Dominate the Country

For the more than 1,000 Burmese troops of Thein Min who were finally surrounded and annihilated in Gusai Town, their demise can only be said to be self-inflicted. The Siamese army in the north had been overwhelmed. Instead of quickly turning westward into the hilly area, they relied on several small hills on the north bank of the Laosuo River to resist stubbornly, intending to open a way to escape to the south while resisting the Siamese army in the north. Thein Min had only more than 1,000 Burmese people under his command, not more than 10,000 Burmese troops. They wasted the best opportunity and could only accept the most cruel punishment. All of them were wiped out without a single one left! It was their own slow action that led to the annihilation of the entire army. It is self-inflicted. Who can be blamed?

However, the Burmese army should not be underestimated. The unit led by Thein Min was just one of them. There were dozens of teams like this. Although most of them had few troops, and some were even composed of defeated soldiers and scattered braves, their existence caused considerable trouble to the Siamese. Since the Siamese army conquered Yangon and Pegu, the Siamese army has been sweeping the eastern part of the Irrawaddy Delta. The Burmese army, which was defeated on the front battlefield, gave up a large area of ​​land to delay and disperse the Siamese army's spirit and strength.

Then they relied on small forces to sneak attack and harass the Siamese army, sluggish the actions of the Siamese army, and bought more time for themselves.

In northern Myanmar, where the Burmese live, the Konbaung Dynasty has launched the most intense conscription activities in history. A large number of Myo Duki were recruited into the army by the Konbaung Dynasty as middle and low-level officers. It can be said that at the critical moment of national crisis, the Konbaung Dynasty made a decree that the local hereditary nobles, who had always been vigilant, expanded their military strength without limit.

It can be said that the whole situation feels a bit like a replica of the Chinese battlefield during the Anti-Japanese War. But this is really effective. Myanmar's dense forests and rugged terrain have created great convenience for this tactic.

Myanmar has an area as large as three and a half Central Plains provinces, at least comparable to two Koreas, and a coastline of more than 6,000 miles. But the terrain is high in the north and low in the south. The north, west and east are surrounded by mountains. The north is a high mountainous area, the west has the Naga Hills and the Rakhine Mountains, and the east is the Shan Plateau. The Kaikabo Peak near the Chinese border is 5,881 meters above sea level, the highest peak in the country. Only between the western mountains and the eastern plateau is the Irrawaddy River alluvial plain, which is a bit flat, but also has a series of hills and low ridges.

Meng Mang is now stationed in Pathein, and countless news is delivered to it every day. After eliminating some exaggerated and untrue news, Meng Mang is more and more aware of the strength of the Siamese army. But the Siamese are still completely vague about the power in Meng Mang's hands at the moment.

The Siamese army has long known about this phenomenon, but there is no way to deal with it. You can't let everyone close their eyes when the army is on the road? Fortunately, these people who tipped off are local civilians. Not only is the specific number of troops estimated inaccurate, but they will also exaggerate the troops they see to show their hard work. Therefore, a lot of false intelligence and news were passed to Meng Mang, which confused Meng Mang to a certain extent.

"Commander. Songkham is here." The chief of staff of the regiment, Seni Bamo, saluted and reported to the regiment commander, Priy Panongrong.

"Songkham is here." Priy Panongrong felt a little strange. How could it be him? Where is Apaiwang? Could it be that something happened to Apaiwang's camp? It's better not to be like that.

Pai Rong knew that he had made a big mistake. He was delayed for a whole day. If Apaiwang's camp failed to resist the attack of the Burmese army in Gus Town and was escaped by Dengmin, all the responsibility would not be on Apaiwang, but on Pai Rong. Pai Rong looked up and saw Songkham standing not far away. He waved and asked, "What happened to your camp? Why are you here?"

Battalion officers, deputy battalion officers, staff officers and instructors, everything in the Siamese army copied from the National Defense Army, not only the titles, but also the positions. The above four positions are above Songkham, a team officer.

"Report to the commander." Songkan saluted to Paiyong. "My deputy battalion commander was killed yesterday, and the battalion officer and staff officer were seriously injured. The commander must stabilize the morale of the troops and cannot leave the troops easily, so he appointed me to report the military situation to you. My battalion captured a leader of the Tengmin army yesterday afternoon. After several interrogations, the latter confessed an urgent military situation." In a nutshell, there is still a Burmese army wandering in the south of Gusai Town. The captured Than Shwe did not hide the size and location of the army. The location is not far from the route of the army heading north from Yangon. If the latter can be notified quickly, it is possible to try to capture the other party.

Songkan's words were really shocking, and he stunned Prii Panongrong before he finished speaking. There is actually a Burmese army hidden in the south of Gusai Town? I wonder if the Yangon South Route Army has discovered this situation?

This is really dangerous and an opportunity.

