Compared to the two earth shattering battles that occurred on land and sea in the past two weeks, the process of the defense and attack on King's Landing was rather uneventful.
As one of the Seven Kingdoms, the structure and terrain of this city were no longer secrets. After a long siege, the city's defenses and weak points had been thoroughly scouted. The attacking side's morale was at its peak, while the defending side's was at rock bottom. With the faint threat and pressure from the Riverlands and Westerlands behind them not completely gone, a protracted war was clearly not the preferred option.
"No foreplay, one wave to finish it," this was the guideline and principle set by Daenerys's side for this battle.
The Unsullied who had been loaded onto the fleet a few days prior did not have time to return to their original positions, so they simply rested briefly at sea for a day before landing at the destroyed former Royal Fleet naval base on the shore and attacking the Steel Gate. In this way, the over 30,000 siege troops were simultaneously committed to the battlefield, maximizing their numerical advantage. They launched a general assault from both sea and land, from all directions at once, using the long front line to stretch and pin the thinly spread defenders on the various city walls, then suddenly clenched their fist and struck hard, launching a surprise explosive attack on the weak points of the city gates, breaching the city in one go.
A simple, mindless, but effective tactic.
Among the seven city gates, the River Gate, Gods' Gate, and Dragon Gate collapsed with a boom in the first round of explosions. The Steel Gate, being the most recently repaired, miraculously survived the devastation of the powder, while the remaining three gates successfully prevented the demolition teams from approaching through the fierce fighting of the defenders. However, due to the complete absence of reinforcements and the King's delayed orders, their morale collapsed, and upon hearing that the city had been breached, they either fled or surrendered.
The city's military function was limited. Once the gates were breached, it could basically be declared lost. Daenerys wanted to be the ruler of Westeros, so she naturally strictly prohibited evil acts that would damage her character and reputation, such as killing captives, looting, or rape. Maintaining military discipline is a difficult task for any wolf who has entered the flock, but fortunately, she had the Unsullied. These soldiers, who lacked the natural desires of men and had undergone rigorous slave training, were incredibly effective in combat and strictly disciplined, capable of executing all their master's commands perfectly. They were practically natural candidates for military police and order maintenance troops.
Under the control of these eunuch soldiers, the seven forces, amidst fire, smoke, shouts of killing, and rumbling sounds, advanced unimpeded, heading straight for the three major high points within the city and the critical core of the Red Keep.
The expected fierce resistance did not appear. Only scattered roadblocks set ablaze obstructed their path. The intensity of the battle, after briefly peaking during the initial siege phase, quickly dropped to almost zero. The troops entering the city advanced in an orderly manner while extinguishing fires, and along the way, they gathered surrendering soldiers and captives. The imagined horrific scene of fierce bloody battles and corpses strewn everywhere was nowhere to be found. The workload of the soldiers rescuing property was actually far greater than that of fighting.
And while the Seven Kingdoms quietly changed hands, to the south of the city, a small countercurrent was rapidly surging.
A crack force of nearly a thousand men broke out from the River Gate, heading upstream along the north bank of the Blackwater River, passing through the once bustling fish market, now desolate, and charged towards the Long Night Industry Park two miles away with unstoppable momentum. The main siege force had already poured into the city through the breached gates, and both the eagles controlled by the wargs and Daenerys riding her dragon were focused entirely on the Red Keep area, the presumed location of the decisive battle. Although small units along the way noticed the movement of this countermarching force, without real time communication, they were unable to report directly to the command headquarters.
Due to a series of practical reasons plus a bit of luck, this last spark, personally led by Stannis, actually reached within a mile of the Industrial Park before being discovered by patrolling scouts and reported to the West Commander stationed there.
---
Aegor was very surprised, truly.
He did not expect that even though he had stayed honestly in the camp, Stannis would insist on crossing half the city just to deliver himself up for a major achievement.
Did this stubborn fool learn that the Industrial Park would become the largest firearms arsenal in the future Seven Kingdoms, and thus want to cause destruction even at the cost of his life, or did he simply hate Aegor, this despicable Night's Watch man, so much that he would rather give up the Red Keep than fight him?
He did not know, and he did not care.
Strive to plan and prepare for all possibilities. This was Aegor's principle of action, and under the guidance of this principle, an outcome that seemed coincidental but was in fact inevitable was born. Although he had not expected Stannis to abandon the Red Keep and break out of the city, and was indeed surprised by his desperate counterattack, he was not caught unprepared at all.
The main body of the Gift Army was currently resting in place within the Long Night Industry Park, fully armed, waiting for the time which was unlikely to come when they would be needed.
As the west base camp for the siege forces, the Industrial Park would certainly not be emptied unless absolutely necessary. Between Daenerys's Meereenese Army and his own direct line Gift Army, Aegor ultimately chose to send the former to attack the city, keeping the latter in the camp as a reserve. Besides the idea of preserving strength, there was actually a very helpless reason. Even as their master, he did not have much confidence in the wildlings he had raised.
When they were under his nose, he could easily maintain control through prestige and personal worship, but once he loosened the reins and let these guys out of the cage, and since he himself did not plan to personally participate in the siege and street fighting, there was no way to guarantee that these bastards would not take advantage of the chaos to loot.
Instead of risking making things look bad, it was better not to let them participate. Anyway, as the supreme Lord Commander of the West, the credit he received would be roughly the same regardless of whose soldiers entered the city under his command.
And it was this originally casual decision that, by chance, became a brilliant move that brought despair to his opponent.
"Order the troops, prepare to meet the enemy!"
Amidst the assembly calls, the three thousand black clad troops, though not in panic, calmly straightened their helmets and raised their banners, ready to face the desperate struggle of the cornered enemy.
"Report, Lord Commander! The enemy is not attacking the Industrial Park, but heading straight for the shore! They have already occupied the dock!"
"Occupied the dock?"
The dock was outside the wall, and since it had no military value, it was almost unguarded, so its instantaneous fall was normal, but Aegor muttered in confusion, then suddenly understood. Stannis's target was not the Long Night Industry Park, but to cross the river and escape.
After the destruction of the Royal Navy and the rout of the Iron Fleet, the only ships capable of carrying people across the river around King's Landing, besides Daenerys's fleet currently attacking the east of King's Landing, were those at the commercial dock originally used by the Night's Watch Industry for loading and unloading goods.
Although he did not particularly want to personally take risks when victory was already secured, the enemy chieftain was right before him at this moment, and there was absolutely no reason for him to passively avoid battle and let the opponent escape right under his nose.
Patting the Valyrian steel armor he had just put on, Aegor took the helmet offered to him and placed it on his head. "He will not escape. All troops assemble, follow me out to attack!"
Half a mile away, Stannis, who had just repelled the dock defenders and was now covering his wife and daughter as they boarded a boat to cross the river, turned his head and, upon seeing the Gift Army pressing down like a dark cloud in the distance, sighed, realizing that he could not escape this calamity after all.
"Ser Joslyn, I have one more task for you." Before mounting his warhorse, he called the River Gate Garrison Captain over and lowered his voice to ensure as few people as possible heard. "Take your men onto the boat. If I win this battle, return with empty boats after landing to pick up the others, and retreat with me to the Stormlands. But if I do not win, do not flee. Take the Queen and the Princess, and here, surrender to that Night's Watch man."
(To be continued.)
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