Chapter 174

Chapter 174 Shalia

  The death of the Dornish woman did not cause any waves.

  Life is always the most disregarded thing during war.

  What's more, his subordinates are all Reach and Vale warriors, the two groups that hate Dornish people the most.

  After capturing the sentry tower, Samwell did not continue to march, but let the troops rest on the spot.

  This time he was carrying out the rear raiding mission, his strategy was just one word -

   steady!

  The Dornish people's rear was not that easy to penetrate. Regardless of the small size of the Dornish army, it was because the Dornish land was poor and limited by food supplies, they could not afford to support a large number of full-time troops.

  But Dorn's people are tough and extremely xenophobic. When facing an invasion of foreign enemies, it can be said that almost all the people are soldiers.

  The previous Dorne branch woman is a good example.

  Under such circumstances, Samwell and his cavalry squad that went deep into the rear could easily fall into the "waves of common people ".

  Had to be careful, more careful.

  So as planned the remaining nine cavalry squads attract the attention of the Dornish people and mobilize the Dornish people, and then he would look for the right time to lead the army to attack.

  On the ninth day of staying at the sentry tower, Samwell found that he could no longer continue to be stable.

  Because they found a Dorne sentry who came to check the situation. Although this person had been intercepted and killed by Samwell's troops, the Qorgyle family would definitely know that there was a problem when they realise that the sentry had not returned.

  They had been "Voldemort" for nine days and were finally exposed.

  This time was earlier than Samwell expected, but during this time, the remaining nine cavalry squads should have attracted the attention of many Dornish troops.

  So, Samwell gave an order, and two hundred cavalry galloped, smoke and dust rose everywhere, and soon left the sentry tower behind, and plunged into the vast desert.

  Anyone who comes to the Dorn Sand Sea for the first time can feel its magnificence and majesty. The sky is high and the clouds are light. At a glance, the eyes are full of yellow sand, as if there is nothing else.

  But if they really stayed in this sea of sand for a long time, they probably would never want to come back again in this life.

  Because its beauty is monotonous and boring, there is really nothing but yellow sand.

  The wind in the sand sea is very violent, often rolling up the yellow sand all over the sky. If there is a sandstorm, the scene will be even more terrifying, covering the sky and blocking out the sun, as if the end of the world is coming.

  However, the most deadly thing in the desert is actually the lack of water.

  Fortunately, Samwell brought Lucas Dane this time. The native Dorne Knight knew the area well and knew the approximate location of every water source.

  But even so, fetching water is always dangerous, because there are Dornish soldiers at every source of water.

  In the vast sea of sand, it is actually not easy to find a water source. Under the leadership of Lucas, Samwell ran for three days before finally finding one.

  Samwell first let the falcon do some aerial reconnaissance and found a small village with hundreds of people near the water source, but there were not many Dornish soldiers inside, only thirty or forty.

  This amount is not a threat at all.

  Samwell decisively gave the order to attack.

  The cavalrymen got on their horses, lined up skillfully in several rows, slowly loosened the reins, kicked the horse's belly, and ran faster and faster in the direction of the village, and finally entered the state of charging.

  The sound of horseshoes sounded dense, and finally became one, dull as thunder, and breathtaking.

  Undoubtedly, Samwell rushed to the front of the queue, with the sound of the wind whistling in his ears.

  Lord Randyll taught his cavalry the first rule of combat, to lead by example.

  Only when the lord rushes first, the people behind will move forward bravely.

  Fortunately, Samwell's personal force is strong enough unlike last time.

  This time the opponent was completely incomparable to the last time, so Samwell looked relaxed, did not even pull out the giant sword behind his back, just brandished the war hammer and rushed into the village first.

  His younger brother, Dickon Tarly, screamed excitedly and charged after Samwell as if his long-awaited wish had finally been fulfilled.

  At this time, the Dorne village had already exploded.

  Without the protection of the castle, the few Dornish soldiers in the village did not dare to resist the charge of the cavalry at all, and most of them dispersed in a crowd. Some of them either hid in the villagers' homes or found the horses and fled.

  In fact, Samwell did not forget to send people to block the enemy's escape route, but the problem is that in the vast desert, it is difficult for the word "total annihilation" to appear perfectly.

  What's more, with only two hundred cavalry under his command, how could he block all escape routes?

  But except for a few fish that slipped through the net, the battle in the village ended neatly. With Samwell as the arrow, the formation of cavalry swept across, cutting down the Dornish soldiers with weapons one by one under their horses.

  With just one encounter, the Dornishmen collapsed.

  Afterwards, Samwell ordered to clean up the battlefield, and all Dornish soldiers were killed, leaving no prisoners. However, civilians were not allowed to kill indiscriminately as long as they did not take the initiative to resist.

