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Clack!
A fist-sized stone fell onto a pile of broken rocks of different sizes and became part of it.
Destruction was always easier than construction. In the blink of an eye, the Mud Gate gatehouse and several dozen yards of surrounding wall had all become heaps of rubble piled like small hills.
The wildfire chain explosion had been shocking enough in power, but its actual killing range only wiped out the besieging soldiers and rioters on the gatehouse and near the Mud Gate.
As the commander of the vanguard, Guyard had personally led the charge into King's Landing after the Mud Gate opened.
He looked back at the green flames still burning behind him. Although he had fallen into the enemy's trap, Guyard knew in his heart that once the green fire was extinguished, King's Landing, with no wall left to defend, would surely fall.
At this moment, roughly two or three thousand besieging soldiers had entered King's Landing through the Mud Gate. He immediately raised his arm and called out, commanding them to continue advancing.
Blocking the besieging soldiers were several thousand gaunt, sallow-faced smallfolk of King's Landing. Behind them were the city's defenders, advancing with shields and spears set.
The smallfolk on the left and right squeezed desperately in the opposite direction to save their lives. The ones in the center were crushed so tightly they could barely breathe, like Jon beneath a press of bodies in Robb's previous-life memories.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Ah! Ah!
Arrows fell like rain from the walls on both sides. Dozens of Guyard's besieging soldiers were struck and fell screaming. Falling with them were nearly the same number of King's Landing smallfolk.
Merciless arrows continued raining down from the walls. The smallfolk of King's Landing had been turned into a thick wall of flesh and blood that trapped the besieging soldiers firmly inside the city.
They suffered both the merciless cutting of the besieging soldiers and the wanton shooting of the archers on King's Landing's walls. Truly, people were like ants, their lives worth less than grass underfoot.
On the wall, Joffrey watched the slaughter below with a flushed face, as if the violence in his heart had been satisfied.
Jaime could not bear it and turned his head away. He looked at Cersei, who was coldly overlooking the scene below, and said, "These are our subjects. Let me take men down and cut down the enemies inside the city."
"Subjects? No. They are rioters who dared rebel. They are our enemies. Hmph. They all deserve to die.
"Right now, enemies are killing enemies. Our archers only need to keep shooting them dead.
"There is no need for you to risk yourself."
Cersei sneered, turned her cold eyes on Jaime, and answered.
Varys also looked troubled, but he spoke to Jaime. "My lord Hand, Her Grace is right. If we changed places with the enemy, they would show us no mercy."
Jaime wanted to say something more, but in the end he shook his head and did not speak. He stopped watching the slaughter below the wall and turned to the other side to observe Stannis's army outside the city.
Outside the Mud Gate, the ten thousand men led by Rolland and the six thousand men from Guyard's vanguard were using helmets, boots, shields, and anything else that could hold water to carry water from the nearby Blackwater Rush and extinguish the flames.
The Mud Gate gatehouse and several dozen yards of wall had already collapsed. They no longer needed to climb the wall with effort. Once the green flames were put out, they could easily pour into King's Landing in force.
The work of extinguishing the fire was proceeding smoothly. For some unknown reason, the archers on the wall were not shooting to stop them.
Behind these sixteen thousand besieging soldiers, Stannis's center army stood silently in formation.
Because of the terrain around the Mud Gate, his thirteen thousand men in the center could not move forward to help put out the fire. They could only wait patiently for the green flames to go out, then advance into the city.
Looking at the collapsed Mud Gate ahead, Stannis's aged face tightened in confusion.
Before the battle, he had received reports from scout riders. The focus of several factions, Tywin Lannister's thirty-thousand-strong army, remained still at Harrenhal and absolutely could not reach the battlefield at King's Landing.
So he truly did not understand why the Lannister siblings would destroy their own wall like this.
