Faced with Li Dingguo's determination and progress, Bai Wenxuan said with concern:
"Even so, even if our army can rely on the strength of its military to capture Awa, what then? The Burmese army may have stockpiled food and grass in Awa, but they will definitely try to set it on fire when they break the city. How much can they save?
There is no guarantee at the moment.
Secondly, even if the Burmese army could not burn down the grain and grass when they broke the city, they must have had time to fortify the walls and clear the country in advance, collect all the boats along the river around Ava City, and bring them to Bago, the capital at the downstream estuary, to assemble.
Anyway, the Burmese have enough supplies in Ava, which is their hinterland. The supplies were assembled before the war, and there was no need to transport them during the war. Therefore, when the war started, they could already ensure that they were in Ava City.
Not a single boat was left behind.
As a result, even if our army defeated Ava, we would not be able to raise enough ships for subsequent shipping supplies on the Indrabhadra River, and we would not be able to use the river from Ava to Bago to ensure the logistics of subsequent attacks.
.”
The army has to switch logistics routes between the two rivers on the east and west slopes of Jiaoshan Mountain. The most difficult thing about this is not how to cross the Jiaoshan Mountain, but even if it is overturned, if the enemy builds a strong wall and clears the fields on the other side of the river, all the ships will be destroyed.
Take it away or destroy it, and you won't be able to find a new ship even if you successfully cross the mountain.
Jiaoshan is not a small broken mountain like the Golden Horn of Constantinople. It is impossible to "dry land" for more than a hundred miles to pull the boats on the Nu River to the Indrabhadra River. Mangbai
Dare to say "everything east of Jiaoshan Mountain can be surrendered" is based on this.
However, in the face of Bai Wenxuan's concerns, Li Dingguo once again showed that he was well-prepared and had already planned: "As long as we can kill him and capture Ava, boats are not a problem. A boat trip of eight thousand miles by sea is better than a hundred miles boat trip on dry land."
It's much easier here.
At the beginning of this battle, after I recognized Mang Bai's strategic intention, I rushed Pegasus and asked the Guangdong reinforcements to act according to the second plan. The prince had overdone this matter before the war, and asked Zheng Chenggong to lead Jiuzhou
, Fujian's navy moved to Guangdong in advance.
As long as our army can establish a foothold along the Indrabhadra River, it can march straight in. After two months of sailing, the Guangdong navy can basically reach Bago. It can land upstream from the mouth of the river and open up the entire territory.
We, the Ming Dynasty, were unable to do anything to attack Burma before, but that was because we could only attack it by land. Now we can attack it by land, and we can provide a fleet of ships at once by sea, and it is no problem to completely defeat the Mangbai!"
Li Dingguo did not expect that during the subsequent campaign, every supply would allow Zheng Chenggong to sail eight thousand miles from Guangdong, bypass Malacca to dock in Bago, and then go upstream to Ava.
However, as long as Zheng Chenggong does this for the first time, the follow-up will be convenient. The key is that after Zheng Chenggong arrives, he can leave some of the ships. In this way, after Li Dingguo captures the city of Ava, he can get enough transport ships under the city of Ava to provide
Used for subsequent transfer promotion.
To put it bluntly, whether it is ammunition or supplies, the Yunnan Theater has raised enough in the past five years. What is lacking is just transportation capacity. If Zheng Chenggong’s large-scale outflanking roundabout can penetrate the Indrabhatu River channel, then everything
That’s it.
Of course, this kind of thing must be kept secret in advance, because if the secret is leaked, the Burmese may abolish the shipping on the Indrabhadra River in advance——
For example, building weirs on rivers, creating shoals and reefs, or using iron cables across the river, dark cones at the bottom of the river, etc. can be used to destroy the Ming army even if the Burmese themselves no longer use this lifeline for river shipping.
supply.
Don’t think that this kind of thing is impossible, because more than two hundred years ago, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Vietnamese used this trick to defeat Zhu Di’s attack. At that time, because the Ming Dynasty had a sea ban, it was clear that Guangxi could reach Vietnam.
Supplies were taken by coastal shipping, but the Ming Dynasty lacked sea-going ships and could only rely on shipping on the Red River from Yunnan to Vietnam for supplies.
Then at that time, the Vietnamese set up many destruction facilities in the Red River to destroy the waterway, and even used various artificial dredging and siltation to create dangerous shoals in the river mouth delta to ensure that Ming Dynasty ships could not sail into the middle section of the Red River, and finally forced Zhu Di to
The Ming army was cut off from supplies and could only plunder randomly, forcing countless Vietnamese civilians to rebel. In the end, the Ming army returned with a disastrous defeat.
Experts always fight with logistics, and the frontal battlefield is just the last step.
It was precisely because of Li Dingguo's confidentiality considerations in this regard that he was afraid that the Burmese people would realize that this trump card would destroy the waterway in advance, so he kept it secret even from himself.
