King of The Wall

2021-10-15

Chapter 680 Highgarden Defense (5)

Highgarden.

The castle's name is a combination of two lingua franca words that literally means "garden of aloof and remote".

It seems random, but there is a lot of information in it. It is divided into two parts: "aloof and remote" and "garden".

The first half is exactly what the name suggests: the castle is located on one of the highest hills in the Reach core plain where it is located, with the top of the hill exceeding 100 meters above sea level. Although this height is not even a "mountain" in the modern geographical system of the Earth plane, it is unsurprisingly arrogant on the plains around Highgarden - looking at the Mander River Basin, there are definitely no hills higher than it. By the river, the hills by the river are no higher than it, and if the hills are both by the river and the height is similar, it will not satisfy the "located in the hinterland of Reach, guarded by bannermen". All generations of residents and owners have spared no effort to build the castle higher... Today, anyone who climbs to the top of the castle can raise their head and take half of the Highgarden into the entire scene.

When Garth Gardener I decided to settle here and build a castle, what he saw was a wide field of vision, easy to defend and difficult to attack, far from the frontier and close to the water source!
And what about the "garden"?

Highgarden is made of white marble and is recognized by most people in Westeros as the most beautiful castle in the Seven Kingdoms - in addition to the basic common sense that anyone can know, the more important reason is of course - There is really a garden in this castle: among the low, middle, and high three ring-shaped city walls that are completely white, the bottom one surrounds the entire foot of the mountain, and there is a well-arranged ring between it and the second city wall on the mountainside. Plant maze. This labyrinth can be used to confuse incoming enemies for defensive purposes in wartime, and it can be used to entertain guests and entertain guests in peacetime. There are countless angiosperms planted in this ring-shaped garden. The types, numbers and even colors have been carefully planned and calculated to ensure that the flowering seasons between each other are seamless and the colors complement each other, making the whole garden beautiful in any season except the winter. Can have colorful flowers blooming.

No matter when and what season you visit Highgarden, the first city wall is a heaven full of greenery, flowers blooming everywhere, garden pavilions, sculptures, pools, fountains and man-made waterfalls… …

Well, digressed, back to the topic.

High allows Highgarden to see very far away—naturally, it can also be seen in very far distance; while white makes it highly reflective of light and highly recognizable.

As a small logistics officer, Igor had heard a Reach businessman in King's Landing boast that Highgarden could be seen from several dozen li on a good sunny day .

Open the square root, then multiply by one hundred and thirteen...

After silently inserting the numerical calculation with the fool's formula in my mind, Igor found that this statement was unexpected. Rigorous: If the size and shape of the ice and fire world planet is similar to Earth, assuming that the height of the top tower in Highgarden is close to 200 meters, and considering that the observer itself has a height, then it can indeed be directly observed at a distance of 50 kilometers!
Unfortunately, although he should be within this distance from the map at the moment, he did not find the target in the horizon as expected. Putting down the telescope in his hand, he frowned sighed, realizing that it's no surprise.

The calculated numbers are only theoretical values after all, but the visibility of naked eye and the performance of telescope in this era are limited - Highgarden should have been in his field of vision, just because the lens is magnified If the multiple is not enough, the apparent diameter is too small, and it can only appear as a small white dot at most.

Those who have been to Highgarden can still know that the white spot at the end of oneself's field of vision is Highgarden through experience and familiarity. It's possible to find that little spot.

And at this moment, he absolutely doesn't have the heart and energy to do the kind of things that tourists only do.

He now has an extremely difficult mission on his shoulders: command the Queen West Expedition Force mid laner and continue to approach Highgarden in a rolling formation.

Rolling forward, novelty is indeed novel, at least unheard-of for the Reach nobles of this era, but in the final analysis, to put it bluntly, it is just a set of slightly complicated synergies. In the Celestial Dynasty, in the Sui and Tang Dynasties or even earlier, elite troops were able to carry out evolutionary maneuvers that were far more complicated than this.

