The swiftness of the Ming army's victory was indeed beyond Bai Wenxuan's expectations, and by the time King Gongchang and his followers arrived on the east bank of Lijiang, Bianya Jian had already fled, more than 12,000 Burmese troops were killed, and more than 5,000 were taken prisoner.

Through the interrogation of the captives, the Ming army probably figured out the strength of Bianyajian, the 20,000 people left in the camp in the south were low-level military households, and all the middle- and upper-class samurai had been defeated by the Ming army in this battle. That being the case, Bai Wenxuan allowed the Dian army to calmly cross Lijiang, ready to completely crush Bian Yajian's troops, if he still tried to resist; The western Sichuan troops led by Zhao Tianba temporarily crossed the river together, and after defeating Bianyajian, they returned to the east bank and marched along the other side to Ava, so that although the Ming army was separated by Lijiang, Bai Wenxuan believed that the rapid defeat of the Burmese army made the Ming army not have to worry about danger.

By advancing on both sides of the strait, the Ming army was better able to thwart the Burmese army's attempts to contain resistance, and it was also easier to collect grain, grass and labor.

Bai Wenxuan met Deng Ming and Di Sanxi, who came to greet him.

"General Deng is really good at fighting," although Di Sanxi is a pioneer, Bai Wenxuan's first praise is still the Baoguo Duke who holds half of Sichuan, and then he looked at Di Sanxi and saw that the latter was wrapped in a large piece of cloth in his hand: "General Di is injured?" ”

"It's self-inflicted, it's just a scald, it's fine in a few days," Bai Wenxuan looked puzzled after hearing that it was a burn, and Di Sanxi smiled when he saw this: "So that the king knows that this is the end of going to the medicine pool with the fire rope in his hand." ”

After listening to the cavalry commander tell the process of defeating the war elephants, Bai Wenxuan smiled and said: "The fire guns are really useless in the field, but they are good to use to fight these elephants, well, the Burmese people like fire guns so much, because they have to deal with elephants, right?" ”

The long-range weapons in Myanmar and Thailand are almost all firearms, and even if the original firearms are inefficient, they are also long-range weapons, which are much stronger than using bows and crossbows in humid and hot weather. The Dian army has always despised the role of gunpowder weapons in field warfare, and in the eyes of the Dian army, this is simply self-defeating. Deng Ming has a different view on this, because the firearms used in Myanmar are far better than those used in China, and perhaps it is precisely because of the interference of developed bows and crossbows that the countries of Indochina have quickly embraced this more promising weapon.

It's just that Deng Ming has no intention of immediately correcting Bai Wenxuan and others' prejudice against firearms, first of all, it is not easy to persuade the general to change his prejudice, and secondly, Deng Ming also noticed many problems with arquebuses. The slow rate of fire is only one aspect, there is also the problem of formation: when Deng Ming used to watch movies, he remembered that the British lobster soldiers had always used a dense formation to fire volleys, but it was a flintlock robbery, and the arquebus would be killed if it also adopted such a tight formation - the musketeer was very careful when handling his arquebus, and would never let another companion with an open flame lean on him. Now there is a large gap between Deng Ming's volley formations, and if you add hand-to-hand soldiers to it, it will interfere with the reloading action of the firecrackers, and if you don't add hand-to-hand soldiers, it will definitely not be able to stop the cavalry from charging and slashing, and Deng Ming has not come up with any good way to do this.

Deng Ming and Bai Wenxuan discussed the policy of Burma for a while, and today's victory made Bai Wenxuan even more contemptuous of the Burmese fighting power, and this was in territory outside of China, and Bai Wenxuan did not intend to restrict the behavior of soldiers at all.

"For the sake of King Qin, the sons and daughters left their homeland and came to this wild land, do they still want to reprimand the sons for this group of Burmese?" Obviously, Bai Wenxuan believes that reprimands are too severe punishments, and as long as they do not affect the safety of the army and can obey orders, Bai Wenxuan does not intend to impose military discipline constraints.

"General Bai doesn't know that if the soldiers act under the command of the officers, even if they go to rob x, they can have a better harvest; But if the soldiers were allowed to act casually, they would spoil things, kill people indiscriminately, and destroy all the big things they couldn't take with them for fun, and many people would take pleasure in destroying them. Deng Ming believes that even from the perspective of efficient looting, it is important to maintain military discipline, and the army needs to collect things in an organized and disciplined manner, and then move them back to China in a unified manner, so that the soldiers can receive more money and goods, and also reduce the harm to the local population.

"Since the sons and daughters are just trying to have fun, let them be happy." Bai Wenxuan still didn't care about it at all, and replied to Deng Ming with a smile: "The soldiers pin their heads to their waists and fight with us, as long as they can win, it doesn't matter if they spoil things or not?" ”

Deng Ming was silent for a while, the Ming army was not the army of the great powers in his previous life in the nineteenth century, and the opponent was not the Native Americans of the Stone Age, and even the Burmese army was stronger than the Native Americans in terms of firearms, and he also had a simple racial consciousness: "Since this is the case, the Burmese should be eliminated around our army, and the Burmese should not be allowed to approach the barracks or supply lines of our army." ”

"Mongol Tartars?" Bai Wenxuan glanced at Deng Ming, and there was a difference between the other party's image and Deng Ming's previous image: "The man who is taller than the axle is unforgiving?" ”

As a former civilized person in the 21st century, Deng Ming was very aware of this strategy to exterminate human nature, but he still couldn't help but bow his head, because he had to first consider the safety of the Ming army: "If you don't want to learn from the Mongol Tatars, then learn the way of Jianyu, support a group of Burmese people, push them to eat and undress, and trust them." ”

"General Deng is too careful, the Burmese are different from us Chinese, they have neither good men nor wars." Bai Wenxuan felt that Deng Ming was making a big fuss.

