Chapter 133 Setting Fire to the Mountain

Continue from the previous article.

After witnessing the powerful fighting force of the Guardians, Guan Jinpan and others decided to join the church.

With the end of the battle, many family members of the rebels found Kompong Som, and the total number of the Zhenla rebels was nearly 8,000.

The food for these 8,000 people was a problem, plus the housing they needed.

A heated discussion was held in Kompong Som, although the various factions were arguing over how to deal with the Zhenla rebels.

Some people thought that the Zhenla rebels should be placed in the Xiangshan Mountains to consume the strength of the Vietnamese, while others thought that they were not capable of great use, so it would be better to set aside a special area for them to contribute to the construction of the territory.

But there was one point that could be agreed upon, that is, Guan Jinpan's team could not be allowed to enter the city.

In Southeast Asia, people have believed in a saying since ancient times: Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of different species?

Now that the Zhenla royal family is declining and the country is fragmented, I am afraid that there are many people who have other ideas. This kind of good use will be of great benefit to the construction of Kompong Som, but it may be deeply harmed if it is not used well.

The main problem now is that the original Zhenla official army has 8,000 people, and almost everyone has a gun, and most of them are strong laborers.

In addition to the 800 religious guards, the fighting force of the Pontoon is the fighting brothers of the church, but the two together are only more than 1,000 people.

If it is a frontal battle or a defensive battle, it is okay, but if the other party launches a sneak attack, it will be very troublesome. Once these people are allowed to enter the city, the situation will be out of control.

The only way the Austrians in Zhenla can think of is to write letters to their country for help, and at the same time recruit believers for simple training. Once an emergency occurs, they will be given weapons to help them defend the city and fight.

However, doing so can only ensure the safety of the city of Pontoon, not the safety of the entire area, and it also restricts their own activities.

In fact, Franz had already thought of this possibility, and the solution he gave was to divide and disintegrate.

First, Zhenla officials who have long-term trade relations with Austria can join the church and enter the city.

Secondly, if they can provide treasures, intelligence, or special personnel who can speak German, they can also join the church and enter the city.

Secondly, those who want to join the church and enter the city can be trained first and then selected. Among them, the excellent and pious ones will be retained and participate in actual combat. Those who have performed well in three consecutive battles can join the church and enter the city.

At the same time, one point must be implemented well, the two basic points of church and German. New believers must speak German, and the class must be weakened in the city, especially among the Zhenla people, and the class must be strengthened outside the city, so as to facilitate the rule.

The news of the defeat of Ren Yu and Luo Jian quickly spread to the back, and the Vietnamese generals who led the troops felt unbelievable.

Fan Zhu and Zhang Mingjiang were both second-rank generals, but they were oppressed by Zhang Mingjiang everywhere. If the news of this defeat was used by Zhang Mingjiang, I am afraid that his position as a general would not be kept.

As for the words of the Zhenla pseudo-troops in front of him, Fan Zhu did not believe it at all. He did not believe that there was any army in the world that could use black smoke to hurt people. Instead, he felt that these Khmer spies might be pretending to surrender to the Great Viet Kingdom, and at this moment they were just using a trick of self-torture.

Their purpose was just to delay his steps. At the same time, Fan Zhu also understood that the army of Dai Viet would not allow failure. The loser would only die. So what Fan Zhu had to do now was to kill all these Khmer people, and then personally take down Kompong Som and give an explanation to the leader of Vietnam.

Guan Jinpan and others were surprised at the changes in Kompong Som. They did not expect that the previous fishing village had become a city at this time.

The high walls were as majestic as any big city in Zhenla, and coupled with a large area of ​​Western-style buildings, it gave people an unreal feeling.

Guan Jinpan also noticed a feature. The believers here actually wore foreign cloth. Compared with local cloth, foreign cloth was beautiful and strong. Only a few people in Zhenla could afford it.

At this time, there was less trade between Zhenla, Vietnam and the West, so this situation occurred.

Previously, Guan Jinpan and Parasu forged the edict of the former king Anchan and assigned Kompong Som and its surrounding counties to Austria.

Now Guan Jinpan has another document to suppress rebellion and a document to give the two provinces of Gongbu and Koh Kong near Kompong Som to the Austrian Empire.

Guan Jinpan had seen how powerful Kompong Som was at that time in the previous battle. Now he just wanted to find a good backer for his people and use the two documents in his hand to exchange for a peaceful life in the second half of his life.

Franz was very satisfied with Guan Jinpan's forgery of the edict of the former emperor of Zhenla. After all, it was best to die without evidence, which could save Franz a lot of trouble.

Of course, Franz also knew that Guan Jinpan could forge many copies of such an edict if he forged one, so Franz did not want the edict, but wanted the tool to forge the edict, that is, Anzan's jade seal. For this reason, Franz was willing to give Guan Jinpan a position as an assistant bishop.

Although the assistant bishop was a clergyman, Kompong Som was equivalent to the second in command at this time, because this place was temporarily controlled by the church.

Ambrosius also returned to Kompong Som. He successfully found the ship anchored on the shore, but the people on it were not French, but spies sent by the church to Vietnam.

In name, Kompong Som was still the Grand Duke of Ambrosius, and he was also the supreme commander here, so Kompong Som was very happy that he could come back.

But before they could celebrate, a scout sent back a message that more than 20,000 Vietnamese troops from Pham Chu were trying to cross the Elephant Mountain Range.

Franz had already taught Archbishop Rauscher that the way to deal with this situation was to attack with fire, and these things were written in the holy book that Rauscher sent to the priests of Pongson.

As a genius commander, Ambrosius also understood that setting fire to the mountain was the best choice at this time.

The purpose was not to burn all the opponents to death on the mountain, but to slow down the enemy's march and disrupt the enemy's deployment.

As for whether it is possible to set fire in the tropical rainforest climate, please refer to the Amazon forest fire and Zhuge Liang's burning of rattan armor soldiers.

The reason why the Austrian army used fire attack was that the Vietnamese did not take the usual path and had to learn from Hannibal to cross the Elephant Mountain Range. If they could go around and attack from the main road, they would have to spend at least one more month.

At the same time, the so-called "main road" in Vietnam at this time was not wide, and as long as a few bridges were blown up, they could only wade across the river. It is well known that "landing on the beach" has never been an easy task, and the main weapon of the Vietnamese army is the matchlock gun, which cannot be used once it is soaked in water.

Austria's main weapon in Pontsun is the needle-percussion gun, which is not afraid of water. This is also the source of Franz's confidence that a few hundred people can defend Pontsun.

This is also the reason why there are thousands of guns in Pontsun's warehouse, but there are only 800 people in the Guardian Army.

Because in Pontsun's warehouse, most of the guns are flintlock guns prepared to be sold to the Zhenla people, and only the Guardian Army and the Austrian Army use needle-percussion guns.

Fan Zhu's team is very large and easy to identify in the mountains. Pontsun's scouts set fire in the mountains, and the forest fire soon turned into a raging flame.

Faced with the raging forest fire, Fan Zhu had no choice but to retreat.