If the battle is won, then the troops will be withdrawn. The fighting time (including marching) is more suitable within five months.
If it is necessary to garrison troops after the war, clear out the enemy's remnants, and arrange officials in the newly occupied territory, this must be done within three months.
Once delayed, we will face hot and humid weather, resulting in a large number of non-combat attrition of the troops.
Therefore, preparations for this expedition to Burma took several years.
If you don't fight, it will be fine. If you want to fight, it will be like thunder. Beat it once and for all!
The main offensive force consisted of four regular divisions. One of the divisions was specially trained for Myanmar.
In addition, there are 40,000 patrol soldiers, all from Yunnan and Guangxi provinces.
Excluding civilian and support personnel, there are more than 80,000 combat soldiers alone!
The two divisions on the South Road were commanded by Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan respectively, and they each brought 5,000 patrol troops.
Yang Zhan is 50 years old this year. He brought his territory and troops to the new dynasty in Sichuan. After graduating from the crash course at the military academy, he participated in the recovery of Guizhou and Yunnan, and finally became a division commander two years ago. This should be his last command of a battle. What follows?
Either be transferred back to the Governor's Mansion, or be transferred to serve as a Commander-in-Chief to recruit and train troops.
Qin Liangyu's two nephews, also because they were too old, left the front line when they were promoted to deputy division commanders. One was transferred to the governor's office, and the other served as the commander of the Guizhou capital.
Yang Zhan stood on the bow of the boat, admiring the scenery along the river: "At this speed, we can reach the capital of Toungoo next month."
Ding Jiasheng said with a smile: "The Meng people are so enthusiastic. They provide them with food and boats."
Not only did they provide ships, but they also sent troops to follow.
Lower Myanmar is the land of Longxing of the Toungoo Dynasty. However, the main ethnic group here is the Mon, followed by the Bamar and Karen. In order to consolidate their power, the Bamar king must suppress the Mon forces, triggering continuous wars
Mon uprising. In the past hundred years, the population of the entire lower Myanmar region has been reduced by half.
When the Datong Army landed at the mouth of the Irrawaddy River, the lurking agents took the opportunity to join forces, and a large number of Mon chiefs and merchants recruited troops to help.
These Mon soldiers did not perform well in the siege of the city, and the racial vendetta became more fierce than the last.
During the march, they often broke away from the Datong Army and rushed to nearby Bamar villages to carry out massacres, killing all Bamar people in whole villages.
Such behavior caused the Burmese people in Lower Myanmar to flee upriver with their families.
The Burmese government did not bother to gather troops, and directly recruited the fleeing people to form an army, and finally raised a "hundred-thousand-thousand-strong army" to defend Pyay City.
The strategic position of Pyay City in Myanmar is probably similar to that of Xuzhou in China. No matter which dynasty wants to compete for hegemony in Myanmar, it must fight here.
One hundred and twelve years ago, the Toungoo Dynasty also won the Battle of Pyay and finally established its dominance in Myanmar.
At that time, the Bamar people had not yet fallen out with the Mon people and joined forces to resist the rule of the Ava dynasty (Shan people). Although the Mon people were not good at fighting, they were very good at farming and doing business, providing the Bamar army with 1,400 ships and
9,000 sailors.
Now history is repeating itself. The Mon people provided the Datong Army with more than 1,200 ships, more than 8,000 sailors, and more than 10,000 civilians, just to overthrow the brutal rule of the Burmese.
When the Ding family prospered, Yang Zhan led his troops to Piaimai, and was immediately speechless by the sight in front of him.
The city wall is densely packed with "defenders"!
There are Bamar refugees everywhere outside the city. Since the city is already crowded, these Bamar refugees can only stay outside the city.
"Set up camp!"
The Datong army camped a few miles south of the city, leaning on mountains and rivers.
The next day, the artillery was pulled out and fired first at the refugee camp outside the city. There were too many shacks, which affected the Datong army's attack on the city, and they had to be cleared first.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
More than 20 shells fell, causing the Bamar refugees to flee in fear. Unable to enter the city, they chose to circle the city and flee further north.
The chief general stationed in Pyay City was Mangtai, a nobleman of the Toungoo royal family.
His son Mang Sigu said: "Father, we have the superior strength and can go out to fight the enemy decisively!"
Mangtai shook his head: "Stand tight and wait for help."
Mang Sigu said: "There are too many people pouring into the city, and we don't have time to collect food and grass. The city will be besieged for a month or two at most, and by then the food will be exhausted!"
"Stand tight and wait for help!" Mangtai said decisively.
The Toungoo Dynasty was similar to the Annan Kingdom, with only tens of thousands of standing troops, most of which were stationed in the capital and the northern border. When a big war was needed, local nobles could recruit peasants, and the maximum number of troops could be expanded to 300,000.
Pyay is a strategic city with more than 3,000 troops stationed in peacetime, so it is considered very important.
Now, Mangtai only has more than 3,000 standing troops in hand, and the rest are all temporarily recruited refugees. How can he dare to take the initiative to go out of the city for a decisive battle?
There are definitely reinforcements in the north, and there are probably reinforcements in the west and south.
More than a hundred years ago, the Arakan (Arakan) people came by boat to help the Shan people fight against the Bamar people. It will be the same now, the Arakan people came by boat to help the Bamar people fight against the Tatung Army.
"Do you think you can keep it?"
"I'm afraid we can't defend it. The Chinese army is very powerful."
"Look for an opportunity to slip away."
"You can't leave unless you abandon your family and property."
"..."
This conversation came from the fort of the city tower.
Two Portuguese mixed-race officers were guarding the artillery and whispering. Their ancestors had made great contributions to the Toungoo Dynasty, using artillery to defeat the main cavalry of the Ava Dynasty, and also formed an artillery force for the Toungoo Dynasty.
