Game of Thrones: Holy Flame King

  Chapter 167 Midsummer Hall

   "Brother! Can I charge behind you then?"

  Samwell, with the help of his squire, dressed in his armor, cried his brother Dickon Tarly.

  Earl Landau did not come in person this time, but sent his younger brother to lead 1,800 soldiers to respond to the call of the lord.

   This number is only half of the last support to Eagle Islet. It seems that Earl Landau is not very happy to give his life to the Iron Throne.

   "You are representing Horn Hill now, what is it to follow behind my ass." Samwell said casually while arranging the hooks on the breastplate.

   "The Duke of Mace should send someone to command the infantry of each family. I will definitely charge with the cavalry! Brother, you will be the same, so I will charge with you!" Dickon blushed with excitement.

   "Don't be stupid, brother, the Dornish people will never fight us in the open area again. This time they will definitely just hide in the city. Do you want to ride a horse and crash into the city wall?"

   "Is that so..." Dickon scratched his head, a little disappointed.

  Samwell looked at his honest brother and shook his head secretly—

   If you are still so stupid, don't blame Earl Randyll for changing heirs again.

  However, Samwell also had to admit that Dickon was indeed quite strong. After not seeing him for a few months, he actually jumped in size, and he was about the same height as Samwell. He was very majestic after wearing the armor.

   "Let's go, don't be the last one." Samwell put [Dawn] on his back, and clamped the eagle wing helmet under his arm, urging his younger brother.

"good."

  The two brothers in full armor went out, walked through the winding corridors and beautiful courtyards, and came to the Knights Hall of the main castle.

   It was early morning at this time, but torches were lit on every ledge in the hall.

  A herald stood at the door, loudly announcing the names and titles of the lords and knights who entered the door.

  Inside the gate was a sea of ​​armor and swords. Samwell glanced at it and secretly estimated that there might be thousands of knights here.

  The war potential of the Reach is far more than that.

  As the center of the faith of the Seven Gods in Westeros and the birthplace of the knight system, the River Bend has the most number of knights in the Seven Kingdoms.

   Coupled with affluent living conditions and advanced forging levels, it can be said that the Knights of the River Bend is also the most terrifying battlefield force in the Seven Kingdoms.

  It's a pity that the Tyrell family that ruled the Reach didn't have the prestige to control this power, especially the contemporary Duke of Highgarden, "Lord Inflatable Fish", let alone the ability to make all the knights in the Reach willing to charge for it.

  Samwell looked at the bloated figure on the high platform ahead, showing a secret disdainful smile.

  If this power can be mastered by me...

   "Every knight!" The voice of the Duke of Metz came from the high platform, and he began the pre-war mobilization speech.

   But the content was lacklustre, and Samwell fell asleep after hearing it.

   After the Duke of Metz finished speaking, the archbishop came up with the "Seven Stars" to bless the knights.

   Then a choir of seventy-seven nuns led the hymn.

  Then the archbishop came and led everyone to pray...

  After a series of tedious and boring rituals ended, Samwell really fell asleep.

  In the end, it was the Duke of Mace's yelling "Fuck the Dornishmen!" which aroused the enthusiastic response of the Knights of the Reach, which woke up Samwell.

   "Fuck the Dornish!" Samwell also yelled.

   Now we can finally set off.

  A group of lords and knights left the castle one by one and entered the barracks.

  As the flags of different colors and patterns began to flutter and move, the army staying outside the city of Gaoting also slowly moved its bloated body like a giant beast that had just woken up from a deep sleep, and began to head east.

   While commanding his own army, Samwell secretly observed the river bend army.

  He roughly estimated that the number of troops dispatched by Hewan this time was about 40,000. If the logistics staff, horsemen, and peddlers were added, the total number was estimated to be about 70,000 to 80,000.

   This is already a fairly large army, but for the large-populated River Bend, it is actually not a large-scale mobilization at all.

   Moreover, Samwell has already seen that the soldiers in front of him are mixed, and there are too many farmers who obviously just put down their hoes and went into battle for a little training. This also caused the marching team to be crooked, like a snake that is about to fall apart.

   Actually, this is not a surprise.

  The reason for this war was after all to avenge Duke Jon Arryn, which had little to do with the nobles of the Reach. Naturally, not many lords of the Reach were willing to contribute all their elites.

   If it weren't for Dorne's feud in Hewan, it is estimated that the Duke of Metz would not even be able to gather 40,000 troops this time.

  Although the quality is not very good, at least the quantity is here. Samwell has never seen an army of this size in his life.

  When the army of more than 40,000 people marched, the flags covered the sun, the sound of horseshoes rumbled, and the earth trembled slightly for it. Anyone who is a member of the army can feel their own insignificance, as well as the panic and awe of not being able to control their own destiny.

   But this feeling will slowly subside as time goes by, and what comes up later is the irritability caused by the long and boring trek.

  Samwell heard more and more scolding and reprimanding, and more and more heads on wooden poles by the roadside.

