The Mountain of Ice and Fire

“Your Grace, I understand my responsibility,” the Mountain said. “I will guarantee the safety of King's Landing.”

“Of course, I believe in the Mountain's bravery.” Cersei gently swirled her wine glass, the red wine inside as vivid as blood. “My Lord, to put my mind at ease, could you tell me about your military plans?”

“Yes, we should come together to formulate the perfect military plan,” Joffrey said.

The Mountain looked at the Queen Mother and the King: “I cannot!”

Cersei and Joffrey both looked at the Mountain, their eyes strange.

Sansa maintained her etiquette, secretly hoping that the Mountain would annoy the Queen Mother and the King.

The Mountain slowly said, “I cannot instruct a blacksmith on how to forge iron, nor a dog handler on how to raise dogs, nor a fisherman on how to fish, because I do not know how.”

“Is the Lord saying that Joffrey and I don't understand warfare at all?”

The right corner of Joffrey's mouth suddenly turned up, his eyes staring at the Mountain with a threatening bluff. This was the first time he had heard someone say he didn't know how to fight a war, which made the child very uncomfortable!

The Mountain closed his mouth.

“We won't instruct you on your military plans, I just want to understand. With the great battle imminent, I… am very worried.”

Cersei's tone carried an earnest plea, reminding the Mountain of a saying: sway them with emotion!

However, these were all illusions. Cersei was a ruthless person, there was no doubt about that.

“Your Grace, leave the cooking to the chefs, the horse training to the grooms, the praying to the monks, and the fighting to the commanders and soldiers.”

“So we don't have to do anything?” Joffrey's tone was incredulous. “But I am the King!”

“Your Majesty, you only need to tell the chef what kind of food you want to eat, and the rest is all up to the chef. If you want to rush into the kitchen to instruct the chef on how to cut vegetables, how to mix ingredients, and how to control the heat, that is not appropriate.”

“But what if I am not satisfied with the food the chef makes?”

“Drive him away and find a chef who can satisfy you.”

“No, I want to kill him,” Joffrey said resolutely.

“Driving him away or killing him, hanging or beheading, is of course up to His Majesty the King,” the Mountain said blandly.

Cersei sensed the Mountain's displeasure: “Alright, Mountain, I want you to repel Stannis and protect King's Landing until my father's reinforcements arrive.”

“As you command, Your Grace,” the Mountain said.

Joffrey turned to look at his mother, the dissatisfaction on his face fermenting.

He had originally wanted to 'teach' the Mountain a lesson, not in a trial by combat, but the King had the authority to 'talk to' his generals.

“Your Majesty, let us raise a glass to the Mountain, his bravery today has already frightened Stannis,” Sansa said. She attempted to divert the King's attention to avoid an awkward atmosphere.

Joffrey was very angry that Cersei had issued orders to the Mountain in place of his royal dignity, and that the Mountain had actually responded.

The two of them in front of him.

He was the King, why couldn't he participate in the military plans? He wanted to fight and formulate the perfect battle plan, there was no doubt about that.

Sansa picked up a wine glass in one hand and took the King's wine glass in the other to hand it to the King. The King's eyes shifted from his mother's eyes to Sansa's face, and he suddenly reached out and knocked the wine glass out of Sansa's hand. The wine glass fell on the table with a loud clang, and the blood-red wine splashed everywhere.

Sansa let out a low exclamation.

Cersei's expression also hardened!

The furious Joffrey stood up, pushed away the stool, and strode away. Two Kingsguard—Meryn Trant and Mandon Moore—immediately followed.

The Mountain looked at his breastplate, which had wine stains on it.

Cersei's lapel was also stained with a few spots of wine.

Sansa's lapel was the most stained, to the point where she had to go down and change her dress. Her face was also covered in wine stains.

The maids were busy wiping Sansa!

“Lord Mountain…” Cersei spread her hands, making a helpless expression.

She wouldn't feel sorry for this, she just felt helpless.

Nor would she teach Joffrey a lesson to let him know that as the King of a country, he had done something wrong.

The boy was becoming more and more disobedient and scoffed at Cersei's authority.

The Mountain remembered Littlefinger's words: “My sister will never hurt Joffrey, and Joffrey understands this very well, so he will never be afraid of Cersei. But we are different, Mountain, we can deter His Majesty the King from acting rashly, otherwise this country will really be destroyed by our Joffrey, and my self-righteous sister, this is also the original intention of my father, Duke Tywin, to call me to be the Hand of the King. If there are ministers helping the King to act rashly, no matter who it is, Father told me to cut off their heads directly.”

Littlefinger came to King's Landing, a series of actions, bold and radical, even destroying Cersei's power, behind him, he had a backer!

