I

  Chapter 871 867 [Win the world's largest jadeite producing area]

   Meng Mi.

  Here is a powder keg. The southwestern border rebellion in the Ming Dynasty was more or less related to Meng Mi—it was the largest jadeite production base at this time.

  Just to give an example, Emperor Wanli sent mine supervisors and tax envoys across the country, and the Southwest Chieftain did not escape this encounter. At that time, the **** Yang Rong guarded Yunnan and opened a new emerald mine in Mengmi. Because of the uneven distribution of spoils, a rebellion was directly triggered, and then the miners revolted again. Chieftain Meng Mi wiped the eunuch's **** and beheaded thousands of people, but he still couldn't calm down.

  The Wanli court decided to send troops to quell the chaos, but they were short of food and money, so they had to give up in the end. From then on, the chieftains saw Daming's weakness and completely ignored the imperial court. Even chieftain Meng Mi, who wiped the eunuch's buttocks, turned against him.

  At this moment, thousands of miners are standing here and there.

Sikuang, chieftain of Meng Mi, put on armor and began to lecture: "The Han people are about to be killed. You also know that the Han people are the most cruel and unreasonable. Now we will organize you into an army. Those who have made great achievements will no longer be miners. Those who have made small achievements will no longer be miners. You can be a foreman... As long as you hold on for a month, the King of Burma will send reinforcements. As long as you hold on for three to five months, the Han people will retreat in summer!"

   One crude weapon after another was distributed to the miners. There are also some miners who did not receive weapons and continued to use mining tools.

  Many of these miners were robbed slaves, and some were even Han Chinese from Yunnan.

  Although they were exploited by chieftain Meng Mi, they have not yet reached the point of rebellion. On the contrary, the brutality of Han officials has always been engraved in the genes of the miners, and has become a nursery rhyme handed down from generation to generation.

  Southwest chieftain rebellion, half of the blame should be borne by local officials and eunuchs, and many times they were forced to rebel.

   "Kill the bandits, you have to live!"

   Sikuang took the lead in shouting a few words, and thousands of miners actually followed suit.

  Behind Si Kuang, more than 2,000 chieftain soldiers were still standing. Among them, 800 people are fully armed and armored, which can be called elite.

   Sure enough, the mine owner is still rich.

  Guarding the world's largest emerald base in the 17th century, Chieftain Mengmi has plenty of silver to equip the army.

  However, Sikuang is destined not to wait for reinforcements from Myanmar, because Bhamo, further north, is the real strategic location in northern Myanmar. King Myanmar's reinforcements are destined to go to Bhamo first.

  More than 200 inspection and anti-smuggling ships were temporarily used as a fleet to transport luggage. Hundreds of merchant ships conscripted by the people, carrying more than 10,000 inspectors, headed for Chieftain Mengmi's residence in a mighty manner.

   Si Kuang stood at the head of the city, looking at the densely packed ships, he was suddenly shocked and angry.

  I am a little chieftain, do I need so many soldiers to fight? You have so many soldiers, why don't you start from Tengyue and go directly to the strategic Bhamo? As long as Bhamo is defeated, the capital of Myanmar can be taken directly down the river!

  It's very simple. There are more troops attacking Bhamo, and they are attacking from both sides of the Dajinsha River and the Daying River.

   "Father, do you want to surrender?" Sihong was already frightened.

  Sikuang said: "You can't surrender. Once you surrender, the emerald mine will be gone. The emperor of Han must send eunuchs to take all our mines."

  After breaking away from Daming, it has only been a few decades since they occupied the mines. Chieftain Si's is used to living a rich life, and he would rather die in battle than live a life without mines. How merciful the King of Burma is, he sent some money every year and sent it away. When the Han people came, they would rob the mines.

  Sihong said: "But we can't beat it."

  Si Kuang said: "It is enough to defend the city, as long as you defend it for a month or two, the Burmese king's army will definitely come to rescue."

