Chapter 103: Maester

On the morning of the second day, the Westerlands Army's siege arrived right on schedule.

Arthur stood behind the crenellations, watching the nearly ten thousand Lannister soldiers arrayed in formation before the main gate.

It could not be said that they were all Lannister soldiers; at the front of the attacking force stood Riverlands Peasants dressed in gray cloth.

Behind them were the infantry phalanxes, standard for the Westerlands Army, equipped with Lion-shaped Half-helmets, crimson cloaks, and Black Ring Mail.

At the very back were over six thousand Lannister cavalry, among whom more than four thousand were heavy cavalry with both men and horses armored.

A dozen oversized trebuchets were slowly pushed to the front of the formation, followed closely by ten lengthened scaling ladders, and a giant siege hammer that required a full fifty or sixty men to push drew the attention of many soldiers from the First and Second Battalions.

Bill, the leader of the King's Landing Mercenary, exclaimed, "This is more than twice the size of the last one; it looks truly terrifying."

The number of mercenaries under his command was small, just over ninety, so they had been assigned to maintain order among the civilians.

Bill himself, however, had volunteered to come and defend the wall.

"But it still won't be able to smash open the main gate," the serious Dickon shook his head. "To be honest, I used to think that with a Lannister army of twenty thousand, Harrenhal couldn't be held by two or three thousand men."

"But after witnessing the sturdiness of the two gates, I have to admit that, aside from dragons coming from the sky, Harrenhal will absolutely never be breached from the outside."

"That's right," Arthur recalled Storm's End during the Usurper's War. "Back then, Mace Tyrell of the Reach brought a sixty-thousand-strong army to besiege Storm's End for half a year, and aside from making the people inside go hungry, they didn't accomplish anything."

Storm's End was also a fortress famous throughout the Seven Kingdoms for its sturdiness; in recent wars, there had been no record of it being captured by a large force.

Similar to how Storm's End was backed by the sea on one side, Harrenhal was backed by a lake on one side.

Therefore, the siege tactics for both were similar.

On the wall above the main gate, eight trebuchets were neatly arranged.

Originally, there had been a full twenty trebuchets placed here, but the people of House Whent had only maintained a portion of them, so only eight were usable.

The rest had been moved away to clear space for the soldiers to stand.

Over a thousand New Army soldiers were scattered along this section of the wall, nervously awaiting the coming battle.

Before long, one of the enemy's oversized counterweight trebuchets was set up and began its initial testing.

Four Westerlands soldiers pedaled the wheel vigorously, causing the counterweight box to rise and the end of the throwing arm to descend.

Once the throwing arm reached the bottom, a Westerlands soldier first placed the locking pin, then a large stone that required two soldiers to embrace was placed in the sling, and the guide rope was removed.

After all preparations were complete, an officer-looking man ignited the stone, causing a ring of flames to burn on its surface, and then removed the locking pin.

Instantly, the gravitational potential energy stored in the counterweight box was released at high speed; the several-meter-long throwing arm rotated rapidly, and the sling wrapping the stone was flung high into the air.

After swinging through more than half a circle, the burning stone detached from the sling, traced an extremely perfect parabola, and smashed fiercely against the wall below the main gate.

Boom.

Like a small earthquake, the New Army soldiers on the entire section of the wall felt a distinct vibration.

"This thing is just too big," someone poked their head out over the wall to check the fallen stone and couldn't help but click their tongue in wonder.

Although there were trebuchets on the wall, they were very small, and their range was much shorter.

Bill turned to Arthur beside him and said with some confusion, "My lord, I think I saw the top of the projectile go higher than we are."

If the highest point of the stone projectile's trajectory was higher than the wall, then as long as the trebuchet's position was adjusted, it could always hit the wall.

"That is the case," a layer of bewilderment appeared on the serious Dickon's face. "This requires our soldiers to hide below the crenellations; otherwise, one stone could take away several lives."

Arthur nodded, summoned a Messenger, and ordered all New Army soldiers to crouch down and only poke their heads out once the enemy started climbing the scaling ladders.

At the same time, he also requested the Third Battalion soldiers on standby on the first floor to prepare to extinguish fires; although there were not many wooden things inside Harrenhal, there were still some.

Being hit by this kind of projectile coated in a layer of oil could easily cause a fire.

After the first attempt failed, the trebuchet was pushed forward a great distance by the Westerlands soldiers.

This time, the stone hit a spot on the King's Pyre Tower behind Arthur, and with some rubble shaken loose, the burning stone landed on the ground of the first floor.

Arthur and the First Battalion Commander Zodan rushed over to look; fortunately, it hadn't hit anyone.

"Extinguish the fire on that stone; we'll have use for it later," Arthur shouted to the soldiers below.

This was truly a good thing.

