The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 122: City of Despair - Ayutthaya

The Chao Phraya River, also known as the Chao Phraya River, is the mother river of the Siamese people and holds an extremely important position.

After Mo Zi Bu took on the important task of going upstream to rescue the Chinese in Ayutthaya, he immediately mobilized the people and organized the officers to agree on an action plan.

Everyone discussed that it was not the rainy season and the Chao Phraya River was in a relatively dry period. If they all sent large ships upstream, once they encountered an ambush, it would be easy for them to block their own way due to the river channel and water level.

So everyone decided to use the Lucky Class 5 sailing cruiser as the flagship, supplemented by two 200-ton medium-sized offshore armed merchant ships, and the rest would be assisted by more than 20 fast crab boats.

At the same time, 1,450 army troops were dispatched, and Mo Zibu's army dispatched five companies of the Hexian Regiment and three companies of the Yicong Regiment, a total of eight companies and 850 people.

Zheng Xin's troops dispatched 300 men from Chen Lian and selected 300 men from the 500 musketeers brought by Khun A Phrayabudi.

The rest of the navy drove their large ships to the mouth of the Chao Phraya River and waited for support.

. . . .

At the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, the governor of Samutprakarn, an important city that controlled the estuary, had long since defected to Taksin. Therefore, Mok Si Taw was able to anchor his fleet directly in Samutprakarn, replenish supplies, and immediately start heading north.

It is about 110 kilometers from Samutprakarn to Ayutthaya, and the waterway is relatively longer.

Mo Zibu led the fleet to sail rapidly upwards on a gust of north wind, and arrived in Thonburi after sailing about 30 kilometers.

Later, the dynasty established by Taksin was called the Thonburi Dynasty because its capital was located here. Opposite Thonburi, across the river from it, is Mong Kok.

After Thong (Rama I) usurped the throne, he moved the capital to Wangkeng and renamed it Bangkok, which was the Bangkok Dynasty. Bangkok also became the capital of Thailand in the future.

The city of Thonburi was later annexed by Bangkok and became the Thonburi district of Bangkok.

The King of Thonburi was originally a Chinese, Najin. Unfortunately, he was killed while defending Ayutthaya. Thonburi was also captured by the Burmese army downstream, and most of the people fled.

But the Burmese army did not occupy the city for long. They withdrew after looting.

After they left, the Siamese, fearing another Burmese attack, also left the area.

Therefore, Thonburi City became a ghost town.

In view of this, Mo Zi Bu sent a messenger to Samutprakarn Province, ordering Tanka Er and Zhou Yuanquan to lead the fleet north to Thonburi City and build this city into a logistics supply point. After all, it can save 30 kilometers of logistics lines.

The fleet then headed north again. After passing Thonburi, the scenery immediately became desolate. The banks of the Chao Phraya River were full of ruins and there was no one in the wilderness.

The fertile land that the Chinese and Thais had cultivated together over hundreds of years had all been abandoned. The rice that had not been harvested last year had sprouted new seedlings from the barren fields, and the green rice was swaying in the wind along with the wild grass that was almost as tall as them.

The essence of Siam is almost all on both sides of the river. Now these places are so desolate, which shows the damage the war has caused to Siam.

In addition, agriculture across the country almost came to a standstill last year, and this year's spring plowing is about to be delayed again. I don't know how many people will starve to death.

The higher you go, the more you can see the correctness of Mo Zi Bu's military meeting results. The water level of the Chao Phraya River has indeed dropped a lot, and the river channel has become narrower.

When the north wind is gone, the warships must get as close to the river as possible and use the back force of the water flow to provide a certain amount of power, otherwise they will not be able to move at all. If the warships are all large ships, they will easily get stuck.

Even so, the Lucky was moving at a snail's pace, and traveling thirty kilometers a day was considered fast.

Of course, the Myanmar army’s control over both sides of the river is also shockingly weak.

Less than ten kilometers north of Thonburi, Mo Zibu saw the Burmese army's scout cavalry begin to move back and forth and discovered the traces of the fleet.

But it was not until Mo Zi Bu reached a place less than 20 kilometers away from Ayutthaya that he saw the Burmese army coming to intercept him.

