Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 722 The Prelude to the Great Expansion 3
At this time, Annan's territory was far less than that of later generations. They could effectively rule only North Vietnam. In the south, which was far more fertile than the north, it was ruled by Champa and Khmer. An Indochina Peninsula version of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was staged on the Internet. The war between Annan, Champa and Khmer lasted for thousands of years.Today's thousand-year-old country Champa is dying under the pressure of Vietnam and Khmer, the two powerful countries. Just like Byzantium on the eve of its demise, only one country is still in its own hands, but the Khmer people also have Chenla, an ancient country with a thousand-year history, is still alive and kicking, ruling the rich Mekong Delta. Annan has coveted this land for a long time, but he has never been able to get it. The delta area launched a strong expansion.

Here we must introduce the above three living fossils.The reason why they are called living fossils is that the history of these three countries can be traced back to the Qin and Han Dynasties. The Champa Kingdom took advantage of the decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty to stand on its own. Due to its unique location, it became the meeting point of Han culture and Indian culture. Enjoying the benefits of maritime trade in Asia and the Middle East, they soon became rich and powerful. By the time of the Sui Dynasty, they were already the dominant family. They wanted to wrestle with the Central Plains Dynasty——and then they were beaten.Chenla is the predecessor of Cambodia, but its territory is much larger than the current Cambodia. At that time, the territory of Chenla included the Mekong River Delta, the whole of Cambodia and most of Laos. The part of Laos was called "Water Chenla". ".Not to mention Annan, who was conquered by Fubo General Ma Yuan as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, but broke away from China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and broke out many wars with Annan in the Northern Song Dynasty. They all ended in failure and were unable to unify Annan. Can let go.After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Song Dynasty, it launched many conquests against Annan, which also ended in failure. In the Ming Dynasty, the Great Demon King Zhu Di sent the Ming army to invade Annan during the civil strife in Annan, killing blood into rivers, and finally conquered Annan. After Zhu Di's death, Annan rose up to make trouble again, and finally expelled the Ming army, regained independence... and then continued to fight against Champa and Chenla.These three brothers are really good friends, they have been in love and killing each other for more than 1000 years and they are not tired of it.

Today's Annan is also in a state of division. The two major families of the Ruan family and the Zheng family ruled the southern and northern parts of Annan respectively. , also began to be around the corner.It's just that these three good friends don't know that their happy time of loving and killing each other can't last long, because the millstone of civilization in Asia that has been turning for thousands of years has started to turn rumblingly again, this time it's not the same. Know how many language groups, how many races will be crushed by it!

Wang Rui and Qin Mai chose to attack Vietnam, not because they were overzealous, it was planned long ago.Yang Menglong once promised to give a piece of land to ethnic minorities such as Miao, Zhuang, and Yao, and the fanatical atmosphere of rushing Miao to the mountains in the Ming Dynasty doomed that these ethnic minorities would not be able to develop and grow in the country. The policy, from the beginning to the end, is mainly based on repression, and the drive of seedlings to the mountains is still a spontaneous organization of the people, which runs through the history of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.He had an idea: there is still a large piece of land in Yunnan and Guangxi, just take it over!Under his instructions, Wang Rui and Qin Mai retreated all the way to Annan, recruiting a large number of ethnic minorities to join the army wherever they went. On the eve of their entry into Annan, the number of ethnic minorities who joined the army was already more than 40. Scary numbers.These mountain people are definitely not able to cause any storms in the territory of Ming Dynasty, but it is difficult to say in the territory of Annan. Wang Rui is fighting while opening the road. He is advancing quickly in the mountains and mountains in the north of Annan. Nothing can stop them from advancing. pace of.In just one month, they wiped out Tongdeng and Gaoping, and went straight to Lang Son. Annan's army reported to the superior:

"These barbarians are extremely well-equipped. They generally wear leather and rattan armor, a helmet with a ferocious shape and horns, and are equipped with strong bows and crossbows with pulleys. They have extremely long range and great power. Their main force The army is generally equipped with a kind of muzzle that can be equipped with a short sword. It is very accurate. It can hit the head of our soldiers within [-] steps, and the one who hits it will be killed immediately. When fighting with the main force of our army, they usually will With this army equipped with muskets as the main force, they marched towards us in three or six rows, and when they approached sixty steps, they raised their guns and fired in turn. They seem to be sweeping down one by one... Normally they will fight two rounds. In the first round, the soldiers will take turns to shoot, and after finishing shooting, they will automatically retreat and reload. After the last row is finished shooting, they will fire again, and in the second round, they will not retreat. Instead of reloading, squat down after shooting, let the queue behind open fire, and then jump up when all the queues are fired, rushing towards us with a firecracker equipped with a short sword, stabbing anyone we see, and throwing Send out a powerful thunderbolt, every time we throw it, several of our soldiers will be blown up. After defeating our army, these gunners will re-arrange, and their poor discipline but extremely fierce The second-line troops wielding steel knives and spears will rush over, chasing our fleeing soldiers like maggots attached to the bones in the mountains and forests, cutting off their heads and hanging them around their waists... on big trees, on hills, in paddy fields Here, you can see these savages holding their bloody heads and shouting wildly everywhere, that scene is really more terrifying than the blood pool in hell!"

