The king on the Great Wall

Page 213

"Guards, escort Your Majesty and the Queen to a safe place! The rest will evacuate in an orderly manner later! All the adults who lead the troops, please immediately order your own soldiers to patrol the camp to maintain order in the camp. Those who dare to shout and run will not listen to dissuasion Kill without pardon!" The King's Hand took advantage of the gap before the third round of cannons to order hoarsely, "Master Mace, please send someone to send a message to Lord Tully immediately, asking him to lead the River Bend Army to the south of the camp— —Spread out all the scouts to prevent the Dornish army from attacking; the messengers, take a message to each dragon hunting crossbow position, let them string the hunting spears, and attack as soon as the magic dragon appears; Harry Strickland, immediately gather gold Regiment to the Blackwater River to stop the Unsullied and the Land Grant Army from crossing the river!"

Jon Connington didn't know what the rumbling thing was called, whether it was some kind of weapon or witchcraft, all he knew was that he now faced a new threat that could strike from the north bank of the Blackwater to the south bank.

At this moment, in addition to protecting the safety of His Majesty the King, he is also facing even greater troubles - ask himself, if his side has such a long-range attack method, then he will never use it to just make air noise to disrupt the enemy's wedding.

Queen and Iger, there must be follow-up actions.

The confrontation between the two Targaryens didn't follow the procedure at all, and jumped directly from the turning point to the crucial stage of a decisive battle!

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Chapter 600

Fighting a war is like playing chess, until the last battle of the last battle breaks out, the commander's order plays a vital role in its direction.

The two sides of this war are Aegon Targaryen and Daenerys Targaryen, but the two sides in today's game are White Walker, savior of mankind and Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Igger West, and Jon Connington, Earl of Griffin's Roost, head of the Clinton family, and former Prime Minister of Daenerys' father.

No matter in terms of fame or success, the former crushes the latter, but Earl Clinton also has his advantages, that is: he was lucky to make all the mistakes that a person should have made when he was young, but he did not die. Sophisticated, cautious and shrewd now, he would be a respectable and difficult opponent to anyone.

Such a man is leading an army, and expecting to scare his troops to pieces with the sound of a cannonball is tantamount to a dream.

The moment he realized that the "thunder" was not a celestial phenomenon but a new weapon of the enemy, a lot of thinking had spewed out from the depths of Earl Clinton's mind. His rich practical experience allowed him to instantly understand all possible situations Consider the risks and dangers.

Among the countless possibilities, there is nothing more than a very extreme, but very likely happening situation, which poses the greatest threat to one's own side: the Queen's Army on the north bank has not only entered the battle with this roaring new weapon, but has also prepared a large army to cross the river and fight against the enemy. The dragon is in the face, and even the Dornish army to the south has been persuaded to ally with it, sharpening their swords and preparing to strike their old enemy.

The direct casualties suffered by the bombardment can only be regarded as a drop in the bucket compared with the losses that can be caused by stampedes and military discipline dissipated due to the collapse of order in chaos, soldiers fleeing and being chased by the enemy, or even double bread!

After arranging for the king and his wife to quickly leave the open area to find cover, Earl Clinton resolutely commanded the core supervising troops to maintain order in the camp, dispatched the Golden Regiment to guard against the banks of the Blackwater River, asked allies to guard the south, and the Dragon Hunter to prepare for air defense...

Countless orders were dispatched to various places at the grassroots level by a large number of messengers. After killing a few "chickens" to scare tens of thousands of "monkeys", the order of the camp quickly stabilized, except for one bullet every few seconds. The iron ball fell into this fresh and terrifying experience, and the entire southern army entered a combat state, and began to gather and move to different positions under the command of the King's Hand.

Relying on the advantage of several times the number of troops, Clinton has many more chess pieces than Iger. Although he doesn't know the name of the artillery, he can see the pros and cons of this weapon: although the sound is scary, the number and power are not enough.

So his countermeasure is: withstand the pressure and stay as still as a mountain.

To a certain extent, this is indeed the perfect solution. Even if Iger's solid shells can hit a Confederate soldier every five rounds, the casualties he can cause after firing all the shells are only a few hundred? The total number of Southern Army is [-]%, and the attrition rate is very small, which can completely resist.

