The Burmese troops who went south this time are all soldiers of a hundred battles accumulated over the years, which is needless to say. The hegemony of the Donghu Dynasty is now almost entirely maintained on this army, which Huang Zhiting also knows.

The Burmese army claims to be 150,000, and it is not known how much water Huang Zhiting has, but it is certainly not this number. It's a pity that the 5,000 troops arranged in Biaoguan before were too limited, and there were not many cavalry in Annan, so they didn't dare to send a limited number of cavalry to reconnoitre, so they could only look at it from a distance, and the news in return was that "it stretches for more than ten miles, and the flag is like a sea of forests."

In line with the attitude of anticipating the enemy's leniency, Huang Zhiting could only assume that the opponent's troops were more than 100,000.

Huang Zhiting's current land division is about 20,000, and when she attacked southern Burma before, because the Meng people saw the "rebellion of the Celestial Empire", various uprisings against the Donghu Dynasty broke out under the cheers, so that her losses were quite limited. For example, in the southwesternmost city of Bosheng, the Mon people themselves drove away the defenders of the Donghu Dynasty and then announced their surrender.

But even so, 20,000 against 100,000, in a situation where both sides are mainly infantry, this war is inevitably too difficult, unless the 30,000 "Bago garrison" is counted, there is still some chance of victory.

Wong's style of commanding operations is different from Gao's pragmatism. The habit of being pragmatic is to decide on strategic goals alone, and then assign tasks to subordinates according to the goals, while judging the opponent's mentality in advance and telling subordinates how to respond. However, he has always been indifferent to specific operational commands. How to fight, you front-line generals decide for themselves, I just wait to see how your mission is completed.

Huang Zhiting didn't do that, or rather, she couldn't do it. Although she is the deputy capital of Annan, only 8,000 wolf soldiers under her command are her own descendants.

The 7,000 people that Gao Pragmatic transferred from the Jingang Garrison can be regarded as her strong backing, but after all, she has not really married into the Gao family at the moment, although the Jingang Garrison will obey her dispatch, but she can't directly ignore them, like Gao Pragmatic directly ordered, without even discussing.

As for the 5,000 men that Gao Shishi transferred from Ruan Ti's troops—that is, the ones who had just withdrawn from Biaoguan—this was even more of a peripheral force, and Huang Zhiting could not ignore their right to know, so as not to cause turmoil in the army's mind.

And the combat effectiveness of this army is also a little doubtful, although it is true that Ruan Ti is half a famous general in Annan, but that does not mean how strong the soldiers under him are. At least in the eyes of Huang Zhiting, the commander of the wolf soldiers, the soldiers and horses provided by Nguyen Ti are likely to be about the same strength as the Burmese army.

So Huang Zhiting held a military meeting, in addition to herself, the following people also attended:

Gao Jing, commander of the Jinghua Expeditionary Fleet, Gao Sijin, commander of the Second Division of the Jingang Garrison (the garrison adopts a unique establishment in Annam), the commander of the right guard of Haidong and the Yellow Leopard of the Halong Bay garrison, the commander of the Yi'an avant-garde and the garrison of Yanzhou, Ruan Song, and the first-class military staff officer of the Consulate General of the Three Towns of Quang Nam and the envoy of the Huaying colonization, Gao Silian.

The official positions of the previous people are relatively straightforward, and their identities do not need to be explained, but the position of the last Gao Silian needs to be explained.

The three towns under the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of the three towns of Quang Nam are Nghe An, Hue and Quang Nam, of which the northernmost garrison is not under the responsibility of the Golden Port Garrison, but by the Nguyen Ti Department, which is "seconded to garrison" from the Metropolitan Command Division, and of course the government affairs are under the jurisdiction of the Consulate General.

The remaining two towns of Hue and Quang Nam are the garrisons of the Golden Port Garrison, but the Golden Port Garrison is not only stationed in these two towns, it also undertakes another task, which is to open up to the south.

The so-called "pioneering" of Yunyun is, of course, at best, to be said, but in fact, the Consulate General's Office has set up a special post called "colonization envoy" in accordance with Gao Shipra's order, which is to be filled by people in the garrison who are "suitable for both military and political affairs."

The task of this colonization envoy was to lead a small garrison and the locally trained "colonization regiment" to open up new territories in Huaying and Nanpan in the south. Huaying and Nanpan both have local independent regimes, but the system is extremely ancient, similar to the "tribal alliance elder discussion system" in familiar words.

In this way, it is very clear that the so-called colonization is actually conquest by force, plus economic buying, and political taming. The "colonization group" is actually a semi-civilian militarized group composed of immigrants from Han, Servants, Hakka and other Ming people, which is to some extent equivalent to a private colonization team in Europe, but has an official background.

