The Glory of the Seven Gods of Ice and Fire

Chapter 203 The secret of the year

"So, the fight is over?"

Tyrion tried hard to suppress his emotions. He felt like a joke when he thought about the hardships he had endured along the way but failed to make it to the final battle.

In the distance, the flag of the Lion and the Rose was fluttering in the wind. The battlefield was littered with corpses, and the flags of the losers were trampled into the mud like garbage. The corpse-grabbers were active on the battlefield, looking for valuables, and behind them were the military servants, who were responsible for carrying the corpses, which had been stripped of all valuables, onto the carriages.

Crows hopped around on the battlefield, looking for corpses to eat. From time to time, groups of crows were startled by human actions and followed the ancient principles of war: after a war, humans eat steel and crows eat flesh and blood.

This scene undoubtedly shows that the battle has been over for some time, which makes Tyrion's veins bulge.

The messenger who came to report the news did not notice the change in the devil's mood. He continued to explain Tywin's victory passionately:
"Yes, Lord Tywin took the initiative to launch a surprise attack on Stannis' army, catching him off guard. Although Stannis quickly reorganized his front and fought with Lord Tywin, at this moment, the knights of the Reach came from behind Stannis and completely destroyed his army. Although even so, it cost a great price, but the results of the battle were rich. Even those pagans who believed in fire were defeated, and now his people have fled into the rain forest."

Upon hearing this, the mountain clans around Tyrion let out a cry of disappointment. They were in such a hurry to go south for the great war that half of the people were talking about, but after spending so much energy and running until their legs were about to break, they ended up with this?

Riverbend, when did father form an alliance with Tyrell? Tyrion was indeed surprised, but on second thought, it was not strange. Lord Tywin was always good at turning the tables.

And then he thought more. If his father had been preparing for this raid for a long time, then his trip north to meet the Gaoshan clan might have been a trick his father used to divert people's attention.

He excluded me and told me nothing. After figuring out the whole thing, Tyrion felt like he was drinking a glass of bitter wine, with a bitter taste in his mouth.

Tyrion thought that after all his hard work and demonstrated abilities over this period of time, his father recognized him. However, his father still treated him as a brick to be moved wherever he was needed and told him nothing.

"grown ups?"

Seeing that Tyrion hadn't said anything, the messenger asked in confusion.

"Nothing. Go on. What else do I not know? How did my father make the alliance with the Reach? And what is Stannis doing now?"

Putting aside his emotions, Tyrion focused on the battle situation.

Although Stannis' attack on King's Landing was thwarted, this does not mean that Stannis is out of the game of thrones.

The Duke of Dragonstone still has the first royal fleet in Westeros, and the Stormlands and Tyrosh are also under his rule.

What's more, since his defeated soldiers fled into the Kingswood, it means that most of them will survive in the end. All Stannis needs to do is to gather the army again and continue to fight.

And maybe he could even convince Dorne. Tyrion has thought a lot. Since the outbreak of the civil war, Dorne has maintained a neutral attitude. Prince Doran has been ambiguous and vague about all requests to participate in the war. The biggest statement to the outside world is that Dorne will focus on the East.

Everyone knows that it is just an excuse. Now with the Westerlands and the River Reach Alliance, both of them can be said to be Dorne's enemies. Nothing is more suitable for Dorne to make trouble.

"Lord Tyrion, from what I have heard, Lord Tywin has announced that the King will accept the Tyrell daughter, and Stannis, I heard, is retreating to Storm's End."

The messenger could see that Tyrion was in a bad mood, so he spoke carefully.

As expected, this was the only possible marriage, and Stannis was not surprised. However, Tyrion noticed that the messenger seemed to be hesitant to speak.

"Anything else?"

For some reason, the messenger's appearance gave Tyrion a bad feeling.

"Lord Jaime has been captured."

This piece of information almost made Tyrion jump up. "Jaime was captured? What happened? How is he now? Tell me clearly!"

Tyrion's voice was so loud that even he felt something was wrong. The envoy on the other side naturally felt the same way, but his quality was still in place. After a slight hesitation, he continued Tyrion's words, "In the final stage of the battle, Lord Jaime led a team of knights to pursue Stannis's fleeing soldiers, but they ran into Stannis's elite troops, and Lord Jaime was captured."

James, you idiot, I've told you so many times not to lead the troops in pursuit yourself. He said it, and his father said it too, but this guy turned a deaf ear to it.

The messenger's words were not over yet. "We discovered this after the battle. Lord Tywin wanted to rescue Lord Jaime, but because his troops could no longer fight, he had to give up in the end. However, Lord Tywin executed Lord Jaime's followers who escaped back."

Of course his father was angry, but Tyrion was not surprised. Jaime was the heir chosen by him, the perfect successor to the throne of the Duke of the West. And now this heir fell into the hands of Stannis. That was Stannis!
If it was anyone else, it would be possible to talk, but since it was the famously harsh Stannis, this would be very difficult... Stannis would definitely settle accounts with Jaime for what he had done...

