Capítulo 123: Chapter 122: Pincer Attack
Viserys and Oberyn had not personally joined the battle thus far.
Beside them, a hundred of the finest knights from the Andalos army were gathered, all equipped with full suits of armor, armed to the teeth, and even their warhorses were selected from the strongest and covered in chainmail.
Now, these knights were sitting on the ground, not mounted on their horses. Their squires were grooming the horses, and the horse armor had been laid on the ground to conserve the horses' energy to the greatest extent possible.
The idea to form such a heavy cavalry unit came from when Viserys was invited to a Pentos banquet a year ago. At that time, the young king had chosen a hundred elite knights to accompany him into the city of Pentos.
These hundred men formed the foundation of the present heavy cavalry unit.
The cost Viserys had spent to build them was immense, with each person's full suit of armor and horse armor costing nearly twenty golden dragons.
This massive expenditure made the ever-thrifty Viserys wince, but he still believed it was worth the cost and looked forward to their performance. Instead of arming more ordinary soldiers, it was better to create such an elite unit, which might produce unexpected results on certain battlefields.
Now, these heavy cavalrymen gathered around Viserys, waiting for the young king's command to join the battle at any moment.
To deal with the Dothraki, these heavy cavalrymen must seize the right opportunity; otherwise, their heavy armor and slow movement speed could easily be wasted.
As Oberyn was surprised by Viserys' high praise for the Dothraki's Khal Drogo , the distant battle situation changed once again.
Also intended to counter cavalry, Viserys had ordered the soldiers to fell several trees overnight and construct wooden stakes to place in the narrow road leading into the Ghoyan Drohe.
If the pit traps were the first line of defense, then these stakes filling the narrow road were the second line.
"Oooohhh..."
However, the Dothraki in the front row let out excited, unintelligible howls and suddenly produced lassos, swinging them with precision to ensnare the stakes in the middle of the road.
Boom!
Then, with the help of the horses' strength, they dragged the stakes aside, clearing the central path for the Dothraki to charge through.
"Who was in charge of setting up these stakes?!" Viserys asked, eyebrows furrowing in anger upon seeing this.
"Didn't I say to bury the stakes in the ground?"
If the stakes were fixed in the ground, it would not be so easy for the Dothraki to break through the defensive line with their lassos.
The messenger, seeing the young king's anger, turned pale and remained silent, not daring to speak.
But such blame could only be resolved after the battle, as the ever-changing battlefield left Viserys no time to pursue who had failed in their duties.
Unless he could redeem himself on the battlefield, such a mistake that affected the battle and resulted in an unknown number of Andalos casualties would inevitably lead to a trial and execution.
The pit traps and stake defenses were successively breached by the Dothraki, and the Andalos army's defense line was once again in a precarious state.
This was the terrifying aspect of the Dothraki, an army that feared not death and was invincible on the battlefield.
On the first day of the skirmish, the Dothraki were in high spirits, but the morale of the Andalos army was equally steadfast.
Andalos still held a geographical advantage, relying on the abandoned city to finally resist the enemy's attack. The Dothraki retreated, leaving a field of corpses behind.
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However, on the second day, the Andalos army had suffered heavy casualties in yesterday's fierce battle, and their morale had visibly diminished, with fear steadily rising.
But the Dothraki, despite their heavy losses yesterday, had not only remained unshaken but had become even more spirited and fearless in the face of death.
This stark contrast between the dwindling Andalos and surging Dothraki forces was magnified on the battlefield, causing the Andalos defensive line to become increasingly precarious and eventually begin to crumble under pressure.
Perhaps on the battlefield, individuals couldn't perceive it; they were merely swept along by the larger army. Each individual was just a small part of the vast ocean, and no matter how valiant, they couldn't change the course of the battle.
However, Viserys, mounted on his horse on a hill, saw the situation clearly.
"The Khal may lead his tribe into battle, but he won't be in the first wave," he said.
"I see old men and women..."
Viserys was not a Dothraki, and he didn't know who would take command after Khal Drogo personally joined the battle or if there was even a need for a commander.
Moreover, amidst the chaos of the battlefield, he seemed to notice elderly men and women among the Dothraki, who were also caught up in the fighting.
"It seems Drogo is truly enraged, his anger devouring his reason," Viserys concluded.
He then turned to the guards beside him and asked, "Are the oil and firewood ready?"
Viserys had brought some supplies with his army, and the oil was clearly an important strategic resource. Although they didn't have much, it might suffice when combined with a large amount of kindling.
Viserys planned to use these materials to break Khal Drogo's forces. Horses feared fire, as did people. People could control their fear, but horses couldn't.
However, the Dothraki moved on four legs, and where they ran was not determined by people but by the frightened horses.
"Your Grace, everything is prepared," a soldier confirmed.
As the frontline soldiers struggled under pressure, the rear troops used daggers and short swords to open barrels of oil.
They threw the broken barrels onto the road ahead, where the chaotic hooves of horses crushed them, causing the oil to spread across the ground.
"Very good," Viserys nodded slightly, watching the retreating frontline and preparing to issue orders.
However, at that moment, the sound of hooves could be heard again from afar.
"Your Grace," a messenger alerted him.
Viserys' eyes narrowed, and he saw a large number of Dothraki breaking away from their ranks.
They were trying to charge from the side of the Andalos army.
"As expected," Viserys gripped his reins, taking a deep breath but remaining calm.
It seemed the Dothraki had employed a simple tactic this time, realizing that attacking head-on was difficult. They wanted to perform a pincer attack to swallow up the entire Andalos army.
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