Chapter 282 Sparks

Although it became extremely difficult to spread the news in Westeros after the Long Night, the news of what happened in King's Landing, a city with special significance in the hearts of Westeros people, after the invasion of the White Walkers, spread to all the war zones in Westeros at a very fast speed under the spread of "interested people".

The news spread from several cities with glass candle communications to the ears of the dignitaries through the mouths of the rulers, and then to the ears of the knights' army through the dignitaries, and then to the ears of the trained militia, and finally to the extent that everyone knew it.

King's Landing was used as a typical case by Viserys to educate local supervisors. Although this big city was once attacked by the army of White Walkers, the losses caused by the White Walkers were less than half of the losses caused by the chaos in the city. The city's internal defense measures were insufficient, there were no planned street fighting defense measures at all, there were no planned wildfires and fuel reserves, and there was no plan for blind arson, and there were no fire prevention measures in the city. A series of problems eventually led to King's Landing burning half of the city into ruins directly under the pressure of the White Walkers because of various blind responses like headless flies.

Even a strong fortress like the Red Keep was caused by human disasters. Half of the former majestic palace of King's Landing was burned down in the wildfire. Even the main part of the main fortress, Maegor's Holdfast, was burned down by the fire. The throne room is still buried under the ruins. It is said that the last king and queen mother of Baratheon are still buried in it, and they are probably dead.

It's ridiculous. According to current statistics, dozens of nobles in King's Landing died or disappeared in the wildfire of the Red Keep, but there is no record of being killed by wights.

What's even more outrageous is the blind riot and escape of civilians in the south of the city. The mob robbed the city gate, opened the city gate and fled south, but attracted the impact of the wights.

From the results, except for the extreme northern part of Steel Street and Muddy Road in the south of the city, the rest of the place was not affected by the fire at all. When His Majesty the King arrived, there was no wight wave. They could have survived by just staying at home. However, because of their "self-rescue", nearly 10,000 people drowned and froze to death in the Blackwater River. Many people were trampled to death or injured during the crowded escape, and were killed by looting.

The exact number of deaths in King's Landing has not been counted yet, but according to the current rumors, the result may be shocking.

It is said that His Majesty Viserys has now taken over King's Landing, summoned the 2,000 soldiers in the southern storm land who were originally responsible for controlling the King's Road to receive refugees and the 3,000 mercenaries of the Golden Group who controlled the important trade routes on the side, and the town of Heshitang drew 1,000 new soldiers, a total of 6,000 people, to King's Landing to take over the mess.

There is accurate news that most of the north and east of King's Landing were burned to a scorched land, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced and homeless, and their lives and property were burned. These people can only live in temporary shanty towns and the scorched land of some nobles' mansions. From Bitterbridge, Tengshi Town, Bronzegate City, Stone Town, Targaryen's food and grass are running at full speed through the long night to King's Landing.

What caught everyone in King's Landing off guard was that Viserys left King's Landing for less than two days after the war ended and rushed to the battlefield in the Valley.

It is reported that after Viserys briefly coordinated the situation in King's Landing, he quickly handed over the management and logistics of King's Landing to Davos of Stormland - the fire captain pulled in based on the principle of proximity, and the military was fully handed over to Earl Bruce of Bronzegate City - who was also temporarily pushed out. Bronzegate City is now under the jurisdiction of the crown, which is Viserys's cultivation of the newly promoted direct lord.

Viserys' attitude is very obvious. He regards King's Landing as just an ordinary city and does not think it has much political significance.

This makes many old King's Landing people who have a sense of superiority in the royal city feel very uncomfortable, and even the Church of the Seven Gods is somewhat unbalanced. Viserys only expressed his symbolic respect for the passing of the Archbishop, and did not even bother with the election of the new Archbishop.

King Targaryen expressed only one attitude towards the so-called church center. That is, the Warrior Sons are illegal armed forces, but in extraordinary times, fighting against the White Walkers is the top priority, and they can be adapted as independent militia armed forces.

What made the Church even more disappointed was that after Viserys expressed his attitude, he left King's Landing and rushed to other battlefields without even waiting for the Church to symbolically pull him. The Church could only wait for Davos, the acting head of the King's Landing Army who was heading to King's Landing, to conduct the next round of negotiations.

