The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Chapter 372: The Battle of the Blackwater (Seeking Subscriptions)

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*

Woooo!

Woooo, woooo!

The flagship of the central army sounded the horn, the horn of the entire army's advance.

Ser Imry Florent had escaped death, and the Royal Fleet's blitzkrieg at the Water Gate had enraged him.

This time, he took the lead himself.

Last time, the Fury charged to the front, but there were also escort ships on the left and right.

This time, in his rage, he ordered the sailors to row with all their might, racing ahead, heading straight for them.

Imry Florent had a reputation for bravery!

Davos Seaworth's intelligence report was completely ignored by Ser Imry Florent, and under his influence, the left-wing warships and the central army warships came out in full force, filled with fighting spirit.

The soldiers huddled on the sides of the deck, raising their shields, ready to defend.

As soon as they approached the enemy ship, they would jump over and fight.

The right-wing warships began to stir, and some warships broke away from the formation and joined the attack.

"Father, we should attack," Dale Seaworth said.

"Father, give the order," his second son, Allard Seaworth, was already fully armored, "We can go directly to the shore and attack the Iron Gate."

Davos' four sons did not take the enemy warships in the Blackwater River seriously.

The left wing and the central army alone could easily wipe out all enemy ships.

"Father, the right-wing fleet can take the Iron Gate, we have thousands of warriors," said his third son, Matthos Seaworth.

His fourth son, Maric Seaworth, didn't say anything, but the eager expression on his face said it all.

"Have you noticed the stone towers, the iron chains," Davos Seaworth pointed to the stone towers not far away.

"So what, even if there's an ambush, we can tear the enemy apart," the eldest son, Dale, said with great enthusiasm, "Father, you need to put on your helmet."

A warship sailed past the Onion, and the knight on board laughed: "Onion Knight, are you scared? We're going to fight, kill them all!"

This was Davos' subordinate warship, but the other party was a great noble and didn't take Davos' orders seriously.

This made sense, the commander-in-chief had issued an order for the entire navy to attack the enemy ships and control the Blackwater River. Davos' disobedience of the commander-in-chief's order was already a crime.

The commander-in-chief's attack order was greater than the Onion Knight's order.

"Father?!" Dale urged.

The warships around him passed the Onion and joined the hunting battle in front.

The sound of warships colliding came, and the shouts of killing shook the river. The archers on both sides were desperately shooting. The left wing and the central army fleet covered up and killed. Some of the right-wing fleet also covered up and killed. The two fleets were mixed together. Screams and shouts resounded over the Blackwater River.

Woooo!

Woooo, woooo!

The commander-in-chief's dispatch boat came from behind, ordering Davos Seaworth's right wing to follow immediately, otherwise he would be charged with treason.

Davos Seaworth knew he could no longer disobey the order.

"Form a line!" Davos ordered.

His son Dale immediately passed the order down: "Form a line!"

The right-wing warships began to form a line, with the distance between ships no more than twenty yards. His fleet, after his short period of training, could quickly form a formation, just like cavalry and infantry. Davos was very proud of this.

"Strike sails," Davos ordered, "Lower masts. Rowers, take your positions."

Dale passed the order down in a series of voices.

The warship crew hurried to their posts, pushing away the soldiers standing on the ship—they always seemed to be in the way at this moment—

The warship would soon approach King's Landing harbor, and the sails were lowered to avoid attacks from the catapults and fire-shooting crossbows that sprayed asphalt oil barrels or wildfire barrels on King's Landing.

At the front, the sails of the Duke Steffon shone with gold, and the canvas was decorated with the Baratheon family's crowned stag.

Davos was as familiar with the Duke Steffon as he was with his own ship. She had three hundred oars, crossbows lined both sides of the deck, and a trebuchet was placed at the bow and stern to throw burning asphalt barrels. It was awe-inspiring and very agile and fast.

However, Ser Imry had removed all the trebuchets from the large warships before departure. He filled the decks of each warship with armored knights and infantry, which greatly reduced the speed of all the warships.

