No sooner had the reckless envoy returned to Ava than Deng Ming commanded the Ming army to launch a fierce assault on the eastern front. The governor of Zuo Du summoned the officers and said that laziness was no longer allowed, and after the Sichuan army saw the commander on the battlefield in person, many people wanted to behave well and leave a deep impression on the commander.

"Well, according to what Deng Ming said, what they value is a son of heaven, and everyone else is willing to give up." After the envoy reported the results of the mission to the golden palace of the king of Burma, Mang Bai came to a conclusion and consulted with his courtiers.

Now there are more than 50,000 Burmese troops inside and outside Wacheng, relying on strong city walls and a large number of artillery and muskets to defend. The progress of the Ming army outside the city was not very fast, and the besieging Ming army had more than 7,000 people from Bai Wenxuan, 2,000 people from Di Sanxi, and more than 4,000 people from Deng Ming, totaling 13,000.

After fleeing from defeat, Bianya Jian insisted that the Ming army was invincible, and the best way was to contact loyal people everywhere and let them attack and harass the Ming army in the rear to relieve the pressure on Wacheng. This is exactly how the Mangbai regime responded, and when the Ming army was besieging the city, it constantly sent a large number of officials to sneak into the rear of the Ming army, calling on the Burmese to rise up and deal with the invaders.

In Bai Wenxuan's occupation area, this set is still quite successful, but it is more difficult on Deng Ming's side.

Now Wacheng also knows the existence of "Reckless", when he first heard this name, Reckless Bai didn't think about it for a long time, and then immediately ordered a detailed investigation to confirm that his brother did not have such an illegitimate child.

"If the Ming people have to ask for their emperor, or give it back to them, as long as they are willing to withdraw their troops and no longer support the recklessness of the impostor." Although the Ming army could not enter Wacheng, the people of Wacheng could not be killed, and this war, which had no end and no hope of victory, made more and more Burmese officials war-weary.

Mang Bai was still silent, his original worries were still the same. If Yongli is released, most of the great tomorrow who has had enough of the evil spirit these days will order to continue the attack, and the Burmese will even more likely think that this disaster is caused by his recklessness. However, the fiasco of the first battle of Lishui made everyone unable to see the possibility of repelling the Ming army by force, if they continued to stubbornly adhere to the slightest uncompromising position, Mangbai would also become the target of public criticism, and when Wacheng ran out of ammunition and food, maybe someone would use his head to ask the Ming army for leniency.

"What nonsense?" Bianya Jian scolded, although he was the most responsible person in the battle of Lishui, but with his loyalty to Mangbai, he is still an important minister in front of the palace of the king of Burma: "The Ming people are cunning and untrustworthy, it is easy for us to return Yongli to them, but how to ensure that they are willing to abide by the contract and retreat?" ”

No one can guarantee that the Ming army will abide by the agreement, so this method will definitely not work.

When the envoy reported just now, there was a dull loud noise outside the hall, this kind of sound was already familiar to the Burmese people, and they knew that it was the Ming army blasting the fortress. At first, the Burmese were not familiar with this method of warfare, but gradually became accustomed to it. Moreover, the Dian army in the west and south of the city also learned to blast from the Sichuan army, and the loud noise just now did not have the slightest impact on the ongoing military meeting.

This was followed by another muffled thunder, which seemed a little unusual, the Ming army rarely attacked two strongholds in succession, and the Burmese officials showed a look of confusion on their faces, and these two muffled sounds came from the east.

However, until this point, the Burmese still did not have much thought, and after a while, the discussion continued.

In Wacheng's view, the elders of the imperial court in exile and the generals of the Imperial Forest Army are no longer of any value, they can neither come up with a way to let Deng Ming withdraw from the army, nor are they weighty, Deng Ming has made it clear that he does not care about their life or death. Originally, there were Burmese people who proposed to tie the Ming Dynasty pavilion elders to the fortress as human shields, but at that time, everyone felt that it might not be useful, and after listening to the envoy's report, they would never have such thoughts again.

The officials in Wacheng did not come up with any new methods, let alone answer Deng Ming's question, so they decided to continue to maintain the status quo, firmly hold on to the last bargaining chip of Yongli, and continue to send people out of the city to the north to organize volunteers to fight against the invading army. After the morning meeting, Mang Bai had finished lunch and discussed the issue of city defense and inventory with several courtiers, when they heard the third muffled sound of the day coming from the east.

"What's going on? Quickly send someone to check. Mang Bai finally realized that things were getting a little strange, and hurriedly sent someone to the city defense military attache to ask what was going on in the east of the city.

The report came back to the Burmese king and his vassals as a surprise to the Ming army in the eastern part of the city, which launched a fierce offensive against three Burmese strongholds outside the city. In one day, three outposts outside the city were breached by the Ming army, and hundreds of defenders were annihilated.

"This is Deng Ming urging the king, right?" It soon came to the conclusion that at this rate, it would not take long for the outer defenses in the eastern part of the city to be cleared, and once the Ming army approached the city walls, they could begin to attack the last barrier of Wacheng.

"Hurry up and dig a trench." Mangbai shouted.

