310. The War of the Puppets (7)
“Hold your positions! Hold your positions!!”
As the trumpet sounded twice, centurions shouted at the soldiers, moving through the military encampment.
Fernandez looked at the swirling dust beyond the plains and thought. They’ve arrived.
“Do not retreat!!”
The morale of the soldiers was high. In fact, it seemed they hadn’t even considered defeat.
The only nation in the civilized world that could rival Kirzat was Leviathan, and with Leviathan’s recent decline, Kirzat was undeniably the strongest on the continent.
And now, mere bandits? It’s no wonder the soldiers were brimming with confidence.
Fernandez looked down at the crowd from a high hill and thought. Foolish.
The magical forces were practically useless, and the battlefield was the open field, the enemy’s preferred terrain.
The enemy’s military forces were not inferior to Kirzat’s entire army gathered on this plain, and almost all of them were cavalry.
On the plains, without proper magical support, cavalry is the god of the battlefield.
This massive encampment wouldn’t be breached in one go, but they would surely suffer significant losses.
-Boooooo–!!
The trumpet sounded long and loud. Soon, the ground began to tremble. According to intelligence, the force heading toward this plain was a cavalry of about fifty thousand, led by one of Karadskar’s generals.
An absurd number. Gathering fifty thousand troops isn’t impossible.
But the idea that all fifty thousand were cavalry sounded like a joke. It was a formation that ignored most modern tactical doctrines and would result in massive resource losses.
But they were nomads. Horses were like everyday livestock to them, and while individual skills might vary, they were at least not inferior to the cavalry of civilized societies.
And horses, even in the hands of the most inexperienced rider with a spear, could tear a person apart.
-Yeke Tetai Ulus!!
-Yeke— Tetaiiii! Ulus!!
The Great Tetai Empire. Fernandez watched the charging cavalry from the high hill, a smirk forming.
It was laughable to see nomads, who had never formed a nation, charging while shouting about an empire.
At their core, they were filled with inferiority.
Though they seemed to hate civilized nations, they coveted their sophisticated architecture and wealth more than anyone.
They were greedy, plagued by inferiority, and always raging with anger.
And that’s precisely why they were terrifying. That primal desire, that blindness, that savagery—it was something no longer found in the soldiers of civilized societies.
Kirzat’s soldiers should fear them. Those who don’t will surely die here today.
-Yeke Tetai Ulus!! (Long live the Great Tetai Empire)
-Urya!! (Advance!)
-Urya! Urya! Lruweingarya!!! (Advance, my hounds!)
-Boooooo!!
The sight of tens of thousands of troops shouting the same word in unison was overwhelming.
The cavalry’s charge formation was loose, and the sight of fifty thousand maintaining a loose formation made their numbers seem twice as large.
In fact, dazed voices could be heard among the Kirzat soldiers.
“Fifty thousand, they said……?”
“Fifty……? That……?”
This was the first mistake. Insisting on a dense formation to defend against the cavalry charge led the soldiers to underestimate their own numbers and overestimate the enemy’s.
This tendency was even more pronounced in the front lines. The presence of allies felt faint from behind, the soldiers beside them reeked of fear and excitement, and the enemies ahead kicked up dust from horizon to horizon as they charged.
“Archer Corps!! Fire!!”
“Archer Corps! Fire!!!”
Shouts filled the front lines. They judged the enemy was close enough. A sound decision, if not for the fact that all the enemies were cavalry.
Generally, without magical support, the range of a longbow doesn’t exceed 300 meters. And a cavalry charge begins from beyond 300 meters. This simple numerical fact leads to tragic results on the battlefield.
-Thudthudthudthudthudthud!!!
A rain of arrows began to fall. The Kirzat longbowmen were skilled, and in an instant, the sky turned black with their volleys.
The Karadskar cavalry raised their shields. About a third of the first wave fell under the arrow storm.
Even if the soldiers were well-armored, the horses were too large a target.
But 300 meters. For a horse at full gallop, it’s just 20 seconds.
In other words, Kirzat had only 20 seconds for their preemptive strike. In that time, fewer than five hundred cavalry fell.
Now it was simple math. They’d need to take down a hundred times that number to win this battle.
-Thudthudthudthudthudthud!!!
Shocks rippled through the formation. The front lines began to crumble under the cavalry’s charge.
Except for the terrain where long spears were firmly planted, almost every formation was breaking.
“Hold!! Hold!!!”
A centurion shouted as he ran, only to fall moments later. A javelin as thick as an arm was lodged in his head.
The soldiers around him instantly panicked.
Dust rose from all sides, and whenever a horse emerged from the dust, the people in its path were trampled into pieces.
Raising spears, pushing shields, hiding behind stakes—it was all temporary.
“We underestimated them.”
-They’ll collapse faster than expected.
“Well, we’ll have to accept the losses.”
Kirzat had chosen a dense formation. It was the most suitable formation against typical cavalry.
By spacing out the formations and advancing infantry after the initial archer volleys, they could block the enemy’s charge.
It wasn’t sophisticated, but it was a typical field tactic.
However, the speed of the charging cavalry was beyond imagination, and the plains cavalry had near-artistic riding skills, allowing them to slip through the thin gaps in the infantry formations.
In fact, Karadskar’s forces now charged like splitting tree roots, moving fluidly and rotating smoothly with astonishing mastery.
They were…
They began to exploit the gaps while bypassing the pikemen. The charging power of mounted troops carries meaning in its sheer weight. Soldiers struck by the chests and hooves of horses were bound to be crushed.
And crucially, there was something they overlooked—
“Shieeeelds!! Uuuup!!”
“Bows, they have bows!!!”