The Royal warships only had twenty-three ships. Ser Imry felt that there was no need for trebuchets at all. He was mainly preparing for a siege. Siege warfare required more soldiers and battering rams. The trebuchets in the river could only project stones onto the city wall, and the height of the throwing could not reach the top of the city wall.

All the sails of the right-wing warships were lowered, the oars were put into the water, and under Davos' order, the drums sounded, and thousands of oars were inserted into the water together, rowing in unison.

The Onion took the lead and rushed up.

His four sons, fully armed, were ready for the beach landing battle.

In front, the enemy warships were constantly being compressed on both sides by the flanking warships, divided, surrounded, and rammed. The warriors jumped over one after another, jumping into the enemy ships like ants, waving their swords and slashing wildly.

The enemy countered even more bravely. The soldiers on both sides were warriors. They collided fiercely, fought in close combat, shouted slogans, and no one was willing to retreat.

In the waters ahead, the air was filled with the smell of blood and tragic screams, like wails from hell.

The right-wing fleet was like a giant war blade, flanking to the side of the enemy fleet, drawing a beautiful arc.

"Turn sideways, maintain the line!" Davos ordered.

In this way, all the enemy warships were exposed to the crossbows of Davos' right wing.

Crossbows can fire small stone bullets, asphalt barrels, or wildfire barrels.

What made Davos very depressed was that the left wing and the central army fleet were mixed with the enemy warships. They lost their formation and array and became a melee scene.

If the left wing and the central army fleet all retreated, Davos only needed a volley to turn the enemy ships into sieves and end this farce.

But now he couldn't. Although each enemy ship was surrounded by three or four of our warships, the first thing that was hit after the crossbows attacked was definitely our own people.

Davos didn't understand why the commander-in-chief didn't order the use of crossbows. Why melee combat instead of formation attack?

Naval warfare had become a street brawl.

And it was a large group of people surrounding a group of small people. Although the small people were being beaten badly, this large group of people obviously did not have an absolute advantage.

The small people were too tenacious and their fighting power was amazing!

Bang!

A loud noise came, and the Royal warship King's Landing rammed the enemy warship Devout. The two ships shook violently at the same time, the ship's sides broke, the torches fell, the soldiers in the melee fell on each other, and some soldiers were shaken and fell into the river.

The Royal warship had been hunted, and the collision to die together was their last desperate struggle.

"Right-wing fleet, beach landing," Davos ordered.

So, the horn sounded, and the right-wing fleets turned one after another and attacked King's Landing directly.

Because there were warships in melee in the river, there were shouts of sword collisions everywhere, countless black giant shadows were biting and devouring the small black shadows, and the river space was limited, the right-wing fleet had to be close together, and the entire battle line was as neat as a shield wall advancing forward.

This was not a good thing. Davos carefully guarded against the enemy's trebuchets, crossbows, and rocket attacks, but there were none.

There were densely packed soldiers lined up on the city wall, and no one shot arrows. No trebuchets, no crossbows, no rockets.

Nothing.

The shield wall successfully came to the near shore of King's Landing. One more step forward was the river beach and the pier.

Davos smelled the smell of a trap, but he couldn't see any signs of ambush or surprise attack from the enemy.

Where exactly was the problem?

He thought of the stone tower and the iron chain behind him again.

There must be a trap, but the river bank was in front of him, within easy reach. Where exactly was the trap? Where? Where?

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

On the river bank, four large fires suddenly ignited. Under the high shadow of the King's Landing city wall, countless small boats and fishing boats, as well as merchant ships, were piled up here. Soldiers were specially guarding here to light the fire. Soon, the four fires burned into a fire, separating the shield wall from the river bank.

"Separate the array," Davos ordered.

The fire in front was raging, and they could not land. But how long these ships could burn was a question.

The smell of the trap was getting stronger and stronger.

Davos wanted to order a retreat, but he couldn't shout it out.

The soldiers of the fleet around him were already laughing and mocking the soldiers on the city wall. They knew that these ship fires would only block them for a while, because the fire would go out, it was that simple.

But why didn't the other party fire rockets and crossbows? King's Landing's defenders must have asphalt barrels and wildfire barrels. This was the best time to attack.

