The king on the Great Wall

Page 212

And now, a thing happened that even she thought was unbelievable: she seemed to be really obsessed with the guy in front of her... who she had known for less than an hour!

She is eager to gain this guy's approval and favor, eager to participate in his terrifying plan to level the bay, and even eager tonight, no, to be able to work with him now...

Pooh!

Suppressing the inexplicable groaning thoughts, she thought of a deeper benefit: if she could participate in this great feat of disintegrating the river bay as a daughter, and be able to leave her name and military exploits in this period of history, Even if the father still wants to deprive himself of his inheritance, he will probably face huge resistance!

After swallowing, she ignored Sister Sand Snake's muttering in her ears, but raised her head and met Iger's gaze straightly.

"Dawn joins, Lord Commander-in-Chief. May I ask the specific content of this plan, and when can I have the honor to discuss it with you?"

-

Chapter 597 The Battlefield Bride

Several miles away, you can see the smoke pillars from the cooking fire in King Aegon's camp. They are densely packed, hundreds of thousands, not only straight into the sky, but also slightly inclined in the same direction under the wind, as if growing on the bank of the Blackwater River. A slanting forest of white giants, the whole of the south shore of King's Landing is covered by their pale and huge "canopy".

Laughter, gongs, drums, and flutes... All kinds of sounds drifted across the frozen river and the thin snow-covered field to spread in all directions, faint and hazy, like the buzzing of bees, or the call of the distant sea, becoming The background sound of the whole world.

Nearly 7 troops gathered here, together with the businessmen who came to do business, military girls, and coolies who were forcibly recruited from nearby villages, [-] to [-] people lived in this camp.The last time there was such a large-scale military build-up in Westeros, it dates back to the time of King Robert. He summoned the army of the six countries to quell the rebellion of the Alliance of the Righteous in the Valley.

But right now, what is going on in this giant military camp is neither drill nor preparation, but a wedding.

A wartime wedding—to announce to the world the combination of Tyrell and Targaryen, to reveal the alliance between King Aegon VI and the Reach, to boost the morale of the army that has been slackened and tired for too long, and to Daenerys on the North Shore and Stannis on the besieged King's Landing show their strength and defeat the enemy!

***

The groom wore a shiny soft golden dragon head crown, dressed in a red and black velvet long coat, with three red dragons symbolizing Targaryen embroidered on the chest——Typical Targaryen beauty, decent appearance His magnificent attire, coupled with the gorgeous weapon that is said to be the conqueror's sword "Black Fire" on his waist, made him not only look heroic and precious, but also effectively countered those who questioned his identity. rumors.

As for the bride, she was wrapped in a gorgeous gold and green gown, and the skirt was dotted with countless small flowers outlined by silver thread beads, which was both pure and delicate, although it was not as eye-catching as the most beautiful woman in the world, But the green leaves that serve as a foil to the safflower are also fully qualified.

Husband and wife... To be precise, the unmarried couple stood on a temporary high platform, facing the archbishop wearing a crystal crown who presided over the wedding, really like a pair of lovers.

Well, that's right, it was really the archbishop himself who presided over the wedding—of course, this old guy didn't fly out of King's Landing with wings, long before Stannis sat on the Iron Throne and refused to be crowned and anointed by the church. When publicly declaring their belief in the Lord of Light, the Cult of the Seven moved the church headquarters from King's Landing back to the Starry Sept in Oldtown in protest.After the news of the victory of humans against the White Walkers came from the north a month ago, Duke Tyrell sent a letter to Lord Leighton Hightower, asking him to come forward and invite the archbishop to the front line by the Blackwater River.

At that time, this move was to allow the Cult of the Seven to crown Daenerys Targaryen and recognize her legitimacy on behalf of the people of Westeros, so as to show favor to the Queen. Who would want a big pie to fall from the sky? , that Mother of Dragons actually refused to recognize her nephew's identity, and even gave up trying to win over the River Bend, which was enough to influence the war situation!

The princes of the Reach were overjoyed, but the archbishop's work suddenly increased - he witnessed the enthronement of Aegon VI Targaryen the day before yesterday and personally anointed him with holy oil and put on a crown, so he only had a day off And non-stop presided over the wedding.Under the witness of the Heavenly Father and the Holy Mother, he will supervise and guide the king and his wife to make seven marriage vows, receive seven layers of blessings, and exchange seven promises...

It's not a lot of hard work, but given his age and weight, he insisted on doing these things standing up - still wearing a full outfit and a huge crown, he was sweating profusely and looked like he was about to fall down at any time , it becomes understandable.