But what's great about what Igor is doing this time around with the West Expedition Force is that instead of just rolling one or two times, the force does it one after the other, endlessly repeating it. Yesterday the Reach cavalry unit at first was still expecting that the West Expedition Force would be deformed in the rolling formation to expose the weak spot, but the truth is: the enemy has been rolling from early to close to dark and starting to camp, and it has always been incredibly close. The perfect trapezoid of the semi-circle is impeccable!

What Reach people can't guess is that this is not at all because of the skillful cooperation between the West Expedition Force or Igor's commanding skills, but because of the cheat they know nothing about - the bird Skinchanger : Relying on the unprecedented bird's-eye view provided by this group of new land-grant power users, Igor can continuously fine-tune the position of each square after the evolution, so that the overall defense of the entire formation is always maintained at a high point, allowing The enemy, as if having a fish bone stuck in one's throat , has no way to speak.

......

Yesterday's confrontation ended with the Reach people being shocked all day, and Igor slightly winning.

Today's trick, but this just kicked off.

After eating the first meal early, and before the smoke gathered on the top of the head had dissipated, the West Expedition Force swarmed out of the camp, which was a bit simpler than before, and arranged it according to the bottle gourd. Formed a trapezoidal formation by the river that was exactly similar to yesterday, and under the threat of the Reach cavalry troops who appeared on the edge of the southern field of vision on time as if on a date, they began to move forward alternately.

Sun gradually slanted from east to overhead, rolling round after round with unparalleled ease, and the increasingly skilled West Expedition Force managed to push another three miles towards Highgarden in the morning, and at At noon, they enjoyed their lunch in turns in comfort... For a moment, it seemed that the westward expedition was about to end with the Reach people continuing to retreat and unable to organize a head-on confrontation.

But this tedious situation was finally broken after another round of scrolling in the middle of the afternoon, when an extremely wide, colorful forest of flags and long weapons blocked the West Expedition Force's The road to the west. Red, orange, yellow, green, gold... all the colors that a normal person can imagine at first glance can be found in this forest of flags, and there are also a lot of dazzling metal reflections, which can't be seen clearly through Li Xu There are many coats of arms and patterns on the flag, but one can also guess with a small brain: the entire Reach's noble army supporting the Tyrells and King Aegon is gathered here.

In terms of width and number, this forest of flags and weapons is similar to the Reach infantry strikers scattered by several rounds of shelling yesterday, but a little aerial reconnaissance using the bird Skinchanger can reveal: this "wood" The depth and thickness of the ” is far from comparable to the Reach Army striker faced yesterday, and the level of military formation is even more than a few streets behind the striker... The quantity and quality are all on the same level, which is obviously the main force of authentic Reach infantry. What surprised Igor more than their size and military appearance was the battle lines they laid out.

It was a low, long, north-south mound, running in the direction of the West Expedition Force, and like a natural bunker, the Reach Army's army formations as wide as several li were hidden behind it. . In this way - the height hovers between single digits and double digits, and the slope angle can be counted with one hand. The flat terrain is naturally flat and unobstructed for the marching troops, but it is insurmountable for the artillery fire. It can be seen that it is no accident that the Reach people set up the defense line here.

Of course, the impossible on the plain just happens to have a complete soil slope several miles long as a defense line. Due to the ups and downs, this natural bunker can only protect about one third of Reach. Infantry... Here's what alerted Igor: On the other segment that didn't make it to cover less than 2/3/2022, the Reach built a segment of dirt and sandbags five or six feet high, just enough to cover the average. The tall adults cover the artificial dam behind, use this dashed dam and the same truncated earth slope to make up and fit each other, and finally spliced and combined into a highgarden defense line without gaps, which is powerful. Demonstrated his determination to never back down.

Igor heart shivered with cold , realizing that the most difficult situation had happened: he could not be defeated without a fight. Today, there will be a solid and tough battle here, and the outcome of this battle will decide whether oneself is famous for the ages, or is nailed to the pillar of shame in Westeros history.

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(end of this chapter)