Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The enemy actually had cavalry, but they were riding elephants.

The Ceylon elephant is the largest Asian elephant, only slightly smaller than the African elephant.

The reason why the indigenous coalition forces chose this battlefield was to facilitate the elephant soldiers' attack.

Elephant soldiers are similar to ancient tanks. Some people ride on them to shoot arrows, while others ride on them to stab. A group of infantry followed the surrounding area. They advanced with the elephant soldiers, which seemed to be a synergy between infantry and tanks.

Although he was defeated in a duel before the battle, the regicide Parakarama was not discouraged.

He sent two thousand forward troops to fight, first to explore the opponent's weakness and strength, and to try to provide an opportunity for the Elephant Soldier Corps.

It is true that Parakarama was violently beaten by the Ming army, but the main force of the Ming army had returned home long ago. In the past few years, while recovering his strength, he had contacted other nobles and sent merchants to Wangxiang Port to investigate.

It has been found out that the Ming people only have 500 noble warriors, and the rest are all Tamil servants.

The only thing to worry about is Akito's possession of firearms.

Therefore Parakarama made complete preparations. On the surface, the coalition army only had more than 10,000 people, but in fact there were several thousand mobile troops.

The thousands of people who were hidden were not used to rush over the mountains and ridges to carry out attacks, but to collect all the ships and take boats to circle back. At this moment, the people and the boat are hiding on a large island called Kakativa. This island is not far from the main battlefield. If you delay for a while, you can appear on the coast beside Akito.

In order to transport troops by sea, all ships in the territories of several nobles of the coalition, including ordinary small offshore fishing boats, were recruited by them.

Those Tamil servants were not trained at all. Once an ambush suddenly breaks out on the flank of the sea, no matter how many Tamil soldiers there are, they will be frightened and disperse!

"Boom boom boom!"

Four guns suddenly opened fire.

The forward troops sent by Parakarama to fight were still far away from the enemy, so they encountered artillery fire in a confused way.

Xia Yuqing murmured: "After all, I am not a gunner of the imperial court. This cannon fired a little crookedly."

Although the mission originally left four artillery pieces behind, when the first governor left office, he took all the gunners away.

Today's gunners are all compatriots recruited from the Ming Dynasty by the five hundred soldiers, and they have no idea what ballistics is. Moreover, gunpowder and artillery are expensive, and they don't usually train much. They just know how to fire cannons.

At this moment, four shells were fired, all of them missed, and none of them hit!

The enemy troops were startled, and even stopped advancing, waiting for orders in a panic.

"Wan Sheng! Wan Sheng!"

Thousands of Tamil soldiers under Xia Yuqing's command cheered collectively. Even though all the cannonballs were deflected, they seemed to have been given a morale buff by the artillery.

Moreover, the slogans shouted were still in Chinese.

The earliest batch of Tamil tribes followed their masters for a long time and learned a little bit of daily Chinese.

As for the Tamils ​​recruited temporarily for this battle, they only spoke two Chinese words. One word is "kill the enemy" and the other is "win the victory". The former is translated as "killing the enemy" and the latter is translated as "invincible".

They regard these two Chinese words as exotic spells...

"Let them take aim before firing!" Xia Yuqing sent someone to give the gunner an order.

The half-baked gunners hurriedly adjusted their angles, while the enemy's front army hesitated for a while before being forced to move forward by Parakarama. Moreover, two more coalition forces slowly pressed forward.

Paracarama looked at the sea from time to time. When the mage group was out, he had already sent a boat to the island to inform them. It stands to reason that the ambush was almost here.

"Boom boom boom!"

The second round of shelling finally started, and the effect was pretty good. One shell fell into the enemy position.

The terrain here is flat, and when the cannonballs bounce, they shoot out a bunch of bloody gourds.

The enemy's front troops were in panic, mainly due to fear of the unknown. They still couldn't figure out what the artillery was, and always felt that it was a magic weapon of a certain demon.

