I

The war in Southeast Asia must be fought quickly.

If the battle is won, the troops will be withdrawn. The fighting time (including marching) should be within five months.

If it is necessary to garrison troops after the war, clear out the enemy's remnants, and arrange officials in the newly occupied territory, this must be done within three months.

Once it is delayed, we will face hot and humid weather, causing a large number of non-combat attrition of the troops.

Therefore, preparations for this expedition to Burma took several years.

If you don't fight, it will be fine. If you want to fight, it will be thunderous. Fight it once and for all!

The main attacking force consists of four regular divisions. One of the divisions was specially trained for Myanmar.

In addition, there are 40,000 patrol soldiers, all from Yunnan and Guangxi provinces.

Not counting civilian and support personnel, there are more than 80,000 combat soldiers alone!

The two divisions on the South Road were commanded by Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan respectively, and they each brought 5,000 patrol troops.

Yang Zhan is 50 years old this year. He brought his territory and troops to the new dynasty in Sichuan. After graduating from the crash course at the military academy, he participated in the recovery of Guizhou and Yunnan, and finally became a division commander two years ago. This should be his last time commanding a battle. Next, he will either be transferred back to the Dudu Mansion, or he will be transferred to the Dudu Commandery to recruit and train troops.

Qin Liangyu's two nephews, also because they were too old, left the front line when they were promoted to deputy division commanders. One was transferred to the governor's office, and the other served as the commander of the Guizhou capital.

Yang Zhan stood on the bow of the ship, admiring the scenery along the river: "At this speed, we can reach the capital of Taungyu next month."

Ding Jiasheng said with a smile: "The Meng people are so enthusiastic. They provide them with food and boats."

Not only did they provide ships, but they also sent troops to follow.

The Lower Myanmar region was the land of Longxing in the Toungoo Dynasty. However, the main ethnic group here is the Mon, followed by the Bamar and Karen. In order to consolidate his power, the Bamar king would inevitably suppress the Mon forces, triggering continuous Mon uprisings. In the past hundred years, the population of the entire Lower Myanmar region has been reduced by half.

When the Datong Army landed at the mouth of the Irrawaddy River, the lurking agents took the opportunity to join forces, and a large number of Mon chiefs and merchants recruited troops to help.

These Mon soldiers did not perform well in the siege, and the racial vendetta became more fierce than the last.

During the march, they often broke away from the Datong Army and rushed to nearby Bamar villages to carry out massacres, killing all the Bamar people in entire villages.

Such behavior caused the Burmese people in Lower Myanmar to flee upriver with their families.

The Burmese government did not need to bother gathering troops. They directly recruited the fleeing people to form an army. Finally, a "hundred-thousand-thousand-strong army" was raised to defend Pyay City.

The strategic position of Pyay City in Myanmar is probably similar to that of Xuzhou in China. No matter which dynasty wants to compete for hegemony in Myanmar, it must fight here.

One hundred and twelve years ago, the Taungoo dynasty also won the Battle of Pyay and finally established its dominance in Myanmar.

At that time, the Bamar people had not yet turned against the Mon people and joined forces to resist the rule of the Ava dynasty (Shan people). Although the Mon people are not good at fighting, they are very good at farming and doing business, providing the Bamar army with 1,400 ships and 9,000 sailors.

Now history is repeating itself. The Mon people provided the Datong Army with more than 1,200 ships, more than 8,000 sailors, and more than 10,000 civilians, just to overthrow the brutal rule of the Burmese.

When Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan led their troops to Piaimai, they were immediately speechless by the sight in front of them.

The city walls are densely packed with "defenders"!

There are Bamar refugees everywhere outside the city. Since the city is already crowded, these Bamar refugees can only stay outside the city.

"Set up camp!"

The Datong army camped a few miles south of the city, leaning on mountains and rivers.

The next day, the artillery was pulled out and fired first at the refugee camp outside the city. There are too many shacks of all kinds, which will affect the Datong army's attack on the city. They must be cleared first before proceeding.

"Boom boom boom!"

More than 20 shells fell, causing the Bamar refugees to flee in terror. Unable to enter the city, they chose to circle the city and flee farther north.

The chief general stationed in Pyaoi City was Mangtai, a nobleman of the Toungoo royal family.

His son, Mang Sigu, said: "Father, we have the superior strength and can go out and fight the enemy decisively!"

Mangtai shook his head: "Stand still and wait for help."

Mang Sigu said: "There are too many people pouring into the city, and we don't have time to collect food and grass. The city will be besieged for a month or two at most, and the food will be exhausted by then!"

"Stand and wait for help!" Mangtai said decisively.

The Toungoo Dynasty was similar to the Annan Kingdom, with only tens of thousands of standing troops, most of which were stationed in the capital and the northern border. When a big war needs to be fought, the local nobles can recruit peasants, and the maximum number of troops can be expanded to 300,000.

Pyay is a strategic city with more than 3,000 troops stationed in peacetime, which is considered very important.

Now, Mangtai only has more than 3,000 standing troops in hand, and the rest are all temporarily recruited refugees. How can he dare to take the initiative to go out of the city for a decisive battle?

There are definitely reinforcements in the north, and there are probably reinforcements in the west and south.

More than a hundred years ago, the Arakan people came by boat to help the Shan people fight against the Bamar people. It will be the same now. The Arakanese came to the rescue by boat and helped the Bamar people fight against the Tatung Army.

"Do you think you can keep it?"

"I'm afraid we can't defend it. The Chinese army is very powerful."

"Look for an opportunity to slip away."

"You can't leave without abandoning your family and property."

"..."

This conversation came from the fort of the city tower.