Before the war, only Zhu Shuren, Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong knew about this alternative plan. Moreover, Zhu Shuren also authorized that once Li Dingguo found that it was necessary to implement it, he could contact Zheng Chenggong on his own and act according to the plan without having to ask Nanjing for temporary instructions.
After all, it is much faster to contact Guangdong directly from Yunnan. If we go to Nanjing first and then direct Guangdong from Nanjing, the day lilies will be cold.
After Bai Wenxuan and Feng Shuangli finally knew the full plan, they put down their worries and expressed that they would work hard to serve the country and not lose face to the Marquis.
Li Dingguo is still just a marquis, while Zheng Chenggong was already a duke seven or eight years ago - who allowed Zheng Chenggong to capture Kyushu Island and defeat the Fuso people? Li Dingguo couldn't even envy him.
So this time he was holding back his energy, aiming to gain some great achievements in dealing with Burma and Vietnam, strive for the position of Duke, and also grant the title of marquis to his subordinate Bai Wenxuan and Feng Shuangli.
However, in the end, it was inevitable that Zheng Chenggong's navy would have to cooperate with him. In this life, his status in the court was destined to be downgraded by Zheng Chenggong.
…
The plan was established, and Li Dingguo was also a decisive person. He finally chose to leave the camp along the Nu River on the ninth day of October, go west deep into the Jiaoshan Mountains, and launch a land offensive.
Because they had to cross mountains, they could not bring heavy Hongyi artillery, so they only carried new steel-cast cavalry cannons with a dead weight of less than 1,500 kilograms as follow-up firepower.
Heavy artillery weighing more than 3,000 kilograms can only be left in the camps around Lashio to defend the rear.
Such allocation of firepower is actually quite risky. Because the firepower of today's Burmese army is actually far stronger than that of the Qing army more than ten years ago. The Burmese have been trading with the Portuguese and Dutch for forty years.
There are plenty of original European red barbarian cannons available.
This means that in the subsequent offensive and defensive battles of the fortified city, the weight of the defender's artillery may be more than twice as heavy as that of the attacker, and the range will be farther than that of the attacker. In this way, the siege artillery position will be completely
Within the coverage of the city's artillery, it will definitely be very difficult if the siege camp is not strictly constructed to ensure artillery defense.
However, Li Dingguo is still very optimistic. He knows that all difficulties are also the inducements for the enemy to be paralyzed and relaxed. As long as they are used well, the surprise attack will be more successful.
…
Sure enough, the Ming army began to try to cross the Jiaoshan Mountains on the ninth day of October. After the stalemate for more than half a month, the Burmese army became lax again. They thought that Li Dingguo knew how powerful they were and did not dare to cross the Jiaoshan Mountains to seek death.
But Li Dingguo just did what they thought was seeking death. As a result, the Burmese troops who had stayed in camps at several peripheral passes at the eastern foot of Mount Kyauk were once again severely beaten by the concentrated superior forces of the Ming army.
The camp of Jiaoyue Town on the front line, with about three to four thousand Burmese troops, was instantly killed by the Ming army within half a day. After all, the Ming army's artillery was an era more advanced than theirs, and the attacking force was ten times that of the defenders of Jiaoyue Town. The Ming army was also able to kill them instantly.
Couldn't be more reasonable.
Then the Ming army continued to advance rapidly, and in just three days they reached Jiaomei County at the pass of the southern section of Jiaoshan Mountain.
Jiaomei County is located on the main ridge of Jiaoshan Mountain. It is the lowest point on the main ridge of Jiaoshan Mountain within a few hundred miles nearby. It is also the easiest to cross. To the east of Jiaomei County, the Ming army went uphill all the way to cross this mountain pass.
, heading west is all downhill.
Because of the importance of this place, Mang Bai usually stationed tens of thousands of troops in Kyaukmei County, and scattered other troops at other passes, as well as in the city of Ava in the rear——
It was impossible for Mangbai to pile hundreds of thousands of troops on the mountain, because it would be too difficult to supply military supplies for a long period of time, so the main force could only be placed in large cities in the plains and valleys. Only after figuring out the main direction of the Ming army's attack, could they
Send additional troops to the pass being attacked.
All this made the Burmese army's actions to reinforce Kyaukme seem a little slow, and Li Dingguo seized the opportunity and captured the county seat after two days of bloody battles.
The Ming army's tactics were also very simple and crude. The cavalry cannons were pulled up to blast open the county walls, and then the rifle teams swarmed in and advanced in formation.
The Burmese army's local musketeers were insufficient in number and were quickly suppressed.
Although there are many other soldiers who use bows and arrows, they can rely on complex terrain to output firepower, but their arrows are completely unable to damage the vital points of the breastplate musketeers. Even the lightly armored hands and feet can only cause skin trauma.
