The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"My Lord, My Lord."

Two days later, Mu Changzuo was resting in the pavilion in the back garden of the mansion. There were four small dishes and a pot of wine on the small stone table.

Just as he was drinking leisurely, the butler came in from the outside of the garden.

The guards outside the pavilion did not stop him, and the butler entered the pavilion unimpeded.

"What happened? Why are you so flustered?"

Mu Changzuo asked nonchalantly.

"My Lord, I'm afraid something happened in Mengmi."

The butler said breathlessly after two days in, regardless of fatigue.

Mu Changzuo, who had just put the wine glass to his lips, had no intention of drinking the glass of wine. He put down the glass and asked seriously: "Did the Burmese army also attack Mengyang?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it's about the same."

The butler replied hurriedly.

"Tell me what you heard slowly. Sit down and take a rest. There is no rush."

Mu Changzuo was able to keep his composure and waved his hand to signal the butler to sit down and talk.

The butler had been in the mansion of the Duke of Qian for a long time. He was also of the same generation as Mu Changzuo's father.

Since he was old enough to understand, he followed his father to work in the mansion. At that time, he was the head of the family, so he was promoted to the position of butler.

So, although the butler's surname was not Mu, he already considered himself a member of the Mu family.

In fact, at this time, most of the servants of the noble families had served the master for several generations and were real bondservants.

If it weren't for such a connection, ordinary people would naturally not be able to gain the trust of these nobles.

Although he had the trust of the Mu family, the butler still knew his identity. Although he sat down according to the master's instructions, he only sat on half of his buttocks to show his respect for the master.

After sitting down, it was impossible for him to take a few breaths and rest first, but he suppressed his breath and said: "My Lord, I contacted several merchants yesterday as you instructed and asked them to inquire about the news.

Today, someone from their side came and said that something happened in Mubang two months ago. The Burmese army surrounded Mubang, and even the Burmese soldiers were hidden in the area about 20 miles near the border of our Ming Dynasty.

In the past month, a similar situation occurred in Mengyang. Although the Burmese army did not loot their supplies, they also stopped them from passing.

They also said that they should not do business in the next two months and go there after this period of time."

"Humph, Mang Yinglong really wants to rebel."

Mu Changzuo snorted heavily, and then said angrily.

To be honest, Mu Changzuo is not willing to send troops to interfere in matters outside the territory.

This was actually the common attitude of Yunnan officials during the Burmese incident. First, they were unwilling to send troops because of foreign conflicts, and second, they believed that no matter who won or lost, they would have to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty in the end.

Because of this understanding, they naturally chose to turn a blind eye to the dirty things between the three Xuans and six Weis. Even after knowing that Burma was divided by the three parties, they chose to conceal the news for fear of the imperial edict in the court.

In the final analysis, the Ming Dynasty never regarded Burma and its surrounding areas as its territory. Although they were not crowned as kings, they actually accepted the fact that they were vassal states.

The situation is different now. The Ming Dynasty obviously does not intend to remain silent. It wants to warn Mang Yinglong's Burmese to be honest and stop making trouble, but it has no effect. The other party seems to have become more aggressive.

"My lord, it seems that we have to send someone to check the situation. The Burmese army has reached 20 miles from the border of our Ming Dynasty. They are not friendly."

The housekeeper reminded in a low voice.

"Where did Mang Yinglong get so many soldiers?"

However, Mu Changzuo was neither panicked nor angry when he heard the news. He was going to Mengmi to see regardless of the consequences. Instead, he thought about how many troops the Toungoo Dynasty under Mang Yinglong's rule had.

The three Xuans in the three Xuans and six Weis refer to the Nandian Xuanfusi, Ganya Xuanfusi, and Longchuan Xuanfusi, and the six Weis refer to the Cheli Xuanfusi, Myanmar Xuanfusi, Mubang Xuanfusi, Babai Dadian Xuanfusi, Mengyang Xuanfusi, and Laos Xuanfusi.

To talk about their strength, we have to consider the geographical scope, economic strength, military capabilities, etc.

There is no doubt that the Myanmar Xuanfusi had certain military and economic strength during the Ming Dynasty and was the stronger one among the three Xuans and six Weis.

It is precisely because of this that Myanmar often bullied the border at the beginning, and was finally destroyed by the three parties.

After the incident, the Yunnan government did not respond in time, and this was the reason. One of the purposes was to take this opportunity to weaken Myanmar's strength.

After Myanmar, there are Cheli and Mubang. These two are slightly weaker. If you only pick one of them and fight alone, you will definitely not be able to defeat Myanmar. But if you have the help of allies, even if you can't win, you won't lose too badly.

