"My lord, hold fast or fight?"
Not long after, the generals of each army sent people in haste to ask for instructions.
Hold fast or fight? That was a good question.
The Western Expeditionary Army already had the advantage in troop quality and advanced weaponry. If they also remained in camp and gained the added benefit of defense, then even if the Rivermen sent a million troops to launch repeated assaults, it would still be like eggs striking a rock. However, the problem facing Aegor now was this: his entire western expedition had been building toward a decisive battle with the enemy's main force. If the enemy came to his doorstep and he refused to engage, the morale built up over nearly a month could be completely drained. If the enemy's assault on the camp were repelled, that would be one thing, but what if the Riverlands Allied Forces simply surrounded them without attacking, dragging things out for three to five days until they ran out of supplies...
Holding the camp would not yield much even in victory, and if they could not fight, the result would be disastrous. It was a simple matter of weighing the pros and cons, and Aegor did not hesitate for even a second before making his decision.
"Send up aerial observation posts. The logistics units will continue breaking camp, the combat troops will prepare and move out first, forming a rolling formation according to the second plan!"
...
The low and mournful sound of war horns, the sharp and piercing clang of gongs and drums, the shouts of officers issuing orders, and the curses and grumbling of the soldiers rose and fell within the great camp. The infantry donned their armor, the cavalry mounted their horses, the artillerymen pulled the covers off their cannons and brought out boxes of gunpowder and cannonballs, while the wargs who could control birds sent large and small birds soaring into the sky...
Under the grassroots command system, built around the backbone of the Gift Army and the graduates of the Night's Watch military academy, the entire army quickly and orderly armed themselves, assembled, and poured out through the camp gates, beginning to form ranks on the plain outside the camp, right beside the Mander. There they arranged the formation Aegor had specially designed for the western expedition into the Riverlands.
The Riverlands Allied Forces had many soldiers and officers. Their average combat experience and quality were somewhat inferior, but they were by no means a rabble, and they also had the home-ground advantage of fighting on their own land. It could be said that although the cards Aegon and House Tyrell held were not especially strong, they had them in overwhelming quantity, giving them plenty of room for trial and error. Against such an opponent, trying to perfectly answer every move was no more than a fool's dream. Therefore, the tactical approach Aegor designed specifically for this battle was highly consistent with the strategic concept of the western expedition itself, namely: deploy an all-purpose formation and respond to changing circumstances with constancy.
The moisture hanging in the air was gradually dispersed and evaporated by the rising sun in the east, and the magnificent rainbow slowly faded and disappeared as well. In the strengthening morning light, the Western Expeditionary Army led by Daenerys's Hand, Aegor West, slowly unfolded like a steel flower, centered on the great camp where they had spent the night.
Having long anticipated being surrounded after driving deep into the Riverlands, and in order to avoid having to cross the river under attack only after drawing near Highgarden, the Western Expeditionary Army led by Aegor had made a swift turn south after taking New Barrel Town. Before the Rivermen could react, they crossed the river at a point south of the Mander where the current was calm, and from then on they had consistently marched along the river toward Highgarden without deviating. At this moment, the Western Expeditionary Army deployed as usual, staying close to the riverbank. Besides subtly embodying the spirit of fighting with their backs to the wall and effectively curbing the soldiers' gambler's mentality by cutting off their line of retreat, the most direct and important benefit and purpose was this: by using the river to block one of the enemy's flanking directions, they could concentrate their efforts on dealing with threats from the other directions.
If the Rivermen also possessed aerial reconnaissance at this moment and could look down on the Western Expeditionary Army from above, they would surely have been astonished to discover that beside the sparkling Mander, the Western Expeditionary Army had grandly formed a battle array unlike anything ever seen or heard of, difficult even to comprehend. The entire army, totaling about twenty thousand infantry, was neatly divided into countless large and small units. These countless units were then roughly evenly organized into nine large, evenly spaced square formations. Among them, those closest to the riverbank were the most numerous, four in total. Slightly farther from the riverbank, three more square formations were positioned a hundred meters south of the three gaps between the first four formations. Finally, two more square formations were placed south of the two gaps between those three formations. Thus 4 + 3 + 2, a total of nine square formations, were stacked like the character "pin" formed by three repeated "mouth" characters, together creating an isosceles trapezoid with the riverbank as its base.
In the gaps and passageways between these three rows of great square formations, the remaining units, fewer in number but stronger in actual combat power and more crucial in role, were distributed in a way that looked random but was in fact well structured. These included the central command post and reserve, located in the middle gap between the first and second rows, enjoying the protection and support of seven infantry square formations in total, 4 + 3. The artillery and the Unsullied detachment assigned to protect it were positioned a full square formation's distance to the west of the command post, facing the direction of advance toward Highgarden. The baggage and supply train was placed symmetrically to the east, in the center of the rear three square formations. The cavalry, totaling fewer than five thousand, most of them from the Westerlands, were stationed between the second and third rows, loosely enclosed by five great square formations in total, 3 + 2, serving a defensive role while retaining flexible mobility.