The Mountain colluded with Littlefinger in secret and betrayed the Queen Mother Cersei, which was in line with the current political situation.

“Your Grace, I'm full!” The Mountain stood up and said.

“You haven't eaten much.” Cersei signaled the maids to serve the Mountain.

One maid poured wine for the Mountain, and another maid picked up vegetables for the Mountain.

“Lord Mountain, if you like, these two maids are my most beloved girls, they are clever and deft, and I assure you that they are both still virgins and have had their monthly cycles. I will have someone send them to your general's building later, this is the reward you deserve.”

“Okay, thank you, Your Grace,” the Mountain said.

Cersei smiled: “You're welcome.”

Women were the secret weapon to deal with men, and Cersei was very experienced and confident in this.

Men conquer the world, women conquer men.

The Mountain got up and took his leave. He walked to the door, turned around, and said, “Your Grace, Stannis cannot break through our city gates, I assure you of that, you will be very safe. I am not refusing to discuss military affairs with His Majesty the King, but I am afraid of being disturbed by His Majesty the King. If he does not agree with my military plan, but he is the King, what should I do? He has the right to cut off my head, but I have confidence in my military plan. In case the King orders a modification, I will not agree, which will create a conflict between the monarch and his subjects. If someone uses this conflict in the future, it will be difficult for me to be loyal to the Queen Mother and the King!”

Cersei looked at the Mountain. The Mountain who said such things was definitely not the Mountain she knew before.

“Lord, I thank you for your loyalty and your bravery today. I don't want to use the Tears of Lys.”

“The Old Gods and the New Gods are above, even if King's Landing is broken, I will protect the Queen Mother and His Majesty the King to safely evacuate to the Westerlands, please believe me, Your Grace.”

“I believe you!” Cersei raised her glass to the Mountain and drank the wine in the glass in one gulp.

The Mountain looked at Sansa, “Lady Sansa, you are also safe.”

“Thank you, General, for your hard work in fighting for the country, protecting King's Landing, and protecting the people of the whole city.” Sansa stood up and bowed slightly.

The Mountain glanced at Sansa, turned around and left.

Sansa's etiquette was always perfect, but what she was thinking in her heart was something that others could not see.

The transmigrated Mountain originally had a plan to rescue Sansa through the Red Keep's tunnel, but later stopped it.

Some of the Red Keep's tunnels had been heavily blocked by Cersei, but what Cersei didn't know was that the underground passages were a complex spider web. The few small fireplaces she blocked in the room were insignificant compared to the entire underground labyrinthine structure. Moreover, digging open the blocked small fireplaces from the tunnel was not a challenge.

The underground labyrinth was a secret underground building built by Maegor I with painstaking effort more than two hundred years ago, and it was not just a few tunnels.

The Mountain decided to leave Sansa this butterfly alone for the time being. Sansa needed this life experience. In King's Landing's Red Keep, there were surprises but no dangers, but it could make her achieve her final life.

The Mountain found annotations about Sansa in the Chinese civilization on Earth: “When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a person, it always first frustrates their spirit and will, exhausts their muscles and bones, subjects them to starvation, impoverishes them, and confounds their actions. In this way, their heart is moved, their nature is tempered, and their abilities are increased.”

Move their hearts, temper their nature, and increase their abilities!

The current Sansa is completely different from the innocent Sansa who secretly reported to Cersei that 'her father had arranged for them to secretly take a boat back to the North'.

Although she was only thirteen years old!

The Mountain understood that Sansa hated the Mountain in her heart, and she hated the King and Cersei even more, but she could be perfect in etiquette and not lose her lady's upbringing at all. This kind of patience and sophistication, as well as the way of dealing with things, was rapidly transforming into a top expert like Littlefinger.

The Red Keep was a magical place that destroyed and created talents.

Cersei watched the Mountain leave, listening to the sound of his footsteps fading away. She felt a strong sense of frustration in her heart. Her former confidants had always obeyed her every word, and her current confidants also obeyed her every word, allowing her to enjoy the feeling of controlling everything with authority. But there were always two people who brought her pain and discomfort. One was her younger brother Littlefinger Tyrion, who brought her sharp pain; the other was the Mountain, who brought her discomfort in her heart.

She hoped that the Mountain could be like the Hound, doing whatever she ordered him to do, but that was just a hope.

However, this was in line with the Mountain's consistent domineering.

“Your Grace, the Mountain has always been rude.” Sansa sat down and said softly, “I have personally seen him not kneel in front of the late King Robert, why didn't Robert cut off his head?”

Cersei raised her wine glass to cover most of her face. Her eyes looked over the top of the wine glass and landed on Sansa's beautiful face, who was unknowingly and elegantly cutting things while speaking.

