Chapter 677 Tan Dadan

The Burmese war has been going on for a whole year.

A large area east of the Salween River was seized by the Siamese army. The Chinese fleet operating in the southern sea of ​​Myanmar sent the entire Burmese sea force to the bottom of the sea. It also frequently launched disturbances and attacks on coastal towns such as Yangon, Pathein, and Pegu. Its marines once attacked outside Yangon.

This forced the central government of the Burmese dynasty to continuously transfer limited troops to the south. At the same time, the current Burmese king Zui Jiaoya also established the Governor of Yangon, headed by Prince Meng Mang, to defend the estuary of the Irrawaddy River.

Zui Jiaoya is the fourth king of Myanmar, the son of the former Burmese king Meng Bo, and the grandson of Yongjiya, the founding monarch of the Konbaung Dynasty of Myanmar. This guy is far less capable and courageous than his father. He is mediocre and incompetent, and is committed to court and religious affairs, which has caused a lot of dissatisfaction among the internal forces of Myanmar. However, the Konbaung Dynasty is not without talents. Yongjiya was less than 50 years old when he died. He was very young. Although the Konbaung Dynasty has inherited several generations of kings, it is actually not many years.

The second king of the Konbaung Dynasty was Yongjiya's eldest son Mangkiaw, who died of illness only three years after he ascended the throne. Then his second son Mengbo succeeded him. Mengbo also died very early. Although Zhuijiaoya is already the fourth king of Myanmar, his fourth uncle Mengyun and cousin Mengmang, who had already emerged when Yongjiya was conquering the world, are now in their prime.

Zhuijiaoya now relies heavily on his two uncles and puts Mengyun on the eastern battlefield. Mengyun led the Burmese army to fight one battle after another with the Siamese army led by Zheng Xin. Although they were inevitably at a disadvantage in terms of weapons, they at least resisted the offensive of the Siamese army.

This is also a major reason why Zheng Xin suddenly shifted the battlefield. Why did he want to cooperate with China to find trouble in Yangon? It was because he could not fight along the Salween River.

Myanmar at this time was full of dense forests, mountains and rivers. Meng Yun was not an incompetent person. He knew that the combat capability of the Burmese army on the front battlefield was weaker than that of the Siamese, who were heavily funded by the Chinese. He built fortresses along the Salween River to block the Siamese army on the front, and then sent elite troops to attack the rear of Siam continuously. Although the Burmese army almost lost the entire eastern part of the Salween River, it also firmly blocked the Siamese on the Salween River line.

No one would surrender to the opponent for no reason, especially Siam, Myanmar's old rival. A few years ago, the Burmese were still showing off their power on the land of Siam. In the blink of an eye, the Siamese turned from an old hen to a duck, and they were going to attack Myanmar in turn. Can the Burmese people be convinced?

Under strong external pressure, the many contradictions within the Konbaung Dynasty of Myanmar temporarily put aside their past grudges and united. To a certain extent, this stabilized the disputes within the Konbaung Dynasty and stabilized the throne of Zhuijiaoya.

Zheng Xin saw that the Salween River was about to become a stalemate, and the Siamese army was a bit trapped in the vast sea of ​​people in the area east of the Salween River, so he was ready to shift his spearhead and start from the coastal areas of Lower Myanmar, and launch an attack on Yangon with the cooperation of the Chinese navy.

Yangon is the central city of Lower Myanmar. Since Yongjiya razed the walls of the two ancient cities of Salen and Pegu when he conquered Lower Myanmar, and made Yangon the administrative and military center of the Irrawaddy Delta region, Yangon's influence and force have been continuously strengthened.

Zheng Xin planned to open a gap in Yangon, and then the Siamese army would station troops on the Salween River to contain the main force of the Burmese army, and he could lead the army directly north. This is like opening up the Normandy landing that the Allied forces wanted to make back then. This is a second battlefield, intending to make it difficult for Myanmar to take care of both ends. At the same time, the Southwest Military Region in the north will also send some troops to attack Myanmar from north to south, and also contain part of Myanmar's troops, providing convenience for Zheng Xin's Battle of Yangon.

