On the dock, one hundred elephant soldiers and four hundred cavalry formed a circular formation, surrounded by two thousand Ming soldiers.
Of these two thousand Ming troops, there were only 500 cavalry and the remaining 1,500 were infantry. Although the number of Ceylon soldiers was small, the one hundred elephant soldiers put a lot of psychological pressure on the Ming soldiers.
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These soldiers were all the elites of the Beijing camp. They had experienced hundreds of battles and were not afraid of death. However, such a tall mount was the only one they had ever seen in their lives. The behemoth, which was twice as tall as a horse, made them unable to think of anything like this.
The opponent's method of fighting was that they could only nervously raise their crossbows, because other weapons could not reach the enemy soldiers on the war elephant.
Of course, if the soldiers who appeared here today were Yunnan soldiers, they would not take war elephants seriously at all. When the Ming army first entered Yunnan, they also encountered opponents riding war elephants. At first, they faced this novelty
Their tactics were a bit confusing, but they quickly mastered how to deal with the war elephants.
Due to the inconvenient transportation at that time, and the tactics used by the Yunnan soldiers were regional tactics, spreading this tactic to other places would become a "dragon-slaying technique", which would be useless if learned. Therefore, these Yunnan soldiers developed methods in actual combat.
It had not spread, and the officers and soldiers in the Beijing camp knew nothing about it.
However, although the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp do not yet know how to deal with the war elephant, there is Xia Xun here. How can it be difficult for him to deal with a mere war elephant?
The soldiers brought by Prince Senak watched helplessly as the giant ship carrying the prince sailed away from the pier, and did not dare to take action for a moment. They were also deeply afraid of the sharp-looking crossbows in the hands of the Ming army, and the soldiers who surrounded them
There were two thousand men and four times that number. If thousands of arrows were fired at once, they would be easy targets while riding on the war elephants, so the two sides remained in a stalemate.
The two sides were in a stalemate, when suddenly people in the distance shouted, and a group of people and horses ran towards them.
There was a commotion among the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, thinking that the enemy had come for reinforcements. When Ding Qing looked at it, the people riding towards them at high speed were clearly dressed 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 these people who were coming at speed.
It was the Ming army that protected Zheng He and other envoys all the way back.
Xia Xun was secretly making arrangements on the dock. Under his arrangement, warships and merchant ships left the dock one after another to prevent the Ceylon soldiers from boarding the ship to fight or set fire to the ship. The muzzles of the guns were all pointed in the direction of the dock, and they are still at the dock.
The remaining three warships were used to meet Zheng He.
As soon as Zheng He's troops arrived, Xia Xun immediately went to greet them and asked, "Father, what happened?"
Zheng He's face was ashen and he said: "For some unknown reason, the King of Ceylon suddenly launched an attack and wanted to take me down."
Xia Xun hurriedly recounted the story of Prince Senak boarding the ship to defraud, and Zheng He suddenly realized: "That's it! The majestic leader of a country is really shameless for such a dirty trick!"
Zhang Xin, a member of the Ministry of Industry, said hurriedly: "This is the territory of the Ceylon Kingdom. We don't occupy any of it because of its favorable location and people. Since the King of Ceylon has malicious intentions, we'd better leave quickly and wait for the King of Ceylon."
I'm afraid it would be bad to send troops to chase him."
Xia Xun said calmly: "I have made preparations in advance, but it still needs Eunuch Zheng to decide whether to leave or fight."
Zheng He was the imperial envoy, and Xia Xun was tasked with finding the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen. Therefore, he did not have command authority over the entire fleet, so he could not overstep his authority. If Zheng He really died in the palace, then the person with the authority to command the entire fleet would be Zhang Xitong.
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Whether Zhang Xitong will obey Xia Xun's advice is another matter, but he cannot directly attack the entire fleet.
Zheng He said: "Of course I will leave soon. Do we still want to stay here to fight with that rogue king? Let's board the ship immediately... huh?"
Just in the middle of speaking, Zheng He suddenly reacted, looked at Xia Xun, and asked in a deep voice: "What does the Duke mean by this? Could it be that... we still have a reason to fight?"
Xia Xun said: "My father-in-law has not returned for a long time, and Prince Senak came to the ship again to steal property. I knew something was wrong, so I immediately called all ships to be on guard, and took Prince Senak as a hostage. At the same time, I called the merchants of my fleet back to the ship.
.However, some merchants have gone to the city to trade, and I just counted the number of merchants, and it turns out that there are still more than 300 merchants who have not returned."
Zhang Xin said hurriedly: "But I am a businessman from the Ming Dynasty?"
Xia Xun glanced at him and said: "There are merchants from the Ming Dynasty, and there are also merchants from various Southeast Asian countries who came to rely on our fleet along the way."
Zhang Xin stopped talking after hearing this. If the merchants who were too late to recall were from various Southeast Asian countries, he would dare to suggest setting sail immediately and leaving the country of Ceylon. However, there are still people from the Ming Dynasty who are stranded in the capital of Ceylon.
People, he would never dare to leave.
If you abandon the city in the face of bandits or abandon the people in danger, what else can you do to be an official? As long as someone impeaches such an official, the emperor must be beheaded. Of course, any system will have no lower limit when its principles and disciplines are gone, but
This was still the Yongle Dynasty, and not only the system was like a mountain, but the officials also had this awareness.
When Zheng He heard this, he no longer hesitated and said decisively: "Zheng He was patrolling overseas on behalf of the emperor. How could he abandon our people of the Ming Dynasty and ignore them? We can never leave without rescuing these people!"
