Li Dingguo ordered the Burmese envoys to be introduced into the Chinese army's tent.

As soon as the Burmese envoy came in, he spoke: "My lord, there is a saying in your country, which is to further break the net of fish and fish, and take a step back to open the sea and the sky. I think the prince should understand this truth, right? If your country continues to attack, it will not do us any good. If we take a step back, as long as you withdraw our troops, we will return your Son of Heaven to you. ”

Li Dingguo shook his hand expressionlessly: "Do you know that we still have a saying, which is called jade burning?" If our Son of Heaven has any three strengths and two weaknesses, I'm afraid none of you will end well! Our army has a siege weapon, so you are not afraid that the day we break the city, you will take the head of the neck of you? ”

The messenger said, "If your army continues to attack the city, are you not afraid that we will tie your son of heaven to the head of the city?" ”

"You go back and tell you that if he dares to do this, he will bear the disaster of the Burmese people's annihilation! Also, we supported the Mon and Karen people, and they also wanted to destroy you. As long as we order the slaughter of the city, I believe that the Meng people will slaughter your people without hesitation as you did with them! Although Li Dingguo is kind-hearted and soft-hearted, when he was in China, he would not be polite to foreign races.

"Wu Sangui has already sent troops, if you attack strongly, aren't you afraid that Wu Sangui will copy your back road?" The Burmese envoy threatened from the outside and from the inside.

Li Dingguo laughed: "Wu Sangui? Please send an envoy to Ba Mo to see! Wu Sangui has been defeated by us, the Lord of the Eight Banners has killed Ai Xing, and Wu Sangui has been defeated and retreated. As a sign of sincerity, he left men to be hostages with us and brought us silver. ”

Although Li Dingguo's words were tinged with bluffing, if Mang Bai really sent an envoy to Ba Mo, and saw Wu Sangui's people sending silver to Ba Mo and transporting things back, his people would inquire. Wu Sangui's people would only tell them that the king of Pingxi had been defeated and had no power to attack again, so he could only live in harmony with the Ming army, but they would not tell the reckless people about Wu Sangui signing an agreement with the Ming army, because Wu Sangui did not want this matter to be exposed.

Hearing that Wu Sangui had been defeated, the Burmese envoy's face was pale and cold sweat broke out. Wu Sangui, who had originally pinned his hopes on nothing, sent troops to pick up Yongli's dream of coming to take Yongli all failed.

Wang Xinyu also added: "By the way, I will tell you about your recklessness." Our Ming army has the support of your Burmese, we have divided the land around the city of Yawa, and a large number of slaves have been given land, and they are now very unfriendly to us. ”

Li Dingguo said again: "Siam has also sent troops, I hope your recklessness will consider the stakes for yourself!" If you insist on going your own way, I'm afraid the result will not be too good. We have siege weapons, and in a few days, we will be able to break the city! ”

Sent away the Burmese envoys. Li Dingguo sent an order to the Ming army to speed up the onslaught, and it was necessary to occupy all the outer cities as soon as possible, and start shelling the inner city before Mang Bai sent envoys next time.

Wang Xinyu asked worriedly, "Lord Wang." If we speed up and attack, the reckless white thief will not be angry and kill our Son of Heaven, right? If that happens, we're in ruins. The reason why the lowly position is surrounded but not fought. It was to besiege the city of Yawa, starve the city of food, and finally force the Burmese to riot themselves. Kill Mangbai and offer us his head, so that our Son of Heaven can be saved. If an onslaught is launched at this time, will the Burmese make a move that is unfavorable to His Majesty? ”

Li Dingguo laughed: "The virtuous nephew is still inexperienced!" I don't know how to figure out people's psychology. We stormed the city of Awa, and Mangbai not only did not disadvantage our Son of Heaven, but took good care of him. As long as we break through the outer city, they will definitely honestly sign an alliance with us! When the time comes, it will not be us who will take a step back, but them! If the siege continues, do you know how long the food in this city of Yawa will last? ”

"It should only last until June or July, right?"

"Wrong, Awa City is a royal city, and the food in the royal city is enough to support it for two years! Are we just going to spend a long time here? Only by solving it as soon as possible and taking out the Son of Heaven can we feel at ease. Li Dingguo corrected Wang Xinyu's mistake.

The Ming army intensified its attack.

At this time, there were more than 30,000 Burmese troops in the city of Yawa, and about 100,000 people. In order to resist the attack of the Ming army, Mang Bai armed more than 30,000 old men, children, and more than 50,000 women in the city and defended the city.

