The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Hahaha, I heard that the Ming Dynasty has made preparations, but so what? Tengchong, such an important city, has also been conquered by our army. Is there any place in the Ming Dynasty that we can't conquer?"

At this time, the Burmese army had occupied Tengchong, an important town in western Yunnan that the Ming army had abandoned. Standing in the original Tengchong Garrison, Mang Yinglong laughed proudly.

"Your Majesty is wise."

"Your Majesty's civil and military achievements have surpassed the previous dynasty. This time, you will definitely scare the Ming Dynasty court."

"After occupying Yunnan, you can continue to look east. I heard that Jiangnan is a good place, hehe."

The ministers and chieftains following Mang Yinglong all showed their courtesy to the Burmese king Mang Yinglong. If they show themselves more at this time, maybe they can get more when the cake is distributed later.

If the Burmese army won the Nanya Pass, Tiebi Pass and other passes without bloodshed thanks to the prior contact with the chieftains, and the sneak attack on Luliang City was a trick, this time the capture of Tengchong was a real fight with the Ming army garrison. Of course, everyone was satisfied with the final result, and the Ming army chose to retreat.

This was a very morale-boosting battle. In the past, the deterrent power of the Ming army has always been on the minds of all Burmese generals.

Yes, although they all said they did not obey the Ming Dynasty, they were actually somewhat afraid of the Ming army in their hearts.

Why did the three Xuan and six Wei in the southwest decisively surrender to the Ming Dynasty? It was because the Ming army led by Mu Ying was too powerful. The elephant soldiers they were proud of were almost powerless in front of the Ming army's firearms.

But this time was different. At that time, all the forces in Myanmar fought on their own. Because of mutual suspicion, they naturally could not unite and work together to fight against the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, facing the situation of a large army approaching, they decisively chose to surrender to the Ming Dynasty and received the reward of the envoy.

But now it is different. Although they still have their own thoughts, they all surrender to the Burmese king Mang Yinglong, and finally they can join forces to fight against the giant Ming Dynasty.

Thinking of the Ming Dynasty merchants who boasted about the wealth of the Ming Dynasty before, especially the beautiful scenery and beauties in the south of the Yangtze River, these ministers of the Toungoo Dynasty have been coveting it for a long time.

The victory of the Tengchong battle this time made them relieve their fear of the Ming army.

The Ming army is just like this. Facing the powerful Burmese army, it can only retreat.

Although I heard that the Ming Dynasty also has millions of troops, so what? The Ming Dynasty still has an extremely large land that needs to be garrisoned by troops. This means that the Ming Dynasty cannot summon troops from all over the country to fight them.

Wars are fought one by one. A war destroys tens of thousands of Ming troops. After a few more such battles, the Ming Dynasty will not have much troops.

It is a good thing to think about ruling a country like Ming with a vast territory.

At this time, some chieftains have already had the idea of ​​exchanging land.

Yes, they are willing to trade the barren land they control with the Burmese king and ask the benevolent Burmese king to reward them with a new piece of land in Ming Dynasty.

That is Ming Dynasty, a glamorous world.

"Come on, set up a banquet. Don't go home until you are drunk tonight. Give some wine and meat to the soldiers. Let them have a good rest for two days, and then we will march to Lujiang City."

Mang Yinglong was very proud at this time, laughing and giving orders.

At this time, the defeated Ming army in Tengchong was met by the Ming army reinforcements led by Li Rusong outside Lujiang City, and quickly retreated into Lujiang City.

Their retreat did not encounter the pursuit of the Burmese army all the way, but was intercepted twice when withdrawing from Tengchong.

But the hope of survival made the Ming army still fight a bloody way. They did not want to be captured and made slaves by the barbaric Burmese, which would be worse than death.

There were 7,000 to 8,000 soldiers, of which less than 2,000 were from the garrison, and the rest were families of Tengchong guards.

However, this was not all, as tens of thousands of Tengchong people retreated into the surrounding mountains to avoid the war.

The speed of the people's retreat could not outrun the pursuit of the Burmese soldiers.

Facing the Ming army retreating from Tengchong, the two Burmese troops stationed outside Lujiang City did not leave the camp to intercept them.

In yesterday's battle, the two Burmese armies suffered heavy losses under the attack of the Ming army's reinforcements, and more than a thousand people died.

Of course, this was the result of Li Rusong's personal soldiers and the Guangxi soldiers who had been trained for a long time.

Having learned from the past, the generals of the Burmese army outside Lujiang City were not fools, and naturally would not go against the stone with eggs and seek death.

After two days of rest in Tengchong, the main force of the Burmese army's northern army set out for Lujiang City again.

As long as they broke through here, the Burmese army could cross the river and directly attack Baoshan City.

