The waves are constantly beating against the stone cliffs all day long. Three crooked towers stand on the edge of the towering cliffs. The Crow Cave flag of the local lord Brun family is planted at the top of this shabby castle.
After landing a little further to the west, King Hejian led his people straight to their destination.
There are not many members of the Buren family in Dreadhole Castle. The family governor is Eustace Buren, an elderly nobleman.
Right now, this old nobleman is entertaining distinguished guests with dragons in his hall.
"My old god is actually a real magic dragon."
Lying on the narrow window of the hall, Eustace looked at Alduin soaring outside in amazement.
"Aren't you the model subjects who claim to be the dragon family? Now I need your soldiers to end this endless war for me."
After a few more lustful glances, Baron Eustace turned back and looked at the tall River King Arthur.
"Yes, we are model subjects of the Dragon Family. Once the Targaryen family is summoned, our Bren family will fight for the dragon kings together with the Boggs family, the Keifer family, the Hardy family, and the Paine family.
."
Arthur was very satisfied with this statement, "Very good, then go and gather your soldiers to fight for me."
Baron Brun walked to the main seat of the castle, sat down slowly, and then said leisurely: "But I heard that your surname is Bracken, not Targaryen."
"I already have a dragon, does it matter what my last name is? Besides the blood of the dragon family, who else can win the favor of the dragon?"
Arthur did not expect that this stubborn little noble would actually be entangled in the small issue of his surname. In past experiences, as long as Alduin appeared, the lords who were originally loyal to the Long family would bow to him and pledge their allegiance on the spot.
"The surname is the most important. Joffrey Layton in the West also changed his surname before inheriting the title of King of Casterly Rock from his father-in-law. If you still bear the surname of Bracken, you will have a dragon.
Not a member of the Dragon King family," Eustace said.
The Joffrey Layton he was talking about was the son-in-law of Gerold Lannister III. Because Gerold III only had one daughter, his son-in-law changed his surname and inherited the title of King of Casterly Rock.
"I promise to change my surname back to Targaryen at the appropriate time. Now you should be satisfied!" The King of the River said in a strong tone.
Eustace shook his head, "No, promises are useless. We must change our surname before we can send troops."
The two of them stared at each other, and the Dornish princess on the side hurriedly stepped forward to rescue them.
"There is nothing wrong with His Majesty Arthur's bloodline, as evidenced by the fire-breathing dragon. Well, Your Majesty swears to the gods to complete the change of surname at a certain point in time. Now is the time of the war. Once the surname is changed, the coat of arms must be changed.
With the large number of flags and the burqas worn by the soldiers, it is still quite troublesome."
Arthur himself was not very insistent on the surname Bracken. In his previous life, his last name was Lee. The reason why he kept delaying using the surname Bracken was that in addition to changing coats of arms and flags, he also had to give his vassals a proper name.
An unmistakable statement.
You must know that the genealogy of all nobles is clear and can be checked. Rumors can be made up randomly, but the things recorded in the genealogy cannot be messed up.
After the River King discussed back and forth with Eustace for a long time, they finally came to terms that both of them agreed with.
It is now the middle of the 299th year of the Conquest calendar. After Arthur swore to restore the Targaryen name within the first half of the 300th year of the Conquest calendar, Eustace swore allegiance on behalf of the Burren family of Dreadhole.
"We can provide you with one hundred and fifty men who can bear arms."
After kneeling and taking the oath, Baron Brun introduced his troops to the king.
Seeing the three dilapidated towers of the Bren family, Arthur didn't hold out much hope. For a baron family, one hundred and fifty soldiers was already a lot.
Eustace himself was old and frail, so in the next few days, his son led the king around most of the castles on the Crab Claw Peninsula.
After meeting the dragon Alduin and hearing the king's oath, more than a dozen small families including Boggs, Keifer, Hardy, and Paine pledged their allegiance one after another.
They provided Arthur with a total of 2,800 strong men with weapons. As for armor, most ordinary soldiers only had pot-shaped helmets. Only members of the lord's family had iron armor, and mail armor that only covered the torso and arms.
Lord.
The commander of this army was Bernard Brun, a distant relative of Baron Brun and a wealthy knight of Brown Hole Mountain.
