As the ranks of the pirates got closer and closer, Wu Wenyong told the soldiers to bend down so as not to be exposed too soon. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"Wait, when they get closer, listen to me, and rush out!" Wu Wenyong commanded, although he knew that with the current distance between the two sides, the other party should not be able to hear his voice. But he still subconsciously lowered his voice.

"When they get close to fifty paces, I'll let the soldiers rush out! At such a distance, their muskets could fire at most one shot, and they could not knock out many people. Wu Wenyong thought so.

However, when the pirates reached a place about four hundred steps away from the woods, they stopped, and formed a horizontal formation, and then Wu Wenyong saw some pirates push out a few cannons from behind the horizontal team.

In terms of arming artillery, because it is very difficult to take care of the frequent removal from ships and the relatively delicate horses carried on sea voyages, the artillery of the Marine Corps must be relatively lightweight, able to be well cared for, not easy to get sick, hard-working donkeys to drag around, and when necessary, they should even be able to be towed by manpower.

In this way, not to mention that the army has begun to prepare for the equipment of the twelve-pounder gun, that is, the army's existing six-pounder gun, in terms of weight also exceeds the requirements of the Marine Corps, and the army's three-pounder gun is too old, the performance is very average, and because it does not use double-layer barrel and wrought wire self-tightening technology, nor does it use forging and drilling technology, in order to ensure the chamber pressure, the barrel wall is relatively thick, in terms of weight alone, in fact, it is not much lighter than the six-pounder gun used by the army today. Such a thing, the Marine Corps naturally does not look down on. Therefore, the Marines can only be equipped with one unique artillery, which is the five-pounder cannon that the Marines are pushing out today.

This is an iron cannon with pig iron inner tube and wrought iron outer tube. The inner barrel is cast, while the outer barrel is perforated wrought iron. The use of iron instead of bronze was naturally to reduce weight, but it also brought with it the problem of easy rust. Coupled with the fact that the Marine Corps often fights in the marine environment, this rust problem is exacerbated. This brings a lot of trouble to maintenance, such as the need to oil on time or something, but considering the weight advantage, the Marine Corps can only accept this kind of artillery that is difficult to maintain.

Four five-pounder cannons were pushed more than ten paces in front of the horizontal line, and the Marine artillerymen quickly prepared for the shelling.

"What are they doing here? Have they already discovered our ambush? Or are they worried that there is an ambush here and a bluff? Wu Wenyong thought.

If you rush out now, the distance is really farther, more than 400 steps, and when you rush up from such a distance, when you rush to the front, the physical strength of the soldiers will be consumed. And such a long distance is enough for people's muskets and cannons to exert their power.

"Maybe they're just worried about an ambush here, so let's bluff." Wu Wenyong thought.

By this time, the marines had already finished reloading, and then fired the first round of shelling into the woods.

The first round of shelling used solid shells, which at a distance of no more than four hundred paces were fired into the woods in an almost straight trajectory, and the shells struck the trunks of the trees, breaking some of the plate-sized trees in two, and then a roar rang out behind Wu Wenyong.

"Damn it, those elephants!" Wu Wenyong's face turned white all of a sudden.

As the largest animal on land, the elephant has thick skin, long blood, strong attack power, and is not slow to run, it is said that it can run up to 40 kilometers per hour at the fastest, which is much faster than most people. In addition, elephants have a high level of intelligence, are easy to domesticate, carry a heavy load, and are majestic, no matter how you look at it, it seems to be a very bullish mount. If it is used to fight and rush towards the enemy, isn't it a tank in the era of cold weapons? Don't talk about the infantry, even if it's against the cavalry, it's crushing.

However, in fact, the elephant is not an animal suitable for battle. In human history, elephants have been sent to battle many times, but the results have almost never played a decisive role, and even those who use elephants have generally lost in the end. The earliest recorded use of war elephants may be at the Battle of Gaugamela, where King Darius of Persia is said to have used them in order to defeat Alexander the Great, only to be defeated by Alexander the Great and the Persian Empire to the end. Later, in the Battle of the Hydaspes River, the Indians also used elephants against Alexander the Great, but the war elephants lost control on the battlefield, trampling friendly troops to a pulp, and finally achieved Alexander the Great's invincible prestige once again. Even later, Hannibal, the invincible Roman enemy of his life, brought eighty war elephants in the Battle of Zama, who knew that on the battlefield, these elephants were frightened by the sound of the Roman trumpet, and then lost control on the battlefield, as a result, Hannibal suffered the first and last serious defeat in his life, and directly decided the demise of Carthage. Later, when the Ming Dynasty arose, the Mongolian Liang King stationed in Yunnan also used elephants to deal with the Ming Dynasty general Mu Ying. As a result, the war elephants once again got out of control on the battlefield and then ...... There is no then.

