10. Recovering Dali City 1

I saw that the front team of the Song army suddenly separated to the left and right, and dozens of war elephants rushed out of the camp gate.

Unlike the Jiaozhi and Gao armies, there were four soldiers on each elephant, while the Song elephants had only two soldiers on their backs, but they also had a modified bed crossbow.

It turned out that after the improvement of Wei Chang, the bed crossbow could be pulled apart with only two people, and the volume and weight were greatly reduced, but it still required seven or eight people to carry and walk at the same time, and if it was applied in the field, it still seemed not flexible enough, so Yang Yan only used it once when attacking Guizhou City when he pacified Guangnan, and did not use it in the field.

Because the advantages and disadvantages of elephants are almost equal, and there are only more than 50 elephants in Dali, they cannot be compared with Jiaozhi in terms of numbers, and they cannot implement the tactics of war elephant against war elephant. Therefore, Yang Yan never thought of using elephants as an important force in warfare, in fact, Yang Yan took a fancy to the elephant's super load-bearing strength, and only such a behemoth could bear the weight of a crossbow.

And through the in-depth observation of elephants in Lin'an, Yang Yan found that the speed of elephants is not bad, but they are not enough in steering and flexibility, but these weaknesses can be compensated for by other arms and elephants, so he is more determined to use elephants to carry bed crossbows.

Later, Yang Yan told Wei Chang about this idea, and immediately got Wei Chang's, Wei Chang After several experiments, Wei Chang finally succeeded in modifying the bed crossbow to be able to be fixed on the elephant's back, and not only can turn left and right, but also adjust the angle up and down, and also set up the position of two soldiers who control the bed crossbow, becoming a real elephant crossbow. And because of the large size of the elephant, the bed crossbow mounted on the elephant's back can be a large section higher than that of the soldiers or even the cavalry, so it is not affected to be used behind the back of the whole army, and can keep up with the pace of the whole army's advance and retreat, which is far more flexible than using eight people to carry the bed crossbow. In this way, the bed crossbow can finally be used in field warfare.

Some time ago, Yang Yan had been standing still, on the one hand, waiting for Jiaozhi and Gao Jianming to gather people, and on the other hand, he was also training elephants to fight. But this matter was done very secretly, not only Dali and the various ministries did not know, but even the Song military camp did not know much. Although many soldiers see elephants coming and going every day, they have no idea what they are doing.

However, because this was the first time to use the elephant's back crossbow, at the beginning of the war, Yang Yan did not dare to let the elephant back crossbow army fight, but only hid the elephant in the village. Or use the more reliable "fire dragon water pipe". However, now after the blow of the "fire dragon water cylinder", the elephant army of the Jiaozhi and Gao clan coalition army has gone through chaos, and at this time you can try to see how effective the elephant crossbow is, so Yang Yan ordered to release the elephant army and put it on the battlefield.

A behemoth rushed out of the Song army's big village, and immediately rushed towards the Jiaozhi and Gao coalition forces, adjusting the formation as they advanced, although it took some time, they were still divided into two rows, and the distance between each elephant was three to four zhang, so that the crossbow guns were not disturbed at all. Since the elephant army was not used for fighting, the gap between the elephants and the elephants was filled by the infantry of the Song army to protect the elephants. The cavalry of the Song army was lined up on both sides to protect the flanks of the elephant army.

The elephants are firing their crossbows as they advance. Each bed crossbow could fire five crossbow guns at a time, and for a while, with the advance of the Song army, countless crossbow guns brought out a strong force, making a terrible "woo, woo" sound, and shot at the Jiaozhi and Gao coalition forces.

Due to the closer distance, and the accuracy of the bed crossbow is much higher than that of the "Fire Dragon Out of the Water Jane", and because the bed crossbow is more powerful, no matter how thick the elephant's skin and flesh are, once hit, a bed crossbow can penetrate the elephant's body one or two feet deep. No matter how strong the body was, it couldn't resist it, and after a few rounds of crossbow guns were fired, nearly a hundred war elephants were pierced by the crossbow guns and fell to the ground heavily. Then the infantry and cavalry of the Song army also rushed forward, and the knives and guns pierced the body of the struggling elephant mercilessly.

The remnants of the war elephants, knowing that they were powerful, did not dare to rush forward, and refused to take a step forward despite the shouts and chapels of the soldiers on their backs, but turned their heads and were defeated in the direction of their own formation. When Yang Yan saw it, he immediately ordered the entire Song army to go out to chase the defeated army

But in the eyes of the soldiers of the Jiaozhi and Gao coalition armies, after the war elephant turned the direction, it rushed towards its side like the vanguard of the Song army. Although there were less than 300 war elephants left, the momentum of the impact was still terrifying.

Li Quancheng and Gao Jianming were shocked, and Li Quancheng shouted at Li Xuande: "How did this happen, how did the elephants rush towards us, quickly order them to go back to deal with the Song army." ”

Li Xuande hurriedly waved the order flag in his hand, but it was a pity that even the soldiers on the back of the elephant couldn't control the elephant now, let alone him. My hands are almost sore, and I don't look like a rationale.

