The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 186 You're sweating, bro.
The 1770th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, January , AD, the third day of the first lunar month.

As expected, Mo Zibu kept his promise and personally led 2,400 soldiers from Kunlun Mountain Hall and the British and Dutch, 12,000 auxiliary soldiers from the General's Office to suppress Myanmar, and more than 10,000 Burmese vassal troops of Balamindin.

A total of about 26,000 people marched north from Beimiu City in a big way.

The city of Pyin Uy was guarded by the veteran general Ou Long, who led 400 men, assisted by Balamindin's son Manglo, who brought 1,500 vassal troops.

The army continued to move north along the Irrawaddy River. The Burmese had been confused by the false news and illusions released by Mozibu before, and did not expect that he would suddenly move north.

Moreover, since the Konbaung Dynasty could not spare many troops, Mo Zi Bu continued to advance with great momentum.

The army successively conquered Deye, Magway, Yenangyaung and other places, and was less than 250 kilometers away from Ava.

Among these three places, only in Yenangyaung did we encounter some resistance.

The Konbaung Dynasty sent a governor to the local area. The river was blocked by sunken ships, and there were a small number of artillery on both sides for defense.

The main force of the resistance was not the army of the Konbaung Dynasty, but a small number of serfs pulled from the fields by vassals, plus a large number of rural militias organized by temples.

These big monks were panicked and furious because of Mo Zibu's robbery along the way. Now they saw Mo Zibu was going to go up, and thought he was going to rob again, so they quickly organized a militia to stop him.

It has to be said that in their hometown, in order to protect their families and pitiful property, the combat effectiveness of these rural militias is pretty good. At least they will not all run away after being hit by a single shot.

But compared with Mo Zibu's army, the gap is too big, mainly in terms of weapons.

The Konbaung Dynasty, with a population of four million, deployed 40,000 to 50,000 elite soldiers, basically draining the potential of the people.

As a result, in Myanmar today, five families have to pool their resources to buy an iron pot, and most hoes are made of stone or wood.

In this situation, the weapons of the Burmese Army militia were extremely simple. Not to mention muskets, almost all of their cold weapons were basically just long spears made of bamboo and wood.

When facing Mo Zibu's troops equipped with more than 5,000 flintlock rifles, they were completely ready to fight. The armies were relaxed, as if they were shooting at targets.

"Amitabha, it's too cruel!" Mo Zibu put his hands together and chanted the Buddha's name in a fake manner.

Regardless of the fact that Theravada Buddhism did not use the Pure Land Sect's mantras at all, he pretended to be extremely compassionate and could not bear to watch any more, and said to the great monk Yenangyaung who was captured here:
"Master, please tell them to stop resisting. Xin Piaoxin invaded my country and killed my compatriots. I am here to settle accounts with him. It has nothing to do with anyone else."

An angry look appeared on the monk's face. It sounds nice that you are going to settle accounts with the White Elephant King, but why did you rob all my Buddhist temples along the way?
Mo Zibu knew what they were thinking and expressed it very seriously.

"I know the master will have some doubts, but I swear here that I will never rob any place again until Ava and Xin Piaoxin settle their accounts."

"I'll just rob it when I get back from Ava," Mo Zibu added silently in his mind.

Firstly, he didn't want these monks to continue organizing local militias to cause trouble for him. Secondly, he was afraid that when he returned, the senior monks would have melted the Buddha statues, scattered the treasures, and all the people would have run away.

Having said that, he immediately released the group of captured monks. Of course, the militia organized by the temple would still be ruthlessly attacked.

The ruthless Mo Zibu defeated more than 20,000 Burmese people's militias from all over the country in Yenangyaung, killing thousands.

More than 2,000 people were driven into the Irrawaddy River alone, turning the water red and leaving corpses floating on the water for months.

This battle greatly shocked Buddhist communities in various places. In addition, Mo Zibu had spread the word that he would no longer plunder, so he did not encounter much resistance along the way.

On the 13th day of the first lunar month, Mozibu captured Pagan, the former capital of the Pagan Dynasty.

The residents of the city had fled before Mozibu arrived, and the city was burned down by the Burmese army. Mozibu had to order his army to camp in the wild.

This was intentional. Mo Zibu knew that the White Elephant King had finally reacted and a crucial battle was about to begin.

. . . .

Pakokku is about 50 kilometers away from Ava, where the Chindwin River, one of the main tributaries of the Irrawaddy River, flows into.

At the confluence of the two rivers, the water surface suddenly expands, like a large lake, looking like a bottle with a narrow mouth and a wide belly.

In addition, there are countless fertile fields on both sides of the river, which is one of the main food supply areas of Ava, the capital of the Konbaung Dynasty.

The city of Mukkoju is stuck at the mouth of this narrow-mouthed, wide-bellied bottle. After passing Mukkoju, the world becomes wider and there is no longer any strategic location to defend until Ava.

Chevalier Miral rushed to Pakokku in a hurry.

King Baixiang made a wrong judgment, but he couldn't say it clearly, so he could only hastily release the prisoners in the prison and the serfs of the wealthy families to form this army of about 15,000 people.

Seeing King Sinthamine riding his horse in the distance, Chevalier's heart sank even more.

King Sinthamine was the younger brother of King White Elephant, and he was the commander-in-chief of this army, not Chevalier.

Originally, according to the plan, Chevalier wanted the White Elephant King to lead the army in person, which would greatly boost the morale and rapidly improve the combat effectiveness of this army mainly composed of criminals and serfs.

But the White Elephant King did not listen to Chevalier's advice, and even showed a hint of doubt.

