The reason why Wang Xinyu is particularly concerned about the clipper ship is because the birth of this kind of ship is of epoch-making significance. With high-speed clippers, not only can their goods be delivered to Europe faster and more profits, but also with this kind of ship, it is possible to obtain a large number of valuable strategic materials such as rubber.

After the New Year, Wang Xinyu left Bamo and came to Annan to rescue Guo Zhiqi and deal with the affairs of Annan, and then went back to Qiongzhou by the way, and then went to the Singapore shipyard to care about the clipper ship. During this period, Li Dingguo personally went to Yawa City.

After learning the news that Li Dingguo had gone to Yawa City, Wang Xinyu immediately took two 64-pounder mortars and 50 flowering shells, and boarded the ship and left Singapore with his own soldiers and artillery team.

After a long voyage of eight days and eight nights, the Ming army, armed with giant mortars, arrived at the city of Anuraroda at the mouth of the Irrawaddy River. Wang Xinyu and others changed to river boats here, sailed up the river along the river, and sailed to Yawa City.

In the first year of Kangxi, in March of the sixteenth year of Yongli, the Ming army had been besieging for more than a month.

Li Dingguo hurried to Yawa City after Wang Xinyu left Bamo. At the same time as he went to the city of Yawa, he also sent an envoy to Siam, and through his relationship with Siam, he asked Siam to send troops to help the Ming army.

As a result, as soon as the king of Siam saw Li Dingguo's envoy, he agreed without hesitation, saying that Siam was willing to send troops.

After Li Dingguo arrived at Yawa City, he was very surprised to find that the number of Ming troops besieging Yawa City was as high as 90,000! After asking about the situation clearly, Li Dingguo learned that among the 90,000 people, only 10,000 were the Qiongzhou army brought by Wang Xinyu from Qiongzhou, and the rest were the Ming army of the Meng nationality and the Ming army of the Karen nationality.

Five months ago, when Wang Xinyu began the siege of the city, he recruited and trained the local Aka people, that is, the Meng people, to join the Ming army while letting the Qiongzhou army besiege the city. Five months have passed. More than 50,000 Akha people joined the Ming army. After five months of training, these Ming army recruits already have certain combat skills, and they only need to be honed in actual combat to become a new elite unit.

It was precisely because of the addition of the Akha and Karen that the Qiongzhou army could gradually withdraw to do other things. The number of Qiongzhou soldiers participating in the siege is getting smaller and smaller, and the number of the Ming army of the Mon nationality and the Ming army of Karen is increasing.

The Qiongzhou Army, which had withdrawn, became a mobile force that roamed around Burma, sweeping through the estates and small towns of the surrounding Burmese aristocracy. The Qiongzhou army easily broke through the manors and small towns, invaded them, killed the Burmese nobles, and distributed the land to ordinary Burmese slaves and peasants. Not only did it win the support of the poor local people, but the Ming army also copied a large amount of gold, silver, jade, jade, precious stones, pearls, ivory and other valuables from the homes of those Burmese nobles.

The seized grain and various foodstuffs were distributed to the local Burmese on the spot, winning a lot of applause from the locals.

The gold and silver seized were loaded onto ships and shipped back to Singapore.

Valuables such as jade, precious stones, jadeite, pearls, and ivory were sent to Ba Mo to be sold to Wu Sangui.

Wang Xinyu adopted the policy of land reform as long as he dealt with foreigners, and used class contradictions to resolve national contradictions, which was the trick that a certain great man was best at using. This trick still works. You can win a lot of support from the locals. As for the few who are disobedient, that is, the enemy, and the Ming army naturally has no scruples to kill.

Since the Akha people are of the same race as the Han Chinese, their skin is whiter. The bridge of the nose is higher and the hair is straight, while the Burmese are of the Malay race and have darker skin. The nose is flat and the hair is curved. Therefore, when Li Dingguo saw the death of the Aka people, at first glance he couldn't tell whether it was a Han or an Aka.

Akha people. That is, there is no doubt that the Mon people and the Burmese are feuding, and through the later Burma, the Mon people, who were originally the second largest ethnic group in Myanmar, were slaughtered by the Burmese as the fourth largest ethnic group, which can be seen how deep the hatred is.

A large number of Burmese weapons seized before were handed over to the Mon people and armed them. There were also a large number of gunners and musketeers in the Mon Ming army.

Although the Karen people in the north belong to the same Malay race as the Burmese people, the Karen people are very influenced by the Monghua, so the Karen people are also called the Monkelen people.

More than 30,000 people came from the north and defected to the besieging Ming army. Not only that, but the Karen also gave the most powerful support to the Ming army: they rebelled in the north, pinning down the Burmese army in the north, so that the Burmese army could not return to the city of Yawa.

