The Mountain of Ice and Fire

The Highest Strategy is to Subdue the Enemy

Seagull Town has three major families.

The Grafton family, the lord; the Shett family, a great noble house; and a branch of the Arryn family, the lords of the Vale.

The armor of the naval commander was emblazoned with a yellow burning tower. This burning tower was located in the middle of a black inverted triangle, which in turn was on a bright red pointed shield.

The red pointed shield, the black inverted triangle, and the yellow burning tower were the distinct and dazzling coat of arms of the Grafton family. This naval commander with sagging skin was named Buck Grafton, the cousin of Lord Jorah Grafton.

As all the warships and other vessels desperately retreated, Commander Buck's warship immediately noticed something was wrong. The warship quickly slowed down and stopped, and then the attacking drumbeats on the warship turned into retreat drumbeats.

Seeing the situation was bad, retreat quickly! Commander Buck Grafton made a decisive decision!

On the walls of Seagull Town, the shouts of the signal officers rose and fell, and the air of the entire town became tense.

The Mountain stood on the flagship Dragonstone, his flagship leading the way, with frigates and other warships lined up in a row. The first row of warships, a total of twenty ships, occupied a large area of the sea, a mighty force.

Behind them were five more warship formations! A formidable sight!

This was the first time in nearly twenty years that so many naval warships had appeared in the waters of Seagull Town.

The huge cloud of war had finally arrived in the peaceful and stable Vale port city of Seagull Town, which had enjoyed eighteen years of peace.

Looking out at the sea from the walls of Seagull Town, the sea was covered with warships. More than a hundred warships were tall and strong, many with two or three-story superstructures, united together showing a majestic and unparalleled momentum.

Each warship advanced and retreated under the command of the drumbeats on board. More than a hundred warships, with more than a hundred large drums beating, the drums of war thundered, and the booming drumbeats struck the hearts of every person in Seagull Town.

The thunderous drums drowned out the roar of the sea!

*

"Send the order, I want both the people and the ships," the Mountain said to Captain Arryn beside him.

"Yes, Your Grace!"

Captain Arryn immediately told the signal officer: do not kill those who can be captured, do not burn the ships that can be used, the lord has ordered, we want both the people and the ships.

Ships can be adapted for warships or used for logistics and transportation; people can be sent back to the Westerlands as commoners. The War of the Three Years had killed too many people in the Westerlands, and many lands under the gold mines and plains lay fallow.

Both people and ships are resources!

Boom boom boom! Boom boom boom!

In the drumbeats full of rhythm and killing intent, the Dragonstone entered the port and caught up with a crooked and tilted merchant ship that had been damaged while escaping.

The Dragonstone approached, and the merchant ship immediately lowered its sails, stopped, and no longer made a final struggle. The captain led the crew and several sword-wielding mercenaries to kneel on the deck in unison, not daring to resist in the slightest.

The Mountain waved his hand, and the attendant Comm Warner led a twelve-man team from the Warner clan to jump onto the merchant ship and take control of the large ship. The captain, crew, mercenaries, and sailors all became prisoners.

There were many supplies on the big ship, which was the benefit of launching a war. These benefits belonged to the Mountain, to the victor.

Many merchant ships were very large, even larger than warships, and the superstructures were also tall, which could load more goods and carry more passengers, allowing the ship owners and captains to earn as much money as possible.

The Clegane warships entered the port one after another, and the soldiers jumped onto other ships, capturing people and things on board.

The people who did not have time to go ashore became prisoners, and the usable materials on the ship were taken as their own by the Mountain's soldiers.

Cries and screams began to sound!

The cruel and ruthless side of war began to show its狰狞face!

Ka ka ka, ka ka ka!

The coastal gate of Seagull Town slowly closed, and some people fleeing for their lives were running desperately towards the gate with their belongings, and the last team of naval warriors was running towards the gate, they had to get into the city before the heavy and huge oak door closed.

On the city wall, the archers were all in position, a total of three hundred bows, and under the feet of the archers, braziers were lit, and oilcloth was tied to the arrows. As long as the arrows were dipped into the braziers, the arrows became rockets.

Using rockets to attack naval warships was the right military strategy, but the distance was far, and the ships docked on the shore were Seagull Town's fishing boats, merchant ships from all over the world including the Seven Kingdoms, and Seagull Town's few twenty warships.

If rockets were used to attack, the first to be ignited would be their own ships. And the distance was far, and most rockets could not reach the sea.

Using rockets to shoot the enemy was also a good defensive action!

As if in the blink of an eye, the Mountain's warships all entered the port, and the first row of twenty warships docked one after another. On the deck of the ship's head, the dark mass of soldiers surged, and shouts reached inside the city walls.

