Chapter 1146 1237 Traces

Chapter 1146 1237 Traces

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"Ru Bai, have you sent out all the people to clean up those fish that slipped through the net in the west?"

Li Rusong was sitting in a spacious palace at this time. Although the palace was a bit dim due to lack of light, the torches lit around it still illuminated the hall brightly.

The chair under Li Rusong may have been the one that the king of Ava Dynasty sat on two hundred years ago, or it may have been placed casually on it later.

After all, so many years have passed and the dynasties have changed.

Here, it became only one of the palaces of the kings of the Taungoo Dynasty.

Yesterday, Li Rubai broke the last resistance of the Burmese army in one battle, and the Ming army's infantry formation directly crossed the Royal Palace Bridge.

Subsequently, a large number of Burmese soldiers knelt down and begged for mercy, and the few who resisted were quickly killed by the Ming army.

Some Burmese soldiers who tried to escape by jumping into the river, including Mangchai, the guard of Awa City, were shot and killed directly in the moat.

Li Rusong and Li Rubai cleared away the remaining Burmese troops in Ava City overnight. Now the entire Ava City has been controlled by the Ming army.

After interrogating the prisoners, it was learned that the Burmese king Mang Yinglong had not come to govern yet, because Li Rusong judged that the main force of the Burmese army should still be in the north of Ava City, but it was not yet known when it would arrive.

After all, his father Li Chengliang would never let go of this good opportunity to capture the enemy chief.

It is too early to say that the country was destroyed because the imperial court wanted to incorporate Burma into the Ming Dynasty. Wei Guangde had only told Li Chengliang in private.

As long as there is no imperial edict, everything will inevitably change.

"Brother, don't worry. I have sent several teams to clean up. Three teams went to the north to prevent them from escaping north and let Mang Yinglong know the news of the fall of Ava City.

I also ordered Sui Changlong to send personal troops to conduct reconnaissance to the north. I thought there should be news about the Burmese King soon. "

Li Rubai was sitting on a chair below, holding a chicken leg in his hand and chewing on it. His words were still vague at this moment.

"It's okay for those people to escape into the mountains. I'm afraid they will turn around and burrow into the mountains to the north. If they encounter Mang Yinglong's people, they will be in trouble."

Li Rusong still didn't dare to let down his guard and reminded him.

"Don't worry, brother. I told them that we will drive people to the west or south. Anyone found running north must be intercepted."

Li Rubai also knew the importance. If the Burmese king knew the news in advance, he might have burrowed into the mountains at a fork in the road, bypassed Ava City and continued south.

They can take a detour through the mountains and reach Ava from Mon Nai, and the Burmese army can naturally do the same.

However, there is a problem with such a mountain road, that is, it is difficult for the army to move.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, a large army of soldiers and horses will not abandon the main road and choose to take the mountain road. This will not only delay the trip, but also miss the time. If you are not careful, you may get lost in the mountains.

"Well, that's good."

Li Rusong looked as usual and said with a smile: "When Mang Yinglong is captured, we two brothers will lead the troops all the way south.

According to what the guide said, to the north of Ava City are the high mountains of northern Myanmar. After passing Ava City, the terrain becomes less undulating. It is mainly hills and plains, making it easy to advance troops quickly.

When the time comes, we will lead our troops all the way south and directly capture central Myanmar. When the time comes, you and I will be able to become high-ranking officials. "

"Yes, during the previous interrogation, I heard that Yu Dayou did not march north after occupying Toungoo City, but was sweeping away the coastal areas of Myanmar.

This does not mean that the great credit is ceded to us. "

In Li Rubai's eyes, only destroying more enemies and occupying more cities is the greatest achievement.

Because of their favorable geographical location, they would definitely not be able to take away the credit for Yu Dayou's occupation of the royal capital of Myanmar.

It was the Li family and his son who eliminated the main force of the Burmese army. If they captured the king of Burma and occupied central and northern Myanmar, the great contribution to pacifying Burma would definitely fall on them and their sons.

"I don't know what's going on with Xiao San, whether Hanlong Pass has surrendered."

At this time, Li Rusong suddenly thought of the last city occupied by the Burmese army in the Ming Dynasty, which was Hanlong Pass.

The terrain there was difficult, easy to defend and difficult to attack, so there was no hope of conquering the place, so Li Rusong decisively gave up the attack and instead surrounded it.

"I hope they can contact the Shidian Ming Army and the two armies will work together to surround Hanlong Pass. In the end, they will have to surrender."

There are tens of thousands of Burmese troops in Hanlong Pass. This is just Li Rusong's guess. It is estimated that there are less than 100,000 people.

