In February of the 33rd year of Qianlong, in order to prevent the Burmese Gongbang Dynasty from invading the border, Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty organized and launched the third campaign to conquer Burma, and the main general Mingrui was killed. The failure of this battle made Qing Gaozong furious, and he immediately decided to raise manpower and material resources again to conquer Burma, and determined that the university scholar Fu Heng was the strategy, Ali Gon and A Gui were the deputy generals, Shu Hede was the counselor, and Enning was awarded the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, and the governor of Yunnan was transferred to Mingde, the governor of Jiangsu was specifically responsible for the implementation of the fourth conquest plan.
"Qing Gaozong Records, Volume 805": In Burma, the bandits outside the country (the rare characters can't be typed, let's look at the picture for yourself), it's not worth raising troops to handle, and I will want to exterminate it. The edict of the former edict was very clear, especially for Liu Zao and Yang Yingju's absurd and undisciplined front, and Erden's disgrace and other disheartening things were unexpected, causing the generals and ministers to sacrifice their lives bravely, and it was difficult to stop the handling. Generals and counsellors have been dispatched, and the Eight Banners have been mobilized to gather and advance in order to sweep away the barbaric atmosphere.
"Records of the Qing Dynasty"
力排异议，乾隆帝坚主用兵
It is said that the Counsellor Shu Hede arrived in Yunnan in April 33 and handled the invasion and suppression with Ening. However, Shu Hede and Ening submitted an investigation report that made Emperor Qianlong extremely dissatisfied, saying that it was difficult to handle Burma's military affairs, "Yunnan Province has many mountains and long roads, and it is not easy to make all preparations", and used "precise" calculations to explain that if a large army is conquest, the number of grains and horses, and the number of conscripted husbands and servants, it is necessary to prepare tens of thousands of horses, mobilize more than 1 million servants, and transfer more than 420,000 stones of grain. In the end, he concluded that it was not suitable for fighting, and that "there is no chance of winning if the grain cannot be continued," and suggested that a meeting and peace talks be held with the Burmese side, which could be carried out in secret in view of the face of the Celestial Empire.
Schuhd played a sparse note
To be honest, the logistical difficulties, disease epidemics, and difficult travel reasons mentioned above in this note all exist objectively and have a certain degree of rationality. Judging from Shu Hede's past experience, he does not look like a cowardly person, and he can be regarded as an old man seeking a country. But he completely underestimated Emperor Qianlong's determination to fight Burma, and the failure of the first three campaigns to conquer Burma made Qianlong completely unacceptable. Shu Hede's attitude of "avoiding war" made Qianlong very angry, and scolded Shu Hede for "shameless opinions, big wrong", "Every move of the imperial court belongs to the subjects, so why whitewash it?" In the case of the heavy affairs of the military state, how can you deceive yourself and others! He immediately summoned Shu Hede and Ering to return and handed them over to the ministry, with Ah Gui as the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou to manage military affairs.
At this time, although the Burmese Yongzhiya Dynasty won the victory in the battle with the Qing army, it also paid a very heavy price, "Ran Mingrui's death, the Burmese people did not know, and Yu Wei was especially shocked." At this time, Burma was at war with Thailand, and the two-front battle made the Burmese king Meng Jie like a man's back, "the mother of the thief chieftain is confused, unwilling to fight with the Celestial Empire, and often advises Yizi." When they heard that the soldiers were coming, they were all afraid of the wind", so they sent 8 people, including Xu Ergong, a soldier from Guizhou who had been captured before, to return and express their willingness to negotiate peace, but still emphasized that Twelve Banna and other places that had long been the Tusi of the mainland were their territories, and they wanted to return to the Tusi people of the Qing Dynasty.
Ali Gon, the deputy general who first went to Yunnan to handle military affairs, immediately wrote a letter to refute it, "I don't know the height of the sky, and I talk nonsense, which is no different from a dog barking." Emperor Qianlong, on the other hand, had a tough and resolute attitude, saying that "if there is no clue for a year, if you do it for another year, naturally the bandits will be afraid of the military and will return the money." It has strengthened its determination to fight against Burma, and war is inevitable.