Shen Shiying is one of the combat staff appointed by the Grand Marshal's Office, and he has just arrived in Chengdu. The troops to attack Myanmar were also finalized before the New Year. That is a newly established mountain infantry brigade led by Huang Zicong himself. The subsequent transportation and support forces are as many as a reorganized border defense division - the 19th Division of the Yunnan South Border Defense Army.

The predecessor of this division was the Kangding Border Defense Corps, which was an expert in rainforest warfare and mountain warfare. This division was even the first plateau combat unit prepared by the Grand Marshal, but the Tibetans were too docile, and the Grand Marshal's Office had created a killer weapon, but it had no place to use it.

Chen Ming is now eager for the Gurkhas further west to go crazy and beat the Tibetans to tears, so that this killer weapon can be used. Those big manor owners and serf owners have no reason to refuse Chen Han to build roads to the plateau and build military stations along the thousands of miles of roads.

The flowers of Chen Ding and others' Gurkhas are about to wither.

Even though the old British in the previous time and space dimension suffered a big setback in the Gurkha War, Chen Ming was still confident that he could defeat the Gurkhas.

After all, the Qing army in that dimension had fought to the outskirts of Kathmandu with 6,000 soldiers. Although Fu Kangan was defeated in the end because of his arrogance and weak troops, the Gurkhas finally surrendered. So it doesn't make sense that the national defense army of this era would be worse than the 6,000 Qing soldiers led by Fu Kangan.

After the Gorkha beast becomes China's thug, Chen Han can really enter the Himalayas. At that time, he can either support the three Tibetan vassal states of Ladakh, Bhutan, and Sikkim [which can also be regarded as vassal states of China] to expand into the South Asian subcontinent, or he can support Gorkha behind his back and put this beast into the Go wild in the South Asian subcontinent.

He could even contact the Sikhs through Gorkha, support the establishment of the Sikh nation, and support the Sikh wars with the British and Indian princes.

By that time, Chen Ming will have too many ways to manipulate the South Asian subcontinent.

The Gurkhas are very fierce, but they were defeated by the Manchus and Qing Dynasties. That place is not a ghost place like Afghanistan. Chen Ming will consider the latter carefully, but he has not paid attention to the former.

Of course, the most important task of the Southwest Military Region now is the attack on Myanmar.

The year before and after is the season of ice and snow in the north, but in Myanmar this is the driest time of the year, and it is the most convenient time for Chen Han to march into battle.

The Fifth Mountain Infantry Brigade, with about 10,000 soldiers in total, is ready to go. However, after more than 20,000 horses were attached to the army, there was also a regular logistics force with 50,000 to 60,000 horses and cattle as supplies, and the entire 19th Division defended their retreat.

"Your Majesty. At this time, the Fifth Mountain Infantry Brigade has set off from Wanding." Wanding is a place relatively close to Awa, the capital of Myanmar, which is near Mandalay in Myanmar.

Liu Wu held up a lamp to illuminate the map in front of him even brighter. Although there were only a few lines drawn with red and blue pens on the map, in Liu Wu's eyes it was filled with murderous intent, with thousands of horses and thousands of troops galloping across the map.

Chen Ming remained silent.

In this war against Myanmar, the National Defense Forces followed the same path as Mingrui did. It's just that they didn't divide their troops to attack the iron wall and enter Myanmar. Instead, a whole brigade went directly out of Wanding and advanced towards Mubang City, which was only a hundred miles away in a straight line, but the actual distance was five to six hundred miles away, and then continued southward from there to Lashio. After capturing Lashio, there is only one Nandu River left in front of us. Beyond it is Myanmar's naturally dangerous Tiansheng Bridge, and then we go straight to Ava.