Under the leadership of this middle-aged knight, the aboriginal soldiers from the Crab Claw Peninsula will gather in Maiden Springs and guard the city with the soldiers of Earl William Mouton until Arthur leads his army south.
As for the King of Hejian himself, he took a boat with others and headed towards Yanchang Town from the waters of Crab Bay.
He had to take Alduin to set a fire on the south side of the Mingyue Mountains.
…
The sea on the west side of the Reach, Oakshield Island.
Oakshield is the northernmost island of the Shield Islands, located west of Highgarden. It is believed to serve as a shield to prevent the Iron Islands from invading the Mander River Basin.
The Shield Islands are the collective name for four islands: Green Shield Island under the name of the Chesta family, Gray Shield Island under the Green family name, Oak Shield Island under the name of the Hewett family, and South Shield Island under the name of the Siri family.
Along the jagged coastlines of these islands, there are still gray-bearded old men in watchtowers who follow the ancient tradition and remain vigilant. Whenever they see a longship, they light the beacon of the lighthouse to let the message pass from one hilltop to another, from one mountain to another.
Island to another island, allowing nearby villages, towns and castles to prepare.
But now, these cordons have failed, and Lord Hewett's castle has been occupied by the Ironborn led by Euron Greyjoy.
In the dim castle hall, many ironmen were having a party. They were not even afraid of other people's eyes and started having sex in the hall.
Lord Humphry Hewett himself was captured by the Ironborn and tied to a bench in a crucifixion posture, helplessly watching his daughter and granddaughters being raped by the Ironborn.
The most beautiful one, Faria Flower, was owned by the Ironborn King Euron Greyjoy.
Euron, who was quite handsome and had an unusually strong body, was lying on the main seat. Faria was sitting on his lap, with her arms around the Ironborn King's neck.
"Listen to me, have you seen my father's beautiful wife? And my sisters, you can let them take off their clothes and serve your soldiers."
Euron rubbed the place he wanted for a long time, and then whispered in Faria's ear: "You are such a vicious woman, why do you treat your stepmother and sisters like this?"
From the surname Fohua, Euron could know that Faria was the illegitimate daughter of Count Humphrey Hewett, but he still didn't know why Faria made such a request.
"Because they use me as a maid, asking me to wash clothes, mop floors, clean toilets all day long, live with servants, and serve my sisters. Although my mother is from a lower background, I am also the daughter of an earl. How can I
You can do such rough work."
"I understand." Euron smiled seductively, pulled Faria's head over, and kissed her deeply.
About an hour later, Euron was finished. He put a piece of clothing on his back and began to pat the wooden table in front of him hard.
"Everyone, calm down. We have achieved an unprecedented victory in this battle. I want to reward those who have contributed."
In the previous naval battle, Euron sent Torvald the Brown Tusk and the Red Soldier to lead his longships along the main channel of the Mander River to lure away the fleet from the Shield Islands.
By the time the four coalition forces of Hewett, Green, Chesta, and Siri realized something was wrong and led their fleets to come back for reinforcements, the longships of the Iron Islands had already set up an ambush and captured them at the cost of only six ships.
Thirty-eight longships, and quite a few river nobles.
Of course, the Shield Islands all fell into the hands of the Ironborn.
After the king prepared to award the reward, the chaos in the hall quickly disappeared. The ironmen sat or stood, all pricking up their ears and listening carefully to the leader's words.
"...Because of your military exploits, I decided to award the position of leader of Oak Shield Island to Barber Newt, the leader of South Shield Island to Adric, Maren Womack the leader of Green Shield Island, and as for the Greene family
Grayshield Island, to Ser Horas Harlaw, who made his Valyrian sword Nightfall so sharp!"
Euron was very generous and rewarded all four islands.
Newt is a crew member on his brother Victarion Greyjoy's Ironborn; Adric is an Ironborn captain under his rival House Drum; Maren Womack is
Supporter of Victarion.
As for Ser Horas Harlaw, he is a potential supporter of Euron's niece Asha Greyjoy.
In the line of defense against the Ironborn invasion, the Shield Islands are the first line of defense for the Riverbenders, and the territory least likely to be lost.
