prosperous age

Chapter 1108 Chapter 1199 Capture of the City

Outside Toungoo, Myanmar.

The two thousand Ming army vanguards led by Wang Shike had already set up camp twenty miles away from Toungoo City.

Looking at the tall city walls of Toungoo in the distance, Wang Shike couldn't help but sigh: "The capital is different."

Along the way, we came across four large and small cities in Myanmar, all of which had small city walls similar to that of Pegu, and could not withstand the destruction of the Ming army's artillery.

The Ming army now only needs four long-barreled cannons, and they are too lazy to unload the falconets from the carriages.

After a few shots, the Burmese city gate was broken, and then a few shots on both sides allowed the army to enter the city.

The Burmese army's resistance was extremely weak. After all, they knew that the city of Pegu could not stop the attack of the Ming army, so their small number of troops would be even less capable of doing so.

It can only be said that the Burmese King Mang Yinglong took away all the capable troops in the country, leaving only a few troops to maintain law and order in other places, so he was naturally no match for the Ming army.

But the Burmese capital of Toungoo City in front of us is different. It looks a bit like the big city of Ming Dynasty.

I don’t know what the situation is in the city, but the city wall is estimated to be three people high, which has surpassed most of the county towns in Ming Dynasty at that time and is almost as tall as the provincial capital.

Although most prefectures and counties in the Ming Dynasty built city walls to protect their cities, they were not built with funds from the imperial court, but were built by the local governments themselves.

From money to construction specifications, everything is decided based on your own situation.

Therefore, the wealthy prefectures and counties built tall and majestic city walls, while the poor counties, which had to build city walls for protection, also had low walls, but most of them were only two people high.

The only things the imperial court was responsible for spending money to build were the border forts, which were planned and built by the Ministry of War according to combat needs. Therefore, no local funds were required, or only a small amount of money was raised, and the Ministry of Works provided materials and conscripted laborers.

Although the fiscal and tax revenue of the imperial court of this era seemed quite small compared to the vast national power, the burden was actually not heavy.

Simply put, the court was responsible for, apart from officials' salaries, military expenses, and flood prevention work on major rivers such as the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers.

Finally, when a disaster occurred in a local area, the imperial court would allocate money for disaster relief.

Apart from this, the court had no other serious expenses.

Therefore, if the country's national strength can pose a huge threat to the surrounding areas, stop the war, and ensure good weather, even a small amount of income can support the operation of state institutions and even leave a surplus.

In fact, what led to the final financial collapse of the dynasty was often the huge military threats around it, which led to increased military investment and spending.

The ancient imperial court was a truly small government, and its power did not even extend to the countryside. It was completely different from the big government of later generations that controlled everything.

What Wang Shike needs to attack now is a fortified city, so he naturally won't be overconfident.

Yu Dayou had already given many instructions on this. Even if the remnants of the Feilong Kingdom had to be consumed, they could not be consumed wantonly. They still had to be allowed to fully realize their value.

In fact, these people fought very bravely in order to cleanse the stains on their bodies.

For military generals, this kind of soldiers is their favorite.

Wang Shike was also unwilling to consume them for political reasons, but planned to fight a normal war. If those people could survive in the end, he would incorporate them into military households and serve as garrisons in Myanmar.

Myanmar is 18,000 miles away from the Ming Dynasty, so it will not be an eyesore to some people in the court.

"Sir, do we need to unload the falconets? And set up camp?"

Before his men could finish speaking, Wang Shike interrupted them with a wave of his hand and said, "Take them all down. This time, attacking Toungoo City may not be as easy as the previous times. We must be careful.

The army has just arrived and is exhausted. Notice that the outer perimeter of the camp must be built according to the drill manual and the camp must be set up. Tomorrow the whole army will have a good rest and wait for the commander-in-chief to arrive before fighting again."

Wang Shike knew that this place was not like the small towns he had passed by before, and it had great political significance.

The Burmese army will not give up easily and will definitely choose to fight to the death.

Let your men recuperate for two days before fighting again, and make full preparations. It would be best to break the city in one blow to avoid unnecessary casualties.

When the Ming army was preparing to rest, on the city wall of Toungoo City, the Regent Prime Minister Zuya and the ministers who stayed behind also went up to the city wall to watch the Ming military camp in the distance.

The enemy's military camp was not that big, at least it was not comparable to the more than 100,000 troops stationed outside the city more than half a year ago.

"The enemy should only have two to three thousand men. Sir, would you like me to lead the charge tonight?"

The general in charge of defending the city whispered to Zuya.

"Let's take a look first to see how the Ming army camp is set up. If it is solid, forget it. There is no need to cause more casualties."

