It goes without saying that the Burmese army that went south this time are soldiers who have accumulated hundreds of battles over the years. The Taungoo dynasty's hegemony is now almost entirely maintained on this army, and Huang Zhiting is also well aware of this.
The Burmese army claims to be 150,000, but Huang Zhiting doesn't know how much of it is, but it is definitely not this number. Unfortunately, the 5,000 troops previously arranged at Biaoguan were too limited, and Annan's cavalry was not many.
They didn't dare to send their limited cavalry to investigate closely, so they could only take a rough look at it from a distance. The reported news was that it "stretched for more than ten miles, and the flags were like a forest sea."
In line with the attitude of being lenient to the enemy, Huang Zhiting could only assume that the opponent's strength was more than 100,000.
Huang Zhiting currently has about 20,000 land troops in her hands. When she conquered southern Myanmar, the Mon people cheered and burst into various uprisings against the Toungoo dynasty at the sight of "Celestial Rebellion", so her losses were quite limited.
For example, in Pathein City in the far southwest, it was simply the Mon people who drove away the defenders of the Toungoo Dynasty and then declared their surrender.
But even so, 20,000 vs. 100,000, when both sides are fighting mainly infantry, the difficulty of this war is too great. Unless the 30,000 "Bago Guards" are included, it is still barely possible.
There are some chances of winning.
Huang Zhiting's style of commanding operations is different from that of Gao Pragmatism. Gao Pragmatism's habit is to determine strategic goals alone, and then assign tasks to his subordinates based on the goals. At the same time, he can judge the opponent's mentality in advance and tell his subordinates how to respond. However, he has no specific combat command rules.
They have always been indifferent. How to fight is up to you, the frontline generals, to decide for yourself. I am just waiting to see how well your mission is completed.
Huang Zhiting did not do this, or in other words, she was unable to do so. Although she was the deputy commander of Annan, she only had eight thousand wolf soldiers who were her direct descendants.
The 7,000 people Gao pragmatically transferred from the Jinggang Garrison can be regarded as her strong backing, but after all, she has not really married into the Gao family yet. Although the Jinggang Garrison will obey her dispatch, she cannot directly ignore them, like Gao
Give orders directly in a pragmatic manner, without even discussing.
As for the 5,000 people that Gao Pangshi transferred from Ruan Juan's Department - the troops that had just been withdrawn from Piao Pass - this is even more of a peripheral force, and Huang Zhiting cannot ignore their right to know, lest it cause turmoil in the morale of the military.
.
There are also some doubts about the combat effectiveness of this army. Although Ruan Juan is half a famous Annan general, it does not mean that the soldiers under his command are strong. At least in the eyes of Huang Zhiting, the commander of the wolf soldiers, Ruan Juan provided
There is a high probability that this army is about the same strength as the Burmese army.
So Huang Zhiting held a military affairs meeting. In addition to herself, the following people were also present:
Gao Jing, commander of the Beijing Expeditionary Fleet, Gao Sijin, commander of the Second Division of the Jinggang Garrison (the garrison adopts a unique organization in Annam), Huang Bao, the commander of Haidong Right Guard and Halong Bay garrison, Nguyen Song, the commander of Ngai An Vanguard and the garrison of Yanzhou,
Gao Silian, the first-class military staff officer of the Consulate General of the Three Towns in Guangnan and the Chinese and British colonial envoy.
The official positions of the first few people are relatively straightforward, and their identities do not need to be explained in particular. Only the position of the last one, Gao Silian, needs to be explained.
The three towns under the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Guangnan are Nie'an, Hue, and Quang Nam. Among them, the garrison task of Nie'an in the north is not the responsibility of the Jinggang garrison, but is "seconded to garrison" from the Dutong Department. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for this, and of course government affairs are under the jurisdiction of the Consulate General.
The remaining two towns of Hue and Quang Nam are the garrison areas of the Golden Port Garrison. However, the Golden Port Garrison not only guards these two towns, it also undertakes another task, which is to develop southward.
The so-called "exploitation" is of course put it in a nice way. In fact, the Consulate General set up a special position called "colonization envoy" in accordance with Gao's pragmatic orders, which was filled by people in the garrison who were "suitable for both military and political affairs."
The mission of this colonization envoy is to lead a small number of garrison troops and locally trained "colonization regiments" to explore new territories in the south of Huaying and Nanpan. Both Huaying and Nanpan have local independent political powers, but the system is extremely old. In familiar words, it is similar to the "tribal alliance elders' political system".
This makes it very clear. The so-called colonization is actually conquest by force, economic bribery, and political taming. The "colonization group" is actually composed of various Ming people such as Han, Tong, and Hakka who immigrated. The semi-civilian militarized group is equivalent to a private colonial army in Europe to some extent, but has an official background.
