Vientiane, Federal Trade Representative.

Cai Yuanding used an iron stick to pluck the wick to make the oil lamp brighter.

Candles are rarely used for lighting in Laos, and combustible resin is produced in the forests of the north, where the local people extract lamp oil from dipterocarp trees and exchange them with the outside world.

Cai Yuanding has a map of the Golden Triangle and Yunnan in China on his desk, and he is writing a report to Houjiang Prefecture.

Starting from Yunnan in the Celestial Empire, there are several roads along the Red River valley out of Annam, excluding the southern Yunnan region. There are 7 roads for the army to exit western Yunnan.

1. Tengmi Road, Tengchong to Myitkyina (there is no Myitkyina at this time, this road leads to Meng Gong).

Second, the Longchuan Xuanfu Division (Longchuan County, Dehong Prefecture) out of the copper wall, the iron wall pass, the Yongli Emperor and Gao Wengui exit the road.

3. Ruili went southeast to Mubang, Myanmar, and Bai Wen, the king of Gongchang, chose the road to attack Burma.

4. Mengding Province to the west to Mubang, Myanmar.

The above 4 are the roads from Yunnan to Burma, the Ming Dynasty fought several battles with Burma in the southwest, and who won the battle is a topic of ridicule, but the result is obvious, the Ming Dynasty lost tens of thousands of square kilometers of land.

A few years ago, when Xiying first entered Yunnan, there were several skirmishes with Myanmar over the taxation of border tusi, after which the two sides exercised restraint.

The remaining three outbound roads in western Yunnan are in the Golden Triangle, all of which are in the car Xuanwei Division (Xishuangbanna).

1. Cheli Xuanwei Si Mengla traveled 140 miles through Jiuling Pass to Mong Sin (Mang Sin, Namtha Province, Laos), crossed the Bingjiang River to the Mekong Valley, and traveled 150 miles through Mengrun Pass to Luang Prabang Mangwin.

Second, the Chelisi Wu has to the southeast, through the whole law pass to the thousand palms, and then through the fierce Wu can reach Annam.

3. Tribute elephant down the road.

Dali to the southeast to the south foot of Ailao Mountain to Jingdong Mansion (Pu'er Jingdong County), Jingdong 1 day journey to Zhenyuan, 2 days to Cheli Xuanwei Sijie, 2 days to Cheli Pu'er Mountain, 2 days to a large river, 4 days to Cheli Xuanwei Division Jinghongcheng, Cheli southwest 10 days to 800 daughters-in-law Xuanwei Division (Chiang Mai Kingdom). Chiang Mai continued southwest for one and a half to the western coast and settled in the land of the Mang chieftain, i.e., Bago in Lower Burma.

The above is the ancient road that has existed since Nanzhao, and the end point in China is Dali.

The Yuan Dynasty newly opened the roads from Jinghong, Olive Dam, Pu'er, Yuanjiang, Lin'an Fu (Jianshui) to Kunming, which made Yuanjiang County a crossroads in the southern region of Yunnan, which was very important.

The remnants of the Ming army, led by Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan, were active in the area west of the Lancang River (Mekong), and through these roads they came into contact with the outside world, and various Ming troops poured into Upper Burma and plundered the area from Ava to Bagan.

The Burmese army was strong, with hundreds of war elephants, thousands of cavalry, and tens of thousands of musketeers, and its core was a Western-style army trained by the Portuguese, with a large number of Portuguese mercenaries in the army, but their main force was stationed on the front line of confrontation with Siam in the south, and the army in the north was empty and difficult to fight against the widely distributed Ming army.

In Wewin, a small Burmese army was defeated, and the Mon soldiers guarding Awa took the opportunity to desert, further worsening the situation in northern Burma.

The Federation had no diplomatic relations with Burma, and the news coming back through the British and the Dutch was that the situation in Upper Burma was chaotic and that commerce had almost completely stopped.

