Needless to say, the Burmese troops going south this time are all soldiers accumulated from hundreds of battles over the years. The hegemony of the Toungoo Dynasty is now almost entirely maintained on this army, and Huang Zhiting is also aware of this.
The Burmese army claims to have 150,000 soldiers. It is not known how much water Huang Zhiting contains among them, but it is certainly not this number. It's a pity that the five thousand troops previously arranged at Biaoguan were too limited. In addition, Annan didn't have many cavalry. He didn't dare to send the limited cavalry to investigate closely. He could only take a look from a distance and report back. The news is that it "stretches for more than ten miles, with flags like a forest sea."
In line with the attitude of being lenient to the enemy, Huang Zhiting could only assume that the opponent's strength was more than 100,000.
Huang Zhiting currently has about 20,000 land troops. When she conquered southern Myanmar, the Mon people cheered and burst into various uprisings against the Toungoo dynasty when they saw "Celestial Rebellion", so her losses were quite limited. . For example, in Pathein City in the far southwest, it was simply the Mon people who drove away the defenders of the Toungoo Dynasty and then declared their surrender.
But even so, 20,000 vs. 100,000, with both sides fighting mainly infantry, this war is too difficult. Unless the 30,000 "Bago Guards" are included, it is still barely possible. There is some chance of winning.
Huang Zhiting's style of commanding operations is different from Gao's pragmatism. Gao Pragmatic's habit is to determine strategic goals alone, and then assign tasks to his subordinates based on the goals. At the same time, he can judge the opponent's mentality in advance and tell his subordinates how to respond. However, he has always been indifferent to specific combat commands. How to fight is up to you, the frontline generals, to decide for yourself. I'm just waiting to see how well you complete your mission.
Huang Zhiting did not do so, or in other words, she could not do so. Although she is the deputy commander of Annan, she only has eight thousand wolf soldiers who are her direct descendants.
The 7,000 people Gao pragmatically transferred from the Jinggang Garrison can be regarded as her strong backing, but after all, she has not really married into the Gao family yet. Although the Jinggang Garrison will obey her dispatch, she cannot directly ignore them, like Gao Give orders directly in a pragmatic manner, without even discussing.
As for the 5,000 people Gao Pangshi transferred from Ruan Juan's Department - the same troops who had just withdrawn from Piao Pass - this is even more of a peripheral force, and Huang Zhiting cannot ignore their right to know, lest it cause turmoil in the military's morale. .
There are also some doubts about the combat effectiveness of this army. Although it is true that Ruan Juan is a famous Annan general, that does not mean that the soldiers under his command are also strong. At least in the eyes of Huang Zhiting, the commander of the wolf soldiers, the troops provided by Ruan Juan are likely to be about the same strength as the Burmese army.
So Huang Zhiting held a military affairs meeting. In addition to herself, the following people were also present:
Gao Jing, Commander of the Beijing Expeditionary Fleet, Gao Sijin, Commander of the Second Division of the Jinggang Garrison (the Garrison adopts a unique organization in Annam), Huang Bao, Commander of Haidong Right Guard and Halong Bay Guard, Nguyen Song, Commander of Ngai An Vanguard and Guard of Yanzhou, Gao Silian, first-class military staff officer of the Consulate General's Office in the Three Towns of Guangnan and Hua Ying's colonial envoy.
The official positions of the first few people are relatively straightforward, and their identities do not need to be explained in particular. Only the position of the last one, Gao Silian, needs to be explained.
The three towns under the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Guangnan are Nie An, Hue, and Quang Nam. Among them, the garrison task of Nie An in the north is not the responsibility of the Jinggang garrison, but is "seconded to garrison" from the Dutong Department. The Ministry of Health is responsible for the affairs, and of course government affairs are under the jurisdiction of the Consulate General.
The remaining two towns of Hue and Quang Nam are the garrison areas of the Jingang Garrison. However, the Jingang Garrison not only guards these two towns, it also undertakes another task, which is to develop southward.
The so-called "exploitation" is of course put it in a nice way. In fact, in accordance with Gao's pragmatic orders, the Consulate General set up a special position called "colonization envoy", which was filled by people in the garrison who were "suitable for both military and political affairs."
The mission of this colonization envoy was to lead a small number of garrison troops and locally trained "colonization regiments" to develop new territories in Huaying and Nanpan in the south. Huaying and Nanpan both have local independent political powers, but the system is extremely old. In familiar words, it is similar to the "tribal alliance elders' political system."
This makes it very clear that the so-called colonization is actually conquest by force, economic bribery, and political taming. The "colonization group" was actually a semi-civilian militarized group composed of various Ming people such as Han Chinese, Tong people, and Hakkas who immigrated. It was equivalent to a private colonial team in Europe to some extent, but it had an official background.
