Li Xiang thought of this method from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. When Zhuge Liang captured Meng Huo seven times, when a ferocious beast appeared on Meng Huo's side, Zhuge Liang also used fire attack.
Changsun Chong has not appeared on the battlefield because he received an order from Li Xiang that he must collect a large amount of lamp oil, otherwise it will not be enough.
"Can this burn an elephant to death?"
Chang Sunze said with some surprise that the power of the fire bottle was indeed not small, but if you wanted to burn an elephant to death, it might not be that easy.
Seeing Li Xiang shaking his head, his men were even more confused. If we can't burn the elephant to death, then why do we need so many fire bottles? These things, from clay bottles to lamp oil, are not cheap.
"I know what you're wondering. These things are also meant to stop the war elephants from advancing. When they charge, we must create a sea of fire in front of them. Then, no matter how hard the soldiers push the elephants, they won't be able to move forward. This gives us time to react. When the war elephants start circling, you must kill the trainers as quickly as possible."
Li Xiang carefully explained the tactics to everyone. When he finished speaking, everyone present understood that it was too difficult to kill an elephant. Even the current Tang army was not sure of it. But if the animal trainer was killed, the elephant would become a wild beast.
"And you have to understand that, apart from the cavalry, other troops cannot engage the war elephant troops. After we kill the elephant trainers, these elephants will go crazy. If the infantry get too close, they may trample the cavalry to death at any time. After killing the elephant trainers, we must retreat immediately."
Li Xiang continued to talk about his tactics, and everyone nodded beside him. Without the trainer, the elephants would go crazy for a while, but the cavalry retreated very quickly and the elephants could not keep up with the speed.
When the elephants have run out of strength, their army will no longer exist.
The Pyu Kingdom had more elephants, but they did not have that many elephant trainers. After losing a batch on the battlefield, it was not easy for them to replenish them.
"I've brought quite a few animal trainers with me from Nanzhao this time. They're confident they can tame some of the elephants. We need to adapt to local customs. These elephants are quite capable. If we tame them, they'll be able to transport goods for us every day, equivalent to several war horses."
Chang Sun Chong pointed to a camp in the north, where there were more than 200 animal trainers.
Although these people cannot guarantee that they can tame the elephants, there will always be some who will succeed.
"Then we can attack without worry. Starting tomorrow, you will sweep the surrounding unoccupied areas and wipe out all resistance."
Li Xiang has been worried these days. If we encounter a war elephant army, we will definitely suffer losses. Now that we have these fire bottles, there is nothing to worry about. Each army carries some. If we encounter a war elephant army, we can just surround them with fire, and we can retreat calmly.
Of course, this is just a fighting style developed by Li Xiang. Whether it can work on a real battlefield remains to be seen.
Under the encouragement of the King of Pyu, the troops in various regions moved faster. In just seven or eight days, they had gathered like small streams into a long river, with a total of more than 90,000 people.
Together with the more than 30,000 people supported by Zhenla, they formed an army of 120,000. Under the leadership of General Mithong, they began to advance northward.
Coincidentally, the combat area chosen by the Pyu Kingdom basically overlapped with the combat area chosen by Li Xiang. This place is located about 50 kilometers south of Wa City and is a flat plain.
According to the idea of the Pyu court, they would first concentrate their superior forces to launch a devastating attack on the Tang army. As long as the Tang army suffered heavy losses, the remaining Tang army would definitely withdraw. Even if they did not withdraw, they would defend Wa City and would not cause too much damage to the southern part of the Pyu Kingdom.
When this strategy was announced, General Mibong understood that the Pyu court had not even thought about recovering the lost territories in the north. As long as the Tang army could be stopped, the Pyu Kingdom was even willing to cede the land in the north.
This made General Mipeng very disappointed, but he alone could not defeat the entire court. He could only think about winning this battle beautifully and forcing the Tang army to retreat further.
Of course, this was no easy task. Even though the Tang army only had about 20,000 men south of Wa, they had a full 120,000 men on their side, and the Tang army wasn't even a fraction of theirs. But General Mithong understood that to have reached Wa in such a short time, did you think the Tang army was just sitting around doing nothing? Our troops on the northern border were far more elite than those in the south.
The Pyu Kingdom has always regarded the Tang Dynasty as their biggest threat, so the country's most elite troops are all on the northern border.
According to their thinking, even if we cannot win, as the defending party, Wa City should be in our hands. At most, we will lose the land in the north of Wa City. But who knew that Wa City would fall in such a short time.
So when heading north, General Mipeng kept frowning, but the other people in the army were very optimistic. After receiving the support of 30,000 Zhenla troops, they believed that they could drown the Tang army with just spitting, because we have six times the number of them.
General Mitpong was at a loss for words regarding his men's optimism. If numbers alone were the only factor in determining victory on the battlefield, then the Tang could have simply sent over 200,000 troops and we would have simply surrendered. Why would we have to fight to the death on the battlefield? Wouldn't it be better to skip this process?
Of course, he couldn't say these words. The morale of the soldiers was already low. If he said these words again, especially as the commander-in-chief of the army, the morale of the entire army would drop sharply. I'm afraid that deserters would appear in the army before they even reach the front line.
Moo!
Just when General Mipeng was thinking about the problem, the roars of more than a dozen elephants nearby were heard. A smile finally appeared on General Mipeng's face. How could he forget our secret weapon?
This was something the Tang army had never seen before, and they had never encountered it in battle in Nanzhao...