Two Portuguese mixed-race officers were guarding the artillery and whispering. Their ancestors once made great contributions to the Toungoo Dynasty, using artillery to defeat the main cavalry force of the Ava Dynasty, and also formed an artillery force for the Toungoo Dynasty.

In addition to the Portuguese, there were also Armenians in the city. Their ancestors also participated in the Battle of Pyai a hundred years ago and helped the Toungoo Dynasty fight with the Persians.

The Toungoo Dynasty was able to quickly unify Burma by relying on multinational troops and advanced weapons. It had muskets and artillery in the mid-16th century.

However, their firearms technology is still stuck a hundred years ago.

After the Bamar refugees outside the city were frightened away by artillery fire, the Datong Army began to divide its forces.

Yang Zhan led a regular division, plus 5,000 patrol troops, and thousands of Mon men, through the hilly area south of the city, and went around to the north of Pyai City to set up camp. The troops of Yang Zhan and Ding Jiasheng were like two nails, nailed to the north and south of Pyaimai City.

This is a big city and it is really difficult to attack by force.

The battle that took place more than a hundred years ago lasted for more than five months and the city's defenders were forced to surrender only after all the reinforcements were wiped out.

The Datong Army has a deadline to fight and cannot delay it for that long.

"Boom boom boom!"

For six days, there was constant shelling.

Dozens of artillery pieces from the Datong Army aimed at the city wall and fired. The defenders' twelve city defense guns also continued to fight back.

At the same time, the Mon servant army led the Mon men to fill the moat under artillery fire.

A large number of trees in the southern mountain forests were cut down to make siege equipment. A standard siege battle has no tactics at all, and the early preparations for the siege are all fixed routines.

"The temperature at noon today is 28 degrees, which is suitable to continue fighting."

At this time, the Datong Army also carried thermometers with them. If the temperature exceeded 32 degrees, the entire army would make herbal tea and drink it.

It's the end of October (lunar calendar) now. It's the middle of winter, and the temperature at noon is almost 30 degrees. You can imagine how difficult it is to fight in the summer.

"The enemy's reinforcements haven't come yet?" Yang Zhan complained.

The Mon leader Naibanchuo said: "It will take at least two months for the reinforcements of the Burmese king to arrive here slowly, because the Burmese king needs to raise food and troops. Every time we Mon people rise up, no matter how big the commotion is, the Burmese It would take the king’s army two or three months to arrive, and sometimes it would even take about half a year.”

Yang Zhan sighed: "It seems that besieging the city and calling for reinforcements is no longer possible. Either attack here by force, or continue northward."

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

A fast horse came to the military camp, and the herald said: "Master Yang, Ding Duzhi suggested that we abandon this city and continue to the north!"

"That's what I meant!" Yang Zhan wanted to leave a long time ago.

It is a typical military taboo to continue advancing without conquering strategically important areas. The retreat is blocked by the enemy. Once the war drags on for too long, they will face the dilemma of insufficient military rations and being stranded alone.

But this fortified city in front of us really cannot be conquered in a short time.

For six days, artillery bombardment continued, but the city wall did not move at all, and even the moat had not been filled in.

That night, Ding Jiasheng led his soldiers and detoured several miles from the southeast to the north. The whole army set off in the dark with all the baggage ships.

The city of Pyay was built on the riverside, and the movements of the baggage transport ships were quickly discovered by the defenders in the city.

The defenders had only 12 city defense guns, which were evenly distributed on all sides.

The four city defense guns facing the river were bombarding the fleet indiscriminately. In the darkness, it was not clear whether they had hit or not. Fighting, the artillery on the north and south city walls also fired towards the upstream and downstream rivers.

The next morning, the Datong Army had gone far away. Statistics found that two ships were missing and more than 20 ships were damaged.

The next step is to fight. A city called Alanmuu upstream is completely defenseless against the Datong Army.

Although local officials also gathered refugees and organized them into city defense troops. But everyone felt that Pyay City could be defended. Even if it could not be defended, it could still last for two or three months. They could just wait for reinforcements from the King of Burma.

When the Datong army suddenly came to the city, the officials who defended the city thought that Pyaimai City had been lost, so they were so frightened that they abandoned the city and fled.

With all the chief officers running away, how can a group of temporarily formed refugee troops still have the morale to hold on to the end? After a blast of artillery, the northern city gate opened wide, and the defenders and people rushed to flee.

"Kill all the Burmese!"

With red eyes, the Mon servants rushed into the city, burned, killed and looted.

Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan did not stop them, and even allowed the Mon soldiers to plunder. They took the risk of leading the army northward and had to supply food along the way. It was not convenient for the Datong army to do such dirty work, so they let the Mon servant army do it for them. The goods were divided among everyone, and all the food was taken away by the Datong Army.

Three days after the plunder, the army continued north.

The Burmese who fled north walked with news along the way that Pyay City had been breached. This erroneous military information frightened all the cities upstream, and they all abandoned the city and fled.

The Datong Army traveled north for more than 500 miles before encountering resistance in Bagan City.

Bagan is also a large city, only 280 miles away from the capital of Myanmar. This city not only has tens of thousands of temporarily recruited troops, but also thousands of reinforcements gathered by the Burmese king, and nearly 10,000 reinforcements are also on the way.

To the south, Mangtai, the commander-in-chief of Beiyao, was also chasing after him with "tens of thousands of troops".

The troops of Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan are obviously deeply alone and will face a north-south pincer attack by more than 100,000 Burmese troops.

It's just that of the more than 100,000 Burmese troops, the actual standing army that can fight is less than 20,000.

"How?" Ding Jiasheng asked.

Yang Zhan said: "Go back the same way and kill the pursuers in the south!"

"Hahaha, I have the same idea." Ding Jiasheng laughed.