China has had a tradition of driving beasts into battle since ancient times. The earliest battle that drove wild beasts into battle was recorded in the annals of history - the battle between the Yellow Emperor and Yan Emperor for the Central Plains - the Battle of Banquan. According to "Liezi Huangdi": "The Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor fought in the wilderness of Banquan, with handsome bears, wolves, leopards, tigers as the vanguard, and eagles, eagles, eagles, and kites as flags." Natural advantages: Herbivores are instinctively afraid of carnivores, and the roars and roars of beasts will frighten war horses and cause chaos in the opponent's formation. Third, animals are generally larger than humans. When they run wildly, they are like a group of unstoppable tanks. Not only are they powerful, but they will also trample the opponent's horses, especially large animals such as elephants and cattle.
So here comes the question: Since there are so many benefits to driving beasts into battle, why don’t many beasts become an independent branch like horses? There are also very few records of fighting beasts? Let’s take a look at the disadvantages of beast warfare through the top ten beast-driving battles in history.
1. The Battle of Banquan - Panda
The Battle of Banquan was a battle that broke out more than 5,000 years ago between our ancestors, the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor. In the end, the Yan Emperor was defeated, and the Yellow Emperor unified the Central Plains, realizing the first great unification of the Chinese nation. The tribes of Huangdi and Yandi merged into one, and the descendants of Yan and Huang were born.
According to many historical records such as "Historical Records of the Five Emperors" and "Liezi Huangdi", a large part of the reason why Huangdi was able to defeat Emperor Yan was because Huangdi raised tigers, leopards, bears, Pixiu (the giant panda was called Pixiu at that time) and other beasts, and let them charge into battle. The roar of tigers and leopards was heard on the battlefield for a while, and Huangdi defeated Yandi.
It is easy to understand that tigers, leopards, bears and other fierce beasts are used in combat, but what kind of combat effectiveness can a "good baby" like a panda have? If you think so, you are completely deceived by the giant panda’s “honest” appearance. The panda is about the same size as the Asian black bear, and its bite force is second only to polar bears and brown bears in the bear family. In ancient times, pandas were also called "iron-biting beasts." Dongfang Shuo's "Shenyi Jing" said: "There is a beast in the south, and its name is iron-biting." Therefore, in terms of combat effectiveness, pandas are second only to polar bears, brown bears and American black bears . In the panda's habitat, adult pandas have no natural enemies at all, and even leopards are not their opponents.
Therefore, the later Xia and Shang dynasties had official institutions that specialized in training pandas as battlefield killers. However, by the Western Zhou Dynasty, probably due to the decrease in the number of pandas, there were no records of panda combat.
2. The Battle of Jimo - Fire Ox
After the tiger, leopard and panda, fighting with cattle has appeared on the stage of history. There are three cases recorded in the history books, among which the "Fire Ox Formation" of the famous Qi general Tian Dan during the Warring States Period is the most famous.
During the reign of King Qi Min, Qi's national power reached its peak. As a result, King Qi Min became carried away and conquered everywhere. The Qi army first defeated the Chu State at Chuisha, then broke through the Qin State Hangu Pass , and finally occupied the Song State. King Qi Min's series of combined punches not only failed to frighten the other countries, but instead attracted the five countries to attack Qi.
Qi State lost cities and territory one after another, and in the end only two cities were left in Ju County and Jimo. Seeing that something was not going well, King Qi Min fled to Wei State for refuge. Later, King Min of Qi, who could not change his behavior, was driven out by Qi State because he showed off his power and arrogance in Wei State. Other small countries were unwilling to take him in, so he had to return to Jimo. At this time, Chu State sent troops again, which was called aid but was actually an attack. Chu general Nao Chi brutally killed King Min of Qi in Jimo, and Qi State was on the verge of subjugation.
At this time Tian Dan, the hero of Qi, appeared. At that time, he was leading his tribe to flee to Jimo and was elected as the city guard.Tian Dan led the entire army and people in Jimo to resist, and the two sides fought for five years. Le Yi failed to attack by force, so he switched to an encirclement strategy.
