The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Chapter 358: Handshake

(Apologies for the late update today!)

*

The walls of King's Landing overlooking the Blackwater Rush were crowded with people.

King Joffrey and Queen Mother Cersei stood in the center, flanked by the Mountain, the highest military commander of King's Landing, and Tyrion, the Hand of the King. Surrounding them were a host of courtiers, military officers, the Kingsguard, the Commander of the City Watch, and knights and officers from the Clegane forces.

Sansa Stark stood beside the King, draped in his favorite white sable cloak and a floor-length gown, exuding grace and nobility.

Queen Mother Cersei gazed at the Blackwater Rush, her neck long and elegant, a smile playing on her lips, her eyes radiating a coldness that kept people at bay. Behind her stood Lady Tanda, eager to become a confidante of the Queen Mother.

"Mountain, tell those fools to start!" Joffrey exclaimed with excitement, clad in golden armor, a sword at his hip, his blond hair and blue eyes radiating handsome charm. His appearance was that of a talented man, but his eyes were full of playful arrogance and an all-encompassing authority.

The Mountain gestured, and a herald shouted from the wall: "Trebuchets, prepare!"

Clack, clack, clack!

Twenty soldiers chanted in unison, their steps and movements synchronized, as they pushed the mechanical winch. The rope wound around and around, pulling down the twenty-meter-high arm of the trebuchet until it rested horizontally. On the arm was a pouch for the stone projectile. Two soldiers pushed a handcart, one end connected to the pouch, lifting the handles. The stone projectile rumbled as it rolled off the cart and landed with a thud.

This stone projectile, by visual estimation, weighed over a hundred pounds.

The other end of the approximately twenty-meter-long arm was fixed with a counterweight stone of several hundred pounds. The stone projectile and the arm were at the same level as the counterweight stone. With a command, the twenty soldiers holding the winch handles released together. The winch spun rapidly, and the hundreds of pounds of counterweight stone on the other end slammed down, causing the arm to rise quickly with the stone pouch. When the counterweight stone completely fell, the arm stood upright, striking the crossbar with a loud bang, and the stone projectile was thrown high from the pouch.

Whoosh!

A hundred-pound stone flew over the city wall, whistling over the heads of the crowd, past the docks, and crashed into the Blackwater Rush a hundred meters away, sending up a huge spray of water.

As the stone flew overhead, Sansa noticed a hint of fear flash in Joffrey's eyes. The stone crashed down, the water spraying high, and the King raised his hands, his expression excited, cheering loudly.

On the city wall, the soldiers' eyes followed the stone in a large arc.

The Mountain said, "Your Majesty, Queen Mother, Lord Hand, the stone's range is too short."

"Why not have all thirty whores fire at once?" Joffrey asked excitedly. The thirty trebuchets were ultimately dubbed the 'Thirty Whores of King's Landing' by our dear Lord Hand.

"Your Majesty, we should first adjust the range of the first trebuchet, and then arrange the thirty trebuchets evenly according to distance, from farthest to nearest, to cover the entire nearshore waters, maximizing the destruction of enemy warships."

"Why not start with a volley from ten trebuchets?" Joffrey curled the right corner of his mouth, confident and complacent, feeling victory was assured. "Mountain, have those fools fire a ten-trebuchet volley."

"As you command, Your Majesty."

The Mountain told the herald beside him, "Move the first row of ten trebuchets all the way forward and fire a ten-trebuchet volley."

"As you command, my Lord."

The order was relayed, and ten trebuchets rumbled forward, reaching the first white line closest to the city wall.

There were a total of four white lines on the ground. Each white line represented a unit of distance for the trebuchets to move forward or backward.

The white lines were the Mountain's creation.

Marking lines on the ground and measuring the distance between trebuchets allowed them to be arranged as neatly as soldiers, maximizing the area of concentrated saturation attacks.

"Prepare!" the commander shouted.

Two hundred soldiers roared in unison, their movements synchronized as they pushed the winches. With clacking sounds, the ten trebuchet arms, taller than the city wall, slowly fell backward, stopping at a horizontal position. The soldiers loading stones together pried up the stone projectile, which rolled onto the handcart, secured by wooden bars on either side. The soldiers pushed the cart and loaded the stone projectile into the pouch.

"Fire!" the commander shouted.

More than two hundred soldiers released their grips together, the ten arms quickly springing up, the counterweight stones on the other end slamming down, the arms rising rapidly, standing upright, and striking the crossbars. The hundred-pound stones in the pouches were thrown in high parabolas, flying over the city wall, over the heads of the crowd, and under the gaze of hundreds of eyes, crashing into the Blackwater Rush one after another, sending up high, snow-white waves.

