This is a grove of elm, alder and poplar, connected to the gardens of the Red Castle and overlooking the Blackwater Estuary.
It is said to be a godswood, but there are no weirwoods in it. The large oak in the middle of the forest serves as the heart tree, and its branches are covered with smokeberry vines.
At this moment, dozens of selected noble children and some of the remaining river knights were having an archery competition outside the godswood. Five human-shaped archery targets were standing at the edge of the forest, and the archers were demonstrating their skills in turn.
Only the champion will be rewarded, and according to Ange Bracken, captain of the royal guard, the reward is most likely a pair of dragon skin gloves.
Gloves made from the molted skin of Alduin, the only remaining dragon in Westeros.
Any knowledgeable noble should know that the whole body of a dragon is a good thing. The keel bone contains extremely high iron content, and the keel bone bow made of it is an extremely good bow. The dragon skin is so tough that ordinary bows and arrows cannot penetrate it.
Dragonskin gloves are one thing, having the attention of the king and courtiers is another.
King Arthur I, who was wearing black dragon leather armor, and several courtiers and nobles were sitting on a high wooden platform, pointing at the contestants.
This is enough to make these young people excited.
The marksman Angei, who had been given the surname Bracken, stood beside the high platform, analyzing the strength of the contestants for the king and the nobles.
"This Li Ang of the Ward family uses the most common longbow in the six northern realms. Judging from his body shape and posture, he should be a trained archer."
Angai is a Dornish person, so naturally he calls the other six countries the North.
The longbow in his mouth is made of a piece of wood nearly 6 feet long. If the archer pulls the bow string to his chin or ear, it can generate nearly a hundred pounds of tension, enough to shoot an arrow 250 times.
Ten yards away, it can still penetrate the enemy's clothing at this distance.
Arthur nodded and said loudly: "This Li Ang is good. You can ask him if he wants to join the Royal Guard."
Among the royal family's military forces, the first layer is the Kingsguard guarding Maegor's Tower, the second layer is the Royal Guard guarding the Red Keep, and the third layer is the King's Landing garrison. They are also responsible for maintaining order in the capital.
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Due to the size of the Red Keep, whether it is the Targaryen dynasty or Robert's short-lived dynasty, the number of Royal Guards only maintains between 500 and 1,000 people.
According to Arthur's idea, the royal guard formed this time will only have 700 soldiers, which can just about defend the Red Castle.
Among these seven hundred people, the one hundred Stark infantry brought by Sansa can be incorporated.
Previously at Harrenhal, the Duke of Mace selected 150 elite cavalry from the 4,000 soldiers who were released, saying that they would serve as personal guards for himself and his daughter who was about to become queen.
According to the rules of the previous dynasty, the Prime Minister could keep fifty soldiers in the Red Castle, and half of the remaining one hundred soldiers were allowed by Arthur to stay as Margaery's guards.
Naturally, these fifty people will also be incorporated into the royal guard for unified management.
The other half filled up the King's Landing garrison. They were well-equipped and neatly equipped and could serve as an honor guard when necessary.
Among the 1,000 people brought by Dickon, Arthur selected 250 soldiers of level three and above to serve as royal guards.
In other words, there are still 300 spots left in the royal guard.
As a rule, some second sons of minor nobles and illegitimate sons of big families would join the guard, so King Arthur I ordered someone to organize this archery competition to select people from among them.
According to his idea, the remaining three hundred people must be crossbowmen. After a round of arrows, all enemies will be shot into hedgehogs.
The body of the Three-Eyed Crow, Duke Bloodraven, once formed a guard composed entirely of archers: the Crow's Tooth Guard.
The performance of the Crow's Tooth Guard was quite brilliant. Daemon Blackfyre, one of the founders of the Blackfyre Rebellion, died under the arrows of the Crow's Tooth Guard.
Arthur did not dare to say that his guard could be as strong as the Crow's Tooth Guard, but he still wanted to set a high standard.
If you ask for the top, you will get the middle, if you ask for the middle, you will get the bottom.
So he appointed the sharpshooter Ange as the captain of the royal guard and asked him to be responsible for training all the royal guard soldiers.
As for Leon, who had just been favored by the king, the Ward family he came from was one of the small vassal families of Harrenhal.
The late Mrs. Hean had a sworn knight named Willy Ward, but we don’t know where he is now. He may have died on the battlefield. There is a branch of the Ward family that is rich and is the owner of the Beauty Market.
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Coming from the Riverlands, and his family being Sansa's vassals, Arthur can use it with confidence.
The king's voice was not quiet, and naturally some good people spread this word to the ears of the person involved.