Gao Silian, the Chinese and British colonial envoy, did an extremely good job. In less than two years, he gathered and trained a colonization regiment of nearly 4,000 people with only a 300-person garrison as the core. Through division and disintegration, Through various means of defeating and other means, they successfully defeated the local tribal alliance in Huaying (this statement is not accurate, but it is easy to understand). In fact, Huaying has been obtained. After the situation is stabilized, they are waiting to obtain high-level approval and establish a new town. Turning three towns in Guangnan into four towns.
However, Gao Jingshi has not agreed yet, because Gao Jingshi plans to wait until Nanpan is also captured, and then continue to expand the city to the south and create three new towns for the last time.
But in any case, Gao Silian is very good at how to carry out work in a new environment, so he was recommended by the Consulate General to come to Myanmar. The position at that time was relatively simple, just as his "First Class Military Staff Officer" , but he got new reuse not long ago.
Huang Zhiting saw that he had rich experience in organizing "semi-military groups" and was good at communicating with various local natives, so he temporarily served as the acting commander of the Bago Guard Army and commanded the 30,000 new Mon troops.
Gao Silian did have some tricks. He relied on the fact that he and Gao Sijin, the commander of the Second Division of the Jinggang Guard Army, were both refugees recruited by Gao Pingshi at Wei Hui's rescue. He just "seconded" nearly a hundred low-level and young people from Gao Sijin. Han Chinese officers were added to the command structure of the Bago Garrison and quickly gained better control over this unit.
Huang Zhiting's main topic for this meeting, first of all, is to determine the strategic purpose of this battle.
To put it more directly, we need to choose the most reliable one among several ideas such as "hold on to Bago", "defeat the Burmese army", "consumption of the Burmese army", etc.
Among them, "defeating the Burmese Army" is best understood, that is, directly fighting a battle, defeating the Burmese Army in the battle, and bluntly defeating its intention to quickly regain Bago.
"Standing on Bago" and "consuming the Burmese army" have certain similarities, but they are not completely equivalent.
If you choose to stick to Bago, there is no doubt that as long as the Burmese army launches siege warfare, it will consume the Burmese army.
But there is a problem, that is, the strategy discussed by Huang Zhiting and Gao Jingshi at the earliest time was not to stick to a certain place, because Gao Jingshi did not think that Bago City or even the entire old place of the Bago Dynasty must be defended at that time.
On the contrary, in Gao Pragmatic's view, the entire territory of Myanmar can be abandoned for the time being. He only needs to weaken the ruling power of the Toungoo Dynasty as much as possible - including military strength, financial resources and even the prestige of the people.
The Toungoo Dynasty itself was a dynasty that relied on force to unify. The ethnic conflicts in its country were extremely fierce. At this time, the Bamar people had not yet become the dominant ethnic group with absolute advantage. Therefore, as long as the Burmese army is weakened as much as possible, the Burmese army can be broken.
The myth of invincibility, even if he temporarily withdraws, the conflicts in other countries will inevitably intensify.
In this way, after he has been in chaos for a few years and his ruling power has been completely lost due to internal friction, Gao Pragmatic can come back at any time and easily subdue these exhausted local snakes like a dragon crossing the river.
, taking over the whole of Myanmar in one fell swoop.
It can be said that although Gao Pragmatic's plan took a long time, at least three to five years, it was the most stable plan with the least loss, which was in line with his consistent style.
This plan is sure to succeed, because as a time-traveler, Gao Pragmatic knows very well that in history, Mang Yingli did not fall for this trick.
In his own capital. Now with his highly pragmatic participation, the speed of this decline can be doubled.
However, Huang Zhiting seemed to have new ideas now, because she found that the situation she was facing now was different from the situation she had discussed before.
The biggest difference is that even Gao Pangshi did not expect that the Mon people hated the Toungoo dynasty so strongly. He did not expect that the Annan army easily occupied the entire old territory of the Bago dynasty almost without a fight, let alone
The Mon people's enthusiasm for joining the army was so high that in more than a month, they were able to integrate a force of 30,000 usable troops. This was smoother than setting up a garrison in Annan - at least Annan did it after the overall situation was decided.
The garrison was just established. Previously, only surrendered troops were available, and the civilians' awareness of joining the army was not strong.
So now Huang Zhiting feels that the people's morale can be used, and the military's morale can also be used. In this case, giving up Pegu easily may lead to the failure of all previous efforts.
However, she and Gao Pragmatic were thousands of miles apart at this time, and it was really impossible to obtain new instructions for a while. Everything could only be judged and decided by herself. And for the reasons mentioned before, her decision still needed to obtain Golden Harbor
It only needed the support of the garrison and Ruan Juan's department, so this meeting took place.
After listening to Deputy Dutong Huang's introduction, everyone at the meeting understood the current situation and fell into thinking. No one made any immediate statement.
Everyone can hear that Deputy Dutong Huang himself is inclined to defeat the Burmese army and establish a victory for the entire southern Burma.
But they also know the importance of this decision - what if they lose?