Gao Silian, the Chinese and British colonial envoy, did an extremely good job. In less than two years, he gathered and trained a colonization regiment of nearly 4,000 people with only a guard army of 300 people as the core. Through various means of defeating and other means, they successfully defeated the local tribal alliance in Huaying (this statement is not accurate, it is easy to understand). In fact, Huaying has been obtained. After the situation is stabilized, they are waiting for high-level approval to establish a new town. The three towns in Guangnan have been turned into four towns.
However, Gao Jingshi has not agreed yet, because Gao Jingshi plans to wait until Nanpan is also captured, and then continue to expand the city to the south, and create three new towns for the last time.
But in any case, Gao Silian is very good at how to carry out work in a new environment, so he was recommended by the Consulate General to come to Myanmar. The position at that time was relatively simple, just as his "first-class military staff officer" , but he got new reuse not long ago.
In view of his rich experience in organizing "semi-military groups" and his ability to communicate with various local natives, Huang Zhiting temporarily appointed him as the acting commander of the Bago Guard Army to command the 30,000 new Mon troops.
Gao Silian did have some tricks. He relied on the fact that he and Gao Sijin, the commander of the Second Division of the Jinggang Guard Army, were both refugees recruited by Gao Pingshi at Wei Hui's rescue. He just "seconded" nearly a hundred low-level and young people from Gao Sijin. Han officers were used to enrich the command system of the Bago Garrison and quickly gained better control over this unit.
Huang Zhiting's main topic at this meeting, first of all, is to determine the strategic purpose of this battle.
To put it more directly, it is necessary to choose the most reliable among several ideas such as "hold on to Bago", "defeat the Burmese army", "consumption of the Burmese army", etc.
Among them, "defeating the Burmese Army" is best understood, that is, directly fighting a battle, defeating the Burmese Army in the battle, and bluntly defeating its intention to quickly regain Bago.
"Standing on Bago" and "consuming the Burmese army" have certain similarities, but they are not completely equivalent.
If you choose to stick to Bago, then as long as the Burmese army launches siege warfare, it will definitely consume the Burmese army. There is no doubt about this.
But there is a problem, that is, the strategy discussed by Huang Zhiting and Gao Jingshi at the earliest time was not to stick to a certain place, because Gao Jingshi did not think that Bago City or even the entire Bago Dynasty old place must be defended at that time.
On the contrary, in Gao Pragmatic's view, the entire territory of Myanmar can be abandoned for the time being. He only needs to weaken the ruling power of the Toungoo dynasty as much as possible - including military strength, financial resources and even the prestige of the people.
The Toungoo Dynasty itself was a dynasty that relied on force to unify. The ethnic conflicts in its country were extremely fierce. At this time, the Bamar people had not yet become the dominant ethnic group with absolute advantage. Therefore, as long as the Burmese army is weakened as much as possible and the Burmese army is broken, The myth of invincibility, even if he temporarily withdraws, his domestic conflicts will inevitably intensify.
In this way, after he has been in chaos for a few years and his ruling power has been completely lost due to internal friction, Gao Pragmatic can come back at any time and easily subdue these exhausted local snakes like a dragon crossing the river. , taking over the whole of Burma in one fell swoop.
It can be said that although Gao Pragmatic's plan takes a long time, at least three to five years, it is the most stable plan with the least loss, which is in line with his consistent style.
This plan is sure to succeed, because as a time-traveler, Gao Pragmatic knows very well that in history, Mang Yingli did not fall for this trick. In his own capital city. Now with his high pragmatic involvement, the speed of this decline can be doubled.
However, Huang Zhiting seemed to have new ideas now, because she found that the situation she was facing now was different from the situation she had discussed before.
The biggest difference is that even Gao Pangshi did not expect that the Mon people hated the Toungoo dynasty so strongly. He did not expect that the Annan army easily occupied the entire old territory of the Bago dynasty almost without a fight, let alone The Mon people's enthusiasm for joining the army was so high that in more than a month, they were able to integrate a usable army of 30,000 people. This was even smoother than setting up a garrison in Annan - at least Annan did it after the overall situation was decided. The garrison was just established. Previously, only surrendered troops were available, and the awareness of civilians to join the army was not strong.
So now Huang Zhiting feels that the people's morale can be used, and the military's morale can also be used. In this case, giving up Pegu easily may lead to the loss of all previous efforts.
However, she and Gao Pragmatic were thousands of miles apart at this time, and it was really impossible to obtain new instructions for a while. Everything could only be judged and decided by herself. And for the reasons mentioned before, her decision still needed to obtain the golden port. Only with the support of the garrison and Ruan Juan's department, this meeting took place.
After listening to Deputy Dutong Huang's introduction, everyone at the meeting understood the current situation and fell into thinking. No one made any immediate statement.
Everyone can hear that Deputy Dutong Huang himself is inclined to defeat the Burmese army and establish a victory for the entire southern Burma.
But they also know the importance of this decision - what if they lose?