In addition to the Portuguese, there are also Armenians in the city. Their ancestors also participated in the Battle of Pyay a hundred years ago and helped the Toungoo Dynasty fight with the Persians.
The Toungoo Dynasty was able to quickly unify Myanmar by relying on multinational troops and advanced weapons. It had muskets and artillery in the mid-16th century.
However, their firearms technology is still stuck a hundred years ago.
After the Bamar refugees outside the city were frightened away by artillery fire, the Datong Army began to divide its forces.
Yang Zhan led a regular division, plus 5,000 patrol troops, and thousands of Mon men, through the hilly areas south of the city, and went around to the north of Pyai City to set up camp. The troops of Yang Zhan and Ding Jiasheng were like two nails, nailing each other.
In the north and south of Pya city.
This is a big city and it is really difficult to attack by force.
The great battle that took place more than a hundred years ago lasted for more than five months and the city's defenders were forced to surrender only after all the reinforcements were wiped out.
The Datong Army has a deadline for the operation and cannot delay it for so long.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
For six consecutive days, there was constant shelling.
Dozens of artillery pieces from the Datong Army aimed at the city wall and fired. The twelve city defense guns from the defenders also continued to fire back.
At the same time, the Mon servant army led the Mon men to fill the moat under artillery fire.
A large number of trees in the southern mountain forests were cut down to make siege equipment. In standard siege warfare, there are no tactics at all, and the early preparations for the siege are fixed routines.
"The temperature at noon today is 28 degrees, which is suitable to continue fighting."
At this time, the Datong Army also carried thermometers with them. If the temperature exceeded 32 degrees, the entire army would make herbal tea and drink it.
It is currently the end of October (lunar calendar), which is the middle of winter. The temperature at noon is almost 30 degrees. You can imagine how difficult it is to fight in the summer.
"The enemy's reinforcements haven't come yet?" Yang Zhan complained.
The Mon leader Naibanchuo said: "It will take at least two months for the reinforcements of the Burmese king to arrive here slowly, because the Burmese king needs to raise food and troops. Every time we Mon people rise up, no matter how big the commotion is, the Burmese
It would take the king's army two or three months to arrive, and sometimes it would even take about half a year."
Yang Zhan sighed: "It seems that besieging the city and calling for reinforcements is no longer possible. Either attack here by force, or continue northward."
"Da da da da!"
A fast horse came to the military camp, and the herald said: "Commander Yang, Ding Duzhi suggested that we abandon this city and continue to the north!"
"That's what I meant!" Yang Zhan had long wanted to leave.
It is a typical taboo of military strategists to continue to advance without conquering strategically important areas. The enemy will block all the way back. Once the war drags on for too long, you will face the dilemma of insufficient military supplies and stranded alone.
But this fortified city in front of us really cannot be conquered in a short time.
For six days, artillery bombardment continued, but the city wall did not move at all, and even the moat had not been filled in.
That night, Ding Jiasheng led his soldiers and detoured several miles from the southeast to the north. The whole army set off in the dark with all their supplies on boats.
The city of Pyay was built on the riverside, and the movements of the baggage transport ships were quickly discovered by the defenders in the city.
The defenders had only 12 city defense guns, which were evenly distributed on all four sides.
The four city defense guns facing the river were bombarding the fleet indiscriminately. In the darkness, it was unclear whether they were hit or not. As they continued to hit, the artillery on the north and south city walls also fired towards the upstream and downstream rivers.
The next morning, the Datong Army had already moved far away, and statistics found that two ships were missing and more than 20 ships were damaged.
The next step is to fight. There is a city called Alanmiu upstream, which is completely defenseless against the Datong Army.
Although local officials also gathered refugees and organized them into city defense troops, everyone felt that Pyay City could be defended. Even if it could not be defended, it could last for two or three months. They could just wait for reinforcements from the King of Burma.
When the Datong army suddenly approached the city, the officials who defended the city thought that Pyaimai City had been lost, so they were so frightened that they abandoned the city and fled.
With all the chief officers running away, how could a group of temporarily formed refugee troops still have the morale to hold on to the end? After a blast of artillery, the northern city gate opened wide, and the defenders and people rushed to flee.
"Kill all the Burmese!"
With red eyes, the Mon servants rushed into the city, burned, killed and looted.
Ding Jiasheng and Yang Zhan did not stop them, and even allowed the Mon soldiers to plunder. They took the risk to lead the army north and had to replenish food along the way. It was not convenient for the Datong army to do such dirty things, so they just let the Mon servants do it for them. Everyone shared the goods.
All the food was taken away by the Datong Army.
After three days of plundering, the army continued north.
The Burmese who fled north heard news along the way that Pyay City had been captured. This false military information frightened the cities upstream, and they all abandoned the city and fled.
The Datong army traveled north for more than 500 miles before encountering resistance in the city of Bagan.
Bagan is also a large city, only 280 miles away from the capital of Myanmar. Not only does this city have tens of thousands of temporarily recruited troops, but there are also thousands of reinforcements gathered by the King of Myanmar, and nearly 10,000 reinforcements are also on the way.
To the south, Mangtai, the commander-in-chief of Beiyao, was also chasing after him with "tens of thousands of troops".
Ding Jiasheng's and Yang Zhan's troops are obviously deeply alone and will face a north-south pincer attack by more than 100,000 Burmese troops.
It's just that, of the more than 100,000 Burmese troops, the actual standing army that can fight is less than 20,000.
"How to fight?" Ding Jiasheng asked.
Yang Zhan said: "Go back the same way and kill the pursuers in the south!"
"Hahaha, I have the same idea." Ding Jiasheng laughed.