The king on the Great Wall

After all, it is impossible for the gate of one's own house to block the host's house for too long—especially if there are still people at home.Even if the land-grant army brought by Iger does not arrive, the fortress will soon be taken down.

……

But the rebellious Balon Greyjoy died suddenly, and Euron Crow's Eye, who replaced him, publicly announced his support for Stannis Baratheon; With the news that the Amber family assisted the land-grant army in taking back Deepwood Castle, the trip back north to save the family suddenly became less urgent.

In addition, there is another important reason that Robb decided to allow Iger to try his capitulation strategy: the brilliant record of defeating the Riverbend Army led by Lando Tarly twice in the West and King's Landing made the young wolf lord confident His heart swelled so much that when the Royal Forest was ordered to stop the reinforcements from the Reach to Storm's End, he actually chose to abandon all flexible tactics and face up to toughness.In this battle, although the northern army held the line of defense without fear of death with the bravery of its soldiers and generals, the casualties it suffered exceeded the sum of a series of battles in the western region and the battle to retake King's Landing.

Lando Tower used his skillful and impeccable formation technique to cooperate with various arms, and slapped the young opponent severely, slapping Robb's "invincible" illusion.

Fortunately, at a time and place that no one expected, Stannis led the king's army to take a detour and attack the Riverbend Army from the side. Fortunately, the unfavorable battle situation was reversed. The record... But only Robb Stark knew it himself: his arrogant and wrong decision made thousands of northerners who had already grabbed a lot of money from the west no longer have the opportunity to bring the spoils home.

This kind of self-blame kept him from attacking Kalin Bay with all his heart, and he decided to accept the so-called "land-grant army" at today's combat meeting. In fact, everyone knew it well. , is the help of the night watchman.

Lessons from failure can help people grow up. The slap from Randyll Tarly not only woke up Robb's dream of a victorious general, but also made him wake up and mature quickly. He suddenly realized: he is not just a general who leads troops, He is also the head of the entire Northern Territory—the duchy with the smallest population among the Seven Kingdoms.Compared with the false name of "invincible", his more important mission is to protect the lives and property of his subordinates and people.

With this realization, at this moment Robb Stark led two hundred elite northern soldiers, standing on the narrow causeway overlooking the bay of Calim where the sea monster flag was flying, patiently waiting for the night watchman's plan to succeed or fail—the reason why they did not bring more people is because "two hundred" is already the maximum number of people that can support the attack on Cailin Bay. Your side has become a living target for the defenders.

Not far away, the Tower of the Drunkard is still tilted; the splintered spire of the Tower of the Son of the Forest is still piercing the sky like a spear; on the wide and square city gate tower, a few pale faces of the iron guards are hidden among the crenels and broken battlements snoop.

There are still three or four hours before dark, and if Iger's persuasion strategy fails in the end, Robb will send out a signal an hour later, ordering the White Harbor army in the north of Carlin Bay to launch a general offensive, and cooperate with his north-south attack to forcefully open this place. "Corps".

-

Chapter 262 "Convincing People With Reason"

A small group of soldiers brought the well-fed Asha to the northernmost end of the causeway, one unshackled her, and the other handed her back the weapon that belonged to her.

"Go and come back quickly." The leading officer dropped these words, and led his subordinates back to the camp.

Asha didn't answer. She inserted the dagger into the jacket, pinned the hatchet to the shoulder strap, rubbed her wrists, moved her feet, and even jumped on the spot, trying to regain the feeling that her body was not restricted.

Then, she turned her head and looked behind her with complicated eyes. The joint barracks of two thousand Land Grant Army and hundreds of White Harbor soldiers is not amazingly large, but it is still a very impressive force for the sparsely populated Iron Islands. up.

That "army" from the land grant, led by a Night's Watch, was odd.Asha can be 100% sure: Most of these farmers have never received any training, they are purely good physical strength developed due to the harsh living conditions, and some even don't know how to hold weapons.

Having said that, they showed a high ability to execute tactics and command as a whole: whether they surrounded Deepwood Castle but left a gap in the south, or rushed to the seaside to block their retreat in the early morning of the next day, and even recaptured After several days of fast and undisturbed marching after Deepwood Castle, until the camping, guarding and patrolling after arriving at the destination, everything was done decently... If you don’t have a real fight with real swords and guns or walk into the barracks to take a closer look , outsiders will only think that this is some elite teacher.

The contrast and unreasonableness between this and Asha's experience made the daughter of the sea monster, who lacked military literacy, puzzled.