Blinked. Priy Phanomrong opened his mouth several times but could not say anything. Finally, he patted his forehead and thought for a while before he said with great certainty: "We can definitely catch them. Yangon has cavalry." They are cavalry, not clumsy elephant soldiers. Even if the quality of these horses is quite good, in Phanomrong's mind, the speed of cavalry is far faster than that of infantry.

The cavalry of the Siamese army existed when Taksin first started his army to resist the invasion of the Burmese army. Later, like the Siamese infantry, the elite of them accepted the instruction of Chinese military instructors and were equipped with muskets, which greatly increased their combat effectiveness.

Songkan smiled and said, "The commander is wise. Wise." Why did he come to report this to Pai Rong? That's because there are pigeons in the regiment. As long as a few more are released, the news can be passed to the Yangon army. If the Burmese army has not escaped far away at this time, it is really like an old man eating arsenic - he is tired of living.

However, Pai Rong did not know that at this moment, the Southern Route Army from Yangon had not made as fast progress as the Pegu Army in the north. It had just reached a place called Donggua, but the Southern Route Army directly controlled by Zheng Xin was doing a big thing - Zheng Xin wanted to form a puppet army, select a group of people from the many Burmese prisoners of war captured after landing in Yangon, and form a team to serve them. It does not require how strong the combat effectiveness is, but only requires that they can assist the Siamese army to clear the place.

This is a very important matter.

Whether it was the Qing Dynasty entering the Pass in history, or the Burmese army sweeping Siam not long ago, or the Siamese army attacking Myanmar now, the war on the front battlefield can probably be described as "unstoppable". The battle on the front battlefield was going smoothly, but the difficulty lies outside the front battlefield, how to ensure the smooth transition of the Burmese people while completing the established goals.

The Irrawaddy River Delta is the land of fish and rice in Myanmar, and the essence of Myanmar. If it becomes a mess, both Siam and China will have things to clean up.

People are always greedy. Chen Ming was only concerned about the land of Myanmar at first, but later he felt that Myanmar was the best base for the National Defense Army to operate India, and it was much more convenient to reach out to India here than in Tibet. Slowly, Chen Ming regarded this place as one of the foundations for the National Defense Army to gain a foothold in the South Asian subcontinent. From here to communicate with Ceylon, it can have a good impact on the east coast of India. Therefore, it has become a very necessary thing to ensure the stability of its people. What Chen Ming does not want is a mess. The banknotes in the Chen Han treasury were already stretched to the limit, but there was no extra money to fill the bottomless pit.

For thousands of years since ancient times, whenever the regime changed, the people suffered the most, and the wars had affected so many lives. The scenes that had happened in China, Korea, and Japan before had fully demonstrated this point, including the impoverished civilians, as well as the landlords and merchants with surplus wealth. The rise and fall of the world is the suffering of the people!

The local occupation forces were the most affected by the civil turmoil. War is a very costly thing. If no one in the occupied area pays taxes, it is definitely a very bad thing. If the army in the war cannot get sufficient supplies and military pay, will these occupation forces go and drink the northwest wind obediently? Of course not. Then the phenomenon of "looting" naturally appeared. Some things that the Fu Han army could not avoid at the beginning, and the Siamese hated Myanmar, so it was even more impossible to completely ban it. So, a vicious circle appeared.

It was precisely because of this that the Sino-Siamese coalition did not carry out cleansing activities in the early stage of occupation. Even if this would leave many loyal Burmese in the local area. But for the stability of local towns, they had no choice but to do so. Of course, basic and necessary cleansing still needs to be done. For example, those guys with bad lives and who are a scourge to one side. The Siamese army is happy to eliminate these families to add more food to its coffers. Another thing is to redress some unjust, false and wrong cases, and some unjust, false and wrong cases with greater public opinion will be corrected quickly. In this way, the Sino-Siamese coalition will gain some reputation among the Burmese people, and coupled with the relatively strict military discipline of the coalition, there are few acts that disturb the people. Therefore, the resistance of the Burmese in cities such as Yangon and Pegu has been weakened.

People always have to survive. No matter what the environment is. After experiencing the pain of losing their country more than 20 years ago, the Mon people in the delta are now experiencing it again, and this feeling is much lighter than the first time.

On the other hand, as long as the coalition forces can be invincible on the battlefield and win one victory after another, so that these people can see the hope of changing the dynasty, then they will eventually turn to the winner, which will be inevitable.

There has never been a whole nation in the world that would rather die than surrender in the face of foreign invasion. When the enemy is incomparably powerful, everyone will kneel down.

However, if they want to win victory after victory on the battlefield in Myanmar and reduce war expenditure as much as possible, the power of the coalition forces alone is obviously not enough. They want to expand their influence, so recruiting puppet troops is inevitable.

