On the second day of November in the fifth year of Xiaokang, it was in the afternoon.

In Kyaukmei County, which has been repeatedly sawed and burned to the ground, tens of thousands of main forces of the Burmese army stationed here are in the most lax state-

At least, relative to other times in the last half month, today is indeed the most lax.

There are as many as 70,000 or 80,000 Burmese troops around, and more than half of them are stationed in Kyaukmei County. However, because the city was too small, the troops could not be stationed, so they had to camp along the Kyaukdale Valley Road.

And the reason why they dare to be so lax is not unreasonable. Who made it rain again this morning? As the rainy season is about to come to an end, it hasn't rained for several days, but it starts to rain again today, and the rain is more persistent.

The heavy rain has been falling from the beginning of the hour to the end of the hour, and it has not completely stopped at this moment, and it is still a little dripping, just like the last bit of urine left over from a prostate patient.

In such weather, the muskets that the Burmese army bought from the Dutch were completely unusable, and the Ming army had become tigers with their teeth pulled out, so what else was there to worry about?

Even the Burmese king Mang Bai himself thinks so. So much so that even the arrangement of the sentry scout scout has been reduced, and it is difficult to walk on the mountain road in such heavy rain, since it is destined to be no enemy attack, still toss a yarn?

However, man is not as good as heaven. At the beginning of Shen Shi (3 p.m.), the guards of Kyaukmei County suddenly received a scout report, indicating that the army had entered less than twenty miles from the county seat.

After all, the army is stationed, and the scouts still have to be sent, and the weather is good or bad, and the probability of a battle is only affected, and the density of the scouts and the distance they scatter out, it is impossible to have nothing at all. So no matter how sluggish the Burmese army was, when the Ming army was about to touch his face, he still reacted in time.

Mang Bai was taking a lunch break at the time, and when he heard the report from his subordinates, he felt incredible.

"What? The Ming army actually attacked at this time? They had already retreated for dozens of miles a few days ago, and now that they had returned to their guns, wouldn't they have already begun to march when it was raining heavily? Is Li Dingguo looking for death?

Quick, order the whole army to go out of the city to meet the attack! The musketeers switched to bayonets to oversee the battle in the rear, leaving the archers to take the lead against the enemy and prepare for field battles along the valley! ”

The subordinate generals were a little puzzled, and someone suggested: "Great King, why rush to the field? If the Ming army dares to come, wouldn't it be better for us to defend the city? ”

Mang Bai glanced at the cowardly general with disdain, and said proudly: "It is rare for Li Dingguo to take the initiative to attack to send him to death, of course, he will bite him to the death, so that he will not be able to get rid of the pursuit after his defeat, and finally cover him up and kill him heavily!"

If our army defends the city, once Li Dingguo is weak and retreats in an orderly manner, how can our army rush to open the city gate to pursue? How else to make sure to make the most of the haste and panic when Li Dingguo was defeated and retreated?

And this Kyaukmei county town in just half a month, has been broken twice, every time the defenders withdraw also arson destruction, deliberately dig up the city defense, now this city defense, there is no difference between there and not, since there is nothing worth using the location, it is better to go out of the city to fight, bite to the death!

You don't have to be afraid, Li Dingguo has been besieged by us for many days, and he must have been at the end of the crossbow, and his soldiers don't know how many have been killed by suppuration of wounds! The miasma of mosquitoes and insects must have greatly reduced the combat strength of the Ming army, and today is just their dying fight! ”

Individual cowards will be reprimanded, and other flattering generals will praise one after another: "The king expects the enemy to be the first and uses soldiers like a god, this time Li Dingguo is bent on death, we will fulfill him!" ”

……

The atmosphere is all set off to this, and I'm a little sorry for the audience if I don't go up. A quarter of an hour later, the two armies lined up in a circle at the mouth of the Kyaukdale Valley, and the battle was about to break out.

Because of the mountainous terrain, although the number of Burmese troops reached three times that of the attacking Ming army, the frontal width of the formation was almost the same.

Both sides were more or less stretched into a long snake formation, and there were still many rear armies that could not be lined up at all, and when the time came, they could only use refueling tactics to throw themselves into the battlefield one by one.

Mang Bai was very confident and personally supervised the battle, but he had also heard that the army had a rifled gun with a long range and accuracy, so that he would not be stupid enough to show his face directly. Therefore, he always brought countless swords and shields by his side, and if he wanted to shout, he always asked the herald to find the scolding hand in the front row to execute.

There is not much to say about the mouths of both sides, except to rebuke each other again for treachery, insatiable greed, and unrighteous teachers. Anyway, no one could hit the morale of the other party, and after a brief confrontation, the Ming army launched an attack with a stacked formation.

