The Burmese king finally ran away, leaving behind his carts and carriages, and fled into the jungle in a panic with some princes and ministers, making it impossible for the Ming cavalry to catch up.
However, the Ming cavalry's pursuit still yielded fruitful results, with dozens of carts of gold, silver and treasures brought back.
But this is not important. What is important is that the war against Burma was a complete victory. The Burmese suffered heavy losses and had no ability to fight back for more than ten years or even decades.
Because, after this battle, in the overall strategic situation, the Ming Dynasty and Siam have formed a pincer attack.
Ava and Bagan are like a pair of pincers, pinching Upper Burma and Central Burma. The two countries are joining forces to suppress them. How can they sit idly by and watch the Burmese recover their strength?
It can be foreseen that the main strategy in the future will be to continuously attack and erode Burma. Siam will also have a certain advantage over Burma, which has been greatly weakened.
On the Ming side, the main force for future military action against Myanmar will be the coalition of local soldiers from various tribes. The Ming army will mainly be composed of artillery, which will play the role of fire suppression and coordination.
In other words, after the war against Burma, the deployment of the Ming army will undergo major changes, and the new policies speculated by the local officials will all be made public.
On the second day after the Ming army captured the city of Ava, Governor Wang Sanshan summoned local officials from various families to the Burmese palace and hosted a banquet for them.
What to eat and drink was not important; the local officials were not concerned about that at all. Now that the spoils were divided, everyone wanted to get more.
Before the meeting even began, a map on the wall caught everyone's attention. It showed that Upper Burma was divided into more than a dozen areas, with the city of Ava as the boundary, and even the names of the people were marked on them.
The territories of chieftains such as Mengyang, Mengmi, and Mubang, which were once dependent on Myanmar, were reduced, which was also a form of punishment.
If they had not seen the opportunity quickly and provided assistance to the Ming army, their territory would probably have been lost and divided up by other local officials.
Wang Sanshan smiled as he ordered his staff to produce the documents and distribute them to the local officials. He then said, "You all have made invaluable contributions to the great victory against Burma. Distinguishing rewards and punishments has always been the principle of the imperial court. Rewarding according to merit is also a matter of course."
After a pause, he continued, "The court made a promise before we dispatched the troops, and now it's time to fulfill it. However, I'm sure you are not familiar with the newly occupied territory, so you can take a look at these documents first."
The local officials hurriedly opened the documents. If anyone did not know Chinese characters, then sorry, you are unqualified and just have to wait to be the last one to drink soup!
Believe it or not, there really are such local officials. Pu is one example. He stares at the documents with wide eyes and secretly glances at others. He is too embarrassed to ask for advice.
In the end, Sha Yuan, who was related to him, waved with a wry smile and explained the contents of the document to Pu in a low voice.
The document contained information on the territories of more than a dozen newly appointed envoys, including land, population, and other information. Although the data might be inconsistent due to the plundering caused by war, it was still valuable information for reference.
I didn't expect that the Ming Dynasty attached so much importance to the war against Burma and collected and organized intelligence in such detail.
Several local officials were amazed, secretly glanced at Wang Sanshan who was calmly drinking tea, and hurriedly read the documents.
The dozen or so envoys were assigned their own positions based on the amount of food and personnel provided by each chieftain, and no one could say anything about it. However, there were still five extra envoy positions, and no one knew how they were assigned.
Furthermore, obtaining the title of envoy and the assigned territory was conditional: the population and number of local soldiers within the territory had to meet specified standards.
At the same time, the imperial court had to form a coalition force in the occupied territories, and each chieftain had to send troops and receive training from Ming army officers.
After the training, they will be issued new weapons and equipment, the same as the Ming army. However, there is one rule: it is strictly forbidden to bring new weapons and equipment into Yunnan Province.
As the chieftains looked at each other with either understanding or confusion, Wang Sanshan slowly spoke, "The coalition force is tentatively planned to be 30,000 strong, commanded by a committee nominated by each family. Whether to resist Burmese attacks or continue to expand the territory will be determined by the committee and reported to the court for approval."
"If a war breaks out, the imperial court will dispatch regular troops to assist. The committee will also decide how to divide the occupied land, and the imperial court will only be responsible for mediation."
"As for the extra envoys..." Wang Sanshan waved his hand, and the staff unfolded a large map.
What was presented to everyone was a map of western Upper Burma, which clearly marked the area of Tianzhu, or India.
"Shu-Shendu Road--" The staff stretched out his hand and drew on the map, emphasizing it again.
The Shu-Sindu Road, also known as the Southern Silk Road, Sindhu is the ancient name of India.
The starting point of this channel is Chengdu, and it is divided into several branches, which then converge in Dali, Yunnan, and go to Myanmar and India through Baoshan and other places, and connect to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.
In fact, the fastest route from Myanmar to India is to take the water route down the Irrawaddy River, out of the Bay of Bengal and then sail to India.
However, this is a trade route, not suitable for a large-scale military expedition. Moreover, it will take time to bring all of Burma to its knees.
The war against Burma occupied northern Burma, which enabled China to reopen the Shu-Sindu Road, a land route to India.
You must know that in history, due to the change of Burmese dynasties, the Shu-Shendu Road was intermittent and very unstable.
What the emperor wanted was to have a firm control over the trade routes, and to continuously widen and strengthen them until they became war routes for the army to enter India.
Although it was not easy, with the wide Chindwin River blocking the way and the primitive jungle known as the Wild Man Mountain, there are always more solutions than problems.
The emperor needs to make long-term plans. The reason why the primeval jungle is so terrifying is mainly because it has not been developed. Let's take it slow. I don't believe that we can't cut a path by cutting down trees.
What's more, Yeren Mountain also has the most famous jade field in the world, so it is no exaggeration to say that it is a treasure trove.
Of course, opening a route to India does not require a life-or-death struggle in the Savage Mountains, but it requires the efforts of predecessors.
The specific route is to arrive in Dali, take Yongchang Road, pass Yangbi, Yongping, Baoshan, Tengchong, then pass Yingjiang, pass Manmo, cross Qindun River, pass Naga Mountain, and go directly to Imphal or Hilma, India.
These extra positions for envoys were to reward the chieftains who helped the Ming army to open up roads and set up camps and outposts on the Tongyin Road.
This is only the first phase of rewards. When the army marches into India, these envoys will also receive vast lands as rewards.
Gongzhang, Jiesha, Menglun, Homalin and Menggong are five place names, which are located on the road from Manmo to India.
This was also the territory under the jurisdiction of the five envoys, a temporary one, and without paying taxes, the policies were quite favorable. It all depended on whether the local officials had the vision and courage to make a long-term investment.
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