Note a few examples, except for the unknown Battle of Gomiga, all other battles are recorded as "out of control on the battlefield". This is no accident, because elephants are not strong enough in their nerves compared to their size. Elephants are very sensitive and timid, and can easily lose control of sound, light, and pain on the battlefield. In short, this thing just looks very imposing.

Wu Wenyong also took dozens of elephants with him, which he hid in the woods. Although the shelling of the pirates may not have actually hit the elephants, the sound of the shelling, the vibrations, and the trees broken by the shells frightened the elephants, and the elephants were out of control again.

Immediately afterward, Gan Hui saw a lot of elephants running out of the woods, and three of them were probably frightened and ran in the direction of the marines. At the same time, some Vietnamese also ran out of the woods, and judging by the fact that they looked back as they ran, they were most likely driven out not by shells, but by out-of-control elephants.

Seeing the elephants suddenly lose control, Wu Wenyong felt that the only way to do this was to attack before those damn elephants made a mess of everything. So he ordered: "Beat the drums, charge!" ”

To the sound of drums, more Vietnamese soldiers rushed out of the dense forest, and they did not have time to form a group, and they could not form a group, because they were now within the range of artillery. The Vietnamese soldiers rushed over with rattan signs and shouts.

"The morale is not bad." Gan Hui had already walked to the front of the team, he looked at the Vietnamese soldiers, pulled out the single-shot handcuff on his waist, nodded and said, "Artillery replacement shotguns!" The elephant that the first row of soldiers aimed, ready to ......"

The artillerymen who had just fired the shells were quickly clearing their chambers and preparing to replace them with shotguns. By this time, the elephant was already running closer and closer. Elephants run much faster than humans, let alone frightened elephants?

"Prepare for ......" Gan Hui drowned out his voice, his eyes fixed on the three elephants that were approaching, estimating its distance.

The three elephants of the "Reserve ......" had already approached about eighty paces, and Gan Hui was not sure how lethal the bullets fired from the flintlock pistol would be to a behemoth like an elephant at this distance. And such a big thing swooped down on him, and it put a lot of pressure on him. However, he knew that with the speed of an elephant, his queue only had a chance to fire. So he decided to put the elephant a little closer to ensure the effectiveness of the shot.

The elephant was getting closer and closer, and the nearest one was less than forty paces away. Gan Hui raised his left hand, and continued to shout in his mouth: "Prepare ......" while holding out his handcuff towards the elephant.

"Put!" Gan Hui shouted, and at the same time slashed down with his left hand.

"Bang, bang." Almost instantly, the soldiers in the first row opened fire on the three elephants.

A puff of smoke rose up, blocking the view of many soldiers. However, Gan Hui stood a little at the front of the line, which did not affect his vision too much. He saw that the elephant running in front of him suddenly let out a wail, and first his knees weakened and he fell to his knees, but under the influence of the great inertia, he continued to slide forward for almost two steps. The elephant struggled to get up

The two elephants farther away also let out a wail, and both fell to the ground as well, but one of them managed to get up. The elephant had clearly understood that it was running in the wrong direction, and that the place in front of it was not where it was supposed to go, and that it was not the place to go, so it turned its head and limped backwards, colliding head-on with the Vietnamese soldiers who rushed up, and after knocking over a few Vietnamese, the elephant continued to retreat in the direction of the woods.

The hobbling elephant only knocked down three Vietnamese soldiers, and did not cause the battle of the Hydaspes River, where its own war elephants completely destroyed the array of its own infantry. It did not even have a noticeable effect on the speed of the Vietnamese army's charge. By this time, the Vietnamese had already rushed to a distance of only two hundred paces from the four cannons in front of the pirates' formation. Only by this time, the artillery of the Haikou had already completed the loading and was ready for everything before the shooting.

A 5-pounder gun's shotgun can effectively kill an armored soldier even at a distance of 300 paces, and at a distance of 200 paces, it can even penetrate a soldier and continue to kill another soldier behind him. The salvo of four 5-pounder guns smashed into a wheat field like a hailstorm, and almost instantly, peeled off the frontal layer of the charging Vietnamese soldiers. It also made the pace of the Vietnamese soldiers behind him begin to slow down.