The Mountain of Ice and Fire

The Mountain was on horseback, training his cavalry in offense and defense.

They were practicing long-range throwing.

Not throwing at targets, but throwing at each other.

Throwing and defending at the same time.

Long-range javelin throwing was the most effective initial attack when launching a battle formation charge.

However, no one in the Seven Kingdoms specifically trained all their soldiers to be proficient in this technique.

The Mountain was the first to train all his cavalry in this way.

Those with accurate long-range javelin throwing skills were usually landed knights or noble generals.

Generally, only landed knights and noble generals had the foundation for such training.

Firstly, they didn't have to worry about food and clothing, and secondly, they didn't have to worry about not having warhorses and a large number of training javelins.

The tips of the training javelins were specially made to shatter upon strong impact, preventing fatal injuries to comrades participating in the training.

The first basic step of training javelin throwing did not involve using comrades as opponents.

Just like Julie's archery training in the training grounds, the first javelin training targets were inanimate, stationary targets.

When a rider on a galloping horse could hit the bullseye of a stationary target with 100% accuracy, the second step was moving target throwing training. Once the second step of moving target throwing training was completed with 100% accuracy, the third step was live javelin throwing training against people.

Only real person-to-person combat best simulated the real battlefield environment.

And this kind of live javelin sparring—charging at each other on horseback, maneuvering, chasing, and throwing javelins at the enemy from a suitable distance—this kind of training, apart from a few noble generals and landed knights who had the conditions, more than 90% of centurions, knights, and soldiers had no professional training in systematic javelin throwing.

This kind of training would damage a large number of training javelins.

The weapons officers had to manufacture a large number of training javelins to meet this need.

Any sharpshooter was nurtured with a large number of training javelins.

Without capital, time, space, strict requirements, and a cruel instructor, it was difficult to develop this javelin throwing technique that required absolute arm strength. Moreover, the Mountain's requirement was that every soldier must reach the level of a sharpshooter.

However, the Duke did not doubt the Mountain's training level, because those who did not meet the standard were usually not eliminated, but were directly trained to death by the Mountain. When the Mountain was training the Duke's family guard cavalry, substandard soldiers all faced the threat of death.

And the Duke believed that every one of these cavalrymen personally trained by the Mountain knew the Mountain's brutality and ruthlessness. Anyone who dared not train desperately would not be rewarded with a beautiful golden dragon, but with cruel torture until death.

Lord Tywin rode his horse with his guard cavalry, watching the Mountain lead his Clegane cavalry in javelin throwing training, his face expressionless.

The Mountain's talent in military training, like his personal martial strength, was unmatched in the Duke's opinion. Although Master-at-arms Bronn objected to the Mountain's cruelty, the Duke and the Master-at-arms had to admit that the soldiers trained by the Mountain were all dauntingly ruthless. To put it nicely, they were all absolute warriors.

Those who were greedy for life and afraid of death would not die on the battlefield; they had already died on the Mountain's training ground. When this batch of soldiers who survived the Mountain's training went to the battlefield, it would be their enemies who would die.

With the Mountain's whistle, each time the attacking side threw a javelin, they all hit the mark. Although the 'enemies' dodged and moved quickly, they couldn't avoid the whistling, lightning-like javelins.

When they couldn't avoid these accurate javelins, the defending side's round shields came into play.

The javelins pierced the round shields, wood chips flew and shattered, and after a whistle sound of attack and throwing, the sounds of bangs and crashes were endless, and the momentum was amazing.

This kind of accuracy, once on the battlefield, would catch the enemy off guard at the beginning.

In the Seven Kingdoms, there were not a large number of soldiers and generals in organized units who had undergone such javelin offensive and defensive training.

Tywin Lannister's guard cavalry hadn't, nor had his city guard.

The throwing power of a javelin was far greater than an arrow, and the weight of the javelin itself amplified the impact of the throw. Once the training javelin's head was replaced with the best iron head, it was obvious that it could pierce through the shield's defense.

Longbow hard arrows could shoot through shields, and the arrowhead would connect the arm wearing the shield buckle to the shield.

Tywin Lannister's only regret was that the Mountain's cavalry was too small.

If there were five hundred such troops, they could form a vanguard legion to break through battle formations at the fastest speed!

But the Mountain's plan was to train only one hundred such cavalrymen, plus fifty reserve cavalrymen.

Tywin Lannister understood why the Mountain was giving each of these soldiers a golden dragon's salary, which was three times the salary of ordinary cavalry. But the content of the training was something that no other army had ever done!

This golden dragon was not as easy to get as people thought. The level of these soldiers was very high, and the training time was not very long, what did this mean?

Many soldiers secretly added extra training late at night in order to meet the Mountain's requirements 100%.

The intensity of the training was rare!

Tywin understood this, because many of the family soldiers in his guard cavalry had experienced this. Those who did not meet the standard, apart from eating, were actively adding extra training in any time that should have been used for rest. Some even secretly got up at night to add basic movements in the training ground, a simple longsword thrust, all the soldiers practiced thousands of times.

