prosperous age

Chapter 1146 1237 Traces
"Rubai, have the people who have escaped the net in the west been sent out?"

Li Rusong was sitting in a spacious palace at this time. Although the palace seemed a little dim due to insufficient light, the torches lit around it still made the palace brightly lit.

The chair under Li Rusong might have been the one sat on by the king of the Ava Dynasty two hundred years ago, or it might have been put there casually later.

After all, so many years have passed and dynasties have changed.

This place became just one of the palaces of the kings of the Toungoo Dynasty.

Yesterday, Li Rubai broke the last resistance of the Burmese army in one battle, and the Ming army's infantry formation directly crossed the palace bridge.

Afterwards, a large number of Burmese soldiers knelt down and begged for mercy, and the few who resisted were quickly killed by the Ming army.

Some Burmese soldiers who tried to escape by jumping into the river, including Mangchai, the defender of Ava City, were shot dead directly in the moat.

Li Rusong and Li Rubai cleared out the remaining Burmese troops in Ava city overnight. Now the entire Ava city has been controlled by the Ming army.

After interrogating the prisoners, it was learned that the Burmese King Mang Yinglong had not yet come to govern, because Li Rusong judged that the main force of the Burmese army attacking the Ming Dynasty should still be in the north of Ava City, but it was not known when they would arrive.

After all, his father Li Chengliang would never miss this good opportunity to capture the enemy leader.

It is too early to talk about the achievement of destroying the country now, because the court wanted to incorporate Myanmar into the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and Wei Guangde only talked about it with Li Chengliang in private.

As long as there is no imperial decree, everything is bound to change.

"Brother, don't worry. I have already sent several teams to clean up the mess. Three teams have gone to the north to prevent them from escaping north and letting Mang Yinglong know that Ava City has fallen.

I also ordered Sui Changlong to send his personal soldiers to conduct reconnaissance in the north. I think there should be news about the Burmese king soon."

Li Rubai was sitting on a chair below, gnawing on a chicken leg in his hand, and his words were still unclear.

"It's okay for those people to flee into the mountains, but I'm afraid they'll turn and go into the mountains to the north. If they run into Mang Yinglong's people, it will be troublesome."

Li Rusong still did not dare to let his guard down and reminded.

"Don't worry, big brother. I've told them to drive the people to the west or south. Anyone who runs north must be intercepted."

Li Rubai also knew the seriousness of the matter. If the Burmese king knew the news in advance, he might go into the mountains at a fork in the road ahead, bypass the city of Ava and continue south.

If they could take a detour through the mountains and reach Ava from Monnay, the Burmese army could naturally do the same.

However, there is a problem with such mountain roads, which is that it is difficult for the army to march.

Therefore, unless it is absolutely necessary, a large group of soldiers will not abandon the main road and choose to take the mountain road, which will not only delay the journey, but also waste time. If you are not careful, you may get lost in the mountains.

"Well, that's good."

Li Rusong looked calm and said with a smile: "Once we capture Mang Yinglong, we will lead our troops south.

According to the guide, to the north of Ava City are the mountains of northern Myanmar. After Ava City, the terrain becomes less rugged, mainly hills and plains, making it very easy to advance quickly.

When the time comes, we will lead our troops southward and capture central Burma. When we report our achievements, you and I can become high-ranking officials.”

"Yes, during the previous interrogation, I heard that after occupying Toungoo City, Yu Dayou did not advance northwards, but instead swept the coastal areas of Myanmar.

This doesn’t mean we are giving away the great credit.”

In Li Rubai's eyes, the greatest achievement is to eliminate more enemies and occupy more cities.

Because of their geographical advantages, they certainly could not take away the credit from Yu Dayou for occupying the Burmese capital.

It was the Li father and son who destroyed the main force of the Burmese army. If they had then captured the Burmese king and occupied the central and northern parts of Myanmar, the achievement of pacifying Myanmar would definitely have fallen on the heads of them.

"I don't know what's going on over there, Xiao San. I wonder if Hanlong Pass has surrendered."

At this time, Li Rusong suddenly thought of the last city in the Ming Dynasty occupied by the Burmese army, which was Hanlong Pass.

The terrain there was dangerous and easy to defend but difficult to attack, so seeing no hope of conquering the place, Li Rusong decisively gave up the attack and instead surrounded the area.

"I hope they can contact the Ming army in Shidian, and the two armies can work together to encircle Hanlong Pass. In the end, they have no choice but to surrender."

There are tens of thousands of Burmese troops in Hanlong Pass. This is just Li Rusong's guess, and it is estimated that there are less than 100,000.

But in fact, the Burmese army at Hanlong Pass did not fight much with the Ming army, and although they suffered heavy losses in the attack on Shidian City, they still had a total of 110,000 soldiers and horses.

