Chapter 229 Showcase
The mighty Hewan army started from Gaoting and headed eastward. After arriving at the fruit wine hall, they were divided into two armies, the north and the south.
The Southern Route Army, commanded by Earl Matus Rowan, will travel southeast along the Zhoumi River, enter the borderlands of Dorne, and then enter Cape Wrath along the Bone Road.
The Northern Route Army, commanded by Earl Randall Tarly, marched northeast along the Mander River to the Imperial Forest, passing through Fallen Wood City and Bronze Gate City to Storm's End, the core of the Stormlands.
It can be clearly seen that the Northern Route Army is the main force of this attack. In fact, the distribution of troops is also the same. The Northern Route Army has a total of 25,000 people, while the South Route Army has only 15,000 people.
Samwell naturally followed Earl Randall, served in the Northern Route Army, and at the same time learned how to command a large army to fight.
After trekking for more than half a month, the Hewan North Route Army arrived at Green Valley City, which is already the easternmost part of Hewan Land, and further ahead is the Royal Forest.
The Imperial Forest is the royal family's private hunting area. Of course, there will be no people living in the dense forest, and there will be no castles. Only hunters and the notorious band of thieves—the Imperial Forest Brotherhood.
After passing through the Royal Forest, you will officially enter the Stormland.
In fact, it has been normal for the Riverbend army to invade the Stormlands in history, and of course, the reverse is also the same.
Alan, the Storm King back then, even expanded his territory to the source of the Mande River—Highgarden.
During the reign of King Gales Gardener III, Highgarden also conquered all the territories of the Stormlands north of the Rainforest except Storm's End.
The two realms have been fighting for thousands of years, one ebbs and another, you advance and you retreat, until Aegon the Conqueror Targaryen unified the continent of Westeros.
But this grievance did not dissipate because of this. During the War of the Reavers, "Master Inflatable Fish" refused to go to King's Landing Qin King, instead of marching into the Stormlands. He competed with Storm's End for a whole year, and most of them also wanted to achieve What the past rulers of the Reach never achieved—
Capture Storm's End.
Now that the Hewan army has made a comeback, it is not known whether this historic breakthrough can be achieved.
Outside the city of Green Valley, on the banks of the Rambuon River, Earl Landau followed Samwell to a remote hill.
"What exactly are you going to show me?" Earl Landau looked at his mysterious son and couldn't help asking.
Samwell smiled and said:
"The magic that can capture Storm's End."
Earl Randall frowned subconsciously when he heard the magic. The Horn Hill lord instinctively distrusted things like magic and witchcraft, but when he thought of the dragon hatched by his son, he shut his mouth again.
"Are you ready?" Samwell stepped forward and asked Maester Qyburn.
"Okay, Lord Caesar, you can start anytime."
"Okay, let's get started."
"Yes." Maester Qyburn waved to the apprentice beside him, and the kid ran towards the distant mound holding a torch.
When Earl Randall saw that his son was looking for a bachelor instead of the witch in red robe next to him, a trace of doubt flashed in his eyes.
Of course, he had heard that there was a witch who believed in R'hllor, the Lord of Light, in his son's territory, but out of respect for the lord's autonomy, he hadn't said much. This time his son mentioned that he would show Magic, he subconsciously thought it was the witch's masterpiece.
But I didn't expect it to be a master's masterpiece.
Could it be something like [Wildfire]?
Earl Randall looked at the apprentice with doubts as he ran to the top of the mound, seemed to ignite something, and then flew back.
But after waiting for a while, nothing happened.
Just when Earl Landau was puzzled, the mound in front of him suddenly exploded, and the muffled thunder sounded like a bolt from the blue, shaking the field, and even the war horses in the distant camp were alarmed and neighed loudly.
Earl Randall was also so shocked that his eyelids twitched, and he lost his mind for a while.
Samwell looked a little dissatisfied.
When the army was ready to be dispatched in High Court, Bachelor Coburn sent a letter from a raven, saying that there had been a breakthrough in gunpowder research, so he ordered Coburn to come to Green Valley City to join him immediately, and prepared to join him in the upcoming Use this new type of weapon in the opening storm battle.
But after seeing the gunpowder display experiment with his own eyes, Samwell was a little disappointed. Although the power had been greatly improved compared to the previous "fireworks", it was still far from the battlefield weapon he expected.
Perhaps this is the limitation of black powder.
Samwell can only regret that he didn't memorize the formula of TNT before time travel...
However, although such gunpowder cannot change the form of war, it is still feasible to blast the city wall.
"The power is good." Earl Landau seemed very satisfied.
"Can you blow down the walls of Storm's End?" Samwell asked, feeling a little guilty.
"I'm afraid not. However, smaller castles can still be dealt with." Earl Landau made a judgment.
"There is no possibility of success." Melisandre said firmly.