The remaining Mengyang, Babai Dadian and Laos are relatively weaker, which is why Mengyang has always chosen to rely on the Ming Dynasty, but dare not offend Myanmar.

A weak country is destined to swing between the two sides and seek survival space in the cracks.

Myanmar had previously attacked the Xuanweisi of Cheli and Babai, and just defeated Mubang, and then sent troops to Mengyang. This forced Mu Changzuo to consider how many troops Mang Yinglong could mobilize.

Not to mention Laos, Cheli and other places before, perhaps the local people have surrendered, and Myanmar does not need to send many troops to stabilize its rule.

But Mubang, which was just defeated, is definitely not a place where only a small number of troops can be sent to maintain good rule.

Now there is still the ability to surround Mengyang, which requires Mu Changzuo to figure out how many troops Mang Yinglong can mobilize.

This is very important, as it determines the success or failure of the Ming army's intervention.

If the Ming army mobilized fewer troops, it would definitely not be effective. If they were defeated, the officials in Yunnan would not be able to get a good result.

The court would not only punish Li Chengliang, the left governor, but would also vent their anger on the officials in Yunnan.

Mu Changzuo had this doubt because he was influenced by the military system of the Ming Dynasty. After all, he had been exposed to the military system of the Ming Dynasty since he was a child and had forgotten the old things of the previous dynasty.

Before the Ming Dynasty, such as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Yuan Dynasty, and the later Qing Dynasty, there was a system of "all people are soldiers", that is, farmers or fishing and hunting ethnic groups could quickly assemble into an army in peacetime. Under this system, it was relatively easy to assemble an army of hundreds of thousands of people.

However, during the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang reformed the military system. He divided the people into specific tasks, which is the so-called city agriculture, industry and commerce.

Even the soldiers had a clearer division of labor. Some were responsible for special logistics, and there were combat soldiers fighting on the front line, so the number of people participating in the battle on the front line was greatly reduced.

In addition, population distribution and economic development are also important factors affecting the number of troops.

During the Ming Dynasty, the population was close to 100 million, but the land had been divided up. Without the conditions of a small population and vast land in the early days, it became more difficult to assemble troops on a large scale.

In addition, with the development of society, the proportion of professional soldiers increased, while the proportion of the population of military age decreased relatively, which is also one of the reasons for the decrease in the number of troops.

The most important thing is the change in the nature of war, which is also an important reason for the decrease in the number of troops.

The nature of wars during the Warring States Period and the period of the unified dynasty was different. During the Warring States Period, most of them were decisive battles that determined the survival of the country, so the whole country would do its best to deal with them.

In the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, although there were large-scale wars, most battles did not involve the survival of the country, so there was no need to do its best to deal with every battle.

Because of this division of labor system, the Ming Dynasty no longer needed to recruit a large number of civilians to join the army as before, but only mobilized troops for the guards, so the manpower was naturally limited, and the combat effectiveness was also guaranteed to a certain extent.

But the situation in Myanmar is different. They still use the military system of "everyone is a soldier". The foreign wars launched by Mang Yinglong are all about recruiting a large number of farmers in the fields to participate in the war.

The disadvantage is that continuous fighting will greatly affect the country's agricultural production, and the war cannot be sustained.

However, the advantage is that a large number of troops can be quickly assembled and put into the battlefield to win the war as soon as possible.

At the same time, the spoils obtained after the victory are enough to make up for the loss of agricultural production caused by the delay of farming time due to the assembly of young and strong people.

This is also the reason why once a country is involved in a foreign war, it is often difficult to stop. Either it will fight a big country or it will collapse and fail in the end.

Fighting to support war has been the case since ancient times.

Because Mang Yinglong realized that the Ming Dynasty was going to attack the Southeast Peninsula, he chose to go head-on after careful consideration. Therefore, after successfully dispatching a large number of elite troops to raid Mubang, he had no time to rest. He directly sent troops to quietly surround Mengyang, preparing to completely complete the unification of the so-called three xuans and six wei of the Ming Dynasty, and then challenge the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, his actions are not only that.

He also sent people to secretly contact the chieftains in Luchuan, Longchuan, Qianya and other places in the Ming Dynasty, to win them over and promise them various benefits.

This is also the reason why Mu Changzuo has not received any intelligence about the appearance of the Burmese army on the border until now. Those chieftains have already sat crookedly and fooled him with a deaf and dumb attitude.

The chieftains contacted by Mang Yinglong had even reached Wandian. The chieftain of Wandian, Jing Zongzhen, also chose to surrender to Mang Yinglong at this time, hoping to expand his land and population after winning in Myanmar.

