On the mountain road from Bamo to the Nujiang Gorge, Li Dingguo led Gao Wengui, Ma Jiugong, Bai Hua, Zhao Desheng, Zhang Guoyou and other generals, with an army of 25,000 people, to reinforce the Nujiang Gorge.

Li Sixing, the son of the king of Jin, was left to look after his family in the Xibo River area, and there were more than 3,000 people in Li Dingguo's department, in addition to 3,000 people recruited by Li Dingguo from the people, Wang Xinyu's 2,000 sailors, and 5,000 Burmese Meng people and auxiliary soldiers he recruited. The remaining troops to guard the lair were enough. In case Zhao Liangdong kills a return horse gun, Li Sixing's people can resist for a period of time with natural risks, and Bai Wenxuan's cavalry can immediately gallop back to help.

In the east of Mengmao, Zhanda, Longchuan, Mengwan, Mangshi and other places, there are Wang Xinyu sent by Wang Xinyu to monitor Zhao Liangdong's movements at any time, once Zhao Liangdong is found to change his route, he will kill Bamo again, and he can report the news in time.

The roads in Myanmar are relatively gentle compared to the mountain roads in Yunnan, but they are not plains with flat rivers, the mountain roads are winding, and the march on this kind of road can walk 30 to 40 miles a day, which is already a very fast speed, and it takes about ten days for the infantry to march from Ba Mo to the Nu River in Mangshi.

The main force led by Li Dingguo, in addition to his own 20,000 horses, also had 5,000 Nanyang troops supported by Wang Xinyu. Li Dingguo's own 20,000 horses had 15,000 soldiers, and all of them were infantry, except for 1,000 cavalry, 100 elephant soldiers, and 1,000 artillery.

Among the 5,000 Nanyang Army supported by Wang Xinyu, there was a mercenary battalion and an artillery battalion in Tianlei Town, two mountain battalions and an artillery battalion in Feihu Town, with a total of 3,300 infantry and 1,700 artillery men, carrying four three-pounder guns, six six-pounder guns, twelve four-pounder guns, and two 24-pounder mortar guns. There were four twelve-pounder mortars, eighteen eighteen eighteen mortars, and two hundred and sixty guns. This is a heavy infantry with a lot of firepower and very advanced firearms.

The mortar of the Nanyang Army, especially the two twenty-four-pounder mortars that could fire flowering shells, were powerful weapons in mountain warfare. Although it was only a flowering cannonball filled with black fire, the power of the twenty-four-pounder cannonball was not small, and it exploded when it fell to the ground, killing and injuring a large number of Qing soldiers.

The three-pounder, four-pounder, and six-pounder guns were all imported guns purchased from the British, and they themselves came with a gun carriage with two large wheels. Able to walk easily with mules and horses. The mortars are all domestic, and they are guns produced by Zheng Jiajun's own artillery factory. Previously, mortars were transported by water, so there was little need to consider the problem of gun carriages. Now that he wants to enter the mountains to fight, Wang Xinyu has designed a gun carriage for these mortars before.

The artillery carriage of the mortar gun could not have two large wheels like a direct-fire gun, but only four small wheels supporting a flat gun carriage. When transporting, the mortar is placed on it, and when it is fired, the mortar is lifted to the ground and fired on the ground.

It is precisely because of the large number of artillery pieces in the Nanyang Army and the strong navy of the Nanyang Army that these officers and soldiers used to march by boat. It was the first time in the true sense of the word that a long march on foot, so the pace of the march was slow, and it was only possible to cover twenty miles a day.

The Nanyang Army, which has already entered modernization, has very high logistical requirements. Because of this, Li Dingguo left Li Sixing and 3,000 people on the Xibo River to ensure the logistical support of the Ming army.

Every day, ships laden with goods come up from downstream, and food, ammunition, armor, clothing, shoes, and vital medicines are transported to Bhamo. Piled up on the banks of the Sibo River.

Minzhuang and his auxiliaries loaded the goods from the wharf and sent them to the front line after Li Dingguo's main force.

In addition to the arrival of food and various military supplies, a group of workers was brought in by ship. These people came to Ba Mo after that. It was near Li Dingguo's military camp that he began to choose a site, and then began to dig the foundation and prepare for the construction of the building.

It is said that the building to be built is a large factory dedicated to the production of Fukuju [paste]. The seeds of poppy flowers brought by Wang Xinyu have been planted in the Bamo area. With the food provided by Nanyang, Li Dingguo does not have to worry about his food source, what he has to do is to concentrate on planting these beautiful plants, and when they are ripe and fruitful, the fruits will be sent to the factory. The factory will process these fruits to produce finished products, and then find a way to sell them to Wu Sangui through channels, and then Wu Sangui will sell them exclusively to the north.

Although Li Dingguo didn't know whether this kind of thing was good or not, he still followed Wang Xinyu's proposal and let his subordinates plant this plant.

In addition to growing poppys, Li Dingguo also planted a large amount of tobacco near the Xibo River at Wang Xinyu's suggestion, because Wang Xinyu also planned to build a cigarette factory here to produce something called cigarettes from tobacco leaves. It is said that this kind of thing also has a high profit and can be sold at a good price, and this kind of thing can also be smoked by Li Dingguo's own soldiers, and after being sold to the Qing Kingdom, all the people can also draw it, unlike the poppy su, which can only be provided to the Eight Banners for exclusive use.

