A hero in his twilight years

Everything was going very smoothly, making Gao Yuan feel that he had become the Child of Fortune of this spacetime.

However, how could everything be such smooth sailing? It was December of the first year of the new era name, and the year was about to end.

This morning, a burst of urgent hoofbeats broke the morning silence.

Gao Yuan had just finished his morning workout and was preparing to take a bath when a Female Soldiers ran hurriedly into his courtyard.

"Reporting to the Commandery Duke, an urgent document from the Zhongnan Circuit."

Gao Yuan did not even have time to wipe off his sweat before he took the letter cylinder, checked the seal, confirmed it was intact, and opened it to read.

As he read, his brow furrowed tightly.

The commotion woke up the person sleeping soundly; Zheng Wan put on her pajamas and walked out.

"Husband, has something happened?"

Gao Yuan nodded.

"Liu Rengui reports that the Mughal army has crossed Manipur and captured Dangdu."

Zheng Wan clearly did not know these place names well, as they were all territories of foreign tribes, and she looked at Gao Yuan with her big eyes.

Gao Yuan led the woman into the study, unfolded his map, and pointed to a place.

"Manipur is between the Arakan Mountains and the Dangdu Hills; once you pass through here, it is the Toungoo hinterland."

Even if the woman did not understand military affairs, she could see the strangeness in this.

"This place is easy to defend and hard to attack, how could it be captured so easily?"

"That is why it feels strange. Toungoo still has a main force in Chittagong; how could they allow the Mughals to capture such an important place, unless..."

"Unless what..."

"I am not sure, I need more information to be certain. The only thing I am sure of is that we must speed up our progress."

Although he was not sure how the Mughals had captured Manipur, Gao Yuan was certain they were definitely not here for sightseeing.

If he did not speed up, the cake of conquering Toungoo would be eaten up by others.

Wiping the sweat off his body, Gao Yuan called Xia Luqi, Xue Linfeng, and Zhao Meng to the Governors Office.

After briefly explaining the situation, Gao Yuan looked at the three of them.

"Speed is the essence of war; I am afraid everyone will not be able to spend the New Year at home again."

Xue Linfeng was the first to stand out.

"Since I, This humble general, pledged my allegiance, I have achieved no merit, yet you, my Lord, have entrusted me with heavy responsibilities. Not to mention not being able to spend the New Year at home, even if I were to die on the battlefield, This humble general would not frown."

Xia Luqi felt a hint of something ominous; it seemed his title as the number one sycophant was about to be lost, so he hurriedly expressed his stance as well.

"My Lord, wherever you say to attack, I will attack."

Zhao Meng also hurriedly stood up.

"Me too!"

Gao Yuan nodded with satisfaction and immediately began to issue orders.

"This time, the Mughal forces will certainly not be small, so I have decided: Xue Linfeng will temporarily act as the Governor, Xia Luqi will be the vanguard, leading the Central Corps to quickly reinforce Liu Rengui's unit; Zhao Meng, you lead the Cavalry and move with me; Lin Feng, you draft the orders for me, ordering one brigade each from the South of the Ranges, Southern Yunnan, and Vietnam Corps to concentrate in Vientiane."

Gao Yuan was going on an expedition again; this news spread quickly. Not only the four women in his household, but even Yang Xin and Princess Consort Huang Yueying hurried over.

Looking at a bevy of beauties staring at him, Gao Yuan felt his hair stand on end.

Yang Xin pulled Princess Consort Huang Yueying to stand before Gao Yuan.

"I originally had a surprise for you, but I did not expect you to be going on an expedition. I can only wait for you to come back to see it."

It was clear that the four women in the house were looking at Yang Xin and Princess Consort Huang Yueying with strange expressions.

Just as he did not know how to explain, another Female Soldiers ran in.

"Your Highness, Commandery Duke, Lady Xian requests an audience."

At this moment, a thought popped into Gao Yuan's mind—it is over, this time it is really over.

Sure enough, as soon as this woman entered, she started making trouble. She walked to Gao Yuan with teary eyes and performed a bow.

