Take the ride to dominate the game

Chapter 103 The Bachelor
On the morning of the second day, the siege of the Western Border Army came as scheduled.

Standing behind the crenel, Arthur watched nearly ten thousand Shijia soldiers in front of the main entrance set up their formation.

It can't be said that they are all lion soldiers. In front of the attacking team, standing are all Hejian farmers wearing gray cloth.

At the back is the infantry phalanx that is standard for western soldiers such as lion half helmets, crimson robes, and black ring armor.

At the end, there are more than 4000 Lannister cavalry regiments, of which more than [-] are heavy cavalry with horse armor.

More than a dozen enlarged trebuchets were slowly pushed to the front of the formation, followed by ten extended ladders, and the giant siege ram that could only be pushed by five or sixty people attracted many soldiers from the first battalion and the second battalion attention.

Bill, the leader of the King's Landing mercenaries, sighed: "This is more than double the size of the last one. It looks really scary."

There are not many mercenaries under him, only in their early nineties, so they have been sent to maintain order among civilians.

Bill himself volunteered to defend the city.

"But I can't break through the main gate." The serious Dickon shook his head. "To be honest, I used to think that Harrenhal couldn't be defended with 3000 Lannister troops."

"But after seeing the fortification of the two gates, I have to admit that, apart from the flying dragons from the sky, Harrenhal will never be captured by the outside world."

"That's right." Arthur remembered Storm's End in the Usurper's War, "The Duke of Mace in the Reach led an army of [-] to besiege Storm's End for half a year, except for starving the people inside. , did nothing."

Storm's End is also a well-known fortified castle in the Seven Kingdoms. In the wars in recent years, there is no record of being captured by heavy troops.

Similar to Storm's End having a sea side, Harrenhal has a lake side.

Therefore, the siege warfare of the two is similar.

On the city wall above the main entrance, eight trebuchets are placed neatly.

Originally there were twenty trebuchets placed here, but the He'an family only maintained some of them, so only eight trebuchets were usable.

The rest were removed to make room for the soldiers.

More than a thousand new army soldiers were scattered on this section of the city wall, nervously waiting for the upcoming battle.

Not long after, an enlarged version of the enemy's counterweight trebuchet was placed, and preliminary tests began.

The four western soldiers stepped on the running wheel vigorously, causing the counterweight box to rise, and the end of the traction throwing arm to descend.

After throwing the arm to the end, a western soldier placed the latch first, and then a large rock that required two soldiers to move was placed in the throwing pocket, and the traction rope was removed.

After all the preparations were completed, a man who looked like an officer lit the stone, causing a circle of flames to ignite on the surface, and then took down the latch.

Immediately, the gravitational potential energy accumulated in the counterweight box was released extremely quickly, the several-meter-long throwing arm rotated rapidly, and the throwing bag wrapped in stone was thrown high.

After throwing more than half a circle, the burning stone escaped from the throwing pocket, drew an extremely perfect parabola, and smashed hard on the city wall below the main entrance.

bang.

Like a small earthquake, the soldiers of the new army on the entire city wall felt obvious vibrations.

"This thing is too big." Someone stuck his head out of the city wall to check the fallen stones, and couldn't help sighing.

Although there are also trebuchets on the city wall, they are very small and have a much shorter range.

Bill turned to Arthur beside him, and said with some confusion: "My lord, I seem to see that the top of the projectile is a little higher than us."

The highest point of the trajectory of the stone projectile is higher than the city wall, so as long as the position of the catapult is adjusted, it can always hit the city wall.

"That's right." The serious Dickon looked confused, "This requires our soldiers to hide under the crenels, otherwise one stone can kill several people."

Arthur nodded, summoned the messengers, and asked all the soldiers of the new army to squat down, waiting for the enemy to climb up the ladder before poking their heads.

At the same time, he also asked the soldiers of the third battalion on standby on the first floor to be ready to put out the fire. Although there were not many wooden things in Harrenhal, there were still some.

Being hit by such an oil-coated projectile can easily cause a fire.

After the first attempt failed, the trebuchet was pushed forward by the western soldiers.

This time, the stone hit somewhere in the Burning King Tower behind Arthur, and with some shaken gravel, the burning stone fell to the ground on the first floor.

Arthur and the first battalion commander Zordan rushed over to have a look, but luckily they didn't hit anyone.

"Extinguish the fire on that stone, it will be needed later." Arthur shouted to the soldiers below.

This is really a good thing.

With Arthur's strength, it's perfect for throwing up and smashing the western soldiers who climbed the ladder.