The enemy must have designed a vicious trap, but where was the trap?

Davos racked his brains. He couldn't think of it, couldn't see it, couldn't touch it, but the smell of the trap was getting stronger and stronger, making people worry to the point of collapse.

If the enemy had a trap, what were they waiting for?

On the south bank of the Blackwater River, people and horses were shouting. Stannis felt that the time had come, and he ordered the placement of rafts for the army to cross the river.

Rafts?

Yes, in these three days, three days of silence, Stannis ordered the army to cut down trees in the forest to make rafts. As long as the fleet held back the Royal Fleet, there would be no enemy ships blocking the Blackwater River crossing area, and it would be unimpeded. The rafts could safely cross the river.

Rafts?

Could it be that the enemy was waiting for Stannis' army rafts to launch and then destroy them together?

Davos Seaworth's right-wing warship was clearly about to land, but the other party suddenly lit up the densely packed fishing boats and small boats, burning fierce flames on the river bank, completely ruining Davos' landing plan.

As the boats on the shore gradually sank into the water during the burning, Davos suddenly understood that the ship's wreckage that was sunk on the river bank was crisscrossed, and their warships could not land at all.

Even if all the flames were extinguished, the warships could not land.

Warships were not small boats. They had a deep draft and occupied a large area. Small boats could pass through with a little water and gaps, but warships could not.

The river bank that was most convenient for landing and attacking the Iron Gate was completely blocked by the wreckage of the gradually extinguishing flames.

"Turn to the right, land!" Davos gave the order.

All the right-wing warships turned and went to the north bank in a row. Although it was farther, they could detour to the Iron Gate, and this road was safer and had no soldiers stationed.

However, Davos was still worried.

Suddenly, green flames lit up on the north bank.

The green flames started as just a line, very small, and then quickly spread, like a galloping green snake, burning rapidly on the north bank and constantly extending to both sides, all the way to the distant stone tower.

The entire north bank was burning with green flames.

"Wildfire!" Davos exclaimed in shock.

He finally knew where the trap was, wildfire, wildfire that could burn on the surface of the river.

The warships could not land on the north bank and directly in front of them. They could land on the north bank, but who could wade through that long wildfire that almost could not see the end at a glance? Wildfire sticks to steel, and steel will be burned.

Wildfire is a very evil substance that cannot be extinguished except by rolling yellow sand from the sky. Even if there is only a spark, smothering it with a cloak will cause the cloak to catch fire; slapping it with your palm will cause your palm to burn. "Piss on wildfire, and your thing will be roasted," is one of the famous sayings of old sailors.

Before departure, Commander-in-Chief Imry had warned them that they might encounter this evil substance of pyromancers. But fortunately, there were very few pyromancers alive in the world, and this substance rarely existed in the world and could not be used on a large scale in war, Commander-in-Chief Imry assured all the soldiers.

Davos was also at the battle meeting at the time, and he believed Commander-in-Chief Imry's words.

Davos was horrified. He finally knew where the enemy's trap was. The Royal warship knew it was a dead end but refused to retreat, just to lure them all into the Blackwater River. Stone towers, iron chains, wildfire, the trap was set.

Davos stammered to issue a new order: Warships turn around and retreat! If the ship cannot pass by the iron chain, jump into the water and swim to leave this damn water area.

On the Onion flagship, one side of the oars rowed forward and the other side rowed backward, and the warship quickly turned around. The Lady Marya next to her was also rushing to evacuate. Wildfire was burning on the north bank, which was a signal that a horror was about to happen.

Those twenty-three Royal warships were the bait for fishing.

No wonder those guys were able to escape in the evening but didn't escape far away, and kept provoking our Commander-in-Chief Imry in front.

However, the trap was set, the fish was hooked, and the bait was swallowed. How could it be possible to escape again?

On the city wall, the Mountain drummed the war drum!

Bang!

A loud noise announced the end of Stannis' naval warship.

A flash of green light flashed across Davos' eyes, flying forward and falling to the left side. In an instant, a nest of emerald vipers hissed and rose, tumbling, and burning on the stern of the Queen Alysanne. A terrifying shout came from the front: "Wildfire!"

