Chapter 13 Courage (Part 1)
The commander who commanded the Myanmar army was named Bian Yajian. He was born into a hereditary general. His ancestors were all generals who followed Mang Yinglong and Mang Yingli to fight. Therefore, Bian Yajian inherited his ancestors' official titles and became the new generation of Burmese military commanders. During Mang Bai's usurpation, Bian Yajian also led the army to support Mang Bai, so he was deeply favored and trusted by the current Burmese King. In the army, Bian Yajian insisted on launching a decisive battle with the Ming army immediately, annihilated or drove out of Myanmar, so as to ensure that Mang Bai's prestige did not fall.
After hearing that thousands of Ming troops were planning to cross the river, Bian Yajian rejected his plan to attack halfway: "The thief soldiers and generals are few. If they attack halfway, then the remaining thiefs will all run away? These thieves attacked Bamo and slaughtered the soldiers and civilians. How could they run away so cheaply? No, we have to wait for all these thousands of thieves to cross the river and then annihilate them in one go!"
After seeing that the Ming army could only rely on a small number of rafts and ships to cross the river, Baiya Jian immediately sneered again: "By relying on such a little wooden raft, when will the entire army cross the river?"
Fearing to scare away the Ming army, Bian Yajian issued several orders in a series of orders, strictly ordering all units to stick to their own formation and not to greed for merit to attack the Ming army that had not yet completed the crossing of the river. Bian Yajian estimated it and felt that it would take at least a few hours for these thousands of Ming troops to reach the east coast. While informing the generals of his estimated time, Bian Yajian also emphasized again: "Those who do not listen to the general's orders will be killed even if they win! This general will wipe out the bandits here and not allow one man and one horse to escape."
After seeing the first batch of Ming troops landing, only a hundred pitiful cavalrymen, Bian Yajian's contempt for the Ming army reached the top, shook his head and sighed: "The thieves are completely incompetent. I am familiar with military books. I must have infantry first when crossing the river. If I hadn't planned to wipe out the thieves, one of the thirty thousand troops would blow them all down the river."
Fortunately, he saw that the Ming army ships were returning pretty well. Looking at the Ming army ships that were rushing to load the next batch of soldiers, Baiyajian felt that the Ming army would probably not let him wait for a day.
Then the Burmese saw the Ming troops who were on the ashore jumping on their war horses and heading towards the central army. The Ming troops did not move very quickly, but just approached the Burmese army at a trot.
"Are these people envoys?" The Burmese soldiers in the central army looked at each other. If they were envoys before the war, there seemed to be too many 100 people coming at a time; and if they were not envoys, then what was the intention of these hundred Ming cavalry running towards the 30,000 Burmese troops? Did they come to surrender?
Di Sanxi led the cavalry to advance at a speed of trotting. When he was on the river bank, he saw the lineup of the Burmese army opposite spanning north and south, covering the entire field of vision. Shortly after leaving the river bank, as Di Sanxi got closer and closer to the Burmese army's position, he soon could not see the enemy's two wings. He stared at the enemy's banner in front of him, watching it becoming clearer and clearer in his vision. The central army of the Burmese army was like a black city wall, crossing in front of Di Sanxi, and there seemed to be some shadow of an elephant behind him.
When he could distinguish the human figures of the Myanmar Central Army, Di Sanxi looked quickly at the left and right sides. The Ming cavalry he commanded had penetrated into the Burmese army. The enemy troops protruding on both wings had formed an encirclement of this small group of Ming troops. The distances on both sides were very far, and all you could see were the airtight enemy walls.
Di Sanxi felt that his breathing was also a little heavy. Since he was seeking the vanguard mission, Di Sanxi's head has been a little hot because of excitement. When he launched an attack after landing, Di Sanxi knew that he was the focus of attention. Thousands of Ming troops on the other side of the river bank must have been staring at his back attentively, which made him feel even more excited.
Now the boiling blood has calmed a little, and the hot head has become much more awake when the oncoming wind blows.
"I am not young anymore and have not received a title yet. My colleagues did not say it in public, but were still talking about the last time I took the lead in surrendering. General Deng was very polite to me, but every time his subordinates saw me, the expression on their faces seemed a little strange - I knew they must have seen the teeth that were missing in my mouth... There are not many opportunities left for me. I am a brave and resourceful general, and I want to make achievements!"
Di Sanxi repeated silently in his heart: "I am a general with both wisdom and courage under the King of Qingyang." Then he suddenly grabbed the horse's belly and shouted loudly; "Kill!"
After drinking this sentence, Di Sanxi locked his eyes on the enemy flag directly in front of him. His mount was flying into the air with four hooves, and suddenly accelerated to the fastest. Di Sanxi, who was full of ears, knew that a hundred Jianchang cavalry would definitely follow him closely because he heard a thunderous roar from behind:
"kill!"
