The Glory of the Seven Gods of Ice and Fire

Chapter 128 The End of the Madman (End of this volume)
Pyke is a castle located on the island of the same name and one of the eight islands of the Iron Islands. It is the castle of the Greyjoy family, known as the Marauder King. Since the War of Conquest, it has been It has always been their home city.

Pike City is an ancient fortress. It was originally built on a cliff protruding from the sea. However, as the rocks supporting the cliff continued to erode, Pike City's towers were gradually isolated on fragile and crumbling rocks. Above, the rocks are surrounded by salty water all year round.

The towers of this castle are connected by swaying ropes and bridges that are swaying at any time. The towers, walls, bridges and hanging walls of the castle are made of the same gray and black stone as the island.

As the center of power in the Iron Islands, Pike City has experienced various events in the past few hundred years, and there have always been many wars. If you look carefully, you can still find ancient corpses under the castle. with shipwrecks.

Now, Pike City is in another round of war. This time the attackers are the army coming from the green land that the ironmen despise.

Balon Greyjoy was prepared for a bloody battle when he plundered the Seven Kingdoms, but he never expected that the people of Westeros would act so quickly and that the Ironborn would fail so badly on the continent. tragic.

Before the return of the Westeros army, due to the great achievements of his eldest son Rodrik Greyjoy in the Riverlands, Balon once had the idea of ​​rebuilding the River Kingdom and recreating the most glorious era of the Ironborn. However, he Before they could even begin to move, Robert arrived.

Robert asked the river lords to protect their territories and spread out his troops to squeeze the ironborn's space. This strategy was very effective, and the ironborn's plundering behavior was almost immediately restrained.

Noticing this situation, the young and energetic Ironborn commander showed no fear. He clamored to challenge Robert. Rodrik's command gathered most of the Ironborn's elite land forces. This was his confidence, but Even so, they still did not pass a single round in front of Robert. Near the Bent Knee Pillar, the Ironborn were defeated in front of the Westeros knights. The essence of the Iron Islands was ruthlessly slaughtered in the green land. Even Balon's eldest son, Rodrik Greyjoy, who was in charge of the river direction, had his head smashed by Robert's war hammer.

Although the ironborn always like to boast about their bravery and have extremely strong contempt for the people in the green land, at this time, they still run very fast.

Balon didn't care much about the defeat on land. As long as the king of the Green Land didn't have a fleet, they couldn't come to the Iron Islands. Even if the king's fleet came, he was confident that he would lead the iron people to defeat the enemy.

The Drowned God is a god as harsh and cruel as the Ironborn. It is the spiritual foundation of the Ironborn's plundering ways. The Drowned God requires his people to strictly follow the ancient ways. In the legend of the Iron Islands, the Drowned God created the Ironborn to rape and plunder, to create a new world with blood, fire and song, and to carve their names with it. The Drowned God was believed to have brought fire from the sea and sailed the world with fire and sword.

After learning about the Westeros fleet heading north, Balon immediately ordered his most warlike brother, Victarion Greyjoy, to lead the Iron Islands fleet south to show these continents what a navy is.

As Robert wiped out one Ironborn stronghold after another and expelled the Ironborn forces from the mainland, Westeros's great fleet also moved north from the south. They first swept the Shield Islands and wiped out this area that was important to the Reach. The archipelago of extremely strong strategic significance was captured, and then moved further north.

Although a large number of castles were lost, Balon still did not panic. So what if Robert pulled out the stronghold? He still doesn't have a fleet, he still can't cross the sea, and the Iron Islands' fleet is enough to protect their safety. The weak ones in the Green Land will surely be defeated at the hands of the Ironborn.

In order to enhance the Iron Islands' war confidence, Balon held a grand ceremony to worship the Drowned God. Due to the large amount of loot and captives in his hands, Balon held an unprecedented grand sacrifice. This sacrifice was so grand. , so that war confidence throughout the Iron Islands soared.

