prosperous age

Chapter 1123 1214 Adjustment
When Qi Jimei's army of the Ming Dynasty was defeated by the Burmese army, Li Chengliang was leading his army more than ten miles away.

Although they couldn't see the battle situation, they still discovered it when the rumbling sound of artillery in the distance suddenly stopped.

Li Chengliang subconsciously grabbed the horse's head, and the warhorse under him immediately stopped.

"Marshal, what's wrong?"

Li Chengliang's sudden action made the soldiers behind him nervous.

They are all old people who have been with Li Chengliang for many years, so they can naturally notice the abnormal behavior of their master. The appearance of such behavior often means that there is an emergency.

Li Chengliang didn't say anything, just shook his head slightly.

Just now, a bad thought appeared in his mind, very abruptly.

However, after he stopped, he still didn't figure out what he was worried about.

On the road beside me, a group of spearmen just passed by, followed by a group of musketeers, and then
"hiss."

Suddenly, Li Chengliang took a breath of cold air. He knew why he had a bad feeling.

It's so quiet.

It's too quiet up front.

Even if the cannons defeated the enemy, the sound of the musketeers' gunfire would continue.

Even if the enemy was defeated and our army was pursuing them, there would be musketeers who would occasionally fire a few shots forward and knock down the Burmese soldiers running behind them.

But this time it didn't happen. The sound of gunfire disappeared almost instantly. This was totally abnormal.

Although Li Chengliang also wanted to train his subordinates to obey his orders, the time was too short and he could not severely punish his subordinates who violated his orders as he did in Liaodong.

After all, although he was the commander-in-chief from the capital, this was the southwest and also a border town.

Therefore, Li Chengliang was quite tolerant towards his subordinates. As long as the behavior was not truly intolerable, he would choose to turn a blind eye.

"Order the front troops to form up their formation immediately. Bring up all the falconets and place them in front of the formation."

Realizing that something was wrong, Li Chengliang did not hesitate and immediately gave the order.

Although they didn't know why, the soldiers around him still obeyed his orders faithfully. Two war horses rushed out from the soldiers' team, one chasing the Ming army commander in front, and the other running to the back.

There, there were large and small Portuguese cannons equipped by this Ming army. There were not many, only about ten, which was about the same number as that equipped by Qi Jimei's troops.

Soon, the mule and horse caravan hurriedly caught up from behind and ran towards the front.

Li Chengliang rubbed his temples. The feeling of uneasiness in his heart had dissipated, but it had already firmly taken root in his mind.

Finally, a fast horse appeared in front, and the rider whipped the horse hard and rushed towards this side at an accelerated speed.

When Li Chengliang saw this, he suddenly felt relieved.

Yes, someone came back to deliver a letter. No matter what the news was, he was not afraid. He was only afraid of living in fear of the unknown.

"Report to the Marshal."

When the war horses approached, the knights reined in their horses and did not dismount. They reported directly to Li Chengliang on horseback: "General, two incense sticks ago, the Burmese army sent out a hundred war elephants, which suddenly turned around and attacked our vanguard, and our army was defeated miserably."

"War elephants, one hundred?"

Li Chengliang immediately understood what was going on. His premonition was correct. Something happened ahead.

"The forward is Qi Jimeibu, how is he now?"

Li Chengliang didn't get angry, but asked nervously.

After all, Qi Jimei has a different status. His brother is Qi Jiguang. If I really let him die here, how would I save face when I see Qi Jiguang in the future?

If it were any other general, Li Chengliang might simply ignore his life or death, and even if he came back alive, he would be captured and await his fate.

But when he met Qi Jimei, who had a special status, Li Chengliang had no choice but to do this.

"General Qi is leading his troops in retreat."

"What are the casualties of the troops? Have you found out?"

"More than a few hundred people were killed. The exact number will only be known after the troops are reorganized, but my front troops suffered heavy losses in weapons and equipment."

These scouts were observing the battle situation from a distance and could get a general idea, but they certainly had no way of knowing the specific data.

But these were enough, enough for Li Chengliang to think about the reasons for failure and find remedies.

“Will the Burmese army pursue us?”

Li Chengliang asked the most difficult question. If the Burmese army chased after them, they would soon reach here in more than ten miles.

Then he had to be prepared to fight the Burmese war elephants.

"No, after defeating General Qi's men, the Burmese army did not pursue them, but was cleaning up the battlefield."

The scout continued to report.

He was a cavalryman, and his position was not on the road, but on the hillside next to him, where he was observing the enemy situation from a high vantage point. He would ride back to report after seeing the situation, so naturally he saw quite a lot.

However, such people are carefully selected from the army. Not only are the military skills required of the soldiers extremely high, but there are also certain standards for eyesight and hearing.

"Call the cavalry and follow me."