In the plan, the 5th Mountain Infantry Brigade would hardly cross the Tiansheng Bridge and go further south. The Governor's Office believed in the staff's judgment. When the troops of the Fifth Mountain Infantry Brigade crossed the Nandu River and reached Tiansheng Bridge, Ava was already panicking.

At that time, Mingrui also led the army to capture Nandu River, and the battle of Manjie was brilliant, which made Emperor Qianlong ecstatic. Chen Ming's expectations for the Fifth Mountain Infantry Brigade were no worse than Qianlong's original expectations for Mingrui. Although the representative Huang Zicong rarely has the opportunity to stand alone, Chen Ming also believes that he will not be careless and underestimate the enemy.

The 1st Regiment of the 5th Mountain Infantry Brigade is called Wang Company. This is a very common name, and Chen Ming has no impression of it at all. But in the Mingrui Army back then, Wang Lian was as dazzling as a big star.

At the beginning, he was just an ordinary Guizhou green camp soldier. During the Battle of Manjie, after Mingrui repeatedly challenged and failed, he decided to attack the camp directly and judged that the western Burmese soldiers who took the initiative to attack were where the strong troops were located. The strong troops were defeated and other camps were destroyed. It was not difficult to break, so we decided to concentrate our forces to attack here. Mingrui immediately removed the 2,000 soldiers left to guard the main camp, and divided 10,000 soldiers into 12 teams to attack the Burmese soldiers' camp. The Burmese soldiers were good at guarding the camp. The wooden fence in the camp was made of wet wood buried deep in the ground. It was still two feet high when exposed above the ground. There were deep ditches both inside and outside. Sharp bamboo trees were buried beside the ditch. The wooden fence protected the Burmese soldiers, making it difficult for guns and artillery to injure them. If you shoot a musket at the gap in the grating, the hit will be extremely high. The Qing soldiers rushed down from the mountain ridge near the Burmese camp. The first camp was close to the mountain ridge and was quickly defeated by the Qing soldiers. When attacking the second tower, it was more difficult. At that time, I was still a member of the Guizhou Tengpai Soldier King Company. I saw some wood near the wooden fence that was easy to climb. I climbed the fence from there and killed one person among hundreds of Burmese troops. More than ten Qing soldiers followed and climbed up. Under this cover, Wang Lian killed more than ten enemies and then pulled up the wooden fence. Qing soldiers swarmed in and captured a camp again. The resulting two camps were on higher ground, and Mingrui divided his troops to cooperate with other forces to capture the two camps. The Burmese soldiers continued to counterattack until the second watch in the evening. Seeing that the counterattack was hopeless, they retreated one after another. The Qing soldiers pursued them with all their strength and did not withdraw their troops until dawn of the next day. This battle was the Battle of Manjie. The Qing soldiers killed more than 2,000 enemies, captured 34 people, and seized many guns, cannons, food, cattle, and horses. Emperor Qianlong was overjoyed when he heard the news and made Mingrui a first-class Duke. Wang Lian, who was still a small soldier before the war, was directly promoted to guerrilla. It can be said to be a myth in the army.

But the good times did not last long. Mingrui underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, and the Qing army was trapped. When Mingrui was defeated, he led his army to retreat and died. Wang Lian, who followed the large army and fled back to Yunnan, became unknown and insignificant. He did not follow Chang Qing and other old Mingrui generals to advance into the two lakes to fight the original Fu Han army, but was sent back to Guizhou. When the Fu Han army entered Guizhou, Wang Lian chose to surrender. He had neither a big background nor a bad history, and he was still a man who surrendered obediently. Of course the Fuhan Army would not kill him, even though his title of guerrilla was awarded to him by Qianlong himself. After that, Wang Lian became a part of the Fuhan Army. He was first selected when the mountain infantry was formed. Later, as his seniority increased, the mountain division became a mountain infantry brigade, and then a new mountain infantry brigade was formed. At that time, he also became a regimental commander of the National Defense Force.

"Mubang City, Mubang City again..." Just as Chen Ming in Nanjing was looking at the map of Myanmar under the light, the first regiment, the vanguard of the entire army, had already approached outside Mubang City.