However, although the soldiers are the pawns of the commander, are they pawns with thinking and feelings?

The same casualties, the morale blow caused by injuring one thousand enemies and self-impairing eight hundred, or even injuring one thousand enemies and self-impairing ten thousand? It didn't come off as scary.

In the new headquarters of the Confederate Army, a small dispute had just ended.

……

The new command post is a simple tent set up behind a small soil slope. At the top of the slope there is a dead tree that can slightly block the shells? A temporary reinforcement wall was also built on the north wall of the tent with thick planks. Used to resist the attack of flying iron pellets.At this moment, all the important people including the king, queen and the upper lords are huddling in it, avoiding the artillery fire from the north bank.

Many nobles in the Reach, including the Duke of Mace Tyrell, expressed great pressure to be bombarded. They all suggested retreating a few miles and re-camping before making plans? But Clinton knew? Responding to mistakes, as long as they are a little weak, they will immediately summon a siege like a storm.

With the higher status of the king's prime minister, Clinton was able to overcome all opinions and force the princes to stay where they were and be bombarded? But it was not without cost: he had to do something to fight back? to him.

"Master Prime Minister, report from the river bank! The enemy is moving the raft by the water's edge, preparing to cross the river!"

"Let Commander Strickland set up a defensive formation, hold your breath, and wait until the enemy is halfway across the river before launching an attack!"

"My lord, the enemy troops on the opposite bank are not crossing the river by boat, but are connecting boats with ropes, preparing to build a large number of pontoon bridges!"

Build a pontoon?This night watchman has a lot of brains!

Jon Clinton's heart sank slightly, but he didn't panic: "Order the siege battalion to move to the river bank, set up long-range weapons, and prevent the enemy from building bridges!"

A piece of information was sent into the tent, and a piece of military order was taken out later, and the soldiers went forward to quickly execute it despite the shells flying over their heads.

The Southern Army's strategic goals included King's Landing City. After stationing for such a long time, they naturally prepared siege equipment. However, their range—even the maximum range is completely incomparable with artillery. When a large group of soldiers hummed He pushed all kinds of ballistas and catapults to the bank of the river, and only shot a few times. Just after damaging a few unmanned boats, they ushered in intensive artillery shells: they were parked behind the wooden wall before. It was still impossible to determine its exact location in the camp, but as soon as it was brought to the river bank, it was immediately exposed to the observer's field of vision and within the effective range of the artillery!

After another round of cannons rumbled, the Confederate Army left several corpses and damaged equipment in embarrassment, and hurriedly withdrew from the river bank.

After realizing the huge disadvantage in range, Clinton thought of the stronger equipment in his hand: the dragon hunting crossbow.

Although this weapon is prepared to deal with Daenerys' dragon, it is only improved and upgraded on the basis of the ordinary bed crossbow. As long as the orientation is flat, it can be used to deal with ground targets—and the key point The reason is: they use all the high-quality craftsmanship, materials, and parts known in this era, and their maximum range is far beyond other ordinary weapons.

Dozens of siege equipment and dozens of dragon hunting crossbows, scattered and laid out layer by layer, are definitely enough to completely overwhelm the North Bank in terms of numbers, and forcefully shoot against the disadvantages of insufficient range and far inferior power!

However, when Clinton was struggling with whether to take the risk, the two dragons they had "awaited" for a long time finally appeared. In the industrial park on the other side!

Although he did not land and spit flames, the entry of the dragon completely dispelled Clinton's plan to use the dragon hunting crossbow for other purposes.

"Master Prime Minister, the situation is stronger than others, there is no need to hold on, please order to retreat!"

Duke Mace Tyrell persuaded him with great distress. The equipment and personnel of the siege battalion came from the river bend. He was naturally heartbroken. Although it was inappropriate to point fingers at the prime minister on the day he became the king's father-in-law, he had already given Earl Connington's chance to prove his ability, and the fact is, he can't deal with the night watchman.

"Lord Tyrell, don't be impatient. Even if you want to evacuate, you have to figure out the position of the Dornish army, ensure the safety of the back road, and discuss a proper strategy before you can act. If you retreat rashly, it will inevitably turn into a rout! Did the scout send back a message?"

"The Dornish army did not leave the camp, and the scouts were expelled when they approached their camp!"

Is it good news?