However, these more than 30,000 Karen people have not undergone much training, and the skilled Karen people have rebelled in the north, and those who have come to defect to the Ming army are some newcomers. For these people, Luo Xiang and Gong Xiaoda, who stayed here to be in charge, could not use them as soldiers, so they could only serve as auxiliaries first.

The strength of the Nanyang Army was able to expand so rapidly because Wang Xinyu grasped the grain production and rigorous logistics support, which allowed the Ming army to recruit troops on the spot and swell rapidly like a snowball.

The formation of the Ming army was well arranged, and the Tucheng surrounded Yawa City on three sides, and there were sailors on the side of the river to block the exit. The Ming army also dug a canal into the camp, where supplies could be delivered directly to the camp.

Li Dingguo saw that the strength of the Nanyang Army was strong and fully capable of conquering the city, so he ordered the Ming army to attack the city immediately.

Although these Ming troops were not Li Dingguo's Jin army, but Wang Xinyu's Nanyang army, they did not dare to disobey the orders of the Jin king. Immediately after receiving the order, the siege began.

The mercenary artillery battalion of the Nanyang Army under the main general Wang Defeng and the artillery of the naval division that went ashore assumed the task of suppressing firepower, and suppressed the Burmese artillery at Chengtou with direct-fire artillery that far exceeded the Burmese army in number. After that, the Karen auxiliary army began earthwork, digging up the earth, piling up sandbags, advancing and building slopes within 300 paces of the city.

After the earth slope was constructed, the Ming army's 12-pounder and 24-pounder mortar artillery were stationed in the position, with the help of the cover of the soil slope, the mortar could attack the city wall with curved fire, but the Burmese army at the head of the city could not help the Ming army's mortar position.

Mortar shells continued to fall on the city, shattering the city walls. After several rounds of solid artillery bombardment, the Ming army bombarded the city with flowering shells filled with black huo medicine, and the Burmese troops at the head of the city were blown up.

Then a large number of Meng Ming troops shouted, rushed to the city, set up a simple moat bridge, and crossed the moat. Set up a ladder and launch a fierce assault on the city.

The Ming army of the Mon nationality fired muskets at the head of the city, covering the soldiers armed with steel knives to climb the ladder and launch a fierce attack on the head of the city. However, the Burmese army's firepower was also very strong, and the small cannons and muskets at the head of the city were fired down in rows, and the rolling wood and stones continued to fall down, and a large number of Mon people fell from the city head and fell into the moat with screams.

After all, there were many Ming soldiers and fierce firepower, and the Burmese army and Minzhuang who defended the city also suffered heavy losses.

During this period. Mang Bai sent envoys to see Li Dingguo several times, but because the Burmese side could not accept Li Dingguo's bottom line that "we can only negotiate after the release of Emperor Yongli", the Burmese envoys could only return in vain.

"Lord Qiqi! The messenger of the Burmese is here again! On this day, Li Dingguo's personal soldiers came to report again.

Li Dingguo said coldly: "Tell them that if you don't release our Son of Heaven first, you won't talk about everything!" As long as we let our heavenly son go, we can sit down and talk about it, and everything will be easy to talk about when the time comes! ”

Hearing Li Dingguo's personal soldiers' reply, the Burmese envoy had no choice but to leave the Burmese army camp in a huff.

Back inside the city. The envoy entered the palace and told Mang Bai about Li Dingguo's answer.

Mang Bai said angrily: "We can't let go of Yongli!" If he is released, our safety will not be guaranteed! We have to keep him as a hostage so that we can negotiate with them! If they continue to storm the storm. When we can't hold it, we will push Yongli out as a shield! ”

The messenger added, "King Qiyu, I have just arrived in the camp of thieves, and I find that there are more and more Akha and Karen who are rushing to join the thieves. The number of thieves is still swelling. ”

Mang Bai was even more angry: "When did those Akha and Karen people be honest? They rebel every day, and they want to overthrow us! Now that the thieves are besieging us, they are looking for trouble! ”

Bian Yayu said: "King Qiqi." We have no reinforcements, and the Siamese in the south are so heavy that the troops on our border really can't leave. ”

Mang Bai said angrily: "There is no need for reinforcements!" There are a lot of muskets in our city, not only 80,000 men, but also 50,000 or 60,000 young women, who can also take up guns against thieves! ”

Within a month, in addition to the frontal assault, Li Dingguo also took advantage of the growing number of Akha and Karen people to start digging tunnels and using underground blasting methods to deal with the outer walls of the Burmese army.

