Chapter 230 - Harassment

Seeing that they were about to enter the King's wood, Earl Randyll became obviously vigilant.

He asked the army to stop and rest and then issued an order to summon the noble knights to prepare for a military meeting.

While waiting for the meeting to be held, an unexpected guest came to their army's tent.

"Dickon?" Samwell looked at his brother, who walked in steel armour with a look of shock on his face, "Why did you come here ?"

"Brother!" Dickon shouted happily, "I finally caught up with you! Please allow me to fight with you again!"

Before Samwell could answer, Earl Randyll said with an unkind expression:

"Why didn't you recuperate at home? You were never allowed to participate in this war."

"Father, I... My injuries are all healed!" Dickon replied, but as he spoke, his eyes were fixed on his brother, "I'm ready for battlefield! Please don't let me waste time in the bed."

"Your injuries are really good?" Samwell asked with a smile.

"I'm really good!" Dickon slapped his chest loudly.

"I will ask the accompanying army maester to check you." Earl Randyll obviously did not intend to believe his son so easily.

Moreover, he always felt that his youngest son was not as close to him as before but instead had a fanatism attitude toward Samwell.

This made Earl Randyll feel a little weird.

"Okay, Father." Dickon nodded in agreement, and it looked like he was indeed fine.

Not long after, the Nobles of the Northern Route Army came to the big tent one after another.

Earl Randyll no longer cared about his younger son. He sat on the main seat and turned back into the cold and majestic general.

He began to preside over the meeting and arrange the march and formation.

Samwell stood in the camp, watching Lord Randyll divide the army into small groups, feeling a little confused.

But, of course, he would not raise questions at a military meeting, and he would obviously not do such a stupid thing to challenge the commander's authority.

Moreover, Randyll Tarly, as one of the few famous generals in the Seven Kingdoms, must have his reasons for doing so.

Samwell decided to observe and study first.

He noticed that Earl Randyll divided his troops according to the types of troops.

The infantry was divided into three categories: spearmen, archers, and sword and shield soldiers. Each type of troops was divided into ten to fifteen squads, each with a number of three hundred to five hundred.

As for the cavalry, they were not divided into small groups. They were still divided into light cavalry and heavy cavalry according to the conventional method and were commanded uniformly.

When they began to march toward the Kingswood, Earl Randyll placed the sword and shield soldiers and spearmen on the outermost side, and the archers were slightly misaligned and marched on the inner side, forming infantry squares.

The whole army was well organized, but looked a little "disorganized."

The light cavalry and heavy cavalry were all scattered among the various phalanxes, moving forward under the cover of the infantry.

This is contrary to the conventional troop formation because, generally speaking, cavalry should be placed on both wings of the infantry.

Finally, there were more than 10,000 civilians who accompanied the army. They were protected in the centre of the square with their baggage and moved forward with the cavalry.

In fact, not only Samwell, but also most of the Reach nobles did not understand Lord Randyll's intention of forming such a strange phalanx.

But intimidated by the fame of this famous general, at least no one dared to question it.

After entering the Kingswood, the sky suddenly became gloomy, but it was not dark clouds that blocked the sun, but dense leaves.

The terrain here also began to become complex. Forests, shrubs, and streams have become natural barriers.

It will become increasingly difficult for the normal army to be arranged as neatly as on the plains, and there were many obstacles in their progress.

Seeing this, Samwell could somewhat understand the reason why his father had divided the army into small square formations.

Those flexible small square formations are obviously more suitable for the complex terrain here.

The cavalry is difficult to use here.

It has little mobility when placed on the outside of the army and cannot play a protective or reconnaissance role.

In this environment, his falcon and white dragon were also not very useful.

If they flew high, the tree canopy would obscure the view of the forest. If they flew low, their field of vision would become limited.

So when the army encountered the first wave of attacks, Samwell simply failed to detect the enemy in advance.

He just heard the sound of horns and the faint sound of fighting coming from the left rear in the distance.

"Ignore them, maintain the formation, keep moving forward, never stop, and never leave the phalanx to pursue!" Earl Randyll immediately gave the order.

The messengers spread out one by one, passing the commander's orders to each phalanx.

Seeing Samwell's doubts, Lord Randyll explained to his son:

"Those must be the Jungle Riders of the Stormmen. They come and go like the wind and are familiar with the terrain in Kingswood. So we can't catch up or get rid of them. We also can't be held back by them here so we must leave this jungle as quickly as possible."

Samwell nodded thoughtfully.

He had heard before that the Stormlanders had specially trained jungle cavalry that could move like the wind in the forest, and today he really saw it.

