The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty."

Just when he was no longer anxious and pacing back and forth in the palace, someone came in from outside the palace.

The person who came was one of his men. After bowing, he reported: "Your Majesty, the spies have found out. The border counties of Ming Dynasty in Yunnan are the same as before. Nothing seems to have happened, and there is no news that the Ming Dynasty is going to use weapons."

"really?"

Mang Yinglong stopped and looked at the subordinate who reported the news.

"This is indeed the case when the news comes back. How about I bring the messenger here and you can ask it yourself."

The subordinates are also afraid of taking responsibility. The king himself has a hot temper. If he offends him, his life may be in danger.

"Bring the people here and I'll ask them myself."

Mang Yinglong was still a little worried and immediately ordered.

Less than half an hour later, Mang Yinglong's wanton laughter finally came from the Dongyu Palace.

After everyone left, Mang Yinglong whispered in the palace: "I thought the Ming Dynasty really wanted to purge Burma, but it turned out that it was just a show, and it scared me. Damn it."

It seems that the Eastern Expedition was considered to teach the people of the Ming Dynasty a lesson. "

Knowing that Ming Dynasty did not seem to have any intention of intervening in Myanmar, Mang Yinglong's courage became stronger for some reason, and the previous sadness was wiped away.

At this time, he was still feeling ashamed of the irritability and timidity caused by the news from Daming in the past few days.

But who is he?

He is the king of the Toungoo Dynasty and the king of Myanmar. How can he be afraid and timid?

So, as much as I was worried before, I now hate Daming so much.

Only by conquering the Ming Dynasty and using the blood of Ming people can he wash away the shame in his heart, otherwise he will live in the shadows for the rest of his life.

The Ming Dynasty was very vast, not comparable to the tiny land of Myanmar.

The Ming Dynasty and its wealth are not comparable to the wealth of Myanmar.

The Ming Dynasty had a large population. If he could enslave them, he seemed to have the strength to go west and attack the Mughal Kingdom. There was also a large area of ​​land, huge wealth and countless slaves there.

At this time, Mang Yinglong had already formulated a simple strategy plan in his mind, to conquer the Ming Kingdom first, and then attack the Mughal Kingdom.

I have to say that Mang Yinglong was very courageous, and I have to say that the Ming Dynasty's policy in the southwest in the past hundred years was a failure.

The Ming Dynasty implemented a strategy of inaction against the Xuanwei Division around Myanmar. The result was that they believed that the Ming Dynasty was weak and could be bullied, and anyone could step on it.

Therefore, having more contact with the Mughal Kingdom, Mang Yinglong was less afraid of the Ming Kingdom.

After all, their fathers had heard about the power of the Ming Kingdom, but they had never seen it with their own eyes.

I do know that many chieftains in Yunnan seem to be restless and are about to rebel.

But looking at the Ming Dynasty's official army suppressing the chieftains, the military strength was not as strong as the legend said.

But now that he had made up his mind, Mang Yinglong would not waste time. He quickly made a decision in his heart, that is, to summon his subordinates from the Eastern Expedition to Laos again and prepare them to attack the next target - —Meng Yang.

As long as Mengyang is captured, his troops can pass there to reach Yongchang Mansion in Yunnan during the Ming Dynasty, and then they can peek into Kunming and control the entire Yunnan.

Yes, although Mang Yinglong was full of desire for the land, wealth and population of the Ming Dynasty, he also knew that food had to be eaten one bite at a time. The Ming Dynasty was too big to rush for success.

Of course, Mang Yinglong would not have such an idiotic idea of ​​leading troops directly into Yunnan and attacking the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

But what he didn't know was that Ming Dynasty had already mobilized three military posts in the southwestern region, including Sichuan, Guangxi, and Guizhou, and began to deploy elite troops and generals.

In fact, the situation in the four southwest provinces is basically the same. They are divided into two parts: Han and Tu. Areas close to prefectures and counties are dotted with guard posts. However, the places where there are no guard posts are mostly chieftain areas, which are set up far apart. The first and second guard stations are mostly for guarding Qianhu Station. They do not have many troops and their main responsibility is to monitor the surrounding area.

At this time, Li Rusong arrived in Guangxi first. Except for the three guards guarding Jingjiang in Guilin, the elite guards including Guangxi guards, Liuzhou guards, Nanning guards and several surrounding guard stations have been mobilized to Guilin for training.

While training the soldiers, they were waiting for the shipment of firearms from Nanjing.

Because although western Guangxi borders Yunnan, it is chieftain territory, and Li Rusong really has no intention of taking the west road directly to Yunnan.