Li Ang, who was named and praised by the king, was naturally overjoyed. Before the game was over, he held his head high and looked like a winner.
The people around him had no objections to his appearance, but instead cast envious glances at him.
In the minds of this group of young people, being chosen by the king is already a great honor.
In the words of Arthur's previous life, it is the kind of ancestral tomb built on the crater of a volcano.
The king was very satisfied with the reaction of this group of people. What he wanted was to make them feel close to and honored by the king.
The so-called honor is nothing more than a means for superior rulers to stimulate the potential of their subordinates.
The archery competition continued, but Arthur lost much interest in watching the competition. He turned his head and asked: "What is the proportion of archers in your family army?"
Aenys Frey, Orton Marriweis, Tristan Legge, Dickon Tarly and others all answered the king's questions.
"My family only has a standing archer for a standard cavalry unit. That is, a knight leads one hundred and thirty-four cavalry, one hundred and five attendants, nineteen horse-riding archers, a trumpeter, and a farrier.
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Bald Inis replied.
The horses of mounted archers only assist soldiers in moving, it does not mean that they can shoot arrows on horseback.
Lord Orton Mareweis of the River Bend also told his family’s situation:
"The Long Table Hall is a little different from the Twins City. We have archers concentrated in the infantry group, usually divided into hundreds. As for the most expensive cavalry, there are generally ninety riders and ninety attendants, and their main weapons are
They are lances, and the remaining eighteen are horse crossbowmen, with a knight commander and a trumpeter to assist them."
There is no farrier in the cavalry of this family. It may be because his family is wealthy and the army has a unified logistics team.
Arthur asked curiously: "What kind of crossbow is it? A crossbow?"
According to his understanding of the Game of Thrones world, the only crossbows widely installed in the army are crossbows.
The crossbow is also called a crossbow. It is a shorter device used to project crossbow arrows. The crossbow is equipped with a so-called crossbow machine. The structure of the crossbow machine can help the shooter complete the winding. The reason why this structure is needed is because it is so short.
Winding the string is particularly laborious. The winding mechanism may be in the form of a winch or a crank.
In addition, Mir specializes in producing several types of winch crossbows, the top ones of which can shoot three arrows at once.
However, the Myr triple crossbow is very expensive to make and can only be a toy for nobles, not suitable for military use.
"Yes, crossbows are generally used in the army." Bald Inis replied.
The other two earls nodded in agreement, but there was still a trace of contempt for Marquis Frey in their eyes.
"What's the cost?" Arthur always wanted to build an elite crossbow army, so he was very concerned about this issue.
This time the bald man couldn't speak. He was stunned for a long time and said: "I really haven't paid attention to it. The craftsmen in Twin River City can produce it themselves, so I guess the cost is not very high."
However, Dicken gave a reference price.
"I remember it should be between one hundred and fifty silver deer to two hundred and eighty silver deer! If the craftsmen under my own name can produce it, it can be cheaper," Tully inherited.
Arthur nodded, feeling that the price was really acceptable.
When the legendary knight Duncan was tall, a set of "unpretentious" armor, including mail, gorget, neck gaiter, and iron helmet, cost 750 silver deer plus a bunch of sundries, which is roughly the equivalent of
Eight hundred silver deer.
That is nearly four golden dragons.
Mail armor is enough as a crossbowman's armor. Adding in the cost of the crossbow, the initial armor only requires five or six old gold dragons.
Of course, the power of the crossbow must be greatly reduced.
There are quite a few maesters who can improve the bed crossbow, and Arthur thinks he can gather a group of maesters to research and create a cheap winch crossbow.
The power is measured in thousands of pounds.
According to Arthur's memory, the power of this thousand-pound winch crossbow is roughly between the waist-tension crossbow, the kick-tension crossbow and the winch crossbow in the previous life, and the ultimate range of the latter three crossbows is between 300 and 700 steps.
Made in the Tang Dynasty, one step is five feet, which is 1.514 meters. Three hundred steps is 452.4 meters. The furthest step is 700 steps, which is 1,059 meters. That has to be a bed crossbow.
A miracle that only a giant crossbow of this level can create.
In any case, the requirements for using a crossbow are much smaller than that of an archer. As long as the accuracy is high, the army can be formed much faster.
"Dickon is responsible for finding some reliable carpenters and Bachelor of Science to discuss how to make a low-cost, powerful, large crossbow suitable for one person to carry. In addition, the bed crossbow should also be improved. The more powerful the better.
, it will be useful in future wars.”
Arthur ordered to Dickon beside him.
But the Tully heir apparently had his own ideas.
