On this day, King Talong suddenly held a meeting of civil and military officials.
This situation was relatively rare in the Toungoo Dynasty, especially during the reign of King Thalong.
Therefore, the civil and military officials of the Toungoo Dynasty all speculated that something big must have happened?
In this regard, some people who are more well-informed may have guessed what happened.
"Don't you know, the king has been working hard to change the current predicament in the past two months, and now he finally has a way!"
"Is it that the Emperor of Ming Dynasty is ready to let them go? Or is it that they bribed the high officials of the Ming Dynasty and can influence the emperor?"
"Could it be that the Emperor of Ming Dynasty passed away? If that's the case, then we, Donggo, are so lucky!"
"Where did you say he went? The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was only in his thirties, and it was not easy to die! It was our king who found a way to fight against the Ming Dynasty!"
"The Ming Dynasty's army is very powerful. Our army is obviously unable to defeat it. What else can we do? The Dutch can't come in large numbers to help, right?"
"If that's the case, then it's pretty much the same. The Dutch are also very powerful with firearms!"
"No, no, you will know everything after the meeting!"
"..."
Amid the heated discussions, the atmosphere on the way to the palace became unusually lively. Many people who usually didn't bother to say hello when they met actually started to say hello now.
When the court meeting began, when King Talong appeared in front of the civil and military officials, his face was no longer a fishy face or a frown, which made the civil and military officials even more happy. The rumors were indeed correct!
After they had finished the ceremony, they saw King Long smiling at them and said to them: "I solemnly announce that we will form an alliance with the Dacheng Dynasty and the Dali Dynasty to jointly deal with the pressure of the Ming Dynasty. If one party suffers from the Ming Dynasty,
If we attack, the other two parties will send troops to rescue!"
Having said this, he waved his hand vigorously, and the two personal chamberlains next to him immediately stepped forward and unfolded a piece of yellow silk.
Obviously, this Huang Ling is the alliance letter!
All the civil and military officials in the hall were very happy when they saw him, and they all started to flatter King Long.
"Your Majesty is wise and mighty, our Toungoo dynasty can be saved!"
"With the three countries here forming an alliance, the Ming Kingdom will definitely not dare to fight. Your Majesty is a wise king!"
"Actually, we, Dong Wu, were able to reach Yunnan in the past. As long as we survive this period, under the leadership of His Majesty the wise and powerful, we will definitely be able to regain our glory!"
"Wei Chen proposes to inform the Ming Dynasty of this news, letting them know their weight, and see if they dare to continue to stockpile troops on the border? If we accidentally fight, we will be one of the three countries to defeat him!"
"..."
Listening to the heated discussion of these people below, Prince Long smiled on the surface, but in his heart, he was actually not happy at all.
Why?
Because this covenant is just an initial signature, there is the fact of an alliance, but the specific details of the alliance have not been negotiated!
For example, who is the leader of the alliance? Dong Wu asked all allies to come over and defeat the Ming army in front of him, but Annan said that the Ming army on his side was more urgent and needed all allies to provide support in food and supplies. And so on, each
Talking about different things, there is still no consensus.
However, all parties urgently need this covenant to boost their country's morale. Therefore, although the specific details have not been negotiated, it does not prevent them from making this covenant public first.
Not to mention, the effect of this alliance is really good, but the civil and military officials in this hall are already very happy. I feel that with several countries forming an alliance like this, they will have enough confidence!
Of course, some smart people found out that King Long did not announce the details of the alliance, which made them suspicious. However, under the general trend where everyone is happy, whoever questions it will definitely think that he has lived too long. Got it!
After the dissolution of the Yamen, the news spread to the people, and as expected, it can be seen that the rich and powerful in Ava City, etc., all became angry, as if they had defeated the mountain that was weighing on their hearts!
Restaurants, tea shops and other places have become more lively, and wealthy people are willing to come out.
However, they were afraid that they would never have imagined that Yang Weizhi, the governor of Yunnan during the Ming Dynasty, was waiting for this: OK, several countries in the south actually formed an alliance with each other to fight against the Ming Dynasty, and there were rebels from the imperial court. , must fight!
Immediately, he gave an order, and the southwest frontier army of the Ming Dynasty, which had already been holding back its momentum, immediately launched a surprise attack and fired the first shot to counter the rebellion!
For the Ming army, they were already familiar with the roads, even if they had conquered the city of Ava before. Even if they were not familiar with it, they had already figured it out clearly after accumulating troops for more than two years.
Not to mention, during King Talong's reforms, he rectified and strengthened the Ahmadan organization.
The so-called Ahmudan is a military-peasant organization of the Toungoo Dynasty directly subordinate to the king. They are both the king's tenants and the king's soldiers. Whether King Dongwu has the strength to rule depends to a large extent on him. Whether it can effectively control the Ahmadan organization.