To be safe, he chose to garrison in Guilin. Once he was ordered to enter Yunnan, he would lead his troops into Guizhou first, and join forces with his second brother to go to Yongning Prefecture and enter Qujing Prefecture in Yunnan.

And his father, Li Chengliang, would probably directly lead the Sichuan soldiers and horses along this route to avoid the territory of the chieftains.

When Li Rusong went to Guangxi this time, he spent a lot of time reorganizing the guard station and selecting soldiers and horses, but even so, he could barely screen out more than 10,000 people.

As for Guizhou, they are afraid that the number of troops will be even smaller, but Sichuan may be able to mobilize more troops.

Accustomed to fighting in Liaodong, Li Rusong was dissatisfied when he saw the firearms equipped by the guards here. They were all antiques cast in the early Ming Dynasty. The few Fran cannons were all small and medium-sized. Nature cannot meet his needs.

Therefore, the first thing he did after recruiting troops was to ask for firearms from Nanjing. The newly cast large and medium-sized Fran cannons and a batch of blunderbuss were leftover from the Ming army in Liaodong. He was also familiar with such firearms.

In fact, Li Rusong's favorite thing was artillery, and he was not interested in the deadly slow-release cannons.

However, when the bird guns are fired, the dense gunshots are indeed very impressive, which can give a great psychological shock to the enemy troops charging over, which is much more frightening than the silent arrows.

Unfortunately, the Han people in the southwest are generally shorter than the Han people in the north, so they can't pull longbows, but shorter whistle bows, and the arrow range is limited.

In this case, in addition to stepping up the training of soldiers, it is easier to equip a group of bird gunners as soon as possible.

After all, the training of archers is not simple and very time-consuming.

In fact, when they were in Liaodong, although the family servants also paid more attention to absorbing archers, these so-called archers were not really trained by the two tricks they practiced at home or in the guards.

Instead, they were trained at a considerable cost after they came to the Li family.

The number of archers in the Ming army was limited, and those who could barely be considered archers were even rarer, so most of the people in the Li family's guards carried bird guns or three-eyed guns as long-range weapons to make up for the lack of archers.

This was also the main defect of the Ming army when fighting against the Mongolian cavalry or the Jurchen tribes.

After all, the Han people who mainly relied on farming were indeed much worse than these tribes who relied on fishing and hunting for a living all year round.

Many military households in the Ming Dynasty did not even pass down the most basic fighting skills, and were still a group of farmers who put down their hoes and took up swords and guns.

Although the Ming Dynasty's guards in the southwest often participated in the rebellion war, their military preparations were still lax, and they mostly relied on a small number of elite soldiers in the army to complete the war.

After all, how many troops could the chieftains have? As long as the connection between the rebellious chieftains and other chieftains around them was cut off and they were not allowed to incite the mountain people to rebellion, the government could respond quickly and mobilize troops, and it would still be relatively easy to suppress the rebellion.

This was also the main reason why the Ming Dynasty rewarded Tusi of all sizes in order to stabilize the border, and there was also the intention of dividing their strength.

As long as the Tusi were not allowed to grow too big and annex the surrounding weak Tusi tribes, no Tusi would dare to make trouble under the size limit.

At this time, Li Rusong was outside the parade ground, watching the training of nearly 10,000 soldiers.

But the more he watched, the more he shook his head.

According to his hot temper in Liaodong, he wanted to kick people.

The soldiers waved and stabbed the weapons in their hands weakly, and they did not look like elites at all. They were completely different from the Liaodong army.

"A bunch of trash, no wonder they were chased by a group of Japanese pirates and fled east and west. Such bad soldiers, I killed them directly in Liaodong."

Cursing in a low voice, Li Rusong was too lazy to enter the queue with a stick and beat people as before.

"General, calm down. It's not worth getting hurt for these bad soldiers.

I've heard that the southern soldiers are like this. As soon as the Japanese pirates charge, their own ranks will collapse.

So after so many years of fighting against the Japanese pirates, they still achieved nothing."

The captain of the personal guards beside him said with a smile.

At the beginning, they strictly followed the training of the Liaodong Army, but even if they beat them up, they still did the same thing the next day.

After a few days, they had no good way to deal with these soldiers.

"If they are dragged to the battlefield, they will turn around and run away as soon as the enemy rushes at them. This war is useless."

Li Rusong replied unhappily.

Before leaving Beijing this time, Li Chengliang took his brothers to visit the cabinet Wei Guangde, the old man of Wei, who attached great importance to this Ming-Myanmar war.

During the meeting, he even hinted that as long as the war was fought beautifully, he would report to the emperor after the war to confer the title of Earl on the Li family.

