At the beginning of the 23rd year of Qianlong's reign, after the Manchu envoys sent to Burma by the Qing Dynasty were imprisoned and sent away in dog cages under Yong Jiya's order, the War between the Qing Dynasty and Burma officially began.
Because Myanmar took the lead in attacking, it caught the Manchus off guard due to the time difference. This also prevented the Myanmar army from encountering strong local resistance in Yunnan after entering the Yunnan border. Therefore, the Burmese army was unstoppable along the way, as if they were in uninhabited territory. As time passed, the Burmese army soon besieged Lincang and Pu'er in Yunnan.
The safety of Yunnan is urgent. If the Manchu and Qing Dynasties cannot quickly send troops to resist the Burmese army, the cities in these two places will be lost. Then Myanmar's military front will be directed at Yunnan Fulu, Dali, Chuxiong, and even Yuxi and the provincial capital Kunming.
By then, the situation in Yunnan will be even more severe if the Manchu and Qing dynasties have to deal with it again.
The military situation was so intense that the Manchu and Qing court could no longer continue to slowly negotiate the dispatch of troops according to the procedures.
As soon as he received information about Burma's invasion, Qianlong immediately ordered the deployment of 60,000 Manchu, Mongolian and Han Eight Banners troops from the capital, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Guizhou and other places, and then assembled more than 100,000 Green Camp troops and local troops in various places. Xiangyong formed an army to conquer Burma and appointed Fucha. Fu Heng went south to pacify Burma.
At the same time, in order to ensure the food and salary of the army, Qianlong also authorized the Ministry of Household Affairs to forcibly collect taxes and grain for one year in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou.
Just after the beginning of the year, the Manchu and Qing armies marched southward to conquer Burma. Poor people in these three places have not yet come to their senses, but they have already begun to be crazily exploited by local cruel officials.
No one dares to refuse to pay the local excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes, because they can find a thousand ways to kill an untouchable.
As for the imperial rations, no one dared not to pay them.
Because of the laws of the Qing Dynasty, if anyone dared to resist the emperor's food supply, he would be executed by Ling Chi. And if the whole village dares to resist the imperial grain supply, the village can be massacred; if there is a city that dares to resist the imperial grain supply, the city can be massacred.
For the Manchu Qing soldiers who were keen on massacre, it was strange that they would let it go if there was a reason to massacre the city.
Especially now that the Manchu and Qing imperial armies are moving south, who dares not to surrender?
Those who dare not to cooperate have no choice but to rebel. However, how many people have the courage to change?
Therefore, even if this year is a good year, the people in these two places can only live by eating chaff. If the situation in the next year is slightly worse, it is unclear whether they will sell their daughters or wives as slaves.
In the twenty-third year of Qianlong's reign, in mid-March
After a long siege, the Burmese army broke through Lincang, Yunnan in one fell swoop, and Pu'er was already in danger. Niu Hulu, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Shanqin, with limited troops, relied on Ailao Mountain to delay the resistance against the Burmese army in Jingdong and other places.
Since the Myanmar army entered Yunnan, it has carried out crazy burning, killing and looting of civilians in the areas it passed.
In the flames of war, the people were devastated and mourned everywhere.
Upon seeing this, some local people who had not been harmed had no choice but to give up their spring farming and fled the war-torn place with their children.
The people were harmed by the war and had to leave their homes, so the court should take measures to appease them. However, the officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were busy collecting taxes and grains for the Burmese army. They were afraid that they would be punished by Qianlong if they were late in paying grains. Naturally, no one paid attention to such "little things". Even some local officials did not forget to pay attention to these refugees. Get a handful.
The imperial court's aggressive grain requisitions caused local grain prices to rise several times a day. The exorbitantly high food prices are unbearable even for local people, let alone the refugees who have left their homes.
However, food is the most important thing for people.
If the whereabouts of these refugees are not properly handled, local unrest will definitely occur. Therefore, under the guidance of some "caring people", those refugees who still wanted to stay in Yunnan to watch the war had no choice but to flee to Guangxi, Annan and other places in order to survive.
The Burmese army's continuous victories have turned some chieftains who are unwilling to leave their own land into serving as helpers. However, just when their little calculations were ringing in their hearts and they were fortunate to be able to preserve their strength, Yong Jiya ordered them to send troops to deal with the Manchus, otherwise they would be shown as enemies.
They were inevitably besieged by the Burmese army. Regardless of whether these chieftains were willing or not, they had to send troops to assist Burmese in attacking the Qing army. Of course, efforts are not without rewards.
After Yong Jiya allowed them to divide the land of those chieftains who dared to resist Burma, this also dissipated a lot of the resentment of those "grassroots". The Burmese army, which was originally hesitant about entering Yunnan, has gained a lot of strength with the support of these "weeds".
At this time, the Manchu and Qing Dynasty's Burmese army also rushed to Yunnan under a rapid march day and night.
Compared with the beginning of the year, the situation in Yunnan has become more serious now. As soon as the Burmese army arrived in Kunming, Yunnan, Fucha Fu Heng completely ignored his physical fatigue and directly discussed the war with Niu Hulu, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou who came to greet him.
"Sir Shanqin, based on your experience with the Burmese, what do you think of their strength?" After exchanging a few words with Niu Hulu and Shanqin, Fucha Fu Heng asked.
"Master Fu Heng, this battle is not easy to fight!" When Fu Cha Fu Heng asked, Niu Hulu Shanqin had no intention of hiding anything. After all, these things can only be solved by Fu Cha Fu Heng and the Burmese army. Once you get started, you will understand it naturally.
"The army left behind by Yong Ji Ya after he unified Burma is an elite soldier who has fought many battles and is very strong. And the thousands of elephants they brought over are even more powerful. Not to mention the huge size of the elephants, they can still come on the battlefield. They can go up and down hills as easily as walking on flat ground. Many soldiers have never seen such huge things, and they are afraid of them as soon as the war begins, and they don’t know how to start. Therefore, our army was defeated when facing Myanmar’s elephant soldiers. .”
"I have been lucky enough to see this elephant several times. It is indeed huge and scary. It is normal for the soldiers below to feel scared when they first see it. But as far as I know, elephants are afraid of fire. We can use fire to drive them away. It is not impossible to use artillery and artillery to kill and drive them away." Fucha Fu Heng said thoughtfully.
"Yes, killing with artillery is indeed a good way. I wonder how many cannons Mr. Fu Heng has brought this time? I have also considered using artillery to bomb them before, but because there are not many cannons, I can only use rockets to drive them away. But the effect is not great." Niu Hulu Shanqin asked.
"This time we brought thirteen red cannons, more than eighty medium-sized general cannons, and as for small tiger squatting cannons, etc., there are more than two hundred in total. The small cannons will basically be in place in three days, and as for the medium-sized cannons, The artillery should be delayed for about ten days, and the large artillery is expected to arrive with a delay of up to a month." Fucha Fu Heng said.