The south of Myanmar is the traditional gathering place of the Mon people. Yangon, Pegu, Bassein, and the entire delta area are inhabited by a large number of Mon people. As mentioned in the previous article, the history of Myanmar is the history of the struggle between the Burmese, Shan, and Mon peoples. They have their own language and writing, their own civilization and country.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties in China, the Mon people established Thaton, Dhwara, Michen, Kunlun, Dawei, and Myeik in southern Myanmar, among which the most famous was the "Hantawady" Pegu Dynasty. Hundreds of years later, during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, King Anawrahta of the Burmese Pagan Dynasty (the first unified regime in Myanmar) unified the entire country of Myanmar. He sent troops south to destroy Thaton on the grounds that Thaton refused to borrow the "Tripitaka" of the Theravada [Myanmar Buddhist Heritage] and insulted it, and captured the Mon king "Manuha" alive as the Pagan Buddha Slave. Later, this dynasty was destroyed by Kublai Khan of Mongolia. At that time, the Mon people revived the "Hantawady" Pegu Dynasty with Pegu as the center. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the "Hantawady" Pegu Dynasty was conquered again by Mangyalung of the Burmese Toungoo Dynasty (the second unified regime in Myanmar). Afterwards, whenever there was an opportunity, the "Hantawady" Pegu Dynasty would make a comeback. This continued until the Mon people turned around and destroyed the Toungoo Dynasty, but they were finally wiped out forever by Yongjiya - from then on, the Mon people became slaves of a conquered country.

Now it has only been 20 years, and the Mon people's resistance to the coalition forces is obviously weaker than that of the Burmese.

The three major ethnic groups in Myanmar have three different attitudes towards the coalition forces, or more accurately, towards China. The Shan people are the main supporters, and the Mon people are generally neutral. Of course, there are definitely rebels, and the most determined opponents are the Burmese.

When Myanmar is in a dangerous situation, the Konbaung Dynasty can temporarily unite the entire Burmese around itself, but it is difficult to guarantee the Mon people's ideas.

With China's help, the coalition's measures to reassure the people are very effective. The feud between the Mon and the Burmese, plus the generous treatment in the army, made the recruitment work in the eastern part of the delta go very smoothly. In Yangon, so far, a thousand recruits have entered the training camp.

According to the plan of the Allied Forces Headquarters, they need to recruit more than 5,000 new soldiers as soon as possible, and divide them into 50 local garrisons to guard the local areas, which will definitely greatly reduce the pressure on the Allied Forces. At the same time, they will do their best to recruit the captured Burmese soldiers, and these Burmese soldiers who have defected will be directly incorporated into the local garrisons.

Yangon, the former headquarters of Meng Mang, has now become the headquarters of the Allied Forces.

"Brother Zhu Fu, it is not a good thing to just keep these 10,000 Burmese prisoners. We need to find a solution as soon as possible." There are many prisoners who want to surrender, but how to "regulate the behavior" of these prisoners is a very troublesome matter. They must be mixed and mixed with the new recruits. If they really recruit prisoners, the latter's loyalty is not as good as those of the new recruits.

Zhu Fu smiled bitterly, clasped his fists and begged Zheng Xin for mercy: "You have also seen that many of the captives are shouting to surrender, but from the feedback from our spies, there are still many people who are resistant. It can be said that the hearts of these captives are still unstable. The opinion of the headquarters [Nanyang Navy] is to hold on for a while."

"Hold on for a while?" Zheng Xin disagreed. "Many of these people are obviously willing to surrender. We have gathered all those who are willing to work with us. Even if there are some who run away, they will run away." Zheng Xin disagreed with the fact that China strives to do its best. If they run away, they will run away. If they want to cause trouble among the people, won't they be ruthless when they are caught?

Of course, these Burmese people have lost their military spirit and fighting spirit after being beaten. Even if they are gathered together now, they are still lacking in combat power. They cannot be incorporated into the local garrison without being vigorously reorganized.

Not all prisoners of war are the "liberation soldiers" of the rabbits back then. Now many of these captured Burmese soldiers are afraid of death in battle, but they are good at fighting and being violent in private. It is hard to say which part of them will accept reorganization obediently.

After a while of being unlucky, giving them enough power and letting them suffer enough, things will be difficult to deal with.

Now is not the primitive cold weapon era. These days, there are not only muskets, but also rifles, which can kill people from hundreds of meters away. For safety reasons, we must be cautious.

"Unless the king has a way to win the hearts of these captives. Then Zhu Mou can sign the military order immediately." Some things of the coalition forces cannot be ended simply by Zhu Fu's signature or Zheng Xin's signature.

Zheng Xin pondered for a while, and a stern look flashed across his face. He said in a deep voice: "The best way to manage the army is to be strict. Select 500 people from the coalition army to serve as grassroots officers of the local garrison. Use some deputies to recruit a group of obedient people to split the prisoners. As for those who disobey and lead the riot, kill them all without mercy to deter them." Zheng Xin looked at Zhu Fu who was thinking hard and said. "You can't just put them in the local area, you have to take them to fight a few battles first. As long as you take them to fight a few battles, it will definitely stabilize the morale of the army." Then assign them to the local area. This can also determine the place where they will be assigned based on their merits in the war, so as to motivate them to be brave in battle.