I

  Chapter 866 862 [The Lone Army Goes Deep]

  War in Southeast Asia must be resolved quickly.

   If you win the battle, you will withdraw the troops. The battle time (including marching) is more appropriate within five months.

   If it is necessary to garrison troops after the war, wipe out the remnants of the enemy army, and arrange officials in the newly occupied territory, it must be done within three months.

  Once the delay is delayed, we will face high heat and high humidity weather, resulting in a large number of non-combat attrition of troops.

  So this expedition to Burma has been in preparation for several years.

   If you don't fight, you will be dead, if you want to fight, you will be thunderous, and you can fight it once and for all!

   The main attack force has four regular divisions. One of the divisions was specially programmed for Burma.

  In addition, there are 40,000 patrol soldiers, all from Yunnan and Guangxi provinces.

   Excluding civilian and logistical personnel, there are more than 80,000 soldiers alone!

  The two divisions on the South Road, the division commanders are Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan, and they each brought 5,000 patrol soldiers.

  Yang Zhan is 50 years old this year, and he took his territory and troops in Sichuan to join the new dynasty. After graduating from the crash course of the military academy, he participated in the recovery of Guizhou and Yunnan, and finally became a division commander two years ago. This should be the last time he commanded a battle, and then he would either be transferred back to the Dudu Mansion, or transferred to the Dusiguan conscription and training.

  Qin Liangyu's two nephews, also because they were too old, left the front line after being promoted to deputy division commander. One was transferred to the governor's mansion to sit in the government office, and the other served as the commander of the Guizhou capital.

  Yang Zhan stood at the bow of the boat, admiring the scenery along the river: "At this speed, we will be able to reach the capital of Taungoo next month."

  Ding Jiasheng said with a smile: "Meng people are too enthusiastic, they give food and boats."

   Not only gave the ship, but also sent troops to follow it.

  Lower Burma is the land of Longxing of the Toungoo Dynasty. The main ethnic group here is the Mon, followed by the Bamar and Karen. In order to consolidate the regime, the Burmese king must suppress the power of the Mon people, triggering continuous Mon uprisings. In the past hundred years, the population of the entire Lower Burma region has been halved.

  When the Datong Army landed at the mouth of the Ayeyarwady River, the latent agents took the opportunity to join forces, and a large number of Mon chiefs and merchants recruited troops to help.

  These Mon soldiers did not perform well in siege, and the racial vendettas became more and more fierce.

  During the march, they often broke away from the Datong Army and rushed to the nearby Burmese villages to carry out massacres. The entire village killed all the Burmese people.

  Such behavior caused the Burmese in Lower Myanmar to drag their families and flee upstream.

  The Burmese government didn't have to bother to gather troops anymore, they directly recruited the fleeing people to form troops, and finally pulled up a "hundred thousand troops" to defend Pyay City.

  The strategic position of Pyay City in Myanmar is probably similar to that of Xuzhou in China. No matter which dynasty wants to fight for the hegemony of Myanmar, it must fight a battle here.

  One hundred and twelve years ago, the Taungoo Dynasty also won the Battle of Prome before finally establishing its dominance in Burma.

  At that time, the Burmese had not yet turned against the Mon, and joined forces to resist the rule of the Ava Dynasty (Shan). Although the Mon people are not good at fighting, they are very good at farming and doing business. They provided 1,400 ships and 9,000 sailors for the Burmese army.

  Now history is repeating itself. The Mon people provided more than 1,200 ships, more than 8,000 sailors, and more than 10,000 civilian husbands to the Datong Army, just to overthrow the brutal rule of the Burmese.

  When Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan led their troops to Piyao, they were immediately speechless by the sight in front of them.

  On the city wall, there are densely packed, full of "defenders"!

  There are Bamar refugees everywhere outside the city. Since the city is already overcrowded, these Bamar refugees can only stay outside the city.

   "Camp!"

  The Datong army camped a few miles south of the city by the mountains and rivers.