"Ready!"

On the city wall, Lord Jorah Grafton of Seagull Town personally waved his sword to order.

Then, three hundred arrows were dipped into the braziers to ignite the oilcloth, and then the bowstrings were pulled together, the arrows pointed to the sky, waiting for the arrival of the first batch of enemies jumping off the ship to attack.

Suddenly, a voice rang out like a giant thunder in a thick cloud, and the next second it would explode with a shocking thunderbolt.

"Lord Jorah, I am the Mountain, open the city gate, I am here to return the ten thousand gold dragons and grain borrowed last year."

Lord Jorah's raised sword froze in the air.

What was the Mountain shouting?

Was he hearing things?

The Mountain brought a large number of warships to return the gold dragons and grain borrowed last year?

How was that possible?

Even a child's tale was more clever than this!

The Mountain's words made Lord Jorah look surprised and uncertain! Why would the Mountain, with such a powerful military force, say such a thing, was he deliberately teasing people? In his opinion, Seagull Town was vulnerable?

The soldiers on the city wall were all fearful, and the citizens inside the city wall were equally frightened.

A person's voice was as powerful and unmatched as thunder, roaring to their ears, making them feel frightened.

"Lord Jorah, I am here to make friends sincerely," the Mountain's voice drowned out the sound of the wind and waves in the port.

The warships behind also found their positions to stop or dock, and the flagship Dragonstone also found a place to dock.

Naval Commander Wagner Gahl's King's Ship, formerly the Royal Minister of Maritime Affairs, was the first to lead the naval warriors to land. Under Wagner Gahl's command, the wide bridge was quickly and neatly built, which was the basic quality of well-trained naval warriors.

Teams of cavalry rode their warhorses across the several wide bridges with clattering hooves, making the generals and soldiers on the city wall stare blankly.

The speed of the Mountain's naval warriors, the uniformity of building the pontoon bridges, and the cavalry's smooth passage across the bridges to shore, everything was fast, orderly, and without chaos. It had a kind of sturdy and neat beauty.

"Mountain, you brought tens of thousands of troops here, are you planning to make friends with me with your sword?" Lord Jorah Grafton shouted.

He ordered the bows to be drawn to defend against the enemy before the enemy reached the city wall, which clearly showed that he was flustered and failed to calm down, because the time to draw the bows was too early! Unless he wanted to use rockets to ignite the ships in the port. But the Mountain's warships could easily retreat, and it would take a long time for the ships in the port to burn and attack the Mountain's warships.

Based on this alone, Lord Jorah was not a difficult person to deal with!

Once, eighteen years ago, when Robert, Eddard, and Duke Arryn raised the flag of rebellion together, the Grafton family did not respond to the lord's call, but chose to side with the royalists and fought against the allied forces of Robert, Eddard, and Arryn. As a result, Robert's warhammer opened the city gate and killed the Grafton lord, who was the father of the current Lord Jorah.

This family, for generations, had been wealthy, enjoying the huge benefits brought by the port city of Seagull Town, but this guy's vision and talent had never been good. If it wasn't for old Arryn's mercy, Robert would have killed every member of the Grafton family eighteen years ago.

This was a family of mediocre people with good fortune. The transmigrated Mountain knew this, and also knew that Jorah Grafton was not a general, nor a politician with a brain. This was just a mediocre man, but his family just happened to own the fourth largest city in the Seven Kingdoms: Seagull Town!

"Lord, I am under the orders of Prime Minister Mace and King Tommen I to attack Seagull Town, but last year Seagull Town borrowed money and grain to help me and my warriors, so I hope we can sit down and talk, instead of resorting to arms. Lord, can you defend against my ten thousand troops with less than two thousand men guarding the city?"

"We have two thousand troops," Lord Jorah said with obvious lack of confidence. His courage was also very limited, belonging to an inflated balloon.

"Lord, even twenty thousand troops can't stop my siege," the Mountain flipped onto Red Smoke, gently touched his legs, and Red Smoke stepped onto the bridge.

Wagner Gahl had not trained the Royal Navy warriors in vain for more than half a year. The three thousand warriors who followed Wagner to leave the Royal Navy were mostly from Claw Isle, and these three thousand warriors were elites. Many of them had been proficient in swimming since childhood, and were the children of Claw Isle fishermen.

*

More than a hundred warships were all in place, and more than ten thousand soldiers landed one after another: cavalry, pikemen, archers, and sword and shield soldiers each lined up in the port docks, neatly and solemnly without noise. The military power was sonorous, the formation was vertical and horizontal, and the small phalanxes were neatly arranged, making the generals and soldiers on the city wall feel demoralized and lacking fighting spirit.

