I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 852: The Invincible Indian War Elephant Team
Muzaffar Shah III, Adil Shah I, Murtaza and Surit VII were the first to receive urgent reports that the army, taking advantage of the cover of the morning mist, suddenly appeared in front of their camp in formation and launched a fierce offensive.

"These damn bastards actually dared to suddenly attack us! Send out the entire army, 200,000 against 20,000, we must drive the Ming army into the sea!"

Muzaffar Shah III made an immediate decision and ordered the entire army to attack. Two minutes after the order was issued, he thought of something else.

"Not good. Our musketeers are in the front line and will definitely be hit hard by the Ming army. If the musketeers can't hold on, the first line of defense built by the front line will collapse."

Makes sense!

Muzaffar Shah III was not a complete fool.

If he was really a fool, how could he have stayed in the position of Sultan of Gujarat for so long given the internal conflict in India?

The enemy had already devoured it, flesh and bones included.

Adil Shah I, Murtaza and Surit VII looked at each other, and Adil Shah I asked cautiously: "Your Majesty Muzaffar Shah, what should we do?
There was not enough time to transfer troops from the main camp.

By the time they arrive, the first line of defense may have already been breached.

Once the first line of defense is breached, I'm worried that we won't have time to gather our main forces before the Ming army rushes in front of us."

Muzaffar Shah III threw a beautiful Suzhou silk sash over his left shoulder, with a look of strategic planning on his face.

"The Portuguese said that the Ming people's firearms were very powerful, especially their artillery. And our artillery..."

Muzaffar Shah III paused for a moment, and a bad thought flashed through his mind.

But now is not the time to think about these things, we must quickly respond to the attack of the Ming army.

"Gurta," Muzaffar Shah III called out the name of his trusted general, "Go and pass on my order immediately! The front army will immediately set up a second line of defense based on the first line of defense.

The main force does not need to rush to reinforce the front army, and immediately set up the third and fourth lines of defense on the spot. At the same time, the most elite 30,000 soldiers are selected to prepare to attack the right wing of the Ming army. "

At this point, Muzaffar Shah III said word by word: "Order the war elephant team to immediately support the front army from the left, do not stop, and directly support the first line of defense.

After securing the first line of defense, immediately launch an attack on the Ming army!"

Murtaza's eyes lit up. "That's right. The War Elephants are closest to the first line of defense. Sending them to support them immediately will definitely help them hold their position."

Adil Shah I echoed, "Good! Once the first line of defense is stabilized and our main forces are assembled, we can launch a counterattack against the Ming army along the gap opened by the war elephant team."

Muzaffar Shah III said complacently: "Our biggest advantage is that we have more troops. Two hundred thousand versus twenty thousand. No matter how powerful the Ming army's firearms are, they can't stop our overwhelming force!"

Surit VII looked around and said with some concern: "Your Highness Muzaffar Shah, the Ming army's firearms are sharp. Our war elephants are not afraid of swords, guns and arrows, but they are still afraid of firearms.

What if they are bombarded by the Ming army's muskets and artillery and are defeated? "

Yes, when the Portuguese occupied ports such as Cochin, Goa, Zhengling, Daman and Surat, the local Indian Sultans assembled a large army and launched a counterattack.

Among them, the War Elephant Team is one of the main forces.

There are not many places in India where horses can be raised. Famous war horse producing areas include the Kathiawar Peninsula and the Malwar region.

The Kathiawar Peninsula is the peninsula north of Diu Port, and the Malwar region is to its north. The good horses in these two places were bred by the Rajputs by crossbreeding Mongolian horses and Arabian horses.

Therefore, the Indian cavalry were not numerous and not strong, which was why the cavalry coming down from the Khyber Pass could easily gallop through India.

However, there were war elephant teams in India, and they also participated in the siege of the Portuguese by the sultans.

However, these war elephants, which were so highly expected, were frightened and fled in panic at the sound of the Portuguese muskets and artillery. They even broke up their own formation before they even saw the enemy.

Even the Portuguese were afraid of the Ming Dynasty's muskets and artillery. What if their own war elephant team was frightened and "rebelled" again?
Muzaffar Shah III glanced at Surit VII, stood up suddenly, waved his round hand, and said majestically: "The era when foreign invaders could scare us with muskets and cannons is over!