The treatment given by Myanmar to Yongli and his entourage is not bad.

The current Burmese king Pindagri kindly accepted the Yongli Emperor but did not get a good result, and Pindagri did not have a plan to transfer back the southern army to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army, which made the Burmese nobles and the army very angry, and the Burmese capital was surging.

Siam was scattered with some small groups of Ming troops, most of whom were directly subordinate to Yongli who retreated into Siam from Burma, and Luang Prabang in Laos to more than 100 Li Dingguo's subordinates.

The Laotians sent this part of the Ming army to Vientiane, and Cai Yuanding learned from the Ming army that he was in the car before Dingguo, collecting grain from Xishuangbanna, and had just left, and was about to operate in the area of Menggen. Cai Yuanding first sent envoys to the north via Luang Prabang to find Li Dingguo.

Cai Yuanding put the written report into the trade wind, sealed it with red wax, and sent someone back to Houjiang Mansion the next day.

The federal army rested in Vientiane and mobilized after the autumn harvest in Suryawangsa, amassing 40 war elephants and 6,000 troops, half of which were logistics troops.

The coastal powers of the South Seas faced the European colonizers, and their armies were generally better armed than those of China, and their armies were more directly and deeply influenced by the Europeans.

The Burmese, Siam, and Quang Nam armies all received European-style training. The Lao army is influenced by the federation and is currently composed of a small number of elite European-style armies as the central army, accompanied by a large number of tribal soldiers.

The Lao soldiers were influenced by the Siamese soldiers, and many of them wore brush heads. Cut the hair on the top of the head to a length of 3 cm and flatten it all around.

At the end of the 16th century, the Tai people still had long hair, certainly not as long as the Chinese.

In the 17th century, there were more and more Siamese short haircuts, and women also had a lot of short hair. The reason for the change of hairstyles of the Tai is associated with bloody wars.

Short haircuts were clearly good for combat, and Siamese women used them to convince Burmese siege soldiers that the women of the besieged cities were brave men.

For some political reasons, the federal army did not enforce short haircuts, but many people, influenced by Siamese wives and relatives, spontaneously kept their hair brushed. Nanyang is hot and humid in summer, and short hair is much more comfortable.

If we put aside the huge gap in national strength, in terms of the combat effectiveness of the troops, the Ming army and the Tatars will put a big question mark compared with the Nanyang countries.

According to the evaluation of order, the Burmese army, the most powerful country in Nanyang, must have surpassed most of the Ming army in combat effectiveness and the infantry more than the Eight Banners, but because the cavalry is inferior to the Tatars, it is difficult to say the results of large-scale battles.

Laos has volcanoes, saltpeter-producing caves, and lead mines, which can solve part of the arms on their own.

There are three copper mines in Laos, located in the northernmost and southernmost parts of the country. Iron was produced on Siam's border with Laos, where iron reserves were abundant in the mountainous regions.

The mines were all mined and smelted by the mountain peoples, and these young people had not yet developed a mature script, but they were born miners. Suryawangsa exchanged metal ingots with hill tribes for handicraft products.

The Chiang Mai region has a well-developed sword industry, where iron ore naturally contains manganese and the weapons produced are of excellent quality.

Because there is no shortage of copper, the Lao artillery is all cast in copper, the cannons are placed in the capital, and the army generally carries the Furlong machine gun in battle.

Laos is home to many elephants, and like Siam, Laos is equipped with a local weapon, the elephant cannon.

The forehead and trunk of the war elephant are protected by iron and leather armor, and a light bronze Franc frame is on the war elephant car, which is a bit like an ancient tank, and it is amazingly powerful with ease.

Before the expedition, a large gladiatorial battle was held in the Grand Colosseum outside Vientiane. Cai Yuanding and Song Zutai were next to the king to admire.

Gladiatorial battles were prevalent in the Nanyang kingdoms, beginning with those between tribal warriors, and the Siamese national hero, King Na Li Xuan, won his fame in a young man by riding an elephant.

