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Chapter 495 The Battle of Burma - Part [-]

Faced with Li Dingguo's firm progress, Bai Wenxuan said with worry:
"Even so, even if our army can rely on the sharpness of the army to take down Awa, then what? The Burmese army may have stockpiled food and grass in Awa, but they will definitely try to set fire to the city when they break through. How much can be saved? Right now there is no guarantee.

Secondly, even if the Burmese army could not burn the food and grass when they broke the city, they must have time to fortify the walls and clear the fields in advance, collect all the ships along the river around Ava City, and pull them to the downstream capital Bagu, where they enter the sea.

Anyway, the Burmese have enough supplies in Ava, which is their hinterland. The supplies are assembled before the war, and there is no need to transport them during the war. Therefore, when the war starts, they can already ensure that they are in Ava City. Not a single boat remained.

In this way, even if our army breaks Ava, it will not be able to raise enough ships for the follow-up shipping and supply of the Indra Pota River, and it will not be possible to use the river from Ava to Bagu to guarantee the logistics of the follow-up attack. . "

The army will switch logistics routes in the two rivers on the east and west slopes of Jiaoshan Mountain. The most difficult thing about this is not how to cross Jiaoshan Mountain, but even if the enemy is on the other side of the river. If you take it away or destroy it, you won't be able to find a new ship even if you succeed in overcoming the mountain.

Jiaoshan is not a small broken mountain like the Golden Horn Bay in Constantinople. It is impossible to "boat on dry land" for more than 100 miles to pull the boats on the Nujiang River into the Indra Vada River.It is because of this that Mangbai dared to do "everything east of Jiaoshan Mountain can be surrendered".

However, in the face of Bai Wenxuan's concerns, Li Dingguo once again showed his well-planned plan: "As long as you can kill Awa, the boat is not a problem. Traveling eight thousand miles by sea is better than sailing a hundred miles on dry land." It's much easier here.

At the beginning of this battle, after I recognized Mangbai's strategic intentions, I rushed Pegasus and asked the Guangdong reinforcements to follow the second set of plans.Before the war, the prince nodded his head. At that time, Zheng Chenggong was asked to lead the navy of Kyushu and Fujian to move to Guangdong in advance.

As long as our army can gain a firm foothold along the banks of the Indra Potuo River, we can drive straight in. After two months of sailing, the navy in Guangdong can basically go around to Bagu, and can land from the mouth of the river upstream and open up the whole territory.My Ming Dynasty was powerless against Burma and Yue before, but it was only because there was only land to attack.Now that the land route is attacking, the sea route provides the fleet at one time, and it is no problem to completely destroy Mangbai! "

Li Dingguo did not expect that during the follow-up campaign, every sum of supplies would allow Zheng Chenggong to sail eight thousand miles from Guangdong, bypass Malacca to land in Pegu, and then go upstream to Ava.

However, as long as Zheng Chenggong did this for the first time, the follow-up will be convenient.The key is that after Zheng Chenggong arrives, he can leave some of the boats behind.In this way, after Li Dingguo captured Ava City, he could get enough transport ships under Ava City for subsequent transshipment.

To put it bluntly, whether it is ammunition or supplies, the Yunnan theater has raised enough in the past five years, and what is lacking is the means of transportation.If Zheng Chenggong's big outflank and roundabout can cut through the channel of the Indra Potuo River, then everything will be done.

Of course, this kind of thing must be kept secret in advance, because if the secret is leaked, the Burmese may abolish the shipping of the Indra Pota River in advance——

For example, blocking rivers and building weirs, creating shoals and hidden reefs, or any damage tricks such as iron chains across the river and hidden cones at the bottom of the river can all be used. Even if the Burmese themselves no longer use this lifeline for river navigation, they will also abolish the Ming army. supply.

Don’t think this kind of thing is impossible, because more than 200 years ago, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Vietnamese used this trick to abolish Zhu Di’s attack. At that time, it was because the Ming Dynasty had a sea ban, and it was obvious that Guangxi could go to Vietnam by going to the coast. Shipping supplies, but Daming lacked sea-going ships, and could only rely on the Red River shipping supplies from Yunnan to Vietnam.

At that time, the Vietnamese set up more than N self-destructive waterway destruction facilities in the Red River, and even made various artificial dredging and silting in the estuary delta to create dangerous shoals to ensure that Ming Dynasty ships could not sail into the middle of the Red River, and finally forced Zhu Di The supply of the Ming army was cut off and they could only rob and force countless Vietnamese civilians. In the end, the Ming army returned home in a disastrous defeat.

Experts always fight in logistics, and the frontal battlefield is just the last step.