The Ming army suppressed the head of the city with direct-fire artillery, and the auxiliary soldiers piled up the earth slope to move forward, and then set up mortar artillery to bombard the head of the city, advancing little by little. Not only the mighty sixty-four-pounder mortar bombarded the walls, but also a large number of twenty-four and twelve-pounder mortars joined the bombardment. The walls of the city that had been bombarded were cracked one by one, and bricks and earth fell in pieces. Often, after about twenty rounds of shelling, a gap is chiseled.

The Burmese army in the city relied on the numerous artillery pieces at the head of the city to resist stubbornly, braving the fierce artillery fire of the Ming army, and using artillery to bombard the Ming army auxiliaries who were building fortifications. Shells rained down, and the Karen auxiliaries who built the fortifications suffered heavy casualties. However, these Karen people did not flinch, and they braved the Burmese artillery fire to forcibly build fortifications and move forward.

After the Ming army blew up a gap, the Burmese army sent people to plug the gap, and the two sides started a bloody battle at the gap. The Burmese army continued to block the road, and at the breach, the corpses of soldiers on both sides piled up into a mountain, and the Burmese piled sandbags, bricks, stones and earth directly on the corpses to plug the gap.

As more and more gaps were opened by mortar shelling, the Burmese were clearly undermanned to close the gaps.

A large number of Mon Ming troops entered the city, and after fierce hand-to-hand fighting, the Burmese troops in the outer city were driven into the inner city.

After the Ming army broke through the outer city, they transported the cannons into the city, and set up artillery on the head of the outer city to aim at the inner city. Because the height difference between the outer city and the inner city is not large, the Ming army's direct-fire artillery is mounted at the head of the city, and it can directly bombard and suppress the Burmese artillery in the inner city, so that the Burmese artillery loses the height advantage.

The artillery erected on the outer city suppressed the Burmese artillery by virtue of its absolute superiority in numbers. The large number of buildings between the outer city and the inner city also played a good role in protecting the Karen auxiliaries who built the fortifications, and the auxiliaries were able to push the fortifications forward at the minimum cost, so that the Ming army could set up mortars to bombard the inner city.

After attacking the outer city, the progress of the Ming army was significantly accelerated. The auxiliaries didn't even need to dig earth, they just tore down houses, piled sandbags on them, and carried dirt and bricks from the toppled rubble. Fortifications were built to resist the artillery bombardment of the Burmese army.

By the end of March, the Ming army had set up mortars in the outer city.

By the time the sixty-four-pounder mortar roared again, and the new flowering cannonballs landed in the inner city, the reckless whiteness in the city really began to panic.

Mang Bai summoned civil and military officials to discuss in the palace hall and discuss how to break the siege.

Listening to the words of the envoy coming back, Wu Sangui was obviously defeated, otherwise Li Dingguo would not have the confidence to speed up the siege, and asked Mangbai to send an envoy to Bamo to take a look. Siam to the south has also sent troops, and the Burmese army on the border line cannot draw troops back to help; The Mon and Karen people also pinned down the northern and southern Burmese forces. The rest of the Burmese army could not get out.

"King!" A Wenchen who has always been more pro-Ming said, "The new cannon of the Ming army is infinitely powerful, and the cannonball can explode when it lands, and a cannonball explodes, festering hundreds of zhang, and the explosion sound is like a thousand cannons in unison, and after a few rounds of shelling, the city wall will break through the gap." The defenders at the head of the city suffered heavy casualties, which not only had a great impact on morale. And the walls are constantly being blown open, and I am afraid it will be difficult to defend. In this way, it is only a matter of time before the city is broken, so we might as well return their Son of Heaven to them. ”

Mangbai was startled. Hurriedly shook his hand: "No!" Never! This great tomorrow must hate us, and if he is put back, it will not be revenge for us to become even worse? When did the two armies fight? ”

"Yes!" The general of the Burmese army, Bian Yayu, stepped forward. "Even if thieves invade the city, we still have the people, the elderly, and the children. And women, all of whom can take up arms! The head of the city can't be defended, we introduce thieves into the city to fight, we have a lot of firearms, and the street fight is beneficial to us! A woman can kill an enemy with a musket! What are we afraid of them? What's more, we still have their Son of Heaven card in our hands, and we can play it when necessary. ”

The Wenchen said: "But now that the people's hearts are unstable, we can guarantee that the Ming army will only enter the city, and the people in the city will be loyal to the king?" If there are young people who take the opportunity to sacrifice the city, won't we all die without a place to bury? ”

Mang Bai thought about it for a while, and felt that what this minister said was very reasonable, he was not in the right position, and there were still many people in the city who were loyal to the old Burmese king, and if those people took advantage of this opportunity to cause trouble, they would really be in danger. At that time, as long as those people sacrifice the city, the Ming army will invade and kill themselves, and it is very possible to pull a royal family to be the new king of Burma. But now that Yongli is put back, what if the Ming army refuses to withdraw?

