The color of the eastern sky changed from purple to gold to blue. As the sun broke free of the horizon and rose halfway into the sky, the last few bright stars scattered across the dark canopy above completely faded away. Facing the light that brightly illuminated his face, Mathis Rowan rode up the highest nearby hillock, reined in his tall warhorse, and raised his Myr lens to observe the Western Expeditionary Army slowly approaching from the distance.
The Reachmen wanted to gather the three great advantages of timing, terrain, and human support before fighting this decisive battle. Alas, the heavens did not cooperate.
Terrain, fighting on home ground, was always available. Human support had been forced into being by the presence of a great enemy. Only the last factor, timing, was truly beyond human control. The last perfect time and place for a decisive battle had actually been several days ago, along the Rose Road north of the Mander, dozens of miles to the northeast. It had rained lightly all day then, but their hypothetical enemy, Aegor, seemed to have foreseen it. After taking New Barrel Town, he executed a divine dragon's tail maneuver, turning south and crossing the river first, catching everyone off guard and coincidentally avoiding the trap.
After hurriedly moving the main army back to the south bank of the Mander, the maester once again predicted rain for today. Only then did the Command decide to begin fighting immediately after a short rest. The prediction was correct, it did rain today, but the rain came too early and did not last until dawn. Early in the morning, while the sky was still hazy, the air was quite damp, but it became thinner and thinner as the sun rose. This was a fine day after rain, but definitely not a good day to fight the Western Expeditionary Army. However, the enemy was already within a stone's throw of Highgarden, and they could no longer wait for the next rain.
At this moment, the only thing Rowan could pray for was that the early morning rain had dampened enough of the Night's Watch's gunpowder to weaken their ranged combat capability to some extent.
Back to the battlefield.
He was carrying out a difficult task today, commanding the vanguard.
King Aegon had not given him a fixed order, but rather a set of flexible plans. Upon engaging the enemy, his first task was to deploy his battle line normally on both flanks, which had become one flank because of the riverbank, widening the formation until it slightly exceeded that of the enemy. Then, based on the countermeasures taken by Aegor, he would decide the next course of action.
If Aegor remained unmoved and methodically deployed his formation in a normal manner while ensuring flank protection against encirclement, then he would command the ten thousand infantry fodder troops plus three thousand flanking cavalry, adopting a posture for frontal confrontation with Aegor to hold the enemy's attention in place for the main cavalry force maneuvering to encircle from the rear. If possible, he would even stage a convincing feigned retreat, trying to lure the enemy into the encirclement of their own main infantry force.
If Aegor fell for the trick and also began widening his formation foolishly, entering into a contest of battle line width with him, then he would command his troops to continue widening the formation while sending word to the large infantry force in the rear and the main cavalry force maneuvering behind. He would not bother trying to lure the enemy deep. Instead, the whole army would charge forward directly, wiping out the Western Expeditionary Army, now vulnerable because of its overstretched line, in one wave.
There were only two possibilities, and they did not sound complicated, but carrying them out was full of difficulty. Although Rowan could be called an old general, he had never commanded an army on the scale of ten thousand, much less one that was not made up of his own famous elite from Goldengrove, or at least men personally trained by him. He shouted himself hoarse, repeated orders over and over at high speed, pushed the stamina of both men and horses among the messengers to the limit, and did everything he could to prevent this ten-thousand-strong infantry fodder force from falling apart or descending into chaos during their eastward advance. When they finally drew near enough to the enemy to see them clearly, he ordered the troops to deploy while carefully observing the opposite side, preparing to decide his own formation according to the enemy's state, only to discover that the other side was not playing by the rules.
The Western Expeditionary Army in his sight was packed together in marching formation along the river. Even after he ordered the whole army to raise their banners and reveal their presence, they merely slowed their march and came to a steady halt, showing no intention of deploying southward to confront him. Since they were on flat ground without any height from which to overlook the enemy, Rowan naturally could not immediately tell that Aegor had adopted a trapezoidal formation leaning against the river, but that did not prevent him from at least seeing the several square formations that made up this trapezoid from the top of the gentle slope, especially the stepped and slanting side of the trapezoid facing him.
