To Queen Mother Cersei's relief, her son Xiao Qiao was not as impulsive as expected.
He was only verbally brave, and had no intention of leading his troops out of the city to fight a fierce battle with the Northern-Hejian coalition forces.
This made her sigh with relief.
After finishing the affairs in the throne room, King Joffrey I, the Royal Council, the Queen Mother Regent and others moved to the nearby meeting hall and began serious discussions on how to resist the "rebels" outside the city.
After hearing enough of all kinds of trivial news from Intelligence Director Varys, Joffrey yawned, then stood up and announced:
"As the king, I have other important matters to deal with. The bandits outside the city will be left to you to deal with. When they are defeated, I will order salt to be sprinkled on the riverlands and the crops in the north as a reward for these two people.
The reward for rebellion on earth.”
Then he left with his hunting dogs and six other Kingsguards.
Cersei looked at her son with relief, "He is really a wise king."
As long as Xiao Qiao doesn't mess around or interfere in military and political affairs, Queen Cersei thinks her son is the best.
Varys watched the young king leave greasy and wary. He learned about the king's new hobby from his intelligence officer, Little Bird:
Arrange some animal heads in the room.
There are basically animals and birds, fresh and stale, as long as they are animals that can be noticed by the king.
This is not a good sign.
Even Mad King Aerys II did not have such perverted habits.
Varys, who always had his hands in his sleeves, turned his head, only to find Finance Minister Baelish staring at him with a smile.
Cersei also withdrew her gaze, but saw the two important ministers of the Royal Council "examining each other", so she coughed lightly.
"Four adults, let's get started."
By convention, the Royal Council usually involves seven people, including the Hand of the King, the Captain of the Kingsguard, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Minister of Justice, the Lord of the Sea, the Chief of Intelligence, and the Grand Bachelor.
But since the new Hand of the King, Tywin, and the new Captain of the Kingsguard, James, are still fighting against the "rebels" in the West River, and the Minister of Justice, Renly, and the Minister of the Sea, Stannis, have successively declared themselves kings, there should only be three
The courtiers and regent the Queen Mother attended.
However, considering the enemy forces outside the city, the Queen Mother ordered Sterling, the commander of the King's Landing garrison, to also participate in the royal meeting.
It was the first time for the bald Sterling to participate in such a high-level meeting, so he seemed quite hasty.
At the signal of Queen Mother Cersei, he began to report on the defense situation in the city.
"As of now, the rebels have completely surrounded the Gate of the Gods, the Steel Gate and the Old City Gate. A total of 2,450 soldiers from the Royal Family have arrived. The number of King's Landing garrison has also exceeded 6,500. This
The number is still increasing rapidly, and it is expected to reach 8,000 people in about ten days."
After learning that the coalition forces on the Eastern Front entered the Kingdom from the King's Road, Cersei sent a King's Order to the nearby nobles in the Kingdom in the name of Joffrey I.
Earl Gyles Rosby of Rosby City, the Bookwell family of Antler Castle, and the Staunton family of Crow's Roost all sent some soldiers, but only more than 2,400 people arrived.
This made Cersei very angry, but she was trapped in King's Landing and had nothing to do with the half of the royal family and nobles who were working in secret.
Fortunately, there are more than half a million civilians in King's Landing, and there is still no shortage of adult men who can handle weapons, so the manpower to defend the city is barely enough.
Varys reported another incident, "There are more than 16,000 rebels outside the city, and 12,000 northerners, including Stark, Bolton, Karstark, and Amber.
The main force is composed of more than 4,000 Rivermen, mainly 2,800 infantrymen from the Frey family. It is worth mentioning that His Majesty’s younger brother, Lord Tyrion, is also in the Riverside army."
Due to her title of Queen Regent, Cersei is also called "Your Majesty".
"Is it possible that you want me to send someone to rescue him? We don't even have enough people to defend the city." The Queen Mother clearly expressed her point of view.
"Your Majesty." Earl Baelish changed the topic at the right time, "We have to consider the people in the city. In order to make more profits, the grain merchants began to sell wheat, pumpkins and potatoes at ten times the price. The nobles
People also started complaining that they couldn’t buy alcohol anymore.”
Due to the extremely chaotic drainage system in King's Landing and the fact that the water of the Blackwater River is not drinkable, commoners and nobles who have a little money use lower-alcohol wine as their daily drink.
Not being able to buy wine meant that the nobles had to drink the smelly dirty water from the ditches like the common people.
