The New Year's Eve of the thirty-fourth year of Chongzhen (1661) was January 29th. Just after the Lantern Festival, the troops of the Southern Court expedition to Burma, led by their commander-in-chief Emperor Chongzhen, first offered sacrifices to heaven and swore an oath to their masters. So we started from Nandu and went down the river.
Song Ji, the army commander on the South Route, led an army of 50,000 men, and Zhang Mingzhen, the navy commander, led 66 warships and 666 merchant ships of various types to transport troops, horses and baggage.
Zheng Chenggong sent 500 ocean-going merchant ships north to Chongming to help transport the Burmese army. Zheng's marines, about 15,000, could wait in Xiamen to join the main force heading south.
Zhenhai Gong Zheng Zhilong also allocated twenty ironclad ships to Zheng Chenggong to blockade the coast of Myanmar and prepare to sink any enemy ships that might threaten the Wang Division's merchant ships.
The fifth prince Zhu Cihuan, who is twenty-eight this year, is accompanying him. After the king's army from the north and the south conquers Burma, he can directly take over his fiefdom...
This can be regarded as the largest fiefdom area obtained among many vassal kings, far exceeding that of Prince Fu who received Wanli's favor.
Chongzhen could not guarantee that after a hundred years, the Southern Court would still be controlled by the fifth prince, and that a certain filial son would not order a million-strong army from the north to cross the river.
Just in case, he should try his best to pave the way for his son while he still has the strength to avoid turning against each other between brothers.
If we can capture Annan and other places in the future, we can find a place for the fourth prince Zhu Cizhao and the sixth prince Zhu Ciccan to stay.
In his heart, Chongzhen did not admit that the rebellious son was extremely talented, civilized and martial arts, but in this world, he could only speak with his strength.
Even if you are a crosstalk talker, no one will listen to you unless you have certain abilities...
Now the situation is becoming more and more clear. All the sons born to Concubine Tian are no match for a certain traitor.
It is impossible to separatize Jiangnan. The only solution is to gradually entrust it overseas.
Because if it was entrusted to the mainland, even if a traitor son would not send troops to his younger brother, he would find a reason to move him overseas.
Rather than that, it would be more convenient to do it in one step like this.
After Tian Guifei arrived in Nandu, she gave birth to a boy to Chongzhen, named Zhu Ciju.
Now that he is almost 20, he will live in an overseas fiefdom like his brothers.
As their biological father, Chongzhen was determined to win the war in Burma.
If it were not for the limited transportation capacity, Chongzhen would have wanted to directly send 100,000 troops...
Fortunately, he was dissuaded by the chief minister, Qu Shishu, and the Minister of War, Yuan Jixian. Zheng Zhilong also reported that thousands of miles of sea transportation would be difficult to sustain an army of 100,000 for year-round campaigns.
Although attacking Liaodong is also a crusade and requires sea transportation, it is very close to the mainland, especially Jifu and Shandong, and a round trip of ten days is enough.
To land from the southern coastal areas of Myanmar, the one-way shipping time alone takes about a month, and this is if the weather is good, otherwise it will take at least forty days.
Maintaining an army of 50,000 to fight in Myanmar for a long time is basically the current limit. If you don't want to do this, you must defeat Mangbai's army as soon as possible.
But is this possible?
In terms of area, Myanmar is equivalent to half of the eight corners under the jurisdiction of Nanting.
Topographically, Myanmar is mountainous in the north and densely forested in the east.
In terms of climate, it is hot and humid all year round, making it extremely susceptible to mosquito bites.
However, the only good thing is that although the capital of the Toungoo Dynasty was not in Yangon, it was in Hanthawady, which was dozens of kilometers northeast of the place, and was later known as Bago.
Although Handawady is not coastal, it is extremely close to the coastline. The direct distance is only fifty miles at most. It is very convenient for the Ming Dynasty King's army to attack the city after landing.
On March 23 of the Western calendar, nearly 70,000 troops and thousands of ships led by Chongzhen arrived at the bay east of Handawady, and then began large-scale landings.
The three Marine brigades led by Zheng Chenggong took the lead. Wan Li, Gan Hui, and Liu Guoxuan were the commanders of these three Marine brigades, but the forwards encountered no decent resistance at all.
Huang Ting followed with men to receive the prisoners, and then gave them to Zheng Shengying who was waiting on the shore, and he shipped them to New Guinea...
But the smooth sailing day lasted less than half a day. On the next morning, Mangbai, the controller of the Toungoo Dynasty, came with no less than 30,000 troops and hundreds of war elephants.
The two sides did not start fighting directly, but politely stated their intentions.
Mangbai's envoy explained that the country's rash invasion of troops was actually an act of invasion of Burma, and that the troops must be withdrawn immediately, otherwise the Burmese king and hundreds of thousands of troops would fight him to the end in a bloody battle.
Chongzhen's reasons had long been thought out. Ni Yuanlu, the Minister of Rites, established the Dagula Xuanwei Department in this place based on the Yongle Emperor's period, indicating that the Ming Dynasty would now take over the entire area and take over other previously established Xuanwei Department sites.
