Details of Qianlong’s conquest of Burma!!!!

In the early Qing Dynasty, there was no formal official contact between China and Myanmar for a long time. However, the two countries were geographically adjacent and people-to-people exchanges were very frequent. In the eighteenth year of Qianlong's reign, through the introduction of Wu Shangxian, the owner of Yunnan Maolong Factory, who had close relations with Myanmar, the two countries began to have contacts. The Qing government allowed Myanmar envoys to come to China, which was the beginning of formal contact between the two countries. But this good start was interrupted by the civil strife in Myanmar that broke out soon. Starting from the 20th year of Qianlong's reign, the Burmese army continued to harass the chieftains such as Geng Ma and Meng Lian of the Qing Dynasty. In the 30th year of Qianlong's reign, the Burmese army even invaded Lanyanba on the Jiulong River in Yunnan and occupied Checheng. Liu Zao, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, sent troops to conquer, but due to improper command, he was defeated. In the first month of the thirty-first year of Qianlong's reign (1766), the Qing government sent scholar Yang Yingju to move from Shaanxi and Gansu to oversee Yunnan. After Yang Yingju took office, he commanded the army to repel the Burmese army's invasion and regain the lost territory. However, Yang Yingju was arrogant and underestimated the enemy because of this, and was greedy for merit. After he moved to Yongchang in Pu'er, he wrote to the king of Myanmar, stating that he would lead an army of hundreds of thousands to conquer and ask Myanmar to surrender. So Myanmar raised troops to fight, and fighting between the two sides resumed. The Qing army failed in several battles, and the Burmese army took the opportunity to invade Yunnan. Emperor Qianlong was furious when he heard the news and ordered Yang Yingju to be arrested and sent to the capital to die. In the 32nd year of Qianlong's reign, he sent General Mingrui to divide his troops into five groups to conquer Burma. At the beginning of the war, the Qing army won consecutive battles and made rapid progress. It was approaching the capital of Myanmar, Ava (today's Mandalay, Myanmar). However, after all, it was advancing alone and had no food and grass. It was finally defeated in February of the next year and retreated. Ming Dynasty Rui also committed suicide.

Emperor Qianlong was shocked by the news of the disastrous defeat of the Qing army. Seeing that the military situation was urgent, he "must have important ministers go to supervise and coordinate the arrangements", so he appointed Fu Heng as manager, and Aligun and Agui as deputy generals. Shuhede was the counselor and minister in charge of the conquest of Burma. In February of the thirty-fourth year of Qianlong's reign, Fu Heng led more than 13,600 Manchu and Mongolian soldiers to the expedition. Before leaving, Emperor Qianlong personally awarded him the imperial seal in the Hall of Supreme Harmony and gave his own armor to Fu Heng to express his trust and hope in him.

Fu Heng arrived in Yunnan in March of this year, and in April went to Yongchang and Tengyue to inspect the situation and begin preparations for the war. He learned that the Burmese army's defense "exclusively relied on Muzha" and that "the Qing army had always used ordinary guns and artillery to capture it, but to no avail", so he "interviewed people who are good at making cannons in the Maolong factory. In the future, when they march into the army, each soldier's bedding will be made of copper, A pound of iron can be used to cast a cannon secretly at any time when the fence is attacked, so as to catch the enemy by surprise." He also gathered the generals to discuss the strategy of entering the army. In view of the fact that General Minh Shwe only advanced by land in the past, and the Burmese side was able to concentrate its forces on defense, but suffered a defeat, Fu Heng decided to advance simultaneously by land and water. Because Awa, the capital of Myanmar, is to the west of the Great Jinsha River, and if one enters via the East Road through the Xiye River, Awa will still be across the river. Therefore, it was decided to go out of Hexi via the Jiajiu River (also known as Lanjiu River, or Betelang River) and take the road Meng Gong (today's west of Myitkyina, Myanmar) and Mengyang (today's Myitkyina, Myanmar) went straight to Awa, which was the main army; all the way went from the east bank of the Irrawaddy River to the south via Mengmi (today's Jieji, Myanmar). This is the partial division: the other route is from the Irrawaddy River, going down the river, and first building ships in Manmo (now Bhamo, Myanmar) to communicate with the first two armies, strengthen their momentum, and supply the needs of the two armies.

