overview
The Qing-Burma War was a war over territorial control of the Sino-Burmese border region during the Burmese invasion of the Pu'er region of Yunnan in the winter of 1762, and the Qing army fought back in self-defense.
The Qing-Burma War began as a skirmish over the border and evolved into a showdown between elite main forces, ending in November 1769 with the Burmese title of Chennagon. During the battle, the Qing army commander Mingrui led 10,000 Qing troops to attack near the Burmese capital Awa, but under the large-scale strong wall of the Burmese army, the Qing army retreated and was surrounded by the main force of the 50,000 Burmese army. The Qing army took advantage of the night to retreat along the path, and in order to ensure the smooth retreat of the army, the commanders Mingrui, Zarafonga, and Guanyinbao let the army go first, and led hundreds of eight-banner soldiers to fight to the death and martyrdom, and more than 10,000 officers and soldiers of the Qing army, as well as the wounded, sick and weak civilian officials, had to retreat smoothly. The Burmese army was afraid of Mingrui, did not know that Mingrui was martyred, and begged for surrender many times, but Qianlong refused to allow it. In the final battle, the Qing army sent 18,000 soldiers to the front. The Burmese army dispatched more than 30,000 soldiers and hundreds of French soldiers. It is still the superiority of the Burmese forces, but there is a certain gap in the field capabilities of the two sides, and throughout the battle, the Qing army maintained the offensive, while the Burmese army maintained a defensive position.
Although the Qing army won the submission of Burma in this battle and recovered Mengyang, Mubang, Mandui (Manmo) and other Tusi that had been plundered by Burma during the Wanli period, the Qing army suffered heavy losses, and the general Wu Shisheng, the deputy general Aligon, and the naval governor Ye Xiangde died of illness one after another, and Fu Heng was also sick and bedridden.
The war caused a major change in Southeast Asia, and the hegemony of the Indochina Peninsula in Myanmar was greatly weakened, and Siam was restored; Myanmar has also rediscovered the power of China, and has established good-neighborly relations that have lasted for more than 200 years.
War background
- Early relationships
China and Myanmar have had official contacts since the Han Dynasty. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Sino-Myanmar relations entered a new period.
In the eighth year of the Yuan dynasty (1271), Kublai Khan sent Naragon to the Narathi Habd king of the Bagan dynasty, and the Burmese king killed the messenger and refused the Nagon. Kublai Khan ordered Xiangwu Ta'er, Taibu, and Yehan's Jin to lead an army to attack Burma, conquered Jiangtoucheng (also known as Taigongcheng, the capital of the Bagan Dynasty), and established the province of Zhengbur the following year. The Burmese king Narathi Habard fled to Pasheng , after which the Burmese king sent an envoy to thank Nagon, and Burma established tributary relations with the Yuan Dynasty. During the period from Jiajing to Wanli, the Ming dynasty's rule in the southwestern frontier was challenged with the rise of the Donggu dynasty in Burma and the gradual weakening of Ming rule. Mang Yinglong continued to advance north and began to encroach on China's southwestern frontier. Although the Ming Dynasty had six consolation missions in the southwestern frontier and led them by Tusi, due to its remote location, the influence exerted by the central government gradually weakened over time.
In the ninth year of Wanli (1581), Mang Yinglong of Burma died and was succeeded by his son Mang Yingli, who further intensified his encroachment on China's southwestern frontier. The Burmese army continued to attack Yunnan, causing great damage to the social stability and economy of China's Yunnan borderlands.
The Ming Dynasty finally sent Liu Yao and Deng Zilong to lead troops to the southwest in the eleventh year of Wanli (1583), and the two-year war ended in victory when Liu Yao recovered all the lost territory, the Burmese army was defeated, and the originally vacillating Tusi returned to the Ming Dynasty. However, when the war ended, the Ming Dynasty did not take active and effective measures to reorganize the border to prevent Burma from invading Yunnan Tusi, but no longer bothered about Burmese affairs. As a result, the Burmese army continued to invade China's southwestern border.
- Qing-Myanmar contact
In the early Qing Dynasty, Sino-Myanmar relations were at a standstill. Although the Qing Dynasty had contact with Burma in the process of pacifying the Southern Ming regime, it did not establish normal diplomatic relations, and there were no official exchanges between the two countries. Moreover, in the early Qing Dynasty, the Qing rulers were too busy consolidating their own power to take care of the southwestern frontier. After quelling Wu Sangui's rebellion, the Qing Dynasty adopted a national policy of stabilizing the southwestern frontier.
While the Qing Dynasty adopted a policy of defending the border in the southwest, it still had the idea of incorporating Burma peace into the tributary system, but it was very cautious. With the increasing national strength of the Qing Dynasty, Laos, Annam, Siam and other countries outside the southwestern frontier were accepted as vassal states. But for Myanmar, from the imperial court to the localities, they are very cautious. Although the Qing Dynasty also hoped that Myanmar could be subordinate to Nagon to reflect the strength of Weijia Siyi in Qing Dynasty China, it hoped that Myanmar would take the initiative to pay tribute sincerely, and did not want to make a big move.
In the seventh year of the Yongzheng Dynasty (1729), the Tusi of Chumai under Burmese control requested the inclusion of Nagon, but was rejected by the Yungui governor Ortai. The refusal to pay tribute must be because the Qing government did not want to cause contradictions with Burma.
In the thirteenth year of Qianlong (1748), Burma, under the pressure of the domestic situation, sent people to ask for tribute, but was rejected by the local officials in Yunnan.
In the 14th year of Qianlong (1749), the Tusimu state in northern Burma also requested Nagon, but local officials on the southwestern border of the Qing Dynasty refused "on the grounds that it had been a Burmese possession in the late Ming Dynasty and had not allowed it."
In the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), under the guidance of Wu Shangxian of the Maolong Silver Factory, things took a turn for the better. Maolong Silver Works is located in the Wa settlement on the Yongshun frontier, also known as kava. Wu Shangxian, a mainlander, set up a factory and opened a mine, and his business was booming. The local chieftain "was willing to pay tribute according to the practice of factories in the mainland" and formally came under the administration of the Qing government. Wu Shangxian gathered people to mine silver on the border and had contacts with the Burmese court.
In July of the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), "Burma was first honored as a minister Nagong", and the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty agreed to enter Beijing to meet him. After this incident, the clan relations between the Qing Dynasty and the Burmese clan were formally established, and the two countries achieved political normalization of relations.
Rise of the Tribute List
Just as relations between Qing and Myanmar were normalizing, Myanmar's domestic political situation underwent earth-shaking changes. After the establishment of the Kampung Dynasty in Burma, with its military strength, it quickly subdued many toastmasters on the Sino-Burmese border.
