The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 188: Suffering from Lack of Education (Two in One)

The 1770th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, the th day of the first lunar month, the th day of the second lunar month in the year AD.

Chen Guangyao won a great victory. He not only killed the White Elephant King's second son, Zhui Jiaoya, but also forced the surrender of the 1,000-strong pursuing force of Chevalier Miral, the general of the Konbaung Dynasty's Royal Guard.

At this moment, Chen Guangyao, who was originally attacked by surprise, made a gorgeous turn and his troops expanded to two thousand people.

Among the extra thousand people, there are more than four hundred to five hundred European slave soldiers with good combat effectiveness, who can almost seamlessly integrate with the soldiers under Chen Guangyao.

With sufficient manpower, Chen Guangyao immediately captured a large military station behind the Burmese army. He ordered the prisoners to send a signal to let the fleet carrying supplies dock, and then directly detained them.

After doing all this, Chen Guangyao followed Mo Zibu's arrangements and sent hundreds of tattered boats and bamboo rafts downstream.

It is covered with a large amount of silk cloth, as well as the flags of the royal family and guards of the Konbaung Dynasty, gorgeous guards armor, murals of famous temples such as Ananda Temple outside Ava, silk ribbons on the Buddha's body, and so on.

. . . .

In Pakokgu, Mo Zi Bu ordered the main force to surround the Pakokgu fortress and attack it day and night.

At the same time, he ordered Chen Lian to lead 3,000 people to cross the river in small boats to the other side of Pakokju, go back upstream and cross the river again, and surround the Pakokju fortress from behind.

Chen Lian's three thousand men are not very harmful but extremely insulting.

Pakokju was a fortress city, easy to defend but difficult to attack, and it was hard to say how much of a threat it posed from behind.

However, it can give the fortress defenders the feeling that their retreat is cut off, and it can also prevent Ava City from transporting supplies to the Pakokgu Fortress to a certain extent.

And inside the city of Pakokju, just as Chevalier had expected, these pardoned prisoners and serf soldiers still had some fighting spirit at the beginning.

But that was only temporary. Now they had not gained victory or benefits, but were directly plunged into a brutal battle to defend the city, which immediately consumed most of their courage and willpower.

Mo Zibu surrounded the city and fought non-stop day and night for ten days. Three mortars continuously fired red-hot projectiles or huge stone bombs into the city, which put enormous psychological pressure on this group of criminals and serfs, and their morale became lower and lower day by day.

When Chen Lian appeared behind them, Prince Min finally realized that he could not hold on any longer. If he allowed this to continue, the city would be broken sooner or later.

Therefore, King Xintamin lavishly distributed rewards in the fortress and organized an army of more than 5,000 people in an attempt to destroy Chen Lian's troops.

But it was too late. Morale had been severely damaged and could not be boosted by a small amount of money.

At the same time, among the 3,000 people under Chen Lian's command, nearly 2,000 were composed of Chaozhou people and Chaozhou Nazhen, many of whom were relatives of the Chen family in Shantou.

Not only do they have strong cohesion, but many of them lost their family property accumulated by their ancestors for decades and many of their relatives when Yongjiya and the White Elephant King invaded, and their hatred for the Burmese is extremely high.

When Mo Zibu was heading north, the soldiers of Kunlun Mountain Hall were basically just looting, but the Chinese army under Chen Lian was retaliating everywhere, burning, killing and looting.

Therefore, they are not the most powerful 2,800-man sequence under Mo Zibu, but they definitely have the strongest hatred towards the Burmese.

Chen Lian drew out two short swords, looked around at his relatives and fellow villagers, and shouted in Teochew:
"I don't need to say much, everyone knows what we've done along the way. If we lose the battle, we'll have no chance of survival in the heart of Burma!"

Everyone nodded in agreement. They all understood that everyone present had their hands stained with blood and had no choice but to fight to the death.

After saying that, without waiting for the larger Burmese army to come and attack, the angry men from Chaozhou rushed forward with a roar.

They first approached to 80 meters despite the Burmese bullets, fired a round of volleys, and then rushed forward and started hacking.

In this classic Southeast Asian melee, the demoralized Burmese army was badly defeated and retreated three times to reorganize, but still could not resist the Teochews' mindless attack style of rushing up and hacking at them with one shot at a time.

More than 400 people were killed in less than an hour, and the entire army retreated to the city of Pakokju, with morale even lower.

However, at this moment, the tattered wooden boats and bamboo rafts lowered by Chen Guangyao drifted to the city of Pakokju. Especially the flags and armor of the Konbaung Dynasty on the tattered bamboo rafts directly broke the hearts of the defenders.