Tian Dan knew that if he continued like this, Da Qi would be destroyed sooner or later, so he first used to counterattack , and asked King Yan Hui to change generals in front of the formation, replacing Le Yi with Qi Jie, and then used the Fire Bull Formation to reverse the situation.
In 279 BC, Tian Danxiang pretended to surrender by cavalry and paralyzed them. He also used more than a thousand cattle at night, tied swords to their horns, tied reeds to their tails and filled them with oil. They lit them with fire and charged at the Yan army. Five thousand warriors then rushed to kill the Yan army, defeating the Yan army and killing cavalry. Tian Dan took advantage of the victory and conquered more than 70 cities in a row, turning the tide of the war in one fell swoop.
Tian Danai collected more than a thousand cattle from the city, made them into silk clothes, painted them with dragon inscriptions in five colors, tied weapons to their horns, filled them with fat, tied reeds to their tails, and burned their ends. Dozens of caves were drilled into the city, and oxen were ridden at night, followed by five thousand strong men. The cow's tail was hot and it ran towards the Yan army in anger. The Yan army was frightened at night. The ox-tailed torches showed off brightly, and the Yan army regarded them as dragons, and all those who touched them were killed or injured. ...The Yan army was horrified and defeated.
"Historical Records·Tian Dan Biography"
3. Battle of Kunyang - Tiger and Leopard
In addition to the Battle of Banquan, tigers leopards are used in battles. There is another incident that is seen in official history, and that is Liu Xiu's Battle of Gods - the Battle of Kunyang.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and established a new new dynasty. There were uprisings in various places and the world was in chaos. After the Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu took advantage of the situation and raised troops in Nanyang County. After winning several battles, the rebel army grew to more than 9,000 people.
Soon, Wang Mang mobilized an army of 430,000, led by Grand Sikong Wangyi to Kunyang to annihilate the rebels. At the same time, Wang Mang's newly recruited "animal taming expert" Big Mac led the army. The army of beasts was also among them, "sometimes there were giant men, one foot long and ten meters wide, who served as base captains; they also drove wild beasts such as tigers, leopards, rhinoceros, and elephants to support their power." So when this beast army arrived at the foot of Kunyang City, the rebels in the city were already frightened before the battle began.
Faced with this situation, Liu Xiu, who had insufficient troops himself, took 13 people out of the city overnight in order to boost morale. Finally, he brought in 10,000 reinforcements and relied on the geographical advantages of the deep ditch and fortified city to deal with Wang Mang's army.
However, the difference in strength was too big, and Liu Xiu was still unable to save himself. On the eve of the imperial army preparing to siege the city and capture Kunyang in one fell swoop. A miracle happened. God suddenly changed his face. First, black clouds shrouded the place, then strong winds sprang up, heavy rain fell, and a large number of meteorites were seen hitting Wang Mang's military camp.
According to the "Book of the Later Han·Guangwu Emperor Ji", "There will be strong thunder and wind, the roof tiles will fly, the rain will fall like drops, the Kuan River will overflow, and meteors will fall into the camp. During the day, there will be clouds like bad mountains, and the camp will fall." In the face of such a natural disaster, the giant beast army collapsed directly, and the frightened beasts first shivered in fear. Shaking, "the tigers and the leopards all fought", then turned around and ran around, trampling on each other and "racing", so the Mang soldiers were defeated, "the soldiers rushed in, tens of thousands of people drowned, and the water could not flow."
Liu Xiu also spread rumors that this was an unkind punishment from heaven, and Wang Mang would die. The ancients were superstitious and believed this vision to be true. As a result, the morale of the rebel army was greatly boosted. Liu Xiu took the opportunity to fight out of Kunyang City and won a great victory.
After this battle, the strange giant never appeared in the history books again. It was probably torn into pieces by an out-of-control beast! As the saying goes, "Those who are good at shooting die from arrows, and those who are good at swimming die from water." Big Mac was good at taming animals and died of wild beasts, which is considered a worthy death!