However, although Balon originally intended to consume the people of Westeros, he was still shocked when the news from the mainland came. The reason was that the strongholds on the mainland fell too quickly, and Robert took the The various siege equipment obtained by the East were able to quickly defeat the castles of the Ironborn that were expected to last for half a year or even longer.

These longships belonged to the lords of the Iron Islands who were close to the mainland. They were unwilling to die with their stupid relatives, so they directly betrayed the Iron Islands. As soon as the war started, some people defected, which undoubtedly caused a huge blow to the morale of the Ironborn, and Victar Before Leon could do anything to save it, Stannis's fleet moved.

Many scholars hope to end the Ironborn's enthusiasm for the Drowned God and their enthusiasm for the ancient paths, but they have not been able to come up with a convincing conclusion. Some people even entered the Iron Islands and went deep into the ocean to find out more, but most of them Parts are missing.

Next, Robert did not call the ships to cross the sea, but began to raid the mainland strongholds occupied by the Ironborn. This played into Balon's plan. The purpose of occupying these fortresses was to consume the people of Westeros and to let the people of Westeros suffer. They attacked.

It is also because of this that mainlanders have never understood the thinking of the followers of the Drowned God, just like they can't figure out why the Ironborn are so keen on the ancient roads, and why the crazy lord who calls himself the King of the Iron Islands dares to challenge the mainland.

Although they lost the land battle and were driven out of the river, the ironmen still brought back a large amount of trophies. Seeing these trophies obtained through blood money, Balon felt unprecedented satisfaction.

The Drowned God is a sea god. The Drowned God religion has a long history, which can be traced back to before the invasion of the Andals. Even though the Andals invaded the Iron Islands, they all abandoned the Seven Gods and began to believe in the Drowned God. This god is closely related to the "Old Way". Like a nightmare, it always lingers on the Iron Islands.

However, the turn of events proved that Balon's thoughts were just wishful thinking. The scale of the Westeros fleet was far greater than that of the Ironborn, and as soon as the war started, some of the longships directly defected to the Westeros side. .

After experiencing the super naval battle in the East, it is no exaggeration to say that Stannis is now the strongest naval commander in all of Westeros. After the test of that war, the cooperation and organization of the Westeros fleet have improved. It has also risen much higher than before.

Under the arrangement of the Duke of Dragonstone, the Continental Fleet was thrown into the Ironborn fleet like a big net. Seeing this, Victarion immediately lost his previous contempt. As an experienced naval admiral, he It was immediately obvious that it was not simple.

However, if he retreated, it would not be Victarion. He still led the Iron Islands fleet to meet him without hesitation. However, what Victarion did not expect was that he was prepared for a hearty boarding battle. He first experienced a wave of ballistae baptism. These ballistae were very accurate and powerful. For a while, many ships were hit with water leaks, and finally had to give up. After the battle entered Victarion's favorite side battle, the ironmen also looked like they had no idea where to start. The ironmen had no way to vent their suffocated breath before, because the sides of the mainland fleet were generally higher than theirs—— Stannis arranged the large battleships at the front - it was quite difficult for the ironmen to climb up, but this did not stop the ironmen's passion for war. It didn't matter how high the side of the ship was, just climb up.

When the head-on confrontation became more and more intense, under the command of Stannis, the Continental Fleet directly cut the Ironborn into several pieces. However, most of the Ironborn who blindly believed that they could defeat the garbage on the green land as long as they bravely charged did not pay attention. At this point, the really smart ones start running away after discovering this.

As a naval admiral, Victarion also noticed this. He had just led his men to capture a large ship with three hundred oars, but after noticing the situation, he could only give up the loot at his feet and rush out of this place. A battlefield where nothing can be done.

Most of the Iron Islands fleet was destroyed in this battle, and from this moment on, control of the sea now fell into the hands of the mainlanders.

Next, under the leadership of the rebel lords of the Iron Islands, the mainlanders raided the islands of the Iron Islands. The fortresses of the Iron Islands were broken one after another, and the looted wealth was removed and returned to their original owners. The lords of the Iron Islands also fought hard They resisted, but were defeated without any suspense.

