Riverlands, Inn at the Crossroads, Riverlands Highway
At this moment, three soldiers in black robes were riding horses and hiding in a small forest. Their clothes allowed them to blend in well with the depths of the forest, making them difficult to spot without careful observation.
About 300 meters away from them, at the dock, three massive flat-bottomed boats were docked, and some red-clad soldiers were continuously disembarking.
"Uncle Sweet Corn, why are they still coming? Didn't they say that the House Frey weasels had already gone to ambush them? Have they failed?"
One of the younger-looking men asked the middle-aged man in the middle, his voice trembling slightly.
They had sent out a total of five groups of people, with three people in each group, specifically to observe the movements of the Valyrian Imperial Army. These three were the closest group to the Inn at the Crossroads.
Before they came, Lancel Lannister, who was in charge of assigning their tasks, had already said that last night, House Frey had led an army to raid the Valyrian Imperial Army, and they only needed to confirm the enemy's situation.
But what the three of them didn't expect was that when they sneaked in here, the enemy had already started transporting soldiers, and it seemed like it had been going on for quite some time.
"Alright, Amy! Now is not the time for us to dwell on this. We must act quickly, the enemy has already..."
"Roar..."
"Sweet Corn" replied to Amy, his heart filled with fear. It made him unconsciously think of certain terrifying things.
Sure enough, his fear was quickly realized. The roar of a dragon came directly, and the terrifying sound of the wind echoed above the forest, causing the three of them's horses to be startled and take a few steps back.
Then, they heard a series of wolf howls. The three of them simultaneously felt the danger, so they quickly urged their horses and fled towards the outside of the forest. But soon, they realized that they seemed to be trapped.
Because the soldiers of the Valyrian Imperial Army had surrounded them with Direwolves. With a command from the sergeant, the Direwolves swarmed forward and dragged the three of them off their horses. Soon, only the neighing of three horses and the screams of humans before death remained in the forest.
And such a scene was still being played out in the forests south of the Trident. The scouts of the Iron Throne Alliance suffered heavy casualties, and not a single person managed to escape alive.
At this time, a large number of Valyrian Imperial Army soldiers had gathered in the area near the Inn at the Crossroads. They used the Inn at the Crossroads as their center point and built wooden palisades for defense in the nearby area.
The Valyrian Imperial Army would use this place as a temporary base to regroup and launch an attack on Harrenhal. It was also currently being used as a bridgehead.
The ambush last night was discovered in advance by the Wargs/Skinchangers, which allowed Marco and his forces to prepare and catch the House Frey-led alliance off guard.
What Marco didn't expect was to encounter such a being last night. This was Marco's second time confronting the power of The Seven, but this time, with the help of the Magic Control skill, Marco finally understood why The Seven he had encountered before were so obviously different from the Old Gods.
It could be said that The Seven were now just an empty shell with power. Whether in terms of combat ability or consciousness, they were different from the deities controlled by the Old Gods that Marco had encountered before.
This was also what puzzled Marco the most. The Light God of the Old Gods was second in command among the five deities, and it was extremely intelligent. It didn't make sense for its power to just be scattered across the continent of Westeros.
"Does it not know about this situation, or is it preparing for a bigger conspiracy?"
With this question in mind, Marco and Moonshadow entered the Inn at the Crossroads. Although it had experienced many wars, the furnishings here hadn't suffered much damage. Rumor had it that this was a stronghold of the Brotherhood Without Banners, so no bandits dared to cause trouble here.
Jeyne Haigh and her sister Willow Haigh were nieces of Martha Haigh, the former owner of the Inn at the Crossroads. Because Tyrion Lannister was captured here, the Lannister family hanged Martha after they captured the inn.
Later, another member of House Haigh died at the Inn at the Crossroads. Just as the inn was about to fall into disrepair, Jeyne and her sister came to take over, finally preserving this century-old establishment.
At this moment, Jeyne and her sister, Willow, were cautiously watching Marco. When the soldiers found them in the cellar, Jeyne was terrified. They had more than twenty orphans, most of whom had been sent there by the Brotherhood Without Banners after being affected by the war.
If Marco and his men considered this a base for some illegal organization, it would be a disaster. Moreover, the church people said that Marco fed children to dragons every day, which was Jeyne's biggest concern.