After establishing rule over the former Shan Tusi of Burma, small units began to be sent to cooperate with these Shan Tusi forces to impose the traditional "flower horse gift" (that is, the tribute money and grain that the Shan Tusi on the border between China and Myanmar have historically paid to both countries for their own security) under military threat. The Kampung Dynasty was a powerful emerging empire that swept across Southeast Asia, annexing the kingdoms of Ahom and Manipur (present-day northeastern India) to the northwest, the Shan Tusi to the north, the Nanpao (present-day Laos) to the east, and the 400-year-old Ayutthaya dynasty of Siam (present-day Thailand) to the south.
In the twentieth year of Qianlong (1755), Seyun Ruidong, the prince of the Donggu Dynasty of Burma, led more than 80 defeated subordinates to cross the river and enter the fierce death. The governor of Yungui, Epida, and the governor of Yunnan, Guo Yiyu, sent the envoy to the country, and two days later, Sechong Ruidong led the crowd to leave the country. The attitude of the Qing government towards the fleeing princes of the Donggu Dynasty fully demonstrates the Qing Dynasty's reluctance to get involved in Burma's domestic affairs. For some time thereafter, the governor of Yungui and the governor of Yunnan fully demonstrated the Qing dynasty's policy of strict neutrality and unwillingness to cause more trouble in their letters to the Qianlong Emperor.
Some of the inland toastmasters succumbed to the Burmese military power, while others did not. These unyielding Tusi sent people to the local government in Yunnan to request military support. However, at that time, the Qianlong Emperor was too busy pacifying Dzungar to be in the south and was unwilling to enter into military conflicts with neighboring countries, so the local government in Yunnan had always pursued a policy of appeasement. When the Qianlong Emperor got out of the matter of pacifying Xinjiang, he began to take a tough attitude towards Burma's oppression of border ethnic minorities and provocation of the Qing Dynasty's national prestige, and the situation on the China-Myanmar border gradually became tense.
At this time, the Qing Dynasty had accumulated huge wealth through the Kang Yong Qian dynasty, and by the middle of the Qianlong period, the national treasury had more than 50 million taels of silver. In this way, the Qing dynasty had the material conditions for an expedition to the southwest.
Causes of war
In the 27th year of Qianlong (1762), the Burmese side again failed to collect tribute from these inland local masters, so they sent troops to invade China. It officially ignited the fuse of the border conflict between China and Myanmar.
In the winter of the 27th year of Qianlong (1762), the Tusi of Mubang of Burma led his own troops and the army of the Gongbang Dynasty of about 2,000 people to invade the jurisdiction of the Tusi of Mengding and Gengma in the interior of China, kidnapped Mengding's Tusi, and burned Gengma Tusi's office and some local houses. At that time, there were three kinds of military garrisons in the Qing Dynasty: one was the Green Camp soldiers stationed by the local government in Yunnan, the second was the soil training controlled by the local Tusi themselves, and the third was the field training established by some mines on the border for self-protection. After Geng Ma Tusi escaped, he immediately led the territorial training and field training counterattack to pursue and kill the Burmese soldiers, defeated the Burmese soldiers on the banks of the Rolling Lane River, and killed about 200 people one after another. However, in order to calm the people, Geng Ma Tusi then paid the "flower horse gift" to the Gongbang dynasty through Mubang Tusi. Although the local government office in Yunnan was deployed along the Tuannong River at that time, it still preferred appeasement and did not want to cause trouble. Therefore, in the following year, the director of a border mine led troops across the river to capture the Burmese soldiers, but it was considered to be "killing good and risking merit" and executed.
However, the Myanmar side has no intention of relenting. Meng Ding and Geng Ma's inland toast were slightly calmer, but the area under the jurisdiction of Cheli Tusi (present-day Xishuangbanna) was still not calm.
In the 27th and 29th years of Qianlong (1762-1764), the Burmese Monggen Tusi led his own troops and the troops of the Gongbang dynasty to harass him for many years.
In particular, in the 30th year of Qianlong (1765), the scale of harassment suddenly escalated, and Burmese soldiers entered many places in Cheli Tusi to extort money and food and kidnap people. The reason for this is that at that time, Burma was at war with its historical sworn enemy, Siam, and formulated a policy of attacking Siam along the Chiang Mai and Vientiane lines, and Che Li was on the side of its march route, requiring a lot of money, food and labor to provide logistical support for the army's march.
The war passed
- The first war
The Qianlong Emperor had always thought that it was bandits outside the country who were invading the border, and did not realize that his opponent was the organized army of the new Burmese dynasty. This miscalculation was also caused by the inaccuracy of the border officials' information. The intelligence of the border officials was mainly derived from reports of the invaded Tusi, but these reports were not necessarily reliable. The main purpose of the Burmese army's invasion of the Tusi in the inland areas along the border is to pursue the "Hua Ma Li" to restore the control of these Tusi during the heyday of the Donggu Dynasty, which has clear political requirements. Geng Ma, Menglian, Che Li and other toasts were mostly of two genera during the heyday of the Donggu Dynasty, "with Qing as the father and Myanmar as the mother". After the decline of the Donggu Dynasty, these toasts escaped the control of Burma and became the interior toasts of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, when the new dynasty of Burma re-demanded the payment of the flower horse ceremony, most of the invaded Tusi described it as a robbery incident by foreign bandits in their reports, and deliberately withheld information related to political requirements such as the "flower horse ceremony", so as not to pursue the problem of its two subordinates by the Qing Dynasty. The border officials reported the information processed by the toast to the Qianlong Emperor, which influenced the judgment of the highest decision-maker.
After the arrival of Liu Zao, the new governor of Yungui, on the one hand, he knew that the border situation was critical, and on the other hand, he understood that the Qianlong Emperor was unwilling to appease the border affairs in Yunnan, so he urgently sent troops to pursue and suppress them, but except for the capture of five people, there was no other result. Liu Zao is a scholar and does not know soldiers, which also reflects the Qianlong Emperor's misjudgment of the situation from one side, and does not regard it as a war, but an ordinary bandit, so he dares to let go of the scholar general.
In July, the Burmese soldiers voluntarily retreated after being plundered. And Liu Zaojing played with "the Burmese people fled in the wind, and the Qing troops were victorious". But the Burmese soldiers did not give Liu Zao the slightest face.
