The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Chapter 368: A Rare and Mighty General (Seeking Subscriptions)

(Special thanks to [This Fleeting Moment] for awarding the Helmsman title)

*

"Defense!" the general shouted.

Whoosh!

Lances lowered, round shields in hand, bodies hunched over the saddles, round shields covering their heads.

The round shields were too small, only able to protect the heads of the lancers.

The warhorses were exposed to the rain of arrows.

Behind the lancers were the horse archers.

Behind the horse archers, the heavy cavalry that kept pouring out reined in their horses and stopped.

The sound of thousands of arrows whistling down from the sky was unfamiliar to most of the horse archers and lancers.

Their sensitivity was very poor!

After seventeen years of peace in the Stormlands, the nobles, except for a small number of veterans, and the newly grown soldiers were on the battlefield fighting such a large battle for the first time.

They originally thought that wherever the iron cavalry went, the empty King's Landing would be within easy reach.

*

Swoosh!

A long arrow whistled down from the sky!

Pfft!

It hit a cavalryman's small round shield directly.

The cavalryman felt a sharp pain in his arm.

The iron arrowhead, fired from above, pierced through his small round shield, pinning his left arm to the shield.

The young cavalryman was shocked and screamed.

This was the first time he had encountered such a real battlefield situation.

He had practiced martial arts for many years and was a professional warrior, but this was his first time on a real battlefield.

Amidst the cavalryman's screams, pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft!

Almost simultaneously, a rain of arrows fell from all directions.

An arrow hit his horse's rump, and another hit his horse's head. The warhorse jumped violently, as if stepping on a red-hot iron.

The cavalryman fell from his horse, dizzy. He had just half-risen when...

Pfft pfft pfft!

Several more long arrows fell, hitting the top of his head, shoulders, and back.

Armor-piercing arrows pierced through his helmet and stuck into his head. Although not deep, it had already scared him out of his wits.

Pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft!

Arrows rained down in front of and behind him.

His comrades screamed, and the warhorses were hit by arrows, galloping wildly.

Suddenly, everything went dark. A frightened warhorse charged towards the soldier, its hooves raised, and came down, hitting the soldier's calf.

A earth-shattering scream erupted, and the warhorse collapsed with a whimper, crushing half of the soldier's body and breaking both of his legs.

In the instant of passing out, the soldier heard someone shouting in the river: "Ready! Release!" The voice was almost close at hand.

Then, in the last moment of losing consciousness, he heard another sharp whistling sound of a weapon cutting through the air, approaching from afar.

*

On the river beach, Stannis' lancers were in chaos. Countless cavalrymen and warhorses were wounded, turning around to flee. The horse archers behind them had not yet retaliated, and their formation was broken.

The horse archers could not stop the rout of the lancers at close range.

Among the light cavalry, the horse archers had the weakest defense. They excelled at long-range attacks, and other types of troops had to protect their formation.

*

Before the Mountain could charge to the river crossing, Stannis' lancers were in chaos and charged into the horse archers who had not yet formed a formation.

Another volley covered the area.

One by one, the already exhausted and panicked lancer formations completely collapsed.

Indiscriminate coverage.

The small round shields became useless props that could only protect the head but not the tail in the rain of arrows.

The longbow's hard arrows, fired from above, had unstoppable power due to acceleration. The small round shields were pierced.

Soldiers and warhorses were hit by arrows and fell.

"Kill Stannis!" the Mountain shouted!

"Kill Stannis!" the soldiers around him shouted to cheer him on.

On the King's ship, the Mountain's team had only a few dozen people, but they shouted with the momentum of thousands of troops.

The King's ship was the flagship, and with a bang, the hull crashed into the dock at the crossing.

The Mountain was the first to jump down.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Arrows shot towards him.

Not a coordinated volley, but the arrows of a few centurions.

The Mountain raised his huge shield, and the arrows struck the shield one by one, unable to penetrate its defense.

At the arm position, all the shields of the Westerlanders were protected by iron skin, and it was a double layer of iron skin in the front and back.

