On the Yunnan border, a war is about to break out.

However, Muchun's mentality was very relaxed, and it could even be said that he did not pay attention to the Three Kingdoms Allied Forces opposite him at all.

This feeling is not only reflected in Mu Chun, but also in all the generals, Qianhu, Baihu, and general banners.

Even among the chieftains who followed the battle, no one showed any fear towards the more than 100,000 people on the opposite side. Instead, they only had expectations.

In their eyes, those facing them are not more than 100,000 enemies, but more than 100,000 delicious steamed buns, waiting to compete for the credit.

The sergeants at the back were even worried that if it was too late, the front troops would take the credit.

At least leave us a bowl of soup.

It's not surprising that the soldiers on Muchun's side had such thoughts. The main reason was that the previous Battle of Dingbian was a bit too exaggerated.

The Battle of Dingbian, as a key battle in the early Ming Dynasty to crush Luchuan's Southeast Asian hegemony, was even more significant than the Battle of Luchuan in the Yingzong era of the Ming Dynasty, which crushed Luchuan's ambition to restore the old territory and drove Luchuan to northern Myanmar.

In the Battle of Dingbian, General Mu Ying defeated Luchuan's so-called 300,000-strong army, causing the Luchuan Kingdom to collapse from a powerful southwestern country with a population of millions to a small country. His heroic and passionate actions were heart-stirring.

At its peak, Luchuan's sphere of influence is extremely vast. It dominates the southwest, and even Myanmar is under it.

Before the Battle of Dingbian, the Luchuan Kingdom had expanded to the limit of its territory. Its sphere of influence extended to Yongchang and Dali in the north, Menrun in the south, Assam in today's India in the west, and Menglao in the east. Its population ranged between two and a half.

A million or so.

Naturally, there is no way to compare with the Ming Dynasty, but in Southeast Asia, it already feels like there are no rivals.

The surrounding small countries have to give a large amount of local tribute every year in order to avoid being invaded by the Luchuan Kingdom.

Luchuan captured Weiyuan and Yuanqian's second prefecture at the end of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty.

Yongchang and Jingdong were only occupied after the Ming army entered Yunnan.

During the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, the Luchuan Kingdom nominally accepted the canonization of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. In fact, it was completely independent and was not subject to any restrictions, just like the tributary kingdom of the Ming Dynasty today.

Being able to maintain such a state under the Meng Yuan cavalry shows how powerful the Luchuan Kingdom is.

Of course, this does not mean that the Luchuan Kingdom can deal with the Mongolian and Yuan cavalry. It is just that due to the particularity of the geography, the combat power of the Mongolian and Yuan cavalry is greatly limited in such an environment.

In the early Mongol Yuan Dynasty, after Kublai Khan's expedition to Japan failed twice, his campaign against Annan also failed.

The climate and environment in the southwest are similar to those in Annan.

Although the Mongolian and Yuan armies were invincible in that era, there were conditions.

They are not suitable for jungle warfare.

The Mongolians originally lived in cold steppe areas, and the hot and humid jungle climate made them completely unsuitable.

In such a place, they are prone to illness and are more likely to cause plague.

The Mongolian Yuan Dynasty's tactics mainly focused on cavalry assault, long-range attacks, tactical outflanking, and mounted shooting operations.

This kind of tactics makes them invincible on the battlefields of Europe and West Asia.

But this kind of tactic has no effect at all in the jungle.

Because the cavalry couldn't run at all.

The cavalry could not attack, nor could they fight in a cavalry manner.

Therefore, when the Mongolian and Yuan armies fought against the Annan army, it was almost equivalent to "attacking the enemy's strengths with one's own shortcomings."

Any general on Annan's side who had some ideas would not be stupid enough to confront the cavalry head-on. If the delay lasted, Meng Yuan would be the one to suffer.

After the defeat in Annan, naturally I had no idea about places like the southwest.

The Luchuan Kingdom, which dominated the southwest, took advantage of the weakness of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty to continuously expand its territory in the late Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

When the Ming army entered Yunnan, the Luchuan Kingdom, which had already experienced the benefits, showed no restraint and was not afraid of competing with the new Ming Dynasty.

Before the Battle of Dingbian, Luchuan had already fought three battles with the Ming Dynasty, winning two and losing one.

In addition to the small defeat in the battle of Mosalzhai, the Siwafa and Silunfa eras won the battles of Yongchang and Jingdong respectively, allowing the line of control to continue to advance northward to the Yongchang and Jingdong lines.

Until the twenty-first year of Hongwu.

Lan Yu's battle at Yuerhai gave Ming Dynasty a staged victory, but the defeat in the southwest made Zhu Yuanzhang very unhappy.

The destruction of the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty allowed the Ming Dynasty to mobilize more troops to pacify the southwest.

Following Zhu Yuanzhang's edict, an army of 200,000 was gathered to pacify Luchuan in one go.

Although the 200,000-strong army was just like the expedition to Japan, not all of them were combat troops, and many auxiliary troops were also included.

But with the Ming Dynasty's combat power, these sergeants have been battle-hardened for a long time, and with a winning streak all the way, their morale is like a rainbow.

Luchuan Kingdom also has its own ambitions.

North of Dingbian is the famous Red River, which flows into northern Annan.

From occupying Yongchang and Jingdong to advancing to Dingbian, the strategic purpose of Luchuan was to completely capture the natural dangers of the Red River.

