The elephants screamed one after another, and finally rushed out of the woods. The overwhelming elephant herd was huge, followed by the short, dark-skinned 30,000 Linyi national army.
The elephants were running closer and closer, less than three miles away from the Tang army. Zhang Boyi shouted: "Fire! Shoot!"
The Tang army lit the kerosene, and five hundred barrels of kerosene were ignited. They immediately burst into flames, with red flames rising and thick smoke billowing.
Immediately afterwards, four thousand heavy crossbowmen fired together, and two thousand arrows were shot out, causing an explosion in the wilderness. The Jiaozhou people also have experience in dealing with elephants. They beat gongs and drums to intimidate. Elephants are afraid of light and sound, especially strong noises.
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Sure enough, amid the violent explosions in front, the elephant herd began to slow down. The hundreds of elephants in front began to turn around, but the elephant herd behind them continued to run forward.
Immediately afterwards, the second round, the third round, the fourth round, and four rounds of arrows and thunder exploded violently. The tens of thousands of elephants that had already run a mile away from the Tang army finally collapsed completely and scrambled to run backwards.
Zhang Boyi shouted: "The cavalry attacks!"
Five thousand cavalrymen rushed out, followed by galloping behind the elephants, and kept shooting at the elephants with explosives. The explosion and pain of the explosive arrows drove the elephants to run even more crazily.
Elephant warfare has always been a double-edged sword. If you control it well, you can defeat the enemy. For example, Lu Zhenla used 30,000 elephants to defeat Shui Zhenla. If the elephant is not driven well or is defeated by the enemy, the enemy will be defeated.
When the elephant turns around and comes back, there will be a tragic backlash.
The 30,000 Linyi troops behind were caught off guard and were trampled to death by the elephants that rushed back crazily, killing countless others.
The cavalry and infantry of the Tang Army chased and killed Linyi soldiers all the way from behind, leaving corpses of Linyi soldiers scattered all over the ground, blood flowing into rivers, and countless people who surrendered.
This time, the Tang army did not massacre prisoners of war. These prisoners of war could be used for farming. The prisoners of war in the south were different from the nomads in the north. The nomads in the north were fierce and disobedient to discipline, and would kill and retaliate whenever they had the opportunity.
Therefore, the best way to deal with the northern nomads is to kill them all without leaving any prisoners.
Although the southern prisoners of war are ungrateful and ignorant of education, they will still bite you once you are weak, but they have the advantage that they are more servile. Once you are stronger than them, they will be honest and obedient, as long as you
Give them a bite to eat and they will never dare to rebel. A few dozen soldiers can manage thousands of people. It is best to use them to farm the land.
Five thousand cavalry cut off the retreat of Lin Yi's army, and all 30,000 troops surrendered. They were also frightened by the Tang army's firearms.
The Tang army began to clean up the battlefield. Many elephants took the opportunity to escape into the virgin forest, but there were still more than 4,000 elephants left. They had lived with humans since they were young and were no longer accustomed to the forest.
Thousands of trampled and killed corpses were also cleared out, but the king of Linyi State was missing.
Finally, two soldiers of King Linyi led the soldiers of the Tang army to a piece of mud. They gently pushed aside a layer of floating soil, revealing a man who had been trampled by an elephant. It turned out that this was King Linyi.
The soldiers found the golden crown and scepter that had also been crushed and put them into bags. The king's body was also taken away, piled together with the corpses of other soldiers, poured with kerosene, and burned to white ash in a fierce fire.
The Tang army did not stay on the battlefield for long. Chen Boyi left two thousand men to guard the prisoners of war, and then led the army to attack Champa City.
The city had already been captured, and the city gates were closed. The thousand soldiers who stayed behind were horrified to see the Tang army coming, and they abandoned their helmets and armor and fled back into the city.
Still, hundreds of Linyi soldiers opened the city gate and surrendered to the oncoming Tang army.
The Tang army entered the city and occupied the capital of Linyi State. However, the Tang army soon discovered something unusual. All the nobles in the city were missing and the treasury was empty.
A palace steward was dragged in front of Zhang Boyi. The steward knelt down and begged: "They all ran away, especially a dozen princes who divided the wealth in the treasury and fled south."
"When did you run away?" Zhang Boyi asked.
"Escaped in the morning!"
Zhang Boyi did the math in his mind, and it only took him half a day.
He turned back to General Wei Yulin and said: "General Wei can lead five thousand cavalry to catch up. They can't run far. All the noble men will be killed!"
"Follow the order!"
Five thousand cavalry rushed out of Nancheng and chased south.