In order to defend against longbow hard arrows piercing through the shield and pinning the arm fixed on the shield buckle, the iron skin reinforcement of the shield was invented by the Mountain and further promoted and improved by Duke Tywin.

The Mountain kept moving forward.

"Kill Stannis!" the Mountain shouted. His voice was like thunder, and his momentum was like a galloping horse, unstoppable!

But someone else acted faster than him.

Anguy stood on the dock, drew his bow, and shot. Swoosh, the first arrow shot down the nearest centurion; swoosh, the second arrow shot down a general who was directing the re-establishment of the formation; swoosh, the third arrow shot down a knight who was shouting and charging over.

The knight crashed down from his horse. The warhorse almost charged in front of the Mountain, but the Mountain roared, and the horse, startled, charged out diagonally and galloped upstream along the river.

The Mountain charged in the front, immediately attracting firepower. Three centurions shouted and charged towards the Mountain together.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Three consecutive arrows, and the three centurions crashed down from their horses one by one.

The Mountain was prepared to kill the three centurions, but he failed again. This made him feel stifled!

"Anguy!" the Mountain shouted, charging towards a team of lancers who were reining in their horses and fleeing.

"Lord, it wasn't me, it was Ser Balon Swann of the Kingsguard!" Anguy shouted.

Balon Swann, a Kingsguard knight, wearing a white robe, was a marksman, but he lost to Anguy in an archery competition. He had been brooding over it ever since.

Today, the opportunity was rare. He saw Anguy jump down the dock and shoot down several centurions and generals in a row, with every arrow hitting its mark. His competitive spirit burned up, so he snatched a bow and arrow from the naval warriors on the ship, jumped down the dock, and shot the three knights charging towards the Mountain one by one!

Archery was advantageous for long-range attacks!

The Mountain and his party had only a hundred people. Many generals and centurions saw this when they charged onto the dock at the river crossing, thinking they had a chance to take advantage of the situation. At least two generals and five centurions thought they could encircle this small team.

Anguy and Balon, one on the left and one on the right, shot every arrow accurately, killing these generals and centurions one by one.

The morale of the enemy was severely挫伤!

*

The Mountain crashed into the enemy's lancer formation, swinging his shield horizontally, knocking down a warhorse, and the cavalryman on the horse flew into the air.

With just one shield strike, he was unstoppable. The lancer team was frightened by the Mountain's might and collapsed.

The Mountain's ice greatsword rose, and the Valyrian steel sword cut through lances and armor like cutting cheese with his strength. With a flash of cold light, the lances broke one after another. He turned his wrist and swept his longsword horizontally, cutting both men and horses in half.

Wherever the Mountain went, like a shark surfing the waves, the enemy's formation collapsed amidst the smell of blood and bloody limbs.

No one could withstand the power of his sword!

Valyrian steel swords were already extremely rare, and the Ice Sword had never been used to kill enemies on the battlefield because it was too heavy and long.

However, the Ice Sword in the Mountain's hands was the best weapon to kill enemies on the battlefield. It chopped people like slicing human-shaped radishes, cutting both men and horses in two as if cutting cheese.

Among the Seven Kingdoms, no one's two-handed sword could compare to the Mountain's Ice Sword except for the Mountain himself.

Moreover, no one had the strength to withstand the Mountain's attack!

As if in the blink of an eye, the Mountain broke through three formations in a row, broke through the lancer formation, and killed into the horse archer formation.

It was purely a plate of cucumbers for the horse archers to fight the Mountain in close combat. The Mountain could cut them however he wanted.

The horse archer line collapsed with a bang and was quickly penetrated by the Mountain alone. Warhorses and soldiers died under the Ice Sword one after another.

*

A white cloak charged out diagonally from the Mountain's left, confronting a lancer team, vertically chopping with a longsword, cutting off a lancer's arm. He reached out and pulled the screaming cavalryman off his horse. Two lances were snatched from the side and stabbed at him, but the white cloak had already flipped onto the horse, and the lances missed. He twisted his body and slashed back with his longsword, cutting off two lances with two crisp sounds. The warhorses' heads intersected, and the longsword swept and chopped, extremely fiercely, splitting open the soldier's neck armor and cutting off the soldier's neck.