  In order to maintain order, it is very common for noble gentlemen to kill people.

  The discipline of the army is maintained by such **** and cruel means.

  Compassion does not command soldiers, which is actually what it means.

  Faced with an army of this size, once the leading generals are a little bit kind and weak, people will fluctuate and even start to riot.

I don't know if he was infected by this kind of emotion, Samwell's heart also began to harden, and he became more and more impatient with the soldiers who made mistakes. The minor problems that he would only reprimand on weekdays may become A whip.

   Fortunately, Yingzui Island's army has always paid attention to discipline, and it is not enough for Samwell to kill people to build power.

After the army left Highgarden, they headed east along the Mander River, turned to a tributary at the Fruit Wine Hall, and passed by the place where Lord Lando Tarly defeated Robert Baratheon. beach.

After Samwell and his younger brother Dickon briefly visited the old battlefield where their father was famous all over the world, they followed the army and continued eastward. After walking in the undulating mountains for half a month, they finally arrived at the Iron Throne. Designated assembly point—

   Midsummer Hall.

  Summer Hall is located at the junction of Reach, Stormland and Dorne. It is the summer residence of the former royal family Targaryen.

  Over a hundred years ago, Daeron II Targaryen married his younger sister to the Prince of Dorne, and finally completed the unification of the Seven Kingdoms through marriage. The Summer Hall was built to commemorate this great cause.

  It is located among the mountains, more like a palace than a castle, but unfortunately, a fire more than 30 years ago turned it into ruins.

   This is the famous "The Tragedy of Summer Hall".

  It happened at the end of the reign of Aegon V Targaryen. At that time, the dragons of the Targaryen family had long since died out, and the dragon eggs left behind had become stubborn stones and could not be hatched. Aegon V made many attempts to hatch the dragon, and it is said that he found the way in an ancient scroll from Asshai—

  Fire offering.

  So the king came to Midsummer Hall, prepared seven dragon eggs and [Wildfire], and decided to bring the dragon back to the world while celebrating the imminent birth of his first great-grandson.

   However, the Fire Ritual did not bring dragons, but only destruction.

  The terrible [Wildfire] got out of control and spread, burning down the entire Midsummer Hall, and at the same time devouring the lives of many princes and nobles including the king and his eldest son, only a few survived.

   But also in this fire, the granddaughter of Aegon V gave birth to the prince who later detonated the War of the Snatchers—Rhaegar Targaryen.

Prince Rhaegar, who was born in "The Tragedy of Midsummer Hall", could not get rid of the shadow of the fire all his life, so he also did a series of unreasonable things in the eyes of outsiders, which even led to Tanger's death. The downfall of the Lian dynasty.

   It can be said that the cause and effect of the Reaver's War has already been buried in the tragedy of Midsummer Hall.

  The Targaryen family is actually not a native of Westeros nobles, but from the Essos continent on the other side of the Narrow Sea, a place called the Valyrian Peninsula.

  There are forty dragon king families on the Valyrian Peninsula. They are extremely rich, have noble blood, master witchcraft, and can control giant dragons, so they are invincible and have established a huge empire. Targaryen was once one of these dragonlord houses.

  However, an apocalyptic catastrophe destroyed the Valyrian Peninsula, and also caused the dragon empire to collapse.

  Among the forty dragon king families, only the Targaryen family learned of the disaster from the prophecy and fled before the catastrophe came.

   They came to Dragonstone Island, and after a few centuries of dormancy, they brought the three grown dragons to conquer Westeros and established the Targaryen Dynasty.

   But it succeeds in prophecy, and it also fails in prophecy.

  As the next end looms, members of House Targaryen are haunted by new prophecies.

  Many Targaryens became paranoid and even crazy because of this.

  Aegon V is said to have learned something from the prophecy, so he was obsessed with hatching dragons. He believed that only dragons could prevent the coming doomsday.

  Similarly, Prince Rhaegar also got some revelations, thinking that one of his offspring will be born with the prophesied prince, but "the dragon has three heads"—

  The coat of arms of House Targaryen is a three-headed dragon.

  The "Conqueror" Aegon Targaryen also had three giant dragons, and he and his two younger sisters happened to control one each.

   Prince Rhaegar's wife, Princess Elia from Dorne, lost her fertility after giving birth to two children.

   This made Prince Rhaegar panic. He felt that he had to give birth to a third child in order to meet the prophecy of "the dragon has three heads" and prevent the end from coming.

  So, he found Lyanna Stark from Winterfell, trying to make the fire dragon and the ice wolf combine to give birth to a third child, regardless of the other party's already engaged marriage contract.

  The prince who wanted to save the world may not have thought that what he did led to the downfall of the Targaryen dynasty.

  Samwell looked at the ruins of the palace in the distance, his thoughts wandering.

  Of course, he did not come here to commemorate the lunatics of the Targaryen family, but to think about the seven possible buried under the ruins of Midsummer Hall—

  Dragon eggs.

  (end of this chapter)