Under the order of the officer, the soldiers of Shun Army returned to their posts. Zhang Qi waved his hand to call a clever messenger, and told him to dictate the situation here, so that he could record it clearly, and then ordered him to return to Xingai and report the military information to Badu. The messenger had just finished retelling, and Zhang Qi suddenly heard someone behind him, "Preserve the flag, someone ran out of the city gate, ran towards us."

Zhang Qi quickly turned around, pulled out the telescope from his waist, and looked in the direction of his fingers. Sure enough, a group of people ran towards him from the city gate, with men and women inside. From the outside, they were not attacking defenders, but more like fleeing people.

"Sir, do you want to fire?" Zhang Qi heard a sound of pulling the bullets on the bolts. The position they occupied was a small mound with a good view. According to the speed of the people running, it would enter the range of the outpost rifle in two minutes.

"No!" Zhang Qi put down the telescope: "From the telescope, these people should not be carrying weapons, and there are women, children and children inside. They should be fleeing people. You can bring a few people over to catch the living and bring them over, just in time to inquire about the situation in Mandalay City."

"Yes!" The whistle stood up straight, saluted, and turned around and took six or seven soldiers down. Zhang Qi ordered the gunner behind him to aim at the city gate, load the shells, and prepare to shoot reinforcements that might appear at any time. Then he carefully observed the escaped person with a telescope.

A moment later, the whistle came to Zhang Qi with three panting people. Zhang Qi was surprised to find that although these people were dark in skin and dressed similarly to those of the Burmese people, they should be Dashun people from their faces and manners. Before he could ask, the whistle said with anger: "Palm Flags, these are my Dashun people. My Burmese barbarians burned, killed, looted, and attacked us Chinese. They also said that their king had already rewarded all the Chinese and their property in the city to their soldiers. They changed to Burmese barbarians and took advantage of our shelling, and then they escaped after the chaos in the city!"

Zhang Qi frowned slightly and began to ask the three escapees who had already knelt on the ground. Soon he confirmed from their accents and answers that they were indeed Sichuan people, and they were doing grocery business in Myanmar. Zhang Qi knew that many Sichuan merchants were doing various businesses in Myanmar, and some even married and had children in Myanmar, and settled for several generations. Although he also knew that when the two countries were fighting, it was extremely common for the people living in other countries to encounter such fate, but looking at the scarred bodies of these people and the frightened bird-like expression, he felt a little sorry for him. He asked about the situation in the city, and ordered them to go down and rest, then recruited the messenger and whispered: "You have seen the situation here just now. Go back to Xingai quickly and report the situation here to the brigade. Do you know?"

Xingai, this market town has become a huge barracks. Shunjun soldiers recruited some civilians and oxen, demolished most of the buildings in the market town except warehouses, used these to build two multi-faceted forts on the high ground outside the market town, dug trenches around the multi-faceted forts, and built chest walls for infantry use. Outside the market town, the shrubs and bamboo fences were reinforced with earth walls. Badu was preparing to deploy his only eight 75mm mountain cannons in the market town, and used multi-faceted forts as observation posts and flags.

Yulai commands artillery shooting. Although the shooting effect is poor, it can avoid being overwhelmed by the enemy's number of artillery soldiers, and give full play to its own training and quality advantages. Although Badu is very clear that the artillery possessed in the Myanmar army is very backward, he is not sure whether the British provided any advanced artillery during this period, but he firmly believes that the Shun Army artillery has an overwhelming advantage over the Myanmar army in terms of quality. The main infantry is repaired and standby, which is very necessary for a long journey.

But what disappointed Badu and Chen Zaixing was that although after they took the banner of the son of the previous king, the surrounding Burmese tyrants did not have the latter to vote. It seems that the pseudo king had made full use of the past few months to control the surrounding Mandalay. The peasants in the nearby villages fled one after another. The manpower and material resources obtained by the Shun Army were very limited. If it were not for the large amount of food in the warehouse when they captured Xingai, the Shun Army would probably have no food. But this was not a solution. After all, as time passed, the power of the pseudo king would continue to increase. Badu and Chen Zaixing agreed that after getting the necessary rest, they must launch an attack on Mandalay as soon as possible.

"You mean, the pseudo-king summoned a large number of peasants and gave them weapons. They also massacred Chinese merchants in the city and distributed their property to the soldiers to inspire morale!" Badou looked at the messenger with a frown, and Chen Zaixing sat aside with a bright look.