   Sihong muttered: "We have so many soldiers here. I am afraid that there are more enemy troops on the Bhamo side. The reinforcements of King Myanmar..."

   "Don't talk nonsense, keep the city at ease!" Si Kuang scolded.

Outside the city, the inspectors were already setting up camp, and Dang Sirong, the guide, said: "My lord general, there are at most two or three thousand soldiers in Mengmi's stronghold, and if all the miners are brought to defend the city, the strength is only seven or eight thousand. The artillery of the Celestial Dynasty should be aimed at the southern city wall, which has collapsed before, so it is definitely not as strong as the other sides."

  Teacher Pan Kai smiled and praised: "If you can capture this stronghold, you will be credited with the honor."

  Si Kuang and Sirong used to be a family.

   Their respective grandfathers are named Si Ren and Si Zhong respectively.

  Brothers competed for the position, Siren won, and Sizhong voted for Myanmar.

   There is also an ethical love story mixed in, Sizhong led the Burmese army to kill, and Siren escaped with his mother. On the way, Siren begged to marry his younger sister-in-law (Sizhong's wife), but his mother firmly refused. The mother ran away with her sister-in-law, but Siren actually led the elephant soldiers to chase and kill her, trying to **** her sister-in-law away from her mother. Because he didn't get it, Siren also defected to Myanmar in a rage.

  Siren was more valued by the king of Burma, and continued to be the chieftain of Mengmi. Sizhong, who was the first to vote in Burma, got nothing, and his mother and wife were still controlled by Daming...

   "When sieging a city, the last general is willing to be the first!" Sirong eagerly begged for a battle, wanting to settle the grievances of three generations, and at the same time, he wanted to win the court's favor.

  Pan Kai was really satisfied, and praised: "Jun Zhen is a loyal and brave man."

   Next came another boring siege battle, with dozens of artillery pieces aimed at the once collapsed southern city wall.

  The crude earth-rock mixed city wall couldn't stand the bombardment at all, and big cracks appeared in just one day.

The artillery of the Datong Army was too terrifying, and Sikuang felt that he could no longer stick to it, so he called the general Meng Cai: "Your mission is the most important when you leave the city for a decisive battle tomorrow. The whole army will cover your elephant troops. You must seize the opportunity. Riding an elephant and stepping on the Han army!"

   "Guaranteed to trample the Han Chinese into minced meat!"

  Meng Cai's father fought against the Ming army and knew that the Han soldiers had little combat effectiveness.

   What's more, chieftain Mengmi is getting richer and his military equipment is much better than before. Putting on a suit of armor and riding a war elephant, this guy feels invincible.

  The next day, early morning.

  Datong inspectors were about to leave the camp to form formation, when Pan Kai suddenly got the news that the defenders in the city had opened the city gate.

  The defenders lined up two miles away from the city. In the front of the central army were ordinary chieftain soldiers, followed by elephant soldiers and elite chieftains. Thousands of miners were lined up on both wings.

   "Is chieftain Meng Mi crazy? Does he want to use war elephants to attack my cannons?" Pan Kai held a binoculars and couldn't understand what the enemy general was thinking.

  The chieftain army marched forward slowly, and the miners on both wings were a little confused.

  Pan Kai said to the artillery commander: "All artillery, all aim at the elephants."

  The chieftain army is still advancing, and the temporary inspector division has no cavalry, and all infantry are waiting in formation there.

   "Test the gun!"

   "Boom boom boom!"

  More than a dozen shells were fired, and the chieftain's former army was already a little messed up.

   "Hold on, the war elephant will win if it rushes over!" Sikuang yelled, personally boosting morale.

  The chieftain troops advanced another hundred meters.

   "Salvo!"

   "Boom boom boom!"

  Dozens of shells were fired at the elephants.

  The loud sound of the cannon has already made the war elephant restless. As the shells continued to fall, three war elephants were hit directly, and one of them was not dead.

  The war elephant whose leg was bruised instantly went berserk, ignoring the order of the rider, and ramming wildly in its own army formation. Around the war elephant were all the elite chieftains, more than a dozen were trampled to death on the spot, and the other chieftain soldiers were confused.

