Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 79: Liu Dadao's Swiftness (Part 3)
"The thief is coming again! Archer!"
"The enemy is approaching, archers, retreat, where is the rolling stone, take care of it!"
"The thief is climbing the wall! Brothers, draw your swords!"
“Wow~~~!”
It was July 15th, twelve days after the Burmese army discovered that their retreat route had been cut off by the Ming army.
During the twelve days, Ana Hualong first sent an envoy to Liu Jing's army to give gifts, repeatedly saying that it was a misunderstanding, but Liu Jing pushed it to Sun Chengzong. As for Lord Sun, well, Lord Sun is a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, but he is also a civil official of the Ming Dynasty! Facing the Burmese envoy, Lord Sun spoke a lot in a confusing way, and the envoy didn't get the point anyway!
It doesn't matter if the envoys don't get the point. The key is that the 260,000 to 270,000 Burmese troops trapped in Mubang and the 70,000 to 80,000 captured Mubang people need to eat! 340,000 to 350,000 people plus a certain number of war horses, the amount of food consumed by the people and the horses every day is extremely astonishing!
On the one hand, Myanmar's war level at this time was not very high. Compared with the various Chinese regimes that attached great importance to their own food supply during the war, they obviously did not pay enough attention to the food supply. On the other hand, since Myanmar came without a country, its strength was overwhelming for Mubang. The 300,000-strong army surrounded Mubang. Under such circumstances, there was really no need to spend too much energy on defending the food supply...
As a result, Liu Jing successfully bypassed the main force of the Burmese army and calmly found a long and narrow valley more than 130 miles south of Mubang City to set up his troops.
This valley is the only way for the Burmese army to pass through. What is even more rare is that, although due to geographical reasons, the terrain of this area is generally low in the southwest and high in the northeast. But in this section, the terrain in the southwest and northeast is similar. Then Liu Jing built a low wall here, and the Ming army had the advantage of being high above.
After the envoys' negotiations failed, Anahualong reluctantly began to order his generals to lead their troops to attack the Ming army's defense line.
As for the option of bypassing Liu Jing's defense line and finding another way out... That's right. When the Ming army set out, the full quota was 12,000. After the loss of personnel due to illness along the way, there were only a little more than 11,000. This amount of troops is only enough to defend a point, and it is absolutely not capable of defending a surface. But the problem is that in this era when most landforms are still original, let alone the transition area between plains and plateaus, even in plains, it is extremely difficult to find another way out outside the official road. If you give up this road and go to other wild mountains and ridges... professional soldiers can do it, but militia and civilians can never do it. If Ana Hualong really did this, then it would be amazing if 100,000 people could return to the plains.
Three hundred thousand went out, and one hundred thousand came back? The Mon people in southeastern Myanmar would probably rush over to kill us with joy!
Therefore, at this time Anahualon had no choice but to order his generals to lead those cannon fodder soldiers who had no armor but only a parang in their hands to charge continuously.
The sun began to set, and after repelling another Burmese charge, the battlefield began to quiet down.
After inspecting the defense line once again and tirelessly ordering the soldiers on night watch to stand guard carefully, Liu Jing returned to the big tent only two or three hundred meters behind the defense line.
"General Liu, how many heads have you beheaded today?"
"Not much." Liu Jing sat heavily on a stool, letting his personal soldiers take off his armor. "In the past ten days, all the enemies sent to charge our formation were scum who wanted to die. A few waves of arrows and one or two rounds of wooden clubs scattered them. The ones who actually rushed to our formation and forced us to draw our swords were only about one or two hundred each time. Therefore, the number of beheadings today is probably similar to the previous few days, about three or four hundred."
"Well... so, in the past ten days, the enemy's losses are probably around five to six thousand." Sun Chengzong stroked his beard and said, "Eunuch Liu, what do you think?"
"Haha." The beardless Liu Shimin stroked his chest and laughed, "Lord Sun is testing us... We think the Burmese king is using the weakest troops in the army to test our strength and consume our bows and arrows."
"What do you think, Liu Shuai?"
"Ambassador Liu is right, but I think the Burmese king is also waiting for the sun to clear."
It was July, the rainy season in Myanmar. From the time the Burmese army attacked the Ming army's defense line, it rained for the first ten of the twelve days. And it was often a heavy rain. Fortunately, the cliffs here were not karst terrain, otherwise, if there were a few landslides, everyone would stop fighting.
"Lord Sun, Ambassador Liu, in the past ten days, the Burmese army has sent a few soldiers with complete armor to charge the enemy, but most of them are auxiliary soldiers without armor. As for the most elite Red Barbarians under the Burmese king, we haven't seen any of them... In the past two days, the weather has started to clear up, so the enemy's firearms may come in handy."
"General Liu, I see our army also has bird guns ."
"Haha, Ambassador Liu. Yes, our army has bird guns, but these bird guns were made by the Ministry of Industry, and my men don't like to use them."
“So how do we deal with this?”
"It doesn't matter. If the enemy comes, we will stop him with our troops and if the water comes, we will block it with earth! Hmm..." After thinking for a while, Liu Jing said to the personal soldiers behind him, "Is Wang Yongjin back?"
"General Wang? I don't know."
"Go check it out quickly. If he comes back, ask him to come here quickly!"
After a while, Wang Yongjin, sweating profusely, came to ask for a meeting outside the big tent, and was quickly called in by the three people inside the tent.
"Old Wang, when did you come back? How was the harvest these days?"
"Hey, Marshal, I just arrived as well. As for the harvest, it's a good harvest! The day before yesterday, I raided a large village by a river in the southwest and got no less than 20,000 dan of grain!"
"Good! In this way, I will have nothing to worry about!"
After all, in order to bypass the Burmese army, this Ming army had few food carts except for the dry food they carried with them. The whole army had less than 20 days of food. After selecting the blocking point, in addition to letting his soldiers build low walls, Liu Jing immediately sent his only 500 cavalrymen to the south with the relatively poor combat effectiveness of Guangnan Guard and Erhai Guard soldiers to find food in the plains of Myanmar.
Looking for food is robbery. However, the plains of Myanmar are not within the scope of the Ming army's conquest. In addition, if they don't rob the food, the Burmese soldiers in their pockets will starve to death before they do. Therefore, Sun Chengzong and Liu Shimin turned a blind eye to this matter...
In short, this kind of thing is also a familiar business for Liu Jing's army. The efficiency is extremely high.
Nine days ago, the first grain-collecting team returned to the camp and brought back 3,000 dan of grain, which solved the urgent need of the army. When Wang Yongjin's team, which had traveled a long way, brought back 20,000 dan of grain, Liu Jing and others felt completely relieved.
"Lord Sun, Ambassador Liu, this way, our army will have at least two months' worth of food. As for the enemy army on the other side, haha, I don't know if that Han Gai burned all the food in the city before he broke into the city. But even if the entire Mubang's food reserves fall into the hands of the Burmese army, I am not afraid of a war here!"
"Haha, General Liu, I heard that the population of Mubang is no more than 100,000. How much food can be stored in Mubang City? There are more than 300,000 people on the other side. How much food is needed to sustain them for two months?"
“Hahahaha~~” Liu Jing had just raised his head and smiled towards the sky when he perked up his ears: “Huh? What’s that sound? Oh no! Thieves are attacking at night!”