  The next day, the artillery was pulled out and first fired at the refugee camp outside the city. There are too many various shacks, which will affect the Datong army's attack on the city, so they must be cleared first.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  More than 20 shells fell, and the Bamar refugees fled in terror. Unable to enter the city, they chose to go around the city and flee further north.

  The chief general stationed in Pyay City is Mangtai, a nobleman of the Toungoo royal family.

  Son Mang Sigu said: "Father, we have an superior force, we can go out and fight the enemy!"

  Mang Tai shook his head: "Stick to it and wait for help."

   Mang Sigu said: "There are too many people pouring into the city, and we don't have time to collect food and grass. We will be besieged for a month or two at most, and the food will be gone by then!"

   "Stick and wait for help!" Mang Tai said firmly.

  Tungoo Dynasty is similar to Annan Kingdom, with only tens of thousands of standing troops, and most of them are stationed in the capital and the northern border. When a big battle is needed, let the local nobles recruit farmers, and the limit force can be expanded to 300,000.

  Pyay is a strategically important city, with more than 3,000 troops stationed in peacetime, which is considered very important.

  Now, Mangtai only has more than 3,000 standing troops in his hands, and the rest are all temporarily recruited refugees. How can he dare to take the initiative to go out of the city for a decisive battle?

  There must be reinforcements in the north, and it is estimated that there will be reinforcements in the west and south.

  More than a hundred years ago, the Rakhine (Arakan) people came by boat to help the Shan people fight the Burmese. It will be the same now, as the Rakhine people rush to help by boats, helping the Burmese fight against the Datong army.

   "Do you think you can keep it?"

   "I'm afraid I can't hold it. The Chinese army is very strong."

   "Take a chance and slip away."

  "I can't leave, unless I abandon my family and property."

   "..."

   This conversation came from the fort of the tower.

  Two Portuguese mixed-race officers were guarding the artillery and whispering. Their ancestors once made contributions to the Toungoo Dynasty, defeated the main cavalry force of the Ava Dynasty with artillery, and formed artillery units for the Toungoo Dynasty.

  In addition to the Portuguese, there are Armenians in the city. Their ancestors also participated in the battle of Prome a hundred years ago, and helped the Toungoo Dynasty fight with the Persians.

  The Taungoo Dynasty was able to quickly unify Myanmar, relying on multinational troops and advanced weapons. In the middle of the 16th century, it had guns and artillery.

  However, their firearm technology is still stuck a hundred years ago.

  After the Burmese refugees outside the city were startled away by the artillery, the Datong Army began to divide its troops.

  Yang Zhan took a regular division, plus 5,000 inspectors, and thousands of Mon people, through the hilly area in the south of the city, and went around to the north of Pame City to set up camp. The troops of Yang Zhan and Ding Jiasheng are like two nails, nailed to the north and south of Prome City.

  This is a big city, it is really not easy to attack by force.

  In the great battle more than a hundred years ago, the city was besieged for more than five months. After all the reinforcements were wiped out, the defenders in the city were forced to surrender.

  The Datong Army has a deadline for combat, and it cannot be delayed for that long.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  Six days in a row, shelling has been going on.

  Dozens of artillery pieces of the Datong Army aimed at the city wall and fired. The twelve city defense artillery of the defenders also continued to fight back.

  At the same time, the Mon servant army led the Mon servants to fill the moat under artillery fire.

  The trees in the southern mountain forest were cut down in large numbers to make siege equipment. In standard siege warfare, there are no tactics at all, and the preparations for the siege in the early stage are all fixed routines.

   "The temperature at noon today is 28 degrees, suitable for continuing to fight."

  At this time, the Datong Army also carried a thermometer with the army, and when it exceeded 32 degrees, the whole army would brew herbal tea.

  It is currently the end of October (lunar calendar). It is winter, and the temperature at noon is almost 30 degrees. One can imagine how difficult it is to fight in summer.

