prosperous age

"What is this? Gold or brass?"

From a closed, low secret room, a group of soldiers in red combat uniforms emerged.

Someone quickly opened one of the boxes and was immediately attracted by the golden things inside.

He reached out and picked up a piece of cake, turning it over and over, looking at it, muttering to himself.

"Isn't this the treasury of the Toungoo Dynasty? That must be the gold cakes. Have you ever heard of anyone storing a large amount of copper cakes?"

A soldier nearby also reached out to take out a gold cake from the box, played with it for a while, and began to feel confused.

"Sir, look at this, why doesn't it look like gold?

My Lord, my Lord.”

At this time, the man the soldier was calling was just a general flag, and there was a box in front of him with the lid opened. However, what was filled inside was not the gold cakes they had seen, but countless red gems.

A whole box of gems still emitted a dark red glow under the light of the torches.

"Put everything back. It will benefit everyone if we count it later. Don't rush now, or you may violate military law."

The general didn't even bother to look at the gold and copper cakes, his eyes were fixed on the box full of gems.

Then he opened a few boxes nearby, most of which were filled with rubies, but there were also a few boxes containing gems of other colors.

The general swallowed his saliva, grabbed a soldier beside him and said to him: "Go up and tell the master immediately that there are many boxes downstairs, all filled with gold and gems."

But having said this, he still walked over to the boxes that his men had opened earlier, picked up a "gold cake", looked at it, shook it, and even bit it with his teeth, before he said suspiciously: "It should be a gold cake, but it feels wrong.

Forget it, you go up and report to the Lord first, and tell him that we opened the Burmese king's treasure house.'

"Yes."

The soldier immediately turned around and squeezed out of the crowd. After he left, more boxes were opened and the contents inside completely dazzled the eyes of the Ming army soldiers.

The soldier who went out to report the news was strictly searched by several Ming soldiers after he came out of the underground passage. After they made sure that he had no valuables on him, he was brought before several generals.

"You said there are many boxes down there, filled with various gems and gold cakes?"

After the soldier who reported the news told the following situation, the Ming army general who led the team was also a little surprised. He reached out and touched his hair bun, and a smile appeared on his old face.

"After all, it's the wealth of a vassal state. It's not surprising that there are some gems and gold. Bring them up and feel their hands and feet. All soldiers involved will be searched afterwards."

This veteran general of the Ming army was naturally Yu Dayou.

Although Toungoo was the capital of Myanmar and was built as the strongest fortress in Myanmar, it was just that.

In front of the Ming Navy’s cannons, no fortress can be destroyed.

The only difference is that if one shell doesn't work, then use a few more, and if that's still not enough, then keep on shelling.

The Ming army's heavy artillery was originally concentrated at the south gate of Toungoo City. In other directions, they only placed a number of small and medium-sized Portuguese cannons removed from ships outside the city gates, and the Ming army's musketeers blocked the gates.

This kind of fighting style left the Burmese military and political leaders hiding in the city helpless.

Leaving the city is tantamount to seeking death, and defending the city is actually waiting for death. It all depends on when the Ming army will start attacking the city.

And when Yu Dayou issued the order to attack the city, they captured Toungoo City in just one day.

However, because they were not familiar with the city, many important officials of the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar, especially members of the royal family, were hiding in the city.

But it didn’t matter. The city had been captured and the four gates were blocked tightly, so they couldn’t escape.

Two days later, the Ming army began to interrogate the captured Burmese soldiers. They kept finding clues of where some officials were hiding and dug them out from their hiding places one by one.

The treasury of the Toungoo Dynasty was occupied by the Ming army on the first day, but there was not much wealth here.

After all, the Toungoo Dynasty has been constantly launching wars against other countries over the years, which has drained a lot of the national treasury.

Just yesterday, after interrogating an important official of the Toungoo Dynasty, it was unexpectedly discovered that there was a treasure house in the palace belonging to the Toungoo King Mang Yinglong.

Therefore, the Ming army interrogated the royal family members and the officials in the palace again, and finally found the treasure house that belonged only to the Burmese King Mang Yinglong.

Shortly after Yu Dayou gave the order, boxes were carried out from the underground treasury one by one by Ming army soldiers and piled up in the small square.

"Open all the boxes and continue to carry out the things inside."

Yu Dayou spoke again.

"Wow, it's really a gem."

When one of the boxes was opened, the rubies filled inside blinded the eyes of the generals. It was so shocking.

However, everyone's eyes were soon attracted to a colorful box, because although it was not filled with rubies and sapphires like those boxes, this box contained things like jadeite, emerald, and many jade articles, making the whole box colorful and even more eye-catching.