"Archer prepare!" On the side of the Burmese army, the front-line generals are also like facing the enemy, ready to order the archers to release arrows in clusters.

In tropical South and Southeast Asia, crossbows are rarely used, mainly bows and muskets. And the range of bows and arrows is often much closer than that of the bows of the northern peoples.

This is because the tropical humid climate will make the tendons of animals age rapidly, so the bows and arrows in the tropical rainforest climate are made of materials with poor elasticity such as flax fibers, and the elastic potential energy when the arrows are released can only be completed by the elastic deformation of the bow wood.

The reason why no one uses the crossbow is also because the hard crossbow body of the crossbow is very poor in deformation and energy storage, and the crossbow mainly relies on the string to deform and store energy.

Such a harsh environment led to the Burmese army's bow and arrow range, which had been severely suppressed by the Ming army's muskets. The archers even need to charge forward with fire for a while before they can start firing their arrows. Therefore, in the previous battles, the Burmese army suffered so heavy casualties, and could only pin its hopes on tropical viruses and minor wound infections.

And today, the archers of the Burmese army dared to stand still and wait for the Ming army to approach, instead of rushing up and rushing to release arrows, obviously because soldiers at all levels had been encouraged by the above before the war.

Knowing that the Ming musketeers had no place to use today, they could only rush up and fight bayonets, so the morale of the Burmese archers was unusually high.

Unfortunately, this exaltation was soon disillusioned as the Ming army entered the range of the Wuchang-made muskets.

The front-line generals of the Burmese army did not give the order to release the arrows for a long time, and were still waiting for the Ming army to get closer, but the Ming army in the front row fired first.

"Bang bang bang-" Thousands of bullets flew through the air, instantly setting off a bloody storm in the opposite Burmese army array.

The Burmese army didn't seem to react at all, and was stunned for a few seconds, until the second and third rows of Ming troops also stepped forward and opened fire. The chaos in the Burmese army broke out completely.

"The muskets of the Ming army can fire after a rainstorm!"

"The rain hasn't stopped completely, can it be used at this time?"

"Could it be that this little rain has stopped affecting the musket? Quick, let our army's musket team also come forward to shoot, we must suppress the Ming army! ”

From the grassroots Burmese army officers, to the senior generals, and even the Burmese king Mangbai, all of them were instantly shocked, and then made different panicked responses.

Some ordinary soldiers only wanted to escape, and some junior officers wanted to urge the archers to rush forward immediately and shoot closely. What Mangbai wants is to break the jar and break it, and bet on whether his Dutch musket can be used in such a critical environment.

It's a pity that tens of thousands of troops are congested, where can they be so quick to make a change of formation?

The one-sided massacre would have to last at least five or six minutes, or even ten minutes, before the Tatmadaw could respond effectively. And under this kind of cross-fire density that accumulates tens of thousands of rounds per minute, it is simply impossible to imagine what the morale of the army will be like after ten minutes.

Patches of barrages, or walls of bullets, roared into the faces of the Burmese soldiers, and rows of Burmese archers fell to the ground with rivers of blood.

The Ming army was not in a hurry to charge forward, and the soldiers who fired in each round only walked three or four steps in front of their teammates in the previous round, stopped, and then fired. The distance of about 200 paces between the vanguard of the enemy and us, the Ming army completely needs to be spared, otherwise it will rush in front of the enemy in a short time.

The chaotic Burmese army is not all waiting for death and fleeing, and some are rushing forward against the trend.

It's a pity that the firepower density of the Ming army's musket array could ensure that the charge of the Manchurian cavalry was completely blocked as early as fifteen years ago, not to mention the Burmese foot charge on the mountain road at this moment?

Because of the hot and humid environment, the Burmese army also generally lacks armor. When the front-line generals of the Ming army saw the soldiers rushing up, they immediately ordered all their soldiers to be replaced with shotguns.

Within a hundred steps, smokeless gunpowder fixed shotguns hit unarmored targets, which is sour, and there is no need to describe it, any earthling who has played a gunfight game can imagine it.

In the end, the fiercest, most resolute, and fastest Burmese warriors only rushed sixty paces in front of the Ming army, and then they were all taken away. Not even a single person rushed within the fifty paces mark.

When these Burmese troops who rushed up with blood and courage at the beginning were all killed, and after not one was left, the Ming army was replaced with double-shot single-headed bullets, and the battle was basically over, and the rest was just garbage time.

Thousands of Burmese soldiers were killed by merciless slaughter in the chaos and congestion, and even the Burmese king Mang Bai could not be suppressed.