In October of the 30th year of Qianlong (1765), he again invaded Cheli with an army of several thousand men, occupied the Olive Dam where the Cheli Tusi Office was located, and his troops even went deep into the interior of Simao, issuing a letter to China, declaring Cheli (Xishuangbanna) as Burmese territory. The local soil training was about to collapse, Liu Zao hurriedly ordered 3,000 green battalion soldiers to surround and suppress, Burmese soldiers guerrilla warfare, although the Qing soldiers successively recovered the olive dam and many other places, but these places were generally the Burmese soldiers took the initiative to retreat, and the Qing soldiers did not have many great results. On the contrary, Qing soldiers of about 600 people along the way fell into an ambush by Burmese soldiers on the way to rescue Meng'a, and were defeated, killing and wounding more than 10 people. The Qianlong Emperor was furious when he heard this, and dismissed Liu Zao from his post.
On December 21, the 30th year of Qianlong (1765), Qing army general He Qiongzhao and guerrilla Minghao led 600 members of the Green Battalion to cross the rectification and control of the river, and encountered the Burmese army, the report at that time was that the general He Qiongzhao, Qianzong Xue Shihou, and foreign commissioner Tao Guoxing were all killed, the guerrilla Ming Hao was wounded, more than 600 soldiers, and only more than 100 people returned to the camp.
Liu Zao, who had ordered Hanlin, was repeatedly promoted because he was good at figuring out his wishes, but because he failed to achieve the goal of "exhaustively pursuing and pounding his lair" demanded by the Qianlong Emperor before the war, the Qianlong Emperor was furious, and because he lied about the military situation and surrendered to the governor of Hubei, Qianlong killed himself on the night of March 3, the thirty-first year (1766).
- Second war
- Qing troops attacked
After the Qing army's first attack failed, in February of the thirty-first year of Qianlong (1766), the Qianlong Emperor sent a heavy frontier official Yang Yingju (born in the Baqi of the Han army, who was a university scholar at the time, and was transferred from the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu to the governor of Yungui) to Yunnan. At this time, the Qing soldiers took advantage of the retreat of the Burmese soldiers to attack Burma.
By April of the 31st year of Qianlong (1766), the Burmese Tusi areas were occupied by Qing troops. However, due to the fact that the Burmese soldiers were strong along the way, the Qing soldiers did not have many victories.
In the end, the Qing soldiers appointed some Shan officials to govern these places, leaving about 800 people to garrison and retreating.
Blinded by the apparent military victory, many local officials in Yunnan of the Qing Dynasty were enthusiastic about the main battle, encouraging Yang Yingju to continue fighting against Burma. Although there are also many internal opposition, they believe that Myanmar is huge and should not be arbitrarily provocative. However, Yang Yingju was ignorant of the situation in Myanmar, believing that Myanmar was only composed of reckless bandits and wooden bandits, and that there was nothing to be afraid of as internal divisions. With the support of Yang Yingju, the main war faction issued a message claiming to "send 500,000 troops and 1,000 cannons" to march into Burma in a big way to deter Burma and at the same time appease the Burmese Tusi in many ways. The Qing dynasty knew nothing about the internal situation in Burma at that time, the situation of its troops, and the war with Siam, and only imagined that it could conquer Burma with more than 10,000 green battalion soldiers in Yunnan. The local civil and military officials in Yunnan, who were enthusiastic about military merit, did not wait for the Qianlong Emperor's oracle and immediately took action first.
In July, when the Burmese barbarian Tusi went to the Burmese capital of Awa (present-day Mandalay, Burma) and did not return, his mother, wife, and brother were appeased by the Qing dynasty and surrendered their territory. Tengyue's deputy general Zhao Hongbang led about 500 troops out of Tiebi Pass and lightly took Xinjie (present-day Bamo, Burma), an important town under the jurisdiction of Manmo Tusi. After returning from Ava, Manmo Tusi also surrendered to the Qing army. Mubang Toji soon announced that it was attached.
In September, Yang Yingju began to mobilize about 14,000 troops to prepare for an attack on Burma, and first sent 3,300 troops to the interior near Mubang Tusi to cover the Tusi, and he himself also arrived in Yongchang to check the military situation.
- New Street fights
Although the main force of the Burmese army is mired in Siam, the number of remaining troops plus local Tusi troops is still quite large. After the Qing army launched an offensive, the Burmese king Mengpu, who remained in Ava, did not panic, while strictly ordering the Siamese Burmese soldiers to continue to besiege Dacheng, while sending the general Mang Nie Michao to lead 10,000 Burmese troops (the official record of the Qing Dynasty was 30,000, but according to various sources, it was only about 10,000), along the Ava Shu Irrawaddy River to confront the Qing troops, and ordered the Luo Zhuo Tusi to attack the Mubang Tusi.
In early September, Mubang Tusi could not resist and retreated to the Chafang Tusi area where the Qing troops were stationed. At this time, Xinjie became an important town on the border between China and Myanmar, strangling the water and land, and the waterway went down the river, and it was possible to reach the Myanmar capital Awa in four or five days, which was a place for both sides to fight. At this time, the surrounding situation in the area was already very critical, but Yang Yingju still only sent Liu Tianyou, the capital of Yongshun Town, and Sima Gongyuan, the capital of Tengyue Town, with more than 400 troops to support Zhao Hongbang.
Reinforcements arrived at Xinjie on September 7, the thirty-first year of Qianlong (1766), and the total number of Qing troops was still less than 1,000.
On September 24, 3,000 Burmese soldiers arrived in Xinjie by boat and immediately launched an attack on the Qing soldiers. The strength of the two sides was very different, the Qing soldiers insisted on two days and one night, declared that they would not be supported, Liu Tianyou was killed in battle, and Zhao Hongbang led the remnants of the army to break through the siege from the trail and retreat into the iron wall pass. Manmo Tusi also led his men to retreat into Yunnan.
Yang Yingju urgently mobilized the Green Battalion soldiers from various towns to help, and ordered Wuerden, the commander-in-chief of Yongshun Town on Donglu, to lead troops to Wanding (present-day Wanmachi, Yunnan), intending to attack the area under the jurisdiction of Mubang Tusi. Zhu Lun, the commander-in-chief of Yongbei Town in the West Road, led troops to garrison Tiebi Pass, intending to attack the area under the jurisdiction of the Barbarian Tusi to recapture Xinjie. The deployment of the Burmese troops was unexpected by the Qing troops, and the Burmese soldiers divided into two roads in Xinjie, and the main force entered the territory of China along the northeast and was stationed in the Tiebi Pass. The other route of more than 2,000 people continued to go north along the Irrawaddy River, and after reaching Candove, they attacked into China in the east, and then went south to cut off the road behind the Tiebi Pass and Qing troops. The Qing soldiers did not know anything about this.
