238 Chapter 236: Encounter

"What happened again?" Kevan Lannister couldn't hide his fatigue in his tone.

"Sir, our soldiers trampled nearly farmland, and a group of stormland farmers came, clamouring for compensation."

Kevan rubbed his brows and said, "Find out the soldiers who trampled on the farmland, chop them off, and give their heads to the Stormlands farmers."

"But, my lord..." the herald said carefully, "there were dozens of soldiers who trampled the farmland..."

Kevan waved his hand impatiently and said, "Then find the first few ones and yes! Warn others ."

"Yes."

After sending his men away, Kevan sighed, feeling extremely tired.

He never wanted to lead this kind of "army" again.

Now he just wants to reach Bronzegate City as soon as possible and use these cannon fodder in the battle to defend the city.

"How long until we arrive?"

"Sir, at this speed, we should be able to reach Bronzegate City before sunset tomorrow."

"Okay." Kevan was not satisfied with this speed, but he couldn't speed up the march rashly. as he was worried that more soldiers would "get lost."

After walking for a while, he asked again: "Has there been any news from the Stormlanders? Where is the Reach army now?"

"No. The Stormlanders sent a messenger the day before yesterday saying that they would fight a decisive battle. At that time, the Reach army..."

"No news yesterday or today?" Kevan suddenly became alert.

"No."

Kevan became uneasy, and he immediately ordered the herald: "Send someone to notify the front army, ask them to be careful and keep the sentries farther away."

"Yes."

The commander in charge of the front army is Lord Rykker of Duskendale.

In fact, the Rykker family is not a prominent family. It has neither a long history nor strong strength. It was only more than twenty years ago that they became the lords of Duskendale Town.

Originally, the Darklyn family, the lords of Duskendale, imprisoned the "Mad King" Aerys because of a tax dispute, triggering a rebellion in Duskendale, which was finally suppressed by Duke Tywin Lannister, who was the Hand of the King at the time and thus the family was exterminated.

Only then did the Rykker family inherit the title and territory of the Earl of Duskendale.

Lord Ray Rykker has always feared and admired Duke Tywin's iron-blooded skills and has become the old lion's licking dog. But unfortunately, being a licking dog is not that easy. At a banquet, Lord Ray Rykker wanted to flatter him, but his flattery ended up being misdirected as Lord Tywin's "gold-producing ability".

Lord Tywin's cold eyes scared him so much that he couldn't sleep well for several nights.

So since then, Lord Rykker has been avoiding Lord Tywin.

When attacking Dorne before, he only sent his son to lead their family soldiers.

After withdrawing from Dorne, the royal army heading south was led by Duke Tywin to Harrenhal to confront the Northern Alliance.

This time Kevan Lannister recruited 50,000 young men in King's Landing and also asked the king's nobles to send troops to help.

In fact, the war potential of the royal territory is not great. The 15,000-strong army that was sent south to conquer Dorne was already significantly weakened. After receiving the call-up order this time, they could only barely assemble another 5,000-strong army.

Among them, the Rykker family has nearly a thousand people, which can be considered significant.

Although Lord Rykker did not dare to face Lord Tywin, he still wanted to be the dog of the Lannister family.

He did not dare to go to Harrenhal, but accepted the call and went south to support the Stormlands.

"There has been no news from the Stormlanders?" Count Rykker frowned when he heard Sir Kevan's military order brought by the messenger.

Because he suddenly realized that the sentinels he sent out in the morning seemed to have never come back.

"We won't really encounter the Reach army, right?"

"Probably not," Count Rykker said, as if to comfort himself, "The Reach army shouldn't be coming so soon, right?"

"I don't know, but Lord Kevan told you to be careful."

"Okay." Count Rykker nodded and sent out a few more groups of sentries.

What the Lord of Duskendale didn't know was that the sentinels he had just sent out were torn to pieces by the Reach Cavalry squad that was cruising around, making it impossible to send back any news.

However, as the Reach cavalry army approached, there was no need for sentries to block the news.

The smoke and dust and the thunderous sound of horse hooves, as they marched, could not be concealed.

When the commander of the king's front army, Count Rykker, saw the cavalry army appearing in front like a dark cloud, he was immediately frightened.

His first reaction was to turn around and run away, but his many years of war experience told him that running away would lead to disastrous consequences.

This time, most of the King's landing troops led south to support the Stormlands were infantry. How could the two-legged ones outrun the four-legged ones? And when the infantry faced the cavalry, once the formation collapsed, they would be chased with no counter.

When the time comes, even if he can escape, the Rykker family be able to escape.

