Deng Ming found that just as the subordinate had reported, an elephant was lying on its side on the ground, dead for a long time, and next to the hill-like animal, a Burmese man who looked less than thirty was wailing, holding the head of the dead elephant, and petting the elephant incessantly, as gentle as if he were caressing his lover's face.

"I cried so hard that I felt a little sad," a Ming army officer said to Deng Ming. After several years of persistent education, these younger generation of standing officers and soldiers used the self-title "I" more and more frequently in front of Deng Ming: "This Burmese man is shouting a sentence over and over again, and the translation says, 'Don't eat it.'" ”

Deng Ming looked around and saw a few Burmese captives in the distance looking at him, and it was estimated that they were all mahouts who had been found, and their faces were full of sympathy and sorrow.

"This elephant is dead, but the other elephants are not dead." The officer who had just sent soldiers to report to Deng Ming came over and said to Deng Ming: "The elephant's meat is not tasty, so in my opinion, forget it." ”

"Your mouths are too tricky, this is meat, and you still have to pick and choose when you have meat to eat!" Deng Ming shook his head and sighed. I remember that two years ago, the officers and soldiers of the Standing Army died one by one when they saw meat, and now they actually dislike the old elephant meat...... Well, Deng Ming also admitted that elephant meat is not delicious, it is very untasty. Now in the Lijiang River valley area, there are river fish and other livestock, and the Ming army plans to use elephant meat to make jerky just in case.

Deng Ming's words reminded the soldiers of the Ming army of the hard days in the first half of their lives, and they immediately stopped talking. But when Deng Ming spoke again, he unexpectedly did not give an order to insist on making the elephant into jerky: "Looking at this person's age, this elephant should not be too old, the elephant that depends on each other is dead, if he eats his elephant brother in front of him again, it seems that it is indeed too cruel." ”

Calling the Burmese mahout man in front of him, Deng Ming looked up and down - the mahout man generally has a good family background, and there are elephants as mounts in and out, and he seems to be somewhat rich compared to other people of this era, but this man is not fat at all, and he is tall and thin. Deng asked the interpreter to ask him what he was going to do with the elephant's carcass, if it was left untouched in the wild, even if it was not eaten, it would be cheap for wild dogs and vultures. The Burmese wiped away his tears and cautiously replied that he wanted to dig a pit to bury his elephant.

"What a big pit is this?" Deng Ming exclaimed.

When the interpreter translated Deng Ming's suspicions, the Burmese swore that he was particularly good at digging holes.

"Okay, cheap bacteria." After Deng Ming finished speaking, the interpreter did not immediately speak to the Burmese people, but cast an inquiring gaze, obviously not understanding. Deng Ming waved his hand and said to the translator: "I agreed, I won't eat his elephants, but he has to dig this pit himself." ”

……

Bianya Jian fled from the West Bank camp before the Ming army could continue its offensive. After completing the set goal, the Ming army was divided into two, and Deng Ming returned to the east bank with the 8,000 Sichuan Western Army; Before Di Sanxi followed him across the river, Deng Ming seriously explained to him: "General Di, if your sons want to be comfortable and happy, then stay on the west bank, there will be some military discipline constraints on my side." ”

Deng Ming did not intend to be completely laissez-faire to the army like Bai Wenxuan, and if he didn't make it clear in advance, it would be useless for the Western Sichuan Army to exercise self-restraint at that time, and Di Sanxi's subordinates would be able to stir up trouble along the way. Moreover, there is a bad example of the Jianchang army, and it is estimated that the Sichuan army will also be affected, and once a large-scale violation of military discipline occurs, Deng Ming will face a dilemma.

Di Sanxi immediately patted his chest and assured that he would definitely abide by Deng Ming's military discipline. But before the words came out, Di Sanxi regretted it a little, most of the people he brought were auxiliary soldiers who had been angry all day in Jianchang, and now they finally entered the territory of the barbarians, and it was strange that the auxiliary soldiers did not look for Yi Di Saqi ten times or a hundred times; Although the number of cavalry is small, in addition to the guards of the Qingyang Palace, they are the cronies of the Jianchang generals, and their father and brother entrust their juniors to Di Sanxi to take care of, if they die on the battlefield, it will be fine, if they kill a few Yi Di and are engaged in Deng Ming's military law, what is the matter?

So Di Sanxi said that he needed to go back and consult with the brothers. Deng Ming said that despite the discussion, no matter whether the journey is in Hedong or Hexi, this comradeship will not change, and if you reluctantly walk together, it will be easy to hurt your feelings. After discussing with his subordinates, those Jianchang soldiers were unwilling to be restrained, so Di Sanxi came to discuss with Deng Ming again, saying that they might as well act in unison with King Gongchang.

Deng Ming also couldn't ask for this decision, although he hinted that the other party's own military law was strict, but if the Jianchang Army violated his own military discipline, Deng Ming would really not be able to punish him. They are all the troops of King Qin, can Deng Ming really get along for the subjects of the enemy country and the soldiers of his own country? In the final analysis, Deng Ming positioned himself as an imperialist X-ist, and when the time came, he knew that there would be troubles, so he could only think of other solutions.

