The horses were the first to sense something unusual in the west.
They pawed their hooves restlessly, and their thick nostrils snorted.
So the mercenaries began to check the surroundings, including the Lion Gate and the docks in the east, but found nothing. The gold cloaks guarding the city huddled behind the battlements, not even daring to show their heads.
There was basically no longship near the usually busy docks. After Stannis decided to block Blackwater Bay, only half of the ships were left here. When the wretch army came over, all the ships hid on the south bank of the Blackwater River, including the longships of the royal fleet that were still loyal to Joffrey I.
After a moment, Arthur and the mercenaries knew what made the horses uneasy.
Even across the entire King's Landing, they could see the red light reflected by the fire in the west.
Of course, there were also a few green lights mixed in.
"Let's go back." Arthur suddenly realized what was going on.
The gold cloaks guarding the city should have attacked the coalition camp with wildfire.
According to the original plot, King's Landing has been preparing for Stannis' attack, so Cersei secretly ordered the Alchemist Association to make wildfire as her biggest trump card.
Wildfire is no different from ordinary fire except that it burns quickly and the flame is green.
But in a camp full of cloth tents and wooden siege weapons, "burning quickly" is the most fatal point.
Fortunately, King's Landing has few qualified military commanders, and Roose Bolton and Aenys Frey's command ability is qualified, so the coalition should be able to cope with this battle.
Arthur led more than a hundred mercenaries to the north to bypass the city wall, and then traveled west for half a day before arriving near the Gate of the Gods in the northwest corner of King's Landing.
Along the way, the Frey family's siege soldiers also disappeared.
The coalition's camp was about half a league west of King's Landing (on land, one league is about kilometers). From a distance, everyone could hear the fighting, screams, and crackling sounds of large weapons burning there.
The gold cloaks and a small number of royal family soldiers should still be fighting with the coalition.
According to reliable intelligence, the city's garrison is more than 8,000 people, and newly recruited civilians account for the majority.
In other words, in pure combat, the coalition, which is basically composed of soldiers from non-working families, is more than one level stronger than the King's Landing garrison.
Arthur suddenly had an idea.
When the King's Landing garrison returns to the city, he can take advantage of the chaos and lead his men to kill them.
If he is lucky, he can run into Joffrey, who loves to show off. If he is unlucky, he can also intercept and kill the senior officers of King's Landing and weaken their strength.
"Get off the horse, send a few people to hide with the horses, and the rest of you follow me." Arthur ordered the leader of the mercenaries, Locke Holt.
Whether it was his golden armored giant horse or the black and white striped warhorses of the Qohor mercenaries, they were very conspicuous and not suitable for ambushes.
Locke, who loved to count on his fingers, faithfully carried out his employer's orders.
So Arthur, holding a giant hammer and carrying four weighted hand axes, and more than a hundred mercenaries walked to a mound near the Gate of the Gods, ready to wait for the King's Landing garrison on their way back.
Coincidentally, another large group of friendly troops thought the same way.
Nearly three hundred sword and shield soldiers wearing chain mail and the twin-towered robes of the Frey family hid behind the mound.
"Is the person coming, Lord Arthur?" The leader of the Frey family was a bald, red-eyed tall man who looked very similar to Aenys Frey.
"Exactly, who are you?" Since they were friendly troops, Arthur was not polite and brought people together.
"My name is Aegon Frey, and my father is Aenys."
Arthur recalled for a long time and remembered the deeds of this person in the original book. He was called "Bloody" Aegon, and he should have become a bandit after the Battle of the Green Fork.
Since Walder Frey and his eldest son Stevron were both very fertile, the Frey family is now flourishing.
Old Walder himself had about twenty-two sons and nine daughters, as well as countless illegitimate children. They continued to multiply, bringing the number of Frey family members to hundreds.
However, there was only one heir to the Twins and the Crossing, so the Freys who were later in the order of succession had to find their own way out.
According to the arrangement of old Walder, the Freys had three main ways out:
One was to marry other nobles, and then let the married Frey go to his wife's family to develop;
The second was to position themselves as officers and warriors like Aenys and Hosteen, serving the Crossing;
The third was to join the Citadel or the Church of the Seven, such as Luchen Frey, who was an influential archbishop, and William Frey, Walder's seventeenth son, who was an outstanding bachelor who got the Citadel necklace before the age of thirty.
Hundreds of Freys are not all as cunning and cruel as old Walder. There are also loyal people like Stevron who died for Robb, and "doorkeeper Ali" who opens his door for everyone.
The most famous feature of "Bloody Aegon" in front of him should be his aggressiveness and bloodlust.
"What are you doing here?" Arthur asked after letting the mercenaries hide.
"I'm going to ambush the defenders of King's Landing..." Aegon Frey explained his plan to Arthur in detail.