Lord Rykker seemed to see Duke Tywin's cold eyes, and then thinking about the fate of the Darklyn family, the former lord of Duskendale, he shuddered, and then issued an order at the top of his lungs, asking all the soldiers to gather and prepare for battle.

At the same time, he did not forget to send the messenger back to report the news of the enemy's attack.

There is no doubt that Count Rykker has done everything a qualified military leader should do at this critical moment.

But unfortunately, tactical correctness cannot make up for strategic disadvantages.

When Samwell led the Reach cavalry army to intercept the royal army in front of Bronzegate City, the Reach army had already occupied an absolute strategic advantage.

The army spread out along the King's Road, regardless of the farmland and crops on both sides of the road.

The fertile fields were destroyed wherever they passed, and the army swept towards the enemy in front like a tide.

After several wars and the personal guidance of famous generals from the Seven Kingdoms like Randyll Tarly, Samwell now has his own understanding of marching and fighting.

The key to cavalry combat is the word "quick".

This is what is meant by the saying as fast as wind and Certainly, invades like fire.

When he learned that the front troops of the king's army were only more than 2,000 people, Samwell didn't waste any words and directly issued the order to attack.

The Reach cavalry did not make any stops or rests and completed preparations for the attack while marching.

The tactics were also very simple and crude, with the heavy cavalry as the lead, and the light cavalry swarming up.

In this situation where the troops are superior and the enemy is restrained, there is really no need to waste too much time.

Simply and brutally crushing them is the best option.

This time, the Reach North Route Army's heavy cavalry was actually not that numerous, only about 600, but even so, they could show extremely terrifying power against such unprepared enemy troops on the plains.

Under the leadership of Samwell, the cavalry, both men and horses, were heavily armoured, like moving fortresses. They were not very fast, but they were the biggest nightmare for the infantry formation.

However, the king's army seemed too panicked when they suddenly encountered the enemy.

In fact, this army was already the elite of the royal army, they were all regular troops put together by the royal nobles, and were no young men or old recruited by Kevan from King's Landing to make up the numbers.

But even so, they were in disarray at this time.

Because the enemy came too fast and too suddenly.

Urged by Count Rykker's hoarse shouts, the soldiers took out their spears, but the shields were only placed in front of them unevenly.

They were more for courage than for protection.

Seeing that the spear-shield formation had no time to take shape and the Reach Cavalry on the opposite side had already rushed to engage them, Count Rykker closed his eyes in despair.

It's over.

When the cavalry, wearing ferocious steel armour, rushed toward them at high speed, no one could keep calm, and it was even worse when a white dragon was hovering above the cavalry.

In fact, Cleopatra did not have much offensive power now. The dragon flames she breathed could burn to death at most a dozen people. However, the fear of dragons has already penetrated into every Westeros's heart with the war of conquest three hundred years ago.

Several royal soldiers in front of the formation finally collapsed, screamed, threw down their weapons, and fled backwards.

Chaos immediately began to spread.

Count Rykker quickly summoned the military heralds and ordered the execution of the soldiers who left the battle without authorization.

But all seemed futile.

"Archers, shoot, shoot!" Count Rykker roared and ordered.

Scattered arrows flew out from the formation and hit the armour of the Reach Cavalry with a clanging sound, but failed to cause any damage.

Only a few unlucky horses were shot in the unprotected eyes and rolled to the ground.

After a round of arrows, the cavalry finally clashed .

Boom!

With loud noises, countless figures spurted blood and were knocked out like tattered rag dolls.

The heavy cavalry in the front row broke their lances, knocked away shields, and almost penetrated without any hindrance, leaving bloody passages behind and crushing everything in front of them.

Samwell didn't even bother to pull out the great sword [Dawn], he just used an ordinary weapon slashing everywhere.

This king's army had almost no power to fight back in front of the heavy cavalry from the Reach.

They encountered the worst enemy on the worst battlefield.

Rows of heavy cavalry pushed forward, and the military formation of the royal frontier army was already in pieces.

The Reach soldiers followed closely behind and killed the scattered royal soldiers who were lucky enough to survive.

The army trampled through, and the King's Road was a mess.

The swords of the Reach Cavalry were not stained with much blood, but the horses' hooves were bright red and glaring.

Count Rykker died on the spot without any surprise.

In fact, this king's front army had no chance to surrender. The Reach cavalry surged past like a tide. In just over a quarter of an hour, they were almost completely wiped out.

On the spacious King's Road, grotesque corpses were trampled to pieces by war horses.

The land was dyed bright red, and the strong smell of blood almost suffocating.

[END]