Chapter 209 Battle of the Blood Sea (Before the Battle)

"Redwyne's fleet finally came over slowly." Ironborn raider "Stonehand" said excitedly, "Zeifeng, we are right. It's a pity that the son of Leyton Hightower in Oldtown never came out of the Whispering Bay. It’s a pity, it’s a pity.”

"Left Hand" Lucas Corder let out an evil laugh: "The Drowned God, the Storm God, whoever they were, were all fed by the Crow's Eye with sacrifices, and became a big fat man." He felt a little resentful. , "Words are like wind, only blood has power. If we had known this sooner, we would have restored the Iron Islands to their former glory!"

During the Age of the First Men, under the rule of the High King of the Iron Islands, the Ironborn's sphere of influence extended south to the Arbor Island and north to the Bear Island. Even the Riverlands were part of the Ironborn's rule. At that time, the King of the Iron Islands It is divided into the Rock King who controls the land and the Sea Salt King who controls the sea.

However, as the King of the Iron Islands gradually declined in power, they eventually lost the Arbor and were expelled by the Gardener King and the Tower King. After Aegon's conquest, the riverlands were directly cut off.

Being around Euron and seeing his many magical methods, their ambitions expanded rapidly.

The more enthusiastic "Red Oarsman" laughed: "Old glory? King Euron promised us that we will gain the whole world!"

"Brownfang" Torvald spat: "Damn it, if you know that throwing sacrifices into the sea can win one victory after another, no matter the Drowned God or the Storm God, I have already done this!"

"It's not Crow's Eye, we don't understand those rituals either!"

"So, choosing him as the king is the right choice."

After "converting" to Euron, these people were the most fanatical ironborn predators. They didn't care what means Euron used to win, and they didn't care whether he was evil or not. They only care about victory itself and the spoils.

And Euron has shown them his strength.

"Bring them up." With that, Brownfang called on his crew to escort a group of religious people to the deck. Among these clergy, there are monks of the Seven Gods, priests of the Red God, priests of the Drowned God, as well as moonsingers and wizards from the East. Priests from almost all religions can be found here.

Some of these religious figures had their legs broken, some had their eyes gouged out, and some had their tongues pulled out. The torture they suffered was different, but what they had in common was that they were all tortured into shapes that were not human, with bones and bones erect, and their skin was pale. His body was covered in bruises, and his wounds were cracked and pus leaked.

Blown by the west wind, these people smelled of blood and stench.

On the bow and stern of the ship is King Euron's new banner: a blood-red eye with black pupils, and above it is an iron crown held up by two ravens. That red eye looks like a devil's eye.

Euron said that there is power in the blood of religious people who have religious blood.

Euron stood on the deck wearing his corrugated steel armor, stretched out his hand to feel the direction of the wind, and a smile appeared in his one eye with satisfaction.

"Your Majesty," said Brownfang, "the priests have been brought here. What do you plan to do with them?"

"Tie them all to the bow." The King of the Iron Islands ordered. "My brother is tied to my Serenity. You choose one yourself, and let them throw the dice to divide the rest. One for each ship. The time is almost up."

The crew tied the king's brother Aeron "Damphair", the priest of the Drowned God, with wet leather ropes and tied them in a tight knot, leaving no trace of his body.

Euron showed no emotion towards his brother from beginning to end. He has already tried parricide three times, so it doesn't matter if he does it one more time. There is no punishment from the gods in this world. Before hiring the Faceless Men to kill King Balon, Euron had killed two other brothers when he was very young.

At that time, he was very curious about what the god who would come to punish him with parricide would look like, and how he would come to him and knock him down.

The first brother Euron killed was Haron Greyjoy, the first son of his father Coron Greyjoy. Halon suffered from greyscale and his mouth could not make any sound. Euron, who was only seven or eight years old at the time, covered Halon's mouth and nose to suffocate him. After watching Haroon's eyes die in panic and prayer. Euron went outside and peed into the sea, waiting for the Drowned God to inflict punishment. But nothing happened.