Another soldier was shocked and hurriedly reined in his horse to escape. The white-robed knight shouted and chased after him, slicing the knight's helmet in half with one sword, splitting his head open.

This man was extremely mighty, possessing immense strength. His armor made it seem like leather scraps under his longsword. His ferocious face was tightly covered by a famous dog-head helmet, looking like a demon from hell.

The lancers around him, who had intended to encircle this Kingsguard knight, shouted and fled.

This unstoppable Kingsguard knight was none other than the Hound, Sandor Clegane.

Wherever the white robe went, it was like a sharp blade cutting through waves, extremely brutal, and the enemies collapsed one after another.

*

The Burned Men's One-Eye Tym followed the Mountain and quickly snatched a warhorse. He always used the armor on his body to defend against non-vital injuries. While skillfully sliding away the enemy's attacks, the nail-studded hammer in his hand smashed into the enemy's head, one hit at a time, cleanly and neatly.

Any soldier who was hit by his hammer died on the spot.

Rorge was also a guy who liked to use nail-studded hammers. The two of them joined forces, snatched warhorses, and hammered their way through, and the enemies fell one after another.

The little beauty Qylla, with her seven demonic young sons, formed a small battle team by themselves, guarding the Mountain's right wing. With the help of her seven sons, who wielded swords with both hands, she had already cut off many people's ears as trophies.

The skinny man, Gonsal, was unwilling to charge at the front line. He followed behind everyone to finish off stragglers and wounded, whether they were people or horses. With one sword strike, it was either the neck or the eyes. He stabbed at the vitals with extremely fast movements, stabbing several times in the blink of an eye.

He relentlessly chased after a lone soldier who fled downstream along the river. Several lancers in the distance saw that there was only one of him and immediately came to encircle him.

Gonsal stuck his dagger into the horse's rump under the soldier's crotch. The warhorse was in extreme pain and darted out, instantly catching up with the soldier. He slashed fiercely with a sword, diagonally cutting into the soldier's neck. The soldier screamed and fell, and the empty warhorse with its saddle galloped away.

Gonsal killed the soldier before the lancers could encircle him.

*

Dunsan was skilled in swordsmanship. He, along with Ser Alyn and Ser Gerold, followed the Mountain. The three swords dealt with the enemies. Whether they were knights or soldiers, they were violently slashed down. The brothers behind them followed up and trampled on them with their hooves, turning people into bloody corpses.

The Mountain, Dunsan, Alyn, and Gerold charged hard all the way, unstoppable. Wherever they went, whether they were lancers, horse archers, or heavy cavalry, they collapsed.

The lancers fled, impacting the horse archers behind them; the horse archers collapsed, impacting the heavy cavalry behind them. The heavy cavalry had traveled a long distance and were more tired than the other cavalry when they arrived at the Blackwater Rush. Both men and horses were tired. This caused a crazy chain reaction. The heavy cavalry had no intention of fighting and turned their horses around, only caring about escaping into the forest.

Hooves clattered, and the sound of hooves was like thunder. Countless cavalrymen reined in their horses at the dock and fled madly into the forest.

The so-called defeat was like a landslide!

Stannis fled into the forest ahead of time under the protection of his guards.

The Mountain was too fierce, aiming at his banner and charging over. The generals and centurions stepped forward to block him, but no one could stop the Mountain's horizontally swinging greatsword. His shield smashed out, and the warhorses were also knocked down with a bang. No one could stop him. In an emergency, Stannis had to flee first.

The Mountain led his brothers to the edge of the Kingswood and stopped, no longer entering.

Inside the forest, he was huge, there were too many things blocking him, and the number of enemies was more than a hundred times theirs. They could hide and attack them behind any tree. Entering the forest would double the danger.

"Go back!" the Mountain shouted and reined his horse back.

