After traveling north for more than ten days, I still see an endless, rolling sea of ​​sand in front of me.

It seems like it will never end.

"How far is it from the sky to the city?" Samwell asked Lucas Dane beside him while drinking bland oatmeal.

"At our current pace, it will take about three days."

"Three days..." Samwell touched the beard stubble growing on his chin.

"Brother!" At this time, Dickon Tully came over happily with a bow and arrow, "We shot a few stupid birds, do you want some barbecue for breakfast?"

"Okay." Samwell nodded, somewhat envious of his younger brother's strong energy.

After staying in the sea of ​​sand for such a long time, he felt like he was almost depressed.

Fortunately, his brother's roasted stupid bird tasted good, which lifted Samwell's spirit a little.

After breakfast, everyone got on their horses and continued northward.

Not far away, the Sentinel Rider galloped back to report that the flag of the Royce family had been spotted ahead.

Encountered friendly forces?

Or it could be a cunning Dornishman counterfeit.

Samwell was secretly vigilant, fearing that he would encounter another incident like the last time, so he sent several valley cavalry to confirm.

At the same time, release the falcon and follow and observe.

It wasn't until he confirmed that the cavalry team on the other side was really the Royce family's cavalry that Samwell lowered his guard and led his army towards them.

"Lord Caesar."

"Lord John."

We haven't seen him for a long time. Count Yohn is still wearing the simple and mysterious bronze armor, and his spirit is still strong. It seems that such a long march has no impact on him at all. It is difficult to imagine that this man is over fifty years old.

"I heard that you actually captured Sandstone City. It's unbelievable!" Count Yohn's voice was loud.

Samwell laughed loudly: "There is no way, someone sent it to my arms, I have to take it."

Earl Yohn's white eyebrows raised slightly: "Which kind person helped you so much?"

Samwell pointed to the illegitimate daughter tied on the horse: "Of course it's the kind Miss Obaya Sand."

Obaya turned red with anger and stared at Samwell with hatred.

"Oba Ya Sand?" Count Yohn looked at the illegitimate daughter on the horse, and after thinking for a moment, he suddenly said, "The eldest daughter of the Red Viper?"

"That's right."

Count Yohn laughed loudly: "It seems to be a good story. Let's go, Lord Caesar, let's talk while we walk."

Samwell rode with him and briefly recounted his previous battle experiences, omitting some things that were inconvenient to reveal.

While telling the story, Samwell also noticed that the cavalry squad led by Earl Yohn had basically no losses. It seemed that this man was really a dogfighter, unlike himself, who said he was a dogfighter, but ended up seeing the Kogel family's treasury.

I can't help but be reckless.

"He is indeed the son of Randyll Tarly." Earl Yohn said with emotion. "We were able to capture Sandstone City with two hundred cavalry. Although we cannot capture it, it can still be regarded as a classic battle in Westeros."

"You're flattered." Samwell said modestly, then asked, "How is the current situation in Tianji City?"

"There is still fierce fighting. However, we are in the south of Tianji City and cannot see the situation in the north. We can only hear the shouts of killing that started more than half a month ago and have not stopped yet."

"More than half a month? How come it only takes so long?" Samwell frowned.

After detaching his troops from Blackport City, he drifted on the sea for nearly a month before arriving at Starfall City. He then walked out of the Dane family's territory for a few days, stayed in the border guard tower for nine days, and then followed him in the sand sea.

The Dornish people played hide-and-seek for more than half a month. Then they met Obaya and planned to capture Sandstone City... In short, almost three months have passed. Why did the Iron Throne's first army just attack?

More than half a month of Tianji City?

What were they doing before?

Two months on the road?

Or did he wait for two months under Tianji City and see that the city wall did not collapse before he raised troops to attack?

Earl Yohn also saw Samwell's doubts, shrugged and said:

"Actually, I was also very curious about the situation in Tianji City, so when there was no movement before, I didn't dare to act rashly. I kept spinning in circles in the sea of ​​sand, avoiding the tracking of the Dornish people."

Good guy, it turns out that you have been playing hide and seek for more than two months. No wonder your men suffered no losses.