Not necessarily, if the Dornishmen took advantage of the sound of the cannons to attack, then the two sides would be able to clearly define the hostile relationship and fight happily. Relying on the advantage of the defenders in the camp, the strength of the troops was far greater than that of the enemy's River Bend Army. You can't win big, and you can't lose big.

Just like the queen's two dragons circled above her head and fell into the industrial park, the most terrible thing is this intermediate state.

After a moment of relief, even greater pressure came up.

Were these two events a coincidence, or was the enemy slowly tightening the noose to exert pressure?

"I understand what the Prime Minister is worried about." Margaery said suddenly. As a woman, she was not qualified to participate in the battle meeting, but now that she is in this room, at a critical juncture, she naturally wants to say what she thinks: "Stay safe In the big camp, we can also rely on deep ditches and high forts and a large number of dragon-hunting crossbows to fight against the invading enemy and the dragon in the sky. Once we retreat, we will be defeated in the wilderness when we are flanked by the enemy army and the dragon. But Mrs. Clinton, have you ever thought about a possibility: Iger started to connect the boats to prepare the pontoon before the battle, not because he didn't think about it beforehand, but because he didn't plan to launch an attack at the first time? His real plan is to use that all the time Gunpowder weapon bombardment until our morale completely collapses? Based on what I know about Iger, he will never use his own advantages to talk about rules and reason with the enemy. I am afraid that is his idea!"

A group of nobles began to discuss in a hurry, and many of them clearly supported the queen's opinion. Clinton, who was originally resolute, fell silent now: Margaery's words actually revealed his true thoughts—— Deep down in his heart, he felt that his opponent today was young and energetic, so he would definitely take advantage of the new weapons and attack with the whole army to seek a decisive battle.

If the guess is right, it is naturally the best option to stick to the camp and fight against the artillery fire, but if the guess is wrong, the opponent will be like a despicable rascal who only fires guns but does not fight, and delays until his morale is exhausted before attacking, then What the Southern Allied Forces will face will be a catastrophe!

"If Iger intends to take advantage of the chaos, the river has probably been half-crossed by now." Margaery no longer spoke to Clinton, but turned to her husband, the young King Aegon, "Your Majesty, now the There are two roads ahead of us—either to retreat immediately, or never to retreat, carry it to the end, please make a decision!"

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Chapter 601

Putting down the well-made and expensive Myr lens in his hand, the current head of the Golden Group—"Homeless" Harry Strickland sighed, and the hot steam he exhaled quickly turned into a ball of white in the cold air. fog.

There were two emotions in that sigh.

One is admiration.

Not only admired the strength and morale of the Black Legion that was gathering on the bank across the river, but also admired the command of the legendary commander-in-chief of the night watchman.

Strickland always thought that old Griffin... no, Jon Connington or the Prime Minister, was already a stable guy, who would have encountered a more difficult one now: the Land Grant Army has been in the black It has been more than an hour since the Shuihe team completed, and the pontoon bridge has already been erected, but they just waited in the cold wind and did not launch a battle to cross the river.

He knew what the enemy was waiting for: in the camp of the coalition army behind him, the troops of the princes of the River Bend were braving artillery fire to organize their food and supplies, and retreated in a panic and calm manner.

The commander on the other side must have known that if he crossed the river too early, he might have to face tens of thousands of troops from the river bend who had not yet retreated.Therefore, they had to wait for most of their own side to withdraw, leaving only the rear troops—that is, their own golden regiment—before they calmly began to cross the river to deal with the isolated and helpless self.

The second is extremely uncomfortable.

Thinking of this, Strickland became angry: In his opinion, in the face of that kind of strange new weapon that can roar, the coalition forces should abandon the barracks and retreat with all their might. A large army of [-] with complete organizational structure and complete arms should form a group. Transferring together, and borrowing the courage of Igger West or the Dornish people, they would never dare to chase after them.

Even if you don't want to leave the supplies to the enemy, you can still burn them with fire!

But those greedy nobles in the river bend were reluctant to part with their belongings when they fled. They wanted to take away all their belongings except the guard tower wall of the camp, preferably not even a piece of tent cloth.