Li Shisheng, the governor of Yunnan, arrived at Tiebi Pass on November 15, the 31st year of Qianlong (1766), and on the next day, ordered Zhu Lun to lead more than 3,000 troops out of the pass to attack. On the 17th, Zhu Lun arrived at Lemu and camped at a high place. On the 18th, the Burmese soldiers took the initiative to launch an offensive. The Burmese soldiers were partly armed with flintlock guns (from the British and French East India Company in India, either by purchase or by capture), and the rate of fire, firepower, and adaptation to the environment were far superior to those of the Qing soldiers. As a result, the two sides fought for four days, with each other killed and wounded. However, the Qing soldiers suffered large casualties, and first felt that they could not hold on, and hurriedly asked for help. Governor Li Shisheng sent 700 Wanding soldiers to help. However, the Qing soldiers' battle situation was still unfavorable, and the Burmese soldiers set up a barracks and gradually approached the Qing soldiers' camp. On the 23rd, the Qing troops did not come out. There was a temporary truce between the two sides. The total number of Lemu Burmese soldiers was less than 6,000, but Zhu Lun killed 6,000 enemies and won the Lemu victory.
- The Qing army was defeated
On November 20, the 31st year of Qianlong (1766), more than 2,000 Burmese soldiers detoured to the northern route of Cangjiu, and attacked the weakly defended territory of Tengyue from between Wancheng Pass and Jushi Pass, and in only 10 days, they successively captured Lida and Tongbi Pass, killing and wounding dozens of Qing soldiers, killing guerrilla bands in battle, and spreading to the Husa and Lasa areas, seriously threatening the back road of Tiebi Pass. After learning that the Burmese soldiers had attacked from Wancheng Pass, the Qing soldiers began to be in a hurry. Governor Li Shisheng ordered the guerrilla Ma Chenglong to lead 900 troops to advance from Husa, and ordered Liu Decheng, the commander-in-chief of Linyuan Town stationed in Nandian, to lead his 2100 troops to attack from behind. But after Liu Decheng reached Muya, he delayed. When Ma Chenglong led his disciples to cross the river, the water was waist-deep, and the gunpowder was wet. The Burmese soldiers ambushed and killed Ma Chenglong, except for the more than 70 people who crossed the river in the future and the river, more than 800 soldiers were killed and wounded.
In December of the 31st year of Qianlong (1766), the Burmese troops of the Northern Road crossed the river into the Husa area, and Li Shisheng successively transferred 2,800 troops to Husa to resist, and the two sides did not fight much. Because the Burmese soldiers saw that there were more and more soldiers, they simply disengaged and retreated to Tongbi Pass. The Green Camp reported with great success.
- Longchuan fights
Although the Burmese soldiers have repeatedly won battles, they are also very clear that the main force of their own army is far away in Siam, and they cannot compete with the Qing Dynasty for a long time, and the pressure is quite heavy. Therefore, its combat goal is very clear, that is, to force peace with war. Therefore, on the Lemu front, the Burmese general Mang Nie Michao asked for peace, but the Qing soldiers asked Burma to submit a surrender to the courtiers, and the negotiations broke down. Soon, the Qing troops of Lemu and Tiebiguan were seriously threatened by the Burmese soldiers of the northern road, and the Qing troops retreated to Longchuan. The main force of the Burmese army of more than 4,000 people attacked the Tiebi Pass and marched into Longchuan.
In Longchuan, a great war broke out between the two armies again. On December 16, the 31st year of Qianlong (1766), when the Burmese vanguard marched, it was besieged by the Qing troops. On the 2nd, the main force of the Burmese army reinforced, after the two sides exchanged troops, the Burmese cavalry suddenly rushed out of the jungle, and the besieged Burmese vanguard also took the opportunity to break through the encirclement, the Qing front collapsed, and fled all the way back, although the soldiers were not lost, but the ordnance and guns were discarded a lot, and the governor Yang Yingju still used the news of Kejie. The governor of Yunnan also wanted to transfer troops to besiege on three sides, but he was too weak to effectively organize a counterattack. Yang Yingju also changed from his previous ambition to fear, and quickly sent people to Longchuan to order Zhu Lun to negotiate peace with the Burmese soldiers. When the Burmese soldiers proposed negotiations on December 26, Zhu Lun sent his general Ha Guoxing to accept the other side's conditions, and the two sides truceded, and Mandu and Xinjie remained in Burma. On the 28th, the main force of the Burmese army began to withdraw, intending to turn back to Mubang by storm. The Burmese soldiers on the North Road took the Tiebi Pass from Tongbi Pass and turned back to Xinjie. 、
- Fierce and Mubang were defeated
Zhu Lun sent Ha Guoxing, who had been promoted to deputy general, to garrison Mengxian on the 4th day of the first lunar month of the 32nd year of Qianlong (1767). The Burmese soldiers were crossing the river on rafts near Mengxuan, and saw the Qing soldiers chasing after them, thinking that the Qing dynasty had torn up the agreement. So on the 7th of the first day, he began to besiege the city of Mengxing, and Ha Guoxing was wounded and killed. On the 11th, 2,000 Qing soldiers came to the rescue. The Burmese retreated, the Qing soldiers pursued, were counterattacked, and suffered considerable losses, each with one guerrilla, dusi, and garrison killed. Although the Burmese soldiers also suffered casualties, the Qing soldiers reported killing 4,000 enemies, which was too outrageous. Yang Yingju continued to transfer more than 10,000 troops and entered the Mubang Tusi area to confront the Burmese army.
Yang Yingju blindly reported to the Qianlong Emperor according to the report of the Qing soldiers at the front, and the Qing army repeatedly won great victories, killing tens of thousands of enemies before and after. After Fu Ling'an, the bodyguard sent by the Qianlong Emperor to Yunnan, reported the real situation, the Qianlong Emperor was enraged and arrested Li Shisheng and Zhu Lun in Beijing in February to be executed. In March, Yang Yingju was arrested and sent to Beijing to die. The Guangdong general Yang Ning took over as the governor of Yunnan and arrived at the front line in the Mubang Tusi region in March. At this time, the Burmese Monggen Tusi had already recaptured Menggen, Quanyu, and other places respectively, and invaded the Menglian area in the interior, threatening the Mubang Qing army's rear. The Burmese soldiers in the Mubang area did not engage the Qing soldiers head-on, but attacked the logistics grain team behind the Qing soldiers, basically cutting off the Qing soldiers' food routes. In April, the logistics of the Mubang Qing army were cut off, their combat strength collapsed, and they withdrew to the interior. The Qianlong Emperor sent the Manchurian general Mingrui to take over as the governor of Yungui and continued to preside over the war against Burma. At this time, the Burmese army had captured Ayutthaya in Siam and was ready to withdraw its troops and return home.