"They are also equipped with a very powerful cannon, which can fire terrifying thunder and destroy everything. Our villages and city walls are like tofu dregs in front of this kind of cannon, and they will fall down with one blow. But this kind of cannon is generally used in field battles Or attack our villages on the strongest fortresses, which are seldom used against us. In besieging our villages, the savages use a kind of iron barrel to shoot dynamite packs, each of which contains a large amount of explosives. , there are also a large number of iron nails and gravel, which are extremely powerful, and a few such iron barrels can easily knock down our wall, and then their infantry swarmed up and started killing."

"We still haven't been able to figure out how many people they have. Their size is really amazing. Our scouts hid on their attack route for three days and three nights, and their terrifying flow of people was also on the road. It flowed for three days and three nights, and we could never see the head. Every moment we could see barbarians walking by with their withered heads hanging from their waists, talking and laughing. Our scouts were almost going crazy with fear. We only knew , in just one month, more than 300 of our villages were razed to the ground, six cities were massacred, and more than 30 people were either made prisoners or turned into heads hanging from their waists... They seemed to never be able to They will be tired of killing, and will never be tired of living in the open air. As long as they still have strength, they will always move forward with arms. Wherever they pass, it is difficult for any living thing to survive..."

Some generals simply reported: "The invasion of the Ming Dynasty, both in terms of scale and strength, is far superior to that of the Yongle period. Annan is facing the crisis of subjugation and extinction!" Only 30 troops were dispatched, but this time there were more than 50, and it is still increasing rapidly———— Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, and even Sichuan have countless ethnic minorities and bankrupt farmers who have heard the news and joined their ranks In the war during the Yongle period, Zhu Di just wanted to occupy Vietnam, but this time, this army composed of countless ethnic minorities wanted to wipe out the Vietnamese ethnic group, leaving no one behind!The mountain people in the northern mountainous area of ​​Annan fled to the north like wildebeest to escape the military disaster. The unbelieving Annan army assembled 52 troops and [-] war elephants in the Lang Son area to meet the aggressive Huguangyi army. Go to the front line to supervise the battle in person, trying to annihilate this group of mobs in one battle.

Then he witnessed Annan's massacre on a scale unprecedented in history.

In this battle, Annan's regular army alone numbered as many as [-], and the number of village militiamen who came to help the battle also reached [-] to [-], with a total strength of nearly [-] and a large number of war elephants. Like a single charge, those mobs can be crushed, and what follows is bound to be a massacre!The facts also confirmed their conjectures. The war elephants overwhelmed a large army, and then the battle turned into a massacre.It's just that the objects of being washed out and slaughtered are all wrong.

Wang Rui commanded the main force of the army to arrive as scheduled.Of course, it is impossible for him to put tens of 10 people, regardless of age, into the battlefield. The number of troops he dispatched in this battle is only more than 3.The main force of the Huguangyi Army, the Eight Thousand Firearms Battalion organized with the officers of the Heluo New Army as the backbone, invested 26. The artillery battalion had 85 3mm howitzers, and 2000 of them were put into battle. There are as many as [-] auxiliary corps composed of young people from ethnic and other ethnic groups.Looking at the Annan army full of pits and valleys, many people felt drums in their hearts.Annan's army saw that Wang Rui's strength was only one-third of their own, and they couldn't help underestimating the enemy. With an order, dozens of war elephants roared wildly and rushed towards Wang Rui. When they ran, even the ground shook. .Wang Rui had been prepared for a long time. With an order, thousands of Yao soldiers marched out with six-meter long guns. When the elephants approached, they lit the cartridges tied to the guns one after another.The cartridge spewed sparks several meters long, and sparks spewed towards the war elephant like a fountain. One or two might not be very good, but thousands of long guns spewed fire at the same time, which looked like a sea of ​​flames.The war elephants were frightened at once, turned around and ran away one after another, and rushed into the Annan army formation. Under the rampage, I don't know how many Annan soldiers were trampled into flesh.Wang Rui took the opportunity to order the howitzers to fire. Twenty howitzers fired at the same time. Rows of shells fell, and Annan's army was thrown into chaos.Taking advantage of this opportunity, more than [-] grenadier cavalry galloped out, braved the rain of arrows, and rushed to the front of Annan's army. Tongues of orange-red flames burst out from the muzzle of the gun, and the sound of gunshots sounded like beans bursting, and Annan's soldiers fell down in rows.The musketeer battalion was divided into six rows and fired in turn. Each round of salvo would kill hundreds of people, and they stopped shooting until the barrels were so hot that they could no longer be reloaded.As soon as Annan’s army was in shock, they saw a forest of steel rushing towards them—— [-] pikemen lined up in [-] rows holding six-meter-long spears, rolling over the ground full of dead bodies and rushing into the Annan's army began to rush through the candied haws in the formation.At the same time, the two thousand grenadier cavalry also pulled out their sabers, rushed to the rear of Annan's army, and slaughtered those militiamen and civilian husbands who didn't even have a pair of leather armor. Langshan was covered in blood...

