Taiheiki

Chapter 338 The Clever War Elephant

The sound of bugles shattered the silence of dawn. The sun had just risen above the eastern horizon, its pale red rays like outstretched fingers from the clouds. The western sky was still a deep purplish-black, dotted with a few stars. The Funan people scrambled out of their thatched huts, their hair disheveled, cursing and jostling each other; some were clearly drunk. Officers drove them from the camp, using whips and scabbards to help them regain their formation. Behind them, war elephants, driven by their handlers, slowly emerged from the camp, forming two horizontal lines. The heavy thuds of these behemoths shook the ground, and the Funan infantrymen retreated in awe, some even kneeling in prayer.

"My lord, have you heard? These Funan people worship these big creatures as gods!" Yu Wen's deputy laughed. "How foolish, treating wild beasts as deities!"

"Compared to the King of Funan, I think these elephants are more like gods!" Yu Wen sneered. "At least they are indeed incredibly strong!"

"Hehe!" The deputy, who had also participated in last night's military meeting, laughed upon hearing this: "That's true. That King of Funan even claimed to be the incarnation of a god. He's both stupid and foolish. You even used Di Xin to mock him, but how could this guy know who Di Xin was?"

"Actually, I was wrong to say that Di Xin was better than him last night!"

"Huh?" The deputy was taken aback. "Where did I go wrong? This guy's self-important attitude is indeed very much like King Zhou of Shang!"

"Historical records say that Emperor Xin was exceptionally intelligent and possessed superhuman strength. He was wise enough to reject advice and strong enough to wrestle wild beasts with his bare hands. During his reign, he conquered the Eastern Yi and expanded the territory considerably. It is clear that Emperor Xin was merely immoral and cruel, not incompetent. But what about this King of Funan? To compare him to Emperor Xin is truly an insult to Emperor Xin!"

"Hahaha, that's right! Compared to Di Xin, this King of Funan is indeed utterly incompetent!" the deputy laughed. "Then it seems the Funan people are doomed to lose this time!"

"That's not necessarily true. After all, the Funan people have far more war elephants, and in open field battles, the power of war elephants is simply too great!"

"That's true!" the deputy nodded. "So what should we do?"

"Just adapt to the situation!" Yu Wen sneered. "Anyway, whoever it is, they're all pawns of our Han Dynasty!" After saying this, he kicked the reins and began to carefully observe the battlefield. The slope of the high ground facing the Funan people wasn't steep, but it was scattered with many rocks and miscellaneous trees. Near the top, the defenders had erected some wooden fences. As for bamboo skewers or anything like that, he didn't know. Considering that the locals often went barefoot and rarely wore shoes, bamboo skewers would be extremely effective.

"If it were me, I would first place a few war elephants in front. After all, war elephants can only be used for attack. If we want to occupy or seize territory, we still have to rely on infantry!" Yu Wen thought to himself.

As the bronze drums sounded, Yu Wen felt his body tremble and goosebumps rise on his skin. Just as Yu Wen had predicted, the Funan people arranged twelve war elephants in a horizontal line at the front, followed by hordes of infantrymen carrying bows and spears, and began to climb the slope, surging towards the higher ground.

Seemingly in response to the Funan people's war drums, a loud horn sounded from the high ground, and four or five flags of various colors were raised. Yu Wen didn't recognize the foreign script on them, but judging from the patterns, they should represent a tribe or family. Based on his past understanding of the local barbarians, this meant that there were armies of four or five tribes or families on the high ground, which was a considerable number of troops.

As the horns on the high ground gradually faded, they were replaced by stone lions with arrows slicing through the air. Arrows rained down on the heads of the Funan people, hundreds and thousands of them falling in an instant. Many people were hit by arrows and fell to the ground, their shouts turning into wails. Those behind slowed their pace as they saw those in front fall.

The drumbeats quickened again, boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom. The mahouts, seated on the elephants' backs, stabbed the war elephants' necks with spiked clubs, urging their mounts to accelerate. They sat in heavily guarded cages, and arrows struggled to penetrate the elephants' thick hides, only fueling the beasts' rage. They surged up the slopes with astonishing speed, crashing down fences, scattering the defenders behind them, scooping up enemies with their trunks, tossing them into the air, then trampling and stabbing them with their tusks until their victims were mangled beyond recognition. Under the onslaught of these behemoths, the Gou-ting people's defenses at the edge of the highlands crumbled instantly, and the Funan infantry cheered, brandishing their spears as they charged forward.

