The Irrawaddy River originates from the Great Hengduan Mountains in China and flows south through all of Myanmar and out to sea near Yangon. It is the mother river of Myanmar, which irrigates a large area of land on both sides of the river, feeds the people of Myanmar, and has a sacred status in Myanmar. At this time, the golden clouds in the sky have reflected the wide river surface in gold. Soon, the "sunset molten gold" turned into a bright red color glow, and in an instant the sky and earth were covered with the red color of the color glow, and even the river water became orange-red. The view is extraordinarily spectacular. There is once a Burmese folk song: "What a beautiful time it is when the sunset reflects the red Irrawaddy River...... The sunset of the Irrawaddy River is indeed worthy of its name, and the colors are quite gorgeous.

On the dirt road from Taunggyi to Mandalay, a Burmese rebel army of more than 20,000 men marched forward in a bustling manner, dressed in a variety of shirts, bell-bottoms, and long-sleeved gowns, but many of the weapons in their hands were British Marles. This force was the guard of the current rebel general Sadandhu, who was originally a feather soldier of Bagu, and after the fall of Mandalay, he fled with Sadan to Taunggyi.

Sadan Du looked proudly at these feathered soldiers under his command, and in the battle with the British in Lower Burma, Sadan Du saw the power of British firearms. Therefore, when Zuo Zongtang handed over the captured British weapons to the rebels, Sadan Du took advantage of the command of his army to allocate most of these weapons to his own soldiers, leaving only some old and bad guns to the rebels of other ethnic groups.

Now there is no rebel army in the whole of Burma who has more guns in the hands of these soldiers than their own soldiers, and even the British have no need to be afraid. He did not think that the defeat in Burma was a mistactic on his part. He is a descendant of Bandura, how can there be a command error, it is all because the British have these muskets, and now they have them, it is not easy to take Mandalay, and when the time comes, he will restore the royal capital, and he will be the "Borhan" (hero) of the whole of Myanmar, with the glory of his family and the identity of the concubine, it is not impossible to inherit the throne.

At this time, the faces of these rebel soldiers were full of lightheartedness. It was as if to attack Mandalay was to go on an outing, shouting "Amma" and "Adu" all the way, and the soldiers also hooked their shoulders and backs, and from time to time they gathered together to light some tobacco leaves and smoked them. That's it. An army marched forward in formation according to the width of the road, and the soldiers pushed and pushed, when suddenly a loud song came from the front:

"You don't see you, Han Zhongjun. Weak crown captives, please long tassels; You don't see, Ban Dingyuan, the peerless light cavalry urges the battle clouds! The boy should be in serious danger, how can he let the Confucian crown miss this life? The situation is that the country is in danger. The feather race is no less! Abandon my old pen and chant my wartime ,......"

A whole navy blue military uniform appeared in the eyes of those Burmese rebels. These military uniforms were produced by more than a dozen textile factories in Shanghai, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and other places month after month. Summer clothes adapted to the Myanmar climate. Although it is January and February, the temperature in Myanmar often reaches above 30 degrees. These uniforms do not have any army logos on them. But the rebels throughout Burma knew that this was the Celestial Empire's troops.

Advancing was the Liu Ming Chuan Department of the Qing Army, which was ordered by Zuo Zongtang to march to Mysa to open the road to Mandalay for the Burmese rebels. Regarding the launch of the Mandalay campaign and the recovery of the royal capital of Burma, Zuo Zongtang has sent a telegram to Guan Xuqing, Guan Xuqingdi means that he will not be subject to the order of the foreign monarch, and take Mandalay, the center of gravity of the upper and lower Burma land, can form a complete defense line with Taunggyi, and the mountainous areas of Kumenling in the north and the Shan State plateau in the east will be protected by this defense line, and the restoration of the royal capital can also boost the morale of the military and people of Burma; Similarly, the occupation of Mandalay will also expose the Qing army, which has been uncertain and in the shadows, to the British army, so that the British army has a definite direction of attack, with advantages and disadvantages, and everything is up to Zuo Zongtang to decide. In the end, Zuo Zongtang decided to assist the Burmese rebels, a quick victory, it is good to be able to take Mandalay, and if you can't take it, you will withdraw as soon as possible, so the critical places leading to Mandalay are guarded by the Qing army.

At this time, those Burmese soldiers looked at the emperor **, revealing complicated eyes, with envy, jealousy, and awe. They are also marching, but there is undoubtedly a world of difference, three people in a row, walking together according to the formation, there is an obvious buffer zone between the formation, the calm expression, the neat military song gives people a kind of majestic momentum. And those weapons are even more than these rebels have ever seen, the bright Mauser, the Gatling machine gun that is like a small cannon on the shoulder, the 75mm Krupp camp gun that presses deep ruts on the dirt road, the 57mm Jiangning mortar produced by the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, and the hand grenade hanging on the soldier's waist.

At this time, the two teams met at a fork in the shape of a "man", and the Burmese soldiers involuntarily gave way.

Riding on a short-legged horse peculiar to South Asia, Sadan felt that the team suddenly stopped moving, and couldn't help but shake the whip and scolded: "Why don't you go?" It's getting dark, can't you sleep in this hellish place? ”

A feathered soldier rode back from the front of the team and said, "General, I met the army of the Celestial Empire at the fork, so I stopped." ”

Sadan Du glared at the bull's eye when he heard this, and slapped his head and face with a whip: "What bullshit is the army of the Celestial Empire, it is a clear dog, and Lao Tzu's ancestors also fought with them." You go and get the road back for me, and squeeze them out of the way. "These Qing people want to take credit again, they didn't catch up with Dongggyi last time, and this time the oil and water in Mandalay can no longer be fished out by the Qing people. In his opinion, the reason why the Qing people were able to easily defeat the British was only by relying on their firearms, and now that they have them in their own hands, those British must have collapsed.