At the same time, Mo Zibu also received an urgent message from Chen Guangyao.

It turned out that the White Elephant King secretly dispatched 5,000 elite soldiers guarding Laoguantun, led by the Burmese guerrilla master Dengjia Minkang, and they were estimated to be approaching Ava City.

The distance between Laoguantun and Ava is roughly the same as the distance between Pyin Oo and Ava.

Although the White Elephant King had to send someone to summon Dengjia Minkang before heading south, he was traveling with the current and did not need to carry a lot of baggage, so he should have arrived at about the same time as Mo Zibu.

There were about 32,000 to 35,000 Burmese troops on the front line of Laoguantun, while the Qing army was severely damaged by the epidemic and had not launched a large-scale attack for almost a month. Withdrawing 5,000 people would not cause much damage to the defense of Laoguantun.

"Order Chen Guangyao to abandon all baggage and artillery. Send out scouts to determine Dengjia Minkang's location. We must intercept him before he enters Ava and wait for our army to arrive."

"Balamindin, send someone into Mokkokku to tell Sinthamine that if he is willing to surrender now, I might consider not massacring Ava. Otherwise, I will kill everyone."

Inside the Pakokku Fortress, King Sinthamine was so frightened when he saw Balamindin, who had long arms and legs, a tall and thin figure and a monkey-like face, appear. He jumped up from his seat.

He was about to call the guards over, but he found that the guards had already surrounded him. They ignored Balamindin, who shouldn't be here, and instead looked at him with a very longing look.
Although Prince Xintamin had mediocre abilities, he was not a fool and he knew what was going to happen instantly.

With a thud, King Xintami sat down heavily on his seat and asked in a trembling voice, "Balamindin, what do you want to do?"

"I'm here to save the king's life." Balamindin smiled grimly.

"King, Ava has been captured. What's the point of you defending the Pakokku Fortress? Why don't you surrender now?"

King Sinthamine mustered up his courage and shook his head. "Impossible! Ava City cannot be conquered by just one or two thousand men. You can't fool me. The murals that were salvaged are from the Ananda Temple. They are not in the inner city."

Balamindin never expected that King Sinthapith, who was famous for eating, drinking and having fun, actually had some judgment ability.

However, his ability to judge was not the same as that of the frightened defenders.

"The king may not believe it, but do you think the soldiers below will believe it?"

King Sinthamine collapsed completely in his chair, speechless.

The generals of the Royal Guard standing behind Balamindin all spoke up, "King, the soldiers below have lost all their fighting spirit. They just want to go home and see if their loved ones are safe. We have been defeated."

"Ava ultimately needs a king. The Khmer king will not occupy this place for long. The sins committed by Sin Pyusin must be borne by himself."

King Sinthamine fell silent, and a struggle began in his heart, but in the end, the desire to survive overcame his fear of his brother, King White Elephant, and his inner guilt.

The White Elephant King's brother asked with a pale face, "What does the Khmer King need me to do? Is he really not going to occupy Ava?"

“The great King Jinliu Chanrebashi would certainly not occupy Ava, because this is our Burmese place, unlike Bago, Yangon and other cities that originally belonged to the Mon people.

The Zhe King’s demand was that the Burmese territory belonged to the Burmese, and the Mon territory belonged to the Mon.

Of course, the wise king's army has come a long way and has suffered a lot. I hope that after you become the king of Ava, you will donate all your money to show your gratitude."

You want money, right? That's easy. King Xintanmin looked at the eager eyes of the surrounding guards and felt some of his strength returning.

If he could pay money to send the Khmers away and then kowtow to the Qing Dynasty in the north and admit his mistakes, then his dynasty could still survive.

Although you may not become very powerful in the future, you should be able to preserve your life and wealth.

"But Wang, your time may be a little tight, because Xin Piaoxin is not an easy person to deal with.

If he burned down the royal city and the treasury before his death, the Khmer king would definitely kill him."

King Sinthamine nodded and said, "I know what to do. Please go out and report to the Khmer king. I will immediately open the city gates and surrender to him."

. . . .

Thein Gyaltsen Minkang can be said to be a typical Burmese army general. He is very good at rear-line raids, guerrilla warfare, etc.

One of the main reasons why Mingrui suffered such a devastating defeat in the Third Qing-Myanmar War was that the Qing army's logistical supply lines were basically paralyzed by Dengjia Minkang.

The Burmese army he led was elusive in the mountains and forests. Familiar with the geography, their speed of marching in the dense forests and their ability to find food and water were far beyond the reach of the Qing army.

Therefore, it can withstand long-term consumption and can maneuver at high speed to attack the Qing army's supply lines in various places.

