When he set out from King's Landing, Aegor thought this Western Expedition would simply be a steady push forward, but who knew it would ultimately fall into a dangerous situation from which it would be difficult to escape without resorting to an extraordinary plan.
As a modern man from a peaceful environment without supernatural beings, he was neither versed in meteorology nor skilled in mystical arts, and even his knowledge of military texts was limited to popular versions written by contemporaries.
He could not predict the wind's direction. He was not brave enough to lead from the front, nor did he possess the legendary "commanding talent."
But achieving victory did not necessarily rely on these abnormal cheats or abilities. Good observation and memory, coupled with occasional flashes of inspiration, could achieve remarkable feats if the time and place were right.
Westeros was currently in the brief spring between winter and summer, and the wind direction and strength had been very stable for several consecutive days. Yesterday, when bombarding the Reach cavalry vanguard, Aegor noticed the phenomenon of the light wind blowing the gunpowder smoke toward the enemy lines. At first, he did not think much of it, merely regretting that it was only smoke and not poison gas, barely enough to choke someone, let alone blind them. He had not developed any biological or chemical weapons capable of affecting or destroying the enemy's combat power earlier.
However, when the enemy vanguard suddenly collapsed yesterday, leaving behind a chaotic retreat, Aegor looked at the large piles of messy flags from various Reach houses, and a bold idea suddenly flashed across his mind like lightning.
The Western Expeditionary Army faced the main force of the Reach cavalry from east to west, and the east wind blew the gunpowder smoke between the two armies. It just happened to cover the empty space that the two sides were temporarily using for confrontation and were about to fight over. Since the smoke could affect the infantry of both sides as they observed each other, it would naturally also interfere with the Reach cavalry, who were farther away at the edge of the field of vision, from grasping the battlefield situation. Based on this interference, send soldiers to hold up enemy flags high, and have the entire army loudly shout to kill...
The enemy wanted to trap the Western Expeditionary Army in an iron barrel. This move could not be countered, only broken. What Aegor intended to do was to exploit the inherent weakness of this iron barrel being too large and unable to communicate quickly and effectively in all directions, using acting as a tactical deception to induce one of the encircling units to attack first, thereby causing the entire iron barrel to collapse.
Whether it was deliberately pushing the front line forward earlier, or using various methods, including but not limited to increasing the charge quantity during the last round of bombardment to create a huge smoke cloud, it was ultimately for one goal: to make the Reach cavalry, who were observing the battlefield from a greater distance, mistakenly believe that infantry engagement had already erupted.
...
Amidst the long and short, high and low sounds of various organizational, mobilization, and charge signals, the largest cavalry charge in the history of Westeros began, lured out by the enemy.
The Reach cavalry had always advanced alongside Daenerys's army at the edge of sight. Because the rolling speed of the trapezoidal formation was not fast, the pressure on the troops during the march was quite small. And because Garlan Tyrell had strictly emphasized the requirement that the entire army maintain a state of readiness at all times, when they were finally ordered to attack, almost the entire army instantly switched to combat horses, emerging uniformly from behind the low dirt slopes and hills.
To avoid being harvested by artillery fire, the Reach cavalry adopted an unprecedentedly wide and loose formation, with at least three to four meters separating each man and horse. Each wave consisted of about five to six thousand men, divided into three major waves, with a gap of over a hundred meters between successive groups. Excluding the few thousand who had spread out to form a scout screen, the remaining ten thousand cavalry, although not overwhelmingly superior in number, still appeared from a distance like mercury spilling across the entire southern landscape, filling the whole field of vision in an instant as they charged toward the top edge of the trapezoidal formation like three tsunamis.
When they entered the field of vision of Daenerys's army, the Reach cavalry had already completed the alignment of the starting "slow walk" formation and entered the "quick walk" phase for approaching the battlefield. As the distance shortened, they gradually accelerated to a gallop under the leadership of knights and experienced cavalry officers. The sound of war drums and horns was incessant, and the glint of metal armor and weapons was so dazzling that it was impossible to look directly at. Countless flags fluttered in the wind, and the endless sounds of armor striking armor and hooves hitting the ground, from low to high, from far to near, first struck the eardrums of the infantry in the Western Expeditionary Army's formation. An indescribable sense of solemnity and pressure instantly weighed down on everyone's hearts, causing their hair to stand on end and making it hard to breathe.