"Report! Commander. Our division has completely surrounded Zarafeng's troops! The first battalion is located in Mengxi Bay, and the second battalion is located in Bangsang. The artillery groups are all in place." Tan Yifei, the reconnaissance staff officer of the Fifth Brigade, ran to Wang Lian to report.

Tan Yifei is the nephew of Tan Wuge, the former admiral of Yunnan in the Qing Dynasty. Tan Wuge, the then admiral of Yunnan, and Erden'e, the commander of the Northern Army, also suffered serious crimes after Mingrui was defeated and killed. Erden'e did not help the troops, which touched the Emperor Qianlong's point. He was arrested and brought to Beijing and was crucified. At the same time, Tan Sange, the admiral of Yunnan and the deputy general of the Northern Army, was also executed, and all his relatives were sentenced to serve as soldiers. So Tan Yifei had no loyalty to the Qing Dynasty at all, and there was only endless hatred.

Many members of the Tan family joined the Fu Han Army, and today, Tan Yifei not only made a name for himself, but was also sent to Myanmar by chance, which really made him very excited.

With the excitement of revenge and restoring the name of his ancestors, Tan Yifei left a suicide note early, intending to bite Myanmar with all his strength even if he died.

"Have all the Zarafeng troops been captured? What is the situation of the remaining Qing army? Is there any unrest?" Wang Lian looked up from the map and asked Tan Yifei, who was covered in dust.

Myanmar would not touch the sharp edge of the National Defense Army in vain. The latter had just entered Myanmar and could be said to be in high morale. It was definitely not a good idea to touch the National Defense Army at this time. So what did the Burmese do? They took the Southwest Qing army that they had taken in to take the blame. Although Zhang Bao, the former Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, had long since fled to London, the latter had become a gathering place for many Qing officials to flee to Europe. Many Qing troops that retreated into Myanmar had also disappeared. However, there would always be a few burial objects at the end of any dynasty. Zarafeng, who was the deputy general of the governor's flag at that time, was one of them. His troops were one of the most active Qing troops in the border area between Myanmar, Siam and the Shan Plateau in recent years. The total force is about one or two thousand people, equipped with muskets and artillery, and the Burmese people value his troops very much.

Compared with Zhang Bao and others who are lax, Zarafeng is a complete doer, which is what Myanmar needs.

"Yes, of course there is a commotion." Tan Yifei said very confidently. Such a confident tone was beyond Wang Lian's expectations. "Then tell me quickly, what is the morale of the Qing soldiers, what evidence do you have?"

"Wang Tuanzheng, the Qing soldiers did not expect us to come so quickly. They built strong defenses on the road, but also cut off their own news channels. When we appeared, Zarafeng had no time to react, and we were blocked on the mountain.

"Didn't we seize the uniforms of Burmese soldiers before? I picked two Shan soldiers and mixed them up the mountain together. I walked from beginning to end without being noticed. This is the defense layout map on the mountain. "The blueprint is not very complete, and Tan Yifei has not visited all the places, but the existence of this blueprint is enough to show how chaotic the defense and morale of the mountain are. If people are at peace, the defense will naturally be strict, and Tan Yifei will never be able to sneak into the Qing army's position.

Tan Yifei grinned while speaking.

"Wang Tuanzheng. I think we can launch an attack immediately! The Qing army on the mountain is in chaos and is in a mess now. It's time to strike while the iron is hot and help the Qing soldiers in other provinces regain their composure. "After all, these Qing soldiers have been hostile forces in Burma for so many years. The current appearance may be a momentary panic after being suddenly blocked. This cannot be regarded as their normal state.

"You are so bold, Tan. You are really brave enough. "Wang Lian punched Tan Yifei on the shoulder and became excited. He never thought that Tan Yifei would sneak into the enemy's position. What a bold thing. He really lived up to his nickname, and he really lived up to being the first man in the Fifth Brigade to write a suicide note.

Tan was bold, really very courageous.