Chapter 15 War Elephants (Part 2)
The elephants scattered in the defeated army received a breakout signal from Baiyajian. The officers who commanded the battle elephants did not hesitate and followed Baiyajian to leave the abandoned positions and the defeated soldiers. Baiyajian's mount took big steps and walked quickly in the direction of the elephant husband's command. Staying in this chaotic army obviously made the elephant feel in a bad mood, and it may be because it was a little irritable by the Burmese soldiers just now. After receiving the order, the elephant left this noisy place without hesitation.
The person who was knocked down let out a harsh scream of despair, stretching out his hands in vain to protect himself, but this instinctive action had no meaning at all. Wherever the elephant passed, the helmet was stepped into double iron sheets, and the head inside was split like a watermelon.
"Does those elephants have an enemy commander?" Deng Ming observed the moving war elephants and exchanged opinions with the left and right.
"It seems that someone is in command." A three-wall guard replied.
Like Di Sanxi and the guards of Gongchang Prince's Mansion, Deng Ming had long been unable to tell which one was an important target. He neither knew the armor and signs of the nobles of Myanmar, nor could he rely on inquiring the prisoners to obtain first-hand information. Just now, the three walls had been repeatedly driving away the defeated soldiers in Myanmar, making them gather into an increasingly crowded group. As for the elephant soldiers standing among them, Deng Ming originally planned to let the archers in the infantry deal with it after the follow-up troops crossed the river. Anyway, the elephants were standing still, so let the archers go up and fire rockets to see how long the elephants could last.
Just now, the guards of King Gongchang's palace arrived in more than 30 times. They did not run around the circles like the Three Walls. The horsepower was maintained well, so they took over some of the work of driving away the Myanmar army, so that half of the people on the Three Walls could be separated to rest.
Deng Ming asked the people in the second row to rest first, and he led the first row and the Bai Wenxuan troops who were coming to reinforce for a few more laps around the Burmese army. Now he has just been replaced by the rear cavalry.
While Deng Ming was discussing with the guards, another group of people came from behind, including fifty Ming army knights wearing red cloaks. The leader was Di Sanxi, the general of Jianchang.
"Where is General Di's subordinate?" Deng Ming asked with concern when he saw that the number of people was wrong.
"Half is still chasing the defeated enemy." Di Sanxi replied quickly. His losses were not great, but the defeated soldiers were weak. Seeing that the troops on the left wing of Myanmar had lost their fighting spirit and began to slowly retreat to the west, Di Sanxi left half of the cavalry and the other guards of the Gongchang Palace to continue monitoring to ensure that these Myanmar soldiers would leave the battlefield honestly.
"Is the war in the central government over?" Deng Ming asked again. He felt that Di Sanxi had come a little late. He originally thought that Di Sanxi should have launched a side-to-back attack during the feint.
Di Sanxi paused for a moment, and a little shame appeared on her face: "I'm lost."
Strictly speaking, of course, it was not lost. Di Sanxi lost his target after the first assault. He chased every target he suspected to be a high-ranking enemy official, but in the end he found that it was not. Although he cut off many people, Di Sanxi was unable to get the big fish in the net, and he also delayed a lot of time for this.
"The same is true for me." After hearing Di Sanxi's explanation, Deng Ming said sympathetically: "I can't recognize who is the general at all, especially after they are defeated, they can't identify it."
After watching the battlefield for a while, Di Sanxi commented with interest: "Ship Deng's cavalry is well trained."
"It's just good-looking." Deng Ming said modestly.
"Well, but this momentum comes up all of a sudden, and it's very useful to drive out infantry." Di Sanxi didn't know the power of the wall cavalry, and even if Deng Ming gave all his tactics, the Jianchang soldiers might not believe it. Although the officers and soldiers of the Western Camp admitted that Deng Ming was good at fighting, they proudly believed that they also had many unique skills, not under the three walls. Now that Deng Ming humbly stated that this set of tactics was nothing, Di Sanxi could look at it fairly, at least he believed that this tactic could strengthen the effect of intimidating the defeated soldiers.
The elephants breaking out intensified the chaos of the defeated soldiers. Myanmar soldiers desperately dodged the elephants, as if they were dodging the Ming army's cavalry. At this time, the Myanmar army who was driven to the riverside had no more space, and some people on the riverside were already squeezed into the water. When the elephants broke out a road, they pushed more people down from Lijiang. Those who could barely maintain balance in the shallow water were pushed into the deeper water. In addition to those who were swept away by Lijiang, there were also people who failed to get up after they made a mistake.
"Are these people the Burmese generals?" Di Sanxi pointed at the elephants who broke through and had the same idea as Deng Ming.
"It's very likely that we'll follow these elephants."
Some Ming troops had completed landings, and nearly a thousand Ming infantrymen were on the way to the battlefield. Deng Ming's plan was to let the infantry intercept them separately, and then use cavalry to drive the Burmese soldiers down the river - as long as there were enough Myanmar soldiers on the shore, they would continue to push their companions who had already gone down the river to the heart of the river; and when the Burmese soldiers were unable to push more people down the river, it meant that they were already left, which was not enough to worry about it - Di Sanxi had no objection to this, and now the two of them were focused on those who were leaving on the elephant. After the infantry joined, more cavalry could be released and attacked the Burmese elephant soldiers.