However, although the Burmese army seemed strong at this time, the more people there were, the greater the consumption of supplies, and they became a burden instead.

If the Ming army had besieged the city for only a month, the defeat of the Burmese army would have been almost certain.

The supplies they carried were limited, which were far from enough to meet the needs of more than 100,000 people. Even if the soldiers' rations were greatly reduced, they would not be able to sustain the food for long.

Therefore, although the army seems to be as large as 110,000, its collapse is only a matter of time.

In fact, since the gates of Hanlong Pass have been closed these days, they didn't even dare to send soldiers to patrol nearby.

Because of the soldiers who went out of the city for patrol in the previous two days, only two or three out of ten were able to return to the city, and most of them chose to surrender to the Ming army.

Because in their view, even though they might not have enough to eat if they surrendered, at least they wouldn't be at risk of being killed.

If we continue to stay in the city, we may be attacked by the Ming army at any time, and we may lose our lives.

Their only hope is to survive, so it is not surprising that they choose to surrender.

And they achieved their goal. The Ming army did not kill them, although they still only provided them with a small amount of food, just to keep them alive, which was not much different from being in the city.

But at least they don't have to worry about dying in war anymore.

Of course, the food of the Ming army was not that delicious. These surrendered soldiers were guarded by the Ming army every day and were taken to Hanlong Pass at irregular intervals every day to shout to the Burmese army in the city.

The best strategy is to attack the enemy's plans and to defeat the enemy without fighting. These strategies have been used very well by the generals of the Ming army.

At this time, outside Ruibo City, a small town about fifty or sixty miles north of Ava City, a team of soldiers in red uniforms were hiding in the woods and looking out vigilantly.

And the city in the eyes of these Ming army soldiers is the city of Ruibo.

Because Ruibo is not located at a transportation hub, the city is not big, but the geographical conditions nearby are good. It is close to the Jinsha River, so the land here can be fully irrigated, so it is an important granary in central and northern Myanmar.

In fact, since Myanmar became a unified country in 1044, it has successively used Pagan, Bago, Ava, Toungoo and other places as its capital.

Although Myanmar does not have as many cities that have served as ancient capitals as China, it was very common for capitals to change with the change of dynasties in ancient times. Even a dynasty would change its capital several times. Most of Myanmar's dynasties were named after their capitals.

For example, the Ruibo that the Ming army scouts see now, about two hundred years later, in 1752 AD, Yongjiya launched a decisive battle against the Toungoo Dynasty, successfully captured the capital of the Toungoo Dynasty, Toungoo, and destroyed the Toungoo Dynasty.

In the same year, Alaungjiya officially ascended the throne and established the last and most powerful dynasty in Burmese history. Because its capital was Konbaung, it was also called the Konbaung Dynasty.

The tribute list here is actually Ripple.

However, the current small city has naturally never been a royal capital, so although the city walls are taller than those cities in southern Myanmar, they are still very limited.

The height of the small mound was only about six or seven feet, and it seemed that the Ming army could climb directly onto the city wall by stacking themselves up like a human pyramid.

Yes, the city wall of Ruibo City at this time was just a small mound of earth in the eyes of the Ming army, because there were not even stones outside the wall, making it very easy to climb.

"If we hadn't seen the soldiers on the city wall, and if we had more people here, I'm afraid we could have easily taken this small city."

The captain of the Ming army's scout team said with regret.

"Zhangtou, how about we go around the city and take a look over there, then we can go back and report."

A soldier crouched beside the squad leader and suggested.

"Well, you guys, don't ride your horses, go behind that woods and take a look at the situation on the other side of the city." The purpose of their being sent out was to investigate the movements of the Burmese army. In fact, they also knew that their main purpose was to check the intelligence of the Burmese army led by Mang Yinglong.

They had no interest in the small towns in Burma or the enemy troops inside.

They came here on horseback, and the horses were now in the woods a few miles behind them. Two people were left to guard them, and the others arrived here.

The Ming army soldiers named by Zhangtou retreated a short distance before bending down and running to one side, trying to bypass the small town to see the situation on the other side.

But soon after they went out, something seemed to happen in the city. Suddenly, someone on the city wall shouted loudly and someone waved a flag.

"Discovered?"

At the first moment, Zhang Tou suspected that the people he sent out had been discovered by the Burmese army, and immediately waved back, signaling the people around him to start retreating.

As for not abandoning or giving up, send people to look for those soldiers who may have been lost.

That is impossible.

Their mission was to bring back intelligence, not to fight.

With just a few of them, it would be impossible to rescue anyone from the city.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

This place is only a few miles away from the small town, but I dare not stand up and run, so I can only crawl back little by little.

