prosperous age

Outside Mengyang City, after more than ten days of rest, the Burmese troops had recovered from their fatigue and regained their strong fighting spirit.

Early this morning, they lined up outside the city under the command of their leader.

As for why they did this, in fact, the news had already spread in various military camps a few days ago that they were going to attack the Ming Dynasty.

The chieftains and dignitaries above knew the interests of the Ming Dynasty, but the soldiers below did not. Especially the army of the Toungoo Dynasty, they followed the king to win victory after victory and achieved considerable results, and they could not stop.

If we ask them to lay down their weapons and go home to farm at this time, I'm afraid they won't do so.

What's more, most Burmese people don't know how to farm. Their farming skills are very rough, and they can barely make a living by relying on the fertility of the land.

Of course, it doesn’t matter if the output from the land is not enough to eat, there are plenty of wild fruits and vegetables, birds and beasts in the forest for them to hunt.

In the past, when a war was won, each family would receive a share of money and food, enough for them to live a good life, and this had become a habit.

So, after hearing that the king was going to take them to war again, instead of being afraid, they were all full of energy and eager to try.

Only a small number of elderly and frail veterans are somewhat worried, but their awareness will not affect too many people at all.

On a small platform made of earth in front of the army, Mang Yinglong arrived with his generals and chieftains, and soon he was shouting to the more than 100,000 soldiers below.

It doesn’t matter whether everyone can hear it or not, as long as there is a sense of ritual, it is enough.

After the impassioned speech, the soldiers who heard it in front waved their weapons and shouted desperately.

The soldiers at the back didn't know what to do, but when they saw the people in front doing this, they followed suit and soon the infection spread to the people at the back.

The cheers of more than 100,000 people were earth-shaking, and instantly scared away all the animals within dozens of miles around Mengyang City.

Then the news spread and everyone knew that the Burmese King Mang Yinglong made a promise that if Yunnan was conquered, everyone would get more wealth and land.

Yes, according to the rules learned from the Ming Dynasty, Mang Yinglong will distribute the looted Yunnan land to the soldiers who have made contributions in this war.

"Rui Li, bring the person up here to sacrifice to the flag."

Seeing that his men were in high spirits and had the confidence to rely on their people, Mang Yinglong immediately waved his hand and said.

Mang Yingli, the son of Mang Yinglong, brought the chieftain of Mengyangyuan, Si Ge, to the stage and then forced him to kneel on one side.

Mang Yinglong pointed at the provinces and loudly rebuked them, "He is the Mengyang envoy appointed by the Ming people. He colluded with the Ming people and oppressed us wantonly.

Today, I will enforce justice on behalf of Heaven and execute this official, setting an example for everyone else. This is the fate of those who dare to collude with the Ming people."

The soldiers in the first row were all loyal to the Toungoo Dynasty and were arranged by Mang Yinglong to cooperate. After Mang Yinglong finished speaking, they shouted loudly: "Kill, kill, kill!"

The shouting continued, and it was chaotic at the beginning, but later more and more people joined in, and then it gradually became orderly.

Murderous aura began to spread across the sky.

"Dad, the reply letter from the capital has arrived."

In Baoshan City, Li Rusong rushed into the backyard where Li Chengliang lived with an envelope in his hand.

"I heard you, why are you yelling?"

Li Chengliang was practicing boxing. It had become his habit to practice several sets early in the morning.

The climate in Yunnan is really good, many times better than that in Liaodong and Beijing.

Unconsciously, Li Chengliang had become somewhat jealous of the Duke of Qian's Mansion.

Although it is far away from the political center, it is not a bad thing to be in Yunnan, a place with a pleasant climate, just based on the brand of Shizhen Yunnan.

Of course, if Li Chengliang was given a choice, he would not be willing to stay in the southwest. After all, it was the border of the Ming Dynasty, and officials naturally wanted to stay in the capital, the political center.

However, although he said this, he had already stopped what he was doing. After Li Rusong ran up to him, he snatched the letter from the capital from his son's hand, opened it, took out the letter paper, and quickly flipped through it.

Soon, a look of joy appeared on Li Chengliang's face, and a smile appeared on the corners of his mouth unconsciously.

Li Rusong, who was standing by, saw this and guessed the contents of the letter, so he asked anxiously, "Dad, what did Lord Wei say?"

Li Chengliang retracted his gaze, glanced at Li Rusong on the side and said with a smile: "Lao Wei agreed with our strategy and asked us to destroy as many Burmese troops as possible in the first battle, weaken their strength, and prepare for the subsequent control of the entire Burma.

In addition, the letter also said that the imperial court had ordered the South China Sea navy to go south to Jiugang, and then go west to the coastal area of ​​Myanmar, choose an appropriate location to land and stab the enemy in the back.

