prosperous age

Chapter 1085 1176 Lost Soul

Whether he admits it or not, judging from everything Li Chengliang did, his overall view seemed to surpass that of generals such as Ma Fang and Yu Dayou.

Like these three famous generals in the middle and late stages of the Ming Dynasty, most of them formulated reasonable tactics against the enemies, won the wars, and fought very well in both offensive and defensive battles.

However, their contribution to the expansion of Ming territory was relatively limited.

Although Li Chengliang chose to abandon the six forts in Kuandian that he had built when he went to Liaodong for the second time in the later period, making the Ming Dynasty's previous efforts to expand northward go to waste, many people believe that the rise of the Jianzhou Jurchens was caused by this inappropriate order.

But objectively speaking, the Ming Dynasty had a serious shortage of troops in Liaodong at that time, and there was nothing wrong with actively shrinking the defense line.

The Ming Dynasty suffered heavy losses of elite troops in Liaodong during the war to aid Korea, and there was no time to replenish them. Therefore, the Ming army was indeed stretched to its limits in terms of manpower to deal with the expansion of the Jianzhou Jurchens.

Looking at Li Chengliang's military career, perhaps his only mistake was misjudging Nurhaci and giving him an opportunity.

From this we can conclude that the old saying "cut the grass at its roots" really makes sense, even if it seems a bit cruel at times.

After saying goodbye to Xiangui, Li Rusong boarded the boat and headed towards the other side of the river.

Behind the boat, a long line of large and small boats, also loaded with Tengchong soldiers and civilians, followed.

"Let's go back to the city."

Xian Gui stood on the dock, watching Li Rusong's boat pass the center of the river before giving an order.

A soldier brought a war horse over. Xian Gui took the reins and grabbed the saddle, then put his left foot on the stirrup and climbed onto the horse.

He took the whip from his personal soldier and lashed it on the horse's butt. The warhorse felt the pain and trotted away.

Behind the horse, a team of personal soldiers followed quickly and headed towards Lujiang City.

The wall of Lujiang City is not very tall and is far inferior to that of Tengchong City. It is actually quite difficult to build it within a month.

Fortunately, the East Gate is less than a mile away from the dock, and there are Ming army warships on the river to support him, so Xian Gui is not worried about his own safety.

It’s very easy to rush out at such a short distance.

As long as he concentrated the firearms at the east gate and bombarded the surrounding Burmese troops, he could lead his troops out of the city.

Xian Gui entered the city very quickly. At this time, the originally bustling streets were empty except for the soldiers carrying supplies.

When the Burmese army reached the city, most of the people in the city chose to cross the river to the east and flee to Baoshan City.

Some of the wealthy people in the city chose to go directly to Kunming.

After all, they were clear about the situation in Lujiang City, and they were afraid that Baoshan City behind them would soon become a battlefield.

"Have you checked everything? How many people are still in the city?"

Xian Guima arrived at the bustling streets of the city and suddenly reined in his horse and asked.

The personal soldier behind him stepped forward quickly and replied, "Sir, there are only soldiers in the city now, and there are no civilians left.

Some people were unwilling to leave, so we forcibly expelled them from the city.

Mr. Xian and his men should have already started searching every household in the east part of the city."

"Ah, very good."

At this moment, Xian Gui's face did not show any worry about the upcoming war, but instead a look of joy.

The outbreak of the war with Myanmar was somewhat sudden. Of course, this was only at the civilian level. In fact, the government and big merchants had already heard the news and made corresponding preparations.

But even so, the wealth left behind in the city by small and medium-sized merchants and wealthy families who did not have time to take away was also very huge.

The purpose of expelling the people on the pretext of war was naturally not for their safety, but to make it easier for the Xian family and their soldiers to collect the remaining properties.

Gathering the things together and shipping them out via boats on the river would make a huge fortune in the future.

Lujiang City cannot be defended anyway, so those merchants and wealthy people will go to Mang Yinglong to collect their debts. What does it have to do with him?

Lujiang City was an important transportation hub in western Yunnan, and he believed that the treasures he would collect this time would be no less than 100,000 taels of silver.

Looking at the closed shops on the street, Xian Gui felt better at this moment. There were a lot of things stored here. At the beginning, these merchants were scared away when two Burmese troops were approaching the city. They didn't have time to pack the goods. At most, they left with gold and silver.

Through the gaps in the doors and windows, you can still see the goods on the shelves.

"Go, go home."

Xian Gui shouted and rode his horse towards the residence of his pacification envoy.

The mansion is located in the center of Lujiang City. It has convenient transportation with streets on all sides. After passing through the heavily guarded mansion gate, Xian Gui quickly entered the second gate.

"Twenty rolls of cotton cloth and three rolls of brocade."

