The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Count Horace Redwyne was a man of unremarkable appearance, with orange hair and a square face covered in freckles.

He had always been looked down upon by the Mountain.

And despised by the courtiers and military officers of King's Landing.

The reason was that during the reigns of Robert I and Joffrey, Horace Redwyne and his twin brother had been ordinary courtiers in the Red Keep. The two brothers' greatest skill was frequenting various brothels.

Furthermore, the two brothers' swordsmanship was mediocre. Besides having inexhaustible money, it was hard to find any other merits.

This time, the Mountain had him lead the naval legion, which mainly consisted of the Redwyne family's own fleet and the Summer Isles fleet, with the Royal Navy contributing only twelve warships. However, these warships were equipped with cannons.

Among the legion of over a hundred warships, there were twelve cannons.

Facing the enemy warships slowly closing in from all sides, the young Count Redwyne's brow was beaded with sweat.

He drew his sword and went to the bow of the ship, yanked open the tarpaulin covering the cannon, and shouted, "Load the ammunition, aim at the flagship!"

Directly ahead, a flagship was slowly approaching, flanked and followed by layers of warships of various sizes.

The Count's flagship was at the forefront, with another cannon ship to its right.

The order was passed down, and the warships on both sides aimed at the flagship in their respective directions and the escort ships next to it.

On both sides of the Count, there were four cannons each, mounted on four Royal Navy warships.

Two more Royal Navy warships were guarding the flagship of the Prince of the Summer Isles.

The three flagships, front, middle, and rear, had converged, forming a circular defensive formation, surrounded by the enemy at its core.

The enemy warships were spread across the sea, layer upon layer, but they controlled their speed and advanced slowly, giving Count Redwyne ample time to prepare.

The cannons of the twelve warships were all pushed out, their muzzles aimed forward.

With the great enemy before him, Count Horace Redwyne's legs trembled slightly.

There were simply too many enemy warships.

But he decided to personally fire the first cannonball.

"Advance at a steady speed," Redwyne ordered.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The steady beat of the drums sounded, and the flagship moved forward steadily.

"Aim!" Count Redwyne lit the torch.

Several artillerymen adjusted the cannon's aim, and the cannonballs were loaded into the barrels. The squad leader signaled that everything was ready to fire.

The young, freckled Count's expression turned grim as he lowered the torch and lit the fuse.

The enemy flagship was completely unaware, still advancing slowly. From the enemy warships, the cheerful songs of the Qartheen sailors drifted over.

This was the perfect target.

With a flash of fire and a loud boom, the deck shook, and the black cannonball roared out, drawing a high arc in the air, and with a loud crash, accurately hit the enemy flagship.

The cannonball, like a stone projectile, struck the middle of the enemy flagship, sending splinters flying and breaking the ship's side.

"Gods, so far away, what kind of ballista fired that stone?" The general on the escort ship was very surprised. He was from the Tourmaline Brotherhood, while the commanding general on the flagship was the King's Vice-Steward.

Before he could finish speaking, with a deafening roar, the cannonball exploded, sending wooden fragments into the air, and the entire warship broke into two pieces, with figures and broken wood flying into the sky.

More surviving soldiers let out earth-shattering screams.

The two broken sections of the hull jumped upwards for a moment, but did not leap out of the water, and then quickly fell back and sank. The generals, sailors, and crew members on the ship fell into the water.

The generals and soldiers on the escort ships and the rear warship formation were all stunned!

What was this thing that tore a warship into two pieces in an instant, completely shattering the struck part?

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The remaining eleven warships also roared one after another, and in the flashing fire, eleven black cannonballs roared out, hitting their targets one by one.

In just an instant, the four flagships surrounding from all sides and the escort ships next to them were all hit.

They were too slow.

Too easy to aim at.

Slowly closing in, advancing in layers, this was the Qartheen navy's strangulation tactic. It was like a cat catching a mouse; biting it to death wasn't fun. Slowly prodding the mouse with its paws, making it panic and try to escape, then blocking it, gently slapping it over with its paw, letting it go again, catching it again, picking it up and dropping it on the ground, and finally, when tired of playing, biting it to death and eating it.

However, this tactic created the best targets for cannons to aim at.

It was as if the two sides had coordinated perfectly beforehand.

With just the first round of cannon fire, all the commanding generals on the enemy flagships were killed. The escort ships were also blown apart.

The twelve warships were vulnerable and sank into the sea as broken debris.

But for the Qartheen navy, which had deployed eight hundred warships, the loss of twelve warships was nothing.

