 Rangoon to Mandalay was a 700 km (435 mi) trip, and during the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885, 9,000 British and Indian soldiers were transported by a fleet of paddle steamers ("the old flotilla" of the poem) and other boats to Mandalay from Rangoon.Guerrilla warfare followed the occupation of Mandalay, and British regiments remained in Burma for several years.Kipling mentions the Burmese royal family of the time