Zuya shook his head and did not immediately agree with the commander's suggestion.

He knew better than anyone how much wealth the city had now. There were 5,000 troops stationed in Toungoo City itself, and more than 2,000 reinforcements were drawn from the surrounding areas. Now there were 7,000 regular troops in the city.

In addition, several thousand people were temporarily recruited from the city and other places. There were less than 15,000 combat-ready soldiers in the entire city, and nearly half of them had almost no combat power.

Such troops are not enough to defend the city, let alone send them out to steal the camp.

Although there were reports that the Ming army's landing force had only five or six thousand people, their combat power was strong, especially their extensive use of firearms to kill the defenders on the city walls. This was not good news.

The city of Pegu and several other cities ahead were taken down by the enemy by directly blowing down the city gates with cannons.

"Are all the city gates blocked?"

Zuya thought of this and asked immediately.

"It has been blocked with large rocks, leaving only the north gate open for entry and exit. We have also prepared a lot of sandbags. If the Ming army attacks the north gate, we will immediately block it with sandbags."

Although Toungoo City is a new city, it was built like a big city. Naturally, it gathers most of Myanmar's wealthy families and the city has a large population.

In a big city like this, the daily consumption of supplies is huge, so traffic needs to be kept unobstructed because they need to transport supplies from outside the city into the city.

Although, the transportation volume has been increased these days and a lot of things have been stockpiled in the city.

The reason they dared to do this was that the Burmese army knew that the Ming army was short of manpower and it would be difficult to surround the city on all sides and completely cut off transportation.

According to the current situation, the most likely directions of attack for the Ming army are the South Gate and the East Gate. Not far from the East Gate is the Pegu River, and the Ming army's warships can sail there, which must be the place where the Ming army's food and supplies are stored.

"Since the Ming army has arrived, starting today, the number of patrol soldiers on the city walls will be doubled. We must be doubly careful about the Ming army's sneak attacks."

Zuya finally gave the order, and in the distance several war horses were approaching the city wall quickly. Judging from the clothes of the people on the horses, they were scouts sent by the Burmese army to monitor the movements of the Ming army.

Soon, the basket was lowered, and a captain from the city dismounted and sat directly in it, and was lifted directly onto the city wall by the basket.

"Greetings, my lord."

The captain climbed up the city wall and knelt on one knee, saluting to Zuya and other bigwigs in the city.

"What did you find?"

The defender of Toungoo City nearby asked.

"Your Excellency, the Ming army camp was built very solidly, with at least three trenches dug outside the camp and many traps set.

There are also two levels of guard towers outside the camp gate, and sentry towers are built at intervals, and it seems that cannons have been moved up there."

The scout leader reported their observations in detail, and finally said: "Compared with the camps a few days ago, the Ming army camp this time is very strong and easy to defend but difficult to attack."

There are several teams of scouts outside the city. They have been hovering around the Ming army and conducting close surveillance these days.

The Ming army tried to expel them several times at the beginning, but with little effect.

The enemy were all cavalry, and they moved very quickly. After setting a trap and ambushing one wave, the Burmese scouts became more cautious, and in the end they had no choice but to let it go.

"How many Ming army scout teams are still out there?"

At this time, Zuya suddenly asked.

The Burmese army sent out scout teams to monitor the Ming army, and the Ming army naturally also sent out scouts to investigate nearby.

Scout teams often encountered each other in the wild and fierce battles broke out.

Relatively speaking, the Ming Dynasty's scout team was at a disadvantage because there were relatively few Ming army scouts who were good at bows and arrows, and most of them carried muskets.

For encounter battles, the most important thing is to fire as many bullets as possible in the shortest time.

In this respect, the bird gun cannot be compared with the bow and arrow.

After suffering several losses, the Ming army changed its tactics and increased the number of scout teams. Now, a Ming army team often has thirty to fifty people. Compared with the Burmese army or a normal scout team, which usually has no more than ten people, it is greatly overstaffed.

However, the effect was also significant. After the number of people increased, the Burmese army failed to gain any advantage from several clashes and no longer entangled with the Ming army, so they chose to retreat.

Even if they gathered several scout teams to attack together, the effect would be minimal.

Because there were enough people, the Ming army's bird guns could fire in batches, similar to a three-stage attack, which could offset the threat of archers.

"The Ming army has two teams of scouts outside, and they are now patrolling outside the east gate."

The captain of the Burmese scout team immediately replied.

Although they did not fight with the Ming army, they still kept a close eye on the enemy's movements.

The Ming army was not afraid of their surveillance and just carried out their own tasks.

"The East Gate, that should be the next location of the Ming army camp."

Before the Ming army arrived, Zuya had ordered all the ships to be hidden.

