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Volume 3: The Wind Rises in the South Chapter 132 Question

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    In Myanmar at this time, it would take some time for the waves in the center of the pond to spread to the shore, and there had not yet felt the huge changes that had taken place in London, thousands of miles away.  The war between the British and the Chinese to compete for the colonies is still being prepared in full swing. However, in the hinterland of Myanmar, another war that is not noticed by the world is also brewing and may break out at any time.  ??Mandalay, after Zao Guoquan led the main force of the Shun army southward, it seemed like a mountain forest without tigers, and the atmosphere became a little weird.  Although the nobles of the Privy Council recently passed the decree of Her Majesty the Princess Regent granting land and freedom to the fleeing peasants, this does not mean that the nobles accepted it willingly. The heavily armed soldiers patrolling the streets were reminding them.  Which of them is the real owner here?  But now the situation has changed. The powerful army has gone south to fight an uncertain war, and Mandalay has returned to its original state.  "Master Chen, Master Chen!" Chen Zaixing raised his head and saw an angry Liu Zhixing rushing in from outside.  Liu Zhixing paused at Chen Zaixing's copywriting from the thick stack of documents in his general's hand, and said sternly: "Master Chen, I can't do this Privy Council job anymore, so I'd better hire someone else!" "Master Liu, please sit down!" Chen Zaixing  He quickly stood up, asked Liu Zhixing to sit down, and said with a smile: "This was assigned by Shangguan before he left. I am responsible for the transportation of food, grass and military supplies for the army. Even if you can't deal with those Burmese barbarians in the Privy Council, you have to find Mr. Zao. Why?"  You came to me?" "Huh!" Liu Zhixing snorted, pointing to the pile of documents on the desk and said: "Why don't you blame me? If you hadn't pushed the eldest princess to pass the decree,  Why are those nobles making such a fuss in the Privy Council about the land and freedom of the fleeing peasants? Look, these are the land dispute documents of those nobles. I said Chen Fusheng, Chen Fusheng!  Aren't you a person who doesn't know what's important? If you make such a fuss, you won't be afraid that the imperial censors in Hanjing will tell you something. Then your advisors may not be able to protect you!" Chen Zaixing doesn't care about that either!  Wenmu said with a smile: "Mr. Liu, you can't say that. Whenever there is a war in Myanmar, farmers will flee. In the past, the king would also pardon some fleeing farmers and resettle them in his own territory. This is also common.  It's just that the scope of the war is larger this time, and there are more fleeing peasants!" "But you also want to see when this is? Are you afraid that some nobles will go to the south?  Are the British fighting? " "I'm more afraid of trouble caused by the fleeing peasants!" Chen Zaixing's expression turned grim. He pointed to the stack of documents on the right side of the desk: "Mr. Liu, these are the things that happened along the way in the past three days.  The report of the attack on the grain team. Think about it, if those fleeing farmers are not given land and freedom, they will become bandits. At that time, such reports will crush this table. I don¡¯t have that many troops to protect everyone.  The caravans and road construction teams coming and going. "As for the nobles, they can only be wronged for a while. At this time, someone has to make sacrifices.  Liu Zhixing did not continue to argue, but judging from the look on his face, it was not that he had been convinced by Chen Zaixing, but that he could not find the words to refute for a while.  After about half a moment, Liu Zhixing paused, turned around and walked out bitterly, leaving Chen Zaixing alone in the room.  Looking at Liu Zhixing¡¯s leaving figure, Chen Zaixing¡¯s expression did not become lighter.  The purpose of instigating Luo Lin to give land and freedom to the fleeing peasants at this time was of course not only to let the fleeing peasants return to the land, but also to take advantage of this rare opportunity to destroy Myanmar's old village community system.  Because under the old village commune system, the farmers in the village commune were self-sufficient. Except for a very few necessities, they almost did not need to purchase any external goods, and most of their surplus products were exploited by the nobles. In this way,  Later, except for a few luxury goods, the goods that Shun Guo could sell were extremely limited.  The farmers in the village communities were also tied to the land and had no real personal freedom. It was very difficult for foreign businessmen from Shunguo to mine or hire workers, especially since Myanmar at that time was vast and sparsely populated, and the population was far away.  Before reaching the state of overpopulation at the time of Dashun, this shortage of free labor was even more serious.  Chen Zaixing has been doing business in Myanmar for many years and is keenly aware of the above two points.  Now, whether it is the construction of the Yunnan-Burma Railway or the monopoly on China-Burma trade, its value depends on the size of the Burmese market and raw material origin. In his view, a Burma composed of countless isolated and unrelated small farmers is better than what it is now.  Burma, which is composed of tens of thousands of villages under the rule of the aristocracy, is much more beneficial to him. These villages are like the hard shells of coconuts. Only by breaking them into pieces can he freely suck the juice of wealth from them. This is  The real purpose of taking such a big risk at the beginning was to escort the two fugitive princes to Dashun together with Batu.    The premise of all this is that the war can be won, at least to force the British to recognize Dashun's control over the central and northern parts of Myanmar.  Otherwise, all the hard work and wealth you have put in before will be in vain.  Just as Liu Zhixing said just now, the admonishers in the capital will not let him go this time. Not to mention his mentor, even the current empress dowager may not be able to protect herself.  Thinking of this, Chen Zaixing couldn't help but turn around irritably. His sleeve happened to bring a stack of documents on the desk, and it suddenly fell to the floor with a snap.  "Damn it!" Chen Zaixing cursed and leaned over to pick up the documents. Suddenly, a few lines of words on a document caught his attention. He picked up the document and read it carefully: "Bagan's Day"  The giant thief dispersed, and his troops were scattered, plundering everywhere. It is said that the leader of the thief, Song Shen, has been arrested. "" Arrested?" Chen Zaixing repeated several times in a low voice, and suddenly rushed to a nearby file cabinet like a madman.  , took out a stack of letter paper from the drawer and looked through it.  Suddenly he took out one letter from the middle, read it from beginning to end, and then took out another letter. After reading all the letters, Chen Zaixing suddenly cursed: "Batu, Batu, since you took it."  Why didn't Song Shen tell me? Now his subordinates are scattered and they have all become bandits. It's not me who is unlucky!"  Batu was walking in the trenches, followed closely by more than a dozen officers and guards. A few sparse gunshots were heard in the distance. When Jensen arrived in Yangon, the British colonial authorities confirmed from his mouth that Kitchener had fallen.  into the hands of the enemy, they immediately appointed the highest-ranking officer in Yangon, Colonel Alexander, the captain of the fast cruiser "Southampton", as the commander to launch a military operation to recapture Pyay. The British troops acted very quickly.  On the eighth day after Jenson left Pyay, the British River Squadron appeared on the river and bombarded the Shun army's position with its eight-inch main gun.  "Sir, you shouldn't come to such a forward place. There are many British snipers on the opposite side!" An officer whispered to dissuade.  "Sniper?" Badu smiled disdainfully: "The bullets that can kill me haven't been made yet!" He looked at the soldiers squatting against the inner wall of the trench and asked: "How is this trench? Compared with  Is it a good or a bad thing to build up the previous parapet? " "Good!" the officer replied: "The enemy's artillery has been bombarding for several days, and only seven or eight of my men were killed and wounded, and two or three of them were injured.  Those who were killed by snipers from the opposite side, most of the shrapnel from the shells flew over the soldiers' heads, but - "Just what?" Batu asked quickly.  "Sir, this place is very close to the river. The groundwater level is very high. If you dig a little deeper, water will seep out. In the lower areas, there is a pool of mud in the trenches. Many brothers are barefoot. It is not possible during the day.  That¡¯s all, I¡¯ll have to sleep in the mud at night. I won¡¯t be able to light a fire to cook. If this continues, I¡¯ll lose all my strength!¡± The officer pointed to the sky and said, ¡°It will be the rainy season in a few months, sir.¡±  You also know what the weather was like in Myanmar at that time. If the trench collapsed, the people inside would be buried alive!" Badu looked at the ground. Sure enough, as the other party said, there was already a layer of water on his feet.  It is already covered with a thick layer of mud, and it is still high here. If you go to a low-lying area, I am afraid that the mud on the ground will be thicker.  Batu thought for a while and replied: "You are right, the trench wall must be reinforced with wooden rafts. As for the other things, I have no way at the moment. I will go back and convene everyone to discuss for a while and then come up with a solution!" "Sir!  I can't thank you enough for your sympathy." The officer quickly bowed and thanked him.  Batu waved, "Okay, okay, let's go ahead and take a look at your layout!" The officer hurriedly led the way. The trenches along the army were not in a straight line, but in a wavy shape.  This can cause side fire damage to enemy troops attacking from the front.  At the top of the wavy trench, there is a firepower point reinforced with logs and earth bags, which is often equipped with a Gatling gun. This continuous firearm can exert a very terrifying killing effect when firing sideways. This has been achieved in previous battles.  It was verified, so Batu made special adjustments to the fortification layout this time.  In order to prevent being destroyed by enemy artillery fire, the perforations of Shunjun's fire launch points are very low from the ground. From the outside, they look like little earth bags. Some fortifications are also specially sprinkled with loose soil and weeds.  It is impossible to see the true appearance of these soil bags from a distance. There is also a ring of trench protection around the launch point.  Ammunition, weapons and soldiers usually hide in specially dug basements behind the firing point. They will not enter the firing point until they are about to fire, so as to avoid being killed by the artillery fire before the enemy infantry attacks.  "Not bad, well done!" Batu nodded with satisfaction after checking three such launch points.  Just as he was about to turn around and leave, there was a blast of artillery fire from the Irrawaddy River, and the British squadron on the water was shelling the defenders on the shore.   "Let's stop here today!" Batu said to the commander at the launch point: "I'm going to go to the fort on the shore to have a look. The British have started shelling there again. You can't relax here. The British are ready at any time.  They may launch an attack!" "Yes, sir!" The officer raised his chest and gave a military salute to Batu.  Batu nodded, returned a salute to the other party, turned around and left quickly.  On the river, four huge warships were moving slowly at a speed of four knots. The eight-inch cannons on the front and rear decks were pointed at the river bank. Every minute or so, a ball of fire was ejected from the muzzle. After about ten seconds,  A ball of fire rose from the shore thousands of meters away.  These four warships are the largest and most powerful shallow-water armored ships in the Inland River Squadron. Counting from the front, they are the "Counterattack", "Courage", "Resistance", and "Orange"  , "Counterattack" is the flagship of the squadron, and the commander of the British army, Colonel Alexander himself, is on the "Counterattack".  On the bridge of the "Repulse", a young officer asked for instructions from the commander, Colonel Alexander, who was observing the effects of the bombardment with a telescope: "Colonel, the enemy on the shore did not fight back. Captain George on the 'Courage' used a flag to ask for permission to dock.  Come closer for bombardment!¡±
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