The baggage will not only slow down the speed of evacuation, but also need to consume a lot of troops to guard, which will affect the formation and combat effectiveness of the entire army.Under such circumstances, if the commander of the land-grant army on the opposite side did not order to try to pursue it, he would feel that it would be unreasonable.

In order to avoid the extreme situation of being defeated by the enemy for thousands of miles, and to protect the transfer of large troops carrying supplies, it is necessary to keep the rear troops.

So, little Griff, no... King Aegon himself ordered this difficult and important task to be entrusted to the Golden Company.

In this way, the strongest mercenary group that once dominated Essos came from the other side of the narrow sea by boat, and was reduced to protecting the buttocks of a bunch of stupid nobles!

Hit him... no, fuck them!

It's all right to scold, but Strickland also knows that Aegon made such an arrangement not because he had any objections to the Golden Company and wanted to take the opportunity to weaken them, but simply because: he gave the order to retreat, and if the army in the River Bend was sent to stay behind , not only is there the suspicion of "preserving oneself and consuming allies", but there will also be a quarrel and discussion within Reach over "who or which troops will stay in the rear".

In order to avoid causing internal disputes or wasting too much time on battle planning, King Aegon had to let "his own people"—that is, the Golden Company suffer a little.

……

Come back to the battlefield.

Just looking at the posture of the Land Grant Army on the other side of the river, Strickland could tell that this was an elite army; even across the entire Blackwater River, he could feel the murderous aura on them.

If he had been skeptical about the rumor that the Night Watchman repelled the White Walkers and saved the Seven Kingdoms before, but now that he has faced and understood the aura of this black army? He is finally convinced.

Such an army that is both fierce and equipped with powerful weapons? It is completely reasonable to be able to repel the army of the dead, and even kill through the rivers in the north to reach the banks of the Blackwater River.

If they meet in the plains and wilderness, Strickland is usually unwilling to fight against such a terrifying army-although the Golden Regiment has more people than the land-grant army, and the quality of individual soldiers is not bad, but they are mercenaries? And mercenaries? It will not fight a war that does not benefit.

A head-to-head encounter with a strong opponent of comparable strength? Beat your head and blood? Even if you win a narrow victory?

To use an extreme analogy: the reorganization is a golden group of 1 people, and after a bloody battle, more than 9000 people were killed or injured? Death benefit?

If you meet a kind employer? You will probably give the rest of them a severance package. It is not impossible to silently deal with those who come to ask for the account and then renege on the account. The dark and chaotic history of the free trade castles Come on, it's not that this kind of thing has never happened!

You can lose a battle, and you can have losses, but you must not lose even the capital of the accounts. This is the logic and philosophy of Harry Strickland's management of the Golden Group.

He commands the mercenary group, and if he encounters a strong enemy, he will often retreat after a "hard fight"; but if he encounters other mercenary groups that have no blood feud, it will be even easier-the two sides sit down to drink and compare their strength, After knowing who is strong and who is weak, they will start a "bloody battle" to create some momentum, and the weaker side will take the initiative to retreat.

It is not only a mission but also the lifeline of the legion, so why not do it.

Of course, a small mercenary group can't do this, and their reputation will soon be so bad that they won't be able to receive business, but the golden group will do.Because they are the top mercenary group, only the large-scale Dothraki khalasar and the large-scale Unsullied Legion can push them back. In most cases, the one who consciously "retreats" will be the opponent.

Isn't the employer coming to the mercenary group just to win the battle?Who would nervously demand that the mercenary group must have a certain number of records or kill the opponent without leaving a single one?

Harry Strickland has never encountered such a strange request. Add money, as long as the money is in place, you can say anything!

Indeed, under this set of logic, Harry Strickland was secretly called "the most cowardly leader of the Golden Legion ever." The reputation of the Legion has indeed declined slightly over the past ten years, but it is still in the Being at the top of the food chain and developing better and better, isn't this also an achievement! ?

***

Generally speaking, Strickland would not take on the terrible and dangerous task of "covering the retreat of a large army at the back", especially when facing a powerful army with dragons and cannons on the other side of the river.But today, despite all his discontent, he was at the front line, observing the battle from covert sight of the land-grant artillery across the river, and commanding every centurion.

Conscientious, but not because of loyalty, but because there is no way out.

The Golden Company has invested too much.

