The Mountain of Ice and Fire

On the city wall, Joffrey watched with beaming eyes. The Imp watched with mixed feelings, his face hardened. He saw that from the very beginning, the Mountain had not considered a way out for the royal fleet.

This tactic… felt… too ruthless…

The Imp looked at Bronn beside him. This guy was like a long knife, still sharp, and he couldn't see any discomfort in him… or… even the slightest bit of pity… He looked at Shagga and Conn, the two fierce men of the Stone Crows, who were no longer excitedly yelling. It was probably because they were tired of yelling and now needed to rest.

The Kingsguard beside him – the Hound, Balon Swann, Meryn Trant, Mandon Moore, Arys Oakheart – the five guards watched indifferently as the green fire burned in the Blackwater Rush…

He looked at his young squire Podrick, who was watching intently, with obvious pity in his eyes… This made the Imp, with his hardened face, feel slightly better…

This great fire, while completely destroying Stannis's dark mass of more than two hundred warships—the Imp and the others couldn't see the forty pirate ships in the inlet—also caused the deaths of more than four thousand warriors of the royal fleet.

This kind of victory… made the Imp feel like a small crab was pinching his stomach… He realized that if he had half of Joffrey's strong heart and coldness, he would feel a lot better.

*

The green flames dyed the Blackwater Rush green, with its high winds and raging waves. Stannis's raft army was also caught in it.

Once the rafts were in the water, going downstream, it was impossible to cross directly.

When the first explosion began, Stannis called a halt to the rafting across the river.

Now that the fire had passed the most intense period of explosions, the flames were beginning to dim!

In the light of the green flames all over the river, Stannis saw rows and rows of small boats hidden on the opposite bank of the river directly in front of him.

Those small boats seemed very suspicious now, and were probably 'fire ships' loaded with wildfire.

These small boats would wait for his raft army to pass by, and then push them out. All it would take was a rocket to ignite one of them—when one boat exploded, the green flames would fly all over the sky like small snakes, and the rest of the boats would explode one after another.

In Stannis's eyes, the green flames all over the river began to blur, and the continuous explosions that had stopped sounded again, and the scene of countless debris flying into the sky reappeared. Whether it was his warship or the royal fleet, they all burned fiercely in the green flames.

Countless warship fragments and warship wreckage floated downstream, stopping and piling up at a narrow point downstream, forming a black line across the river under the illumination of the green fire.

Stannis, who had woken up from an extremely brief trance, noticed the black line across the river.

"Go and see what that is?" Stannis said.

Around him were dozens of uncertain knights, perhaps more.

"Your Majesty, please send me to investigate," said Davos Seaworth, the Onion Knight's fifth son.

He was Stannis's squire, studying, living, learning to read, and practicing swordsmanship with Stannis's daughter, Princess Shireen, on Dragonstone. Davos Seaworth was born in 288 AC and is eleven years old this year.

The child's face still had childishness, but his expression was firm.

"Captain Merry, lead a hundred-man team to protect Davos."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Davos and Captain Merry led a hundred-man team down the river toward the black line in the distance.

Stannis looked at the green flames in the river and looked back at the dozens of knights surrounding him. He found that there was fear in almost everyone's eyes.

This fire burned away the fighting spirit that his generals had accumulated for three days.

But Stannis's eyes only showed more determined fighting spirit and steely coldness.

During the Usurper War seventeen years ago, Stannis, who had been besieged by the Tyrell and Redwyne families for more than a year and had even eaten the rats in Storm's End, had an unyielding will!

Some people can't learn to kneel even if their kneecaps are broken. Stannis is such a tough guy!

"King's Landing has no more than ten thousand soldiers, and the garrison is a bunch of trash; everyone, we still have twenty thousand cavalry and twenty thousand infantry, which is still four times the strength of the Lannisters," Stannis pointed to King's Landing. "As long as we cross the Blackwater Rush, victory will be ours."

None of the dozens of knights spoke, and everyone was silent.

There was a Mountain on the opposite side. Three days ago, their twenty thousand cavalry were defeated by the Mountain leading dozens of people. That kind of memory was unforgettable.

The Mountain's greatsword was so sharp and unmatched that the knights still felt lingering fear when they thought about it.

With one sword strike, anyone who stood in its way would be defeated!

Anyone who dared to fight the Mountain would have a very clear ending: death!