On the Lion Gate gatehouse, several hundred Gold Cloaks were carefully watching the roughly thousand enemy soldiers below the wall. Since the other side had no intention of attacking the gate, they certainly would not provoke them.
Only the series of explosions from the direction of the Mud Gate had made them uneasy. They were whispering anxiously about the situation over there.
Rumble!
"What is that?"
One Gold Cloak's ears twitched slightly as he faintly heard something. He looked up toward the Goldroad and immediately shouted.
The Gold Cloaks on the gatehouse heard his shout and instinctively looked up.
On the Goldroad, a great field of black dots was rapidly approaching. Behind them rose dust like a storm.
As the dots grew closer, crimson roaring lion banners fluttered high in the wind, loudly declaring their presence.
"Reinforcements! Reinforcements! Brothers, take up your weapons and kill those bastards below!"
The captain of the gatehouse guards saw the banners and reacted at once. As he shouted, he snatched up the bow beside him and shot at the enemy below.
The other Gold Cloaks instantly understood what the captain meant. They picked up bows and stones and began throwing them down. Whether these attacks had any effect was one thing. At least they had to look as though they were attacking.
The more than a thousand Stannis soldiers beneath the Lion Gate naturally reacted as well. Seeing so many enemy cavalrymen, their once orderly formation collapsed at once, and everyone fled in panic toward the Mud Gate.
Rumble!
Addam led six thousand Westerlands light cavalry in pursuit of the fleeing enemy ahead. For nearly two months, the cavalry under his command had been running east and west, achieving nothing.
After receiving Lord Tywin's transfer order, Addam's force had already reached the predetermined position on the Goldroad. But because the time had not come, they had waited there for more than ten days. Now, anger pent up in his heart, he wanted to vent it properly.
How could human legs outrun horse legs? The more than a thousand fleeing Stannis soldiers never reached the Mud Gate. They had only made it halfway between the Lion Gate and the King's Gate when the Lannister cavalry caught up to them.
Rip, shhk!
Blood and heads flew together across the battlefield. Six thousand light cavalry against one thousand fleeing infantry held no suspense at all. After one charge, no enemy remained standing on the ground.
Perhaps many clever veterans were hiding among the corpses and pretending to be dead, but it made no difference. The heavy cavalry behind them, like armored battering rams, trampled directly over the bodies on the ground.
The Stannis soldiers at the King's Gate had already fled toward the center army at the Mud Gate when they saw their allies at the Lion Gate break.
The infantry commander who fled back from the King's Gate stumbled and crawled before Stannis, whose face was grave, and reported, "Your Grace, enemy cavalry have come from the Goldroad. Their number is at least seven or eight thousand!"
"Why are you panicking? Take your men to the rear and reform ranks. Do not disturb the formation."
After rebuking the infantry commander, Stannis turned to the messenger beside him.
"Order the three thousand cavalry to be commanded personally by me. The remaining ten thousand infantry will move the shieldmen and spearmen from the front ranks to the rear. Everyone else keeps formation and turns to face the enemy.
"Finally, tell Rolland's ten thousand men to be ready to support us at any moment."
"Yes, Your Grace!"
The infantry commander and messenger saluted and answered together, then quickly went to carry out their tasks.
Changing formation in this era was no easy matter. Stannis's formation of more than thirteen thousand men merely shifted slightly, yet it still caused waves of disturbance and confusion.
Fortunately, he had spent the previous days at Bitterbridge drilling and reorganizing the army, and the distance from the Lion Gate to the Mud Gate gave them enough time to restore order.
Otherwise, the Westerlands cavalry might have reached them before their formation was ready.
The six thousand Westerlands light cavalry originally at the front began to slow after passing the King's Gate. Under Addam's command, they split into left and right wings, leaving the middle open for four thousand heavy cavalry.
Rumble!
The Westerlands heavy cavalry, men and horses fully armored, began urging their mounts to speed up once they reached charging range. The heavy hoofbeats rolled like thunder, frightening the hearts of Stannis's ten thousand infantrymen.