This kind of training was very cruel, and many soldiers would rather go to the battlefield than undergo such training.

With the Mountain's whistle, the cavalry's pursuit formation turned into a column, one after another, they ran past the place where the training javelins were piled up, and the officers threw the javelins out, and the cavalry caught two javelins one after another, the horses did not stop, and they passed by like flowing water.

This kind of training consumed a lot of javelins. As long as a javelin hit the shield, the javelin's head and the front part of the shaft would shatter and could not be used a second time. The weight and length of the training javelin must be exactly the same as the real javelin. This could develop a god-like feel and improve accuracy.

Each cavalryman had a round shield on his back.

The round shield was easy to carry on the back and would not get in the way when charging. Rectangular shields were more suitable for infantry defense and not suitable for cavalry charges.

Tywin Lannister noticed that the Mountain's cavalry's armor on their right arm and shoulder was heavy armor, which was not good. Heavy armor had the best defense, but it was easier to make the cavalry's right arm tired and unable to lift.

"Go and call Ser Gregor over!" Tywin Lannister said softly.

Ser Kevan immediately rode forward to call the Mountain.

The Mountain and Ser Kevan came before the Duke.

The Duke said: "Ser Gregor, all your soldiers' armor on their right shoulder and arm must only use light chainmail."

"Yes, Father," the Mountain said.

The Mountain understood Tywin Lannister, but Tywin Lannister did not understand the current Mountain. The Mountain knew that Tywin Lannister would see the improvement of Julie's right shoulder chainmail replacing heavy armor, which was not the Mountain's original creation, but came from his historical knowledge of ancient China. It originated from King Zhao Wuling's adoption of nomadic clothing and archery, which changed the wide-sleeved robes into narrow-sleeved cross-collared garments, turning a weak country into a strong one.

The Mountain knew that the clothing of many ethnic minorities in China was cross-collared and fastened on the left, the left shoulder and body were neatly dressed, but the outer robe sleeves did not connect to the right shoulder, and when the weather was slightly warmer, many men would expose their right shoulder. Some historians have studied history and concluded that this originated from the fact that it was more convenient to wield weapons and control horses and shoot arrows in actual ancient warfare, and over time, it became the style of ethnic costumes.

The Mountain took Julie for practice, and it was indeed so.

Chinese culture is broad and profound! From the small chopsticks to the changes in clothing, it contains the wisdom of the ancients and reflects the philosophy of practicality.

But if the Mountain took the initiative to promote these weapon and armor improvements to the Duke like snow salt, it would appear that his concentrated excellence in a very short period of time would be envied, and even if Tywin Lannister would not be jealous, Kevan Lannister would definitely be wary and slander him.

Mediocrity is not envied, but those who show their talents die quickly!

So the Mountain did not say anything, and let the Duke see it himself and then order the promotion, naturally weakening his 'extraordinary'ness.

"Ser, your soldiers' round shields seem to have undergone a little change."

"Yes, Father. The oak shields used in the past were all wrapped in iron sheet on the front or iron sheet on the edges. Our shields have a layer of iron sheet specially added by the blacksmith at the position of the arm lock on the back of the shield, so that it can better resist longbow hard arrows and prevent them from shooting through the shield and injuring the arm."

Tywin Lannister's heart stirred again. He spent seven hundred golden dragons in the witch's apothecary in less than two days this time. As the witch said, not only would he be able to earn it back soon, but his actual gains had far exceeded the monetary value of a mere seven hundred golden dragons.

The Mountain had unintentionally given him a great benefit for improving shield weapons. However, the Mountain was still a little short of great wisdom and did not know that these could be taken even further.

Like the scholars and knights around the Duke, he was still a little short of the vision of great wisdom.

"Scholar, pass the order down, all the shields in the Westerlands, at the position of the arm lock, add double-layered iron sheet on both the front and back."

"Yes, Lord!"

Why aren't all the shields double-layered? Because of the weight!

The Duke was expressionless, but in a very good mood.

The witch was his great prophet, a seer-like figure; and the Mountain was undoubtedly his great lucky general!

"Ser Gregor!"

"Yes, Father."

"Your shields, at the position of the arm lock, also add two layers on both the front and back, instead of just adding a single layer on the back. A single layer cannot effectively resist longbow hard arrows."

"Yes, Father," the Mountain said with a look of sudden admiration.

"You taught the Ironborn a lesson at the port of Casterly Rock last time, and Sweetmouth Ralph also helped me train the 'military whistle command' method for the Westerland noble generals. I know your contributions, and I will reward you with the five ships of iron ore that the Ironborn pulled over last time. You can send someone to pull them over from Casterly Rock."

"Yes, Father."

"Also, I order you to train five hundred Clegane cavalrymen, with a reserve of one hundred cavalrymen. Each of them must be proficient in javelin throwing, archery, long spear, lance, and swordsmanship."