The Glory of the Seven Gods of Ice and Fire

Chapter 259 Prelude
On both sides of the Mander River, the armies of both sides were gradually gathering together, and countless eyes were focused on the riverbank. However, at this moment, neither Hugo nor Daenerys was in a hurry to start a battle.

Both sides have their own motives for making this choice. From Hugo's perspective, facing the giant dragon, what he needs most is to continue to move forward steadily in strategy. Absorbing reinforcements from all over the place, understanding the nearby terrain, and building stable fortifications are the most important things now; what's more, the longer the time drags on, the more dragon hunting weapons will be sent to the front line - for Hugo, the more these weapons, the better.

As for Daenerys, she is now waiting for more troops to arrive: Volantis is loading her eastern soldiers continuously. In the previous battles against the believers of the Seven Gods, the soldiers from the River Bay and Dorne, who are also believers of the Seven Gods, showed a lack of fighting spirit - after all, they are enemies of the Church and the God's Favored.

Therefore, after realizing the unreliability of the Western Allies, Daenerys needed more recognition of her Eastern base to stabilize the war situation: even if the armies of those allies and ministers did not defect, their choice to work without effort when facing Hugo would also have a very bad impact on the battle. Daenerys found that she had underestimated this opponent. The influence of the God-loved on the people of Westeros was no less than her own influence in the East. Fortunately, there was still plenty of time for her to make up for this mistake.

Similarly, in order to ensure the safety of the route, the Queen ordered her navy to begin besieging Lys, and the extra ships also cooperated with the Dornish to capture some islands in the Stepstones. Since the Iron Throne's navy suffered heavy losses in the previous civil war, the remaining fleet also focused on transportation on the Narrow Sea. There were only some sporadic conflicts between the navies of the two kingdoms during this period, and the Queen's goal was achieved: the Dornish occupied the southern part of the archipelago and began to monitor the sea to the north; some speculators in Lys launched a coup, overthrew the current Rogar family in power, and captured the daughter of the usurper. With the change of Lys, the last piece of the puzzle of the route was completed.

However, although everything went smoothly in the rear, there were some issues that needed to be decided by the queen, such as how to deal with Bella Baratheon, the daughter of the usurper. Facing the joint petition of officials and defectors, the queen thought about this issue seriously. She did not think that this prostitute had committed any excessive crime, nor did she think that she was a threat to herself. She did not want to cause panic among her allies and her future subjects by killing them at will, and follow the footsteps of Maegor and the Mad King. But at the same time, this former master could no longer stay in Lys.

what can we do about it?

When the queen was worried about this, Barristan relieved her worries. As Robert's former Kingsguard, he also knew about Robert's arrangements for his illegitimate children. He suggested that the queen pardon the princess and allow her to recruit people to go north to claim her own fiefdom. Although this move could only bring some trouble to Hugo, it was better than leaving a pawn idle.

In the end, Daenerys accepted the advice of the veteran and pardoned Baratheon. Bella was grateful for this. She soon left the islands with many local groups in Lys who were close to Baratheon. Her husband's family, Rogar, also accompanied them. In order to revive the family, old Rogar decisively abandoned his dignity and arranged for his son to marry Bella. However, seeing that those successful speculators were about to retaliate against them, they had no choice but to follow their daughter-in-law and leave Lys. This time they went north, and they didn't know if they could return to Lys.

In short, with the assistance of wise ministers, the queen stabilized her rear as peacefully as possible, neither causing panic in the people of Westeros nor making her own people satisfied.

Back to Kuqiao, although the two sides have entered a long confrontation, there are many contact battles and outpost battles. Some of these battles are for reconnaissance of the enemy, some are for occupying advantageous terrain, and others are for collecting supplies. In short, although the main forces of the two armies are confronting each other, it does not prevent small armies from fighting vigorously. The warriors on both sides regard these battles as opportunities to show off their martial arts and glory, and fight very hard.

On a tall wooden tower at the front of the military camp, Daenerys was watching a battle taking place in the distance.

The battle took place in a nearby ruined tower, which was once the property of a wealthy knight under the rule of Baron Bitterbridge. After the confrontation began, this tower became the focus of the outpost forces of both sides, and both sides wanted to take the tower. As a result, it has changed hands several times, and the corpses of warriors are scattered around. Finally, the tower was captured by the followers of the Seven Gods. They raised a banner that insulted the Targaryens-a dragon with its head cut off fluttering in the wind-this move angered Daenerys, who soon found an opportunity to drive the dragon to engulf the tower with flames, and the tower has since become a ruined tower.