Perhaps the death of Big Mac led to the loss of animal training skills. There are no records of tigers and leopards being used in combat in history books.
4. The Battle of Taiyuan - Fire Bull
The Battle of Taiyuan was one of the four key battles in the Tang Dynasty to put down the Anshi Rebellion. In this battle, the Tang Army's commander Li Guangbi imitated Tian Dan and used the "Fire Bull Formation" at the last moment of the battle.
Li Guangbi used these old, weak and disabled soldiers to stage strategies and tactics such as "clever use of adobe to defend the city", "elusive tunnel warfare", and "mare abduction strategy" (for details, see "Li Guangbi's The Battle of Taiyuan - The Ultimate in the Art of Defending the City!" (Article), and he held on for nearly two months. It was not until Shi Siming was recalled to Fan Yang by the new king of Yan, An Qingxu, that Li Guangbi used his ultimate move - the Fire Ox Formation.
At that time, not only Shi Siming returned to Fanyang, but Gao Xiuyan and Niu Tingjie, who had attacked Taiyuan together, also returned to Datong and Anyang respectively, leaving only Cai Xide's 70,000 troops to continue attacking Taiyuan. So Li Guangbi realized that the time had come for the Tang army to counterattack.
On this day, Li Guangbi ordered people to take more than two hundred oxen out for a walk, and told them to feed them well. At dusk, Li Guangbi suddenly sent an order to raise the account to discuss matters. After all the generals arrived, Li Guangbi said: "Tonight is the day to break the enemy's siege and relieve the siege. You must act according to the order, otherwise military law will be ruthless." All the generals responded to the order in unison.
At the second watch, the Tang army left the city in four groups, each with 500 elite soldiers and fifty oxen. According to Li Guangbi's instructions, the Tang army tied oil-soaked rags to the tails of the oxen and tied sharp knives to the horns. At the third watch, a fire was set off at the top of the city as a signal, and the four Tang troops lit the tails of oxen together. The cattle were burned until they mooed and rushed towards the enemy camp like crazy. The Tang troops then covered them up and killed them.
Before the sleepy-eyed rebels understood what was going on, they were trampled to death by the scurrying fire oxen. The rebels who managed to escape were also killed by the Tang army. Although Cai Xide was brave, he was unable to save himself at this time. After this battle, the rebels suffered 60,000 casualties. Cai Xide only led more than a thousand remnants to escape back to Jingxing.
The siege of Taiyuan for more than fifty days has been completely lifted. The Anshi rebels also turned from strong to weak, and were not far from defeat.
Elephant soldiers
China has had elephants since ancient times, so using elephants as soldiers is nothing new. For example, "Zuo Zhuan" records that in the Spring and Autumn Battle between Wu and Chu, the Chu army used the tactic of setting fire to the tails of elephants and rushing into the enemy's formation. It is also recorded in " Lu's Spring and Autumn " that "when King Cheng was established, the people of Yin rebelled, and the king ordered Duke Zhou to attack them.
Compared with animals such as tigers, leopards, pandas, and cows, elephants are undoubtedly smarter and easier to control. Therefore, after other animals were used in combat and withdrew from the stage of history, elephant soldiers continued to dominate for thousands of years. There are no less than ten records of elephants being used in combat in history. We choose them. Let’s take a look at the most famous ones:
Five, the Battle of the Southern Han Dynasty in the Song Dynasty
In September of the third year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin sent Pan Mei to lead an army to conquer the Southern Han Dynasty. After the war began, it was unstoppable and went to Hezhou, Zhaozhou, Guizhou and Lianzhou. The whole country of the Southern Han Dynasty was shocked. However, there was one person who was not in a hurry. This person was the last emperor of the Southern Han Dynasty Liu Yu. Liu Yuan's calmness was not because he had the demeanor of a general who remained calm despite the collapse of Mount Tai, but because he thought he could sit back and relax with the "elephant soldiers" escorting him.