……

Don't think about things that you can't figure out, at least now she has got her weapon back and regained her freedom for a short time.If given a choice, she would rather take a dagger to pierce that damned night watchman's heart than persuade her to surrender, but unfortunately this guy didn't personally send her to the end of the causeway; she also considered convincing the ironmen in Moat Cailin He broke through to the north and fled back to the sea, but in view of the consequences of his decision to abandon Deepwood Castle, plus the number and performance of the land-grant army behind him, he had no chance of success.

There was no other way, for the sake of the safety of those 53 brothers, she could only humiliately do what the enemy said.

After warming up, she walked towards the small fortress in the south with her long legs.In front of Asha is a short causeway leading to the Bay of Calim. This fortress stuck in the Bottleneck Swamp is at the northernmost end of the wetland. Within a distance of [-] meters, it transitions from a water pool to a wet mudflat, and after a few hundred meters, it finally completely turns into solid land.

The air was humid and heavy, and while the threat of the swamp in the north of Cailin Bay was reduced, no one bothered to raise and maintain the causeway. If you didn't look carefully, you couldn't tell the difference between it and the surrounding mud.Asha carefully chose her way, stepping on the logs and boards laid by the northern army when they went south a few months ago, and walked towards the three towers.

She quickly approached the fortress, where the high walls of the ancient Kalin Bay stood thousands of years ago, and now there are only scattered black basalt blocks.Each of them is so big that it takes a hundred people to push it. Some of them are so deep that only a corner is exposed in the mud of the swamp;

Of the only three remaining defensive towers in Moat Cailin, one leaned as if it might collapse at any moment; squeezed out of the gap.The only thing flying over the ruins of the ancient castle was a golden Kraken banner on a black background, which should have given her some comfort, but somehow it didn't.

For a fighter, the despair of "losing the game" is worse than death.

There were corpses on the road. When the Ironmen had just landed from the Heatwave River and took Cailin Bay by surprise, the Earl of White Harbor had sent troops to try to take it back, but at that time Victarion Greyjoy was leading a large number of crew members of the Iron Fleet to sit here, Mander The Le family's army returned without success after dropping dozens of lives without any suspense.There were people and horses among the corpses. They were decomposing and turning green, and covered with maggots. A little farther away from the causeway, two had been sunk in the mud with only their faces and fingers exposed. It is conceivable that some of them must have been completely swallowed by the swamp. .Thousands of years have passed, and the Neck is probably the largest cemetery in Westeros, and there is no tombstone yet.

After being captured by the Night Watch, Asha Greyjoy was quickly recognized by the sentry guards as she approached the tower.

"Stop!" Someone shouted, "Did you bring the troops camped over there? Why did you get involved with the Mandalay family?"

Asha put her hands on her hips impatiently, raised her head and asked the questioner on the wall angrily: "Since you recognized me, are you going to let me in, or just talk through the wall like this?"

The guard closed his mouth, hesitated for a moment and then disappeared from the wall. There was a moment of silence inside the wall of Cailin Bay, and then the door suddenly opened, and the voice from before sounded again: "Come in!"

Asha confirmed the location of the lower dagger and walked into the door.

……

The gate slammed shut behind him, and behind the gate there were not a large number of ironmen waiting in battle as imagined, only the one who opened the gate alone.This is an ugly man, Asha has a little impression of him, but can't remember the name.He put the crossbar in place, turned his head to stare at the girl nervously, squinted his eyes, and twisted his lips suspiciously: "Now we can say, why are you here, Victarion asked you to bring someone over to support us What about the others? What about the army to the north?"

"Those are the Yankees. I let them beat them at Deepwood Motte and they were captured."

"Captured?" The man opened his eyes wide, looked at the broken ax pinned to Asha's shoulder belt, and stretched out his hand to the hilt: "Then what are you doing here?"

"Entrusted by the wolves, come here to negotiate." There was a strange rancid smell in the air, and she opened her mouth to drill into her lungs. Asha felt a little impatient with the other party's nagging questions: "Are you the commander here?" officer?"

"Me?" Asha's calm demeanor made the ironman hesitate, maybe because he thought of the legend about the woman in front of him, maybe because he remembered that the woman's surname was Greyjoy, he took his hand away from the hilt of his sword, and his attitude was a little more respectful . "I am not, miss. Lord Victarion's appointed commander is Ralph Kenning, and I am only a gatekeeper."

Asha glanced at a rotting but unattended corpse lying by the door, and resisted the urge to ask about its identity. The state of the gatekeeper and the general situation in Cailin Bay, the status of the defenders was clear at a glance.The situation is not optimistic. Even if the Yankees don't fight, they are about to collapse: "Take me to the commander."

"Rafkenning died two days ago..."

