prosperous age

Chapter 1156 1247 Inner Court Attitude
The Ming army continued to repel the Burmese army, but suddenly there was a sudden change in the situation ahead.

A group of people dressed in Burmese costumes appeared in front of them, but perhaps they did not realize that there were still scattered Burmese soldiers passing by them and fleeing backwards.

“Those should be the Burmese dignitaries.”

Qi Jimei pointed at those people and said.

Li Chengliang had been observing the battle situation on the front line, so he naturally saw it.

This group of people seemed unaware of the danger, or they were stunned by the Ming army's fighting style, and defeated the Burmese army without bloodshed.

They were shocked by the Ming army's fighting style and also horrified by the low morale of their own soldiers.

Whenever the Ming army's artillery shells came over, regardless of whether they hit their position or not, they would run back in a hurry, looking completely defeated.

Li Chengliang actually guessed right. At this time, Mang Yingli was more shocked than shocked. He did not expect that the Burmese army, which had once been rampant in Southeast Asia, would be so vulnerable when faced with the attack of the Ming army.

Although he was defeated by Li Rusong's troops many times, he had never fled like this.

"I can't fight anymore. I can't fight anymore."

"I was defeated because I couldn't even fight in close combat."

"Morale is completely gone. We can't continue this battle."

"Come down."

This time, the Burmese officials and chieftains also realized that they could no longer fight.

The army they were so proud of now turned around and ran away when they saw the Ming army, just like a mouse seeing a cat. How could they fight?
The cats of this era really caught mice, they were not like the pet cats of later generations.

A consensus has been reached and no one is worrying about whether they can fight again or using fighting to promote talks. There is no such opportunity at all.

However, Li Chengliang would not give them a chance to raise the white flag, and directly ordered Qi Jimei: "Use the Portuguese cannon to bombard that place and destroy them. The Burmese bastards should kneel down and surrender."

Knowing Li Chengliang's intentions, Qi Jimei would not say much, since he had already achieved military merit.

At that moment, he turned his horse and ran forward. It would be best if he arranged this matter himself.

Soon, the gunners of a dozen falconets rushed forward with their guns.

Because at this time the distance between the front line of the Ming army and this group of people was a little far and they were not within the range.

The gunners were charging, but Qi Jimei was still worried, so he immediately ordered the people around him to take away a lot of loaded ammunition cartridges from the surrounding artillery teams.

When the falconet cannon is fired quickly, there is actually not enough time to reload all six cartridges.

Only by maintaining a certain speed can the loading of sub-cartridges meet the firing requirements and form continuous firepower.

Of course, this actually reduces the launch speed.

This time, the Ming army artillerymen advanced several dozen steps and rushed forward without waiting for the musketeers behind them to form a formation, which made Mang Yingli and other Burmese officials and chieftains feel uneasy.

The direction the other party was running seemed to be towards them.

Just when they suddenly realized that their position was forward and a little dangerous and wanted to turn around and retreat, the Ming army gunners were already in position.

Just set up the gun quickly, stuff him into the belly of the gun, and fire it immediately.

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang."

The sound of artillery fire quickly became dense. The gunner quickly changed the cartridges, fired at the crowd, and then changed the cartridges again, completely ignoring the outcome of the battle.

The sudden artillery attack, the hot shells quickly rushed through the crowd, and the screams almost never stopped from the moment the artillery sounded.

Mang Yingli was frightened silly. He only ran a few steps and suddenly felt something warm on his face.

Turning his head, he saw that the prince's left arm had been broken by a cannonball and was covered in blood.

Such an injury would surely result in death.

At this moment, the man reacted. The weapon in his right hand was grabbed by someone and he let out a painful howl as the weapon was touched on the wound.

"Oh, help me, it hurts so much"

Mang Yingli was scared. The moment he turned his head, he saw someone with a bloody hole in his abdomen. The person fell directly to the ground, and it seemed that he was not dead yet and wanted to continue crawling forward.

There was no howling sound, because when he opened his mouth, blood gushed out.

Almost instinctively, Mang Yingli did not continue running, but fell directly to the ground, protecting his head with his hands.

The personal soldiers beside him continued to run forward as if they did not see him.

At this time, no matter what high official position you once held in the Toungoo Dynasty, in the face of life and death, it seems to be nothing.

"keep going."

Li Chengliang saw that the group of people had run far away and immediately gave the order.

The Ming army moved forward again and began to approach the artillery team.

As for the people who were killed over there, Qi Jimei did not lead his men to rush over, but instead commanded the Ming army to march forward.

The military formation still needs to be maintained.

Otherwise, the desperate situation will lead to desperate moves. If the Burmese army is forced into a desperate counterattack, it will be easy for them to fall into close combat without forming a military formation.

