The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 180 Both sides suffer losses
Almost at the same time as Mozibul defeated Balamindin, Taksin personally led 25,000 Siamese troops and began the Northern Expedition.

The first stop of the Northern Expedition was Tak City and Kamphaeng Phet, where he had lived as Phraya in the past.

As the Burmese army weakened in these places and Taksin was his old superior, before the Siamese army arrived, Thai people from all over the country killed Burmese officials and responded. Taksin regained these two places without any effort.

The situation in Lanna is more complicated.

This country, located in Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Chiang Rai in northern Thailand in later generations, was also established by Thais, but its relationship with Thais in the Bangkok area is not very close.

It can be said that Lanna, which was historically called the Country of Eight Hundred Daughters-in-law in the Yuan Dynasty and the Country of Eight Hundred Dayians in the Ming Dynasty, is a living fossil of the Dai people migrating from Yunnan to Siam.

At this time, their language, culture, customs, etc. are closer to those of the Dai people in Jinghong and Mengla in Yunnan.

Rather than saying they are Thai, it is better to say that they are a nation between Thai and Dai. Therefore, the Lanna people are also called Nguyen people.

Even in later Thailand, they were called Northern Thais, while the Thai people in Bangkok were Central Thais.

In previous history, Lanna has always had its own king and has not been ruled by any Thai dynasty except for a few short years during the reign of King Naresuan.

There were even fierce battles between them and the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya dynasties.

Today, Lanna has been subject to Myanmar for more than 1614 years since it was controlled by the Burmese in .

The Burmese set up Myaw Win (Governor of Lanna), Sikhe (Superintendent of large cities), and Po (Officer garrisoning small cities) here and exercised strict rule.

Fortunately, the Nguyen people of Lanna were not completely assimilated by the Burmese.

The cultural heritage of the Burmese is still too poor. For more than a hundred years, no culture has been introduced to Lanna, which has led to Lanna still being incompatible with Myanmar, and resistance has been happening one after another.

Zheng Xin was well aware of this, and as a Chinese, he knew how to take advantage of it.

While he was still in Dacheng repairing his army, he began to play the family card and kept sending people to win over the resistance faction in Lanna.

The Lanna anti-Burmese hero, the descendant of a monk, was held high as a banner, and the powerful resistance leader Zaban was named Phraya, and a large amount of weapons was funded to allow him to start disrupting the Burmese army.

At this time, Lannamyuwentihabodi, who was originally more capable, had been transferred to Xinjie by the White Elephant King to defend against the Qing army, and 4,000 of the 6,000 Burmese troops were also transferred to Xinjie.

Myo Win Maha Xixiu now has only 2,000 Burmese troops under his command, and the rest are "Imperial Army". Not only do they have little combat effectiveness in a fight, but he also has to guard against them turning against him.

Especially Maha Xixiu, who was originally a brave general in the Burmese army, but after being beaten by Mingrui, he became wilted, as if all his energy and spirit were gone.

Apart from frantically asking for help from the White Elephant King, he could not come up with any other countermeasures.

What can the White Elephant King do?

On the tenth day of the tenth month, the Qing troops gathered from three directions to find out the details of the Burmese army and felt that they were no more powerful than them.

As a result, the entire army believed that Mingrui's previous failure was due to his excessive arrogance and his isolated advance into deep territory.

At this time, they were not advancing alone into the enemy's territory. Although supplies were a bit tight, their morale was greatly boosted because they were close to Yunnan and there was no possibility of being attacked.

Faced with the Burmese army's hastily built fortifications in Xinjie, the Qing army was united. The navy first defeated the Burmese navy in the Irrawaddy River, captured more than ten warships, and killed hundreds of people.

Afterwards, they joined forces by land and sea to attack the sandbar in the river on the right side of Xinjie, killing more than a hundred enemies again and successfully occupying it.

On the shore, the veteran general Aligun personally led 300 vanguard guards and 300 Western Bai soldiers to capture three camps of the Burmese army outside Xinjie, killing more than 400 enemies.

After this series of moves, the Burmese army lost thousands of soldiers and saw that Xinjie was completely undefendable. The commander-in-chief Tihabodi could only order Mang Niemiaozhe on the front line to retreat.

The Burmese army burned down the camp and the supplies that could not be taken away at night, and hurriedly retreated to Laoguantun, where the fortifications were more solid. The Qing army took the opportunity to reach this last line of defense of the Burmese army.