Of course, such an Earl is different from the hereditary nobles at the beginning of the country. It can only be Li Chengliang.

If you want to obtain three generations of inheritance, or even hereditary succession, you have to exchange it with military merit.

In any case, the Ming Dynasty never lost the war with the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar.

The Ming Dynasty could not afford a failed war.

When Annan lost, the officials withdrew the troops on the grounds that the huge expenditure of money and food was disadvantageous to the country, and they did not admit that they had lost troops and chose to give up.

Of course, the actual situation is that the few guards that the Ming Dynasty had in Annan were indeed unable to undertake the task of suppressing the rebellion alone, and even the reinforcements mobilized from the country failed on the battlefield.

If you want to win against Annan again, you must mobilize a large army from the country to the south.

It is barely reasonable to say that you gave up because the cost calculation was not cost-effective.

Because there was already a lesson learned from the past, Wei Guangde’s requirements for the Li family father and son were not only to win the war, but also to win beautifully.

Not to mention crushing withering and rotten, like a broken bamboo, but also to be in a similar situation.

As for the most critical money and food for war, Wei Ge Lao has already solved it.

The money and food of the four southwestern provinces, plus the 100,000 taels of silver allocated by the capital as the initial investment, and the rewards later, Wei Ge Lao will also try his best to fight for them. What else can they say about such generous conditions.

To put it bluntly, fighting is to spend money to buy the lives of soldiers.

If the money is enough, they will dare to fight and fight.

If the money is too little, they will escape from the battlefield.

Without benefits, who will risk their lives.

Just like Qi Jiguang, Qi Lao Hu, victory is not so much a tactical victory as it is a pile of bounties.

Those veterans who followed Qi Jiguang to fight, selling their lives for several years, it is easy to save a fortune of 100 taels of silver, after all, the heads of Japanese pirates were really valuable at that time.

"Major General, I have inquired about it. When these bad soldiers left home, the guards only gave them two coins of silver each."

The captain of the personal guards whispered.

"What?"

Li Rusong's eyes widened immediately when he heard the captain's words.

You know, the money he approved was a settlement fee of five coins per person.

If you leave Guangxi, each person will be given another five coins for departure.

According to the practice of the Ming army, which increased greatly, they were paid double pay when they went out for battle, and they were rewarded after the battle. If the pay continued, the money would be huge.

But there is one thing, that is, the silver cannot be deducted. It is the life money of the soldiers.

"They really deducted so much?"

Li Rusong asked with a glare.

The captain of the soldiers nodded and said: "That's what I heard. No wonder the south side can't contribute to the war. The money has been withheld. Who is willing to sacrifice their lives?"

Seeing that his young master was about to go berserk, the captain of the soldiers hurriedly said: "Young General, this is Guangxi after all. It's better for us to follow the local customs in our hometown, so as not to offend the local gangsters here."

Li Rusong immediately calmed down after hearing the captain's words, and knew not to easily provoke the local gangsters here.

If they act mischievously and say hello during the war, so that their subordinates can do no more work, they may even sell themselves and their sons directly.

If that were the case, the Li family would really be doomed.

"Then what do you think we should do?"

Li Rusong suppressed his dissatisfaction and asked in a low voice.

"We really can't solve this problem."

The captain of the soldiers also looked helpless and said: "I heard that the Qi Army's silver is distributed directly to the hands of the officers and soldiers, and the hands of the generals are not included in the middle. But we are not from here. If the silver is distributed next time, we will not let them I don’t know what leaks will happen if I take action, I’m afraid it will be detrimental to the general.”

Li Rusong glanced at the camp in the distance behind him. At this time, the soldiers here were practicing, but their generals were hiding in the camp, so he roughly knew the faces of these people.

"We have to find a way to get them away and use our people to control the team."

Li Rusong quickly made a decision in his mind. It was still necessary to replace the generals in charge with his own servants as in Liaodong, so that he could feel at ease when using them.

"What can you do?"

Li Rusong asked directly.

No matter how they fight, whether it is Li Rusong or the captain of the servants around him, they all know very well that they must not leave this bunch of trash around.

He couldn't get anything done, and in the end it ruined the good things of the Li family.

"When the troops are sent out, let them bring their own people to each government to collect food. The officers of each team will be replaced by our own soldiers, and then they will go out to collect silver and promise a lot of money.

I think at least on the battlefield, they won't be like this.

As for the remaining generals, I think they would rather stay behind to guard the food supply. "

The captain of the guard whispered what he was thinking.

"It makes sense. Separate them from the soldiers. I will write a letter to inform my two brothers later. My father will also send a letter to remind me of this matter."

Li Rusong also felt that this seemed to be the only way to go, so he nodded in approval.