Chapter 33: Chapter 33: The harmony of swords, spears, blood and grasses(1)
Right after the first warm sunlight reaches the fertile plains and fields of the Grasslands, the war for the Great Khal begin. Khal Kjartan, leader of the Heathen Kingdom has raised his army. Its number is 60000 men strong, with 3000 Moon Riders as the Khal's bodyguards, 45000 riders consists of 10000 heavy armored, others are light cavalries with the ability of close-combat and skirmishing. The rest of the army contains 9000 infantries and 3000 foot archers. The Heathen army is special in hammers and anvils; hit and run tactics to defeat its enemies.
Fight alongside the Heathen army, we see a more disciplined army wearing the blue armors raising the banners of the Kingdom of Fortuna. 35000 men strong, with 23000 infantries, 5000 cavalries, and 7000 archers. Although 10000 of the Infantry's is mercenaries, in the progress of marching, they have been given Fortunian Soldier uniforms as well as trained to fight in formation.
After the first reform of the Fortunian Army, now each infantry soldier is armed with a scuta, three throwing spears, and a gladius. Wearing very heavy armor, its' weight is high but after a long time wearing it while marching and training, the soldiers have got used to it; now, they can move normally without any difficulties. The cavalries wear the same armor as the foot soldiers, the differences are that they use spatha instead of gladius and to increase flexibility, they are armed with a medium round shield rather than the large and heavy shield.
There is a new unit created in the Fortunian army, 2000 men strong. They are equipped with very long spears and small round shields. The only thing they are trained in is to point their spears in the same direction, and never engage the enemy without support from other units, since if they are flanked or attacked in the back, they'll face a decisive defeat.
In terms of the opposite side, there is a united army of 160000 riders, the combination of all the hordes of the Khals in Grasslands. Different from Khal Kjartan's army, most of them are light cavalries. These steppes mostly depend on raiding to earn their livings, hearing the prosperity of Carrasona built by Khal Kjartan, the Khals decide to cooperate to take out the city and seize its wealth for themselves.
There are three main roads to get into the Heathen Kingdom from the Grasslands, the Dogbones, the Greenears, and the Crumble. Khal Kjartan leads his main army to the largest, Dogbones while sends his son to the Crumble road with 10000 men since in there the terrains is mostly mountains so it'll be easier to defend. The ally of the Heathen, the Fortunian is responsible for Greenears road, not hard to defend but not easy either.
And, one of the wars that have a huge impact on the peninsula begins.
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Greenears road.
The Fortunian Army is encamping and starts to build a fortification to defend effectively. Cavalries are tanks in medieval warfare so preparing beforehand can not be ignored. A distinguished man is commanding the soldiers to work. He is Impetus Greyrat, who used to be a minor noble in Iceland, after his talents are recognized by the king, he is appointed as the Grand Marshal of the kingdom.
A rider approaches him:
- Milord commander, I bring news of the enemies.
- Speak.
-About 60000 riders are coming toward us, as I observe, there are banners of Sabertooth, Seahorse, and Falcon tribes.
- So we are going to fight with three khals. Are they slowing down?
- No, milord.
- Seems like their patience is low, send words to Lord Kruger, ask him to prepare his troops to be ready in 10 minutes.
- As you command, milord.
The rider rides to Duke Kruger's camping location. 5 minutes later, trumpets sing all over the place. Soldiers drop their pickaxes and hammers to gather their weapons and run to the front line of the camp. Impetus shouts:
- LEGIONARIES, TO THE FIRST AND SECOND LINE. ARCHERS, TO THE THIRD. PIKEMEN, WAIT AT THE BACK. IN FORMATION IMMEDIATELY.
After 30 minutes, every soldier gets inside their formation alongside their comrades. The ground starts to tremble, they see clouds of dust flying from afar. An army consists of 60000 riders strong are charging toward them. A drop of sweat appears on Impetus's head, Kruger rides to his side:
- You are fighting alongside the best warriors of our kingdom. Don't be afraid.
- I'm not afraid, Kruger. I'm excited, this is the first battle that I command this many men and deal with a much larger army.
- I'm with the cavalries, ready to be commanded at any moment, you can count on me, Impetus.
- Yeah, obviously the enemies do not know about our Viper.
Smiling lightly, Kruger hails his horse and rides to the Fortunian cavalries, orders them to be ready at any moment. Seeing that the enemies are getting closer and closer to them, Impetus orders:
- ARCHERS, KNOCK, BALLISTAS, LOAD.
The large ballistic are loaded while archers put their arrows into their longbows. The Grasslands army is just nearly 500 meters from them. The riders knock their arrows and when the distance reduces to 300 meters, the riders fire tens of thousands of arrows are loosed toward the Fortunian army.
- TESTUDO!
The Fortunian legionaries form a formation similar to that of a tortoise, protect them from any incoming arrows. Unfortunately, there are still men who fall, mostly are the archers or pikemen with small shields. To counterattack the riders, Fortunian archers and ballistic fire. The horsemen in the frontline of the Grasslanders fall off their horses, the bolts from ballistas pierce through several men before they lose their speed. Several rains of arrows are exchanged between two armies before the distance reduces to close combat.
- LEGIONARIES, THROWS.
The throwing spears fly toward the Grasslanders at a close distance, bring large casualties to them. Nonetheless, the chare doesn't slow down.
- LEGIONARIES, SPEARWALL. PIKEMEN, PHALANX, TO THE FIRST LINE.
Two armies clash against each other. The cries of men knocked out of their horses or thrust by swords and spears are all over the place. Some Fortunian legionaries are thrown to the skies from the charging horses, but their comrades success to maintain the line, slowly repel the attack of the Grasslanders. A small gap in the center is opened, give space for a line of long spears pointed at the incoming cavalries. The charging riders to the Fortunian center realize the danger, but they can't slow down, when clashing, the horses disappear when meeting the spears like leaves disappear into the ocean.
Along with the legionaries line, the pikemen push the Grasslanders back, kill thousands of them in the progress.
- LEGIONARIES, WEDGE FORMATION.
Steadily, the Fortunian form a triangle formation with the best warriors in the pointy front. Their push-back speed increase and the charging riders soon realize that they are attacking an impenetrable wall, their friends fall one after another like the winter weed.
The Khal of the Sabertooth tribe, Khal Turmerk is the first one acknowledging that the battle is not in their favor. They are dealing with an unknown enemy with a fighting style very different from what they used to. He shouts:
- FALL BACK. THERE IS NO WINNING HERE.
Two other Khals hear his voice and after carefully observing the battle, they order their men to retreat. The Grasslander army run from the battle, leave nearly 20000 corpses of the countrymen on the battlefield.
The first battle of the Greenears ends, with the decisive victory belong to the Fortunian army.
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