Chapter 208: Storm in the South

Even in late autumn, this night in White Harbor is unreasonably cold.

The constant sea wind, carrying a bone-deep chill, batters the large crowd at the harbor; the pyre, taller than the longest lance standing upright, appears incredibly fragile before the sea wind.

There are no more screams in the pyre; it seems the Lord of Light has taken the gift from the mortals.

Fortunately, the ritual is about to end; Bronze Yohn pulls his thickened cloak tight around himself, then watches the Lord of White Harbor and the red priestess Melisandre before him.

"You betrayed me, betrayed the oath you took when you became a Maester of White Harbor... Seven Gods above, may the Stranger take you, this shameless traitor."

The Lord of White Harbor, Wyman Manderly, curses his own Maester, Xi Ao Mo, who is tied to the long wooden pole in the center of the pyre, yet the target of his curses is unable to retort.

This Maester hails from House Lannister of Lannisport; because the Lord of White Harbor firmly believed that Xi Ao Mo leaked some of House Manderly's movements to House Lannister during the War of the Five Kings and the subsequent wars, he was brought out as a sacrifice so that the flat-bottomed troop transports heading north to the Wall would not be ravaged by storms.

The still-beautiful Melisandre stands closest to the pyre, chanting prayers to the Lord of Light while her eyes remain fixed on the images within the flames.

Lord Yohn Royce, with his white hair and beard, has had enough of the Manderly Jiaodu's hypocrisy; he turns to his household officer, the Master-at-arms of Runestone, Samwell Tarly Stone, and whispers:

"If it weren't for the total collapse of House Lannister and Tyrion being taken to King's Landing as a hostage, this follower of the Seven would never dare to throw a Lannister into the flames as a traitor."

Although Yohn Royce looks down on Tyrion and even refused Tywin's marriage proposal for Tyrion, he has to admit that the power of House Lannister was once second only to the royal family, and on par with House Arryn and House Stark.

Therefore, in the eyes of Jiaodu Royce, this act by Wyman Manderly carries an immoral air of kicking a man when he is down.

Samwell Tarly Stone dares not speak ill of another great lord like his own master, but he will not openly oppose Lord Royce either, so he can only offer a few perfunctory words.

"Indeed, the sea wind tonight is making my head spin."

The Master-at-arms of Runestone speaks the truth; the biting cold wind from the Shivering Sea is rocking the hundreds of anchored ships back and forth, making the inner harbor of White Harbor seem not so safe, let alone the outer harbor, which is never calm to begin with.

No captain making a living on the Narrow Sea would choose to enter the Shivering Sea at the turn of autumn and winter, but there is no choice; if one wants to move north quickly, one must march by sea.

The only benefit of the cold wind is that it can quickly extinguish the flames; under the expectant gazes of many servants and soldiers, the fire flickers a few times, lowers its proud head like a defeated loser, and then disappears completely.

"A perfect ritual." Lord Wyman Manderly, who believes in the Seven, praises the red priestess of the Lord of Light, and then heartily invites the few non-believers of the Lord of Light who were willing to watch this sacrificial ritual, along with their attendants and servants, to enter the castle stairs on Lang Xue.

This wide, upward-leading white stone staircase connects Lang Xue outside White Harbor with the Xin Bao on the hill inside the city; the Xin Bao is also the seat of House Manderly.

Urged on by the cold wind, the group soon ascends the castle stairs and enters the great hall of the Xin Bao—Ren Yu Gong.

In this hall, constructed entirely of wooden planks, it is crowded with noble Knights from the Vale and some lords from the North.

Eight long tables, temporarily moved in, are neatly arranged on the floor of Ren Yu Gong; the people sitting around the tables seem to have their own opinions, with some advocating for taking the main army to defeat the Bolton army and then marching north along the land route to the Wall.

"I believe the lords also know that the autumn and winter storms of the Shivering Sea can easily tear a flat-bottomed boat to pieces, while the soldiers on board have no ability to resist. If on land, a boatload of soldiers could at least kill an equal number of Wildlings."

This is the Lord of Longbow Hall, Gerold Hunter; he has only recently inherited his title, so he is very active at the noble gathering, as if this could earn him the recognition of other nobles.

Yohn Royce somewhat agrees with this person's point of view, but the Wildlings will not wait for the Vale reinforcements to arrive before attacking Castle Black or Dong Hai Wang.

There is no need for a great lord of Royce's level to speak to refute this view; a young Northern noble, Robin Flint, voices the thoughts of another faction.

