After Meng Yang captured it, Shi Dakai's access to the west has been opened, and everything in the southwestern region is now suitable.
Just waiting for the Taiping Army to move over at a turtle's speed.
It's really slow. The exact number of the Taiping Army's entire team now is more than 500,000.
It is indeed a very difficult thing for more than 500,000 people to move between the jungles of northern Myanmar.
Especially there are many women, children and children among the teams.
Shi Dakai even took away many natives.
The status of these natives is similar to that of slaves. These people are mainly responsible for building camps and opening roads ahead.
Slavery in Indochina has not been completely abolished yet. There are still slave hunters in relatively closed tribes deep in the mountains. They will go out to capture people from outside the mountains and use them as slaves.
Shi Dakai and the others only drive these natives, and they cannot be completely regarded as slaves. They can be said to be servants. There are many things that these natives of Indochina can do better.
This huge team only moves about ten kilometers per day.
It is impossible for so many people to advance together. After entering northern Myanmar, there is basically no problem with the safety of these people. According to the arrangements made by the Renaissance Army in advance, the chieftain villages along the way will also provide food supplies and provide food for weak women and children.
stay.
Now that we have entered the dry season, there is less rain and the environment is much better. Moreover, northern Myanmar also has a plateau climate, so the environment is drier and cooler.
"Wenqing, ask the battalions below to speed up their advance. They will advance at least forty miles every day." Shi Dakai knew that it would not be a good idea to delay like this.
In fact, the slowdown of the Taiping Army's advance is also related to the improved marching environment.
Shouldn't the better the conditions, the faster the progress?
This is really not the case. Ever since we arrived on the plateau of northern Myanmar on a tugboat of the Renaissance Army.
These people seem to experience the feeling of being a rich man.
At the villages along the way, the Renaissance Army would replenish supplies for them, and the food would be even better than before.
These people had the feeling of killing a lot of money from the Fuxing Army. There were still some people in the Taiping Army who were resentful of the Fuxing Army.
They thought it was the Baath Army that was driving them around.
They didn't know, and of course Shi Dakai didn't tell them, that everything they ate and drank on the road was paid for by Shi Dakai.
Naturally, Dong Laoji would not give them a free lunch. He was a businessman. It would be great if the Renaissance Army could agree to provide supplies.
You must know that Shi Dakai is not short of money now. But who will he buy with the gold, silver and jewelry he snatched?
The natives here are too lazy to have more than three days' worth of food at home. Even if you have money, you can't buy anything.
Moreover, Shi Dakai and their hundreds of thousands of people need more than just food.
Dong Shuheng even sold them a medical team. Of course, he sold services rather than people.
With doctors, the team's losses along the way will be much less, at least they will no longer be sick without medical treatment.
The things Dong Shuheng bought are not cheap, so now Shi Da is asking the team to speed up, just to be considerate of Dong Shuheng.
He also didn't want all the money he had worked so hard to grab to go into Dong Shuheng's pocket.
At the same time, he also wanted to rush to the Assam region during the dry season, which would make it easier for them to attack the area.
The rainy season in Assam is also rich in rain, and continuous rain will inevitably slow down the attack and punishment speed of the Taiping Army.
Shi Dakai made a calculation, if he could reach the Assam region before the end of the ninth lunar month.
Then he has four months. In this way, he will not only be sure to capture the Assam region, but also stabilize the local order.
At that time, they only need to withstand the first wave of counterattacks from the British and Indian authorities.
After the large forces of the British and Indian troops were assembled, the local rainy season was almost here.
Heavy rain naturally increases the difficulty for the attacker.
It is also a natural reinforcement for the defender.
Therefore, Shi Dakai could not let his team continue to be delayed on the road.
A relatively comfortable life would only wear down the spirit of his Taiping troops.
Just like the previous months in Nanzhang.
Shi Dakai's team is divided into three major camps: front, middle and back.
The front line is mainly combat troops, led by Chen Yucheng. They will be the first group to enter the Assam region.
Chen Yucheng will be responsible for occupying a base area in advance and laying a foothold for subsequent troops.
Shi Dakai led the Chinese army himself, and the women's battalion and the youth army organized by the families of the soldiers in the army also followed the Chinese army. Shi Dakai led the people to protect them.
The rear troops in the rear are mainly second-line combat troops.
Although Shi Dakai believed in the Renaissance Army, he had to be wary of the chieftains here. It would be disgusting if some blind little chieftain stabbed him in the back.
When Shi Dakai was marching in the jungle of northern Myanmar with his people.
Peng Yulin also began to take over the legacy left by Shi Dakai and others in Nanzhang.
Some natives who were beaten by Chen Yucheng and hid in the mountains saw the Taiping troops who attacked them retreating. They thought the enemy had withdrawn, but they happily wanted to return home.
