I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 999 Third Brother's Style
"kill!"

"Kill these Hun dogs!!"

"Give the Han people a good lesson!"

The Kushan cavalry, brandishing their scimitars and uttering strange cries, attempted to rout the Xiongnu rearguard in one fell swoop, but they underestimated Zhang Liao's bravery.

After all, the Kushan cavalry was not as formidable as their war elephants.

When these Hunnic vanguards withdrew from the battlefield, the war elephants stopped advancing and reorganized their lines, causing the pursuing Kushan cavalry to break away from the main force.

Zhang Liao seized this opportunity and launched a surprise attack during what appeared to be a rout retreat!
"The thief shall die!"

Zhang Liao suddenly turned around, his hook-and-sickle flashing coldly, and a Kushan cavalryman at the forefront fell from his horse. Seeing this, Yufuluo also mustered his courage and led his personal guards in a charge. For a moment, the Xiongnu cavalry had actually formed a local counterattack.

"Don't linger in battle! Take turns providing cover as you retreat!" Zhang Liao shouted. He knew that the most important thing at this moment was to preserve his strength, not to act rashly.

The Xiongnu cavalry fought and retreated, and under the cover of night, they finally escaped the pursuit of the Kushan army.

As dawn broke in the east, this defeated vanguard army had already regrouped thirty miles away.

"What are the casualties?" Zhang Liao wiped the blood from his face and asked in a deep voice.

"Thanks to their elephants being loud but slow-moving, our scouts spotted them early."

Uvro's face turned ashen:
"Even so, we lost over six hundred of our warriors and nearly a thousand were injured. What a fucking coward!"

Zhang Liao frowned deeply; the losses were far more severe than he had anticipated.

What's more troublesome is that the Kushans actually deployed their war elephants east of the Pamir Mountains, which shows that they were prepared in advance.

"We must report to His Highness the Tang King immediately."

Zhang Liao took out bamboo slips and quickly wrote down a military report:
"The Kushan army used war elephants as their vanguard, catching our army off guard. We have temporarily retreated to the entrance of the valley. I suggest that the main force halt its advance and find a way to break through the elephants as soon as possible."

Just as Zhang Liao was writing the military report, Su Yao in Shule City had just bid farewell to the King of Shule and returned to his military camp to convene his generals to discuss countermeasures.

"Does Your Highness think that Wen Yuan and his group will not have an easy time?" Guan Yu asked, raising an eyebrow.

In his view, this fellow townsman from Shanxi was quite capable, and ordinary opponents would probably be no match for him.

However, he was naturally unaware that Su Yao had already foreseen Zhang Liao's crisis through the system.

Although we cannot observe the battle in real time to understand the specific situation, judging from the positions of the troops on the map, they have retreated after a minor defeat.

However, he naturally couldn't tell the truth:

"Since the Kushans have brought in such a secret weapon as war elephants from India all the way from India, they will naturally not abandon them."

"If I were in charge of the troops, I would definitely send out such a surprise force in the first battle to strive for the greatest victory."

“Therefore, Wen Yuan and his group are likely to face great danger on this trip,” Su Yao said in a deep voice.

Guo Jia stroked his beard and pondered, "Your Highness is absolutely right. Such strange creatures as war elephants are indeed difficult to deal with on the first encounter. However, since the King of Shule has reminded us, General Wen Yuan must have made some preparations as well."

"I hope so," Su Yao nodded. "But we must prepare for the worst. Send the order down: the entire army must increase its marching speed and reach the Kizil River Valley within three days!"

"Yes, sir!" the generals responded in unison.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the tent. A scout rushed in, kneeling on one knee: "Report—General Zhang has an urgent report!"

Soon, news of Zhang Liao's attack became known to everyone.

"The vanguard suffered a surprise attack by war elephants, losing countless supplies and nearly a thousand soldiers. The main force has now retreated to the entrance of the valley and is awaiting further orders."

Upon hearing this, all the generals in the tent paled. Guan Yu slammed his fist on the table and stood up, exclaiming, "Those Kushan barbarians! How dare they be so arrogant! Your Highness, this humble general is willing to lead the iron cavalry as the vanguard to avenge Wen Yuan!"

"Yun Chang, hold on," Jia Xu advised. "The war elephant is no small matter; a hasty attack could lead to a repeat of past mistakes. The most urgent task is to find a way to defeat the enemy."

Su Yao pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "The King of Shule said that the Kushans brought in many war elephants?"