But in order to realize the policy of advancing on both water and land, we must first solve the problem of ships. Long before Fu Heng arrived in Yunnan, Emperor Qianlong had plans to build a ship and sent his deputy general Ali Gun to handle the matter. However, Aragon complained that "the trip to the outer gorge is very dangerous, the boats are impassable, and there are no offices along the river." Later, Fu Xian and Zuo Santai were ordered to investigate the actual situation, and "what they said was the same as Aragon." In this way, shipbuilding had to be put on hold for the time being. After Fu Heng arrived in Yunnan, he inquired the local residents in detail and learned that Wenggu Mountain near Manmo had more trees, and that the Bison Dam next to this mountain had a cool climate and was free from miasma, making it a good place for building ships. So Fu Heng He sent Fu Xian to supervise the transportation of materials and ordered craftsmen from Huguangwei to build ships. Soon, a group of ships arrived. Emperor Qianlong was very happy when he heard the news. He awarded him a special award and wrote a poem "Building a Boat" to commemorate this move.

While building ships, Fu Heng was also stepping up other preparations for the expedition to Burma. Additional troops from the Qing government arrived in Yunnan one after another, and horses, food and grass were generally available. In July of the 34th year of Qianlong's reign, there were tens of thousands of Manchu and Han elite troops, more than 60,000 horses and mules, and various firearms, such as the capital's magical firearms, rockets from Henan, and nine-section bronze cannon from Sichuan. They all gather together every day." However, it was still early for the frost to fall at that time, and the generals under his command "the ground in the south is full of miasma, so the group discussed that it would be better to leave the army after the frost falls." Although Fu Heng was a little hesitant, he was afraid that if the time dragged on, he would not only consume a lot of materials, but also the soldiers would become lax, which would make things even more difficult to handle. Therefore, he ignored the dissuasion of his subordinates and resolutely ordered the troops to march in, planning to Take advantage of the enemy's lack of preparation to attack and achieve unexpected results. On July 20 of the same year, Fu Heng set out to sacrifice the flag. At that time, the deputy general Ali Gun was ill, and Fu Heng asked him to stay and recuperate. Ali Gun insisted on joining the army, and Fu Heng agreed, leaving Agui alone in Manmo to supervise the construction of warships. After Fu Heng led the army to the Jiajiu River, he collected ships and built rafts. In ten days, the entire army crossed the Jiajiu River. Then he sent his army to the west. Along the way, two chieftains, Meng Gong and Meng Yang, surrendered one after another, and "each offered four tame elephants, a hundred cattle, and hundreds of stones of grain." It was the autumn harvest season in Myanmar at this time, and no troops had been gathered to fight. At the same time, Yugong and Yunyang were far away from the central area of ??Myanmar. Therefore, Fu Heng's army advanced two thousand miles without any loss. However, during this period, the weather was very bad. "On the way, it rained and then cleared, and the mountains were high and muddy. If a horse fell down, all the food and supplies he had carried would be lost. The soldiers might sleep naked and exposed in the wet, causing many diseases." .