With Arthur's strength, it would be perfect to throw it to smash the Westerlands soldiers climbing the scaling ladders.

Perhaps it could break a scaling ladder in one go, and the siege might stop then.

After two more adjustments, the Westerlands Army's trebuchets were finally in position.

"Get down, everyone get down," Dickon commanded the New Army soldiers on the wall.

In the final test, the burning stone landed accurately on the wall; although it didn't kill anyone, the vibration underfoot and the burning stone ball still caused no small amount of panic.

After all, these New Army soldiers had been farmers tilling the land just a month or two ago.

A few minutes later, the thousand-plus New Army soldiers and Arthur's group experienced the fear of being dominated by trebuchets.

Every minute, one or two burning projectiles landed on the wall; several times they even smashed the crenellations and severely wounded soldiers crouching nearby.

Although only a dozen or so were wounded, it still caused Arthur a pang of heartache.

Even worse, the trebuchets on the wall also became the enemy's primary target.

After thirty or forty projectiles fired in succession, the trebuchets on the wall were all smashed to pieces.

Now the Westerlands soldiers had no worries when charging, as the range of arrows was far less than that of the trebuchets.

"There is a top-tier Maester in the Westerlands Army who can enlarge the original small trebuchets and build them in just these few days; their ability is truly excellent," he sighed.

"The Lannisters have Jiu Jiu Jiu Jiu Jinzi, so naturally they can recruit capable Maesters, and there should be more than one. With Tywin's extravagance, he can afford to support a five-thousand-man heavy cavalry legion; a group of Maesters is no big deal," said the mercenary Bill.

That was indeed the logic.

The reason cavalry cost more than infantry was the horses beneath them. Most riding horses did not eat only low-calorie grass, but fodder mixed with high-calorie grain.

And horses had large appetites and long feeding times; during wartime, to save time, they were mostly fed grain mixed with fodder.

So this was why food was barely enough during peacetime, but once war broke out, there was a shortage of food of all kinds.

Because the horses also had to eat a portion of the grain.

And the Lannister family under Tywin's rule could afford to support seven or eight thousand cavalry during peacetime, including nearly five thousand heavy cavalry, which showed the extravagance of the premier house of Westeros.

As for a Maester, they are quite expensive to maintain.

The Reed family, lords of Greywater Watch in The North, are a proper countly house, yet they cannot afford to keep a Maester; that alone shows how costly it is to keep one.

I shall get a few Maesters later and keep them by my side as advisors, Arthur thought to himself.

He sifted through his memories, and to his surprise, there were only two Maesters who satisfied him: Dickon's fat brother Samwell, and Qyburn.

The former should currently be north of the Wall investigating the reason for the disappearance of Benjen Stark, First Ranger of the Night's Watch, while the latter, well, he should be...

According to the original work, Qyburn headed north during the early stages of the War of the Five Kings, intending to join the Night's Watch, but because he encountered the Brave Companions, that group of mercenaries with a poor reputation, he joined them instead.

It is just that because Arthur hired the Brave Companions and they have been mostly depleted, Qyburn's life trajectory has likely already changed.

He reckons that he is probably now among the North Army heading south.

After all, a lone Maester capable of healing is still quite sought after.

He pondered whether to find someone to bring Qyburn over, but he had no reliable men under his command, so he abandoned this idea for the time being.

While Arthur was deep in thought, the Westerlands Army in front of the main gate of Harrenhal finally stopped their bombardment. Afterward, two or three thousand civilians carrying only weapons led the charge, followed by several thousand men and ten pushed, extended scaling ladders.

At the same time, the reinforced siege towers also began to move slowly.

Once the Westerlands Army charged within range, some of the New Army soldiers on the walls also began to draw their Longbows and fire arrows.

It was just that there were not many arrows to begin with, and the Lannister soldiers below were all holding Small Round Shields, so they basically could not kill anyone.

The ones who ended up taking the arrows were instead the coerced civilians.

"Stop firing arrows, save some for Anguy," Arthur ordered.

Anguy had been slightly injured during the camp raid and had been resting these past few days, so he did not participate in the battle.

The Westerlands Army charged to the foot of the wall, began adjusting the height of the scaling ladders, and set the ladder heads onto the battlements.

Afterward, with the coerced Riverlands civilians in front and the Lannister soldiers behind, thousands of men climbed the scaling ladders in succession, and the hard assault on Harrenhal began.

"The first person to charge onto the wall will be rewarded with one thousand Gold Dragons; whoever kills Arthur Bracken will be rewarded with ten thousand Gold Dragons," the Lannister officer overseeing the battle shouted.

Arthur, having carried over a Stone Projectile, walked to the head of one of the scaling ladders and threw it down along the ladder.

"Surrender and you shall not be killed," this was his reply to everyone still climbing the scaling ladders.

(End of chapter)