The king on the Great Wall

Chapter 692

Considering the logistical capacity of the kingdom and the efficiency of obtaining supplies along the way, Iger dispatched or dispatched the weaker Hejian soldiers and the less controllable northerners when the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army set off on the road. In other war zones, the actual troops commanded are in the early 80s, and they are said to be [-].This number includes non-combatant soldiers. After conquering cities and conquering land all the way, every time a castle is captured, [-] people will be left to guard and control it. There are winners and losers... As of today's decisive battle, the actual number of troops he can mobilize is less than [-].

This is a very funny and unsolvable paradox: If 5 people had been dispatched in a group instead of dividing the troops, then this decisive battle would not have been fought so hard; but what is more likely to happen is that the people in Hewan In the face of the scorched earth tactics, the [-] army, which had not been disarmed and streamlined, could not survive outside the city of Gaoting before it ran out of food and grass and was forced to return home.

In this battle, the Western Expeditionary Army won the battle with difficulty. Now, it is necessary to solve the sharp sword called "Insufficient Grain and Grass" hanging above the head.

There are two options before them.

The first was to force conscripts from the surrounding countryside of Highgarden - as armies of this era usually do.But this means: Iger needs to take the risk of being counterattacked and break up the troops that have experienced the war again into pieces and scatter them to plunder.Such a division of troops will not only greatly interfere with his plan of siege and forced surrender of Highgarden, but also may cause another wave of conquest wars that have already been settled, and will seriously affect his image in the eyes of the residents of the river bend, thereby destroying the Queen's rule. stability.

Or, they can also go all out and take advantage of the victory to take down the camp of the Allied Forces in the River Bend, and use the method of fighting to support the war to solve the problem while completely avoiding adverse consequences—just like the river he captured in the Battle of the Blackwater River. The supplies of the Gulf Army became the starting materials for his westward expedition.

Any fool knows which one to choose.

Of course Iger wants to send troops around and attack the Hewan camp directly!

But the fact is: of the more than 2 soldiers and horses in his hands, in the decisive battle against the nearly [-] Hewan coalition forces, none of them must be missing.

Not to mention, when the people of Hewan rely on the superiority of the number of cavalry to completely control the initiative around the battlefield, and lay down a network of reconnaissance, patrol, roaming, and harassment, even if he deliberately manipulates it, it is impossible for him to deceive his opponent.

Therefore, Iger finally chose a safe method: conduct a decisive battle normally, and after defeating the enemy with all his strength, let the hundreds of soldiers in the back row with the best preserved physical strength carry the enemy's battle flag captured yesterday, and the defeated soldiers from the river bay They inserted into the enemy camp through the cracks of the enemy's camp, snatched in before the enemy closed the camp gate, and violently grabbed the gate when the large troops were chasing them, completing an unimaginable combination of inside and outside, and took down the camp in one fell swoop.

He didn't let Daenerys drive the dragon to chase the defeated enemy in the west. Apart from the reason that "the cavalry in the river bay have a greater proportion of nobles and are more threatening", another consideration is: not to let the existence of the dragon stimulate the defense of the defeated army. Only with vigilance and vigilance can we successfully take down the intact coalition army camp!

Hundreds of infiltrators disguised as defeated Hewan soldiers with towels tied on their arms were divided into more than a dozen teams and ran side by side with tens of thousands of defeated Hewan infantrymen. In the end, more than 50 people successfully sneaked into the enemy camp.Although the number was pitifully small, the enemy was caught off guard and occupied the east gate of the coalition army camp in one fell swoop, forcing the enemy hundreds of times their size, unable to get a moment's breath.

At this moment, Jon Clinton experienced the taste of the legendary "two heavens of ice and fire":

From the neck down, the whole body was cold like falling into an ice cave, because I found that I had lost so badly that I was about to lose my underwear;

The face above the neck was hot and painful, but he realized that such a childish trick of "reverse impersonation" had played the entire Hewan-Golden Corps coalition force twice in one day!

