The Glory of the Seven Gods of Ice and Fire

Chapter 54 The ravaged plains

Today is the fortieth day of the expedition to the Andas Valley, and Scalen Wolfman only feels irritable.

Now, he is leading his family's mercenaries to guard an ancient Andas fortress on Fengyue Land. The fortress has aged seriously due to the polishing of the years, and many parts of the fortress are dilapidated. However, it still stands strong on the ground, like a giant. An old man who is old but still strong.

The name of this fortress is unknown, but because of its deserted appearance, the locals called it Old Castle, and the northerners who took over the fort also continued to use this name.

Although the fortress is dilapidated, the northerners who took over the city are still very happy. They have been wandering around the Eastern Continent for a long time, but have never had a home of their own.

At first, Skaaren did not want to stay and garrison this fortress. His idea was to follow Hugo's army and build achievements on the land where the Seven Gods once walked. However, this was an order from Lord Hugo, and he could only comply.

Moreover, Hugo's promise of land also moved Scalon's heart. There are several well-developed large estates around Old Castle. Although the slaves here have been liberated, many people still stay and continue to farm, and the output is still not enough. Low.

For hundreds of years in the east, the Wolfman family has been looking for their land, but unfortunately, the big shots in the Free Trade City did not allow them to settle down, so the family's efforts never succeeded.

Now, this opportunity is in front of us. Although it cannot be compared with the safer place in the Andas Valley, it is also a fertile land. Ten birds in the forest are not as good as one in the hand. The land in the hand is the real thing. of.

As the northern mercenaries actually garrisoned the fortress and began to repair the place, Scalon began to realize that the days of garrison were really boring.

Except for being busy on the first day when setting up the plan, Scarron had nothing to do the rest of the time. This made him very unaccustomed. When he was a mercenary, his employers would always drive them to fight. Most of the time, Skarren was busy leading people to fight, and he had no free time at all.

However, life was boring, but it also gave Scarron time to think. This mercenary who grew up in the Eastern Continent with the blood of his ancestors began to think about the reason why he was sent here.

Scarron had a feeling that his being sent here might also involve the internal prejudice of the expeditionary force.

Although he believed in the Seven Gods, he also respected the old gods. In the eyes of those fanatical believers of the Seven Gods, he, a believer in the Heart Tree of the Seven Gods, was always so dazzling and disgusting to them.

Thinking of this, Skallen remembered that in the expeditionary force to Andas, it seemed that all those who did not believe in the Seven Gods were kicked out.

This incident made Skarlen couldn't help but think, should he completely give up his respect for the old gods? If the future expedition is successful - he has never doubted this - he will have to operate in an environment with a strong atmosphere of the Seven Gods. A full conversion to the Seven Gods will undoubtedly bring many benefits.

For his family and individuals, if they want to gain a higher status, they must fully respect the Seven Gods. Whether they are nobles sent by the Iron Throne's order, local Andals, or the expeditionary force loyal to Hugo, they all He is a solid believer in the Seven Gods. In the East, it is impossible for northerners who believe in the old gods to have a position in the upper echelons.

However, Skalun also had many packages. He remembered that his ancestors never gave up on the old gods in such difficult circumstances. If he completely gave up obedience and worship to the old gods, what would his ancestors think of him? How would the tribesmen view him?

In this way, Skallen spent a long time in tangle, but a sudden incident broke Skallen's thoughts and made him busy.

"Lord Scarron." The northerner wearing a fur cloak opened the door of the old castle hall and walked in, "Sir William Stone wants to see you."

The hall of the old castle was in disrepair for a long time. When Scallon arrived, it was still leaking, and the air was filled with a musty smell. Scallon spent a lot of time cleaning the dust and plugging the leaks, so that the hall could be somewhat restored. What the Lord's Hall looks like.

"William Stone? What is this man from the valley doing here?" Scullen asked, sitting on the oak bench. "Then let him in."

William Shidong, a knight who was placed near Skallen, also owned a wealthy land. Skallen heard that this man was once the deputy of the Knights of the Blood Gate, but after the expeditionary force was attacked through the Blood Gate, He left the Blood Gate and joined the expeditionary force.

Although he received Scarron's order, the man did not leave immediately. On the contrary, his face showed a look of embarrassment, and then he said what he had not finished yet, "Sir Scarlen, Sir William is still here." It brought a lot of refugees.”

These words made Scalun immediately jump out of his chair. He had seen William Shidong's garrison fortress. It was unlikely that the fortress could be easily broken. Since he fled to him with the refugees, it meant that something must have happened. .