Therefore, in the next few months, Highgarden will definitely organize a large-scale counterattack, which will greatly deplete the Ironborn who stay here.
After hearing his brother's reward, Victarion, who was slightly drunk, suddenly sobered up.
He's trying to win over my crew!
"Newt, you are not a captain yet and cannot accept a reward of this level. I order you to refuse the title of leader of Oakshield Island."
Newt, the barber with a short body but extremely long arms, shook his head and said: "I think even you, the captain, would not refuse such a canonization, let alone an ordinary person like me? Since the king has rewarded Oakshield Island to me,
I just have to accept it.”
He ignored his captain's orders and calmly accepted the king's canonization.
Victarion looked at Newt helplessly, and then at the jealous crew members around him, becoming a little more wary of his brother Euron.
The Ironborn King was very satisfied with Newt's attitude. After a few casual compliments, he said loudly:
"Although we have captured these small islands, we cannot be complacent yet. The wealthy Reach is right in front of us. Those stupid lords are leading their soldiers to the king's territory to grab the iron chair. Even Red
The Wen fleet is all in the distant Blackwater Bay. This is a major change that has not happened in hundreds of years. We must seize the opportunity and go to the river to make a big profit."
The ironmen who were inspired by the king were so angry that they wanted to drive their longships to the green land to rob them on the spot.
But Euron obviously had his own ideas. He pressed his hands and arranged another battle plan.
Lord Humphrey Hewett and his wives and daughters also heard about the plan, but Euron didn't care. They wouldn't survive the day anyway.
…
High Court.
Willas Tyrell, who was sitting in a wheelchair, stared at the note with a stern expression.
Beside him, his uncle, Garth Tyrell, Lord Steward of Highgarden, and his illegitimate son Garriott Flowers were quietly waiting for orders from the acting city lord.
"The Shield Islands were captured by the Ironborn. Many of the lords of those four families were captured, and there were not many longships left."
Vilas explained it to his uncle first.
"You can send a message to Old Town and ask Morin to send the Hightower family's longship to recover the Shield Islands." Garth suggested.
Maureen Tyrell, the commander of the Oldtown garrison, is his brother and one of Willas's uncles.
Villas sighed and rejected the proposal.
"The Ironborn are coming with such force that the Hightowers' ships alone are not enough. I am going to send a message to King's Landing and ask my uncle to send more longships to fight against the Ironborn."
He closed his eyes and thought for a while, "But this is not enough. Coastal castles such as Ancient Oak City, Red Lake, Bundarenberg, Three Towers Castle, and Black Crown City are all within the attack range of the Ironborn. The lords and
Most of the soldiers followed them to the royal territory, and basically they couldn't hold it."
Willas had an idea as he spoke, "Go and send ravens to Oldtown, and ask them to send troops and longships to patrol the coastline. Send ravens to King's Landing as well, and ask your uncle to send more longships.
At the same time, let Garland lead a large army to come back for reinforcements."
Garth took note of his nephew's instructions and went out to find the maester to deliver the message.
…
King's Landing, the residence of the Rose family.
Garland, who was worried about Vilas, was reporting his investigation to his grandmother.
"Since Stannis had occupied the Red Keep for a period of time, Cersei became very suspicious when she came back and replaced all the servants and servants. Our foundation in King's Landing is a bit shallow and we can't intervene at all, so we can't intervene at all.
I wonder what the lions are doing in the Red Fort."
After Cersei's visit, the cautious Queen of Thorns secretly asked her most reliable grandson to send someone to investigate what was going on in the Red Keep.
"Incompetent!"
Olenna scolded her grandson first, and then asked: "Have all the lords who went to the throne room been notified? Where are the wealthy knights? How many people are going in total?"
Garland reported in a low voice: "Everyone has been notified. We wore armor that day, and together with the wealthy knights, we have more than 400 warriors in the throne room, and Cersei also agreed to let some soldiers line up here.
The journey to the throne room isn't that big of a deal."
After thinking carefully, the Queen of Thorns said, "I'm still a little worried. Let's do this. You won't go to the throne room that day. You will stay in the military camp outside the city. If anything happens, lead the army to rush in from near the mud door."