The opponent has a hundred thousand elites who have fought in hundreds of battles. Our own side only has a main force of 20,000, which can be considered a guarantee. Although the remaining 30,000 new Mon troops have good morale, they were formed too late and are far from well-trained.
Su. Everyone feels that if they are pulled out now, as long as the team can stand out, it will be thanks to the traditional bonus of Gao Jiajun.
After thinking about it, everyone unconsciously cast their eyes towards Gao Silian.
Gao Silian also felt everyone's suspicion. He was actually not angry because he was familiar with this kind of look when he was in Annan before. However, he did not immediately jump out and pat his chest to brag. Instead, he said to Huang Zhiting in a neither humble nor condescending manner: "
Dare I ask the capital commander, if you want to defeat the Burmese army, do you have to fight head-on? I mean, do you have to pull 50,000 people out of the city and fight the Burmese army on the plain north of Bago City?"
Huang Zhiting heard something in his words and asked: "You mean, there is no such need?"
Gao Silian said decisively: "Yes, I think there is no need to fight like this."
Huang Zhiting rarely showed a smile in front of her subordinates and said: "I would like to hear some high-level opinions."
Gao Silian suddenly said something that shocked the whole audience: "My humble suggestion is that the commander-in-chief can take the main force of our army out of the city and go all the way east to Xidang, which is the mouth of the Xidang River, and leave the defense of Bago City to our troops.
Bago Garrison."
Before Huang Zhiting could speak, Gao Sijin had already opened his eyes and said, "A-Lian, are you crazy? Are you trying to persuade us to find the fleet and escape?"
Northerners generally do not use the term "A Lian". This habit was learned by Gao Si after he came to the south. This habit exists in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.
Ruan Song, another general in charge of the army, also shook his head and said in increasingly proficient Chinese: "How can this be possible? We haven't fought a decent battle since we came to Myanmar, so we just fled back in despair.
, there’s no place to put your face.”
Gao Jing originally wanted to say, "As long as everyone retreats to the mouth of the Xidang River, even if the Burmese army comes with 100,000 soldiers, it will not be enough for me to fight." This is not bragging. The expedition fleet has a total of more than 3,500 artillery pieces.
It can only fire sideways, and theoretically it can form a salvo of at least a thousand ship-borne cannons.
In this case, if the Burmese army uses flesh and blood to block the solid artillery, it will really give away as many people as possible. How many people can be killed in the end only depends on two points: how many deaths the Burmese army is willing to die, and how many rounds the Gao Jing fleet's artillery can fire.
However, it was obviously too inappropriate to say this at this time. Besides, since there were Portuguese people in the Burmese army, they would not be stupid enough to use the army to test the power of naval guns, so Gao Jing thought about it and finally kept silent.
Huang Zhiting finally spoke and said: "You mean to let the Pontic Commander lead his elite troops to make a false impression of evacuation and lure the Burmese army to siege the city, and then the Pontifical Commander will find an opportunity to sneak attack the Burmese Army?"
Gao Silian happily said: "This is one of the considerations." He paused slightly and explained: "There are actually at least two possibilities here. After discovering that the Burmese army led the main force to withdraw eastward, although it is possible to directly come to siege the city
The biggest, but it cannot be ruled out that Mangyingli's appetite is too big, so he might as well follow Dutong's main force to the mouth of Xidang River and try to completely eliminate Dutong's troops.
The reason why this possibility exists, I think there are two points that need to be paid attention to: First, Mang Yingli is very happy with his achievements. In order to save the face of the defeat on the northern front, he may hope to wipe out all our troops on the southern front;
Second, if the main force of the capital can be eliminated first, Bago City will completely lose the courage to continue to resist, just like when Wang Shichong saw the defeat of Dou Jiande's reinforcements at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and it is very likely that the entire city will surrender.
Dutong, Bago is one of the richest cities in Myanmar. In Mang Yingli’s heart, he definitely doesn’t want to destroy Bago, so the best choice is to win Bago’s surrender.”
"That makes sense." Huang Zhiting nodded and asked, "What if Mang Yingli doesn't pursue him and still comes to surround Bago?"
Gao Silian said: "This means that the Burmese army has suffered great losses, and even the Burmese court may have become unsustainable. The wealthy old land of Bago must be taken back as soon as possible. Because if Bago City is captured, the remaining cities in Bago will not be able to retain their capital.
It may depend on the strong support of the Chinese Communist Party, just by sending a message."
"This Pontus Commander knows that Pontus Commander wants to ask you, how long can you hold on under the siege of the main force of the Burmese army? Also, how do you hope that the main forces outside will cooperate with you."
"If the commander-in-chief can leave one or two thousand muskets and enough ammunition to the humble post, the humble post can be defended until the food is exhausted." Gao Silian ignored everyone's suspicious expressions and said in a deep voice: "In addition, it is not that our department needs the main force to cooperate.
, but our department hopes to know how the main force will launch an attack, and how our department will cooperate after the main force launches the attack."
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