And those idiots in Hewan had such a hard time attacking from behind...

No, I can't do this, I can't complain here, Tyrion suddenly encouraged himself, there is still a chance now, didn't that person say that the troops didn't chase to rescue Jaime because they couldn't fight anymore? Does this mean that Jaime is not far from the battlefield?
The battle had just ended a few hours ago. If he rode his horse as fast as he could, he could rescue James in time.

"So, do you know where James is being held now?"

Tyrion spoke with such eagerness that it startled the messenger, but he managed to pronounce the name. "It is the Chokehold in the Kingswood. Many of Stannis's forces are gathered there."

"Okay, that's great, you can go."

The messenger was a little confused, but he left quickly because he had a feeling that he had better leave quickly.

After the messenger left according to Tyrion's orders, the little devil looked at the mountain clans present. Those who once followed Tyrion were now eager to try, while the newcomers looked at the half-men in confusion.

"Warriors from the Moonlight Mountains." The little devil attracted everyone's attention. "I know you feel bad for not being able to catch up with the war, but now, here is a chance for you to have a good fight. Are you willing?"

"Of course I do."

Immediately a voice was heard. It was from Shaga. Tyrion liked this big guy very much. He always made a comedic appearance at the right time.

"In that case, let's go to the Royal Forest. I want to save my brother. As for you, let the Andals outside the valley see your bravery!"

"Long live the half-man."

It was Shaga who responded first, and the others followed suit. Enjoying the cheers of the crowd, Tyrion felt very good. The task that seemed a little difficult did not seem to be a problem at all.

.

Among the many fortresses in Westeros, Chokehold is a very young one. It was built in the Kingswood just to suppress the once active bandit organization, the Kingswood Brotherhood.

After the suppression of the Kingswood Brotherhood, a series of strongholds built to suppress the Kingswood Brotherhood were abandoned and occupied by the forest again, becoming ruins that no one cared about in the forest. Only a few strongholds became places for hunters to stay. However, the Chokehold was designated by the Iron Throne at the time as a place for the royal family to stay when they went to the Kingswood hunting, so it was preserved.

During the reign of Robert the Conqueror, the hunting-loving king often stopped at Cholangio, so Cholangio was further expanded and the wooden castle became even larger.

After the Western Civil War began, Chokehold quickly fell into the hands of Stannis. It was close to King's Landing and was very suitable as a supply base and military depot. Due to its location near King's Landing, it was further expanded.

Now, with Stannis's defeat, the Chokehold attracted many defeated soldiers from the front lines. Stormlanders, Tyroshi, and R'hllor followers gathered here. They fought a fierce battle, but still lost.

But those who were willing to fight again were still trying to organize their troops. It was a pity that they had just experienced a tragic defeat, and it was still difficult to restore their morale. Their morale was as weak as the flags hanging weakly on the flagpoles.

It was also at this moment that the arrival of a prisoner changed the situation. This prisoner was Jaime Lannister, the son of Lord Tywin.

This Lannister rushed in too fast, thinking that no one in the collapsed army would resist, but he ran into a group of brave and resourceful Tyrosh mercenaries, who suddenly launched a counterattack and dispersed the Westermen and Rivermen around Jaime. After trying hard to resist, Ser Jaime was pulled off his horse with a lance, then knocked unconscious and taken away.

The Tyroshi mercenaries brought Tywin's son to the Chokehold, which boosted the morale of the remnants of the defeated soldiers in the castle. In order to boost morale, the highest officer in the Chokehold spread the news - at the same time, he also hoped that His Majesty the King would quickly send someone to take over this difficult prisoner. Conflicts arose between different forces in the Chokehold in a fight for the ownership of this achievement.

But what they didn't know was that this also brought a disaster to the defeated soldiers who escaped from the killing field.

"Go in! For half a man!"

Shaga brandished two axes, jumped over the corpses whose heads were blown off by javelins, and rushed into a group of Storm Spearmen relying on his thick armor. Then the spear shafts broke, the shields shattered, and blood splattered everywhere.

The Alpine clans rushed in right after this fierce man, and the raider leaders of other Alpine clans were not to be outdone and followed closely with their subordinates.

Stannis's army gathered at the Chokehold had never expected this group of people to appear. In their opinion, even if Lannister and Tyrell wanted to attack, they would prepare their troops first. Given the intensity of the battle, it was impossible for them to prepare an army so quickly.

Moreover, the direction of these people's attack was something the defenders had not expected. They came from the direction where the forest was the densest - for the mountain clan, crossing the dense forest was not a problem at all.

The defenders wanted to close the city gate, but found that the chain was stuck for some reason and could not be restored - this was naturally the work of the saboteurs sent by Tyrion in advance.

The gate that could not be closed determined the final outcome of the battle at that moment, and as the mountain clans poured into the castle in droves, the outcome of the battle was decided.

"Ah, this is really... full of characteristics."