In the Qing Dynasty, the Green Camp soldiers in Yunnan had hardly been on the battlefield, and their equipment was not sophisticated, and their combat effectiveness was weak; The leading generals are not strong, do not sympathize with the soldiers, do not understand the terrain, and do not know the tactics; In terms of the great marshal Yungui, Governor Yungui was also a man of literati and did not understand military affairs at all. Therefore, in the second war between China and Burma, although the total number of soldiers was more Qing than Burma, they were still repeatedly defeated.
- Third war
- Mingrui goes to the cloud
Fucha Mingrui
There are more than 30,000 soldiers in the Yunnan Green Battalion, and only more than 20,000 soldiers can be used. In the second war between China and Burma, Yang Yingju, the governor of Yungui, reported to the military department to transfer 14,000 troops, and actually transferred a total of 15,000 troops. During the war, no less than 3,000 officers and soldiers were killed, wounded, and sick (including 1,100 killed and 1,500 died of illness), and more than 200 people were captured by guerrillas in the Mubang area. After the defeat in the Mubang area, more than 400 Burmese soldiers and 2,000 troops from various local Tusi troops attacked Cheli in July, although the Qing soldiers had two general soldiers, but only slightly resisted and fled, and the Burmese soldiers quickly returned to Monggen after looting. At this point, it was announced that the Yunnan Green Battalion soldiers alone could not complete the task of the war against Burma.
However, the Qianlong Emperor, the Military Aircraft Department, and the new Yungui Governor, Mingrui, still held an extremely contemptuous attitude towards Burma, they always looked down on the Green Battalion, believing that the defeat of the Green Battalion did not mean that the Burmese army was strong, and analyzed that the main force of the Burmese army was only 10,000 people, and only needed to mobilize 20,000 or 30,000 main forces to conquer Burma. The Qianlong Emperor also considered early on how to rule after conquering Burma, and at the same time ordered the governor of Liangguang to go to Siam and make sure that if the Burmese king fled to Siam after defeat, he must do his best to pursue him.
In fact, Siam had perished at this time, and in April 1767, the Burmese captured Siam's big city, and the news had not yet reached the ears of Qianlong in Beijing. Some people in the DPRK also proposed to ask Siam to send troops to attack, but the Qianlong Emperor vetoed it, saying that when the Qing Dynasty was in its heyday, it was only easy to destroy Burma. If you ask your vassals to send troops to help, even if they win, they will be looked down upon by their subjects.
Ming Rui was a foreign relative, and in the pacification of Xinjiang, he also made a lot of military merits, and before his transfer, he was a general of Ili and was a fierce general.
After Mingrui arrived in April of the 32nd year of Qianlong (1767), under the control of blind optimism, he prepared for various wars against Burma. The Qianlong Emperor transferred 3,000 Manchurian soldiers, 8,000 Sichuan Green Banner soldiers, 10,000 Guizhou Green Banner soldiers (1,000 of whom were stationed in Pu'er and did not participate in the expedition), plus 5,000 Yunnan Green Banner soldiers, a total of 25,000 soldiers, and marched in two ways. Mingrui personally led 17,000 soldiers (including more than 2,000 Manchurian soldiers) for the Southern Road Army, and went out of Wanding from Mubang through tin foil to pound Ava; The counselor Erjingjie led 8,000 soldiers (including more than 900 Manchurian soldiers) as the northern route soldiers, went out of Tiebi Pass through Xinjie to advance fiercely, and then went south to round Ava with Mingrui. Each soldier brought enough grain for two months, and collected more than 80,000 horses, donkeys, and cattle for combat and logistical purposes. Mingrui believes that if it directly attacks Awa, Myanmar will take care of itself, plus make meritorious efforts, and almost all the elite soldiers and strong generals will be brought with him.
- Mingrui attacked
On September 24, the Qing troops set out from Yongchang. On 2 November, Mingrui led the southern route troops out of Wanding into Burma, and on the 10th, occupied the city of Mubang (present-day Xingwei, Burma). From Wanding to Mubang City for more than 600 miles, because of repeated fire, the population was cut off. The Burmese soldiers also stood firm all the way to the wilderness and did not engage the Qing soldiers. Counselor Zhulune led 5,000 troops to stay in Mubang City, and led 12,000 elite troops to continue advancing.
On 16 November, the Northern Road soldiers arrived at Laoguantun (near Xinjie) and confronted thousands of Burmese troops who had already defended the fence of the river. The Qing soldiers attacked for several days, suffering heavy casualties. In December, Erjing's death from illness led to Qianlong's appointment as commander of Northern Road.
After Ming Shwe left Mubang, he crossed the Dadui River, passed through the areas under the jurisdiction of Tin Foil and Dashan, killed dozens of enemies at Puka, captured several Burmese soldiers, and detected that 9,000 Burmese soldiers were stationed in Manjie (east of the Nandu River in present-day Burma), so that he led his troops to approach Manjie on 29 November. The brute Burmese soldiers were entrenched in 16 battalions at various dangerous disposals. On the second day, Ming Shwe divided his troops into three routes and led the middle road, with the leading minister Zarafenga and the general soldier Li Quan leading his troops to occupy the eastern mountain beam, and the counselor Guanyin Bao and the general soldier Changqing leading his troops to occupy the western mountain beam, approaching the Burmese barracks and foreign troops to garrison in formation. In the afternoon, Burmese soldiers sent troops from the western camp to attack Guanyinbao's headquarters, and Guanyinbao's troops fought hard to kill, and Mingrui Middle Road also sent troops to respond, and the Burmese soldiers retreated, killing more than 200 people. The Burmese weapons are mainly firearms and darts, without armor and bows, and the decisive battle on the flat ground is not a strong Qing opponent of the cavalry. The Burmese also said that when they were fighting, they were most afraid of the Qing army's colorful armored cavalry (that is, the Manchurian Eight Banner Soldiers). The Burmese soldiers were frustrated and could not hold out.
- The Battle of the Brute
After repeated unsuccessful challenges, Mingrui made up his mind to attack the camp directly, and judged that the western Burmese soldiers who took the initiative to attack were where the strong troops were, and the strong troops were broken, and it was not difficult to break other camps, so he decided to concentrate his forces to attack here.
In the early morning of 2 December, in addition to 2,000 soldiers remaining in the camp, 12 teams of 10,000 soldiers attacked the Burmese barracks. The Burmese soldiers are good at guarding, the wooden fence in the camp is a wet wood buried deep in the ground, the exposed ground is still two feet high, there are deep ditches inside and outside, and sharp bamboo is buried next to the ditch, the Burmese soldiers have a wooden fence to protect, the gun is difficult to hurt, and from the gap in the fence with a musket, the hit is extremely high. The Qing soldiers rushed down from the mountain beam near the Burmese camp, and the first camp was near the mountain beam, which was quickly broken by the Qing army. When attacking the second block, it was more difficult, there was a Guizhou rattan soldier Wang Lian saw some wood near the wooden fence, easy to climb, climbed the fence from there, one person rushed to kill hundreds of Burmese troops, followed by more than ten Qing soldiers followed the climb, under this cover, Wang Lian killed more than ten enemies and then pulled out the wooden fence, the Qing soldiers swarmed in, and once again captured a camp. The two camps were higher, and Mingrui divided his troops to cooperate with other routes to capture the two battalions.