As the wars in various places ended, a report entitled "Gains and Losses in Defending Wars in Various Places - Our Experiences and Lessons" was issued from Oldtown, and was rushed by fast horses from various military stations and post stations in the southern border. In just half a month, it was delivered to the Westerlands, Stormlands, Dorne and King's Territory, including the King's Landing dignitaries and commanders of various lines. Among them, the city defense measures in King's Landing and the subsequent reactions of the garrisons and civilians received the key instructions of "garrisons and civilians in all places must take warning".

These are the more realistic parts.

In this battle of King's Landing, there are also some more mysterious parts.

It is rumored that after the fall of King's Landing, many people saw strange phenomena in the sky. The explanation given by the Church afterwards was "the warrior appeared", and many people who took refuge in the Great Sept of Baelor at that time said this. But the civilians who were not present at the time believed that it was a manifestation of King Viserys's power before rescuing King's Landing.

Some people combined the two and rumored that "His Majesty the King riding a three-headed dragon is a warrior in the world", but this rumor has not caused any big waves so far, and the scope of dissemination is still very small. After all, compared with other information, this rumor sounds a bit out of touch with reality, like an exaggerated ballad by a bard describing the king's bravery.

But what is meaningful is that the Church of King's Landing kept silent about these rumors and deliberately did not let these rumors sink. At the same time, it was collecting what the people of King's Landing saw at that time.

It can only be said that this news, which sounds the most mysterious to others, is the news that Viserys cares about the most, is still fermenting.

Of course, Viserys is not just waiting for nothing. He is now deliberately keeping a distance from the Church of King's Landing. In the eyes of outsiders, this is because the king is dissatisfied with the illegal armed forces of the Sons of Warriors, and it is faintly revealed that he is re-supporting the Starry Cathedral as the center of the Seven Gods. In fact, it is to put pressure on the bishops and monks of the Seven Gods in the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing, so that they can "think about change". Viserys did not directly interfere with the election of the Archbishop, and it is the same reason to let them "find a way out" by themselves.

Of course, if they do not interfere on the surface, Viserys's small actions in secret are inevitable.

For example, when they think of Viserys and the warriors together, the bishop will give some positive feedback to some pious and important monks through the established pan-faith connection.

These people will sooner or later produce the Pavlov effect.

Borrowing chickens to lay eggs and using a substitute for a dead person is a slow and meticulous process, and Viserys cannot rush it.

The practice of directly granting power to believers with sufficient spiritual power through faith is too cheap. They must be allowed to unravel the mystery and feel that it is their piety to the gods, asceticism, and intelligence that have obtained the will of the gods. Only then will they regard the oracle they have received as the criterion.

Speaking of this, Viserys could not help but envy the Cold God. Compared with his exhausting work, the Cold God's development of believers is not too simple, just killing and converting, simple and direct, straightforward, and amazingly efficient.

However, in this war, King's Landing was not a victory, and the Vale and Riverlands were both defeated - the Twin Rivers and Seafront in Riverlands had been lost, and the garrisons and civilians in the two places were all killed. The Iron Oak City and Red Fort in the Vale had also fallen, and only a few people fled to Seagull Town. A large number of nobles and civilians in the Vale who learned of the crisis in the Vale were migrating to Runestone City and Seagull Town in the cold night and the threat of the wights. More civilians and small nobles who had no information sources at all died quietly under the impact of the wight tide and were transformed into part of the wight tide.

In this battle, Viserys and the White Walker army were slightly at a disadvantage overall.

The Great Wall and the North can only be regarded as a draw, and the Vale and the Riverlands were defeated.

The White Walker army was tricked by Viserys at the Great Wall, otherwise it might not be a draw.

This matter can be traced back to the victory of Viserys in the first counterattack. He risked freezing to death in the cold night and transferred the main force and armor transport troops of the Second Regiment to the Great Wall, and began to conduct new training for the defenders of the Great Wall. Although it had not formed enough combat power when it was engaged in the battle, the Second Regiment still became an unexpected surprise for the White Walkers.

After Viserys showed up at the Great Wall, he immediately rushed to King's Landing to fight for his career. After King's Landing appeared, as expected, the White Walkers on the Great Wall immediately launched an attack, fiercely attacking the Great Wall, and even dispatched the magic ice dragon. This attack was very fierce and once posed a threat to the Great Wall. It was still a classic re-enactment of the first battle. The first regiment attacked the ice dragon summoner from a distance. The White Walker commander played a trick and summoned a second ice dragon to attack during the period.

