On May 23, the twelfth year of Tianwu, Li Dingguo ordered people to build a walled city at Xianzi Pass to attract the Annan army to attack.

The Annan army marched from the Fuliang River, trying to harass and prevent the Ming army from stationary, Li Dingguo led his troops to meet the battle, Mu Tianbo led the boat division to attack, the two perfectly cooperated to break the Annan army, killed 10,000 people, and the river was red.

It was early summer, the drought and the shallow river, the Annan army abandoned the ship and fled, the Ming army took advantage of the victory and pursued it all the way, all the way to the last fortified city in front of the capital of Annan, Cishan.

The Cishan garrison practiced day and night, arranged defenses, prepared to deal with the Ming army, and even transferred the trump card in the Annam army - the elephant army!

Elephants, with their sturdy and huge bodies, can be said to be invulnerable on the battlefield.

And the elephant's attack power is very strong, stepping on it, the liver and gallbladder are broken, and a nose is thrown over, which can lift people away seven or eight meters and fall into crushing fractures.

Alexander, who swept through the Middle East 2,000 years ago, conquered all of Egypt and annexed the Persian Empire without a single soldier, and when their army marched to the Indus Valley in an attempt to conquer India, they were confronted by the Indian elephant formation.

Alexander's expeditionary force killed the elephants with swords and guns, and even the proud Macedonian phalanx suffered unprecedented heavy losses under the impact of the elephants, and Alexander himself was seriously wounded.

During the Yongle Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, the British Gong Zhang Fu led an expedition to Annam, and Annam also set up an elephant array to deal with the Ming army.

At that time, Zhang Fu used a virtual weapon, and the Ming army draped the painted lion skin on the body of the war horse, and then blindfolded the war horse to launch an impact, and supplemented it with a divine firearm, and finally defeated the Annan elephant array.

Although it is not known why the elephants of Annam were afraid of lions, the Ming army succeeded.

After 200 years, with the experience of the last defeat, this time the Annan army in order to prevent the Ming army from repeating its old tricks, so the elephant slaves blindfolded the war elephants to drive away the war elephants.

The elephant army is not a joke, when the elephant array launches a collective charge, the oncoming behemoths are still a large group, who can withstand it!

Not to mention the impact of the elephant herd, this kind of scene alone will cause great psychological panic to the Ming army.

On May 25, the two armies faced each other, and the Annan army mobilized 30,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and 200 war elephants to meet the Ming army, which was the last strength of Annan.

The Annan army lined up the war elephants in front of the infantry, the cavalry on the two wings, and the formation of the army was like a city, the elephant herd was like a fortress, and the heavy cavalry was like a city wall.

In front of the Ming army, Mo Jingyu looked at the tall war elephants of the Annan army, and was stunned for a while, and suggested sideways: "General, in the past, the British Gong Zhang assisted in the expedition to Annan, and in the face of the Chen Dynasty elephant array, he used a lion's skin on the outside of the war horse, so it is better for us to avoid its edge first, and follow the example of the British Duke to be fully prepared before sending troops......

Li Dingguo raised his right arm, calm as the sea, and said, "No need! General Ben is in a hurry! ”

War cannot be completely replicated, and as a general with a unique understanding of war, Li Dingguo has his own strategy.

Before attacking Annam, he studied the war elephants for a few days, and found that the most fatal weakness of the war elephants was their fear of fire, and almost all the defeats of war elephants in history were related to fire.

Of course, this time the Annan people are shrewd, and the blindfold of the war elephant is also for fire prevention, and the old method obviously will not work!

Mo Jingyu stopped talking and sat back to see how the general of the Ming army responded......

At the beginning of the battle, more than 200 elephants sat on their necks or backs, and they trained the elephants strictly, but at this time they directed the elephants to charge forward and covered the elephants' eyes with cloth.

With the order of Commander Annan, a large area of black pressure was immediately pressed, and more than 200 war elephants shook their probosces, showed their long teeth, opened their limbs, carried soldiers on their backs, and rushed towards the Ming army's position like a tide.

In the face of the onslaught of the Annan elephant array, Li Dingguo ordered an attack in a hurry.

A low horn sounded, and the commander of the flag held the flag and shouted: "The general has an order, shoot the elephant soldiers!" ”

"Battalions ready!"

"Fire!"

As the general's order was issued, the Ming army's musket array took a step forward and raised its guns to launch a round of fire at the elephant soldiers on the back of the war elephants!

In the midst of the flames and cracks, the elephant soldiers who controlled the war elephants were shot and rolled down, and were ruthlessly trampled to death by the war elephants behind, splashing white and red on the ground.

However, the war elephants were still charging, and the heavy hoofs were like drums, and the momentum was unstoppable!

"The general has an order, shoot the elephant's trunk!"

The Ming musketeers lowered the head of the gun by one point in unison, and aimed the crosshair at the long nose of the war elephant, whether it could be shot or not, the state was laid out.

"Fire!"

The battlefield was filled with gunsmoke, the bullets of the Ming army swept like rain, the huge war elephants were shot in the nose, and some war elephants screamed in pain, turned around and ran back, trampling to death many Annan infantry behind for a while.

What Li Dingguo wants is this effect, so that the enemy's weapon becomes the weapon of the Ming army!

In order to widen the confusion, he ordered the light artillery battalion to be transferred over, and used mortars and grenadiers to fire and force the war elephants back.

"Bloom on the bomb!"

The artillerymen quickly carried the shells, transported the reload in an orderly manner, and the skillful loaders stuffed one after another, tilting their heads from time to time to hide to the side and covering their ears.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! ”

Mortars, grenadiers, and small shells of the artillery, which had a high rate of fire, whizzed off and fell into the herd of war elephants, igniting black smoke.

At the same time, the muskets of the Ming army kept shooting at the front of the elephant array, although it could not cause lethal damage to the elephants, but the deterrent effect was quite powerful, at least it could prevent the war elephants from continuing to attack.

The galloping war elephants were frightened and neighed, and they turned around and fled, scattering the Annan infantry army that was ready to pick up the cheap, trampling on countless dead, and the Annan army was in chaos.

Li Dingguo ordered to take advantage of the situation to counterattack, and the cavalry of the Ming army was exhausted, shouting and killing the Annan army that was in a mess.

In the face of the enemy's attack, the war elephants turned against each other, and the panicked Annan army completely lost the courage to resist, and tens of thousands of people collapsed without a fight.

Li Dingguo ordered the infantry to attack, crossed the heavy trench, used a cloud ladder to climb the city, and took advantage of the situation to capture Cishan.

In the battle, Mu Tianbo, the Duke of Qianguo, gave full play to the vanguard and exemplary role of the leader in taking the lead in the war, he held the military flag and led the dead soldiers of the Mu Wangfu to take the lead in crossing the moat and opening the way for the troops.

When the grandfather of Chaoguo personally charged, it greatly boosted the morale of the Ming army, the horn sounded, and the army under the city shouted and marched, striving to be the first, and broke through Cishan City in one fell swoop.

Guarding Cishan was Zheng Qiao, the second son of Zheng Jie, who left his family and ran away, and was shot by Ming snipers in the process of escaping, and was captured by Mo Jingyu, who had picked up the leak, and the whole family was taken prisoner.

In the first battle of Cishan, the majestic Annan army was crushed at a touch, and more than 40 senior generals were captured, and the remnants were chased to the Red River by the Ming army.