Although the Southern Han Dynasty was a small and weak country, surrounded by tigers and wolves, it still maintained a strong army, that is, the elephant army: The Southern Han Dynasty was located in the south, so elephants were native to the country. In addition, its neighboring countries Dali, Annan, and Myanmar were rich in elephants, and they had always had a tradition of capturing and training war elephants for combat. The Southern Han Dynasty spent a lot of money to purchase a large number of war elephants from these countries, and then followed suit and formed an elephant army. According to post-war statistics, there were as many as a thousand war elephants in the Southern Han Dynasty at that time.
According to records, the war elephants of the Southern Han Dynasty are extremely tough, with heavy armor all over their bodies. The elephant's head is protected by a steel plate, and even its long nose is protected by chain armor . The elephant's back is a three-story tower made of thick wooden boards and wrapped with iron armor. The first floor is for the driver, the second floor is for combatants, with 4 to 6 crossbowmen, and the third floor is for observers. In addition, the elephant soldiers are surrounded by infantry auxiliaries. They hold contradictions and carry crossbows and on their backs to provide cooperation and protection. A war elephant is a moving fortress, intimidating to its opponents.
So, Liu Yun does have confidence.
The "indestructible" elephant array really gave the Song Army a headache at first, but Pan Mei adopted a fire attack after consulting the locals. The Song Army first used heavy-duty ballistae to violently bombard the elephant array with salvos, and then countless crossbowmen The rockets were fired, and these two attacks caused chaos in the elephant army of the Southern Han Dynasty. The frightened elephants were beyond human control. Most of the war elephants turned around and ran wildly. The soldiers of the Southern Han Dynasty were knocked upside down, and were trampled to pulp by their own elephants before they even saw their opponents. The Xiang soldiers were defeated, and the Southern Han Dynasty was not far from defeat.
6. The war of annihilation between the Southern Song Dynasty and Linyi
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, in what is now southern Vietnam, a country named Linyi gradually emerged. From the beginning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Lin Yiguo continued to harass the Chinese border, causing heavy casualties.
According to the records of " Zizhi Tongjian", Lin Yi would attack Jiuzhen County and Rinan County in the Eastern Jin Dynasty every once in a while. Because of the remoteness of these counties, it was difficult to stop their attacks. As long as the city was broken, the people of Linyi would go on a killing spree. Records such as "five or six thousand soldiers died" and "eighty-nine soldiers and civilians were killed" can be seen everywhere in the history books of this period.
During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Southern Dynasties Liu Yilong, the relationship between China and Linyi deteriorated sharply. Linyi King Fan Yangmai led his troops to invade the border many times and killed countless people. So Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty decided to teach these hateful " southern barbarians " a lesson. The famous general Zongqi of the Southern Dynasties (the idiom "ride the wind and waves" comes from him) volunteered to fight for the country against the enemy.
In this way, Zong Xi led the southern expedition army, braving the scorching heat and plague, to kill Linyi. When Fan Yangmai heard that the Song army was approaching, he hurriedly asked Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty for peace and promised to compensate Liu Song 10,000 catties of gold and 100,000 catties of silver. But behind the scenes, Lin Yi was actively preparing for war. The so-called surrender with compensation was just a delaying tactic.
However, Zong Xi soon saw through Fan Yangmai's trick. He defeated the enemy many times and soon arrived at the royal city of Linyi Kingdom. Fan Yangmai saw that his country was about to perish, so he resorted to his last resort - the war elephant. Linyi State is located in a tropical area and is rich in elephants. But this time, Lin Yi came to war with all his country, and almost all the war elephants were dispatched. The history books record that "(the war elephants) are boundless before and after." Not only that, Fan Yangmai also spent a lot of money to put armor on all the war elephants.
Faced with such a powerful enemy, the well-informed Zongtou was not afraid at all. He said to his subordinates: "I heard that there are lions in foreign countries, which can subdue all beasts. Elephants must be afraid of them." Therefore, Zongtou decided to "use animals to control animals" and use lions to subdue elephants. But in the jungles of Southeast Asia, only Javanese tigers can be caught, and there are no lions at all.