These days, the Burmese have learned that the only way to defend themselves is to pour water into the tunnels of the Ming army, but the Ming army dug holes around a fortress on all sides, and the defenders were always too busy. If the Ming army attacked Wacheng, there would be enough manpower in the city to counteract. While ordering to step up preparations for the defense of the city, Mang Bai asked Bianya Jian: "Is it feasible to listen to the means of the tunnel?" ”

"Absolutely." Flat Tooth Jane patted her chest and reassured.

Faced with the Ming army digging holes everywhere at the foot of the wall like moles, the Burmese army now came up with a solution to dig on the inside. However, the Ming army's digging of holes was also false and real, and sometimes they didn't do it at all, just pretending to attract attention. The defenders of the fortress had to be on guard everywhere, and after digging a few big pits inside, they found that the Ming army did not dig in, and the accumulated water had nowhere to be filled.

Although the human resources in Wacheng are very abundant, the walls of Wacheng are also quite long, and if the Ming army still digs pits everywhere, the Burmese will not be able to take care of it sooner or later, no matter how much manpower they have. And you can't build a shed on the outside, and you have to dig a corner inside the city, right? Then you didn't need the Ming army to attack, and you dug down your own city wall.

When it was discovered that the sharpest offensive method of the Ming army was tunnel blasting, the Burmese army also made every effort to study ways to deal with it. Crisis always stimulates potential, Bian Yajian reported to Mang Bai a few days ago that the Burmese army has developed a new method of reconnaissance, that is, digging some large pits under the city wall, burying water tanks or large urns, and sending people with good ears to listen to the pits, which can determine whether the Ming army is really digging tunnels.

With this kind of reconnaissance method, the Burmese army can calmly deal with the Ming army's tunnel offensive, and will not desperately try to hollow out its own wall foundations.

……

Outside Ava City, Deng Ming ended today's offensive after capturing three strongholds in one go.

The first blasting used the tunnel dug by Zhao Tianba yesterday, and the last two used the tactics of multi-point siege to attract the few Burmese musketeers in the fortress to disperse the fire, and several excavation teams approached the camp wall together, and then started digging at the same time. These tunnels were sheltered only by improvised sheds, and they required soldiers to take the risk of constructing, so the Ming army suffered far more casualties than digging long distances from a safe distance.

Although they successfully captured three strongholds, today the Sichuan army has lost more than 50 people, disabled and wounded more than 100 people, which is almost equivalent to the losses of the past half a month.

"At this rate, we'll be in front of Ava City in three days. However, our blasting truck is not ready, and we have to wait for another half a month to dry the mold. Zhao Tianba said with a worried face: "Wacheng has a moat, there are tens of thousands of enemy troops in the city, more than 100,000 strong men and women, and there are many artillery and muskets. How many brothers would have been killed if they had launched an assault after the explosion? ”

One after another cloth-covered corpses were carried past Deng Ming's eyes, and as the Ming soldiers carrying them silently walked by, Deng Ming solemnly raised his hand and saluted these comrades-in-arms who had died in a foreign land -- the military salute in Sichuan was completely modeled after the military salute that Deng Ming had seen in his previous life.

In the past, the Ming army had fought many hard battles, and the number of soldiers killed was much higher than today, but the atmosphere was never as dull as it is today. In the past, the joy of a soldier's victory always overwhelmed the mourning of his comrades, but today it is completely reversed.

Another corpse was carried over, and Deng Ming saw his close officer Jiang Nan personally carrying the stretcher, and when he walked in front of Deng Ming's eyes, the stretcher shook, and a bloody arm hung down from the covered corpse cloth. Jiang Nan immediately stopped, held up his arm and gently put it back, as if he was afraid of waking up the person lying on it.

"Is this an acquaintance of yours?" Deng Ming walked over and asked softly.

"You're handsome, it's my friend." Jiang Nanli was reporting to Deng Ming.

This Sichuan soldier was an unmarried Hubei man, who lived in the same pavilion as Jiang Nan after arriving in Sichuan, and was a sergeant of the standing army.

"Since entering Myanmar, he has made many meritorious contributions, received a lot of bonuses, and consigned a lot of loot back to Sichuan; He also bought five girls, and the last one was consigned back to the capital the day before yesterday. Jiang Nan looked down at the stretcher, a bloodstained corpse cloth was blocked between the two, and he said to Deng Ming: "He has been talking about it, and when he returns to the capital, he will have a good life, and he has repeatedly asked me when I will return to China." However, after hearing the order of the marshal today, he still rushed forward bravely. When he was digging a hole, he was shot in the arm by a despicable Burmese dog, but he still insisted on fighting after bandaging it, and was the first to rush in after blowing up the city wall......" Jiang Nan's breathing became more and more rapid, and finally he couldn't say anymore. The Burmese defenders in the fortress were all killed by Jiang Nan, and none of them were forgiven.

"Dashuai, are we attacking desperately, just to let Mang Bai release the emperor?" Today, Deng Ming only ordered a general attack, but did not explain his intentions, Jiang Nan couldn't help but ask this question loudly.

"No," Deng Ming shook his head, he had to admit that Emperor Yongli had done an extraordinary job in breaking down the fighting spirit of the Ming army. Deng Ming solemnly assured Jiang Nan and the other soldiers of western Sichuan who were looking at him: "We are for the benefit of the capital. ”