Chapter 117: Joffrey Secured

It was the horses that first sensed the anomaly in the west.

They pawed the ground uneasily, snorting through their large nostrils.

Consequently, the mercenaries began to inspect their surroundings, including the area near the Lion Gate and the docks to the east, but they found nothing. The Gold Cloaks guarding the city huddled behind the battlements, not even daring to show their heads.

There was not a single longship to be seen near the usually busy docks; after Stannis decided to blockade Blackwater Bay, the number of ships here had already been halved. By the time the Fish-Wolf Coalition attacked, all the vessels had hidden on the south bank of the Blackwater River, including the longships of the Royal Fleet that remained loyal to Joffrey I.

In a few moments, Arthur and the mercenaries knew exactly what had made the horses uneasy.

Even separated by the entire city of King's Landing, they could see the red glow reflected by the flames in the west.

Of course, it was also streaked with wisps of green light.

"We're going back." Arthur suddenly understood what had happened.

The Gold Cloaks guarding the city must have used Wildfire to attack the coalition's camp.

According to the original plot, the King's Landing side had been preparing for Stannis's attack all along, so Cersei had secretly ordered the Alchemists' Guild to produce Wildfire as her ultimate trump card.

Aside from burning quickly and having green flames, Wildfire was no different from ordinary fire.

But in a camp packed with cloth tents and wooden siege engines, "burning quickly" was the most lethal point.

Fortunately, there were few competent military commanders on the King's Landing side, while Roose Bolton and Innes Frey had decent troop-commanding abilities; the coalition should be able to handle this battle.

Arthur led over a hundred mercenaries north, bypassing the city walls, and then traveled west for half a day before reaching the vicinity of the Gods Gate at the northwest corner of King's Landing.

Along the way, the Frey siege soldiers were nowhere to be seen.

The coalition camp was about half a league west of King's Landing (on land, one league is about 4.8 kilometers); from far away, everyone could hear the sounds of slaughter, screams, and the crackling of large siege engines burning.

The Gold Cloaks and a small number of Crownlands family soldiers were likely still fighting the coalition.

According to reliable intelligence, the city garrison numbered over eight thousand, with newly recruited commoners making up the bulk.

In other words, in pure combat, the coalition, which was composed almost entirely of professional family soldiers, was more than a grade stronger than the King's Landing garrison.

Arthur suddenly had an idea.

When the King's Landing garrison returned to the city, he could take advantage of the chaos to lead his men in a charge.

If he was lucky, he might run into the posturing Joffrey; if not, he could still intercept and kill high-ranking officers from King's Landing to weaken their strength.

"Dismount, have a few men lead the horses and hide, the rest follow me." Arthur ordered Locke Holt, the leader of the mercenaries.

Whether it was his golden-armored giant horse or the black-and-white striped warhorses of the Qohor Mercenaries, they were all too conspicuous and unsuitable for an ambush.

Locke, who loved to count on his fingers, faithfully executed his employer's order.

Thus, Arthur, carrying a great hammer and four weighted hand axes on his back, along with a hundred or so mercenaries, proceeded on foot to a mound near the Gods Gate, preparing to wait there for the returning King's Landing garrison.

Coincidentally, a large group of friendly forces had the same idea.

Nearly three hundred sword-and-shield soldiers wearing chainmail and draped in the Twin Towers surcoats of House Frey were hiding behind the mound.

"Is that Lord Arthur?" The leader of the Freys was a bald, red-eyed, tall man who looked extremely like Innes Frey.

"It is. And you are?" Since they were friendly forces, Arthur did not stand on ceremony and brought his men together with them.

"I am Aegon Frey, my father is Innes."

Arthur reminisced for a long time and recalled this person's deeds from the original story. He was known as "Bloodthirsty" Aegon and should have turned to banditry after the Battle of the Green Fork.

Because Walder Frey and his eldest son Stevron were extremely prolific, the Frey family was now sprawling.

Old Walder himself had about twenty-two sons and nine daughters, as well as countless bastards. They continued to multiply, bringing the number of Frey family members to over a hundred.

But there was only one heir to The Twins and The Crossing, so the Freys lower in the line of succession had to find their own way.

According to Old Walder's arrangements, there were three main paths for the Freys:

First, to marry into other noble families and have the married Frey develop at their wife's family home;

Second, to serve as officers or warriors like Innes or Hosteen, serving the Crossing;

Third, to join the Citadel or the Faith of the Seven, such as Lucion Frey, who was a highly influential Most Devout, or William Frey, Walder's seventeenth son, an excellent Maester who earned his chain from the Citadel before the age of thirty.

Among the hundreds of Freys, not all were as cunning and ruthless as Old Walder; there were loyal men like Stevron who died for Robb, and even "Gatehouse Ami," who opened her doors to anyone.

As for the "Bloodthirsty Aegon" before him, his most famous traits were likely his belligerence and bloodlust.

"What are you doing here?" Arthur asked after having the mercenaries hide.

"I am preparing to ambush the King's Landing garrison..." Aegon Frey explained his plan to Arthur in detail.