Looking at the 100 Ming army knights who suddenly accelerated and rushed towards him at full speed, both the Baiyajian and his personal guards were shocked. Many people opened their mouths wide but could not make any sound: "Your army has not landed yet. If we don't go to attack you, will you come and die?"
"The thief is... is this an attack?" A guard next to Bian Yajian recovered some of his speech skills and screamed intermittently.
"kill!"
The face of the enemy troops ahead was clearly visible, and the speed of the Ming army's horses increased to the sprint speed. They shouted in unison again, and a hundred cavalry rushed over, and the smoke and dust behind them rushed straight into the sky.
"Come on, fight!"
The chaotic commands sounded one after another. Many of the Burmese soldiers deployed in the front row of the Central Army were involved in the Curse Water Incident. They witnessed the imperial guards of Emperor Yongli surrender and knelt down in groups to beg for life. On the way of the march, these Myanmar soldiers were proudly bragging about their majesty and martial arts to other troops. Even the imperial guards of the Emperor Ming Dynasty were defeated by them. So who else could fight with the Ming army?
The Ming cavalry running over were all standing upright and shouting loudly, just like evil spirits rushing out of the underworld. It was not until this time that the Burmese soldiers found that their throats were dry and they could not make a shout. The arms holding swords and guns were so scared that they could not hold on to their weapons.
At this time, Di Sanxi had already rushed to the Burmese battle formation first. He swung his sword and felt that his arm had encountered some resistance - this was a very familiar feeling, but he had rarely fought in Jianchang in recent years, and he became a little unfamiliar. Then his wrist was loosened again, and a head had been thrown into the air. Di Sanxi's long sword was cut from the right side of the horse's head to the left, and he immediately waved his backhand again, and it felt that his hand was completely back. He had already fallen into the depths of the Burmese military formation, wielding the sword left and right at full speed, with people everywhere, and he would not lose...
On the other side of Lijiang, the Ming army's infantry had already prepared pedals. As soon as the return ship approached the shore, the infantry ran forward and put the pedals on the boat. The guards of the Gongchang Palace, who had been waiting impatiently on the riverside, immediately led their mounts to the boat. After each ship was full, they immediately left the river bank. The sailors used their strength to row the boat desperately. The ships carrying reinforcements shot towards the opposite river bank like sharp arrows.
"It seems to be fine until now." Deng Ming looked at the Myanmar army formation opposite. Now Di Sanxi is already deeply trapped in the enemy formation. The one hundred Ming cavalry are like a stone thrown into the river. There is no trace at all. They can only judge the possible position of the Ming army vanguard through the rising smoke and dust. What made Deng Ming feel a little relieved was that the Myanmar army seemed to have no reaction, and the various units of the Myanmar army were still staying in their original positions.
"Probably the general of Myanmar has lost his command ability, right? So he did not mobilize the surrounding troops to siege General Di's commando." Deng Ming murmured to himself. This is of course an optimistic view. There is another possibility that the attack of one hundred Ming cavalry was just a tickling for the central army of the 30,000 army, so the general of Myanmar was too lazy to mobilize the remaining troops, but Deng Ming was unwilling to think about this.
"Quick, fast, fast!"
Seeing the second batch of reinforcements starting to land, the three wall knights behind Deng Ming jumped anxiously, as if their urging could make the ship return faster. When the Ming army's ships began to return again, the second batch of 100 Ming cavalrymen also launched an attack. They rushed towards the central direction of the Burmese army along Di Sanxi's attack route just now.
At this time, the Myanmar army finally began to take action, and Deng Ming saw that some Myanmar army began to move or change directions.
"Why haven't the ship been back yet?" Deng Ming also began to feel a little anxious. The task of the three waves of cavalry was to disrupt the Burmese army's position and prevent them from effectively deploying troops. After these three waves of cavalry, thousands of Ming soldiers were armoured infantry waiting to rush over and launch a final blow to the chaos of the Burmese army.
The ship finally came back, giving Deng Ming the feeling that he had been waiting for a century. He led his mount to the shore. Several Ming infantrymen put down their pedals again, and then supported them with all their might, so that the cavalry could get on the boat safely and quickly. Deng Ming took his war horse to pass the pedals first. This small boat used to force the ferry seemed to make his mount a little uneasy, but under Deng Ming's comfort, the mount remained calm and leaned obediently beside Deng Ming.
When crossing the river between the three walls, Deng Ming heard the sound of muskets. This was undoubtedly the firepower of the Myanmar army, because the Ming army's cavalry did not carry any gunpowder weapons. The humid climate in Myanmar is not suitable for using bows and arrows, so after the muskets appeared, it soon became the favorite long-range weapon of Burmese people. Just now when Di Sanxi launched the charge, many Myanmar soldiers pulled the trigger towards the Ming cavalry that had already reached the sight, and found that the fuse had not been lit yet. I thought the Ming army would take a long time to cross the river before the commander ordered an attack, so the soldiers did not cause fire for safety. Now the Myanmar army has finally begun to react.
Chapter completed!