In addition, the Qing soldiers were unfamiliar and often lost their way, making it difficult to penetrate deeply. Faced with such a dangerous predicament, Fu Heng had no choice but to change his original plan to capture Mushu (now Gamburu, Myanmar) and march directly to Awa by land. In October of the same year, he returned to Manmo and joined the Agui army on the east route. Fu Heng led his army to "travel for thousands of miles, and his troops were exhausted, but for the first time he did not meet a single thief. His reputation as a manager was ruined, and he fell ill from shame." Despite this, Fu Heng still took command despite being ill, trying to reverse this unfavorable situation. When he saw that most of the warships needed for water warfare had been built, and that the Fujian and Guangdong navies had also reached Manmo, he reorganized the army, taking Aligun as the west route, Agui along the southeast river as the east route, and himself Then the governor's boat division was in the center and marched south along the Irrawaddy River to form the central army. At this time, Myanmar also gathered water and land forces to fight. After a fierce battle between the two sides, the Myanmar army retreated and the Qing army won three victories. However, although the Qing army succeeded for a while, Aragon died of illness, and many officers and soldiers were either wounded or sick and were no longer able to attack Ava. So they concentrated all their efforts to seize Laoguan Village, five hundred miles north of Ava City, in order to force Burma to surrender. Laoguantun faces the river. The Burmese army erected many tall wooden fences two to three miles away from the east and west banks of the river. They dug triple trenches outside the fences and placed large logs horizontally outside the trenches, so that the sharp branches faced outwards to form a deer village, which made people feel uncomfortable. Unable to pass. This is a common practice of the Burmese army. Fu Heng first ordered his men to build an earthen platform, place cannons on the platform, and bombard the enemy's positions. Although the artillery shells penetrated the wooden fence, it did not collapse, and the damage was immediately repaired by the Burmese army. Seeing that this method was not effective, Fu Heng decided to "make it a long leather hook", but he tried hard to break the rope but could not knock down the fence. Then he sent soldiers to "take hundreds of feet of old vines from the Qing Dynasty and hook them to the fence at night" and asked thousands of people to drag them. However, the vines were chopped off by the Burmese army with axes, and this method failed again. Despite repeated failures, Fu Heng was still unwilling to give in, so he used fire attacks again, "First, he defended the poles with guns and cannons, and then everyone followed with their salary. Hundreds of cards burst out together, crossing the hao and reaching the fence. From the fourth watch of the night, the fog began to rise on the river. By the time Pingdan began to stop, the wood was wet and could not be heated, and the wind was blowing against it, so it stopped." Finally, Fu Heng sent soldiers to dig a tunnel and bury gunpowder to blast it. However, after the gunpowder was detonated, although "the gate suddenly rose more than ten feet high, and the thieves' shouts shook the sky", it then fell flat. "Three people rose and fell again. If it does not move again, the slope of the gate will wind down, while the tunnel will advance flatly, so the soil is too thick to burst."

At this time, Fu Hengruo continued to besiege Laoguantun with a small force, and used a large force to attack Awa from the west bank of the Yangtze River. It was possible to reverse the unfavorable battle situation, but he insisted on unifying the army. It was impossible to take Laoguan Village, so the Qing army was in a dilemma. In particular, the increasingly serious miasma caused a large reduction in the number of Qing troops. Fu Heng said in a report to Emperor Qianlong: "Because the miasma has been too severe this year, it has not decreased in winter. The original 30,000 soldiers in each camp were fully occupied. There were only 13,000 soldiers left."

After receiving the report, Emperor Qianlong knew that the Qing army was in trouble, so he ordered a temporary withdrawal of troops and ordered Fu Heng to return to the capital. "Since the old official camp cannot be stationed for a long time, and the Yiniuba area is too high, we will consider leaving troops to garrison there, and let the chieftain and the minister outside the pass measure the terrain to station for precautions. Ordering them to temporarily withdraw from the garrison and march again next year, it was announced in Everyone... wrote a message to Fu Heng to hand over the aftermath to A Gui and come to Beijing immediately."

At the same time, the Burmese army was increasingly frightened by the Qing army's offensive. In addition, Agui's warships had cut off the connection between the Burmese army on the east and west coasts, and they were unwilling to fight again. After going down, he took the initiative to send someone to deliver documents to the Qing camp, requesting both sides to choose a suitable location to discuss a truce. Fu Heng gathered the generals to discuss countermeasures, and Agui and other generals "were suffering from miasma due to the large number of troops, and there were deaths every day, so they tried to persuade them to surrender and withdraw their troops." Although Fu Heng did not want to end in peace, he had no other good way and had to listen to the opinions of the generals. After some haggling negotiations, the two sides finally reached a truce and troop withdrawal agreement. In December of the same year, Fu Heng reported that Burma agreed to the Qing side's condition of paying tribute every ten years and asked Emperor Qianlong to approve the agreement. Emperor Qianlong had already ordered a temporary withdrawal of troops, and now Myanmar has promised to pay tribute to the Qing Dynasty, which of course was quickly approved. The war that lasted for several years came to an end.

