The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 141 Let You See the Power of Tongtian Pattern
The situation at this time is still favorable to the Qing army. If the situation continues like this, Mingrui may really succeed.

But fate often likes to play a joke on you at critical moments.

Just when the Qing army's northern detachment was confronting the Burmese army outside Xinjie City, the main general Erjing'e suddenly fell seriously ill and died in just over ten days.

Before that, when the army had not yet set out, Mingrui's cousin and Fukang'an's brother Fuling'an, who was Erjing'e's replacement, also died of illness in Kunming.

As a result, there were only a handful of candidates who could command the northern army. Qianlong sent an order by an 800-li flying cavalry to replace Erjing'e with Erdeng'e, Erjing'e's younger brother.

It’s a pity that although Erdeng’e had been in the army for a long time and had followed his brother Erjing’e for many years, he looked like a brave general.

But in reality, he was brave but not wise, so he could only be a centurion and could never be the commander of a large army.

As soon as he took office, he felt that he had to quickly repay Qianlong's favor of promotion, and he also wanted to make great military achievements to show that he was no worse than his brother Erjing'e.

Therefore, Erdene gave up the best option, which was to compete with the Burmese army in consumption.

In other words, as long as the 9,000 main forces of the Burmese army are consumed here and they are not allowed to threaten Mingrui's rear, perhaps the Burmese army will really not be able to defeat Mingrui.

But in his excitement, Erdeng'e chose to lead his troops to attack the natural fortress of Xinjie City, which was exactly what the Burmese army commander Mang Nie Miaozhe wanted.

Xinjie City built a three-layered defense with earth walls, wooden fences and trenches. The Burmese army had 9,000 people, almost 4,000 flintlock rifles, and almost everyone had a matchlock rifle.

Although fighting outside the city is like giving away food because the cavalry and melee soldiers are too weak, defense is very useful!

On the other hand, the Qing army's 4,000 Yunnan Green Camp had suffered defeats for several consecutive years, and most of the senior officers had been killed. As a result, the soldiers had no fighting spirit and did not have much combat effectiveness.

The absolute main force of the Qing army, the 600 cavalry led by Hailancha, were of little use in the siege.

The national conditions of the Qing Dynasty did not allow the Eight Banners cavalry, which had been raised at great expense, to be used in such places.

Therefore, the only troops Erdeng'e could deploy in large numbers were more than 3,000 Sichuan Green Camp soldiers from Chuanbei Town and Songpan Town in Sichuan.

This is fatal. No matter how strong the Sichuan Green Camp is, how can you let them use swords and guns to attack the Burmese army that is three times their number, hiding behind wooden fences, or even on the city walls with flintlock rifles? Is this reasonable?
Even if they are supermen, they cannot defeat the Burmese army!
As a result, the morale of the Qing army in the north became lower and lower as the fighting continued, the casualties became more and more severe, and the soldiers became increasingly war-weary.

. . . .

Just when the Qing army in the north encountered trouble, they encountered the Burmese army's scorched earth and cleared the land along the way. The main force of the Qing army, where no one could be seen, finally found the main force of the Burmese army.

The Burmese general Maha Shixiu led an army of 15,000 and occupied the hilltop beside the Irrawaddy River where Manjie was located. He built 16 strongholds with wooden fences and provided layers of defense.

However, under the excellent matching mechanism in Southeast Asia, the so-called generals are actually just that.

Although Maha Xixiu set up a strong camp, the sentries he sent out were too weak and were directly captured by the Qing army.

At the same time, no effective multiple early warning mechanism was established. As a result, the Qing army, relying on the confessions of the captured Burmese soldiers, led the minister Guanyin Baoqin and 400 elite soldiers to launch a sudden attack and directly captured Maha Xixiu's first military camp.

Under the siege of 400 Qing troops, more than a thousand Burmese soldiers only held out for half an hour before they retreated. Not only were dozens of people killed, but they also lost the key first camp.

This camp is located at the highest position and can overlook the defense situation of the entire Manjie area.

Maha Xixiu quickly sent people to rob, but his 2,000 men attacked 400 Qing soldiers from above, but the Qing soldiers used the jungle to avoid the musket fire and then rushed forward to defeat them.

Guanyinbao alone killed more than ten Burmese soldiers. The Burmese soldiers left behind nearly a hundred corpses and fled back in a panic. From then on, they did not dare to attack again and just defended their position.

