prosperous age

Chapter 1042 1133 The Army Approaches

"Master, Master."

Two days later, Mu Changzuo was resting in the pavilion in the back garden of his mansion. There were four small dishes and a pot of wine on the small stone table.

Just as he was drinking leisurely, the butler came trotting in from outside the garden.

The guards outside the pavilion did not stop him, and the butler entered the pavilion unimpeded.

"What happened? Why are you so flustered?"

Mu Changzuo asked nonchalantly.

"Master, I'm afraid something happened to Meng Mi."

The housekeeper had been in for two days, not caring about his fatigue, and said breathlessly.

Mu Changzuo, who had just raised the wine glass to his lips, had no intention of drinking it. He put down the glass and asked seriously, "Did the Burmese army also attack Mengyang?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it's about right."

The butler replied hastily.

"Tell me what news you have heard slowly. Sit down and take a rest. There is no need to rush."

Mu Changzuo was able to keep his composure. He waved his hand and motioned the butler to sit down and talk.

The housekeeper has been in the Duke of Qian's Mansion for a long time, and is of the same generation as Mu Changzuo's father.

Ever since he was old enough to understand, he has been working with his father in the mansion. At that time, he was the head of the department, so he was promoted to the position of steward.

Therefore, even though the housekeeper’s surname is not Mu, he already considers himself a member of the Mu family.

In fact, at this time, most of the servants in noble families had been serving their masters for generations and were true bondservants.

If it weren't for such connections, it would be impossible for ordinary people to gain the trust of these nobles.

Although he had the trust of the Mu family, the butler still knew his identity. Although he sat down as instructed by the master, he only sat on half of his butt to show respect for the master.

After sitting down, he couldn't really take a few breaths and rest, but he suppressed his breath and said, "Master, yesterday I contacted several merchants as you instructed and asked them to inquire about the news.

Someone came from their side today and said that something happened in Mubang two months ago. The Burmese army surrounded Mubang, and even within 20 miles of our Ming Dynasty border, there were Burmese troops hiding.

In the past month, a similar situation occurred in Mengyang. Although the Burmese army did not loot their supplies, they also stopped them from passing.

He also said that we should not do business in the next two months and should wait until this period is over before going back.”

"Humph, is Mang Yinglong really planning to rebel?"

Mu Changzuo snorted heavily, then said angrily.

To be honest, Mu Changzuo is not willing to send troops to interfere in foreign affairs.

This was actually the common attitude of Yunnan officials during the Burmese Incident. First, they were unwilling to send troops because of foreign conflicts. Second, they believed that no matter who won or lost, they would have to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty in the end.

Because of this understanding, he naturally chose to turn a blind eye to the dirty deeds between the Three Xuans and Six Weis. Even after knowing that Myanmar was divided up by the three parties, he chose to conceal the news for fear of an imperial edict from the court.

After all, the Ming Dynasty never regarded Myanmar and its surrounding areas as its territory. Although it did not confer titles of kings on them, it actually accepted the fact that they were vassal states.

The situation is different now. The Ming Dynasty obviously does not intend to remain silent. It wants to warn Mang Yinglong's Burmese to be honest and not make trouble again. However, not only is there no effect, the other party seems to have become even more aggressive.

"Sir, it seems we have to send someone to check out the situation. The Burmese army has already reached 20 miles from the border of our Ming Dynasty. They are not friendly."

The butler reminded in a low voice.

"Where did Mang Yinglong get so many soldiers?"

However, when Mu Changzuo heard the news, he was neither panicked nor angry. He did not rush to Mengmi regardless of the consequences. Instead, he was thinking about how many troops the Toungoo Dynasty under the rule of Mang Yinglong had.

The three Xuans and six Weis refer to the Nandian Xuanfu Si, Ganya Xuanfu Si, and Longchuan Xuanfu Si; the six Weis refer to the Cheli Xuanwei Si, Myanmar Xuanwei Si, Mubang Xuanwei Si, Babaidadian Xuanwei Si, Mengyang Xuanwei Si, and Laos Xuanwei Si.

When talking about their strength, we have to consider geographical scope, economic strength, military capabilities, etc.

There is no doubt that the Burma Xuanwei Office had certain military and economic strength during the Ming Dynasty and was the most powerful one among the Three Xuanwei and Six Wei.

It was precisely for this reason that Myanmar was often bullied by the three parties and was eventually destroyed by the combined efforts of the three parties.

After the incident occurred, the Yunnan government did not respond in a timely manner. This was the reason. One of the purposes was to take this opportunity to weaken Myanmar's strength.

After Myanmar, there are Cheli and Mubang. These two are slightly weaker, and one of them alone will definitely not be able to defeat Myanmar, but with the help of allies, even if they cannot win, they will not lose too badly.

