On the morning of the second day, the siege of the Westerlands Army came as expected.
Arthur stood behind the battlement, watching nearly 10,000 Lion Family soldiers in front of the main gate.
It can't be said that they were all Lion Family soldiers. In front of the attacking team, there were river farmers wearing gray cloth.
Behind them was the infantry phalanx with lion-shaped half helmets, scarlet robes, black ringmail and other standard equipment for Westerlands soldiers.
At the back was the Lannister Cavalry Regiment of more than 6,000, of which more than 4,000 were heavy cavalry with armor.
More than a dozen enlarged catapults were slowly pushed to the front of the formation, followed by ten extended ladders. The giant siege hammer that required 50 to 60 people to push attracted the attention of many soldiers from the first and second battalions.
Bill, the leader of the King's Landing mercenaries, exclaimed: "This is more than twice as big as the last time. It's really scary to look at."
He had few mercenaries, only in their early 90s, so they were always sent to maintain order among civilians.
Bill himself volunteered to defend the city.
"But we couldn't break open the main gate." The serious Dickon shook his head, "To be honest, I used to think that with 20,000 Lannister troops, two or three thousand people couldn't defend Harrenhal."
"But after seeing the solidity of the two gates, I have to admit that Harrenhal will never be captured from the outside except for the flying dragons from the sky."
"That's right." Arthur thought of Storm's End in the War of the Usurper, "The Duke of Mace of the Reach led 60,000 troops to besiege Storm's End for half a year, but he didn't accomplish anything except starving the people inside."
Storm's End is also a well-known solid castle in the Seven Kingdoms. In recent wars, there is no record of it being captured by heavy troops.
Similar to Storm's End, which is close to the sea on one side, Harrenhal is close to the lake on the other side.
So the sieges of the two are similar.
Eight catapults are neatly placed on the wall above the main gate.
There were originally 20 catapults placed here, but the people of the He'an family only maintained a part of them, so only eight could be used.
The rest were moved away to make room for the soldiers to settle down.
More than a thousand new army soldiers were scattered on this section of the city wall, nervously waiting for the upcoming war.
Not long after, an enlarged version of the enemy's counterweight catapult was placed and began preliminary testing.
Four Western Border soldiers stepped hard on the wheel, causing the counterweight box to rise and the end of the traction throwing arm to drop.
After the throwing arm reached the bottom, a Western Border soldier placed the pin first, and then a large stone that required two soldiers to hold together to move was placed in the throwing bag, and the traction rope was removed.
After all the preparations were completed, a man who looked like an officer lit the stone, causing a circle of flames to ignite on its surface, and then removed the pin.
Immediately, the gravitational potential energy accumulated in the counterweight box was released at a high speed, the several-meter-long throwing arm rotated rapidly, and the throwing bag wrapped in the stone was thrown high.
After being swung for more than half a circle, the burning stone broke away from the throwing bag, drew an extremely perfect parabola, and hit the city wall below the main gate fiercely.
Boom.
Like a small earthquake, the new soldiers on the entire wall felt a clear vibration.
"This thing is too big." Someone stuck his head out of the city wall to check the fallen stones, and couldn't help but sigh.
Although there were catapults on the city wall, they were very small and had a much shorter range.
Bill turned to Arthur beside him and said in confusion: "My lord, I seem to see that the top of the projectile is a little higher than ours."
The highest point of the stone projectile trajectory is higher than the city wall, so as long as the position of the catapult is adjusted, it can always hit the city wall.
"That's it." The serious Dicken had a layer of confusion on his face, "This requires our soldiers to hide under the battlements, otherwise a stone can take the lives of several people."
Arthur nodded, called the messenger, and asked all the new soldiers to squat and wait for the enemy to climb up from the ladder before sticking their heads out.
At the same time, he also asked the soldiers of the third battalion on standby on the first floor to prepare to put out the fire. Although there were not many wooden objects in Harrenhal, there were still some.
Being hit by such oil-coated projectiles can easily cause fires.
After the first attempt failed, the catapult was pushed forward by the Westerland soldiers.
This time, the stone hit a certain part of the Burning King Tower behind Arthur, and with some broken stones that were shaken off, the burning stone fell to the ground on the first floor.
Arthur and the commander of the first battalion, Zordan, rushed over to see that fortunately no one was hit.
"Put out the fire of that stone, it will be used later." Arthur shouted to the soldiers below.
This is really a good thing.
