Harvest Hall is an important town in the Stormlands, but its geographical location is within the Dornish Marches.
just hearing the name Harvest Hall, one knows that this area is fertile and suitable for farming.
and that is indeed the case; it is Storm's End's most important granary.
at this moment, the towering walls of Harvest Hall are filled with nervous soldiers.
lord earl selmy is standing with his sons and all the collateral male members of house selmy in the tower in the middle of the city wall.
"father, why don't we surrender?
that is the evil dragon that burned down a free city with a population of 200,000!"
"big brother is right!
father, House Baratheon is gone.
we don't need to be loyal to a non-existent house anymore."
"lord earl, i think so too..."
the voices urging surrender rose and fell around him, and lord selmy frowned and roared, "shut up!
i don't know by what despicable method that evil dragon occupied Storm's End.
but i will never surrender to a butcher who massacres innocent civilians and destroys towns.
have you forgotten our house words?
look at yourselves, do you have any semblance of 'undaunted'?"
undaunted, as the house words of house selmy, indeed cultivated many excellent warriors for them.
the most famous should be 'barristan the bold', born in the distant future.
barristan selmy is hailed as one of the greatest knights in the kingsguard, and was even able to become Daenerys's queensguard captain at the advanced age of over sixty.
of course, perhaps because of the stubbornness of the current lord selmy, house selmy will lose its future.
clank clank clank!
dense figures appeared to the southeast of Harvest Hall, which was the direction of Storm's End.
house selmy was able to defend Harvest Hall, this important granary, in the constantly warring Dornish Marches, so their military strength and combat power were naturally not bad.
they have 1,300 elite infantry, 500 archers, and 200 light knights.
this force could rank among the top lords not only in the Stormlands but also in the entire Seven Kingdoms.
but compared to the approaching enemy, their forces are still too few.
in the front of the figures to the southeast, there were more than 3,500 infantry legions wearing tattered Baratheon standard armor.
behind them were more than 4,000 fully armed elite Essos infantry legions with a distinct foreign style.
behind these seven or eight thousand infantry were 1,500 ranged legions armed with crossbows.
most importantly, two dragons, one large and one small, were circling in the sky above this army of ten thousand.
an army of ten thousand has no boundary. an army of ten thousand has no limit!
gulp!
the pressure brought by the enemy army of nearly ten thousand made the defenders of Harvest Hall nervously swallow their saliva non-stop.
"everyone, prepare for battle!"
hearing lord selmy issue the command to fight, his sons and collateral relatives could only helplessly return to their posts and prepare for battle.
looking at the gradually approaching enemy army and the dragons soaring in the sky, lord selmy sighed inwardly.
he is not an old stubborn who doesn't know how to adapt and wants to be foolishly loyal to Baratheon.
rather, it is because house selmy can surrender, but they cannot be too soft-kneed and directly kneel down and surrender as soon as the enemy approaches the city.
as the first battle after the fall of Storm's End, if house selmy surrendered without a fight, the prestige built by the entire house over hundreds or thousands of years would be destroyed in an instant.
and the new monarch, seeing house selmy so weak, would probably despise them from the bottom of his heart!
those young sons did not understand these principles, and he could not say them directly.
so, let's fight!
whoosh whoosh whoosh!
when the enemy's infantry legions entered range, the 500 archers of Harvest Hall were the first to attack.
the more than 3,500 Baratheon soldiers in the front raised their shields and quickly pieced together a relatively neat shield wall.
thud thud thud!
the rain of arrows fell on the shield wall, causing minimal damage.
the Baratheon soldiers in the front took this opportunity to quickly rush towards the walls of Harvest Hall.
whoosh whoosh whoosh!
the second wave of arrows from the Harvest Hall defenders fell among the Essos infantry legions that subsequently entered range.
a strange scene appeared.
these fully armed elite infantry wearing brand new armor were actually flustered and at least a hundred of them were taken down by this wave of arrows.
the Harvest Hall defenders on the city wall saw this and realized that the enemy was not as terrifying as they had imagined, and their morale immediately soared.
but in just two rounds of arrows, the more than 3,500 Baratheon soldiers in the front had already rushed to the bottom of the Harvest Hall city wall.
clank clank clank!
siege ladders were erected from their shield wall and placed on the walls of Harvest Hall.
these Baratheon soldiers' movements were crisp and clean, indicating rich combat experience.
bang bang bang!
crash!
boulders, boiling oil, and logs, among other defensive weapons, were successively thrown down from the walls of Harvest Hall.
this caused significant damage to the brave Baratheon soldiers climbing the siege ladders.
