Zheng Chenggong was very efficient in his work. In early July, the first batch of more than 500 war horses arrived outside Handawady from eastern India.
In addition to hundreds of cavalry equipped with mounts, Song Ji also brought a thousand horseless cavalry.
The purpose is to use the strategy of fighting to support war. After capturing the enemy on the battlefield, they can mount their horses and charge.
However, the Burmese army seemed to deliberately not leave war horses for the Ming army, and only a handful of healthy war horses were captured on the battlefield.
Either the leg was broken or shot. After two battles, the Ming army only had 300 cavalrymen who were equipped with donkey-like mounts.
The remaining cavalry will have to watch helplessly and then be used as makeshift infantry.
Now most of the cavalry have mounts, and the rest will soon get war horses.
At the latest within the year, more cavalry will arrive in Myanmar from the mainland.
Once the Ming army can form a three-in-one combat force of infantry, cavalry, and armor, it will demonstrate powerful assault capabilities in field battles.
The lack of cavalry means that there is only firepower and defense, but no speed advantage.
At present, the less than a thousand cavalry can only be regarded as resolving an urgent need, but cannot fundamentally change the battlefield situation.
According to Song Ji's estimation, in order to eliminate Mang Bai's main force, at least five thousand cavalry would need to be mobilized.
If you want to completely wipe out the remaining troops and prepare for possible sneak attacks, it is best for the Ming army to have more than 10,000 cavalry.
In other words, the expenditure on purchasing war horses alone may exceed 600,000 taels of silver.
Including the money for raising horses and making up for the shortfall, it easily doubled in the beginning.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter if Song Ji doesn’t pay for it himself…
It takes a short time to transport a horse from India, but it takes a relatively long time to buy a horse.
Because the seller would not attack Burma for Emperor Chongzhen, thousands of war horses were specially prepared for sale.
Zheng Chenggong estimated that it would take at least two months to reach the purchase quantity of 5,000 horses.
Wait another two months?
It can only be the!
Chongzhen wanted to take advantage of Master Wang's high morale to have Song Ji lead his troops to quickly go north to pursue Mang Bai's remnants.
It's a pity that compared to the reckless cavalry troops, Song Ji's troops can't move without horses, but it's not much different.
If someone can't beat them, they'll run away, but you can't catch up with your eyes.
The advantages gained by the Ming army on the battlefield could not be converted into victory, let alone trophies.
What Zheng Chenggong meant was to take advantage of the surge in river water during the rainy season in Myanmar to allow the fleet to sail into the Irrawaddy and Sidang rivers to completely regain the southern region.
In a few months, when Myanmar's dry season comes, the war horses purchased from India will be in place, and the cavalry can be used to launch a new round of attacks.
Chongzhen also agreed with this less rapid but practical method, and agreed after consulting the generals.
Zheng Chenggong led three marine brigades and his own fleet to attack the Irrawaddy River Basin, and Zhang Mingzhen led three brigades to attack the Sidang River Basin.
Song Ji left three brigades to garrison the captured city of Handawady, and he led four brigades to continue advancing upstream along the Bago River.
Don’t seek quick victory, but seek undefeated success.
This time, as long as they fight steadily and the generals of the Wang Division do not make stupid mistakes, it will be difficult for the Burmese army to take advantage of it.
After two battles, everyone knew that the local barbarians were no match for the king's division.
Be more vigilant at night. If you stick to the camp, the barbarians will have little chance of succeeding in a night attack.
Considering the size of Myanmar, Chongzhen also knew that there was little hope of regaining the land in a short period of time.
Now that they have captured Mangbai's capital and driven away Mangbai, Wang Shi has won two more victories without much loss. This can be considered a relatively successful initial stage.
The biggest problem at the moment is not Mangbai's fellow, but the local hot and humid climate that makes the soldiers of the King's Division who have come from afar extremely uncomfortable.
Although most of the troops are from the south and are already very heat-resistant, the climate in southern Myanmar is much hotter and humid than the summer in the Jiangnan area.
If you want to win the battle and be comfortable at the same time, you must be at the seaside or riverside.
Zheng Chenggong’s previous suggestions took this into consideration.
Even though Zheng Jun was mainly from Fujian, he could not withstand the local humidity, heat and mosquitoes.
Zheng Chenggong has sent people back to Xiamen quickly and tried every means to purchase 200 sets of refrigerators.
Every set of refrigerators includes a generator. Otherwise, the refrigerator alone would be just a decoration.
Ordinary soldiers are provided with one set for every hundred people, and the rest are provided for generals and officers at all levels.
In this way, soldiers can eat popsicles every day, which can have a cooling effect.