The seven gods are constantly exuding white steam from the head of the endorsement in the world, and it is really a bit sacrosanct from a distance, but Margaery is not paying attention to this magical and funny scene at the moment. She has an elegant and very friendly smile on her face. , while absent-mindedly letting others fiddle with the wedding process, while his mind drifted to the other side.

She kept thinking about Iger's humiliation and teasing that he made no secret of his intentions that day—of course it was not because he was so small that he couldn't let it go, but she was wondering: What gave the man the courage to do this?

If things go wrong, there must be a demon, and there must be something happening that she ignored or didn't notice!

Although the Tyrell family occasionally encountered invisible discrimination in the top aristocratic circle, but among the middle and lower lords and the common people, they have always been "full of guests and friends, and their eyes and ears are all over the seven kingdoms". As a member of the family's inner circle, Margaery Naturally, he also enjoys this convenience, which can be regarded as very well-informed.

However, regardless of the news from the front, the side, or the back, the Valley and the West have so far shown no signs of sending troops to support Daenerys.On the contrary, the eyeliners of the Northern Territory and the Hejian Land vaguely sent back two messages, suggesting that the Land Grant Army was equipped with a very powerful siege weapon that was said to be related to "gunpowder".Iger relied on it to break through Lindong and conquer the northern border, and took down the sea to pacify the Hejian.

This is important information, but it can only explain why Iger dared to attack the heavily defended King's Landing with only 2 people, but it cannot explain why he dared to force Hewan to stand on the opposite side.

Unless, such weapons can be used for both siege and field battles!

Thinking of this, Margaery suddenly tensed up: It seems that this is the only one that can fully explain the cause and effect.

However, what kind of weapon can smooth out the huge gap between [-] and [-] troops, or is it that both sides are elite and the difference in the quality of soldiers is not big?

Gaoting Zhihua lightly frowned, puzzled.Communication in this era is so slow and inefficient. Even if she wanted to get more information about Iger's breach of Winterfell and Sea Frontier City, it would take at least ten and a half days between asking questions and getting answers. It took only a month, but the battle outside the city of King's Landing was already on the verge of breaking out.

She searched her memory desperately, trying to find the devil hidden in the details.

Then, as if by divine help——she really searched out from her mind a little episode that she had been neglecting before: on the day Iger arrived outside King’s Landing but didn’t meet her for the first time, she was wandering outside Black Wall Castle while waiting , I met Neil from Rosby City, and learned about Iger's movements from him: as soon as I arrived at the industrial park, I first went to inspect the saltpeter warehouse.

At that time, Margaery was only slightly dissatisfied with Iger's contempt, and she was too busy thinking of ways to intercept the man talking to him, and didn't pay much attention to it. It has been declared that saltpeter is the key material to fight against the ghosts, and the whole Seven Kingdoms believed this statement.Neil once revealed in the chat: Even if Iger is on the Great Wall, he will often send letters to the south to ask about the production and storage of saltpetre in the industrial park... As the commander-in-chief of the Night Watch, it is normal for him to be concerned about the preparation of anti-ghost materials, but Now that the White Walkers have been defeated and eliminated, he still ran to check this thing first after arriving outside the city of King's Landing, which is very abnormal!

Either he was dizzy and couldn't figure out the priorities of the matter, or - that thing was the source of his confidence that he could help the Queen regain the Iron Throne and fight against the entire river bend!

This thought was like a flash of lightning piercing through the cloudy sky of her mind, and Margery felt that she had grasped the key to the matter. Although the whole puzzle still lacked two or three small pieces to complete, she had a hunch that in the It is very likely that I have accidentally guessed the core secret, and it is only a matter of time to solve the remaining mysteries!

***

"Margaery? Margaery!"

Just as the girl was excited about her discovery, the surrounding voices suddenly became noisier. Her father's familiar call woke her up from her thoughts. It turned out that the archbishop had completed the previous procedures and ordered the hymn to be played. Changed the cloak for the bride.

-

Chapter 598 The Battlefield Bride

Seven gods, what kind of stupid woman would be distracted at her wedding?

Margaery cursed herself, thankfully her father's reminder was timely, and most of the guests hadn't noticed her slow response.This wasn't her first marriage—after a quick bow to apologize, she quickly figured out what to do, reminded by her body memory: turn around, face Aegon, and let the thousands of people stare at her behind her. Her father removed the green cloak symbolizing Tyrell's house for her, and lowered her shoulders slightly, allowing the young king to put on the bright red cloak representing House Targaryen for her.