"hurry up with the boulders and logs, the enemy is about to climb up!"
lord selmy's eldest son was loudly urging the logistics team.
suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a large black cloud appearing to his lower left.
what was that...?
thud thud thud!
dense arrows shot from the oblique front, and all the Harvest Hall defenders who were throwing boulders, logs, and pouring boiling oil instantly turned into hedgehogs.
fortunately, the enemy's Crossbow Legion could not use high trajectory shots, and the Harvest Hall defenders only needed to hide behind the battlements to be safe.
but in this way, the pressure on the Baratheon soldiers climbing the wall was greatly reduced, and they began to take the opportunity to climb quickly.
the Harvest Hall defenders were suddenly in a dilemma, whether to continue suppressing the climbing soldiers at the cost of heavy casualties, or simply let them come up and fight in close combat.
ultimately, lord selmy decided to preserve his own combat power as much as possible.
Baratheon soldiers climbed onto the city wall, and their primary target was the large ballistae mounted on the wall.
the Harvest Hall defenders had decent combat power, but those Baratheon soldiers were all full of fanaticism and fearless of death.
clank, clank!
soon, the bowstrings of the large ballistae were cut, or their stands were destroyed.
whoosh, whoosh!
the two dragons that had been observing the situation below suddenly swooped down rapidly.
whoosh!
inside the Harvest Hall gate, two hundred cavalrymen lined up in a neat formation, ready to sally out at any time,
were suddenly attacked by Dracarys from the sky, and one after another, the cavalrymen and their horses were burned into charred corpses.
whinny~~
the scorching Dracarys, and the dragon's might released by the Vermithrax hovering in the sky.
immediately frightened the remaining hundred-plus warhorses, and even the cavalry who had been with them day and night could not control them.
rumble!
the frightened warhorses galloped everywhere within Harvest Hall, knocking over many logistics soldiers transporting military supplies.
sure enough, it cannot be used continuously?
Jacaerys in the sky transmitted a thought to Womax again to use dragon's might, hoping to control the direction of the frightened horses.
but the horses below did not react at all, it was clear that dragon's might could not be used a second time in a short period.
whoosh, whoosh!
the sound of dragon wings breaking the air came, and Lucerys on Arrax's back shouted loudly to Jacaerys, "brother, they've raised the white flag to surrender!"
Jacaerys turned his head to look and immediately saw a white flag raised from the tower on the Harvest Hall city wall.
"what white flag? i don't see it!"
shaking his head in denial, Jacaerys directly rode Womax towards the Harvest Hall tower.
whoosh!
rumble!
the black and gray Dracarys with a powerful impact directly destroyed the tower, and the white flag instantly turned to ashes.
just like lord selmy, who turned to ashes before he could regret it, Jacaerys also wanted to establish his fierce reputation with this first battle.
through the battle of Harvest Hall, he wanted to clearly tell all the lords of the Seven Kingdoms that there were only two outcomes for those who opposed him: surrender without a fight or fight to the death!
whoosh whoosh whoosh!
after Womax destroyed the city wall tower, he continued to spray Dracarys along the city wall at the Harvest Hall defenders.
during the battle of Shipbreaker Bay, Jacaerys had been fighting Vhagar and sunfyre and hadn't harvested any term points at all.
he even ordered the eyes of the surrendering Hightower and dorne soldiers to be gouged out to vent his anger.
so this was a good opportunity to harvest a sum of points at Harvest Hall.
and when the Harvest Hall defenders saw that the enemy dragon had destroyed the tower and had no intention of accepting surrender, they could only fight like trapped beasts, fighting to the death.
these defenders, who had been fighting in the Dornish Marches for years, immediately realized that they could not win a positional battle against a dragon with air superiority.
so they broke into smaller groups and retreated directly into the town of Harvest Hall, attempting to fight in the streets.
the reason they could make such a choice was that the people of the Seven Kingdoms knew too little about Jacaerys.
whoosh whoosh whoosh!
burning and slaughtering cities was something Jacaerys was already familiar with.
he avoided the location of the granary that he had learned about in advance, and controlled Womax to spray out a large circular ring of black and gray Dracarys.
then, unhurriedly, he lit the buildings inside the circular ring in a counterclockwise direction.