Entering the courtyard behind the second gate, what came into Xian Gui's ears was the sound of servants counting supplies in the mansion, as well as the clattering sounds of abacus.

Like a beautiful piece of music, Xiangui's already happy mood was about to reach a climax.

Looking at the property that took up most of the yard, Xian Gui called a servant and asked a few questions. He found out that this was the proceeds from his third brother's plunder from two wealthy families in the city.

"Tsk tsk, these local rich people are really rich."

Xiangui was not in a hurry to go back to rest. He walked happily to the pile of belongings and looked left and right.

Of course, he had seen these valuables before, but this was the first time he had picked up so many things for free.

"These two families left a few people to look after the house and were unwilling to leave, so the Third Master ordered someone to kill them."

That family was a group of servants who had been following Master Sanye for a long time, and at this time they were still whispering in Master Sanye's ear.

"Okay, got it. Tell the third brother to be more careful."

Since he had done such a thing, he had to do it cleanly and leave no one alive. It would be bad for his reputation as an official if it got out.

The line is expensive, but I still want to make progress. What is a prefect?

Once I have sorted out all the property in the city and put some of it into operation, it should be enough for me to get promoted.

Xian Gui made up his mind and thought happily.

"Also, tell the third brother to move faster. If there are not enough people, transfer people from the mansion."

"Yes, sir."

The servant nodded and agreed, then ran out.

Tengchong has been lost. The next step should be to send troops to Lujiang City. Calculating the time, there are still five days.

The Burmese army's vanguard is outside the city, and the central army led by Mang Yinglong should not be in a hurry to travel, so there is still time.

Five days is enough to catch all the wealthy families.

As for those of the common people, forget it. They are all poor people who can barely make ends meet. What can they leave behind?

In the direction of Tengchong City, just as he expected, the central army led by Mang Yinglong himself broke camp and headed towards Lujiang City.

The marching speed was not fast along the way. After all, it was a large group of more than 100,000 people. In order to avoid chaos during the march, the marching speed was kept low and they did not march towards Lujiang with all their strength.

Now that the advantage of a surprise attack had been lost, the Ming army was prepared.

It should be said that, in addition to the successful surprise attack on Lu and Liangcheng, the defense of Tengchong was much tighter, which made the Burmese army's plan of rapid advance fail. Moreover, Lujiang City actually used similar tactics, but the Ming army seemed to be well prepared and was also blocked outside the city.

For this reason, Mang Yinglong would never choose to attack the city by surprise like he did at the beginning of the war.

Didn’t the Ming Empire say that it would advance with murderous intent?

Now, Mang Yinglong has assembled the most powerful army in Myanmar's history, and is imitating what is said in the book, with the entire army marching towards Lujiang City in unison.

He believed that the Ming army scouts along the way would be frightened by the army's strict formation when they saw such a scene.

What does the phrase mean? It means to conquer the enemy without fighting.

The front team of the army was an elephant soldier unit consisting of more than 20 war elephants, followed closely by a large number of infantrymen.

At this time, he was standing on a small hill beside the army's marching road, watching the march of his Burmese troops, and his heart was filled with pride.

With such an army in hand, the Ming Dynasty might not be able to defeat the enemy easily.

"My king, look at how majestic our army is. I never thought our army could be so powerful."

Hanba saw Mang Yinglong's mood at the moment, and hurriedly came up to him and whispered.

"Yeah, I didn't expect the army to come out with such momentum."

Mang Yinglong smiled with pride.

"If such an army were to reach Lujiang City, Baoshan City, Chuxiong, and Kunming, I'm afraid we wouldn't even have to attack the city. Those cowardly generals of the Ming army would kneel down and pledge their loyalty to the king."

Hanba continued to flatter, and this time his voice was much louder so that others around him could hear it.

"Yes, we should drive the army directly to Lujiang City, let the Ming dogs see our military appearance, and then ask them if they are afraid, haha."

"I'm afraid he was so scared that he couldn't even say the word surrender, hehe."

"The Ming Kingdom only looks scary, but in fact, their officials are all timid. If you use force on them, they will be scared to death."

The Burmese monarch and his ministers' disparaging remarks about the Ming Dynasty caused laughter among the surrounding Burmese soldiers.

In fact, the people standing here, seeing the well-organized army below, all had the illusion that they were an invincible army and believed that they could defeat any opponent in the world.

"Has the letter been sent?"

When Mang Yinglong saw his generals laughing so wildly, he suddenly felt that as a king, he should be more reserved and not be like them.

So, Mang Yinglong quickly put away his smile, although he was still happy in his heart, and asked casually: "Has the letter been sent out?"

He said this to Hanba, who naturally understood what the letter was. He bowed and replied hurriedly, "Your Majesty, I sent someone to deliver the letter to Lujiang City yesterday. Xian Gui should see the letter tomorrow."