"There is no need to discuss such trivial matters here." Cersei clasped her fingers together and rested her elbows on the long table, "You just need to ensure the food supply for the soldiers in the garrison."
Obviously, the Queen Mother did not pay much attention to the problem of feeding the people in the city.
Next, the five discussed the details of the defense in detail until Cersei was satisfied.
At the end of the meeting, the Queen Mother uncharacteristically sat at the end, and then walked out of the meeting hall together with Archmaester Pycelle, who pretended to be senile.
No one knew what they were whispering.
…
Outside the city, there is a large tent of the Allied Forces.
Herman Tauha, the lord of Torun Square City, finally explained the general situation of the Western Front clearly.
After Robb went south to Riverrun, more than 4,000 remnants of the Western Division led by Kevan retreated to the Golden Teeth City. Then Kevan asked Jaime to lead the troops to guard the pass leading to the West, and he led his people to Lannister Port to take over.
The new army formed by Steve.
The main force of the Western Territory east of the Red Fork River is approaching the West River. Due to Tywin's injury, they are not moving fast.
This gave Robb a hint of opportunity.
So while he sent Cleo Frey to pretend to negotiate peace, he also sent his mother Lady Stark to Bitterbridge in the south to seek an alliance with Renly.
The King of the North himself led 5,500 cavalry and 4,000 river soldiers to attack the Golden Teeth City south, intending to kill Jaime's men first, and then fight with Tywin who had crossed the Red Fork River in the west river.
One battle to win the final fruits of victory.
But after Robb left, Edmure, whose injuries had improved, suddenly felt that he could not let the decisive battle take place between the Western Rivers, so he summoned all the troops that could still respond to Riverrun's call in an attempt to block the main force of the Western March in the area of Travel's Rest.
.
Earl Tallhar, who was stationed at the Twins to monitor the Frey family, also responded to the Young Wolf Lord's uncle's order and led 600 people southward.
Then, he was sent to deliver a message to the coalition forces on the Eastern Front.
"We are the army of the King in the North and are not under the command of the heir to Riverrun." Roose Bolton simply and clearly refused the order to return to the West River to aid.
According to Lord Leech's understanding of Mrs. Stark and the Young Wolf Lord, if King's Landing can be captured this time and the two Miss Starks can be saved, it will not be a big deal for him to disobey the orders of the King in the North and Edmure.
.
Earl Taoha nodded, "In that case, there is no need for me to go back and resume my life. I will stay and attack the city."
The Marquis of Bolton agreed to this, and then continued to assign intense siege and siege preparation tasks.
The more elite Stark soldiers were responsible for blocking the three city gates: Linhe Gate, King's Gate, and Steel Gate. All the soldiers in the river were sent to block the remaining gates such as the Gods Gate, the Old City Gate, the Dragon Gate, and the Lion Gate.
The four city gates below.
In Deepwood Castle, the soldiers of the Karstark family were tasked with cutting down trees and collecting wood. Many of them had been working with wood all year round.
The remaining more than 5,000 people were responsible for making large-scale ordnance for siege and defending against possible enemies on land.
"If there are no accidents, we will take King's Landing within two weeks. By then, news of the great victory on the Western Front will also come. That will be the most glorious moment for us northerners." Roose Bolton said loudly, uncharacteristically.
It can be seen that he is in good spirits.
Inspired by him, the morale of the northern nobles in the big tent was high. Many people were screaming and preparing to rush into the Red Keep to avenge the late Lord Eddard Stark.
But Arthur clearly felt something was wrong. The more than 3,000 people in the Bolton family had always been regarded as a reserve team, and any frontal battle had nothing to do with them.
After assigning tasks, everyone left the big tent and began to perform military duties.
Arthur was about to leave with several riverland nobles, but he saw Aenys Frey beside him sneaking towards the Marquis of Bolton.
Robert Glover, who happened to be passing by with his head held high, saw Arthur tilting his head, so he looked back and sneered.
"Why, do you know the inside story?" Arthur approached Robert and asked in a low voice.
"What else is there? Lord Bolton's wife has passed away, and the Frey family is full of young ladies who cannot get married. This is not true." Robert also whispered the gossip.
Arthur nodded, indicating that he understood.
Although I don't know if the Blood Wedding can happen in the current time and space, Herman Talha's departure from the Twins and the marriage between the Bolton and Frey families are all bad signs.