"Lord Hunter, do you know how long it takes to march an army of over twenty thousand from White Harbor to Winterfell, and how long it takes to march north from Winterfell along the Kingsroad?"

Gerold Hunter, being questioned, remains silent; he truly does not understand this aspect.

Robin Flint answers his own question: "At least three months, and the distress letters from Castle Black have been sent three times already; the furthest one was months ago. By the time we take Winterfell and march north to defend against the Wildlings, the Night's Watch will likely have become rotten meat in the bellies of the Wildlings beyond the Wall."

This is also a fool who knows nothing of military affairs, Lord Royce makes his judgment.

The most important thing about the Vale army marching north by land is not that there is not enough time, but that there are no supplies of grain and grass.

Even if they arrive late and let the Wildlings take the Wall, Yohn Royce has the confidence to lead the Vale army to crush the Wildlings and retake Castle Black, but there is no way to fill twenty thousand mouths along the way.

Even eating warhorses would not get them to Castle Black.

Lord Wyman Manderly, sitting on the high dais in Ren Yu Gong, laboriously turns his fat-filled neck and asks Bronze Yohn beside him for his opinion:

"You are the Commander of the Vale men, what do you think of the choice of the northern route?"

To tell the truth, he does not quite believe the red priestess's words either; how could burning a traitor make the storm disappear?

The movements of a superior lord are always easily noticed by subordinate lords; the conversation between the two most important people on the dais makes the long-arguing crowd slowly quiet down.

Once everyone's gaze turns to him, Yohn Royce says:

"The Bolton army is stationed not far from the mouth of the White Knife; the barge fleet of White Harbor cannot penetrate deep into the North, so the war with the Bolton family can begin immediately. The families previously agreed to retake Winterfell should organize their soldiers, let the Knights repair their swords and Iron Armor, and we will march north along the White Knife tomorrow."

It is possible that someone leaked the news of the Vale's troop deployment; the Bolton family had people build iron chains across the river in the lower reaches of the White Knife long ago, which caused the original plan to use the barge fleet to transport troops to fall through.

And the Leech Lord, Roose Bolton, clearly will not wait in Winterfell for the enemy to come to his door; an army flying the banners of the Flayed Man and the long-axe black crown is approaching White Harbor.

That is to say, the soldiers of the Bolton army mainly come from the Dreadfort and Huang Zhong Ting.

The grain supply of White Harbor is still timely, so Lord Yohn Royce prepares to march north along the White Knife; firstly, to destroy the river-blocking iron chains of the Bolton family, and secondly, to ensure that the grain supply is not a problem.

"As for the families that should have gone to the Wall according to the agreement, you and the fleet stay in White Harbor; wait for the weather to clear and the storm to pause, then march north along the northern coastline. You can go a little later, but you must ensure the safety of the march."

……

The Stormlands, south of Bronzegate.

A continuous large military camp stands on the north side of the Bu Ke Le Shan Mai; at the main gate of the camp, dozens of banners are snapping in the wind above the heads of the standard-bearers.

The royal standard-bearer, Wei Er Wei Te, carrying the black-bottomed red three-headed dragon banner, takes the lead and enters the range of the camp's Trebuchet.

After capturing Kevan Lannister in the Westerlands, this lucky man became a true Knight, so he was also able to have his own surname: Wei Te.

Later, this lucky fellow was appointed by Arthur I as his standard-bearer, gaining the right to hold the banner representing the King.

"Return—to—the—city—" The Reach Army officer guarding the gate had long since received the order that the King was about to arrive, and upon seeing the black-bottomed red dragon banner and the following golden sword-and-horse banner, he immediately ordered the gate to be opened.

Under the ceremonial gaze of nearly a hundred gate-guarding soldiers, Arthur, riding a giant red horse, slowly enters this Reach army camp.

"Don't you only have ten thousand men? Why did you build the camp so large?"

After dismounting, the King asks Mathis Rowan, who is leading the nobles to welcome him.

"This is to keep the enemy from knowing our army's strength." The clean-shaven Mathis replies.

The main force of this army consists of soldiers from families in the southern part of the Reach, such as Bandallon, Blackcrown, Gao Di Cheng, Three Towers, and Yang Hua Ting; the Rowan family of Goldengrove does not have deep kinship ties with these families, and their own soldiers are not here, so Mathis found it difficult to directly lead the army south to attack Storm's End.