Li Dingguo hid it from his own people precisely because he was afraid that the Burmese would realize that this trick would destroy the waterway in advance because of his confidentiality considerations.

Before the war, only Zhu Shuren, Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong knew about this alternative plan.Moreover, Zhu Shuren also authorized that once Li Dingguo finds that it is necessary to implement it, he can contact Zheng Chenggong by himself and act according to the plan, without having to ask Nanjing for instructions temporarily.

After all, it is much faster to contact Guangdong directly from Yunnan. If you go to Nanjing first, and then instruct Guangdong from Nanjing, the day lily will be cold.

After Bai Wenxuan and Feng Shuangli finally knew the overall plan, he let go of his worries and expressed that he would do his best to serve the country and not lose face to Lord Hou.

Li Dingguo is still only a marquis, and Zheng Chenggong was already a prince seven or eight years ago-who let Zheng Chenggong capture Kyushu Island and beat up the Fusang people.Li Dingguo couldn't even envy him.

So this time, he held back all his strength, and pointed to making some great achievements in dealing with Myanmar and Vietnam, trying to win the position of Duke, and he could also confer the title of Marquis on his subordinate Bai Wenxuan and Feng Shuangli.

However, in the end, it was inevitable that Zheng Chenggong's navy would cooperate with him. In this life, his status in the court was destined to be lowered by Zheng Chenggong.

……

The plan was established, and Li Dingguo was also a decisive person. He finally chose to leave the camp along the Nujiang River on the ninth day of October, and go west to the Mount Jiaoshan Mountains to launch a land offensive.

Because he had to climb the mountain, he couldn't bring heavy Hongyi cannons, so he only carried a new type of steel-cast cavalry cannon with a weight of less than [-] catties as the follow-up firepower.

Heavy artillery weighing more than [-] catties can only be left in the camps around Lashio to defend the rear.

This kind of firepower allocation actually has a relatively high risk.Because the firepower of the Burmese army today is actually far stronger than that of the Qing army more than ten years ago.The Burmese have been doing business with Portugal and the Netherlands for 40 years, and there are plenty of original European red cannons available.

This means that in the subsequent offensive and defensive battles of the strong city, the artillery weight of the defending side may be more than double that of the attacking side, and the range will be farther than that of the attacking side.In this way, the siege artillery position will be completely within the coverage of the defensive artillery. If the siege camp is not strictly constructed to ensure artillery defense, it will definitely be very difficult.

However, Li Dingguo is still very optimistic. He knows all the difficulties, and at the same time, it is also an inducement that causes the enemy to become paralyzed and slack. As long as he uses it well, the surprise attack will be more successful.

……

Sure enough, the Ming army tried to cross Mount Kyauka starting from the ninth day of October. After half a month of stalemate, the Burmese army really fell into a slack again.

But Li Dingguo just did what they thought was courting death. As a result, the Burmese army that Mangbai had left behind in several outlying pass camps at the eastern foot of the Jiaoshan Mountain was once again severely attacked by the Ming army's concentrated and superior force.

In the camp of Jiaoyue Town, which is located on the front line, about three or four thousand Burmese troops were instantly killed by the Ming army within half a day. After all, the Ming army's guns were an era ahead of them, and the offensive force was ten times that of the defenders of Jiaoyue Village. Could not be more reasonable.

Then the Ming army continued to advance rapidly, and reached Jiaomei County at the pass of the southern section of Mount Jiao in just three days.

Jiaomei County is located on the main ridge of Jiaoshan Mountain. It is the lowest point of the main ridge of Jiaoshan Mountain within a few hundred miles nearby, and it is also the most convenient to cross. To the east of Jiaomei County, the Ming army went uphill all the way. After passing this mountain pass , to the west is all the way down the mountain.

Because of the importance of this place, Mangbai usually stationed tens of thousands of troops in Jiaomei County, and scattered other troops in other passes, as well as in Ava City in the rear——

It is also impossible for Mangbai to pile up 10,000+ troops on the mountain, because it is too difficult to maintain military supplies for a long time, so the main force can only be placed in the big cities in the plains and valleys.Only after finding out the main attack direction of the Ming army, we can increase troops to the attacked pass.

All of this made the Burmese army's reinforcement of Kyaukmei a little slow, and Li Dingguo seized the opportunity and took the county after two days of bloody battle.

The tactics of the Ming army were also very simple and rude. The cavalry guns were directly pulled up to blast the city wall of the county, and then the rifle team swarmed in and marched forward.

The local musketeers of the Burmese army were insufficient and were quickly suppressed.

Although there are a large number of other soldiers using bows and arrows, they can also rely on complex terrain to output firepower, but their arrows are completely unable to damage the vital points of the breastplate musketeers, and even the hands and feet protected by light armor can only cause skin trauma. , and finally formed a one-sided massacre.

