The moonlight was dim, and only the sound of the wind could be heard in the mountains and forests; vision and hearing were severely disrupted, and the soldiers on rotation stared with wide eyes.
This was their first battle, and the tension brought by several consecutive days of marching made it hard for them to eat or sleep well; their eyes were red and bloodshot, yet they dared not relax in the slightest.
Suddenly, an arrow flew over and landed at the sentinel’s feet.
Looking at the still-vibrating white feathers of the arrow at his feet, he hurriedly sounded the alarm:
“Enemy attack——”
At this moment, inside Aegon’s tent.
“My lord, enemy attack! It’s an enemy attack!”
“What is there to panic about? This time it’s still harassment!”
“But what if it’s real this time?”
“Rest assured, if I say it’s fake, then it’s fake!”
Inside the tent, Aegon rolled over, showing no intention of getting up at all.
Seeing Aegon so calm, much of the tension in Roget’s heart dissipated as well.
Rationally speaking, this was Aegon’s first time leading troops in battle, and he shouldn’t have trusted him so unreservedly, but as long as he saw Aegon’s unhurried appearance, his inner panic could not be raised no matter what.
After a while, Roget reported to Aegon again that the enemy had indeed retreated, with no intention of launching a formal attack.
This made him admire Aegon all the more.
Aegon was momentarily sleepless, pondering to himself about the bandit leader Lucci.
“When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy halts, we harass. Lucci has truly mastered this sparrow warfare tactic.”
The opponent’s strategy was actually very simple: by means of continuous, alternating harassment, continuously consume the energy of his own soldiers, while constantly dulling everyone’s vigilance, and then directly transition to a general offensive upon a certain raid.
This tactic was simple, yet exceptionally effective.
Lucci was familiar with the terrain, and the local garrison of Pentos had always been weak in combat power; he had long tried and tested this tactic of exhausting the enemy with great success.
Yet he would never expect that Aegon held a cheat code for early warning.
Lucci was waiting for the opportunity when they were exhausted and their guard was down, while Aegon was waiting for the moment when the opponent mistakenly thought they were exhausted and launched a massive attack.
He only needed to seize one opportunity, set up a reverse ambush, and he could rout Lucci’s bandit crowd in one fell swoop.
Aegon intended to divide the soldiers into groups for rotational rest to cope with Lucci’s day-and-night harassment, deliberately letting the opponent think that every time they encountered a raid, the entire army would tense up and consume a lot of physical energy.
‘This Lucci is indeed a talent; it would be great if he could be put to use by me.’
In his view, subjugating a person and then obtaining a certain skill from them was just a bonus; the key lay in gaining someone who was absolutely loyal to himself, which was the most critical part.
For an ordinary person to gain an absolutely loyal subordinate required long-term emotional cultivation and material investment.
The submission card undoubtedly greatly accelerated the speed of his rise.
Just at this moment, Roget’s dissuasive voice came from outside the tent: “My lord is resting.”
“No, I must see him right now.”
Upon hearing this, Aegon knew the visitor was Connington, and commanded, “Let him in.”
Connington lifted the curtain and walked into the tent.
Seeing Aegon lying there comfortably without the slightest sense of urgency ahead of battle, he felt his vision darken for a moment.
But he knew he had no qualification to reprimand the commander-in-chief, and could only patiently advise: “My lord, Lucci clearly wants to use continuous harassment to exhaust our physical strength. As long as we relax slightly, they will launch a general offensive at any time.”
“Oh? In your opinion, how should we respond?” Aegon saw that Belwas was still following behind him, and said in a sarcastic tone.
Seeing that Aegon was willing to listen to his thoughts, Connington was both surprised and delighted inside; it seemed this young commander-in-chief was not headstrong and beyond redemption.
The plan that Connington stated next made Aegon truly witness what an experienced general was; he was truly a figure who had once served as the Hand of the King and defeated Robert.