"This Mang Yinglong really managed to snatch quite a few treasures."

Through interrogation, it was learned that some of the items in the king's treasury were mined in Myanmar, but many were also looted from neighboring countries.

For example, a few years ago, the Burmese army captured the capital of Siam and looted it completely.

Ordinary gold and silver were naturally rewarded to meritorious soldiers, while the rare treasures were taken back to Toungoo City by Mang Yinglong.

Yu Dayou couldn't help but take a few steps forward and picked up a Buddha statue from the box. It was a jade product the size of a palm. Then he put it down and picked up a glazed tower inlaid with various gems next to it.

"No wonder Myanmar is rich in gemstones. It really lives up to its reputation."

Yu Dayou couldn't help but exclaimed.

Yes, so many boxes are filled with gems or gem-decorated handicrafts, doesn’t that speak for itself?

"Marshal, are there many gem mines in Myanmar?"

The lieutenant general next to him asked Chengze.

"I was a garrison commander in Guizhou before, and that year I heard that someone from the capital was ordered to go to Burma to buy gems."

Yu Dayou glanced at them and answered in a relaxed tone, then he pointed at the gems and jade and said, "These are the things.

The nobles in the capital seem to like these very much."

At this point, Yu Dayou rubbed his chin for a while before whispering to the officers beside him, "Each of you can take a small box for these gems."

Yu Dayou pointed to the small box next to him that was used to hold pearls. It was filled with milky white or yellowish South Sea pearls. They were all high-quality pearls that were large, round, and crystal clear.

"The rest, seal the boxes and send them to the capital to be presented to His Majesty."

After Yu Dayou finished speaking, smiles appeared on the faces of the generals and officers around him.

In fact, they don’t care about a box of gems, pearls or jade, but they care about the Marshal’s intentions.

Everyone has risked their lives to travel so far to fight, so at least you can bring back some local specialties.

In fact, most people have made a lot of money these days.

Yes, in addition to this treasury, there are also many valuables in the mansions of other princes and ministers as spoils of war, and these generals also often reached out to take local specialties.

No matter how strict Yu Dayou was in disciplining his army, he could not be stingy at this time, otherwise he might lose the morale of his troops.

However, the Burmese king's treasury has a different meaning. The best things in it must be sent to the palace. If they are allowed to take them at will, it may cause disaster in the future. "Be careful, don't bump into anything."

At this moment, a tusk was carried out from the treasury by several soldiers. In the words of later generations, the length was almost three meters.

Of course, there are not just one ivory in the treasure house, but many, especially black ivory, which is rare. Generally, ivory is white or slightly yellow, similar to pearls.

At the back, there were things like rhino horns being carried out in boxes, and soon the small square was filled with the things in the treasury.

Someone here started to count them, and Yu Dayou finally had time to walk to the dozens of boxes of gold cakes, reached out and picked one up to examine it carefully for a while.

"This is gold, but the purity is not high. Can you see it?"

According to the Ming Dynasty's standards, this is actually low-quality gold, which needs to be re-refined by craftsmen to remove impurities and increase purity.

The other generals also picked up a gold cake and looked at it for a while, and they all agreed with Yu Dayou's judgment.

In fact, the concept of purity already existed in ancient China. Generally speaking, from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to before the Han Dynasty, the purity of gold was relatively high, usually around 80%.

The gold content decreased during the Warring States Period, reaching only 70%.

The gold content of gold cakes, horseshoe gold and unicorn gold in the Han Dynasty is generally over 90%, and this standard has basically been the case until the Ming Dynasty.

Yes, this was the standard for gold in ancient China. At that time, it was named as 90% gold, 80% gold, and 70% gold.

Naturally, due to the low quality, the price is also different.

The gold in circulation before the Ming Dynasty was 80% gold. It was only when the Ministry of Industry manufactured the Ming Tong Bao that the gold coin was required to be 90% gold.

Gold that is less than 90% pure can only be inferior gold.

These gold bars taken out from the treasury are probably less than 70% of the original quality, which is considered to be very low-quality gold.

Of course, this does not mean that during the Ming Dynasty, gold could only be purified to 95%. In fact, the purity of gold used to make gold jewelry, especially in the palace, was as high as over %.

However, it is still difficult to achieve the later standards of "thousand pure gold" and "24K".

"Never mind. These inferior golds will be transported directly back to the capital. The Ministry of Industry will deal with them."

Yu Dayou said nonchalantly that it would be enough to divide the silver among his subordinates, as this inferior gold was actually of little use.

