Chapter 26: Battle of Bitterbridge - Day 1 (Contd)

The assault on Bitterbridge by the coalition armies of the Reach and Dorne was one of the seminal points in the history of warfare in Westeros. To date, this assault ranks amongst the top 5 battles to have ever been waged in Westerosi history all the way up to the fabled battles of the Long Night and the tragic Field of Fire during Aegon's conquest.

The battle lasted all of seven days which saw fierce bloodletting on both sides, both of whom had resolved to fight till the bitter end. At that time, it was hard to determine which side hated the other more. Such was the fervor and rage on both sides that it became impossible even for Quentyn Martell to rein in his men during the final stages of the battle.

It must be said that Tygett Lannister held on remarkably well during the initial stages of the siege, considering that he was up against perhaps the greatest military mind to have ever been born in Westeros. It was his rugged determination, his pride and his belief in his superiority of position that enabled him to hold out against overwhelming odds for nearly seven days. To this date, many scholars agree, that had it not been Quentyn Martell who led the assault, Tygett Lannister would have prevailed. But fate, it would seem, had other plans.

Nearly half the number of casualties that the coalition suffered occurred on the first day itself, when the coalition army attempted an all-out assault on all four walls simultaneously. By mid-day, Tygett Lannister deployed the raiders of Gregor Clegane as shock troops and used them to destroy any footholds the assaulters gained on any of the walls as soon as they made it to the top. By using the sheer brute strength of the Mountain-that-rides in such a manner, aided by the dogged tenacity of his men, Tygett Lannister actually defeated the assault on the walls of Bitterbridge. Indeed, one could claim that the honors for the first day went to the Lannister's and not the assaulters.

By mid-noon, Quentyn Martell called off the assault, and revised his plans which would drastically alter the very foundations of siege warfare for generations to come. At that time, the coalition army, which in future would become the feared 'Grand Army of the South' was not yet renowned for its exceptional strength. But what was noteworthy about it was the godlike speed that it wielded. Swift judgements, swift actions. Unforgiving to stragglers, their speed allowed them to crush their enemies into submission. The Lannister army had set up a formidable defensive line in the city of Bitterbridge. Upon taking stock of the casualties they were receiving, Quentyn Martell swiftly changed his tactics, which involved switching abruptly from forcing the Lannister's to submit to complete annihilation of all enemies.

The results changed the very landscape of Westerosi power structures forever.

Quentyn Martell attacks Bitterbridge with overwhelming force – From the records of Archmaester Ebrose,

The South Wall,

"Go!" shouted Tygett Lannister as his men fired volleys of arrows at the advancing enemy infantry below the walls. An unimaginable torrent of arrows rained down on the enemy soldiers who hunkered down under the cover of giant tower shields made of iron.

"Counter volley while grouped up! Move ahead!" the commander of the ground forces, Gerold Dayne ordered his men, even as the archers of the coalition army fired their own arrows back at the defenders atop the wall. The air was rife with the cries of the wounded and the dying.

"Here they come!" one of the knights of the west roared out, his tabard identifying him as belonging to House Crakehall.

"KEEP SHOOTING!"

"THE ENEMY ARCHERS ARE NOT RETALIATING FULLY!"

"DON'T GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO GET CLOSER!"

"IT'S STARTING! IT'S STARTING!"

"THEY'RE COMING FOR US!"

The air was filled with the cries of encouragement and occasional twinges of fear-laden crying as men shouted themselves hoarse as the fog of war descended upon them.

This lack of cohesion affected their aim and the arrows they shot were not nearly as effective as they could be. On the other hand, the men of the Reach and the Dorne on the ground below were invigorated with the thought of gaining revenge against the hated Lannister's.

"Straight ahead! Concentrate all your arrows where many of the banners and flags are present!" Aerys Oakheart, the other commander of the group ordered his men, who hastened to obey the command.

"READY!"