Even if he had objections, Aegon did not show it at the moment.With a gentle smile on his young and handsome face, he gently tied the cloak around her throat, expressing that from now on, he would replace Duke Tyrell to protect Margaery forever. Seeing that the ceremony was finally completed, the archbishop insisted Looking at his exhausted body, he finally solemnly announced: Aegon and Margaery are now husband and wife and become one body.

From this moment on, the Flower of Highgarden changed from Margaery Tyrell to Margaery Targaryen, and became Queen of the Seven Kingdoms again after a few years.A perfect powerful alliance was thus completely settled, and the guests at the meeting burst into cheers and crowded in, scrambling to send blessings to the newlyweds who had completed the ceremony.

In a joyful and peaceful atmosphere, two armored soldiers running from a distance seemed very out of place: each of them held a small flag representing an emergency military situation, and the other held a small wooden box in his arms, shouting and pushing through the crowd. In the center, the guards who noticed their arrival immediately separated the guests to make way for them, and escorted them to the king after checking and confirming their identities.

"Did Daenerys' army initiate the crossing, or did the Dornishmen break camp and approach?"

What can happen at this juncture is nothing more than one of these two, or both.

The young king asked questions with a serious expression but without panic. They were just across the water from the Night Watchman Industrial Park on the north bank, and there was also a Dornish army with an ambiguous attitude to the south. There was a high probability that someone would make trouble during the wedding. event.Therefore, celebrating the return of celebrating, except that every family sent representatives to participate in the wedding, most of the generals remained in their posts, and under the command of Lando Tully and his son, they were on high alert, ready to meet the enemy at any time. fight.Even today's protagonist, the groom, wears armor and a sword under the dress, and can transform back into the commander of the army in minutes to join the command in person.

"Neither. A boat left the pier in the north and landed on the south bank. It put down a local man and said it was the queen's wedding gift."

The second soldier squeezed forward and presented the wooden box in front of everyone.

Queen's wedding present?

Everyone approached one after another—it was an exquisite but not so unusual wooden box, with red ribbons and bows tied on it pretentiously, and it was indeed dressed up as a gift.

Everyone knew that the visitor was not kind, so they speculated about what was going on inside.

a head?I can't pretend, and besides, no important personnel from the Tyrell family and the Golden Company fell into the enemy's hands.

A bubble of cow dung?It's too tasteless, although it can disgust the princes of Hewan and the generals of the Golden Regiment, but it can arouse their anger and fighting spirit even more.

The crowd chattered and discussed, only Margaery became terrified and vigilant.

The strange assassination process of her previous husband, Renly Baratheon, is still vivid in her memory, and there is a high probability that she will never erase it from her mind in this life. Hiring two wizards was enough to protect King Aegon from the threat of Shadow Binding, but Shadow Binding is not the only thing that can kill people in this world!

She clutched young Aegon's arm beside her, preventing him from approaching the box—even though he hadn't intended to.

"Your Majesty, please order the crowd to disperse, and then ask the armored soldiers to put on their shields before opening the box." She suggested in an unquestionable tone that did not fit her usual gentle personality, "There may be organs or Trap, danger!"

King Aegon took his wife's first suggestion after marriage seriously, and quickly ordered the guards to drive away the crowd to make room, and then ordered the soldiers to prepare for protection before opening the wooden box - most of the wedding participants were Commanding nobles, there are no unreasonable country folks. After all, everyone still remembers that this is a battlefield, so they just went forward to join in the fun without losing order... After an orderly retreat to an area, let the first Duanlaimu The person in the box put the thing in his hand on the ground, held the shield to separate it from himself, pulled off the ribbon nervously, and carefully turned up the lid of the box.

The imagined scene of exploding a ball of fire or flying a hidden weapon did not happen. The person who opened the lid took out the contents of the box and held it up in his hand to show the surrounding people: it was a round iron ball the size of a fist, black and shiny. , Judging from the weight, it must be solid, so people can't figure out what role it has.

Just as people started the second round of discussions in whispers, the person who opened the box made a new discovery.

"Oh, there's a note under it!"

There are a total of four iron balls in the box, three of which form a triangle at the bottom to form a layer, and a fourth one is pressed in the center on top.The soldiers took them all out one after another, knocked on the ground a few times one by one to confirm that they were solid, and then broke open the box to confirm that there was no mystery in it before looking at the white paper that was taken out.

"What's written on it?" said young King Aegon at last. "Read it aloud for us all to hear!"

Anyway, it was just two vicious curses or doubts about his origin and the authenticity of the Long family's blood. He had already gotten used to these things along the way.

