Burma was behind the Ming army in Yunnan, and if Burma had maintained a minimum of neutrality, the Ming army would probably not be interested in launching an attack on Burma when most of the country was lost. But now that Burma has shown its hostility to the Ming army, it is necessary for the Ming army to conquer Burma in order to ensure the safety behind it.

However, it will take several months to travel from Sichuan to Burma, from Ba Mo to Awa, and if we continue to march to Yangon, it will take several months, so this war of conquest must be pursued once and for all, and it is better to finish this time without sending troops. It was not a peaceful season, and Sichuan and Yunnan were still facing tremendous military pressure from the Manchus, and tens of thousands of Ming soldiers could not stay abroad for years.

"It is impossible for us to keep a large army in Burma, nor to launch this kind of war of annihilation again and again, if the occupation of Burma can provide some military expenses and food for our army and Sichuan, we can consider investing thousands of troops here, and it seems acceptable to lose one or two hundred men a year; But more garrisons and greater losses are completely unthinkable. Deng Ming carefully explained his strategic ideas to the officers, because he now wanted to revise the strategy before the troops, and did not intend to let the soldiers go to loot the temple, so he had to win the understanding and support of the army - although the military orders were like a mountain, and the orders of the commanders had to be carried out to the letter, whether they agreed or not, Deng Ming believed that if the officers and soldiers could understand the orders, then they would be able to carry them out better.

"So we need to get the righteousness and the support of the Burmese people, so we need a new Burmese king, who can make an agreement with the temples as the Burmese king, grant these temples a large amount of land, and also promise the monks that the temples will be exempt from tax if the chaos is rectified." Deng Ming believes that tax exemption is a powerful means of gaining the support of the temple in the short term, but also hurting Burma's national power in the long term, so that Burma can no longer pose a threat to China's southern borders - if Burma is impoverished by the tax exemption policy for the privileged classes, China may be able to get its hands on the entire Lijiang Valley.

After hearing that Deng Ming planned to give tax exemption to some people in Burma, the clever Ming army officers applauded the case, and the more generous ones also understood under the explanation of their companions. However, most people felt that this policy might not last long, and that the Burmese king would be a re-believer in Buddhism, and no matter how much help he received from the monks this time, it was unlikely that he would tolerate the indefinite expansion of a hereditary, highly privileged religious group.

"So this Burmese king must be young, preferably a child, and until he grows up, he doesn't have to expect him to unite people's hearts and suppress the temple; After more than ten years, the temple is full of wings, and we should have recovered a lot of rivers and mountains by then. Deng Ming thinks that what everyone said is reasonable, and he has also considered these problems in advance, anyway, as long as Burma can not cause chaos behind the Ming army in the past ten years, and provide support materials for the Ming army: "In addition to the problem of our military strength and national strength, we cannot blatantly annex subject countries, otherwise it will only make Annan and other countries afraid, and maybe it will push them to the Manchu Qing Dynasty." Our current expedition to Burma is to set things right and survive the dead. ”

"Well, so this Burmese king must be the son of Mangda, and preferably not too old." Zhao Tianba said approvingly, but Mangda's prince was also thrown into Lijiang by Mangbai and his parents and drowned, and I heard that there were concubines who gave birth to children, but this kind of dangerous person must also be under Mangbai's control now: "Is there a suitable one?" It's hard to find, right? ”

"Why is it hard to find? I've found it. Deng Ming replied proudly, and then asked a soldier to bring the next Burmese king and prime minister to the officers of the Sichuan army: "Go and bring that not fat old man." ”

"Not fat?" Zhao Tianba asked curiously.

"Well, it's the mahouter, the guy who cried like a tearful man when he died." Deng Ming didn't know the Burmese name at first, but when he saw that he was thin and tall, he gave him this code name: "He will be the next Prime Minister of Burma, his name is very difficult to remember, I will give him a name that is easy for us to remember, huh...... It's good to call Pang Gao. ”

Pang Gaoneng left a deep impression on Deng Ming, mainly because he did dig a big pit to bury his elephant by himself, and after learning about this, Deng Ming commented to the guards around him: "In the face of the enemy's broadsword, he can risk his life to protect the corpse of his elephant brother, and dig a pit tirelessly so that his elephant brother can sink into the ground...... If a person can be so kind to his elephant, then he should be treated preferentially, and we can expect him to repay this kindness in the future, right? ”

Pang Gao led a boy into the camp tent, and when he saw the Ming army officers in the first battalion, he looked nervous and scared.

"Is this your eldest son?" Deng Ming asked.

After listening to the translator's words, Pang Gao nodded to Deng Ming busily, he was a citizen of Hedong, after crossing the river with other captives of the Sichuan army a few days ago, Deng Ming called him to inquire, and after learning that he had a five-year-old healthy boy, Deng Ming asked a few Ming soldiers to go home with him and bring his eldest son over.

Deng Ming pulled the child from his father's hand to him and showed him to all the officers of the Ming army: "Gentlemen, this is the son of the former king of Burma...... Well, the son of recklessness is reckless. ”

There was a buzz in the camp, and Zhao Tianba jumped up: "Dashuai, isn't this the eldest son of Pang Gao?" ”

"It used to be, and it won't be anymore." Deng Ming replied confidently.

At this time, Pang Gao had already understood what Deng Ming was talking about from the translator's mouth, and fell to his knees with a pop, kowtowing to Deng Ming while shouting something.

"No need to translate, I know what he's talking about." Deng Ming waved his hand to stop the Burmese Chinese who was acting as a translator from relaying.