We have found a way to deal with them. The muskets and cannons we have built, with the blessing of the gods, are more powerful than theirs!
Don't worry, our war elephants will crush these bastards into pulp, and victory will belong to us in the end!"

Gurta personally led the war elephant team, bypassed the front army's camp, and appeared less than two kilometers away when the coalition's first line of defense was about to collapse.

There were a thousand war elephants, all of them adult elephants, tall and well-fed, with a basket woven with bamboo and wooden strips on their backs, tied tightly with ropes.

The basket was very large, like a sentry tower, with about ten people sitting inside, most of them archers and javelin throwers, with bare upper bodies, wearing shorts and a bamboo woven hat.

The elephant slave sat in front of the basket, pulling several ropes, controlling the elephant, and walking forward with steady steps.

Dozens of spikes are tied to the long tusks, like two huge maces, swinging back and forth with the elephant's head.

Gurta sat on the tallest bull elephant. The elephant basket he was riding in was decorated with exquisite brocade and had a canopy to block out the vicious sun.

He stood up, holding the edge of the basket with one hand, and looked at the battlefield in the distance.

The first line of defense was shaky, especially the musketeers in the middle, which had been scattered under the concentrated bombardment of the Ming army's artillery.

Its collapse triggered a chain reaction. A large number of soldiers on the first line of defense turned around and fled, with some nobles and officers running in the front.

These damn guys!
Gurta took a quick look and suddenly discovered that the Ming army's artillery team was quickly packing up. They hung the artillery on the carriage, loaded the ammunition back into the carriage, and then quickly got on the carriage.

After a while, Gurta saw twenty or thirty cannons pulled by pack horses and galloping towards this side.

So fast!
Gurta was surprised by the speed of the Ming army's artillery team.

No wonder even the arrogant Portuguese were defeated by them. These Ming people were much better at using artillery than the Portuguese. They were flexible and maneuverable on the battlefield, turning quickly and suddenly appearing anywhere on the battlefield.

Gurta, who has extensive experience in leading troops in battles, knows how difficult it is to achieve this.

This is a formidable army.

But at this point, Gurta was still very confident that his side would win.

One of the reasons is the same as that of Muzaffar Shah III, two hundred thousand versus twenty thousand, the advantage is on my side.

Secondly, the Ming army did not have many cavalry.

Yes, cavalry!
The conquerors who rushed in from the Khyber Pass in the northwest, starting with the Sakas, then the Parthians, the Kushans, then the Huns, the Turks, and the Mongols, all rode war horses, shot bows and arrows, and used their strong mobility to defeat the local army and conquer this land again and again. Now the conquerors of India, the Afghans, the Uzbeks, and the Mongols, are also good at cavalry.

It's just that in this hellhole of a place like India, farming is OK, but grazing is difficult. It's difficult to graze on a large scale, and it's also difficult to maintain a cavalry.

Every time a conqueror conquered and settled here, they would gradually degenerate and lose their main cavalry force, and then new conquerors would rush over on horseback.

The Ming army didn’t have many cavalry!

This made Gurta feel much more relieved.

Without powerful cavalry, we still have the final say on this land!

The war elephant team was still moving slowly forward, and from time to time the war elephants raised their long trunks and made long noises.

The rising and falling long calls were like horns, spreading across half the battlefield.

Many officers and soldiers on the first line of defense of the anti-Ming coalition turned around upon hearing the sound, and saw thousands of war elephants in the distance, fully armed, rushing towards this side like hills.

Tears in my eyes!

Some knelt on the ground, clasped their hands together, and excitedly recited words of gratitude.

God bless you!

Almighty God, you finally open your merciful arms to bless your devout believers.

But the gods they prayed to were a bit confusing.

Most of the nobles were Muslims and they were grateful to the true God.

Most of the soldiers were Hindus, so they had many gods to thank, including Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Indra, Agni, Ganesha, Kalkiatiya, Hanuman, and many other gods.
For a while, the situation on the first line of defense of the anti-Ming coalition forces was slightly stabilized.

Gurta saw the Ming army's artillery team rushing towards him, and quickly ordered the teams to disperse and not gather together. At the same time, the elephant slaves were ready to fight.