At night, the Qing army finally arrived and began to attack the Burmese army camp.

However, the progress was not smooth, because Manjie was entirely covered with mountains and forests, and the Burmese army camps were all on the mountains, surrounded by wooden fences as camps.

Trenches were dug inside and outside the camp, and outside the outer trenches were deer antlers made of sharp bamboo and wood from northern Myanmar.

Well, or rather, this kind of antlers should be called a primitive version of barbed wire, which is very difficult to pass through.

The Burmese soldiers would also use the gaps in the wooden fence to shoot at the Qing army. Most of the Qing army's muskets were matchlock guns, and they were unable to shoot at the Burmese army across the wooden fence.

At the moment of stalemate, the Hui general Ha Guoxing suggested that the Qing army attack in three directions in the early morning, without using guns or artillery, but only swords and guns.

Although Ha Guoxing was only the deputy general of Tengyue at this time, he was still very knowledgeable. He clearly realized that the combat effectiveness of the Burmese army depended entirely on the flintlock rifles in their hands, but their hand-to-hand combat ability was extremely low.

So don't shoot at them from a distance, just rush in and hack them.

Mingrui adopted Ha Guoxing's suggestion, so the Qing army gathered 1,500 elite Manchu and Han soldiers and launched an attack in the early morning.

Most of these soldiers had been on the march for more than two months and had not yet had a chance to fight, so their morale was very high.

The Qing army quickly captured the first camp, and the Burmese army was caught off guard and retreated in panic.

But after arriving at the second camp, the Burmese army increased its strength and continued to shoot at the Qing army. The Qing army attacked the trench outside the wooden fence, but was too frightened to raise their heads due to the gunfire.

At the critical moment, Wang Lian, a Guizhou soldier in the trench, suddenly found some wood piled up outside the Burmese army's wooden fence not far in front of him, which he could use as a springboard to climb into the barracks.

So he quickly made an appointment with a few fellow villagers and rushed in together.

The Burmese troops were busy firing outside, and the smoke rising from the flintlock rifles blocked part of their vision.

Wang Lian took the opportunity to jump out of the trench, stepped on the wood and jumped into the Burmese camp.

The Burmese army's hand-to-hand combat soldiers hurriedly came to besiege them with spears in hand. Wang Lian was tall and strong, with great martial arts skills.

He roared, used the rattan shield to protect his vital parts, and charged directly into the Burmese melee soldiers. Then he threw away the rattan shield, held the ghost-head broadsword in both hands, and swung it to chop them down.

The Burmese soldiers were short and weak in hand-to-hand combat. Wang Lian, wearing cotton armor, was only slightly injured by more than ten barrels of bullets. However, he was powerful and powerful, and every time he hit a Burmese soldier, he would definitely make him lose his fighting ability.

Therefore, although the Burmese troops surrounded the city in larger and larger numbers, they were killed by Wang Lian and blood flowed like a river.

At this time, Wang Lian’s fellow villager Zhu Shedou and others also climbed over the wall. They formed a battle formation and rushed forward fiercely. More than ten people killed hundreds of Burmese soldiers.

Wang Lian alone killed more than ten Burmese soldiers and injured more than thirty people. He was simply like a god of war!
Wang Lian's fellow villager Zhu Shedou also took the opportunity to open the gate of the Burmese army camp and let the army into the camp, and the Burmese army was defeated again.

After this battle, the morale of the Qing army was completely boosted. Wang Lian and others followed the army to attack again, and with unstoppable momentum, they captured two more camps in a row.

The two sides fought from early morning to nightfall. The Burmese army commander Maha Hisu organized more than ten offensives in succession, hoping to recapture the most critical camps in front, but all failed.

At the end of the battle, the Burmese army of 15,000 men could not even organize a reserve force of 2,000 men, and the army's morale was on the verge of collapse.

Maha Xixiu did not dare to stay any longer and simply retreated overnight. The Qing army took advantage of the situation and pursued him until the early morning of the next day before withdrawing their troops.

According to statistics after the war, more than 2,000 Burmese soldiers were killed, more than 5,000 were injured, and most of their guns, artillery and supplies were lost.

The elite Burmese troops led by Maha Xixiu had their psychological defenses completely broken down, so they had to retreat directly to Ava City to rest and recuperate.

In this battle, the Burmese army suffered a heavy defeat, and Ava was shocked. The Burmese army had the advantage and had 3,000 more soldiers than the Qing army, but was still defeated, which made the White Elephant King extremely frightened.