In an instant, the crossbows on the city wall fired in unison, and barrels of wildfire substance fell from the sky and poured into Davos' sea area.

It was not asphalt substance, not kerosene, it was wildfire. It was wildfire that everyone thought could not be used on a large scale.

Countless blue flames were like flexible vipers scurrying and flying everywhere on the deck, the sea, and the masts. Countless soldiers jumped into the sea with deafening screams, but the sea was also full of green snakes scurrying everywhere, devouring people when they saw them!

咻!

A streak of blue fire slashed across the sky, landing precisely above the Onion, and dozens of small green snakes rained down.

"Jump!" Davos Seaworth shouted to his four sons. Boom! He plunged into the sea, the water icy and piercing. Only then did he remember that his sons had all donned armor for the landing.

For soldiers in armor, jumping into the sea was suicide.

But not jumping meant being burned alive by wildfire!

Davos felt as if a thousand knives were piercing his body.

Boom!

Wildfire was flung onto the deck of the Onion by catapults. Splattering in all directions, the green flames were like the little fingers of a demon, lightly licking the soldiers' bodies, causing them to wail in agony, their indescribably miserable cries ringing out.

Davos surfaced, the Onion already ablaze and quickly consumed by the flames. He stared wide-eyed as many soldiers on deck screamed, jumping into the sea with green fire clinging to them. His four sons were nowhere to be seen.

*

On the city walls, ballistae fired bolts of deadly green fire. In Mud Gate Square, thirty catapults launched in unison, the sounds of boom, boom, boom echoing incessantly as hundred-pound boulders, eighty-pound boulders, sixty-pound boulders, and fifty-pound boulders rained down from the sky.

A hundred-pound boulder struck Stannis's Proudwing directly. The Valyrian warship exploded and splintered like a child's toy tossed from a tower, the fragments as long as arms.

The catapults attacked indiscriminately.

The remaining eleven royal warships were also blanketed by the rolling rain of boulders.

Groups, groups, and more groups of small boats drifted downriver from the naval port and merchant docks: ferries, rowboats, barges, rafts, small sailboats, and cargo ships so rotten they could barely float, all in utter chaos.

*

Stannis's left-wing warships had achieved a great victory, destroying seven enemy ships and damaging twenty-one, many of the damaged ships having been rammed by their own allies.

The left-wing warships turned towards the upper reaches of the Blackwater, towards the south bank landing, to pick up Stannis's army for the river crossing.

After all, rafts could not compare to warships.

In the center, the flagship Great Stephen, the Jenna, and the Swordsman were still locked in fierce combat with the royal flagship King Robert, the Warhammer, and the Lyanna. Suddenly, stone projectiles came rolling in, and the center warships crumbled under the barrage of stone, some turning downstream to escape, others veering to the left, all hastily dodging the relentless rain of stone.

The Great Stephen could only watch helplessly as the stones rained down, unable to retaliate. In an instant, the King Robert lost half of its oars, and the Jenna was rammed and holed by the enemy warship Warhammer and began to sink.

However, the real danger was approaching.

No one noticed the groups, groups, and groups of ant-like fishing boats, barges, rotten ships, rafts, and small sailboats, densely packed and drifting downriver, filling the waterway.

Each ship was loaded with wildfire.

*

On the city walls, the flame-tipped arrows and ballistae were ready and waiting, poised to unleash their fiery payload into the enemy fleet.

In the river, the royal flagship King Robert, with its ram, charged straight for the Great Stephen.

"Hard to starboard!" the captain shouted.

"Archers, fire!" Commander Imry Florent yelled.

However, no matter how the enemy reacted, the King Robert charged relentlessly. The massive Great Stephen was too slow to maneuver, seemingly destined to be rammed and sunk, when suddenly a wave crashed, violently turning the Great Stephen aside, and the King Robert was also pushed away. Although Captain Archibald Yronwood personally steered the helm, in the surging, tumultuous Blackwater, warships were nothing more than children controlled by the river's power.