The Burmese Peace Instrument contained in the Chronicle of the Expedition to Burma
调兵遣将，充分准备，大举征缅
After rejecting Shu Hede and Ening's request for peace talks, Emperor Qianlong began to deploy troops and horses to prepare for a large-scale attack on Burma. Qianlong believed that "the green battalion soldiers are very useless", and in this troop transfer, not only increased the size of the army, but also increased the proportion of full troops, all the elite troops in the empire were rushed to Yunnan, and the troops from other provinces were transferred to add local troops, and the number of mobilized troops was as high as 60,000 (the actual strength of the Burmese army was only about 30,000), and more than 60,000 horses and mules. There are also a large number of bows and arrows, shotguns, artillery, medicinal materials and other military supplies, "all transported to the Israeli army", and even used spells to attack, "benefiting the lama of Sichuan Gong spell". He also asked Fu Xian, Chang Qing and others to lead 3,000 soldiers and more than 460 Huguang craftsmen to Yeniuba to rush to build shipbuilding plates, which were to be transported to the Manchu and Han Dynasty soldiers and husbands to be transported to the Mandu River and then assembled into ships.
"Chronicles of the Expedition to Burma" pre-war preparations of the Qing court
And this time, the lineup of commanders is also luxurious, Fu Heng is the younger brother of Queen Xiaoxianchun, and the head of the military aircraft; The Ili general A Gui and the Hubu Shangshu and co-organizer of the university scholar Ali Gon are all long-standing and outstanding military achievements, and they are capable generals and famous ministers in the Qianlong period.
Fu Heng left Beijing on February 18, the 34th year of Qianlong, and arrived in Yunnan on March 24, where he planned ten matters with Ali Gon and A Gui, as shown below.
There are ten items in the "Records of Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty".
After Fu Heng arrived in Yunnan, he learned that the Burmese army was superior to the tactics of Muzha, "relying on Muzha, resisting our division, and always using ordinary guns and artillery to attack, to no avail." Then visit the Maolong silver factory, the craftsmen hired to the army to cast more than 2,000 pounds of cannons, after testing, the effect is not bad, "erect the wooden fence about three miles away, set up the cannon to fire, straight to the wooden fence, re-burst the mountain stone, into the soil five or six feet", and then cast 3,000 pounds of artillery, can be "no matter the wooden village, the brick city should not be broken". (Note: The test is very good, but there is a big deviation in the actual operation, which is regrettable)
Fu Heng cast cannon
In view of the harsh water and soil along the border line in Yunnan and Myanmar, and the miasma hurts people, a medicinal material called "Afoet" was prepared for the front line to avoid the epidemic (the actual effect is still regrettable).
两路出师，兵行野人山
On July 20, the 34th year of Qianlong, Fu Heng and A Gui, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, set out from Tengyue, Yunnan, and the two divisions and the troops contained a total of 29,000 Manchu and Han officers and soldiers. Fu Heng led 1,500 soldiers from the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division, 500 soldiers from Jilin, 2,300 soldiers from Solon, 300 soldiers from Erut, and 4,000 soldiers from the Green Battalion, totaling 8,800 people to march from Zhanda; A Gui, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, led 2,000 soldiers from the Eight Banners of the Beijing Division, 1,000 soldiers from Sauron, 300 soldiers from Erut, and 4,000 soldiers from the Green Battalion, totaling 7,300 people. In addition, 500 Jianrui battalion soldiers led by Fujian Admiral Ye Xiangde, 500 soldiers of Jilin Navy, and 2,000 soldiers of Fujian Navy. The deputy capital commander Tiebao and Admiral Ben Jinzhong led 4,400 people to guard the post station; The guard Nuo Erben and others led 1,500 troops to garrison Wanding to contain the Mubang Burmese army; Yalanga led 3,500 soldiers and green battalions to defend Pu'er. The actual number of troops involved in the offensive was 19,100.
Situation map of the Fourth Expedition to Burma
The deployment of the Qing army recorded in the "Chronicle of the Expedition to Burma".