According to the position markers in the river, the stone projectiles landed about two hundred meters from the shore.

"Your Majesty, I wish they would go farther. This is the first row of trebuchets, and the impact point should ideally reach the two hundred and fifty-meter marker, or even three hundred meters if possible."

Tyrion said, "Lord Mountain, then use smaller stones."

"Lord Hand…" The Mountain began, but King Joffrey interrupted him, "Then quickly switch to smaller stones!" He turned to the Kingsguard, the Hound, and said, "Hound, go order some wretches to row that large merchant ship to three hundred meters away." Joffrey pointed to a large merchant ship. "I want to see the stone projectiles smash it to pieces, completely smashed like an eggshell."

"Your Majesty, that is a smuggling ship that brings us grain from across the Narrow Sea," Littlefinger Baelish said, neither servile nor overbearing, with a smile on his face. "If we smash the grain ship, the happiest person will definitely be Your Majesty's uncle, Stannis Baratheon."

The Mountain said, "Your Majesty, as far as I know, grain ships from across the Narrow Sea risk their lives to evade Stannis Baratheon's naval blockade. If you smash it like this, no one will dare to smuggle grain for us next time."

Queen Mother Cersei looked at Joffrey and gently shook her head.

"Then change to another ship, then. Hound, go order the dock officials to sail two ships into the river. I want to test the stone projectiles."

Littlefinger smiled insincerely, "Your Majesty, the large ships at the docks are either grain ships or trade ships. King's Landing is currently lacking in supplies, and I have barely managed to maintain the necessary supply channels within our city through many friendships. Let's not destroy any of the large ships, as these are not Stannis's warships. What do you say, Lord Hand?"

Tyrion said, "Send word down that the stone projectile test will continue. My nephew was just joking with everyone, don't take it seriously!"

"I'm not joking, Uncle Imp," Joffrey said sharply.

"Your Majesty, there are position markers in the river. We are testing the distance, and as for the power, wooden ships certainly cannot withstand our stone projectile attacks," the Mountain said calmly.

Joffrey sneered, "Lord Mountain, there are so many large ships at the docks, are they all transporting supplies to King's Landing? If large ships won't do, then small ships will. Since it's a test firing, what's the point without a ship as a target?!"

The Mountain's face turned cold, and he directly shouted to the wall without using a herald, his voice like thunder, "First row of trebuchets, switch to the smallest stones and test fire once."

The order was relayed, and below the city wall, in the Mud Gate square, the first row of ten trebuchets switched to smaller stones.

Joffrey immediately lost interest. Not being able to watch the performance of stones smashing ships made him bored. His gaze found Sansa. "Sansa, there's nothing interesting to see here anymore. Stones smashing into the water, what's the point without a ship to test it? Let's go, accompany me to play."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Sansa's figure was graceful, her beautiful face charming. However, she was expressionless, her expression indifferent, her eyes empty.

Tyrion coldly glanced at Cersei, who did not stop her bastard son. Like mother, like son. Tyrion looked at the Mountain. Fortunately, King's Landing had a villain like the Mountain, which prevented Joffrey from being too unrestrained.

The King, accompanied by Sansa Stark, the Kingsguard, the Master of Laws, the Lord Steward, and others, descended the city wall. The Mountain and Tyrion continued to test the stone projectile launches. Finally, they arrived at the optimal stone projectile combination launch formation: the first row of ten trebuchets, launching fifty to seventy-pound stones, covering a distance of three hundred and twenty meters to two hundred and fifty meters; the second row, eighty pounds and more, covering the two hundred to two hundred and fifty-meter range; the third row of trebuchets launching large stones of over a hundred pounds, covering a distance of one hundred to two hundred meters. It was foreseeable that Stannis's warships would suffer heavy losses in the stone projectile rain if all thirty whores fired together.

*

The huge iron chain was pulled by dozens of carriages linked end to end and transported to the bank of the Blackwater Rush.

The Mountain, riding his tall warhorse, followed the entire process with his attendants.

This place was still far from the mouth of the Blackwater Rush, and the distance between the two banks was the narrowest. Stannis's warships would inevitably pass through this area when entering the Blackwater Rush to attack King's Landing.

On opposite sides of the river, the stone towers designed by the Mountain had already been built, one on each side.

The royal warship—named after the late King Robert's warhammer—the Warhammer—was docked on the shore of the stone tower. Tyrion Lannister stood on the bow. Blacksmiths dragged one end of the iron chain onto the Warhammer. The Warhammer started and sailed to the opposite bank, dragging the long iron chain through the water, across the Blackwater Rush. The end of the chain was thrown ashore.