Standing on the watchtower of Lang Son City, the Patriarch of the Zheng family could only see that outside the city, his army was surrounded by barbarian troops far smaller than himself. The tattooed barbarian army had seized almost all the high ground, condescendingly throwing stones Weapons, compound bows, crossbows, and even grenades harvested life to their heart's content. Sharp arrows were like rain, flying rocks were dense like locusts passing through, and grenades fell down in rows. All efforts to regain the high ground were mercilessly crushed.Annan's army was compressed in a plain with a width of only three kilometers in the center of the battlefield, crowded with people, like lambs surrounded by wolves in a sheepfold.The [-] spearmen were unstoppable, rolling forward layer by layer. Annan's army was too crowded, and most of them didn't even have room to wield their weapons. One was stabbed, and finally it was his turn... He looked ashen, grabbed the collar of the coach who was also pale, and shouted: "Didn't you say that they are just a group of refugees, a group of mobs? How can a mob have such high organizational skills?" , how can there be such a strong combat power!?" Pushing this trash with all his might, he let out a heart-rending wail towards the battlefield where the mountains of corpses and seas of blood were on the battlefield: "My army! Give me back my army!! !"

Now that no one can rescue his army from that terrible purgatory, the only thing he can do is to take advantage of the one-sided massacre and flee with the defenders of Lang Son City, otherwise he will be killed. Every head will be the enemy's trophies.

The massacre did not last long, and ended in just one day. Nearly 7 Annan troops, [-] were killed on the spot, and less than [-] militiamen remained. Sold to Guangdong.After this battle, more than half of the soldiers capable of fighting in the north of Annan were lost, and more than forty generals who were quite famous in Annan were killed. Lang Son was declared lost, and Thang Long City, the capital of Vietnam, was exposed to the soldiers.

At the same time, a massacre was also staged on the Red River Plain. Qin Mai led 3 Miao troops to a battle with the Annan Army, which was twice as large as himself. He taught the Annan Army a vivid lesson. Howitzers and rockets fired at the same time The Annan army was blasted into a mess, and then the iron cavalry charged and swept the Annan army's rear. Got heads rolling.It's not over yet, there are still a full [-] spearmen behind, like a pair of open iron pincers, attacking the left and right wings of Annan's army... The seamless connection of multiple arms is truly achieved, and the boxing skills honed in several provinces Unable to withstand such a sharp offensive, Annan's army completely collapsed in one round, and the battle immediately turned into a massacre. The blood of more than [-] Annan soldiers stained the Red River.

After the battle, Qin Mai was drenched in blood, and smiled at the general of the Miao family who had also become a blood man: "I said that the Annan people's combat effectiveness is very weak, but the land is very fat. Did I lie to you?" The land was splattered with blood: "From now on, the Red River Plain belongs to us!"

The Miao wolf soldiers held their horizontal knives and spears high, waved the severed heads high, and even drank the blood of the dead, shouting wildly. Their wild wolf-like howls made the captured Annan soldiers tremble all over.

These two massacre-style battles caused the loss of Annan's and North's available soldiers. Annan's army lost the courage to fight against the wolf soldiers.They naively believed that the supplies carried by the wolf army were limited, and they had to retreat when their food and grass ran out. They used this method to exhaust the Yuan army and the Ming army.

However, these unlucky reminders seem to have forgotten that the Miao, Yao and other ethnic groups are farming experts. They also forgot that the main crop in Annan is Champa rice. A major feature of this rice is its short growth cycle, from sowing to harvesting. It only takes two months, and the Red River Plain is a famous rice planting area in Asia...

Strong walls and clear fields?Stick to your grandma!
After joining forces in the Red River Plain, the wolf army temporarily stopped advancing. While besieging Thang Long, Haiphong and other cities with the army, they cleaned up the remaining Annan villages in the rear and eliminated those annoying guerrillas.The youths who had no combat missions began to plow the fields and sow rice with the cattle they had snatched from the Annan people.For a time, elder brother Litian and younger sister were delivering meals everywhere on the Honghe Plain, and beautiful love songs echoed in the sky.

Seeing that the enemy army built houses and cultivated land on the Red River Plain, and there was a tendency to settle down there, the Annan army huddled in the city was completely dumbfounded.

If you do this, who will kill whom?

(End of this chapter)