Li Dingguo actually knows the secret that gunpowder can explode under sealed conditions, and before attacking Xinhui, Li Dingguo once used the tunnel blasting method to blow up the city wall. However, when the Ming army launched an attack on Xinhui, it was attacked by the women, children, old and weak in the city. The kind-hearted Li Dingguo could not bear to slaughter these people, which led to the defeat of Xinhui.

"Boom, boom, boom" continued to explode, and several outer cities of Yawa City were blown open.

"Kill!" The Mon people rushed into the outer city and engaged in a fierce battle with the defenders.

The Burmese army continued to invest its forces and launched a fierce battle with the Mon Ming army. However, because of the small number of Burmese troops, the outer city was constantly lost. As the war progressed, the Ming army encroached on the Burmese army's territory little by little.

In the camp of the Ming army, a personal soldier came to report: "Lord Qiqi, the Admiral of Qiongzhou is here!" ”

"Great!" Li Dingguo stood up, "Let him come in immediately!" He's coming, and he's definitely bringing new siege weapons! ”

Seeing the sixty-four-pounder siege mortar, Li Dingguo was overjoyed: "Why didn't the virtuous nephew bring such a sharp weapon earlier?" ”

"Back to the prince, this weapon is produced in Xiamen, the output is not much, the previous was taken by the king of Yanping to Dongfan Island to deal with the red-haired ghost, and the later production was because of the long distance, it could not be transported in time, and it happened that the Annan people captured our first assistant, this weapon was taken to deal with Annan first. Well, now, the lowly has brought this weapon. Wang Xinyu arched his hand.

Two 64-pounder mortars were erected, and just the first few rounds of solid shells showed the Burmese army the power of this weapon.

The solid cannonballs continued to fall, and the entire wall cracked, and after a few rounds of shells, the city wall collapsed in a section.

After that, a flowering cannonball filled with black medicine was performed, and every time the cannonball fell, only to see the flames rise, and billowing white smoke filled the air. The power of such an artillery bombardment has already stunned Li Dingguo.

"What a power! It's amazing! Li Dingguo was full of praise.

"Lord Wang!" Wang Xinyu smiled slightly and arched his hand, "If you change to a new type of flowering bomb for a while, the power will be a hundred times that of this flowering bomb!" ”

"A hundredfold? How awesome does that have to be? Li Dingguo's mouth was wide open enough to stuff an egg.

"When you see it, you will know how powerful it is!"

The two mortars were aimed at one of the strongest towers in the outer city, and they were first tested with solid shells, which were adjusted during the test firing. After that, it was replaced with a normal flowering bullet, and then test firing and adjustment. Finally, it's time for the show.

The gunners loaded two new flowering shells painted with logos from the muzzles, lit the fuses on the shells, and then lit the fuses on the fire doors.

With the sound of two explosions of gunpowder gas, two shells fell one after the other, accurately hitting the tower. Although the accuracy of the mortar cannons is not high, it is strange if the gunner cannot smash the shell on the target after several rounds of test firing with cheap shells first, and after many adjustments.

Two earth-shattering explosions were truly earth-shattering, and the whole earth shook as if there had been an earthquake.

The suddenly inflated fireball erupted from the castle tower, rapidly amplified, and the bright yellow fireball gradually turned into dark red, and then turned into black and red black smoke, rushing straight into the air, and then the castle tower collapsed in a pale blue gunsmoke.

"Awesome! It's amazing! It's as if hundreds of cannons are firing at the same time! Li Dingguo was completely shocked.

Not only was Li Dingguo shocked by the power of the new flowering cannonballs, but also the recklessness in the city.

"The thieves have new weapons! The power of this giant cannon is extremely powerful, and when a cannonball goes down, the flames soar into the sky for hundreds of zhang, and all of them are powdered within a radius of hundreds of zhang! It's terrifying! A Burmese military general reported to Mang Bai. That is, this general of the Burmese army, and his men hid in that tower. When the Mon Ming army attacked the city before, these Burmese troops caused a lot of losses to the Mon Ming army. However, when the Ming army bombarded with mortars, the Burmese army hid in the Tibetan soldier cave under the city, and was served by the new flowering bomb.

Mang Bai said angrily: "When the thieves break through the outer city, we will tie Yongli to the city and see if the thieves dare to shoot at their Son of Heaven!" ”

"O king, we should send messengers to tell the thieves that if the outer city is breached, we will tie their sons to the head of the city to block the cannonballs!" ”

"Yes!" Mang Bai nodded.

In the camp of the Ming army, Li Dingguo's personal soldiers came to report again: "Lord Qiqi, the Burmese have sent a messenger again!" ”

"If you don't let him go, let him go back!" Li Ding National Road.

"Lord, this Burmese envoy said that if the prince refused to see him, he would regret it." (To be continued.) )