Actually, Samwell did not summon the red-robed witch this time. After all, the soldiers in the army are all believers of the Seven Gods. It would be inappropriate for her, a priest of the Lord of Light, to come here.
But Melisandre came by herself with Bachelor Qyburn, and said that Samwell would need her help.
Samwell also had no choice but to agree to let her join the army, but asked her not to mention the Lord of Light in the army, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.
"The amount of gunpowder can be increased." Bachelor Coburn said, "And you can dig holes under the city wall and bury gunpowder, which can better shake its foundation."
"Impossible." Melisandre still shook her head, "Storm's End was built by Durran, the first Storm King. He won the love of Yi Ni, the daughter of the Sea God and the Wind Goddess. But Yi Ni's parents could not accept that their daughter would Chastity is dedicated to a mortal, and it is even more unacceptable that women will suffer from life, old age, sickness and death like a mortal, so they brought strong winds and huge waves and destroyed the castle of Storm King Duron.
But Duron did not give up, and built another castle on the ruins of the castle, but when the howling wind and the monstrous waves roared out of the bay, the castle was smashed again.
The subjects of the Stormland persuaded him to return his wife to the gods, or move the castle inland away from the sea, but the Storm King ignored them all. He rebuilt the castle five times, each time getting bigger and stronger, but unfortunately , Under the wrath of the gods, the castles of mortals are always so vulnerable.
Finally, the Storm King built a seventh castle with the help of Brandon the Builder and the Children of the Forest, and this time they wove powerful magic into the stones of its walls.
When the angry gods once again poured storm and fury on the castle, they could no longer shake it.
Lord Caesar, this is a castle that even the gods can’t do anything to. The power of mortals is nothing in front of it. "
Samwell fell into silence. He looked at Melisandre's eyes shining with fire, and always felt that the other party meant something.
Storm's End has indeed never been captured in history, but Samwell knows that in the original book, Stannis Baratheon captured the castle.
But he is not using strong attack.
Instead, he climbed onto Melisandre's bed and gave birth to a shadow with her, thereby killing Sir Cortnay Penrose, the acting lord of Storm's End, and causing the soldiers defending the city to collapse without fighting.
Samwell thought to himself, this time she took the initiative to run over, wouldn't she also want to use this method to conquer Storm's End?
This woman is really persistent in order to climb into her own bed...
"Don't worry about Storm's End." Earl Randall said, "Step by step, first Fallen Wood City, then Bronze Gate City, then Hay Hall, Harvest Hall, Stone Young Castle... After we capture all the other castles in the Stormlands , it won’t be too late to plot against Storm’s End.”
"That's right." Samwell nodded with a smile, "No matter how indestructible Storm's End is, it cannot last forever. Even if the illegitimate duke is determined to last forever, when we occupy the fertile land and dense jungle of Stormlands , and his lonely castle doesn't matter."
At this moment, there was a hissing sound from the Lambon River behind him. Samwell looked back and saw Cleopatra grabbing a huge four-foot-long herring from the water and roaring excitedly.
Boom!
The herring was dropped beside Samwell, it seemed to be a gift from the white dragon to its master.
Samwell smiled and waved to the sky to express his gratitude.
Cleopatra circled a few times, then turned back to the river to continue hunting.
"My lord, your dragon has grown so big!" Bachelor Qyburn couldn't hide his surprise.
"Yes. Eat a lot and grow fast." Samwell said with a smile.
Earl Randall also stared at Bailong for a while, and asked:
"Can you ride?"
"I haven't tried it yet, but it should be about the same." Samwell looked at the white dragon, which was estimated to be six or seven feet long, and wondered if he should try riding it.
When everyone returned to the camp with their trophies, Margaret greeted them with a sweet smile.
Samwell will not bring his "family" to the battlefield, he does not want to be the second Renly Baratheon.
Margaery just came to see her off, and Green Valley City was the last stop. After entering the imperial forest, she would no longer follow her, but would instead go on a tour of the various territories in the river bay.
Samwell knew that his fiancée's idol was Queen Alysanne of "King Renrui" Jaehaerys. The most famous queen in the history of the Targaryen Dynasty often toured the whole territory and held "ladies' courts" at the same time.
Only women can participate in the "Women's Court". Regardless of age and origin, Queen Alysanne once encouraged them to speak out about their troubles and help them as much as possible.
For this reason, the queen has also won the general support of women in the seven countries.
Margaret intends to learn from this queen.
For this, Samwell expressed strong support. After all, in addition to being wise and wise, Queen Alysanne was also particularly fertile and prolific. She gave birth to thirteen children for King Renrui in her lifetime...
That night, Samwell personally helped his fiancée's dream.
The army set off again after resting in Green Valley City for a day.
Continue east along the Lambun River, and you will see a lush forest.
That is the royal forest.
(end of this chapter)