In addition, Nanjing will also send us a batch of required firearms. There are many firearms in stock in the capital, but the journey is too far and we may not be able to supply them in time. Therefore, Lord Wei has ordered the transfer of the Denglai Navy and part of the grain transport ships to transfer the firearms allocated from the capital to Guangxi and then to Yunnan.

Hehe, with so many cannons, I'm going to give those barbarians a good meal.

I will definitely kill their elephant this time."

The letter was full of good news. Not only did he agree with their strategy of luring the enemy deep into our territory, he also promised to solve the problem of insufficient firearms for the southern soldiers and urged the two capitals in the north and south to transfer firearms.

With such support, Li Chengliang naturally became more confident in fighting the enemy.

Of course, Li Chengliang knew very well that the more support Wei Guangde got, the greater the pressure he would be under, and he could only win and not lose.

However, Li Chengliang never thought that he would be defeated by Mang Yinglong.

In his eyes, they were just southern barbarians who had never seen a big war. What was there to be so arrogant about?

The large-scale infantry and cavalry battles in the north are what real wars are.

"When will those firearms arrive?"

Li Rusong was very happy to hear this good news.

There is no general who doesn't like to have a large number of firearms in his hands.

But just after he finished deploying his troops and let out an earth-shaking roar with a wave of his hand, Li Rusong felt his blood boiling.

In the north, the Ming army had actually been overwhelmed by the power of firearms, especially during city defense battles, when they could attack the enemy from a higher range than with horse bows from the top of the city walls.

It was only after arriving in the southwest that the Li family discovered that most of the generals in the southwest were not familiar with firearms warfare.

Of course, perhaps it has nothing to do with the fact that Nanjing originally allocated little.

After all, firearms were popular in the Ming Dynasty during those years, and the weapons were manufactured first to ensure their use in the coastal provinces.

In the southwest region, although there were occasional rebellions by local chieftains, the situation was dealt with quickly by the local authorities and did not become a big deal. Naturally, there was no need to allocate large numbers of firearms to kill the enemy.

Because they were unfamiliar with the area, even the few firearms that were allocated to them were mostly shelved by the generals.

That is to say, Mu Changzuo's personal guards are using muskets and Portuguese cannons. After all, firearms were Mu Ying's powerful weapons against the elephant soldiers of the southwestern chieftains, and the Mu family is not yet able to forget their roots.

"Not so fast. It will take at least half a year to get to the army."

Although the letter contained all good news, Li Chengliang would not be as jumpy as Li Rusong.

"Half a year?"

Sure enough, when Li Rusong heard his father's words, he exclaimed again.

"It's good enough if it can be delivered within half a year. This is the southwest, not Liaodong where we used to live." Li Chengliang said unhappily.

Indeed, although Liaodong is outside the Great Wall, it is not far from the capital after passing Shanhaiguan.

The allocation of military equipment and supplies is actually very convenient.

Li Chengliang said it would take half a year, but in fact, it would take six months for the supplies to be delivered from Nanjing, even if the officials did not waste time on the road.

"It seems more convenient for Nanjing's firearms to be transported by water and then transferred to Guangxi by land."

At first, Li Chengliang didn't realize anything.

However, Wei Guangde's arrangement in the letter to transport Beijing's firearms by water gave Li Chengliang inspiration.

If land transportation is not smooth, it seems that taking the water route is also a good option.

"I must immediately send a letter to Nanjing, asking them to transport all the food, fodder and firearms they will allocate to Guangxi by water, and then transfer them to Yunnan."

Li Chengliang did what he thought and turned around and went into the house.

Li Rusong was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted and followed his father into the house.

Soon, a map of the southwest appeared in front of the father and son, and they began to circle around the map.

As I said, people in later generations believed that war was just war. Even though there was a saying later that war was just a battle of logistics, most people only understood this sentence superficially, thinking that the job was done as long as the weapons, ammunition and food were transported from the rear to the front line.

But in fact, since the ancient times, our ancestors have realized the importance of transportation to a war.

Many people know about the Qin State's Straight Road, but why did Qin Shihuang spend huge amounts of money to build this project after unifying the six kingdoms?

In fact, this fully reflects the vision of Qin Shihuang.

During the Warring States Period, it was certainly impossible for the Qin State to build a straight road, but it was built after unification in order to strengthen central power. Straight roads could be used to quickly transport supplies and troops and suppress all disobedience.

In ancient times, a general not only needed extraordinary strategy and bravery on the battlefield, but also had to be an expert in geography, able to accurately find the army's marching route and save time and energy to the greatest extent possible.

What Li Chengliang is doing now is to estimate whether it is more convenient and faster to travel by land or by water.

This is not only about this war, but also about the future long-term rule over Myanmar.