"AIM"

"FOCUS FIRE!"

"HOOAHH!

With a roar, the men launched their own volley at the defenders above the walls and a haze of arrows flew upwards from the ground up. They hit their mark and caused severe casualties.

"Shit!"

"Sweet Mother! Save me!"

"Stranger spare me!"

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

As the line above the wall was about to break, a voice roared out, full of confidence, strength and anger resonating outwards.

"Hold steady! Do not turn away! If you surrender your will to fight, you surrender your right to live! This is what a battle is! This is what a war is!" the voice of Tygett Lannister came out from the tower in the middle of the city, and carried over to the troops on top of the southern wall.

The firm conviction behind the voice reinvigorated the troops, who managed to rally back and began to fire back at the enemies with renewed vigor.

"Nicely done! They're now managing to fire back at the enemy! And the wind is on our side as well! This should aid our archers greatly!" Lord Westerling sighed in relief as he looked at the tower with gratitude.

"Now, we just need to survive this onslaught!" the lord thought with a grim visage, even as he looked at the unending horde of enemies below.

The East Wall,

For the East Wall, which also held the main entrance to the city, Quentyn had deputed Anders Yronwood, his best commander along with Mathis Rowan of the Reach to lead the assault.

As expected by Quentyn, Anders Yronwood launched a fierce assault upon the wall. Under the cover of 15,000 archers who kept up a continuously withering hailstorm of arrows upon the wall, 5,000 soldiers advanced upon the wall with ladders and began their assault. The wind was blowing on their side, which greatly aided their archers as well.

As the men reached ahead and began to scale the walls, Yronwood scoffed, "Is this it? This is what Tywin Lannister's feared army is capable of? How simple! Teach the fools of the west the true terror of war!"

On top of the wall, the commander of the troop present, Andros Brax began to panic. "The enemy footholds are increasing! Not good! If this keeps up …,"

Meanwhile in the tower at the middle of the city, Tygett Lannister and his remaining commanders were also watching the battle with trepidation.

"My Lord! We must do something! The cheering of the enemy is getting louder at the Eastern Wall!" Lord Banefort urged Tygett who was watching the battle with an impassive gaze.

"There is no need to worry," Tygett replied curtly. "From the reports I read of the battle of Starpike, it is obvious that Quentyn Martell likes to deal a blow to the morale of his enemies by taking on their most powerful position head on and crushing it! It was how he won the battle by crushing the Tyrell Infantry! But this is not Starpike and I am not Leyton Hightower! I had anticipated that he would unleash his most fierce attack upon the front gate and I have prepared the appropriate countermeasures for the same," he smirked cruelly, while his commanders seemed confused.

"Appropriate countermeasures? What do you mean?" Banefort asked, while Tygett smirked.

"It is because I knew that the boy would attempt this, I had our most powerful soldiers stationed there! The troops that possess the greatest martial might in the Lannister Army," Tygett smirked, even as a loud roar reverberated around the east wall as a group of five hundred men led by a literal giant stormed the wall.

A giant beast of a man, nearly eight-foot-tall, and weighing more than the next four men combined, clad in full plate mail, swinging a broadsword six foot long, and wielding it as a one-handed-one. Gregor Clegane, also known as the-mountain-that-rides, and the personal enforcer of Tywin Lannister's will.

With a roar, Clegane reached the top of the eastern wall, where the enemies had made a foothold and fell upon them like water upon a rock. With a single sweep of his sword, he bifurcated three men in a sweep, and clove their bodies in half, while his pack of raiders similarly fell upon the rest of the attackers.

Within minutes, the situation which had been so dire completely reversed itself and the attacking Reachmen and Dornishmen began a desperate fight to save themselves.

"Whoa! Amazing! They crushed the footholds so easily!"

"Ha-ha! Yeah! That Dornish brat doesn't know who he is messing with!"

"Hurrah!"

