Chapter 335 Battle Elephant Force

March 2, the fifth year of Tianhong, Daqin.

The Mauryan General Puciamita led a huge expedition army of 120,000 infantry and 3,000 war elephants to start a punishment operation against the Qin Yuan expeditionary army in Mumbai.

The reason why the situation deteriorated to such a point was not only the increasingly obvious expansion momentum of Qin State in the southern part of the peninsula, but also related to the struggles within the Mauryan Dynasty.

After receiving secret support from Qin, Tailong began to do a lot of activities after returning to Fahrenheit City, recruiting Buddhists who were dissatisfied with Pusiamida, which made the conflict between the two sects within the Mauryan Dynasty unprecedentedly fierce.

During the long-term process of brewing, the increasingly fierce internal struggles of the Mauryan Dynasty have shown signs of being fierce. Puciamido, who originally held the real power of the army and was supported by most princes and nobles, has firmly gained the upper hand. Within three or five years, the emperor's position will be his. But somehow, in recent times, the king Prihadorada, who has always been invincible with the world, has become tougher than normal.

The situation was turbulent, and Puciamido was naturally not a free person. Soon he found out that Tailong, the confidant in Prihadorada, was walking with the Qin people in great enthusiasm.

"The Qin people, the barbarians from somewhere dared to come to my territory to play wild!" Pusiamito, who was born in the army, was certainly not a good man and a woman. After some planning, he began a revenge. In addition, this risky military operation is likely to be a preview of his pursuit of the throne.

It can be imagined that Pusiamito wanted to use the remaining power of the foreign war to eliminate the king's power in one fell swoop.

In the first year of the second century BC, two ancient countries in the East, two armies with absolutely different combat styles, experiences, and tactical qualities met.

In the history of the Mauryan Dynasty, they had a battle to resist powerful foreign invasion forces and achieve great victory. In the fourth century BC, the expedition of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great was defeated by the war elephant troops of the Kingdom of Mosado (the former name of the Mauryan Dynasty). With Alexander's death, the huge empire that he created across Europe and Asia was also broken.

To be precise, in cold weapons wars, war elephants may be the earliest terrifying weapon to be used on the battlefield. Their main function is to trample and break through the enemy's fronts during charge. The war elephants rushing towards the enemy can not only create fear and panic in the enemy's army, but also take advantage of the characteristic that horses are not used to the smell emitted by elephants, causing enemy war horses to be frightened and lost their hooves. Unlike cavalry war horses, war elephants have thick skins and are not easily injured, and even infantry spear formations are difficult to block it.

According to historical records, about 4,000 years ago, people in the Indus Valley first began to domesticate elephants, but later, these domesticated elephants were introduced into the ancient Persian Empire. Especially in Cyrus I, war elephants were a tool used by Persians to show off their military power. At that time, all the elephants on the battlefield were all male elephants, because they were faster and more brave and aggressive.

The lethality of the war elephant lies in its strong and powerful force. During the charge, the war elephant can reach thirty miles per hour. Once it rushes into the enemy camp, it will trample on its will and wield sharp ivory rushing around. The soldiers who escaped the first wave of attacks were either knocked to the side or frightened to retreat.

Of course, since elephants live in tropical and subtropical regions, it cannot survive once it reaches the cold north, the use of war elephants is far less popular than that of Malay.

Only by fighting in the hot jungle areas can war elephants be sent to the battlefield. Unfortunately, this time, the position of the Qin Expeditionary Force was exactly within the combat area of ​​the war elephants.

In order to achieve full results in one battle, the Aryans not only sent out their proud war elephant troops again. This animal with a huge body, with thick skin and strong flesh, and sharp and hard ivory. In addition, the soldiers riding on the condescending above, the ordinary army riding war horses, not to mention the enemy, were afraid that before they could get close, they would already be whine-necked and squealing, and kicking their front hooves to prepare to escape.

Back then, Alexander's army was attacked by the Moserod Elephant in panic. After a fight, although the Macedonian army had the courage to sweep the countries, they were defeated in front of such the most domineering and huge animal.

In Mumbai City, the Council Chamber.

Almost all the generals who accompanied Fu Ge Nan's expedition this time, Han Xin, Ying Bu, Luan Bu, Chen Shen, and Xiao He, who was coordinating food and grass in the rear, all came to Mumbai one by one. They all looked solemn, because everyone knew what the situation they were facing now, and everyone understood what the battle in front of them meant.

"What's wrong? I'm scared. Isn't it just three thousand war elephants? What's there to worry about? Since our soldiers of Daqin can come here from afar, they will not be scared by difficulties."