"What are your plans now?" Samwell asked.

"We have tracked a food transport team from Hongqiu City to Tianji City, and we are about to take action. You just happened to be here, so let's go together."

"Okay." Naturally, Samwell would not refuse.

——————————

The offensive and defensive battle for Tianji City is at its most intense moment.

As the western gateway of Dorne, Tianji City is now home to half of Dorne's nobles, soldiers and supplies, as well as Dorne's most capable general - Prince Oberyn of the "Red Viper".

Needless to say, this man's fighting style is fierce. Dorne has always had no shortage of brave soldiers.

On the other side, under the strict orders and urging of King Joffrey, the Iron Throne's army launched an attack like crazy.

In this way, one can imagine the brutality of the attack and defense of Tianji City.

The city walls high up in the mountains were covered with soldiers like ants, and their cries of killing were so deafening that they could be heard miles away.

Countless arrows, stones, and boiling oil kept falling from the top of the city, causing large areas of destruction.

Twenty days, twenty bloody days repeated endlessly.

The offensive and defensive sides worked together to turn Tianji City into a huge flesh and blood mill.

Blood flowed down the city wall, mottled and ferocious, making the tall Tianji City look like a restricted horror oil painting.

The rock and soil under the city wall have become soft and muddy from drinking blood, and the red mountains have become even redder.

Various grotesque corpses were spread out under the wall, like a messy slaughterhouse.

Although blazing fires are lit outside the city every evening to burn corpses, it still cannot prevent more corpses from piling up.

Whenever a corpse is burned, an unspeakable burning smell fills the air, which can make any normal person completely lose their appetite.

Queen Cersei couldn't bear the smell and retreated ten miles away.

The originally ambitious young king lost the arrogance and confidence he had at the beginning after witnessing these days of siege battles.

This kind of primitive and bloody siege battle, without a big heart, would be difficult to persevere even if you just watch.

However, the king's patience was also exhausted in this battle that seemed to never end - even though he didn't have much patience in the first place.

The young king who had never had war experience did not understand why it was so difficult to conquer a city. Along the way, countless large and small towers, fortresses, and castles were so vulnerable to the attack of the army. Even Wang Zhong

The city was a little more difficult to defeat, but it only lasted ten days before the city was declared broken, and the battle was by no means as bloody and cruel as Tianji City.

So Joffrey didn't understand why Tianji City was so difficult to conquer.

This also makes his pre-war boasts look like a clown.

Anxiety, anger, and even fear were building up, and the king's temper became more and more irritable day by day.

In his opinion, it must be the soldiers who were cheating and refusing to go all out, which prevented him from realizing his dream of conquering Tianji City.

Almost every morning during the war meeting, Joffrey would scold the participating nobles bloody, and at the same time issue "ultimatums" again and again, requiring the army to break the city that day.

Of course, every "ultimatum" could not be met, and the king could only be incompetent and furious and curse.

Such unfulfilled threats only continued to undermine the king's prestige.

But today, I don’t know if someone reminded the king, or the king himself finally woke up, and he actually killed someone!

Boom——

When a bloody head was thrown in front of the nobles, most of them didn't react. They thought it was the head of a Dornish man.

But then, they recognized that it actually belonged to one of their own!

The second son of Earl Buckwell, Lord of Antler Castle, Sir Manwë!

"Your Majesty!" Duke Eddard could not hide the anger in his words, "What crime did Ser Manwë commit?"

Joffrey snorted: "He doesn't fight well."

"Sir Manwë has been fighting in the city for three consecutive days. Do you actually think that such a brave knight is 'ineffective in fighting'?"

"He comes back in a panic every time, doesn't he?"

These words completely angered the nobles in the camp. All kinds of questions, shouts, and noises came one after another, making it a mess.

"Shut up! Shut up!" King Joffrey obviously felt offended. "I am the king! I have the right to execute nobles who fail to fight! The same goes for you! If you still can't win the damn Tianji today,

Cheng, I will kill again!"

After saying that, Joffrey walked away.

He didn't notice at all that the nobles looked at his back, full of disdain, anger, and even hostility.
To be continued...