In less than two years, relying only on a garrison of 300 people as the core, Gao Silian gathered and trained a colonization regiment of nearly 4,000 people, and successfully defeated the local tribal alliance of Huaying through division and disintegration, various breakthroughs, etc.

However, Gao Pragmatic has not agreed for the time being, because Gao Pragmatic plans to wait for Nanpan to also take it, plus continue to expand the city in the south, and make up three new towns for the last time.

But in any case, Gao Silian is very good at how to work in the new environment, so this time he was recommended by the Consulate General to come to Myanmar, and the position at that time was relatively simple, that is, he only hung his "first-class military staff officer", but not long ago he was reused.

In view of his rich experience in organizing "semi-militarized groups" and his ability to communicate with various local natives, Huang Zhiting temporarily made him the acting commander of the Bago garrison, commanding the 30,000 new Mon troops.

Gao Silian did have some means, relying on his identity that he and Gao Sijin, the commander of the Second Division of the Jingang Garrison Army, were both displaced people who Gao Shishi had collected in Weihui for relief in those years, and he insisted on "seconding" nearly 100 low-level and young Han officers from Gao Sijin to enrich the command system of the Bago Garrison Army, and soon mastered this unit better.

The main agenda of Huang Zhiting's meeting, first of all, was to decide the strategic purpose of the battle.

To put it more directly, it is necessary to choose the most reliable one among several ideas such as "holding on to Bago", "defeating the Burmese army", and "depleting the Burmese army".

Among them, "defeating the Burmese army" is best understood, that is, directly fighting a battle, defeating the Burmese army in the battle, and forcefully thwarting its intention to quickly recover Bagu.

On the other hand, "holding on to Bago" and "attritioning the Burmese army" have certain commonalities, but they are not completely equal.

If you choose to stick to Bago, then as long as the Burmese army will launch a siege war, there is no doubt that it will definitely be able to consume the Burmese army.

But there is a problem, that is, at the earliest time, the tactics discussed by Huang Zhiting and Gao Pragmatic were not to hold a certain place, because Gao Pragmatic did not think that Bago City or even the entire old land of the Bago Dynasty had to be defended.

On the contrary, in Gao's view, the entire territory of Burma could be abandoned for the time being, and he only needed to weaken the ruling power of the Taungoo dynasty as much as possible - including military strength, financial resources, and even popular prestige.

The Taungoo Dynasty itself was a dynasty that relied on force to forcibly unify, and the ethnic contradictions in its country were extremely fierce, and the Burmese at this time had not yet become the dominant ethnic group, so as long as the Burmese army was weakened as much as possible and the myth of the invincibility of the Burmese army was broken, even if they temporarily withdrew, the contradictions in other countries would inevitably become more intense.

In this way, after he himself has been in chaos for a few years and the ruling power has been lost due to internal friction, Gao Pragmatic can come back at any time, easily subduing these exhausted local snakes with the state of a dragon crossing the river, and taking over the whole of Myanmar in one fell swoop.

It can be said that although the pragmatic plan took a long time, at least three and a half years, it was the most secure plan with the least loss, which was very much in line with his consistent style.

This plan can definitely succeed, because Gao Pragmatic, as a traverser, knows very well that the reckless Yingli in history has not been attacked by him, and he has forced himself to the point of being embattled and betrayed, and finally defeated and captured in his own capital. Now with his highly pragmatic involvement, the rate of this decay can be doubled.

However, Wong seems to have a new idea now, as she finds that the situation she is facing now is not the same as the one she had discussed before.

The biggest difference is that even Gao Pragmatic did not expect that the Meng people's hatred of the Donghu Dynasty was so strong, and he did not expect that the Annan army would easily occupy the entire old land of the Bago Dynasty almost bloodlessly, and he did not expect that the enthusiasm of the Mon people to join the army was so high, and after more than a month, he actually integrated a 30,000-strong usable army, which was smoother than the original garrison in Annan - at least Annan only built the garrison after the overall situation was decided, and only the surrender army of Toucheng was available before. The consciousness of civilian participation in the army is not strong.

So now Huang Zhiting feels that the people's will can be used, and the military can also be used, in this case, giving up Bago easily may lead to the loss of previous achievements.

However, at this time, she and Gao Shishi were thousands of miles apart, and she really couldn't get new instructions for a while, everything could only be judged and decided by herself, and for the reasons mentioned before, her decision still needed the support of the Golden Harbor Garrison and the Ruan Ti Department, so there was this meeting.

After listening to Deputy Dutong Huang's introduction, the participants also understood the current situation, and they all fell into thought, and no one immediately made any statement.

Everyone can hear that Deputy Dutong Huang himself is inclined to defeat the Burmese army and lay the foundation for the victory of the entire southern Burma.

But they also know the importance of this decision - what if they lose?

