Chapter 240: Boil the sea and burn the city
Stannis Baratheon stood on the deck of the flagship Rage, looking at the faintly visible castle in the distance with deep eyes.
The city of King\'s Landing was getting bigger and bigger in his field of vision, and he could clearly see the Red Keep standing on the high hill of Aegon, overlooking the main road at the mouth of the Blackwater River.
The cliffs under the castle are rocky and steep, dotted with moss and thorns. The fleet must pass under the Red Castle in order to enter the port and attack the city.
"Your Majesty, what do you think is that?" Earl Alister Florent asked suddenly.
Stannis came back to his senses, and looked in the direction his King\'s Hand pointed, and saw something glistening at the bottom of the Blackwater River estuary in front of him.
"It\'s an iron chain." Stannis said, and then his eyes followed the giant iron chain to both sides.
Then a newly built stone tower was found on both sides of the bank.
"What is Lannister planning to do?" Earl Alister wondered, "Could it be that they are going to raise iron chains to prevent us from entering the river?"
But soon, he realized that the other party did not intend to do so.
Because following the high tide, the first column of the fleet has entered the mouth of the Blackwater River, but the iron cable has not been raised.
"Perhaps it is preparing to divide our fleet into two parts." Earl Alister guessed again.
Stannis snorted softly: "A silly trick. Send people to both banks to pull out the base of the tower."
"yes."
However, Stannis did not order the fleet to stop.
In his opinion, even if the iron chain divides the fleet into two parts, it will not affect the overall situation. After all, at sea, his advantage is too great.
As the former Sea Minister, the Royal Fleet has always been in the hands of Stannis.
Now his fleet is ten times larger than his opponent\'s, and its displacement and combat effectiveness far exceed those of the little toys of the Lannister family.
He didn\'t feel that the enemy could pose a threat to him at sea. The real challenge would not be encountered until he occupied King\'s Landing Port and then went ashore to attack the city.
In this regard, Stannis is also full of confidence.
Because he knew that the current King\'s Landing City was extremely empty.
The Lannister family wanted to guard against the coalition forces in the three northern regions, and also wanted to intervene in the invasion of the Stormlands from the Reach, so there must not be many defenders in the city.
And Stannis also knows one of King\'s Landing\'s Achilles\' heels - lack of food.
Once this deformed city is separated from the food supply of the riverlands and the river bends, it will not last long at all.
Storm’s End is the real hard bone. Since the people of Riverbend want to chew on it, let them chew on it.
May they knock out their teeth in Storm\'s End!
In contrast, King\'s Landing is the fat that is easier to eat.
Stannis believed that he would soon be able to enter the Red Keep and sit on the steel chair.
That is according to the law, the chair that should have belonged to him!
Stannis sneered when he saw that the enemy fleet was retreating against the current. Is this intended to lure the enemy into deep?
He took a deep breath and said:
"Command, attack!"
The horn sounded on the Blackwater River, the drums beat violently, the oars rose and fell, and the battleships began to enter the battle speed.
Chase the enemy fleet trying to escape.
The trebuchets at the head of the Red Castle also began to counterattack, and cans of burning asphalt barrels were thrown down, hitting the ships near the north shore.
The sailors screamed and screamed, but they didn\'t panic too much. Under the command of the captain, they quickly put out the fire.
The Fury adjusted its position and tried to use the catapult at the stern to fight back. It\'s a pity that the shooting range is not enough, and the stones thrown can only hit the city wall.
Stannis was expressionless, and he didn\'t stop grinding his teeth until he saw that the Spirit had landed on the north shore, and the knights and soldiers on board swarmed down and began to line up on the shallows.
Then the Prayer also crashed crookedly towards the river bank, and the archers on it jumped down one after another.
On the river, the Black Beth crashed into the enemy\'s flagship, the Valiant Joffrey. Amidst the huge roar, the ram on the bow of the ship split it in half.
But Stannis noticed that what fell from the shattered enemy ships was not soldiers and sailors struggling to survive, but an extremely thick green juice, like rotten fruit, flowing into the river.
"What is that?" Earl Alister asked puzzled.
Staring at the miserable green juice, Stannis suddenly felt chills all over his body, and it took him a long time to squeeze out two words from between his teeth:
"Wildfire!"