This style of play is very good and does not require any soldiers.

Up to now, they have completely defeated the Burmese army, with only more than ten casualties among their own people.

None of them were injured by the Burmese army, but the musketeers' muskets exploded.

Those people looked quite miserable. Some of them had injured hands, some had injured faces, and it was not known whether they could survive.

Compared with so many bird guns, only more than ten of them exploded, which is considered very lucky.

After all, they were on the battlefield, and the musketeers were nervous, so it was inevitable that they poured in a little more gunpowder.

Or, it could be a quality issue with the bird gun.

At this time, the quality of the Ming army's firearms was still relatively good, but had not yet reached the level of the middle and late Wanli period, because the emperor was lazy and ignored government affairs and directly threw power to his ministers.

Then the court officials united to divide up the silver, causing the quality of weapons to decline rapidly.

Li Chengliang was in Liaodong for many years and was familiar with the quality of firearms manufactured by the Ministry of Industry. When all the firearms were shipped to the southwest, he sent his personal soldiers to inspect them, so most of them were of good quality.

However, he also noticed the explosion of the bird gun.

Thinking of Qi Jiguang's bird-gunners, most of them would weigh and package the gunpowder before the battle, that is, a fixed amount of paper shell bullets, which could reduce the burst rate again.

Of course, what the Liaodong Ming army is now using cannot be considered paper shell bullets. They are just the original medicine pots of the Ming army that have been replaced with paper bags.

It has to be admitted that Qi Jiguang was one of the few generals in the Ming army who was good at using firearms.

Ma Fang and Li Chengliang were better at using cavalry raid tactics.

But now, Li Chengliang also plans to calm down and study carefully to see how to improve the combat efficiency of firearms operators.

Mang Yingli, who fell to the ground, was not injured. It can only be said that he was very lucky at the moment.

However, even though the gunfire had stopped, he did not dare to get up and run away.

There was no one else around him at the moment. If he got up and ran away, the Ming army's firearms would probably be aimed directly at him.

Thinking of the surrender conditions proposed by the Ming army, it would be better to let the Ming army capture him on the battlefield instead of asking for forgiveness on his back.

At least, there are no other people around, so it won't be so embarrassing.

Mang Yingli chose to give up and not run away because he didn't want to die.

He didn't know how long it had been, but when he heard footsteps, he looked up and saw a row of Ming army soldiers walking towards him. Their red mandarin duck-patterned battle jackets looked so eye-catching.

"There is a living person here, and he seems to be a high-ranking official." Mang Yingli understood Chinese, and he could understand what those Ming people were saying.

He was captured by the Ming army.

Soon, his arms were lifted up and he was dragged back roughly.

There was no Burmese beside him. All he could see were the Ming soldiers lined up in neat rows and marching forward.

“Is this clothing worn by Burmese nobles?”

He didn't know where he was being dragged to, but he saw more than ten horses in front of him, and in the front were several generals wearing high-grade armor of the Ming army.

Yes, he was wearing the Burmese royal robe, which only the royal family can wear.

However, now, apart from the fact that the clothes he wore were different from those of other Burmese people, they had become filthy and had lost their original appearance.

"Who are you? I know you can understand Chinese."

The Ming army general who had asked the question just now continued asking questions.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Mang Yingli looked up and saw that the other party was a middle-aged general wearing fish scale armor and tiger-head shoulder guards on his arms.

The iron helmet was polished to a bright shine, with a red tassel fixed on the head that fluttered in the wind, and phoenix wings on the ears. It was obviously used by senior generals in the Ming army.

Mang Yingli hung his head dejectedly and said, "I am the prince of the Kingdom of Myanmar, Mang Yingli."

The Taungoo Dynasty is the name given to the dynasty founded by Mang Shwe Tyi by the outside world, while in their own country they call themselves the Kingdom of Burma.

It is called the Toungoo Dynasty because their royal capital was in Toungoo City.

"The Burmese prince, Mang Yingli, oh, the son of Mang Yinglong, haha, that's what he looks like."

After Li Chengliang knew the other party's identity, he lost interest.

In fact, when he heard about the previous report that a senior Burmese official had been captured, he was just curious about who had been captured.

As for the rest, he took them all into consideration.

Just a defeated general.

It’s not Mang Yinglong. After all, that man has been captured by Li Rusong and others.

After Mang Yingli was dragged away, Li Chengliang smiled and said to Qi Jimei: "I didn't expect these two gentlemen to be so lucky. They actually survived this kind of artillery bombardment intact."

Li Chengliang saw clearly the previous artillery attack by the Burmese nobles. Dozens of people were killed or injured, and only about ten people escaped.

The fact that Mang Yingli was able to survive such a situation unscathed can only be attributed to his extremely strong luck.