While Yu Dayou led the Ming Dynasty's South China Sea navy to weigh gold, the Ming army also launched a massacre of the Burmese army on the banks of the Lujiang River in western Yunnan.

Yes, even if with the help of the Portuguese mercenaries led by Santos, they managed to defeat the Ming army by chance, but so what?
There were only a few hundred Portuguese mercenaries and they were unable to influence the outcome of the war.

After the Ming Dynasty took out bronze cannons with similar performance, the Ming and Burmese armies could only confront each other there.

But Mang Yinglong had a good idea, but how could Li Chengliang give him the time to move the army across the river?

When the artillery battle broke out on both sides, the Ming cavalry bypassed the artillery positions from the flank and charged directly into the Burmese army's formation, followed by a succession of attacks from various Ming army units.

Just once, Santos was forced to abandon the cannons he brought with him, flee to the riverside in a panic, and rob a boat to cross the river.

Yes, seeing that the Ming cavalry had defeated the Burmese army behind them, even a fool would know what the result would be if they didn't run away.

If they were captured by the Ming army, according to Western rules, they would have to pay a high price to redeem them.

This price is probably much more than the money given by Mang Yinglong.

Besides, it is not certain whether the Ming army will give them a chance to redeem themselves.

During the Ming army's previous advance, they chopped off many heads of Burmese prisoners to intimidate the remaining enemies.

If the Burmese king's elephant soldiers were still on this side of the river, they might be able to resist the attack of the Ming cavalry.

Unfortunately, between soldiers and war elephants, the Burmese king valued war elephants more, so he transported them to the other side of the river early.

Therefore, the Ming cavalry's assault on the Burmese army was effective. Although the rain of arrows from the archers caused some trouble to the Ming army, it did not stop their attack.

Although the Ming army wiped out 100,000 Burmese troops in one battle, the Burmese king Mang Yinglong eventually fled into Lujiang City with the remaining troops and faced the Ming army across the river.

Li Chengliang was very proud at this time. He rode a tall horse and brought a group of generals to the riverside. Looking at the embarrassed Burmese army on the opposite side, he couldn't help laughing out loud.

“Although half of the Burmese king’s soldiers were killed in this battle, there are still many remnants on the other side.

According to the scouts’ report, there are still more than 100,000 Burmese troops at Hanlong Pass, so they still have 200,000 troops in total.”

Li Chengliang spoke, and his words successfully made everyone stop cheering and listen to him quietly.

“When will those ships arrive?”

Li Chengliang asked Mu Changzuo.

"Marshal, we will arrive tonight at the latest."

Originally, there were hundreds of ferries on the banks of the Lujiang River. However, in order to prevent the ships from being seized by the Burmese army, Mu Changzuo had long ago sent people to confiscate, transfer and hide most of the ferries.

Because the Burmese army wanted to attack quickly, they would naturally not go far along the river to look for boats.

Therefore, after leaving Baoshan City, Mu Changzuo sent people to the upper reaches of Lujiang River to pick up the boat.

The Ming army's pursuit would inevitably require the help of a large number of ferries so that they could cross the river quickly.

If there were only a few boats, let alone crossing the river, it would be difficult to even stand on the other side.

"Clean up the battlefield and let the entire army rest for a day. We will start crossing the river tomorrow when the boats arrive."

Li Chengliang was quite satisfied with this. He would have a boat at night and could cross the river by boat tomorrow to continue pursuing the enemy.

"Maybe Mang Yinglong thought that if they took away all the ships, he could rule over us by dividing the river. Hehe, he was overthinking."

Li Chengliang joked.

"Commander, Marshal."

At this time, Luo Rufang rode up from behind.

“Of the cannons abandoned by the Portuguese, only five were usable; the others were blown up by them.

The Portuguese weapons that our army had lost before were not found either. According to interrogation, those weapons were transported across the river by Mang Yinglong in the first batch. "

Although Luo Rufang was a civil official, he was also a military supervisor at that time, so he also traveled with the army.

However, he was not responsible for fighting, but was mainly responsible for logistics work.

When Santos abandoned the cannon, he naturally did not just throw it there. Instead, he stuffed it with gunpowder and lit it, preparing to blow it up directly.

Unfortunately, several other cannons exploded, but five cannons had problems with their fuses and did not explode, falling into the hands of the Ming army.

"It's just some cannons. Even Mang Yinglong couldn't escape, let alone those cannons."

Li Chengliang said nonchalantly.

The power of just a few cannons is limited, and a large number of them must be concentrated to be effective. This is how Li Chengliang now understands the use of firearms.

Later, I will pass on my experience to my sons. (End of this chapter)