And his name came from this war.

Deng Jia is actually a nickname, which means coming from the clouds in Burmese, describing his elusive appearance on the battlefield. Min Kang is his real name.

But this time, this elusive guerrilla master had completely lost the possibility of maneuvering, because this time he was returning as a main force to provide reinforcements, not to fight guerrilla warfare. An army of 5,000 people was not as small as many people imagined.

In fact, in ancient times, apart from China, which could easily mobilize an army of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, plus 300,000 or 400,000 civilians to go to war, other countries really did not have this ability.

Especially in Southeast Asia, a large country has a population of only three to four million, so the movement of 5,000 troops is really a big deal.

In addition, the most convenient route from Laoguantun back to Ava is to go down the Irrawaddy River. Dengjia Minkang did not think that Mozibu could reach Ava so quickly.

No, it should be said that it was the White Elephant King who summoned Deng Jia Minkang back. He had never expected that Mo Zibu would come so soon.

So, Dengjia Minkang, who was marching back with his army in a swagger, was discovered by Chen Guangyao at a river bend about 30 kilometers north of Ava.

At this time, there were only 1,500 people left in Chen Guangyao's army.

Because among the one thousand people he forced to land, about five hundred of them were criminal prisoners, and Chen Guangyao had no need to use them as combat soldiers.

So after their weapons were confiscated, these Burmese people became servants.

Chen Chengji stood beside Chen Guangyao, listening to the scout's report, his expression turned serious.

"General, there are many enemy warships sailing downstream. We can't stop them. We need to find another way."

Chen Guangyao nodded. He also knew that with his 1,500 men and no warships, it was impossible for him to block the Irrawaddy River. If the Burmese army wanted to break through, they could still do so.

But then, something interesting happened. The guards in the rear reported that a group of 30 enemy soldiers had been captured, and Chen Guangyao ordered someone to bring them up for inspection.

Wow, he actually came from Ava City.

It turned out that after the White Elephant King knew that the Mukoku Fortress could not stop the infiltration of the Chinese army, he immediately sent people to look for the main force returning for reinforcements and let them go directly to Ava.

Then, not surprisingly, he ran into Chen Guangyao.

This... this is simply the treatment of the protagonist!
Sometimes, you just have to believe in this kind of coincidence, as if there is an invisible hand of fate in the sky, pulling the White Elephant King into the abyss.

Perhaps, this is what the Chinese often say, that time has run out.

After Chen Guangyao captured this group of envoys from the royal city of Ava, he immediately stripped them of their clothes and took away their flags.

Afterwards, Chen Guangyao persuaded Chevalier Mirald's adjutant with a huge reward of fifty pounds.

He also bribed several palace officers and clerks with the promise of saving their lives, and asked them to go to Deng Jia Minkang under the banner.

Deng Jiaminkang had no doubts, because the White Elephant King had indeed used European slave soldiers and officers as envoys in recent years.

In particular, the relationship between Chevalier Miral, the leader of these people, and the White Elephant King is well known to everyone.

The orders brought by the "envoys" were also very reasonable. The White Elephant King asked Deng Jiaminkang to retreat to Ruimao City, about 70 kilometers upstream from Ava, and station there.

Shwe Maw was once the capital of the Konbaung Dynasty. In 1765, King White Elephant moved the capital from Shwe Maw to Ava in order to better control the Shan Plateau and attack Siam.

The location of this city is very critical. It can block the waterway to Laoguantun. Although the terrain is not dangerous, as long as there are enough troops stationed there, it can still serve as an interception.

Going downstream, they could reach Ava in a day, so no matter what happened, they would still be there in time. Ruimao was also rich in grain, which could help avoid the supply pressure caused by a large army converging on Ava.

Therefore, although he did not see the handwriting of the White Elephant King, Deng Jiaminkang, who was a little skeptical, still chose to obey the order.

If it were a noble general like Thihapati, he would definitely not allow such a trick to happen, because he was very familiar with the nobles of Ava and the character of the White Elephant King, and could easily distinguish the real from the fake.

But Deng Jiaminkang was not like that. He was born into a peasant family in northern Myanmar. His father was a Burmese carpenter and his mother was a Wa slave girl.

Their status was not very low, but it was almost the same as that of cattle and horses. They had never eaten or seen anything since they were young, and they climbed up by relying on their talent for fighting.

After achieving success, the shortcomings of his background and education became apparent. He was good at leading troops in battles, but he had no idea about political sensitivity or what national governance looked like.

Therefore, these 5,000-strong army, which had clearly arrived within 60 kilometers of Ava, and whose vanguard was even less than 40 kilometers away, began to stay where they were or even return north.

