"Brother! Can I charge behind you then?"

Samwell put on the armor with the help of his attendants, and his brother Dickon Tarly shouted from the side.

This time Count Landau did not come in person, but sent his younger brother to lead 1,800 soldiers to respond to the lord's call.

This number is only half of the number that supported Yingzui Island last time. It seems that Lord Landau is not very willing to work for the Iron Throne.

"What you represent now is Horn Hill, so what's the point of following me?" Samwell said casually while adjusting the hooks on his breastplate.

"The Duke of Metz should send someone to uniformly command the infantry of each family. I will definitely charge with the cavalry when the time comes! The same goes for you, brother, so I will charge with you then!" Dickon's nose turned red with excitement.

"Don't be stupid, brother, the Dornish people will never fight us in a direct battle in the open area again. This time they will definitely just huddle in the city. Do you want to ride a horse to hit the city wall?"

"Is that so..." Dickon scratched his head, a little disappointed.

Samwell looked at his honest brother and shook his head secretly——

If you kid is still so stupid, don't blame Earl Landau for changing his heir again.

However, Samwell also had to admit that Dickon was indeed quite strong. After not seeing him for a few months, he actually grew in size and was almost as tall as Samwell. He looked very majestic after wearing armor.

"Let's go, don't be the last one to arrive." Samwell carried [Dawn] behind his back, put the eagle-winged helmet under his arm, and urged his brother.

"good."

The heavily armed brothers went out, walked through the winding corridors and beautiful courtyards, and arrived at the knight's hall of the main castle.

It was early in the morning, but every ledge in the hall was lit with torches.

A herald stood at the door, loudly announcing the names and titles of the lords and knights who entered.

Inside the door was a sea of ​​armor and swords. Samwell glanced at it and secretly estimated that there might be thousands of knights here.

And the war potential of the Reach goes far beyond that.

As the center of the faith of the Seven Gods in Westeros and the birthplace of the knighthood, the Riverbend has the largest number of knights in the Seven Kingdoms.

Coupled with the affluent living conditions and advanced forging level, it can be said that the River Knights Legion is also the most terrifying battlefield force in the Seven Kingdoms.

Unfortunately, the Tyrell family that rules the Reach does not have the prestige to control this power, especially the contemporary Duke of Highgarden, "Lord Inflatable Fish", nor does he have the ability to make all the knights in the Reach willing to charge into battle for them.

Samwell looked at the bloated figure on the high platform in front of him and showed a secret smile of disdain.

If I could control this power...

"Fellow knights!" the voice of the Duke of Metz came from the high platform, and he began to give a pre-war mobilization speech.

However, the content was lackluster, and Samwell felt drowsy after listening to it.

After the Duke of Metz finally finished speaking, the Archbishop came up again holding the "Seven-Star Sacred Book" to bless the knights.

Then a choir of seventy-seven nuns led the hymn.

Then the archbishop came again and led everyone to pray...

After a series of tedious and boring rituals ended, Samwell was really about to fall asleep.

In the end, it was the Duke of Mace who shouted at the top of his lungs, "Kill the Dornishmen!" which triggered an enthusiastic response from the Knights of the Reach, and only then did Samwell wake up.

"Kill the Dornish!" Samwell also shouted.

Now we can finally set off.

A group of lords and knights left the castle one after another and entered the military camp.

As the flags with different colors and patterns began to flutter and move, the army staying outside Highgarden City was like a giant beast that had just woken up from its slumber, slowly moving its bloated body and starting to move eastward.

While commanding his own army, Samwell secretly observed the riverbank army.

He made a rough estimate and found that the number of troops dispatched by Hewan this time was around 40,000. If the civilians responsible for logistics, horse herders, vendors, etc. were also included, the total number was estimated to be around 70,000 to 80,000.

This is already a quite large army, but for the Reach, which has a large population, it is not actually a large-scale mobilization at all.

Moreover, Samwell had already seen that the soldiers in front of him were mixed, and there were too many farmers who had just put down their hoes and practiced for a while before going into battle. This also caused the marching team to twist and turn, like a snake about to fall apart.

In fact, this is not a surprise.

After all, the cause of this war was to avenge Lord Jon Arryn, which had little to do with the Riverside nobles. Naturally, not many Riverside lords were willing to contribute all their elites.

If it weren't for Dorne's feud with the Reach, it is estimated that the Duke of Metz would not even be able to gather 40,000 troops this time.

Although the quality is not great, at least the quantity is here. Samwell has never seen an army of this size in his life.

As the army of more than 40,000 people marched, the flags covered the sun, the horses' hooves rumbled, and the earth trembled slightly. Anyone who is a member of the army can feel their own insignificance, as well as the panic and inability to control their own destiny.

Awe.

But this feeling will gradually subside as time goes by, and what comes up afterwards is the irritability caused by the long and boring trek.

Samwell heard more and more scoldings and scoldings, and more and more heads on the wooden poles on the roadside.