   "The enemy's reinforcements haven't come yet?" Yang Zhan complained.

Naipan, the leader of the Mon tribe, said, "It will take at least two months for the King of Myanmar's reinforcements to arrive here slowly, because the King of Myanmar needs to raise food and troops. Every time we Meng people revolt, no matter how big the disturbance is, It takes two or three months for the king’s army to come, and sometimes even half a year or so.”

  Yang Zhan sighed: "It seems that besieging the city and fighting for aid is not an option. Either attack here by force, or continue northward."

   "Da da da da!"

  As soon as he came to the barracks on a fast horse, the herald said: "Master Yang, Ding Duzhi suggested that we abandon this city and continue northward!"

   "That's what I mean too!" Yang Zhan wanted to leave a long time ago.

   It is a typical taboo for military strategists to continue to advance without conquering strategically important areas. The rear roads are all blocked by the enemy. Once the war drags on for too long, they will face the dilemma of insufficient military supplies and stranded troops alone.

  But the fortified city in front of me really cannot be conquered in a short time.

  For six full days, the artillery bombardment continued, but the city wall remained motionless, and even the moat hadn't been filled.

  That night, Ding Jiasheng took his soldiers and detoured several miles from the southeast to the north, and the whole army set out in the dark on ships.

  Phime City was built on the riverside, and the movement of the baggage transport ship was quickly noticed by the defenders in the city.

  The defenders have only 12 city defense guns, which are evenly arranged on all sides.

  The four city defense guns facing the river were bombarding the fleet indiscriminately, and it was unclear whether they hit or not in the dark. Fighting and firing, the artillery on the north and south city walls also fired towards the upstream and downstream rivers.

  The next morning, the Datong Army had gone far away, and statistics found that two ships were missing and more than 20 ships were damaged.

   Then it will be easy to fight. A city named Alan Miao upstream is completely defenseless against the Datong Army.

  Although local officials also collected refugees, they organized them into city defense forces. But everyone felt that Pyay City could hold on, and even if they couldn't, they could hold on for two or three months. They just waited for King Myanmar's reinforcements.

  When the Datong army suddenly approached the city, the officials who defended the city thought that the city of Promea had been lost, so they were so frightened that they abandoned the city and fled.

  The chief officers have all run away, a group of temporarily formed refugee troops, how can there be any morale to stick to the end? After firing the cannon, the city gate to the north opened wide, and the defenders and civilians scrambled to escape.

   "Kill all the Burmese!"

  The Mon servant army, with red eyes, rushed into the city to burn, kill and loot.

  Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan did not stop, and even condoned the looting by the Mon soldiers. They took the risk of leading the army northward and had to supply food along the way. It was inconvenient for the Datong army to do such dirty work, so they just let the Mon servant army do it for them. We divided the goods together, and all the food was taken by the Datong Army.

  After three days of plundering, the army continued to move north.

  The Burmese who fled to the north spread news along the way, saying that the city of Prome had been breached. This wrong military situation frightened all the cities upstream, and they all abandoned the city and fled.

  The Datong army traveled northward for more than 500 miles before encountering resistance in Bagan.

   Bagan City is also a big city, only 280 miles away from the capital of Myanmar. There are not only tens of thousands of temporary recruits in this city, but also thousands of reinforcements gathered by the King of Burma, and nearly ten thousand reinforcements are also rushing over.

  In the south, Mangtai, the chief general of Pemi, is also leading an "army of tens of thousands" to chase after him.

  The troops of Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan obviously went deep alone, and they will face the north-south attack of more than 100,000 Burmese troops.

   It’s just that, of the more than 100,000 Burmese troops, there are less than 20,000 standing troops that can really fight.

   "How to fight?" Ding Jiasheng asked.

  Yang Zhan said: "Go back the same way and wipe out the pursuers in the south!"

   "Hahaha, I think so too." Ding Jiasheng laughed loudly.

  (end of this chapter)