The Burmese army is very similar to the Indian army, that is, they don’t pay much attention to the problem of armor-piercing, because few people in tropical warfare can wear thick and heavy armor. In order to keep cool, many of them even wear only armor. The linen clothes went into battle, which made armor-piercing weapons useless at all.

The Burmese army defending the city was eventually annihilated by the Ming army, more than 2 people, and the food stored in the county town had not had time to be burned, which made Li Dingguo cheap.

However, Mangbai's main force from other directions did not arrive from all directions until the day after Jiaomei County was breached. Because the county seat had been lost, they had no choice but to garrison at other relatively low-lying Xipo passes in Jiaoshan Valley Road. Road, to prevent the Ming army from advancing.

More than 2 troops were wiped out, which made the morale of the Burmese army even lower, but Mangbai was still confident, personally patrolling the troops, and desperately encouraged the generals under his command:

"Don't worry! Li Dingguo is looking for death on his own! Although he destroyed Jiaomei County, he easily left the Nujiang River Valley and went deep into Mount Jiaoshan. As long as we surround him, within a month or two, Li Dingguo will die!
In this dense forest, miasma is rampant, can the northerners survive?Moreover, this king has already questioned the remnants of the Jiaomei defenders who broke out from the siege. I heard from them that the Ming army only wanted a quick victory when they attacked the city, and they fought recklessly and suffered a lot of losses.

It was only because our army's arrows could not penetrate armor that most of the Ming army suffered minor injuries—but Li Dingguo underestimated the danger of minor injuries in the Burmese rainforest!In such a hot and rainy place, those soldiers of the Ming army with flesh and blood injuries would soon fester and die!Even debridement and dressing can't save it!Persevere our army will win! "

Under Mangbai's personal encouragement, the soldiers of the Burmese Army finally recovered a little morale, and felt that it was reasonable to say so.Although more than 2 people were killed by Li Dingguo, it was in exchange for seducing Li Dingguo from the edge of the Nu River to the depths of Mount Jiao.

As long as you grit your teeth and endure, the power of nature can kill the Ming army!It doesn't matter if you fight head-on and get crushed!
……

Li Dingguo began to climb the mountain on the ninth day of October, attacked Jiaomei County on the [-]th, and broke through the city on the [-]th.After breaking the city, it took two days to repair before once again putting on the posture of attacking the reinforcements of the Burmese army.

However, the defense of the Burmese army was very resolute. During the first two days of attack, the Burmese forced their lives to block the Jiaoshan Valley Road. breakthrough.

In addition, the Burmese feel that they are "defending their home and country" after all, and feel that they have no way to retreat, so they insist on fighting to the death no matter how many casualties there are.Li Dingguo didn't want to waste his life with the opponent, so he had to postpone the offensive.

On the other hand, this is also one of Li Dingguo's tactics of showing weakness and deception. He hoped that Mangbai would misjudge because of this, thinking that there were many soldiers in the Ming army who were downsizing due to minor injuries and heat and humidity. Let your guard down again.

Ever since, when the battle in the valley lasted until October [-]th, Li Dingguo finally put on a posture of "exhaustion", stopped the attack, and turned to the east to "break through", pretending to be exhausted by the continuous high-intensity battle. The follow-up is weak and needs to be returned to the bank of the Nu River for repairs.

Because after retreating to the Nu River, the Burmese army could not cut off Li Dingguo's food, grass and ammunition, and Li Dingguo could rely entirely on the supplies brought in by the Nu River waterway from Yunnan.

In order to make the performance more realistic, Li Dingguo also planned to set a fire in the city and burn down all the houses when he "abandoned Jiaomei County".As for the leftover food, it can be taken with the army.

In addition, he also deliberately leaked false information through various channels to the secret operations of the Burmese army who are approaching and spying every day, so that the Burmese people really think that "the Ming army suffered a lot of minor injuries due to the killing of the Burmese army's bows and arrows. After staying in the mountainous area for nearly ten days, the infection finally began to fester, and a large number of serious illnesses had to go back for treatment.”

After receiving such bad news from the Ming army, how could Mangbai be willing to let Li Dingguo go?Therefore, before Li Dingguo set fire to Jiaomei County, he frantically divided his troops and took mountain roads to cut off the Ming army's approach, preventing Li Dingguo from retreating to Lashio by the Nu River.

However, in this case, it was the Burmese's turn to be unable to rely on the strong fortifications in the valley, and the offensive and defensive positions were reversed.

The Burmese army who stayed at the western foot of Mount Kyauksan had layers of fortifications and set up camp on the road. The Burmese army could also transport the red barbarian cannons from Awa City in the rear to reinforce the defensive position.

