On the King's Road, King Jacaerys's ground forces were advancing north.
After four or five days of marching at a normal pace, they were only half a day's journey from King's Landing.
Clatter, clatter!
Inside the fully enclosed cargo box of a transport carriage, Ser Criston Cole's hands and feet were firmly bound with ropes as thick as a thumb.
The cargo door opened, and a figure agilely slipped inside.
"Oh? Is it your turn to torture me today?"
"Heh heh, those minor, painless injuries from before won't loosen my tongue."
"If you've got the guts, bring something harsher!"
Criston, whose lips were incredibly pale but whose complexion was very rosy, saw the newcomer and immediately spoke in a provocative tone.
Jacaerys, who had just settled into the carriage, smiled slightly upon hearing this: "Ser Criston, don't be in such a hurry to seek death."
"I have good news for you, Aemond has agreed to a prisoner exchange."
"In half a day, you can return to King's Landing."
"Prisoner exchange? Who am I being exchanged for? Little Aegon?"
Criston frowned upon hearing this and asked back in an uncertain tone.
Seeing Jacaerys nod in confirmation, he immediately shook his head and said,
"Impossible, he wouldn't exchange Aegon for me!"
"Heh heh, perhaps you are far more important than you imagine!"
Jacaerys replied with a smile and then stepped forward to roll up Criston's sleeve.
His forearm was covered in small cuts about three or four centimeters long.
These were the painless torture methods Criston had just mentioned.
But he had no idea that Jacaerys's purpose in having him cut daily was not for torture.
A considerable number of these small cuts were red and inflamed, and with a little pressure, thick yellowish-white pus flowed out.
Jacaerys lightly touched Criston's forehead with the back of his hand and found that his rosy complexion was actually due to a fever.
After confirming that his objective had been achieved, he left the transport carriage under Criston's puzzled gaze.
Having his arm cut open daily with a rusty dagger soaked in feces was bound to cause Criston's wounds to become infected; it would have been strange if they hadn't.
Even if the prisoner exchange allowed him to return to King's Landing, he would ultimately not escape death.
Half a day later, this army of nearly eight thousand men arrived on the opposite bank of the River Gate of King's Landing.
Knowing that King Jacaerys's army was arriving, King's Landing would naturally not lower the drawbridge outside the River Gate.
A small fishing boat crossed the Blackwater River, and four Gold Cloaks escorted a terrified Aegon to the shore.
Seeing the Green Party's straightforwardness, Jacaerys immediately waved for someone to take Criston from the transport carriage to the boat for the prisoner exchange.
Womax and Silverwing circled in the sky, but the King's Landing side showed no sign of Vhagar.
It was as if they were certain that this prisoner exchange would go off without a hitch today.
And indeed, the two sides exchanged Aegon and Criston very peacefully.
"Brother! Sob sob!"
As soon as Aegon returned to Jacaerys's side, he hugged his leg, crying with tears streaming down his face.
Jacaerys said a few words of comfort and immediately had the accompanying Scholar from Storm's End examine him.
Before long, the Scholar from Storm's End informed him that Prince Aegon showed no signs of poisoning.
But this answer only deepened the suspicion in Jacaerys's eyes.
Because this did not fit Aemond's character at all.
Since he couldn't figure it out, he would put it aside for now.
After having his personal guard take Aegon to the rear of the army for protection, Jacaerys ordered preparations for the siege.
On the sixth day, the Conqueror Fleet and the Valyrian Fleet, reinforced with soldiers from Driftmark, appeared in the Blackwater Bay.
Meleys and Arrax also circled above the fleet, escorting them.
The fleet did not enter the narrow Blackwater River but instead advanced directly towards the Steel Gate of King's Landing with a total strength of seven thousand six hundred men.
Early on the seventh day, Daemon arrived at the Dragon Gate with four thousand cavalry from the Vale and over three thousand four hundred men from the combined forces of the Frey Family and House Blackwood.
As of now, Jacaerys's side had a total strength of over twenty-three thousand men.
Inside King's Landing were four thousand infantry previously conscripted from the castles in the Crownlands, three thousand three hundred Gold Cloaks who had been expanded, and seven hundred Royal Guards stationed in the Red Keep, for a total strength of nearly eight thousand men.