However, their generals and vice-generals were mostly on the flagships and escort ships.

Because victory was assured, and everyone wanted to personally take the first bite of the fat meat on the chopping block, the undefended Qartheen navy's flagships and escort ships were all in the front formation.

The Qartheen navy was very powerful, and the main generals wanted to personally take the first bite of the meat on the chopping board.

Thus, they encountered a type of combat they had never seen before.

On the sea, explosions rang out one after another, and the rumbling sounds were earth-shattering. The loud crashes of breaking hulls overlapped, and soldiers and wooden planks were blown into the air together. The whirlpools caused by the sinking of the broken hulls dragged the surviving soldiers into the seabed as well.

Count Redwyne was so excited that his hands and feet trembled.

"Quick, quick, quick, reload the ammunition!"

The second cannonball was loaded into the barrel.

"Aim at the frontmost one for me."

Several well-trained artillerymen quickly made visual corrections. The Royal Navy artillerymen, the first batch of warriors, had all been carefully selected and underwent rigorous shooting training under the leadership of Grand Maester and Gendry Baratheon.

Accurately hitting the target was the only requirement for them to become artillery warriors.

Count Redwyne lit the fuse again.

The second cannonball roared out.

On the opposite side, panicked shouts erupted from the enemy warship, and everyone on the ship, including the generals and soldiers on nearby ships, began to dodge in a flurry. The helmsman desperately turned the rudder under the captain's command, and the sailors desperately rowed in the dense drumbeats. The hull barely turned halfway when the cannonball roared in and smashed into the rear half of the ship.

Boom!

With a loud bang, the powerful explosive force lifted the warship from the stern, almost capsizing the hull. In the fire, wooden planks broke into countless fragments and flew through the air. The warriors' screams were accompanied by the sound of countless people falling into the water.

The lifted hull fell back, leaving only the front half, and seawater poured in madly. The bow quickly rose, soon standing upright. The warriors, sailors, and crew members on the ship all shouted and fell into the water.

"Reduce speed, load!"

The young Count Redwyne's mediocrity was gone, his calves no longer trembled, there was no more cold sweat on his forehead, and the fearful look in his eyes disappeared, replaced by sharp eyes, tightly pursed lips, and a determined face.

Ahead, the enemy sounded the retreat. Countless ships were turning around. But the fleet was too large, and in a situation where everyone was panicked and without a commander, it was an extremely difficult technical task for two hundred ships in formation and close proximity to turn around together.

Because the Qartheen navy's encirclement used strangulation tactics, the closer they got to the Redwyne fleet, the smaller the distance between them became. The final stage of the strangulation tactic was for eight hundred warships to completely close in, encircle, and attack the hundred enemy ships circled at the core together.

Boom boom boom boom boom!

The other cannons also roared one after another in succession.

Explosions continued, and the loud crashes of breaking hulls continued. The warships that were hit were all broken, and the soldiers who were not immediately blown to death quickly fell into the sea along with the wreckage.

The Qartheen navy, which was surrounding from all sides, was dumbfounded. They had never seen such a combat method, nor had they seen such a terrifying weapon. The enemy's black cannonballs could hit targets at more than twice the distance of a ballista, and the speed was many times faster than the stone bullets and oil barrels fired by a ballista. As soon as the fire flashed and the thunder sounded, the terrifying black ball was in front of them in the blink of an eye.

Even well-trained warships did not have enough time to avoid the perfectly executed dodging maneuvers: there was not enough time.

In the rumbling cannon fire, the Qartheen navy's warship formation began to become chaotic, collapse, turn around, and flee in all directions.

In the rear army, the Prince of the Summer Isles ordered a pursuit.

This was a very wrong decision.

The rear army of thirty warships immediately pursued in victory. The two cannons also advanced while firing. The enemy's rear encirclement fleet was immediately thrown into chaos, colliding with each other and becoming entangled, and the formation was no more.

Several cannonballs landed in the enemy ships, and in the thunderous explosions, several warships were hit, bursting into flames and screams. The broken hulls quickly sank, and the shattered planks and bodies rushed into the low air.

On the flagship of the vanguard, Redwyne saw this scene and ordered the horns to sound for a full-scale attack.

Thus, seventy warships beat the dense drumbeats, and the horns also blew woo-woo-woo, the soldiers' shouts rose greatly, and each warship chased up like an arrow.

The maester beside the young Count's face changed slightly, and he said, "Lord Count, we cannot defeat the enemy fleet. We can only bluff and feign pursuit, secretly gather and retreat quickly."