Suddenly, she felt much more comfortable in her heart!—The ignorant Sansa inadvertently said the sentence 'The Mountain didn't kneel in front of Robert', which had a magical power to smooth her inner frustration.

Cersei suddenly realized that to deal with the Mountain, you can't really treat him like a hunting dog.

*

The news of Stannis's warships arriving spread throughout the city.

The most 'popular' place in the whole city was the Great Sept of Baelor.

As if in an instant, the Great Sept of Baelor was crowded with rich people praying for peace, while commoners and refugees crowded the square of the Rainbow Pool.

In the Red Keep, the 'most popular' place was the Sept of the Seven, where Queen Mother Cersei and the noble women in the court were crowded in the Sept. The Seven Gods stood high on the platform, looking down at these dregs who knelt down to them.

Sansa and Cersei went to the city wall and saw the dark warships coming from afar on the coast, riding the wind and waves. Littlefinger and Joffrey stood on the highest point of the city wall. This was Littlefinger's idea. He had to let the people and soldiers of the whole city see that the King was with them.

The Kingsguard were all clustered around the King and Littlefinger, plus Littlefinger's own guards Bronn, Podrick, Chiggen, and Qotho, to ensure the absolute safety of the King and the Hand of the King.

The Mountain and his generals were all in their positions. The Iron Gate, the Mud Gate, the King's Gate, and the Lion Gate were the four city gates that the enemy would attack.

The Iron Gate was the east gate and bore the brunt. It was the first city gate that the enemy ships would attack after landing, followed by the Mud Gate. Once Stannis's army on the south bank of the Blackwater River crossed the Blackwater River, the King's Gate and the Lion Gate to the south would become the two city gates attacked by the army.

The city walls of the Iron Gate were densely packed with archers. Heavy troops were deployed here, making it the most core place for the enemy ships to attack.

Behind the city gate, infantry were lined up neatly, mainly the more than 1,200 warriors of the mountain tribes—here were gathered all the warriors of the Stone Crows led by Chiggen, the Burned Men led by Timett, the Black Ears led by Chella, and the Moon Brothers led by Gonso—once the city gate was breached, the enemy would face a bloody attack from 1,200 mountain warriors.

If the warriors of the mountain tribes were killed, then there would be more than 1,000 fierce warriors of Big Chiswyck behind them.

The Mountain believed that the force of more than 2,000 warriors blocking a city gate had reached saturation and was sufficient.

If these more than 2,000 warriors were killed, then it would turn into street fighting.

*

The Mountain and Littlefinger had made the worst plan. Shae, in the courtyard of the Iron Gate, had also been secretly transferred to the Red Keep by Littlefinger. After Littlefinger's recommendation and Cersei's interview, Shae became a new maid for Sansa.

Jeyne Poole, a maid and best friend who grew up with Sansa in Winterfell, had become timid, tearful, sensitive, and fearful after witnessing the bloody slaughter of the Hand's Tower. Every time Sansa returned to her residence after socializing, she had to spend time enlightening and comforting Jeyne, as if she herself was the maid.

*

The Mountain was on the city wall of the Mud Gate, which was the closest to the naval port. In the naval port, twenty-three warships were ready, everyone with the determination to die, just waiting for the Mountain's order to rush out and fight against 270 enemy ships.

The Mountain had given the naval fleet a death order not to let the enemy ships approach the south bank of the Blackwater River before dark. As long as the naval battle dragged on until dark, it would be a victory for the naval fleet. The naval fleets that had not died in battle would retreat to the naval port. Their mission was completed and they would join the city's defending army.

The enemy ships passed through the rough entrance to the sea and entered the waters of the Blackwater River.

The Mountain stood on the city wall of the Mud Gate and sounded the drum for the naval fleet to set out.

Boom!

The Mountain sounded the war drum.

Following that, a total of twenty-three war drums around the Mountain sounded together, symbolizing twenty-three royal warships.

In the port, the flagship captain's roar sounded: “Brothers, the enemy is coming, let us drive them back to their hometown.”

“Ho!”

The King's ship sounded the roar of two hundred warriors.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The battle drums of the twenty-three warships sounded together with the drums on the city walls. The Blackwater Bay and the sky above King's Landing were filled with tragic drums.

On the city wall, the little devil's eyes were slightly red. He turned his head to look behind him. Behind him were rows and rows of archers. Each soldier had a cold, hard expression, and some warriors even had tears in the corners of their eyes.

All the soldiers knew that these twenty-three royal warships would never return!

*

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Two chapters tomorrow: striving for ten thousand words. Naval battle!

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