He was originally responsible for the defense near the old city gate. After noticing something wrong, he found that the Frey soldiers near the Gate of the Gods had all died, so he summoned the Frey soldiers near the Dragon Gate and prepared to kill them.
This coincided with Bracken's idea.
So the two led their troops to wait for the King's Landing defenders to return to the city.
Not long after, several riders returned with hundreds of walking gold cloaks.
"Dog-head mask, this man is the Hound."
"Bloody Aegon" suddenly said excitedly.
The Hound is Sandor Clegane, the brother of the Mountain. If nothing unexpected happens, Sandor has inherited the small territory and castle of the Mountain.
When the gate of the Gate of the Gods slowly opened and the leading riders entered, Arthur and "Bloody Aegon" rushed up with more than 400 people.
...
Inside the Gate of the Gods.
Joffrey I, who was waiting for the news of victory at the gate, looked at the returning Sandor Clegane.
The latter was lifting his mask.
"Hound, did you win?" The king in gorgeous plate armor asked anxiously.
"No, I was still fighting before I came back. There are still many people in the North, and the gold cloaks can only barely tie."
Sandor replied.
Behind Clegane, the gold cloaks lined up to walk into the city. Because the king's nobles blocked the road, their progress was very slow.
"Then why did you come back?" Joffrey asked, a little angry.
"I'm afraid of fire, red and green. The fire over there is too big!"
"Go back and fight." His Majesty pointed outside the city, "I let you, a dog, become a Kingsguard, and you don't fight for me."
But Sandor just took the wine handed by the servant and drank it up, without paying attention to the king's order.
This made Joffrey furious, "If you stay here, I will let my grandfather, Duke Lannister, deprive you of your territory."
After drinking a lot of wine, Sandor threw the cowhide wine bag to the ground, "F*** wildfire, F*** Lannister."
These two sentences shocked everyone present. In the current King's Landing, no one dared to speak like this in front of the king.
But Sandor's next words shocked Joffrey and the defenders even more:
"F*** the king!"
After Sandor Clegane finished speaking, he ignored the group of shocked people, turned on his horse, and went out of the city.
At this time, the sound of swords clashing outside the Gate of the Gods also reached the city.
"Your Majesty, someone rushed in." A quick-witted golden robe reported.
"Do you need to tell me?" Joffrey glared at the man with great resentment.
He was shocked and angry that the Hound disobeyed his orders. He was shocked that the servant who used to be obedient suddenly changed to a face he didn't recognize, and he hated that the act of openly disobeying orders made him lose face.
He even wanted to use his capstan crossbow to shoot an arrow at the Hound, but he didn't bring the toy with him.
The Hound rode his horse, avoiding hundreds of soldiers fighting in pairs, and went out of the city.
Arthur was rushing in, and suddenly saw Sandor Clegane riding out on horseback, so he raised his giant hammer and prepared to fight.
Unexpectedly, the Hound didn't even look at him and went straight out of the city.
"Bloody Aegon" behind Arthur was puzzled, "Hound, come down and fight me."
This Frey was very aggressive and wanted to rush over to fight with Clegane, but was stopped by Arthur.
"Did you see Joffrey and Grinfield? That's your target. Let's go and fight them."
For some reason, there was only one Kingsguard named Priest Grinfield beside Joffrey.
The rest of Baron Swan, Meryn Trant, Mandon Moore and others were not there.
"Bloody Aegon" was overjoyed, "The blood of a king is enough to satisfy my great sword."
He didn't care about the dozens of gold cloaks and royal guards in front of him, and rushed forward with his sword.
Several sword and shield soldiers of the Frey family protected the commander.
Arthur was happy to take advantage of the opportunity and followed behind, ready to rob Joffrey.
This Frey lived up to his nickname, killing blood and flesh all the way, and the gold cloaks couldn't stop him at all.
The Kingsguard Priest yelled in fear: "Let His Majesty get on the horse, let His Majesty get on the horse, and escort him to the Red Castle."
A loyal royal guard brought a horse, but Arthur hit the target and chopped off the horse's front leg with his hand axe.
Joffrey was frightened by the fierce enemy and the axe, and his face turned pale.
A dozen royal guards from the Stormlands held large shields and formed a shield formation to protect the king to move to the Red Castle.
But "Bloody Aegon" killed faster and rushed behind the shield formation in a few breaths.
So Sir Priest came out of the shield formation with a few people and fought with "Bloody Aegon" and Frey sword and shield soldiers.
Arthur, who followed behind, bypassed this area and strode towards Joffrey.
After catching up with the shield formation, he raised his huge hammer and smashed the large shield in two blows. Perhaps because of panic, a royal guard fell down, and his king was also tripped.
