The decisive battle between Li Dingguo and Mang Bai should have been without suspense.

The elite soldiers in Zhennan of the Ming Dynasty are all the backbone of Li Dingguo's subordinates who serve as officers at all levels, and those veterans over forty years old have all participated in the war to destroy the Qing Dynasty, which is the elite of the corpse mountain and the sea of blood.

With advanced weapons, as well as bursting confidence and indomitable morale, it shouldn't be a matter of minutes to crush the ancestors of those fraudsters on the frontal battlefield?

But crushing is crushing, and the entire process and process of the war are still full of all kinds of small accidents. The pre-war intelligence work of both sides was obviously more or less problematic.

After Li Dingguo entered the territory of Burma, in the first ten days, because of the advantage of the sneak attack, he did not encounter any decent resistance, and the main force of the Burmese army was still being dispatched and assembled.

It was not until Li Dingguo entered the border more than 200 miles away, successively attacked Mubang and Lashio along the Nujiang River valley, and cut off the Mengyang Xuanwei Division, an enclave in northern Burma, that the Burmese reinforcements organized a heavy defense group in the Lashio area.

As an aside, Mubang or Mengyang, in fact, they were originally one of the "Three Xuan and Six Comfort Divisions" belonging to the Ming Dynasty, theoretically before the Jiajing period, Myanmar was divided and the Donghu Dynasty had not yet risen to unify Myanmar, so those loose small states Tusi were all recognized as the main Ming Dynasty.

It was only later that the Donghu Dynasty gradually encroached and annexed the surrounding small countries, and the Ming Dynasty gradually declined after Jiajing and Wanli, so Sanxuan and Liuwei were gradually annexed by Burma.

Now, even if Li Dingguo hits Lashio, it will only recover Mubang, the land that the Ming Dynasty originally deserved, and cut off the communication between the Mengyang Propaganda Division and the hinterland of Burma.

And because Li Dingguo's march route had to rely on the Nu River, the Nu River is on the Shan State Plateau in northern Burma, which is a waterway washed out of deep valleys and dense forests, and if it is too far away from the Nu River Valley, the two armies will not be able to maneuver or supply, so it is natural to fight a dignified decisive battle.

After the two armies confronted each other near Lashio and fought for a small time, Li Dingguo and Mang Bai soon discovered something they had not expected.

"How can the Burmese army be of this size? Although there have been sentinels over the years, they have underestimated the strength of the Burmese king's strong conscription. And how come they also have so many red muskets? Although it is not as good as my Ming Wuchang, it should not be underestimated. ”

Li Dingguo couldn't help but secretly wonder.

The first thing that surprised him was that the number of Burmese troops was much larger than expected.

He originally detected that the Burmese king had a standing army of 70,000 or 80,000 directly under him, and then there were local troops of the Tusi of each state, plus a strong militia that could be temporarily pulled up in times of war.

At this moment, he encountered at least 100,000 Burmese soldiers head-on, and maybe even close to 200,000. In particular, Mang Bai did not bring all the directly subordinate troops of Bagu, maybe forty or fifty thousand were transferred from seventy or eighty thousand miles, and the rest had to guard the royal capital.

In this way, the Tusi of the various states and the militia of the temporary Lazhuang Ding together account for at least 100,000.

When this figure was detected, Li Dingguo also wondered how many people Burma had, and as a result, he isolated and interrogated all kinds of civilian prisoners, and the final figure was nothing more than "the permanent population of the core territory of Donghu is about 4 million, and the rest of the dozens of Sanxuan and Liuwei areas that were taken from the Ming Dynasty nearly 100 years ago add up to one or two million people." There are other vassal Tusi who also have a population of about two million."

In other words, the total population of Myanmar is about 8 million, which is equivalent to three or four percent of that of Fusang during the same period. Of these 8 million people, at least 400,000 troops were pulled, and 200,000 of them were pulled to the front line of Lashio.

This is a force that should not be underestimated, you must know that Li Dingguo's vanguard is only 20,000 people, and the follow-up Chinese army has only dispatched more than 40,000 people. This is tantamount to Li Dingguo just being on the front of the Lashio battlefield, and he has to withstand the numerical disadvantage of one dozen or four.

But the Ming army really couldn't quickly invest more people, after all, it was a labor expedition to supply the army from the poor countryside of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guizhou. With the scale and transportation capacity of surplus grain in Yunnan and Guizhou, if you want to maintain a long-term war, you can only use such a small number of troops, otherwise the logistics will definitely not be able to bear it.

……

While Li Dingguo was shocked by Burma's strength and mobilization ability, Mang Bai was also shocked by the sharpness of the Ming army's firearms.

This is also strange that Mangbai is located in Tiannan after all, and there was no conflict with the Ming army before, and Myanmar has been relatively peaceful in recent decades. The conquest of the surrounding tribes by the Donghu Dynasty was almost completed as early as the end of Wanli.

Therefore, in the past 40 years, Burma has not fought a war except for the Dutch East India Company when it first came to conflict with them.