After that, after having a little understanding of the occult. Euron also killed Robin Greyjoy, the only son of his father, Lord Coron's third wife, Lady Piper. The child was frail and sick, and was a freak. No one cared about him even after he died.

Aeron is the fourth, but he won't be the last.

By the time Aeron was tied to the bow of the ship, the sacrifices to the captains had been distributed. The Crow's Eye gave the order again, the black sails were raised, the Serenity furled the anchor, cut the cables, and sailed slowly under the west wind.

The fleet waiting for Serenity to leave took the lead. Euron walked leisurely to Aeron: "Brother, you look really lonely and pitiful alone. Don't worry, my brother has prepared a gift for you."

He turned around and signaled that his two illegitimate sons dragged a naked woman who had her clothes stripped off to the bow, and then tied her to the other side of the bow. The woman's face was white and purple, her mouth was bleeding, and she was crying. When the illegitimate children tied her up, she didn't struggle at all. Her eyes were full of disbelief and panic. Her belly was slightly bulging, and she was obviously pregnant.

That's Euron's seed.

Yes, Euron needed his seed.

Crow's Eye specifically impregnated Faria Flowers only after he became king, precisely because he needed the power of the king's blood.

Crow's Eye watched from the bow of the ship as the bastards finished all this, and walked to the side of the ship with satisfaction, looking towards the gray-green sea.

But under the Serenity ship, a huge shadow accompanied the Serenity with its sails raised all the way forward under the gray-green sea.

He turned around and saw that where the trebuchet was originally placed on the bow of the ship was a black stone tablet stained with dried blood.

Euron nodded with satisfaction, everything was ready, and a new god would be born in the sea of ​​blood.

And this new god who will be born from the sea of ​​blood is named Euron the Crow's Eye.

——

The sky was covered with thunder and lightning, and the strong west wind made Sir Desmond uneasy.

They gradually approached the sea area that His Majesty King Targaryen sent a letter to, and the increasingly fierce west wind seemed very abnormal. In any stormy weather, the wind direction should be chaotic, but today's storm was blowing from the west wind, pure West wind.

It has always been a west wind blowing from the direction of the Sunset Sea.

Desmond began to believe that an ambush was really coming from the west, because if the wind blew in this direction, even if the attacker set off from more than ten leagues away, he could reach the battlefield at a speed that Desmond could not imagine.

He has now followed the king's order to prepare the formation of the fleet heading north to defend against a western attack.

The sailing array was changed to five rows. On the far left were ten ramming ships with strong rams, while the other four rows were widely spread out. Inside the fleet were long-range attack ships and troop transports equipped with ballistas and trebuchets. It is a landing ship with fast side attack ships and long ships on the outside.

Desmond has basically arranged the array in an array that can turn to the west at any time to launch an attack. He has placed the strongest ramming ship on the far west side so that when an enemy attack is discovered, the ramming ship can directly become the spearhead of the charge.

But the west wind is still blowing

Desmond knew very well that just by paddling, Collider could not build up the momentum to unleash the most effective attack.

On the contrary, if the enemy uses the wind direction to rush into the fleet formation, it may cause huge losses to the fleet.

And there were storms.

It's never a good idea to hoist a full sail in a storm.

Desmond was also confused. If the Ironborn really wanted to ambush, why would they choose a stormy day when neither side could show its due strength?

The sea was filled with roars and shouts, the trilling of trumpets, drums, and flutes, and the sound of thousands of wooden oars rising and falling against the water.

"Hold the line," Desmond shouted to the messenger. He was in the row of ships and found that the current sailing array was very uncomfortable for everyone. After sailing like this for most of the day, there had been several problems with the array being disconnected or almost causing a collision.

A shout came from the observation deck on the ship: "Commander! I saw a bay with smoke rising from it!"