The army arrived at Chanda on the 23rd of the seventh month, and the next day they parted ways with Ah Gui. Fu Heng led 5,800 people all the way from Zhanda to take the lead, when the deputy general Aligon was seriously ill, Fu Heng persuaded Aligon to stay in custody to recuperate, but Aligon insisted on going out with Fu Heng and leaving the country from Wanrenguan. On July 29, to the South Bottom Dam. The south bottom dam is the boundary of He Bing, the head of the dove, and there is a river in its place, and when the Qing army arrives, it prepares a ferry to send the Qing army to the opposite bank. On the first day of August, the Qing army completed the crossing of the river. The next day, Fu Heng's department set off from the Nandi Dam, arrived at the Forta on the fourth day of the first month of August, there is a wooden village, according to the "Chronicles of the Expedition to Burma" written by Wang Chang, a civilian official of the army, the leader of the Burmese army, Zhan Laji, once led 1,000 troops to station, heard that the Qing army arrived, has withdrawn. There is a river here again, a local head of the fierce arch prepared more than ten small boats, 20 rows of bamboo rafts to carry the Qing army across the river, Fu Heng first led Sauron, 1200 green battalion soldiers crossed the river on the fourth and fifth days of the first month, and the rest of the soldiers then crossed.
"Qing Shilu" records that Fu Heng crossed the Jiu River
In "The Chronicle of the Conquest of Burma", Fu Heng crossed the river
On August 18, he arrived in Bangmuna. On the 27th, arrived at Menggong, there were dozens of Burmese soldiers wielding knives and guns and retreating, the place of Menggong was empty, the Qing army captured the leader of Menggong Xingtangzha, who was willing to find the Menggong Tusi Hun Jue who had fled. On the second day of the ninth month, Xingtangzha led Hun Jue and other leaders to surrender to Cheng. On the 11th, Fu Heng set off from the fierce arch, arrived at Mengyang on the 17th, the sentinel killed several enemy soldiers, captured two alive, and then led the people with Tusi Xingtang to capture four wooden villages, and captured 48 cattle, 45 stones of grain, and cut 6~7 hectares of cooked fields to fill the army food. On the 18th, he set out from Mengyang, and after defeating the Burmese army stationed at the Hakan River, he arrived at Xinjie on the first day of October. During this period, Fu Heng fell ill.
Part of Fu Heng's itinerary
After Ah Gui led the Qing army to separate from Fu Heng all the way on July 24, he went out of Tongbi Pass, traveled 30 miles and arrived at Bison Dam to supervise the manufacture of warships. the second forty, thirty people; The Qing army made prefabricated warships here, which was very difficult, not only to deal with the bad weather, but also to deal with the attacks of the Burmese army, Fu Xian and Wu Santai, who were in charge of shipbuilding, were infected with the epidemic and died. After the ship's materials were completed, Ah Gui sent 3,000 soldiers, together with the ministers and family members, to stipulate that every 60 catties was a back, a journey of 1560 miles, and the shipbuilding timber was transported to the twilight and assembled into ships by manpower. On September 13, Ah Gui learned that Fu Heng had arrived at Menggong, so he crossed the Mandui River and camped in Xinjie in the southwest of Mandui. And on the 18th, he sent Yiletu to lead 1,000 troops to meet Fu Heng. The two armies met smoothly.
"Chronicle of the Expedition to Burma" transport ship
鏖战老官屯
After the two armies of Fu Heng and A Gui met, the new shipbuilding was only assembled. On the first day of October, they arrived at Xinjie along the river, and after occupying the mouth of the river, they prepared to attack Laoguantun. After Burma learned that the Qing army had penetrated deeply, it decided to transfer back the troops that attacked Siam and make every effort to resist the Qing army, "but the Burmese army will never have a chance to rest, if Ayutthaya can not break through in time, then the siege will not be relieved by itself, and the holy decree has been issued, and the whole country is urgently transferred back to the division to resist the Chinese army, because since 1765-69, the Chinese army has repeatedly come to the border, and Ava has a tendency to be insecure."
