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Section 12 Forced Crossing (Part 2)

Deng Ming and his 150 Three Wall Knights arrived on the east bank of Lijiang.

There are now 300 standing cavalry in Chengdu, which is only enough to form a standing cavalry battalion, so they are all included in the Three Walls. Deng Ming brought half of them on this expedition. Among these 150 cavalry, more than 100 were young riders. The older generation of trespassed the battalion cavalry gradually gave way to the young people. In addition to serving as officers, the older generation's focus has also changed from fighting to cultivating new recruits.

Among the cavalry teams of the Ming army were Bai Wenxuan's 100 attendants and the 100 Jianchang Armored Cavalry brought by Di Sanxi. These were almost all the elite riders of the Ming army. Deng Ming and the three walls of the knights were walking on horseback, hiding their figures as much as possible. Even if the Burmese army saw that there were cavalry in the Ming army, they could not tell their number at once.

At the military meeting before the war, Bai Wen chose a natural tone to advocate forcing the cavalry to cross the cavalry first. Including all the transportation tools of the Ming army, they could cross about one hundred people each time. After hearing this suggestion, Deng Ming, who had been through the battlefield for a long time, was a little surprised and couldn't help asking: "What's the use of crossing the cavalry first?"

The capacity of hundreds of cavalry can be used to transport four or five hundred infantry forces at one time. Once these infantry step onto the beach, they can immediately start building positions; and the defense ability of one hundred cavalry is probably only one-third of that of four hundred infantry. If they encounter a large-scale charge from the enemy, they will be driven down the river by the Burmese in a blink of an eye.

Unexpectedly, after hearing the question that Deng Ming blurted out, Bai Wenxuan actually laughed happily: "Since even General Deng has this question, then this battle will be won."

Bai Wenxuan's words stunned Deng Ming, while Di Sanxi showed a thoughtful look and asked: "Does King Gongchang plan to launch an attack immediately after landing?"

"That's true." Bai Wenxuan nodded: "No matter what, the Burmese people cannot let us build a good position with peace of mind. After climbing up to 8,000 soldiers, then attacking. Since that's the case, we don't have to think about any way to quickly land." As for the strategy of one side restraining and then smuggling from other directions, Bai Wenxuan did not think about it, but in the end he did not plan to adopt it. Because the Burmese people were locals, Bai Wenxuan felt that this real and real strategy had a much greater possibility of failure than success, and it would also lead to the dispersion of the Ming army's troops, which was inconsistent with the Ming army's intention to concentrate its forces for the main decisive battle.

So Bai Wenxuan planned to cross the cavalry first and then immediately launch an attack on the Burmese army. If the deployment of the Burmese army can disrupt the deployment, it will give the main force of the Ming army time to cross the river: "If it is changed to the Tartars in front of me, I will definitely not dare to do this. However, the Burmese soldiers have not fought a war for fifty years. I guess they lack the ability to respond from top to bottom, and the resilience of the soldiers is quite insufficient; not to mention that our tactics will definitely be completely beyond the expectations of the Burmese people."

As he said that, Bai Wenxuan glanced at Deng Ming again and said proudly: "General Deng has experienced many battles and has attacked powerful enemies alone many times. Since General Deng has not guessed my intention, the Burmese people certainly couldn't imagine it."

Deng Ming nodded. Even when facing Zhu Guozhi, the Qing army was not entirely recruited, and there would not be even an officer who had experienced the battle formation. At that time, the small number of elite cavalry of the Ming army was still extremely shocked to the enemy who were nervous and lacked practical experience. Deng Ming did not guess Bai Wenxuan's intention at the first moment, because although he was not optimistic about the combat effectiveness of the Burmese soldiers, he still measured it by the lower standards of the Qing army. In any case, Deng Ming did not dare to use one hundred cavalry to attack the 30,000 green camp that was waiting for the battle.

"After the first batch of cavalry crossed the river, the Burmese would probably wonder how we dared to just get over such a few people. I guess they still hesitated if it was the best time to attack after seeing us crossing three hundred cavalry, because there were not many people passing by and they did not meet the military strategy of "half-crossing"? But we'd better not take risks, so as to avoid any talented people in the Burmese army who saw through our plan." Bai Wenxuan continued: "After the first batch of cavalry landed, they immediately attacked the Burmese chief general, leaving him with no time to issue orders. After the second batch of cavalry landed, the Burmese army might have reacted, and perhaps in chaos, the second batch of cavalry would reinforce and attack the enemy. Then there was the third batch, as long as there were three or four hundred cavalry, it would be enough for our main force to cross the river calmly."

"The main force also went to pursue the enemy after crossing the river." Di San said with laughter. He and Bai Wenxuan both saw how refugees were defeated by the cavalry of the officers and soldiers. Even thousands of refugees with no combat experience could not defeat dozens and hundreds of well-trained armored cavalry. After the cavalry of the Xiying was trained, when they met officers and soldiers who had been pacified for many years in Huguang and Sichuan, the situation was completely reversed. Thousands of Ming army's military households would be chased and cut by several or more Western camp cavalry - since Myanmar has a military household system and there has not been a war in decades, Di Sanxi felt that there would be no big difference between them and the Ming army's military households.

