"What did you say? Say it again?" Mu Ang said excitedly to Tan Ma in front of him.
"General Mu, I have seen with my own eyes that there are no soldiers or horses around Ren'an Qiang City." Tan Ma, who was kneeling on one knee in front of Zhu Chu, turned sideways and said to Mu Ang.
Mu Ang still didn't believe it, so he called several other detectives over and asked them one by one, but they all got the same result.
"It seems like it's true. The Bago people have retreated." Zhu Zhen said.
"It seems to be true." Mu Ang said: "So many scouts have reported that there are no soldiers and horses outside Ren'an Qiang City."
"But I still can't believe it. The scouts sent out the day before yesterday reported that there were at least 50,000 troops under Ren'an Qiang City. Not only were they surrounding the city on three sides, there were also boats patrolling the river. Why did the Pegu people suddenly retreat today?"
"Perhaps he was frightened by the Ming Dynasty?" Zhu Zhen said with a smile: "He should also know about Mingjis's surrender. Since the Ava Kingdom, which he has been fighting with for many years, has been defeated, he also knows that Bago will not be the Ming Dynasty.
opponent, so he retreated."
"Aren't these barbarians to their south quite arrogant? How could they retreat?" Mu Ang said. But even though he said this, he also believed that this was the reason.
"In that case, let's continue going south, recapture Magui City, then withdraw our troops and return, and at the same time test the bottom line of the Pegu people." Zhu Zhen said. He had the idea of pushing the envelope further.
"Then we will continue going south tomorrow." Zhu Min's suggestion was exactly what Mu Ang wanted, so he immediately agreed.
"But when we get to Ren'an Qiang City tomorrow, we should ask the guards here what they did when the Bago people retreated." Mu Ang added cautiously.
The next day the army marched to Ren'an Qiang City, and Narota came forward to contact the local defenders. For the people here, their master just changed from Mingjis Fashiu to his eldest son Narota.
I feel uncomfortable and I know everything about Narota.
After questioning, Narota came back and said to Zhu Chu and Mu Ang: "Your Highness, General Mu, the guards here said that the Pegu people retreated in a hurry, as if they suddenly knew something and retreated."
"But they didn't leave anything behind. Generally speaking, if you retreat in a hurry, you will leave something behind in a panic." Yan Wu said at the side.
"I don't know about this," Narota said.
"It doesn't look like they learned that our army had arrived at Ren'an Qiang City, so they withdrew their troops." Zhu Zhen said: "Their scouting horses couldn't go far at all. By the time they knew that we were already approaching this city, our army had probably already arrived.
We are very close to the Bago people, and they should withdraw in a hurry to prevent a fight with our army."
"And if they were really afraid of our army and then retreated, they would have left the envoys to hand over documents of surrender instead of just retreating." Zhuo Jing noticed this keenly.
Everyone was reminded by Zhuo Jing and realized this problem. They immediately felt that the retreat of the Bago people had nothing to do with the arrival of the Ming army, and they immediately started discussing.
Suddenly everyone heard someone saying loudly: "What's there to discuss! Chase until you catch up with the Pegu army and defeat it, capture their king alive and then ask about it, won't you know?"
Zhuo Jing immediately said to Mu Ang, the person who said this: "No! The target we set before was Magui City. How can we change the target at will? Just chase them to Magui City. If we can catch up with them in Magui City,
That’s all, if you haven’t caught up, you can’t catch up again.”
"If we don't fight them and let them know how powerful the Ming Dynasty is, how can they surrender?" Mu Ang said.
Zhuo Jing immediately started arguing with him. He was the right prime minister of the Min vassal, a person whom Yun Xi trusted, and he was not afraid of Mu Ang; and although in theory he was the literary prime minister, Yun Xi did not clearly distinguish between civil and military affairs when appointing the left and right ministers.
, if He Fu is here or Zhu Chu has made up his mind, then nothing Zhuo Jing can say will be of any use; but now that He Fu is not staying in Ava City, and Zhu Chu is also a little hesitant, Zhuo Jing can just have a friendship with Zhu Chu.
'Please come over,' Mu Ang, who has no official position in Minfan, argued.
Zhu Zhen was very hesitant. A voice in his mind told him: 'We should continue southward until we catch up with the Pegu people, and defeat them to let them know how powerful the Ming Dynasty is.'
But another voice said: 'Before you left, and in your letters over the past few years, His Majesty told you to use more barbarian soldiers to deal with barbarian soldiers, and you yourself agreed; but this time, most of the troops sent are Han troops, and the locals are not.
We have so few soldiers that it's not worth fighting to the death.'
Zhu Chu was caught between these two voices, sometimes leaning towards the former voice, and sometimes leaning towards the latter voice, which made him really difficult to decide.
After a while, Zhu Zhen said: "Let's go to Magui City first."
But when they arrived at Magui City, they still could not catch up with the Bago army. The Ming army fired two cannons at the city head, and the defenders of Magui City opened the city and surrendered.