Finally, both ends of the long iron chain were threaded through the bottom holes of the two stone towers and fixed to the huge winches in the middle of the towers.

Each winch in the stone towers had twenty strong shipwrights, as well as several donkeys specially trained to pull heavy loads.

The Mountain blew a whistle and gestured to Tyrion on the opposite bank. The shipwrights inside the two stone towers pushed the winches together. The iron chain, sunk in the water, slowly rose little by little, eventually floating above the surface, blocking the entire river. Reversing the winches, the iron chain slowly sank to the bottom of the river.

After repeated pushing of the winches, plus lubricating oil, the sensitivity of the winches in the two stone towers became better and better. Finally, the Mountain and Tyrion achieved the desired result.

The Mountain ordered Captain Alyn to summon his adopted daughter, Julie Clegane, and entrusted her with the task of guarding the stone towers. On the north and south banks, there was a hundred-man team responsible for secretly protecting the stone towers, with all soldiers armed with repeating crossbows.

*

As the sun set, Tyrion and the Mountain stood on the north bank, their shadows stretched long by the setting sun.

Tyrion looked at his shadow. "Mountain, I'm as tall as you now. We are both giants."

"A person's wisdom and courage are their shadow. If your wisdom and courage are sufficient, you can project the shadow of a giant." The Mountain couldn't help but show off. For a college dog, it wasn't too challenging to do something similar.

Tyrion's expression was clearly surprised. "Oh, you're not the Mountain I know anymore."

"You're not the Tyrion I know anymore either."

Tyrion shrugged, looking at the Ice Sword on the Mountain's back. "I've got the sword for you. It's time for you to repay me."

"I got the sword myself," the Mountain said coldly.

Tyrion paused. "Mountain, gaining my friendship is definitely better than gaining Cersei's friendship."

The Mountain sneered. "You and Cersei are both Lannisters."

"I'm not the same as her. You know why my father sent me to King's Landing. You should support me. This is the only option."

The Mountain looked down at Tyrion, feeling that his height was indeed intimidating, making him feel justified in looking down on everyone. "You got rid of her confidante, Ser Allar Deem, and a total of seven others. She will definitely settle this account with you. However, considering that you were sent to King's Landing by the Duke, I can tell you Cersei's next move, which is to get rid of the guards around you first."

"Who?"

"Who can best protect your safety?"

"Bronn!"

"I once told you that Bronn would offer to leave within five days. Today is the third day. He will say goodbye to you tomorrow."

"How did Cersei bribe him?"

"Lady Tanda will provide a large dowry to marry the dim-witted fat girl Lollys to Bronn. In addition to the tempting large dowry, the Queen Mother will personally grant him a title after the marriage."

Tyrion's two eyes, one black and one green, widened. "Lollys, who was raped by the mob?"

"Yes, Bronn cannot refuse the large dowry, nor can he refuse the opportunity to marry the Earl's daughter. After the marriage, the Queen Mother will personally grant him a title. Can you grant him a title? And land."

Tyrion was speechless!

"Bronn is a smart man. This is a good opportunity to change his future and status. A realistic person like him will naturally seize it at all costs. No one can refuse such marriage conditions."

Tyrion was incredulous. "Cersei certainly couldn't come up with such a method. Someone must have given her the idea behind the scenes."

The Mountain remained noncommittal. "Lady Tanda sought out Lord Tywin to marry off her thirty-something, simple-minded daughter, Lollys. I heard you resisted with your life, otherwise it would have been a very happy marriage. Then she set her sights on Littlefinger, Petyr Baelish. Littlefinger always went to eat and drink whenever invited, then dusted off his backside and left, never giving Lady Tanda the response she wanted. During the riot in King's Landing, Lollys was gang-raped by a dozen rioters, her honor ruined, her chastity lost. Under such circumstances, Lady Tanda lowered her standards and took a fancy to the Hand's personal guard, Bronn, a skilled and daring sellsword. I think it's reasonable, don't you?"

"Cersei wants Bronn to work for her?"

"No, Cersei believes Bronn is your man."

"She wants to kill Bronn?"

"Of course."

"And then it's my turn?"

"Mmm-hmm!"

"You intend to just watch me get killed by Cersei? Before Stannis and Renly bring their armies here?" Tyrion certainly wouldn't sit still and be captured, but securing the Mountain's support was necessary. Cersei thought so too.

"Little imp, I can help you, stand by you all the way, but when I want you to repay the favor in the future, you have to repay me."

"A Lannister always pays his debts!" The Imp extended his 'small' hand to the Great Devil.

The hands of the Great and Small Devils clasped together.

Thank you to [Waterproof] and [Ji Yu Fan] for the support and donations, thank you, handshake!