The White Elephant King in Ava was extremely anxious. If Laoguantun could not be defended, the Qing army would go down the river, and the purely land fortress like Xiangkongcheng that had blocked Mingrui before would be completely useless, and Ava would be undefendable.

Therefore, after receiving Maha Xixiu's emergency call, King Baixiang was unable to mobilize any reinforcements or supplies. All these things had to be transported to the Laoguantun front line.

So the White Elephant King could only instruct Maha Sisoul to delay Taksin in the name of peace talks, claiming that as long as Taksin was willing to agree to peace talks, the White Elephant King would stop attacking Siam.

Zheng Xin laughed heartily and said to his ministers, "The White Elephant King is at the end of his rope, yet he still dares to speak so arrogantly. This is just a delaying tactic."

As Zheng Xin, who had not yet been canonized by the Qing Dynasty, would of course say this, because the guards sent by Fuheng were in Zheng Xin's army.

Similarly, Li Shiyao's Goshha Li and Long were also in Mo Zibu's army.

Their existence as a three-party coordination action is also evidence that Zheng Xin and Mo Zibu did contribute.

Fu Heng was naturally afraid of being cheated by this father-in-law and son-in-law, so he had made preparations long ago. If Zheng Xin and Mo Zibu did not work hard, then they would not be able to get any benefits such as titles.

When they were alone, Taksin explained to his attendants, "If the White Elephant King is willing to withdraw from Lanna, we may be able to negotiate.

But he obviously still has the idea of continuing to attack Siam after the Qing army withdraws, so we cannot believe the Burmese lies in any way."

Taksin had to explain because the Thonburi Dynasty was just established and there was a lot of work to be done. The people had suffered from wars since King Agada ascended the throne and they were longing for peace.

If it weren't for the purpose of seeking enthronement, Zheng Xin would never have led his army north.

Historically, it was not until five years later in 1774 that Taksin reluctantly headed north to try to conquer Lanna.

Seeing that Taksin was not fooled and continued to recapture cities such as Sukhothai and Sangkhalok, and went north along the Vang River, a tributary of the Chao Phraya River (Mekong River), and reached Lamphun Province southeast of Chiang Mai, Maha Sisoul panicked.

Unable to wait to report the White Elephant King, he took the initiative to contact Taksin, threatening to hand over the entire Lanna Kingdom to Taksin if he would halt his advance and allow him to retreat to Burma. Otherwise, he would burn Chiang Mai to the ground. Taksin feigned his desire to negotiate with Maha Sisu while selecting elite troops for preparation.

At the end of October, Taksin took advantage of the critical moment when Maha Sisoo was busy packing up his wealth and goods, and with the help of his internal supporter Phiyaprakarn, he led 4,000 elite troops to bypass Nambun and reach the outskirts of Chiang Mai.

Maha Shixiu was defeated in a hasty battle and lost hundreds of people. He fled to Myanmar in panic.

Inspired by this victory, the Nguyen people of Lanna rose up in rebellion, and Myanmar's rule in Lanna, which had lasted for more than 150 years, collapsed.

At the same time, after one and a half months of preparation, Mo Zibu swore an oath in Yangon and set off.

He selected 10,000 auxiliary troops from the Mon and Karen people. The main force of the battle was still the more than 2,000 people of the Ha Tien Group and the Yi Cong Group plus 600 British and Dutch troops.

At the same time, nearly 20,000 Mon and Karen laborers and boatmen were conscripted to transport supplies to the army.

This time, the soldiers of Kunlun Mountain Hall finally no longer had to carry weapons and supplies while marching, as they had enough auxiliary troops to help them.

October also happens to be the relatively dry season of the Irrawaddy River. Since Mozibu was going upstream, the size and speed of the water flow had a considerable impact on him.

As for the person to stay behind, it was still Li Xianwen. King Mo's sworn brother and brother-in-law was already used to it. When the troops were divided, he would lead the detachment, and when they stayed behind, it would definitely be him.

What Mo Zibu left to Li Xianwen were only Chen Jiansheng's 1,000 miners and Ye Xianyang's 300 Hakka soldiers, and the rest were vassal troops like General Su Ji.

Mo Zibu also gave Li Xianwen the position of General who Suppresses Burma.

However, this was not to keep Li Xianwen in Lower Burma, but the situation in Lower Burma was just beginning to take shape, and many frameworks and operating rules had not yet been established.

Li Xianwen was appointed as the General to Suppress Burma in order to set rules and build a framework for future generations.