He had never seen such a formation before, but at least two things were clear to him. First, this was absolutely not the normal marching formation of a great army of thirty thousand men. Second, this was also not the posture one would expect from an army preparing for battle.
If he commanded the right flank to push forward, would he not easily pin the entire Western Expeditionary Army against the riverbank and surround it?
Was the commander on the other side incapable of leading troops into battle?
Suspicion flickered through Rowan's heart for a moment, then was firmly suppressed by reason. Among countless possibilities, this was the first one that could be ruled out. So he raised his lens again and carefully observed the Western Expeditionary Army's formation once more.
Under the bright sunlight before noon, everything within the lens's field of view was clearly visible. Several square formations of roughly two thousand soldiers each, the gleaming blades, spears, and armor within them, the raised red-and-black banners, the gaps between the formations about as wide as a formation itself, the messengers running back and forth through the channels, and the faint sound of synchronized marching transmitted through the ground.
The heart beating steadily in his chest suddenly began to pound, and cold sweat broke out on his back on this cool and pleasant spring day. Rowan suddenly felt that he had grasped part of the secret behind the Western Expeditionary Army's formation.
By clustering tightly together, they kept the entire army within the firing protection range of those weapons called cannons.
By dividing their troops into several smaller square formations, they made it easier to quickly change direction and smoothly engage the enemy if attacked from any direction. Commanding thirty thousand men to turn and face the flank or rear was obviously nowhere near as simple or fast as commanding two thousand, not to mention that his own side was already planning to attack from multiple directions.
The stepped diagonal line facing him, staggered from front to back but limited in width, prevented the Allied Forces from immediately using their numerical superiority to launch a direct push on the frontal battlefield with a simple line formation. It was even reasonable to infer that on the eastern side, which he could not see behind this formation, there was very likely a similar diagonal line.
And the three overlapping horizontal layers from north to south also made the difficulty of using cavalry charges to cut off the front-to-back connections between their troops reach an extreme.
And the gaps and channels left between the square formations had clearly been reserved for rapid reinforcement by cavalry and reserves.
This formation clearly emphasized defense over offense, and had inherent disadvantages that could not be changed. Thinking on the spot, Mathis Rowan could immediately name two. For example, their troops were clustered so tightly that if the enemy retreated or routed, it would be impossible to organize an effective pursuit. For example, the three lines of square formations would have to maintain a highly consistent marching speed and precise direction in order to avoid falling apart or losing shape while moving, which would demand extremely high levels of training from both soldiers and commanders, and was bound to be slow.
But every loss came with a gain, and its advantages were just as obvious as its disadvantages. Marching in this formation, they could halt in place and engage the enemy as soon as they made contact, without having to expend extra effort to specifically deploy for battle, which meant they did not fear surprise attacks. Furthermore, whether his side attacked from the east, west, or south, they would meet roughly the same intensity of defense and counterattack, with no weak point to exploit.
The most chilling thought finally surfaced. One of the disadvantages of this formation was precisely its greatest advantage when his side wanted to stage a feigned retreat to lure the enemy. The question then became, how should they respond if Aegor neither fell for the trap and stretched out his line, nor was lured into a rash pursuit by a feigned retreat?
In short, this was a formation that sacrificed tactical flexibility but fully served the grand strategic objective. The enemy commander, that damned man of the Night's Watch, had coldly and clearly realized that he neither needed to nor could annihilate the Reach Allied Forces. As long as he could push through their resistance and reach the walls of Highgarden, he would have won.
Even more immediate than the enemy's calculations were the real problems before Lord Rowan. Since the enemy had not responded according to the Command's expectations, how was he supposed to direct the cannon fodder corps now?
Aegor did not give him much time to think. While he was still hesitating, the artillery within the Western Expeditionary Army's position opened fire.
Amid thunderous roars like spring thunder, the Battle of Highgarden began.
(To be continued.)
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