And the Burmese army after going around the mountains has no advantage at all, they can only fight against the Ming army in the field, and they can't carry any artillery, so the firepower is definitely crushed by the Ming army.The reason why Mangbai wanted to stop Li Dingguo despite the huge casualty exchange ratio was to consume Li Dingguo, causing Li Dingguo's army to be infected and die in large numbers in the Jiaoshan rainforest.

In this way, Li Dingguo secretly squeezed the supply of concentrated sulfuric acid, which can sterilize the scalpel and gauze. The efficiency of debridement surgery for lightly wounded patients far exceeded Mangbai's imagination, and Mangbai was bloodletting for nothing.

The pollution of drinking water in the rainforest, the breeding of mosquitoes, and the Ming army's unacceptable water and soil conditions that Mangbai expected did not occur, or the degree was much lower than originally expected.

Li Dingguo ignored the warnings of the Academy of Sciences, saying that carbolic acid disinfection may introduce some new toxicity, and long-term exposure is harmful to health, but he used disinfectant water vigorously—carbolic acid has another scientific name called "phenol", which is theoretically used in later generations. It belongs to the third category of carcinogens in the chemical standards (the third category is already considered light, and the first category is more important. For example, formaldehyde left over from decoration can be considered a first category carcinogen)

But how could the people of the Ming Dynasty manage these things?But if you use too much disinfectant, you may die right now.Excessive use of disinfectant may increase the probability of developing tumors several times after ten or twenty years. Li Dingguo is very clear about how to choose, and besides, he does not understand those medical principles very well.

This is like the people in the war-torn areas of Africa in later generations. Most of them will die at the age of 30. How can they be afraid of Aimou disease?

The imperial court agreed before the war that soldiers who fought in Burma would be given health allowances for life in the future, and they could retire five years in advance to receive pensions.Based on this condition, the soldiers are very happy to use this kind of disinfectant, which is said to be a bit dangerous.

The reason why Zhu Shuren thought of such measures was nothing more than to compare the positions of welders who burned electric welding in later generations, because "long-term employment will damage health, so you can retire five years in advance, and the length of service will be added." Make it into an extra pension subsidy for retired soldiers.

……

Calculating intentionally or unintentionally, the Ming army obviously did not lose a large number of personnel due to flesh wounds, infections and tropical diseases, but the Burmese army mistakenly believed that they had such battle damage, so they were delayed regardless of casualties.

Such a meat grinder battle quickly consumed the main force of Burma. The Burmese soldiers who blocked the return of the Ming army suffered almost thousands of casualties every day. Every day, I can only fight and walk on the mountain road, traveling ten miles a day."

According to this speed, it would take Li Dingguo ten or eight days to retreat to Lashio by the Nu River.And this section of the road was filled by Burmese soldiers with their lives.

From October [-]th to the end of October, Burmese casualties and diseases have increased by as much as [-] to [-] people, and the morale of those who are still alive has plummeted, and they have completely fallen to the bottom, and their physical condition is not good. .

The entire Kyauk Valley Road has almost become the Verdun meat grinder of this era, smashing the flesh and blood of the Burmese army batch after batch.

After the time entered November, Li Dingguo felt that the acting was almost done, and Mangbai was too exhausted by his seduction, so he finally decided to choose an opportunity to close the net.

It happened that on the second day of November, the Jiaoshan area, which had not rained for seven or eight consecutive days, ushered in the last heavy rain at the end of this year's rainy season.

Taking into account the time interval between the two rains, the local guides arrested by Li Dingguo said that it rained again after such a long time, so the next rain may have to wait until after the entire dry season.

Li Dingguo thought about it for a while, and ordered the whole army to change their previous posture of "pretending to flee to the east", turn around and kill the carbine, and went straight to the main force of Mangbai on the west side who was biting behind him.

"Attack in such a heavy rain?" Both Bai Wenxuan and Feng Shuangli couldn't help but feel a little worried.

Li Dingguo Zhizhu grinned grinningly while holding the ground: "Of course we didn't attack when the rain was the heaviest. Let the soldiers wrap their muskets in oilcloth and attack when the rain turned light. The Burmese muskets are not waterproof at all, and neither are the cannons." water proof.

Originally, our army could not attack westward with all its strength, because the road between Kyaukme and Awa was blocked by the Burmese army's red barbarian cannons.Now that the Burmese army's firearms are useless after the rain, our army's firearms have been improved for waterproofing over the years. That is a one-sided massacre!Let the soldiers not be stingy, take out the smokeless ammunition that has been treasured for a month!Today they are allowed to open the smokeless gunpowder! "

(End of this chapter)