Mingxin glanced at his brother-in-law, General Suki, who also turned his head to look at Mingxin. The two of them quickly turned their faces away in embarrassment.

They both knew that given Li Xianwen's status, it would be impossible for him to serve as the General of Suppressing Burma for long.

And in the future, they are the two who are qualified to compete for this position.

As for Wu Wen, he was able to become one of the three marquises of Lower Burma because of his family's prestige and standing on the right side. For the time being, he is not qualified enough to compete for the position of the general who suppresses Burma.

In early November, Taksin began to confer titles on meritorious officials in Lanna, intending to directly incorporate Lanna into the Thonburi Dynasty, turning it from an independent kingdom into a semi-independent vassal state.

When Mo Zibu led 2,800 main forces, 11,000 auxiliary troops, 20,000 civilians and sailors, claiming to be an army of 80,000, to go upstream to the north, the Qing army began to besiege Laoguantun.

The location of Laoguantun is very important. It is the narrowest place in the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River. Cannons set up on both sides of the river can block the entire river surface.

The Burmese army established two camps on both sides of the river and buried a large number of wooden stakes in the river section between the camps to prevent ships from passing through.

Wooden fences were also erected on the river surface, and no boats could pass until the fences were raised.

At the same time, there is a huge sandbar in the middle of the river. A stone-walled fort is built on the sandbar. The fort is equipped with 36-pound super-large caliber naval guns taken from French warships, and the blockade is very tight.

The Qing army first tried to capture Shazhou, but the Shazhou fort was strong and the artillery was fierce. Hundreds of Burmese defenders, armed with flintlock rifles, attacked the Qing army from a high position, making it unable to raise their heads.

At the same time, the Burmese army's ammunition and supplies could be continuously transported to the sandbar from the rear. After five or six days of fighting, the Qing army suffered hundreds of casualties and was unable to capture the sandbar at all.

Afterwards, the Qing army chose to use the navy to force their way through, trying to bypass Shazhou and set fire to the water forts and wooden fences on the river.

The Qing army prepared a large number of fireboats for this purpose, and then successfully broke through the artillery blockade on Shazhou.

Unfortunately, just as the Qing army lowered the fireboats downstream, a strong wind suddenly blew from the southeast during the winter when the wind was mostly from the north.

As a result, almost all the fire ships were blown back. The Qing army failed to burn the Burmese water fort and burned themselves to pieces. Dozens of warships were lost, hundreds of soldiers were killed or wounded, and the Qing army completely lost the ability to mobilize the navy.

The war has reached this point, and there is no other choice but to eliminate the Laoguantun dry camp by land.

But the two large Burmese military camps in Laoguantun were located on high ground, with six layers of wooden fences in front of the gates.

Behind each layer of fence, there is a trench to avoid artillery fire. In front of the fence, there is a "wire mesh" made of sharp bamboo and wood, and the bottom is full of pits with sharp blades.

After the test of Erden'e's detachment in the third Qing-Myanmar War, the Burmese army became more adept at dealing with the Qing army's sieges.

The Qing army was restricted in transportation and the caliber of the artillery they carried was insufficient, making it difficult for them to blow through the Burmese wooden fences. Even if they did, the Burmese army still had trenches to avoid the artillery, making it impossible to kill large numbers of Burmese troops behind the fences.

There is no need to think about using a matchlock gun, it would not be able to penetrate at all.

The Burmese army could hide behind the wooden fence and shoot at the Qing army with flintlock rifles through the gaps.

The Qing army fought fiercely for more than ten days, suffering heavy casualties each time. They captured one or two wooden fences during the day, but because they were afraid of the Burmese army's artillery fire and sniper rifles, they did not dare to garrison at night.

The Burmese army quickly repaired the wooden fence that was captured and destroyed by the Qing army at night.

Agui, Aligun, Ha Guoxing and other generals tried every possible means and fought for more than 20 days before they completely destroyed the four-layer fence, making it impossible for the Burmese army to repair it.

As a result, when we arrived at the penultimate place, we found that the wooden fence was made entirely of fine hardwood, as high as a city wall and as thick as a city wall, with hundreds of shooting holes underneath. It could not be destroyed by cannons or penetrated by guns.

The Qing army tried to set fire, pull the enemy troops, and dig tunnels, but they were unable to get close and suffered heavy casualties. The veteran general Aligun became so angry that he died.

At this point, the war had reached a stage of brutal confrontation where the situation was extremely unfavorable for the Qing army and the Burmese army was holding on with gritted teeth.

(End of this chapter)