Compared to the worry of the Qin generals, Fu Ge's performance was really puzzling. His face was still calm and obedient. He even yawned as if no one else had just woken up, as if in front of him was not a 150,000 enemy army, but a group of scarecrows who were broken with one blow.

Of course, the Qin generals who were familiar with Fu Ge knew that their commander would never underestimate any opponent behind the scenes.

"Ship Fu, it is believed that this kind of war elephant has undergone special training. During the battle, it is controlled by an elephant slave. Four soldiers holding spears stood on the elephant's back. It is very powerful when charging. Moreover, the enemy's troops this time are more than ten times that of our army. In addition, there are special troops such as war elephants to assist in the war, so we must not be careless." Han Xin advised urgently.

Commanding the Qin army to fight in South Asia in tropical areas was a new test for this wise general, a completely different battle between wits and courage from the previous battles of princes. In the final analysis, the battle on the battlefield was a contest between the generals and the generals guess each other's intentions. Therefore, for Han Xin, Puciamido, a strange opponent, is no easier to deal with than Xiang Yu.

After all, as Xiang Yu's former subordinate, Han Xin knew Xiang Yu's temperament clearly, and Xiang Yu's strengths and shortcomings were exposed to him without missing a single one.

"Ship Fu, General Fu, is very worried. Another thing is that many soldiers have never seen an elephant. Once it appears in groups on the battlefield, the morale of the soldiers will inevitably be severely hit. So, why do we now have the most urgent task to find a way to deal with the enemy, we must also eliminate the soldiers' fear of elephants, so that they can build confidence to defeat their opponents."

Xiao He is worthy of being a thoughtful auxiliary talent. Compared with a group of brave generals who only care about how to deal with the enemy, although the aspects he considers seem unimportant, they are actually related to the success or failure of the battle.

"Well, the General and Mr. Xiao said it well. When dealing with war elephants, the first thing we have to overcome is psychological fear. In fact, elephants are still a very gentle animal. If they are not driven by humans, they will generally not attack them actively. Of course, except for those war elephants that have undergone special training, this is better. Aren't there any merchants in Mumbai using elephants to traffic in goods? We will invest money to buy it first and send it to the military camp to contact the soldiers. I believe that in a few days, our soldiers will no longer be afraid of elephants like tigers."

"In addition, it is not difficult to deal with the war elephant troops. As long as there are living animals in this world, they are afraid of one thing, that is fire. If we can choose a dangerous place to defend, and then try to lure the enemy's war elephant troops into our pre-rest location. As long as the enemy enters the jar, rockets will fire in a volley. At this time, the frightened elephants will definitely run around. We will dispatch the army to capture and cover the enemy. What's the difficulty of destroying the enemy!"

Seeing a group of generals offering suggestions, after some thought, Fu Ge finally revealed his plan. Since he learned from Tyron that the Mauryan army had concluded that there were signs of martial arts, he had carefully reviewed the information about dealing with elephant soldiers that had been deposited in his mind.

There were not many things like elephant soldiers in ancient China. Even if they occasionally appeared on the battlefield, they were only a few. The true confrontation between the Chinese army and the Indian elephant soldiers still occurred in 647 AD. At that time, the powerful Tang Dynasty appointed Wang Xuance as the chief envoy and the deputy envoy Jiang Shiren to India. Unfortunately, a coup occurred in Zhongtianzhu. The new king Alushunna, who was in charge of the Tang Dynasty, heard that the envoys of the Tang Dynasty entered the country and sent two thousand soldiers to ambush them. Wang Xuance died many of his cavalry, and Xuance himself was captured and detained.

Later, Wang Xuance and Jiang Shiren tried to escape and borrowed seven thousand cavalry from the prince of Nepal to counterattack Zhongtianzhu. Outside the northern Tianzhu Chabo and Luocheng, Wang Xuance defeated tens of thousands of elephant troops in one battle. Then Xuance set up a division of troops to kill Alushunna to take the bait, and cleverly set up a "fire bull formation" to destroy the enemy's 70,000 battle elephant troops in one fell swoop, wiped out the remnants of Alushunna, and captured him alive.

It can be said that the national prestige of the Tang Dynasty was undoubtedly revealed in that battle, and thus established the Tang Dynasty's leading position as a country in the seventh and eighth centuries AD.

Similarly, in Western war history, in the Battle of Gaugamira in 331 BC, the Great Alexander the Great, who fought for his whole life, also experienced the power of the Persian Elephant Legion for the first time.
Chapter completed!