Cheers of jubilation rang out on top of the eastern wall as the mountain and his band of raiders fell upon the attackers and wiped them out decisively.

Coalition Army Headquarters,

As he observed the battle from his vantage point, Quentyn frowned as his mind rapidly analyzed the ebb and flows of the battle.

He turned immediately to Areo Hotah and ordered curtly, "Order our forces to fall back!"

His command evoked sharp reactions from everyone else.

"What?" Oberyn asked, a second ahead of everybody else, who had risen to their feet in shock with the same question.

Mace Tyrell, Leyton Hightower, Arthur Dayne, Barristan Selmy all looked nonplussed at the prince who remained poker-faced.

"You ... of all people, are giving up on the assault?" Oberyn asked with his face flushed with a combination of rage and incredulity.

"Don't be asinine! We are just changing tactics," Quentyn quipped back harshly, as he glared at his uncle in irritation. "Order the troops to fall back and summon all the commanders, so that I can share the new battle plans with them. In the meantime, clear the field of all the dead and replace all the wounded with fresh levies from the reserves!"

Soon, messengers raced out from the headquarters to all the four main commanders and conveyed the message, which was first received with incredulity and then resignation. Soon, orders were sent out to the troops which began to pull out in an orderly fashion.

As soon as the enemy soldiers atop the walls realized this, they set out a cheer of jubilation.

Atop the walls of Bitterbridge,

"UUOOOH! WE DID IT!"

"WE DID IT!"

"WE DROVE OFF THE MONSTER OF DORNE HIMSELF!"

"NUOOH! YEAH!"

The commanders of the army allowed the men to cheer themselves hoarse though they remained silent. They knew that this was but the prelude. Quentyn Martell was not the type to give up after just a single attempt.

The worst was yet to come. They were sure of it.

Coalition Army Headquarters,

"You called off the assault?!" Alester Florent asked Quentyn with a surprised and vexed tone, while Quentyn nodded in agreement.

"Indeed," the prince replied quietly as he sat down at the head of the table and indicated all the commanders to do the same. Many of them removed their helmets and their swords and handed them over to aides who collected them and then walked out of the tent leaving them alone.

"The morale of the Lannister soldiers is much higher than expected. To squander our resources via brute force on just the first day cannot be called a wise decision, hence I called off the attack midway."

"That is certainly true, we have suffered quite a bit," Leyton Hightower, who was in overall command of logistics commented. "We expected fierce resistance, but this is beyond expectations. It is as if those Westlander's no longer care about their lives!" he exclaimed with disbelief lacing his tones.

"If I may," interjected Oberyn, "what are our casualties till now?"

"We are still tallying them, but I believe the commanders on the field have a better grasp on the same," Leyton spoke out, smoothly handing the responsibility to the commanders who grimaced at being put on the spot.

Randyll Tarly spoke out first, "The army assigned to the Northern wall under my command has till now suffered 3,000 casualties out of the 20,000 assigned to us, and I estimate that we have gotten 1,100 or so of their men in return," he concluded grimly, while sharp breaths were taken by everyone.

"Less than half of our losses in return!?" Mace asked aghast as he looked at his best general in shock, who could only nod in agreement.

Alester Florent spoke out next, "From the Western wall, we have lost nearly 2,000 men out of our 20,000, and I estimate that we have gotten 900 to 1,000 of the enemies in return," he concluded, while the sullen atmosphere remained.

Gerold Dayne took over next. "From the Southern Wall, we have lost nearly 1,000 men, and have gotten less than 300 in return. I must add that getting those 300 men in itself was a great feat as the defenders had the advantage of the wind blowing from their side, which gave their archers an unfair advantage in itself," he concluded grimly, as by now, the grimness of the situation began to settle in.