Maybe the ladder can be smashed at once, and the siege may stop by then.

After two more adjustments, the trebuchets of the Western Front Army were finally in place.

"Get down, get down." Dickon directed the new soldiers on the city wall.

In the last test, the burning stone fell on the city wall accurately. Although no one was killed, the vibration from the feet and the burning stone ball still caused a lot of panic.

After all, these new soldiers were farmers farming the land a month or two ago.

A few minutes later, the recruits in their early thousand and Arthur and others experienced the fear of being dominated by the catapult.

Every minute, one or two flaming projectiles fell on the city wall, and several times smashed the crenels and seriously injured the soldiers lying nearby.

Although it only injured a dozen people, it still made Arthur feel distressed for a while.

To make matters worse, the trebuchets on the city wall also became a key target of the enemy's attack.

After thirty or forty projectiles concentrated fire, all the trebuchets on the city wall were smashed to pieces.

Now the soldiers from the Western Region had no worries when they charged. After all, the range of arrows was much smaller than that of trebuchets.

"There are top-level bachelors in the Western Region Army. They can enlarge the original small trebuchet and build it in such a few days. They are really capable." He sighed.

"The Lannister family has gold, so they can naturally recruit talented bachelors, and there should be more than one. With Tywin's wealth, he can support a heavy cavalry regiment of 5000 people. A bachelor regiment is not a big deal." Mercenary Bill road.

Indeed it is.

The place where cavalry spends more money than infantry is the horse under the crotch.Most riding horses don't eat all low-calorie grass, but forage mixed with high-calorie grains.

However, horses have a large appetite and take a long time to eat. In order to save time during wartime, horses are often fed with grain mixed with forage.

So this is why there is barely enough food in peacetime, but there is a shortage of food in times of war.

Because the horse also needs to eat some food.

The Lannister family under Tywin's rule can afford seven or eight thousand cavalry in peacetime, including nearly five thousand heavy cavalry, which shows that it is the most wealthy family in Westeros.

As for the bachelor, it is quite expensive.

Li De's family, the lord of Huishuiwang in the northern border, a majestic earl family, can't afford to support a bachelor, so you know how expensive it is to raise a bachelor.

In the future, I will also get a few bachelors and bring them with me as consultants, Arthur thought to himself.

He picked from his memory, and there were only two maesters who satisfied him: Dickon's fat brother, Samwell, and Qyburn.

The former should be investigating the disappearance of Banyan Stark, the chief ranger of the night watchman, north of the Great Wall at the moment, while the latter should be in...

According to the original book, Cobain went north in the early stage of the War of the Five Kings, preparing to join the team of the Night Watchman, but he joined them because he met a group of mercenaries with a poor reputation like the Blood Troupe.

Just because Arthur hired the blood troupe and consumed about the same amount, Cobain's life trajectory has most likely changed.

Now it is estimated that it should be in the Northern Frontier Army going south.

After all, a single bachelor who can cure diseases is quite popular.

He wondered if he should find someone to bring Qyburn over.But he doesn't have any reliable people under his command, so this is for the time being.

As Arthur was thinking, the Western Frontier Army in front of the main gate of Harrenhal finally stopped throwing stones.Then, two or three thousand civilians with only weapons took the lead, and thousands of people rushed over together with ten extended ladders that were pushed.

At the same time, the heavy siege engine also slowly started.

After the Western Territory Army rushed within range, some of the new soldiers on the city wall also began to bend their bows and shoot arrows.

It's just that there are not many bows and arrows, and the lion soldiers below all hold small round shields with one hand, basically they can't kill anyone.

Those who were shot were instead the coerced civilians.

"Stop shooting arrows, save some for Angai." Arthur ordered.

An Gai was slightly injured during the robbery of the camp. He has been recuperating for the past few days and did not participate in the battle.

The Western Territory Army rushed under the city wall, began to adjust the height of the ladder, and put the ladder head on the crenel.

Then, with the coerced Hejian civilians in the front and the lion soldiers behind, thousands of people climbed the ladder one by one, and the hard attack on Harrenhal began.

"The first person to rush to the city wall will be rewarded with a thousand golden dragons, and the person who kills Arthur Bracken will be rewarded with [-] golden dragons." The Lion Family officer who supervised the battle shouted.

Arthur, who moved a stone projectile, walked to the head of a ladder and threw it down the ladder.

"Surrender without killing." This was his reply to everyone who was still climbing the ladder.

(End of this chapter)