Only then did he realize that the combat effectiveness of the Burmese army was nothing compared to the elite troops of the Qing Dynasty.

It was this battle that made him realize that there were many omissions in his previous arrangements.

King Baixiang then personally led his troops north to several satellite fortress cities north of Ava to boost the morale of the troops.

Afterwards, King Baixiang ordered the officers along the way to immediately implement a more stringent tactic of fortifying the city and clearing the countryside, turning the area one or two hundred kilometers north of Ava City into almost a no-man's land.

Countless grains were burned, and all the cattle, horses, chickens and sheep that could not be taken away were killed. More than a thousand Burmese civilians who refused to evacuate were executed.

At the same time, King Baixiang strictly ordered all units of the Burmese army not to send any soldiers out of the city for field battles, and to defend several key cities to the death.

General Dengjia Minkang, who was good at guerrilla warfare, was also ordered to quickly launch a raid.

At the same time, a dispute also broke out on the Qing army side. Although the Qing army won a great victory in this battle, it was clear that the Burmese army had used the tactics of luring the enemy deep into their territory and using strong defenses to clear the fields.

In the Battle of Qiemanjie, the Qing army commander Mingrui was hit on the forehead by a lead bullet, injuring his eye socket. His right eye was so swollen that he could hardly open it, and he almost died in the battle.

Therefore, the brave generals Guanyinbao, Zarafeng'a and others advised Mingrui that supply was difficult and the road ahead was difficult, so it would be better to retreat to Mubang City to rest and make plans later.

At this time, many Qing army generals had realized that the Burmese army on the opposite side was by no means a Musuo chieftain, but should be a big country.

Otherwise, the Qing army would never have seized so many flintlock rifles and cannons in the battle with Manjie.

But it was precisely this point that annoyed Mingrui.

If this inference is true, it means that Mingrui's previous four months in Yunnan, including the memorial he submitted to Qianlong, were a slap in the face to himself, and the opinions of the civil and military officials he wrote to punish were correct.

Mingrui, his defenses broken, was furious. He would never admit his own incompetence. In a rage, he pointed his spear at Guanyinbao and shouted, "Are you discouraged by a powerful enemy? You are not a real man!"

Damn it, a military commander doesn't use analysis and strategy to convince his subordinates, but instead directly breaks down their defenses and engages in personal attacks and moral coercion.

But what is even more outrageous is that Guanyinbao is a Khorchin Mongol. Although he married Kang Mazi's adopted granddaughter, he usually feels a little inferior to the Jurchens of the upper three banners of Manchuria. He is most afraid that others will say that he is not a real Manchu man.

Hearing Mingrui say this, he became furious and said arrogantly:

"I am a man of honor and dignity, and I share the same fate as the general. If the general says so today, Guanyinbao will only die with the general."

What an abstraction! These two Manchurian generals don’t look like generals commanding over 10,000 elite troops. Instead, they look like Haonan and Shanji from Causeway Bay.

One of them broke through the defense and acted stubbornly, while the other one got carried away and acted recklessly.

So the two men made a plan to build military stations along the way and continue advancing southward towards the city of Ava.

Moreover, they were extremely fast, running nearly 200 kilometers in six days carrying guns, ammunition and food.

On December 13, they arrived at Songxai (Songsu, Myanmar), on the 17th they reached Banghai, and on the 18th they reached Xiangkong (Singu, Myanmar), which was only 30 kilometers away from Ava.

But along the way, Ming Ruijun didn't encounter a single person.

The Qing army could not find men to help transport the supplies, and many of the captured artillery pieces were abandoned.

Unable to find food, the soldiers could only eat the minimum dry rations they carried with them.

There was no one to help them find the way, and the guides brought by the Qing army from Yunnan got lost several times.

When they arrived at the Elephant Cave in the north of Ava City, Mingrui and others were faced with a series of fortresses built in the European style.

On the Xiangkong City Wall, which controls the key waterway, there is a giant 32-pound naval gun removed from a French warship, operated by a small number of French artillerymen. There are also more than 700 Portuguese musketeers and 2,000 Burmese musketeers on standby.

The main general is Chevalier Mirald, a former subordinate of Lieutenant Colonel Bruno who was beside Mo Zibu, a former captain of the French naval artillery and now the general of the Burmese guard.

Well, his wife and children were "rescued" by Mo Zibu, and are now being detained locally for governance.

(End of this chapter)