The remaining Mengyang, Babai Dadian and Laos are relatively weaker, which is why Mengyang has always chosen to rely on the Ming Dynasty, but did not dare to offend Myanmar.

A weak country is destined to be caught between two sides, trying to find a living space in the cracks.

Myanmar had previously attacked Cheli, Babai and other Xuanweisi, and had just defeated Mubang, and was about to send troops to Mengyang. This forced Mu Changzuo to consider how many troops Mang Yinglong could actually muster.

Not to mention Laos, Cheli and other places, perhaps the local people have already surrendered, and Myanmar does not need to send many troops to consolidate its rule.

However, the Mubang that had just been defeated was definitely not a place where one could maintain rule by sending only a small number of troops.

Now they still have the ability to encircle Mengyang, which requires Mu Changzuo to figure out how many troops Mang Yinglong can mobilize.

This is very important, as it determines the success or failure of the Ming army's intervention.

If the Ming army mobilized fewer troops, it would definitely be useless. If they were defeated, the group of Yunnan officials would suffer a bad outcome.

The imperial court would not simply punish the Left General Li Chengliang, but would instead vent its anger on the officials in Yunnan.

Mu Changzuo had this doubt because he was actually influenced by the military system of the Ming Dynasty. After all, he had been exposed to the military system of the Ming Dynasty since he was a child and had forgotten the old things of the previous dynasty.

Before the Ming Dynasty, such as from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Yuan Dynasty and the later Qing Dynasty, there was a system of "everyone is a soldier", that is, farmers or fishing and hunting peoples could quickly gather into an army in peacetime, and under this system, it was relatively easy to assemble an army of hundreds of thousands of people.

However, during the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang reformed the military system and divided the people into specific groups, namely the so-called cities, farmers, merchants and industrialists.

Even among soldiers, there is a clearer division of labor. Some are responsible for logistics, and there are combat soldiers fighting on the front lines. In this way, the number of people participating in the battle on the front lines is greatly reduced.

In addition, population distribution and economic development are also important factors affecting the number of troops dispatched. During the Ming Dynasty, the population was close to 1 million, but the land had been divided up. Without the conditions of the early small population and vast land, it became more difficult to assemble troops on a large scale.

In addition, with the development of society, the proportion of professional soldiers has increased, while the proportion of the population of service age has decreased relatively, which is also one of the reasons for the decrease in the number of troops dispatched.

The most important reason is the change in the nature of war, which is also an important reason for the reduction in the number of troops sent.

The nature of wars during the Warring States Period and the unified dynasty period was different. During the Warring States Period, most of the wars were decisive battles that determined the survival of the country, so the whole country would devote all its efforts to respond.

During the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, although there were large-scale wars, most battles did not involve the life and death of the country, so there was no need to devote the entire country's strength to deal with every battle.

Because of this division of labor system, when going to war, there was no need to recruit a large number of civilians as before. Instead, troops were only dispatched from the garrisons. Naturally, the manpower was limited, but the combat effectiveness was also guaranteed to a certain extent.

But the situation in Myanmar is different. They are still using the "everyone is a soldier" military system. When Mang Yinglong launched foreign wars, he recruited a large number of farmers from the fields to participate in the war.

The disadvantage is naturally that continuous fighting will greatly affect the country's agricultural production, and the war cannot continue.

But the advantage is that you can quickly mobilize a large number of troops and send them to the battlefield, striving to win the war as quickly as possible.

At the same time, the spoils obtained after the victory were enough to make up for the losses in agricultural production caused by the delay in farming time due to the mobilization of young and strong people.

This is also the reason why once a country is involved in a foreign war, it is often difficult to stop. It will either build a great empire or eventually collapse and fail.

Using war to support war has been the case since ancient times.

Mang Yinglong realized that the Ming Dynasty was going to attack the Southeast Peninsula, so he chose to confront it head-on after careful consideration. Therefore, after successfully mobilizing a large number of elite troops to raid Mubang, he had no time to rest and directly sent troops to quietly surround Mengyang, preparing to completely complete the unification of the so-called Three Xuans and Six Wei of the Ming Dynasty, and then challenge the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, his actions are more than that.

He also sent people to secretly contact the chieftains in Luchuan, Longchuan, Qianya and other places in the Ming Dynasty, to win them over and promise them various benefits.

This is also the reason why Mu Changzuo has not received any intelligence about the appearance of Burmese troops on the border until now. Those chieftains have become corrupt and are trying to fool him by pretending to be deaf and dumb.

