King of The Wall

2021-01-06

Chapter 601 Blackwater Rush (Part 2)

Put down your well-crafted and valuable Myr lens, The current leader of the Golden Corps - "homeless" Harry Strickland sighed, the hot breath he exhaled quickly turned into a cloud of white mist in the cold air.

There are two emotions in this sigh.

The first is admiration.

Not only the vigor and morale of the black corps that is gathering on the bank across the river, but also the commander of the legendary Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

Strickland always thought old Griffin... no, Jon Connington, or the Prime Minister, is already a solid old dog, who would have encountered a more difficult one now: land grants The army had completed the formation of the team by the Blackwater Rush for more than an hour, and the pontoon had already been erected, but they just waited in the cold wind and did not initiate a river crossing operation.

He knew what the enemy was waiting for: in the coalition camp behind him, the troops of the princes of Reach were braving artillery fire to sort out their provisions, and they were retreating in a panic.

The commander on the opposite side must know that if they cross the river too early, they are likely to face tens of thousands of armies who have not yet retreated. Therefore, they have to wait for most of their own to withdraw, leaving only the rear troops - that is, the golden regiment of the oneself, and then calmly start to cross the river to deal with the isolated oneself.

Two is extremely uncomfortable.

Thinking of this, Strickland is angry: in his opinion, in the face of that strange new weapon that will roar, the coalition should happily throw down the barracks and retreat, and the 50,000 system is complete. , The armies with complete arms will be transferred together, and they will never dare to chase after Igor West or Dorne.

Even if you don't want to leave the supplies to the enemy, you can burn them down!
But those greedy Reach nobles, who escaped and were reluctant to be foreign objects, wanted to take away all their belongings except for the camp's guard tower fence, not even a tent cloth.

The baggage will not only slow down the speed of evacuation, but also consume a lot of troops to escort, affecting the formation and battle strength of the entire army. In this case, if the commander of the land-grant army on the other side did not order to try to pursue it, he felt that it would be unreasonable.

And in order to avoid the extreme situation of being crushed by the enemy for thousands of miles, and to protect the transfer of large troops and supplies, they must stay in the rear of the army.

So, Young Griff, no... King Aegon personally ordered that this arduous and important mission be handed over to the Golden Company.

In this way, the strongest mercenary group that once swayed Essos, who came from the other side of the narrow sea by boat, was reduced to the situation of protecting the buttocks of a bunch of stupid nobles!
Fuck him... no, they fuck it!
Cursed, but Strickland also knew that Aegon made such an arrangement not because he had any opinion on the Golden Group and wanted to take the opportunity to weaken them, but simply because: the retreat order was given by him, if the Reach army was assigned to stay behind , not only is there the suspicion of "preserving oneself and consuming allies", but also within the Reach, there is bound to be a quarrel and discussion about "which one or several troops will stay behind".

To avoid causing internal disputes or wasting too much time on battle planning, King Aegon had to let the "oneself" -- the Golden Group -- suffer.

 …

Back to the battlefield.

Just by looking at the whole group of Land Granters on the other side of the river, Strickland could see that this was an elite division; even across the entire Blackwater Rush, they seemed to be able to feel the murderous aura on them.

If he had previously been skeptical of the rumors that Night's Watch beat the Others and saved the Seven Kingdoms, but now that he was confronted with the imposing manner of the black clothed Legion, he was finally convinced.

It makes perfect sense for such a fierce and powerful army to be able to repel the dead army and even slay the North Riverlands to the shores of Blackwater Rush.

If they meet in the plains and wilderness, Strickland is usually reluctant to fight against such a terrifying army - although the Golden Corps has more numbers than the Land Granters, and the quality of individual soldiers is not bad, but they are mercenaries. Soldiers, and mercenaries, will not fight unprofitable wars.

Fighting head-to-head with a strong opponent of the same strength, even if you narrowly win, you can get a good reputation, but how many people can survive to enjoy the fruits of victory?

To use an extreme analogy: The reorganization is a golden regiment of ten thousand people. After a bloody battle, more than nine thousand were killed and injured, and the remaining few hundred soldiers were defeated. Dare to go... have the ability to go to the employer. Are you asking for the death pension of the more than 9,000 people who are going to die?
If you meet a kind employer, you will probably give the rest of you a severance package. If you have a bad heart, you will silently deal with the person who asks for the debt and then renege on a debt is not impossible. Free trade In the dark and chaotic history of the castle, it is not that such a thing has not happened!