Just after giving the order, Gurta saw the Ming army's artillery team coming like fire to a place less than 800 meters away from the front of his war elephant team and quickly deployed.

Unload the gun, set it up, aim, and load ammunition, all in one go.

"boom!"

Gurta's eyes twitched uncontrollably.

The Ming army's artillery fired too quickly.

Moving here from three or four kilometers away, they moved like flowing water, and they looked more like a cavalry carrying artillery.

More than thirty artillery pieces fired in succession, and projectiles whizzed towards the first row of elephants in the war elephant team less than 400 meters away. More than a dozen screams of the elephants were heard, and eight of the war elephants had their legs broken by projectiles. Five of the war elephants had a big bloody hole in their abdomens from projectiles, with blood and organs flowing out. They fell to the ground wailing.

Some war elephants were only scratched, but they raised their trunks and roared a few times, then became angry and rushed forward with a rumble.

The casualties of thirteen war elephants compared to a thousand war elephants can be said to be negligible.

Four officers took out their ivory horns and blew them. The clear sound echoed throughout the battlefield. The soldiers on the war elephants waved their bows and arrows and shouted loudly.

The elephant slaves pulled the reins and drove the war elephants to run quickly. The rumbling footsteps of thousands of elephants shook the earth like an earthquake.

The Indian officers and soldiers who were forming the second line of defense waved their swords and guns and cheered loudly.

The Indian officers and soldiers on the first line of defense followed suit. They raised their swords and guns and shouted twice, but then they were hit by the Ming army's lead bullets like a storm and screamed in pain. They could no longer cheer.

In front of them were thousands of Ming army's smoothbore muskets and hundreds of type 60 short-barreled cannons wreaking havoc.

The artillery team of the First Artillery Regiment of the Ming Army fired another round of artillery fire, but the effect was still only a dozen war elephants, which could not stop the war elephants rushing towards them like a tide.

Gurta stroked his raised beard proudly and said, "We Indians are not stupid. We have suffered at the hands of the Portuguese. After several decades, we have trained our war elephants to be not afraid of muskets and artillery, just like they are not afraid of bows, arrows, swords and guns."

You’re dumbfounded!

Haha!

Gurta looked over with pride and found that the Ming army's artillery team quickly packed up their artillery, hung them on the carriage, and ran away in a flash.

Ran!

The Ming artillery team escaped!
But after a while, Gurta discovered that the Ming artillery team did not escape, but ran back to the front of the first line of defense of the anti-Ming coalition forces, got closer, and deployed less than a hundred meters away from the Indian soldiers, and then fired terrifying shotgun shells in the smoke and fire.

The overwhelming bombardment of bullets made the Indian officers and soldiers feel like they were falling into a bloody hell.

Just now, when they saw the war elephant team coming, the Indian officers and soldiers, whose confidence had suddenly been restored, were all stunned. They couldn't beat the elephants, so they came to fight us?
Isn't this bullying the honest person?

Wu Dafei suddenly received a report from his adjutant, "Captain, the headquarters has sent an order."

He took it and looked at it, his face changed, and he couldn't help cursing: "Chop off your head at the cost of time!"

Wu Dafei received the report and immediately ordered: "The whole regiment turns left, continues the attack, occupies the hill, and directly attacks the second line of defense of the Tianzhu Army.

The 3rd Infantry Regiment was on the right wing of the 1st Artillery Regiment, which was also the rightmost wing of the Ming army's offensive formation, facing the leftmost wing of the anti-Ming coalition forces.

Under Wu Dafei's command, the 3rd Infantry Regiment quickly turned around, broke through the first line of defense of the anti-Ming coalition forces that had already collapsed, and rushed obliquely towards the hill.

But in Gurta's opinion, the Ming army's infantry was retreating. In less than ten minutes, the area two or three kilometers in front of his war elephant team was suddenly empty.

Gurta was overjoyed!
Thanks to God, the Ming army was afraid of the power of their own war elephant team and all ran away.

The goddess of victory is waving in front of me, but I will not chase after the defeated army. I will lead the war elephant team to attack the center of the Ming army and end this war once and for all!
"Blow the horn, the War Elephants attack!"

The trumpets sounded, and nearly a thousand war elephants, controlled by elephant slaves, raised their trunks and let out long cries of victory that spread throughout the battlefield!

(End of this chapter)