Around noon on the seventh day, Lucerys, riding Arrax, circled above Jacaerys.
Knowing that the time was right, he quickly climbed onto Womax, who was waiting nearby, gripping the protruding dragon spines tightly.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Womax first flapped his wings and flew up, then grabbed two large water tanks placed nearby with his claws before flying into the sky.
Roar~~
Womax, circling in the sky, suddenly opened his mouth and let out a huge dragon roar.
Subsequently, Sunfyre below and Silverwing and Arrax in the sky, and even Meleys far away in the Blackwater Bay sky, all let out dragon roars of varying volumes.
The roars of the five dragons echoed throughout King's Landing, marking the beginning of the Blacks and Green Party's decisive battle for King's Landing!
Thump thump thump!
Sunfyre, located at the very front of the army, charged towards the River Gate on the opposite bank in a stance with his dragon wings on the ground after the roars ended.
Whoosh, whoosh!
As he approached the Blackwater River, Sunfyre leaped up and fiercely flapped his broken wings.
Bang!
With the power of his leap and glide, he landed heavily on the bank of the River Gate.
Clang clang clang!
The King's Landing defenders on the River Gate wall began to shoot arrows at Sunfyre, but they could only leave small white marks on his armor.
The specially made scorpion crossbows should be able to penetrate the armor and the dragon scales below, causing damage to Sunfyre.
But this kind of equipment, specifically designed to prevent dragon air raids, couldn't shoot downwards towards the base of the wall.
After all, the designers of the scorpion crossbow couldn't have imagined that the enemy would have a steel dragon that couldn't fly.
Hoo!
Sunfyre completely ignored the attacks from the River Gate defenders and immediately turned around to spew Dracarys at the thick iron chains of the drawbridge winch over the Blackwater River.
His orange-red Dracarys was not enough to melt steel, it could only make the winch chains glow red-hot.
Splash!
A large stream of cold water mixed with ceramic shards suddenly fell from the sky, directly drenching the winch chains.
Looking up, Womax had already crushed the two large water tanks in his dragon claws.
Crack crack crack!
The surface of these chains, which were not of the best quality, immediately developed numerous cracks and became very brittle.
Snap!
Sunfyre suddenly opened his dragon mouth and bit down, and the drawbridge winch chains immediately shattered.
Bang!
The drawbridge outside the River Gate fell heavily, and the King's Road, which had been blocked by the Blackwater River, was reconnected.
Kill!~~
Seeing this, the three thousand Baratheon soldiers, who had been waiting, shouted and raised their shield walls, rushing towards the drawbridge.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Splash, splash!
The archers on the River Gate wall unleashed a barrage of arrows onto the drawbridge.
Baratheon soldiers constantly fell into the Blackwater River to feed the fish, either struck by arrows due to the narrowness of the drawbridge or pushed off by their comrades.
But as more and more Baratheon soldiers squeezed across the drawbridge, the area on the opposite bank of the Blackwater River became empty.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The Crossbow Legion, now within range, began to unleash their power, and a dense rain of arrows immediately suppressed the defenders on the River Gate, making them afraid to show their heads.
Bang bang bang!
Sunfyre, who had burned the drawbridge winch, immediately transformed into a battering ram, constantly crashing against the gate of the River Gate.
Right from the start, the River Gate was in peril.
The Steel Gate, near the Blackwater Bay, was not faring any better.
The large warships of the Conqueror Fleet were using trebuchets to hurl large quantities of burning pitch barrels onto the Steel Gate wall and into the city.
The flames from these enhanced pitch barrels were like a persistent plaster, very difficult to get rid of once they stuck.
On the Steel Gate wall, King's Landing defenders could be seen running back and forth carrying buckets of water to extinguish the fires.
Outside the gate, the vanguard, acting as cannon fodder, took this opportunity to lean siege ladders against the wall and began to climb up.
In the sky, Meleys constantly used her flying speed to lure the King's Landing defenders into using their scorpion crossbows.
If these defenders were tempted and shot rashly,
With Meleys's incredibly fast flying speed, she could definitely burn them to ashes before the scorpion crossbows could be reloaded for a second round.