"Dashuai, didn't you say that we have to fight for righteousness and survive for Mangda?" Zhao Tianba's voice was so loud that it almost shook the roof of the tent.

"So he had to be reckless." Deng Ming said without changing his face, and pointed to the child in front of him: "As long as the whole world knows that he is the son of Mangda, then isn't it survival for us to help him ascend to the throne?" ”

Even if it is a foreign vassal king, the officers of the Ming army still have a trace of respect for their bloodline in their hearts, although few people are as excited as Zhao Tianba, but most of them muttered in their hearts, I don't know if Deng Ming is doing this too much.

"What about the son of Reckless? Isn't it one nose and two eyes? Besides, before Mang Yinglong, their family was not the king of Burma, and they didn't set themselves up as kings? Deng Ming, unlike the people of this era, did not have the slightest reverence for the noble bloodline, and he said loudly: "The prince will have a kind of Xiangning? ”

……

When the first group of monks from the temple arrived, Deng Ming introduced Pang Gao and Mangru to them, and he pointed to Pang Gao and sighed: "This righteous man is the mahouter of your previous king, and his son is the same age as the reckless little prince...... I have long heard that Myanmar is the land of loyalty and righteousness, and the country blessed by the Buddha, and I am really impressed by such righteous people. ”

At the same time, there was also a blood letter from Mangda's deathbed, in which Pang Gao was appointed as the prime minister to assist Mangda in avenging his hatred and regaining the throne; After displaying the edict of the Burmese king, Deng Ming asked Pang Gao to read lines with the monks, asking the monks to publicize it to the people, so that the people knew that the Ming army was here to avenge Mangda, and Pang Gao also assured the temples in the name of the auxiliary prime minister: as long as they supported the Ming army to fight the rebels, they would be rewarded with a large amount of land, which was not only transferred from the name of the Burmese king to the name of the temple, but also could be bought and sold without paying taxes. In addition, if the Burmese donate land to the temple in the future, it will also be a temple property that does not need to pay taxes.

In addition to the temples, all Burmese who participated in the army were also given a private piece of land, and from now on the Burmese king had no right to take it back and distribute it separately. Pang Gao was willing to swear to abide by this contract in front of the gods and Buddhas on behalf of the king, and the Baoguo Gong of the Ming Kingdom was also willing to testify.

As for the Burmese army and officials, they had always been held by high-ranking samurai, so they had always been controlled by the aristocracy, but now Pang Gao promised that in the future, the appointment of these ministers, military officers, and even magistrates would be elected by the temples, and the local judicial power would also be handed over to the monks.

This will undoubtedly touch the interests of the high-ranking samurai class, but the high-ranking samurai in Burma are basically on the side of Mangbai, and they have been killed by the Ming army, so they are not only greatly damaged but also unlikely to be bought. Anyway, with the agitation and propaganda of the monks, plus the division of the land of the Burmese king, Deng Ming felt that he could still build a political shelf.

After Pang Gao sang these scenes openly, Deng Ming personally went down to negotiate with these religious leaders.

"In the previous war, hundreds of soldiers in our army killed Mangbai's tens of thousands of troops without leaving a piece of armor, you should know that I didn't lie, Mangbai definitely don't want to sit in the position of the king of Burma." Deng Ming said openly and honestly: "I think you all know very well that this place is far away from the Celestial Empire, and if it weren't for the reckless imprisonment of the emperor, we would not have sent troops; Although we have sent troops now, we can't stay here for long, we will return home after ousting Mangbai from the throne, and we must ensure that he will never make a comeback, whoever can help the Celestial Empire do this, the Celestial Empire will support whoever controls the Burmese government. ”

The religious leaders whispered for a while, but no one took the lead in responding to Deng Ming.

"You have something to worry about, as you may say."

"Do the Heavenly Soldiers want us to help recruit troops and raise food?" A monk asked cautiously.

"Yes, that's why I came up with such a compensation plan, the land used to be the king of Burma, and it will be yours in the future; In the past, the local officials were appointed by the king of Burma, but in the future, you have the final say, are you still dissatisfied? The sky won't drop meat buns for nothing. ”

After a day and a night of detailed discussions, most of the monks, village chiefs, and local Hao clan chiefs understood Deng Ming's plan, but they still had one more worry: "If Mang Bai releases the emperor, will the heavenly soldiers withdraw their troops?" ”

"No, we will never abandon our friends," Deng Ming replied flatly, "Mangbai will definitely be deposed, even if we talk to him for the time being, the purpose is to finally depose him." ”

"What if the emperor gives an order to the prince? What if the emperor pardoned Mangbai? A Burmese elder asked this question very inadvertently, the strong combat effectiveness of the Ming army before made the surrounding Burmese elites no longer doubt who would be the victor, but the problem is that this victor is unlikely to be permanent in Burma - this is certainly a good aspect, that is, the rights will still be taken back by the Burmese collaborators, but the danger is that if Mangbai chooses to cooperate, and the Ming army decides to change the collaborators, then these Burmese who contributed will be considered dead.

This question is obviously a bit sharp, so as soon as this elder's words came out, it attracted a lot of reproachful eyes, the Chinese are famous for being loyal and patriotic, at least verbally, so doesn't such a question force the other party to reserve a way out?

"Then I won't obey the edict," Deng Ming replied without thinking about it, and the Chinese in charge of the translation were stunned, and only after half a ring did they come back and hurriedly narrate Deng Ming's words to the Burmese people: "Even if the emperor orders me, I can't violate the agreement with you." ”