The Burmese soldiers continued to counterattack until the second change in the evening, seeing that the counterattack was hopeless, they retreated one after another, and the Qing troops pursued and killed them with all their strength, and did not withdraw until dawn on the second day. In this battle, the battle was a brute battle, in which the Qing soldiers killed more than 2,000 enemies, captured 34 people, and captured many guns, food, cattle and horses. When the Qianlong Emperor heard the news, he made Mingrui a first-class duke, and the Guizhou soldier king company was also directly promoted to guerrilla.
After the Battle of Manjie, Minh Shwe underestimated the enemy even more, continued to lead his troops deeper, bypassed the Tiansheng Bridge, arrived at Song Sai (present-day Burma) on December 13, arrived in Banghai on the 17th, and marched to Xiangkon (present-day Singu, Burma) on the 18th, only 70 li from Awa. However, under the strong walls of Burma, the Qing soldiers were exhausted of food, horses, and people, and they were no longer able to attack the city.
On the 19th, Mingrui had no choice but to order his troops to retire to Menglong (present-day Menglong, Burma) to eat. After the Burmese soldiers detected the withdrawal of the Qing army, they launched a large-scale counterattack, and only sent troops to follow the Ming Shui army more than ten miles away, and from time to time they carried out harassment operations, but did not fight head-on. The main thing is to use the main forces in the direction of Mubang.
By the second day of the first lunar month of the 33rd year of Qianlong (1768), the Burmese soldiers successively captured the Qing military stations at Tianshengqiao, Manjie, Puka, and Tin Foil, and the Qing soldiers lost more than 800 soldiers, and only more than 100 people returned to Mubang. The logistics and military intelligence lines of the Mingrui Army were cut off. On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the Burmese soldiers surrounded Mubang, and Zhulune held out for ten days without support, committed suicide, the army was defeated, the general soldiers Hu Dayou and Hu Bangyou were killed in battle, and many people under the prefectural rank Yang Chongying were captured, but most of the Qing soldiers fled back to Yunnan. The Burmese soldiers were not good at fighting annihilation battles, and the Qing troops' retreat was well organized. At the same time, the nine hundred reinforcements sent by the Yunnan governor also routed and returned.
- Mingrui was defeated
At this time, the Northern Road Army had already retreated. In December of the 32nd year of Qianlong (1767), the Qing troops of the Northern Road attacked the old official Tun, with more than 500 casualties, and the general soldier Wang Yuzhu was killed. At the same time, there were quite a few infected officers and soldiers. The Burmese troops were gradually increased, and the Qing troops were forced to retreat to the dry tower forty miles away. Around the tenth day of the first lunar month, because the tin foil station was cut off, the Yunnan governor and the Qianlong Emperor ordered Erden's troops to transfer to Mubang several times to meet Mingrui. When Erden heard that there were Burmese soldiers in the middle of the way, he retreated into the Iron Wall Pass and turned from Longchuan to Mubang. At this time, Mubang had long fallen, and Mingrui had fallen into the siege of Burmese troops, but Erden, knowing that his combat power was fragile, still did not dare to come to the rescue.
On December 21, the 32nd year of Qianlong (1767), the Ming Rui army arrived at Menglong and obtained more than 20,000 stones of grain, temporarily alleviating the dilemma of food shortage, Ming Rui rested here for more than ten days, and after the Spring Festival, set out again, intending to return to Mubang via the mountains, and on the way heard that Mubang was besieged, and retreated to Wanding on the tenth day of the first lunar month.
On the 14th of the first month, the Burmese soldiers who were chasing after the tail of the Ming Rui army suddenly counterattacked, annihilating more than 1,000 enemies, and finally beat the enemy in the tail pursuit, no longer chasing so closely, although the casualties of the Qing soldiers were not large, but the general soldier Li Quan was shot and killed. After the Burmese army captured Mubang and repelled the Qing army in the north, almost all the main forces rushed to the Mingrui army, and tens of thousands of Burmese soldiers besieged more than 10,000 Qing soldiers at Xiaomengyu on the 7th of February, which was 200 li away from Wanding. The Mingrui army rested here for three days, and on the night of the 10th, along the exploration of the path, Mingrui led the ministers, guards and hundreds of Manchurian soldiers to the palace, the leading minister Zalafon'a was shot and killed, and Guanyinbao committed suicide by stabbing his throat with the last arrow he carried. Ming Rui was seriously injured, and galloped more than 20 miles with all his strength, "cutting off his hand and sending his servants to return to the report, and hanging under the tree, and his servants covered their bodies with Konoha." In the breakthrough of the Qing army, more than 1,000 officers and soldiers were killed in battle. On the 13th and 14th, more than 10,000 officers and men under the general army Ha Guoxing and Changqing broke through the siege and returned to Wanding, and many of the wounded and sick officers and soldiers and infirm civilian officials survived.
When the Qianlong Emperor heard the news of Mingrui's defeat and death, he was furious and indignant, and arrested Erdenge and sent him to Beijing, where he was executed, and Tan Sange, the Yunnan governor of the Northern Route Army, was also executed. After Mingrui's coffin returned to Beijing, the Qianlong Emperor personally came to offer condolences and gave him the nickname Guo Lie.
In the third war between China and Myanmar, Myanmar's strategic and tactical opponents, the northern road held the stronghold, the southern road stood firm to clear the wilderness, lured the enemy deeper, and finally defeated and expelled the Qing soldiers, but it also exposed the weakness of the Burmese soldiers who were not good at decisive battles in plains and not good at fighting annihilation battles. The Qing troops commanded from the supreme ruler to the front, did not know the enemy's situation, blindly underestimated the enemy, and purely defeated themselves. However, the Qing soldiers also dealt a heavy blow to the Burmese soldiers in the battle, forcing Burma not to dare to fight in the field in the future, but to choose to defend as an attack.