The best situation was naturally at the Dragon Gate.
More than half of Daemon's army, which had rushed to King's Landing, were cavalry, and the siege could only rely on the three thousand four hundred infantry.
Moreover, due to the rush, they hadn't had time to build siege ladders.
They could only cut down one or two thick trees outside King's Landing and fashion them into simple battering rams.
So these three thousand four hundred infantry could only hold up their shields and carry the battering rams to forcefully ram the gate of the Dragon Gate.
Here, there was no Crossbow Legion to provide suppressing fire, nor were there dragons constantly harassing them.
The defenders on the Dragon Gate wall only needed to use all their defensive methods on the gate area without any reservations.
After controlling Womax to help Sunfyre lower the drawbridge, Jacaerys stayed in the high altitude above King's Landing with Silverwing.
If he wanted to, he could attack any area of King's Landing except the Red Keep at any time.
But the Green Party's dragons had not appeared yet, and the seemingly undefended King's Landing seemed to be full of strangeness.
Since that was the case, Jacaerys decided to just wait it out.
Because if the Green Party didn't take action soon, the River Gate and the Steel Gate would eventually be breached by Sunfyre and Meleys.
After a while, the Green Party finally couldn't sit still.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Two dragons flew out of the Dragonpit one after another, heading towards the River Gate and the Steel Gate respectively.
The dragon heading towards the River Gate was about twelve or thirteen meters long and had a light grayish-white appearance.
This was the youngest wild dragon on Dragonstone, Grey Ghost.
The dragon heading towards the Steel Gate was fifty or sixty meters long, about the same size as Womax.
Its dragon body was somewhat shriveled, and its surface was covered with a layer of ugly brownish-mud colored dragon scales, completely lacking the beauty of other dragons.
This was the wild dragon that Ricinus had been trying to tame before, Sheepstealer.
Under the control of the dragonrider on its back, Grey Ghost circled around the River Gate and attacked Sunfyre from behind with grayish-white Dracarys.
Sunfyre, clad in iron armor, immediately turned his head and retaliated with orange-red Dracarys after being attacked.
But the dragonrider on Grey Ghost's back was very smart and did not engage in a head-on fight with Sunfyre.
Instead, relying on Grey Ghost's Agile flying ability, he constantly harassed Sunfyre, preventing him from continuing to attack the city gate.
As for Sheepstealer, ridden by Ricinus, he merely circled above the Steel Gate, relying on the might of the scorpion crossbows.
Meleys no longer dared to lure the opponent into shooting without reservations as she had before.
With the help of these two dragons, the Green Party seemed to have stabilized the situation in King's Landing again.
But this was the moment Jacaerys was waiting for.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Womax and Silverwing descended from the sky, heading directly for the Dragonpit located on top of Rhaenys' Hill, not far from the Dragon Gate.
Although Vhagar had not appeared, in the face of absolute strength, any schemes or tricks were meaningless.
Even without Silverwing, Jacaerys could kill Vhagar alone with the twice-molted Womax.
Hoo hoo hoo!
As Womax and Silverwing were about to land at the Dragonpit.
The massive Vhagar appeared first and spewed a stream of bright yellow high-temperature Dracarys into the sky.
Behind Vhagar, there was a pale blue dragon about the same size as Silverwing, with silver lines on its dragon body; that was Dreamfyre.
Helaena, who originally did not have dragon-riding ability, sat expressionlessly on Dreamfyre's saddle.
Roar~~
At the same time, Daeron, riding Tessarion, flew out of the Red Keep and flew towards the Dragonpit at an extremely fast speed.
At this moment, the Green Party had Vhagar, Dreamfyre, Tessarion, Sheepstealer, and Grey Ghost.
And the Blacks had Womax, Meleys, Silverwing, Arrax, and Sunfyre.
The Battle of King's Landing, the Dance of Ten Dragons!
Thank you to the gods for the subscriptions! At the same time, thank you to all the big bosses for their monthly votes.
PS: Today's update is over eight thousand characters, tomorrow I will try to update ten thousand characters to end the Battle of King's Landing.