Another group of more fierce people came.
The Hunan Army has always been known for its toughness in battle. For these natives who suddenly returned to the city, Bao Chao's 20th Division usually used precise shooting to warn them.
The sporadic killings stopped only after the government working group sent by the cabinet arrived and began to restore local order.
Although both the Taiping Army and the Renaissance Army claimed that they did not kill local natives.
However, when the working team stationed in the area conducted a local census, the population was still less than half of what Tuwang had previously recorded.
Where did this half of the people go? The garrison said that the natives were too lazy and did not store food. They starved to death after entering the mountains.
After the working group arrived, they began to use local Chinese for management. There were already many Chinese forces in the area.
But before, these Chinese were in the stage of forming strongholds to protect themselves. Now the Chinese government is here.
These people have become the protagonists here. Some people have read the book and immediately became officials of the local Chinese government.
The first thing the government did was to gather all the natives into villages and redistribute land to them.
As their land becomes less, they have to work hard like good people, otherwise they will go hungry.
All the remaining land will be taken back to China. The government will carry out unified planning, and some will be built as farms and some will be distributed to immigrants moving from the interior.
"Send electricity to the cabinet. Divide Nanzhang into two provinces, north and south, using the Gansu-Mongolia Plateau as the dividing line. The northern one is called Lancang Province, and the southern one is called Meigong Province. Both provinces must accept independent immigration of people from the south.
." Dong Shuheng explained.
For these two provinces, Dong Shuheng will mobilize the landless and landless farmers in the south to immigrate there. The land there is fertile and unlike the cold and bitter land in the Far East.
There are many people in the southern provinces of China, and Dong Shuheng believes that many people will migrate there for the sake of land.
Historically, many people from Guangdong and Fujian who went to Nanyang did so voluntarily. Now that it is a land of China, there must be more people willing to go.
Nanzhang is like a front foot of the Chinese lion that has stepped into the Gulf of Siam. After grasping the main line of Zhang Tiao, in the future, both Siam and Vietnam will live under the nose of China. In this way, they can still
Can you make small moves?
Nanzhang is located in the Indochina Peninsula, a north-south plateau zone in the middle. It overlooks both sides.
The current map of China is no longer a rooster, but more and more like a plump lion.
The Lancang River becomes wider and gentler as it goes downstream. In the areas along the way, a large number of rivers from the Indochina Peninsula converge into the Lancang River.
Zhang Qiang's naval fleet, with a marine regiment that had just been added to the front line, crossed Wanxiang, which was already in the hands of the Renaissance Army, and continued to explore downstream. On the way, they wiped out several feudal states in the southern part of Nanzhang.
Almost all the feudal states in Nanzhang built their capitals on the banks of the Lancang River. It was very easy to attack.
Basically, after a few shots, these people surrendered.
These are all places that the Taiping Army did not attack at the beginning. They are considered to be a few fish that slipped through the net.
"Commander, further ahead is the border of Chenla, which seems to be the power of Siam now." The speaker was a thin old man with a goatee. He was so thin that he was only skin and bones, with dark skin covering the bones.
Make his limbs look like steel bars.
The key is that this person has a pair of big feet. Even if he is standing on a stable ship, his feet are bare.
This is an old boat handler on the Lancang River. He has been running a boat on the Lancang River all his life.
Because there are many reefs and shoals in the upper reaches, there are very few fleets that can sail from Yunnan to the lower reaches.
Only the old master knows where the reefs and shoals are and how to avoid them.
It was not easy for the fleet to find this old trick.
With him, the previous exploration fleets were able to blow up the reefs and shoals so quickly to clear the way for the navy.
Now this old man named Xiang is the Navy's living map.
"Commander, there is a city ahead called Stung Treng, where a group of Siamese naval forces are stationed. The general of the navy is called Pula. This man has dozens of large wooden ships and steamers, all of which are equipped with
Foreign artillery. The Siamese have a good relationship with the foreigners. They have many foreign guns in their hands."
"Of course, they are not as powerful as our navy."
Zhang Qiang didn't expect that this old man would be alluring. He used to work on a merchant ship and knew that the official navy was the biggest water bandit on the river.
Under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, merchant ships must pay protection fees if they encountered the navy.
"Old man Xiang, did that General Pula often exploit your merchant ships in the past?"
"Ah, to be honest, Commander Zhang, this Siam General Pula really has a bad attitude towards Chinese businessmen. Not only does he collect money, but sometimes he also bombards us. It seems to be purely for his own pleasure." The old man saw his little boy.
His thoughts were exposed, so he just said it directly.
In fact, Zhang Qiang's navy had dealt with the Siamese when they were upstream. The Lancang River is the boundary between the northern and eastern parts of Siam and Nanzhang.