……

"You bastard!" It was the young Prince Aegon who roared angrily. He pulled out the Conqueror's sword "Blackfyre" from his waist, and shouted at the soldiers beside him, "Take my horse! Soldiers, follow me!" I'm going to take back the gate!"

For those who didn't respond, the soldiers of the Golden Regiment looked at the head of the regiment, and the soldiers of Gaoting looked at the head of the country - those who didn't play in the decisive battle did have some combat capabilities. Yes: Can they do it before most of the enemy pursuers rush in?

"Lord Tyrell, Captain Harry!" Jon Connington said with a pale face, "Please escort the prince back to Highgarden, and I will leave the command behind!"

When he got up this morning, he was still vowing in his heart to send Rhaegar's son to the Iron Throne; but at this moment, there was only one thought left in Clinton's mind: his beloved silver prince... must not be cut off.

The originally fortified camp would become an obstacle to escape. The most combative Golden Regiment forced the prince who would rather die than surrender to retreat to the west gate. The Highgarden Guard with a fairly complete system was also led by the terrified Duke Tyrell. Get away soon.As soon as the two active forces retreated, the remaining rogue soldiers, although large in number, could not be organized in a mess-let alone "broken", even the three grain and grass warehouses that Landau had asked to arrange to be ignited earlier were all on fire. In the chaos, it failed to be implemented smoothly.

Among them: a group of people in a hurry did not have time to find all the tools needed for setting fire, so they were frightened and ran away with the crowd; the other group found all the kerosene and flint, but the leading officer changed his mind at the last moment and decided to keep it. The complete granary was dedicated to "the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch whom he had long admired"; only the granary closest to the southwest corner was ignited by a fire at the urging of Jon Connington's personal supervision, and soon burned into a skyrocketing cloud. The pillar of fire, the light even briefly rivaled the sunset glow of the western sky.

After peeling off another layer of skin, the only remaining fruits of the Hewan coalition escaped from their own camp.

The main force of the [-] Hewan infantry, which was still huge and mighty in the early morning, is now less than one-tenth left, but it has become easier to control.So some middle-level commanders proposed to turn around, surround the camp half a circle from the outside, and then enter from the east gate, to stab the ass of "the enemy who has stabbed one's own ass", retake the captured camp, and kill all of them. Wave.

To be honest, this baby-like way of thinking is really a bit of a trick, but most people just want to escape from the sky at the moment, and they don't have the courage to stop even if they kill half of the enemy.

To the west, High Court is within easy reach.Facing the afterglow of the setting sun, this most beautiful castle in the Seven Kingdoms, which shines like a diamond under the sunlight during the day, turned into a small but sharp silhouette on the red curtain, casting its own shadow on the vast river bay plain. Slender shadows.

White Castle, the capital of the Reach, is indeed famous for its beauty, but this is because it has never had a chance to prove its defensive power. Anyone with a little military vision can see it at a glance: it is also one of the strongest castles in the Seven Kingdoms. one.The three circles of tall walls allow it to have good fault tolerance in defensive battles, and the nearly perfect arch-shaped structure makes the invaders have to feint in every battle.Although it was not designed to deal with shelling or threats from the air, but...

who cares!

Everyone just wants to hide in the castle, take a breath inside the thick marble wall, drink half a sip of hot soup, and sleep peacefully. What should we do tomorrow? Let those gentlemen who are in meetings all day think about it. !

However, even such a humble wish in the soil is doomed to fail to come true.

In the long and narrow shadow of Gaoting City and its hills, a cavalry unit suddenly appeared from nowhere and ran across the coalition camp and the castle.At first, the retreaters thought it was the troops sent by the Tyrell family, but soon someone reminded loudly that "there are no cavalry left in the city".The number of this group was about two to three thousand, and they formed a narrow horizontal formation, dismounted leisurely in front of the Golden Group and the Gaoting troops, rearranged their equipment and began to line up to fight against the enemy!

Iger's Western Expeditionary Army only had this cavalry. They came from Casterly Rock City in the west. They experienced two light confrontations with the cavalry of the Golden Regiment during the war. The light cavalry in the rear of the palace were ordered to rush westward without stopping, and from the south they continued to chase the infantry, the infiltrators who mixed in with the enemy, and the real enemy. The moment when the troops were frightened from the camp and rushed to Highgarden.