Lucerys, who had been hovering on Arrax's saddle in the sky, had a face full of unbearable pain and closed his eyes, unable to watch the tragic burning of the city below.
roar!!!
as if feeling the long-awaited pleasure of slaughter, Womax, who had ignited more than half of Harvest Hall, landed in the center of the circular ring of fire and let out a loud dragon roar towards the sky.
in the battle of Harvest Hall, Jacaerys once again obtained sufficient food supplies.
not only that, if before it was just rumors floating from the distant Essos.
this time, the evil dragon's fierce reputation truly spread.
raven letters expressing willingness to surrender were sent consecutively from duskendale, bronze gate, haystack hall, crow's nest, and felwood castle near Storm's End.
Jacaerys's control area was rapidly expanding outwards from Storm's End as the center.
during the process of transporting the food supplies from Harvest Hall.
Jacaerys, in the name of his mother, issued a final ultimatum to the other lords of the Seven Kingdoms, except for those who clearly supported the Green Party.
those who do not surrender are enemies!
...
King's Landing Red Keep, Maegor's Holdfast queen mother's chambers.
"mother, we couldn't be sure at the time whether the news of Rhaenyra controlling the dragon attack was true.
so for your safety, i asked ser Larys to protect you.
the deaths of Aegon and grandfather were indeed Rhaenyra's plot.
she also let Daemon sneak into the Red Keep and steal Joffrey and Viserys!"
Aemond, wearing the conqueror's crown and with blackfyre at his waist, was earnestly explaining to queen Alicent.
but queen Alicent turned a deaf ear, she curled up on the down bed, constantly picking at her nails.
Aemond saw his mother picking at her nails until they bled, he stepped forward and sat on the edge of the bed, wanting to stroke the back of her hand to comfort her.
but queen Alicent directly turned away, completely unwilling to pay attention to him.
whoosh!
Aemond stood up and let out a heavy breath, then said in a tone of notification, "after the funerals of Aegon and grandfather are over, i will officially marry Helaena.
don't worry, i will treat Jaehaerys and jaehaera as my own children.
you don't need to worry about those complicated political affairs either, just spend time with Helaena and the two little ones every day!"
after saying this, Aemond got up and left the queen mother's chambers.
queen Alicent looked at his back, her eyes filled with complex emotions.
"your majesty, the people you wanted have been found, they are all waiting for you in the Throne Room."
as soon as Aemond went out the door, Larys, like a ghost, walked out of the shadows and reported in a low voice.
"well done, ser Larys.
the position of master of laws is still vacant, and i think you should be able to handle it."
Aemond nodded upon hearing this, and immediately bestowed upon him a position as a Small Council member.
but Larys was completely unmoved, he glanced at the door of the queen mother's chambers and slowly said, "your majesty, you should know that this is not what i want."
Aemond's face sank upon hearing this, and his right hand subconsciously went to the hilt of blackfyre.
after a moment of thought, he forced a difficult smile and replied, "mother is too sad about the deaths of Aegon and grandfather.
let's talk about it later!"
"your majesty, you misunderstood.
i want Rhaenyra's head, if it weren't for her, my father and brother would not have died.
and we strongs would not have become the laughing stock of the lords of the Seven Kingdoms!"
Larys shook his head and spoke with a look of genuine sincerity.
"so that's it.
don't worry, Rhaenyra's faction murdered my father, Aegon, and grandfather.
i will definitely put all of their heads on spears in the Red Keep.
oh, by the way, has little Aegon been properly imprisoned?"
"yes, in the deepest part of the Black Jail, twenty guards are on rotation."
"hmm, Aegon, what a tiresome name.
alright, then i'll go to the Throne Room first."
Aemond nodded and walked past Larys, who had a respectful expression.
after these two passed each other, the expressions on their faces immediately changed.
in the Throne Room, Ser Criston was standing in front of the Iron Throne.
he had taken off his White Knight armor and was wearing a magnificent lord's robe.
the golden Hand of the King brooch was pinned to his chest, declaring the noble status of this lord.
in the great hall, there was a large crowd of people standing.
these people varied in age and gender, but a significant portion of them had silver hair.
tap tap tap!
Aemond walked in through the door with a vigorous stride and sat directly on the Iron Throne.
"hail Aemond the first!"
"alright, i won't say any more nonsense.
everyone standing here has the same true dragon blood as me.
now kneel and pledge allegiance to me, and i will grant you a precious opportunity to tame a dragon!"
thank you for subscribing! also, thank you to all the great lords for their monthly votes.
ps: the picture of Womax was obtained from a reader, although it is a quadrupedal dragon, it has some of the essence of Womax.
guaranteed 6000 words, today's update is 8200 words, which is an extra update for the nearly 100 monthly votes in the past two days!