Taking advantage of this good opportunity, Arthur swung his giant hammer and knocked down several royal guards in a few moves. The remaining four or five people saw that Arthur was too powerful, so they quietly slipped away.
Bracken, who had time, pulled out a hand axe from his back and hit Joffrey on the head, knocking him unconscious. Then he carried him on his shoulders and rushed out of the city.
The night was dim, and there was a loud sound of metal and stone near the Gate of the Gods. About seven hundred people were fighting here.
Arthur walked quickly across the battlefield and rushed out of King's Landing with his giant hammer.
"Retreat, retreat." He shouted to the Qohor mercenaries and the Frey sword and shield soldiers.
The mercenaries were all veterans, and most of them quickly rushed out after hearing the retreat. Most of the Frey sword and shield soldiers followed their commander to fight to the death, and only forty or fifty people followed Arthur.
The nobles with some military power in the city should have attacked the camp, so not many people rushed out to take back their king.
Arthur and his men were able to leave the battlefield smoothly, and then the mercenaries rode on horses and the sword and shield soldiers walked to the camp.
In order to avoid the King's Landing defenders returning to the city, he deliberately went around half a circle to the north.
...
"Oh my God!" Arthur, who led his men back to the vicinity of the camp, looked at the mess on the ground and couldn't help but sigh loudly.
The camp of more than 16,000 people has turned into a sea of fire. It is almost autumn, the grass and trees are withered, and the fire can't be stopped at all.
The battlefield between the King's Landing defenders and the Fish and Wolf coalition has been moved. If you fight near such a sea of fire, you will be roasted.
According to the sound of fighting, the current battlefield should be on the Blackwater River slightly south, where there are few trees and close to the water source, which is more suitable for the current battlefield.
So he led his men to bypass this large sea of fire from the north and prepared to return to the coalition from the back.
Joffrey, who was knocked unconscious, was placed horizontally on the golden giant horse. He was a qualified material for hatching dragons.
I don't know where Uncle Jules went?
Since Arthur had snatched Joffrey, he naturally had to start hatching dragons.
With a dragon, even if he couldn't ride it, he had some qualifications to be king.
As for the territory, he had to fight slowly.
After walking for another half an hour, he bypassed the sea of fire and arrived at the Blackwater River.
Now there are two pieces of news in front of Arthur: the good news is that part of the fish and wolf coalition is really here, and the bad news is that these coalition soldiers are almost unable to hold on.
Thanks to the reflection of the sea of fire, Arthur saw the current situation clearly.
About a few hundred Stark soldiers wearing headless wolf robes and the soldiers of the various river families he brought were resisting more than 4,000 golden cloaks, and the rest of the coalition had disappeared.
"This damn old skinned!"
It is easy to figure out that Bolton must have seen that Arthur was not there, so he sent his people and some Stark soldiers to cover the rear.
Even if he had captured Joffrey, Arthur couldn't just leave. He had to save the soldiers before he could leave.
After picking a few reliable mercenaries to guard the dragon hatching material, Arthur dismounted and shouted.
"Follow me!"
Then he led his men to the center of the battlefield.
The mercenaries and Frey sword and shield soldiers had seen Arthur's bravery, so they naturally knew that the safest place was behind him.
So more than 150 people piled together, roughly in the shape of a triangular arrow, inserted into the center of the battle between the two armies from the north, and then turned to the enemy in the east.
Arthur, wielding a huge hammer, was so powerful that he could take away a gold cloak wearing mail with one hammer, which made this team of fresh troops unstoppable and rushed directly to the command center of the gold cloaks.
Kingsguard Baron Swan and Gold Cloak Commander Janos Sterling were responsible for this raid, and Arthur, who was advancing all the way, naturally attracted their attention.
Sterling, a tall and strong man, was not very courageous. Moreover, he had just obtained the title of Duke and the territory of Harrenhal, so he naturally cherished his life very much.
"I heard that this man once hammered the Mountain to death. I think none of us can beat him. The task of attacking the coalition forces and destroying the siege weapons has been completed. Why don't we retreat!"
Although it was a question, Sterling said it with an exclamatory tone.
Baron Swan was also a qualified military commander. He knew that he had to preserve his strength to defend King's Landing, so he agreed to retreat.
"Return to the city, return to the city." Several messengers conveyed this order to the gold cloaks.
The rear team directly became the front team, and more than 4,000 people began to evacuate in an orderly manner.
After the gold cloaks who were fighting left the battle, the coalition soldiers did not pursue them.
After the battle was completely stopped, Arthur ordered to count the number of people, treat the wounded, and then began to move westward.
After counting the number of people, several bad news also reached his ears.
In the chaos, Little Devil had the mercenary Bronn, who had been tied up, untied, and then escaped.
Gendry, Arya and others were also missing.