《缅甸史》
According to the "Chronicle of the Expedition to Burma", the Burmese army also dispatched 20,000 men and 200 ships to Laoguantun, built a large-scale wooden fence fortification under the command of the Burmese general Bra Mangfu, and issued a war letter to the Qing army with the intention of fighting a decisive battle with the Qing army. In terms of troops, the Qing army did not have an advantage, while the Burmese warships were "about six or seven zhang long, with 20 oars on each side, gun emplacements at the bow and stern, and shotguns on the side, and the coming and going were very fast." According to Harvey's "History of Burma", "Burmese warships were stronger than the Chinese naval divisions", and there were French artillery in the army to assist in the battle. From this point of view, the overall military strength of the Laoguantun Burmese army is not only not weaker than that of the Qing army, but even surpasses it in some aspects.
《缅甸史》
On the 10th day of October, before the Qing army could attack, the Burmese army took the lead in making a move, and more than 30 ships went up the river and anchored on the west bank, intending to seize the Qing army's position. Fu Heng immediately sent troops to attack, Ah Gui and Ah Si Ha both went deep into the front line of the "Lijiang Hu Battle", and the guard Arsu took the lead and took the lead in leading the troops to counterattack by boat, and the Wuyun Hada of the military academy also jumped into the shallow water to shoot the Burmese army.
In the fierce battle, the Qing army saw that there was a red-clothed man on the Burmese army Tujin boat with a red flag in the red flag commanding and firing at the Qing army, and decided that this person must be the leader of the Burmese army.
The Burmese army on the east bank of the river rushed out of the fence, and Hailancha led his troops to meet with Arsuna, who abandoned the ship and landed on the shore, and worked together to repel the Burmese army, seize three Dazhai, and kill more than 500 Burmese soldiers. The Qing army on the west bank, under the leadership of Aligon, Mingming, Iletu and others, also defeated the Burmese army, rushed straight to the Burmese army's fortress, defeated the Burmese army, and pursued the Burmese army into the Burmese army's Dazhai by victory, and also killed more than 500 enemies, and the Burmese army was defeated and fled. The casualties of the Qing army were not small, the wounded alone were as high as more than 70 people, this battle was the battle of Xinjie, and it was a big victory of the Qing army before the battle of Laoguantun.
The Battle of New Street
The Battle of Xinjie in "The Chronicle of the Conquest of Burma".
Despite the Qing army's phased victory in Xinjie, there were also several bad news. Fu Heng's condition worsened during the march, and the diarrhea did not stop, and the condition of the deputy general Ali Gon, who fought with injuries, was even more serious, and after the battle of Xinjie, he was dying, but he insisted on marching to Laoguantun, "Laoguantun has a thief fence, and the former Erden attack is also." It's only a round away from here, and if you don't break it, how can you report your life? On October 19, he finally passed away without bearing the pain.
The Qing army decided to take advantage of the power of victory, and the armies marched forward bravely, advancing by land and water, and approaching Laoguantun. Laoguantun is located on the east bank of the Dajin River, is a sandbar formed by the impact of the river, north to the fierce arch, fierce yang, south to the city of Awa, is the throat of water and land into the hinterland of Myanmar, the Burmese army is bound to fight to the death.
In order to cope with the attack of the Qing army, the Burmese army set up a strong and huge wooden fence fortification under the planning of the garrison general Bra Mangfu, "the fence wood is all diameter, buried in the soil very deep, and when it encounters a tree, it is traversed and thought to be a pillar." Outside the fence dig three layers of deep trenches, outside the trench and lie across the many branches of the wood, sharp its end and outward, the name is called the wooden stick, the guard is very prepared", and its wooden fence is not only solid, but also very exquisite, the village and the village are connected, can support each other, the wooden village on the shore extends to the river again, and the water is connected, the ship can enter, the supply is quite convenient, the "Chronicle of the Expedition to Burma" said: the thief fence has three, a total of five miles long, in fact, they are all connected also. The tail of the fence belongs to the river, and the river water is led into it by the open canal, and the boat can be parked.
"Chronicle of the Conquest of Burma"
A Brief Narrative of the Pacification of Burma
Regarding the process of the battle of Laoguantun, "Qing Shilu" is relatively brief, but the private histories such as "Chronicles of the Expedition to Burma" and "Chronicles of the Expedition to Burma" are very detailed. In order to destroy the Burmese army's wooden village, the Qing army used all the methods it could think of. First of all, the Weiyuan cannon was specially cast for breaking the grid, and this cannon "weighed 3,000 catties and was more than 30 catties." Although the experimental results were good, the effect of attacking the Burmese army's wooden fence was very poor. Because the foundation of the Burmese army's wooden fence fortifications is solid, it goes deep into the ground to "cover six feet", and the cannon hole is passed through the wooden fence, and "the fence does not collapse".