On the high ground, the remaining Ju-ting people formed a dense crescent formation, their sharp spears pointing outwards like a steel hedgehog with thorns on both sides. Poison crossbowmen hid behind large round rattan shields marked with wild boar insignia, ready for battle. The Funan officers positioned the remaining nine war elephants in a wedge-shaped formation, with infantry on either side engaging them. Faced with the poison crossbow bolts and dense spears, most of the elephants halted their advance at the last moment, circling around. Only one elephant continued forward, charging madly through the shield wall. Instantly, spears thrust from all directions and poison crossbow bolts fired at close range struck it down like a hedgehog, killing its mahout instantly. But the shield wall was also breached by the beast's final struggle, and the Ju-ting people clumsily dodged its dying cries to avoid being killed by its final blow.

However, the Funan people surrounding them failed to seize this rare opportunity, rushing into the breach and tearing the steel hedgehog apart from both inside and out. The opportunity was fleeting; the Gochō people regrouped, their rattan shields reconnecting to form an impenetrable spear, the blood-stained spear tips re-emerging, gleaming with a deadly cold light.

The Funan officers angrily lashed the war elephants that had dodged the spears with leather whips and ordered another attack. But this time the war elephants were smarter. These huge beasts refused to attack their troublesome opponents no matter what, even when their mahouts whipped and spiky clubs, and the war elephants, in pain, even threw their mahouts to the ground and trampled them to death, they still refused to advance.

The helpless Funan officer had no choice but to order the infantry to deal with the final problem. However, this revealed the disparity in combat effectiveness between the two sides. Although the Funan soldiers who had climbed the high ground far outnumbered the Gochō soldiers who were still holding out, they were completely helpless against the enemy's well-organized shield wall and hedgehog-like spears. After four or five assaults, apart from a few hundred more corpses pierced by spearheads on the ground, the casualties suffered by the Gochō soldiers were negligible.

"What's going on? Didn't we already reach the high ground? Why is the battle still not over?"

Because of his lower vantage point, Yu Wen couldn't see what was happening on the high ground. He could only judge from the sound of drums and horns that the battle on the high ground was probably not over yet; in other words, the Funan people hadn't completely taken control of the high ground. But in his view, the most difficult part of capturing the high ground was climbing it. Now that everyone was up there, wasn't the rest just a matter of course?
"Your Excellency, Your Excellency!" The prime minister's servant arrived again: "My master wishes to invite you over!" "It's probably about the battle on the high ground!" Yu Wen thought to himself. He snorted coldly and said to his deputy, "Have our men prepare. I suspect the Funan people have asked for our help!"

The Funan king's banner was perched atop a hill overlooking the battlefield; aside from being a bit far from the battlefield, the location was perfect. As Yu Wen dismounted and ascended the hill, he could hear the Funan king's familiar roar. Although he couldn't understand what the man was saying, he could guess six or seven parts of it.

"You're telling me you can't do it?" King Funan roared, pointing at the kneeling general. "Why not use war elephants to scatter them and crush them!"

“But the war elephants won’t charge!” the kneeling general explained. “These beasts are very clever. When they get close to the spearheads, they will either go around them or refuse to advance. No matter how the elephant handlers beat them, it’s no use!”

"You call this cleverness? This is cowardice!" The Prince of Funan picked up a bunch of lychees and threw them fiercely at his kneeling subordinate. "Is this all the cleverness you have? No wonder your war elephants have become cowardly under your command!"

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the Han envoy has arrived!" the prime minister whispered to the King of Funan, gesturing for the kneeling general to step back. The King of Funan, fuming, turned his head away, pretending not to have seen anything.

"Your Excellency!" The Prime Minister didn't mince words and said with a smile, "There is a group of remnants of the enemy arrayed on the high ground. Our forces have repeatedly failed to break through their defenses. My king wishes to request the intervention of the Heavenly Army of our superior nation to annihilate them! However, I wonder what conditions they would require!"