"The Mountain is not to be feared!" Stannis saw through the thoughts of the knights around him, and he said lightly, "In close combat, spearmen will pierce his armor. He can kill a hundred people, or a thousand people, but he cannot kill ten thousand people. King's Landing, the Iron Throne, are all ours. I assure you of this."

Spears can indeed break armor, but the Mountain's armor is not as easy to break as ordinary armor!

The knights all knew this, but no one dared to say it in front of Stannis.

Stannis's wife's uncle—King's Hand Alester Florent said: "Your Majesty, perhaps we can send someone to secretly cross the Blackwater Rush, sneak into the city, and promise the Mountain high office and gold."

Stannis stared at Alester: "Lord Hand, the Mountain is an evildoer of the Seven Kingdoms, and only the gallows await him."

Stannis said decisively, leaving no room for any change.

Alester was silent, and then said: "Yes, Your Majesty, I was wrong!"

Although the knights thought that it was a good idea to win over the Mountain, no one dared to say another word.

Stannis was as hateful of evil as he was of enemies, and as rigid as a piece of black steel.

Alester Florent was not a vassal of the Stormlands. His lord was the Tyrell family of the Reach. His fief was Brightwater Keep, and he was also the lord of the Florent family. He followed Mace Tyrell in serving Renly Baratheon; after Renly's death, he defected to Stannis Baratheon. His niece Selyse Florent was the wife of Stannis Baratheon I. This kinship led him to lead the Florent family to betray their original lord, the Tyrell family, and become Stannis's vassal, and was appointed as the King's Hand by Stannis.

*

On the city wall, the Mountain ordered: "Ser Amory Lorch!"

"Your vassal is here, General!"

"Lead a hundred archers to reinforce Julie Clegane at the North Bank Stone Tower."

"General?"

Amory didn't understand why he should reinforce Julie at the position where the chain blocked the river. The enemies were either floating and screaming in the Blackwater Rush, or on the south bank. Julie was on the north bank with a hundred-man team, and there was also a hundred-man team of light cavalry stationed at the stone tower on the south bank, but they couldn't be reinforced.

"Go quickly!" The Mountain said in a deep voice.

"Yes, General!"

The fierce generals beside him were staring at the river. The reflection of the green flames illuminated their faces, and their faces turned green, looking like they came from… hell!

"Ser Amory Lorch."

"Yes, General." Amory, who was hurrying down the city wall, stopped.

"When the arrows you brought are used up, the whole team will retreat back into the city. No lingering!"

Although Amory didn't understand where the enemy was coming from, he still said loudly: "Yes, General!"

Amory went down the city wall, mustered a hundred mounted archers in the Mud Gate barracks, shouted to open the city gate, and led a hundred cavalrymen to gallop along the riverside avenue.

The sound of horses' hooves attracted the attention of the soldiers on the city wall.

Joffrey also saw it: "Uncle Imp, there is a team of cavalry under the city. Where are they going?"

The Imp couldn't understand the Mountain's military deployment: "I don't know, Your Majesty."

"Hehe, then what else do you know?" Joffrey laughed.

"I also know to stay here with Your Majesty and protect Your Majesty's safety."

Joffrey chuckled, as if this was the funniest joke he had ever heard: "Dwarf Uncle, can you protect my safety?!" He suddenly drew his shining short sword and slashed fiercely in the air, "Dwarf Uncle, you don't even seem to be as tall as my sword!"

A group of King's guards laughed out loud.

Bronn shrugged his shoulders, Podrick's face turned red, but it couldn't be seen in the reflection of the green flames. Shagga and Conn also laughed at their gold master along with them, without any sense of incongruity.

"Your Majesty, I participated in the battle on the Green Fork, and I charged in the front line." The Imp felt very strange when he mentioned that battle. In that battle, his father, Duke Tywin, intended to use him and the mountain people as cannon fodder, just like the Mountain used the royal fleet as artillery today.

His father used him and the mountain people as cannon fodder without any rewards or prior mobilization, while the Mountain arranged the funeral arrangements for every captain and ordered the court scholar Locke to record them—although it now seems that the Mountain's arrangement of records is actually a clever means of buying people's hearts and letting them die in peace.

Joffrey laughed: "Dwarf Uncle, how many warships did my second uncle have? Two hundred?"

"Your Majesty, according to reliable intelligence, there are two hundred and seventy warships, including forty pirate warships," said Meryn Trant.