The news that the Southern Army encountered the stubborn resistance of the Ming Army in Shidian had reached Mang Yinglong's ears. However, the Southern Army was originally only a detachment, and it was sent to prevent the main army from being attacked from both sides by the Ming Army, so he did not take the news of the failure of the siege there seriously.

As long as the main force led by him could capture Baoshan City, it would not matter if Shidian still could not be conquered. He could start from Baoshan City and continue to move westward, passing Shunning and Chuxiong, and directly attack Kunming to force the Ming court to surrender.

"Your Majesty, I have an idea."

Just as the army was about to set off for Lujiang, Hanba, a general under Mang Yinglong, suddenly spoke.

"Speak."

Hearing his subordinates' ideas, Mang Yinglong was still very happy to listen at this time.

As a king, you must have the demeanor of a king, be good at asking for advice with an open mind, and listen to the opinions of your subordinates.

"Your Majesty, Xian Gui, the pacification envoy of Lujiang City, knows me, and maybe I can convince him to surrender to Myanmar.

I heard that Meng Lian and Kanda chose to garrison outside the city after they failed to attack Lujiang. This shows that Lujiang city defense is still quite strong.

If they can convince the generals to surrender, and the army can seize Lujiang City without any bloodshed, they should be able to get ships across the river. "

Hanba spoke his thoughts loudly, with a proud expression on his face.

"Are you sure you can convince Xian Gui to surrender?"

Mang Yinglong did not rush to express his position, but followed the conversation and asked.

"Your Majesty, Xian Gui has a deal with me, and I have a lot of information about him, including the weapons in the hands of my soldiers, which Xian Gui secretly sold to me in private.

You said, if Xiangui is unwilling to surrender, I will threaten to send the evidence to Kunming. What will happen to him? "

At this time, Hanba explained with a sinister look on his face that he had evidence of a wealthy enemy in his hand.

Yes, in the past, if we secretly sold some weapons to foreigners, as long as it was done properly, it would still be possible to suppress the matter.

But the situation is different now. The two countries are at war. Xiangui's actions are slandering the enemy and an absolute capital crime.

Undoubtedly, corruption was rampant throughout the Ming Dynasty during this period, which had indeed shaken the foundation of Ming Dynasty's rule, but those in power had not yet fully realized it.

Most of the Ming armies in the border areas with Mongolia in the north, Liaodong, and the southwest border secretly participated in smuggling activities carried out by local businessmen. What's more, people like Lujiang pacification envoy Xian Gui directly resold military supplies to make money. .

On the border, the consequences of local officials' dereliction of duty finally began to be exposed during the Burmese invasion.

Because many people participated in many shady transactions, they were caught in the hands of others, making them feel at a loss what to do.

However, the plight of these people was not of concern to Mang Yinglong. He only considered how to make progress at the minimum cost, capture the Ming army's cities along the way, and reach Kunming as soon as possible.

Only after capturing Kunming would he negotiate with Ming envoys and demand the cession of Yunnan to Myanmar.

"Do you have any clues about the price?"

Mang Yinglong confirmed again.

"Yes, Xian Gui resold me two weapons, including swords, guns and armor from the Ming army. This is how my armored army came to be, hehe."

Thinking of the proud place, Hanba couldn't help but laugh out loud.

However, when I first bought these weapons, the prices offered by Xian Gui were really quite high.

After taking Lujiang City this time, he will get the gold and silver back from Xian Gui.

His rare silver is not so easy to get.

"You should have someone who has contacted him. Write him a letter and send someone to deliver it."

Being able to capture Lujiang City easily, Mang Yinglong was naturally willing to do so without spending a single soldier.

You know, the Ming army still has 100,000 troops in Yunnan, and there are still battles to be fought.

Moreover, even if the Ming Dynasty admitted to ceding the land, tens of thousands of troops would have to be stationed here to achieve long-term peace and stability.

Well, if you can save a few soldiers, that's all.

Thinking of this, Mang Yinglong naturally agreed to Hanba's proposal and threatened Xiangui to surrender.

"Who among you has any clues about the generals in Shidian and Baoshan City? Please tell me that it is better to prepare early for some things.

By the way, even Ming officials from other places said that officials from Kunming had the best handle. "

Mang Yinglong didn't think that Xian Gui from Lujiang was the only Ming Dynasty official who had participated in this kind of smuggling transaction. Many officials from western Yunnan should have participated. It would depend on whether their handle fell into his hands.

If there is, then whether it is Shidian or Baoshan, it will be easy to capture the city.

However, now Mang Yinglong is thinking more, that is, if he can have some handle on the officials of important cities in Yunnan, it would be best to directly instigate these people to rebel.

Perhaps, great things can be accomplished in Yunnan without the use of weapons.

