front of malaria.

In fact, regardless of China or foreign countries, the vast majority of battles are carried out in cold weather.In ancient times, it was hot and humid, and for a group of troops, it was a biochemically lethal environment that was more powerful than the enemy.

Relying on the breech-loading guns of the 2000 Pioneering Army and the full cooperation of the Ruan clan, Wang Bo finally spent two months establishing the health concept of the coalition army from scratch.

This kind of hygiene concept can be seen by others, but it cannot be learned.Just a large amount of disinfectant and bleach is not something any army can provide.

Fast forward to late June.After the running-in, the Governor's Office ordered that the coalition forces set off. Target: Saigon City.

Compared with Saigon, a name that only appeared in the Ming Dynasty, people of later generations should be more familiar with another name: Ho Chi Minh City.

The Mekong Delta is the affluent plain at the southernmost tip of the Indochina Peninsula.This place is located between Vietnam and Thailand, with high temperature throughout the year, fertile soil, dense water network, and a long history of rice planting. It is the area with the highest rice yield in Asia.

Saigon, located in this core area, has developed from a fishing village to an important town early on due to its location in the center of the water system and its function as a seaport.

Like Shijiazhuang in later generations, this process was naturally driven by history.The development of Saigon began many centuries ago. In the Ming Dynasty, it became an important trading port and grain distribution center.

The Ming Dynasty indirectly influenced this.

In the Ming Dynasty, from the third year of Yongle to the eighth year of Xuande, the Ming Empire sent Zheng He on seven voyages to the West.

Seven voyages to the West established the latest tribute trade system of the Central Plains Dynasty.

After that, many countries in East and West Asia, the Middle East coast, and East Africa started trade (tributary) with the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, Saigon became an important port for tribute ships from the West to berth.

Over time, this place was called "Saigon", which means "West tribute" in Chinese.At this point in time when the traversers arrived, Saigon, a strategic location, still belongs to the Kingdom of Cambodia.

At this time, the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia was not small.Its country not only included the northern plateau on the map of later generations, but also controlled the downstream Mekong Delta.

Corresponding to the northern plateau, the Mekong Delta was called "Lower Cambodia" in this era because it is a plain area.

And the most important city of Saigon in the delta, due to its special status, the Kingdom of Cambodia even sent a deputy king to guard it.

However, this situation is about to change soon.

In real history, the Nguyen regime in South Vietnam, which was defeated this time, continued to expand southward while resisting the invasion of North Vietnam, and finally annexed Champa.

Champa is the southernmost point on the long and narrow map of Vietnam.

After annexing Champa, the Nguyen clan of South Vietnam will face the sea.Then, the next generation will naturally turn their attention to the prosperous delta in the southwest.

This historical process did not last long.Finally, in the seventeenth century, the Mekong River Plain, including Saigon, was incorporated into Vietnam's territory and became the territory of Vietnam known to later generations, as well as Ho Chi Minh City.

And this time, although the ultimate goal of the coalition forces is the Ayutthaya Dynasty, the goal of the first stage is undoubtedly to stand in front of the Mekong River Plain in the center of the grain-producing area.

In the sound of the horn, the poorly armed soldiers, resisting the same simple bamboo ladder, rushed towards the tall city of Saigon in the rain.

This is the beginning of a traditional tough battle.However, with the resistance on the top of the city, the battle soon ended.Not long after, the besiegers, who had left some corpses behind, retreated back to their starting line.

Outside the city of Saigon, what used to be a market has become the first front line of ramparts and ditches.

Behind the battle line, there is a rare two-story stone brick building built by a wealthy businessman.This mansion has long since been emptied, occupied by outsiders, and has become the frontline command center.

On the roof of the second floor, there was a bamboo shed built before, which was probably used by businessmen to drink tea leisurely, and this will just happen to be used to shelter from the rain.Under the bamboo shed, a group of dignitaries sitting on bamboo chairs watched the retreating soldiers from the front line.

"Let's put the meal away, and attack again in the afternoon."

Wang Bo, who put down his binoculars, spoke calmly after watching the clumsy siege performance of the natives again.

On the left hand side of Commander Wang, sitting next to him is the former general of the defeated army: Nguyen Phuc Yuan, the leader of the Nguyen clan.

Ruan Fuyuan, who was wearing a short robe, put down the binoculars at the same time, and nodded in agreement: "That's right, it's past noon, it's time for dinner."

As soon as the voice fell, the orderly who had been prepared at the side brought up two iron plates, which contained rice and minced fish porridge.

There is not so much attention to detail on the battlefield.All the generals of the coalition forces, including the commander, ate their jobs as soon as they picked up their jobs.

But Ruan Fuyuan, an old man, seems to have a lot to worry about.After eating two mouthfuls, he looked up at the sky, and said thoughtfully: "I'm afraid it will clear up in the afternoon!"

Thinking of this, Ruan Fuyuan turned his head to the side and said to the two generals wearing national costumes: "It's a good thing, I'm going to ask you two to take action in the afternoon."

The two Champa Buddhist generals with gold ornaments on their bodies and iron armor over their monk robes seemed to have gotten used to this situation.Hearing this, he nodded, got up and went downstairs to make arrangements.

At this time, Ruan Fuyuan, who seemed to be enjoying himself in the coalition army, turned around and smiled at Wang Bo.

The coalition forces that sent troops in late June, after more than a month of fighting and marching, slowly advanced to the city of Saigon in August.

Today is the seventh day of the coalition siege.

As far as the naked eye can see, the resistance will of the Cambodians on Saigon City has weakened a lot, and now even the cannon fodder team of North Vietnam can fight in style.

The root cause of all this was yesterday—the fleet with the Kaiyuan as its flagship, carrying a large amount of supplies, forcibly broke into the mouth of the Mekong River and bombarded both sides of the river.

The defenders on the top of the city saw all this clearly.

(End of this chapter)