Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1239 Encounter

The Ming army appeared on the banks of the Mekong River, which coincided with the information sent by the fleet commander Kaowu.

Wood was silent for a while, he didn't expect the Ming army to come so fast, he stood for a long time, and said to Constantine, "The news sent by the commander of the fleet said that there are 3 Ming troops from Guangzhou. What do you think?" what should we do?"

"3 people?" Constantine was also a little surprised, but then he smiled, "Your Excellency, what else can we do besides fighting? I think we will defeat them by the Mekong River and drive them into the river." gone."

3 people is indeed a lot for the Dutch, but as the Westerners sacked cities and plundered land in the world, a few thousand people wiped out empires with tens of millions of people like Maya and Aztec, and established empires all over the world. Stronghold, they have the capital to be proud and despise everything.

They had just defeated the [-] army of the Ming Dynasty's vassal state, and it would not be a problem to defeat the Ming Dynasty's army again. Constantine was full of confidence.

Wood nodded, "Then find the Ming army and defeat them!"

The Dutch quickly dispatched a team to investigate by the river. In the afternoon, someone reported that the Ming army was found crossing the river [-] miles north of Phnom Penh.

The city of Phnom Penh is on the banks of the Mekong River. The Ming army did not cross the river directly from Phnom Penh, but crossed the river thirty miles from the north. Obviously, they wanted to avoid their eyeliner, and then suddenly attacked them, or outflanked their rear.

Wood sneered again and again, and cursed "cunning yellow monkey." He led the army to the north of Phnom Penh.

Since a battle with the Ming army is unavoidable, then take advantage of the Ming army's arrival and defeat them directly.

However, Wood is not a person without a brain. After he walked ten miles, he gave Constantine [-] Dutch soldiers and [-] Sultanate troops to ambush in the middle of the road.

If Jin Bing's army comes out, then their chance has come.As for the defeated generals in the city, he believed that a Dutchman could defeat twenty yellow-skinned monkeys.

The Ming army boarded a ship from Guangzhou, and after a few days of sailing, they arrived at Champa Port.

Li Dingguo then sent someone to notify the Phnom Penh defenders, telling them not to act rashly and wait for his support in Phnom Penh. After a short rest, the army went directly around the southern end of the Changshan Mountains and entered the Mekong River Plain.

The land here is fertile and more suitable for planting than Champa, but because the Mekong River has been flooding for many years, Chenla’s national strength is weak, and it is unable to build large-scale water conservancy projects, so it is not well utilized. Many fields are abandoned, and there are dense vegetation everywhere. Woods and waist-high weeds.

Not long ago, the governor of Champa moved [-] people to reclamation at the mouth of the river, which is the later Saigon area. However, it was very difficult. The reclaimed land was often flooded by the river, and it has not gained a firm foothold so far.

This march could have gone upstream from the mouth of the Mekong River, but because there were Dutch warships operating nearby, Man Dazhuang was worried that the troop carrier would be attacked, so he went ashore in Champa and marched by land.

Indeed, just as Wood expected, Li Dingguo chose to spend time in the north of Phnom Penh. His plan was to bypass the Dutch's eyeliner and have a surprise effect. However, he said that he was not afraid of the Dutch's strong combat power, but worried that the Dutch would see reinforcements As soon as he arrived, he ran away directly, making it difficult for him to pursue.

After all, Nanyang has many waters, mountains, and forests, so it is not convenient to march, and it is even more inconvenient to pursue. It is easy to make an ambush, so he wanted to outflank and wipe out the enemy army under the city of Phnom Penh, but Li Dingguo did not expect that their In fact, the whereabouts have long been exposed.

In Champa, the religious elements are very complex. Some believe in Theravada Buddhism, some believe in Brahmanism, and some believe in Green Cult.After the Ming army captured Zhancheng, a large number of Green Cultists in Champa fled to the islands of Southeast Asia, and tens of thousands of Zhan people who believed in Green Cult entered the territory of Chenla.

This time there were many Champas in the Dutch army, and it is said that there was also a Champa royal family, so these Champas had long been in contact with the Dutch. The Ming army came from land, and they had already passed the news to the Dutch.

At this time, on the Mekong River, the Ming army set up three pontoon bridges, and soldiers wearing cloth armor passed through them. On the pontoon bridges, there were soldiers beating mules and horses, driving vehicles, and dragging artillery.

Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and the others stood in a forest beside the pontoon bridge, watching the army cross the river. He pointed at the dense forest by the river with his whip, and said to the crowd, "Such a good place, with flat terrain and close to the big river for irrigation, unexpectedly It's such a waste!"

"Yes, it's a pity to come all the way, the road is difficult, there are only large dense forests, and only scattered villages and fields!" Liu Wenxiu nodded at the side.

