When Jiang Yuyan walked up to the north tower of Mengyang City, he saw soldiers in the aisle above the city tower.

The aisle is not narrow. As the largest city in the Mengyang area, Mengyang City is also the most critical transportation hub, and it has always been a battleground for soldiers, and it has also experienced the most wars.

Although the large number of wars caused the livelihood of the people in this area to wither, and many people were scattered, leaving Mengyang City to go to other towns in the Mengyang area, or simply leaving Mengyang, so that the prosperity of the Luchuan Kingdom was no longer the past, its strategic importance still made the walls of Mengyang City continue to be strengthened.

The result of the strengthening is the improvement of the overall defense capability, and in terms of performance, on the one hand, the construction of various fortifications, both inside and outside the city, and on the other hand, it is reflected in the city walls.

The height of the city wall of Mengyang City is not high, Jiang Yugang came to the Ming Dynasty and did not have modern measuring tools to measure, but the measurement tools of the Ming Dynasty are still available, according to the measurement results, converted to the modern height, it is about four meters, and because the city wall of Mengyang City is the result of many constructions, there is no enough consistent project management and scheduling between each construction project, so the performance of the construction results is also uneven.

High places, such as the North City Tower, the East City Tower, and the northeast of the city tower protruding, Jiang Yu called the northeast city tower, the height of the city tower in these places is about five meters, it can be regarded as a very high city wall in the Luchuan area.

In contrast, the city walls of Jiangtou City, an important town that has been entrenched by Luchuan forces for many years, and which is now the main town attacked by the Ming army, are only seven to eight meters high, and it is a city built with the greatest human and financial support of Luchuan with the support of many construction craftsmen, including craftsmen from the Ming Dynasty and craftsmen from other countries other than Luchuan.

The solidity of Jiangtou City, it can be said that it is one of the best cities in the Luchuan area, and even in the western part of the Indochina Peninsula, the Ming army and Luchuan had a ten-year-long war, but never really captured this city, and gradually Jiangtou City also replaced Mengyang City, becoming the controller of Luchuan forces, the real nest of the Sijia forces.

Mengyangcheng, as the nominal seat of Luchuan, played the role of a military command center more often, but considering the disadvantage of the Luchuan army in the face of the Ming army, this kind of military command center could only be temporary, and it would basically be abandoned in the middle of the war.

On the contrary, Jiangtou Castle, which has always been in a relatively safe position, provides strict protection for the rear because of the existence of the surrounding Ava Kingdom, and when the Ava Kingdom does not participate in the war, this city is extremely difficult to break, and when the Ava Kingdom participates in the war, the Luchuan forces will flee to other nearby forces.

In fact, from here, it can be seen that the real reason why the Battle of Luchuan was so difficult for the Ming army was that the power of Luchuan, which was entrenched in a corner, was strong? It must be admitted that Luchuan is indeed powerful, it occupies a relatively flat terrain and pleasant climate relative to the surrounding areas, and if you insist on comparing its geographical conditions with the temperate zone and subtropical plains of the Ming Dynasty, and draw the conclusion that its geographical conditions are not so superior, the richness of Luchuan's resources is rarely comparable to the surrounding areas.

The people living here can obtain all kinds of things needed for life from nature, and there is great convenience in clothing, food, housing and transportation, and even do not need too much labor, which leads to the birth of the Luchuan Sijia force, after the unification of the entire Luchuan force, the rich resources and superior geographical conditions here have opened up the infinite potential of this land and the people on this land.

If it weren't for the fact that Luchuan was attacked and suppressed by the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty one after another, it is possible that a unified large force would really appear on the Indochina Peninsula in the 14th and 15th centuries AD, and then unify more cultural and spiritual cores, and this enemy is not weak.

But then again, although Luchuan is powerful, this strength is more of a kind of strength with a subjective perspective, that is, when it is compared with the surrounding forces, the strength reflected in Luchuan, or when it is simply placed in the historical process, it is embodyed.

And this kind of strength is actually not objective enough, it may be a little strange to say, because objective, but it will not be objective, but the reality is so full of surprises, because the opponent that Luchuan has to face is a powerful country that controls the entire Eastern Continent, this country may be one of the most powerful countries in the history of human civilization, and the existence of this country itself is not objective.

Therefore, although Luchuan is strong, in front of the Ming Dynasty, his strength is not enough, and it is not enough to resist the military strength of the Ming army and hinder the will of the Ming court. So after the Ming Dynasty took control of Yunnan, one of the central areas in the south of the continent, Luchuan quickly submitted to the Ming army.

Later, although because the Ming Dynasty did not establish a relatively strong control in Luchuan, the Sijia forces still controlled the Luchuan area, and then there was a conflict with the Ming army, but after the Ming army sent troops, the Luchuan forces still did not have the ability to confront the Ming army, so they could only obediently admit defeat and sue for peace, and pay the price of paying tribute and sending prisoners.

It can be seen from these past events that there is an obvious gap between Luchuan and Daming, so why, by the time of the Battle of Luchuan, this gap suddenly did not exist? At this time, the Ming Dynasty was still in its prime, and its military quality, equipment level and organizational ability were second to none on this continent, and maybe even the best in the world, so what made the gap between them smaller?