Their only task is to prevent the enemy from safely retreating into the castle and reverse the weakened state of the "empty city" of Highgarden.

This group of men from Casterly Rock is equipped with cavalry equipment that is not suitable for foot combat. Everyone is panting and sweating. It's not that I have more confidence in the horse's effort, but because...the horses have all run away and can't move.

If the fight starts at this moment, the outcome is actually unknown!

But the coincidence is inevitable. What Iger didn't even count when he gave the order was that all of this happened to be covered up by the brilliant sunset behind him.

The frenzied Golden Regiment infantry and the Highgarden Guards couldn't see through the reality of this strange soldier at all. They only saw a dark row of killing gods arrayed with their backs facing the sun. Their numbers were not inferior to their own, and their faces were hidden in the shadows. , an invisible murderous aura overflowed.

There are only a few miles away from Gaoting, but because of the existence of this group of enemies in front of them, these last few miles have become a natural moat that can never be crossed.

"Don't panic, they are not cavalry, otherwise they have already started charging!"

The current head of the Golden Group is good at operations and negotiation, but when it comes to tactical vision and courage, he is lackluster.Quite logically—Harry Strickland was also misled into making bad judgments.

He appeased his subordinates, waved his big hand, and issued an order that could not be miscalculated but hit the enemy's arms: "Protect the prince, let's retreat south!"

-

Chapter 693

Thankfully, the season is changing from spring to summer, and the sky will still brighten up for a while after the sun goes down.

Before the night fell completely, the Western Expeditionary Army hastily completed tasks such as cleaning the battlefield, reorganizing the troops, and dragging the wounded and disabled to the new camp.After struggling to put out the fire in the granary in the southwest corner of the camp, counting and taking over the remaining property of the enemy, and having a celebration feast with the wine and meat of the people in Hewan, Iger called the generals together and began to face the queen. Count the results of the battle and count the casualties.

The Western Expeditionary Army participated in the battle with 7000 people, and over [-] people were killed in battle. The number of minor and serious injuries that reached the line of fire was more than twice this number... Since antibiotics have not yet been born, there is a high probability that there will be some changes between the two.It was a tough battle, but corresponding to the huge casualties, was the even more astonishing loss of the enemy: the river bay allied forces, the corpses left on the main battlefield alone were close to five figures, and this was not counted as being killed in the river and being killed. Washing away and being hunted down in the subsequent rout or being thrown into the wilderness by Dragon Flame, in short, it is an innumerable part.

Although compared with the conquest of the northern border, the battle across the river, and even the land and sea battles that took place near the city of King's Landing, the number of Queen's forces was reduced by an order of magnitude in this battle, but the exchange ratio fell below 1:10, leaving only single digits. This is still a big win that no one can deny.

The reason is simple: Both the strategic and tactical goals of the Western Expedition have been exceeded.

Strategically, Iger's original plan was to forcibly advance against the obstacles of the people in Hewan, relying on the oppressive feeling of "unstoppable" to wear down their will to resist.But the enemy, with the cooperation of courage, brains, judgment and organizational skills that are slightly higher than imagined, unexpectedly laid out a decent defensive decisive battle... While creating a challenge for him, it was also a challenge. Backfired - greatly accelerated the course of the war.

The resistance force that was supposed to be slowly disintegrated by the Western Expeditionary Army's pressing step by step, after a brief condense and swell up, was lifted up and smashed to the ground, falling to pieces!

Whether it is the scouts released according to the rules and regulations, or the skinchangers who scout the battlefield from the perspective of birds, they all report the same message: the originally impenetrable net around the battlefield disappeared without a trace as the outcome of the battle was decided. no trace.Nuo Dahe Bend Plain, within a radius of ten miles around the Western Expeditionary Army, was so clean that not even half of the scouts could be seen.