Three days later, Mo Zi Bu, along with King Sinthamine and more than a hundred Burmese army officers and palace guards, arrived to meet up with Chen Guangyao.

After the surrender of Pakokju Fortress, Mozibu immediately imprisoned all the surrendered Burmese troops.

King Mo would not trust a fool like King Min, so the more than 10,000 prisoners and serfs were kept under close guard by the Burmese army.

After Mo Zibu's main force arrived, Deng Jiaminkang upstream finally came to his senses and the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

Afterwards, he also saw the second and third waves of messengers sent by the White Elephant King, and only then did he realize that he had been deceived.

Immediately, the angry and anxious general of the Konbaung Dynasty led 5,000 people from Ruimao to the south, but Mo Zibu was also ready for battle.

Moreover, my King Mo is very cunning. He let Chen Guangyao get stuck in a narrow part of the river, pretending to be on high alert, but at the same time revealed some small flaws.

When Deng Jiaminkang saw this, he thought that Chen Guangyao's troops had no warships and could not block the water surface. This was the same information that he had found out by sending scouts.

Then, regardless of Chen Guangyao's troops deployed on land, he led the fleet to break through the obstruction and wanted to rush to Ava City as soon as possible.

Then he became numb.

After breaking through this narrow river channel, what came into view was not only the spacious river channel, but also dozens of large warships.

Guerrilla master, huh? Elusive, huh?
Mo Zibu snorted coldly. The navy of the Konbaung Dynasty was weak, but Mo Zibu's side was stronger. His warships surpassed the Konbaung Dynasty in both quantity and quality.

Moreover, the ships under Jia Minkang's command could not be considered warships at all. They had small tonnage and almost no artillery. The large ships were all troop transports and did not have the ability to fight naval battles with real navy.

After Deng Jiaminkang broke through, Chen Guangyao immediately pulled out the hidden artillery and blocked his retreat.

Zhou Yuanquan, Tanka No. 2, Lieutenant Colonel Jean Pierre and others cheered with great excitement.

In recent years, Mo Zibu's navy has not fought many normal battles. The salary is indeed high, but there are almost no rewards or spoils.

This resulted in their overall income being far lower than that of the army, not to mention the lack of promotion, so everyone in the navy was very eager to fight a war.

Deng Jiaminkang knew he had been tricked, and immediately ordered the fleet to dock with a pale face. However, Mo Zibu, who had planned in advance, would definitely not let him do as he wished.

Zhou Yuanquan and Tanka Er personally commanded forty fast crab boats, shuttling back and forth among the Konbaung Dynasty's fleet. Each of their boats carried thirty sailors and soldiers, and they could shoot guns and arrows on the undulating river as if it were flat ground.

At this time, the ship basically had no power of its own, so even if it wanted to dock, it could not sail there by itself. It needed to get close to the shore first, and then lower the small boat to send some soldiers ashore.

After the soldiers went ashore, they had to lower anchors or use large trees or boulders, tie ropes to fix the position, and then use manpower to slowly drag the ship to the shore.

With the fast crab boats of Tanka Er and Zhou Yuanquan there, Jia Minkang tried to launch the small boat many times, but they were all killed by the navy of Kunlun Mountain Hall before they could reach the shore.

Helplessly, this general, who was not good at water combat, could only watch his warship being pushed by the water flow towards the enemy's huge warship.

"Boom!" A thunderous roar rang out, and the eight to twelve pound bow cannons of more than ten Kunlun Mountain Hall's front-row warships suddenly opened fire.

Since Mo Zibu's fleet had enough sailors and the warships were specialized river warships, they could sail freely in the river at a certain speed.

The Konbaung Dynasty's ships were basically ordinary transport ships, which could not be properly operated in an emergency.

The result was that these ships were not built for regular naval warfare and soon suffered heavy casualties under the bombardment of Mo Zibu's fleet.

As a result, the first round of shelling smashed a big hole on the left side of a warship carrying 600 Burmese soldiers, and then the warship began to sink amid the Burmese soldiers' cries of terror.

Mo Zibu laughed triumphantly. There was no need for any command, they were completely defeated.

He summoned King Sinthamine to the bow of the flagship and let him witness with his own eyes the last reinforcements of the Burmese army being beaten without any chance of fighting back.

"Xintamin, you know what to do, right? My time is very limited. Within three days, I want to see the head of the White Elephant King and an intact city of Ava."

"Every Burmese noble must pay the price for their past accomplices to the evil. If anyone is unwilling to give up money, then he must lose his head."

　My brain is like a paste today. My thoughts suddenly disappeared. It's really strange.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)