Even if one searched through ancient and modern military texts from both the world of Ice and Fire and Earth, it would be difficult to find a battle formation exactly like the one Aegor had ordered today. The reason for taking such an unconventional path was that the situation before him was one no one had ever faced before: leading a sizable army equipped with firearms in a cold-weapon age against a far larger army from that same age that had no firearms, while continuing to push toward Highgarden under enemy resistance until it was taken.
Since the problem itself was unprecedented, there was naturally no ready-made answer he could copy. Although Aegor was not from a traditional military academy background, through his not-so-long military career he had come to understand one principle deeply: there is no perfect formation, only the most suitable formation, adjusted according to the army's organization, equipment, and training level, the opponent's condition, and the strategic goals of both sides.
The balance of power in this battle was as follows: the Western Expeditionary Army was far inferior to the enemy in infantry and cavalry numbers, as well as in logistical support. Their only two advantages were gunpowder and morale. On this flat Riverlands plain, facing an overwhelming enemy, even if they won again and again, the enemy could calmly withdraw under the cover of their superior cavalry and return once more with the determination and will to defend their homeland. Rather than be worn down through repeated battles until they exhausted their supplies and were forced to surrender, Aegor chose to follow the instructor's guidance: "You fight your way, I fight mine." He gave up the extravagant hope of utterly defeating the enemy in a frontal clash on the plain and making the Rivermen lose all will to resist. Instead, he resolved to push through obstruction and harassment and strike at what the enemy must save, Highgarden, using the crisis of losing their capital and the psychological pressure of seeing their strategic objectives fail to force the enemy into disorder and expose weaknesses for him to exploit.
And in order to force a march through enemy obstruction and even interception, the most important thing was mobile defensive capability, that is, the ability to deal with enemy surprise attacks while on the move. To achieve this, he had to accomplish at least two things. First, each army had to be able to receive his orders promptly and remain under his command and control in order to respond to emergencies. Second, the total external engagement line of the entire army had to be kept as short as possible, not only to prevent the enemy from exploiting their numerical superiority, but also to ensure that all units could coordinate, support, and protect one another.
If analyzed purely mathematically, a semicircular formation leaning against the river would be the optimal solution. But in reality, once a semicircular formation was established, it would become completely immobile, failing the requirement of mobility. Therefore, after a compromise between theory and reality, the trapezoidal formation became the final answer. The distance from the units on the three outer edges of the trapezoid to the command post was roughly the same. Besides facilitating communication and reducing the external contact surface, the trapezoidal formation also effectively overcame the inherent weakness of rectangular formations, where the right-angled corners are the most vulnerable. If the enemy came from the north, the waters of the Mander would be the best defense. If they attacked from the south, they would have to face layer upon layer of tremendous tactical depth. And if they attacked from any direction other than north or south, they would face a modified diagonal formation created through the cooperation of the various square formations on the three sides of the trapezoid. It truly achieved an impregnable defense, leaving the enemy with no easy avenue of attack.
Speaking of leaving the enemy with no easy avenue of attack, if one flipped the map and looked at it with south at the top and north at the bottom, everything became clear. Did not this trapezoid leaning against the riverbank look like a massive turtle shell? That was right. Aegor intended to command the army like a turtle, pushing its way along the river under threat all the way to the walls of Highgarden, then taking Highgarden by force in full view of the Riverlands soldiers and completely crushing the Rivermen's will to resist.
The idea was clear, but reality was not so simple. Although the turtle shell was hard, it was not an ideal rigid body. The Rivermen had an absolute advantage in both infantry and cavalry. If there were clever men in the enemy command, they might suddenly think to separate their infantry and cavalry, using their overwhelming infantry numbers as the anvil and their superior cavalry as the hammer, employing the ancient but never outdated anvil-and-hammer tactic. In that case, under the pincer attack of a hundred thousand men pressing in at once, even the hardest turtle shell would face the danger of being shattered, or even flattened in a single blow.
To deal with this potential threat, the countermeasure Aegor had prepared was denial.
Making use of the enormous range and deterrent advantage of his artillery, he would begin bombardment the moment the enemy infantry appeared within sight and entered range, disrupting the rhythm of the Riverlands infantry's assembly and deployment and preventing the "anvil" in that anvil-and-hammer structure from forming smoothly. The entire tactic would then naturally collapse and fail. After that, thirty thousand infantry facing a smaller cavalry force, together with their advantage in morale and combat power, would make the battle winnable.
Woo, woo, woo, woo...
With a long blast of the signal horn, the Western Expeditionary Army completely finished breaking camp. After several more rounds of signal-flag communication, the turtle formation made up of the thirty thousand soldiers of the Western Expeditionary Army slowly raised its feet and began to move steadily westward along the river, taking another firm step toward Highgarden, their final destination downstream.
(To be continued.)