The Burmese soldiers who received the order immediately rushed towards Liu Ming's ministry in a chaotic manner, causing the originally neat team of Liu Ming's ministry to stagnate. At this time, there were not only Liu Mingchuan's troops and Sadandu's guards marching nearby, but also a Shan rebel army, which walked on the ridges on both sides of the dirt road, but they did so voluntarily, because Liu Mingchuan's heavy weapons really needed a road to transport.

The team of the Burmese guards rushing was the first target of Liu Mingchuan's ** Tiger, and at this time, ** Tiger was looking at the map to find the place where Liu Mingchuan wanted them to arrive. Seeing the noise behind the team, the tiger frowned and rushed over.

I saw a group of soldiers from Wang Lingen's camp pushing and shouting with the Burmese soldiers, and a few soldiers were beaten a few times, blue and purple. The tiger stepped forward to separate the two groups of soldiers and shouted, "Damn it, you want to rebel?" What are you doing? ”

Wang Lingen said aggrievedly: "Biaotong, we went well, but they couldn't help but split the way, and if we didn't let it, they would do it." We came to Burma to help them fight the devils, and they beat us up, and I didn't want my brothers to suffer so I gave them back."

** The tiger looked at the Burmese soldier who was still holding a gun, saw that there were still red blood stains on the butt, and in a blink of an eye, he saw that several of his brothers had flowers on their heads. Anger came to his head and he asked, "Is that so?" ”

Several Burmese soldiers couldn't help but look at each other when they heard the interpreter's words.

** Tiger turned to the guard company and said: "Tie up all the Burmese who did it to me, and whoever resists will be punished on the spot." ”

"Command."

The Qing army, which had long been displeased with the Burmese, happened to have a reason to come now, and immediately tied up the Burmese who were still holding guns after receiving the order.

"General, it's not good. The forces of the Celestial Empire tied up our men and said that we would not give way. ”

When Sadan heard this, he rode his horse and galloped to the junction. picked up the left 'wheel' pistol that Zuo Zongtang gave him and fired a shot into the sky.

"Who would dare to tie up my people here?"

"I let you tie up, your people beat people, you Burmese people are uncivilized. I have political commissars and instructors in the Qing army, and I will let them teach your people lessons for you. ”

"Fart, the British are shooting our women on our land so we're going to beat them. Drive them away, if you Qingguo want to do the same, don't blame me for the gun. ”

"Damn, the person who tied you up was polite to you. Don't be embarrassed, Lao Tzu abandoned his family and abandoned his son to come to this ghost place to help you fight, and you still have to be an uncle. Provoke Lao Tzu and eat all 30,000 of you. "**Tiger is also a fiery temper, and if the two sentences don't agree, they will shout and kill.

Sadan pointed his gun at the ** tiger and scolded angrily: "I want to see how you eat all my people?" Let my men go, or I'll do to you the same way I did to the British. ”

This really annoys the ** tiger, and he hasn't been pointed at at a gun when he grows so big. "Damn, you're skilled! You have the ability to make the capital of the British become someone else's headquarters? And you want us to help you fight? As he spoke, he turned to the guards and said, "Take them all away, or the same sentence, the rebels will correct the law on the spot." ”

"Bang ......"

No one thought that a bullet had already passed through the head of the ** tiger. In an instant, the person who was still alive and well slowly softened, and collapsed to the ground after a while, and the whole person was still convulsing on the ground. The eyes were always on the shooting Sadan Du, the brilliant general who stormed the French fortress of Hu Cheng fifteen times in a row on the battlefield of Vietnam. did not fall under the guns of the enemy, but died at the hands of this theoretical ally.

The whole process was so fast that no one was prepared. I looked at all this stupidly for a while.

At this time, Sadan Du came back to his senses first, in fact, he did not shoot, even if he was given ten guts to shoot at the Qing army, he would not dare. Especially when the British were still here. "It went off, it was the gun that went off. General Ben didn't shoot. He explained nervously.

Wang Lingen picked up the ** tiger who fell to the ground: "Military gate, military gate!" ”

At this time, the anger of the Qing army was uncontrollable, and I don't know who opened the safety of the Gatling gun, and the sound of "click" was particularly pleasant at this time. After that, the sound spread among the Qing army as if it would be contagious, and the sound sounded like a call of death to the Burmese soldiers.

Wang Lingen raised his Mauser pistol and said to Sadan Du: "Lao Tzu doesn't care if you go off fire or deliberately. Anyway, we can't save the army, so you can go down and explain to him. ”

"Bang ......" "Click......"

A close-range battle officially began with a gunshot from Wang Lingen.

As soon as the Qing army, which had obvious superiority in firepower, came up, the Burmese people could not hold their heads up, and the standard was shot, and the unreasonable barbarism of the Burmese made these hot-blooded men even more excited and indignant.

Sadan had already been beaten into a sieve, with grenades and mortars appearing at the same time. After only one hour, 2,000 enemies had been annihilated. All the rest surrender!

Such a force could not even defeat the ordinary ten battalions of the Qing army, and it also wanted to attack the fortified city defended by an integrated field division of the British army. It's ridiculous!