Otherwise, there will be three or four months of high temperature weather, and the soldiers will be completely ruined by heat stroke alone without having to fight.
Chongzhen also saw how terrible the summer in Myanmar was, and sent people back to the mainland to buy refrigerators.
It is no exaggeration to say that here in Myanmar, a hundred popsicles combined are worth more than a war horse!
As soon as the people sent back by Zheng Chenggong and Chongzhen left, people sent by a certain new emperor arrived at the back.
The visitor had no other purpose than to deliver a refrigerator and generator to Master Wang.
A certain new emperor prepared a hundred sets for his disciples and sent three hundred sets to the dumper.
If you think it's not enough, then spend money to purchase it.
These four hundred sets are all free, which can be regarded as the new emperor's affection for the soldiers of the Burmese King's Division.
As the master of the Ming Dynasty, how could he not even be able to eat popsicles when he was conquering Mang Bai, a young boy?
In fact, it didn't cost much. A set of refrigerators, generators, and a corresponding amount of diesel were only worth a thousand taels of silver.
Four hundred sets is only 400,000 taels, which is completely affordable for a certain new emperor. He can make back his money by selling a Zhiyuan.
Calculated by ex-factory price, excluding high profits, the cost of this gift is actually only a fraction of Zhiyuan's.
But the effect is obvious, everyone is thinking about the good things of a certain new emperor.
Because the refrigerators were all labeled with the words "Donated by Emperor Haojing Zhu Cihong of the Ming Dynasty", Emperor Chongzhen had mixed feelings when he saw them.
Asking someone to tear off the sticker makes you look stingy.
But just looking at it like this, it feels like an eyesore...
After thinking about it, Chongzhen could only let people directly distribute the goods without seeing it.
The refrigerators sent to Myanmar do not have a fresh-keeping function. The upper and lower doors have freezing functions.
If you want to eat fresh food, how about digging wild vegetables in the fields?
Absolutely fresh!
Maybe one of the animals has just been fertilized!
The refrigerator has two tasks, one is to make popsicles, and the other is to make cold drinks.
Each person should be able to eat two popsicles per day and still have room to make cold drinks.
All refrigerators are equipped with a gridded wooden box for making popsicles. Just pour the stirred liquid into it, then put the wooden sticks in and it's done.
Since beef is prone to spoilage at high temperatures, a certain new emperor only had a large amount of snowflakes and popsicle sticks delivered.
As long as the king's army on the expedition to Burma is not too useless, it is very easy to seize or buy some cattle and sheep.
After receiving the good news that a large number of refrigerators had arrived, the camp was filled with joy.
This is the greatest good news that can be achieved in the near future, and the rest is just waiting eagerly to eat popsicles.
For the soldiers who are about to die from the heat, this is more exciting than drinking mutton soup in winter...
The noise originally produced by the generator now sounds extremely pleasant.
Mangbai is definitely not so lucky. A certain new emperor previously banned the export to Myanmar of such high-tech products that can escape the heat and cool down.
The cooks who make the popsicles dare not waste any time. As long as they follow the instructions in the instructions, they can take out the formed popsicles just right, and then send the next batch in quickly to avoid a large amount of air-conditioning leakage.
No matter who you are coming from, you must line up obediently at this time, otherwise you will not be able to eat delicious popsicles as soon as possible.
Generals like Zheng Chenggong don't need to queue up, because they have a refrigerator, and the soldiers around them can enjoy it.
Since there are enough snow candies shipped, even if there is no Nao, the cooks will only make sweet water popsicles, which will be welcomed by the soldiers.
It costs nothing to eat popsicles in the dog days of summer. You can eat them every day, and you can even eat two popsicles a day. This is a huge benefit.
For the first time, Zheng Chenggong experienced the huge boosting effect of logistical support on the morale of King Division's soldiers. He originally thought that he had a profound experience in the Northern Expedition, but he did not expect to receive further lessons in Myanmar.
Regarding this expedition to Burma, Zheng Chenggong thought that most of his troops were from Fujian and were inherently heat-resistant, and he was disapproving of the local weather.
But when I got there, I discovered that the actual situation was completely different from what I had imagined.
If Master Zun hadn't sent someone to deliver the refrigerator in time, it would have been difficult for me to survive such a long summer.
I said I was taught because my respected teacher was thousands of miles away and could predict the situation in the war zone.
It is not an exaggeration to say that they are contemporary Zhang Liang and Zhuge Liang. It can be said that they are even worse than them.
A large number of medicines were also sent on the same ship, especially medicines to prevent mosquito bites and to wipe down after being infected.
Not to mention canned food, instant noodles, and compressed biscuits, for the soldiers of the King's Division, this was like rain after a long drought in a foreign land!
