prosperous age

"Boom boom boom"

The six gunboats were undoubtedly the main star ships of the Ming Dynasty's South China Sea Navy at that time. They were always at the forefront of the charge and built the first line of firepower for the imperial navy.

This time it was the same. The gunboat rushed into the harbor, lined up in a line, and began to pour shells at the small hill where the Burmese troops were stationed on the shore.

The artillery of this era had an extremely limited range.

Take the latest long-barreled cannons currently equipped by the Ming army, for example. Their range is less than three miles, so when shooting at targets on the shore, the Ming army warships need to fire as close to the coastline as possible, and the target cannot be too far away, otherwise the effect will be lost.

In this era, first of all, with the technology, it is almost nonsense for naval guns to support ground infantry combat.

Yu Dayou initially estimated that if the Ming army's artillery fired at the longest distance, the shells should be able to hit the Burmese army camp on the shore, but the actual result was slightly different from his expectations.

The Ming army's artillery shells were indeed able to hit the Burmese army camp, but only on the outer edge, so the actual damage was limited.

Through the telescope, Yu Dayou observed the impact points of the first wave of bullets. Only a few bullets seemed to have hit a house, because in his eyes, there seemed to be a hole in the house.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack."

At this time, in the Burmese army camp, panicked soldiers were running around in dishevel and holding their weapons. Some of them were unlucky enough to be hit by the ricocheting stones and fell to the ground, groaning in pain.

Soon, the Burmese soldiers gradually recovered from their initial panic, especially the two Burmese soldiers who saw the Ming navy warships and told them to quickly hide behind the camp, away from the coast.

The Burmese army was not unaware of cannons, as they were on the Portuguese ships trading here. However, in their understanding, although the cannons had a long range, the location of their camp should not have been subject to cannon bombardment from the sea.

Yes, Burmese people are not stupid.

Originally their camp was at the foot of the mountain, on an open space closer to the dock.

However, after seeing the Portuguese cannons, the camp was rented to merchants who came here to trade, and they rebuilt houses away from the range of the cannons as a military base.

Perhaps what they saw the Portuguese show them was just the earliest version of the long-barreled cannon, so it had a range of only two miles.

Although the Burmese are no strangers to firearms, they are by no means proficient in them because they cannot make them themselves.

However, the high price of purchasing from the Portuguese would scare off most Burmese generals.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Burmese, the range of the cannon should be only that far, and as long as the camp was moved farther away from the sea, it would not be bombarded.

However, any country that can make artillery knows that the power and range of firearms are constantly improving.

Of course, the Portuguese would never tell them.

Because they still hope to sell the obsolete firearms to these stupid humans at the right time, and the transaction conditions and prices will not be cheap to the other party.

Just today, the Ming army taught the Burmese a lesson, making them aware of the development of firearms in advance.

After the bombardment began, while the Burmese army was still in panic, seven or eight Ming navy's Fujian ships also squeezed through the gaps between the gunboats and approached the dock.

In fact, when the Ming navy approached, the porters who were loading and unloading goods at the already busy Pegu Port dock were frightened by the display of force by the Ming army. They dropped the goods in their hands and fled towards Pegu City.

And after hearing the rumbling sound of cannons on the sea, they fled even faster.

Although most people ran away, some brave ones stayed on the dock, wanting to see who was coming from the sea and what they were going to do.

Although these porters had seen many merchant ships, the Ming Dynasty's Fujian ships rarely appeared in this sea area, so they were not familiar with them at all.

The Chinese merchants in Jiugang all used ship types from various countries in Southeast Asia. Naturally, they would not go to the Ming Dynasty to buy any Fujian ships to use. It would really be a loss.

Especially before the Ming Dynasty, the country was closed to the outside world for a long period of time, which made it extremely difficult for these maritime merchants to obtain supplies from the Ming Dynasty, except for trading with the Japanese pirates and buying the Ming Dynasty goods looted by the Japanese pirates at low prices.

The Japanese pirates naturally had Fu ships, but the value of sea ships to the Japanese pirates, or pirates, was equally huge.

Think about those big pirates, they all have hundreds or thousands of warships under their command and tens of thousands of supporters.

For pirates to grow from small to large, the number of ships actually increases. Pirates will naturally not easily sell the usable ships they have obtained with great difficulty.

Soon, a Fujian ship docked, followed by warships one after another that landed at the vacant berths at the dock. Before the ships even stopped, sailors had already disembarked, swam to the shore, and took the ropes thrown from the ship to moor them.

