After settling down his subordinates, Xiao Ruxun began to have a military meeting with King Narexuan.
The content of the military meeting was very simple. It was to discuss how to fight against Myanmar, the coordination of the two armies, logistics, and other issues. If these issues were not discussed in advance, it would be very troublesome later. In Xiao Ruxun's strategy, Siamese had nothing to do with it at the beginning. It was Siamese who wanted to join in and help the Ming Army. Xiao Ruxun couldn't refuse. After all, they were also a group of people, and their combat power wasn't weak.
The scale of the military meeting was very small. It was mainly a one-on-one discussion between Narexuan and Xiao Ruxun. The rest were Xiao Ruxun's personal generals and Lin Yuanshan. They were probably discussing logistics. King Narexuan hung up a map, describing his position and the state of Myanmar very clearly.
"If it is a war to destroy the country, according to the judgment of my advisors, Mang Yingli can come up with about 300,000 troops. However, this number is very controversial even in our country. Not to mention whether Mang Yingli can afford the military expenses, it is also a problem whether he can mobilize so many people. I have lived in Mang Yinglong's palace before, so I am more familiar with them. The population of their country is estimated to be about three million.
Based on this number of people, an army of three hundred thousand would be the limit. Beyond this number, they would probably have to include the elderly and children. Of these three hundred thousand, almost all of their young men were included. Among them, there were only about one hundred thousand elite troops, including the most elite elephant soldiers, cavalry, and flintlock soldiers. The rest were only pikemen, swordsmen, shield soldiers, and archers.
Right, among these three hundred thousand people, there was a considerable portion of odd-job workers. These odd-job workers were equivalent to the slaves of the main force, and their job was to serve the main force. Some of them were recruited, and some of them were captives that they had captured during their previous campaigns to quell rebellions. Usually, they did some menial work, such as washing clothes and cooking, but when it came to a critical juncture, they would each be dragged onto the battlefield with a knife, and there would be a team of flintlocks supervising the battle. Mang Yinglong often did this.
But strictly speaking, these odd-job soldiers cannot be used as the main force. Once the main force is defeated, these odd-job soldiers will run faster than anyone else, so the number of soldiers that can truly threaten us is only a hundred thousand or so. The rest are just a motley crew, they do not pose any threat to us. So from this point, the celestial soldiers have thirty thousand, our army fifty thousand, added together, there are eighty thousand. Against the Mang Ying Li, we are not at a disadvantage. In terms of numbers, we are not at a disadvantage. "
Xiao Ruxun had his own views on this.
"However, we can't just ignore the remaining hundreds of thousands of people. After all, they are organized, and they are much stronger than the scattered soldiers. Even if there were hundreds of thousands of pigs, it would take us time to kill them, let alone hundreds of thousands of people. If we really push them too far, they can bring us a lot of trouble. So, not only do we have to defeat the main force of Mang Yingli, we also have to defeat the odd-job workers.
If possible, we can capture a large number of them. After all, they are young and strong. They are stronger than the elderly and children. We can't give Mang Yingli a chance to expand his army. Moreover, I heard that the King's Army and the Cave Martial Bandits are very good at riding elephants. Is that true? "
Narexuan nodded and said, "What the Admiral said is correct. Our army and Mang Yingli's army have their own elephant army. It is the strongest army apart from firearms. Elephants are tall and have a majestic aura. After being tamed, they can charge into the enemy's formation. We can give the elephants strong enough armor. Even the elephant's trunk can be covered with armor. It can even defend against the bullets of firearms. The elephants' fighting strength will greatly increase."
Speaking of war elephants, King Narexuan seemed very confident.
"In other words, the King's war elephants and Mang Yingli's war elephants are used to the sound of firearms. They won't be frightened by the sound of firearms and will run away?"
Narexuan nodded. "In the past, we would use war elephants and firearms to fight together. After many battles, the war elephants won't be frightened by the sound of firearms. Even cannons won't be frightened. Moreover, elephants have thick skin and flesh. Ordinary firearms can't hurt a war elephant at all."
"Even Francs cannons won't work?"
Xiao Ruxun asked. Narexuan was stunned for a moment and then said, "Unless many cannons fire at a war elephant at the same time, we can't say whether the cannons can hit the war elephant or not. The speed of the cannons isn't as slow as we think. The cannons can't hit the elephant. Moreover, the firing speed of the cannons is slow. The opponent doesn't only have war elephants. They will also use firearms to open the way for the war elephants. We don't know when they will order the war elephants to attack. Our gunners won't even have time to react.
"Then what should we do?"
"Using war elephants against war elephants. Admiral doesn't have to worry. I have a war elephant troop under my command. They are experienced and powerful. They have fought with Mang Yingli's elephant troops many times. Once Mang Yingli sends out his war elephants, I will also use the war elephants to fight him. Mang Yingli can't threaten my army with war elephants, so Admiral doesn't have to worry."
King Narexuan said this, but Xiao Ruxun didn't think so. If war elephants were as bad * ss as he said, then when Mang Yingli attacked Yunnan with his elephant troops, he wouldn't have been defeated by Deng Zilong. Elephants were indeed powerful and difficult to deal with, but elephants were also very smart animals. Only animals with a certain level of intelligence could be tamed by humans and participate in battles.
Of course, being smart didn't come without a price. For elephants, the price of being smart was being timid. Elephants were huge, but their courage wasn't big. In terms of weight and combat power, elephants were definitely better than a lion, but they were often scared by the lion's roar. They didn't have the courage to fight back. In the West, elephant troops were once dominant, but in China, elephant troops never had any advantage.
In the early years of China's history, because the Yellow River Basin was warm and humid, elephants lived there. Therefore, during the Shang Dynasty, the Central Plains also had elephant troops. Later, as the climate changed, elephant troops became unique to the south. There were also cases of the southern regime using elephant troops to fight against the northern Central Plains regime. However, in front of China, elephant troops had never won. Lin Yi Country used war elephants to fight against the Sui Army, Southern Tang used elephant troops to fight against the Song Army, and Myanmar used elephant troops to fight against the Ming Army.
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