, eventually resulting in a one-sided massacre.
The Burmese army is very similar to the Indian army, that is, they do not pay attention to the issue of armor penetration, because few people can wear thick heavy armor in tropical battles. In order to keep cool, many of their locals even wear only
Linen clothes came into battle, which made armor-piercing weapons useless.
In the end, more than 20,000 Burmese troops defending the city were annihilated by the Ming army, and the food reserves in the county were not burned in time, giving Li Dingguo an advantage in vain.
Mangbai's main force from other directions did not arrive from all directions until the day after Jiaomei County was conquered. Because the county seat had been lost, they had to station themselves at other relatively low-lying western slope passes on the Jiaomei Valley Road.
road to prevent the Ming army from advancing further.
More than 20,000 troops were wiped out, which made the morale of the Burmese army even lower. However, Mangbai remained confident. He personally inspected each army and tried his best to encourage his generals:
"Don't worry! Li Dingguo is looking for death! Although he destroyed the small county of Jiaomei, he easily left the Nu River Valley and went deep into the Jiaoshan Mountains. As long as we surround him, Li Dingguo will be dead within a month or two!"
In this dense forest, smoke and miasma are rampant. How can the northerners survive? Moreover, I have already questioned the remnants of the Jiaomei garrison that broke out. I heard from them that the Ming army only wanted a quick victory when they attacked the city.
It was very reckless and the losses were not small.
It is only because our army's arrows cannot penetrate armor that most of the Ming soldiers suffered minor flesh injuries - but Li Dingguo underestimated the danger of minor flesh injuries in the Burmese rainforest! In such a hot and rainy place, those Ming soldiers with flesh wounds
He will soon fester and die! Even debridement and bandaging cannot save him! Hold on and our army will win!"
Under Mang Bai's personal encouragement, the Burmese soldiers finally regained some morale, and felt that it made sense. Although more than 20,000 people were killed by Li Dingguo, they were in exchange for seducing Li Dingguo from the Nu River to Jiaoshan Mountain.
deep.
As long as you grit your teeth and endure, the power of nature can kill the Ming army! It doesn't matter if you fight head-on and get crushed!
…
Li Dingguo began to cross the mountains on the ninth day of October, began to attack Kyaukme County on the eleventh, and broke the city on the fourteenth. After breaking the city, he repaired for two days before getting into a posture to attack the Burmese army reinforcements again.
However, the defense of the Burmese army was very resolute. In the first two days of the attack, the Burmese people took lives and blocked the Kyauk Valley road to death. Although Li Dingguo achieved a good kill-to-kill ratio, he still failed to achieve it.
breakthrough.
In addition, the Burmese people felt that they were "defending their homeland" and felt that they had no retreat, so they insisted on fighting to the death no matter how many casualties they suffered. Li Dingguo did not want to waste lives on the other side, so he had to postpone the offensive.
On the other hand, this was also one of Li Dingguo's tricks to show weakness and cheat. He hoped that Mang Bai would misjudge because of this. He felt that there were many soldiers in the Ming army who were attrited due to minor injuries and heat and humidity. He felt that the Ming army was unable to fight anymore, so as to induce Mang Bai to
Relax your guard again.
As a result, when the valley position battle lasted until October 20th, Li Dingguo finally assumed an "exhausted" posture, stopped attacking, and turned to the east to "break out", pretending to be exhausted by the continuous high-intensity battle.
The successor is weak and needs to be returned to the bank of the Nu River for repairs.
Because after retreating to the Nu River, the Burmese army would not be able to cut off Li Dingguo's supplies of food, grass and ammunition. Li Dingguo could rely entirely on supplies shipped from Yunnan via the Nu River waterway.
In order to act more realistically, Li Dingguo also planned to set a fire in the city and burn down all the houses when he "abandoned Jiaomei County". As for the remaining food reserves, he could take them with the army.
In addition, through various channels, he also deliberately leaked false information to the Burmese army, which was approaching and spying on them every day, making the Burmese people really think that "the Ming army suffered many minor casualties due to the damage caused by the Burmese army's bows and arrows.
After staying in the mountainous area for nearly ten days, suppuration and infection finally began, and a large number of people with serious illnesses had to go back for treatment."
After receiving these bad news from the Ming army, how could Mang Bai let Li Dingguo go? So before Li Dingguo set fire to Jiaomei County, he frantically divided his troops and took a roundabout route through the mountains to cut off the Ming army's path and prevent Li Dingguo from returning to Lashio on the Nu River.
However, in this case, it was the Burmese's turn that they could not rely on the solid valley fortifications and the offensive and defensive terrain was reversed.
The Burmese army staying at the western foot of Kyauksan has layers of fortifications and is encamped on the road. The Burmese army can also transport the Hongyi artillery from the Awa city in the rear to strengthen the defensive position.