Any person or animal operating within the jurisdiction of the Dagula Xuanwei Division is owned by the Ming Dynasty. Anyone who disobeys the management of the Ming Dynasty and intends to confront the Ming Dynasty will be regarded as a rebel!
Mangbai's envoy said that time had changed and Myanmar had long been owned by successive Burmese kings. The Ming Dynasty had previously recognized it, and denying it at this time would be an act of betrayal.
Ni Yuanlu retorted that the Ming Dynasty had tolerated and indulged the local chieftains before, which led to the endless occurrence of similar incidents, and now must be severely punished to serve as a warning to others!
Mang Bai was naturally dissatisfied with Chongzhen in his heart, and he also heard that Chongzhen was driven to the south of the Ming Dynasty by his own son.
In just twenty years, they actually raised troops to invade, trying to occupy their own territory for ridiculous reasons.
It was impossible for Mang Bai to accept this, let alone the result of being demoted to chieftain by the Ming Emperor!
Because he saw that Chongzhen did not bring many men and horses this time, but he had hundreds of huge war elephants to help him.
Upon seeing this, Mang Bai became warlike. In order to avoid long nights and many dreams, it was best to defeat the Ming army before the enemy invaded the hinterland of his country.
After the contact between the two parties was fruitless, Mangbai chose to take the initiative to attack at one or two o'clock in the afternoon, the hottest time of the day.
His army had long been accustomed to this kind of climate, but the Ming army was not. Mang Bai planned to give Chongzhen a show of strength first.
More than 300 war elephants opened the way, 30,000 infantry and artillery followed slowly, and 3,000 cavalry on each wing were responsible for outflanking.
Mang Bai believed that his tactic was very reasonable, and he had every chance of defeating the arrogant Ming army in one fell swoop.
Under the order of Song Ji, the Ming army used steam tanks as temporary firepower points and deployed three infantry brigades on the front line.
There are two on each side of the left and right wings, and the rest are waiting on the shore, because the battlefield on our side is not wide enough to deploy more than 60,000 men.
After landing, Zheng Chenggong's troops changed from the first line to the second line, because Emperor Chongzhen wanted his direct troops to achieve the first great victory in the conquest of Burma.
Zheng Chenggong didn't complain about this, because a certain new emperor had already warned about this in a letter.
The main focus of this campaign in Myanmar is to observe the tactics of the Myanmar army, become familiar with the landing process, and help the soldiers adapt to the local climate.
If the Nanting soldiers and horses really cannot defeat the Burmese army, or if they underestimate the enemy and are defeated, it will be enough for Zheng Chenggong to lead his troops to rush for reinforcements.
To put it bluntly, Zheng Chenggong served as Song Ji's assistant, and Zheng Jun assisted the Nanting soldiers and horses.
There is no need to be overly involved in this kind of laborious and unprofitable thing. The focus is on attacking the Spanish mainland in a few years.
Zheng Jun first mastered his business process, then continued to accumulate combat effectiveness, and then went to Europe to make big money...
Seeing that his war elephant troops were attacking very smoothly, Mang Bai thought that the Ming army was nothing more than that, so he almost started cheering from behind.
Unexpectedly, after the firepower of the Ming army on the opposite side started, the momentum of the war elephant troops was completely destroyed by the artillery fire.
The Burmese army was also equipped with a lot of artillery, but in order not to do any harm to the war elephant troops, they did not open fire first.
Mang Bai thought that the Ming army might have a lot of firearms, but he didn't expect that the opponent's firepower was so fierce, almost ten times that of his own.
This was just Mangbai's estimate. The actual situation was much worse. The war elephants had been frightened crazy, their formation immediately collapsed, and they turned around and fled in a panic.
Many Burmese infantrymen were trampled to death by their own defeated war elephants. The infantry formation immediately turned into a mess, and the scene was more lively than the market.
On the other hand, the cavalry on both wings were still executing Mang Bai's orders, but under the layers of obstructions from the Ming army's various muskets and artillery, the process of the commando became extremely difficult.
Especially when faced with the combination of small Folan machine and revolver rifle, there was basically no chance of winning. The Burmese cavalry were knocked to the ground row after row.
Mangbai's cavalry were not heavy cavalry, but light cavalry with low protective capabilities, and their horses were not very fast.
Compared with the hybrid war horses of a certain new emperor, what the Ming army saw outside Handawady was simply a group of donkey cavalry...
The ten infantry brigades brought out by Chongzhen this time were all organized and trained according to the Northern Army model, except that all the previous generals and some officers and non-commissioned officers came from the Yongwei Battalion.
Although their actual combat experience is far inferior to that of the Northern Army's troops in the Northern Expedition all year round, they are strictly disciplined and follow orders and prohibitions, and they were not frightened to collapse when faced with the charge of the Burmese army's elite cavalry.
The infantry was firing in an orderly manner, and the Xiaofo Lang machine gun truck was also firing continuously in front of the infantry formation, which caused great trouble to the Burmese cavalry.
