In the middle of that, the elephant herd of the Luchuan army began to advance, and the Ming army here was also ready to meet the enemy.

But the Ming army did not dispatch heavy cavalry to deal with his war elephants, as Si Lun expected. Their nearly 30,000 cavalry were all stationary, but a battalion of infantry was in front of the formation.

What was even more outrageous was that the infantry did not carry spears and lances, nor bows and crossbows and javelins, but only short weapons like burning sticks.

Looking at those short sticks less than three feet long, the Luchuan army almost burst into laughter. The Ming army used such a short guy to face the elephant? Before he could get next to the elephant, he was swept away by the trunk!

Oh yes, and the infantry pushed some carts with wooden chests, and they didn't think they could stop the elephants, wouldn't they, wouldn't they?

Is it okay to step on it flat with one foot? Even if you've never fought a war elephant, it's not so outrageous, right?

The Luchuan army was waiting to see the jokes of the Ming army, but the cavalry behind the Ming army covered their ears with their horses.

In the continuous sound of elephant foot drums, the war elephant herd continued to approach the Ming army, and the two sides were 100 zhang, 50 zhang, and 30 zhang apart......

The Luchuan archers in the elephant's back battle tower drew their arrows one after another, put them on their bows, and waited to enter the firing range.

However, it was the Ming army who made the first move, and as soon as the elephants were within thirty zhang, they lit the fuses on the boxes of those carts.

In an instant, in front of the two armies, there was a scalp-numbing whistling sound, and countless rockets roared out of those boxes and flew into the elephant herd opposite!

It turned out that in the box, there were dense bamboo tubes stacked neatly like beehives, and each bamboo tube was equipped with three rockets. The fuse ignites the gunpowder cartridge tied to the shaft of the arrow, and the arrow is shot out under the backlash of the gunpowder!

This is the Ming Army's original magic arrow!

Thousands of arrows, driven by gunpowder, swarmed into the herd, making a clanging sound. Many unlucky elephant slaves and elephant soldiers were hit by arrows one after another, screaming and falling down.

But for the rough-skinned, bronze-clad war elephants, these arrows don't do much damage, they only make them angry! Because it still hurts a little to shoot in a place where there is no armor......

But I didn't know that the powder cartridge on the magic arrow was in the nature of two kicks. Those rockets, which didn't move much when they were fired, made a huge explosion when they flew around the war elephants!

The thumping sound of the battle startled the elephant soldiers who were caught off guard, let alone the elephants. Well, elephants don't jump...... But they spread their ears and wagged their tails, and began to stagnate, apparently frightened!

~~

Previously, Zhu Zhen and Mu Ying had carefully studied the war elephants that Luchuan relied on.

Zhu Zhen not only understands people's hearts, but also understands animals very well. When he was a child, the East Five Institutes were affectionately called 'Animal Institutes' by the eunuchs and palace maids......

Although it is impossible to keep elephants in the 'animal house', His Royal Highness the King of Chu often goes to the elephant room in the palace to feed the elephants with Sun Fatzi, and knows the character of elephants very well.

He knew that although the elephant was tall and thick-skinned, he could not hurt it with an idle knife and arrow. But the weakness is also obvious - they are timid and uncontrollable, and they are afraid of fires and explosions. Once the fright is too much, it will turn around and run away regardless of it.

Later, in Kunming, when experimenting with elephants donated by the toasts, they found that it also had one of its most fatal shortcomings: elephants are social animals and act in groups. In this way, as long as some of them turn around and run away, even if the rest are not frightened, they will follow in one go, and the own army behind them will be scattered, and no matter how the slaves control it, it will not help.

At this time, the Ming army only needs to follow closely to break through the enemy formation.

So the key to this battle is to scare the elephants away!

Of course, the southwestern countries have been training elephants to fight for so many years, and naturally they are well aware of their weaknesses and have continuously made improvements.

Luchuan is one of them. Their war elephants are carefully selected, stable in temperament, and calm and obedient. After the strict targeted training of the elephant slaves, they are no longer so afraid of sudden loud noises.

The elephant slaves used their suckling strength to regain control of them. Then, using the taming hook, hook the elephant's ears and stuff a pair of huge wooden plugs into the holes on both sides.

At this time, the Ming army's magic arrows had been shot, and the elephant slaves drove the war elephants to break through the smoke of gunpowder and continue to advance.

The quality of Daming gunpowder is worrying, even if Zhu Zhen has made improvements, it is still limited in power, and the smoke thief is ......

The archers on the elephant's back tower were also obscured by the smoke of the arrows, and they were unable to shoot even though they had entered the firing range.

We can only wait until we get closer and the smoke clears.

But when the two sides reached nearly 20 zhang, the Ming army opened fire again!

This time, it wasn't the Divine Arrow that fired, but the Fire Bolt! It's the burning stick in the eyes of those Luchuan soldiers......

Although the sight of the Ming army was also blocked by smoke, the huge figure of the war elephant group could not be completely blocked by smoke.

In the dense huge roar, the Luchuan army didn't know what was happening, so they ate their guns and fell down the elephant's back battle building screaming.

Elephants are also very uncomfortable. The power of the firebolt is much more powerful than that of the Divine Arrow. And the Ming army's gun tube is not filled with a projectile, but an arrow, that is, an arrow-shaped bullet with a length of inches!

This kind of bullet has a stronger penetrating power, and at such a close distance, it can easily penetrate the copper armor on the elephant's body, causing damage to it, not to mention the elephant's legs without the protection of the copper armor.

Once the arrow hit the elephant's leg, it plunged deep into the elephant's leg, and the whole body of the arrow was submerged in the elephant's leg, and the elephant's front hooves were off the ground and screaming in pain......

~~

"It turned out to be a firebolt!" Si Lunfa, who was in the back, saw it clearly, and suddenly remembered that his father had said that when he was fighting with the Yuan army, the Mongols' archery skills had regressed, and they could only rely on a fire-breathing barrel to launch projectiles to make up for the lack of bows and arrows.

But that kind of thing called a firebolt is so powerful that it can only be fired once. After that, it's time to furnish it.

So he stood up and shouted, "Don't be afraid, they won't shoot a second time when they're done firing!" ”

The elephants in front of him couldn't hear what he was saying, but they thought so too. Surely this thing can't shoot like a bow and arrow? Otherwise, is there still a heavenly reason?

So the elephant slaves desperately tied the war elephants with iron hooks, forcing them to continue to endure the pain. The damned Ming army must be made to pay......

However, the smoke of the first round of shooting had not yet dissipated, and another round of intensive gunfire sounded in the Ming army's formation! Faster than a string of arrows!

Many of the war elephants who had been shot again had completely exhausted their endurance, and began to let out terrible screams, nodding their heads and shaking their torsos frantically, trying to shake off the war towers on their backs.

The elephant soldiers on the upper floor were swayed, thrown off the back of the elephant like dumplings, first fell into seven meat and eight vegetables, and then were trampled into meat cakes by the elephant.

"How is that possible?!" Looking at the chaotic scene in front of him, Si Lunfa was dumbfounded and muttered, "How can they shoot in a row, how can they shoot in a row?" ”

(End of chapter)