The gangplank was quickly set up, and forty or fifty Ming army infantrymen would get off each small Fu boat.

This is a team of general flags, led by a general flag, all of whom were transferred to this ship from other ships in advance.

When sailing on the sea, these infantrymen would naturally not be assigned to each ship according to the organization. Generally, the ships would be allocated based on small flags.

On a small Fu ship, there will usually be a small flag and a dozen people temporarily stationed there.

Soon, hundreds of Ming soldiers completed the landing. They were equipped only with spears, swords and shields, and a small number of soldiers were equipped with muskets.

As the first batch of Fu ships unloaded all the soldiers, they untied the ropes and began to sail back.

They also had to leave berths free to allow the Ming army warships behind to dock.

The several general flags who got off the boat, under the command of a centurion, built a simple defensive formation towards the Burmese army camp on the hillside and the direction of Pegu City.

Two other teams under the general flag began to clear the merchant ships parked at the dock.

Although most people on the dock ran away, there were still some people hiding on these merchant ships. The experienced sailors naturally recognized the approaching Ming ships, and from the scale of these ships, they could easily tell that these ships could not be pirates, but Ming Dynasty's official troops.

There are no pirates of such a large scale in the ocean now.

It did exist decades ago, but now, it has long since disappeared.

Ming army soldiers boarded the ship, found all the people hiding on board, and ordered them to sail away from the dock.

Pegu Port does not have only one dock, it is a seaport consisting of four or five docks of various sizes. The Ming army took a fancy to the two largest docks and naturally forcibly requisitioned these locations as the berth for the Ming navy.

Those merchant ships that were originally docked at these good locations would naturally be driven away to dock at two other docks that were much closer.

Yes, the Ming army decided to occupy three docks, including the two largest ones and a slightly smaller but excellently located dock, and the other two were for merchant ships to dock.

"Start the boat and leave here immediately. You can dock over there."

A small flag of the Ming army boarded an Arab sailboat and gave orders to the sailors on board.

Fortunately, the ship he boarded must have been to the Ming Dynasty, so there were people on the ship who could communicate with him in simple Chinese.

But in case the other side didn't understand, the flag pointed to the nearest pier and said, "You can stay there, but don't go near other places, because the government troops will requisition them."

"Sir, we understand. We will make way for you immediately. However, we still have cargo to transport on the shore. Please..."

The man who might be the manager spoke to the small flag of the Ming army with a flattering smile, but he was rudely interrupted before he could finish.

"What do you mean by your goods? Those on the shore are the spoils we captured from the Burmese rebels. There is nothing of yours here. Leave now, or I will kill you without mercy."

  Being respectfully addressed as "official master" by the curly-haired man on the opposite side, the flag officer was actually very happy and was preparing to enjoy it. This was a glorious moment that he had never had in the Ming Dynasty. Yes, in the Ming Dynasty, what were soldiers like them?

They are not even as good as the servants of the civil servants.

But look at the person opposite you who is talking to you. Although his clothes are not fancy, you can tell at a glance that he is not an ordinary person.

But now, seeing how respectful he was to him, the young flag officer seemed to suddenly feel the same way as those masters in the country felt when they faced them.

However, before I could get too excited, I heard the merchants on the other side talking about their goods. They even wanted goods? What a joke.

They had already seen the scattered goods on the dock, and the captain had also ordered that those things were not to be touched. Someone would collect them and deal with them later, and everyone would get a share of the silver.

"But that's my merchandise. I bought it from the city yesterday and had it loaded onto the ship today. It's all under the ship."

This businessman's luck is quite tragic. He happily sent a batch of goods to Pegu Port a few days ago. After selling them, he traded a lot of Burmese specialties. He planned to load the goods on a ship and leave today or tomorrow.

Unexpectedly, he ran into the Ming army landing in Burma, apparently intending to confiscate his goods.

If he were in the Ming Dynasty, he might have sent people to find Ming Dynasty merchants to trade with him.

Although merchants did not have a high status in the Ming Dynasty, they knew many powerful people. Although they did not have a high political status, they had great voice and influence and were quite powerful.

But this is not Yuegang of Ming Dynasty, but Bago of Myanmar.

In fact, they had more or less guessed the reason for the arrival of the Ming army. The news had spread in Pegu City that the Burmese King Mang Yinglong led his troops to attack Mengyang and now had invaded Yunnan, which was considered a war with the Ming Dynasty.