The years of peace have been long, and the geographical location is remote, so the information is not very well-informed. Mang Bai's previous impression of the combat strength of the Ming army was still a few decades ago, but at first glance, when he saw the new Wuchangzao commonly equipped by Li Dingguo's army, it was much sharper than the latest firearm given to him by the Dutch, and he was immediately suffocated.

This kind of situation in which the two sides are afraid of beating the wolf with a hemp rod has made the military decisions of both sides more serious.

Relying on the elite of his troops and sharp weapons, Li Dingguo chose the narrow valley on both sides of the Nu River south of Lashio to camp, and always relied on the fortress to take the initiative to camp, and lined up a dignified array to seek a decisive battle.

Such a battlefield environment, because the terrain is not conducive to the deployment of large corps, even if the Burmese army has nearly 200,000 people around Lashio, it cannot be put into the battlefield at one time, and it is destined to become a wheel war of refueling tactics, so that the Ming army's individual superiority can be brought into full play.

At the beginning, Mang Bai saw that the Ming army camp was strong, and Li Dingguo actually dared to leave the defense line to take the initiative to meet the attack, so he tried to fight twice. However, the individual strength of the Burmese army was too weak, and they were beaten all over the ground by the smoothbore gun regiment of the Ming army, and the corpses were scattered all over the field, and tens of thousands of casualties were killed and wounded in the two battles.

It was found that on the battlefield selected by Li Dingguo, the Ming army could not be defeated at all, and the disparity in strength in the frontal local battlefield was too great. Mang Bai had no choice but to temporarily change his tactics and change to a long-term siege, no matter how Li Dingguo challenged him, he should not fight.

When Li Dingguo continued to attack the camp in the south, the Burmese army even chose to abandon the camp after resisting for a while, and retreated to resist layer by layer.

As a result, the deeper the Ming army advanced, the more thoroughly the two flanks were exposed, and the longer the logistical supply lines left for the Burmese army to attack and harass.

Of course, Mang Bai's abandonment of the city and loss of land in this way is also a very serious blow to the morale of the Burmese army. In just over half a month, Li Dingguo won three battles and three victories, and advanced more than 100 miles. Although there are no major cities in the vicinity, it is also closer to the city of Ava, the former capital of the Ava Dynasty of Burma.

Today's Taungoo Dynasty of Burma, a hundred years ago, was divided into the north and south of the Ava Dynasty, and the situation was similar to that of the Northern and Southern Dynasties of China. That was in the early years of Jiajing on the side of the Ming Dynasty, and in the following decades, there was an expansion of Donghu to further annex Sanxuan and Liuwei.

Therefore, the geographical location of this city of Ava is also very important, this place is roughly equivalent to Mandalay in Myanmar in later times, which is the second largest city in Myanmar, and Bago is the Yangon in later generations.

The Donghu Dynasty must hold on, otherwise even if Burma is not beaten by the Ming Dynasty, it is very likely that the Ming Dynasty will re-support the puppet north and south.

Therefore, in the face of Li Dingguo's advance, the resistance of the soldiers under Mangbai's command became more and more serious, and they asked for war to fight with Li Dingguo, and they must not retreat again.

In this regard, Mang Bai is quite heroic, he forcefully suppressed the rash and impatient heart of his subordinates, and at the same time explained to the main henchmen generals:

"Rest assured! Although the widows have given up part of the territory from Lashio to the west of Ava, they will definitely hold Ava! Although Li Dingguo has penetrated deep into our realm, he still has nothing to fear!

He had previously attacked sharply, relying on the Ming army to rely on the Nu River channel in Yunnan for supplies. But so far, he has only two ways to choose, or continue to go south along the Nu River.

However, when the Nu River left the Shan Plateau and rushed into the southern Burma plain, the drop was too large, and there were even many waterfalls, and it was impossible for the Ming army supply ships to pass through! So we don't have to worry about the Ming army digging all the way through Burma along the Nu River until Mawlamyine enters the sea!

My generation has lived in Myanmar, and in terms of understanding the hydrology of the rivers in the territory, how can Li Dingguo compare with us? In our territory in Myanmar, the only one that can run through the north and south is the Indra Bhata River (Irrawaddy River), and only the section from Awa City to Bago can be navigated.

Therefore, if Li Dingguo wanted to continue the offensive, he had to cross a section of the land route of the Shan Plateau, cut from the south of Lashio to the west to the city of Ava, and switch from the Nu River channel to the Indra Bhatta River channel. And the overland route he crossed over the mountains of Shan State between these two rivers was his place of death!

The Han people are not good at marching in the mountains and dense forests, and the materials from Yunnan and Guizhou will also be cut off, and then Li Dingguo will be in a desperate situation. ”

Mangbai's plan would not be easy to understand if he did not look at the map or know the geography of Myanmar very well. However, his generals are all locals and are well versed in geography, so it is not difficult to understand.

It turns out that from Yunnan to Myanmar, there have always been two fairly parallel cross-border rivers that can be used as waterways.

To the west is the Irrawaddy River, the Han people on this side of the Ming Dynasty call it the Dulong River or Lishui, and when it comes to the territory of Myanmar, the ancient Burmese people call it the Indra Bhata River. To the east is the Nu River, known in Myanmar as the Salween River.