"Marshal, not many people in the army know that he is alive. Do you want to..."

Qi Jimei was also good at observing people's words and expressions. He knew that Li Chengliang intended to kill those Burmese dignitaries, so he naturally spoke to please him.

"No need, just arrest him, and put him in a prison van with his father, and transport him to the capital along with other Burmese officials."

Li Chengliang said indifferently.

But the war is almost over, and the next step is to stabilize Myanmar.

There are only two options for the following matter.

One is to rule Myanmar and eliminate all resistance forces.

The second is to present prisoners to the imperial court. It is worth thinking about which people should be sent back to the capital to participate in the ceremony of presenting prisoners.

Li Chengliang wanted to let his eldest son Li Rusong go so that he could show his face more in the court, which would be beneficial to his future career development.

Li Chengliang knew that he could not go as he still had to stay in Myanmar and suppress the disobedience.

If Zhang Fu had been able to stay in Annan for a few more years, allowing the Ming army to completely occupy the place and then return to the court, perhaps Annan would still exist now.

It was because Zhang Fu took away the elite troops who were good at fighting that the Annan people had the opportunity to take advantage.

Li Chengliang knew clearly that Wei Guangde had explicitly asked him to stay in Burma for a few years, fearing that he could only return to the capital when he was old.

Although he was hung up on the title, he still flocked to it.

The end of his career as a military general was his only wish, which was to turn the Li family into a noble family.

He could already see the end of his own future, so the next step was to pave the way for his sons. In order to allow the Li family to prosper along with the country, Li Chengliang tried his best.

"Marshal, Marshal, General Qi, the remnants of the Burmese army have surrendered. They have dropped their weapons and are kneeling to surrender."

Not long after the Ming army continued to advance, someone came to report.

"Well, let's go and take a look."

Li Chengliang said to Qi Jimei with a smile, and urged his personal soldiers forward.

The backyard of the Ministry of Works in the capital of the Ming Dynasty was still full of people standing around the map of the Yellow River.

The only people close to the Yellow River map were officials from the Ministry of Works, who were still demonstrating the consequences of siltation in the Yellow River.

The only difference from the last time when Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde and others came was that this time, not only all the cabinet ministers were present, but also the Left Censor-in-Chief of the other five ministries and the Censorate, and even Feng Bao came here on behalf of the palace to see with his own eyes how the Yellow River should be managed.

The atmosphere in the venue was serious at this time, and everyone looked unhappy.

Because even after being washed many times, the Yellow River still had blockages visible to the naked eye in several places.

This experimental result also proves the failure of Pan Jixun’s method of restraining water and attacking sand.

Although he had demonstrated it many times, Pan Jixun's face was still extremely ugly at this moment.

He tried every possible method he could think of, hoping to change the outcome, but all failed.

"We can't continue like this. If we continue, Hongze Lake will threaten the safety of the Ming Dynasty's ancestral mausoleum."

Finally, Feng Bao, who had been silent since arriving here, spoke.

"The method of controlling water flow and attacking sand can only delay flooding temporarily, but it cannot fundamentally solve the flood problem of the Yellow River. Moreover, if dams are repeatedly raised, too much land will be submerged.

The most important thing is that the ancestral tombs near Sizhou must not be lost.

The cabinet's opinion was very pertinent. If they could exchange Sizhou for the results of the Yellow River management, they would do so.

But after all the efforts, the Yellow River flood problem could not be solved, which was not worth it.

What's more, this is an exchange at the cost of the safety of the ancestral mausoleum."

Feng Bao's words basically represented the attitude of the palace, and the method proposed by Pan Jixun was invalid.

Pan Jixun's face was ashen at this moment, and his eyes were staring blankly at the silt accumulation points on the Yellow River map.

He knew that after investing such a huge amount of financial and material resources, if it was still necessary to continue dredging the river like it was now, I am afraid that other people in the court would not agree.

Because the construction volume of the Gaojiayan Dam near Qingkou was so large that it even put a heavy burden on the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Works.

However, as the governor of the river, he had to find a way to solve the flood problem.

"Uncle, Shandai, what the palace means is that if we really follow your ideas, can we solve the flood problem?"

After Feng Bao made public the palace's attitude, he asked several people in the cabinet.

“Floods can be alleviated but not eradicated, and the court can only continue to invest money and materials to maintain the river.

However, the increased investment can be compensated by the additional silver collected from various sluices and banknote offices.

In addition, the government will save a lot of money by transferring grain to the sea, and it is expected that there will be a surplus.”

The speaker was Wei Guangde. The cabinet had already made separate statements to the inner court regarding water management and river transportation, and suggested that grain transport should no longer be sent by river, but should instead be shipped directly north by sea from the mouth of the Yangtze River.