Chevalier immediately understood that the White Elephant King was beginning to fear, fearing that if he were defeated, he would not even be able to escape or negotiate. However, Chevalier found it somewhat sad that all his power came from the White Elephant King's favor.

Without the White Elephant King, Chevalier could not command the backbone of the army, namely the 1,300 gorgeously dressed guards, except for some European slave soldiers of the same origin as himself.

Even the prisoners and serfs whom he had insisted on releasing did not like him, a Frenchman with gray hair and brown eyes.

This resulted in Chevalier being the deputy commander of the army, but in fact he could not command many people, and all the power was in the hands of the Konbaung Dynasty nobles headed by King Sinthamine.

When Mo Zibu arrived in Mukoju, this city sandwiched between mountains and rivers was still extremely busy.

The Konbaung Dynasty had enjoyed peace and tranquility for many years without any threat to its homeland, and even a fortress like this one was in a state of disrepair.

Of course, there was also the reason that most of the domestic revenue was basically used by the White Elephant King in foreign wars, and he was unable to afford the cost of repairs.

Offense is the best defense, but now, something seems to have gone wrong.

Chevalier was at the Pakokku Fortress and saw that Mozibu's fleet was coming densely towards Pakokku. Some of them had already landed on both sides of the river. It seemed that they wanted to divide their forces.

He immediately advised King Sinthamine, "We can't let these Khmers split their forces. They outnumber us and their morale is stronger than mine. If they split their forces on both sides and surround the fortress, we will be in danger."

Chevalier actually didn't finish his speech. What he mainly wanted to say was that most of the troops on his side were freed prisoners and serfs.

Now that they have just been released and pardoned, and still want to try their best to change their fate, they should take advantage of this military morale and go out of the city to fight a battle with their backs to the fortress.

As long as we can achieve a small victory, our confidence will be boosted and our fighting power will increase exponentially.

If they do not send out troops and stay in the fortress for too long, the morale of these tigers out of the cage will weaken, they will have more thoughts, their fighting will will drop rapidly, and they will be unable to fight against the regular army.

At the same time, the enemy came from far away and had large numbers. Seeing that they were actively seeking a fight, they would definitely be willing to fight in the field.

However, King Sinthamine glanced at Chevalier and simply ignored his proposal.

What a joke, what ability does a Westerner who sells his ass have? Should I listen to you?
Do you think I'm stupid for not defending a fortress?
I will block the river now. There are only 20,000 to 30,000 Cambodians. If they leave the river, they will not be able to transport supplies quickly. If they dare to go around it, they will just have to wait for the army to run out of food.

They were forced to attack the fortress.

Mo Zibu rode his horse to a high hill and investigated the situation of Mukoju with a group of officers. Wang Wuchu also went down personally to capture some Burmese people and interrogate them.

He was now a little confused about the other side's intentions. It was said that the White Elephant King had released a large number of prisoners and serfs to fight him.

This reminded Mo Zibu of one of the most famous prisoner armies, Zhang Han's Lishan criminal army in the late Qin Dynasty.

When an army like this is released, it is time to fight a fierce battle while its morale is high!

As long as they gain a little victory, their confidence will rise, and they will get official positions and treasures that they never dared to dream of before, and they will fight more and more fiercely.

If you leave the city alone, haha, after a long time, if you lose control a little, these resentful guys will at best run away quietly, at worst get revenge and kill the officers and continue to become bandits.

After patiently observing for a whole day, Mo Zibu was basically certain that there was no conspiracy, it was simply because the opposing coach was an idiot!
Chen Guangyao immediately suggested, "Zhao, please assign me a thousand elite soldiers.

It is only about a hundred miles to Ava, and we can arrive there in a day and a half by quick march. I think there are already 20,000 people in Mukoju, and there are only 2,000 or 3,000 people in Ava City at most.

Zhao is besieged here, I will attack Ava by surprise, and I will surely conquer it in one battle."

Mo Zibu laughed heartily. This was indeed the case. Although the army would certainly have difficulty in supplying if it bypassed the fortress, it would still be no problem for a thousand soldiers to go there.

"Ayao, I will give you fifty pieces of silk cloth. When you reach Ava, if you cannot capture it, you can cover the silk cloth on wooden boards and float it down the river.

"When the enemy sees so much silk, they will surely think Ava has fallen, and their morale will instantly collapse. This is the same method used by our Lijiang Wujing King Fu Youde to conquer Mingxia!"

The next day, Chevalier saw Chen Guangyao's troops showing off their military power and marching towards Ava with great fanfare on the city wall of Mukoju, and he became extremely anxious.

He begged King Sinthapith to allocate two thousand men to him so that he could follow this Khmer army.

Sinthamimin also knew that he could not let this Khmer army launch a surprise attack on Ava, so he allocated two thousand men to Chevalier and asked him to go out of the city to pursue.

As a result, before Chevalier left the city, Mozibu began to attack Pakokju City fiercely. At one time, dozens of cannons were fired from both land and river.

Xin Tamine in the city was frightened by the artillery of the Mo army, and the original two thousand people were reduced to one thousand.

Now it was Chevalier's turn to be nervous. He dared to chase Chen Guangyao with two thousand people, but if he chased him with only one thousand people, wouldn't he be walking into the muzzle of a gun?

So Chevalier could only keep sending scouts to contact the military stations built along the river, for fear of being ambushed by Chen Guangyao.

Chen Guangyao, who was about to ambush Chevalier, saw that the Western bandit general was not going to be fooled, so he strode away from him and headed straight for Ava City.

(End of this chapter)