With Arthur's strength, it is perfect to throw it up and hit the Westerland soldiers climbing the ladder.
Maybe the ladder can be broken in one go, and the siege may stop at that time.
After two more adjustments, the Westerland Army's catapult was finally in place.
"Lie down, lie down." Dicken commanded the new soldiers on the city wall.
In the last test, the burning stones fell accurately on the city wall. Although no one was killed, the vibration and burning stone balls underfoot still caused a lot of panic.
After all, these new soldiers were farmers a month or two ago.
A few minutes later, more than a thousand new soldiers and Arthur and others experienced the fear of being dominated by catapults.
Every minute, one or two burning projectiles fell on the city wall, and several times they smashed the battlements and seriously injured the soldiers lying nearby.
Although only a dozen people were injured, it still made Arthur feel distressed.
What's worse is that the catapults on the city wall have also become the enemy's main attack target.
After thirty or forty projectiles were fired in succession, all the catapults on the city wall were smashed to pieces.
Now the Westerland soldiers have no worries when charging, after all, the range of arrows is much smaller than that of catapults.
"There are top maesters in the Westerland Army. They can enlarge the original small catapults and build them in such a few days. Their ability is really good." He sighed.
"The Lannister family has gold, so they can naturally recruit capable maesters, and there should be more than one. With Tywin's wealth, he can afford a heavy cavalry corps of 5,000 people. A maester corps is not a big deal." Mercenary Bill said.
This is indeed the truth.
The place where cavalry spends more money than infantry is the horse under their crotch. Most riding horses do not eat all low-calorie grass, but forage mixed with high-calorie grains.
Horses have a large appetite and take a long time to eat. In order to save time during war, war horses are mostly fed with grain mixed with grass.
So this is why there is barely enough food in peacetime, but there is a shortage of food when war breaks out.
Because horses also need to eat some food.
The Lannisters under Tywin can afford to support 7,000 to 8,000 cavalry in peacetime, including nearly 5,000 heavy cavalry, which shows that they are the richest family in Westeros.
As for the maester, it is also very expensive.
The Lord of Greywater Watch in the North, the Reed family, is a distinguished earl family, but they can't afford to support a maester. You can see how expensive it is to support a maester.
I will also get a few maesters in the future and bring them around as consultants, Arthur thought to himself.
He picked from his memory, and the only maesters that satisfied him were only two: Samwell, Dickon's fat brother, and Qyburn.
The former should be investigating the disappearance of Benjen Stark, the chief ranger of the Night's Watch, north of the Wall, and the latter should be...
According to the original book, Qyburn went north in the early stage of the War of the Five Kings, preparing to join the Night's Watch, but he met the Bloody Mummers, a group of mercenaries with a bad reputation, so he joined them.
It's just because Arthur hired the Bloody Mummers and consumed almost the same amount, so Qyburn's life trajectory has probably changed.
Now it is estimated that he should be in the Northern Army heading south.
After all, a lone maester who can heal diseases is still quite popular.
He was thinking about whether to find someone to find Qyburn. But he had no reliable people under his command, so this was temporarily abandoned.
As Arthur was thinking, the Westerland Army in front of the main gate of Harrenhal finally stopped throwing stones. Then, two or three thousand civilians with only weapons took the lead, and thousands of people rushed over with the extended ladders pushed by the cross.
At the same time, the heavy siege vehicle also started slowly.
After the Westerland Army rushed into the range, some of the new soldiers on the wall also began to bend their bows and shoot arrows.
However, there were not many bows and arrows, and the Lion Family soldiers below were all holding small round shields in one hand, so they could hardly kill anyone.
Instead, the civilians who were coerced were hit by arrows.
"Don't shoot arrows, save some for Anguy." Arthur ordered.
Anguy was slightly injured in the raid, and he was resting these days and did not participate in the battle.
The Westerland Army rushed to the bottom of the wall, began to adjust the height of the ladder, and put the ladder head on the battlement.
Then, the civilians who were forced to climb the ladder in front, and the Lion Family soldiers followed behind, and thousands of people climbed the ladders one by one, and the hard attack on Harrenhal began.
"The first person to rush up the wall will be rewarded with a thousand gold dragons, and the person who kills Arthur Bracken will be rewarded with ten thousand gold dragons." The Lion Family officer who was supervising the battle shouted.
Arthur, who carried a stone projectile, walked to the top of a ladder and threw it down along the ladder.
"Surrender and you won't be killed." This was his response to everyone who was still climbing the ladder.