On the Tengchong side, Mang Yinglong was thinking of good things, but at the Lujiang City dock, Li Rusong and Xian Gui stood aside, watching the sergeant board the boat to cross the river.

The military order Li Rusong received was to meet the Tengchong guards and bring them back to Baoshan City for rest.

After all, even the current Lujiang City is just a pawn that Li Chengliang plans to use to delay the Burmese army's attack. It is not a place for a decisive battle, so naturally he will not invest too much power here.

Li Rusong did not let the defeated Tengchong Guards rest in Lujiang City. Instead, he let them pass through the city and directly to the dock. He had his own boats to pick them up and take them across the river.

To the east of Lujiang River, a temporary camp has been built for them to rest before returning to Baoshan City.

At this time, most of the people had retreated across the river, and the remaining people on the dock could be transported in two more trips. Li Rusong clasped his fists and smiled at Lujiang's comfort envoy Xian Gui: "Master Xian, I will go through first." Jiang, Lujiang City's affairs are still in charge of Mr. Laoxian. ’

"It should be."

Li Chengliang knew how to stimulate the generals to fight, so the task given to Xian Gui at the beginning was not to block the Burmese army's attack, but to let him persist here for a month.

In Jiangdong, the Ming army will have a temporary camp, constantly replenishing various defensive materials to the city, and will also have soldiers and horses to support it.

With such a guarantee, Xiangui is naturally filled with joy.

With support, he was confident that it would be possible to hold off the Burmese army for a month.

With the Lujiang River at his back, he had no worries. If he couldn't stop him, he could just abandon the city and cross the river by boat.

Others can ignore it and leave themselves a wooden boat to cross the river without any problem.

Because of this plan, Xian Gui was very obedient and prepared to hold Lujiang City for a month with his soldiers.

"The young general will go back and report to the commander-in-chief. The subordinates will stick to Lujiang in accordance with military orders. People are in the city. Within a month, Lujiang City will be in the hands of our army."

Xian Gui was making a promise in front of Li Rusong at this time, opening and closing his mouth was the one-month period that Li Chengliang had originally said.

In fact, of course Li Rusong knew what he meant, but he didn't care.

He learned a lot from these military leaders.

If you can leave a way to survive like this, you must force people to death, otherwise there may be unexpected troubles.

"Don't worry, Mr. Xian, I will definitely bring this to you.

As long as Master Xian holds out in Lujiang City for a month, then Baoshan City Defense should also be built, and Master can lead his troops to retreat to Baoshan City. "

Of course, Li Chengliang's plan will not be told to others. Even Mu Changzuo and others are completely unaware of it. Only a few children in the family know about it, because they are the people Li Chengliang chose to lead the army.

This battle is not only a national war between Ming Dynasty and Burma, but also a life-and-death battle for the Li family.

If he loses, his children will be worse off than dead. It is better to just die for the country and still have a good reputation.

If he wins, he will naturally get a title for his hometown as promised by Mr. Wei Ge.

Is the title so easy to earn?

Li Chengliang is not stupid. Even people like Ma Fang and Yu Dayou who had taken refuge with him very early have not received titles even though they have high official positions.

I'm afraid they will only have a chance until they die.

However, Li Chengliang still had a little bit of hope in his heart. What if it happened?

Don't forget, he expanded 800 miles of land in Liaodong for the imperial court. If Yunnan wins this time, regardless of whether the chieftain system is still implemented, as long as the Chief Envoy of Myanmar is established, the credit for opening up the territory will not be lost.

With such merit, not to mention, compared with Ma Fang, Yu Dayou and others, he, Lao Li, has a greater chance of winning.

Yes, according to the military merit system of the Ming Dynasty, Li Chengliang's contribution was indeed greater than that of Ma Fang and Yu Dayou.

Although the military merit system currently implemented in the Ming Dynasty is mainly the "military merit first level system", that is, rewards and merits are received according to the head, and if there is no head, there is no military merit.

In fact, what the Ming Dynasty focused on at the beginning was not the first meritorious service, but the "battle merit system" that assessed merit based on the performance of soldiers on the battlefield.

"Da Ming Huidian" divides the Ming Dynasty's military exploits into three types: extraordinary merit, first merit, and secondary merit.

Anyone who achieves extraordinary achievements or first achievements will be reported to the leader by personally taking charge of them. Those who report falsely will be punished with serious crimes. When traveling to and from camp, those who capture spies will be rewarded with higher rewards.

Miracle feats are particularly difficult. They require the performer to perform actions that determine the outcome of the battle, such as beheading generals and capturing flags, first ascending a siege city, breaking enemy formations, etc.

Regardless of battlefield performance, the contribution to the expansion of territory is undoubtedly the greatest. It is an achievement beyond the founding of the country. It is the expansion of the country's territory and the increase of resources, and has important strategic and political significance.