The northern mercenaries walked out of the hall, passed through the armored soldiers, and quickly came to the city gate. Behind the iron fence, they saw Sir William Shidong riding his horse and stopping there. He was dressed decently, but Behind him were soldiers and civilians who were in embarrassment and even had blood on their bodies.

"Open the door." Scarron and William have a good relationship. As newly appointed lords, they have cooperated a lot. "Sir William, what's going on?"

"Thousands of Dothraki suddenly came to my fortress. They quickly charged at the fortress. The speed of those guys was so fast that I couldn't even close the city gate. They rushed in. I could only Retreat to the main fort and watch them burning, killing and looting outside. It wasn't until the barbarians retreated at night that I brought the survivors to join you. Don't worry, I'm not here for free. I brought all the food in the main fort. , and gathered the manpower and materials of several manors along the way."

Sir William spoke of that night with a look of misery on his face, and the mood of the soldiers and people who passed by him was even more gloomy.

"Dothraki? These bastards are here again. It seems that this time they are not just planning to plunder the horse land." When mentioning the centaurs, Skallen's tone became unkind. He had fought with them many times in the Eastern Continent. , and he only hates these barbarians.

He doesn't wear armor, is blindly arrogant, likes to slaughter and destroy civilization, and also likes to slaughter cattle and sheep without knowing the so-called reason. The reason given is "they don't deserve to eat grass", and then let the cattle and sheep rot there. Skarlan is the same as The more centaurs come into contact with them, the more disgusted they become.

His mercenary group had beaten up the centaurs several times, but these guys were still so blind and arrogant. Whenever they led the centaurs into their traps for massacre, Scallen would wonder why these wastes were so popular in the Eastern Continent. Ferocious.

Zongma Land is the land south of Windleap Land, and further south is the main body of the plains and the city of Pentos. This land has always been a land plundered by the Dothraki tribe, and there have never been fewer signs of horse people's activities.

"Sir William, you are absolutely safe here. The centaurs can't attack the fortress. These trashes have no siege ability at all. You should have seen this." Scarron reassured.

A smile also appeared on William's face, "Yeah, they couldn't attack the city. Before, these guys could only circle around my main fort and shoot arrows, and then they were shot to death by my archers in large numbers. If my fort wasn't too small, We can’t protect so many people and we won’t leave.”

The atmosphere finally became less gloomy, but at this moment, a sharp and desperate voice sounded, "Century! Centaur is coming!"

This sound immediately caused the team that had just entered the city in an orderly manner to panic. People rushed into the city one after another, just wanting to hide behind the safe city wall. Fortunately, almost everyone had entered at this time, so there was no trouble.

After the last carriage loaded with supplies entered the city gate, the gate slammed shut.

Scarron and William quickly climbed to the city gate, passed through the northern archers who were preparing, and stood at the lookout position. Then they saw smoke and dust rising in the distance.

Under the smoke and dust, there were groups of centaurs running towards the old castle - their shirtless features were too obvious.

"Okay, it's just the right time. Prepare to shoot and teach these barbarians a lesson!"

Scarron's men had a lot of experience in dealing with centaurs, and William called on his crossbowmen to rush to the city wall to shoot arrows and snipe the enemies.

The horsemen quickly arrived under the city wall. They did not attack the city wall blindly, but kept firing arrows at the city wall. However, most of them bounced off the severely weathered walls of Lao Rui Fort. The people who relied on the walls of Lao Rui Fort to shoot, Let the centaurs fall one by one.

After losing a lot of people, the centaurs immediately retreated as the leader shouted. Seeing this scene, Scalen couldn't help but cheered, "Run away with your tail between your legs! You damn fools!"

However, Scarron's smile froze as he thought of a very serious matter. The centaurs could not break the castle, but what about the manor near the castle? Although these manors were originally designed with the possibility of being attacked by centaurs in mind, so they were built like small fortresses, but they were just manors after all. The centaurs could still survive by relying on their numerical advantage and desperate tactics. Take the manor.

Realizing this, Scarron understood why William came to seek refuge with him. It must be because the manor had been burned a lot by the centaurs, and his fortress was too small, so he could only come to him to join him for warmth.

Scarron can now deeply understand how painful it is to have a village burned. In the past, he was a mercenary who burned it casually, but now he is the owner of these industries and he dares to burn it casually.

Just when Scalen was heartbroken over the inevitable loss, he suddenly heard a burst of exclamations and panicked shouts. He raised his head and saw something completely unexpected.

It was a large army, an army equipped with both foot and horse. Above their heads, flying the flag of Pentos, which was a ship composed of forty stars.