"This concubine wishes the Commandery Duke victory in the first battle; I will pray for you day and night at home."

The voice was soft and sweet, making one's bones feel a bit numb.

Gao Yuan quickly broke free from that feeling.

"Um... that... I am not leaving until after the New Year, there is still some time; that... Zhao Xiyaos informal address, I think it would be better to invite everyone over for the New Year's Eve dinner to celebrate together."

Heaven is my witness, Gao Yuan purely felt that since these women were so concerned about him, he wanted to invite them to a meal to thank them.

But in the eyes of Zhao Xiyao and the others, this was simply a banquet to welcome the three women into the family in advance.

In the following days, Gao Yuan really suffered; not only did no one sleep with him at night, but he was also constantly given the cold shoulder.

When he was a single dog before, he really did not feel there was anything wrong with sleeping alone at night.

Now that he was used to it, he was really not used to not having a fragrant, soft, and hot body to hold at night.

With nowhere to vent his energy, Gao Yuan extended his daily martial arts practice by half an hour.

His strength could be said to be advancing by leaps and bounds; Gao Yuan felt that he was only a few real battles away from his next breakthrough.

Chiang Mai City, Liu Rengui's Governors Office; after reading the reply, he laughed wildly.

"Hahaha, everyone, my Lord has already mobilized the Central Corps and three brigades of the Xuanjia Army to move south."

"Really? That's great."

"With the Central Corps here, those foreign tribes are nothing but worthless scum."

This good news made everyone excited, wishing they could continue the attack immediately.

"The Central Corps still needs time to move south, which just gives us time to prepare: First, we must hurry to transport grain and fodder, especially various horse feeds; Second, we must hurry to treat the wounded and let those with minor injuries return to the battlefield as soon as possible; Third, we must complete the soldier rotation as soon as possible, and let the soldiers from all places get some combat experience."

"Understood!"

Before the reinforcements arrived, the Qian Army stationed in Chiang Mai had already started to get busy.

Grain, supplies, transport, troop rotation, evacuation of the wounded, and returning to the ranks.

The road from Chiang Mai to Vientiane was bustling with activity, with an endless stream of laborers, packhorses, and vehicles on the official road every day.

Even the craftsmen and parts for building various siege weapons were successively transported to the front line.

Anyone who saw this commotion knew that they were preparing to launch an attack.

The scale of the movement made those stationed in Mawlamyine and Kengtung nervous.

Although they were important border towns, because of insufficient troops, the garrison in the two places added up to only about 10,000 men.

More than 100,000 troops had been beaten to a pulp by the Qian Army, so they did not think they could hold the two places.

So, without asking for instructions, the garrison commanders of the two places directly chose to abandon most of the cities and retreat to the prefecture capital.

This actually made things convenient for Liu Rengui; he sent troops to take over the city defenses everywhere and simultaneously started the migration plan.

He directly implemented a scorched-earth policy, leaving the Toungoo army isolated and without help.

At this time, Maha Thihathura no longer had the high spirits and bold demeanor he once had.

The country was beset by internal and external troubles: the attacks from the Great Qian and the Mughals had already left him overwhelmed, and he did not expect Western Kang to be restless as well.

His eldest son, Bayinnaung, directly declared independence with the support of the Mughals and no longer accepted his jurisdiction.

Bayinnaung's independence not only took away several wealthy prefectures but also took away nearly two million people and thirty to forty thousand elite troops.

Thinking back a few years ago, Toungoo was still the most powerful country in the entire Indochina Peninsula, a hegemon.

Now, it had reached a twilight dynasty that had to give up large swathes of land just to buy a chance to gasp for breath.

Beset by internal and external difficulties and pent-up worries, this once-thriving hegemon fell ill.

Maha Thihathura, lying on his sickbed, had sunken eye sockets, a dull gaze, and a thin frame, looking like he was terminally ill.

He looked at the queen kneeling before his sickbed, as well as the royal concubine and Maha Bandula behind her.

He beckoned for the imperial physician to help him sit up, leaned against the head of the bed, and said with all his might...