He had originally been responsible for the defense near the Old Gate, but after sensing something was wrong, he discovered that the Frey soldiers near the Gods Gate were all dead, so he gathered the Frey soldiers from near the Dragon Gate, preparing to slaughter them.

This coincided exactly with Bracken's thoughts.

Thus, the two led their troops to wait quietly for the returning King's Landing garrison.

Before long, several riders returned with over a hundred Gold Cloaks on foot.

"Dog-head helm, that man is The Hound."

"Bloodthirsty Aegon" said suddenly, excited.

The Hound was Sandor Clegane, The Mountain's brother. If nothing went wrong, Sandor had already inherited The Mountain's small fief and castle.

When the gates of the Gods Gate slowly opened and the leading riders entered, Arthur and "Bloodthirsty Aegon" charged out with over four hundred men.

Inside the Gods Gate.

Joffrey I, who was waiting at the gate for news of victory, looked at the returning Sandor Clegane.

The latter was in the middle of lifting his helm.

"Hound, did we win?" The king, dressed in magnificent plate armor, asked urgently.

"No, they were still fighting when I left; there are still many Northmen, and the Gold Cloaks can barely hold them to a draw."

Sandor replied.

Behind Clegane, the Gold Cloaks were walking into the city in a line. Because the king's nobles were blocking the road, their progress into the city was very slow.

"Then why did you come back?" Joffrey was immediately angry and demanded.

"I am afraid of fire, both red and green. The fire over there is too big!"

"Go back and fight." His Majesty the King pointed outside the city, "I made a dog like you a member of the Kingsguard, yet you refuse to risk your life for me."

But Sandor merely took the wine offered by an Attendant and gulped it down, ignoring the King's order.

This sent Joffrey into a towering rage, "If you stay here, I will have my grandfather, Duke Lannister, strip you of your lands."

After finishing his wine, Sandor threw the leather wineskin onto the ground, "F*** Wildfire, F*** Lannister."

These two sentences stunned everyone present; in the current King's Landing, no one dared to speak to the King like that.

But Sandor's next words shocked Joffrey and the garrison even more:

"F*** the King!"

After saying this, Sandor Clegane ignored the stunned crowd, swung onto his horse, and headed toward the outside of the city.

At this moment, the sound of swords clashing outside the Gods Gate reached inside the city.

"Your Majesty, someone has broken in," a quick-witted Gold Cloak reported.

"Do you think I need you to tell me that?" Joffrey glared at the man with extreme resentment.

The fact that The Hound defied his order left him both shocked and hateful; he was shocked that his once submissive Attendant had suddenly shown a face he did not recognize, and he hated that this public act of defiance had made him lose all face.

He even had the urge to use his own crossbow to put an arrow into The Hound, but the toy was not with him.

The Hound rode his horse, dodging hundreds of soldiers fighting in pairs, and headed toward the outside of the city.

Arthur was charging inward when he suddenly saw Sandor Clegane riding out, so he raised his great hammer, ready to engage.

Unexpectedly, The Hound did not even look at him and rode straight out of the city.

"Bloodthirsty Aegon" behind Arthur was very puzzled, "Hound, get down and fight me."

This Frey was very combative and wanted to rush over to fight Clegane, but was held back by Arthur.

"Do you see Joffrey and Preston Greenfield? They are your targets for a fight; let's go over and take them."

For some reason, there was only one Kingsguard named Preston Greenfield beside Joffrey.

The others, Balon Swann, Meryn Trant, Mandon Moore, and the rest were not there.

"Bloodthirsty Aegon" was immediately overjoyed, "The blood of one king is enough to satisfy my Greatsword."

Ignoring the dozens of Gold Cloaks and royal guards in front of him, he brandished his sword and charged straight ahead.

Several Frey sword-and-shield soldiers guarded behind their commander.

Arthur was happy to pick up the scraps and followed behind, preparing to snatch Joffrey.

This Frey lived up to his nickname, killing his way through as blood and flesh flew everywhere; the Gold Cloaks could not stop him at all.

Preston of the Kingsguard shouted in terror: "Get His Majesty on a horse, get His Majesty on a horse, and escort him to the Red Keep."

A loyal royal guard brought over a horse, but Arthur spotted the target and used his hand axe to hack off the horse's front leg in one blow.

Joffrey was badly frightened by the aggressive enemies and this axe blow; his face turned deathly pale.

A dozen royal guards from the Stormlands held Great Shields, forming a shield wall to protect the King as they retreated toward the Red Keep.

But "Bloodthirsty Aegon" killed even faster, charging behind the shield wall within a few breaths.

Thus, Ser Preston and a few others emerged from the shield wall and engaged "Bloodthirsty Aegon" and the Frey sword-and-shield soldiers.

Arthur, following behind, bypassed this area and strode toward Joffrey.

After catching up to the shield wall, he raised his great hammer and smashed open the Great Shields in two strikes; perhaps due to panic, one royal guard fell, tripping his King along with him.

Taking advantage of this great opportunity, Arthur swung his great hammer and knocked down several royal guards in a few strikes; the remaining four or five saw that Arthur was too fierce and quietly slipped away.