It was not only the ten thousand infantry facing the cavalry who were frightened. The sixteen thousand besieging soldiers extinguishing the fire at the Mud Gate could hear the hoofbeats without seeing the details, and even their work putting out the flames became distracted.
"What are you looking at? Vanguard, keep putting out the fire!"
After receiving Stannis's order, Rolland gathered the ten thousand men under his command. Seeing the six thousand men of the vanguard grow sluggish, he immediately shouted at them.
Bang, bang, bang!
The moment Rolland finished speaking, more than a dozen burning pitch barrels fell outside the Mud Gate into the tightly packed besieging soldiers.
The pitch barrels burst. Some unlucky soldiers were drenched in boiling pitch and turned into blackened figures on the spot. Other soldiers nearby had blobs of pitch splash onto their bodies and faces, and they screamed as if their hearts were being torn out.
A low, heavy horn sounded. At some unknown moment, fifty oared warships had quietly appeared on the Blackwater Rush.
At the front of these ships was an exceptionally massive warship. This was the flagship of the Royal Fleet belonging to King's Landing, King Robert's Hammer.
This giant warship had a full four hundred oars. Its vast hull was loaded with catapults, scorpions, and other siege weapons. Just like its name, its power resembled the hammer King Robert had once used to kill Prince Rhaegar.
"Enemy attack! Enemy warships have appeared on the Blackwater!
"The vanguard continues putting out the fire. The four thousand-man companies nearest the Blackwater will carry the small oared boats into the water and board the ships."
Though suddenly attacked, Rolland did not panic. After sweeping his gaze over the warships on the Blackwater, he calmly gave orders to the messenger beside him.
With a steady commander giving clear instructions, the sixteen thousand besieging soldiers outside the Mud Gate immediately began moving.
Nearly four thousand soldiers split into groups of twenty. From behind the formation, each group lifted a small oared boat about the size of an ordinary ironborn longship and rushed toward the Blackwater beside them.
These two hundred small oared boats had originally been built by Stannis to seize the King's Landing fleet before the siege began. Now they were being put to use in another way.
Once the two hundred small oared boats entered the river, ten men in each rowed hard while the other ten drew bows and shot at the King's Landing fleet. For a time, fierce fighting began on the Blackwater Rush.
Shhk, shhk!
Bang, bang, bang!
After fully building speed, the Westerlands heavy cavalry finally struck the Stannis infantry at the front, where shields and spears had been set.
One Westerlands heavy rider after another, horse and man together, was pierced by the forest of steel spears. Yet the corpses of men and horses still carried tremendous charging momentum and smashed hard into the formation.
But the gaps caused by the heavy cavalry corpses were small. Whenever openings appeared in Stannis's infantry formation, the soldiers in the rear immediately filled them with shields and spears.
One rank, two ranks, three ranks...
The unending Westerlands heavy cavalry came like a raging tide, crashing into Stannis's formation wave after wave.
Gaps kept appearing at the front of Stannis's infantry formation, and the rear infantry filled them more and more slowly.
Finally, the Westerlands heavy cavalry tore open a breach in Stannis's infantry formation. The armored riders entered like human battering rams, throwing the Stannis formation into chaos.
Tap, tap, tap!
Just as the Westerlands heavy cavalry opened a breach in his formation, Stannis personally led three thousand cavalry from the rear, circled around the formation's right side, and appeared on the left flank of the Westerlands heavy cavalry.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Stannis's three thousand cavalry raised their hands and fired a rain of arrows. Unlike arcing shots that heavy cavalry could mostly ignore, these close-range flat shots had enough power to pierce heavy armor.
Large numbers of Westerlands heavy riders fell from their horses. Riderless armored horses panicked and bolted. The Westerlands heavy cavalry, which should have broken straight through the formation, had its attacking rhythm suddenly interrupted by Stannis.