However, this did not trouble Zongqi. He ordered his men to cut down the trees on the spot and use the wood to create a batch of lifelike lion models. When they arrived at the battlefield, Zongtou placed the wooden lions in front of the battle array. When the elephants saw them, they howled and ran away, refusing to look back no matter how hard their drivers whipped them. So the war elephants overwhelmed Lin Yi's infantry formation, and Lin Yi was defeated without a fight. Later, Zong Tie invaded the capital of Lin Yi and plundered countless treasures, which was regarded as revenge for Lin Yi's repeated invasions.
Fan Yangmai, the king of Linyi, came and refused. He pretended to be an elephant and had no front or rear, so he could not be a soldier. Chou said: "I heard that the lion subdued all the beasts", so he made his shape and the elephant to fight with each other. The elephant fruit frightened the crowd, and because of the collapse, he went to the city to collect the rare treasures and miscellaneous things.
- "Book of Song Zongqi Biography"
7. Deng Zilong Intelligently defeated the Burmese Elephant Formation
Speaking of the ability to break the "Elephant Formation", there is no one more capable than the Ming Dynasty general Deng Zilong.
In 1583, Deng Zilong was appointed as the Yunnan Yongchang Guard General and led his troops to fight back against the Burmese invading army that invaded Yunnan. At that time, the Burmese army relied on 100,000 troops, especially its trump card, the invincible "Elephant Soldiers", to cause harm to the people of Yunnan and endanger the rule of the Ming Dynasty government in Yunnan.
After Deng Zilong took office, he was not eager to start a war with the Burmese army because he had not yet figured out a good strategy to deal with the "elephant soldiers". A month later, after hard thinking and planning, Deng Zilong decided to lure the Burmese army into a narrow valley to contain its "elephant soldiers".
At this time, the Burmese army was planning to "false surrender of Chiang Kai-shek", so Deng Zilong took advantage of the plan and asked "Chiang Gan to steal the book". He deliberately made the soldiers appear disorganized and war-weary, and also let "Chiang Gan" see that the Ming army's weapons were not sophisticated and the troops were insufficient, and then he pretended to be asleep, allowing "Chiang Gan" to leave peacefully.
After hearing "Chiang Qian's" report, the Burmese army commander was overjoyed and immediately sent out "elephant soldiers" and infantry to attack Deng's camp with great force and confidence. Unexpectedly, Deng Zilong had already set up ambushes at the entrance of the valley and on both sides of the narrow road. As soon as the enemy troops arrived, they fired all fire crossbows and rained sharp arrows... In an instant, the "elephant soldiers" were in chaos.
At this moment, Deng Zilong's ambush soldiers suddenly jumped out, armed with swords and spears, and slashed at the long elephant trunk. The elephants whose trunks were cut off screamed and ran around, colliding with the cavalry, causing them to fall on their backs. Before the infantrymen who followed could realize what they were doing, they were trampled to pieces by the fleeing "elephant soldiers" and cavalry. At this time, Deng Zilong led a large force to rush over again, and the invading Burmese army was completely defeated.
Later, Deng Zilong led his troops in a fierce battle in Panzhihua, killing the traitor Mubangbu Hanqian, and all the invading Burmese troops surrendered. This heroic battle to defend the motherland's borders ended with a great victory for the Ming army.
8. The Battle of Hengzhou between the Manchu and Qing Dynasties and The Southern Ming The Battle of Hengzhou
When the Ming Dynasty fell in the early Qing Dynasty, the Qing army went south, and Emperor Yongli fled all the way to Nanning.
At this time, Daxi Army , which had been operating in Yunnan for two years, extended a helping hand. Sun Kewang took the initiative to contact Emperor Yongli, accepted the recruitment, and fought against the Qing Dynasty together. Sun Kewang then completed the reorganization of the remaining armed forces of the Yongli court and led his army in the Northern Expedition in March 1652. Funan General Liu Wenxiu sent troops out of Sichuan, and Anxi General Li Dingguo counterattacked Huguang .