In Yunnan, the chieftains in the border areas are hereditary officials who govern a place, and these lands only account for about half of the total area of ​​Yunnan, and there are still large tracts of land controlled by the court.

The price Mang Yinglong gave to these chieftains was to divide the areas controlled by the Han people and give them to them as their hereditary territory.

This is something that the Ming Dynasty court will never agree to, and it can only be agreed to by a great chieftain like Mang Yinglong.

With such a temptation, wouldn't those chieftains doubt it?

In fact, there is no need to doubt it.

Because the so-called Toungoo Dynasty was actually composed of chieftain tribes.

Those chieftains who were loyal to Mang Ruiti and others earlier all benefited from the expansion of the Toungoo Dynasty, expanding their territory and population, which naturally made other chieftains jealous.

Relying on the demonstration effect, it is easy to win over the chieftains in the Ming Dynasty.

As for the Ming Dynasty, although it was always on guard against these chieftains, it only paid more attention to their actions, and it was difficult to detect the private exchanges with other chieftains.

Naturally, it was not known that many chieftains in the west of Yunnan had actually rebelled at this time, and planned to act as internal support in the war against the Ming Dynasty after Mang Yinglong completed the unification war outside the region.

They were not Han people, and of course they were not traitors.

And because the Ming Dynasty court did not trust them, it was actually a natural decision to make such a decision.

"Sir, if Mang Yinglong uses troops continuously to capture Mubang and Mengyang, at least 100,000 troops will be needed.

To deal with Mubang, at least 50,000 to 60,000 troops are needed, and Mengyang requires fewer troops, but at least 30,000 to 40,000, and a surprise attack is required.

After all, the two places are mountainous, and it is difficult to move forward if the enemy is blocked at the mountain pass.

If the time is delayed, it will be very disadvantageous to Myanmar.

In total, they need more troops.

Do you think that people from Ava, Dongwu, and Laos will also get involved?

After all, Mang Yinglong has conquered Cheli, Babai Dadian, and Manmo. It is said that Gubo, Luokeng, and Dimasa were also conquered by him.

Those places are all Tusi tribes. If Mang Yinglong tempts them with benefits, they may invade. "

The housekeeper said what he guessed, but it was indeed the method taken by Mang Yinglong.

Using the territory of the Ming Dynasty in Yunnan and nearby as an enticement, he really got support from those chieftains who were wavering in their attitude towards him.

When the Burmese army attacked Mubang and surrounded Mengyang, Mang Yinglong had gathered more than 100,000 people from Awa, Dongwu, Mengbie, Mengmi, Manmo and other places to start marching eastward, preparing to take Mengyang and then take advantage of the situation to attack the Ming Dynasty and plunder land and population.

At this time, it was no longer a question of whether the Ming Dynasty wanted to punish Myanmar, but whether he wanted to show his strength to the Ming Dynasty. Showing a strong armed force, he demanded that the Ming court compromise and hand over Yunnan and other places.

Myanmar has developed very fast in recent years, but it is fundamentally obtained by plundering wealth, territory and population through continuous foreign wars.

The Ming Dynasty is very powerful, and Mang Yinglong knows it very well, so this time he not only made sufficient preparations, but also persuaded almost all the tribal leaders under his rule to unite and attack the Ming Dynasty.

Even Mang Yinglong contacted the Portuguese doing business in Shalian and hired a 300-man mercenary army to participate in this war against the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, the Burmese have been in contact with Europeans for quite a while. More than 40 years ago, the Portuguese had already bypassed the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and entered the Indian Ocean, and came into contact with the Burmese in the process of continuing to explore eastward.

More than 20 years ago, during the period of Mang Ruiti, the Burmese king Mang Ruiti had hired the Portuguese to participate in the war between Toungoo and the seven chieftains during the domestic war in Myanmar.

And the successor Mang Yinglong has always maintained contact with the Portuguese, especially in terms of naval warfare. The cannons owned by the Portuguese are almost invincible in naval warfare.

It's just that the cannons are heavy, and Mang Yinglong still believes more in their tall and powerful assault power.

That is to say, because this time they are facing the powerful Ming Dynasty, for the sake of insurance, Mang Yinglong still chooses to contact the foreigners in Shalian and form a 300-man mercenary army to go with him, carrying several bronze cannons to attack the cities of the Ming Dynasty.

With such a big move, Mang Yinglong naturally wants to close the border and will not let the Ming merchants know the inside story.

However, this also exposes the situation that he has a big move, which makes Mu Changzuo deeply suspicious at this moment.