Finally, Anders Yronwood spoke up. "As you all know, we were assigned the Eastern Wall, which doubles as the main entrance to the city. Adding to this, we had the advantage of the wind on our side, which aided our archers greatly, and we made considerable advances and gained a foothold on top of the walls. I estimate that we took nearly 6,000 heads of the defenders. But at noon, Tygett deployed his reserves and used Gregor Clegane and his raiders as shock troops and we were overwhelmed. By the time we managed to retreat, we had lost nearly 9,000 men," he concluded, while gasps were heard from the surrounding group.

"Hmm, as I expected. Tygett is keeping him in reserve and using him to disrupt any advantage we gain, by sending him to whichever wall is under the greatest threat. A sound strategy, and I had expected this. Still, we have taken the heads of nearly 8,000 enemies, but we have lost 15,000 of our own in return. Of our overall strength of 120,000 we are now down to 105,000. While the enemy is down to 32,000 from 40,000. We cannot keep up this brutal pace of battle. We need to remember that Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark will soon be upon us before long," he finished, even as he got up and began to pace while the others remained seated.

"So, you intend to minimize our losses," observed Leyton, to which Quentyn nodded.

"One city is not worth breaking the balance of your army over. There are many ways to skin a fruit so to speak," he continued, while the others gave guarded nods.

"While we are suffering casualties, you must remember that we are facing hardened soldiers who cannot be defeated without paying a toll in blood," he concluded.

"So, what do you propose?" asked Alester with a curious tone.

"Even if their morale is high, these men are still bound by physical limitations. We will take advantage of that. We will crush them, spiritually and mentally before we physically end them. We must change our posture to offensive from defensive. We have been conducting this siege with the intent to force their surrender. No more. We now aim to kill every single soldier of the Westerlands inside that city." Quentyn declared, while everybody shivered as they felt a deep chill at his words.

"We will now conquer Bitterbridge using only half our strength!" he declared with a flourish as he made a motion with his hand as if he was cutting something in half.

"Half!?"

"Prince Quentyn!"

"Wait, just how in the world …,"

"Firstly, regarding our army, from the 80,000 we had set aside for the assault, we have lost nearly 15,000 men, so we are left with 65,000. Of those 65,000, keep 5,000 aside as a tactical reserve, and divide the army of 60,000 into two armies of 30,000, with a force of 7,500 dedicated to assaulting each wall. The first half of 30,000 will attack during the day, and in the night, the second batch of 30,000 will continue the assault without any respite, while the first half rests. Then at daybreak, the first half will take over again, while the second half which was attacking during the night rests. Each half will rotate their duties continuously without giving the enemies a chance to rest or recover. This way we will grind their resilience down until they can no longer battle, and that is when we will wipe them out!"

The generals in the room were left dumbstruck with sheer amazement at the brilliant strategy laid out, while they considered its implications. To their recollection, no siege in the history of warfare had ever been conducted in such a manner. The implications were mind-boggling. The creative genius behind the idea astounded them, even as smiles creeped up on their faces against their will, while Alester Florent actually broke out into joyous laughter imagining the oncoming plight of the Lannister's.

"Are we doing this first thing tomorrow morning?" Gerold Dayne asked carefully, to which Quentyn shook his head.

"No, we are doing it now."

Above the walls of Bitterbridge, Day 1, Nighttime,

The sentries atop the wall, who were quietly resting atop the walls were jarred out of their reserve, when they heard a loud din of drums and trumpets sounding out loud. Then, the horizon literally lit up with thousands of torches giving the indication of a swarm of fireflies gathering on the horizon. Soon, they could feel the ground shaking and trembling at the sounds of thousands of men and horses racing forward.

The alarm went out even as the sounds of ringing bells and gongs, accompanied by drums and trumpets roused all the sleeping Lannister soldiers awake immediately.

"ENEMY ATTACK!"

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

"WHAT! NOW!?"

"GET BACK INTO YOUR POSITIONS!"

"QUICKLY! EVERYONE TO YOUR POSITIONS!"

The coalition army had come back with the desire of vengeance burning deep in their hearts once more.