In the end, in order to prevent his Chinese flag array from being overwhelmed by the retreating rebels, Mang Bai even had to let the sword and shield men of the flag array frantically slash and kill the retreating archers and spearmen.

Then let all the musketeers of the Burmese army load their bayonets and stab any rebels who dare to disrupt their own positions. The Dutch-style muskets used by the Burmese musketeers, although they could be re-unloaded in a combat environment to try to shoot from a distance, were not as convenient as the Ming army's bayonets, which brought even greater confusion.

"Kill Mangbai! Exterminate the Burmese thieves! Kill Mangbai! Exterminate the Burmese thieves! The slaughter speed of the Ming army did not decrease at all, and they frantically crushed and drove the rebels backwards to collapse and flee.

The Burmese army killed each other for a long time, and Mang Bai finally couldn't resist it, and even he himself was injured by shrapnel, so he had to seize his horse and let the guards kill and flee on a bloody road. And as the king's personal guards began to cut down their own people and take the road, the Burmese army was completely finished.

Tens of thousands of routed soldiers fled wildly along the Kyauksan valley, and the 20,000 or 30,000 wounded who had been stranded in Kyaukmei County, all of whom had been withdrawn from the front during the previous ten days of attrition, were completely abandoned at this moment, and no one cared about the lives or deaths of these people who had lost their mobility.

……

Li Dingguo's pursuit and killing finally lasted for half an afternoon and half a night, but the soldiers were allowed to sleep for less than two hours in the middle of the night when it was completely dark, and then they began to chase and kill again in the early morning of the next day, lighting more torches to illuminate the mountain roads, and even some officers even used the kerosene lamp samples just trial-produced by the Daming Academy of Sciences in the rear.

The next day was another whole day's pursuit, adding up to fifteen hours of pursuit.

The nearly 30,000 wounded left over by the Burmese army in the previous battles were all abandoned, and the Ming army would not waste precious medicines, so all of them ended their suffering, and the new casualties in this battle were also more than 50,000 or 60,000.

By the early morning of the fourth day of November, counting the losses of all parties, Mang Bai had lost at least 90,000 combat strength, of which more than 40,000 were directly killed (including the wounded who were executed by mending knives), and the rest were also wounded or missing—and in a belligerent environment like Kyauksan, the so-called disappearance was actually directly on the way to escape, and the bones were gone.

After a few days of recuperation, Li Dingguo spent a few days clearing the remnants of the enemy on both flanks, ensuring the logistical supply routes in the rear, and replenishing a wave of supplies, and then hurriedly launched a new offensive again on the seventh day of October.

Finally, within two days, he completely penetrated the Kyauksan Mountains, entered the plains of the Irrawaddy River Valley, and killed the city of Ava.

The Burmese army, on the other hand, was frightened by shrapnel several days ago and failed to seize the window of rest and recuperation in the past few days to make adjustments. In the end, he was forced up by Li Dingguo in vain.

The size of the Burmese army in Ava City is still at least several times that of Li Dingguo's army. However, the proportion of the wounded was too high, and the morale of those who were not injured was extremely low. The main reason is that they are completely frightened by the Ming army's muskets that can still exert firepower after heavy rains, and they can't imagine this kind of existence at all.

Because of the lack of troops, Li Dingguo was determined to attack the city, but he was really not sure that he would be surrounded on all sides, so he finally chose to attack only one side and give up the other three.

In the face of Li Dingguo's posture of trying to attack the fortification, Mang Bai, who was still recuperating from his injuries, stood up and asked the guards to carry him to inspect the city defense, pacify and encourage the soldiers, and let the defenders transfer all the Hongyi cannons to prepare to confront Li Dingguo.

"Generals must fight to the death! There is still hope for our army in this battle! Previously, Li Dingguo was nothing more than relying on the sharp muskets of the Ming army to break through some places where there were no fortified cities! But Ava is my Burmese companion capital, how can it be compared to the small county of Kyaukmei?

The Hongyi cannons that I have accumulated in Burma over the years are definitely more powerful than the firearms that the Ming army came over the mountains, and they will definitely be able to hold it! ”

This encouragement from the King of Burma also played a slight role. Many Burmese army generals finally remembered that the Burmese army still has an absolute advantage in one aspect, that is, the artillery to defend the city!

It's not that the Hongyi artillery in Myanmar is stronger than that of the Ming Dynasty, this is impossible, they have fought for the past few months, and they have also recognized the situation.

But the Burmese generals all knew that the really powerful heavy artillery of the Ming army could not be pulled over the Kyaukshan overland route to the city of Ava, so the Ming army either had no artillery, or only light artillery that could climb the mountain with the army.