Therefore, after receiving a warning from the Brotherhood Without Banners, she led the children underground, hoping that Marco and his men wouldn't stay here long. But she didn't expect things to go the opposite way.
"You don't need to be afraid. His Majesty the King just wants to ask you some questions. No one will hurt you. And as long as you cooperate seriously, we will also give rewards."
Brynden Rivers (Bloodraven) spoke to everyone at the Inn at the Crossroads. His handsome face seemed to radiate a special and charming aura, which instantly calmed Jeyne's panicked heart.
Then, Marco simply inquired about some of the nearby situations. At the same time, he also learned that after the "War of the Five Kings," the chaos in the Riverlands had intensified, and many small nobles were affected. Either their manors were burned down by bandits, or their families were destroyed.
Due to the reduced grain production in the Riverlands, the prices in King's Landing had risen sharply, which gave Tywin a headache, but not because he was worried that King's Landing would suffer a famine.
It was because he needed to guard against the Reach's control over King's Landing's food supply. He didn't want to continue like this, so he once again ordered his son, Jaime Lannister, to lead troops to clean up the chaos in the Riverlands.
This operation was very successful. After eliminating the power of House Tully, most of the nobles in the Riverlands surrendered to the Iron Throne. However, many of them were unwilling and disliked having a "chicken head" and a "weasel" lording over them.
This was also the crux of the chaos in the Riverlands. The nobles were shirking responsibility, only thinking about guarding their own small plots of land, and turning a blind eye to the Iron Throne's orders.
Marco shook his head helplessly after hearing this. Then, he began to arrange for the soldiers to maintain and expand the Inn at the Crossroads. In times of chaos, Jeyne was still doing her best to help them, a spirit that deserved a reward from Marco.
Moreover, Marco would use this place as a temporary command post in the near future, so it was also necessary to make some modifications in advance. Watching the materials being moved in, Jeyne felt like she was dreaming, while the children around her were constantly swallowing their saliva.
After giving some of the food to Jeyne and the others, Marco began to enjoy his lunch. Meanwhile, in the temporary camp around the Inn at the Crossroads, wisps of cooking smoke began to rise.
At the pier near the inn, soldiers were constantly disembarking from the flat-bottomed boats. The tall giants swam directly over. Some of the giants who had already landed were carrying building materials under the command of the soldiers. Marco was preparing to expand the pier here.
With Marco's current construction level, he simply couldn't build a bridge across the Trident, because it was too large and often changed channels, and there was no suitable foundation to build the bridge piers.
The transportation work continued until the evening before it ended. Only over 3,000 warriors from the Mountain Clans were left on the other side of the river. They would be kept as a reserve force and guards until the end of the war. Harlowe's Town would be Marco's future supply distribution center.
Marco estimated that it would probably take the gradual restoration of faith in the Weirwood and the Godswood before it would be possible to establish two-way teleportation portals in the Riverlands and the Vale. Therefore, for now, they could only rely on primitive means to transport supplies.
That night, Marco and Brynden were discussing the battle plan in the hall of the Inn at the Crossroads. Moonshadow and the others were taking care of the orphans outside the camp. Moonshadow and Maeve were treating the injured and sick children, while Nymph and the other two were playing games with the children.
The events of the day made Jeyne feel like she was repeatedly jumping between hell and the human world. She had been worried about her life this morning, but by the evening, the situation had become like this.
"I hope I'm not dreaming. If this is a dream, I hope it can continue forever."
Jeyne thought silently in her heart, and at the same time, she was also praying, hoping that such good days could continue.
One month later, Riverlands, Harrenhal.
Harrenhal was filled with a sense of killing today. Soldiers from the Riverlands, the Westerlands, and the Reach were running back and forth in this dilapidated castle. Many of the civilian laborers' faces were filled with fear. The soldiers were not much better off either. The enemy's dragons were eyeing them outside, and the original owner of this castle had died under dragonflame. This simply couldn't allow the soldiers to feel at ease.
Marco's soldiers formed squares, and a large number of siege weapons were brought up. Pushed by giants, they advanced towards Harrenhal.
Although Harrenhal was the largest castle on this continent, many of its structures had aged over time. Many buildings had not been restored after being destroyed by Aegon I Targaryen's dragonfire.