Cleopatra didn't know if she was stimulated by the smell of blood. She flapped her wings excitedly as if she wanted to fly to the place where the battle took place.

But Samwell stopped the white dragon.

The complex terrain of the jungle is really not suitable for dragons to operate in, and Cleopatra is still too young.

So Samwell is worried about letting her participate in the battle so early.

However, he did release the falcon to observe the fighting situation.

When his falcon followed the sound and flew near the phalanx that was under attack, he saw hundreds of Stormland cavalry rushing out of the forest.

Their war horses were obviously smaller, about half the size of the war horses in the Reach, and they had indeed undergone special training.

They can even dexterously avoid obstacles such as trees and run quickly in the jungle with complex terrain.

They saw the Reach soldiers neatly arranged mixed military formations with swords, shields, and spears. So, wisely did not choose to charge directly into the formation but ran towards the gaps in the military formation, preparing to use bows and arrows to harass the most vulnerable civilians.

The Reach army archers immediately began to fight back, and arrows rained down like rain.

Many Stormland cavalry were hit by arrows and fell to the ground.

The adjacent Reach infantry phalanx began to move closer, while the Reach light cavalry also cautiously moved out, trying to encircle the Stormlanders.

Two groups of cavalry passed each other, and another hail of arrows struck them, causing blood to fly everywhere.

At this time, the biggest advantage of the Reach army can be reflected - well-equipped.

As the most prosperous region in the Seven Kingdoms, the equipment of the Reach army is only comparable to that of the Western Army, while the Stormlands are obviously a notch behind.

So in this confrontation, Reach obviously had the upper hand.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Stormman's light cavalry team dispersed backward.

But the cavalry from another phalanx of the Reach soldiers also rushed over at this time, chasing the Storm cavalry who were out of position, and there was another round of fighting and shooting.

The Stormlanders' cavalry were caught off guard and were shot over in the process of gathering their formation.

They had no choice but to flee in confusion.

The Reach Cavalry did not pursue them. They were not adapted to this complex jungle environment and did not dare to charge at full speed. Even if they pursued them, they would not be able to catch up with the Storm Cavalry.

The Reach soldiers quickly cleaned up the battlefield, gathered their usable war horses, slaughtered the injured Stormtroopers, then returned to the phalanx and continued to move forward with the large army.

Not long after, the Stormlanders invaded again. This time there were more people, with thousands of riders, rushing toward the Reach army position from three directions.

At this time, the subtlety of Earl Randyll's formation can be seen.

No matter how the Stormland cavalry attacks, they will either be blocked by the infantry phalanx or chased by the light cavalry swimming between the phalanxes.

Moreover, the various square formations were in order, echoing back and forth, and looking at each other from left to right, so that no matter which direction the Stormlanders came from, they couldn't take any advantage at all.

Only dozens of bloody corpses were left behind, and they returned in vain.

This time, a group of Reach light cavalry couldn't help but chase them out, hoping to kill more enemies to earn military merit.

Lord Randyll was furious when he saw this and immediately sent messengers to chase them.

When the team of light cavalry was recovered, it was discovered that they were the army of the Peak family.

"Sir Marlon Manderly disobeyed military orders and was killed." Earl Randyll gave the cruel order without mercy.

"Lord Randyll," Count Titus Peake tried to intercede for his knight. "Ser Marlon was indeed impulsive, but fortunately he did not suffer any losses. There is no need to behead him. It is better to whip him instead."

Lord Randyll was unmoved and said coldly: "Lord Titus, if someone disobeys military orders, they should be beheaded, not whipped. You know, right?"

Count Titus looked gloomy but said nothing more.

Lord Randyll waved his hand, and a law enforcement officer took Sir Marlon, who was still shouting, to the execution.

Soon, a bloody head was delivered to the nobles.

You know, the Peake family was one of the first big families in the Reach to express support for Samwell at the Highgarden Hunting Meeting.

After that incident, rumours about the Deer Party and the Horse Party began to circulate in Reach.

Samwell Caesar, Randyll Tarly, and Mathis Rowan are considered the core of the Horse Party, and the Peake family is the backbone of the Horse Party. At this time, a member of the Peake family committed something, and Earl Randyll was still merciless when he started.

Now the others no longer dare to be smart and disobey military orders.

Earl Randyll watched this scene quietly and said to his son beside him: "When Garth VII Gardener was on his way to conquer the Stormlands, he was constantly harassed by the Stormlanders' light cavalry in the Kingswood for two months. None of them could get out of the forest. In the end, the soldiers were disheartened, their logistics were cut off, and they returned in defeat."

Samwell nodded thoughtfully: "So we can't get entangled with the Stormlanders and must get out of this jungle as soon as possible?"

"Yes."

[END]