Xia Yuqing scolded his son angrily, and then said: "Wait for another round of bombardment, and you will follow Uncle Yang to fight. Remember to obey the military orders. Make a note of your previous disobedience, and then take it easy after the battle is over!"

"yes!"

Xia Xiliang smiled awkwardly, knowing that he would be whipped this time when he went back.

The enemy's three front troops continued to move forward, and the left and right armies also followed, and the elephant army began to move their positions. But the sound of the artillery made the war elephant look a little restless.

"Coming!"

Parakarama heard the sound and looked towards the sea, and sure enough he saw countless ships appearing on the distant sea.

There are regular Ceylon galley warships, sea trade merchant ships of the coalition nobles, and offshore fishing boats within the jurisdiction of the coalition. Every ship was packed with people, making it impossible to fight a naval battle, but transporting troops to the flanks of the battlefield was miraculous.

"Commander Xia, there are enemies at sea!" A deputy general sent someone to report.

Xia Yuqing said: "I saw it, why are you panicking?"

Xia Yuqing didn't panic, but the Tamil soldiers were panicked.

Because the direction of the ship's advance is to their side and rear. When several thousand enemies land, they will be attacked from both front and rear, and many Tamil soldiers will flee.

The gunners were hurriedly loading ammunition and preparing for the third round of bombardment.

More than a hundred Han cavalry were divided into two teams and went out to wait for orders.

Xia Yuqing sent another hundred old brothers, with their brothers, nephews and Tamil tribes, to form a chaotic formation and gradually press forward.

"Boom boom boom!"

In the third round of shelling, this time with incredible luck, three shells actually fell into the enemy's position.

Just when the enemy's front army became more panicked, the Han cavalry divided into two groups came out from the left and right.

Cavalry general Yang Zun warned Xia Xiliang: "The Ceylon bow is very powerful and may shoot through ordinary armor. Be careful when you charge."

"Understood!" Xia Xiliang did not dare to be arrogant anymore and rushed out closely behind Yang Zun.

One-third of the cavalry carried muskets and ran to the left front of the enemy's front army. Then they turned over and dismounted, stood on the ground and fired, then put away the muskets and took out the lances to charge.

The other two-thirds of the cavalry used bows and arrows to ride and shoot at the right front of the enemy's front army. These guys changed their profession to cavalry halfway in Ceylon Island, and they were not particularly elite in either riding or riding and shooting. But after all, they were all noble lords, and they had been trained seriously for several years, which was more than enough to bully the natives.

For the Han cavalry, they were lucky that there were no archers in the enemy's front army.

There are two types of Ceylon bows and arrows.

One is a longbow, the length of the bow body is generally more than 150 cm, and some bows are even longer than 180 cm. The effective range is more than 200 meters, which is the main weapon of Ceylon archers.

The other is the composite shortbow. Because of the difficulty and cost of making it, the number of composite bows is relatively rare, and only the Ceylon nobles can use it.

Although the longbow is very powerful, its shortcomings are also obvious.

Its bow body is too long, it has strict height requirements, and it is particularly difficult to train.

The last time Parakalama was defeated by the Ming Dynasty envoys, his longbowmen did not have time to shoot arrows, and were almost wiped out by the Ming army.

A few years later, he retrained a group of archers, but there were only two hundred people.

There is no way. The Ceylon longbow is easy to make, but the height of the Sinhalese is not enough, and it is difficult to select qualified archers-it is too difficult for a nation with an average male height of 1.5 meters to train longbowmen in large quantities.

At this moment, the only two hundred Ceylon longbowmen were all kept as treasures in Parakalama's central army.

They were not sent out to fight at all!

Well, the archers on the war elephants used the rarer composite bows.

Without long-range firepower interference, the Han cavalry quickly rushed to the attack distance.

The enemy's front army was first bombarded, then shot by muskets and bows and arrows, and then the cavalry charged. They were extremely panicked, and the formation was particularly chaotic, but they had not really collapsed.

More than a hundred cavalrymen cut the corner and passed by, some of them ran back to ride and shoot, and the other part dismounted to reload the muskets.