Two more boats came ashore, and hundreds of Meng people immediately surrounded them and unloaded their goods from the boats. These were two grain ships, and a large amount of grain was unloaded on board, as well as a small amount of medicine, which was piled up like a hill on the dock. Except for a small part of the unloaded grain that remained in Li Sixing's barracks, most of the grain was directly loaded onto trucks and sent to the front.

"Be careful, the mountain road is difficult to walk, don't overturn the car!" Several Ming soldiers urged the Meng people to drive the cart.

An employee of the Nanyang Company stepped down from the ship, pointed to some boxes and said, "Here are the new medicines, they have just been sent from Singapore by Mr. Pan, and these medicines must be sent to the front line as soon as possible, and the soldiers on the front line need these things." ”

Li Sixing said: "I will immediately arrange a carriage and use a faster horse to pull over." ”

It was getting dark, and Li Dingguo ordered to camp on the spot.

The Ming army auxiliaries and people began to work, going to the mountains and forests to cut wood, dig trenches, and build camps. As soon as the barracks was settled, I saw a two-horse carriage speeding towards the camp of the Nanyang Army. Then someone walked up to the carriage and removed boxes of goods from it.

Myanmar has only a dry season and a rainy season throughout the year, and now the north of China is already icy and snowy, but in the dry season, Myanmar has a hot climate.

"I haven't seen snow in a long time, and if it were in the north, it would have snowed a long time ago, and it's still so hot here." Gao Wengui said.

Li Dingguo smiled: "When the Wu thief is defeated in this battle, we can go to Lijiang, Dali, and we can see the snow over there, and it is not as hot as here." ”

"Lord Wang, those Qiongzhou soldiers said that the water must be boiled before drinking. But in such a hot weather, the water is boiling, and it has to be cooled, how long does it take! Bai Hui asked.

"The Qiongzhou soldiers have a point, let's follow theirs!" Li Dingguo stood up, "Let's go, let's go and see the barracks of the Qiongzhou soldiers." ”

The camp of the Nanyang Ming army was built on the edge of a small stream, and a trench was dug outside the barracks, surrounded by a wooden fence. When Li Dingguo approached the camp, he saw piles of bonfires lit on the ground in the camp, and water was boiling in the big iron pot. Soon after, when the water had boiled, a group of soldiers came and poured the water from the iron pot into a large wooden barrel and let it cool in it.

"These waters are clean streams, and they should be boiled?" Gao Wengui asked a Qiongzhou soldier.

The soldier replied: "Lord Hui, this is our military rule, drinking water must be boiled." Although the water of the stream is clean, boiling the water can prevent the plague from occurring. ”

Approaching the inner camp area that was enclosed as a gang, I saw many auxiliary soldiers pouring soybeans into the grinding plate and grinding soy milk.

Li Dingguo asked very puzzled: "You are on the boat, or you are grinding tofu in our camp over there, how can you travel a long distance, march on foot, and still carry such a heavy grinding plate and stones?" ”

A gang leader replied: "Back to the prince, it is our Wang Junmen's request, when we arrive in a new place, we must use local water to make gypsum tofu for everyone to eat, so that it can cure the water and soil adaptation." ”

Inside the stream, the soldiers who had just set up camp brought water one after another, and stood in the camp to bathe.

Hygiene is also important, especially in the south. Wang Xinyu knows that clean skin secretes substances that can kill germs, which can reduce one way for germs to spread.

The men began to get busy, boiling steaming rice mixed with grains in a large iron pot, and various dishes were stewed in the pot. After a while, a pot of steaming food was served.

At this time, the soldiers had just finished bathing, and they sat on the floor around the basin full of food, and began to eat. There is a rule in Wang Xinyu's army that before dinner, every soldier is required to take a bath. This is because it is necessary to keep it clean and avoid getting sick from the mouth. Before lunch, the soldiers were required to wash their hands before eating. After dinner, move for a while and go to sleep. Except for the guards, the rest of the men slept in the tents. In order to prevent mosquito bites, incense is also lit in the barracks to repel mosquitoes and reduce the channels of disease transmission through mosquitoes.

Li Dingguo also found that many soldiers of the Nanyang Army carried a small iron box with them, and if they were bitten by mosquitoes, they would open the small iron box and use their fingers to get something with a pungent smell from it and apply it to the bite area.

"What is this?" Li Dingguo asked curiously.

The soldier replied: "Back to the prince, this is a universal medicine that our Nanyang company has just produced, according to our Wang Junmen's formula, the chairman of the board of directors Pan went to Nanyang to find some local Chinese herbal medicine, and the drug manufactured, called Wanjin Oil, is applied to the body to prevent mosquito bites. ”

Lin Bian stepped forward and arched his hand: "Back to the prince, this is what Old Man Pan just shipped from Singapore, and even our Wang Junmen does not have this kind of medicine in his hands." After speaking, Lin Bian took out a box of gold oil from his arms and handed it over.

"It smells pungent, but it smells good." Li Dingguo took the golden oil and sniffed it. (To be continued.) )