After the battle, Tyrion walked through the messy corpses on the battlefield and subconsciously pinched his nose. It was a really uncomfortable sight.

He subconsciously wanted to say barbarian, but the little devil controlled his mouth. He couldn't say such words which would only cause trouble.

"Where is my brother?"

Tyrion walked past a corpse that looked extremely miserable and asked loudly, but he knew it was useless to ask, because the people of the Mountain Clan had no idea about this. Most of them would not even spare anyone alive if he asked.

So, Tyrion went straight to the castle dungeon. Thanks to Robert, he had been there before and knew what was going on there.

Tyrion entered the dungeon with familiarity and saw the prisoners who had been transformed into various strange shapes as expected. However, by the grace of the Seven Gods, the prisoners in the prison were fortunately fine.

Many people here were captured in the previous battle, so when they saw the little devil, they hurriedly shouted to Tyrion to open the prison door and let them out, but the little devil had no time to pay attention to them now.

Finally, he saw James, but the problem was, he saw the scene he least wanted to see.

The dying Jaime looked at the dagger on his chest, then looked at Tyrion, "Seven Gods, Tyrion, it seems that they really favor me. I didn't expect to let me see you at the last moment. It seems that even a morally corrupt person like me can enjoy the blessing of the one, two, seven gods. This really makes me speechless..."

Jaime's words were still as cynical as before, but there was a seriousness in his tone that Tyrion had never heard before. It made him realize the seriousness of the current situation. Jaime was definitely not joking with him!

"Jaime, damn it, stop talking, I'll get the maester right away!"

When Tyrion saw Jaime lying in a pool of blood, he felt the blood rushing to his forehead, but Jaime just shook his head.

"...Tyrion, those guys, the guys from Tyrosh, are really a group of cunning and greedy bastards. Since they captured me, they have been arguing over Stannis's reward and even fighting each other - until you brought these mountain friends here. Even in such a dark and deep dungeon, I can hear the shouts of your guards."

At this point, James coughed up some blood.

"Of course, the islanders heard your shouts, and all of a sudden, the quarrel turned into panic. Some people rushed to escape, and some wanted to take me with them, but unfortunately they couldn't find any horses or mules. If they took me, they would have to leave a few people behind. If they didn't take me, the reward would fly away again... Guess what? There was a little brat among the islanders. He looked at his panicked comrades, then looked at me, and directly took out a dagger and stabbed it into my chest. This kid is very vicious. Just this one knife made me feel that I was going to die.

...He said to his companions, since they can't take me away now, they can't leave me here for you to rescue. According to the crimes and rumors about me, even if I am escorted to the king, I will only be executed, so I might as well execute justice for Stannis here...After that, he cut off my right hand and prepared to take it to Stannis for verification. "

Following his brother's gaze, Tyrion looked at Jaime's right arm. The hand was originally empty, but a sharp knife cut it in half at the wrist, cleanly and neatly.

"I was prepared for this fate, but unfortunately, the current situation is much more embarrassing than I thought. I originally thought that I would die on the battlefield, or in a fierce battle to defend the royal family, like my predecessors. I didn't expect that I would die in this dark and damp dungeon, like a prisoner awaiting trial..."

"Tyrion, you have to learn to accept reality. I have fought for so long. I have seen the noblest fighters and also fought against the most despicable thugs. Only a person knows his own condition best. I know that I am hopeless. Just like that damn fate, sometimes you will not become the person you dream of becoming, but instead go to the opposite of him. Sometimes you make a decision that you think is right, but it turns out to be totally wrong. Fortunately, I made the right choice once. Although the world will never recognize my behavior, I have a clear conscience about it. Even when I meet the heroes I admire a hundred years later, I can assure them that I made the right choice based on responsibility and character..."

The young lion was getting weaker and weaker. Tyrion called out the names of the mountain guards, ordering them to quickly find something to carry his brother out. Every second he stayed here, his dearest brother was one step closer to the Stranger.

"Forget it, Tyrion, don't do anything in vain. I am only grateful to the Seven Gods for arranging you to come to me at this moment. Now, I will only feel ashamed of two things."

"...The first thing is that I was too impulsive to go to Eddard, so I had to leave King's Landing. If I was still in the capital when Robert died, the situation would definitely not have become so bad. Only I could stop Cersei from doing those crazy things and prevent the kingdom from being broken to this extent... As a Kingsguard, I neither protected the king well nor assisted the kingdom well."

"Stop talking about this, we'll talk about this later." said the little devil. He didn't care about these things now, he only cared about whether James could survive.

"The second thing... the second thing is that I must tell you something, the truth about this matter. I once ignored its occurrence, and even if I could make amends, it cannot be undone. If I don't tell you the whole truth now, I'm afraid I won't be able to rest in peace even if I die, because this is a sin that I should atone for, and I'm sorry to my dearest brother..."

The mountain clans walked over to James and prepared to carry him outside.

But then Jaime said a word that stunned Tyrion.

Because the word is "Tessa".

(End of this chapter)