"Yes, sir! Although the Burmese barbarians are very large, they are nothing great. We fired seven or eight shells and killed hundreds of them, scared away several times the enemy, and even the city gates were open. No one dared to close them, just open it. If it weren't for the flag, we would have already rushed in!" The messenger replied excitedly.

"Well! You go down and get the reward first!" Badu made a gesture, and at this time, only he and Chen Zaixing were left in the room. He thought for a moment and asked in a low voice: "It seems that the fake king is also caught off guard, I'm afraid he's confused!"

"That's right!" Chen Zaixing agreed: "He attacked and killed our merchants, causing chaos. He was afraid that there would be some people in the city who would be rich, and the monks and temples would be secretly disheartened: Today can kill Chinese merchants to fill the evil soldiers, but how could they know that it would not be their turn tomorrow? Things in the world are easy to be in chaos and uneasy. That guy was not in a right position, but he was doing so so, and he was really self-destructive. In my opinion, select a few exquisite and capable people from the escaped merchants and guides, and give them a reward to return to the city, discuss with the monks and the knowledgeable people in the city, and there will be miraculous results."

"Not bad!" Badu nodded and said, "But those people probably only know the two ends of the rat. At most, they will only cause trouble after we gain an advantage on the battlefield."

"Have you ever been hunting for an eagle?" Chen Zaixing said with a smile: "The fake king thought that rewarding the soldiers with the money of the merchants would inspire the death battle. Don't he know that after the hawks and falcons are full, they are lazy to attack and cannot be driven. Therefore, the hawks and falcons never let feasts fill up, and at most feed them one or two, otherwise they will not be able to use them. After those Burmese soldiers are full, they must think about their own wealth and have the will to protect themselves. What's the use of millions? Not to mention that in this kind of plunder, some people take more or less, some people take less, and there will be a rift in the army, which is harmful and useless. Our army has driven forward and has no way out. The soldiers can only fight to the death. Compared with the two sides, how can they be invincible?"

Hearing this, Badu had already made up his mind, so he immediately sent an order to ask the baggage team to prepare dry food, pack their luggage, and prepare to set out to attack Mandalay.

The next morning, when the first ray of sunlight appeared on the horizon, the vanguard of the Shun Army left Xingai, followed by the central army, artillery and camel animals transporting supplies at the end. In order to cover up the light rain, soldiers generally wore wide-edged bamboo hats commonly used by locals, walking on the narrow road, with the vast paddy fields on both sides empty, only the sharp chirping of tropical birds from the woods in the distance from time to time, everything seemed so quiet, as if peace had never been broken.

The speed of the Shunjun march was not fast. After walking about seven kilometers at noon, Badu ordered a nearby village to rest and have dinner. On the one hand, it was because the road was very bad, and the more important reason was because Badu didn't want his soldiers to consume too much physical strength in the march. After all, the enemy could appear at any time.

"The road here is terrible, not even the basic drainage ditches or the hardening of the road surface. I can't believe it's only a dozen kilometers away from Mandalay!" Badu complained while drinking fish soup. His trousers' legs were covered with yellow soil.

"Indeed, but this is not a bad thing! After all, this also blocked the invasion of the British, otherwise the enemy we are facing now would probably have groups of 'red-robed soldiers'." Chen Zaixing showed an indifferent look. He spread his long legs and let the fire dry his pants. He smiled and put the bowl of the fish soup aside, and asked: "The palm-drawn brigade, I guess the pseudo-king king has almost received news of our attack now. The fight will start tomorrow. How are you going to fight?"

Bad didn't care and handed the bowl of fish soup to the orderly soldiers beside him, and replied: "Occupy a favorable position, let the Burmese barbarians smash to pieces, and then counterattack, catch or kill the fake king."

"Do you think the other party will act as you imagined? The fake king is not your puppet!"

"Chen Zanhua, the number of troops that the pseudo king can truly restrain and command is very limited. Most of the remaining ones are mobs and peasants who were temporarily recruited. The reason why I was so anxious to attack Mandalay was to not give him enough time to train them and become an army with minimum discipline. These mobs were unable to make the minimum tactical cooperation. You must know that their emotions are always changing in reckless courage and sudden fear. The only thing the pseudo king can do is to bring these guys to the battlefield as orderly as possible, point at the enemy, let them rush up, and then pray to the gods that they can drown us by their number advantage."