As the last lords of Harrenhal, House Hoare was completely incapable of maintaining this super-huge castle. Perhaps it was truly cursed, as every lord of Harrenhal had met a bad end.
Even Littlefinger, Petyr Baelish, the nominal lord of Harrenhal, died in Winterfell in the end. Compared to Harrenhal, the curse of the tournament was as pure as the "Maiden," one of the Seven.
At this moment, Jaime Lannister, who was stationed in Harrenhal, had prepared everything. With his order, the catapults and crossbows placed throughout Harrenhal launched their attack.
The Valyrian Imperial Army outside the city also launched an attack at the right time. Five super-large catapults and more than twenty trebuchets began to hurl components of copper golems and stone golems towards the castle.
Siege towers and ladders were advancing towards the gaps in the city walls. Due to years of disrepair, some of the large cracks in the walls allowed those outside to see the towers inside.
Even so, the walls of Harrenhal were still as towering as cliffs. Facing such walls, Marco's side could only use overlapping climbing hooks to scale the walls.
However, fortunately, Marco had dragons and griffins. As long as they occupied a section of the city wall first, Marco could have the soldiers advance continuously. They had already identified the attack position beforehand.
To the west of the main gate, there was a broken section of the wall. This section of the wall only had one entrance on the west side, and the crack here was also the largest, allowing a section of a scaling ladder to be directly inserted.
"Roar..."
Along with the roar of the dragon, the Crystal Dragon, the Ice Dragon, and the Green Dream towed three things that looked like airplanes and arrived above Harrenhal.
This time, the three dragons were all ridden by their masters personally, and their purpose was to complete this high-difficulty action. This kind of wooden glider was modified by Marco based on the gliders from the "World War II" era of the Blue Star.
The purpose of Marco creating these three things was to complete his "airborne troops" plan. The only difference was that they were not filled with human soldiers, but with golems.
After planning the location, Marco ordered the Crystal Dragon to release the tow ropes. The three wooden gliders flew straight towards the Kingspyre Tower and the Widow's Tower. The unstoppable momentum frightened the soldiers in the towers, causing them to retreat repeatedly.
"Boom..."
After three enormous crashes, wood chips and splinters flew everywhere. The golems inside had fallen directly from the gliders.
Once they landed, the bronze and stone golems immediately attacked the Iron Throne Alliance soldiers, who were still in a daze. Outside the castle, catapults were also launching a large number of golem components inside.
With the appearance of several dark gold golems, the scattered components on the ground began to assemble rapidly. In the previous battles at the Dreadfort and White Harbor, Marco had found that the assembly efficiency of golems was very low after being thrown into the castles, and their combat effectiveness was also greatly reduced.
Therefore, Marco had specifically found this special magnetic golem in the system-configured golem blueprints. It had no offensive capabilities; its only function was to activate the core of the golems.
Marco and his two companions made four more trips, putting in a total of 12 gliders. Each time, they placed the gliders in predetermined positions outside the range of the dragon-slaying crossbows, allowing them to glide into the Dreadfort.
However, their luck wasn't always so good. On one of the later trips, the wind direction changed, causing three gliders to crash directly onto the tops of the Howling Tower and the Ghost Tower, which caused all the bats residing inside to fly out.
After completing this, Marco and his companions rode the dragons back to the rear of the army to gather strength for the next attack. Harrenhal originally had four gates, but due to years of disrepair, only the main south gate and the east gate remained.
"Harren the Black" had spent a lot of time and effort in building the city walls and exits. The mechanisms and shooting ports inside were densely packed above the gate passages, like a honeycomb. This was why Marco had never considered attacking from here.
With the attacks and harassment from the golem troops, the crossbows and trebuchets in the castle towers were unable to launch effective attacks. Furthermore, due to the towering walls, the siege equipment of the Iron Throne Alliance couldn't be used to any significant effect.
"Screech..."
But all of this wasn't safe enough for Marco. He heard the sound of eagles from above. Griffins, with saddles already attached, brought greetings of death, flying directly above Harrenhal.
"Watch out... uhh... Argh..."
A knight whose shield was emblazoned with a unicorn shouted, but before he could finish, he was turned into a pincushion by more than a dozen darts that rained down from the sky. After falling, his body twitched involuntarily, and a whimper escaped his throat.
Although the stone golems and copper golems were also turned into hedgehogs by these darts, their cores still didn't stop operating.