The order Zhang Boyi received was to destroy the country and completely destroy the Linyi Kingdom, but Zhang Boyi also knew that it was not easy to destroy the country. It was easy to conquer the low-level people, but it was difficult to conquer the middle and upper classes. There was also the writing and history of the Linyi Kingdom.
When Zhang Boyi's heart was set against his will, he used knives and fire to conquer him, killing his body and burning his words. He, Zhang Boyi, would be the evil person.
The next morning, the cavalry of the Tang Army returned, escorting a long ox cart. The ox cart was filled with wealth and disheveled, crying women. Zhang Boyi sighed in his heart, there was nothing that could be done. It was lucky that the soldiers did not loot and massacre the city.
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After a short three-day rest, the Tang army was about to continue its march south. Zhang Boyi sent 2,000 cavalry to escort more than 20,000 prisoners of war back to Jiaozhou to reclaim paddy fields, and left another 2,000 soldiers to guard the city.
The army still divided into two groups and headed south, with the goal being the Chenla River Delta.
The Chenla River Delta is now the Mekong River Delta. It has dense water networks, fertile land, and abundant light and heat all year round. It is the most suitable place for growing rice.
This was originally Shuizhenla's territory, but the land and water confrontation between the two Chenla greatly damaged Shuizhenla's vitality. The Linyi and Zhuluo kingdoms jointly sent troops, and the Chenla army suffered heavy casualties. A large number of Chenla nobles had no time to escape and were massacred. Linyi State
After plundering a large amount of wealth, Queen Shuizhenla fled with a small number of troops to the old capital of Borniba City to mount a final resistance.
The Zhu Luo and Lin Yi soldiers looked very powerful, but that was because they encountered the weaker Zhenla soldiers. However, once it came to the siege phase, the Zhu Luo and Lin Yi soldiers' overwhelming nature was exposed.
Without siege weapons, they used big trees to hit the city gate. But when the rolling oil and boulders hit the city, the siege soldiers dispersed in panic. After several times of this, the Zhu Luo and Lin Yi soldiers no longer wanted to attack the city.
Regardless of the city of Boluti, the soldiers began to plunder and enslave the people of Chenla everywhere, and began to enjoy the glory of the occupiers.
At this moment, the commander-in-chief of Linyi's army, the eldest prince Hu Lin, received the news that the Tang army was coming from Jiaozhou, and Linyi's country was in danger.
Hu Lin was shocked by this news and immediately asked for help from the Cholu Kingdom. As long as the Zhu Luo army was willing to follow him north to rescue Champa, Hu Lin was willing to dedicate his treasury wealth to the Cholu Kingdom.
With such a good thing, how could the coach Larkinde not agree? Larkinde didn't take the Tang army seriously at all. He immediately led 10,000 naval troops and hundreds of large ships and marched northward in a mighty manner.
In the morning, the fleet of the Tang army was sailing on the sea, cutting through the waves. The biggest feature of Linyi Kingdom is its long and narrow area. Although it is not large in area, it is really long and narrow. It is two thousand miles from Champa to Paratipat City.
Although the southeast wind was blowing, the Tang army's warships all had paddles. Dozens of soldiers stepped on them and the paddles rotated, driving the ships southward.
Suddenly, an observer shouted from the mast: "There is a fleet ahead!"
Li Chengshi walked to the bow of the ship and looked into the distance with his clairvoyant eye. He saw countless black spots dozens of miles away.
They are very experienced. From the distance and the size of the black spots, they can judge the size of the opponent's ships. They are all large ships of more than three thousand stones. There are dozens of ships. Without even thinking about it, they must be the navy of the Chola Kingdom.
Li Chengshi felt excited. He had not had a naval battle for a long time. He immediately ordered: "Send the order to the entire army to prepare for battle!"
The big red battle flag was hoisted on the captain's ship, and the warships behind him followed suit. This was a sign of battle, and all the soldiers were excited.
Li Chengshi gave another order: "Send the left army to go south and cut off the enemy's retreat!"
After the flag was hoisted, General Deng Feng led more than thirty ships to leave the fleet and headed east. They were detouring south to cut off the enemy's retreat.
Immediately afterwards, the fleet changed its formation, from a long snake formation to a "pin" formation, which is a main and two-wing formation.
Du Huan stared at the opponent's warship and said to Li Chengshi in a deep voice: "The opponent's warship is good at fire attacks. It is best not to get close. It is recommended to sink the opponent from a long distance!"
One sentence reminded Li Chengshi, and he immediately ordered: "Fight from a distance, use arrows, thunder and explosive arrows to deal with the enemy!"