Chapter 12 Chapter 146 Great Disparity in Strength

On the pier, one hundred elephant soldiers and four hundred cavalry formed a circular formation, surrounded by two thousand Ming soldiers. Among the two thousand Ming soldiers, there were only 500 cavalrymen, and the remaining 1,500 were infantrymen. Although the number of Ceylon soldiers was small, the hundred elephant soldiers put a lot of psychological pressure on the soldiers of the Ming army. . These soldiers are the elite of the Beijing camp, they have experienced many battles, and they are not afraid of death, but such a tall mount is really the only one they have ever seen in their life. The huge monster twice as tall as a horse made them unable to think of a match with such a horse for a while. The way the opponents confront each other, they can only hold the crossbow nervously, because other weapons can't reach the enemy soldiers on the elephant.

Of course, if it was Yunnan soldiers who appeared here today, they would not take war elephants seriously at all. When the Ming army first entered Yunnan, they also encountered opponents riding war elephants. Their tactics were also a bit messy, but they quickly mastered the method of dealing with war elephants. Due to the inconvenient transportation at that time, and the tactics of the Yunnan soldiers had regional tactics, spreading this tactic to other places became a dragon-slaying technique, and it was useless to learn, so the methods developed by these Yunnan soldiers in actual combat were not effective. As word spread, the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp knew nothing about it.

However, although the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp didn't know how to deal with war elephants, there was Xia Xun here, who was just a war elephant, so how could he be troubled? The soldiers brought by Prince Senak watched the huge ship carrying the prince sail away from the pier, and they did not dare to turn their faces for a while. They were also deeply jealous of the sharp-looking crossbows in the hands of the Ming army, and the troops who besieged them There are a full two thousand people, which is four times as many. If all arrows are fired at once, they will easily become living targets riding on the elephants, so the two sides are so deadlocked.

The two sides were in a stalemate, and suddenly people screamed in the distance, and a group of people came running wildly. The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were in a commotion, thinking that the enemy was coming to reinforce them, but when they looked closely, the galloping men and horses were clearly in the uniforms of the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty.The officers and soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly sent people forward to greet them. These people galloping over were exactly the Ming army that had protected Zheng He and other envoys all the way back.

Xia Xun was making secret deployments on the pier. Under his arrangement, the warships and merchant ships left the pier one after another to prevent Ceylon soldiers from boarding the ship or setting fire to the ship. The guns were all aimed in the direction of the pier, and they are still at the pier The remaining three warships were used to meet Zheng He. As soon as Zheng He's troops arrived, Xia Xun immediately went up to meet him and asked, "Eunuch, what happened?" Zheng He's face was ashen and authentic: The king of Ceylon suddenly made an attack and wanted to take me down for some reason.

Xia Xun hurriedly told about Prince Senac's cheating on the ship, and Zheng He suddenly realized: That's how it is!It is really shameless for the majestic ruler of a country to do such a dirty trick! Zhang Xin, a member of the Ministry of Industry, said in a hurry: "This is the territory of the Kingdom of Ceylon. We don't want to take advantage of the land and people. Since the king of Ceylon has malicious intentions, let's leave as soon as possible. Wait for the king of Ceylon to send troops." Chase, I'm afraid it's not good. Xia Xun said calmly: "I have made preparations in advance, but it is up to Eunuch Zheng to decide whether to go or fight."

Zheng He is an imperial envoy, and Xia Xun's mission is to find the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen, so he does not have the command over the entire fleet, so he can't do it for him. If Zheng He really died in the palace, then Zhang Xitong would be the one with the command of the entire fleet . Whether Zhang Xitong obeyed Xia Xun's words was another matter, but he couldn't direct the entire fleet directly. Zheng He said: "Of course I will leave immediately. Do you want to stay here and start a war with that rogue king?"Let's board the ship right away, shall we?

Just halfway through the speech, Zheng He suddenly realized, focused on Xia Xun, and asked in a deep voice: "What does the Duke mean by this?"Do we still have a reason to fight? Xia Xun said: "My father-in-law didn't come back for a long time, and Prince Senac came to the ship to swindle property again. I knew something was wrong, so I immediately called all ships to take precautions, and took Prince Senac as a hostage. At the same time, I called the merchants of my fleet back to the ship."However, some merchants went to the city to trade, and just counted the number of people, and there are about 300 merchants who have not returned.

Zhang Xin hurriedly said: But I am a businessman from Ming Dynasty? Xia Xun glanced at him and said, "There are merchants from the Ming Dynasty, and there are also merchants from various countries in Southeast Asia who attached to my fleet along the way." After Zhang Xin heard this, he stopped talking. If those businessmen who were too late to recall were from countries in the South Seas, he would dare to suggest sailing immediately and leaving Ceylon, but Daming is still stranded in the capital of Ceylon For the common people, he would never dare to say he was leaving. Abandoning the city when encountering bandits, abandoning the people in danger, what kind of official do you still do?As long as someone impeaches such an official, the emperor must be beheaded.Of course, any system will have no lower limit when the discipline is gone, but this is still the Yongle Dynasty, not only the system is like a mountain, but the officials also have this awareness.

