Game of Thrones: Royal Game

Chapter 273 The End of Long Summer
Ian first regained control of the sparrow that was following the 'Ass Shaking General' Grazdo zo Ark, and then liberated the sparrow that had followed the visiting Grazdan to his camp.

Then he went to his cage, picked out a peregrine falcon and a golden eagle, transformed them and sent them to the sky.

Different from the two sparrows who were temporary workers used to track before, the birds raised by Ian here are all raptors collected by Ian at a high price, and they are his chosen animal partners for the skinchanger.

Even in the busiest of times, Ian finds time to develop relationships with these partners.

But sometimes Ian found that as the number of changes to these sky overlords increased, he seemed to inevitably become arrogant, so that sometimes he even ignored some things because of his arrogance.

It is precisely to avoid making mistakes, while consciously avoiding his arrogance, Ian also chose to "start from the worst possibility and not let go of every possibility". Significantly more time-consuming and labor-intensive method.

But judging from the results, it seems that his energy for this was not in vain.

After completing the transformation, Ian put the golden eagle over the camp. He needs to re-evaluate the terrain here from a global perspective, so as to prepare for the upcoming war in advance.

On the other hand, Peregrine took Ian to Queen Daenerys, Captain Dorian of the Guards, Earl Daeron Grafson who might be suspected of being a player, and Bobby who had won a fief near Astapor and was currently idle. Earl Long's letter flew to Astapor. Ian was not sure if the other party had any conspiracy in Astapor.

Although Ian had already made a complete deployment for the order and defense of Astapor before leaving, it would never be wrong to remind him one more time at this moment.

After completing these preparations, the falcon that Ian used to fly to Meereen has also arrived at the port of Meereen. The first thing that caught Ian's attention here was the densely packed ships in the port.

These ships come from all over the world, but Ian can roughly tell from the flag that most of them are slave ships from Volantis, the Three Sisters city-states (Mir, Lys, Tyrosh) and Qarth.

Since the news spread that the horse king marched to the slave bay and that the four cities of Guise formed an alliance to fight against the horse king, almost all the slave traders who got the news came to the slave bay by boat immediately.

Because for them, whether it is the defeat of the Guise Alliance or the defeat of the King of Horses, they can buy a large number of cheap slaves from the winners to fill their ships.These speculators are mainly concentrated in Meereen, because it is closer to the possible decisive battle.

If some of the ships here are requisitioned, it will not be a problem to transport all the more than 2 people gathered in Meereen to Yunkai at one time.

But after flying over the port and coming to the sky above the city, Ian discovered it unexpectedly.There are indeed a large number of troops stationed in and around Meereen, but they don't seem to have any signs of going out.

Guess wrong again?
Impossible, Ian immediately rejected this idea.

At that time, when General Shaker met the Generalissimo, there was an episode, that is, in order to cover up his private sale of Yunkai's grain storage, he made up a story about humiliating the Generalissimo of Yunkai and his family.

Ian remembered very clearly that the Grand Marshal's expression was very angry at that time, obviously he believed the words of General Shaking Butt, but the Grand Marshal stopped his subordinates from continuing to discuss that matter, and ended the meeting hastily .

Did he decide to forbear it because he was unwilling to conflict with his allies in order to protect the overall situation of the Guise Alliance?
This possibility sounds ridiculous for a slave owner like Grand Admiral Yunkai who lives in the dream of the old empire.

Ian is more willing to believe that at that time, Grand Admiral Yunkai had already decided that 'Ian, that bastard won't be around for long', so he chose to be patient for the time being.

This is also the key reason for Ian to suspect that the other party will use a large-scale military operation to completely solve his troubles.

But there really isn't any sign of an imminent attack here.
Are they waiting for something?

Yes, the double trap set by the Volantis merchant and the Yunkaiian Grand Marshal tried to keep me in Yunkai for five days, while Meereen's army only needed two days from departure to Yunkai. If they were waiting If anything, it made sense that they weren't in a hurry to set off.

What are they waiting for?

Another puzzling point is, why did they choose to attack me at Yunkai?

Ian switched to the golden eagle's vision above Yunkai.

There is no problem with the deployment of my own barracks, and several nearby highlands have sentry posts. Whether the opponent chooses to land at Yunkai's port or anywhere on the north shore, even if I don't use the ability of the skinchanger to scout the sky, The enemy will also be discovered before approaching his own army, and there is absolutely no possibility of a surprise attack.

There are several small rivers and streams running through here, and they can't cut off our water—poisoning is impossible, well water can be poisoned, but running water can't, even if the player wants to Forcibly poisoning, he can't get so much poison out in this era.