"Ah."

Mang Yinglong replied indifferently, feeling that this seemed to give people a sense of mystery and profoundness. Thinking about the Prime Minister Cao in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he should be no more than this.

No matter how we talk about the story of the Three Kingdoms, in the end it was Cao Wei that conquered the world and became the final winner.

Therefore, Mang Yinglong did not look down on Cao Cao at all because he was only a prime minister. Without the foundation he laid for Cao Pi, how could the Wei Kingdom be established?

  What about yourself?

It seems that even if he cannot destroy the Ming Dynasty and annex it with his own hands in the end, he is still building an empire and creating a foundation for his descendants.

Perhaps, when he arrived in Mang Yingli, he could sit in the Golden Palace in the capital of the Ming Dynasty and issue orders to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Mang Yinglong raised the corner of his mouth and put on a meaningful smile.

At this time, outside the city of Chengdu, a post horse galloped in quickly. The postman on the horse looked at the endless stream of carriages and pedestrians blocking the road at the city gate and shouted loudly: "Express for eight hundred miles, anyone blocking the road will be killed."

The shout of the postman alarmed the soldiers guarding the city gate, who rushed to the city gate, waving their spears to drive the passers-by to the side of the road, making room for the area in the middle of the avenue. Then they rode their horses quickly and passed straight through the gate.

This was the urgent military information sent by the Ministry of War to Yunnan. The postmen set out from Beijing, passed through Baoding, Laishui and other places, then continued south to Yangquan and Taiyuan, passed through Xi'an and Hanzhong and entered Sichuan.

Climbing mountains and wading through water all the way, without daring to stop for a moment, you can reach Yunnan through Jianchang Prefecture.

It was really a life-threatening way of running, with people and horses constantly changing along the way, just to get the official documents to Baoshan and hand them over to Li Chengliang as quickly as possible.

All in all, it would only take three or four days to complete this arduous journey.

At this time, Li Chengliang had no idea that the situation had changed. The fast horses sent from the capital were rushing towards him.

He had received news that the remaining 2,000 soldiers of Tengchong Wei had passed Lujiang City and would arrive at Baoshan City in a few days.

He certainly would not keep such a defeated army in Baoshan City, even if it could increase the defensive force.

The combat effectiveness of the Tengchong Wei army was so low that he was afraid that if he stayed in Baoshan City, he would bring down the other armies.

Therefore, he just summoned Mu Changzuo, the general of Yunnan, and asked him to send this remaining army to be responsible for transporting food and fodder in the future.

Mu Changzuo was naturally happy to obey the order and agreed happily, and he even had some good feelings towards Li Chengliang in his heart.

It’s timely rain, just right.

Tengchong Wei suffered a defeat, and he should have severely punished the commander of the Wei. However, there was a relationship after all: the commander's sister was his favorite concubine.

It’s actually difficult for him too.

Being arranged to the rear, well, that’s actually pretty good.

Everything seemed to be going in the direction that Li Chengliang had planned, so Li Chengliang was actually very happy.

But he didn't know that his good mood would soon disappear.

A few days later, before we had time to react to the urgent report from the Ministry of War, bad news came from Lujiang City.

However, as the saying goes, "Misfortune may turn out to be a blessing in disguise." Sometimes fate is so strange that it brings opportunities to him.

At this time, in the Lujiang City Garrison, Lujiang Pacifier Xian Gui was sitting in the study in a daze, and he didn't even notice a piece of letter paper fell to the ground at his feet.

That letter was naturally the one sent by Hanba, a threatening letter to Xiangui.

If it were normal times, Xian Gui would have only sneered, but now is different. When the two armies were fighting, it was revealed that he had secretly sold a batch of weapons and armor to Myanmar more than three years ago. It is easy to imagine how serious the consequences would be.

But the problem is that I did have two exchanges of letters with Xian Gui because of this business.

I can’t remember whether the letter explicitly mentioned this business.

But since the other party sent the threatening letter to him, it was obvious that he had nothing to fear.

Between the Ming Dynasty and Myanmar, those lawless chieftains certainly didn't care about the choice, but he didn't.

He knew the strength of the Ming Dynasty. If it really fought with Myanmar, Myanmar would undoubtedly lose. The only difference was the price the Ming Dynasty would have to pay.

Moreover, he was not an ordinary official. Due to the special location of Lujiang City, he knew that the court had been prepared for it long ago. Li Chengliang's arrival was not an accident at all, but an arrangement by the court.

He even knew that the troops from Sichuan, Guizhou and other places had entered Yunnan, but he had no idea where they were specifically deployed.

Therefore, Xiangui never thought of surrendering to Burma.

At this critical juncture, the other party produced such a fatal piece of evidence, leaving him with no choice for a moment.