Bracken, finding an opening, drew a hand axe from his back and struck Joffrey on the head with the blunt side; after knocking him unconscious, he slung him over his shoulder and charged toward the outside of the city.

The night was hazy, and the sound of metal clashing near the Gods Gate was deafening, with about seven hundred people fighting there.

Arthur walked quickly through the battlefield, brandishing his great hammer as he fought his way out of King's Landing.

"Retreat, retreat," he shouted to the Qohor Mercenaries and the Frey sword-and-shield soldiers.

The mercenaries were all old veterans, and most of them scurried out quickly upon hearing the order to retreat. Most of the Frey sword-and-shield soldiers fought to the death alongside their commander, and only forty or fifty followed Arthur.

The nobles in the city with any military authority must have gone to attack the camp, so not many people rushed out to rescue their King.

Arthur and his men were able to leave the battlefield smoothly, and then the mercenaries rode their horses while the sword-and-shield soldiers walked toward the camp.

To avoid the King's Landing garrison returning to the city, he specifically took a long detour to the north.

……

"My God!" Arthur, having returned to the vicinity of the camp with his men, could not help but exclaim loudly as he looked at the devastation everywhere.

The camp of over sixteen thousand people had turned into a sea of fire; it was nearly autumn, the grass and trees were withered and yellow, and the fire could not be stopped.

The battlefield between the King's Landing garrison and the Fish-Wolf Coalition had already shifted; fighting near such a sea of fire would roast a person alive.

Based on the sounds of fighting, the battlefield should now be on the banks of the Blackwater River slightly to the south, where there were fewer trees and it was closer to a water source, making it more suitable as a current battlefield.

So he led his men around this vast sea of fire from the north, preparing to return to the coalition from the rear.

The unconscious Joffrey was laid horizontally across a golden-armored warhorse; he was a qualified material for hatching a dragon.

I wonder where Uncle Yule has gone?

Since Arthur had snatched Joffrey, he naturally had to set about hatching the dragon.

With a dragon, even if he could not ride it, he would have some sort of qualification to claim the title of King.

As for territory, that would have to be fought for slowly.

After walking for another half hour, they finally bypassed the sea of fire and reached the banks of the Blackwater River.

Now there were two pieces of news before Arthur: the good news was that a portion of the Fish-Wolf Coalition was indeed here, and the bad news was that these coalition soldiers were about to be unable to hold on.

Thanks to the reflection of the sea of fire, Arthur saw the current situation clearly.

About several hundred Stark soldiers wearing Wolf Surcoats and the soldiers from various Riverlands houses he had brought were resisting over four thousand Gold Cloaks; the rest of the coalition had already disappeared.

"That damn Ramsay Bolton!"

One could figure it out just by thinking with their feet: Bolton must have seen that Arthur was away, so he sent his own men and a portion of the Stark soldiers to cover the retreat.

Even if he had snatched Joffrey, Arthur could not leave just yet; he still had to save this group of soldiers before departing.

After selecting a few reliable mercenaries to guard these dragon-hatching materials, Arthur dismounted and shouted a command.

"Follow me!"

Then he led his men toward the center of the battlefield.

Having witnessed Arthur's valor, the mercenaries and the Frey shield-bearers naturally knew that right behind him was the safest place to be.

Thus, over one hundred and fifty men huddled together, roughly in the shape of a triangular arrowhead, and thrust from the north into the center of the two clashing armies before turning toward the enemy on the east.

Wielding his great hammer, Arthur's strikes were heavy and powerful; a single blow could take out a Golden Cloak wearing chainmail, allowing this fresh force to cut through like a hot knife through butter as they charged directly toward the command hub of the Golden Cloaks.

Kingsguard Balon Swann and Golden Cloak Commander Janos Slynt were in charge of this raid, and Arthur's relentless advance naturally caught their attention.

The tall and sturdy Janos Slynt was not particularly brave, and having just received the title of Duke and the lands of Harrenhal, he naturally cherished his life.

"I heard this man once hammered The Mountain to death; I suppose none of us can defeat him. The Task of attacking the coalition and destroying the siege engines has already been completed, so why don't we retreat!"

Though phrased as a question, Janos Slynt spoke with the tone of a lament.

Balon Swann was considered a competent military commander and knew they needed to preserve their strength to defend King's Landing, so he agreed to the retreat.

"Return to the city, return to the city." Several Messengers relayed this order to the Golden Cloaks.

The rear guard became the vanguard, and over four thousand men began an orderly withdrawal.

Once the Golden Cloaks currently in combat disengaged, the coalition soldiers did not pursue.

After the fighting had completely ceased, Arthur ordered a headcount, tended to the wounded, and then began to advance toward the west.

After the headcount was finished, several pieces of bad news reached his ears.

In the chaos, Tyrion Lannister had someone untie the mercenary Bronn, who had been bound, and then they slipped away.

Daniu Gendry, Arya, and the others were also missing.

PS: Seeking recommendation votes and monthly tickets.

(End of this chapter)