In order to maintain order, it is common for nobles to kill people.

The discipline of the army is maintained by such bloody and cruel methods.

Compassion does not control soldiers, this is actually what it means.

Facing an army of this size, once the leading generals are a little merciful and weak, the hearts of the people will become unstable, and even riots will begin.

I don’t know if he was infected by this emotion, but Samwell’s heart began to harden, and he became less and less patient with his soldiers who made mistakes. The minor problems that he usually only scolded may now become

A whip.

Fortunately, the army on Yingzui Island always pays attention to discipline, but it is not enough for Samwell to kill people to establish his authority.

After the army left Highgarden, they headed east along the Mander River. At the Cider Hall, they turned to the tributary of the Boating River. On the way, they also passed the place where Lord Randyll Tarly defeated Robert Baratheon - Cen.

tree beach.

After Samwell and his younger brother Dickon briefly paid homage to their father's famous old battlefield, they continued eastward with the army and walked through the undulating mountains for more than half a month before finally arriving at the Iron Throne.

Designated rally point——

Summer Hall.

Summer Hall is located in the Reach, at the junction of the Stormlands and Dorne. It was the summer residence of the former royal family, the Targaryen family.

More than a hundred years ago, Daeron II Targaryen married his sister to the Prince of Dorne, and finally completed the unification of the Seven Kingdoms through marriage. Summer Hall was built to commemorate this great achievement.

It is located among the high mountains and looks more like a palace than a castle. Unfortunately, a fire more than thirty years ago turned it into ruins.

This is the famous "Tragedy of Summer Hall".

The incident happened at the end of the reign of Aegon V Targaryen. At that time, the dragons of the Targaryen family had long since died, and the eggs left behind were all turned into solid stones and could not be hatched. In order to hatch the dragons, Aegon V

After many attempts, it was said that a solution was found in an ancient scroll from Asshai——

Fire festival.

So, the king came to the Summer Hall, prepared seven dragon eggs and [Wildfire], and decided to bring the dragon back to the world while celebrating the birth of his first great-grandson.

However, the fire sacrifice did not bring about the dragon, but only destruction.

The terrible [wildfire] got out of control and spread, burning down the entire Summer Hall. It also devoured the lives of many princes and nobles, including the king and his eldest son. Only a few people survived.

But it was in this fire that the granddaughter of Aegon V gave birth to the prince who later triggered the Reaver War - Rhaegar Targaryen.

Prince Rhaegar, who was born in the "Tragedy of Summer Hall", could not escape the shadow of the fire for the rest of his life. Therefore, he also did a series of things that were unreasonable to outsiders, which even led to Tanger's death.

The fall of the Lean Dynasty.

It can be said that the cause and effect of the Snatchers' War has actually been laid in the tragedy of Summer Hall.

The Targaryens are actually not native Westeros nobles, but come from the Essos continent on the other side of the Narrow Sea, a place called the Valyrian Peninsula.

There are forty dragon king families on the Valyrian Peninsula. They are extremely wealthy, have noble blood, master witchcraft, and can control dragons. They are invincible and have established a huge empire. Targaryen was once one of these dragon king families.

However, a doomsday catastrophe destroyed the Valyrian Peninsula and caused the dragon empire to collapse.

Among the forty dragon king families, only the Targaryen family learned of the disaster from the prophecy and escaped before the catastrophe came.

They came to Dragonstone Island, and after dormant for several centuries, they took the three grown dragons to conquer the continent of Westeros and established the Targaryen dynasty.

But it succeeded as predicted, and failed as predicted.

As the next apocalypse approaches, members of House Targaryen are beginning to be troubled by new prophecies.

Many Targaryens became paranoid and even crazy as a result.

It is said that Aegon V also learned something from the prophecy and became obsessed with hatching dragons. He believed that only dragons could prevent the coming doomsday.

Similarly, Prince Rhaegar also received some revelations, believing that one of his heirs was about to give birth to the prophesied prince, but "the dragon has three heads"——

The sigil of House Targaryen is a three-headed dragon.

Back then, "Conqueror" Aegon Targaryen also had three dragons, and he and his two sisters happened to be able to control one each.

But Prince Rhaegar's wife, Princess Elia from Dorne, lost her fertility after giving birth to two children.

This made Prince Rhaegar start to panic. He felt that he must give birth to a third child in order to fulfill the prophecy of "the dragon has three heads" and to prevent the end of the world.

So, he found Lyanna Stark from Winterfell and tried to unite the fire dragon and the ice wolf to give birth to a third son, completely ignoring that the other party was already engaged.

This prince who wanted to save the world may not have thought that what he did would actually lead to the destruction of the Targaryen dynasty.

Samwell looked at the ruins of the palace in the distance, his mind wandering.

Of course, he did not come here to remember the madmen of the Targaryen family, but to think about the seven that might be buried under the ruins of Summer Hall——

Dragon eggs.
Chapter completed!