Is it a general in charge? The general who commanded the Battle of Luchuan was Jingyuan Bo Wang Ji, a famous general who was knighted as a civilian official, although there were some criticisms of him later, but these criticisms were not mainly in terms of strategic command, the Battle of Luchuan lasted for so many years, and there was no accident like Tumubao.

On the other hand, the Luchuan forces have been declining because of the war with the Ming Dynasty for many years, and they have lost towns that are very important to themselves, and even the ancestral land of Luchuan when they made their fortune have been lost, and they have been replaced by other local forces chosen by the Ming Dynasty, and some of the original areas, such as Mengyang, have gradually declined because of the continuous wars, and it can be said that the strength has fallen to a very low level.

In fact, many things in history are similar to the Battle of Luchuan, and there have been incomprehensible turns and changes in many details, resulting in an outcome that may not be completely unimaginable under the reasoning of the preconditions.

However, after Jiang Yufu came to Luchuan, combined with his own experience and understanding of the history of the Luchuan War before crossing in the past, he gradually had an answer in his heart, and the reasoning of this answer was not difficult, only a simple logical relationship was needed.

A simple hypothetical comparison of the strength of the Ming and Luchuan is obtained: it is known that the military strength of the Ming Dynasty is stronger than that of the Luchuan, and the Luchuan should not be able to resist the Ming, but the Ming Dynasty was unable to completely conquer the Luchuan in the end, so this shows that the strength of the Luchuan has been improved, and it has been raised to a level that can compete with the Ming, and it is known that the strength of the Luchuan itself has not reached this level, so the conclusion is that there are external forces to support the strength of the Luchuan to this extent.

And what is the external force, that is the nearby Myanmar and Mu State. At that time, they belonged to the same status: three proclamations and six comforts. In it, Myanmar is known as the Myanmar Propaganda Division, and the Mubang is called the Mubang Propaganda Division.

However, although it is called the Xuanwei Division, it is not actually controlled by the Ming Dynasty, and the managers and rulers in it, whether they are hereditary inheritance or battles, are not appointed by the Ming administration. In essence, they were only nominal courtiers and vassals of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact the Ming Dynasty had very limited control over them.

If the Ming still has a certain degree of control over Mubang, and the local officials in it have to apply to the Ming when they inherit the position, and the Ming will also recruit them to go on the expedition in this war, the Burmese Propaganda Department is a more independent existence.

It does not need the canonization of the Ming Dynasty to provide itself with the rationality of taking power, on the contrary, the Burmese Xuanwei Division itself is a powerful country, the name of this country is the Ava Dynasty, on the one hand, it is a vassal, the attitude is humble like a courtier, but on the other hand, it itself is a very influential country, not only not controlled by the Ming, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is blocking the extension of the Ming power.

Rather than being a helper, it may play a bigger role in hindering. The Ming did not have the ability to conquer and control this country, which was too distant for that era, and could only accept its attitude of being a vassal to establish its prestige in this region, but at the same time, it also had to bear the difficulties encountered by such an existence in extending its own power and controlling other forces.

In the conquest of Luchuan, although the strength of Luchuan declined, but as the strength and external influence of the Ming Dynasty also declined because of a series of external conservative measures after the accession of Ming Xuanzong, in fact, the resurgence of the Luchuan forces cannot be said to have nothing to do with it.

And one result of this is that although the Ming still retains a relative strength advantage over the Luchuan army, the strength and prestige of the Burmese Xuanwei Division, that is, the Ava Dynasty, and the Mubang Xuanwei Division are declining.

The attitude of the two forces towards the Ming army is complicated. Because Mu Bang was more controlled and influenced by the Ming Dynasty, his choice of doing things was not so independent, but he put forward the condition that he wanted to obtain control of the land when assisting the Ming Dynasty in his expedition, and he was still obedient to the Ming Dynasty as a whole.

However, the Burmese Xuanwei Division, which is relatively stronger and less controlled by the Ming Dynasty, that is, the Ava Kingdom, is much more independent, not only did not fully assist the Ming in the war, but also became a large rear of Luchuan, once Luchuan was inferior and defeated in the war against the Ming, he fled to Ava, and Ava not only did not assist the Ming army to encircle and suppress the Luchuan forces, but became the protector of the Luchuan forces and prevented the Ming army's advance.

This superficially subordinated, but in fact everywhere in the way of the vassal state, for the Ming brought a lot of trouble, but the Ming is difficult to solve this trouble, in essence, when they are united, the Ming is the outsider, with the fifteenth century AD productivity and scientific and technological level, the Ming can make them bow down, is already the limit of ability, indeed has no ability to completely control them.

That is to say, as the absolute strength of the Ming Dynasty entered the era of Ming Xuanzong and began to decline, it could no longer rely on overwhelming combat power to make these surrounding forces truly surrender, and could only suffer from various strategic difficulties in their hearts and spirits, which would affect the overall national fortunes.

Speaking of Jiangtou City, it may be worse than some large towns in the Ming Dynasty, but considering that the geographical environment of the Luchuan area is more complex than the plain towns of the Ming Dynasty, and the ability to defend the city is stronger, it is really difficult to say which city is stronger.