"Yes, two hundred and seventy warships, which is more than ten times the number of our warships, but now they have all turned into ashes. I hope the Mountain's fire will fail a little, so that my second uncle's soldiers can cross the Blackwater Rush on warships and attack the city, so that I can personally chop off a few enemy heads."

"You will get your wish, Your Majesty," the Imp said lightly, "Although Stannis's navy has been completely destroyed, on the other side of the Blackwater Rush, Stannis's cavalry and infantry still have at least tens of thousands of troops, and they will figure out a way to cross the river sooner or later."

"Lord Hand, they will not be able to cross the river at least tonight," Meryn Trant said coldly.

"Tomorrow morning, Ser, you will find that the walls are densely packed with Stannis's army," the Imp said coldly.

The Imp looked at Meryn Trant and found that Mandon Moore was peeking at him in the shadows of the Hound and Balon, with a strange look in his eyes. Even when his eyes met his, Mandon Moore did not avoid it, but slowly turned his eyes away. That cold and cruel gaze made the Imp feel uncomfortable.

The Imp remembered the Mountain's warning to him: "Pay attention to Mandon Moore, he may want your life."

But the Imp didn't think Mandon Moore would want his life. He had no past grudges with Mandon Moore, and he still bore the Lannister family name. Only Cersei wanted his life, not Mandon Moore.

With a great enemy at hand, in a very period, the outcome of the war is uncertain, and Stannis still has tens of thousands of troops on the other side of the river. King's Landing still needs people to protect it. The Imp doesn't think Cersei will attack him at such a time.

*

South Bank. Stone Tower.

A group of light cavalry hid on the edge of the forest, defending this stone tower.

There were also twenty shipwrights in the stone tower, who were responsible for the winch.

"Captain Julie, the enemy is coming!" A scout quietly returned.

Captain Julie Clegane asked: "How many people are coming?"

"A hundred-man team."

"Are they walking through the forest or the small road?"

"The small road."

The Mountain arranged for Julie Clegane to be stationed at the stone tower on the north bank, and asked her to arrange for her subordinates to take a hundred-man team to be stationed at the stone tower on the south bank. The south bank was very dangerous, because Stannis's army was in the forest upstream. This chain blocking the river would be discovered by Stannis sooner or later, and then he would send people over.

But Julie Clegane believed that she was the centurion of the mounted archers and could not let her subordinates take risks. She quietly took a hundred-man team to the south bank, and handed over the safe north bank to her subordinate guard captain to defend.

"Withdraw the shipwrights and order them to escape as far as possible into the forest," Julie ordered.

"Yes, Madam."

The scout rushed into the stone tower: "Run quickly, run along the edge of the forest along the river bank, the enemy is coming."

The shipwrights immediately came out and fled into the forest.

Julie took out her short crossbow. Her hundred-man team had a short crossbow: "Dismount, ambush by the road, kill them all."

A group of brothers dismounted one after another, tied their horses to the trees, and everyone took their short crossbows and ambushed on both sides of the small road.

*

Eleven-year-old Davos Seaworth and Captain Merry led a team of black-armored elite guards.

They did not walk through the forest, but walked along the small road by the river bank.

The small road was not far from the Blackwater Rush on the outside, and it was also a distance from the forest on the inside, so there was no need to worry about being ambushed. If enemies appeared, or there were horses, they could be seen from a distance.

In the Blackwater Rush, the green flames were still burning, illuminating the forests and bushes on both sides of the river bank.

Julie and her brothers were lying motionless in the low bushes by the road.

The enemy was getting closer and closer.

Julie didn't move, and none of her brothers moved.

No one was timid or panting. These people were all veterans who had undergone the Mountain's cruel training and had participated in many bloody battles.

Everyone was holding a short crossbow in their hands.

This was a close-range weapon, and it was easy to break armor if the distance was close enough.

Davos and Captain Merry walked in the front.

The entire hundred-man team walked into the encirclement.

Julie Clegane stood up. Her slender and agile figure walked into the middle of the small road. When the other party asked loudly in confusion who she was, she calmly pulled the trigger.

The short crossbow fired continuously, and several arrows flew towards the chest of Davos Seaworth, who had drawn his short sword and rushed towards her.

*

ps: Starting tomorrow, continue with 2 updates, I hope, I hope, I hope I can do it for 7 days without interruption.

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