"Maester, twelve cannon ships, there are more than six hundred cannonballs in total," Count Redwyne said spiritedly.

"The Qartheen navy has more than four thousand warships. Most of the warships are still in port. Even if one cannonball hits one warship, we can only destroy six hundred enemy warships. The current tactic is for us to launch a night attack and set fire to destroy the enemy's warships and merchant ships first, instead of fighting the enemy navy head-on."

"Maester, you don't understand military affairs. The enemy is afraid, our morale is greatly boosted, it is the best time to pursue. The enemy warships are too late to turn around and escape, and they dare not fight us at all."

"Their main fleet will soon get the news."

"But they don't know that we only have more than five hundred cannonballs."

"But we know."

"You don't understand, and I have already sent ravens to Queen Daenerys Targaryen, and by the time we run out of cannonballs, her dragons will have arrived."

"But what if Her Majesty the Queen's dragons don't come?"

"Are you afraid? Maester," Count Redwyne said proudly.

As he spoke, the flagship advanced at ramming speed, quickly approaching the enemy ships that were fleeing in confusion. There were too many enemy warships, and the formation was disrupted during the retreat, with many colliding with each other. Except for the front ones that turned around relatively smoothly, the rear warships basically could not run at speed.

The Count's flagship and escort ship fired two cannonballs together, blasting two enemy ships to pieces.

On the left and right sides, warships overtook the flagship to pursue the enemy ships that were lagging behind in the chaos.

Swish swish swish!

The archers' arrows drew sharp whistles in the air, shooting forward.

"Lord Count, it's still time to order a retreat now."

"Maester, don't say any more," Count Redwyne glared angrily, "Fighting a war will kill people, don't stop me from making achievements! Load the ammunition!"

Before he could finish speaking, an enemy warship that could not escape stopped fleeing and turned around, heading towards the flagship.

"Fire!" Count Redwyne handed the torch to the artillery squad leader and smiled with his hands behind his back.

Boom!

The cannonball landed on the deck of the enemy warship, blasting away the soldiers on the deck and blasting a large hole in the deck of the ship. The warship lost its balance and, in the violent turbulence, still stubbornly approached Count Redwyne's flagship, colliding.

"Evade!" The young Count, who was smiling leisurely at the bow of the ship, was so frightened that his smile disappeared instantly, and his face turned pale.

Boom!

The escort ship fired a cannonball, hitting the incoming ship, and the already heavily damaged enemy ship could no longer withstand it, and with a loud crash, disintegrated and exploded.

Countless fragments flew all over the sky.

Crack!

With a loud crash, a warship caught up with the enemy and the bow hit the middle of the enemy ship's hull. This enemy ship was turning around to fight and had not yet completed the turn when it was caught up and hit.

The huge force of the impact almost overturned the enemy ship. In the loud crash, the enemy ship's side shattered and the large gap caused by the tear ran through to the opposite side.

The enemy soldiers on the deck could not stand and fell one after another. The soldiers on the side of the ship were thrown out by the inertial force.

However, more enemy ships stopped fleeing and turned around.

The sound of the horns for turning around to fight was transmitted from one ship to another.

Since they could not escape, they would fight to the death.

In the rumbling sound of cannonballs, in the crashing sound of warships catching up with the enemy, in the shouts of the soldiers, the warships of both sides began to engage in close combat, archers shot at each other, and sword and shield soldiers prepared to jump onto the enemy ships, waiting for the two ships to approach and align.

The situation began to reverse.

Enemy ships were sunk one by one by cannons, but more warships crashed into the enemy fleet, and close-quarters melee combat broke out. Soon, the situation of being outnumbered began to appear.

Several warships were surrounded by the enemy and fell into bitter fighting.

The first to collapse was the rear army fleet. The Prince of the Summer Isles was the first to pursue, and he was also the first to fall into the enemy's encirclement. Although the two cannon ships destroyed more than a dozen warships in a row, they could not withstand the enemy's counterattack on the Prince's flagship.

Countless rockets were densely shot onto the Prince's flagship, turning the flagship into a huge hedgehog, and the flagship quickly burst into flames.

The Qartheen navy's combat power has always been very strong, and the naval warfare methods are also diverse. The naval soldiers are all well-trained.

As enemy warships relentlessly swarmed the two gunboats, one after another, the rear guard fleet began to collapse after the prince on the flagship jumped into the sea and was killed by a barrage of arrows.