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 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. They are followed by a group of infantry around them. They advance forward with the elephant soldiers, which is quite a synergy between infantry and tanks.
Although he was defeated in a duel before the battle, the regicide Parakarama was not discouraged.
He sent out 2,000 front troops to fight, first to explore the opponent's strength and strength, and to try to provide an opportunity for the Elephant 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 contacted other nobles and also sent merchants to Wangxiang Port to investigate.
It has been found out clearly 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 across the mountains and ridges to carry out attacks, but to collect all the ships and take them around. At this moment, the people and the ships were hidden on a large island called Kakativa, which was not far from the main battlefield.
Far away, if you wait a little longer, you will appear on the coast to Akito's side.
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 have not been trained at all. Once an ambush suddenly appears on the flank of the sea, the Tamil soldiers will be frightened and disperse no matter how large the number is!
"Boom boom boom boom!"
Four artillery pieces suddenly opened fire.
The forward troops sent by Parakarama to fight were still far away from the enemy, so they encountered artillery fire inexplicably.
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 500 soldiers. They have no idea what ballistics is. Moreover, gunpowder and artillery are expensive, and they don't have much training. 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.
"Wonderful victory! Wonderful victory!"
Thousands of Tamil soldiers under Xia Yuqing cheered collectively. Even though all the shells 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 master for a long time and learned a little bit of daily Chinese.
As for the Tamils who were temporarily recruited for this battle, they only spoke two Chinese words. One word is "kill the enemy" and the other is "Wansheng". The former is translated as killing the enemy, and the latter is translated as "fighting without victory".
Unbeatable.
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 inexperienced 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.
Parakarama looked at the sea from time to time. When the mage group was out in battle, he had already sent a small boat to the island to inform them. It stands to reason that the ambush was almost here.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
The second round of shelling finally started, and the effect was pretty good. One shell fell into the enemy's 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 they always felt that it was a magic weapon belonging to a certain demon.
Xia Yuqing scolded his son angrily, and then said: "Wait for another round of shelling, and you will follow Uncle Yang to fight. Remember to obey the military orders. Make a note of your previous disobedience, and then take care of it 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 followed suit. The elephant soldiers began to move their positions. However, the sound of artillery made the war elephants seem 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. Each ship is full of people, which makes it impossible to fight a naval battle, but transporting troops to the flanks of the battlefield has a miraculous effect.
.
"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 thousands of enemies land, they will be attacked from both front and rear, and many Tamil soldiers will flee.
The gunner was hurriedly loading ammunition and preparing for the third round of shelling.
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 respective brothers, nephews and Tamil tribes, to form a chaotic formation and gradually press forward.
"Boom boom boom boom!"
In the third round of bombardment, 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.
The cavalry general Yang Zun warned Xia Xiliang: "The Ceylon bow is very powerful. It may break through ordinary armor. Be careful when you charge."
"Understood!" Xia Xiliang did not dare to make any further excuses and rushed out immediately behind Yang Zun.
One-third of the cavalrymen carried muskets. They ran to the left front of the enemy's front army. Then they dismounted, stood on the ground and fired, then put away their muskets and took out their lances to charge.
The other two-thirds of the cavalry used bows and arrows to ride and shoot on the right front of the enemy's front army. These guys were transferred to cavalry halfway on the island of Ceylon. They are not particularly elite in either riding or riding skills. But they are all after all.
My noble lord, I have trained carefully for several years, and I am more than capable of bullying the natives.
For the Han cavalry, they were relatively lucky. There were no archers in the enemy's front army.
There are two types of Ceylon bows and arrows.
One is the longbow. The length of the bow is generally more than 150 centimeters, and some even exceed 180 centimeters. The effective range is more than 200 meters, and it is the main weapon of Ceylon archers.
The other type is the compound short bow. Because of the difficulty and cost of making, compound bows are relatively rare and can only be used by Ceylon nobles.
Although the longbow is very powerful, it also has obvious shortcomings.
Its bow is too long, has strict height requirements, and is particularly difficult to train.
Parakarama was defeated by the Ming envoys last time, and the long archers under his command were almost annihilated by the Ming army before they even had time to shoot arrows.
A few years later, he retrained a group of archers, but there were only two hundred people.
There is no way. Ceylon longbows are easy to make, but the Sinhalese people are not tall enough, so it is difficult to select qualified archers. It is really difficult for a nation whose men have an average height of 1.5 meters to train longbows in large numbers.
It's too difficult for them.
At this moment, there were only two hundred Ceylon longbowmen, all of whom were treated as treasures and left in Parakarama's central army.
