Wanli 1592

Chapter 333 War Elephant
After settling down his subordinates, Xiao Ruxun started a military meeting with King Narexuan.

The content of the military meeting is very simple. It is to discuss how to fight against Burma, as well as the coordination of the two armies and logistical support. There is nothing wrong with Siam, it is Siam who wants to join in to help the Ming army, and Xiao Ruxun is not easy to refuse, after all, it is also a group of troops, and the fighting power is not weak.

The scale of the military meeting was very small. It was mainly a one-on-one discussion between Narexuan and Xiao Ruxun. The rest were Xiao Ruxun's relatives and Lin Yuanshan. It was probably to discuss logistics issues. King Narexuan hung up a picture The map clearly describes his location and the state of Myanmar.

"If it's a war to destroy the country, according to the judgment of Xiao Wang's staff, Mangyingli can produce about 30 troops, but this number is still very controversial even in our country, let alone Mangyingli. If he can't afford the military expenses, it is also a question of whether there are so many people to transfer to him. Xiao Wang has lived in Mang Yinglong's palace and is familiar with them. Their national population is estimated to be about 300 million. .

According to such a population, 30 troops can be gathered as the limit. If it exceeds this number, it is estimated that even the elderly and children will be counted. This 30 still counts almost all their young and strong men , the most elite troops inside are about [-], including the most elite elephant cavalry and musketeers, and the rest are spearmen, sword shield soldiers, archers and the like.

By the way, among the 30 people, there are quite a few handymen in the end. These handymen are equivalent to slaves of the main soldiers, and they are dedicated to serving those soldiers. The captives captured during the expedition to quell the rebellion usually do some rough work, such as washing and cooking, and when it comes to a critical moment, they will be killed on the battlefield one by one with a knife, and the musketeers will supervise the battle behind them. Dragons often do this.

But strictly speaking, these miscellaneous soldiers cannot be used as the main force. Once the main force is defeated, these miscellaneous soldiers can run faster than anyone else, so they really pose a threat to us. They are all mobs and pose no threat to us, so from this point of view, there are [-] heavenly soldiers and [-] of our army, and the total number is [-]. In terms of numbers, we are not weak. "

Xiao Ruxun has his own views on this.

"However, we can't ignore the remaining 10,000+ people casually. After all, they are organized and much better than stragglers. Even if there are 10,000+ pigs, it will take time for us to kill them, let alone It is said that there are 10,000+ people. It is really urgent. They can also bring us a lot of trouble, so we must not only defeat the main force in Mangyingli, but also defeat these handymen.

If possible, capture a large number of them. After all, they are young and strong, have fighting power, and are better than old people and children. Mang Yingli will not be given the opportunity to continue to expand the army. Moreover, the governor also heard that the king's soldiers and Dongwu bandit soldiers are very good. Good at driving elephants to fight for their mounts, isn't it? "

Narisuan nodded, and said, "What the admiral said is true, our army and Mangyingli's troops have separate elephant troops, and they are the strongest troops other than the firearms troops. The elephants are tall and imposing. Majestic, after being tamed, it is invincible to rush into the enemy's formation. We put on enough solid armor for elephants, even the elephant's trunk can be covered with armor, and it can even defend against musket bullets. Greatly improved."

Speaking of war elephants, King Narexuan seemed very confident.

"That is to say, the war elephants on the king and the war elephants in Mangyingli are already used to the sound of firearms, so they won't be frightened and run away because of the sound of firearms?"

Narisuan nodded: "In the past, war elephants and firearms were used to cooperate in every battle. After many battles, war elephants will no longer be frightened by the sound of firearms, even artillery. Thick, ordinary firearms can't hurt a war elephant at all."

"The Franco cannon doesn't work either?"

Xiao Ruxun asked, Narisuan was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Unless many cannons shoot at a war elephant at the same time, it doesn't matter whether the cannon can hit the war elephant. The speed of the war elephant is not as slow as expected. The live ammunition that comes out is difficult to aim at the elephant, and the artillery fire rate is also slow. The opponent not only has the war elephant, but also uses firearms to open the way for the war elephant. I don’t know when the war elephant will be driven to attack. Our gunners don’t even have time to react. , so it is very dangerous to simply use the firearms in our hands to deal with war elephants."

"so what should I do now?"

"With war elephants against war elephants, the admiral doesn't have to worry. Xiao Wang has a war elephant troop under his command. They have experienced hundreds of battles and are powerful. War elephants, Xiao Wang will also use war elephant troops to fight against him, Mang Yingli can't use war elephants to threaten my army, so the admiral doesn't have to worry."

King Narexuan said so, but Xiao Ruxun didn't think so. If the war elephants were really as powerful as he said, then when Mang Yingli used elephant soldiers to attack Yunnan, he wouldn't be beaten by Deng Zilong and fled in embarrassment. Yes, elephants are indeed majestic and difficult to deal with, but elephants are also very intelligent animals, because only animals with a certain IQ can be tamed by humans and participate in battles.

Of course, being smart doesn’t come without a price. For elephants, the price of being smart is timidity. Elephants have a huge body, but they are really not very brave. In terms of weight and fighting power, an elephant is definitely better than a lion, but it is often defeated by a lion. Frightened by the roar, they ran around without the courage to fight. In the West, elephant soldiers once ruled the roost, but in China, elephant soldiers never had any advantage.

In the early days of Chinese history, due to the warm and humid climate in the Yellow River Basin, elephants lived, so in the Shang Dynasty, the Central Plains regime also had elephant soldiers. Later, the climate changed, and elephant soldiers became a unique army in the south. Some southern governments used elephant soldiers to fight The battle examples of the Central Plains regime in the north, but in front of the Chinese, the elephant soldiers have never defeated. Lin Yiguo used war elephants against the Sui army, the Southern Tang Dynasty used elephant soldiers against the Song army, and Myanmar used elephant soldiers against the Ming army, and never won Pass.

Later, when Li Dingguo fought against the Qing Dynasty, he once formed an elephant army and achieved a rare victory. He once reversed the situation in the fight against the Qing Dynasty and turned the Qing army's Eight Banners cavalry on their backs. Unfortunately, the Qing army became obedient and used traitors , Using red cannons to deal with Li Dingguo's elephant soldiers, Li Dingguo suffered a disastrous defeat.

(End of this chapter)