The climate in southern Myanmar, which is still in winter, is still hot, and the teams that had been killing in the vicinity of Ava did not dare to stay long, but began to return north after a few days or so of clearing the neighboring areas. Unlike fighting in the northern region, Xiao Xuan was always worried that there would be inevitable epidemics after large-scale deaths in such places. After the team led by Xiao Xuan returned north for at least a hundred miles, the team launched a relatively long correction.

Since the southward movement, there have been casualties and losses of about 100 people, and about 60 people have been reduced. There is no doubt that the average combat effectiveness of the Burmese army has not reached the level of the average opponent in previous expeditions or internal insecurity operations. But it is obviously much stronger than his previous estimate and impression, and it is no wonder that some mid-level feudal dynasty armies cannot easily win against the Burmese army.

"The entire Nanyang countries, it seems that they will be the territory within the territory of my Ming Dynasty in the future... At the temporary military meeting on the way back, a young man beside Xiao Xuan said with a smile.

If it was before, Xiao Xuan might agree with this opinion, but at this time, there are obviously a lot more things to consider. On the strategic map in the military tent, Xiao Xuan looked at it and said: There are many sinister places in the entire Southeast Peninsula, even if we can clear out the local soldiers and civilians in these sinister places, it will cost a huge amount of money to immigrate and manage the new migrants in these places. At present, a lot of land in the west and even in the east has been actually owned by us, so there is no need to negotiate a deal. Why have tropical places been called badlands since ancient times? Presumably, after this southern expedition, you are also clear about some of the conditions here. It's still winter, and if it's summer, the water and soil adaptation factors will be even more serious. Therefore, in the entire southeast area, there should be something to be done and something not to be done. There are some places that we will completely occupy in the next step, and if the local people do not cooperate with us, they will either go elsewhere or be assimilated.

In Nanyang, fundamentally speaking: there are three places that we need to control: Luzon, that is, the territory of the former Spaniards, which is the hub between Nanyang and the mainland; The other is Majapahit, which is the southern gate of the entire South Seas, focusing on the key waterways west of Java, and this area seems to have jurisdiction and power in the form of my Ming Dynasty. But the most important thing is actually Myanmar, which is the key to the mainland in and out of the Indian Ocean and in South Asia, and importantly, if we don't take this place now, maybe it will become our problem in the future... ”

Xiao Xuan's words made many people puzzled: "I have read history roughly, in history, the Central Plains and Vietnam have had many conflicts, and Myanmar has never become a decent border trouble in my Central Plains... ”

Xiao Xuan said: "The essence of Vietnam is small China, and there are many advantages and disadvantages of our China, we will decay and decline, and they will one day become a country with a more serious military business." And in comparison: Vietnam is close to Guangxi and Guangdong, and the transportation potential along the border is actually much stronger than that of the China-Myanmar border. One day, we may have the conditions to concentrate more than a dozen armies and twenty or thirty brigades on the Sino-Vietnamese border to carry out operations in a row, but the Sino-Burmese border may not have such conditions. And most importantly, despite its great depth, the heart of its civilization is close to our north. Myanmar is different, not only is the situation on the Sino-Burmese border complicated, but also its core arable land and even the center of gravity of civilization is in the south. The difference in human geography brought about by the climate will also delay the development and prosperity of Myanmar, and even the civilization disease brought about by development and prosperity will be delayed a lot, and it may be in a semi-civilized state that can maintain a certain combat effectiveness for a long time. ”

When speaking of this, Xiao Xuan also thought of Myanmar's modern history: the Burmese Communist Party had no temper during the Cold War when the Burmese government army could fight, but at the beginning of the 21st century, it was the absolute superiority of the forces in the face of the northern Burmese people's land Wudu. The U.S. military has absolute technological superiority and weaponry superiority in Syria, but it does not dare to play chess in person like the Russians or Iranians. The development and progress of civilization, before the real maturity of artificial intelligence weapons, will eventually bring about a period of fragility in military performance, so that even military powers have no unlimited military confidence and confidence in the face of the poor, backward and simple third world.

These phenomena also made Xiao Xuan later make up his mind to finally conquer southern Burma. If the combat effectiveness and strength of the Burmese army are intact and have not been psychologically shadowed by the absolute superiority of force, perhaps it will face many problems in fighting with ordinary military forces that are not very elite in China, but after this round of strikes, I believe that there will be too many twists and turns in the subsequent actions. This was especially true when Burma had not yet received a large number of flintlock muskets from Westerners.

In this way, when the spring of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen came, the elite team led by Xiao Xuan carried out a round of sweeping, and the 40,000 elite soldiers selected from the country once again launched an expedition to Burma, and soon occupied the entire southern part of Myanmar before the rainy season came, and in the process, the troops stationed in Myanmar gradually increased to as many as 80,000 people. The Taungoo regime, whose population had just recovered to nearly three million, was dealt a heavy blow again, and many people fled to Tianzhu and Siam under brutal pressure, or died on the way to the flight or in the resistance. Many of the elderly, weak, women and children, who had a relatively bad attitude and strong resistance sentiment, were also killed and wounded in the ensuing purge operations.

Along with this, many places in the entire southwest region have also carried out land reform and return, and the royal power has been unprecedentedly strengthened in the previous two years of inspection, and foreign conquests have also become more and more under the advent of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen.

Under normal circumstances, border work always brings all kinds of burdens, not only the direct risks and even losses on the battlefield, but also the additional costs formed by many grassroots forces in such circumstances.

However, this round of military operations against the Nanyang region did not bring the same effect as the previous Western Expedition, and after the previous deterrence, not too many people dared to take the opportunity to make money. Moreover, the gold and silver wealth plundered from the previous conquests in Dongying, Manila, Batavia, and even from the Americas, and even the grain and goods themselves, brought a total income of more than 20 million taels, which not only exceeded the expenditure on the war in the previous years, but also brought a lot of surpluses.

(End of chapter)