At the same time, the location of the camp is not located in the lower reaches of any major rivers, and it is also far away from dangerous large forests, so neither water attack nor fire attack can be realized.
If it's just a frontal confrontation, wouldn't it be better for them to launch an attack as soon as we arrive in Meereen?Wouldn't that be more sudden than sending troops all the way from Meereen?
After leaving the tent where the birdcage was placed, Ian returned to the tent of the Chinese Army, where Grazdan Mo Eraz had been waiting for a long time.

"Earl Darry," Grazdan saw Ian coming in, quickly put down the wine glass in his hand, and stood up.

"Please sit down, my friend, you don't have to be so restrained with me." Ian made a gesture of invitation, and then sat down on his own.

Although Ian couldn't hear the conversation between Grazdan and Yazan because he couldn't find the entrance to the bathroom in the pyramid of Yazan, the richest man in Yunkai, but since Grazdan rushed to Yazan immediately after meeting Yazan Come see for yourself.

Ian believes that it is unlikely that Grazdan and Yazan participated in the conspiracy between the Generalissimo and the mysterious player. Of course, the possibility that he is acting cannot be ruled out.

"By the way, you came to me now to talk about something related to helping you gain military exploits, right?" Ian pretended not to know anything, and continued the topic at the beginning, "After you left, I talked to some insiders. After talking, I realized that the relationship between you and Grand Marshal Yunkai is not so harmonious.

But it doesn't matter, I have a preliminary idea here, we can set up a mercenary at your expense, the number does not need to be too large, and then you command this mercenary to directly join my army and cooperate with our actions, and finally I will Let the clerk exaggerate your credit. "

"No, Lord Earl," Grazdan finally stopped hesitating when he heard this, and interrupted Ian, "I'm afraid there will be no alliance and coalition forces."

"What do you mean?" Ian asked in 'doubt'.

"Didn't you suspect the purpose of our inviting you to the city before? My purpose is"

"I think I should already know your purpose."

"Oh," Grazdan nodded, "That's right, but you must have never imagined that Grazdo zo Ark should have followed the instructions of the Grand Marshal, and their purpose was to murder you at Lord Yazan's banquet .”

"Do you know what you're talking about?" Ian pretended to be surprised. "This is a very terrible accusation."

"I know that if I say such words at this time, you may think that my motives are impure, but..." Graz paused, as if he didn't know how to explain.

"You can talk about it in detail, and I will judge the situation myself." Ian is not in the leisurely mood of playing games with Grazdan. His biggest problem now is that he cannot confirm Grazdan or Yazanda behind him. Which side is the sage on?

"The first thing that made me suspicious was the attitude of the Generalissimo and the others on the location of the decisive battle with the King of Horses." Grazdan said, "When your plan was first reported to Yunkai, we had a very heated discussion. "

Ian knew that Grazdan was talking about his plan to fight Drogo before Meereen or in the valley of Skahazaban that he had proposed at the war council in Astapor.

This plan was deliberately leaked by Ian, with the purpose of arousing the dissatisfaction of the nobles of Meereen, so as to use Kou Lu, an NPC who was transformed by him, to create conflicts in Meereen.

It's a pity that when I killed Euron, I was suddenly attacked by unknown black slime, forcing myself to give up the link with Koulu, and Ian, the shape-changing black dragon, wiped out the black slime. The bankruptcy of Lin's plan.

"For a long time until you arrived in Yunkai, the Generalissimo insisted on their own opinions," Grazdan continued seeing that Ian did not respond,
"Even the Generalissimo himself has put forward a more extreme point of view. He believes that he or the Holy Lord of Meereen should be the supreme commander of the coalition forces, not a brat." Grazdan looked nervously after saying this word. After glancing at Ian and seeing that the latter didn't respond, he continued, "But everything changed after Paozz zo Pale visited Yunkai."

"Paoz zo Parr?" Ian had never heard of the man.

"He is the son of Grazdan zo Pal, the great general of Meereen, and his elder brother is Oznak zo Pal, the famous champion of Meereen." I have the same name, but there is no embarrassment when he speaks, after all, this name is too common among Guise nobles.

"Oh." Ian nodded. Although Ian hadn't heard of that Acropolis General, Ian had an impression of the champion warrior of Meereen.

In the original book, when Daenerys attacked Meereen, Meereen sent this guy out of the city to single out, because Daenerys hesitated when choosing an agent, and this champion warrior was once in front of Daenerys' entire army. She pissed Jiji out of her face, mocking Daenerys's army as eunuchs.

Then he was given a second by the strong man Belwas - this scene in the TV series was transferred to the lover of Longma, the mercenary group Dario Naharis, which makes people feel that the most second point is that Dario After killing the champion warrior, Leo took out Jiji and pissed back at Meereen.

By the way, I almost forgot that Daario is in Yunkai City now, and fighting back makes people remember to kill him first.

After all, he stepped into Yunkai with his left foot first, and Ian hated people like that.

