On the third day of September, Zhennan Bo Li Laosi led an army of 150,000 troops and marched into the northern part of the country of Yue.
This expedition aimed to occupy the entire Indochina Peninsula, so a large number of troops were used. They included 60,000 Yizi battalions, 50,000 samurai troops and 40,000 Tiger soldiers. It can be said that all of Li Zhi's surplus troops were mobilized.
At the end of last year, Li Zhi recruited 40,000 new soldiers in Shandong and Tianjin. After ten months of training, these new soldiers were transferred to Japan to implement military control. The 40,000 veterans originally in Japan were replaced and participated in the southern expedition commanded by Li Laosi.
This was a massive conquest. It was the first time that Li Zhi mobilized so many manpower and material resources in a war. The number of people accompanying the army alone was 100,000.
It took Li Zhi half a month to send 250,000 people to the border between Ming Dynasty and Yue State. This was still under the condition that there were a large number of steamships.
This was the first time for Yiziying and the Samurai Army to take a ship, and they were very excited along the way. This epoch-making means of transportation also made the two newly-joined armies more in awe of Li Zhi, and they were glad that they were following the right person.
In order to meet the logistics needs of the expeditionary force, Li Zhi recruited half of the civilian steamships in one town and nine provinces, and used more than 200 ships to transport a mountain of materials to Fangcheng, Qinzhou, Guangdong. The administrative divisions at this time were different from those of later generations.
The southern coastal zone of Guangxi Province all belongs to Guangdong in terms of administrative divisions, and Guangxi has no outlet to the sea.
After food and military supplies were transported to Fangcheng Port, they were not transported by land, but by ships to the coastal areas of Vietnam. The land of Vietnam is basically close to the sea, and transporting by sea can reduce the risk of the logistics line being interrupted by the enemy. The previous points
Wherever the troops fought, ships would send military supplies.
Not only the ships and civilians on the front line are busy, but the warehousing and logistics personnel in the rear are also busy. In the rear, various materials are continuously transported to Tianjin and loaded on the ships one by one. It can be said that the entire Tianjin
Because this expedition was mobilized.
Li Laosi commanded an army of 150,000 people to march southward, and met the Yue army in the east of Beijiang City in the north of the country.
The Vietnamese army also had a large number of people.
Obviously, the Zheng family in the north of Vietnam and the Ruan family in the south have united. Under the threat of annihilation, and in front of Li Zhi, an unprecedented enemy, the two old enemies in the north and the south gave up their past grievances and formed a small army.
There are about 120,000 coalition troops.
According to Li Laosi's information, there are 90,000 people from the Zheng family and 30,000 people from the Ruan family.
The two armies faced each other on the impact plain east of Beijiang City, each arrayed for more than ten miles, in a mighty manner.
Li Laosi placed the Chinese army on a higher mound and observed the Yue army with telescopes.
To the west of the Yue army is the army of the Zheng family. The soldiers of the Zheng family are very backward in equipment. They only hold spears and swords, and they don't even have armor. The army of the Ruan family in the east looks much more elite. The soldiers of the Ruan family are all
Wearing chainmail, I don’t know if I bought it from a Westerner or made it myself.
There were also 6,000 matchlocks in the Ruan family's 30,000-person team. The matchlocks were completely Western-style. Li Laosi used a high-power telescope to take a closer look and confirmed that these firearms were all from white Europeans.
There are more than a hundred artillery pieces in the Ruan family's queue. However, those artillery pieces are all small cannons, and the heaviest one is only twelve pounds.
These are commonplace items and can only be regarded as outdated weapons.
The only thing that surprised Li Zhi's soldiers was the presence of more than a hundred war elephants in the middle of the Ruan family's queue.
Li Laosi had never seen those war elephants before. Each one was two or three meters tall. The war elephant was covered with a huge chainmail, and two soldiers sat on its back. The person in front was the person driving the war elephant.