The discussion of political strategies was fruitless.

It was getting late, and 20,000 Ming troops crossed Lijiang one after another, and they seized a large amount of baggage from the Burmese army, and were planning to set up a meal. The dead elephant was happily slaughtered by the Ming army, and they also asked the Burmese where the meat of the captured elephant was better - although this big guy did not look delicious, but after all, it was the trophy of the Ming army, and in order to celebrate the victory, the elephant meat had to be chewed and tasted no matter how old it was.

There were several elephants that were wounded and lost the ability to escape, and Deng Ming ordered them to be cared for, and he ordered that if they survived, they should be kept near the Ming army's war horses. The horses of the Dian army were better, and the horses of western Sichuan were extremely afraid of elephants because they had never seen such animals, and if the two animals were brought close to one, they might be able to eliminate the fear of elephants in the horses.

Soon someone came to report that the elephants, although wounded, were still extremely dangerous, and when they fell to the ground, they tried to attack the Ming soldiers who were close to them.

"There must be a Burmese mahout, so that these beasts can be honest." Di Sanxi's Jianchang soldiers had the smallest number of soldiers, and they went to Yunnan with Deng Ming, so the 2,000 Jianchang soldiers camped with the western Sichuan soldiers. The Jianchang officers who had dinner with Deng Ming knew more about war elephants, and they told Deng Ming that elephants basically only listened to the mahouts, and that such big guys were very unfriendly to strangers, not to mention that they were still suffering from pain.

Each elephant will have a fixed mahouter. When humans domesticate an elephant, they arrange for a teenager to be its macker when it is young, and from then on the boy will be with him, taking care of the baby elephant every day, feeding it, bathing it, and taking it out to play -- the elephant can live to be 60 years old, and this person and elephant will live almost as long as an elephant, and they will be lifelong friends. When the baby elephant grows into a behemoth, only this mahout can take it to the battlefield and even fight the enemy's war elephants to the death. The officers of the Jianchang Army also told Deng Ming that when Li Dingguo bought war elephants from Burma, he bought them together with the elephant driver.

"I see." After hearing this, Deng Ming looked at his head again and again, and asked curiously: "After those elephants died in Hunan and Guangxi, where did their mahouts go?" ”

"There were two people who committed suicide, and their only use was to take the elephant with them, and they never separated, and when the elephant died, they could not live; A few others returned to Myanmar, but when they left, they were all lost and had no spirits. ”

"Well, it's true that without elephants they'd be like ordinary people, but I think they're really sad too; I've been raising elephants since I was a teenager, and when the elephant died, it's almost the same as my brother died, right? Deng Ming ordered to go to the captives to find the mahouts, and then let them come out to claim their elephants.

After some searching, the mahouts of several elephants were found, and Deng Mingtong guò told them that if they refused to help the Ming army, then most of their elephants would not survive tonight, and they would have to be skinned and eaten. Deng Ming's threat was very useful, and these Burmese immediately cooperated with the Ming army. When the familiar mahout driver brought food, the raging wounded elephant calmed down a little and ate under the comfort of the mahouter.

"They're really good friends." Deng Ming watched coldly from the sidelines, and with the cooperation of these mahouters, the veterinarians of the Sichuan army could also get close to the elephants to treat their wounds. Deng Ming watched it for a while, and it was not good to let the Jianchang officer wait for a long time, so he went back to the camp for dinner.

Just after eating, when he was chatting with Zhao Tianba, Di Sanxi and others, a soldier suddenly came to report: "The elephant has died again, and the Burmese who raised it is making endless troubles next to it." ”

It is not uncommon for elephants to die from serious injuries, and the western Sichuan veterinarian had never treated the animal.

"The brothers wanted to chop up a few pieces of the dead elephant and make it into jerky, but the Burmese who raised it desperately stopped it, and threw themselves on the dead elephant in search of life." Just now, Deng Ming explained that he should treat these elephant riders well, so the Ming soldiers didn't dare to be rude, so they came to ask for instructions on how to deal with them.

"His elephants are all dead, this man is useless, pull him down and lock up with other coolies." Di Sanxi said nonchalantly.

The western Sichuan soldier responded politely, but did not leave but still looked at Deng Ming, Di Sanxi woke up suddenly, and apologized to Deng Ming repeatedly: "The last general is reckless." ”

"It's a trifle." Deng Ming said that he didn't mind, in fact, Di Sanxi also thought that this was an inconsequential trivial matter, so he would casually order for Deng Ming.

Deng Ming originally wanted to give Di Sanxi a face and let the soldiers do what Di Sanxi said, but after thinking about it, he still got up and left the table: "I'll take a look, what's going on." ”