Chapter 411: Sniper Battle in the Elephant Passage
Under the blue sea and blue sky, a sand crust of intermittent and wide and narrow extends endlessly into the distance. On the land on the coast and the larger sand crusts in the sea, there are countless large and small lagoons. In the larger lagoons, there are often a sand crust. This is the "elephant passage" that blends water and land. In the world where Feng Yu came, it is called the Adam Bridge.
More than 300 Liang army infantry have landed on a large ship moored near the sea, selected a section of easy defense and difficult to attack to set up defense, and sent a scout to drive a sampan to patrol and guard the sandbars that are dozens of miles long. There are often figures of Liang army combat sailboats on the nearby sea surface.
Although this Liang army had only more than 300 people, Zhuge Liang asked Zhang Ren to command in person, which shows his importance to this strategic channel. Moreover, Zhuge Liang also reassured Zhang Ren, saying that once the main force of the Liang army conquered Mango Port, he would transfer all the legions to Zhang Ren to support him.
In fact, at this time, the main force of Zhang Ren's army was heading north along the west coast of Ceylon Island and heading towards this. Meng Huo led most of the troops of the army into the hinterland of Ceylon Island to suppress the remaining members of the Zhuluo army. In Mango City, Zhuge Liang himself led two infantry battalions belonging to Meng Huo's army to guard.
Zhang Ren was also wondering why Zhuge Liang sent him such a idle man. As a result, the next day, the scout patrolling at the sea brought news of the attack of Zhu Luo's army. It was a whole elephant cavalry regiment with nearly 500 war elephants. Zhang Ren was shocked. With more than 300 people to resist the attack of 500 war elephants and 1,500 Zhu Luo's soldiers, even Zhang Ren, who had been through many battles, could not help but feel upset in his heart.
With Zhang Ren's order, the soldiers of the Liang army hid behind the sand wall built a while ago. The sand wall was only two or three feet high, not to block the Zhu Luo army's advance, but to provide cover for the Liang army.
Soon, the drums and trumpets sounded in the sky, and a long line of elephants was coming on the sea. When these elephants crossed the land bridge, they did not need to choose a path like hikers. Instead, they stride forward and flowed through the water when they encountered water. Even if the water depth occasionally exceeded the height of elephants, these elephants could float on the sea.
The Zhuluo army was getting closer and closer. Before they could see the artificial sand wall, heavy arrows rushed towards them. It turned out that some of the Liang army's long bowmen were ambushed in the shallow sand puddles and suddenly launched a long-range attack on the Zhuluo army.
These arrows shot from a very long distance without passing through the armor that was worn by the battle elephant, but they could shoot the Zhulu soldiers on the back of the battle elephant. With a few screams, seven or eight Zhulu soldiers were shot by heavy arrows, either injured or killed.
Zhu Luobing then realized that there was an ambush in front of him. The crossbowmen on his back quickly took out their respective crossbows and shot arrows at the pits of the Tibetans. However, the two sides were too far apart and could not reach them at all. The longbowmen shot another round of arrows before they got up and ran towards their own defense line.
The Zhu Luo soldiers did not dare to chase them directly, but stopped temporarily. Under the command of the general, hundreds of battle elephants arranged an offensive formation, and their width almost filled the "elephant" passage. Five hundred battle elephants rushed forward in an overwhelming manner.
At a distance of two hundred battles, Liang army began to bombard the Xiangshan Mountain of Zhuluo Army with twenty new portable crossbows. Zhang Ren knew that the war elephant was afraid of fire, so he started to use fire bombs. However, these fire bombs did not have much effect, because there were too many puddles and lagoons on the road, and the fire bombs could not be broken after sinking into the water, and the outer wrapping used to attract fire was immediately extinguished.
Liang Jun's crossbow cannon had to use stone bullets to shoot. With a muffled sound, a stone bullet hit the forehead of a war elephant. The whole war elephant fell down stiffly. Three people on the elephant's back fell to the ground. The crossbowmen among them had no time to get up, and the head was stepped into the sand by the war elephant rushing from behind. The other two were in panic to avoid the war elephant and jumped into the sea.
A sound of soothing came from the air, and more than fifty long bowmen all fired their bows, shooting dense arrows at Zhu Luo's elephant team. The air was filled with the screams and the smell of blood from Elephant Naruto. A round of arrows shot, and more than twenty Zhu Luo soldiers were killed or injured by arrows. However, the remaining battle elephants continued to rush forward.
When these elephants rushed to the range of fifty battles, the Zhuluo army had lost nearly a hundred Zhuluo soldiers. But this number was still irrelevant to 1,500 soldiers and 500 war elephants. They continued to rush forward, and the current distance was within the range of the Zhuluo crossbowmen.
The Zhuluo archers fired arrows at the same time, and hundreds of arrows shot towards the Liang army. The latter could only lie behind the sand wall to avoid the attacks of the Zhuluo people. Only when the Zhuluo archers had just finished shooting for one round, the Liang army's long archers would appear and shoot heavy arrows at the Zhuluo elephant soldiers. At this time, they were conducting precise snipers, almost one arrow, and they were shooting the battle elephant itself. At this distance, their heavy arrows could penetrate the bamboo armor half an inch thick on the battle elephant.
The battle elephants were wailing and rolling after their hands were hurt, and the blood dyed the sea water and yellow sand red. Some of the Zhulu soldiers on the elephant's back were crushed to death by the elephant on the spot, while others were knocked to death. Of course, they were more afraid of getting up from the ground and avoiding the collision of the elephant.
The battle elephants who were not shot in the arrow spread into the sea water on both sides, widening the distance between them, trying to reduce the opponent's hit rate. However, the Liang army's long archers were precisely sniping, and this move had no effect except reducing the speed of the battle elephant's charge.
Zhang Ren saw that although his side caused great damage to the other side, the remaining hundreds of war elephants were still facing his own front. After all, if he really wanted to fight with his three hundred stints, the consequences would be unimaginable. He quickly thought about the countermeasures.
After thinking about it, Zhang Ren still wanted to temporarily retreat with the enemy with the elephant's fear of fire. He immediately shouted: "Hurry, open the fire bomb and spill it in front of the sand wall!"
The soldiers of Liang army moved when they heard the order. They crawled on the ground, opened the plugs of all the crossbows and bombs, and splashed the naphtha inside in front of the sand wall with enemy arrows. One of Liang soldiers had just reached out and tilted the pottery jar. With a crisp sound, Zhu Luo's arrow pierced his bronze helmet, and the arrows were clustered into the bones. He fainted in pain. The pottery jar fell on the ground outside the sand wall, and the naphtha flowed out.
The battle elephant finally rushed to the sand wall, and Zhang Ren shouted loudly: "Light!" A fire wall rose with the sound, and more than 200 spear guns and fifty heavy arrows were shot densely behind the fire wall.
Chapter completed!