"We must first prevent them from reorganizing, and then come to rescue the people on the shore." The Burmese also had about one hundred war elephants. When these elephants completed assembly, they would be a powerful assault force. Just now, the Ming army was full of cavalry, and the threat to the Ming army was relatively small. Now the Ming army's infantry is about to join the war. If the Burmese use war elephants to launch a group charge, it may not only rescue the Burmese infantry who are already in desperate situations, but also cause huge casualties to the Ming army's infantry.
"I don't know how we should attack these elephants," Deng Ming asked Di Sanxi: "Have General Di fought with the war elephants?"
"No, but the Burmese people don't fight at all."
Di Sanxi commented coldly. He saw that many Burmese people were still wearing armor when they ran away. Many Burmese officers and soldiers did not take off their heavy armor in time when they were driven into the river. Once they slipped in the water, it would be difficult to stand up again, and their lives might be taken away by the waist-deep river water.
This can only show that the Burmese people's combat experience is far inferior to that of the green camps in the mainland. They don't even know how to escape after a defeat! How to deal with the armor on their bodies when they are defeated and flee. Even the new recruits in the green camp who have no combat experience are very clear. Even if they have not experienced it personally, at least they have heard from experienced veterans, and the Burmese people do not even have such common sense of war.
"I will have a few ideas at the end..." Di Sanxi casually said a few ways to deal with the war elephant, but he knew that Di Sanxi was completely imagining: for example, Di Sanxi suspected that the elephant's small tail might be a fatal weakness, because he felt that the elephant could not turn around and raid it in close proximity and cut off the elephant's tail with one knife. If there were blood vessels on it, Di Sanxi guessed that the elephant could bleed and die.
In addition, Di Sanxi had several similar whimsical ideas. The only thing that made Deng Ming feel was that he was still reliable was shooting arrows around the elephant and shooting down the elephant husband on it.
"But the people sitting on the elephant have muskets." Deng Ming pointed to an elephant in the distance and said, "When we approached just now, someone on the elephant set fire to us, but no one was hit. If he got close, he would not be able to shoot arrows at them."
The distance between riders shooting arrows on the bumpy horse's back is very short. If the rider wants to accurately shoot the person on the elephant's back, it is probably within ten meters. At such a close distance, he must aim at the enemy, and prevent the elephant from suddenly turning and rushing over, and he must also beware of the opponent's musket. It is a difficult action no matter how you look at it.
"Aren't they riding on the back of an elephant so hard?" Di Sanxi asked back with some reluctance.
"Even if it is bumpy, it must be more stable than on the horse's back, right?" Deng Ming replied.
Di Sanxi stared at the elephant for a while and nodded unwillingly. The elephant walked much slower than a horse, and had a wide back. It looked like a cavalry and a cavalry were more likely to lose to a cavalry.
"The best reconnaissance is attack." Seeing that no good idea was found, Deng Ming decided to launch a tentative attack. Even if it was not successful, it could prevent the opponent from saving the Burmese infantry: "I will go first, General Di will hold me up."
Heard that the elephants were afraid of fire and were afraid of the benefits, Deng Ming asked each of the knights to bring a torch and then head towards the war elephant. Di Sanxi took his men to get off the horse and rest, and seized the time to restore the mount. They stood on the ground and looked at Deng Ming's tentative attack with all their attention in order to discover the enemy's flaws and weaknesses.
Deng Ming did not rush towards the dense herd of war elephants. There were only fifty three-wall cavalry following him. Obviously, they could not fight head-on with one hundred war elephants and the two and three hundred riders on their backs. Therefore, Deng Ming's first goal was to have a few battle elephants who had just left the river and had not had time to meet with the main force.
After choosing one as his target, Deng Ming and several companions held torches and approached the elephant from several directions. Three Burmese people sat on the elephant's back and walked quite slowly. When they saw the Ming army approaching quickly, one of the Burmese soldiers holding muskets began to aim at the Ming army's cavalry.
The Ming army approached in circles, and finally at a distance of about twenty-five meters, the Burmese soldiers fired a sudden shot, but he hit nothing. If it were a down-to-earth musketeer, it would be a bit threatening to the scattered cavalry at this distance, but like the Burmese soldiers on their backs, he used the most deterrent weapon in advance because he was too nervous.
After hearing the gunshot, Deng Ming immediately accelerated and rushed forward, preparing to throw the torch on the elephant.
After seeing Deng Ming approaching quickly, the elephant, who was walking forward slowly, suddenly stopped by itself, turned her head and let out an angry roar, and her nose was raised high.
The mount under his crotch suddenly dodged, causing Deng Ming's torch to fly to wherever he flew. The horse quickly circled around and left the elephant, running for dozens of meters before slowing down.
"Yes." Deng Ming gently stroked the horse's neck to comfort the mount. He could feel the horse's fear of the elephant. When the elephant roared just now, he felt his mount tremble violently.
"What should I do?" Deng Ming found that the trouble was still a lot.
Chapter completed!