On the second day, on the 22nd day of the ninth month of the Ming calendar, early in the morning, the two camps ten miles apart floated smoke. Mingisvar took out all the food in his hand and let the soldiers eat as much as they wanted; Zhu Yang and Mu Ang also slaughtered half of the captured fat pigs, so that every soldier could eat meat.

When the sun hung high in the air, the armies of both sides walked out of the camp and slowly walked towards the center. The two armies marched at the same pace, almost four and a half miles, separated by more than two hundred zhang and opposite each other.

Mingis was originally apprehensive, but when he arrived at the battlefield, he found that something was wrong: the Ming army did not put the elephant in front of the battle!

He looked at it several more times, but there was not a single elephant to be seen from beginning to end.

He turned his head to his youngest son and said, "What about the elephants of the Ming army you are talking about!" ”

His youngest son was also stunned, and only after a while did he say: "The Ming army obviously also has elephants, and Meng Yang and several other Tusi have come with elephants, why don't they move?" ”

Mingisvahius also felt that it was unreasonable. But he didn't know why, so he could only explain himself: "It may be that the elephants of the Ming army are sick and can't be dispatched." But he didn't believe even that explanation.

He couldn't think of a reason and simply didn't want to, and said: "No matter why, immediately let the elephant soldiers go out and attack the Ming army's big array." ”

After his order was delivered, the infantry phalanx vacated several passages, and more than a hundred elephants walked from the passages to the front of the formation; They were followed by more than 2,000 soldiers in iron armor. The smelting technology of the Central and Southern countries is slightly poor, but they also know the importance of iron armor, and Mingis Va Xiu pinched his nose to build thousands of iron armor to equip the main army under his command. Today he chose 2,000 men from among them and rushed after the elephants.

The Ming army on the opposite side did change, but instead of sending elephants out, some iron cylinders were pushed forward by the Marats.

"Those iron barrels are the cannons of the Han people. Although these cannons are very powerful in siege, they are of little use in field warfare. Mingisvaxiu said with some doubts: "It's okay if a solid cannonball hits the wall, but it can't bounce a few times on the land of Burma, and it won't kill a few people; Shotshots are not small, but they have a short range, and when the shotshots can be fired, the warring sides are almost already in a mess and will not work. Even a bow and arrow can be used better than a cannon. ”

"My lord, it's useless to think too much, so immediately order the elephant soldiers to rush into battle." Mana will say.

"Let the elephants charge. Tell them to be careful, I always feel wrong. Mingisvaxiu said.

……

……

"They're going to use elephants to charge the battle." Zhu Yang put down his clairvoyance and said.

"The barbarians in the south never use cavalry, because they have elephants, and elephants are much stronger in attack than cavalry. But from this day on, the elephant soldiers will only be able to transport baggage, and will not be able to charge into battle. Mu Ang also put down his clairvoyance and said.

"Is this tactic of yours going to work! If it doesn't work for the elephants, wouldn't it be a waste of the soldiers' lives? Zhu Yang asked.

"In the battles of General Fu (Youde) and his late father into Shu and Yunnan, they all encountered the enemy army using elephants, but they defeated the enemy army using this tactic." Mu Ang said with a relaxed face.

Mu Ang stared at the elephants opposite, watched them run slowly, and said as they ran within range of the cannons, "Fire!" The herald next to him immediately waved his flag and conveyed the order to fire the cannon in front of him.

Immediately, eighteen cannons, which had already been loaded with gunpowder and shells, opened fire at the same time, and at one time the sound shook for ten miles, and countless shells hit the vicinity of the elephant herd. The artillery was immediately reloaded with a second round of shells and gunpowder.

Mu Ang's tactic is naturally to use firearms to scare elephants. Although the elephant has a strong impact, it also has great shortcomings, and it is afraid of sound and fire, and once it goes crazy, it does not distinguish between friend and foe. In the Han Dynasty's attack on Richang County, they used 'rockets' to attack elephants intensively, thus defeating the army of Richang County.

The bombardment of eighteen cannons really had an effect, and the elephant herd suddenly became chaotic. But just when Mu Ang was about to order a large army to attack, he suddenly saw more than a hundred elephants falling to the ground.

It turns out that Mingis is not stupid, there is a record of the Han army attacking elephants in the Han Dynasty, how can he not know? Although the successful examples of 'rocket' attacks on elephants in history are to lure the elephant herd to a high ground and then attack with rockets - the range of bows and arrows is very close, and the effective range of most soldiers' arrows is 30 or 50 meters on the flat ground, and the rockets do not kill the elephants, so the use of rockets on flat ground may cause the elephants to attack their own large array desperately and cause casualties - and there is no high ground that the elephants cannot rush to, but he is still prepared for this.

All the people riding on the elephant took a sledgehammer and struck the elephant's skull, knocking the elephant to death. The elephants took a few more steps forward by inertia and fell to the ground.