Asha frowned: "How did you die?"

"He ate an arrow from the Swamp Devil on the battlements, and it was just a bruise, and yet...the devils put poison on the arrow, put their own shit and worse on it. We washed his wound with boiling wine, But it doesn't matter."

It turns out that the swamp devil is of course not a real devil, but just what the ironmen call the swamp people. Asha shrugged: "Then forget about him, where is the deputy commander?"

"Usually at the top of the city or in the hall, those who don't sleep drink. If Miss is willing, I will take you there." Asha's attitude like a master made the other party lower his figure. The man thought about it and left him alone. The gate was guarded by one person, and Asha walked towards the city gate tower.

The hall was made of black stone and had a high ceiling, and although it was spacious and airy, it was still smoky.Huge patches of white moss dotted the stone walls, and now only a lump of peat burned low in the hearth, blackened by years of fire.A large centuries-old carved stone table occupies the main space of the hall.

Twenty or thirty ironmen were drinking at the table, and only a few of them watched the guide enter the door with indifferent eyes, and no one even asked him why he left the door that was supposed to be guarded and deserted... until Asha stepped into the door, Only then did their eyes light up.

……

"Asha Greyjoy!" The leader stood up. "Where's your uncle? Where's the Iron Fleet? Are you here to take us home?"

"If you hadn't killed the maester and his ravens, you would have heard that my long-lost uncle, Euron Greyjoy, had suddenly returned to the Iron Islands and won the kingsmoot. Now, Victarion has served The new King of the Iron Islands ordered to strike down the Roses along the coast of the Reach, and 'support' Stannis went."

"What?" It seems that the group of left-behind ironmen didn't get the news, Asha's words caused an uproar in the hall, and everyone discussed and quarreled.

"This bastard, he just left us like this!?"

"I told you I shouldn't kill the bachelor!"

"How can one more mouth be fed? When we stewed raven soup, you drank less than others!"

"Shut up!" shouted a man whose cloak was buckled in the shape of a silver codfish, and stood up. "Before he went, Victarion swore he would wear a crown of driftwood and lead a thousand warriors. Return. He broke his promise. We will settle this account in the future. Now we should care about ourselves Asha, how many people did you bring? Where did the boat stop? How did you get around the eyes of those Mandalay pigs in the north? To Moat Cailin?"

"I didn't bypass anyone's eyeliner. I am now a prisoner of the Yankees and was sent to negotiate with you."

……

This answer caused even greater shocks, and the ironborn exploded.

"Surrender? The Yankees won't let us go!"

"The man from the Greyjoy family took us to a desperate situation, let the woman from the Greyjoy family pay off the debt today!" An ironman who had coveted Asha for a long time in the Iron Islands patted the table and stood up. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he took a few steps towards the sea monster's daughter, pushed her back a few steps, and pressed her against the wall.

Chapter 263 "Convincing People With Reason"

The back of his head touched the wall and there was a thud. The man's face was almost pressed against Asha's face, and the foul breath came to her face. She could even see the texture of the man's yellow teeth clearly.But the girl had already silently pulled out the dagger while the opponent approached her, and at the same time the man pushed herself against the wall, it pressed against the vital part of the opponent's abdomen.

The offender was just about to tear off the prey's clothes, but felt that something was holding him down, and when he looked down, he saw a gleaming dagger pressing against his own lifeline.

"Touch me, you will never have the chance to use your dick again in your life."

……

The ironborn all know that Asha is good at short weapons, and not everyone has made up his mind to tear his face and offend the Greyjoy, the long-standing ruling family.The lunatic who planned to taste the woman of the sea monster family did not get any response from the other people around him. More than half of them even sat around the table and did not stand up. She pushed the dagger forward, and the man who attacked her immediately felt helpless. Step back.

Facing this group of lifeless ironmen, Asha regained the feeling of being the daughter of the sea monster.

"When I'm dying, I only think about women." The next iron man who spoke laughed at the cowardice of the previous person who was scared away, turned his head to look at Asha, and said seriously: "Before you, you who was frightened by Ed Stark’s adopted younger brother Sean also came here. We have actually learned about the situation of the Kingsmoot from him. But at that time we thought it was a trick and trap of the wolf cubs, and after scolding him, we drove him away Go back to his master... But you are in Deepwood Motte with 1000 men, Robb Stark is still stopped here by us, who has this force to capture you?"