At this moment, Xia Yuqing had already commanded the infantry to press forward, and Parakalama also sent out follow-up troops.

There was another round of bows and arrows and muskets, and more than a hundred cavalrymen charged again.

This time, they were serious, and the cavalry suddenly crashed into the chaotic enemy formation.

Xia Xiliang still remembered his father's words at first, and he started to get excited as he rushed. He knocked down an enemy sword and shield man with a spear, and then stabbed a spearman to death, and penetrated into the enemy formation without hindrance, even surpassing his uncle Yang, and rushed to the front of all the cavalry.

The enemy's front army collapsed too quickly, and Parakalama didn't even have time to support it, and the elephant corps that had been eyeing it covetously couldn't find an opportunity.

It was difficult for low-organized infantry to face cavalry, not to mention that the Han people also had firearms.

Parakalama had no hope of winning at all, and he could not defeat the more than one hundred cavalrymen at all!

In the Ming Dynasty of another time and space, Zheng He faced the unified Ceylon Island and the Ceylon army at its peak. Moreover, Zheng He was tricked into surrendering and almost overturned, resulting in the annihilation of his entire army. As a result, he relied on thousands of cavalry to forcibly turn the tables and defeat the Ceylon army.

At this moment, the Ceylon coalition was just a few noble lords' troops, and most of the soldiers were young and strong peasants recruited.

How could they beat cavalry and firearms?

Until this moment, Parakalama's sea ambush, the fastest ship had just begun to land.

On the front battlefield, Parakalama's main force had been defeated by the fleeing soldiers. More than a hundred Han cavalry chased the fleeing soldiers, and the fleeing soldiers defeated more friendly troops, causing a snowball-like rout.

There were other Han brothers in the rear, bringing their relatives, friends and followers, rushing over in a chaotic and frantic manner, chasing the enemy until they completely lost their formation.

Xia Yuqing no longer cared about the front battlefield, but led the central army to the seaside.

"The enemy reinforcements are coming from the sea, and they are not yet firmly established. Just attack them halfway across the sea!"

"Kill!"

Bai Shihou drew his sword and rushed out. He had only heard about it in the military academy before, but this was the first time he personally went into battle. He was as excited as a monkey out of a cage.

"Young master, don't run around!" Several followers hurriedly caught up and drew their weapons to protect the young master.

Lu You, Fan Chengda and others had also drawn their swords and rushed into Xia Yuqing's central army.

After all, they had no combat experience, and Lu You and his men didn't know how to conserve their energy. They rushed fast, but they were already out of breath when they reached the seaside.

Fortunately, there were not many enemies who had landed. At this moment, seeing that the friendly army was defeated, the ambush troops from the sea retreated one after another. Those who had not yet disembarked drove away directly, and those who had already landed turned around to look for boats.

The second-generation officials rushed faster than most soldiers.

Lu You was so tired that he was panting. He was wearing a leather armor provided by Xia Yuqing, and he chopped down an enemy who was running away.

He forgot all the sword moves he practiced, and only knew how to swing the sword and chop blindly.

With one sword, he cut through the enemy's leather armor on the back. The enemy was still running away, and Lu You chased him and kicked him, causing the enemy to stagger and fall. He quickly followed up and slashed him with another sword.

Then, Lu You began to sleepwalk on the beach.

I killed someone?

I really killed a barbarian!

It was hard to tell whether it was fear or excitement, but Lu You was just confused, holding his sword and walking around without killing the enemy.

Fan Chengda also chopped down an enemy, but did not continue to kill him. Instead, he said: "Quickly surrender, I can spare your life... Alas, you don't understand."

The man picked up the weapon and wanted to fight, Fan Chengda's personal attendant quickly drew his gun, and after killing the enemy, he shouted: "Young man, why are you talking so much to the barbarians? The swords on the battlefield are blind, and there should be no mercy."

"It's great, it's great!" Bai Shihou had already killed two people, and he chased the enemy with laughter under the protection of his personal attendants.

The six second-generation officials really experienced a battlefield reality show.