A few minutes earlier, the merchant union general hatched a plan for ambushing the army of Vijayarama Panicker. His plan was very simple but very effective.
"There is a small dam used by people to collect water a few hundred meters away."
"What does that have to do with luring him in?"
"My lord, a stream passes close to the road through which the army was marching."
Breaking the small dam would flood the road easily. The road, being relatively old, would just be washed away by the flash flood caused by the breaking of the dam. This also meant that the soldiers had to take a detour through the forest to reach the city to restock their supplies.
The flash flood would be relatively harmless for the locality as the dam was small and didn't have enough energy to cause ecological damage or any massive destruction to the surroundings.
"Oh, this can work wonders. Send in the men right now. I will take a detour to the forest and set up the ambush points."
The midnight rain helped in the favor of Ram, as the army didn't suspect anything suspicious as they probably concluded it was due to the heavy downpour at night.
A unit was quickly sent to the dam and broke it at dawn, flooding and washing away the road. The detour was riddled with ambush points for the army. The archers prepared the arrow and sat hidden in the tree, waiting for the army of the enemies to arrive at the predestined location.
The work was done overnight and quick enough to lay a proper ambush plan for the enemies. The scouts of Ram watched the army enter the forest to take the detour to the city.
"We need to cut their information first."
So he placed a special unit of soldiers along with his scouts to kill each one of the enemy scouts. Stopping a marching army quickly wasn't an easy task.
By the time Vijayarama had caught on, they were already in the zone of the ambush points set prior.
The archers began to rain down arrows, picking off the disoriented soldiers. The chaotic situation was quickly quelled by Vijayarama's quick thinking. He blew the war horn and issued a command.
The disoriented came back to their senses and tried their best to get back to the formation and form a shield wall to defend themselves from the oncoming war elephants and infantry. Ram had employed some war elephants to take on the charge.
Behind the war elephants were the light infantry soldiers. As soon as the war elephants broke the formation of the shield wall on one side,.
The light infantry would kill off some of the exposed soldiers and retreat back into the dense foliage, employing hit-and-run tactics by using the terrain to their advantage.
Vijayarama, who had brought the situation barely under control, looked for an opportunity for a counterattack on the army. The light infantry was becoming a problem for them as they were using the forest cover to take out his soldiers in the tight and narrow place.
"SPECIAL UNIT TAKE THE ENEMY INFANTRY AND ARCHERS!!" he screamed.
The special unit brought by Vijayarama mostly consisted of the skirmishers. They quickly dove into the forest cover, slashing apart the hidden archers and light infantry.
The special unit suffered casualties as a result of the unexpected situation, but in the end they managed to deter the light infantry and hidden archers attacks.
Heavy infantry in the shield wall bore the brunt of the barrage by the archers. Equipped with pikes, they managed to slow the war elephants as the archers regrouped and picked off the mahouts of the war elephants, precisely weakening their overall intensity.
"Cavalry reinforces the infantry."
Some of the cavalry dismounted quickly to reinforce the infantry and strengthen the numbers to bear the brunt of the assault.
'DAMN IT! This is not looking good!'
Despite the immediate recovery from the ambush, they were still in an unfavorable situation; they had to retreat to favorable terrain for them.
Vijayarama looked around the terrain to make use of anything that was useful for his army. He saw a route connection to an open area south of them. The open field being close to the road gave them an excellent advantage.
"CAVALRY CHARGE TO THE SOUTHERN FLANK."
The cavalry, equipped with lances, charged at the flank of the enemy formation, which was now under the fire of arrows by their archers. The cavalry broke through the flank with ease and picked off some of the archers of the enemies nestled in the heart of the formation.
One commander of Ram's army was stabbed right in the heart by the cavalry, effectively neutralizing the command center of the flank. The metallic scent of the blood lingered in the forest as the body littered in the lush forest.
The clashes of the steel mixed with cries of agony echoed through the forest.
"CAVALRY Retreat," Vijayarama's scream cut through the battlefield. The war cry reached the cavalry, who began to retreat.
Vijayarama directed a feigned retreat towards the open field. A slow and controlled retreat as the infantry bore the brunt of the assault of the aggressive army led by Ram.
The retreat was successful; the infantry covered for the controlled and quick retreat of the cavalry. The barrage of the arrow slowed down the enemy a lot.
Finally, the army had made it into an open field. The narrow path that restricted their formations was no more. Vijayarama could use his infantry to its maximum in the open field.
"ASSUME SHIELD WALL"
Ram looked over at the situation. The enemy had managed to escape the ambush with heavy casualties and take on favorable terrain. Although it wasn't a really favorable situation to fight in the open,.
He had shaved off the numbers of the enemies significantly, and the remaining war elephants with him can be used to break a flank of their heavy infantry shield wall.
Ram blew the conch shell, and as the remaining infantry was huddled up into the frontline of the army, archers took their positions behind the shield wall of the infantry. The remaining war elephants emerged from the shadows.
"MAHOUTS!! CHARGE!"