The king is not afraid of verbal criticism, but he seems guilty when he hides it. He, Aegon Targaryen, acts openly and aboveboard, and has never been able to use any shady scandal as an excuse, let alone the people who are here today to attend his wedding with Margaery. , there are no vacillating centrists, but reliable people who have firmly chosen to stand on this side after analyzing the pros and cons.

What can happen with a note?

Aegon had a good idea, but it was a pity that the soldiers were illiterate, so he could only look to the people around him for help. Seeing this, Prime Minister Jon Clinton obliged to step forward, took the note into his hands, checked it over and over, and finally confirmed that there was only one line on it. content.

He sneered, and read out the content aloud: "It reads: In the name of Queen Daenerys Targaryen, the legal ruler of the Seven Kingdoms..." Earl Griffin paused, as if amused by the following content So much so that the connected voice was filled with a smile: "Declare this marriage... as illegal? Ha...haha!"

The scene was silent for a short moment. At first, only the Hand of the King was laughing, and then someone laughed out loud. The sound became louder and denser. In the end, even the people who didn't think it was funny at first were also driven by the people around them. Opened his mouth and laughed.

If you take this piece of paper in a beautiful box under several iron balls seriously, it is indeed extremely annoying and uncomfortable, but Mrs. Clinton had an idea and deliberately said it in a mocking tone. To deal with it, once the atmosphere of the scene is taken away, the embarrassment will disappear immediately.

Anyway, as long as one's own side is not embarrassed, the other side will be embarrassed!

This burst of laughter is the smile that the Hewan + Golden Group camp is sure to win; under this smile, the declaration of "marriage is illegal" sent by the queen suddenly becomes the barking of a defeated dog, which only adds to their jokes; this smile After that, no matter how many more boxes Iger or Daenerys send, with notes on what is written inside, they will not be disgusted anymore!

As expected of the Hand of the King, this quick wit can only be brought into play even if he is in excellent condition.

Margery secretly admired in her heart, while she breathed a sigh of relief, but for some reason she still couldn't hold back the tension in her heart.

He followed Little Aegon, who was also laughing softly, and approached the field. Everyone else watched the "Illegal Marriage" declaration that became a joke and circulated it one after another, but she silently picked it up and threw it aside. A certain iron ball that people care about.

It is so heavy, it is absolutely solid, and she is wearing gloves at the moment, even if there is any poison on the surface, it will definitely not hurt her.

Queen Margaery quietly observed the object in her hands amidst the commotion: it was black, round, shiny, and heavy with a sense of power... Obviously she couldn't see anything abnormal, but for some reason, she became more and more uneasy, and she became aware that even behind her back The level of fine hair will stand on end.

She has a strong but unreasonable intuition: the round iron ball in her hand is probably one of the few small pieces of the "puzzle" that is still incomplete!

The new-style siege weapon mentioned in the intelligence, the legendary ghost nemesis-gunpowder, and the ordinary iron ball in front of him that Iger wanted to send as his "bridal gift"... Between these few, there must be There is some kind of inner connection that I have not yet understood!

Margaery realized that she might be one step away from the final answer, but she didn't... At least she didn't have a chance to think about it today.

Because there was a sudden muffled thunder from the other side of the river, which not only overwhelmed the laughter of the wedding participants, but also interrupted her about to straighten out her train of thought.

-

Chapter 599

spring thunder?

This is the first thought of some quick responders.

Every time the winter ends and the short spring before summer, the warm and humid air that starts to heat up and the residual cold current cause vertical convection in the fierce confrontation, forming cumulonimbus clouds and causing thunderstorms...

Of course, the nobles of the River Bend would not be very clear about the meteorological principle, but they could at least draw a rule from their personal experience: Once the thunder starts, it means that summer is coming soon.

Right now, although the temperature has risen slightly to around the freezing point, there is thunder...

It's too early, isn't it?

The hesitation and confusion lasted only a few seconds, and soon they realized that this was not what they thought—after all, thunder would never be accompanied by chaos and screams of people everywhere.

***

Due to the existence of King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, the Blackwater River is one of the most famous rivers in Westeros, but in fact it is far inferior to the Trident River and the Mander River in terms of length, water volume, and river width. The Seven Kingdoms didn't even rank in the top three. If it hadn't been for the advantage of being located in the south with relatively abundant rainfall, and barely having the characteristics of deep water and rapid flow, it might not even be able to overwhelm the few rivers in the north.

However, even if it is such a medium-sized river, even in the dry season of winter... its width near the night watchman industrial park near the mouth of the sea is more than [-] meters. In order to avoid the threat of crossbows and catapults, the South Army camp retreated [-] meters away from the river bank...