  While Samwell was drinking the cool well water, the pursuing cavalry returned and reported that the two Dornishmen had escaped.

  Samwell didn't care, anyway, their cavalry had been exposed, so there was no need to deliberately hide their whereabouts unless he had the heart to slaughter all the civilians in this village, otherwise, the news would definitely be leaked.

  He asked the soldiers to fill up the bottles, and as he was about to leave, he saw his attendant Katu walking over with a dishevelled woman.

  "My lord, we found a reach woman."

  "Reach woman?" Samwell froze for a moment.

__

  "My lord, my name is Shalia, and I'm a soldier of the Flagwind Mercenary Corps." The woman introduced herself.

  She looked to be in her twenties, tall and strong, with slender legs, sharp eyes, and her long brown hair was scattered over her shoulders in a mess.

  "Flagwind Mercenary Group." Samwell seems to have heard this name before, "Is it the mercenary group from Old Town?"

"Yes, my lord." Shalia nodded quickly, "I am from Old Town. I was hired by a Dornish merchant to escort a batch of supplies from Old Town to Sandstone City, but I didn't expect that a war broke out. The Dornish people detained us and didn't allow us to return to the reach. We ran away. Unfortunately, we were caught halfway and, my partners were all killed, my fate was the same but..."

  Looking at the woman's dishevelled appearance and the bruises on her exposed skin, Samwell already guessed Why the Dornishmen left her alone.

  "My lord! Can you take me away? I can fight for you!"

  Samwell was a little embarrassed: "We are here on a mission, a very dangerous mission."

  "I'm not afraid!" Shalia gritted her teeth, "And I want to avenge my friends!"

  Samwell still shook his head: "I can give you some dry food and fresh water, and even a good horse, you can go west by yourself to Starfall City, the lord there stayed neutral."

  Shalia said angrily: "My lord, do you think as a woman, I can't fight for you?"

  Samwell was silent.

  This is the default.

Shalia snorted softly and said:

"Lord,My father was a mercenary and mother a branch woman so they never married , after i grew up, My father came to take me . I'd never seen this man, and yet, he called himself my father. My mother wept, said I was too young... and a girl. But he tossed his sword at my feet and said, "Girl or boy, we fight our battles- but the Gods let us choose our weapons." My father pointed to the sword, and then to my mother's tears ."

  "I chose the long sword."

  Shalia pursed her lips with a firm expression: "My lord, I am not a woman who can only cry, please give me a sword and let me fight for you!"

After hearing this, the younger brother Dickon couldn't help persuading: "Brother, let's accept her. Otherwise, I'm afraid she won't be able to get out of this sea of sand."

  Samwell took a deep look at the woman in front of him, finally nodded and said:

  "Yes. But if you die here, we may not be able to send your bones back to Old Town."

  Shalia smiled indifferently: "As long as I can kill a few more Dornishmen, I am willing to die in this desert."

"Okay."

  Samwell turned to his younger brother, "Give a horse to this lady. "

  "Okay." Dickon agreed very simply and immediately took Shalia to find a horse.

  Samwell did not think of staying here for a long time, when the soldiers were replenished, he ordered them to continue to set off.

  In the next few days, they encountered another Dorn village on the march and entered the village to "supply" as usual.

  However, Samwell never found a trace of the Dorne supply squad.

  It stands to reason that now that the two armies of the Iron Throne are heading south from the Prince's Pass and the Bone Way respectively, the Dornish people must set up heavy defences in the two places of Skyreach City and Yronwood City.

  As a result, food supplies need to be delivered to these two cities from other places.

  Maybe it's because the sea of sand is too wide. If you don't know where the Dornish people's logistics and supply routes are, it's really not easy to meet them by chance.

  Previously, Samwell was too confident that he could always obtain high-altitude vision with his falcon, but now he found that this idea was not realistic.

  Falcons can't adapt to the climate in the desert, and often after flying for a while, he sluggishly huddles under Samwell's cloak to avoid the scorching sun.

  Samwell didn't dare to force the Falcon to work too hard, so he only let it fly for scouting when necessary and spent most of the rest of the time relying on the scattered sentinel riders to gain peripheral vision.

  For several days, this cavalry squad wandered around Sandstone City, coming and going like the wind, never staying in one place for too long.

  But even so, the Dorne army caught up with their tails.

  "It should be a cavalry." Lucas said his guess, "Otherwise it would be impossible to keep up with us."

  "I'm curious how they kept up." Samwell's eyes flickered.

  He released the falcon a few times but failed to find the other party's figure, only saw a few traces left by the other party.

  Lucas thought for a while and explained: "I don't think it's strange. Although the sand sea is vast and boundless, there are only a few fixed places for water sources. As long as the Dornish people follow this, they can determine our position. Even judge our marching route in advance."

  Samwell frowned and fell silent.

  [END]