"I have 150 cavalrymen," Deng Ming had never seen the miserable situation of refugees and military households, so he was the least confident among the three. After listening to Bai Wenxuan's plan, Deng Ming expressed his willingness to lead the elite western Sichuan cavalry: "There are many veterans with three walls, and I'm responsible for rushing to the first round."

The three walls are much more famous than the Xiying cavalry. Using Western Sichuan cavalry as a vanguard will undoubtedly give Bai Wenxuan a higher success rate. However, Deng Ming's proposal made Bai Wenxuan feel that he was despised, implying distrust of the Xiying cavalry.

Before Bai Wenxuan said no, Di Sanxi said first: "Why can you use a ox knife to kill a chicken? Deng Shuai has 150 cavalry under his command. It is a bit difficult to transport it to him at one time. It's better to come first. There are 100 cavalrymen at the end, so you can cross the river safely at one time."

"One hundred and fifty cavalry squeezed on the boat, and they should be able to pass by at once." Deng Ming felt that Jianchang's cavalry's combat effectiveness should be slightly inferior to him, so he was still working hard to win the vanguard's mission: "There will be greater in one hundred and fifty people."

"One hundred people are enough, enough to persevere until Deng Shuai comes." Di Sanxi heard the distrust in Deng Ming's words, but he did not point it out or showed dissatisfaction: "The key to this battle is to move faster. One hundred people disembark and the entire team are much faster than one hundred and fifty people. When the Burmese lineup is disrupted, Deng Shuai's cavalry can also calmly get off the boat."

Deng Ming still refused to give up. He remembered that Bai Wenxuan said just now that the Burmese people were mostly slow to react, just to get through three or four hundred cavalry first, and then launch an attack might be too late, and the Burmese people would be at a loss because of their inexperience.

"If we can fight quickly, we don't need to take risks." Hearing that Deng Ming actually used his own speculation as a reason, Bai Wenxuan immediately stood up and spoke to Di Sanxi: "And the cavalry of King Qingyang is brave and good at fighting. If I remember correctly, when King Jin fell from his name, they all participated."

"King Gongchang is good at memory, that's exactly what it is!" Di Sanxi replied loudly. When Li Dingguo defeated Kong Youde and Nikan, Feng Shuangli and Bai Wenxuan participated in the whole process.

"Okay." Since Di Sanxi's men had such a glorious history, Deng Ming felt relieved, and there was no reason to stop Di Sanxi from taking the lead: "Then we will cross the river in the second group of three walls, so we will have the best momentum for General Di."

Di Sanxi wanted to nod, but this time it was Bai Wenxuan's turn to object: "Ship Deng don't have to worry. The second batch of crossing the river is also tight. I have a hundred guards under my command, and everyone is skilled in archery and horses. Let them go through the second batch. Deng Shuai can take the third wave with three walls."

Deng Ming was a little surprised. He thought that the combat effectiveness of the western Sichuan army was quite good, but why did it sound like Bai Wenxuan and Di Sanxi seem to be very worried and must be used as support.

"Sir Deng must not be too concerned," Bai Wenxuan just now helped Di Sanxi speak, and now Di Sanxi is giving Bai Wenxuan a gang to Bai Wenxuan: "We are all from the Western Camp and have a tacit understanding between each other. When we defeated Kong Youde, King Jin was in the middle, and King Qingyang and King Gongchang attacked from both wings at the same time and defeated the Confucius thieves. In the battle with Nikan, King Jin was also the King of Jin lured the enemy, and the two kings ambushed the two sides of the mountain. These guards of King Gongchang have known them for many years. Apart from those two battles, I don't know how many times he has fought side by side."

"So that's it." Deng Ming nodded. He knew that cooperation was very critical in such a small group of cavalry operations. He was originally worried that there was a gap between King Qingyang and King Gongchang and could not work together, but since the other party said that, Deng Ming did not force the strange Western Sichuan cavalry into the mix.

After hearing Deng Ming's agreement as the third group of crossing the river, Bai Wenxuan and Di Sanxi looked at each other. There was indeed a gap between them, but at this moment, both sides once again felt the feelings of being comrades-in-arms of Xiying - they joined forces to defend the honor of Xiying.

...

Before the ship could stop, Di Sanxi led his mount into the waist-deep water. Behind him, the Jianchang cavalry jumped into the river one by one like him. When the Jianchang cavalry took the mount ashore, the ships transported them had already begun to turn around and turned back to the east bank to load the attendants of the Gongchang Prince's Mansion who were Bai Wenxuan.

Although the river is not very wide, every Jianchang cavalry knows that for a long time, they will be separated from this side of Lijiang alone and can only fight with their own strength. Tens of thousands of Burmese troops ahead were lined up, and the dark enemy troops were connected to the sky and the earth were densely filled with endless sight.

"Young people, do you know what we are here for?" Di Sanxi turned over and stepped on his mount and shouted loudly to the hundreds of cavalry beside him.

"I know!" Jianchang military answered him in a neat shout.
Chapter completed!
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