In addition to elephant riding gladiatorial fights, there are also knightly competitions. The knights of the court chased each other with richly decorated horses and bladeless blunt spears in order to knock each other off their horses.

Swordsman fighting was bloodier, and 1,600 years ago, longsword fighting was often fought to the death.

These fighting competitions were closely related to warfare, cultivated the martial spirit of the Nanyang nations, and was one of the reasons why their armies were generally stronger.

The people of the Thai people like cockfighting, and this gambling game is also quite popular after it was introduced to the Federation.

Of course, there will be no cockfights in court gladiatorial fights. After the knight spear contest, it is like a knight duel.

Finally, there is the mass fighting of beasts.

Six Asian wild buffaloes are put into the gladiatorial arena.

The king of cattle is the Indian white-limbed bison, followed by the white-rumped bison and the Asian wild buffalo, and the African wild buffalo playing with the lion is just the younger brother of the cow.

The King of Tigers, the Bengal Tiger, can catch an Indian white-legged bison or a young Asian bull elephant on a single scale, which is about the upper limit of prey for a single cat family.

Buffalo are ferocious and violent, and gladiatorial fights are bloody, compared to which elephants inflict little damage to each other.

Finally, there is the elephant-tiger duel.

Laos is the king of tigers, the Bengal tiger, and the world record for wild cats is held by the Bengal tiger, not the Siberian tiger, let alone the African lion.

The Bengal tiger used by the king of Laos for dueling was two laps larger than the Indochinese tiger and its close cousin, the South China tiger.

The elephant was armoured, while the Bengal tiger's mouth was sealed and its claws were plucked.

The beast tamer let go of the ropes, and the trapped beastmaster's limbs were free, and he approached the elephant step by step.

Step by step, the bull elephant retreated.

The Bengal tiger turned to sprint, jumped a few meters away from the elephant, and slammed the elephant rider with his left palm, causing the crowd to exclaim.

The bull elephant quickly retreated, and in a flash of lightning, the tiger almost succeeded. If this slap is really real, the driver will hang steadily.

The bull elephant was finally defeated, and the king of Laos was furious, dragged his driver down and beat him severely.

Song Zutai explained to Cai Yuanding: "Brother Cai, the most important thing is to let the elephant have the upper hand in the duel. ”

"This tiger is so powerful, what are the Laotians going to do?"

"Brother Cai, please keep watching."

The Lao soldiers tightened the ropes and re-bound the tiger's limbs, then rushed into the arena and tied the tiger to a stake.

The Laotians put in 4 elephants.

This time, the bulls were emboldened, and at the same time attacked the tiger, provoking the tiger with their tusks and throwing it into the air repeatedly.

The crowd burst into applause.

Cai Yuanding's tone was full of pity: "It's too unfair to the tiger." ”

Song Zutai: "People like to see tame animals destroy fierce and savage enemies. ”

The Tiger King died, and Suryawangsa was satisfied.

Cai Yuanding's words were quite regretful, "The head of state will definitely dissuade the Laotians here." ”

"Oh, Brother Cai came out of the Führer's side, he likes tigers very much?"

"Yes, the Führer is fascinated by tigers. There were many South China tigers in Leizhou and Qinlian, and the head of state ordered the local Ming army to catch live tigers every year, transport them to Borneo, and put them in the mountains and forests. ”

"Why is this, there are no tigers in the South Seas?"

"There are tigers in Sumatra and Java, but not in Borneo. The Führer said that sooner or later there would be no room for the South China tiger to survive in the country, and he hoped to find a new home for the tiger in Borneo. ”

Song Zutai lifted his chin, "So that's the case, then I'll do some Meng Hu and ask Brother Cai to forward it to the Führer." ”

"Then it's going to trouble Brother Song."

After the gladiatorial fight, Suryawangsa announced his departure.