King Thalon was well aware of the importance of the Ahmadan organization, so after taking the throne, he took various measures to rectify and strengthen the Ahmadan organization.
For example, in April 1630, King Talon ordered to investigate the household registration of Ahmudan personnel, re-register them, and classify them into artillery, sailors, elephant soldiers, infantry, archers, bucklers, long shield soldiers, palace guards and Shan. clan soldiers.
King Tallon also ordered many times to strictly prohibit Ahmudan members from mixing with Atai and slaves. In his order on August 5, 1636, he specifically stated that "everyone must be warned not to harbor members of Akhmutan". "Escaped members of the Mudan organization" and ordered "to check the debt slaves and not let Ahmedan mix among them." In order to strengthen personal restraint and control, the tattoo system was implemented among Ahmutan at that time.
In other words, the soldiers in Ahmadan's organization were actually the slaves of his king, and they were not voluntary. They had to be tattooed to distinguish their identities, and many of them ran away.
This kind of military service system is okay if you encounter a weak opponent; however, once you encounter a strong enemy, how can the soldiers who are slaves die for their king?
The Ming Dynasty did not have to pay a big price, but promised to improve their treatment a little, and in the face of the Ming Dynasty's powerful military power, they all immediately defected.
In less than half a month, the Ming army arrived at the capital of the Toungoo Dynasty, Ava City.
This actually confirms Yang Weizhi's prediction that the biggest difficulty in attacking the Toungoo Dynasty has never been the enemy's military strength, whether it is artillery, sailors, elephant soldiers, infantry, archers, bucklers, long shield soldiers, palace guards and Shan Clan soldiers and so on are all scum in the face of the powerful firepower of the Ming army. The biggest difficulty of the Ming army is actually logistics. And the faster the advancement, the greater the pressure on logistics.
There is no other reason than the road traffic here in Dongwu is too bad!
However, the Ming Dynasty also prepared an artifact to transport grain and supplies, that is, a wheelbarrow. As long as people can walk, a wheelbarrow can go. A mixture of water and land transportation is something that has been planned for a long time. For the attack on Ava City
That said, the logistical difficulties were not that obvious.
Of course, another important reason that prevented the Ming army's logistics from having too much pressure was the river that ran through the north and south of Dongwu, the Yinlowaddy River.
The Yinlowaddy River flows through the north and south of Dongwu. It is one of the largest rivers in the Indochina Peninsula of Asia and the largest river in Dongwu. Therefore, it is also the main artery of Dongwu inland river transportation and is navigable from 1,730 kilometers below Myitkyina.
, leads directly to Yangon and reaches the mouth of the Bay of Bengal.
In fact, during the Han Dynasty, Yunnan could travel down the Yinlowaddy River by water and sail out of the Bay of Bengal to India. This is recorded in "Wei Luo·Xirong Biography".
The place where the population of the Toungoo Dynasty was relatively concentrated was actually on both sides of the Yinlowaddy River. The Ming Dynasty planned to capture Dongwu to become the Ming Dynasty's outlet in the Indian Ocean. One of the most important favorable factors was also because of the existence of this river.
The Ming army did not need to attack in Myitkyina. Instead, they could get on the boat from Bhamo downstream and go directly to Ava City. However, due to the preparations of the Toungoo Dynasty, there were Dongwu troops defending the canyons on both sides, but the troops here had already been attacked in advance.
Instigating rebellion, and those who are not instigated cannot stop the army's attack.
In this way, the Ming army advanced by land and water, moving southward almost non-stop, and when they arrived at the gates of Ava without any hindrance, everyone in the Toungoo Dynasty was shocked.
They thought that the Ming Dynasty was powerful, but how could it be so powerful? It had only been a few days, and they had no time to escape before the Ming army came to the city.
When they saw the Ahmudan slaves in the Ming army formation, they all suddenly realized what they were doing, and at the same time, they angrily scolded these damn slaves!
Then, each of them started to worry.
Because the main force guarding Ava City is also the Akhmudan who is directly under King Talon. The Ahmudans stationed outside have all surrendered to the Ming army. So, is the Ahmudan in Awa City reliable?
When looking at Ahmedan outside the city, there is a question mark in everyone's mind!
Their worries were indeed not unreasonable. What surprised us in the cave on the top of the city was that the former slave of Ahmudan outside the city actually took something like a morning glory and hid at the top of the city within a stone's throw.
You can still hear the voice very clearly when you shout on it.
There are different tribes in Ahmedan, and people from almost every tribe are among the group of people shouting outside the city, chattering in their own dialect.
This frightened the generals of the garrison on top of the city, and they all shouted at their soldiers, blocking their ears and not listening to the rebels outside.
Obviously, they were very worried, fearing that the people under their command would betray them after listening to the outside temptation.
In this situation, he, King Long, was also a little dumbfounded!