Reason told Aegor that he was going to win today. But when he saw through the telescope a wave of pure cavalry, equivalent to half of his total force, spreading out wider than the top edge of the trapezoidal formation, he could not help swallowing and decisively put down the lens to avoid growing dizzy from continuing to look.
It truly was a tough battle.
"Infantry, change to defensive formation. Artillery, prepare for anti-cavalry fire. Cavalry, mount!"
Dense horn and drum sounds, showing no weakness, rang out within Daenerys's army formation. The Western Expeditionary Army also began to make the final adjustments before engagement: the artillery lifted their carriages, turned their muzzles, and nervously began loading grapeshot; the cavalry climbed onto their warhorses, organized their weapons, and prepared for a counter-charge; in the squares on the outer ring of the trapezoidal formation, especially the top edge, the infantry at the right angles began to systematically retreat to avoid being the first to bear the brunt and becoming isolated without support, while the soldiers in the last two ranks quickly rushed into the gaps between the squares under the leadership of their officers to fill the openings. Soon, the sawtooth trapezoid composed of nine large squares roughly transformed into a whole that, while barely discernible in its original shape, now looked more like a smooth semicircle.
Both the Western Expeditionary Army and the Reach cavalry mustered all their fighting will and prepared for a desperate struggle, while to the west, separated by a cloud of smoke, in the hidden command post of the Reach army infantry, several great nobles were in a state of chaos.
They had envisioned countless possible counterattack and stubborn resistance strategies the enemy might employ, but even in their wildest imaginings, no one had guessed that the Western Expeditionary Army would use smoke concealment and a feigned charge to lure their cavalry onto the hook.
"Garlan... What is Garlan, this child, doing?"
"He is launching a cavalry charge!" Jon Connington's sharp cry interrupted the meaningless rambling of the distraught Lord of Highgarden. How he wished their cavalry commander could see through the enemy's trick at a glance, but now that the deed was done, they could only try to make amends. "At this moment, not even the Seven can rein in his horse. All we can do is turn this mistake into an opportunity and order the infantry on the north and south flanks to also launch a full-scale attack to support him. Otherwise, once Aegor devours our cavalry, the remaining fifty thousand-plus infantry will truly have to stretch out their necks and wait to be slaughtered. Your Grace, please make a decision!"
Aegon, with his fair, youthful face and heroic demeanor, could not hide his panic under the gaze of his two main followers. Having been raised and educated by a complete team, he was well-informed and strategically minded, by no means a mere puppet to be played with, but the enemy's cunning and insidiousness far exceeded his imagination. In front of the Night's Watchman who was said to have saved the Seven Kingdoms, he, who had been trained to be a perfect King, actually appeared so much like a foolish boy.
Pulled back to reality by a shout from his Hand, he was momentarily confused before regaining his composure: "Order... the entire army to attack!"
"In a frontal engagement, we are likely no match for that Night's Watchman." This was his intuition, and as for why, Harry could not say. After all, the Reach cavalry leading the charge this time were also quite elite and prepared to face gunpowder weapons. The Golden Company commander mustered his courage and suggested, "Scouts for dozens of miles around have not reported seeing Daenerys and her dragon. We cannot let the Dragon Hunting Ballistae and the hundreds of elite soldiers controlling them watch idly. Please, Your Grace, order the anti-air units to switch to ground attack only, and use them as infantry cover during the charge."
The Dragon Hunting Ballistae needed to be pushed to the very front line to reach Daenerys's soldiers, and loading and cocking them also took time, with adjusting from anti-air to ground attack taking at least half a minute. Using them against enemy infantry was actually a considerable risk, but facing such an unbelievably disadvantageous situation, the young King realized that they probably had to do everything in their power to have any hope of turning the tide.
Without waiting for anyone to raise objections, he nodded and waved his hand. "Agreed. Send someone to deliver the order immediately!"
(To be continued.)