Connington proposed a complete decoy strategy combining inside and outside: arranging only a small number of exhausted soldiers to stand guard on the periphery, or directly using scarecrows wearing armor as a bluff;
The main force inside the camp was fully armored, forbidden from lighting fires or making noise, maintaining silence throughout.
At the same time, preset defense lines around the camp, set traps along all paths where enemy forces might raid, and send more scouts in shifts to investigate.
Whenever bandits came to harass, the peripheral guards were to deliberately show panic and horror, shouting loudly, shooting arrows blindly, and pretending to pursue for a few steps before hurriedly retreating back into the camp.
At the same time, dispatch a small elite force to trail and probe.
Most importantly, completely record the time pattern of each round of the opponent’s harassment, and use this to judge the timing of their launch of the general offensive.
It could be seen that Connington truly had a knack for military command, talking endlessly when speaking of coping methods.
If the max level for the skill of military command was level five, Aegon was currently level three, and Connington was at least level four!
In fact, Aegon also coveted Connington, but his ‘loyalty’ was naturally maxed out.
Moreover, no one romanced him; he romanced himself while following Rhaegar.
It could be anticipated that once Aegon dealt with Illyrio and made Connington believe that he was the real Aegon, he would immediately obtain a dual-talented ‘military and political’ expert.
Aegon listened to his arrangements with relish and asked: “Hmm, is there anything else?”
“There are only these for now; if the enemy forces launch a full-scale massive attack, there are other coping methods.” Connington deliberated his wording while observing Aegon’s expression.
The opponent was not even fifteen years old yet, but he could manage an army in an orderly fashion and build it step by step to its current scale, which was enough to show that he was extremely good at gathering popular support and driving subordinates.
Yet previously he had publicly driven away himself and Belwas’s group, acting impulsively and stubbornly.
Placing these two matters together made Connington always feel deeply incongruous.
However, he did not delve deeper; since Aegon was willing to accept his advice, it was the best situation.
…
…
Not many days later, Lucci also sensed the changes in this Pentos army.
If the commander-in-chief truly understood the way of using troops well, why did he initially behave like a novice who knew nothing about military affairs?
Could it be that the person in charge was changed midway?
Such self-contradictory and bizarre performance left him utterly baffled.
But he quickly adjusted his countermeasure—during yet another nighttime raid, he came personally to observe carefully which area of tents lit up first and which area reacted the slowest.
Finally concluding that the sluggishly reacting area consisted of the soldiers on rotational deep sleep.
Lucci also observed whether Aegon’s sentinels rushed out of their tents with hurried preparations or dealt with it sloppily.
Not only nighttime harassment, but daytime rotational harassment was also carried out, not seeking casualties, but purely to disrupt their rotational rest.
This indeed worked.
In less than two days, the little bit of spirit that Aegon’s soldiers had managed to recover was consumed once again, and even two patrolling soldiers were captured.
During the day they had to march to find this band of bandits’ lair, and at night they had to guard against their sneak attacks.
Lucci made even an ‘old general’ like Connington feel tricky.
But what gave him even more of a headache was that Aegon completely paid no mind to those raids during this period.
“Lord Griff, you take command, otherwise we will all die here if this goes on!” Belwas once again proposed that Connington seize military power from Aegon.
Even if it meant using some violent means, as long as it didn’t hurt him.
These days, the originally plump Belwas had thinned down a circle, with sunken eye sockets, and coupled with being castrated, besides body odor, there was also a urine stench on him.
“No, it doesn’t have to be like that. I think we have almost found this band of bandits’ camp; as long as we launch an attack, everything will get better.” At this moment, Connington was likewise somewhat haggard and withered.
But relying on his own experience and judgment of the terrain, he had roughly deduced the location of Lucci’s lair.
However, his so-called attack also had an element of a ‘gamble’.
On the other side, Aegon suddenly felt a countdown flash before his eyes—— [Bandit Camp Raid Countdown 23:59:59]
Seeing this countdown, Aegon’s heart tightened; it seemed that the leader Lucci was about to launch a real attack against him