Myanmar's geographical advantage is, after all, the last and hardest hole card of the Burmese army! Even if this war is to be lost in the end, and you have to be forced to cede land and beg for mercy, you should thwart Li Dingguo's siege attempt before you can sue for peace, otherwise I am afraid that the price of the Ming army will be directly high enough to make Burma fall to the country!

With the last confidence, the main force of the Burmese army rarely chose not to retreat and abandon Awa, but the whole army held the city to the death, and even sent messengers to all sides to order the dispatch of troops to King Qin, and also urgently transferred reinforcements from the national capital Bago in the rear.

……

As soon as he arrived at the city of Ava, he first set up a strong siege camp, and then relied on the camp to dig a trench forward, and engaged in earthwork to slowly extend under the city wall.

The Burmese could not understand what he was doing, so they had to let him do it.

There is no doubt that Li Dingguo's purpose was to reproduce the Vauban siege method invented by the Ming and Qing dynasties at the end of the Ming and Qing wars. And today, Li Dingguo's Vauban siege method is absolutely pure in taste-

Because Chinese New Year's Eve is now thirty-three years old Vauban Sebastian. Le Prestri. General Vauban himself also personally contributed to today's tough battle in Li Dingguo's army.

Vauban was dug up by the Ming Dynasty after Zhu Shuren recruited Descartes about five or six years later, and now he has been in the Ming army for twelve years.

It's just that because the years of peace have been relatively long, it is not easy to make achievements in directly serving in the army, and Vauban was often seconded to the Academy of Sciences to do military engineering research a few years ago, and this year he finally got the opportunity to fight again.

The construction of the Vauban siege was still relatively slow, and it generally took a month or two to dig more than 2,000 yards of close communication trenches and thousands of yards of semi-buried artillery positions for fan rings.

But anyway, it is only late November, and the New Year is just coming in a month or two, and the weather is not too hot, and as long as the ammunition and medical drugs are fully supplied, the Ming army is not afraid that it will not be able to take root.

At the beginning, the Burmese garrison army saw that the Ming army had reached the fortified city, and it actually changed to high bases and deep ditches and various trenches, and also tried to go out of the city in a roundabout way and counterattack the Ming army's flank, and then cut off Li Dingguo's supply.

It's a pity that the Burmese army's previous successive defeats were too miserable, and they simply did not have the strength to fight in the field. Anyone who left Ava City was given in vain, and was lured and annihilated by Li Dingguo, and he could not block Li Dingguo's supply line.

In order to reduce the logistical pressure, Li Dingguo used all the transportation capacity to transport ammunition and medicine, and the grain relied on local looting and supplies, even if the city of Ava was not broken, but the area around the city of Ava was the most fertile agricultural area in Myanmar, and the grain in Myanmar could be harvested three times a year, and seeing that it was going to be harvested again at the end of the year, Li Dingguo could completely grab the grain that was not yet fully ripe in advance.

After holding on for a month, as the time came to the end of the year, the siege construction of Vauban finally began to take shape, and the Ming army could push the cavalry artillery of more than 1,000 catties to the position of more than a mile outside the city wall, and then fire in a semi-buried underground way, using a high-throw trajectory to launch flowering shells to bombard the city.

It was not until this moment that the Burmese army defending the city was completely panicked. They desperately bombarded with heavy Hongyi cannons that were two or three times heavier than the cavalry guns of the Ming army. But their shells could only hit the ground of Vauban carefully dug semi-buried artillery positions, and then bounce away.

In a hurry, the Burmese army tried to change the Ming army's communication trenches, but the trajectory of the shells could not hit the bottom of the trench either, and they all bounced off the side walls and the ground.

It was not until this moment that the Burmese fully realized that the Ming Dynasty's attainments in ballistics and the engineering of ballistics defense were many times more profound than those of the illiterate Southern Barbarians.

And the house leak happened to rain overnight, and just when Ava City finally began to be bombed by the Ming army, the southern capital of Bagu also came to the urgent bad news.

"King! Oh no! At the mouth of the Indra River outside Bago City, Zheng Chenggong's fleet attacked, and a landing operation was launched at the mouth of the river! The Ming warships have already penetrated the estuary and entered the inland river! ”

"What? How did the Ming army come from the south? Fast! Back to Bago! Mang Bai only felt a burst of blood rush to his brain.

The main force of his army has been exhausted by Li Dingguo's repeated annihilation battles, and the remaining troops have also been glued to the meat grinder of Ava City.

Now the city of Ava is once again in a state of one-sided slaughter due to the Vauban siege law, and it is shelled in vain. The only hope that "the supply of the Ming army can be cut off" has also come to naught because of Zheng Chenggong's appearance, and Mang Bai has realized that he has completely lost everything.

(End of chapter)