Desmond breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this and silently prayed to the gods. In the letter, Viserys asked the fleet to sail all the way until they saw the bay with smoke rising. He asked Desmond and his fleet to make a show of temporarily anchoring to avoid the storm.

If there are no enemies, just wait here for a day.

If you spot an enemy, wait until the east wind blows before hoisting your sails.

Desmond ordered the fleet to stop and start a new round of formation. He ordered the battleships to turn to the west, and placed the first line of battle against ten ships with three hundred oars and twenty ships with two hundred oars, each forty yards apart.

After that, the second array was composed of two hundred oars and some large ships of the hundred oar class. This array was commanded by knights and noble captains.

The third row behind them are small, fast longships and attack ships, each with no more than eighty oars.

The innermost ships still have their sails spread. They are large merchant ships and bulky cargo ships, and they are supply ships. Ser Desmond's ship was in the second line.

No enemy sightings were seen on the western sea surface, and the waiting made people anxious. The trumpets in the fleet sounded, and each ship was still moving slowly to its designated area according to the formation.

Before the imaginary enemy ship appeared in the west, Sir Desmond first received a report from the longship that went to the bay to find the source of the smoke.

There was no fleet or a large number of military horses hidden in the bay, only His Majesty the King's three dragons were resting in the shelter of the bay. The reporter said that the king's dragon was resting under the cliff of the bay to take shelter from the wind, and that the smoke was rising from the dragon. However, the waves in the bay were too big, and the ships going there could not find a landing place and could not get close to the landing. Go to where the king is.

And the king is actually very far away.

Wangshan is a dead horse.

The scout ship that entered the bay didn't know what to do for a while, so it had no choice but to come back and ask Sir Desmond what to do.

Sir Desmond thought for a while: "Then don't worry about it. Let them all come back and enter the ship formation. If His Majesty the King has other requirements, he will let us know."

Rumble.

Under the strong west wind, after a round of thunder, the dark clouds rolled and finally it rained heavily.

Visibility at sea suddenly became blurry as heavy rain fell.

Rumble, click.

Suddenly, the thunder and lightning on the sea became rapid and terrifying.

Sir Desmond suddenly felt uneasy, as if thunder was above his head, and he felt that the warship seemed to have entered a thunderstorm area.

Under the attack of the storm, the sky seemed to have entered night.

The thunder and lightning in the sky were terrifying, the lightning flashes tore through the sky, and the roar of thunder was like exploding in the ears.

Many people feel their ears ringing.

Some people even saw the white light of lightning falling on the sea not far from the ship.

Amidst the rumbling, Sir Desmond even faintly heard human voices screaming.

Desmond asked loudly: "What's wrong!"

Soon, someone reported: "A ship on the left wing was hit by lightning and its mast was broken!"

"A ship on the right wing was also struck by lightning!"

"The first column collided with a ship and was ignited by lightning, and the cargo hold was ignited!"

Desmond felt truly uneasy amidst the crackling thunder.

Crack!

With a loud noise, the sky seemed to be torn apart, and the thunder fell on the ship next to Sir Desmond's Ocean Star.

A white smoke rose from the deck, which was quickly extinguished by the rain.

Rumble, crack!

The thunder and lightning were still emitting terrifying power, constantly making loud noises in Sir Desmond's ears.

Desmond felt as if he had strayed into the temple of a god.

Thunder roared and lightning roared.

All of this was so strange and unusual.

The rain was getting heavier, and the lightning and thunderstorms became more unpredictable and violent. Desmond looked at the wildest area of ​​the thunderstorm in the captain's room with fear.

And that area was on the sea not far from the first formation of the fleet.

Desmond felt like he was in a dream, because the lightning in that place fell frequently, and a forest of electric light composed of lightning branches was briefly formed between the sky.

The horrifying scene made Desmond dry his mouth.

The knight squire beside Desmond asked in shock, his voice trembling: "Sir, what's going on there?"

Desmond swallowed his saliva: "We must have accidentally entered the thunderstorm area." He prayed secretly: God bless you.

