The appearance of the Ming army on the banks of the Mekong River matched the message sent by the commander of the fleet, Khao Wu.

Wood was silent for a while, he didn't expect the Ming army to come so quickly, he stood for a long time, and said to Constantine, "The news sent by the fleet commander Kaoshi said that there are 30,000 Ming troops from Guangzhou, what do you think we should do?" ”

"Thirty thousand?" Constantine was also a little surprised, but then smiled and said, "Your Excellency, what else can we do besides facing each other?" I think we're going to beat them down the Mekong and drive them into the river. ”

30,000 people is indeed a lot for the Dutch, but as the Westerners conquered cities and lands in the world, a few thousand people destroyed the Mayan and Aztec empires with tens of millions of people, and established strongholds all over the world, and they had the capital to be proud and despise everything.

They had just defeated the 30,000 army of the Ming Dynasty's vassals, and it would not be a problem to defeat the Ming Dynasty's army, and Constantine was full of confidence.

Wood nodded, "Then find the Ming Army, and then defeat them!" ”

The Dutch soon sent a small team to the river to reconnoitre, and in the afternoon it was reported that the Ming army had been found crossing the river thirty miles north of Phnom Penh.

The city of Phnom Penh was on the Mekong River, and the Ming army did not cross the river directly from Phnom Penh, but from thirty miles to the north, apparently trying to avoid their eyeliner and then suddenly attack them, or outflank their rear route.

Wood sneered again and again, and scolded, "Cunning yellow-skinned monkey." So he led his army to the north of Phnom Penh.

Since it is impossible to avoid a battle with the Ming army, then take advantage of the Ming army to come far away and defeat them directly.

However, Wood was not a man of short minds, and after walking ten miles, he gave Constantine four hundred Dutch soldiers and three thousand troops of the Sultanate to lie in ambush in the middle of the road.

If the army of the golden soldiers comes out, then their chance has come. For the defeated men in the city, he believed that one Dutchman could defeat twenty yellow-skinned monkeys.

The Ming army boarded the ship from Guangzhou, and after a few days of sailing, arrived at the port of Champa.

Li Dingguo immediately asked the defenders of Phnom Penh to inform them not to act rashly, and to wait for him to support him honestly, and then the army took a short rest, and then directly bypassed the southern end of the Truong Son mountain range and entered the Mekong Plain.

The land here is fertile, which is more suitable for cultivation than Champa, but because the Mekong River has been flooding for many years, the country of Chenla is weak and cannot afford to build large-scale water conservancy projects, so it is not well utilized, and many fields have been abandoned, and there are dense forests and waist-high weeds everywhere.

Not long ago, the governor of Champa moved 10,000 people to the Saigon area at the mouth of the river, which was later known as Saigon, but the difficulties were great, and the reclaimed land was often flooded by the river, and it has not yet gained a firm foothold.

This march could have been carried upstream from the mouth of the Mekong River, but because of the activities of Dutch warships nearby, Man Dazhuang was worried that the troop carriers would be attacked, so he went ashore at Champa and marched by land.

Indeed, as Wood expected, Li Dingguo chose to spend time north of Phnom Penh, his plan was to bypass the eyes of the Dutch and have a surprise effect, but he said that he was not afraid that the Dutch would be strong, but that the Dutch would run away as soon as they saw the reinforcements arrive, making it difficult for him to pursue.

After all, Nanyang has a lot of water, mountains and forests, and it is not very convenient to march, and it is even more inconvenient to pursue, and it is easy to ambush, so he wants to outflank the past and annihilate the enemy army under the city of Phnom Penh, but Li Dingguo did not expect that their whereabouts would have been exposed long ago.

In the area of Champa, the religious composition is very complex, there are those who believe in Theravada Buddhism, those who believe in Brahmin, and those who believe in Green Buddhism. After the Ming army captured the city, a large number of green believers in the city were exiled to the islands of the South Seas, and tens of thousands of people who believed in the green religion entered the territory of Zhenla.

This time, there were many Cham people in the Dutch army, and it is said that there was also a Champa royal family, so these Cham people had long been in contact with the Dutch, and the Ming army came from the land, and they had already passed the news to the Dutch.

At this time, on the Mekong River, the Ming army set up three pontoon bridges, through which soldiers wearing cloth armor passed, and there were soldiers on the pontoon bridges beating mules and horses, driving vehicles, and dragging artillery.

Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and others stood in a mountain forest next to the pontoon bridge, watching the army cross the river, he pointed to the dense forest by the river with his whip, and said to everyone, "Such a good place, the terrain is flat, and it is close to the big river for irrigation, but it is so deserted!" ”

"Yes, all the way over, the roads are difficult to travel, they are all large areas of dense forests, and there are only scattered villages and fields, which is indeed a pity!" Liu Wenxiu, who was on the side, nodded.