Tap, tap, tap!
After two volleys of arrows, Stannis's cavalry wanted to make a third. But the three thousand light cavalry on the Westerlands left wing were not standing idle. They charged forward and tangled with Stannis's cavalry.
This part of the battlefield immediately became chaotic. The Westerlands heavy cavalry's rhythm had been broken, and the breach they had opened was barely filled again. On the formation's right side, six thousand cavalry from both sides were locked in battle.
However, the Westerlands still had the three thousand light cavalry on the right wing led by Addam. Without obstruction, they circled to the left side of Stannis's formation and charged.
Rolland, who had been carefully watching the situation, had already led six thousand besieging soldiers to block the left side of the formation, holding Addam's three thousand right-wing light cavalry firmly outside.
On the walls of King's Landing, Jaime looked from his own cavalry bogged down in a stalemate in the distance to the Royal Fleet now engaged in brutal boarding battles on the Blackwater. Anxious, he turned to Cersei and said, "Cersei, the situation outside is unfavorable. Let me ride out."
"No, Jaime. You are no longer a Kingsguard. You are the Hand of the King and heir to Casterly Rock.
"Stop placing yourself in danger. When have you ever seen Father personally lead a charge?"
Cersei shook her head. She naturally did not want her lover to fall into danger, so she used a grand-sounding reason to reject Jaime's proposal.
"Better that I fall into danger than you do. You know I love you all more than anything."
Hearing Cersei, Jaime glanced around, walked to her side, and whispered with a resolute face.
Cersei felt warmth rise in her heart at Jaime's confession. She secretly stroked the back of his hand and said softly, "We have already done as Father told us. Do not worry. He never fights a battle he is not certain of."
Woo, woo!
Rumble!
The moment Cersei finished speaking, a faint horn sounded. Today, bustling King's Landing welcomed new guests once again.
Shhk!
Stannis cut across the chest of a Westerlands light rider with his sword and knocked him from his horse. Hearing another horn sound, he looked toward its direction, while the unease in his heart kept growing.
'It certainly cannot be my reinforcements. Then who is coming? Did Tywin truly fly here from Harrenhal?'
Stannis knew himself well enough to understand that he had few friends. Possibilities turned over continuously in his mind.
Tap, tap, tap!
A host of tens of thousands of riders in bright, splendid armor rushed from the roseroad toward the Mud Gate battlefield. The golden rose banners they carried looked exceptionally gorgeous beneath the sunlight.
"Stannis! I have come for you myself! Full charge!"
Loras, the Knight of Flowers, wore splendid armor carved with countless floral emblems. His handsome face was twisted by rage as he raised the longsword in his right hand and gave the order to charge to the Highgarden cavalry behind him.
The moment he saw Highgarden's rose banners, Stannis clenched his teeth, and veins rose across his forehead. From this moment, he knew this war was already lost.
"Your Grace, enemy reinforcements. We must retreat quickly!"
A guard who had been protecting Stannis saw the tens of thousands of Highgarden cavalry and immediately urged him.
"Retreat? Where can we still retreat? Come. We fight our way into King's Landing!"
Stannis looked around the battlefield and found that their road of retreat had been completely cut off. In the end, his eyes fixed on the green flames that had not yet gone out, and he spoke to his guards.
"But Your Grace, the wildfire is still burning there. We cannot cross it at all!
"Hm? Your Grace, over by the Blackwater. Is that..."
The guard glanced toward the rubble of the Mud Gate gatehouse as he answered, but while speaking, he suddenly saw another change on the Blackwater.
The King's Landing fleet was already outnumbered and focused on fighting Stannis's soldiers crawling aboard the warships like ants in boarding combat.
A fleet flying flaming stag banners appeared like ghosts and struck from behind. Although this fleet had fewer than forty warships, its ability in sea battle was clearly much stronger than the King's Landing fleet.
