Second Battle of Cairhien
From A Wheel of Time Wiki
The Second Battle of Cairhien was fought during the Shaido War of 999 NE. The 160,000 Shaido Aiel under Couladin, marching at a furious pace, had surrounded the city of Cairhien and besieged it, but the presence of not only native Cairhienin forces but also Tairen reinforcements sent into the kingdom at the order of Rand al'Thor prevented them from breaching the walls or capturing the city.
Al'Thor, leading seven clans of the Aiel under his banner, almost double Couladin's number, launched his attack. His plan was not to destroy the Shaido, which would have been costly in lives, but to dislodge their forces and send them fleeing north to the bridges over the Gaelin, forcing them to take refuge in Kinslayer's Dagger. Enjoying his superiority of numbers and his use of the One Power, aided by Egwene al'Vere and Aviendha, Rand's confidence almost proved his undoing when the Forsaken Sammael took advantage of the confusion to launch an attack which severely injured Egwene.
Meanwhile, Mat Cauthon had been attempting to flee his destiny under the cover of the battle, but instead rode into a group of Cairhienin and Tairen troops in danger from Shaido forces. Mat's attempts to extricate the troops from danger and himself from the battlefield backfired as he ended up again and again wandering into the thickest action, culminating in a furious fight between him and Couladin that saw him slay the Shaido chief. With Couladin's death, the Shaido withdrew from the battlefield into Kinslayer's Dagger as planned, where Rhuarc was able to keep them bottled up for the next few months, until the Shaido were defeated at the Battle of Dumai's Wells and then scattered across the continent by the machinations of Sammael and Graendal.
The battle was a substantial victory for al'Thor's forces and saw the nation of Cairhien swear loyalty to him. 20,000 Shaido were taken gai'shain during the battle, and thousands more had been killed. Mat Cauthon gained a significant reputation for generalship during the battle and his irregular Cairhienin and Tairen forces became the core of a new elite unit known as the Band of the Red Hand, named after an ancient fighting force of Manetheren.