After walking out of the tent, the nobles in Hejian found Count Taoha waiting for them.
"I forgot to tell you something. When I passed by Harrenhal, I also passed Lord Edmure's order to Ser Marco Piper there. His injury was getting better and he decided on the spot to lead troops to respond to the feudal family.
At the call of the Lord, he led more than 600 soldiers from various families to the West River. The heirs of Earl Bracon were also taken away by Sir Piper. The peasant army formed by Lord Arthur is still guarding there. "
After Herman Taoha finished speaking, he turned and left.
This news made Arthur feel uncomfortable for a long time.
Marco Piper had a good relationship with Edmure, so it was reasonable to go to West River.
But according to Edmure's soft heart, I am afraid that he cannot bear Tywin's army crossing the Red Fork River and harassing his own people, so the various crossings must be the focus of the competition between the two sides.
I'm afraid not many of the nobles and soldiers summoned by Riverrun this time will survive.
Arthur had a good impression of the straightforward Ma Ke, but he could not change the situation of the battle hundreds of leagues away.
He could only wish Ma Ke, who was still injured, good luck.
When she returned to her small camp, she saw Arya feeding apples to the giant wolf.
After capturing Nymeria, the big and scary direwolf was trapped in a cage. Fortunately, Arya was able to comfort her and didn't cause any trouble.
Most of the Qohor mercenaries under Arthur, the soldiers of the Hejian family, and the mountain clans were amazed that "Ali" could deal with the giant wolf, because normal people would be yelled at when they walked to the cage with the giant wolf.
But this little boy can get along well with wolves.
Seeing Arya, he suddenly remembered something.
According to the plot of the original book, this Miss Stark should have escaped from a cellar in the Chancellor's Tower in the Red Keep and crossed King's Landing.
Since you can get out, you can probably get in.
This is very important.
If Arthur can bring top warriors like Hosteen Frey, Raymond Darry, and Harris Horwood, he can defeat the Red Keep and King's Landing in one fell swoop.
You must know that the Red Keep itself is also a huge fortress. Just sixteen thousand people captured King's Landing, but they may not be able to defeat the Red Keep.
Thinking of this, Arthur walked up to Arya and greeted her: "Ally, come here, I have something to tell you."
He didn't want to go near the direwolf. Because Nymeria was caught by him, she hated Arthur very much and started to growl when she smelled his scent.
Her attitude is far worse than that of her master.
Arya, who was called, stuffed the half of the apple that the giant wolf refused to eat into her trouser pocket, then turned and walked towards this handsome riverland noble.
Because of her father Ed's education from an early age and her experience of starvation in King's Landing, she cherishes food very much.
"Is something wrong, my lord?"
Arthur put his hand on Arya's shoulder, "It's not convenient here, go to my tent and talk."
The two walked to Arthur's tent. Bracken ordered the mercenaries and servants on guard to stay away before entering.
Arthur asked in a very low voice: "You once slipped out of the Prime Minister's Tower or a cave somewhere in the Red Keep. Can you recall this route?"
Arya, who had a round and honest face, had a look of confusion on her face, and then immediately returned to normal.
"My lord, what are you talking about? Ali doesn't understand!"
Seeing that this little girl was still pretending, Arthur thought for a while and said: "Your sister, Sansa, is a young lady from the North who doesn't have deep thoughts. According to Joffrey's character, she must have a bad life. She may be miserable every day.
She lives in fear, if you recall the route, I can lead someone to rescue her."
He knew that although Arya didn't like her somewhat vain and nymphomaniac sister, she still valued her family very much.
The name of saving his sister was enough for her to tell this route.
At the mention of her sister, Arya suddenly froze for a few seconds, then stared at Arthur, seemingly making up her mind.
After a few breaths, she whispered: "I, Ali, am just an ordinary person. I happen to know a path leading to the Red Fort. What about my sister? It's all nonsense, sir."
Seeing that Arya was still pretending, Arthur refused to reveal it, "Yes, you are my bartender Ali, can you tell me the path now?"
After the two reached a tacit agreement, Arya roughly revealed the path hidden among the sea cliffs of Aegon's High Hills.
The Red Keep is located on Aegon Hill, one of the three major hills in King's Landing, and is surrounded by the sea on three sides, so it is extremely difficult to conquer.
With this trail, we can break through from inside the Red Fort.
Of course, Arya, who was not sure where the trail was, suggested that she take Arthur to look for it at night to determine the exact location.
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