Just when the Ming army was blocked by the Nandu River and was trying to find a way to cross the river to attack Mandalay.

The Burmese king in Mandalay finally learned the news that the Ming army had begun to attack Burma, but immediately after the news that the Ming army had begun to attack Burma, there was also the news that the Ming army had crossed the river in the south.

"What! Doesn't it mean that the army has just begun to attack our Burma? Why do you say that you have already crossed the river in the south! The Burmese king roared.

Although the Burmese king has some talents, he can't understand the speed of a large-scale cavalry attack, not to mention that there are very few war horses in Burma, and even if there are, they are only a few nobles, and Burma still has elephants, and the nobles also ride elephants, which leads to fewer Burmese horses, not to mention that they are all extremely short horses, which cannot be compared with the Mongolian and Jungar high-class war horses of the Ming army.

The report that the Ming army had just begun to attack Burma was naturally a messenger sent by Nankan City, with a rare horse, and it was sent when the Ming army just arrived in Nankan City, which just allowed him to escape the pursuit of the Ming army, and the messengers in other cities who did not even have horses and could only walk were not so lucky, often they did not have time to go far, the original city was broken by the Ming army, and under the fast pursuit of the Ming cavalry, all of them relied on foot to deliver the news of those Burmese messengers could not escape the pursuit of the Ming army

And the report that the Ming army had already approached the Nandu River, that was because the Nandu River was already very close to Mandalay, and the Nandu River was blocking it, and the Burmese army on the south bank of the Nandu River had also found a horse, so the two messengers arrived almost to the same degree.

The face of the Burmese king was unpredictable and extremely ugly.

"The Ming army began to enter my Burma on that day!" The Burmese king stared at the messenger from Nankan City, wondering if he had deliberately delayed his journey halfway, causing the news to arrive late, and only then did the news arrive when the Ming army attacked the Nandu River.

"Back to Your Majesty, it's August 5th!" The messenger from Nankan said.

"What? August 5th! The Burmese king staggered and sat back in his chair.

The Ming army began to attack Nankan City on August 5, and it was only three days before today, and the Ming army actually came to Nandu River, how strong the Ming army was, and how quickly the Ming army was, even if there was no city to block it, if the Ming army was allowed to march, the Ming army could not reach the Nandu River from Nankan City in three days.

The Burmese king once again stared at the messenger from Namkan, suspecting that he was lying.

The messenger from Nankan City was shocked, and immediately replied: "Back to Your Majesty, the Ming army is all cavalry, nearly 100,000 cavalry, and a large number of cannons!" ”

The Ming army was all cavalry, which makes sense.

But there is another problem, even if it is cavalry, and it also brings artillery, but there are so many cities blocking it along the way, how can the Ming army cross the river in the south in less than three days, can almost none of those cities stop the Ming army for a while.

If this is the case, how strong the Ming army must be!

"Your Majesty, the Ming army is strong, and it should immediately send troops to reinforce the Nandu River, and the Ming army must not be allowed to cross the river." An old Burmese minister came out with a sad face and said.

The Burmese king was shocked, and then came back to his senses, yes, no matter what the situation is, the Ming army cannot be allowed to cross the Nandu River easily at present, not only to increase the troops of the Nandu River, but also to order the destruction of all the boats on the Nandu River, so that the Ming army can not find enough ships in a short time.

"Wu Wentai, you immediately lead 50,000 troops and 200 war elephants to aid the Nandu River, you must not let the Ming army easily cross the Nandu River!" The king of Burma ordered.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The Burmese general named U Win Tay immediately received the order.

As early as when the Ming army had just arrived at the Nandu River, the 1,000 Burmese soldiers stationed here began to collect and destroy the boats on the Nandu River along the way under the orders of the generals.

Because of their familiarity with the environment, the Burmese soldiers destroyed a large number of boats on the Nandu River before the Ming army, and the Ming army eventually found less than 20 boats, and all of them were small boats.

However, Zhou Cao and the others were not in a hurry, they had already taken countermeasures.

Compared with transporting troops across the river, there is one method that is many times stronger than simply transporting it slowly by boat, and that is to build pontoon bridges.

The principle of the pontoon bridge is very simple, knock down the wooden stake to fix, use a boat or bamboo raft as a float, lay wooden planks to form a pontoon bridge connecting both banks, if it is a large river like the Yangtze River, the river surface is wide, the water flow is turbulent, perhaps it is not easy to build a pontoon bridge with the current technology, but the river surface of the Nandu River is only 40 meters wide, and the establishment of the pontoon bridge is not a problem at all.

In order to unify and unify, the Ming army abandoned the collection of ships of different sizes and insufficient numbers, and instead ordered a large number of soldiers to cut down trees on the spot, make rafts and stakes, and began to nail piles from the north bank to the south bank, and place floating rafts all the way, and dismantle a large number of houses from the cities that have been captured behind to bring enough wooden planks to lay the bridge deck.

The Ming army's move to lay a pontoon bridge alarmed the Burmese defenders on the south bank of the Nandu River.

For the new thing of pontoon bridge, the Burmese general may not have seen it, but it does not mean that he is stupid and can't see the role of the pontoon bridge, it can be said that once the pontoon bridge is repaired by the Ming army, they can't stop the Ming army from crossing the river at all.

"Stop them!" The Burmese army general rushed to the river with 1,000 Burmese soldiers under his command.

After rushing to the river, he immediately shot arrows at the Ming soldiers who were building a pontoon bridge.

A round of loose arrow rain came, three Ming soldiers were hit by arrows, and two fell directly into the river.

The Ming generals were furious and immediately rushed to the river with a group of Ming soldiers and opened fire on the Burmese soldiers on the south bank.

"Bang bang bang" hooked the trigger and the bullet came out of the chamber.

More than 30 Burmese soldiers were hit by bullets, and their bodies fell directly into the river too close to the river, staining the river red.

Not only rifles, but more than 100 cannons that had already been placed were also fired at the Burmese soldiers on the south bank.

"Boom Boom"

The shells exploded, killing and wounding the Burmese soldiers, and in a short period of time, more than 400 people were killed and wounded, and nearly half of them were killed or wounded.

The Burmese generals who led the 1,000-Burmese army were shocked and retreated in fear with the remaining 500-odd Burmese remnants.

The strength of the Ming army almost scared them stupid, and nearly half of them were killed and wounded in a short moment, this is still in the case that the Ming army did not cross the river, if the Ming army crossed the river, they would have been wiped out just now.

The frightened Burmese defenders did not dare to haunt the river again, so they had to wait for reinforcements from Mandalay to arrive.

Mandalay is not far from the Nandu River, and when the Ming army's pontoon bridge was halfway through, the Burmese reinforcements from the Nandu River finally arrived in time.