This means one thing. This is the army of Pentos, the slave owners, finally moving away from their wealthy cities.

.

Looking at the burned manor in front of him, Hugo began to judge the time when he was burned.

"Well... it must have happened a day ago. Looking at the horse hoof prints around, it was the work of the Dothraki."

The once wealthy manor was now dark, with charred human bones mixed with the buildings. Many charred skeletons reached out to the sky, as if seeking salvation, but only received flames. In these ruins, you can see people rummaging around for something from time to time. Most of these are survivors of the manor, and they want to find some useful things from the ruins of the manor.

No one cries, because there is no time to cry. The dead have passed away, and the living still have to work hard to survive. There is no time to cry.

Hu Ge stood up, dusted himself off, and looked at the cross at the entrance of the village. On it were the slaves who were crucified alive. Mosquitoes and flies were flying on the corpses.

"These damn centaurs, do they like killing and plundering so much?"

Looking at the atrocities around him, Jillian Lannister on the other side was also looking at these corpses and couldn't help complaining that he had seen such tragedies all the way and his dissatisfaction was already piling up.

Although there has always been a lot of killing and looting in the wars of Westeros, and Tywin, for example, likes to do such things, it is still rare to do such bloody things.

"They are carrying out the orders of the slave master." Tiget looked at the sign hanging on the corpse. It was in Valyrian, "'Bitch who betrayed the master.' This is to intimidate the slaves. The slave master's A common trick.”

"What? How do you know what that is?"

"This is Valyrian, Jillian. I know you've never studied seriously, but is it too much to say that you can't even recognize Valyrian?"

Hugo glanced at the Lannister brothers who were discussing on the side. The two brothers really bickered endlessly, but this also showed that the relationship between them was good.

Hugo walked towards the waiting followers, got on the horse, looked at his subordinates and officers, "They are just Dothraki, my comrades, don't worry, we still managed to get ahead of the Pentos, blocking These bastards."

Hu Ge was greeted with cheers, so hard-working forced march, so many casualties and stragglers left on the roadside, all these efforts were sweetly rewarded.

Just now, when everyone saw the scene of the manor being burned down, they couldn't help but worry, fearing that the Pentos people had passed away, but now Hugo's announcement has dispelled everyone's worries.

Although he was cheered by everyone, Hu Ge was not happy at all and was still very heavy.

Along the way, they saw many burned-down manors and castles. When he saw these, Hugo thought that the Pentos army had already passed by, but as he found the surviving castles, he learned that they were Dothraki. People can do it, and when the main force of Pentos did not appear, they couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.

This is very cold, but this is the strategy. Although these signs of looting and killing made Hugo very angry, they still cannot be compared with the importance of the ship barrier.

After learning the information from these castles that were still holding strong, Hugo gathered them together. Only those key fortresses continued to retain their defenders. By the way, they also accepted all the refugees encountered on the road. There would be a big war next. , he needs all the manpower at his disposal. As long as he defeats the Pantos people, he can get back everything he lost, but if he loses, everything will be lost.

The centaurs were like flies burning, killing and looting on the Windleap and Far Crossing lands. From the survivors, he learned that the centaurs had succeeded in creating a lot of fear, and many people abandoned their castles and fiefs and moved closer to the ship ramparts.

This is the strategy of the Pentos people. They use the killings of centaurs to drive the expeditionary forces from various places to the ship fortress, and at the same time create as much panic as possible and make the expeditionary forces chaotic.

From locals like Kelal, Hugo learned that this was the practice of the Pantos people to suppress slave uprisings. They would drive a large number of centaurs to rob, creating as much panic as possible, and then move in with large armies to suppress it.

The cost of driving the centaurs is so low that only one lobbyist is needed to persuade the Dothraki Kou or Khal to send troops.

However, the risk is also high. In many cases, even if you leave with a gift, you may be beheaded by an unhappy centaur, but it is worth more to persuade the centaurs to send troops than to lose one or two envoys.

Hugo's army defeated several centaurs war gangs on the road and crucified them, but unfortunately this could not deter the centaurs at all.

But now Hugo can't control them, he can only let them plunder, and the resistance of the centaurs is entrusted to the lords everywhere to fulfill their responsibilities, and all the strength must be used against the Pentos people.

Then Hugo swore in his heart that after defeating the Pentos people, he would beat these damn centaurs and let them know who they should not mess with.

"Everyone, keep moving forward. As long as we reach the high ground, we can block the Pentos people. There, we will be condescending and give these cheese sellers a fatal blow!"