   "Rush over quickly!"

  Si Kuang shouted.

   However, the ordinary chieftain soldiers at the front had already been bombarded by a round of shelling. They hadn't fought a big battle in more than ten years, how could they withstand dozens of artillery salvos, and more than half of them were so scared that they ran away.

  Pan Kai ordered: "The whole army goes forward!"

   "Boom boom boom!"

   As the infantry advanced, another round of artillery salvos fired.

  The remaining war elephants couldn't bear it anymore, and more than a dozen war elephants went berserk collectively, rampaging like headless chickens.

   Si Kuang looked around in a daze, the sudden defeat was completely beyond his imagination. He had never seen so many artillery pieces, nor had he seen a war elephant being knocked down by artillery pieces.

  In the entire Myanmar region, the last time a war elephant was destroyed by artillery was the Battle of Prome more than 100 years ago. The Portuguese gunners hid on the mountainside, and the cavalry and elephant soldiers of the Ava Dynasty were lured by the Burmese cavalry, and they all collapsed under the salvo of artillery.

   "Father, go!" Sihong shouted, but a war elephant rushed over.

   Si Kuang wanted to cry but had no tears. He sold a lot of emeralds and spent a lot of money to build an elite army! Such a powerful army can walk sideways in various chieftains in northern Myanmar.

  The infantry of the inspectors hadn't reached the range of the firecrackers, and the army of chieftains had already begun to collapse.

  The miner troops on both wings dropped their weapons and turned around to flee. The ordinary chieftain soldiers in the middle were beaten by artillery and their morale was negative. And those elite chieftain soldiers were completely crushed by the crazy war elephants.

   Yelang's arrogant commander of the elephant soldiers, Meng Cai, was directly thrown into the air by his own war elephant. After falling hard to the ground, he was stepped on by the war elephant again.

  Father and son Si Kuang and Si Hong fled on Dian horses.

  They dared not go back to the city, abandoned their families, and walked around the city, trying to escape into the valleys and mountains to the east.

  The patrol inspector only had a dozen or so riders, who originally belonged to the scouts, but now they chased them away at full speed.

  Pan Kai once again reiterated the military order: "Don't kill people indiscriminately, take more prisoners, and use them all as miners!"

  Jadeite, which began to emerge in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, has been fired at a higher price in recent years (Emperor Zhao likes jadeite). And Mengmi is the largest producer of jadeite, it is definitely enough to make money here, every miner is a treasure.

  The inspector on this road took down Meng Mi, and after a day's rest, he will set off again.

  The next marching route is to return to the original road by boat first, enter the tributary bend road to the southwest, then abandon the boat and cross the mountains to the west, and the upper reaches of the Ayeyarwady River will be out of the mountains.

  As long as the inspectors arrive there, even if they stand still, they can cut off the Bhamo Burmese army's retreat. If you go north along the river bank, you can cooperate with the two friendly forces to form a three-sided attack on Bhamo.

  Bhamo and its surrounding strongholds were the core battlefield of the Qing-Myanmar War, where the Qing and Burmese armies fought for several years.

  If Huang Yao’s army was in a stalemate with the Burmese army, the inspectors who had wiped out Meng Mi would directly go to the rear to attack, blocking the food road and starving the Burmese army to death.

  Pan Kai led the inspectors and marched in the mountains for more than a month. More than 300 soldiers fell ill due to acclimatization.

   Then, on the banks of the Irrawaddy River, he saw a grain transport ship of the Datong Army.

   "Captain Huang won the battle?" Pan Kai stopped the grain ship and asked.

  The captain smiled and said: "A few days ago, Captain Huang's army went to the south."

  Pan Kai was speechless for a moment. He thought that he would definitely make great contributions by outflanking the enemy's rear. But I never thought that I only fought for three days, and spent the rest of the time on the march. In the end, I didn't even eat a mouthful of hot dog shit.

  (end of this chapter)