Chapter 176: The Surprise Brought to Liu Cong by the Scholars
On March 11, Shi 1 led the envoy team from Jiaozhou and arrived in Xiangyang for the first time.
Out of the idea of demonstration and appeasement, Liu Cong did not receive him directly. Instead, he treated him like Zhang Song and let him see all the prosperity of Xiangyang!
After walking around for two whole days, Shi 1 was extremely shocked by the prosperity of Xiangyang, which also reflected the power of Jingchu and the wisdom of Liu Cong from the side. Not only Xiangyang, Jiangling was also densely populated and prosperous like a dream.
"Jiaozhou Shi 1, pay homage to the lord."
Now that I have taken refuge, it’s time to change my title. Shi 1 has a very clear position on himself.
Liu Cong smiled and waved, "Get up quickly and sit down to talk. The sincerity of the Shi family is really touching."
"Thank you, Lord." Shi 1 was also very old, and when he stood up, he moved very slowly.
"Xing Daorong, are you blind? Why don't you hurry up and help me?"
"Ah? Oh." Xing Daorong was stunned for a moment, and quickly ran over to help Soldier 1 to the chair that had been prepared long ago.
Liu Cong didn't like to sit on his knees. How could he concentrate on kneeling? Can arthritis be cured in this era? He had already ordered that all government offices should be replaced with chairs, and desks should be seated high.
, used to match chairs.
After Shi 1 sat down, he smiled and said to Liu Cong, "Thank you so much, my lord, for your kindness."
Liu Cong smiled and said, "Mr. Shi Lao, you are too polite. Respecting the elderly and loving the young is a traditional Chinese virtue, isn't it?"
"By the way, Deng Zhi's letter said that you brought a special gift to Gu. It was a big surprise. I wonder what it is?"
Shi 1 said seriously, "My lord has spread word to the world that he is going to attack Jiangdong. My elder brother got the news and wants to help you. He specially asked me to bring fifty elephants and one hundred animal trainers."
Nani?
Liu Cong's eyes widened. Even the black armor cavalry was unstoppable. Then who could stop the damn elephant on the battlefield?
To be honest, the word surprise only made Liu Cong think of that line. He never expected that the Shi family could give him such a big surprise!
"Where are you now? Take me there and have a look!" Liu Cong walked up to Shi 1 excitedly and asked.
"The posthouse can't accommodate the elephants. When I came, I gave them to Shangshu Ling. I heard from him that they were placed at the horse farm outside the city."
"Let's go outside the city! Xing Daorong, hurry up and prepare the car!" Liu Cong grabbed Shi 1 and walked out in a hurry. He didn't care about Shi 1's old arms and legs at all.
"Welcome my lord."
After Liu Cong arrived, the officials at the racecourse rushed out to greet him.
It is said to be a racecourse, but in fact there are not many war horses at all. Almost all of Jingchu's tens of thousands of horses are used in the army. Chen Dao's 20,000 cavalry are stationed in Fancheng. At this time, the racecourse has only a few mares and ponies.
, there are no more horses.
Liu Cong couldn't wait to jump out of the carriage and asked the officials, "Where are the tribute elephants in Jiaozhou?"
"Please, my lord, come with me."
A large area of grassland in the racecourse has been fenced off. Liu Cong and others stood on the hills and could easily see the elephants in the fence.
"Moo!"
"Moo..."
"Lord, just take a look here, why don't you go there?" When Liu Cong was about to go over and take a closer look, Xing Daorong beside him stopped him.
Liu Cong paused, looked at Shi 1 and asked, "Can these elephants obey orders?"
Shi 1 swore firmly, "Lord, don't worry, these elephants have been trained for a long time and are very docile. Even on the battlefield, there will be no panic."
Liu Cong looked at the elephants in the distance and said, "Bring the one hundred animal trainers here and show me how they command the elephants."
After walking a few times, Liu Cong looked back and saw Xing Daorong standing there, not moving a step!
"Xing Daorong, let's go and have a look."
Xing Daorong was wearing armor, holding the hilt of the sword at his waist tightly with his left hand, and his forehead was covered with sweat. "Lord, I...my legs are shaking!"
Liu Cong was stunned for a moment, "Isn't it right? You are such a rough guy, how can you be afraid of this?"
Xing Daorong wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled awkwardly, "Master, if you don't go there first, I...I'm afraid I'll wet my pants if I go there."
Liu Cong was speechless, "Then just wait here."
As soon as a group of people entered the enclosure, all the elephants were watching them. Only by watching these elephants up close can you appreciate this intimidating power.
Liu Cong suppressed the fear in his heart and walked slowly towards the elephant under the leadership of Shi 1.
"Moo!"
Perhaps because there were too many new faces, the elephants were a little restless. Shi 1 quickly explained, "Lord, these elephants have just changed to a new environment and are still a little uncomfortable. They will be fine in a few days."
Liu Cong nodded. At this time, a hundred animal trainers also arrived, and Liu Cong immediately asked them to demonstrate.
Sure enough, under the control of the trainer, these elephants can even form a formation and obey the command very well.
Shi 1 stepped forward and stroked the body of an elephant, and said to Liu Cong with a smile, "My lord, why don't you come over and touch it too?"
Liu Cong shook his head. He didn't want to be trampled to death by an elephant's hoof before he even started any big business.
Liu Cong is 1.78 meters tall, but the shortest of these elephants is almost as tall as two of them!
An adult Asian elephant has a shoulder height of 3.7-4.1 meters. Let alone others, just standing there is enough to intimidate others. Not to mention, there are a total of fifty elephants here.
"When these elephants go to the battlefield, do they just go up like this? Don't they wear some protective measures?"
Scholar 1 stood in front of an elephant and replied, "These elephants have very thick skin, and ordinary swords, guns, swords and halberds cannot cause fatal damage to them."
Liu Cong pondered for a moment and murmured, "I'm afraid we can't make iron armor before attacking Jiangdong. We can make some leather armor for them to strengthen the protective measures of these elephants. In the future, if we can install iron armor again, it will be really good."
He is invincible!"
As he said that, he felt that it was a bit unrealistic. If these elephants died, wouldn't those armors be useless?
"How old are these elephants? How long do they live together?"
Judge 1 continued to answer, "The older one is already twenty-five years old, and the younger one is only fifteen or sixteen years old. Elephants have a very long lifespan, they can live sixty or seventy years, which is not much more than that of humans."
"Then we can make some investment in these elephants. Anyway, if they are gone, we can continue to get them from Jiaozhou."
Just as Liu Cong was thinking, Shi 1 spoke up again, "Lord, these elephants are not without their weaknesses."
"What are the weaknesses?" Liu Cong was a little curious.
This is not Africa, and there are no lions. What natural enemies can elephants have? And even in Africa, lions will not easily provoke elephants unless they have no other choice.
"Fire!" One word came out of Shi 1's mouth.
"Although we also use fire to train elephants during training, there is no comparison between a small flame and a big fire on the battlefield."
"If the enemy attacks with fire, these elephants will be frightened and run away, or even trample and attack our own troops!"