If the city gates were opened at this time and the Burmese army sent out dozens of people to look for them, they would have no choice but to run away.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for them to return safely to the temporary camp and ride their horses.

"What happened in the city? Should we send someone to look for Zhao Paoer and the others?"

Zhao Paoer was a gunner, so the team called him Paoer, which means gunner.

In the eyes of most Ming army soldiers, there is no difference between firing bird guns and setting off firecrackers.

The reason why they did not become musketeers was that their eyesight and accuracy were poor.

In fact, most Ming army soldiers knew how to use bird guns, after all, that thing did not require much technical content.

"Don't go. Let's retreat a little. You go back and let them know. If anything happens, we can immediately bring the horses over to help."

Zhang Tou gave the order.

He asked the two men behind him to go back and get the horses, and they only retreated two miles before stopping temporarily.

The Ripple Gate can also be seen here. As long as the gate is not open, they are relatively safe.

However, a retreat has been arranged.

If you are really exposed, just run back, ride your horse and leave here.

After waiting for a while, Zhang felt relieved when he saw that no troops were sent out from the city.

After a while, branches and leaves swayed in the bushes on the right.

I made a gesture to keep quiet, and they just stared at that place and observed.

At the same time, he began to observe his surroundings constantly, including whether there was any movement behind him.

Soon, three figures crawled towards this side.

"Zhao Paoer?"

"it's me."

The soldier on the right looked at the person on the opposite side clearly and called out softly first, and the person on the opposite side responded.

After confirming that they were his soldiers, Zhang felt relieved.

After Zhao Pao'er crawled over, Zhang Tou asked in a low voice: "What happened just now? Why is there still so much noise in the city?"

"Captain Zhang, there are many Burmese troops coming from the north. They must have been defeated by the Marshal's troops. They look like a bunch of defeated soldiers."

Zhao Paoer answered immediately.

"Did you see a lot of people coming from the north?"

Zhangtou felt somewhat happy, thinking that there would be a reward for their return this time, as they might have found traces of Mang Yinglong.

"You can see it for real. Don't you believe my eyesight?"

Well, there is no doubt that the eyesight of the Ming army's archers and musketeers was excellent. In the words of later generations, their vision must have been 1.5.

"Let's go back and claim our reward."

Knowing that the Burmese army was coming from the north, Zhangtou didn't want to delay here any longer.

This place was dozens of miles away from the city of Ava, and they arrived there in two hours on horseback.

However, for the remnants of the Burmese army, it would probably take them more than a day to march forward.

A dozen Ming army soldiers began to retreat, and after retreating three or four miles they stood up, still bending over and running back. They soon met up with a few soldiers who were watching the horses, and then each mounted his own warhorse and rode away on the road.

At this time, Mang Yinglong had actually entered Ruibo City. Although Ruibo City was not big, it was the main grain-producing area in central and northern Myanmar, so there was a lot of food.

They had not had a full meal for a long time while fleeing south.

Having enough food to eat is a big deal for the Myanmar army now.

The Ming army that was chasing behind them seemed to have lost some distance from the Burmese army due to logistical problems.

Soldiers fighting in a war won't work hard if they don't have enough food.

This is also the reason why in ancient times, burning the enemy’s food and supplies could cause the enemy to lose morale, or even flee in large numbers.

Li Chengliang had no way to deal with this. After all, the Burmese army was fleeing for their lives, so they were much more motivated than the pursuing Ming army.

Even if he offered a high reward, or even carried the silver and treasures brought from the capital directly into the military camp and distributed them to the soldiers on the spot, those who had nothing to eat would have nothing to eat, and the soldiers had no strength to chase, so there was nothing he could do.

In addition to constantly urging Luo Rufang to transport food and fodder to support the army, he could only collect dry food from the soldiers and distribute it as much as possible to the soldiers on the front line of pursuit, so that the Ming army's pursuers could always keep pressure on the Burmese army.

Soldiers will not fight on an empty stomach just because victory is in sight.

No one is that stupid.

That night, Li Rusong, who was still sleeping, was awakened by a hurried knock on the door.

The scouts sent back the intelligence overnight. Li Rubai was the first to know the news. He knew that the Burmese army was only more than a day's journey away from here. If they hurried, it was not impossible to reach Ava City in one day.

Yes, maybe it was just to leave early and arrive later. He dared not delay and knocked on his eldest brother’s door as soon as possible.

"To the north, Mang Yinglong has arrived with his remaining defeated troops."

"how far?"

"It's more than fifty miles away. We will arrive tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest."

"Call all the generals to discuss matters, and change your clothes as well."

Li Rubai didn't even have time to change his clothes and came in his pajamas.