"Chronicle of the Expedition to Burma", "Chronicle of the Expedition to Burma"
Seeing that the bombardment was ineffective, the Qing army sent people to jump into the deep trench, wanting to break the fence with manpower, the Qing army worked hard, and pulled out the bamboo sticks, antlers and other obstacles in the trench, waded through the deep trench, and cut the fence with an axe, because the fence wood was too strong and failed, the Qing army was killed and injured a lot by the Burmese army's darts, fire guns, and iron pellets, and the general soldier Defu was shot and died, and Quilin retreated and was injured. Withdrawing troops at night, Ha Guoxing was not convinced, and wanted to fight again at night and fight hand-to-hand with the Burmese army, but was stopped by Fu Heng.
"Chronicle of the Conquest of Burma"
Later, the Qing army attacked the Burmese army with fire, but the Burmese army saw that the Qing army set fire, dumped a large amount of soil from the wooden fence, and poured river water to extinguish the fire. On October 29, the Qing general Ma Junbiao dug the tunnel to the wooden fence and detonated the explosives. The Qing army tried to pull the wooden fence with an iron hook, but the rope broke, the enemy fence was still the same, and the Qing army was trapped under the Burmese fence and was at a loss.
"Chronicle of the Conquest of Burma"
In contrast to constipated land warfare, water warfare has progressed to a certain extent. On 26 October, Iltu and Ye Xiangde led a naval division to cut off the waterway of the Burmese army by surprise. However, on the first day of November, it was repulsed by the Burmese army on the fence, and the Burmese army's waterway was restored to its original state.
"Chronicle of the Conquest of Burma"
After more than 10 days of fierce fighting, the Qing army suffered major setbacks on both land and water, suffered heavy casualties, the offensive gradually weakened, and the main general Fu Heng was very seriously ill. About 30,000 Qing troops, due to epidemics and casualties in the battle array, "there are only more than 13,000 left", Fu Heng asked "temporarily withdraw the army, and march again next year", Emperor Qianlong saw that the situation was deadlocked, and there could be no victory in a short period of time, and he also agreed to the class.
"Records of the Qing Dynasty"
议和罢兵
While the Qing army was exhausted, the Burmese army was also quite exhausted, and suffered heavy losses under the Qing army's round-the-clock attacks. On October 27, Burma took the initiative to propose peace, "with the arrow and the Pu Ye book in the army, and the words wanted to negotiate surrender" (according to Hawey's "History of Burma", it was the Qing side that took the lead in proposing peace). Because Fu Heng was seriously ill and could not handle military affairs, Ah Gui presided over the peace talks, and finally the two sides reached the conditions of the Burmese side to pay tribute, never violate our borders, and release the prisoners, and the Qing army withdrew its troops to Huju Pass on November 26, and the fourth campaign to conquer Burma officially ended.
It is worth mentioning that the generals on both sides negotiated privately behind their kings' backs, and it was obvious that each of them had committed the "crime of bullying the king". In particular, the Burmese king Meng Jie, when he heard that the generals were privately discussing peace, was "furious and wanted to kill the whole army to show punishment", and it took a long time before he pardoned him.
《缅甸史》
Due to the private advice of the front-line generals, Meng refused to implement the peace treaty, which made Qianlong furious, and almost launched the fifth campaign to conquer Burma, which was later abandoned due to the outbreak of the second Jinchuan War. It was not until the death of Meng Di that the Qing-Burma relations were on the right track, and the system of one tribute for ten years was determined, and Myanmar became a vassal and the two countries officially moved towards peace.
Citations: "Records of Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty", "Chronicles of the Expedition to Burma", "Chronicles of the Expedition to Burma", "Records of the Martial Arts of the Imperial Dynasty", "Miscellaneous Records of Xiaoting", "History of Burma"