In March of the 35th year of Qianlong's reign, Fu Heng returned to the capital. Emperor Qianlong appointed him and his son Fu Long'an as ministers in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, soon, Fu Heng's situation became very bad. The main reason was that Myanmar had not fulfilled its promise to pay tribute. Emperor Qianlong thought this was very disgraceful and was very angry. But because Fu Heng's illness was getting worse day by day, he couldn't bear to punish him. Fu Heng himself was so ashamed that he died of illness a few months later, still under the age of fifty. Emperor Qianlong personally went to his residence to pay homage and ordered that he be buried in the same manner as the clan and the country. He was given the posthumous title of "Wenzhong". After that, Emperor Qianlong held another memorial ceremony when he passed Fu Heng's tomb on his eastward tour. In the reign of Jiaqing (1796), Fu Heng's son Fu Kang'an passed away, and Fu Heng was given the title of county king by grace.

As a favorite of Emperor Qianlong, Fu Heng served in the Military Aircraft Department for twenty-three years and "served around him every day." His great influence on the political affairs of the early Qianlong period is obvious. First of all, he promoted and reused many capable talents with literary, Taoist and military skills. "The most important thing is to respect the seniors and guide the juniors." Some accomplished civil servants and generals, such as Sun Jiagan, Yue Zhongqi, Lu Zhuo, Bi Yuan, Sun Shiyi, Altai and Agui, etc., were all able to display their talents and show their style through his hands. "Therefore, there were many handsome men at that time. Yu Chao". Secondly, he is "very humble" to his subordinates and "has no signs of being arrogant or inferior". In the 23rd year of Qianlong's reign, after the death of Wang Youdun, Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Fu Heng strongly recommended his son Wang Chengxu, who was eventually awarded the post of head of the Ministry of War.

Wang Chengpei was later ordered to serve as the prefect of Shaowu, Fujian Province. Fu Heng, because his mother was eighty years old and had no one to take care of her, made a special request for Wang Chengpei to stay in Beijing and serve. Shu Hede, the Minister of War, disobeyed the emperor in handling the surrender of Amursana and angered Emperor Qianlong, so he was exiled from the garrison. Fu Heng specially used his own silver to redeem his house. Later, after Shu Hede was pardoned and returned, he was sent to the garrison. Donate the house to him. Because Fu Heng was humble to his subordinates and often helped them solve their problems, people "all admired his virtue, which lasted for a long time."

However, Fu Heng was "quite extravagant, and his clothes and equipment were all gorgeous." This contributed to the increasingly prosperous trend of luxury and luxury at that time. In particular, Fu Heng often failed to enforce the law strictly against officials who took bribes, violated the law and harmed the people. Gao Heng, the envoy of the Lianghuai Salt Administration, was convicted of corruption and sentenced to death by the Ministry of Punishment. "On the day of the hookup, the superiors hated him for his corruption and violence, and wanted to depose him. Fu Wenzhong (Fu Heng) took his place and asked: 'May your Majesty For the sake of concubine Huizhe, I will spare her from death. "What should I do if my brother the queen breaks the law?" "Fu trembled and turned pale, and he immediately ordered Gao Heng to be executed." Therefore, a soldier named Wang Song criticized Fu Heng for "earning his reputation with generosity" and "for being responsible for the important task of Tai Ding, he did not know how to work hard to benefit the country. Knowing that you are full of dirt and evil, you can gain a false reputation for a while. I am afraid that in the future, there will be some patronizing husbands who will use public reputation to benefit their own private interests. The trend of wariness is getting worse from now on, and the strict laws of the previous dynasty will surely be ruined because of it. "Prince Zhaozhen of Li even related the prevailing trend of complacency in the officialdom after Heshen came to power in the late Qianlong period with Fu Heng. He said: "After the Prime Minister Heshen (referring to Heshen) was in power, Cong Yu was the style of the government. , Taking redundant buildings as an important thing, and the customs are stolen day by day, and it is actually inspired by Wen Zhonggong (referring to Fu Heng)." This is not unreasonable.