The various chieftains that Mang Yinglong contacted had even reached as far as Wandian. The chieftain of Wandian, Zhizhou Jingzongzhen, also chose to surrender to Mang Yinglong at this time, hoping to expand his land and population after winning in Myanmar.

In Yunnan, the areas near the border are all governed by hereditary chieftains, and these lands only account for about half of Yunnan’s total area, while large tracts of land are controlled by the imperial court.

The price Mang Yinglong paid to these chieftains was to divide the areas controlled by the Han people for them to become their hereditary territories.

This is something the Ming Dynasty court would never agree to, and only a great chieftain like Mang Yinglong could agree to it.

With such temptation, wouldn't the toasts be suspicious?

In fact, there is no need to doubt it.

Because the so-called Toungoo Dynasty was actually composed of a number of chieftain tribes.

Those chieftains who had previously been loyal to Mang Ruiti and others all benefited from the expansion of the Toungoo Dynasty, expanding their territory and population, which naturally made other chieftains jealous.

Relying on the demonstration effect, it is easy to win over the chieftains in the Ming Dynasty.

As for the Ming Dynasty, although it was always on guard against these chieftains, it only paid more attention to their actions and found it difficult to detect their private dealings with other chieftains.

Naturally, they did not know that many chieftains in western Yunnan had actually begun to harbor rebellious intentions at this time, and planned to act as internal supporters in the war against the Ming Dynasty after Mang Yinglong completed the war of unification outside the region.

They are not Han Chinese, and certainly not traitors.

And because the Ming court did not trust them in the first place, it was actually natural to make such a decision.

"My Lord, if Mang Yinglong is going to use his troops continuously in order to capture Mubang and Mengyang, he will need to prepare at least 100,000 troops.

To deal with Mubang, at least 50,000 to 60,000 troops are needed, while Mengyang requires fewer troops, at least 30,000 to 40,000, and a surprise attack is necessary.

After all, there are mountains between the two places, and it would be difficult to move forward if the other side blocked the mountain pass.

If the time comes, it will be very disadvantageous to Myanmar.

All in all, they need even more manpower.

You say, could it be that people from Ava, Dongwu, and Laos are also involved?

After all, Mang Yinglong had already conquered Cheli, Babai Dadian and Manmo. It was said that Gubo, Luokeng and Dimasa were also captured by his troops.

Those places are full of Tusi tribes. If Mang Yinglong tempts them with benefits, they might invade us.”

The butler expressed his guess, which was indeed the method taken by Mang Yinglong.

By offering the Ming Dynasty's territories in Yunnan and nearby areas as enticement, he actually gained support from those chieftains whose attitudes towards him were wavering.

Just as the Burmese army launched a massive attack on Mubang and surrounded Mengyang, Mang Yinglong had already gathered armed forces from Ava, Dongwu, Mengbie, Mengmi, Manmo and other places, and assembled more than 100,000 people to begin marching eastward, preparing to take advantage of the situation after conquering Mengyang to attack the Ming Dynasty and plunder land and population.

At this point, it was no longer a question of whether the Ming Dynasty should punish Myanmar, but rather that he wanted to show the Ming Dynasty his powerful armed forces and use this to demand that the Ming court compromise and hand over Yunnan and other places.

Myanmar has developed extremely rapidly in recent years, but fundamentally it has relied on continuous foreign wars to plunder wealth, territory and population.

Mang Yinglong was well aware that the Ming Dynasty was very powerful, so this time he not only made adequate preparations, but also persuaded almost all the tribal leaders under his rule to join forces to attack the Ming Dynasty.

Mang Yinglong even contacted the Portuguese doing business in Shalian and hired a 300-man mercenary army to participate in the war against the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, the Burmese have been in contact with Europeans for quite some time. More than 40 years ago, the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and entered the Indian Ocean. They came into contact with the Burmese while continuing to explore eastwards.

More than 20 years ago, during the reign of King Mang Shwe Thi, Myanmar was in a civil war and the Burmese King Mang Shwe Thi hired the Portuguese to participate in the war between Toungoo and the seven chieftains.

His successor Mang Yinglong also maintained contact with the Portuguese, especially in terms of naval warfare. The cannons possessed by the Portuguese were almost invincible in naval battles.

However, the cannons were bulky, so Mang Yinglong still believed more in the powerful assault capability of their tall war elephants.

It was because they were facing the powerful Ming Dynasty this time. To be on the safe side, Mang Yinglong chose to contact the foreigners in Shalian and formed a mercenary force of 300 people to go with him, carrying several bronze cannons to attack the cities of the Ming Dynasty.

With such a big move, Mang Yinglong would naturally close the border and not let the Ming merchants know the inside story.

However, this also exposed the fact that he was planning a big move, which made Mu Changzuo deeply doubtful at the moment.