In the Blackwater Rush, twenty-three warships were lined up, and none of the four thousand six hundred naval warriors had landed. They were drawing their bows and arrows on the deck, waiting in full battle array. As long as the enemy dared to come out of the forest to ambush them, a rain of arrows would cover them.

"Who's injured?" the Mountain shouted.

The commander of the garrison, Joscelyn Bywater, was shot in the left shoulder and shot in the thigh. He laughed: "Lord, I have two badges of honor!"

"I have three!" Polliver Clegane said. He took off his helmet, and blood flowed from his head.

"What's going on?"

"I was fighting a knight for a warhorse. His short sword jammed my longsword on the outside, and I couldn't pull it back, so I had to hit his face hard with my helmet. I smashed the faceplate on his face into his face."

The brothers laughed.

"Has anyone died?" the Mountain shouted loudly.

"I almost died," Fat Zollo said. "My scimitar's armor-piercing ability is indeed very poor. I slashed several times but couldn't kill a knight, but when he slashed with his sword, it immediately pierced my armor."

The generals saw a sword wound on Zollo's chest.

"A sword pierced your chest, and you're not dead yet?" the Mountain said.

"Bronn!" Fat Zollo's Common Tongue of Westeros had a foreign accent. "Bronn cut off that knight's hand very timely!"

Bronn's helmet, armor, scabbard, hands, and horse were covered in blood. He didn't say a word, and his body still looked as full of tension as a leopard.

"Are you injured, Bronn?" the Mountain asked.

"It's all other people's blood!" Bronn said lightly.

Dozens of people were not killed, but most of them were injured. Bronn was one of the few who had no injuries at all.

"The blood on me is all my own," Big Head Chiswyck roared with laughter. "I charged right into a lancer squadron and took an arrow to the helmet. So I abandoned the enemy in front of me to hunt down a distant mounted archery centurion who shot me. The bastard hid in the middle of the mounted archer formation and kept firing arrows at me. I swore I'd kill him even if it meant my own death. I charged into the mounted archer camp, ignoring everyone else, and went straight for him. The guy was scared stiff. I chopped off his head and came back. I took a lot of arrows and lance thrusts. I'm the most wounded, I bet nobody can beat my injuries."

A lone rider charging into the enemy's layered phalanx and returning alive – such bravery earned the admiration of all the generals.

*

In the Kingswood, ten thousand pairs of eyes watched as the Mountain and his dozens of men calmly disembarked at the ferry landing, laughing as they jumped onto the King Robert's Hammer, their fighting spirit soaring as they sailed away.

Stannis was livid. He had relied on his swift horses to arrive at the Blackwater Rush early and establish a camp to intimidate the Lannisters.

He was indeed intimidated this time, but he was the one being intimidated.

Stannis recalled the priestess Melisandre in the Painted Table chamber on Dragonstone. Melisandre had hoped to accompany the army and contribute to the King's victory, but Stannis had refused her.

He believed that the Red God could be used for assassinations, but true warfare relied on troop strength and tactics, not religious faith.

*

Boom!

The drumbeat started softly, with only one war drum on the King Robert's Hammer.

Boom!

Then, a second war drum joined in.

Boom!

All twenty-three royal warships began to beat the drums of victory together.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The deafening drumbeats, with the force of an overwhelming avalanche, drowned out the rushing water of the Blackwater Rush.

Long live the Mountain! – Captain Archibald of the King Robert's Hammer shouted, drawing his sword!

It was a signal of fervent enthusiasm.

Immediately, on the warships, on the docks, on the walls, tens of thousands of soldiers shouted in unison, matching the drumbeats, their momentum magnificent and earth-shattering.

Long live the Mountain!

*

In the Kingswood, Stannis and his generals remained silent, their faces grim, as if each of them had been punched in the face.

Everyone understood that no one could stand against the Mountain's might. Especially, that greatsword, it was too sharp, slicing through iron like butter!

*

On the docks of the royal warship harbor, Tyrion witnessed this exhilarating raid. Beside him, King Joffrey was beaming, drawing his sword and slashing the air with excitement.

Tyrion learned a lesson from today's battle: soldiers can be recruited, but mighty generals are hard to find!

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