More than 2000 elite soldiers of the legion crossed the sea to Westeros in the autumn with frequent storms. More than 6000 were lost and separated on the way, and about [-] were killed or injured in the long and chaotic stormy battles that followed. Selecting and recruiting locals with excellent quality added a little bit, and now there are only more than [-] people left.

He had already used up half of his chips in this gamble. If he broke with King Aegon today because of an order, all the investment in the early stage would be in vain.

And the reason why he made such a heroic lineup that is completely inconsistent with his cautious character is because the expected benefits of this war are far greater than before.

Harry Strickland's nickname "homeless" does not mean that he has no place to live (in fact, he has a lot of personal property, and has small assets in several free trade cities), but because: his ancestors were once One of the nobles in Westeros was stripped of his title and exiled outside Westeros only because he failed to support the Blackfyre Rebellion.

Although he always cheerfully boasted that his "four generations have been loyal to the Golden Group" on weekdays, it was just having fun in the bitterness of helplessness.

God damn it, what's so good about being a mercenary?

The mercenary income is rich, the mercenary is free, the mercenary is free and romantic... yes, but the mercenary also has a bad end.

Strickland once thought that when he died, his skull would be boiled away, his flesh plated with gold, and later hung on the top of a spear as a military flag, but more than two years ago, the fat man Illyrio of Pentos provided another A very different way out - support the restoration of Aegon Targaryen.

Once this is done, the Strickland family will regain their fiefdom, and he will also change from a wandering mercenary back to a member of Westeros, and from then on he will completely get rid of the title of "homeless" and become a homeless man. -Lord Harry Strickland!

When a mercenary wins a battle, the most he can get is a bag of gold; but from the Longmou Kingdom, he can become a hereditary nobleman after he wins!

He will be able to spend the rest of his life comfortably in his own castle, served by maids and servants, swallow his last breath in the warm lord's room with a fireplace, on a luxurious velvet bed, and be buried after death In the family cemetery behind the manor, be respected and worshiped by future generations!

And these, for him who was already tired of running around all over the world, either in battle or on the way to fight, were more tempting than any lucrative mercenary contract!

……

A long and mournful sound of the trumpet brought Harry Strickland back to reality from his beautiful imagination of the future. He didn't need to raise the lens to realize immediately that the Land Grant Army on the other side had begun to cross the river!

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Chapter 602 Gold and Black

Most of the time, it is impossible to build a pontoon bridge on the deep and fast-flowing Heishui River, but in the current severe winter season, the upstream tributary has been largely frozen, causing the water level and flow rate to drop sharply. possible.

Three medium-sized ships first pulled up the ropes across the Heishui River. Based on these three ropes, a large number of small boats collected from nearby, made by rushing work, and even simple rafts with airbags were connected one by one. , maintain a proper distance between each other with tensioned ropes, and then nail or tie planks to form a narrow bridge deck that can only pass one or two people.After the bridge body is roughly formed, an iron anchor is thrown in the middle of the river with the help of a free boat to pull the middle section of the bridge body to fix it, so as to prevent the whole bridge from swinging left and right with the current and affecting its stability.

The three pontoon bridges spanning the Heishui River are 30 meters apart from each other, forming a crossing position less than [-] meters wide.

It can be seen that the Land Grant Army has done a lot of preparatory work for this, and the construction of the pontoon bridge has been carried out in an orderly manner... During the entire construction process, the Golden Regiment also sent people to obstruct it, but there were always a few roads full of people. The ships with the archers were covering the engineers. As soon as the mercenaries of the legion appeared on the beach, they would be immediately targeted by a large number of arrows.

The Golden Regiment also had archers, but Strickland didn't dare to send them forward to fight - the fate of the River Bend Siege Battalion was the best example. He had no doubt that as long as he sent his troops to the beach, they would Immediately attracted the bombardment of that strange iron ball weapon.

After weighing it, he simply gave up sending people to death, and let the three pontoon bridges take shape.

Instead of preventing the opponent from crossing the river, it is better to wait until the enemy is halfway across the river and then charge them into the water. Not only will the opponent's intention of crossing the river be completely defeated, but the report may be considered a great victory.

Although Strickland was born as a financial officer rather than a soldier, after all, he had been the head of a mercenary regiment for many years, and he could understand the basic military common sense of "strike at the halfway point".

……