And at this moment, he saw that the Swordfish beside him was rushing forward, its bow had been ignited by an asphalt cupping can, but this fire did not affect its speed, on the contrary, it made it even more excited. Ahead, a Lannister family ship, the Sweet Cersei, was slowly fleeing downstream, but at its current speed, it was obvious that it could not escape the pursuit of the Swordfish behind it.
"No!" Stannis yelled.
But the captain of the Swordfish certainly didn\'t hear his own king\'s orders, and he was excitedly tearing the Sweet Cersei apart with the bow ram.
Green sap dripped like rotting fruit from shattered enemy ships, set on fire by barrels of burning pitch—
Boom!
Amidst the sharp explosion, Stannis was knocked away by a huge force.
The world is spinning, top-heavy, as if there are countless voices screaming in my ears, but the world has become extraordinarily quiet.
When he recovered his consciousness again, he realized that he had fallen into the water.
The Swordfish has completely disappeared, and a green fire devil with a height of tens of feet rose up from the river. It stretched out countless arms and embraced its own fleet.
The Piety, the Brave, the Majesty, the Red Crow...all in flames, consumed by green fire.
Stannis\'s heart was cold, he hugged a piece of driftwood tightly, and suddenly turned around, he saw that the iron chain at the mouth of the Blackwater River had been raised, blocking the ships trying to escape.
The green fire spread over, turning the entire Blackwater River into a fiery purgatory.
—————
"I\'m afraid there is something wrong with the Hewan people\'s rear."
At the head of the Bronze Gate City, Earl Ralph looked at the retreating river bend soldiers and made his own judgment.
"Could it be that King\'s Landing has already been captured by His Majesty Stannis?" Sir Bruce\'s eyes showed excitement, "If so, the people of the Riverbend are probably preparing for peace talks."
"It\'s possible." Earl Ralph nodded slowly, with a smile on his face.
Although he doesn\'t like Stannis, but after all, his surname is also Baratheon, and the Buckler family can avoid the risk of being scolded as chameleons.
Seeing that the enemy was not planning to continue attacking the city, Earl Ralph turned around and walked down the tower, and at the same time confessed: "Send an envoy out of the city to ask..."
But just halfway through the conversation, he was interrupted by an exclamation:
"dragon!"
Earl Ralph stopped and looked back, and sure enough, he saw a white dragon flying out of the Hewan army formation, heading straight for Tongmen City.
But he didn\'t panic, it was just a young dragon, could it still burn down the city wall?
Really thought he was the "Black Death" Balerion?
Earl Ralph said to the herald beside him:
"Let the crossbowmen prepare, as well as our ballista. If the dragon dares to approach, maybe the Bukele family can produce a dragon-slaying warrior."
"yes."
As soon as the herald left, he saw that the white dragon had already flown near the city wall, but to everyone\'s surprise, it didn\'t fly high, but suddenly accelerated and dived towards the base of the wall.
There is the shooting blind spot of the ballista placed on the city wall. Although the crossbowmen shot a shower of arrows, due to the distance between them, the arrows had exhausted their strength and did not cause any damage to the dragon.
Under the astonished eyes of the defenders, the dragon has already passed by like a white light and shadow, and at the same time, it spits out orange-red flames from its mouth.
And the targets of Dragon Flame are those strange carts abandoned under the corner.
The hot dragon flame ignited the cart, and the iron covering it gradually melted under the high temperature...
"What is this doing?" Earl Ralph was a little confused, "Are you really going to burn the city wall with dragon flames? The people of the River Bend are crazy..."
Boom!
The world was suddenly filled with a loud noise.
For a moment, the entire city tower was rumbling and trembling, and the horses under everyone\'s crotches neighed one after another.
Count Ralph, who was going downstairs, stepped on the ground and rolled down the steps.
The guards were frightened by the movement, but no one came to help them.
Count Ralph got up from the ground with blood on his face, and was about to curse loudly, but everyone looked in one direction dumbfounded.
He followed the eyes of everyone, and then opened his mouth wide, becoming a sculpture.
Because, at this moment, a huge puff of smoke and dust rose from the north wall of Tongmen City. The huge gap!
The cool autumn wind blows away the smoke and dust, and the hearing gradually recovers, but the mind of the man in the storm has not yet returned.
They can\'t understand how all this is going on.
Is Dragon Flame so powerful?
Among the collapsed ruins, hundreds of defenders were crying in pain.
But at this time, no one paid attention to them.