The other party is as high as 100,000 elites in a hundred battles, and the combat effectiveness of only 20,000 main forces on their own side is guaranteed, and although the morale of the remaining 30,000 new troops of the Meng nationality is commendable, it is too late to be formed after all, and it is far from being well-trained. Everyone thinks that if they are pulled out now, as long as they can make the team stand out, it will be thanks to the traditional addition of the Gao family's army.

Thinking about it, everyone unconsciously cast their eyes on Gao Silian.

Gao Silian also sensed everyone's suspicions, he was actually not angry, because he was familiar with this kind of gaze when he was in Annan before, but he didn't immediately jump out and pat his chest and brag, but said to Huang Zhiting without humility or arrogance: "Dare to ask Dutong, if you want to defeat the Burmese army, do you have to fight head-on?" Does it mean that 50,000 men must be pulled out of the city and fought against the Burmese army on the plains north of Bago City? ”

Huang Zhiting heard what he said and asked, "You mean to say that there is no need for this?" ”

Gao Silian said decisively: "Yes, I don't think there is any need to fight like this." ”

Huang Zhiting showed a rare smile in front of his subordinates and said, "I am willing to hear the high opinions." ”

Gao Silian suddenly said something that shocked the audience: "It is suggested that Dutong can take the main force of our army out of the city and go all the way east to Xidang, that is, the mouth of the Xidang River, and hand over the city defense of Bago City to our Bago garrison." ”

Before Huang Zhiting could speak, Gao Sijin's eyes widened and said, "Ah Lian, are you crazy?" Are you trying to persuade us to hurry up and find the fleet and flee for our lives? ”

Northerners generally don't use the term "Ah Lian", a habit that Gao Si learned after coming to the south, and Guangdong and Guizhou provinces have this habit.

Another general, Ruan Song, also shook his head on the side, and said in an increasingly proficient Chinese dialect: "What is this, we haven't fought a decent battle in Burma yet, so we fled back in disgrace, and there is no place to put our faces." ”

Gao Jing originally wanted to say, "As long as everyone retreats to the mouth of the Siddang River, even if the Burmese army really comes, it will not be enough for me to fight" - this is not bragging, the expeditionary fleet has a total of more than 3,500 guns, even if it can only fire on the side, it can theoretically form a salvo of at least a thousand ship-borne cannons.

In this case, if the Burmese army uses flesh and blood to block the solid cannon, it is really as much as you can go. In the end, how many people can be killed depends only on two points: how much the Burmese army is willing to die, and how many rounds the artillery of the Gao Jing fleet can fire.

However, it is obviously too inappropriate to say this at this time, and since there are Portuguese in the Burmese army, they must not be stupid enough to use the army to test the power of the ship's guns, so Gao Jing thought about it, and finally kept silent.

Huang Zhiting finally opened his mouth and said: "Do you mean to let Pontutong lead the elite soldiers to make a false impression of evacuation, lure the Burmese army to besiege the city, and then Pontutong will find another opportunity to sneak attack the Burmese army?" ”

Gao Silian said happily: "This is one of the considerations. After a pause, he explained, "There are actually at least two possibilities here. After the Burmese army found out that the main force led by the capital commander to retreat eastward, although it was most likely to come directly to besiege the city, it could not be ruled out that the appetite of the people in Mang Yingli was too great, so they simply followed the main force of the capital to the mouth of the Siddang River first, and strived to completely wipe out the headquarters of the capital commandery.

The reason why this possibility exists is that there are two points that need to be noted: first, this person is so happy that in order to save the face of the defeat on the northern front, he may prefer to wipe out all our troops on the southern front; Second, if the main force of Dutong can be eliminated first, then Bagu City will completely lose the courage to continue to resist like Wang Shichong at the end of the Sui Dynasty when he saw the defeat of Dou Jiande's reinforcements, and it is very likely that the city will surrender.

Tutong, Bago is one of the most wealthy cities in Myanmar, and in Mang Yingli's heart, he definitely does not want to destroy Bago, and it is the best choice to fight for Bago to surrender. ”

"That makes sense." Huang Zhiting nodded, and asked again: "Then what if Mang Yingli doesn't chase after him, he still comes to surround Bagu?" ”

Gao Silian said: "That means that the Burmese army has suffered great losses, and even the Burmese court may have some unsustainable, and it is necessary to get back the rich Bago old land as soon as possible." Because of the capture of Bago City, if the rest of the cities of Bago do not get the strong support of the capital, it may be decided by the rumors. ”

"This Pontus knows, and Pontus wants to ask you, how long can you hold out under the siege of the main force of the Burmese army? Also, how do you want the main force outside to cooperate with you? ”

"If the capital can leave one or two thousand muskets and enough ammunition for the lowly duty, the lowly can hold on until the food is exhausted." Gao Silian ignored everyone's skeptical expressions and said in a deep voice: "In addition, it is not that our department needs the main force to cooperate, but that our department wants to know how the main force will attack, and how our department should cooperate after the main force is launched. ”

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