Pike City was also besieged, and the Iron Throne's navy and land forces blocked the place. Robert did not immediately launch a siege on the castle, but sent an envoy to persuade him to surrender. However, Balon responded by throwing the envoy's head out.

This undoubtedly further angered Robert, and then the siege of Pyke City began in an all-round way. The warships at sea threw countless stones at Pyke City, and on land, the giant beast that once broke through the outer city wall of Volantis—— The city breaker appears.

Under such a high-intensity attack, the towers of Pyke City collapsed one after another, and the defending ironmen suffered heavy losses. Greyjoy's family fortress, which he relied on, quickly began to fall into ruins under Robert's wrath. .

The first wave of people to rush into Pike City was Euron Greyjoy and his outlaws. Balon's stupid thing put Euron into an extremely embarrassing situation. Now, Euron must show his strength to the Iron Throne. Loyalty - at the same time, it also helps the king to do things that are difficult for him to do.

Euron worked very hard, directly fighting his way through the remaining ironmen, and hacked to death his nephew Maron Greyjoy. Then Balon led his guards to meet Euron, and the two groups There was a fierce battle on the rickety wooden bridge in Pike City. From time to time, people fell down to feed the crabs. In the end, Balon was still inferior to his brothers and was thrown off the drawbridge by Euron.

After Balon fell, the remaining defenders surrendered. The battle had reached this level, and even the Ironborn were unwilling to continue fighting. However, Balon and the ancient madmen around him desperately wanted to fight.

Euron originally wanted to kill all his eldest brother's sons, but the appearance of Eddard Stark forced him to stop his actions. Then Balon's wife took his only surviving son Theon Greyjoy and his daughter Asha Greyjoy surrenders to the king.

Robert didn't do anything to the mother and son. His anger was mainly directed at the idiot Balon. Therefore, on the ruins of Pike City, Robert appointed the new Duke Greyjoy - an episode also occurred during this period. , although Balon was thrown off the bridge, he did not die immediately. He was picked up by someone - but he was not far from death.

Robert had this guy brought up, and then cut off his head himself, and then the new Duke Greyjoy was crowned.

In the open-air royal court, Theon Greyjoy sat on a throne stained with blood. Facing the armored and armed King Robert and the great nobles, he completed his succession ceremony in front of the crowd and torches. .

After making a child a duke, Robert gave custody of the child to Eddard Stark, which aroused the jealousy of many people. You know, this is equivalent to handing over the Iron Islands to Eddard Stark. Tucker.

When the king was handing over, many people were watching Euron to see how he would react, but the pirate leader who became a kinslayer was very calm. He did not get angry or clamor for the rule of the Iron Islands. This Many people who wanted to watch the excitement were disappointed.

As for Balon's daughter, she was left in the Iron Islands and raised by loyal servants of the Greyjoy family. The king did not pay too much attention to the girl. She was just a woman and could not cause any trouble.

Next, Robert made some adjustments to the Iron Islands, the most important of which was that the rebel lords of the Iron Islands were moved out of the islands by Robert. After making the defection, they could not stay in the Iron Islands. Go down - but these people don't intend to stay in this broken archipelago. If they could leave, they would have left long ago, and the opportunity is right in front of them.

They will gain new land in the east. As these lords leave, there are many people who do not like the Iron Islands and are plundered to the Iron Islands as slave labor. The population pressure on the Iron Islands will also ease, enough to allow these The bastards settled down for a while - and except for the defectors, the lords of the Iron Islands generally suffered heavy losses in this battle. A large number of longships were burned and their essences were also heavily lost.

After all this was done, Robert left the Iron Islands and disbanded the army that had accompanied him on his campaign, and then Robert returned to King's Landing.

Robert's current thinking is very simple. No further fighting is allowed in all aspects at present. Many nobles and knights gained nothing from the three-year siege of Volantis, and even owed a lot of foreign debts. Even if they obtained the spoils, they were still feeling war-weary. Very high too.

In this case, he should stop and enjoy himself, and let the war wait for a while.

(End of this chapter)