But in fact, because the Burmese army at Hanlong Pass did not fight much with the Ming army, although they suffered considerable losses in the attack on Shidian City, they still had 110,000 troops.

However, the Burmese army seems to be powerful at this time, but the more people there are, the greater the consumption of materials, which becomes a burden.

As long as the Ming army besieged the city for a month, the defeat of the Burmese army could almost be determined.

The supplies they carry are limited and cannot meet the consumption of more than 100,000 people. Even if the soldiers' rations are greatly reduced, they will not be able to last long.

Therefore, even though there seems to be a huge army of 110,000 people, it is only a matter of time before they collapse.

In fact, even these days, after the city gate of Hanlong Pass has been closed, they did not even dare to send soldiers to patrol nearby.

Because only twenty-three out of ten soldiers who went out to patrol the city in the past two days were able to return to the city, and most of them chose to surrender to the Ming army.

Because in their view, if they surrender, they may not have enough to eat, but at least they won't risk being killed.

If they continued to stay in the city, they might be attacked by the Ming army at any time, and they might die.

To survive was their only hope, so it was not surprising that they chose to surrender.

And they achieved their goal. The Ming army did not kill them, although they still only provided them with a small amount of food, which could only keep them alive, which was not much different from being in the city.

But at least, they did not need to worry about dying in the war again.

Of course, the food of the Ming army was not so delicious. These surrendered soldiers were guarded by the Ming army every day and were taken to Hanlong Pass at irregular intervals to shout to the Burmese army in the city.

The best strategy was to defeat the enemy without fighting. These strategies had been played very well by the generals of the Ming army.

At this time, outside Ruibo City, a small city fifty or sixty miles north of Ava City, a team of soldiers in red uniforms were hiding in the woods and looking out vigilantly.

And the city in the eyes of these Ming soldiers was Ruibo City.

Because Shwepo is not located at a traffic hub, the city is not big, but the geographical conditions nearby are good. It is close to the Jinsha River, so the land here can be fully irrigated, so it is an important granary in central and northern Myanmar.

In fact, since Myanmar formed a unified country in 1044, it has successively used Bagan, Pegu, Ava City, and Toungoo as its capital.

Although there are not as many cities in Myanmar that have been ancient capitals as in China, it is very common for ancient dynasties to change their capitals at the same time. Even a dynasty will change its capital many times, and the dynasties in Myanmar are mostly named after the capital.

For example, Shwepo, which the Ming army scouts saw now, was about two hundred years later, in 1752 AD. Yongjiya launched a decisive battle against the Toungoo Dynasty, successfully captured Toungoo, the capital of the Toungoo Dynasty, and destroyed the Toungoo Dynasty.

In the same year, Yongjiya officially ascended the throne and established the last and most powerful dynasty in Myanmar's history. Because the capital was Konbaung, it was also called the Konbaung Dynasty.

And the Konbaung here is actually Shwepo.

However, the current small city has not become a royal capital, so although the city wall is taller than those cities in southern Myanmar, it is also very limited.

The height of the small mound is only about six or seven feet, and the Ming army can seem to climb directly onto the wall.

Yes, the wall of Ruibo City at this time is just a small mound in the eyes of the Ming army, because there are not even stones outside the wall, which is very easy to climb.

"If we hadn't seen the soldiers on the wall, we would have easily taken down this small city if we had more people here."

The captain of the Ming army's scout team said with regret.

"Zhang Tou, why don't we go around the city and take a look over there, and then we can go back and report."

A soldier crouched beside the captain and suggested.

"Well, you guys, don't ride horses, go behind the woods and see the situation on the other side of the city."

The purpose of their being sent out is to investigate the dynamics of the Burmese army. In fact, they also know that the main purpose is to check the intelligence of the Burmese army Mang Yinglong.

They have no interest in the small cities in Myanmar and the enemy troops inside.

They came here on horseback. The warhorses were in the woods a few miles behind them. Two people were left to guard, and the others had arrived here.

The Ming soldiers named by Zhangtou retreated a little, then bent down and ran to one side to bypass the small town to see the situation on the other side.

But soon after they went out, something seemed to happen in the city. Someone on the city wall suddenly shouted loudly, and someone waved a flag.

"Discovered?"

At the first moment, Zhangtou suspected that the few people sent out were discovered by the Burmese army, and immediately waved back, signaling the few people around him to start retreating.

As for not abandoning or giving up, sending people to find the few soldiers who might be trapped.

That's impossible.

Their mission is to bring back intelligence, not to fight.

With just a few of them, it is impossible to rescue people from the city.

This place is only a few miles away from the small town, but they dare not stand up and run, and can only retreat bit by bit.