Although the formation of the second regiment was not yet mature, it still cooperated when it engaged in the battle. Although it took a lot of time, causing the beacon tower that had collapsed once to collapse for the second time, it was at least successful in smashing the ice dragon after arriving at the battlefield, and did not cause a larger area of ​​collapse.

The only pity is that the first regiment only forced the summoner back outside the city and failed to complete the kill, otherwise it could be regarded as a small victory in the direction of the Great Wall.

Although the beacon tower collapsed for the second time, the cold wind of the cold god blew in more. But Viserys thought that the Great Wall had not been lost during his three days away, and his performance was already very good. As the Second World War gradually becomes combat-ready, the formation of a survey unit led entirely by the Thunderstorm Knights can begin.

This army is more resistant to cold and more combat-ready than ordinary armies. The defenders of the Great Wall can already bear certain losses and send personnel to places farther away from the Great Wall to scout the movements of the White Walker army. In this way, the defenders can know the gathering location and movements of the White Walker army earlier than now, guess the attack direction of the White Walker army, and effectively distribute the defenders of the Great Wall, so that they don't have to wait for the zombies to attack every time before the reserve team starts to move.

The current support response time of the Great Wall is six to twelve big hours, and the general reserve support takes half a day to one day and night. Although the defenders believe that such a response speed is already unique and unparalleled in the world, the response to the news is always delayed and very passive. Viserys can't stand the current situation that his Great Wall, which has the strongest defense force, can only raise his fist to fight back every time the White Walkers attack.

Although it sounds outrageous, the fact is that the sign of the end of the second full-scale attack by the White Walkers was that Viserys resolved the crisis in King's Landing, relieved Gulltown in the Vale, and then went north to scare away the White Walker army besieging White Harbor, and finally returned to the Wall.

From another perspective, the White Walker commander-in-chief respected and valued Viserys greatly, and had to see him before he would stop on other fronts after having achieved local victories. He would even rather cause unnecessary losses to confirm Viserys's location.

But this attack on the White Walkers that swept most of Westeros has actually exposed some problems. There are many armies of the White Walkers, but they are too scattered, and I don’t know if the Battle of White Harbor was overshadowed by Viserys. The troops they deployed on local battlefields are no longer such a large, centralized legion. , but there is an obvious hierarchy and division of labor.

The bad news is that the White Walkers may have tasted the benefits in the north and began to use trebuchets on various battlefields.

You know, building equipment such as trebuchets is very time-consuming, but Viserys judged from the equipment outside the city that the White Walkers' attack on King's Landing took time to move logs and equipment from elsewhere. The current large-scale Trebuchet.

But it is also a blessing, because the corpse servants of the White Walkers have no way to use fire to assist in tanning logs to make roller skates, cranks and wheels. The large trebuchets they built abandoned miniaturization, mobility and precision, and the equipment was huge and primitive. And bulky. This means that sooner or later they will run out of components taken from trebuchets elsewhere, and they can't make those things on their own, so the White Walkers use one less trebuchet. Viserys specifically mentioned this discovery in his summary of the war, and gave advice to the army fighting the White Walkers: When defeated, try to destroy the roller skates and wheels on one's own trebuchets. If you find any when you win, The catapults in the White Walkers' camp should also be destroyed as much as possible.

As this round of fighting ended, all of Westeros fell into a brief period of silence.

You don't need to think about it to know that during the silent period, the White Walker army must be killing and transforming in the wild, and deploying troops on the large battlefield to prepare for the next round of attack. At the same time, humans can only sadly enter a long and excruciating waiting period for the next round of attack by the White Walkers' army.

There was silence in the general direction, but there were endless small fights all over the place.

During the Battle of King's Landing, Viserys caught the White Walkers off guard. The White Walkers' troops attacking King's Landing were almost completely defeated by him. The army they managed to save to besiege King's Landing lost at least 70%. It would be difficult to attack King's Landing and the White Walkers in the short term. The eastern foot of Shitang Town poses a threat. However, the dispersed White Walkers resumed their tactics and continued to commit evil in some remote mountain forests and human gathering areas. Even part of the zombie wave that was defeated in the Battle of King's Landing crossed the Blackwater River and entered the northern part of the Southern Border.