“Reports indicate there are over a thousand,” Lu Su replied.

"is it possible?"

Su Yao pinched his chin, having some questions about this number.

Last night, after learning this information, Su Yao looked through the system data.

The Kushans did indeed have war elephant units in history, but their numbers are not clearly recorded.

However, ancient Indian kingdoms have a long history of using elephants in warfare, with the most famous example being Ashoka, who nearly unified the Indian subcontinent. This Mauryan emperor, by gathering the resources of all of India, managed to assemble nine thousand war elephants.

The Kushan Empire, a declining empire that only occupies northwestern India and is plagued by constant civil unrest, might be able to muster thousands of war elephants if it tried its best, but Su Yao didn't quite believe that it could bring them all to the northern front.

"Elephants are sensitive to climate and consume a huge amount of energy; the food and water consumption of an elephant is almost a hundred times that of a human."

"There is absolutely no way that thousands of war elephants could be gathered in this location at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains!"

Upon hearing this, everyone realized what was going on.

They knew this was likely just exaggerated propaganda from the enemy.

Just like themselves, this time they only brought 50,000 cavalrymen to the expedition, but claimed to have a force of 100,000.

The Kushans probably didn't have that many elephant troops either.

"General Zhang, could you tell me how many war elephants the enemy has?" Su Yao asked.

The scout shook his head: "The military report only said that we were attacked by war elephants, and the number was unknown, but judging from my observations on the battlefield, there must have been at least a hundred or so."

"A hundred or so?"

Guo Jia waved his fan, somewhat uncertain:

"This is far too little, ten times less. Could it be that they didn't send all of them at once?"

"No, that's probably all."

Su Yao asserted:
"As I said before, such a secret weapon will definitely be most effective the first time it is used. If the enemy general is truly an experienced veteran, he will understand this principle."

"As for a tenfold difference, it may seem a bit exaggerated to us, but just think about it, the person on the other side is the Third Brother, so isn't it quite possible?"

"Third Brother?" Jia Xu asked, puzzled.

"Cough cough."

Su Yao coughed twice and said:

"I mean India, or Sindhu people, anyway, the people there always like to exaggerate, always talking about armies of millions or trillions. It's impossible for the Kushans, who ruled India for many years, not to be affected. A mere ten times the number is just them being modest."

"."

Everyone was speechless.

"But whether it's thousands or hundreds, the fighting power displayed by these war elephants is truly exaggerated."

Cao Cao picked up the military report and changed the subject back to the main point:

"General Zhang wrote in his letter that when the war elephants charged, the ground shook and our warhorses were all frightened, and our formation was thrown into chaos. If we had not used rockets to scare the elephants away in time, the losses would have been even more severe."

"The rocket scared away the herd of elephants?" Su Yao chuckled. "Wen Yuan certainly put in the effort."

Guo Jia nodded in agreement: "It seems that although war elephants are incredibly strong, they also have a weakness: they are afraid of fire. Our army can start from this point."

Jia Xu pondered and said, "It is true that war elephants are afraid of fire, but the range of fire arrows is limited, and their accuracy is poor at night. If the enemy uses war elephants as the vanguard during the day, supplemented by infantry and cavalry, our army will have difficulty getting close."

Guan Yu stroked his beard and said, "This humble general believes that we can emulate Tian Dan's fire ox formation and attack them with fire."

Lu Su shook his head: "The fire ox formation needs to be set up in advance, and the direction of the ox herd's charge is difficult to control. If the enemy uses war elephants as the vanguard, our fire oxen may be controlled by them instead, not to mention that we can't get that many fire oxen here in a short time."

Why make it so complicated?

Su Yao slammed his hand on the table:
"Do you remember that although elephants are incredibly strong, they have three fears: fire, noise, and pain? If you can target these three things, you can easily defeat them. And aren't we just the secret weapon to deal with them?"

"Your Highness is referring to gunpowder?"

Guan Yu frowned and said:
"But gunpowder needs to be buried and ignited. It might be useful for attacking city gates and watchtowers, but it probably won't be able to deal with galloping war elephants."

"Yun Chang, you are mistaken."

A glint of light flashed in Su Yao's eyes:
"Who says gunpowder can only be used to blow up city walls? Projectile use is its true purpose!"

"projection???"

"Haha, come on, all troops, attack!"

"Tomorrow, I'm going to teach these Kushans a lesson they won't forget. Elephant troops? They're an obsolete unit!"

(End of this chapter)