If we can move further north to occupy the Erhai Basin where Dali is located for defense, then the defense line will be completely complete. Even if we cannot capture Dali, the steep terrain at the source of the Red River will still be difficult to invade and project troops.

Therefore, after learning that the Ming army was gathering on a large scale, the leader of the Luchuan Kingdom, Silunfa, mobilized the whole country to launch an army of 300,000 to attack Dingbian.

Silunfa is located in Luchuan. Except for areas such as Cheche, almost all the surrounding Dai and Shan ethnic areas have been annexed by "Luchuan". Silunfa calls himself the "King of Luchuan".

If Luchuan could really occupy the natural dangers of the Red River and establish a solid defense before the Ming army entered Yunnan in large numbers.

So even if the Ming Dynasty gathers more troops, even if it brings another 200,000 troops, and no matter how much stronger the combat power is, it will still be unable to pose a threat to Luchuan due to natural dangers, logistics and other factors.

Then Silunfa, the King of Luchuan, is worthy of his name.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty's military strength in Yunnan was extremely thin.

But Muying still realizes that Dingbian must be saved.

Of course, if he was defeated miserably or even captured and killed by Luchuan, the Ming Dynasty's military power in Yunnan would completely collapse, which is exactly what Silun hoped.

Therefore, Mu Ying's decisive battle with Silunfa with a small number of troops was undoubtedly a huge military adventure.

Silunfa was the grandson of Sihanfa, the founder of Lucchuan, although there are also reports that he was the younger son.

He won the power struggle within Luchuan, killed the former leader Siwafa and succeeded to the throne, and defeated the Ming army in the Battle of Jingdong.

At this time, Luchuan was also on the rise and was obviously a formidable rival.

The strength of Luchuan's troops was 300,000, with more than a hundred war elephants.

The composition of Luchuan's military force is divided into soldiers and civilians. When they gather, they become the army, and when they disperse, they become the people.

When there is a battle, one of every three or five people will be sent out to the army, and the strongest one will be selected as the main army and called "Xila".

Xila held his troops to defend against the enemy, and the remaining people paid tribute.

Therefore, the army numbered 50,000 to 60,000, but the number of warriors was less than 20,000.

Although all the people in Zeluchuan are soldiers, the division of fighting and auxiliary troops is very strict. A total of 300,000 people are mobilized, and the number of fighting troops should be 80,000 to 100,000.

On Mu Ying's side, there were only about 30,000 people, and they had to travel a long distance to Dingbian.

The strength comparison between the two sides is extremely disparate.

Although the infantry in Lucchuan were not as good as the Ming army in terms of phalanx combat skills, they were better at guerrillas, ambushes and mountain fighting. In terms of training, Lucchuan also had elite warriors who were directly affiliated with the monarch.

As the overlord of Southeast Asia, Luchan was able to recruit troops from the Indochina Peninsula. High-quality servant archers from India, Burma and Laos cooperated with the elite harpooneers and crossbowmen trained by Luchan's own country to form a strong long-range firepower.

Even in the cavalry, Lu Chuan can be said to be quite powerful.

There is no shortage of Yunnan horses that can be used in combat. The most primitive stirrups originated in the southwest.

Due to the small size of the horses, the Luchuan cavalry cannot wear heavy horse armor and lacks defensive power. However, they have tenacious endurance and are good at crossing mountains, making them more suitable for combat in jungles and mountains.

Mu Ying rushed to help Dingbian. Everyone was on horseback, but it was impossible for all of them to be cavalry.

A large part of them were mounted infantry.

On March 15, the Ming army arrived at Dingbian. At this time, the Lucchuan army was besieging the city. They built strong civil fortifications and built a large number of siege weapons to attack the city, making the city crumbling.

Seeing that the Luchuan Army camp was strong, Mu Ying did not launch an attack hastily. Instead, he set up fortifications opposite the Luchuan Army camp to confront it.

Subsequently, the Ming army's 300 cavalrymen came out to challenge, while the Luchan army sent thousands of infantrymen and more than 30 war elephants to fight.

The leading generals of Luchuan rode war elephants and charged directly at the Ming army's array. Yunnan vanguard commander Zhang Yin led more than 50 forward cavalry men and charged directly at the opponent's war elephants.

Zhang Yinfa's riding bow shot the enemy general's war elephant on the left knee. After the war elephant was injured and fell to the ground, General Luchuan was thrown off and was later shot dead by the Ming army's cavalry.

Three hundred cavalrymen of the Ming army took advantage of the situation and attacked the enemy's formation. The Lucchuan army could not resist and completely collapsed and fled back to the camp.

In this battle, the Ming army won a victory and hundreds of people were beheaded, which greatly damaged the morale of Luchuan.

However, the annihilation of enemies in this battle was limited and failed to break the siege of Dingbianfu.

Afterwards, Mu Ying held a military meeting. He believed that Luchuan's attack on Dingbian was well prepared, with many troops and horses, and a huge momentum.

And Dingbian was besieged and could no longer hold on.

If the battle cannot be resolved quickly and the battle continues, Dingbian is likely to be lost, and the situation will be unimaginable.

So all the generals unanimously agreed and issued a letter of war, and the next day they had a decisive battle with the Luchuan Army.

On the second day, the Ming army was divided into three teams, with Commander-in-Chief Feng Cheng leading the front team, Commander-in-Chief Tong Zhizheng leading the left team, and Tang Zhao leading the right team.
To be continued...