Zheng He didn't hesitate any longer when he heard the words, and said decisively: Zheng He patrolled overseas on behalf of the Son of Heaven, how could he abandon my people of Ming Dynasty?We must not leave without saving these people! Xia Xun said happily: Exactly!That being the case, we might as well take down these 400 Ceylon soldiers, plus a prince Senak, we can exchange hostages with the King of Ceylon, and avoid going to war. Ceylon General Crowley was ordered to hastily assemble a team of 10,000 people, ready to go to the port and capture and kill Zheng He. As soon as the army left the city gate, dozens of war elephants rushed towards them. Some war elephants had only one empty basket left, and there was no one in it. He threw away the weapon, and grabbed the basket with both hands, being knocked by the elephant like a torn rag in the wind.

Crowley was amazed, but the war elephant was frightened, and they couldn't stop it, and both elephants and cattle were protected animals in the country, so they didn't dare to use swords and guns to stop them, so they had to get out of the way to make way for the elephant.But tens of thousands of mighty troops are blocking the gate of the city, how can they escape? The team was shattered by the elephants, and those who were too late to dodge were trampled and kicked to many people. Only then did they slowly stop the elephants from escaping. The elephant knight, who was shaking his head in a daze, asked sharply: "What's the matter with you?" The elephant knight was so weak that he couldn't stand upright as if he was drunk. He staggered and said: "Return to the general, Prince Senac was taken by the Ming army, and they wanted to detain us. We tried our best to resist. We wanted to smash their formation with war elephants, but we didn't want their crossbow arrows to rain like rain." , The war elephant suffered pain, was out of control, turned around and fled, and scattered our cavalry. We were lucky to escape with our lives, and the others were killed or captured alive. Crowley was taken aback when he heard that, a hundred war elephants and four hundred cavalry were so vulnerable?Crowley became the commander of the army only by flattering the tyrant. He was very timid, and he immediately became timid when he heard it. He stroked his beard and pondered for a while, and then ordered: "The army is set up on the spot, waiting for my order." , I'm going to see the king! When Crowley saw what Ariel Kunel said, and exaggerated the strength of the Ming army as much as possible, Ariel Kuner was a little surprised, and immediately authorized him to mobilize all the troops to attack the Ming army. Arrangements are being made here, and another prisoner released by the Ming army brought a message from Zheng He, willing to exchange with Ariel Kunel, as long as he handed back all the merchants still stranded in the city, he would give the prince And the soldiers returned him. Ariel Kunel failed to blackmail, and lost soldiers and generals, so he was already very angry.He had more than one son, how could he swallow his anger, immediately drew his sword and beheaded the soldier who summoned him to the ground, and shouted sharply: "There will be no peace talks, only a war!" Those Ming merchants who entered the city to do business and merchants from various countries who joined along the way knew that something had happened when Zheng He and his party broke out of the city, but it was impossible to escape at that time. hide. The tyrant Ariel Kunel sent troops to search and arrest these businessmen, and at the same time ordered Crowley to lead an army to arrest and kill Zheng He immediately to vent his anger.Crowley assembled all the troops in the royal city, and marched towards the pier in a mighty manner. At the Bieluoli Wharf, the merchants have long since fled completely, and the ground is in a mess. Taking advantage of the convenience of the beach, the Ming army excavated and built simple fortifications, and soldiers lay down in rows.On the opposite side, the flat and open field was filled with darkness, and the Ceylon army was rushing in like a tide. At the forefront is a group of lions, tigers and leopards. Allie Kunel sent out hundreds of beasts that he raised. Although these wild beasts prey on live animals every day, they are wild and untamed, but Ale Kunel domesticates them for fun, so there are special animal trainers. However, they are still obedient to these animal trainers. The tyrant Allie had always thrown away those who offended him to fill his stomachs. Under his resentment, he obviously wanted the Ming army to suffer the same treatment.Dozens of animal trainers drove hundreds of wolves, tigers and leopards to the front, followed by a row of tall war elephant soldiers. In view of the powerful crossbow arrows of the Ming army, these elephant soldiers built sheds above the baskets to shelter from the rain of arrows. . The elephant soldiers stood under the shed, holding on to their bows and arrows, and waiting for them. Behind the elephant soldiers is the dark cavalry phalanx, and in front of the cavalry phalanx is the firearms troop. Each of the firearms troop is carrying a wooden stick, and a thicker iron cylinder is tied in front of the wooden stick. This iron cylinder is their firearms. This firearm is called a cannon, which is composed of a star letter, a front chamber, and a medicine chamber. It is actually equivalent to reducing the cannon at that time to the size of a hand-held one. It is called a hand cannon. This kind of firearm technology was still in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. Among the firearms soldiers, out of every ten or so people, there were two people working together to carry a blazing charcoal brazier, and another two people were pulling a small four-wheeled cart.Behind them, the halberds are like forests, the knives are like seas, dense and endless, Alekunel sent all the troops in his royal city, he is worthy of being the most powerful king in Nanyang, and gathered in the imperial city The entire army actually has 50,000 people! On the opposite side, only 1,500 infantrymen were still prostrate on the ground, and the other 500 cavalrymen had already avoided the embankment. stop! With a loud shout from Crowley, the 50,000 troops stopped abruptly, like a black cloud suddenly settled in the sky ahead of the Ming Fleet.