At this time, Chen Youlong, whose back was clothed in armor and sweating heavily, suddenly walked up the slope holding the handle of the knife, looked up at the people above, and gasped, "Commander, the scouts found a large group of enemies coming here."

"Did they find us?" Li Dingguo was slightly taken aback, wondering, "Where is the enemy's position?"

There is a large area of ​​undeveloped land in the territory of Chenla, dense forests are everywhere, and the roads are difficult to walk. Li Dingguo did not expect that his traces would be found, and what he did not expect was that since they found his traces, the Dutch did not run away, but greeted them. , he couldn't help asking, who gave them the courage.

The Ming army, which had just finished the Northern Expedition, was very arrogant, and the Dutch, who had traveled across the ocean to meet their opponents, also did not take the Ming army seriously.

This time the tip of the needle is facing the wheat awn. If he had known this, Li Dingguo would not have spent so much effort to go around.

When Chen Youlong climbed up, Li Dingguo had asked someone to unfold a map, which was drawn by merchants after the Ming Dynasty occupied Champa.

"Here, it's only ten miles away from us!" Several people squatted on the ground, and Chen Youlong pointed to the map and said.

"So close!" Li Dingguo frowned. He first marked the position of the Dutchman, and then asked, "Is there any cavalry? How is the equipment?"

Several other people also took a look. The army that was still crossing the river, the distance of ten miles was too short. If the opponent had cavalry, they had to guard against it.

"There are no cavalry, but there are more than 200 war elephants!" Chen Youlong said, "The number is about 2000. Except for more than [-] Dutchmen wearing breastplates, the rest of the soldiers are civilians, and the marching ranks are scattered. It’s not an elite, it’s probably a bunch of rabble.”

With that said, Li Dingguo felt relieved, and nodded slightly, "The only ones who are more difficult to deal with are the more than 2000 Dutch and the two hundred war elephants!"

"There are more than 2000 people in the Netherlands, and our army is [-]. I'm afraid they won't succeed. As for the war elephants, they are easy to deal with. If the cannons can't frighten them, just leave a gap in the formation and let them rush through the gap. Anyway, the opponent has no Cavalry, we don't need to arrange a tight formation." Liu Wenxiu said.

He countered the rebellion in Yunnan, fought against rebels and chieftains, and often encountered war elephants. When chasing Ainengqi, he also suffered from war elephants, but it is not surprising after seeing more.

Chen Youlong nodded, and echoed, "I think this method works. Although war elephants are big, they are very scary when they charge and shake mountains, but this kind of animal is actually very timid."

After hearing what the two said, Li Dingguo stood up and finally gave an order, "Order the army to cross the river quickly and prepare to meet the enemy."

About half an hour later, the main force of the Ming army had all crossed the river, and at this time the Dutch army began to appear in the Ming army's field of vision, and the forwards of both sides encountered a large deserted field.

Wood observed the Ming army with a telescope, and he was a little startled when he saw the Ming army all over the mountains and plains coming from a distance.

In his circular field of vision, soldiers of the Ming army, wearing red cloth armor, wearing disc helmets, and holding muskets, followed the military flag and marched forward in the waist-high weeds, forming small groups, no matter the equipment, Still, the momentum is not comparable to that of the vassal army defeated before.

Almost everyone in the Ming army wore armor, and there were a large number of muskets, which made Wood panic suddenly.

"Quick! Organize the formation on the spot!" Putting down the telescope, Wood couldn't help but roared.

The Dutchman who was going forward was the first to lose his composure, and stopped a little timidly, forming a formation in the wilderness.

On a high slope in the distance, Li Dingguo took out a binoculars and observed the Dutch. He saw that the enemy put two hundred war elephants in front, and less than two thousand Dutch musketeers were behind the war elephants. The native soldiers who were confused with the flag knew the Dutch's idea of ​​breaking through in the middle and directly defeating the Ming army.

"Order, the artillery team occupies the hill on the right wing, and the cavalry pay attention to looking for the enemy's artillery formation! The army quickly arrayed!"

With one order, in the wilderness, the two armies lined up separately. The Ming army lined up vertically. Cruise down the hill.

Li Dingguo was in charge of the central army, with Liu Wenxiu on the left and Yu Youming on the right. Considering that the Dutch placed the war elephants in the central army, Chen Youlong was in charge of the frontline command.

The Dutch were not so particular, but the two hundred war elephants in front of the battle looked very ferocious.These behemoths put tremendous pressure on many Ming soldiers who saw elephants for the first time.

(ask for monthly pass, recommendation, subscription)

　Thank you for the 500 of the national army brothers, the sun chaser Zhantian, Zhang/00000, Hanzhi Guangwu, Donghai Shishi for the rewards, happy holidays everyone
　　
　
(End of this chapter)