"Send messengers to inform the villages along the way and ask them to provide food and fodder for our army. Whoever fulfills the demands of our army, that is, the Burmese loyal men who have the king's heart in their hearts, I will not send troops into their villages. After returning to the east bank, Deng Ming immediately asked his subordinates to prepare a text and a list of texts, and inform the people around the valley of the purpose and requirements of the Ming army.

"Who is the most influential person in Myanmar?" The right to speak in China is in the hands of the gentry, but here in Burma, Deng Ming does not know whether it is a nobleman, a samurai or someone else.

The Chinese told Sù Deng that most Burmese people are religious people, and if they have time, they want to be able to go to the nearby temple twice a day to get closer to the gods and Buddhas.

"It turned out to be a monk." Deng Ming faintly believed that religion was the enemy of science, and if he wanted to make the motherland rich and strong, science was the only choice, so Deng Ming spared no effort to eliminate the influence of religion among the common people and the army in western Sichuan. However, this is Burma, and Deng Ming has no reason to be a pioneer of science in Burma: "Immediately send a list to the surrounding temples, I, the Governor of the Ming Dynasty, the Duke of Baoguo, and the Governor of the Yangtze River, am also a devout believer." This time the crime of hanging the people is the survival of the previous kings of Burma, and they urgently need the blessing of gods and Buddhas; Therefore, I sincerely ask the monks to come to the army to interview me, pray for the blessing of our army, and lead the men and women of faith in their temples to pray for our victory. We will protect their temples and estates, and will not allow any soldiers to harass the monks and their devotees. ”

"Yes." The officers replied one after another, if there is anyone here who does not know that the commander of the Yangtze River has a completely opposite face in addition to this smiling face, then he is not a qualified emperor: "What about those monks who refuse to come to see the commander and refuse to pray for the blessing of our army?" ”

"I have long heard that Myanmar is a country blessed by the Buddha, and the first king Mangda is the reincarnation of gods and Buddhas like the previous Burmese kings, so anyone who resists our army is a Buddha enemy dressed as a monk." Deng Ming sneered: "What else is polite to the enemy of the Buddha?" The temple property was not replenished for military supplies, and the first evil was beheaded, and if the coercion was repentant, he could not ask, and the land was distributed to the poor people around. ”

The lieutenant officer took the order and left. Soon Deng Ming realized that he had made a mistake of taking for granted, and the Chinese told him that the local temple did not own the land. Because Myanmar practiced a land system similar to that of the Qin Dynasty and Wang Mang's new dynasty, the land belonged to the king, and the king's officials allocated land to the people, and then collected the output as a tax. Burmese households pay the full amount of taxes and serve conscription, the low-level military households serve in the military and pay the same taxes as civilian households, and the middle-level military households pay only about a quarter of the taxes of civilian households, making them the backbone of the Burmese army. The high-ranking samurai class, on the other hand, were exempt from taxation, and they had their own war elephants and mahouts, and were generals and officers in the Burmese army.

"Is the King of Burmese who formulated this system the reincarnation of Wang Mang?" Deng Ming laughed when he heard this. All the land of the Qin Dynasty was owned by the king, and this system was actually a copy of slavery, which was fiercely opposed by the people of the Six Kingdoms after it was forced to be implemented throughout the country, which was one of the important reasons for the demise of Qin II; Wang Mang wanted to restore the Qin system and plunder the private property of the world as the king's property, but he didn't even survive the second emperor: "I didn't expect Burma to be like this, it's easy to do, we will be liberators." ”

……

Even before the report of the defeat of Bianya Jian reached Wacheng, the Burmese monarchs and ministers already knew the outcome of the defeat. A large number of corpses descended the Lijiang River, and even Ava, who was far away from the front, could see the corpses floating in front of the city every day; There were more places upstream, and the river was full of soaked and swollen fallen soldiers, and those samurai in heavy armor sank to the bottom of the river, without even a chance of being discovered.

When the official battle report of Bianya Jian arrived in Ava, the Burmese royal palace was silent, and the elite main forces of northern Burma had all been lost in this battle, and it was no longer possible to block the Ming army's attack in the field.

"King, although we locked up the Ming monarch and ministers, we did not harm them." In the curse of water, Mu Tianbo snatched a knife from the Burmese soldiers and hacked several Burmese soldiers to death, but the Burmese side finally decided to swallow this breath, after all, the remnants of the Ming still controlled Yunnan, and there was no need to execute an important Chinese official like Mu Tianbo for a few soldiers.

The faction that did not support Mang Bai to take tough measures against the Yongli court in exile finally dared to express their attitude: "Since the Ming army is here for their emperor, then send the great emperor back, and they are willing to strike the army, right?" ”

Mangbai, who was sitting on the Avajin Temple, did not say a word, but the other faction shouted loudly, believing that this would only fuel the arrogance of the Ming army. Although the defeat of Bianya Jian was frightening, the hardliners had little room to retreat, they seized the palace and dependents of the Ming Dynasty in exile, and several concubines of the Yongli Emperor hanged themselves in the chaos, how could this hatred be dissipated lightly? Once the Great Tomorrow Son got out of trouble and returned to the Ming army, how could he not give the order to continue the attack?

Seeing that Mangbai's henchmen scolded one after another, both the Lord and the faction quickly closed their mouths in amusement.

"King, since it is the Ming army, they will always listen to their emperor's words, right?" A henchman of the main battle said loudly to Mang Bai.