"I also went to the king selection meeting. After the meeting, I was afraid that the Crow's Eye would be unfavorable to me, a 'threat' to his rule. I fled from the Iron Islands and returned to Deepwood Motte. There were no more than 1000 people under my command." Asha truthfully He explained the situation that he was forced out of Deepwood Castle and was blocked on the beach but failed to break through.Of course, it wasn't mentioned that it was a band of peasants led by a Night's Watch that attacked Deepwood Motte. "Now, the Yankees have sent me to bring you an offer - put down your arms and go out of town before dark and surrender, and you'll have a chance to dress in black."

Asha threw the written proof written by Iger on the table where the weak ironmen were drinking.

……

No one touched the letter, and the last literate person in Moat Calim died a few days ago.

"What's a piece of paper? We want cheese, and meat."

"I need a weapon," said an old man with a gray beard. His left arm had been amputated, leaving a stump. "Swords and axes. Oh, and bows, a hundred new bows. And give us more men!"

"This is the certificate issued by the Chief Logistics Officer of the Night Watchman. He is now in the barracks a few miles to the north. I know what you are thinking-surrender in time, and rush to the south. The more than 1 people are blocked by you Zhou, before the red-eyed Yankees came in, go out from the north gate and surrender to the night watchman. As long as you put on black clothes, even Robb Stark will not turn against the night watchman and insist on killing you. "

The quarrel was quieted down. No one knew the Chief Logistics Officer of the Night Watchman, but this title sounded like an important role in the Night Watchman Legion, which was very convincing.In fact, when Theon Greyjoy came to persuade him to surrender a week ago, many people were moved, but one was because he looked down on the son of Balon who was raised by the Stark family, and the other was that he was worried that the northerners would not admit it afterwards...Of course However, the main reason is that they still have illusions about the support of the Iron Fleet, so they finally gave up.

Although Asha Greyjoy deliberately belittled her influence in front of Iger, claiming that her uncle's crew would not like her, but there is no doubt that even as a daughter, she was defeated and captured, the "Iron Island Valkyrie" The inherent impression of her has been broken... In the eyes of the ironborn, she who was raised by Balon Greyjoy as the heir is still much more important than Theon Greyjoy who grew up in Winterfell .

……

"The Ironborn will not surrender." A voice suddenly came out.

"Ironborn won't surrender? That's really good, tell my father about it." Asha pouted at the piece of paper disdainfully, "There is not much time left for you to think about it, our enemies in the south and north have already prepared Without communication, a general attack will be launched before dark."

"Threat?" A man stood up. He was a big man with protruding eyes, a wide mouth, and a complexion as pale as death. "Dagon Cauld surrenders to no one."

"I'm not your commander, and I have no power to force anyone to surrender. But I have to go back before the wolf cubs launch the final attack. If you are willing to go with me, put on black clothes and live, go with me; The hundreds and thousands of Yankees who were attacking from the north and the south are desperately trying to stay." Asha said angrily: "But with all due respect, how many soldiers can you fight left, and you have guessed what the enemy plans to use to attack Did it deal with you?"

"Not much," replied the other seated Cauder.It seems that even within the same family, there is no consensus, "No one knows the exact number, and the loss is heavy anyway. Surrender... God damn it, fuck him? Can you go home in the end, instead of a savage who put on black clothes and went to the cold Great Wall to fight for a lifetime, can't you negotiate terms?"

(The savages are outside the city now. If you don't surrender, they will come to kill you.)

Asha secretly said in her heart, but she said something else: "If you want to get good treatment as a prisoner, you should have surrendered on the first day Robb Stark came to the city! Keeping him out of your house for so long, Still want to talk about this and that?"

"Think about it differently." The one-armed old man suddenly said: "I heard that there are only a few hundred night watchmen in total, and most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled. Even if we are sent to the Great Wall with dozens or hundreds of Ironborn soldiers, Let’s make an appointment with each other to find a chance to escape together, go west—to grab a boat along the coast of the Bay of Ice and escape back to the Iron Islands, how can they spare manpower to chase us?”

"It seems to make sense!"

"That's right, why didn't I think of that!"

……

Jiang is still old and hot, and the one-armed old man's analysis sounds quite reasonable, and many people quickly echoed it.The situation was developing in a favorable direction, and Asha breathed a sigh of relief... It seemed that her words had some effect.Although she vaguely knew that the land-grant situation was quite different from what the old man knew, she didn't intend to explain.

This is not deception, just a good concealment.

"You want to be a prisoner first, and then a deserter? What a bastard idea!" Dagon Could drew out his long sword angrily, "Ralph Kenning is dead, so now I am the commander of Moat Calim, I order Surrender no one! And you, Baron's little girl, how many times did the Yankees fuck you after you were captured? Or how many times did you get fucked? I don't want to hear it, but you don't want to go back , Either fight with us, or sleep with us!"