During the long night, a military station along the cold supply line to Shitang Town was once attacked by a scattered wave of zombies. Although this contact battle without warning did not cause many casualties, it still caused a stir among the defenders along the line. There was a very strong reaction. Military depots, inns and militia groups felt as if they were facing a powerful enemy. Every patrol and reconnaissance team had their eyes widened.

The pioneers of the alien invasion also learned a lesson from human gathering points such as military depots. The tide of zombies that fled from the battlefield of King's Landing into the Reach no longer attacked human gathering points with uniform standards and styles such as military depots and inns. Instead, they In the rivers, valleys, and northern areas, we began to search for civilian gathering places such as farmers' and tenants' villages, fishing villages, and so on.

During this period of time, several patrol teams in the Tengshi Town and Kuqiao areas reported that uncertain shadows appeared and disappeared in abandoned villages and mountains.

By this time, Viserys estimated that the White Walkers' advance team would have discovered that the South was different from other places. Because of the news coming from various military stations, Viserys judged that the tide of corpses entering the Reach did not choose to continue deeper into the south, but turned eastward, probably walking along the plains of the Blue Boon River, heading towards the royal forest and the storm area of ​​the king's territory. Go deeper.

This is the benefit of having battlefield information.

Even though Viserys could not accurately find the specific location of the corpse tide, from the distributed military stations and inns, when the number of corpse tides was insufficient and the Cold God's magic power was not suppressed, Viserys could sense the clues through his distributed faith points. Roughly determine the movement of the corpse tide. In this way, in the name of war preparation, he could prepare the fortresses and sites in the Kingswood area such as Fort Felwood and Hay Hall in advance to guard against possible raids.

Fortunately, although the southern border has also entered the long night, most areas are still covered by the warm current from the land of midsummer.

It's just a pity that the advantages brought by the Long Night to the Cold God and the White Walkers have not yet reached their peak. Non-magical power, high-pressure cold air masses that will naturally form will gradually form in the plateau area as the Long Night covers them, and then these cold air masses will bring a great impact to the Reach. Even Dorne brought waves of cold waves that were part of the power of nature. The planet's deflection and rotation has stopped not long ago. As the planet changes, a new climate environment is forming in this world. It will take several months to a few years to form a new climate and atmospheric circulation environment.

Only when the climate stabilizes will people know how cold it will be after the long nights arrive and where the new snow line will spread.

What surprised Viserys was that after two rounds of fierce attacks in Westeros, the White Walkers' attack seemed to slow down.

After capturing the Twins and Seaside City in the river, the White Walkers only concentrated their forces to attack the Fairy Market in the river. Then the troops stopped in front of Raventree Castle and Stonehedge City, and did not even attack Riverrun City. Conduct a siege. Viserys had prepared for the fall of most of the Riverlands, but the news would only be kept with him and would not be spread to others, but as a result, the offensive in the Riverlands was suspended.

The zombie tide seemed to have grasped Viserys's defense strategy through the advance teams in the river and the south, and then responded, focusing instead on places where Viserys had no effective defense.

In this way, the valley and the eastern part of the Hejian-Kingdom have become the hardest-hit areas by the zombie tide after the northern territory.

In this regard, except for large castles such as Runestone City and large cities such as Seagull Town, which have sufficient troops and Viserys may be able to rescue them if necessary, Viserys is also helpless in other places.

One thing that makes Viserys happy and sad at the same time is that the zombie tide has begun to penetrate into some deep mountains and valleys in the slowest way that Viserys had hoped to invade, killing and transforming remote areas. Fortunately, this will be greatly alleviated. The zombie tide is attacking across the board, but sadly, many places will become no man's land from then on, with no life left.

And this also means that when the White Walkers attack the area where Viserys has taken defensive measures next, it will be a long-awaited battle and a heavy blow.

Westeros continues to cool down after entering the long night. Every trace of temperature remaining in the atmosphere is being extracted bit by bit over time. The naturally formed cold air and cold wave are advancing southward every moment. Even The God's Eye, the largest inland lake in central Westeros, has begun to freeze naturally.

The snowfall line moved south quickly, and even the old town, which had not seen snow for thousands of years, received a sleet after entering the long night. Although the falling snow did not form snow, it quickly melted into slush.