- Fourth war
Fu Heng
The defeat of the Ming Swee army, coupled with the gradual realization that Burma was not falling apart internally, but a new power, and Siam was also destroyed by it. The Qianlong Emperor began to have a considerable understanding of the national strength and military strength of Burma, but he would be humiliated by losing his master. The Qianlong Emperor then angrily ignored the peace documents sent by Burma one after another, and began to mobilize elite troops and prepare for a larger attack. Fu Heng, a heavy minister, was the commander, Ali Gon and A Gui were deputy generals, Shu Hede was the counselor, and Ning was the governor of Yungui. The Manchurian troops who originally accompanied Mingrui were transferred back, and an additional 1,500 Manchurian soldiers and 3,000 Guizhou soldiers were sent to Yunnan, and later 3,000 Manchurian soldiers and 2,000 Fujian naval divisions were added. At the same time, he also put aside the face of the Celestial Empire and began to consider contacting Siam and other countries to send troops together, and only died after the news of Siam's state break. The Qianlong Emperor was still full of fighting spirit, but some of his subordinates began to mumble that Burmese affairs were difficult.
In April of the 33rd year of Qianlong (1768), Shuhede and Oning, who had gone to Yunnan in advance, jointly played a concert, saying that there were five difficulties in conquering Burma.
First, it is difficult to handle horses, and according to the scale of 10,000 full soldiers and 30,000 Han soldiers, 100,000 war horses and horses are needed, and it is urgent and difficult to handle.
Second, it is difficult to handle grain; according to the calculation of 40,000 soldiers and 100,000 horses, 420,000 stone of grain is needed in 10 months alone, and the grain warehouse in the province is only 350,000 stone, which is a big shortfall.
Third, it is difficult to march, and it is difficult to walk from Yongchang in the interior to the border, and the terrain outside the border is even worse.
Fourth, it is difficult to transship grain, and it takes more than one million people to transport grain from Yongchang to the border alone, according to the calculation of three husbands transporting rice and one stone, and if they go outside the border, the mainlanders are not willing to go out of the border, the population is sparse, and it is almost impossible to hire a husband.
Fifth, the climate is difficult, the water and soil are uncomfortable, and more people have died of illness or lost their combat effectiveness due to illness in previous battles than on the battlefield. The two finally concluded that the odds of winning the war against Myanmar were not great, and it was better to try to provoke Myanmar to surrender. It should be said that these two people summed up the lessons quite well, but unfortunately they did not have an appetite for the Qianlong Emperor. Although he lost successive battles in Burma, the Qianlong Emperor still felt good, thinking that "I should be in full bloom of the Great Qing Dynasty, and it is not easy to beat Burma to the ground" After hearing this, he became angry, scolded the two for being shameless, and quickly demoted and transferred the two to posts.
Logistics has always been a big problem for expeditions of large armies, especially when they go abroad. Mingrui's whole army requisitioned more than 80,000 horses, donkeys and cattle, of which more than 10,000 horses, most of the beasts were cattle, and the cattle were slaughtered halfway for food. Twenty years later, the Qianlong Emperor sent troops to Vietnam, but only 10,000 troops reached Hanoi, and 780,000 people were mobilized, and they could barely maintain the supply. Therefore, the Qianlong Emperor wanted to launch another large-scale conquest of Burma, and the preparation time was still relatively hurried; taking horse mules as an example, only more than 20,000 horses and 6,000 mules were collected from Guizhou, Sichuan, Huguang, Henan, and other places.
In February of the thirty-fourth year of Qianlong (1769), Fu Heng led his troops to fight. Before leaving, the Qianlong Emperor personally gave the edict seal in the Taihe Hall and gave Fu Heng the armor he used to show his trust and expectations. In April, he arrived in Yongchang via Fu Heng. The Qing generals probably also learned the lesson of being cut off by Burma many times in the past, and after many discussions, decided to choose the northern section of the Sino-Burmese border in the direction of the attack, that is, one way from the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River (called the Dajinsha River in the Qing Dynasty) through Menggong (west of present-day Myitkyina, Burma) and Mengyang (present-day Myitkyina, Burma), and the other route to the Manmo region and the old official Tun to take Mengmi, and then with the naval division, the whole army marched by land and water, clamped down the Jinsha River, and directly took Mucomb and Awa. In the southern section of the border with Myanmar, Wanding and Pu'er, only a small number of troops were retained to contain it. Because the Dajinsha River could not be navigated by boat, the Daying River, a tributary of Yunnan, and could only be navigated near the Manmo area, the Qing army sent thousands of soldiers and horses and hundreds of craftsmen to the Bison Dam in the upper reaches of Manmo in May to build warships.
Burmese warships on the Irrawaddy River
On 20 July, the Qing soldiers took the oath to march. On the second day of August, Fu Heng led more than 8,000 troops to cross the Dajinsha River from Jiaojiu and penetrate deep into the Burmese Menggong and Mengyang Tusi areas, and the Burmese soldiers originally stationed in the thousands of troops retreated to Laoguantun near Xinjie, and did not fortify here, so Fu Heng traveled more than 2,000 li, and the soldiers did not lose blood, and the only result was to recruit Menggong Tusi, and because of the climate and road problems, Fu Heng was delayed in reaching the vicinity of Manmo. At this time, Aligon and Agui had already led the Qing army of more than 15,000 people, built warships, and advanced by land and water, and in September they were out of the bison dam and in September at the junction of the two rivers, and fierce battles broke out, and the Qing soldiers sank 13 Burmese warships with artillery, repelled the intercepting Burmese naval division, and the naval division went from the Daying River to the Dajinsha River, and the land soldiers and horses also reached the vicinity of Xinjie, and sent thousands of troops across the river to the west bank of Hakan to camp, open up waterways, and control both sides of the bank. Then Hakan sent 2000 troops to pick up Fu Heng to the south.
On September 29, Fu Heng arrived in Hakan. At this time, Fu Heng already knew that the West Bank was difficult to travel, and was forced to change his original plan to command the Western Route Army to capture Mushu (present-day Kamburu, Burma) along the West Bank and take Ava directly by land, but instead commanded the Eastern Route Army to fight a decisive battle with the main forces of Xinjie and Laoguantun Burma. On the second day of October, Fu Heng crossed the main battalion of the Qing troops in Jiangdong to command the operation.
The news of the Qing army's large-scale attack had been spread for a year, and the Burmese soldiers also found out the direction of the Qing army's attack at this time, and almost mobilized the main force to confront the Qing soldiers in the area of Xinjie and Laoguantun. The Qing troops nominally used 50,000 Manchu Han soldiers on this expedition, but due to logistical limitations, the actual front line was only 28,300 soldiers, deducting 1,500 troops from the town garrison and 3,500 troops from Pu'er, only 23,300 soldiers out of the customs, and 4,400 garrisons at stations along the road, and only 18,900 Qing soldiers on the front line of Xinjie and Laoguantun (including 2,000 sailors). The increasing miasma caused the Qing army to reduce its personnel considerably. There is no exact number for the entire Burmese army, but it should be no less than 30,000, and hundreds of French soldiers who had previously been captured by the French also served in the Burmese army. Therefore, this time the main forces of Qing and Burma were shaken, and the Burmese troops were still superior, but because there was a certain gap in the field combat capabilities of the two sides, the entire campaign process still maintained the offensive for a long time, while the Burmese soldiers basically maintained a defensive position.