……

I thought I could escape a catastrophe, but in the end it really came down to the matter of "fuck".

Asha was so annoyed that she exploded as she had done so many times in her life—just because there was something missing between her legs, she would never be able to function or communicate like a normal man.No matter what they think, what they say or what happens, the stinky men whose minds are full of rice green liquid can always associate things with certain aspects every minute... She wanted to save the group of ironmen in front of her and the people who had been killed. The crew captured by the Night's Watch died, and some of them refused to appreciate it!

It doesn't matter if they refuse to surrender, the worst is to go back and honestly tell the night watchman that he failed to persuade him to surrender, and then tell him the truth that there are no two hundred remaining defenders in Cailin Bay, and it will be regarded as atonement.

The trouble was, the guy in front of him didn't know if he was drunk or something, but he still planned to prevent him from going back.

Asha wasn't afraid of death, but she didn't want to be buried with these fools.

Eyeballs swayed from side to side, and the daughter of the sea monster found that not many people planned to obey the words of the "second-in-command" in front of her. She squeezed the dagger in her hand, and confirmed that the hatchet on the shoulder strap was still familiar and stretched out her hand According to the available position, start to analyze the success probability of "hands-on".

As a persuader who came on behalf of the enemy, it would be a dead end for a "lobbyist" to suddenly become a "killer" to attack the defender's commander, but Asha's situation is different... She is an authentic iron man who grew up on the Iron Islands. The Ironmen, who have undergone good training and have the surname and blood of Greyjoy, have a very high status among the Ironborn, while the Dagon Cawdor in front of him comes from a small family and is not an important role in itself.

If he can be dealt with in an instant, and then use intimidation to force the other Cauds in this room not to act rashly...and then persuade the rest of the people to go out of the city and surrender...

Together with the killing intent, and quickly finalized the plan, Asha quietly tensed all the muscles in her body, intending to take the opponent's life in one fell swoop.

Suddenly there was a loud crash and the crisp sound of the earthen jar breaking, and then the watchman on the top of the tower exclaimed: "It's on fire!"

"Wildfire, a kind of fire oil that can burn in any situation." Asha was in a state of high nervousness, and was also taken aback by the loud noise, but immediately recalled that the night watchman had hit him before. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "You'd better take a look. If you hit any tower and don't care, it will burn the whole tower..."

A few people stood up, not sure if they were going to fight the fire or just to watch.Dagon Calder's attention was also drawn to look out the window, and Asha suddenly realized that this was the best chance to do something. She raised her dagger and rushed towards the new commander of Kalin Bay like a poisonous snake.

……

But she was still a step too late.

Before the loud noise outside the door dissipated, there was a muffled noise inside the house, and the tip of a sword emerged from the chest of the heroic Dagon Coud.The one-armed old man who spoke before stabbed the heart of the current commander of Kalin Bay from behind while everyone's attention was attracted by the loud noise.

-

Chapter 264

Iger simply couldn't produce enough wildfires to destroy Moat Calim.

A large number of solidified and passivated wildfires transported from King's Landing were stored in the ten fortresses along the Great Wall that were still intact, the climbing steps on the wall were repaired, and they were completely under the control of the night watchman. As a strategic reserve against the invasion of ghouls, he decided not to In major situations, it will never be activated at will.On this trip, the local army headed south to receive the gift, and the horse-drawn carriage carried by the team was fresh wildfire prepared by several fire magicians in Houguan Town.

At the beginning, when I brought a few "chemists" from King's Landing to the land-grant, what Iger considered was to make a talent reserve in advance in case the gunpowder needed to be used in the future-but before that moment came, their task was to simply "" "Tune wildfire" to create a steady stream of super kerosene for the Great Wall defenders.However, the plan always fails to keep up with the changes. The funds required for small-scale production of wildfires are only a fraction of the revenue of the Night Watchman industry. However, the appearance of the land grant resettlement plan has swallowed up all the resources Iger can deploy. .

The shortage of funds caused by playing big chess, the soaring prices and poor freight caused by the war have made the supply of raw materials for wildfire production intermittent, and the deployment has been intermittent, and the output naturally cannot be high.Iger brought half a car of Wildfire with him when he set off from Houguan Town. It was almost exhausted during the attack on Deepwood Castle and the encirclement and annihilation of the tidal flats. Only the last few cans were left—I told Asha earlier that if Kalin Bay did not surrender, it would be Will burn it with wildfire, but it's just a bluff.

***

Iger originally planned to wait an hour for his capitulators to enter Cailin Bay to use the wildfire attack, but finally changed his mind and started the arrangement early.