"Your Majesty, can I follow Balon Swann's army to the Great Wall? I want to see my brother Samwell." Dickon did not refuse the king's order, but made another request.
King Arthur I was stunned for a moment and nodded in agreement, "What a touching brotherhood. It will be after my wedding. As for finding craftsmen to improve the crossbow, let Count Tristan Legg be in charge."
The lord of Willowwood City who was called agreed on the spot.
The king thought for a while and suddenly said: "By the way, Dickon, I have an important task for you."
If he goes north to meet Fat Sam, he will definitely be able to contact the Horn of Winter.
According to rumors, this horn can blow away the magic of the Great Wall and cause it to collapse.
Although the Horn of Winter has not been put into practice, the Great Wall cannot withstand a test, so this horn must be in the hands of a living person.
Arthur felt that this should be the most suitable opportunity to take back the Horn of Winter.
He motioned to Dickon to put his ear closer, and then whispered: "Your brother has a horn in his hand. You are responsible for coming over and bringing it back to me."
Samwell is very kind. If his brother comes to see him, he should give him a gift.
Dickon looked puzzled, but still agreed.
In order to keep him motivated, Arthur also took out insurance.
"You bring back the Horn of Winter, and I will reward you with Lady Kongji."
After Lord Randyll Tarly reunited with his son who had been away from home for more than a year, his Valyrian steel sword "Heartbreak" was taken back by the Minister of Justice.
Dickon had always wanted to wear a corrugated steel sword, so naturally he felt uncomfortable with it now.
As for Arthur himself, after capturing the West and Casterly Rock, the Stark family sword "Ice" will be in his hands.
Queen Sansa didn't know yet about Bran and Rickon's survival, and most of the North was still in the hands of the Boltons and their vassal forces, so Arthur didn't say it clearly.
Therefore, Queen Stark would not object to her husband inheriting Lord Eddard's sword.
Lady Kongji is more slender than the half-handed sword. Arthur is uncomfortable using it, so the two-handed sword "Ice" is more suitable for him.
When Dickon heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"I will definitely live up to your Majesty's trust."
The archery competition continued into the afternoon, and the champion was the second son of a small family in the River Bend, named Danla Fossoway, who came from the Green Apple family.
Even Angai praised his achievements.
After the king asked him if he wanted to join the royal guard, Danla immediately agreed.
So Arthur gave him the rumored dragon skin gloves.
"This is made of Alduin's molted skin. There are not many pairs in the whole world. Now I give it to you as a gift for the archery competition champion." The king said.
Podrick, who was serving on the side, brought the prepared tray to Danra Fossoway, who excitedly picked up the dragonhide glove and kissed it.
This is something from the giant dragon!
A group of young people around him were also very jealous. If the king, princes and courtiers had not gone far away, they would have crowded to Danla's side and touched the dragon's skin.
On the way, Marquis Innis, who followed the king back to the meeting hall, said flatteringly: "Your Majesty, do you have more dragon skin gloves? Can you give me a pair?"
Arthur glanced back at him funny, "How much more can there be? Dragons don't specialize in producing dragon skins."
Alduin shed his skin outside Harrenhal to make a set of leather armor, which is currently worn on Arthur.
The remaining leftover materials were used to make three pairs of dragon skin gloves, one pair for the king himself, one pair for the gift, and the last pair for Arthur to store at the bottom of the box and not take out until he put them away.
But this Marquis Frey was still greedy, and Arthur I had to appease him.
"If your family makes a modest contribution, I'll see if I can make you a pair of dragonskin gloves next time Alduin sheds his skin."
Inis's eyes immediately shone and he asked excitedly: "What is considered a small or medium-sized contribution? Please make it clear, Your Majesty."
The king hadn't thought about it yet, so he could only reply perfunctorily: "We will talk about it after we meet."
In the meeting hall, several governors from the Hejian land gradually arrived, waiting to see the king. They were here to attend the second king's wedding that was about to be reported.
After Arthur discussed with the Queen of Thorns, the latter believed that since there was no need for the Archbishop of the Seven Gods to be crowned, and the wedding did not require the Seven Gods monks to preside over the oath ceremony, the wedding and coronation ceremony of Arthur I and Queen Margaery could be combined into one.
One, we will do it more decently when the time comes.
Although only three-tenths of the cost was spent, Arthur, who wanted to keep the money to build an army, was naturally happy to accept it. The wedding was decided, and the Duke of Metz and Randyll Tully would arrange the details.
After the date was determined, more and more nobles arrived, preparing to attend the king's wedding and take the opportunity to swear allegiance.