The name of the Mountain alone made the soldiers of Seagull Town fearful, and no general or soldier was willing to fight the Mountain.

This fear of war originated from the Mountain's ambush and killing of Randyll Tarly outside King's Landing.

After the Mountain killed General Randyll Tarly, his military prestige reached an unprecedented height. The generals and soldiers of the various legions were filled with awe when they mentioned the name of the Mountain, both respecting and fearing him, but he himself did not have a deep enough understanding of this honor.

Randyll Tarly, the renowned general recognized by the Seven Kingdoms, the only general who had defeated the allied forces of Robert, Eddard, and Arryn eighteen years ago, there was no doubt about General Randyll's strength in marching and fighting, but he was outnumbered and completely annihilated by the Mountain.

Last time, the Mountain took away 100,000 gold dragons and 500 carts of grain from Seagull Town, and the餘威 of the Clegane people had not completely dissipated, and this time they came again, several times the size of the last legion, and the Mountain personally led the team.

Even at its peak, the Royal Navy fleet did not have a hundred warships, but the Mountain's naval fleet exceeded a hundred warships, with all kinds of arms complete.

The soldiers on the city wall saw that after the warships docked or dropped anchor, pontoon bridges were also built between the ships, and then they saw that siege vehicles and siege ladders also appeared one by one.

This aggravated the fear of war among the generals and soldiers, including Lord Jorah!

The Mountain came prepared, while they hastily fought!

Many people's minds were not prepared at all, which was the legacy of eighteen years of comfortable life!

Too comfortable, the soldiers would forget their mission to fight.

The purpose of the naval commander's sea patrol was not to scout the enemy's situation, but for the pleasure of fishing. When returning to port, they could have a delicious fish soup with sweet and fragrant wine.

*

The Mountain's few words of peace talks made Lord Jorah's archers put down their bows, which gave the Clegane soldiers more time to land and deploy, and would not cause trouble and chaos due to rocket attacks.

The Mountain, in full plate armor, rode Red Smoke to the city gate, followed by his sworn guards, then the cavalry, and various infantry arms also advanced, surrounding the seaside gate, and the siege vehicles were pushed to the front, and the siege ladders were also erected, ready to attack the city.

"Mountain, are you here to kill us all, or to extort our gold dragons and grain again?" Lord Jorah had to bite the bullet and shout.

He did not want to go to war!

The Mountain's call for peace talks gave him another possibility of turning the situation around, and at the same time, he needed time to let the ravens fly to the Eyrie for help.

"Lord Jorah, please call me Minister of Military Affairs, I am the Minister of Military Affairs of the Seven Kingdoms, and I have the right to order you to open the city gate and let my army enter Seagull Town peacefully," the Mountain spoke with reason.

"Minister of Military Affairs, without Lady Lysa Arryn's order, I cannot open the city gate for you to enter."

"Then send a raven to Lady Lysa Arryn, I have the patience to wait for half a day. Please convey my words to Lady Lysa Arryn, if she refuses to submit to King Tommen, I am under the orders of the Prime Minister and the King to slaughter Seagull Town, break through the Bloody Gate, sweep the Vale, set fire to the forest of the Giant's Lance, and turn the Eyrie on the summit of the Giant's Lance into a city of smoke and fire."

The Mountain besieged the city without attacking, and gave Lord Jorah half a day to release the ravens to the Eyrie?

Was this true?

This was true!

Lord Jorah and his generals breathed a sigh of relief together, perhaps, Lord Mountain indeed had sincere intentions for peace talks, otherwise, he could directly order an attack on the city.

Lord Jorah Grafton and the generals beside him looked at each other, somewhat incredulously confirming each other's eyes: "Minister of Military Affairs, I will immediately convey your words to Lady Lysa Arryn."

"Very good, I will not order an attack on the city within half a day. Lord, soldiers of Seagull Town, the Mountain is here to negotiate peace, and it is not the Mountain's original intention to launch a war. As long as Lady Lysa Arryn announces her submission to the Iron Throne, the war in Seagull Town will disappear."

"Thank you, Minister of Military Affairs!" Lord Jorah Grafton's tone was much more relaxed, "Come, open the side door and send three hundred jars of fine wine to Lord Mountain and his soldiers."

"Yes, Lord!" Lord Jorah's officials answered in unison.

Of course, whether it was war or peace, the Mountain had his own goals to achieve this time!

The Mountain hoped to win without a fight!

The best victory is when the army destroys the enemy's plans; the next best is when the army breaks up the enemy's alliances; the next best is when the army attacks the enemy's army; the worst is when the army attacks a walled city.