Originally, this had nothing to do with him as a businessman, but who told him to run into the Ming navy who came here to hunt.

The merchant could only endure it as he watched the Ming military households, who were looked down upon by their Ming counterparts, showing off their power in front of him.

The Ming army on the opposite side had either spears or muskets in their hands, so they couldn't afford to provoke them.

On the sea behind him, the dense swarms of Ming warships had blocked his route out of Pegu.

It was impossible to leave at this time, unless we did as the Ming soldiers asked and moved the boat to give up the berth.

As if his patience was exhausted, Xiaoqi waved the dagger in his hand and threatened: "Tell your sailors to sail, otherwise I will kill them all."

The other party kept chattering, just trying to buy time. Okay, the goods under the ship can be loaded onto the ship, but this is impossible.

The dagger was already at the merchant's neck. The man nodded resignedly and ordered the sailors to start working.

A Ming army soldier with a small flag stayed on the boat and watched them dock the boat at the designated small pier. Then they got off the boat and ignored them.

Although I know there should be more cargo on the ship, it would be inappropriate to move things that have already been on board down the ship, as it would be like blatant robbery.

Perhaps if it were any other Ming army general, they would have just robbed it. After all, this place is thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

But if the main general is Yu Dayou, that won’t work.

It was almost impossible to identify the owners of the scattered goods discarded at the dock, so they were all confiscated.

There is no reasonable explanation for stealing things from other people's boats, and there is no way to get away with it.

After three rounds of shelling, the Ming army's gunboats stopped shelling the Burmese army camp. Only then did the Burmese army have the courage to run to the hillside and look towards the dock.

At the foot of the hill, three teams of Ming troops were lined up in a V-shaped formation, apparently waiting for their attack.

However, when the Burmese army saw a new batch of Ming army warships docking at the pier and the Ming army soldiers constantly disembarking, they knew that they did not have the strength to counterattack.

  There are so many enemy troops, and they only have more than 300 people. How can they fight?

If you continue to fight, you will just be walking into a trap. Who would think your life is too long?

Soon, several Burmese soldiers who were checking ran back and told their superiors what they saw.

"Sir, we can't defend this place anymore. Let's go back to the city and report the enemy's strength."

"Yes, we can't hold on here. If we don't return to the city, when the enemy attacks, I'm afraid we'll all be dead."

Two of his generals advised him to return to the city to report the news, and the garrison commander thought about it and nodded.

Not to mention how many enemies there are, just by looking at the warships visible on the sea, it is clear that there are at least tens of thousands of enemies, which is definitely not something that their few hundred people can resist.

Even if we send out all the troops in the city, we still won't be able to defeat them.

Since you can't win, there's no need to die.

"Let's go back to the city and report the news."

The garrison finally made up his mind and gave the order.

"Sir, if the higher-ups ask, what do you say about these enemy troops?"

"Well, didn't they say they saw Chinese characters written on those big flags? So they said they were the Ming army. As for how they suddenly appeared here, we don't know."

After his subordinates asked who the enemy were, the garrison commander immediately spoke.

Now the king is at war with the Ming Kingdom. The Ming navy came here more than a hundred years ago. Naturally, these Burmese people living by the sea have heard of it.

Since I could come before, I can certainly come now.

In fact, Ming Dynasty products are not uncommon in Pegu Port.

Moreover, since Myanmar has long regarded the Ming Dynasty as its suzerain state, naturally there are also Chinese characters from the Ming Dynasty circulating in Myanmar.

It’s just that the illiteracy rate in this era is very high. Not to mention Chinese characters, most Burmese people themselves don’t even recognize their own Burmese characters.

However, as long as they look similar, we can just say they are the Ming army.

When they started to flee towards Pegu, the first group of porters and coolies who ran out from the dock had already rushed to the outskirts of Pegu.

The sight of the chaotic crowd rushing over really frightened the Burmese soldiers guarding the city gate, even though they had no weapons in their hands.

But it was still terrifying to see so many people rushing towards the city gate.

"Stop, or you will die."

Several Burmese soldiers lined up under the command of their captain, pointing their spears at the porters.

"Sir, let us enter the city. There are enemies coming from the dock."

The coolie running in front immediately stopped and told the Burmese soldiers on the opposite side what was happening at the dock.

The spear pointed at them still looked terrifying.

"Enemy Attack." (End of Chapter)