Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 551: Peace with Myanmar

In the Battle of Irrawaddy River, Wu Sangui defeated Mangbai's army with the strategy of water attack. It took the Qian army four or five days to count the prisoners alone. During these days, the Qian army cleaned up the battlefield and rescued the food that was washed everywhere by the water, while sending light cavalry to go south along the river to hunt down the fleeing Mangbai.

After counting and identification, it was found that in this battle, the Burmese army had more than 94,000 troops dispatched, more than 60,000 were captured, and more than 2,000 officers of various ranks were included. Near the battlefield, the Qian army cleared more than 11,000 bodies, and this did not include those washed away by the water or those who fled. After this battle, Mangbai's entire army could be said to have been wiped out, and only a small number of soldiers followed Mangbai to escape.

Among these captives, Wu Sangui also captured more than 170 Portuguese. Wu Sangui thought that these blond-haired and blue-eyed barbarians could be presented to the emperor and also let the court officials see them in amazement.

Wu Sangui asked his confidant Fang Guangchen to carefully write a victory report to Meng Jun. The core content of the report was to tell the court that he, Wu Sangui, had won a great victory in the war against Burma.

His memorial said: "Your Highness Wu Sangui bows his head a hundred times and wishes the emperor good health.

I was ordered to resist the aggression and lead the army to conquer Burma. Now, relying on the virtue of the holy dynasty and borrowing the power of heaven and earth, I use water as a weapon to defeat the Burmese bandits and put them in disarray.

The Mangbai bandits had a total population of over 100,000 people. In a battle at the Irawaddy River, we captured over 60,000 of them alive, and captured over 2,000 leaders, big and small. Countless people drowned or fled. The barbarians all surrendered after tasting the iron hoof of our Heavenly Empire. After this battle, the Mangbai bandits have become helpless, and the destruction of their country is just around the corner.

In addition, I have captured 170 foreign barbarians, with blond hair and blue eyes, quite a sight to behold, and I intend to present them to the capital to show the great majesty of the Celestial Empire…”

Wu Sangui then sent someone to report the victory to the capital, and kidnapped more than 170 Portuguese and sent them back to their country.

After reporting the victory to the court, they could not ignore the large number of prisoners they had captured. The number of these prisoners exceeded the number of the army invading Burma. If they were not handled carefully, disaster would surely occur.

This also gave Wu Sangui a headache. He definitely couldn't kill them, otherwise there would be war all over Myanmar. Even if the Qian army was more capable of fighting, they could not withstand such turmoil.

Wu Sangui pondered for a long time, and then appointed Marada, the garrison commander who had surrendered to him in Myitkyina City, the tax officer Aung Thein, and six local chiefs, a total of eight people. Wu Sangui divided the surrendered troops equally among these eight people.

Among these eight people, five were Shan people, three were Mon people, and none of them were Burmese, the main body of the current Toungoo Dynasty. Wu Sangui had a sudden idea and awarded these eight people flags of different colors, called the Eight Banners of Burma.

At the same time, in order to control these eight people, all their families were closely protected by Wu Sangui. At the same time, he sent officers to serve as their deputies in the army to monitor the Eight Banners.

Wu Sangui rested on the battlefield for five days, and then took these surrendered troops and a large amount of supplies rescued from the Mangbai camp, and went down the river directly to the Mangbai capital Ava.

The war against Burma has now come to an end. After this great defeat, Mangbai's position is already in jeopardy, not to mention that the army has been wiped out. It is impossible to gather too many troops in Ava city.

The army went down the river, and there was almost no resistance along the way.

On the 27th of November in the third year of Zhaowu, Wu Sangui's army arrived at Ava, the capital of the Toungoo Dynasty.

At this time, Mangbai had completely lost his confidence. After returning to Ava City, Mangbai hid in the palace, indulging in pleasure day and night, and ignoring the oncoming Qian Dynasty army. Mangbai's actions made the already panicked defenders even more unwilling to fight. Even Mangbai's son had no confidence in defending Ava. While Mangbai was indulging in sensual pleasures, his son escaped from Ava City under the cover of his subordinates.

When Wu Sangui arrived at Ava City, he only sent people to persuade the enemy to surrender under the city wall. He did not even build siege equipment. The Ava defenders then opened the city gates and welcomed Qian's army into the city.

Having lost his country in one battle, Mangbai was still drunk when he was caught in the palace. Wu Sangui looked down at Mangbai, who was lying on the ground with his chin raised. Wu Sangui smiled coldly and said, "Cowardly king!!"

Wu Sangui did not kill Mangbai, but put him on a prison car and transported him to the Central Plains.

At this point, the war against Burma has been a complete victory. Although many places in Myanmar are no longer under the control of the Qian Army, no one from the powerful factions in various places dares to have any ideas about the army that is invading Burma.

Everyone is waiting for the final disposal plan of the Qian Dynasty for Burma. For the locals, if they occupy Burma by force and destroy their dynasty, what awaits the Qian Dynasty is war. If the Qian Dynasty wants to completely pacify Burma, it will take more than ten years, cost countless silver, and lose soldiers.

After Wu Sangui took control of Ava, he reported to the capital and asked the court to decide how to deal with Burma. Should he continue to use military force to completely wipe out the forces in Burma that had not yet surrendered?

A few days later, the victory report of the Battle of Irrawaddy River was just delivered to the capital.

After reading the memorial, Meng Jun felt relieved, and the ministers were all laughing and talking. It was foreseeable that there would be no suspense in the Burmese army's capture of the enemy's capital, Ava.

However, at the subsequent court meeting, the ministers had different opinions on how to govern Burma.

In fact, when the war against Burma just began, the court had already debated several times about the future disposal plan for Burma. Generally speaking, the opinions of the ministers on how to deal with Burma could be roughly divided into three types.

The first was the advice of several old scholars who were stuck in the past. One of them said, "Our army went on a long expedition to punish evil. If we win, we should return to the capital to show that the Celestial Empire wins over distant people with virtue and demonstrates the kingly way rather than the hegemonic way."

Meng Jun smiled on the surface at what these people said, but after a while, Zhao Yongping wrote a letter saying that Liaodong had just been pacified and there was an urgent need to educate the local people and the Jurchen tribes. Subsequently, Meng Jun issued an edict to send all the "great scholars" who had said in the court that they would return to the court to Liaodong to be responsible for education.

In the court, the main debate was about the following two strategies. First, since the Qian Dynasty had sent troops, it would directly control Burma, expand the territory, and go down in history.

Secondly, he had the largest number of supporters in the court. Many civil officials were worried that if they ruled directly, they might repeat the situation of Annan's repeated rebellions during the previous Ming Dynasty. Therefore, everyone suggested to Meng Jun that Burma should be governed by Burmese people and the Qian Dynasty should control it from within. After the education was completed, it would be natural for Burma to annex Myanmar in the future.

The six strategies that Meng Jun gave Mang Bai as an ultimatum were extremely appropriate, and now that a large army was entering Burma, the control over it could be strengthened a lot.