V For Vanguard
patreon
Ch.79: Army Inspection - II
🕑 Added 2025-02-26 06:00:08 +0000 UTCBolton Lands
POV of Domeric Bolton
"But before that…" Domeric said while turning the horse towards the wall parallel to the training grounds. "…how are the studies of the men coming along."
General Bronn grimaced at his words. "Not very good. Tell the lads how to take an axe and chop a tree and they'll do it. No questions will be asked. But tell them to sit straight in a… class and they start to gossip like fishmongers. Half of them fall asleep while the other half can't concentrate."
He grimaced at those words. Maybe the course he had selected for the men was a little too hard and the degree of difficulty had to be reduced by a few notches.
After all, he might have a vision in his mind about the perfect army. But he knew that reality and imagination were two different things by now. And as much as he wished otherwise, he knew that the literacy rate in his domain was not even at 1%. Something that he was doing his best to change.
"Hmm… I'll come back with the maesters at a later date to revise the course for your men."
"Still don't see the point in learning to read and write." General Bronn grumbled but he ignored the man to gaze at the army in front of him.
"General Bronn." He said, "What are your opinions on building a regiment of Horse Archers."
General Bronn thought about his words for a while before shaking his head.
"Hard. Very hard. Expensive and time-consuming." Bronn replied. "Training a cavalry regiment on its own is a hard task. Do you know how long it takes a man to learn how to ride a horse? And then teach the same man to wield a lance or a sword while doing so. Well… it is ten times harder to teach them how to ride a horse and use a bow and arrow at the same time.”
“It is not something you can do without lots and lots of training. In fact, the only people who are good at it are the Dothraki. And that is because they've been living their entire lives on horses. So, unless you're ready to invest a lot of gold and time in this thing. Don't even think about it."
"I see," Domeric said and went into deep thinking about building a new regiment of Horse Archers within his army.
After all, he knew that if he was able to train a regiment of horse Archers then they would be able to do a lot of damage on a battlefield thanks to their mobility.
In fact, if used correctly, then Horse Archers held the potential to destroy a whole army as a support group.
Not to mention that the Horse Archers could be used as messengers, for scouting, or for harassing the enemy.
Yes. Bronn might be correct when he said that it would take time and gold to create Horse Archer regiments. And he was lacking in none at the moment.
"There's another thing I need to inform you about General Bronn. But we need to change the location first. Follow us."
After said that Domeric, his aunt, and his men rode their horses to the Lonely Hills.
After they arrived at the location and preparations were made, everyone in the group watched in stunned silence as the armored giant used his giant-sized sword to cleave through tree after tree without any difficulty.
Domeric gulped and wondered if he might have gone a bit too far in enchanting the swords and armor for the giants.
But then he realized that this was just his irrational fear. The giants might look scary, and boy… they did look scary, but they were loyal to him. Maybe even more loyal than the men working under him considering how the giants considered him their leader after he defeated Mag the Mighty.
"By the old gods." His aunt muttered "When you told me that you were going to arm these… giants. I…" She tried to speak but words wouldn't come out of her mouth.
He could understand her shock. After all, the armor he'd designed for the Giants covered their entire body from head to toe. Even the weak points that existed within normal human armor were absent in the giant's full body armor with the help of magical means.
At this point, the giants were walking fortress in their own rights with hundreds of pounds of armor on their bodies. Armor that weighed ten times less in reality due to the magical runes carved on them.
All this meant that there was no way a human soldier would be able to kill the giants. Not without the help of a magical sword. In truth, he wasn't sure if his magical enchantments would hold against a Valyrian Blade. But even if they didn't, how likely was it that the giants would face a Valyrian Steel Sword wielder during the war?
And even if they did, how likely was it that the swordsman would come closer to the death machines that were the giant and kill them without dying themselves first?
"I'd heard that you brought some giants from the North of the wall." General Bronn commented "But I didn't believe it. But you really did it. You crazy bastard."
"Watch your tongue sellsword." His aunt warned and Bronn held up his hands in surrender.
"Give these giants a war hammer and I believe that they'll be able to break down the weaker walls of small to medium-sized keeps and castles on their own," Varko told him from behind.
"Aye. Looking at these giants, I'm starting to wonder if the men I'm training would be of any use." General Bronn joked even when the both of them knew that despite their grandeur, 30 giants would never be able to replace the infantry of an army.
After that, they stayed silent for a moment and just watched the destruction wrought onto the tress by the fully armored giants before he spoke "So General Bronn. I want you to think about all the ways these giants could be used on a battlefield and write a detailed report about it with the help of the teacher I sent for you."
"Yes, my lord," Bronn grumbled but didn't say anything more as they turned around and went back the way they came from.