"Ming people have always been untrustworthy, and if we put the Son of Heaven back, we will have no bargaining chips in our hands. What should we do if they refuse to withdraw their armies but want to destroy our kingdom? Mang Bai asked.

Na Wenchen said: "This is not easy to do? We can put it back to the Yongli, but the crown prince and the empress must stay. After letting Yongli go back, he gave an order to the Ming army to withdraw the Ming army. As long as the Ming army withdraws, we will return the crown prince and queen to them. This Yongli is greedy for life and afraid of death, and has a cowardly character, and will definitely agree to us. ”

"Why didn't Lone think of this?" Mang Bai slapped his thigh violently, and suddenly realized.

Bian Yayu said: "Let people go to Yongli, and add a sentence, let him give an order to the Ming army, and the Ming army will not be allowed to support the Meng and Karen people anymore!" Otherwise, even if the Ming army withdraws, those Mon and Karen people will still continue to fight with us! ”

"Yes!" Mang Bai nodded, "Add this one too!" As long as they no longer support the Mon and Karen people, they can say whatever they want! For those rebellious people, as long as there is no support from the Ming people, they are not our opponents at all, and the siege of Ava City will only be lifted, and we will go back and destroy them! ”

Mang Bai then sent someone to find Yongli and told him that he was willing to let him go back, but if there were conditions, the prince and the queen must stay as hostages, and when Yongli issued an order for all the Ming troops to retreat, and when it was confirmed that the Ming army no longer supported the Mon and Karen people, the Burmese would naturally put the prince and the queen back.

Yongli has a cowardly personality, and when he heard that he could be put back first, he happily agreed to the conditions of the Burmese people. He knew that as long as he went back, the Burmese would definitely not dare to embarrass his crown prince and queen. As long as he went back and ordered the Ming army to retreat, and promised not to support the Mon and Karen people, the Burmese would keep the agreement and release the crown prince and empress back. If the Burmese had been treacherous at that time, it would have been too late for the Ming army to come back and attack.

"Your Majesty, do you want to leave your concubine and children and go back by yourself?" Hearing that Yongli said that he would go back alone first, and only later would the Burmese let himself and the prince go back, the queen knelt on the ground and wept bitterly.

"It can only be that I go back first, and after I go back, I will order the King of Jin and the Qiongzhou army to withdraw their troops, so that the Burmese can release you back. Don't worry, we'll see you again soon. Yongli replied.

The queen said: "Your Majesty, this Yawa city is about to be destroyed, and we are about to regain our freedom, why do we have to agree to the conditions of the Burmese at this time?" We can't be soft, we must let the Qiongzhou army kill this reckless white and avenge the civil and military officials who died in vain! It is likely that we will not need to do it, and the Burmese themselves will kill Mangbai. ”

Yongli shook off the queen's hand: "Woman's opinion! The Burmese have promised to let me go back, and I'm afraid I'll have a long night and a lot of dreams if I stay here! Don't look back at this time, wait for when! ”

Outside the city, the 64-pounder mortar cannon of the Ming army once again broke out into a roar, and the new flowering cannonball smashed directly on the city tower, and a violent explosion sounded, and the city tower collapsed with a bang, turning into a ruin, the city gate was blown open, and the city wall fell a large piece.

Just when Li Dingguo gave the order to prepare to attack the inner city, a signal was sent from the city for the Ming army to cease fire, and the Burmese agreed to send Yongli out of the city.

"Pause the firing and see what the Burmese want to do." Li Dingguo gave the order.

The Burmese sent an envoy to the Ming army camp and told Li Dingguo that Mang Bai did not want to see the two armies shed blood. In order to show his sincerity, Mang Bai promised to put Yongli back. However, the Burmese side was worried that the Ming army would not withdraw its troops, so the crown prince and the empress stayed for the time being, and when the Ming army withdrew, the Burmese would naturally send the prince and empress back.

Li Dingguo roared angrily: "Why do you still want to detain the crown prince and the queen? Is this your sincerity? ”

"Isn't your bottom line to return your Son of Heaven to you? The crown prince and the queen stay with us, it doesn't violate your bottom line, right? What's more, when the Son of Heaven goes back, the crown prince and the queen are useless to you, but they are useful to the Son of Heaven, so that the Son of Heaven will issue an order for you to withdraw your troops, and we can rest assured. The Burmese envoy replied.

"What other conditions do you have other than for us to withdraw?" Li Dingguo asked.

The Burmese envoy replied: "The other condition is that you must no longer support the rebellious Mon and Karen people!" As long as you all do it, the crown prince and queen will naturally return. (To be continued.) )