Benefited from its previous management of Yunnan, the Daxi army was well-fed, and its strength was unstoppable at the first try, and it soon conquered Guizhou and most of Sichuan. Liu Wenxiu defeated Wu Sangui troops, captured Wu Army general Bai Hanzhen in the Battle of Xuzhou, and compressed his main force to Baoning City. And Li Dingguo was even more brilliant. He marched to Yuanzhou in March, defeated more than 5,000 Zhang Guozhu's men in May, and recovered most of the prefectures and counties in Hunan.
Dingnan King Kong Youde, who was in charge of Guilin, became Li Dingguo's next target. In order to eliminate Kong Youde, Li Dingguo first took strict measures to block Guilin's road to Hunan, and then personally led the main force to conquer the whole state, removed the barrier of Guilin, and then rushed to Guilin.
In June, Kong Youde personally led the elite troops in Guilin to attack the Great Western Army. In order to boost morale, Kong Youde flaunted his life story to his subordinates, "Wang Gupan was so proud that he kept his promises." His arrogance was beyond words. However, after the war broke out, Li Dingguo used fifty elephants to form an elephant formation to disrupt the Kong army's formation. "The troops were at the front of the elephant formation before they were engaged, and the strong soldiers were surrounded by mountains. The dust and sand blocked the sun. When the horses heard the roar of the elephants, they all turned upside down. The virtuous people rushed to cover up the defeat." The elite of Kong's army was killed in one battle, and "the floating corpses covered the bottom of the river." Kong Youde's liver and gallbladder were split and he ran back to Guilin in embarrassment.
In July, the Ming army attacked from both inside and outside, broke through Wusheng Gate, and entered Guilin City. Kong Youde became mad in despair, killed his concubine with his own hands, gathered the treasures he had collected over the years in a room, and then set himself on fire.
The Ming army's successive victories greatly shocked the Qing court. Shunzhi appointed Nurhaci's grandson Prince Nikan of Heshuo Jingjin as General Dingyuan, commanding a total of 100,000 Manchu and Han elite troops to go south.
The Qing army was coming with force, but Li Dingguo was in a bad situation. Due to the constraints of other battlefields, he only had 40,000 to 50,000 troops on hand. However, Li Dingguo was not afraid. When he saw the Qing army coming from afar, he ordered an assault before they could form a formation. However, the strength gap between the two sides was too great. Even if the famous elephant soldiers joined, the Ming army was still repulsed. The good news from the Qing court was: "We got four elephants and eight hundred and twenty horses, and defeated about 40,000 bandit soldiers."
However, Li Dingguo, known as "Little Yuchi", was not discouraged. After carefully analyzing the battle situation that day, he immediately formulated the tactics of luring the enemy deep and dividing and encircling him.
Soon after the battle began the next day, the Ming army prepared detailed equipment. Defeated. Nikan suspected of being deceived, so he ordered Tun Qi to command the main force, while he personally led 5,000 elite troops to pursue the "remnant enemy". Seeing that he was getting farther and farther away from the main force, the Ming army suddenly ambushed and cut off Nikan's troops. Nikan himself was very brave and shouted, "There is no one who can retreat from the enemy. I am a clan member. If I retreat, what will happen to me?" "He rushed left and right in the Ming army formation, trying to break through the siege, but was gradually compressed by the Ming army and forced into a quagmire. The Ming army knew that a big shot was surrounded, so they all moved forward bravely. Nikan's personal guards were killed one by one, and he himself was also surrounded and killed by the Ming army. .
In this battle, the Ming army wiped out fifteen senior generals of the third rank or above of the Qing army, and all Nikan's troops were wiped out. Emperor Shunzhi lamented: "I have never lost anything like this in my military use. "
Within ten months, Li Dingguo first defeated Kong Youde, King of Dingnan, and then Nikan, Prince Jingjin. It is known in history as " Li Dingguo defeated the famous king twice".