At this time, the fast-running war elephant Yijing rushed to the front of the array of the Jiaozhi and Gao coalition forces, and the soldiers of the coalition army rushed in front of them in front of the war elephant, and they also panicked, and there were companions on the left and right and behind, and there was nowhere to hide, so the soldiers instinctively raised their weapons in front of them to drive away the elephants. As soon as he saw that someone was blocking his direction, the elephant was also furious, and rushed into the array of the combined forces of Jiaozhi and Gao.

It was only then that the elephants had the opportunity to fully demonstrate their formidable combat prowess, waving their heavy and long noses, striking the soldiers on the heads, provoking their horses with their teeth, kicking away those who were blocking their advances, and knocking down the fences lined up in position, and almost every part of their huge bodies could be used to attack the enemy, and they continued to rush in the array of the Cochin and Gao forces without hindrance. It's a pity that the object of the show is not Song Jun, but his own people.

The power of the war elephant troops is truly astonishing. The massive bodies of destruction and malice overwhelmed the Cochin and Gao coalition forces, ordinary swords and guns were useless against them, the horses were swept down, the soldiers were trampled, and the roars of war elephants and the screams of the soldiers rang out.

"Master Hou, we can't stand it, let's run!" Gao Jianxun saw that the situation was not good, and immediately said to Gao Jianming. On the other side, Li Xuande also said the same thing to Li Quancheng.

Gao Jianming has experience in escaping, so as soon as he heard his brother's words, he immediately agreed, and attached himself to the action, pulling the horse and leaving. And although Li Quancheng was unwilling, he still wanted to hold on for a while, Li Xuande and several other generals understood better than him, and several people rushed up and forcibly wrapped Li Quancheng to retreat, Li Quancheng couldn't stand a few people, and finally retreated unwillingly.

The main generals have all fled, and there is still a reason for the other soldiers not to run. They all threw down their swords and guns, threw away their armor, and retreated to their own camp. The Song army chased after the rear for a while, so that they were not in a hurry to chase and kill the defeated army, but were very active in chasing and intercepting the war elephants running behind. This is also what Yang Yan deliberately confessed before ordering the pursuit.

Although the Song army did not deliberately train how to round up war elephants before the war, after all, they were all experienced soldiers in actual combat, and generals at all levels also had considerable experience in command and operations. If you see a soldier on the elephant's back, you immediately shout: "Surrender and die." If there is only one elephant left, although it is a little troublesome, but there is also a shouting around the elephant "lotus, lotus", only until the elephant is honest for this.

However, although many elephants were captured, they also spared the pursuit of the defeated army. Taking advantage of this loophole, the defeated army of the Jiaozhi and Gao coalition forces was able to retreat to the camp smoothly, closed the camp gate, and set up archers to guard it tightly, never daring to come out again.

Seeing that the combined forces of Jiaozhi and the Gao clan were defeated and returned to the camp, Yang Yanzhi didn't care, because he had already arranged a plan to break the enemy, and immediately ordered the Song army to escort the captured elephants and prisoners back to the camp, and then let Liu Renxian lead the Dali army to clean up the battlefield. None of these things were done by Song Jun.

When he returned to the camp, he saw Liu Jianhe leading the patriarchs of various tribes to stand at the camp gate, respectfully welcoming Yang Yan back to the camp. The patriarchs of the various tribes, including the patriarch Wu Getu and the patriarch of the Wuman tribe, Ah Huinan, all looked sincerely frightened. Because the shock brought to them by the battle just now was too great, who would have thought that it was once the most powerful, and it was also a war elephant that they seemed to be simply unmatched, but it was defeated by Yang Yan so easily, and these strange weapons of the Song army were too terrifying, seeing that the Song army was strong and strong, and the main general was like a god, no matter who it was, he couldn't help but be in awe when he saw the Song army.

After returning to the camp, Yang Yan immediately ordered someone to check the results of the battle. Although not many enemy soldiers were killed in this battle, and even fewer were captured, the harvest was still quite rich, with 37 elephants captured alone, and more than 240 elephant carcasses on the battlefield. They were also carried back by the Dali army that cleaned up the battlefield.

Although the elephant is dead, the carcass is also extremely valuable, the elephant meat can be eaten, used as military food, the elephant skin is thick, it is the best material for making leather armor, skin and other things. And elephant bone can not only be used as a medicinal material, but also the best material for making various handicrafts, of course, the most valuable is naturally ivory, the value of a pair of ivory is less than 100 guan, and the top grade ivory can be bought in Lin'an for more than 1,000 yuan. Because this is a war elephant, Gao Jianming has never touched their ivory, but now it is cheaper Yang Yan, this time he collected a total of 213 pairs of ivory from these more than 240 dead elephants, so just these more than 200 dead elephants is a lot of wealth.