This is an unmistakable sign of giving up resistance no matter what era or place it is placed in: a war, no matter how ugly the frontal fight is and there is no resistance, the most basic thing is to "know where the enemy is." After all, it is guaranteed.But now, the Hewan people dispersed in a hurry, and they didn't even bother to detect the movement of the Western Expeditionary Army—to use an intuitive analogy to describe it: they fled for their lives and didn't even dare to look back.

Compared with the above-mentioned significant but still reasonable results, the tactical victory is a complete surprise.

On the contrary, Iger cautiously ordered the western cavalry to attack, allowing them to rush into twenty miles in an hour, and insert between the Hewan army camp and Gaoting City when they were half behind. However, the psychological expectation is actually "as much as you can block", and subconsciously, you are even prepared to lose most or even all of the western cavalry.

Apart from the darker secondary reason that this armed force is not his direct descendant and he doesn't feel sorry for it, the main consideration is actually: the Western Expeditionary Army was actually seriously injured in this battle.

At the critical moment of the climax of the battle, he completely lifted the restrictions on the use of thermal weapons by the troops.There is not a single explosive bomb left with the army, and even the gunpowder of the artillery has been consumed under the brutal continuous firing. Only the artillery groups with slower firing rates or the cannons that have exploded are left, and the total amount is divided evenly. One more volley is not enough, better than nothing.

If High Court is armed with the support of the defeated soldiers, the Western Expeditionary Army without the siege weapon will be unable to attack the White Castle. Without knowing how many dragon hunting crossbows the Tyrell family has prepared, Iger You can only give up the siege, or ask the queen to take the risk and attack at night.

Either way, they will regrettably lose an extremely valuable trophy and bargaining chip.

However, for reasons that he could not fully understand for the time being, a total of five or six thousand enemies who were clearly still able to fight were so hasty that even the more than 1000 dismounted light cavalry did not dare to challenge, and the whole army turned and retreated neatly. To the south, under the cover of the coming night, fled to the depths of the Reach Plain.Among them, there are not only the remaining infantry of the Golden Regiment, but also the Highgarden guards who were supposed to guard Highgarden, but followed the Duke Tyrell's personal conquest.

This also means that not only did the Western Expeditionary Army no longer have any enemies between the outer walls of Gaoting City, but even inside the walls, there might not be many left.

……

The brief summary meeting came to an end, and the generals dispersed and rejoined the celebration that had come to an end.Iger was sitting in the chair and was thinking about what to do with the intact High Court, when Daenerys's sweet but undeniably majestic voice rang in his ears.

"Iger, come with me for a walk."

Stepping out of the large tent covered with the emblem of the three red dragons, the queen and the commander in black stepped side by side into the camp site brightly illuminated by torches and bonfires.

As the most powerful man and woman in this continent at the moment, their so-called "walking around" certainly couldn't really be a casual chat.Sure enough, Daenerys quickly took the initiative to talk about the opposite direction of this Western Expedition——a series of changes happening in the east of Westeros.

The existence of the Anti-Queen Alliance is not news, but after Iger set off on the road to conquer the Bend, the situation has changed a little: Braavos passed a discussion resolution and began to semi-openly support the Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance— —Although not half of the soldiers were sent to join the battle except the liaison officer, with the help of financial and material resources from this known world financial center + the most efficient arsenal, the originally chaotic military alliance of slave owners suddenly started to go on the right track as if it had a backbone , not only quickly formed a combined fleet that is not inferior in number and size, and the tonnage is even greater than the latter, but also advertised everywhere, announcing the hiring of all mercenaries who are willing to pay a price and cross the sea by boat, preparing to start a somewhat familiar war.

Those who are interested will still remember: Not too long ago, when the Lannister family's golden siblings and daughters had just been exposed, when King Robert ordered the six kingdoms to besiege the Western Territory and prepare to wipe the lion family from the world, Tywin did not hesitate. The armed forces across the Narrow Sea were bought with blood to harass Robert's east coast, so that the armies of the Stormlands, Crownland, and Vale could not advance westward at full strength.

What the Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance is doing now is similar things, but they are not for little Aegon, but the scale is much larger than last time.