Therefore, when the navy walks on the river, it is often possible to see Siamese people. Sometimes they will also encounter Siamese patrol boats.
However, when these Siamese saw the Chinese fleet from a distance, they respectfully avoided it.
The Chinese envoys have already arrived in Siam, and Siam has already declared vassal status to China, and has also sent envoys to attend Dong Shuheng's inauguration ceremony.
Siam is a big country in Indochina, and the Huaihai Navy has had relatively close exchanges with Siam in the past two years. Chinese businessmen in Southeast Asia buy a large amount of rice from Siam and ship it to China every year.
This is a stable food supply area for China, and the local Chinese influence is relatively strong.
The current king Rama IV is very good at discerning current affairs. They made offerings to China and at the same time established diplomatic relations with Britain, France, the United States and other countries.
They even signed treaties with Britain and France.
Rama IV knew how to find a balance between these great powers.
In later generations, Siam was the only country in Southeast Asia that was not classified as a colony, which is inseparable from the policies they have adopted.
In fact, to put it bluntly, it means that it acts as a wall between the big powers. No one is offended, and only the stronger one can be taken refuge in.
During World War II, when the Japanese came, he surrendered immediately and joined the Axis Powers.
After the war, this country was not liquidated, and many people did not even know that it was an Axis power.
During the Vietnam War, he fell into the arms of the Americans. By providing physiological services to the American garrison, he created Pattaya, a tourist destination.
When the Southwest Military Region moved south, Dong Shuheng gave special instructions.
Peng Yulin asked the president how the country Siam should be treated.
Dong Shuheng told him that Siam is a major country in Indochina, and it has treaties with Britain and France.
In order to avoid false accusations, there is no need to take the initiative to attack. But if the Siamese hinder China from taking back the power of Nanzhang and Chenla, then fuck him and let him know who his biological father is.
Yes, that's what Dong Shuheng said.
After the Renaissance Army arrived in Nanzhang, they sent envoys to inform the Chinese King Rama IV named Zheng Ming.
King Rama IV was very wise and quickly ordered the Siamese troops still in Nanzhang to withdraw.
Rama IV knew something about this new China. He was an enlightened king and his experience was legendary.
The Huai Navy, which was still a local force two years ago, began to contact Siam.
At that time, Siam still banned rice exports. With the mediation of the Huaihai Company, Rama IV relaxed restrictions on rice exports and lifted the sugar franchise in order to increase trade.
Chinese businessmen and ethnic Chinese also received preferential treatment in Siam. Chinese businessmen became the most important business force in Siam.
It even had a certain influence on the Siamese royal family.
Of course, Siam is not only open to Chinese people, they are also open to other foreigners.
Therefore, Siam does not lack Western things. In the past two years, Siam’s treasury has been filled with business with China.
Rama IV even purchased muskets and established a musketry army of 20,000 people.
The French gave him several small steamers, but he did not keep them for himself, but gave them to the river navy to strengthen his control over Chenla.
After receiving notice from China this time, Siam withdrew its troops in Nanzhang, but the garrison in Chenla did not withdraw.
Because the French still had influence in Chenla, Rama IV did not think that China would offend the French.
In the view of Rama IV, China is just a newly established government and should not offend a powerful country like France.
But he thought wrong. Dong Shuheng had already publicly stated China's suzerainty over the countries in the Indochina Peninsula to the French Minister Bourblon in advance.
And because Nanzhang is severed from the Chenla royal family, Huaxia will take back its territory.
This is based on the Chinese patriarchal system. Now France has not even pried open the door of the Kingdom of Vietnam, so it is naturally impossible to talk about intervening in Nanzhang.
But there is indeed French influence in Chenla, because the south of Chenla is close to the sea, so the fleets of the great powers often dock there.
Chenla had been under the control of Vietnam's Nanqi before, but with Vietnam's decline in recent years, Siam took the opportunity to enter the lower reaches of the Lancang River and squeezed the Kingdom of Vietnam out of the area west of the Lancang River.
This became a large granary in southeastern Siam.
The navy of Pula was an important water force of the Siamese in Chenla. The three steamers sent by the French were in this navy.
Now all three steamships are equipped with artillery.
It is precisely because of them that the Vietnamese can only stay obediently on the east bank and dare not even approach the river.
Pula's position was important and he had strong soldiers and horses. Therefore, he became more arrogant and even obeyed the orders of Rama IV sometimes.
He even colluded with foreigners to smuggle opium to Chenla and Siam, as if he wanted to become a warlord.
The East India Company's opium was not just sold to China. In Nanyang, it was also a violent trade.
Especially now that China has cut off the opium trade, these East India Company people can only increase their exports to small countries in Southeast Asia.