"It means that the Meereen military sent someone to vent to the Generalissimo?" Ian asked.

"Yes, since then, the Grand Marshal's attitude has changed. He no longer argues with those sages who support your plan, and even proposes to the sages council to hold a grand welcome banquet for you. But between me and When General Grazdo (shaking his ass) went to greet you together, Grazdo even said that the Grand Marshal had prepared a mansion in Yunkai City as a gift for you, all of which was quite different from his previous attitude."

"It sounds like Meereen first made a compromise and agreed to my battle plan?"

"However, this is absolutely impossible. If the Meereenans could bear the risk of letting the horse king pass through Lazar and enter the valley of the Skahazaban, they would not join your alliance at all."

Yes, that's why the Volantene player could easily convince Meereen to start opposing me. Ian felt helpless.

Had it not been for Euron's sudden visit, he would not have lost control of Meereen at all.

"Of course, I can't explain anything just here." Grazdan shook his head immediately, "The next thing is the second thing. When you just arrived, the camping site suggested by General Grazdo to you is near an already It only takes a single fire to engulf half your army in the dead of woods.

And forced the rest to flee to the west high slope, which is the direction of Yunkai's southeast gate. Yunkai's southeast wall is on a hill, and the cavalry cannot speed up in that direction, and The row of trebuchets that Yunkai has deployed on the wall can easily hurl boulders at you as well. "

oh?Ian recalled the terrain he saw from the air with the golden eagle just now, and after thinking about it, that was exactly what happened.

At that time, because Ian had already selected the camping site in advance, he rejected General Grazdo's suggestion without even looking at it, and did not carefully analyze the dangers of such a place that he would never go to.

So is that why the enemy chose Yunkai for the final battle?They think this shitty plan will work?Why do I look so stupid?

No, not the river. Why is it so much wider than on the map?And most of Yunkai's villages and farmland are on the east bank of the river. Ian Golden Eagle suddenly slowed down in front of a river about 4 leagues east of camp.

"Did you know there is a big river four leagues east from here?" Ian asked while controlling the golden eagle to change direction and fly north along the river.

"Big river?"

"No, it's not too big." Ian realized that his words were too exaggerated. "Most of the rivers should be between 150 and 250 meters wide, and the widest part is less than 400 meters."

"What kind of river is this?" Grazdan said speechlessly.

"I mean, compared to the mark on the map, it's a bit too big, isn't it?" Ian found the location of the river on the map, "It should not be much bigger than these small rivers near my camp .”

"This is a tributary of the Tanmakaha River," Grazdan explained. "Tanmakaha means 'milk' in the Gughish language. One way of saying is that it once raised the civilization of Yunkai, including the few small rivers that flow through your camp, and most of the rivers in this entire area are its tributaries.

As for the tributary you are pointing at now, due to its special topography, its channel width is determined by the seasons. At this time, its width has probably reached three times its usual width. "

Pull Nima's calf!Seasons can determine the flood and dry seasons of rivers whose main source is snow mountain water. It is good, but to widen the river so much, how much snow must be melted?
Wait, Ian was stunned and said, how do the seasons change in the world of ice and fire?

"This summer has lasted for eight years," Grazdan didn't notice Ian's inner activity. "After the long flood season, the main channel of the Tanmakaha River has become nearly three-thirds wider than usual. Two, and this tributary with special terrain has become what it is now.”

Oh!Ian couldn't help rubbing his forehead.

No wonder there are so many wastelands that no one wants in this world. Originally, Ian had been suspecting that these city-states of Essos were out of their minds?Surprisingly, there are so many vacant lands that are not reclaimed or declared.

Looking at it now, aren't those places suitable for survival?
For example, those rivers that are mainly supplemented by snow-capped mountains are barely acceptable if they encounter terrain like the Tanmakaha River, but if they encounter relatively flat places on both sides of the river, then every summer and the next few years, there will be floods. What will it look like?
And those rivers that are mainly replenished by rainwater are probably not much better. In the late summer, the inland rainfall must have plummeted, causing many rivers to dry up.

In short, the drought dies, and the flood dies.

The nine free trade city-states of Essos and the three cities of Slaver's Bay can basically be said to have unique conditions.

Similarly, although Westeros' castles are scattered across the country due to institutional reasons, leaving no unclaimed land, there are only five cities in their entire continent (Seagull Town and White Harbor are still a little bit more The taste is inside), which shows that there are indeed not many areas in Westeros suitable for feeding a large population.

"The east is high and the west is low," Ian suddenly mentioned the river not for academic discussions with Grazdan, he quickly raised the point, "Because the west side of the river is often prone to floods due to the flood season, Yunkai Most of the farmland is concentrated on the east bank of this tributary, isn't it?"

(End of this chapter)