On the 10th day of October, a fierce battle broke out between the two sides in Xinjie, first there was a battle between the naval divisions of the two sides, the Burmese soldiers were unfavorable, and they retreated to a sandbar slightly south to defend it, and the Qingshui division and part of the army attacked by land and water, defeated the Burmese naval division, killed more than 2,000 enemies, and captured six warships. On the west bank, Aligon led 900 Manchurian vests under the White Banner to break through three camps of Burmese soldiers, killing more than 1,500 enemies. After the battle, the Burmese soldiers retreated to Laoguantun, dozens of miles away, and the Qing army occupied Xinjie.
On 20 October, the Qing troops marched to Laoguantun. The Burmese army has already set up two strong camps in Laoguantun, the main force is in Dazhai, Jiangdong, thousands of Burmese troops are camped on the west bank, the camp fence extends into the river, and the Burmese naval division is moored on the river between the two battalions, responding left and right. The Burmese soldiers on the east bank saw that the Qing soldiers had just arrived, so they went out of the camp to attack, but were repulsed by the Qing soldiers, and neither side achieved major results, and the two sides only bombarded each other with artillery from time to time. After the battle, the Qing soldiers camped separately on both sides of the strait to confront the Burmese soldiers. The water between the two battalions of the Burmese soldiers was turbulent, and there was a sandbar, and the Qing naval division could not advance for the time being. On the second day, the Qing troops on the east bank sent a partial division to the south of the Burmese army to camp, preparing to cut off its waterway.
Burmese soldiers dug many earthen pits as deep as three feet in the camp, during which the soldiers could avoid artillery fire and hide their targets.
On 22 October, the Qing scouts observed from the height of the big tree, misjudging that there were very few enemy soldiers in the battalion. The Qing troops then launched a large-scale attack, and Fu Heng, Ali Gon and others arrived dozens of steps outside the fence to command. There were deep trenches outside the Burmese barracks, wooden fences were extremely strong, plus extremely strong guns, and the Qing soldiers were repulsed many successive offensives within a day, and the general soldier Defu was also shot and killed. The Qing generals were killed, and they planned to take advantage of the night hand-to-hand fight, but they were stopped. On the same day, the naval divisions of the two armies also clashed on the river, and the Qing troops sank twenty Burmese warships. For three days in a row, the Qing army's offensive momentum was not so fierce, and they tried to destroy the wooden fence by means of fire attack and artillery, but all failed.
On the 26th, the Qing naval division exerted its strength to capture the sandbar near the west bank between the two battalions by night, captured two warships, captured eleven people, and the Burmese naval division retreated to the east bank, and the Burmese soldiers' waterway transportation on the east bank was cut off, and the morale of the Qing soldiers was greatly boosted, but the fire attack on the Burmese soldiers on land failed again. On the 29th, the Qing soldiers broke the fence by blasting tunnels and pulling down hundreds of long vines, but the result was still failure.
On the first day of early November, a large number of Burmese soldiers came to the aid of the West Bank, stormed the Qing troops on the west bank, and bombarded the Qing naval division with artillery, fortunately 300 Manchurian soldiers desperately covered and killed the enemy, so that the Qing soldiers and the naval division had time to retreat. The Burmese waterway continues to be unblocked, and supplies from the west bank to the east coast continue to flow. At that time, if Fu Heng continued to besiege Laoguantun with a small force and attacked Awa directly from the west bank of the river with most of his troops, there was still a possibility of turning the tide of the unfavorable battle, but Fu Heng insisted on capturing Laoguantun, causing the Qing troops to fall into a stalemate in the war.
By this point, both sides had fought exhausted and were war-weary. During this period, except for sporadic skirmishes, the two sides have de facto truce. On the 9th of the first month, the Burmese soldiers sent a letter asking for an armistice. Fu Heng wanted to fight, but most of the generals below the deputy general A Gui did not want to fight, so on the 10th of the first day, Fu Heng wrote back to the Burmese soldiers and agreed to a truce.
Moreover, the upper Qianlong "Naiyin has been too miasmatic this year, and the winter has not decreased. It is said that there are 31,000 soldiers on the front line, mainly because of diseases, and now only more than 13,000 remain. In fact, there were less than 17,000 soldiers on the front line, and in order to make the situation more serious, the number of soldiers on the front line was deliberately exaggerated. Although the losses of the Qing soldiers were small, they died more from illness than from the battlefield, such as the general soldier Wu Shisheng, the deputy general Ali Gon, and the naval division governor Ye Xiangde died of illness one after another, and Fu Heng himself was also sick and bedridden. Although the Burmese losses were slightly larger, the situation on the battlefield was slightly better, and the Burmese commander Norta (that is, Mahattitudula the conqueror of Ayutthaya) understood that Burma could not support a long war with China. As a result, the front-line generals on both sides decided on their own to negotiate a truce without the consent of the supreme ruler.
After several negotiations, the two sides formally negotiated a peace on November 16, with 14 generals of the Burmese Army and 12 generals of the Qing Army as representatives of both sides, negotiating and agreeing on a pledge, exchanging gifts, and formally truce. On the 18th, the Qing soldiers sank the cannon and burned the boat, and the Burmese probably felt that the boat burned too badly, and asked the Qing soldiers for it, but naturally did not arrive. On the 21st, all the old officials and Qing soldiers withdrew. This war, which lasted for many years and cost the Qing Dynasty 9.11 million taels of silver, finally came to an end.
The result of the war
After 18 years, in April of the fifty-third year of Qianlong (1788), the Burmese king Meng Yun took the initiative to improve relations with China in response to the pressure of neighboring Siam and other countries, and sent envoys to pay tribute.
The official text of the Qing-Burma Provisional Peace Treaty has not been preserved, and the content of the reports of the two sides to their respective monarchs has been discrepancies, and the post-war negotiations between the two sides have been delayed for twenty years.
Chinese records:
1. Myanmar pays tribute in accordance with the ancient rites;
2. Myanmar will never violate the borders of the Celestial Empire;
3. Burma released all Qing prisoners of war.
Myanmar records:
1. All Burmese Tusi who fled to Yunnan shall be returned to Burma by the Qing Dynasty, and the sovereignty of Burma over the Tusi to which they belong shall be recognized;
(b) All prisoners of war shall be released;
3. The reopening of trade lanes and the free trade of traders from the two countries;
4. Every ten years, the monarchs of the two countries exchange envoys, exchange friendly letters and send gifts.