However, despite this, it still has strategic value. Although it has become a ruined tower, the tower still functions and the competition surrounding it is still fierce.

The soldiers currently guarding the ruined tower were another group of Seven Gods followers with the seven-pointed star flag, and the ones attacking them were the Dothraki - of course, the centaurs now were different from those unarmored barbarians, they were all fully armed, and even the most embarrassed warriors wore leather armor. However, despite the heroic fighting of these grassland warriors and the fact that there were only a dozen Seven Gods followers left in the tower, they still couldn't take down the ruined tower - which made Daenerys a little annoyed and she wanted to ride a dragon to attack herself.

However, reason eventually calmed the queen down and she suppressed the idea. Rashly sending the dragon into the battlefield might not necessarily bring any benefits. She had previously ridden the dragon to burn down the tower, but the enemy still held on there.

Moreover, it is too easy to become a target when riding a dragon. Previously, when Daenerys rode a dragon to attack, the core still found a short gap. Even so, she still encountered the enemy's giant crossbow mounted on the carriage. Fortunately, Daenerys has always been careful. After the huge crossbow arrow was shot, she immediately controlled the dragon to turn and avoid the attack. Daenerys has seen the power of these giant crossbows. Viserion, who was shot, has not been able to fly again and can only crawl on the ground. She does not want another child to suffer such injuries.

Once a dragon loses its ability to fly, its combat effectiveness will plummet. Historical examples have proven this. There are too many examples of dragons that are unable to take off being besieged and killed by ordinary soldiers - even the poor people of King's Landing can smash the head of a dragon that is unable to take off.

Daenerys knew very well that although she had a huge army from all over the world, the most powerful weapons in her hands were still the three dragons. It was because of the existence of dragons that many people in Westeros stood on her side - but now, one dragon could no longer fly.

At times, Daenerys couldn't help but wonder whether it was right for her to march into Westeros so hastily. She originally thought that the various western forces would turn against each other and surrender with courtesy under the threat of the dragon, but the facts developed like this.

However, she is no longer the little girl who needs the protection of her brother and husband. She is the Khaleesi of the steppes, the Shatterer of Freedmen, who has put her feet on the necks of the nobles and made them surrender. She has also led the army north to fight against the legendary demon. The queen should act as a queen. Once she makes a decision, she should do her best to achieve this goal, instead of looking back and doubting whether it is right.

At the same time, while Daenerys was observing the battle situation on the front line, Hugo was doing similar work, but he was busier than the queen.

"Yes, it is at this time. The engineers must immediately transport the ballista to the designated location and inform the people of Qohor to arrive there first and drive the centaurs elsewhere."

After saying this, Hugo glanced at the battlefield in the distance, then turned around and took out another report to look at. It was a report on another conflict.

Thanks to the relatively complete military system, a large number of applications and reports on military movements were summarized here by Hu Ge, who needed to handle and coordinate them. Major matters and decisions involving the front and the rear had to be decided by Hu Ge himself.

For Hugo, since the confrontation with Daenerys, he has once again felt overwhelmed. The last time he was so busy was when the civil war broke out or when he was fighting against the White Walkers. Thinking carefully, the difficulty of these three battles seems to be comparable.

Hugo's current plan was simple. As the two armies piled up a large amount of supplies and manpower near Kuqiao, two military camps that were no less than many cities were also built. The future battlefield was already clear. Therefore, what he needed to do was to create local advantages little by little on this battlefield - in other words, to continuously increase the weight of victory through personal micro-manipulation, and finally achieve victory on the battlefield.

As for the giant dragons, Hugo is no longer so worried and afraid. The giant crossbow has proved its deterrent and lethality against giant dragons. More importantly, it is just one of the many dragon hunting weapons in Hugo's hands. As long as those big lizards dare to appear in the sky, they will be shot down soon - Hugo's subordinates also hold these three views.

Of course, Hugo would not let his guard down. While creating an advantage on the battlefield, he was also constantly improving his dragon hunting weapons, such as installing them on carriages - although in most cases the carriages would be damaged because they could not bear the weight and recoil, but as long as some of them were successfully modified, it would be enough.

After recalling these situations, Hugo continued to devote his energy to affairs. Soon after, a group of Qohor cavalry arrived at the battlefield in the distance. The Dothraki had to flee in embarrassment after a battle. The seven-pointed star was still flying on the tower, watching for the arrival of reinforcements.

(End of this chapter)