Failures can be eaten, losses can be incurred, but they must not be fought to the point of losing all the capital required for the account. This is the logic and philosophy of Harry Strickland's management of the Golden Group.

He directs the mercenary group. If he encounters a strong enemy, he will often "fight hard" and then retreat; and if he encounters other mercenary groups that have no blood feud, it is even simpler - the two sides sit down He he wine is more powerful than the military. After knowing who is stronger and who is weak, he will "blood battle" to create some momentum, and the weaker will take the initiative to retreat.

It not only crosses the line but also keeps the lifeblood of Legion, so why not do it.

Small mercenary groups can't do this, of course, they'll soon lose their reputation and lose business, but the golden group will do. Because they are Peak's mercenary group, only the large-scale Dothraki Khalasar and the large-scale Unsullied Legion can push them back. In the case of the overwhelming majority, the one who consciously "defeats" will be the opposite party.

Employers come to mercenary group just to win the battle? Who would ask nervously how many records the mercenary group must have or kill the opponent without leaving a single one?
Harry Strickland has never encountered such a strange request. Add money. As long as the money is in place, everything can be said!

It is true that under this logic, Harry Strickland is secretly known as "the most cowardly leader in the history of the Golden Corps", and Legion's reputation has indeed declined slightly over the past decade, but It's still at the top of the food chain, and it's getting better and better. Isn't this also an achievement! ?

＊＊＊

Generally speaking, Strickland would not accept such a bad and dangerous mission as "the rear of the palace to cover the retreat of the large army", especially in the face of such a situation on the other side of the river. A strong army of dragons with cannons. But today, despite his grumblings, he arrives in person on the front lines, surreptitiously observing the battle from beyond the field of view of the land-grant artillery across the river, and directing every Hundred Men Squad down to the last detail.

Conscientiously, not because of loyalty, but because there is no way out.

The Golden Group has invested too much.

More than 10,000 Legion elite Warriors crossed the sea to Westeros in the stormy autumn. They lost and lost more than 2,000 on the way. In the long and chaotic Stormlands battle, they lost another 3,000 casualties. , although some local people with excellent quality were selected and recruited later, but now there are only more than 6,000 people left.

He's already lost half of his chips in this big bet, and if he breaks with King Aegon today because of an order against him, all his early investment will be lost.

And the reason why he made this heroic lineup, which is completely inconsistent with his cautious character, is because the expected benefits of this war are far greater than in the past.

Harry Strickland's nickname "homeless" doesn't mean he has nowhere to live (in fact, he has a lot of personal property, with a small fortune in several Free Cities), but because: he His ancestor was once one of the nobles of Westeros, but he was deprived of his title and exiled outside Westeros only because he failed to support the Blackfyre rebellion.

Although normally they always happily boast about their "four generations of loyalty to the Golden Group", but that's just a helpless pleasure.

God damn it, what's so good about being a mercenary?
The mercenary is highly paid, the mercenary is free and unconstrained, the mercenary is free and romantic... Yes, but the mercenary cannot end well.

Strickland once thought that when oneself died, the skull would also be boiled, flesh, plated with gold, and later hung on the top of the lance as a military flag, but more than two years ago, the dead fatty of Illyrio of Pentos provided another A completely different way out - supporting the restoration of Aegon Targaryen.

Once this is done, the Strickland family will regain Fiefdom, and he will change from a wandering mercenary to a Westeros member, completely getting rid of the title of "homeless" and becoming a homeless man. Home - Harry Strickland count!
When a mercenary wins a battle, at most, he will get a bag of gold; but from Longmou Kingdom, he can become a hereditary noble after he succeeds!
He will be able to spend the rest of his life comfortably in oneself's castle, under the service of maids and servants, and breathe his last breath in the warm lord's room with the fireplace and the luxurious velvet bed, After death, they will be buried in the family cemetery behind the manor, and will be admired, worshipped and prayed by future generations!
And these, for him, who is tired of running around everywhere, not fighting or licking blood on the way to fight, it is more tempting than how rich a mercenary contract is!

......

A long and mournful trumpet sound brought Harry Strickland back to reality from his beautiful imagination of the future, and he didn't need to raise the lens again, and he immediately realized that the other side was on the other side. The land-grant army has begun to cross the river!

——

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(end of this chapter)