Yu Wen hadn't expected the prime minister to ask him to state his terms directly, and the excuses he had prepared for him suddenly fell silent: "How many enemy soldiers are on the high ground, and what is the situation?"

"There are no more than five hundred men, and they are forming a battle array with spears and rattan shields. We still can't take it down!" the Funan general hurriedly said.

"Five hundred men, arrayed with shields and spears, is that right?" Yu Wen pondered for a moment: "Seeing is believing. I need to go up and see for myself before making a decision. But let's make this clear first: if I'm to send troops, everyone on the high ground must obey my command."

"Of course!" the prime minister laughed.

"Secondly, these soldiers are my guards. They came with me to protect my safety and have no mission to fight those mountain people. If you want them to fight, you must pay them five taels of gold each! Four hundred men would be two thousand taels of gold! Pay them now!"

"No problem!" Faced with Yu Wen's exorbitant demands, the prime minister readily agreed. Although Funan's civilization was far less advanced than that of ancient China, they possessed one advantage: geographically, they were situated at a crucial midway point on ancient maritime trade routes. While ancient China had a more developed handicraft industry, producing silk—a hard currency favored by almost all ancient civilizations—its location in Northeast Asia made it merely a terminal node in the entire ancient Eurasian-African international trade network. And in commerce, throughout history, middlemen have always earned more than producers. Furthermore, gold is a naturally accepted international currency, so the Funan people, who simply collected taxes, actually possessed a considerable amount of gold.

At the prime minister's command, the slaves brought up dozens of earthenware jars. He casually picked one, smashed it, and inside were gleaming gold ingots: "Each jar contains one hundred taels. There are twenty jars in total. You can count them first!"

"Alright, alright, no need to be gentle!" Under the opponent's golden offensive, Yu Wen's attitude also changed drastically. He gestured for his men to take away the pottery jars and laughed, "Don't worry, old sir, a few hundred mountain barbarians are nothing. Just watch my methods!"

After leaving the Funan people's command post, Yu Wen led his horse and walked towards his guard. He felt as if his feet were walking on cotton balls, stumbling and unsteady.

Even after following Wei Cong and acquiring two estates in Jiaozhi County, and establishing connections with shipyards to enter the timber business, Yu Wen's family fortune was steadily rising. However, he found his pockets increasingly empty—not the kind of empty that came before, where he couldn't afford courtesans, fine horses, fine clothes, or good wine, but the kind of empty that came after, where he couldn't afford slaves, farm tools and machinery for developing his estates, or working capital for his businesses. Despite owning several thousand acres of land and two or three hundred servants and retainers, his ledgers showed hardly a penny. Sometimes, Yu Wen truly didn't understand whether he was rich or poor.

However, having these two thousand taels of gold changed everything. With such a large sum of money, not only would they no longer need to constantly rob Peter to pay Paul, but the two windmills they had been planning to build on the estate could finally begin construction. A large tract of land they had initially acquired was high ground, unsuitable for rice cultivation, but perfect for wheat. Both Panyu and Longbian in Jiaozhi were willing to pay high prices for wheat because the dried wheat cakes were easy to store and essential rations for sailors at sea. If they had windmills and planted wheat on that high ground, grinding it into flour to sell in Longbian and Panyu, their family would have a significant additional income.

As for the soldiers who were about to go into battle, Yu Wen selectively forgot about them. In his view, a reward of five taels of gold per person was far too much. It would only make these soldiers greedy and corrupt. If they had received such a large sum of money, how much more reward would it take to motivate them to risk their lives in the next battle?
So I'll just enjoy these two thousand taels of gold for them! That way I won't have to worry about a lack of funds, and my family's business can reach new heights. Meanwhile, these soldiers can continue to maintain the honest and simple style of Han warriors, and the Funan people will also receive strong support. It's a win-win-win situation for all three parties.

Yu Wen, pleased with his cleverness, arrived at his small army. He summoned his servants and instructed them to take good care of the pottery jars on the mules and horses. Then, he shouted to his soldiers, who were already dressed, "The Funan people are useless. They can't even handle those few hundred barbarians in formation on the high ground. Let's put in a little more effort and finish them off!"

(End of this chapter)