Chen Zaixing nodded: "Okay, I admit that what you said makes sense. You should have thought about the specific location, right?"

"Of course!" Badu smiled and took another sip of fish soup, reached out and knocked on his head: "I am not a waste of time at the Malay Massacre Mansion. The terrain near Mandalay is here. Five kilometers ahead, there is a village called Babu. It is really a great position. It is located on a saddle-shaped highland. On the left is a small pond to provide the village's drinking water. If you occupy that village, you can control the road below. I put it in.

Infantry was placed on both sides of the village, and the artillery was placed in a depression in the middle. If the enemy wanted to attack us, they had to cross the rice field. Now there must be muddy, and we can kill them in the mud like ducks. Most of the artillery of the Burmese army were smoothbore guns, and their solid bullets would fall into the mud, which would have no effect on our infantry behind the chest wall. If necessary, we could blow up the pond and flood the Burmese people with water."

Hearing this, Chen Zaixing showed a satisfied smile on his face: "Very good. It seems that my choice is not wrong this time. I promise that if I win this battle, I will definitely talk to you in front of the teacher, so that you can lead the battalion alone after you go back and become the general."

"Take it seriously?" Hearing Chen Zaixing's promise, Ba couldn't help but tremble all over. The hot fish soup splashed in his hand but he didn't realize it. No wonder he was so out of control. It turned out that according to the Dashun military system, hundreds of people were teamed, and the officers were called the flag; there were brigades on the team, and the brigade master was the brigade; there were marks on the brigades, and the brigade master was the brigade; there were marks on the brigades, and the commander was the general. The battalion was the largest organization. If the army fighting exceeded one battalion, he could appease the envoys, recruit envoys, brigades, general managers of the various routes, etc.

Generals and commanders are unified, but these are temporary official positions set up during the war. If there is something to do, they will be abolished. Therefore, the general can be said to be an important step for the military officers of the Shun Dynasty to enter the high-level leadership. Although the official rank was only a brigade when Badu was protecting the Burmese lieutenant's office, he was appointed as an exception. If he was promoted to the general and mastering a battalion of troops, his promotion speed may be no one except the famous generals when he founded the country.

"Of course it is true, I will tell you the truth. If I pacify Myanmar this time and reset the Myanmar guard's office, the imperial court will follow the old rules of Anxi and Shuofang and station troops to open the government. The people in the mansion who were familiar with Myanmar died almost in that disaster. The Yunnan-Guizhou Jiedushi is my master, so I will naturally speak for me. With his support, who can replace you and me?"

Hearing this, Ba was overjoyed and said, "Brother Chen, please see if I break the thief."

Outside Mandalay, there was already a sea of ​​people. After receiving the news of the Chinese attack on Mandalay, the court finally issued an order to send troops to fight. At the forefront were countless farmers, their weapons were bamboo guns, farm tools, bows and arrows. In order to ensure basic order, on both sides of the queue were the leaders of villages riding elephants. They waved their long whips and swayed forcefully above their heads, making sharp sounds to intimidate the villagers and prevent them from escaping. On the top of the crowd were flags of various materials, including cotton, linen, silk, and even a straw mat. This amazing number of mobs slowly moved southward.

Behind the peasants were the regular Burma army, whose number was about 11,000 to 12,000. Their equipment and order were much better than the previous mobs. The soldiers were generally equipped with smoothbore guns, and the soldiers wore black-painted bamboo hats to replace military caps, and arranged a six-man-wide horizontal lineup to advance along the road.

Duncan rode an Indian horse, and he participated in the war as the commander of the new army. He looked back at the elephant herd not far behind him. The Burmese used elephants and buffalo instead of horses to pull these old antiques. Those were the aces that the Burmese king overwhelmed the powerful domestic powers. In Mengji's plan, the artillery team would play an extremely important role in the war against the Chinese. At this time, Duncan couldn't help but flashed through his mind: "Our great king is really a generous collector. He built a living artillery museum, where you can find all the artillery that appeared in human history from the 1870s to the mid-19th century, from Lafayette to Napoleon III. Perhaps the collections in the British Museum are not as rich as his, but it is a bit disrespectful to them on the battlefield now!"
Chapter completed!