Moreover, the Burmese troops that came to intercept were not a fleet, but thousands of land forces.

A large number of musketeers approached from the left and right under the cover of cavalry. Mo Zibu saw on the Lucky that the Burmese army also rushed over with war horses and war elephants dragging a certain number of field artillery.

"Have the Burmese gone mad after besieging the city? Do they think they can capture a ship as large as the Fortune with just muskets and six-pound field guns?
Including the weather deck, we have nineteen guns on each side. How dare they get close?"

When Chen Guangyao saw the Burmese army coming, his head was full of questions. A normal person, as long as he had a normal brain, would not think of using field artillery to deal with naval artillery.

Although the largest gun on the Fortune was only eight pounds, two pounds more was still a lot, not to mention that the gun was protected by the hull.

The quality of regular European warships at that time was absolutely excellent.

The requirement for a second-class battleship is to be able to withstand a direct hit from a 32-pound cannon.

Although the Lucky is a lowest-level, fifth-tier sailing cruiser, it has no problem withstanding more than three bombardments of eight-pound guns in the same area.

This is equivalent to the fact that even if the field artillery hits the same area of the Fortune three times at the same time, it still cannot cause fatal damage, but as long as the Fortune's naval gun hits the field artillery once, it will be shattered to pieces.

"The Burmese army can't be so stupid. If that were the case, they wouldn't have the qualifications to reach Ayutthaya. There must be something wrong with them. Are they hiding something?"

Mo Zibu shook his head decisively. The Burmese army was not a lowly opponent like the Sultan of the Malay Peninsula. There must be something wrong when things were abnormal!
"I thought, could the Burmese army have prepared fireboats upstream? They're using their army to draw our attention first, and then taking advantage of the chaos to fireboats down from upstream to burn our ships?"

A group of French naval officers could not figure out the reason, but Li Guang, who often participated in inland battles, thought of a possibility.

"Yes, it's very likely!" Mo Zibu nodded. Li Guangcai has rich combat experience and is proficient in fighting with small boats in inland rivers and near the sea. His analysis is very reasonable.

"Major Li Guangcai, I order you to lead 15 fast crab boats upstream immediately. If you encounter the Burmese navy, destroy them immediately!" Mo Zibu quickly gave the order, and at the same time ordered Chen Guangyao to dispatch personnel to prepare a large number of long bamboo poles to prevent any fire ships from going downstream.

Sure enough, when Li Guangcai led fifteen fast crab boats to a few hundred meters upstream, he immediately discovered that the Burmese army had prepared a large amount of firewood, gunpowder, and kerosene loaded on countless bamboo rafts and small boats.

They even had grappling hooks ready, but it would be quite dangerous if these people really wanted to hook the fire ship onto the Lucky and the two black barges.

Immediately, Li Guangcai ordered the soldiers on the crab boat to fire their muskets and disperse the Burmese soldiers in the front. Then he roared and took the lead in boarding the boat with a big knife.

In fact, the navy has always been the weak point of the Konbaung Dynasty, because in Myanmar, the people who have always been good at naval battles are mostly the Rakhine people of Arakan and the Mon people of Lower Burma.

Now the Arakan Kingdom has not yet surrendered, and the Mon people have only been conquered for less than ten years. They are still missing the glory of the former Pegu Dynasty and are not very submissive.

To the extent that King Baixiang would rather demolish the artillery, sink the warships, and give up his navy than let the navy be controlled by the Meng people.

This has led to the fact that the current Myanmar army has few soldiers and generals capable of fighting on water.

These inland sailors coming from the Irrawaddy River and the surrendered Thai traitors are no match for an old pirate like Li Guangcai.

Li Guangcai led more than 300 sailors to start the boarding battle, and a large number of Thai traitors fled in panic. The situation instantly turned into Li Guangcai and more than 300 people fighting against 400 to 500 Burmese soldiers.

The two sides launched a fierce chase on the dense bamboo rafts. The Burmese sailors were killed and screamed in pain, jumping into the water with a splash, and corpses were floating everywhere.