Xia Xun said happily: "Exactly! In that case, we might as well capture these four hundred Ceylon soldiers, plus a prince Senak, and exchange hostages with the King of Ceylon, and avoid a big war.
.”
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Crowley, the general of Ceylon, was ordered to hurriedly assemble a team of 10,000 people, preparing to rush to the port and capture Zheng He.
As soon as the army left the city gate, they saw dozens of war elephants running towards them. Some of the war elephants had only an empty basket left on them, with no one inside. Some of the baskets were crooked, and the soldiers' hats were also missing.
It was gone, and the weapons were thrown away. Both hands clung to the basket, which was shaken by the war elephant like a rag in the wind.
Crowley was greatly surprised, but the war elephant was frightened and they could not stop it. Moreover, elephants and cattle are protected animals in the country, and they did not dare to use swords and guns to stop them, so they had to move out of the way to make way for the elephant. But go up
Tens of thousands of troops are blocking the gate of the city. How can we get out of the way?
The team was rushed to pieces by the war elephants. Those who had no time to get out of the way were trampled, kicked and injured many people. Only then did they slowly stop the war elephants from escaping. Crowley called for people to quickly drag in a few who were still there.
The Elephant Knight, who was shaking in a daze, asked sharply: "What's the matter with you?"
The elephant knight was shaken so hard that he could not stand upright as if he was drunk.
He staggered and said: "Report...report to the general. Prince Senak was captured by the Ming army. They wanted to detain us again. We tried our best to resist. We wanted to use war elephants to overwhelm their formation, but we didn't want their crossbows to be like statues."
Like rain, the war elephants were in pain and out of control, they turned back and fled, scattering our cavalry. We were lucky enough to escape with our lives, but the others were killed or captured alive."
Crowley was shocked when he heard this. One hundred war elephants and four hundred cavalry were so vulnerable. Crowley became the commander of the army by flattering the tyrant. He was very timid and became angry when he heard this.
Cowardly, he stroked his beard and pondered for a long time, then ordered: "The army will be stationed on the spot, waiting for my order, I will go to see the king!"
When Crowley saw Alejandro saying this and exaggerating the combat power of the Ming army as much as possible, Alejandro was also a little surprised and immediately authorized him to mobilize all the troops to attack the Ming army.
Arrangements are being made here for another prisoner who was released by the Ming army to bring a message from Zheng He. He is willing to exchange with Alejandro. As long as he hands back all the merchants who are still stranded in the city, he will
The prince and the soldiers returned him.
Ale Kuner failed to extort money and lost his troops, so he became angry already. He had more than one son, so he could not bear to swallow his anger. He immediately drew his sword and killed the soldier who sent the message to the ground, and shouted sternly: "We will never talk about peace.
, there is only one battle!”
Those Ming merchants who entered the city to do business and the merchants from various countries who joined along the way knew that something was wrong as early as when Zheng He and his party broke out of the city. However, it was impossible to escape by then. The security at the city gate had been strengthened, so they had to stay in the city.
Hiding everywhere.
The tyrant Aleksinel sent troops to search everywhere and arrest these merchants, and ordered Crowley to immediately lead an army to capture and kill Zheng He to vent his anger. Crowley gathered all the people in the royal city and marched in a mighty manner.
Fight towards the pier.
At Belori Pier, all the traders had fled long ago, and the ground was a mess.
The Ming army took advantage of the convenience of the beach to dig and build simple fortifications, with soldiers lying in rows inside. Opposite, on the flat and empty field, it was completely dark, and the Ceylon army was coming like a tide.
At the forefront were a group of lions, tigers and leopards.
Alejandro sent out all the hundreds of wild beasts he raised. Although these wild beasts preyed on living animals every day and were untamed, Alejandro tamed them for fun, so he had a dedicated animal trainer.
, they still obey the orders of these animal trainers.
The tyrant Ali always threw those who offended him into the belly of animals. In anger, he obviously wanted the Ming army to suffer the same treatment. Dozens of animal trainers drove hundreds of jackals, tigers and leopards away
At the front was a row of tall war elephant soldiers. In view of the Ming army's powerful crossbows, these elephant soldiers built sheds above the baskets to shield them from the rain of arrows.
The elephant soldiers stood under the shed, holding on to their bows and arrows, ready to attack.
Behind the elephant soldiers is the dark infantry and cavalry phalanx. At the front of the infantry and cavalry phalanx are the firearms troops. Each of the firearms troops carries a wooden stick, and a thicker iron tube is tied to the front of the wooden stick. This iron
The barrel is their firearm.
This firearm is called a hand cannon. It consists of a star letter, a front chamber, and a medicine chamber. It is actually equivalent to reducing the cannon at that time to a hand-held size, which is called a hand cannon. This firearm technology was still in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty.
Among the firearms soldiers, for every ten people, there were two people working together to carry a blazing brazier, and two people were holding a small four-wheeled cart...
Behind them, there were halberds like a forest and swords like a sea, dense and endless. Alekuner sent all the troops in his royal city. He was worthy of being the most powerful king in Nanyang. He assembled the emperor.
The entire army in the city actually numbered fifty thousand!
On the opposite side, there were only 1,500 infantrymen still prostrate on the ground, and the other 500 cavalrymen had taken refuge on the embankment.
"Stop!"
Crowley shouted, and the fifty thousand troops came to an abrupt halt, like a black cloud suddenly settling in the sky in front of the Ming Dynasty fleet.
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