At this time, Chen Youlong, who was sweaty with a large amount of sweat on his back, suddenly walked uphill according to the handle of the knife, looked up at the few people above, and gasped: "Dashuai, the scouts have found that a large number of enemies are coming here." ”

"What about them finding us?" Li Dingguo was slightly stunned, and said in confusion, "Where is the enemy army?" ”

There are large areas of undeveloped land in Zhenla country, dense forests are all over, and the roads are difficult to walk, Li Dingguo did not expect that the traces were actually discovered, and what he did not expect was that since his traces were discovered, the Dutch did not run at all, but greeted them, and he couldn't help but ask, who gave them the courage.

The Ming army, which had just finished the Northern Expedition, was very arrogant, and the Dutch, who were enemies across the ocean, also did not take the Ming army seriously.

This time it was the tip of the needle against Maimang, and if he knew this, Li Dingguo would not have spent so much effort to go around.

By the time Chen Youlong climbed up, Li Dingguo had already asked him to unfold a map, which was drawn by merchants after the Ming Dynasty occupied the city.

"Here, it's only ten miles away from us!" Several people squatted on the ground, and Chen Youlong pointed to the map and said.

"So close!" Li Dingguo frowned, he first marked the location of the Dutch, and then asked, "Are there cavalry?" How is the equipment? ”

Several other people also took a look, the army that was still crossing the river was too close for ten miles, and if the other party had cavalry, it would have to be guarded.

"There are no cavalry, but there are more than two hundred war elephants!" Chen Youlong said, "There are about 15,000 people, except for more than 2,000 Dutch people wearing cuirasses, the rest of the native soldiers are all cloth clothes, and the marching army is scattered, because it should not be elite, it is estimated that it is a group of rabble." ”

Saying this, Li Dingguo was a little relieved, and bowed his head slightly, "The only ones that are more difficult to deal with are more than 2,000 Dutchmen and those 200 war elephants!" ”

"The Dutch have more than 2,000 talents, and we have an army of 30,000, and we are afraid that they will not succeed, as for the war elephants, it is easy to deal with, if the artillery can't frighten them, leave a gap when arraying, and let them rush through the gap, anyway, the other side has no cavalry, so we don't need to arrange a tight formation." Liu Wenxiu opened his mouth and said.

He quelled the rebellion in Yunnan, fought with the rebels and Tusi, often encountered war elephants, and when chasing Ai Nengqi, he also suffered the loss of war elephants, but it is not surprising that he has seen more.

Chen Youlong nodded and agreed, "I think this method will work, although the war elephant is big, and it is very scary to charge up and shake the mountains, but this animal is actually very timid. ”

After listening to the words of the two, Li Dingguo stood up and finally gave the order, "Order the army to cross the river quickly and prepare to meet the enemy." ”

About half an hour later, the main forces of the Ming army had all crossed the river, and at this time the Dutch army began to appear in the Ming army's field of vision, and the forwards of both sides encountered in a large deserted field.

Wood used a clairvoyant mirror to observe the Ming army, and when he saw the Ming army all over the mountains and fields, coming from a distance, he was a little frightened.

In his circular vision, the Ming soldiers wearing red cloth armor, wearing saucer helmets and holding muskets followed the military flag to march forward in the waist-high weeds, forming a small team, neither equipment nor momentum could be compared to the previously defeated vassal army.

Almost everyone in the Ming army was armoured, and there were a large number of muskets, which made Wood suddenly panic.

"Quick! Organize formations on the spot! Putting down the clairvoyant mirror, Wood couldn't help but yell.

The Dutchmen who were moving forward were at first unable to hold their breath, and somewhat timidly stopped their steps and formed a formation in the wilderness.

On a high slope in the distance, Li Dingguo took out a clairvoyant mirror and was also observing the Dutch, he saw that the enemy put 200 war elephants in the front, less than 2,000 Dutch musketeers behind the war elephants, and on both wings were some native soldiers with chaotic armor and banners, so he knew that the Dutch broke through in the middle and directly defeated the Ming army's idea.

"Order, the artillery team occupies the hill on the right flank, and the cavalry pays attention to the search for the enemy's artillery array! The army quickly lined up! ”

Under an order, on the wilderness, the two armies lined up separately, the Ming army lined up, the Chinese army was 10,000 people, and there were 8,000 people on each side of the left and right wings, in addition to the artillery team to build an artillery array on the right flank hill, and more than 1,000 cavalry were cruising under the mountain.

Li Dingguo sat in the Chinese army, Liu Wenxiu on the left flank, Yu Youming on the right flank, considering that the Dutch put the war elephants in the middle army, Chen Youlong was responsible for the command of the formation, and the 30,000 Ming army was in a neat formation and murderous.

The Dutch were not so particular, but the two hundred war elephants in front of the battle looked very fierce. These behemoths put tremendous pressure on many Ming soldiers who saw elephants for the first time.

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Thanks to the 500 of the brothers of the national army, the sun chaser cut the sky, Zhang/00000, the light of the Han Dynasty, and the reward of the East China Sea stone, everyone has a happy holiday

(End of chapter)