The opponent has a hundred thousand elites who have fought in hundreds of battles. Our own side only has a main force of 20,000, which can be considered a guarantee. Although the remaining 30,000 new Mon troops have good morale, they were formed too late and are far from well-trained. white. Everyone feels that if they are pulled out now, as long as the team can stand out, it will be thanks to Gao Jiajun's traditional bonus.
After thinking about it, everyone unconsciously turned their attention to Gao Silian.
Gao Silian also felt everyone's suspicion. He was actually not angry because he was familiar with this kind of look when he was in Annan before. However, he did not immediately jump out and pat his chest to brag. Instead, he said to Huang Zhiting in a neither humble nor condescending manner: " Dare I ask the capital commander, if you want to defeat the Burmese army, do you have to fight head-on? I mean, do you have to pull 50,000 people out of the city and fight the Burmese army on the plain north of Bago City?"
Huang Zhiting heard something in his words and asked: "You mean, there is no such need?"
Gao Silian said decisively: "That's right, I think there is no need to fight like this."
Huang Zhiting rarely showed a smile in front of her subordinates and said: "I would like to hear some high-level opinions."
Gao Silian suddenly said something that shocked the whole audience: "My humble suggestion is that you can take the main force of our army out of the city and go all the way east to Xidang, which is the mouth of the Xidang River, and leave the defense of Bago City to our troops. Bago Garrison.”
Before Huang Zhiting could speak, Gao Sijin's eyes widened and he said, "A-Lian, are you crazy? Are you trying to persuade us to find the fleet and escape?"
Northerners generally do not use the term "A Lian". This habit was learned by Gao Si after he came to the south. This habit is shared in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.
Ruan Song, another general in charge of the army, also shook his head and said in increasingly proficient Chinese: "How can this be possible? We haven't fought a decent battle since we came to Myanmar, so we just fled back in despair. , there’s no place to put your face.”
Gao Jing originally wanted to say, "As long as everyone retreats to the mouth of the Xidang River, even if the Burmese army comes in at 100,000, it won't be enough for me to fight." This is not bragging. The expedition fleet has a total of more than 3,500 artillery pieces. It can only fire sideways, and theoretically it can form a salvo of at least a thousand ship-borne cannons.
In this case, if the Burmese army uses flesh and blood to block solid artillery, it will really give away as much as they can. How many people can be killed in the end only depends on two points: how many deaths the Burmese army is willing to die, and how many rounds the Gao Jing fleet's artillery can fire.
However, it was obviously too inappropriate to say this at this time. Besides, since there were Portuguese people in the Burmese army, they would not be stupid enough to use the army to test the power of naval guns, so Gao Jing thought about it and finally kept silent.
Huang Zhiting finally spoke and said: "You mean to let the Pontifical Commander lead his elite troops to make a false impression of evacuating, to lure the Burmese army to siege the city, and then the Pontifical Commander will find an opportunity to sneak attack the Burmese army?"
Gao Silian said happily: "This is one of the considerations." He paused slightly and explained: "There are actually at least two possibilities here. After the Burmese army discovered that they had led the main force to withdraw eastward, although there was a possibility of directly coming to siege the city The biggest, but it cannot be ruled out that Mangyingli's appetite is too big, so he might as well follow Dutong's main force to the mouth of Xidang River and try to completely eliminate Dutong's troops.
The reason why this possibility exists, I think there are two points that need to be paid attention to: First, Mang Yingli is very happy with his achievements. In order to save the face of the defeat on the northern front, he may hope to wipe out all our troops on the southern front; Second, if the main force of the capital can be eliminated first, Bago City will completely lose the courage to continue to resist, just like when Wang Shichong saw the defeat of Dou Jiande's reinforcements in the late Sui Dynasty, and it is very likely that the entire city will surrender.
Dutong, Bago is one of the richest cities in Myanmar. In Mang Yingli's heart, he definitely does not want to destroy Bago, and the best choice is to win Bago's surrender. "
"That makes sense." Huang Zhiting nodded and asked, "What if Mang Yingli doesn't pursue him and still comes to surround Bago?"
Gao Silian said: "This means that the Burmese army has suffered great losses, and even the Burmese court may have become somewhat unsustainable. The wealthy old land of Bago must be taken back as soon as possible. Because if Bago City is captured, if the other cities in Bago cannot get their capital, If we need strong support from the President, it might just be a matter of propaganda."
"This Pontus Commander knows that Pontus Commander wants to ask you, how long can you hold on under the siege of the main force of the Burmese army? Also, how do you hope that the main force outside will cooperate with you."
"If the commander-in-chief can leave one or two thousand muskets and enough ammunition to the humble post, the humble post can be defended until the food is exhausted." Gao Silian ignored everyone's suspicious expressions and said solemnly: "In addition, it is not our department that needs the main force to cooperate. , but our department hopes to know how the main force will launch an attack, and how our department will cooperate after the main force launches."
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