During the Ming Dynasty, transportation conditions in the southwest region were not ideal.

Although some access routes exist, they are often difficult, requiring passage through valleys and through some difficult and inaccessible terrain.

Yuexi Road and Luoping Road are the main thoroughfares from Guangxi to Yunnan, and have been the main passages since the Yuan Dynasty.

Although Li Chengliang did not take this route himself, he had considered this route at the beginning.

However, at that time in the Ming Dynasty, those who took the Yunnan route mostly chose to go through Guizhou, avoiding the mountains in the north of Yunnan and the swamps in the south, and directly entering the prosperous area in eastern Yunnan.

"Father, it seems that the journey from Guangxi to Yunnan is not easy."

After looking through the map, Li Rusong sighed.

“Luoping Road is closer and goes directly to eastern Yunnan, but the route is actually from Guangxi to Guizhou and then to Yunnan.

This route is relatively short, but it passes through many mountainous areas, and that part of the road is rugged and difficult to travel on. Large carts cannot travel at all, and the goods can only be transported by mules and horses.

The road in western Guangdong is long, and some sections can be traveled by water, which is convenient for marching and transporting supplies.

However, the journey is too long and passes through many chieftain territories, and there may be various natural and man-made obstacles. "

Li Rusong expressed his opinion. Although it seemed that transporting the supplies to Guangxi and then transferring them to Yunnan was a very short distance, that was only on the map. The straight-line distance was shorter, but it was very difficult to implement.

It would be fine if it was a small number of people or things, but they wanted to open up a road for large groups to march and transport large amounts of supplies, which was too much to ask.

"It's probably too late for the Beijing's firearms to go to Guizhou. Nanjing should still use the water route from Sichuan or Guizhou."

Finally, after some calculations, Li Chengliang had to admit that the sea transportation route from the capital to Guangxi and then to Yunnan looked good, but was actually not feasible.

Especially in war preparations and transportation equipment, it cannot be used.

All we can say is that Wei Guangde, who was thousands of miles away, did not understand the transportation of that era and made a serious mistake.

In fact, if there really is a shortcut, the wisdom of the ancients would not be inferior to that of modern people.

In ancient times, transportation conditions were poor, and many projects in later generations could not be built at all. Therefore, they chose roads and made full use of water systems, using inland water networks to transport goods, and only used land transportation when it was really impossible to use other methods.

Without railways, air transportation, or highways, China's transportation conditions have actually reached the best level in the world in this era.

Wei Guangde only considered that Guangxi is adjacent to Yunnan and seems to be very close, but he did not consider the traffic conditions. A large amount of goods simply cannot be transported through the Yunnan-Guangxi Highway.

"Father, brother, something happened."

Just when the two were feeling dejected because of the poor transportation conditions in Yunnan, Li Ruzhen's voice was heard in the yard.

"We are in the house, come in and talk, why are you shouting?"

Li Chengliang shouted angrily to the outside.

The eldest brother is like this, and the third brother is also like this. It would be strange if Li Chengliang could treat him with a good face.

Soon, Li Ruzhen came into the room, holding a battle report in his hand and handed it to Li Chengliang, and said anxiously: "Dad, five days ago outside Mengyang City, the Burmese king Mang Yinglong killed Mengyang Tusi Si Ge and officially ordered an attack on the Ming Dynasty.

I’m afraid the Burmese army’s vanguard has already passed Menglun, and will reach Manmo City in a few days.”

"coming?"

Li Chengliang narrowed his eyes slightly. What was supposed to come finally came, although it was a little inopportune.

If it could be delayed for a few more months, that would be the best time for Ming Dynasty.

"It seems that Mang Yinglong cannot afford the consumption of more than 200,000 people."

Li Chengliang chuckled.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty had more than 100,000 troops stationed in Yunnan, and the amount of food and fodder consumed every day was astonishing.

If it weren't for the fact that a large amount of money and grain was levied on the southwestern provinces when the troops were stationed in Guizhou for training, the government in Yunnan would have come to make trouble long ago.

Even though Yunnan has not transferred taxes and labor service fees to the capital since last year, the amount is only the amount of last year and this year, and there is also some accumulation in the government treasury, but the amount is limited.

After all, Yunnan was poor and did not have much money and grain taxes to use, so Li Chengliang had already planned to transfer money and grain support from Huguang and Guangdong.

Knowing that the Burmese army had not rested for too long before launching into the battle against the Ming Dynasty, Li Chengliang more or less guessed that Mang Yinglong might also be troubled by money and food, so he had to launch the attack as soon as possible.

Even when facing Siam, Myanmar only mobilized more than 100,000 troops.

It was the first time to gather an army of 300,000, so it was inevitable that they would be confused. (End of this chapter)