Li Chengliang gave the order without hesitation.

After saying that, he led his personal guards and ran forward.

But after a dozen steps, he pulled the horse's head again and ordered the soldiers around him: "Keep passing the order, order all the troops to send up the cannons, immediately."

In the brief moment when he urged his horse forward, he had roughly guessed the reason why Qi Jimei's troops had failed this time.

Hundreds of war elephants charged forward. Even if the Portuguese cannon fired one shot at each elephant, it seemed that it would not be able to defeat all of them.

It can only be said that the number of falconets allocated to each unit was a bit too few.

Thinking of this, Li Chengliang naturally knew how to remedy the situation.

Immediately retrieve the cannons allocated to each unit and use them together.

At the very least, we should recall half of the cannons from the lower units and assemble enough artillery to specifically deal with the enemy's war elephants.

The advantage of numbers must be fully utilized.

The Ming army often had generals commanding different units, some with more than a thousand people, some with two to three thousand people.

Before this, Li Chengliang distributed the Portuguese cannons he had obtained to various armies, naturally hoping that they would have enough firepower to strike the enemy when they encountered the enemy.

But now it seems that such thinking was too optimistic.

It is not that each unit cannot be equipped with cannons, but he must have a large number of cannons that can be deployed at any time.

Otherwise, after discovering the presence of the Burmese elephant troops, they would not be able to come up with a corresponding solution to the problem.

However, it is definitely impossible to move the cannon from the back in a short period of time, but it must be done.

If the Myanmar army can counterattack once, it can do so a second time and a third time.

It was imperative to assemble an artillery corps as quickly as possible and place them in front of the main army, otherwise they would be useless.

Li Chengliang led a team of cavalry forward to support Qi Jimei's troops, and soon gathered a cavalry unit of several hundred people.

In addition to his own personal soldiers, the personal soldiers of other generals around him were also summoned by him at this time.

Hundreds of horses galloped along the mountain road, and soon they saw the defeated Ming army retreating in front of them.

The twenty or thirty war horses in front naturally belonged to Qi Jimei and his personal soldiers.

When Qi Jimei saw Li Chengliang coming, he was so ashamed that he didn't dare to meet Li Chengliang at all.

After all, this defeat was quite tragic, it was a real defeat.

On the previous occasion, no matter what, the Ming army simply retreated and did not fight with the Burmese army.

But not only did he lose a lot of soldiers this time, he also lost a batch of Portuguese cannons. Although the Ming Dynasty was powerful, it was very expensive to manufacture Portuguese cannons. What was lost this time were large and medium-sized Portuguese cannons, not the small firearms used by individual soldiers.

Of course, the most crucial thing is that even if the Ming Dynasty could produce hundreds or even thousands of falconets every year, how many of them could be allocated to the southwest and when could they be replenished?

It just means if we lose a batch, we have one less batch.

His team had a total of twelve cannons.

"Qi Jimei, assemble your troops immediately."

Even if they didn't want to see Li Chengliang anymore, they were only a short distance apart, and the two sides soon reunited.

Instead of scolding him as expected or sending people to arrest him, Li Chengliang directly ordered him to organize the troops.

In Li Chengliang's opinion, since the Burmese elephant soldiers did not catch up, the situation was not too bad.

Just like this group of defeated soldiers ran back, who were they running for?

Morale. The Burmese army needs morale, and so does the Ming army.

The Ming army, in particular, was accustomed to fighting favorable battles. If the morale was affected by Qi Jimei's defeat, the loss would be more serious than the death of hundreds or thousands of people.

While Qi Jimei was still in a daze, Li Chengliang was already furious and ordered the soldiers beside him: "Immediately drive the people to the two sides to form a team. Anyone who retreats will be killed without mercy."

"Clang Clang"

Without waiting for Qi Jimei's soldiers to take action, the soldiers around Li Chengliang had already drawn their sabers and were waving them at the Ming army that was running towards them from behind.

Soon, Qi Jimei also reacted and immediately started to organize the troops with his personal soldiers.

The Ming army was driven to the roadside, each looking for their own general flag and hundred-household organization. It was such a mess that there was no trace of an army at all.

Apart from the battle robes they wore, they were worse than refugees.

"You lead your men to reorganize the troops and set up camp on the spot. Dig more traps and erect chevaux de frise. I will go to the front to take a look."

After saying something to the busy Qi Jimei, Li Chengliang continued to move forward with his men.

They are just cavalry, and it would be a very unwise move for a commander to run forward in this situation.

However, due to the information brought back by the scouts, the Burmese army did not take the opportunity to pursue.

Soon, hundreds of cavalrymen rushed out several miles and could see the battlefield where the Ming and Burmese armies had fought from afar.

Li Chengliang waved his whip to the left and right, and two teams of personal soldiers ran to both sides. They were going to the nearby hillside to monitor the surroundings.