Myanmar does not have a navy, but it also has patrol boats. However, now all of them, whether official or civilian ships, have been confiscated, pulled ashore and hidden in chosen places to avoid being discovered by the Ming army.

The original dock outside the east gate was also destroyed by Zuya's order.

But such destruction actually has little effect. It will only make it more troublesome for the Ming army to transport supplies from the ship at the beginning and delay some time.

Once the Ming army repairs the dock, this action will naturally be useless.

As for preventing the Ming army from repairing the dock, well, that's just thought about it.

If there were elite soldiers in the city, he would not have allowed the Ming army to attack Toungoo City and would have sent troops to resist at various levels.

Looking at the present Toungoo City, Zuya didn’t know what to say.

In fact, he did not agree with Mang Yinglong's choice of this place as the capital.

The terrain around Toungoo City is flat, and apart from convenient transportation, it seems to have no other advantages.

Now the Toungoo City can only rely on its tall city walls to resist the attacks of the Ming army.

Of course, if Mang Yinglong had not moved the capital to Toungoo City, there would be no doubt that the Ming army would not have been able to reach them.

Yes, it turns out that the kings of the Toungoo Dynasty were all from Ava, the old city of the Ava Dynasty, which is Mandalay in later generations.

However, as a ruling center, the city of Ava is far away from the south of Myanmar, which is not conducive to maintaining control over Myanmar's economic center, so they chose to move south.

The location of Toungoo City is in the center of Myanmar, which facilitates the transmission of the kingdom's political decrees and the convenience of water transportation on the Pegu River, but it also facilitates the advance of the Ming army from the south.

In fact, if the Burmese capital was still in Ava, Yu Dayou might not have chosen to attack Pegu, but would have chosen Dagon or Rakhine State in the west.

Dagon is the economic center of Myanmar and the most developed place, where cities are densely populated and the population is large.

The Rakhine State landing and heading eastward is the closest road to the city of Ava.

But no matter what, its location is better than that of Toungoo City. The most important thing is that Ava City is surrounded by mountains on three sides, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. Its geographical location is much better than that of Toungoo City.

All I can say is that without the development of maritime power, this option would be a mistake.

So later, with the development of the global economy, shipping played the most important role, and Myanmar chose Yangon, now Dagon, as its capital for a long time.

As for the later relocation of the capital to Naypyidaw, a location in central Myanmar, there were other considerations.

It is worth mentioning that Naypyidaw is actually very close to Toungoo City. The two places are more than 200 miles apart, but it is a place surrounded by mountains and is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

In Mubang City, the war had ended at this time.

The Ming army's surprise attack caught the defenders off guard. Before they could close the city gates, Li Rusong had already rushed into the city.

His rash behavior scared the soldiers behind him.

Generally speaking, there is no tactic of stealing a city with the main general leading the charge. Instead, the subordinates rush into the city and control the city tower before entering the city. This can ensure the safety of the main general.

If there is any preparation in the city, the commander-in-chief would be sending his head if he leads the charge in.

But even though they received Li Chengliang's instructions, they had no control over Li Rusong at all.

This guy really won't listen to anyone except Li Chengliang.

Fortunately, the Burmese troops in the city were not prepared and seemed to be short of manpower.

Obviously, Mang Yinglong was too optimistic about the situation.

He believed that as long as the Burmese army maintained its offensive, the Ming army would be too busy to deal with it and would not attack his rear, so even a big city like Mubang did not have enough troops left for defense.

The most crucial point is that Mubang City is the main transportation route from northern Myanmar to Toungoo City. If the Myanmar army occupies Mubang City, it is actually equivalent to cutting off the connection between the Myanmar army and the country.

"Brother, what should we do with those Burmese people?"

Li Ruzhen came hurriedly with his personal soldiers. He had been responsible for gathering the Burmese surrendered soldiers, and now that everyone was gathered together, he came over to ask what to do with these people.

Kill him or lock him up first.

As for his second brother Li Rubai, he was currently leading people to take inventory of the treasury of Mubang City and count the spoils of this attack on the city.

It can only be said that because it cost a huge amount of money for Li Chengliang to maintain his private army, the Li family attached great importance to money.

Without money, you can't support servants.

"Lock them up and let them help dig trap trenches outside the city."

Li Rusong gave the order without thinking too much.

Mubang City will soon be attacked by the Burmese army, so they naturally have to deal with it carefully.

Although he was still thinking about going north and trying to implement the plan of besieging the main force of the Burmese army in Longchuan and Qianya prefectures, the prerequisite was that the defense of Mubang City must be solid.

Although Li Rusong was greedy for merit, he also knew the key point. Getting stuck here was more important than anything else.