Nearly half of the 6,000 cavalrymen who charged were killed and wounded, and the rest had no choice but to turn around and run away. If they charge again, nothing will be left...
Although the Burmese army is equipped with artillery and muskets, in the final analysis, it still relies mainly on cold weapons and supplemented by hot weapons. Facing the Ming army that is fully equipped with firearms, it has no advantage at all.
Those seemingly terrifying war elephants were completely no match for the steam tanks that faced them.
More than 300 war elephants participating in the battle were killed and nearly 100 were injured, but the Ming army's steam tanks did not lose a single one.
Because they were trampled by war elephants and were thrown into disarray, the charge of the Burmese infantry was gone and they were forced to retreat.
Mangbai was so angry that he had no choice but to order his troops to withdraw to Handawady and then send his trusted aides to contact troops from various places to come to Qinwang.
Although they lost for a while, Mang Bai believed that the Ming army was not arrogant. If it weren't for the war elephant, his troops would be enough to drive it into the sea.
Therefore, it is undoubtedly very absurd to abandon the capital. He has not been frightened by Chongzhen.
When King Qin's troops arrive one after another, they can cooperate internally and externally to annihilate the Ming army under the capital.
Is this a win?
Chongzhen was very happy and ordered to reward the entire army...seafood!
That is to say, let the sailors start fishing aggressively, otherwise Master Wang will have to eat dried meat.
The Burmese army does not have many decent warships at all, and the largest so-called merchant ships are about the same size as bird ships.
Zhang Mingzhen's fleet could not find the enemy in a short period of time, so it could only take over the "heavy task" of fishing for seafood first.
Chongzhen originally planned to take advantage of the victory and besiege the city, but was dissuaded by Song Ji. This was obviously not a wise approach.
The Wang Division won the first battle, but the Burmese army was not severely damaged. As soon as the news of this battle came out, Mang Bai would definitely ask reinforcements from all over the country to come as soon as possible.
If the king's army besieges the city, it will be attacked from both sides. It is better to stick to the seaside and wait for Mangbai's reinforcements to arrive and then capture them all.
Although Chongzhen still wanted to stick to his suggestion, seeing that the military officials and generals accompanying him were silent, he knew that most of them were leaning towards Song Ji's approach.
A wise king must follow the good and follow the trend, and Chongzhen can only follow the advice of Song Ji. After all, he is really not familiar with military affairs. If he repeats the same mistakes, it will be difficult to find excuses...
Compared with the Donglu outside the pass, the local Burmese army should be easier to fight. If they can win repeated battles, their morale can be further improved.
Thinking of this, especially the elimination of Mang Bai's main force and reinforcements, Chongzhen felt better.
Being close to the seaside, you can get the sea breeze, which can greatly alleviate the sticky feeling caused by the local hot and humid weather.
Song Ji's suggestion was not only praised by the soldiers, but also by the ministers, and it also made it easier to obtain supplies.
It doesn't matter if there is a shortage of water. It rains frequently in the area, and ships can be sent to distant rivers to transport water. As long as there is no shortage of drinking water, other water needs can be easily solved.
Emperor Chongzhen was so happy that he ate ice cream because he was well prepared for his expedition to Burma and had brought a refrigerator and a full set of power generation equipment.
In his spare time, Chongzhen also asked Zheng Chenggong with great interest about many trivial matters during the Northern Expedition of a certain filial son, including meals.
Zheng Chenggong reported truthfully that a certain filial son ate all three meals with the generals every day, even if there was no heavy rain.
Meals are no more than two meats and two vegetables, or simply eat wild vegetables, grilled fish, wild boars, birds, or instant noodles, compressed biscuits, and never make small meals.
Chongzhen was very puzzled by this. If he was poisoned because of this, wouldn't he be asking for trouble and leaving the entire army without a commander to command the battle?
Zheng Chenggong said that a certain filial son always loved soldiers as his own son, and the wild vegetables, fish, beasts, poultry, etc. that the waiters obtained were all obtained from his direct line troops.
If something happens again, the imperial chef cannot be trusted, otherwise there has never been any food poisoning in several Northern Expeditions, which shows that this is indeed appropriate.
To say the least, if you want to eat fresh vegetables during a long-term war, you must collect wild vegetables. However, wild fruits and wild mushrooms may be poisonous and should not be eaten easily if they are not carefully distinguished.
After hearing this, Chongzhen thought about it briefly and felt that it made sense. If he stayed in Myanmar for a year and a half, he wouldn't eat pastries or noodles every day, right?
Canned food can ensure the safety of meals, but you will get tired of it within three days.
Then I can only eat wild vegetables. I hope my subordinates can leave some for themselves...
The advantage of camping near the sea is that it is easy to get seafood. You don’t have to worry about canned food until you get tired of eating seafood.
While eating various conchs, clams, crabs and other delicacies just cooked by the imperial chef with the civil servants and generals, Chongzhen suddenly felt that war can also be a joyful experience.