When the collision finally occurred, it was merely a glancing blow, the hulls scraping and grinding against each other, the oars snapping off. A jagged plank flew over Imry Florent's head, sharp as a spear.

Archibald Yronwood abandoned the helm, shouting, "Board!" The helmsman immediately stepped forward and desperately held the rudder, keeping the direction close to the enemy ship.

Countless grappling hooks were thrown from the King Robert, catching on the Great Stephen's railings. Royal Fleet Commander Archibald Yronwood, wielding a heavy axe, was the first to leap over the railing. The warriors on the Great Stephen roared, rushing to meet them at the rail, but suddenly, a group of black-clad killers surged from around Archibald Yronwood, maniacally seizing the railing, like a torrent of steel sweeping over them. The soldiers of the Great Stephen could not resist and were cut down.

Archibald Yronwood cut through the melee, searching for Imry Florent on the enemy ship. Suddenly, a clang rang out as someone ambushed him from behind with a battleaxe. Fortunately, his helmet blocked the blow, his head ringing but not shattered.

Dazed and staggering, Archibald Yronwood swayed, and the attacker shouted as he lunged again. The battleaxe came crashing down, and Archibald Yronwood instinctively parried. With a clang, a powerful force surged through both arms, and he crashed to the ground.

The enemy struck again, aiming for his face. This time, Archibald Yronwood saw clearly, it was enemy commander Imry Florent.

His mind suddenly cleared, he rolled, dodging the fatal blow, and swung his heavy axe horizontally, hitting Imry Florent squarely in the right leg. Imry Florent screamed in agony, and then his left leg was struck by another axe, this blow even more powerful, severing his left leg.

Imry Florent collapsed with a scream, and Archibald Yronwood knelt up, bringing his heavy axe down with a mighty chop, striking Imry's face, splitting his entire face and head in two.

As Archibald Yronwood rose, a warrior rushed over to report, "Commander, the Great Stephen has been captured by our forces."

Archibald Yronwood removed his helmet, wiped the blood from his head and face, and turned back to his own ship.

"We have completed Lord Mountain's mission. Order the brothers to return to the fleet!" Archibald commanded.

Cheers rang out throughout the ship!

Boom!

A small boat drifting downriver exploded first.

The enemy warship White Hart immediately became a ball of green fire.

Boom boom boom!

A chain reaction occurred, and throughout the river, between the warships, everywhere were dilapidated small boats, and these small boats exploded one after another.

The green flames exploded continuously on the surface of the Blackwater like brilliant fireworks, one after another.

The entire river surface soon became a sea of green fire.

A Myrish warship desperately tried to escape, seemingly about to avoid the green flames, but the huge green fire demon merely extended a tiny finger and touched it, and the Myrish warship instantly caught fire, instantly dragged into the green flames by this green little finger.

The Brave, the Trident, the Quicksword, the Princess Shireen, the Dogsnout, the King Robert, the Red Raven, the Night Cat, the Seaspirit, and many other warships were all easily devoured by the huge green fire demon dancing madly on the sea surface.

Standing on the bow of the King Robert, Royal Navy Commander Archibald watched helplessly as the green fire demon stood upright in front of him, suddenly opened its mouth and inhaled. No screams were heard as the green demon instantly enveloped the King Robert...

With a deafening explosion, the entire King Robert was reduced to flying fragments...

*

Davos drifted downriver in the icy cold water, carefully avoiding every wisp of green fire, diving deep underwater if necessary.

When he came up for air again, he saw the chain.

The river-spanning chain was indeed raised.

Gods save me!

The chain stretched, about two or three feet above the water's surface. A dozen or so shattered warships had already crashed into the chain, and the rolling current was pushing the wreckage of other ships towards it.

Davos clung to the chain, gasping for breath. He looked around, and throughout the Blackwater, within sight, all the ships were burning. Even those still desperately trying to escape would find it difficult to outrun the green demon's speed, being hooked by the green demon's little finger was only a matter of time.

Despairing, Davos looked towards the Water Gate. Forty pirate warships were still there. His pirate friend Salladhor Saan's fleet was still there... The lights on the ships were already lit, but they had not moved forward...