Pitch barrels, scorpion shots, boarding attacks.
Under their practiced chain of attacks, the warships of the King's Landing fleet kept catching fire. The largest flagship among them, just as its name suggested, charged angrily toward the Mud Gate docks.
"Your Grace, it is our Royal Fleet. They were not all destroyed. Quickly, retreat to the docks!"
After confirming that these were reinforcements from their side, the guard shouted to Stannis.
Although Stannis knew he had lost the battle, the Iron Throne he had long dreamed of was so close that he fell into a daze.
Bang, bang, bang!
While Stannis struggled over whether to retreat, the fresh Highgarden cavalry violently struck the left side of Stannis's formation, the infantry force Rolland had just commanded.
There was no order or subtlety to it. Relying on superior equipment and overwhelming numbers, the Highgarden cavalry simply drowned Rolland's troops under several times their strength.
However, Rolland had quietly left the left-side formation as soon as the Highgarden cavalry appeared. He requisitioned a cavalryman's horse and rode toward Stannis's position.
"Your Grace, go! Return to Dragonstone!"
Rolland arrived beside Stannis and saw him standing dazed in place. He immediately shouted anxiously.
"Return to Dragonstone? Forty thousand men are gone. What would I return to Dragonstone for?"
Stannis smiled bitterly and shook his head. The expectation of the Iron Throne being within easy reach before the battle and the despair of now losing everything made all that followed seem meaningless.
"You did not have these forty thousand men at the beginning either. Queen Selyse and Princess Shireen are still waiting for you. And there are still soldiers like us who remain loyal to you!"
Hearing him, Rolland racked his brain for arguments and continued persuading Stannis to withdraw.
Perhaps something in Rolland's words moved Stannis. Stannis looked around the chaotic battlefield and ordered Rolland and the guard, "Have the troops who surrendered at Bitterbridge cover our retreat. The men originally from Dragonstone will follow me."
"Yes, Your Grace!"
Rolland received the order and began commanding the troops at the far rear of the formation, the ones whose strength was best preserved, to cover the withdrawal.
The more than twenty thousand men at the Mud Gate were not so easy to slaughter. Even though the formation had largely collapsed, the great number of bodies blocking the Westerlands and Highgarden cavalry was enough for Stannis to withdraw.
In the end, Davos led nearly forty warships away, carrying Stannis and three thousand Dragonstone men loyal to him.
The remaining twenty thousand-plus Stormlands and marcher soldiers who had submitted at Bitterbridge were abandoned without mercy.
After Stannis retreated by way of the Blackwater, the more than twenty thousand soldiers left behind saw the situation and immediately threw down their weapons in surrender.
Loras stared at the dozens of burning warships on the Blackwater and at the fleet gradually sailing toward Blackwater Bay. He threw the longsword in his hand to the ground in fury.
He had thought that this time, he could personally cut down Stannis and avenge Renly I. He had not expected Stannis to escape even from such a dead end.
"Heh. Throwing away your own weapon? Are you preparing to surrender?"
Covered in blood, Addam rode up beside Loras and mocked him directly.
"I am in a foul mood right now. Do not provoke me."
Loras did not even turn his head. His tone was hard.
"I am provoking you? When the explosion sounded, we were supposed to attack at the same time. Why did you delay for so long?
"Do you know how many of my brothers died this time because of your delay?"
Hearing him, Addam immediately shouted at Loras in anger.
"Mind your tone. We are guests invited by Tywin Lannister. We helped you only because he accepted Renly II's demand for independence.
"And how many men did you have? This time, we brought a full thirty thousand Highgarden cavalry. Hiding and forming up so many men is already a great trouble.
"Finally, how did we delay? Did we not arrive at exactly the right moment and defeat Stannis's army?"
Hearing Addam's shouting, Loras turned his head and answered with arrogance across his face.
"Good. Please give my regards to His Grace Renly II, King of the Reach."
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