"The trade between the two sides of the strait has been completely cut off. This is not a big problem; the enemy's navy is cruising wantonly in the narrow sea. I tried to control the dragon to drive them away, but I found that they also installed a dragon-hunting crossbow on board." Daenerys said in her tone A trace of suppressed anger surged up, "The navy has not yet finished its rest, and you have taken away all the artillery. At the critical moment of Spring Seed, it is impossible to recruit a large-scale army to open another front, so I ordered the fleet to rely on the defense of Dragonstone Island, The mercenaries hired by the slave owners may land and attack on a large scale at any time. And two-thirds of my army is trapped on the battlefield of the river bay. , not to mention that the Vale is also negotiating with the Braavos envoy..."

She took a long breath, turned her head and glanced at her Queen's Hand: "Do you understand what I want to say, it is true that I regained the Iron Throne, and it is indeed important to unify the Seven Kingdoms, but there is no way to protect it." A king of his own kingdom would be looked down upon, let alone a queen!"

"Understood!" Iger nodded, "The outcome of the River Bend War has already been decided, and the news will definitely make the princes of the valley dare not act rashly. Timely put the cannons on the ship, and the slave owner alliance is vulnerable to a single blow. Your Majesty's decision to take a defensive position is very wise. Time is on our side. If you delay a little longer, the sea and the sky will be brighter!"

This is not flattery. When there is no certainty of winning, it is a rare wisdom to stay calm and avoid fighting. When the Queen is not crazy, she is actually quite brainy.

"It must be fast. As long as you are willing to surrender, it is okay to spare the nobles of Hewan a little bit. Hewan is here, and you can't fly away. We have plenty of time to deal with it slowly after cleaning up the slave owners alliance." Iger can quickly understand Daenerys was very satisfied with her urging intention, and stopped nagging after one more exhortation. Instead, she sighed and switched to the next topic, "Aegon was taken south by the Golden Group and Clinton? Do you have any suggestions on what to do with my nephew?"

-

Chapter 694 Loyalty and Traitor

As soon as the problem came out, Iger's heart sank a lot.

When Daenerys described Aegon, it was not "false king" but "my nephew"!

Such details can reveal many things, one of which is clearer: if she doesn't fully believe it, she at least has some doubts—the young silver-haired prince may really belong to her nephew.

Probably the war ended so quickly and smoothly—that the puppet king was suppressed before he could cause her great distress and substantial damage to her interests, and the subconscious "blood relationship" was not wiped out by the hostility do.

Under this premise, hesitation and hesitation, and not knowing how to deal with the other party are understandable.

In Westeros, rebellion has not yet turned into a deadly high-voltage wire.

Damn, I knew Xi Zheng would not be so desperate.

After three to five years, the country was divided into dozens of months and became devastated... When Daenerys's own rule was in shambles, she absolutely wanted to kill little Aegon more than anyone else, so it was impossible for her to come and secretly He discussed "how to deal with my nephew".

Although he was muttering in his heart, Iger had the gentle expression of a close friend on his face.He nodded slowly and seriously, and kicked lightly at the rolling ball.

"What about His Majesty's own thoughts?"

"Don't be sloppy." Daenerys scolded a little unhappily, "I just couldn't figure out my thoughts, so I came to ask for your opinion!"

"Understood." Iger expressed doubts, but if the queen asked sincerely, he couldn't be polite, "Your Majesty must have already understood that if you ask this question: if little Aegon is not dead, it will be a huge threat to the stability of your rule. At any time, I will be deceived and manipulated by my own desires and people with ulterior motives, and do stupid things again." He sighed sincerely, "It's a pity that I couldn't kill him quickly on the battlefield, and His Majesty fell into a trap. Dilemma. So now I have to ask, are you afraid of taking the notoriety of being a 'Kinslayer', or do you really have kindness and affection for this person? If it is the former, I am willing to dirty this hand for Your Majesty, and if it is the latter By……"

He didn't continue, and frowned with a troubled expression.

Daenerys also sighed, slowing down even walking side by side.