Hugo responded with a chorus of shouts, and everyone was happy because they were finally going to block the Pentos people.

As for victory, no one doubted that they had God's favored ones here, and they had seen the slave owner's army in the river valley. How could such a vulnerable existence be their opponent.

The goal of Hugo's army was a high ground on the coast, which overlooked the road on the coast. As long as he stationed his army here, the Pentos could only stop and confront him.

In fact, the Pantos people did not choose to advance through the coast at the beginning. The road on the coast was just a dirt road and it was in disrepair. It was very inconvenient to walk here.

According to the information collected by Hugo, they originally planned to cross the Windleap Land and destroy all the strongholds along the way, but they were blocked by Frey's River Castle.

Hugo was in disbelief when he got this information. Those Freys blocked the Pentos army? What outrageous news is this? Shouldn’t those Freys run away immediately? Is this still the Frey in his impression?

Although Hu Ge felt it was outrageous, the facts were facts. As the lords who had been actively preparing for the war after taking the fortress, Frey's efforts were rewarded, and Bishop Lu Chen, who stayed on the ship's ramparts, was still there when the fortress was besieged. At one time, a large amount of resources and manpower were collected and entered the fort.

The Pentos army originally planned to take Hewen Castle quickly, but failed to defeat it after three days of continuous attacks. Seeing this, their commander decided to take another route and advance along the coast to the ship fortress.

If it weren't for the persistence of Hewen Fort, Hugo would definitely not be able to walk in front of the Pentos army. The moment he got the news, he wanted to kiss those weasels, but it was a pity that although the main force of the Pentos army changed paths , but they still left an army to continue the siege of River Castle. Only after winning the battle can the Freys be seen.

On the way, Hugo also learned the identity of the prince who led the Pentos army this time, Valerion Tirecidus, who came from the forty families of Pentos. Among the Pentos people who did not care about blood, he had the most Has strong Valyrian characteristics.

The prince is the supreme ruler of Pentos and rules for life until the prince dies and the next one is elected. However, in recent centuries, the power of the prince has gradually been surpassed by the governors, and today Pentos is actually ruled by the governors. The prince was still chosen from among the forty families and performed only ceremonial functions, presiding over meetings and festive banquets.

But this prince is very different. He became a prince through the power of the city through the anti-Braavos trend, rather than being selected by the governor. This makes him not like those puppets named princes, but rather Like the true monarch of Pentos.

He was the one who led this Andas conspiracy. If it weren't for Hu Ge's intrusion, his plan might have succeeded.

The number of the Pentos army under his command exceeded Hugo's expectations. The number of slaves and free men the prince pulled out from Pentos reached tens of thousands. Hugo never expected to abolish the army after the defeat. Pentos can pull out so many people, and Braavos will probably be very disturbed by this - but this has nothing to do with Hugo.

Next came the various mercenaries and the Dothraki tribe. Needless to say, the Golden Company was a mercenary group of ten thousand people. Together with other scattered mercenaries, the number was very considerable.

And there are centaurs. It seems that in order to prevent losing control, Pantos only attracted some centaurs from small and medium-sized tribes. Their total number reached 8,000 - this does not include those who are running around in the plains. The plundering centaurs.

Thirty thousand people, this is the total number of Fupantos' army that is fighting towards the ship fortress. It is more than Hugo expected, but fortunately the expeditionary force can still deal with it - only in terms of strength, and they There's also a good location.

I hope that the prince who leads the army is also a cheesemonger, Hugo prayed in his heart, but he felt that this was not effective. The only prince in Pentos who could not be regarded as a puppet in so many years could not be so easy to deal with.

It didn't take long for the expeditionary force to reach the coastal highlands. This place is called Wanghai Cliff. It overlooks the dirt road along the coast. It is very convenient here for both defense and combat.

The coast is bare, with only some gravel scattered on it. The waves crash on the coast from time to time, and then quickly recede, leaving only patches of wet traces.

"This is a great battlefield." Hu Ge heard Black Blade say this.

"Set up camp on the spot, start building fortifications, and hurry them all up. The Pentos people may arrive at any time. I don't want our soldiers to be without any fortifications to protect them when the Pentos army comes. Also, give the ships a barrier Send a message over there and ask them to send troops as soon as possible, we have a tough battle to fight."

Under Hu Ge's order, everyone behind him began to get busy. As the expeditionary force spread out, the entire highland turned into a huge construction site, with countless people working on it. Everyone knew that they were about to face the next step. against the army of Pentos, so everyone was very serious and worked very hard.

(End of this chapter)