It can be said that the South Army camp is completely outside the effective range of the first-generation artillery equipped by the North Shore Artillery.

However, "effective range" is not a rigid physical parameter after all, but an artificial concept. It is a meaningful statement that requires both precision and power. Iger's current goal is not precise bombardment, but the Shells were thrown into the Confederate camp, creating panic.

If this is the only case, then what needs to be considered is not the effectiveness, but the maximum range.

How big is the gap between the two?

It’s hard to generalize, but I can give an extreme example: a pistol with an effective range of 50 meters, usually the user will only shoot at a distance of a few meters or a dozen meters, but if you lift it up at an angle of [-] to [-] degrees and put it in the air Gun, if the wind is down, it is not impossible for this bullet to fly out and hit some unlucky person a thousand meters away.

Considering the maximum range, the entire Confederate camp would be completely exposed to the firepower of the land-grant artillery.

precision?Facing such a super camp formed by 7 to [-] people, they can hit with their eyes closed.

power?In this era without armored vehicles and concrete fortifications, an iron ball flying over a kilometer away, no matter how fast it hits... No, at the end of a strong cannon, it cannot be blocked by wood or armor of.

When Iger took Winterfell, his army was only equipped with five cannons. During the period of delay in the northern capital, Houguan Town hurriedly cast a batch of supplements to him. The Land Grant Army now has two cannons. Of the ten cannons, fourteen were capable of firing—the other six were not broken, but had to be left idle because of insufficient artillery.The problem hasn't emerged yet, but if Fort Blackwall's transformation into a military factory goes smoothly, the situation of "Pao and others" will get worse soon.

That's for later.

Now, the first round of salvos from fourteen artillery pieces produced a dull rumble that was not unlike thunder, and the fourteen shells flew over a distance of nearly a thousand meters and scattered irregularly within a range of several hundred meters in the Southern Army camp. .Among them: nine rounds landed in the open space, two rounds hit the wooden fence at a low level, one round overturned an iron pot that was cooking soup, and one round hit a tent where several people were gathering for gambling He was taken aback, and one shot hit the roof of the temporary stable, startling all the dozens of army horses inside.

Due to the high shooting angle, the shells cannot form the ideal "floating effect" after landing, but will directly sink into the mud. For a while, mud and sawdust flew across the camp, and boiled gravy was spilled everywhere. , several people were injured by splashes and scalds, and dozens of frightened horses took away the energy of a large number of managers and nearby soldiers.

With such a dense population, no one was killed in the entire camp after the first round of shelling.The chaos caused by the landing of the shell gradually subsided like ripples on the water surface, and the whole camp fell into silence after being beaten... Except for the people near the shell landing who were panicking and trying to figure out what happened, most of the Confederate camp Still completely ignorant of the situation, still thinking it was just an inexplicable bang.

Everyone was waiting, waiting for the order from above to say that this was just an accident, or waiting for the voice to sound again and shatter their beautiful illusions.

In a daze and unresponsiveness, the second round of shelling rang.

The sound of this round of cannons was no longer neat, and it was sparsely scattered over a period of more than ten seconds. There was a gap of nearly half a minute between the first sound and the last sound-the reason for this situation was not a failure of command, but It was Iger who ordered the second launch to switch to rapid fire and open fire at will: the professional level and proficiency of the fourteen artillery groups are extremely different. If the salvo is forced, it will lead to a "short board effect" and cause the total amount of firepower to be projected. Insufficient, anyway, it is a blind shot without seeing the target. If you only want to hit more and not hit accurately, then you don't need to pay attention to it. It's just a training, just play to your heart's content.

What is wrong is that, in terms of the psychological pressure on the enemy, the sporadic and uninterrupted roars and cold shots are actually more than round after round of salvos.

***

It is impossible for Lady Luck to stare at the same place all the time. The density of personnel in the camp is so high, and the landing point of the shells also fluctuates with the change of wind speed and the displacement of the shell. It was a direct hit, and a certain knight from the Hive City not far away also perfectly "caught" an iron ball while running. Dazed.

The soldiers of the Riverbend Army and the Golden Regiment are certainly not as good as the Unsullied, but they are not so bad that they will blow up the nest at the slightest sign of trouble. There are family members and other people accompanying the army.

The panic created by the serious injuries or deaths of two or three people was quickly amplified by the panic, screams and random running of non-military personnel. Seeing that it was about to develop into a terrorist bombing camp, King Aegon's Prime Minister finally reacted , shouted decisively: "Everyone, don't move!"