Whether it is the people from Stormland or Hewan, they all stared at the collapsed city wall with dull eyes, and suddenly felt that the world had become incomprehensible.
White Dragon seemed to be taken aback by the power of the flames, and seemed to want to dive down and take another breath, but fortunately, he was held back by the rational Samwell.
I don\'t know how long it took, it seemed like a moment, and it seemed like a thousand years, the cry of fear sounded in Tongmen City. Chaos and panic spread rapidly like wildfire, making the city roar like a battalion. Countless people were running and screaming, terrified by the terrifying power of the giant dragon.
"The city is broken." Earl Landau\'s eyes were complicated, and his tone was mixed with joy and shock, and the latter was probably more.
The famous general of the River Bend knew that this was not due to the dragon, but the gunpowder.
The "new gadgets" created by those bachelors are more powerful than he imagined.
This made him a little inexplicably confused.
But no matter what, Earl Landau knew very well that from today onwards, the siege rules on the Westeros continent were about to be rewritten.
The noble knights of the River Bend next to them continued to appease the frightened horses under their crotches, and at the same time were deeply shocked by this terrifying scene.
Is this the power of the dragon?
They were suddenly very grateful that they were on the side of the dragon.
The members of the Deer Party family secretly exchanged terrified eyes, as if they were thankful that everyone maintained restraint at the hunting meeting and there was no **** conflict.
Otherwise, I am afraid the consequences will be disastrous.
Earl Randall took a deep breath, suppressed all kinds of emotions, and said:
"Command, attack!"
The horn was sounded again, this time, it was the command to attack.
The soldiers of Hewan came to their senses at this moment, put all kinds of complicated thoughts behind them, shouted excitedly, and rushed towards the gap in the city wall.
"The city is broken! The city is broken!"
Shouts sounded all over the mountains and fields, as if the entire field was cheering.
The soldiers of Hewan looked at the white dragon hovering above the ruins of the city wall of Tongmen City, and their hearts were filled with reverence and fear.
At this moment, Caesar riding a white dragon is a symbol of invincibility in their eyes!
Sword and shield soldiers, spearmen, longaxemen, archers...all swarmed towards the collapsed north city wall like ants, towards the shadow cast by the giant dragon, with piety and fanaticism like a pilgrimage.
"Ralph Buckler is at the head of the city! Grab him! Grab him!" Sir Arman Peake rushed to the forefront, as if he couldn\'t wait to give his future father-in-law a warm hug.
"Quick! Quick! Follow up!" The knights waved their long swords excitedly, urging their soldiers.
Samwell rode a white dragon hovering over the ruins of the city wall.
When he looked down from the back of the dragon, he saw the banners of the Hewan Army in all directions, and countless elite soldiers rushed towards Tongmen City like a torrent of steel in an unstoppable posture.
Even the auxiliary soldiers and civilian men in the rear rushed out of the camp in a frenzy, and merged into this torrent as if possessed by a demon.
The defenders of the storm were so frightened by this momentum that they couldn\'t raise any desire to resist.
Seeing that the defenders at the head of the city had already disintegrated, Samwell finally no longer controlled the white dragon, allowing it to swoop down excitedly and let out a roar full of sulfur.
Hoo—
Dragon flames swept across the city, devouring several Stormland soldiers who had no time to escape.
Samwell jumped off the dragon\'s back, stood upright on the top of the city wall, and slowly pulled out the giant sword [Dawn] behind him.
The burning giant sword exudes fiery light, like a dazzling lighthouse, guiding the soldiers of the River Bend forward.
"Attack!" Samwell raised his sword forward and roared.
At this moment, he seemed to be the master of this war.
Countless excited thoughts and different emotions, shouted out, gathered into one voice—
"Attack!"
"Attack!"
"Attack!"
The Stormlanders broke down, and they fled and ran in all directions to escape the terrible monster in the sky, the invincible dragon.
Cleopatra vibrated her smoky wings, flying and circling above Samwell\'s head, and the sunlight cast its shadow down, as if covering the entire Copper Gate City.
In the dusty air, filled with swords, blood, death and fire.
The city is broken.
Carrot was on a business trip yesterday, and it was almost 11 o\'clock when I returned to the hotel at night. I stayed up until 1:30 and finished a chapter. I have to get up early for a meeting tomorrow, so I will just change it. I hope you will forgive me.