In order not to let the commander of the Golden Company know the strength of this army, Lord Rowan chose to expand the camp significantly, making the scouting Cavalry count it as having at least twenty thousand soldiers' tents.

"Summon the leading nobles and Knights of each family; I want to announce military orders."

After the King gives the instruction, he takes his guards and strides toward the largest tent in the camp.

The Dornishmen have already entered the territory of Blackhaven in the Stormlands from the Bone Way, the army recruited by the Knight of Flowers has also passed Greenstone and is about to enter the area under the actual control of the Golden Company; this army in the north must also act as soon as possible.

The Reachmen Knights, who had been resting for a long time, responded actively to the King's call; dozens of them unbuckled their weapons and entered the main tent to discuss military affairs.

In order to show their urgent desire to head south, many knights even appeared before the King wearing full armor and holding their helmets.

Mathos Rowan played his role as a bridge very well; before the meeting officially began, he introduced most of the important nobles to the King.

"This is Viscount Bu Lan Dun Ku Yi, Lord of Yang Hua Ting."

"The rather stout lord beside him is Ma Ding Mu Lun Dao Er; he is the Viscount of Gao Di Cheng."

"As for this tall, middle-aged knight, he is the Count of Bandallon, Sir Leo Blackbar."

"Sir Qiao Zhi Ge Lei Fo De, he is the Lord of Sheng Ting Zhen and the nephew of Countess Ai Li Si Ge Lei Fo De."

"This seemingly amiable knight, Bruce Buckler, comes from Bronzegate; he is a cousin of Count La Er Fu. House Buckler provides us with a total of 1,100 soldiers, as well as some food supplies."

Seven leading nobles with family forces of over 800 men were introduced to the King by Mathos, while the remaining small families did not receive this treatment.

"Very good," Arthur I waved his hand, "Let's skip the pleasantries. Tell me the situation on the northern front, and we will decide immediately whether to head south."

It was just noon at this moment; if they acted quickly, they could move the camp several leagues south in a single afternoon.

The King's enthusiasm seemed to infect the vassals in the tent, and everyone spoke at once, describing the current situation south of Bronzegate and north of Storm's End.

After receiving the remnants of Stannis's forces, who had been coerced by Florent soldiers, as well as slave-catching parties from Pentos, the strength of the troops under young Aegon had increased considerably.

"It is between 15,000 and 18,000. The cavalry and archers are quite elite, and the elephant corps is also very difficult to deal with."

Mathos Rowan gave his assessment.

This was a fact; the Golden Company's cavalry system inherited from Westeros, still following the set of knights and attendants.

But in nearly a hundred years of fighting, this mercenary company had abandoned the pedantic wedge-formation lance charge of the Western Continent, changing to using polearms to crush enemy phalanxes from the side.

As for the archers, this mercenary company was far ahead of the Westerosi.

The strongest archers in the known world were supposed to be the archers from the Sheng Xia Qun Dao; they used double-curved goldenheart wood longbows, which were said to be able to shoot arrows over 400 yards away.

One must know that the distance at which cavalry start their charge is only 100 yards, which meant that when cavalry approached such archers, they were sitting ducks for nearly 300 yards.

The good news was that the Golden Company's thousand-plus archers were not all Summer Islanders; the bad news was that among these 1,000 elite archers, everyone from officers to Master-at-arms were Summer Islanders.

"Their arrows shoot even further than the longbows of the Dothraki, and our archers are still far inferior to the Dothraki."

Bruce Buckler sighed like this.

Anguy Bracken, who was beside the King, said disdainfully: "Even their archer commander Hei Ba Qu only shoots far; when it comes to accuracy, we Dornishmen are much stronger than the Summer Islanders."

He was most proud of his own archery, so he looked down upon the officers' behavior of bragging about the Golden Company's archers.

"Archers are not a big problem; we have large crossbows to suppress them."

Arthur had once ordered the craftsmen of King's Landing to develop high-powered crossbows, and by the time he headed south, there were already several improved products, which should be no problem for dealing with the Golden Company.

The King waved his hand, signaling the Reachmen to continue introducing other aspects.

"Young Aegon is currently at Storm's End, and the main force of the Golden Company, the commander, and several deputy commanders are also there. However, there are quite a few officers with hundred-man-level troops stationed on the Kingsroad leading from Bronzegate to Storm's End. As for the few castles captured in the south, the garrisons should not be large."

PS: Seeking recommendation votes and monthly tickets.