And the ironclad soldiers prepared by Mingisvar were not close to the rear of the elephant, and they were not trampled by the elephants. They walked near the elephant that had fallen to the ground, slowed down, and then ran violently towards the Ming army's array; Ten thousand Ava men armed with bows and arrows or spears also charged behind the ironclad soldiers.

"They have already been prepared for this cannon to scare elephants!" Zhu Yang said.

Mu Ang ignored him, raised his clairvoyance and put it in front of him, and said something to the herald.

As the herald's banner waved, the cannon pushed in front continued to bombard the enemy troops, although there were not many deaths, but it made the already untidy Ava army formation even more scattered.

At the same time, rows of soldiers who had been standing behind came forward, and after firing another round of shells, they walked to the front of the cannon and formed a neat queue.

At the same time, the artilleryman waved his whip and asked the native soldiers of Ava's right guard to pull the gun cart backwards, and of course the gun carriage could not move far back for a short time, so countless soldiers armed with bows and arrows let the gun carriage line up where it was, and raised their bows.

The Ava ironclad army, which rushed to the front, rushed to the Ming army with great confidence. They wore iron armor and shortened the distance of the charge with the help of elephants, and now they still have enough physical strength to fight the Ming army. Although they were about to be within range of the bow and arrow, the bow and arrow could not pierce the armor, and they only had to cover their faces with their shields.

Rodihar, who rushed to the front, could already see the face of the Ming army. "You hateful northern barbarians, suffer death!" He yelled. As long as he rushed into the large array of the Ming army, he was confident that he would disrupt the formation of the Ming army and tear apart these Ming soldiers in front of him.

Rodihar raised his shield against the bow and arrows, but not a single arrow fell. He was curious, and suddenly saw Ming Junping at the front holding up a long pipe. 'What is this doing?' He thought to himself, confused.

Then he saw smoke coming out of the long pipes, and there was a loud noise. Rodihar felt a sharp pain in his heart, and he didn't know what to do.

"Get out of the way and let the musketeers come up." Liu Mingzhao, the head of the thousand households with muskets, shouted loudly.

The musketeers at the front of the line, who had already shot the bullets from their guns, immediately stepped back, revealing the figures of the musketeers in the second row. The musketeers of the second row huddled the group together, raised their muskets flat, and fired the bullets from the guns as the drums sounded. Suddenly, the smoke that had not completely cleared was thicker again. However, although they could not see the target in front of them and could only shoot forward, the screams coming from the opposite side were enough to prove that their attack was effective.

The musketeers were Mu Ang's second gift to the Ava army. Mu Ang also made preparations for the cannon not to play the role he imagined for the elephant. He did not have the ability to equip hundreds of cannons—just as the ambitious Yunxi planned to equip the guards in the capital—to Zhu Yang's army, so he had to settle for the next best thing, using a large number of musketeers.

Although the cost of musketeers is not low, it is always cheaper than cannons, and muskets can give substantial damage to elephants at a certain distance, in case the mad elephants rush into the ranks of the Ming army. He used the money allocated by Yunxi to Zhu Yang to buy a large amount of iron from Guangdong, cast a musket that could equip a thousand households, and formed a thousand musketeers under the direct jurisdiction of Zhu Xuan.

Although his original plan to prepare the musketeers to destroy the elephants was no longer useful, they served a different purpose: the muskets could not aim much longer than the bow and arrow, but the armor-piercing ability was far superior to the bow and arrow; The musketeers also increased the chance of hitting by lining up in dense queues, inflicting great damage on Ava's ironclads. Mu Ang and Zhu Yang saw that under the blows of the musketeers who were shooting in five columns, countless Ava soldiers in iron armor fell to the ground.

By the time they rushed to the front of the Ming army, there were less than a hundred of the 2,000 Ava ironclad soldiers left. In fact, most of the ironclads were not killed, but they fell to the ground due to being hit in some parts of their bodies and could not continue to charge.

The heralds waved their banners again, the musketeers retreated, and the pikemen rushed forward, quickly eliminating the remaining ironclads.

At this time, the archers also began to fire arrows, attacking the other Ava soldiers who were about to rush to the front of the ironclad soldiers.

Originally, the Ava soldiers were inferior to the Ming army from the north in terms of training and physique, and the soldiers on both sides just now saw with their own eyes that the ironclad soldiers were eliminated 'easily', and the morale of the Ming army was greatly boosted while the morale of the Ava army was weakened, so the Ava army that followed the charge was quickly defeated. They scrambled to throw their weapons to the ground, turned and ran, fearing that they would be left behind.

Of course, Mu Ang immediately ordered the pursuit. He Fu led the Han army and native soldiers to chase after the ass of the Ava people. Only 4,000 cavalry were also dispatched, and although the land of the central Burmese plain was soft, the cavalry was always faster than the infantry. The Ming army soon pursued Ava's defeated troops to the front of Ava's army.

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Thank you for the reward from the soul of the dragon.