They were not sent out to fight at all!
Well, the archers on the war elephants use rarer composite bows.
Without interference from long-range firepower, the Han cavalry quickly rushed to attack distance.
The enemy's front troops were first shelled by artillery, then shot by muskets and bows, and then charged by cavalry. They were in a panic, and their formation was particularly chaotic, but they had not really collapsed.
More than a hundred cavalrymen cut corners and passed by. Some of them came back to mount and shoot, while others dismounted and reloaded their muskets.
At this moment, Xia Yuqing had already commanded the infantry to press forward, and Parakarama also dispatched follow-up troops.
There was another burst of bows, arrows and muskets, and more than a hundred cavalry charged again.
This time it was serious. The cavalry suddenly crashed into the chaotic enemy formation.
Xia Xiliang still remembered his father's words at first, and started to attack. He knocked over an enemy swordsman and shieldman with one shot, and then stabbed to death a spearman. He penetrated into the enemy's formation without any hindrance, even surpassing his own.
Uncle Yang, rushed to the front of all the cavalry.
The enemy's front army collapsed so quickly that Parakarama had no time to support him, and the elephant army, which had been eyeing it eagerly, could not find a chance.
It is difficult for infantry with low organization to face cavalry, not to mention that the Han people have firearms.
Paragarama had no hope of winning at all, and he could not defeat those more than a hundred cavalry!
In the Ming Dynasty in another time and space, Zheng He faced the unified island of Ceylon and the Ceylon army in its heyday. Moreover, Zheng He was tricked into surrendering and almost overturned, resulting in the annihilation of the entire army.
Thousands of cavalrymen forced a comeback and defeated the Ceylon army.
At this moment, the Ceylon Allied Forces are just the troops of a few noble lords, and most of the soldiers are young peasants recruited.
How can they defeat cavalry and firearms?
Until this moment, Parakarama's sea ambush and the fastest ships had just begun to land.
On the front battlefield, Parakarama's main force had been defeated by the defeated troops. More than a hundred Han cavalry chased the defeated troops, and the routed troops routed more friendly troops, causing the whole line to flee like a snowball.
There were other old Han brothers in the rear, along with their relatives, friends and tribesmen, who came in a chaotic and frantic manner, chasing the enemy until they completely lost their formation.
Xia Yuqing no longer cared about the frontal battlefield, but led the Chinese army to the seaside.
"The enemy's reinforcements came from the sea, but their foothold was not stable, so they attacked halfway across the river!"
"Kill!"
Bai Shihou drew his sword. He had only listened to it in the military academy before, but this was the first time he went into battle to fight in person. He was as excited as a monkey out of its cage.
"Master, please don't run around!" Several followers quickly caught up with him and pulled out their weapons to protect the young master.
Lu You, Fan Chengda and others also drew their swords and mingled with Xia Yuqing's central army and charged indiscriminately.
After all, they had no combat experience, and Lu You and the others didn't know how to conserve their physical strength. They rushed quickly, but by the time they reached the beach, they were out of breath.
Fortunately, there were not many enemies who had landed. Seeing the defeat of the friendly forces, the ambush troops from the sea retreated one after another. Those who had not yet disembarked directly sailed away, while those who had already landed quickly turned around to look for ships.
The second-generation officers rushed faster than most of the soldiers.
Lu You was panting heavily from exhaustion. He was wearing a piece of leather armor provided by Xia Yuqing, and he caught an enemy soldier who was escaping and chopped him down.
I forgot all the sword moves I usually practiced, I only knew how to swing my sword and strike blindly.
He struck down with his sword and cut through the enemy's leather armor on his back. The enemy was still running away. Lu You chased after him and kicked him, causing the enemy to stagger and fall. He quickly followed up and added another sword.
Then, Lu You began to sleepwalk on the beach.
Did I kill someone?
Really killed a barbarian!
He couldn't tell whether it was fear or excitement, but Lu You was just confused and walked around with his sword in hand without killing the enemy.
Fan Chengda also cut down an enemy, but did not continue to kill him. Instead, he said: "Hurry up and surrender, I will spare your life... Alas, you don't understand either."
The man picked up his weapon and wanted to fight for his life. Fan Chengda's personal followers quickly drew out their guns and after killing the enemy, they shouted: "What are you telling the barbarians to do? Swords on the battlefield have no eyes, so there must be no mercy."
"Happy, happy!" Bai Shihou had already killed two people and was chasing the enemy under the protection of his personal followers, laughing.
Six second-generation officials truly experienced a battlefield reality show.