If the city gate is open at this time, and the Burmese army sends dozens of people to look for them, they can only run away.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for them to return to the temporary camp safely and ride on horses.

"What happened in the city? Should we send someone to find Zhao Pao'er and the others?"

Zhao Pao'er was a bird gunner, so the team called him Pao'er, which means gunner.

In the eyes of most Ming soldiers, shooting bird guns is no different from setting off firecrackers.

The reason why they did not become bird gunners is that their eyesight and accuracy are not good enough.

In fact, most Ming soldiers can use bird guns, after all, that thing does not have much technical content.

"Don't go, let's retreat a distance first, you go back and let them know, if there is any situation, pull the horse over to help immediately."

Zhang Tou ordered.

Let the two men behind him go back to lead the horses, they only retreated two miles and stopped temporarily.

The Ruibo city gate can still be seen here, as long as the city gate is not open, they are still safe.

However, the retreat route has also been arranged.

If they are really exposed, they can just run back and ride on horses to leave here.

After waiting for a while, Zhang Tou felt relieved when he saw no soldiers being sent out from the city.

After a while, there were branches and leaves swaying in the bushes on the right.

He made a gesture to keep quiet, and they stared at that place and observed.

At the same time, they also began to observe their surroundings, including whether there was any movement behind them.

Soon, three figures crawled over here.

"Zhao Paoer?"

"It's me."

The soldier on the right saw the other side clearly and called out softly, and the other side also responded.

Confirming that it was his own soldier, Zhangtou felt relieved.

After Zhao Paoer crawled over, Zhangtou asked in a low voice: "What happened just now? Why is there still so much noise in the city now?"

"Zhangtou, there are many Burmese soldiers coming from the north. They should have been defeated by the Marshal's soldiers. They are a group of remnants."

Zhao Paoer answered immediately.

"Did you see a lot of people coming from the north?"

Zhangtou was a little happy. It seemed that there should be a reward when they go back this time, because they may have found the trace of Mang Yinglong.

"You can see it clearly. Don't you believe my eyesight?"

Well, the eyesight of the archers and bird gunners of the Ming army is absolutely undoubted. In the words of later generations, it must be 1.5 vision.

"Let's go back and get the reward."

Knowing that the Burmese army came from the north, Zhangtou didn't want to delay here any longer.

This place is dozens of miles away from Ava City. They rode there for two hours.

However, for the remnants of the Burmese army, it would probably take them more than a day to walk.

A dozen Ming soldiers began to retreat, and then retreated three or four miles before getting up, still bending over and running back. Soon they met up with a few soldiers watching the horses, and then each got on their own warhorse and rode away on the road.

At this time, Mang Yinglong had really entered Ruibo City. Although Ruibo City was not big, it was the main grain-producing area in central and northern Myanmar, so there was a lot of food.

They had not had a full meal for a long time while fleeing south.

Having a full stomach is a big deal for the Burmese army now.

The Ming army that was chasing them all the way behind seemed to have been separated from the Burmese army for a distance because of the trouble of logistics and transportation.

Soldiers fighting in battles will not work hard if they are not full.

This is also the reason why in ancient marches and battles, as long as the enemy's food and grass were burned, the enemy's morale would be lost, and even a large number of them would flee.

Li Chengliang had no way to deal with this. After all, the Burmese army was fleeing for their lives, which was much more motivated than the Ming army in pursuit.

Even if he gave a high reward, or even carried the silver and treasures brought from the capital directly into the barracks and distributed them to the soldiers on the spot, those who had nothing to eat would have nothing to eat. The soldiers had no strength to chase, and he had no way to do anything.

In addition to constantly urging Luo Rufang to supervise the transportation of food and grass to support the army, he could only collect the dry food in the hands of the soldiers and try to distribute it to the soldiers in the front line of pursuit, so that the Ming army's pursuers could always keep pressure on the Burmese army.

Soldiers would not fight on an empty stomach just because victory was in sight.

No one was so stupid.

That night, Li Rusong, who was still asleep, was awakened by a hurried knock on the door.

The scouts sent back intelligence overnight, and Li Rubai was the first to know the news. He knew that the Burmese army was only more than a day's journey away from here, and it was not impossible to reach Ava City in one day if they hurried.

Yes, maybe it was to leave early and arrive later. How dare he delay, and knocked on his brother's door as soon as possible.

"To the north, Mang Yinglong has arrived with his remaining troops."

"How far is it?"

"More than fifty miles, they will arrive tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest."

"Call all the generals to discuss matters, and change your clothes."

Li Rubai didn't even have time to change his clothes, and came in his pajamas.