I don’t know if there will be another batch, but this time Emperor Haojing did a very good job, and it can be described as the materials are as good as the gods.
Although he was taking advantage of his son, as a father, Chongzhen was a little embarrassed in terms of face.
He asked people to send all the trophies that had been captured and could not be used temporarily to Beidu to pay for the goods.
If the subsidy is more than the subsidy, and if it cannot be fully repaid, the difference will be considered as a filial son's love...
After experiencing so many changes over the years, Chongzhen no longer had any possessive desire for Mang Bai's collection.
After seeing it, I asked someone to send a large packing box to the ship. It would be great if it can be used to pay for the goods.
The fifth prince, Zhu Cihuan, not only did not stop him, but praised his father for his incomparable wisdom.
He was a little curious about those things, but that was all.
Especially when I think about not giving any excuses or excuses to my brother who is good at fighting, otherwise it will not be a matter of compensating for some gold, silver and jewelry...
It is best to smooth out the relationship between brothers immediately, so that no mutual debt is owed, and Zhu Cihuan can feel a little more at ease, otherwise Myanmar may not be his fiefdom after many years.
Previously, the queen mother had planned to let her sit in Nandu in the future, but she relaxed a little, and Zhu Cihuan asked her mother to completely give up this unrealistic idea.
The man in the north is not Cao Cao or Fu Jian. He can't even defeat Huang Taiji and Dorgon combined, let alone already has an armored fleet.
There is also the assistance of the Zheng family in the south. If that person is really stimulated, he will send troops southward at that time. Don't expect his millions of troops to be defeated by the Huaihe River or even the Yangtze River.
Zhu Cihuan was extremely satisfied to get this huge fiefdom in Myanmar.
If that doesn't work, it's acceptable to find a place in the "Northland" as a base.
Zhu Cihuan also saw from newspapers and private messages to his father that many vassal kings were doing well overseas.
Since you can live happily overseas, why are you still worried at home?
A province in the country is not as good as a city overseas. The important thing is that you don't have to be controlled by others and you can make your own decisions.
Every vassal king has soldiers and horses, there is no limit to the number, as long as he can afford it, the court never cares.
Zhu Cihuan felt that as long as his father could conquer Burma for him, and with his own talents and hard work for twenty years, he could have at least 100,000 troops and achieve the goal of having sufficient troops and food.
Together with the brothers from the other three fiefdoms who are likely to be nearby, as long as the brother is appeased, there should be no problem for the brothers to protect themselves.
As for the local hot and humid climate, I can only adapt to it slowly. It's a pity that other brothers didn't come to experience it, so it's better to prepare early.
After landing, Zhu Cihuan ate a lot of ice cream with his father, but he was young and in good health, so he didn't sneeze constantly like his father, and eventually caught a cold.
While his father was recovering from illness, Zhu Cihuan did not dare to eat ice cream in front of his father, lest he irritate him.
But there is also a way to cool down, which is to put ice cubes in a leather bag and then put it in your arms.
Only in this way can we stay awake for a long time during the day, otherwise we will basically be dizzy from the heat at noon and afternoon.
Fortunately, there is a refrigerator, which allows me to eat iced mango, watermelon, and coconut juice. Otherwise, I would not dare to eat barbecue, otherwise it would add fuel to the fire.
In Myanmar, the sight of cooked food, especially the rising heat, can turn people off.
The most popular cooking method is grilling, followed by frying. Steaming or boiling basically doesn’t matter.
The cold dishes that are popular in the north are highly respected here. Vegetables only need to be washed with cold boiled water diluted with disinfectant and rinsed again to be considered clean.
It was common for people to eat shirtless in the military camp. Considering the royal dignity, Zhu Cihuan and his father only wore elbow-length short sleeves and knee-length shorts at most.
This also takes care of the feelings of the civil servants and military generals. Otherwise, the ministers would have to accompany the father and son to wear full suits, and then heat stroke would not be far away.
Just once or twice, every day, almost no one can bear it.
In addition, the filth in each camp must be managed scientifically to avoid the occurrence of diseases, which will cause the king's division to quickly lose its combat effectiveness.
All the rules are copied from those during the Northern Expedition of the Northern Army and must be implemented in place. Any violation will be severely punished.
Chongzhen will not let his generals kill those who violate the rules. As long as he is caught doing it, he will be ready to clean up the filth of his comrades for three months...
There was no need to charge into battle, but it was much more disgusting than fighting the native barbarians, so most people followed the rules honestly.
The few who are caught can only admit that they are unlucky. After they are discharged from the army, they can find a job at the Feces Valve!