Even in the area near Highgarden, the outside of the fortress is becoming a cold land that is difficult for humans to set foot on. The space for patrols is being compressed every day, and the transportation of materials is becoming more and more difficult day by day. Overland transportation is becoming more and more time-consuming. The longer it goes on, the more transport troops will begin to prepare mentally for non-combat attrition.

And Viserys also felt the dilemma of the Three-Eyed Raven.

His battlefield reconnaissance capabilities in the northern reaches of the Reach were gradually reduced to a small area between transport routes and waystations.

Every day, Viserys gained new insights into the "long snake formation", a formation that could only be arranged along transportation and supply lines. As the weather became colder, Viserys finally made up his mind and issued an instruction: If there is no precise enemy intelligence, when the supply line is attacked, the defenders of each site are prohibited from going out for rescue, and only large armies with Thunderstorm armor are allowed to prepare. Provide rescue when sufficient.

And Viserys has made up his mind that such "rescue" will only be carried out when supply lines must be activated, so in many cases, sites under attack will never wait for reinforcements. Their role is Viserys's marking lights and reconnaissance posts on the battlefield, the roots of Viserys's thinking tentacles extending outward, and necessary victims of the overall situation of Viserys' war.

"I must say, Viserys, I am shocked by your plans for the Cult of the Seven. If R'hllor expands his faith in a softer way like you, maybe he can keep Qohor."

Viserys looked at the sudden appearance of the Three-Eyed Raven, and was distracted by controlling the dreams and perceptions of the followers of the Seven Gods, while also distracted by dealing with the Three-Eyed Raven: "Qohor was lost?"

"It should be said that it is not surprising." The three-eyed crow said, "The messenger of the Red God was taken to Norvos by the suspicious soldiers of the alien god. When the army of alien ghosts came to the city, the restorers of the Black Goat Sect of Qohor were still fighting against the Red God. They fought guerrillas in the sewers and slums, and the mercenary group guarding the side gate collapsed when they saw the situation was wrong, and directly seized the boat and fled from the Qinn River. This move triggered the powerful people to flee. The city was in chaos. As the Red Hand's main force ascended the walls, the wights poured into the city from the port. Unfortunately, there was no god in Qhor to come to his aid."

Viserys thought for a while and asked: "What kind of suspicious soldier can take away the messenger of the Red God?" He had seen the speed of the messenger and did not doubt its destructive power.

"Ice dragon." The three-eyed crow paused, "The summoner rides on the ice dragon on the dragon's back."

Viserys narrowed his eyes: "New type of enemy?"

"They just don't dare to act like this in front of a god with your speed and destructive power."

Viserys felt worried: "The ice dragon appears south of the Great Wall. Is this a sign that the cold god's power has reached a certain level in the south?"

"You don't have to worry too much. That kind of magic consumes a lot of money. If he uses it to conquer the small cities in Westeros, he will gain more than he loses. If he is unfortunately wiped out by you, he will lose everything. He will not be willing to use it on the small cities in Westeros. ”

The major city-states in Essos are all large cities with a population larger than that of King's Landing in its heyday. In terms of income alone, the income from capturing a large city in Essos far exceeds the population conversion achieved by the White Walkers in the north. Thinking of this, Viserys had a very distorted feeling. He couldn't help but ask the Three-Eyed Crow: "Is the White Walkers' main attack direction at this stage Essos?"

The Three-Eyed Crow did not deny: "The Great Wall of Westeros is also their main attack direction."

This is not surprising. Although Westeros was attacked first, judging from the strength and the speed of its fall, Essos may have prepared more troops.

Viserys had a strange idea in his mind.

Perhaps there was an oversight in Cold God's initial pre-war arrangements, because he was too focused on the western front of Westeros due to Viserys's interference, although he achieved his early strategic goals. Didn't get the best situation He wanted.

The more Viserys thought about it, the more it made sense. Discovering the strategic omissions in the general direction of Cold God, Viserys suddenly felt that the pressure since the beginning of the war suddenly eased a lot. Although Han Shen has weather and intelligence advantages, he still makes mistakes. Making mistakes means that the other party also has to rack their brains to calculate the gains and losses on the battlefield.

Although this discovery did not change the situation at all, for some reason, Viserys's chances of winning the final victory that he had been calculating in his heart were much greater.