Iger didn't kick the ball back to satisfy her, but he still couldn't understand his intention, which made her a little annoyed.

"There is a way to solve this problem—join the church and convert to the seven... red gods, or put on black clothes and become a night watchman. In short, you will give up your line of succession forever. Isn't there no need to die?"

The queen didn't answer the question, but Iger still got the answer: Daenerys is not afraid of the reputation of "Kinslayer", but afraid of killing her last relative.

(The real Aegon Targaryen was fooled by me to watch on the Great Wall. What is going on with this counterfeit, who knows!)

But he couldn't say this in his heart because he had no evidence.

Iger secretly took a deep breath, rolling his throat up and down.

Having multiple identities can sometimes bring some wonderful troubles, such as the situation I am facing right now.

He'll have to go through some probing and playing dumb to figure out which self Daenerys is looking for.

And now, the worst has come.

The queen called him out of the tent tonight to talk...

It's not discussing with [Number One Supporter] or [Hand of the Queen] how to deal with the enemy leader;

Instead, she came to apply to [The Lord Commander of the Night Watch]—to grant formal asylum to her nephew who had committed trouble.

If there was only the latter identity, he would definitely not think twice about opening his mouth to the queen, and immediately agreed and even went to arrange, arrange, and even pick up people in person, just like he did to James back then.

But now he is not only the leader of the Night Watch, but also the spokesman for the interests of the "Land Grant-Northern Department", and the kingdom's second in command!

The two methods of converting to religion and putting on black clothes that Daenerys thought of are theoretically feasible, but the fact that she ignored or deliberately ignored is that the effectiveness of the two curses of religion and honor actually comes from inner morality. The trinity of humanism, secular vision and deterrence by those in power at a higher level.

Among the three, the first two things are actually illusory, and only the last one is reliable and solid.

A simple explanation is: Usually, when a person who converts to a religion or wears black clothes decides to repent and break his oath, even if he is not ashamed of it in his heart, and he is not afraid of gossip from the world, the higher rulers For example, the king will also take action in order to stabilize the ruling order, and investigate and punish such breach of oath that violates public order and good customs.

Obviously, once such restrictions are placed on the potential heirs to the throne...or to put it another way: when the benefit of breaking the oath may be the throne-the supreme power itself, its binding force will be weakened to almost nothing.

Because the benefits and costs are completely out of proportion, mastering the throne can even adapt or create history to whitewash the past!

Black clothes can make a man like Aemon Targaryen wear it for a lifetime, only because he really doesn't want to be a king!

Whether little Aegon has the enlightenment and Buddhism of Maester Aemon, Iger is not sure at all, and it is impossible to gamble.

The Prime Minister’s silence made Daenerys feel the invisible pressure. Of course, she didn’t really realize how naive and ridiculous her proposal was, so she could only patch it up nervously and eagerly: “It’s really not possible, we can also declare that Iran Gunn Targaryen was killed in battle, and he was exiled in private, and ordered to change his name and never set foot on the land of Westeros—”

"Your Majesty." Iger interrupted Daenerys' rambling, without concealing his helplessness and opposition at all, "Most of your followers—including me—are all under the banner of 'supporting the real dragon. If you spare the false king's life after this battle, it will be tantamount to announcing to the world that this is a tender family struggle, and you are doing nothing for the authenticity of little Aegon's bloodline. Official endorsement! Are you worthy of the soldiers who died in the process of suppressing the rebellion for you? Everyone was still uncertain whether Aegon was real or not, but after you came here, no matter whether he was wearing a white robe or a red robe Still in black, or even exiled far outside of Westeros, will always be one of the potential heirs of the dynasty's bloodline jurisprudence!"

Iger didn't explain all the lines clearly. For him, whether it is public: as a prime minister, he considers the stability of the country; or privately: as a representative of one party, he considers the interests of himself and the group behind him. Absolutely impossible to accept.

Yes, never!

Little Aegon's Targaryen name was, to the Queen herself, a reason for soft-heartedness; but to anyone but the Queen, it was precisely the reason why he had to die!