Of course, Li Chengliang would not be so stupid as to rush in directly. If there was really a trap set by the Burmese and he died, the Ming army would be doomed.

As long as he controlled the hills on both sides, he would not be afraid even if the Burmese army ambushed him in front.

With the speed of a warhorse, he was confident that he could break out.

He led his men and horses forward slowly, constantly observing the reconnaissance of the cavalry teams on both sides, until he saw the cavalry team reach the top of the slope and give a safety signal, then he sped up.

The bodies of the Ming army were lying all over the ground. Many of them died in a miserable way. They were soldiers who were trampled to death by the elephants. There were even two or three people who fell together and were trampled into a pile.

"Ugh."

Faintly, Li Chengliang heard the sound of someone retching behind him.

Li Chengliang didn't feel anything, and he believed that his personal soldiers would not feel anything, but some of the personal soldiers of the southwestern generals might have never seen such a cruel scene.

Some physiological reactions are actually normal.

In fact, when he saw the battlefield for the first time, he also felt like retching.

In other words, if you see it too much, you will become numb and won’t feel anything at all.

Soon, they passed through the place where the corpses of the Ming army were piled up, which was the front of the battle.

There was no trace of the previously discarded cannons, apparently taken away by the Burmese army.

"It's so narrow, yet they sent out a hundred war elephants. Aren't they afraid of being burned to death by our army?"

Li Chengliang looked at the non-existent Burmese army in front of him and said viciously.

Yes, he was also a little confused when he saw the terrain.

There is a road in the middle, with small earthen slopes on both sides. If the war elephants are deployed in such a narrow terrain, and if there are enough cannons, none of the war elephants will be able to escape alive.

Even without cannons, as long as the Ming army had a little time to prepare, they could cut down trees on the hillsides on both sides and set them on fire, which would actually be enough to stop the elephants' attack.

But he was defeated.

He knew that this was not a crime of war, but rather the result of the Ming army's lack of preparation.

"I guess that kid felt a little frustrated after losing."

Li Chengliang was thinking about Qi Jimei's appearance in his heart. When he turned around and saw Qi Jiguang, he decided to talk to him about this matter.

In fact, Qi Jimei did not rely entirely on Qi Jiguang's protection to obtain the position of general. When Qi Jiguang was fighting against Japanese pirates in his early years, Qi Jimei served in his army and had some contributions and knowledge.

They knew how to fight the vicious Japanese pirates, but they didn't know how to fight the Burmese elephant soldiers.

Li Chengliang actually wronged Qi Jimei. He thought of preparing fuel and setting fire to stop the elephants, but he did not expect the army to be defeated so quickly. There was not even enough time before the army formation collapsed.

"I am incompetent, please punish me, Marshal."

At this time, Qi Jimei, who stayed behind to organize the troops, came up, urged his horse to come forward, and apologized with a red face.

"Tell me about the process."

Li Chengliang had no intention of punishing the person, so his emotions were relatively stable at this time.

Soon, he learned from Qi Jimei the whole process of their battle with the Burmese army, including his response and the characteristics of the Burmese army's attack.

"You said that the war elephants ran as fast as the soldiers charging?"

Li Chengliang suddenly interrupted Qi Jimei's narration. He had seen elephants before, so how could they run so fast after being beaten?
Li Chengliang was somewhat skeptical.

"I dare not lie. Your war elephant is indeed very fast."

Qi Jimei hurriedly explained.

"You said that the cannons hit the war elephants, but the elephants were only in pain but not obviously injured?"

Li Chengliang continued to ask.

"Yes, Marshal."

Qi Jimei told Li Chengliang about the reaction of the war elephant after he saw the cannonball hit it and his guess, and Li Chengliang nodded slightly.

"Not afraid of the sound of gunfire, and suspected of being invisible, interesting."

Li Chengliang probably guessed something and knew what the Burmese army relied on.

To deal with this upgraded war elephant, even if you light a few fires, the effect will probably be limited.

"You only see a few elephants injured. Point out the location."

Li Chengliang continued.

"here."

Soon, Qi Jimei found several large pools of blood ahead. "These should be the bloodstains left by the injured war elephants."

Li Chengliang estimated the distance and found that they were very close.

At close range, the falconet could potentially injure an elephant.

Li Chengliang felt a little pain. "It seems that the twenty-odd guns we thought of at the beginning are not enough. At least thirty-six guns are needed to resist the attack of a hundred war elephants.

Immediately inform all the armies of this incident and ask them to adjust the number of artillery units to prevent this from happening again."

After every failure, Li Chengliang would definitely not let the Burmese elephant soldiers find any chance under his command again.

At this time, the Burmese general who defeated the Ming army and seized their firearms was happily chasing Mang Yinglong to claim credit.