Zhu Ming could only continue to struggle. He struggled for another half day, and finally said: "Pursue another fifty miles south. If we still haven't caught up with the Bago army, we will withdraw our troops and return to Bagan."
As soon as this order was announced, Zhuo Jing and Mu Ang were not satisfied, but Zhu Chu had already given the order and they could only carry it out.
Later, some troops were left to garrison Magui City, and the army continued to move south.
Because they had already penetrated deep into the territory of the Bago people, the army was very careful and only marched twenty-five miles a day before setting up camp.
After marching for another half day the next day, when Mu Ang had given up the hope of fighting the Bago people, suddenly news came from Tanma: "A large Bago army was found ten miles ahead."
Mu Ang was overjoyed and immediately urged the troops to advance. At the same time, he kept listening to Tan Ma's report.
"Your Highness, General Mu, the Pegu army is fighting some people. We don't think these people look like regular troops. Their weapons are not very good and their clothes are tattered. However, they have a very tenacious will to fight and will not retreat to the death."
"We were also discovered by them. They probably thought we were the Bago army and immediately attacked. We managed to escape," said one of the detectives.
"Didn't you say that they are not regular troops and their weapons are not very good? Why are you so embarrassed?" Mu Ang asked doubtfully.
"Although their weapons are not very good and they have never been trained, they are not afraid of death. Even if the people in front are shot, the people behind will rush over immediately. We have shot all the arrows and still can't make them retreat.
, we can only escape back in embarrassment." Tan Ma said.
"This sounds like a common people's uprising." Zhu Zhen said incredulously: "These barbarians will also revolt?" In his opinion, these barbarians are very obedient to their leaders, and their rebellious spirit is far different from that of the Han people.
How could there be an uprising?
Not only him, but other people who had stayed in Yunnan for a long time found it unbelievable. In their view, the barbarian people would never disobey the leader and were very docile when facing the leader, so how could they rebel.
It would be inappropriate to say that the leader was revolting against the rule of the King of Pegu. If that were the case, the leader would definitely have trained and collected weapons in advance, so that he would not be so amateurish.
But the facts were clearly in front of them, and they couldn't believe it. Faced with this unprepared situation, Zhu Zhen finally gave the order: "Go and take a look before talking."
After a while, Zhu Zhen could clearly hear the shouts of killing coming from the front. Zhu Zhen ordered the entire army to stop and sent scout horses to the front to investigate the situation. But he forgot one thing.
…
…
"Who are these people?" In the dense jungle next to the road where the Ming army was, a middle-aged man in ragged clothes said in a language. If Zhu Chu could hear this sentence, he would find that he had never heard of this language before.
Never heard of it.
Then there was a chirping sound around him, and then the two people lurking here quietly left.
…
…
"We are sure that there is an uprising among the people in Bago. What should we do now?" Zhu Zhen called all the generals and chieftains over and asked.
The Han people fell silent. In terms of short-term interests, they should help the rebels eliminate the Bago court to temporarily relieve the threat of Bago to Min Fan.
But according to their experience from history books, all countries where large-scale uprisings occurred were very corrupt, but the newly born countries would be completely new and much stronger than the previous dynasty at the end of the period, which would be a serious problem in the long run.
But helping the current court in Bago put down the rebellion? No kidding, why are they doing such a thing, are they dedicating their lives to the cause of revolution?
Therefore, the Han people tended to withdraw their troops and not interfere with the Bago people's affairs, even Mu Ang, who had been the main fighter before.
The chieftains were eager to give it a try. It didn't matter who they helped fight the war, as long as they could get spoils.
After thinking for a while, Zhu Zhen still said: "Withdraw troops immediately and return to Bagan. We will not go through the muddy waters of the Bago people."
The generals had no objections and bowed in agreement; although some chieftains had objections, they did not dare to disobey Zhu Chu's order. They could only leave Zhu Chu's tent and summon their troops to prepare to withdraw.
After everyone had gone out, Dao Baifeng massaged Zhu Chu's shoulders and said, "You have consumed so much food and are you going back now?"
"Otherwise, what should I do? No matter what I do, it's wrong to stay." Zhu Chu said.
"You can lead troops to attack the nearby villages or strongholds and grab some money and food to go back to. If we send troops once and fail to defeat the battle in our stronghold, people will be dissatisfied if nothing is gained." Dao Baifeng said.
"You are my concubine now. Oh, no, you are not my concubine yet. You will be after we get married in a few days." Zhu Chu was pinched by Dao Baifeng and had to change his words. But he
He seemed to be enjoying himself very much, without any hint of displeasure.
"But no matter what, you should read more books by us Han people and know our rules." Zhu Zhen said: "This time, sending troops to grab things is not the most important thing. The most important thing is to weaken the Bago Kingdom. Now
There is an uprising in Bago, and if we can achieve our goal without using our soldiers to fight, why do we still need to fight?"