Something similar to a horse's rein controls the direction of the war elephant. A man behind him holds a matchlock gun, which is the long-range firepower on the war elephant.
Those war elephants have obviously become very tame after long-term training. At this time, the war elephants were standing in the military formation, almost motionless, and looked extremely solemn.
These war elephants looked extremely huge. Although the soldiers and horses on both sides were five or six miles apart, the soldiers on Li Laosi's side had already seen the towering backs of the war elephants.
The soldiers of the Huben Army are not bad. The soldiers of the Huben Army are all veterans. They have experienced countless bloody battles and have various advanced weapons in their hands. Of course, they are not afraid of these beasts. But this is the first time for the Yizi Camp and the Samurai Army to encounter this kind of nature.
It was the most powerful creature in the world, and everyone was a little surprised when they looked around.
What should we use to kill these war elephants? The samurai swords of the samurai army are definitely useless. Can the newly issued rifles from Yiziying kill these war elephants?
When Sanada Nobuyuki saw the war elephant, his face was full of disbelief. He looked at the cannons of the Tiger Army and then at Li Laosi, his expression a little nervous.
Li Dingguo was also a little worried. He raised his hands to Li Laosi and said, "Uncle, this Annan man actually has more than a hundred war elephants. The power of these war elephants is extraordinary. How can we defeat the enemy?"
Li Laosi looked at Nobuyuki Sanada and Li Dingguo and was silent for a few seconds.
Then Li Laosi said: "Don't worry, in front of the Tiger Army, even this three-meter-tall war elephant is vulnerable to tricks!"
Li Dingguo was stunned, looking at Li Laosi, not daring to ask any more questions.
Li Laosi thought for a while and said: "This battle, the Yizi Camp and the Samurai Army will just watch from the side and see how our Huben Army destroys the enemy!"
Nobuyuki Sanada said: "Fifty thousand samurai have to go into battle and perform meritorious service..."
However, before his words could be translated by the translator, he was interrupted by Li Dingguo. Li Dongguo raised his hands and said, "It's all at the discretion of Zhennan Bo!"
The two armies faced off for an hour, and then the Yue troops began to attack.
At the beginning, the Ruan family released the war elephants. One hundred and thirteen war elephants roared loudly and charged towards the Tiger and Ben army, walking at the forefront of the 120,000 Yue soldiers.
Each war elephant weighs four or five tons, which is very scary. The heavy elephant feet step on the ground, causing the ground to shake slightly.
The dozen war elephants at the front were more than three meters tall and looked like a group of unstoppable giants. The soldiers of the Yue Kingdom did not dare to walk next to the war elephants for fear of being trampled to death by the war elephants.
After all, the soldiers of the Yizi Camp were rebels and were not as brave as the Tigers and Guards. Seeing the giant creatures that were beyond human beings rushing towards them, some of the soldiers of the Yizi Camp had a look of panic on their faces and began to look around.
According to Li Zhi's military discipline, it is against discipline to look around in the army! This action will cause a significant drop in morale, and serious cases can be killed on the spot. Li Dingguo frowned, and the officers of Yizi Battalion rushed forward and violently used whips.
Beat the soldiers who looked around.
Li Dingguo finally stabilized the soldiers, and the war elephant had already moved three miles away.
Li Laosi waved his hand.
"Dong dong dong dong dong!"
The loud war drums beat.
The soldiers of the Huben Army pushed out two hundred and twenty 24-pound rifled guns.
The artillerymen skillfully loaded the cannon with ammunition, installed mercury fulminate on the fire gate as the firing powder, and aimed the cannon at the war elephant showing off its power in the middle of the battlefield.
Li Laosi waved again.
"Woo~"
The desolate horn sounded, and the artillerymen of the Tiger and Ben Army suddenly pulled the gun rope. The two hundred and twenty rifled cannons spit out huge tongues of flame and fired more than two hundred conical shells at the war elephant three miles away.