However, this was also Li Dingguo's last confrontation. A large-scale victory for the Qing army. In another decisive battle with the Qing army, the Qing army used red cannons, but the elephant soldiers were ultimately defeated.
After Li Dingguo died of illness, thousands of his men still refused to surrender. Li Dingguo himself was also killed. MenglaEthnic groups worship him as the rain god, and he is respected and sacrifice by the people.
Of course, in addition to tigers, leopards, bears, elephants, and cows that rely on the considerable combat power of the animals themselves, there are also some weak animals that can also be used in combat, such as monkeys, chickens, etc.
9. Monkey’s meritorious service Qi Jiguang
When Qi Jiguang was conquering Japanese pirates in the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang, he was often troubled by the lack of troops. One day when Qi Jiajun was doing daily drills, Qi Jiguang saw several monkeys watching and some even imitating, so he came up with the strategy of using monkeys instead of soldiers.
Since there were many monkeys in Fujian and Zhejiang at that time, Qi Jiguang asked the soldiers to capture hundreds of monkeys, patiently tame them, and consciously taught them to use firearms . After a while, the monkey Zi can really act according to orders. Later, Qi Jiguang quietly ambushed the soldiers around the enemy camp and asked the monkeys to pick up firearms and rush towards the enemy camp. The Japanese pirates didn't care at all when they saw the monkey. Unexpectedly, upon giving an order, these monkey soldiers actually released their firearms in unison. In the blink of an eye, the Japanese pirates' village was on fire. At this time, the ambushing soldiers took the opportunity to attack, and the Japanese pirates became the target of Qi's army.
"There are many monkeys in Zhushan Mountain in Qing Dynasty, and they live in groups of hundreds. When Qi Shaobao Jiguang was suppressing the Japanese, he stationed troops here. Every time he taught the sergeants to set off firearms and learn them by sniping, he ordered the sergeants to capture hundreds of them, raise them well, and still made them learn to use firearms as a normal thing. When the thieves arrive, they ambush their troops in the valley, and then let a group of snipers break into their camp. The thieves are not in danger. After a while, firearms and weapons were fired, and thunder shook the ground. The thieves were so frightened that they laid down and annihilated them. "
——Xie Zhaozhe's "Wuzazu" of the Ming Dynasty
10. Jiang Kui, the turkey who won the victory
In 353 AD, the Qiang Yao Xiang betrayed the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and Jiang Kui, the general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was ordered to quell the rebellion. However, the Qiang troops were numerous and powerful, making it difficult for the Jin army to win. Jiang Kui then ordered the soldiers to take hundreds of roosters, tie them with long ropes, and light the oilcloths tied to the chickens in advance. Hundreds of ignited chickens flapped their wings desperately and screamed. Then rush straight into the enemy's stronghold. Suddenly, the Qiang stronghold was filled with flames and thick smoke, and the soldiers were in chaos. The Jin army used the power of fire to charge and kill, and the Qiang army was killed without leaving any trace of armor.
He ordered a hundred soldiers to take the pheasants, each with gunpowder, to the left and right sides of Yao Xiang's camp, light the heart of the fire, release the chickens, and put them into Yao Xiang's stronghold. In a moment, the fire caught fire, and the chickens scattered in panic and flew to Xiang camp, causing a fire in the city. When the fire broke out, the camp was in chaos and killed each other.
——"Secret History of the Two Jin Dynasties"
Looking at the above ten major beast-driving battles, the disadvantages of beast wars are also obvious: First of all, beasts are not humans after all, and they are easily frightened. Whether it is bright fireworks or bad weather, they can attack the beasts. The group creates chaos; secondly, the beast-driving battle is a double-edged sword, which can kill the enemy and injure oneself, and the probability of self-injury is very high; thirdly, the beast-driving battle can only be used by surprise, and can only be used once.
Finally, it is not humane to drive wild beasts to fight. Although soldiers are also injured in fighting, after all, it is a war started by humans, and they are themselves to blame. Human beings make animals share the blame for wars. How can animals deserve it?
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