These two rivers flow from the mountains of Yunnan to the low-lying Shan Plateau, then into the southern Burma Plain, and finally into the Indian Ocean.

However, because of the easterly location of the Shan State Plateau in northern Burma, the Indra Bhatta River, which is further west, has a greater difference in the northern section, and soon after leaving the Yunnan border, it rushes out of the Shan State Plateau, and the section of the river valley leaving the plateau area is very steep and turbulent, making it impossible to sail.

And even closer to the East Nu River, because it has to flow a few hundred miles more on the Shan State Plateau, the northern section is actually not much different, and can be used for shipping from Yunnan to northern Myanmar. But if you continue to the south, you will not be able to break out of the Shan State Plateau until you will face the problem of rapid drops, and the river will be blocked by waterfalls.

Such geographical features lead to the fact that only the upper and middle reaches of the Nu River can be navigated, and between the middle and lower reaches, there are natural moats and Jedi barriers. On the other hand, the Indra Bhatta River is navigable between the middle and lower reaches, and there is a moat between the middle and upper reaches.

None of these two rivers can "sail from Yunnan to the Indian Ocean in the whole way", unless the water conservancy projects of later generations are awesome, and directly build hydropower stations and lifting locks to overcome waterfalls and large drops. Before the advent of lifting locks, there was no solution to this problem.

To get from Yunnan to the Indian Ocean, it was necessary to switch between two rivers, the first one on the Nu River, the latter on the Indra Bhatta River, and for the Ming army, the most dangerous was the land route over the mountains of Shan State when the two rivers were switched.

In this location, there is a relatively low mountain range called Kyaukshan, over which you can enter the plain of the Indra Bhatta Valley, but even if this section of the road is only more than 100 miles, it is the biggest obstacle for the Ming Dynasty to defeat Burma.

Even in the 20th century, when the expeditionary force entered Burma to fight during the Anti-Japanese War, it was at the western exit of the road over Kyauksan Mountain, which was severely attacked by the Japanese army in Myitkyina and suffered heavy losses - this tragic situation was also shown in the later movie "1942", when Chang Kai applied for Li Peiji to have breakfast.

Reckless gambling is that "except for the Kyaukshan Gorge, which communicates the two rivers, other places can be allowed, as long as Li Dingguo dares to abandon water transportation and turn over Kyaukshan, he is sure to kill Li Dingguo in the high mountains and dense forests." If you don't kill him, at least let Li Dingguo be killed by the tropical disease plague! ”

What's more, this year, the Ming army still didn't wait for winter to start in advance, Li Dingguo just entered the country at the end of August, and now after a series of battles, it is only early October, and it is not the driest and coolest season of the year.

The weather was favorable to Mangbai, and he was more sure.

……

Mangbai's abacus played very well, but since Li Dingguo on the other side dared to come, of course he had something to rely on.

If you want to blame, blame the Burmese people for being offline for too long and not understanding the technological progress of the world!

In the southwest area of Lashio, after successively grasping the positions along the Nu River and at the eastern foot of Kyaukshan Mountain, and slightly consolidating and supplying several more batches of supplies from the rear to ensure that there would be no shortage of medicine and ammunition in a short time, Li Dingguo prepared to cross Kyaukshan Mountain and kill at Ava City.

The two main generals under his command, Bai Wenxuan and Feng Shuangli, were a little afraid, and couldn't help reminding: "Master Hou, don't be careless!" Along the way of this Kyaukshan Mountain, the mountains are dense and forested, and there are torrential rains from time to time, and the climate is still a little hot, so it is better to continue to hold on. ”

Li Dingguo was very firm: "At the beginning, our army quickly took Mubang and Lashio, and annihilated tens of thousands of enemies, what did it rely on? Isn't it just a surprise, taking advantage of the fact that the Burmese did not expect that we would send troops in the autumn and not in the winter! Now is a good time to expand the gains, so why not miss it?

As for the torrential rain in the mountains and dense forests, there is nothing to be afraid of! A few days ago, I asked you to collect and transport sulfuric acid, carbolic acid, panacea, and other healing drugs from the rear, as well as gunpowder and ammunition, is the quantity enough? As long as these are not lacking, it will not be a problem to climb over Kyauksan!

For wounded debridement, gauze can be sterilized in advance with dilute sulfuric acid 30 times diluted and surgical knives diluted 20 times diluted. Ordinary disinfection and cleaning can be done with carbolic acid, and insect prevention and insect repellent rely on jack-of-all-trades, which have been repeatedly tested and improved by the Institute of Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences in the past five years, and they are reliable enough to definitely kill Mangbai by surprise!

As for the grain, it is indeed not easy to carry it over the mountains, but as long as we can besiege the city of Ava by surprise, Awa, as the former capital of Myanmar and the current companion capital, will inevitably have a large amount of grain and grass hoarded in the city. After the city is broken, just ask the Burmese people to take it! As long as our army has half a month's rations and then hoards half a month's worth of grain in Lashio, we can boldly attack! ”

(End of chapter)