The Burmese army, which had climbed over the mountains and circled around, had no geographical advantage at all and could only fight in the field with the Ming army. They could not carry any artillery, so they were absolutely crushed by the Ming Dynasty in terms of firepower. The reason why Mang Bai was able to withstand the huge
The casualty exchange ratio must also be lowered, in order to wear down Li Dingguo and let Li Dingguo's troops die in large numbers from infection in the Jiaoshan rainforest.
In this way, Li Dingguo secretly held a supply of concentrated sulfuric acid to sterilize the scalpel and gauze. The efficiency of debridement surgery for lightly wounded patients was far beyond Mang Bai's imagination, and Mang Bai was bled out in vain.
However, the pollution of drinking water in the rainforest during the rainy season, the breeding of mosquitoes, and the large number of deaths from diseases caused by the acclimatization of the Ming army that Mang Bai was looking forward to also did not happen, or the level was much lower than originally expected.
Li Dingguo also ignored the warning of the Academy of Sciences, saying that carbolic acid disinfection may introduce some new toxicities, and long-term exposure is harmful to health, so he continued to use disinfectant water - carbolic acid also has a scientific name called "phenol". In theory, it will be used in later generations.
According to chemical standards, it belongs to the third category of carcinogens (the third category is already considered light, and the first category is more serious. For example, formaldehyde left in decoration can be considered a first-category carcinogen)
But how could people in the Ming Dynasty care about this? If you don’t use too much disinfectant, you may die right now. If you use too much disinfectant, the probability of developing tumors may be several times higher in ten or twenty years. Li Dingguo knew very well what to choose.
, besides, he doesn’t understand those medical principles very well.
This is like those people in war-torn areas in Africa in later generations, most of whom will die at the age of thirty. How can they be afraid of AIDS?
The imperial court agreed before the war that the soldiers who fought in Burma would be given health allowances for life and could retire five years early to receive pensions. Based on these conditions, the soldiers were very happy to use this supposedly dangerous disinfectant.
The reason why Zhu Shuren came up with such a solution was simply to compare it with positions such as welders in later generations. Because "long-term employment will be harmful to health, you can retire five years in advance, and the length of service will be added." He transferred it to the Ming Dynasty and slightly changed it.
Create additional pension subsidies for retired soldiers.
…
Through careful calculation and unintentional calculation, the Ming army obviously did not suffer a large number of casualties due to skin wound infections and tropical diseases, but the Burmese army mistakenly believed that they had such battle losses, and thus held them back regardless of casualties.
Such a meat grinder battle quickly depleted Myanmar's main force. The Burmese soldiers who blocked the Ming army's return route suffered almost thousands of casualties every day. In exchange, it only made it "difficult for the Ming army to retreat quickly.
I can only fight and walk on the mountain road every day, covering ten miles a day."
At this rate, it would take Li Dingguo ten to eight days to retreat to Lashio on the Nu River. And this stretch of road was filled with the lives of Burmese soldiers.
From October 20th to the end of October, the total number of Burmese casualties and disease casualties increased by as much as 40,000 to 50,000. The morale of those who were still alive also plummeted, they fell completely to the bottom, and their physical condition was not good.
.
The entire Kyaukvalley Road has almost become the Verdun meat grinder of this era, crushing the flesh and blood of the Burmese army batch after batch.
After the time entered November, Li Dingguo felt that his acting was almost done, and Mang Bai was so consumed by his seduction that he finally decided to seize the opportunity to close the net.
It just so happened that on the second day of November, the Jiaoshan area, which had not rained for seven or eight days in a row, experienced the last heavy rain at the end of this year's rainy season.
Taking into account the time between the two rains, the local Sanxuanliuwei guides captured by Li Dingguo said that if it rained again after such a long time, the next rain would probably have to wait until the entire dry season.
Li Dingguo thought for a while and ordered the whole army to change their previous attitude of "pretending to flee eastward", turn around and kill the enemy, and directly attack the main force of Mangbai on the west side who was biting behind him.
"An attack on such a rainy day?" Bai Wenxuan and Feng Shuangli couldn't help but feel worried.
Li Dingguo Zhizhu smiled ferociously on the ground: "Of course we don't attack when the rain is heaviest. Let the soldiers wrap their muskets in oilcloth and attack when the rain subsides. The Burmese muskets are not waterproof at all, and the artillery is not waterproof at all.
water proof.
Originally, our army could not forcefully attack westward because the road between Kyaukme and Awa was blocked by the Burmese army's cannons. Now the Burmese army's firearms are useless after the rain, but our army's firearms have been improved to be waterproof in recent years.
, that is a one-sided massacre! Let the soldiers not be stingy and take out the smokeless ammunition that has been stored for a month! Today they are allowed to open smokeless powder ammunition!"