After seeing the Burmese troops being scattered and estimating that dozens of them had been killed, Li Guang gave an order and the sailors threw torches, setting the Burmese fireships on fire. Immediately, flames shot up into the sky and explosions were heard continuously.

On Mo Zibu's side, he only saw the fear of the Burmese army after Li Guangcai led the fast crab boat upstream, and he knew that Li Guangcai's guess was right.

He immediately ordered Chen Guangyao to lead 500 soldiers off the ship and go to the shore to provoke the Burmese army. As expected, the Burmese army did not dare to attack. It seemed that they knew the power of naval guns.

When the flames shot up into the sky, Mo Zibu laughed and said, "The Burmese army's skills are limited. Apayabudi, you lead another 300 musketeers to reinforce the shore. We will advance by land and sea. Let's see who dares to stop us!"

Seeing that the journey was smooth and the Burmese navy was so weak, Kun Aphayebo was very excited and immediately led his musketeers to the shore to reinforce Chen Guangyao.

Mo Zibu then ordered the large ships to sail as close to the right bank as possible, using naval guns to escort the army, and using the army to advance to clear coastal obstacles and prevent the Burmese army from setting up additional artillery batteries.

The next afternoon, Chen Guangyao led 800 soldiers to capture two Burmese artillery positions on the right bank of the Chao Phraya River.

The Burmese army only had two water forts left on the waterways of Ayutthaya. Mo Zibu could already see Ayutthaya from the mast.

. . . .

In the south of the city, the sudden rain had just stopped. The Burmese army was exhausted in hand-to-hand combat. Without the cover of the musketeers, they did not dare, nor were they willing to, rush into the city to fight the desperate Chinese volunteers. So they retreated, and the Chinese volunteers got a short chance to catch their breath.

But after this heavy rain, water accumulated up to the calf level in many places in the south of the city, and a large number of people were almost soaked in water.

Food was completely cut off, and there was no more gunpowder or lead. The only weapons left were notched swords and scarred sticks.

Countless wounded Chinese volunteers barely found some unsoaked ruins to rest on. The groans that rose and fell could be heard incessantly, with occasional shrill cries, which must have been the result of a relative who had died.

Groups of big-headed babies squatted on the roadside, gasping for breath, their eyes full of desire for food.

The hungry baby sucked his mother's dry breasts desperately. Even though he couldn't get a drop of milk, he didn't dare and didn't have the energy to cry. He could only look at his mother with longing eyes.

The mother did not dare to look at the baby, but only looked numbly to the south, as if hoping that some miracle would appear to save them.

With a weak scream, one of the few skinny horses in the south of the city was thrown to the ground.

Hearing the sound, the people who were standing there in a daze just now struggled to gather around and looked at the skinny horse lying on the ground with creepy eyes.

A few soldiers who were still in good health held sticks and threatened the elderly, the weak, women and children who were approaching, preventing them from getting any closer.

Because this little bit of food must be supplied to the soldiers first. If they are not full, no one will be able to fight the Burmese army.

The old, weak, women and children also knew this, but they were too hungry, and the hunger in their stomachs made them instinctively move closer.

A desperate mother raised the bowl in her hand. It was a beautiful blue and white peony bowl, and it was obvious that it was originally very expensive.

The woman holding the bowl was wearing a tattered brocade skirt. I guess she must have been the daughter-in-law of a wealthy family.

But now, she cried silently, begging the soldiers to give her a bowl of oil-free and salt-free horse meat soup to save her child who was starving to death.

"Ah Zhen, let's go quickly. People are about to be eaten here. Don't stay here to be buried with us. Let the soldiers who can still move have their last meal and then break out."

Huang Wen Ze was already dying, and he used his last bit of strength to persuade Luan Zhen.

Thirty-five-year-old Luang Zhen fell to the ground and cried for the first time. He did not cry when his father Phraya Pai Pi Bo died in battle six years ago.

But now, he felt that it was his recklessness that killed so many of his fellow villagers, and he felt extremely regretful.

Luan Zhen knelt in the mud and prayed to the Buddha. As long as someone could save the people in the south of the city, he would regard that person as his master from then on and would be willing to work for him like a slave.

(End of this chapter)