Desmond didn't dare to imagine another possibility.

That area was like two gods wrestling in a place they couldn't see.

Gradually, from some unknown time, the thunder and lightning became sparse, and the rainstorm gradually became smaller.

Suddenly, the squire looked up at the sky in horror: "Sir, the clouds in the sky"

Sir Desmond looked up, and under his gaze, the dark clouds in the sky were flying towards the east at an unimaginable speed, but the incredible thing was that the westerly wind on the sea was slowly subsiding.

Before Sir Desmond thought about what this incredible celestial phenomenon meant.

Ah woo woo woo——

Ah woo woo woo——

Through the surging waves, the sound of the horn resounded throughout the entire fleet. Sir Desmond knew very well that the order from the ship ahead was a warning of the enemy, which meant: enemy attack.

Ah woo woo woo——

More than two hundred warships were spread out in the bay in an array that stretched for several miles, and the horns were transmitted from one ship to another. The rumbling sound of drums rang out.

Although the fleet that had just experienced the thunderstorm still maintained its formation, the thunderstorm just now hit many warships in the team, and several masts of the ships were broken, and the sails were destined to be unable to be raised. Now it has caused congestion in the array.

Desmond was only glad that he had separated the ships far enough when he was lining up before, with a distance of 40 yards between each ship, which was twice as wide as the previous march, so that he would not lose his position when he was panicked and responded to the enemy.

The flag soldiers and buglers responsible for issuing orders had already climbed up to the lookout on the mast, and the bugler shouted down: "It's Greyjoy!"

Desmond walked out of the captain's room, came to the high place on the deck, and took out a telescope to observe.

There was no need for the trumpeter to pass on the message. He had already seen a large number of ships appearing on the western sea. Their ships were all hoisting their sails, and on the masts were the sea monster of Greyjoy, the blood moon of the Winch family, and the war horn of the Cooper family. These were the family emblems of the Iron Islands.

And they had unknowingly approached, only two miles away from the first line of the fleet.

This was already the distance for naval engagement in this era.

Desmond had no time to think about how the other side marched in the storm and why they approached the fleet so quickly.

He could only follow his battlefield instincts and issue an order: "Order the whole team, prepare to engage the enemy!"

The messenger followed and shouted: "Prepare to engage the enemy!"

Woo woo woo. The trumpeter began to blow the horn.

Wow woo woo. The flagman began to wave the flag.

The deputy captain and the boatswain ran to the deck at some point and asked in panic: "Commander, should we order the whole army to raise the sail according to the king's order?"

Desmond stretched out his finger to feel the leeward direction. The westerly wind was getting weaker and weaker.

Looking up, the clouds in the sky were being sucked to the east at a very strange speed.

This meant that the wind direction on the sea and in the sky was incredibly different at this moment.

Desmond had never seen such a strange situation in his life. He hesitated for a moment, turned his head to look at the bay in the east, and finally issued an order resolutely: "Pass the order down, all the troops set sail!"

The messenger roared: "All the troops set sail!"

The trumpet sounded again, and the flag bearer waved the flag again.

As the trumpet sounded from ship to ship, all the ships on the two wings finally received the order.

And as the order was passed to the entire army.

One ship after another raised the sails.

The drumbeats accelerated.

On the deck, the infantrymen came to their respective positions, some hit the shield with swords, some operated the crossbow, and the archers quickly set the bowstring and drew feather arrows from the quiver on their waists.

Desmond drew out his long sword, and suddenly, he found that the hair of the servant beside him was floating gently to the west.

Then, he saw the flag that had just been raised on the bow undulate slightly and slowly turn its direction.

Desmond looked at the flag intently, watching a corner of the flag slowly turn to the west in the breeze.

The wind gradually got stronger.

The flag was driven to rise slowly, and the direction was exactly to the west.

There was no time to think about what happened to all the strange things that happened today. Sir Desmond swung his sword and roared an order: "All troops attack!"