They were composite cavalry. They must have underestimated their light armament. They were essentially nomads and hunters. Mounted archery was akin to their folk martial arts.
-Piiing!!
A tactic of shooting arrows at close range and bypassing pikes to accumulate damage. Swarm.
-Dudududududu!!!
A tactic of charging straight into the disrupted ranks with lances held high. Charging.
“Fight! Do not retreat!!”
“The Sultan is watching usssss!!”
After a couple of charges, a melee begins as the shattered ranks are crushed. The combination of rampaging horses and warriors who can perfectly control their posture on top of them becomes the infantry’s nightmare.
“Abandoning cavalry combat was a good move, but the number of archers was excessive. They must have intended to win while minimizing losses. It must have worked so far.”
-The entire cavalry is blessed.
“It’s just a trivial trick.”
-That alone is quite effective.
At Faijashi’s words, Fernandez nodded. It would have been impossible to cast powerful blessings or spells on all fifty thousand horses.
There wouldn’t be a mage capable of that, and magic couldn’t be used in this region anyway.
Therefore, the spells cast on the horses were very simple. They made the horses forget fear.
It was a simple hypnotic technique that could be cast with specially prepared drugs and simple rituals.
And the harmony created by fearless horses and skilled riders brings forth a funeral march on the battlefield.
Lances, fire, and stakes—nothing frightens these horses, and the riders are skilled enough to maneuver without disrupting the allied ranks.
Kirzat never anticipated cavalry combat. Heavy cavalry couldn’t catch up with their speed, and light cavalry would just be cut down if they entered that gap.
Thus, Kirzat’s anti-cavalry strategy was to use a solid infantry formation to spread the damage. It was like building a fortress out of people.
“They’ll be annihilated.”
-Too fast.
“Exactly. We need to show them a move too.”
-Piiiiik!!
The sound of a hawk soaring into the sky was heard. Fernandez looked up at the sky.
A small dot embedded in the blue sky. Even with his vision, he could clearly see the small flower the hawk was carrying.
The hawk floating in the sky was holding a blue flower.
And on the battlefield, blue always symbolizes allies.
Even in the far north. And here, on the continent.
“Come, Kirhas.”
* * *
“Damidin is dead……?”
Amar listened to the messenger with wide eyes. The messenger bowed deeply and continued, trembling.
“It… it was a victory. The blood of the city folk formed rivers, and the corpses…”
“You must answer what the Kagan asks.”
A thick hand rested on the messenger’s neck. A man as large as an ogre placed his hand on the back of the messenger’s neck and growled softly. The messenger almost sobbed as he shouted.
“Yes, yes! Kagan! Great Hawk of the Steppe! Damidin has fallen in battle!”
“Why? He was quite useful.”
Amar stroked his chin and frowned. Victory was an expected outcome.
Originally, the forces drawn into the field were just vanguards hastily dispatched by nearby cities, and their main forces were gathering at the Rahot Fortress.
Meaning, the enemy Damidin faced were mere sacrificial pawns to buy time. To allow the Sultan’s forces to fully assemble at Rahot Fortress.
Yet, a commander died in such a battle? Of course, he might have drawn his sword and charged in the heat of the moment. In fact, that was encouraged.
No matter how expendable they were, the process of raising and lowering the legion’s morale was crucial.
How overwhelmingly, and how brutally, the enemies were annihilated. That was the key to morale.
Thus, Damidin likely drew his sword and advanced after the battlefield stabilized.
But that doesn’t explain Damidin’s death.
Damidin, and his generals, had already deeply embraced ‘that’ blessing. Meaning, they were warriors unmatched on this land.
A clumsily thrust spear wouldn’t even tear the skin of the generals.
“Explain, messenger. The Kagan awaits your answer.”
“Yes, yes!! Enemy troops appeared from the west!!”
“…Enemy troops?”
“Yes, Kagan! A group of cavalry suddenly appeared and charged straight at Damidin and his deputies, took their heads, and fled!”
The atmosphere in the ger turned grim. It wasn’t a trick or an enemy with exceptional warriors. Did the commander die from a cavalry defeat?
How? Kirzat’s cavalry had clashed multiple times before.
Kirzat’s most troublesome forces were mages and tenacious infantry, wasn’t their cavalry insignificant?
“Defeated on horseback? Damidin?”
“Yes…!!”
“Who exactly did this?”
“We couldn’t quite…”
-Thud.
The messenger flinched at the strong grip on his neck and hastily continued.
“Beastmen! Beastmen did it! The Tribe of Beastmen!!”
“Bayar, who’s currently in the wilderness?”
“Chulun has set out, Kagan.”
“Zenbalbat?”
“On standby for deployment.”
“Tell him to support Chulun. Trample the Great Wilderness and clear the path to the Empire. Once Kirzat is dealt with, we’ll strike the Empire.”
“Yes, Kagan!”
Bayar bowed deeply and dragged the still-prostrate messenger out of the ger by the neck.
Soon, a scream echoed not far away.
* * *
-Clop, clop, clop.
In the forest not far from the battlefield. Fernandez stood on his horse, turning his head towards the sound of approaching hooves.
The battle on the plains recorded a devastating defeat. But a meaningful defeat. If they had simply lost, Kirzat’s forces would never have been able to delay Karadskar’s army.
But with their command shattered, Karadskar’s forces had to linger on the plains.
Soon, a single horse approached through the thick bushes.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Not at all! I even brought a gift!”
“Why the head… Are you planning to take it to the Sultan?”
“No! I’ll use it to provoke them!”
Kirhas laughed fiercely. It wasn’t her usual cheerful and charming self.
It was the smile of the Great Wilderness’s guardian and the God of Hunting’s messenger.
She shook the blood-stained bundle containing the heads and smiled at Fernandez.
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