Game of Thrones: Roar of the Dragon

Chapter 158: Encounter at Kalin Bay, Decision

Moat Cailin is an abandoned castle at the northern end of the Neck, a huge swamp, and it was also an ancient stronghold of the ancestors.

It is a natural choke point that has protected the North from invasions from the South for thousands of years.

This is the territory of the North and naturally falls under the jurisdiction of the Stark family, but no one has lived here for centuries.

Until recently, the Duke of Creggan issued a conscription order.

Lord Reed, who was stationed at Greywater Watch, led his troops northward. After three or four days of forced march, they arrived at Bay of Cailin just in time to rest.

Moat Cailin was once a magnificent fortress, with twenty towers and a wooden keep and basalt walls as tall as Winterfell.

But after being washed away by the power of time, the old city wall has completely disappeared, leaving only large pieces of black basalt scattered around, half of which has sunk into the ground where the retaining wall once stood.

The wooden fort had rotted and eaten away thousands of years ago, and only three of the twenty towers remained, covered in green moss and white ghost grass.

However, if a war really breaks out, the strategic location of the three remaining towers in Bay Kalin is quite important.

To capture one of the towers, the enemy troops had to wade through waist-deep black mud.
Cross the moat where a large number of lizard lions live, and then climb the slippery mossy city wall.

Normally, only a few hundred archers are needed on these three towers. Almost no army can brave the rain of arrows from the archers on the other two towers and forcibly climb the towers.

However, this only applies to going from south to north.

Since it was originally built to defend against attacks from the south, its north and west sides, which border the Red Wave River, are very vulnerable.

The Gate Tower is one of three towers remaining in Moat Cailin.

It is the only tower that looks relatively intact at present, and there are even several feet high walls on both sides.

Therefore, it was natural for Earl Reed, who commanded nearly a thousand Greywater Watch soldiers, to occupy it as his temporary residence.

After sending people to clean up the tower, Earl Reed took his family members and middle and high-level generals to rest here.

In addition to the personal guards and two hundred elite troops stationed here, the remaining seven hundred people camped around the other two broken towers to rest.

As night falls, the Red Wave River is located ten kilometers northwest of Kalin Bay.

At this moment, a long dragon of lights was moving quickly across the Relang River. It was not until the row of lights approached the shore that it could be seen clearly.

It turned out that these were hundreds of Ironborn longships flying squid flags. They were the famous Iron Fleet.

If the Heat Wave River was not so wide, there would probably be more Ironborn longships coming.

"Lord Dalton, why do we have to travel day and night in such a hurry to get from Haijiang City to Kalin Bay?
Anyway, the Bay of Cailin has been unguarded for hundreds of years, with only a few broken towers.

Just sail over slowly and occupy it for a few days, and then deal with that kid from the Tully family casually!

Brothers, you guys haven't even tried the girls in Haijiang City to see if they're hot enough!"

Veron Greyjoy complained to Dalton Greyjoy as soon as he stepped off the ship.

"Elmon Tully specifically told us to sail slowly to Moat Cailin. He must have had some purpose.

So I decided to travel day and night and go and see what’s so special about this place.”

Hearing this, the fully armed Dalton glanced at his brother and replied in a deep voice.

"Yes, leave two hundred brothers to watch over our longship, and the remaining three thousand one hundred brothers will follow us!"

As Velon shouted orders, except for the two hundred ironmen who stayed behind to guard the longship, the rest of the ironmen followed the Dalton brothers with torches towards Moat Cailin.

This group of more than 3,000 Iron Men formed a huge group, and there was no formation at all during the march.

The Dalton brothers took it for granted and did not scold or command these Iron Men.

In this way, this huge moving fireball, which was particularly obvious from a distance, arrived near Kalin Bay more than two hours later.

It was late at night, and most of the Greywater Watch soldiers stationed in Bay Cailin had fallen asleep.

So there wasn't much light except for the occasional campfire.

The Ironborn who were at the front quickly reported this intelligence to the Dalton brothers.

They thought that they were just some merchant caravans traveling north and south, and they could just rob and kill them.

If there really were troops stationed here, they would have discovered them long ago, blown the horns, and prepared for battle.

Just as the Dalton brothers thought, the archer sentries on the three towers had already discovered this huge moving fireball composed of more than three thousand torches.

He reported this information to Earl Reed, who waved his hand nonchalantly after hearing the news.
Just tell your soldiers to wait for the other party to come over before making contact.

The only troops that could come from the west of Bay Cailin were those from Flint's Finger and Barrowton.

If it really was an enemy, why would they come here with torches in such a swagger? Wouldn't it be better to attack from the bottom of the world?

Come to think of it, both parties actually have the same mentality.

To be honest, if Dalton had really followed Elmon Tully's instructions and sailed slowly.

The timing should be just right, with Lord Reed leading his army north, and the Ironborn army being able to occupy Moat Cailin without losing a single soldier.

But due to many reasons and changes, this magical encounter in Bay Cailin occurred.

……

The Iron Men army continued to march for more than ten minutes, and the Iron Men in the front with torches had come into visual distance.

They were stunned when they saw hundreds of soldiers lying or sitting around the three seats, and a large number of black crocodile flags fluttering in the night wind.

The Gray Water Watch soldiers on night duty around the tower and the archer sentries on the top of the tower had the same expression.

The first to react were the archer sentinels of the Reed family.

shhhhhh!
More than a dozen arrows suddenly shot from the tops of the three towers towards the densely packed Iron Men army.

In an instant, more than a dozen Iron Men who were huddled together in no formation were shot down.

Woo! ! !
A rapid horn sounded, instantly breaking the peaceful night in Bay Cailin.

shhhhhh!
The Greywater soldiers who live in the Neck Marsh are called Marshmen by the Seven Kingdoms.

Most of them are hunters who are proficient in bows and arrows, and they also coat their arrows with poison.

The Gray Water King soldiers, awakened by the horn, immediately picked up the bows and arrows beside them and shot at the unsuspecting Iron Man army in front of them.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!

Find cover, hide in cover first!"

Although land warfare is not the Ironborn's strong point, Dalton has extremely rich combat and command experience.

Without even waiting for the Iron Men in front to report the situation, he immediately ordered all his own Iron Men to hide.

After leaving behind one or two hundred corpses, the Ironborn army hid in the woods around the three towers.

After entering combat mode, Dalton immediately started thinking about how to fight.

The weapons of these more than 3,000 Iron Men were varied. Some of them carried bows and arrows and held daggers in their hands, while others used various long swords and daggers.

Most Ironborn used short-handled axes. The handle of this axe was about one meter long, which was easy to hold and powerful enough to chop.

In addition, a hook was installed on the back of the axe handle, which was originally used to hook the side of the ship to climb or hook the enemy to attack.

But they didn't carry shields. After all, the brave Iron Men always boarded and attacked in naval battles.

So there was only one way left for Dalton, and that was to rely on numbers to force his way through.

Fortunately, the other party's vigilance was not high, allowing them to walk near the three towers.

At this distance, the enemy can only fire two rounds of arrows at most, and the Iron Men can then rush to the bottom of the three towers.

As long as they can fight in close combat, Dalton is very confident in the fighting ability of his brothers.

He acted immediately. After making the battle plan in his head, he quickly assigned attack targets and corresponding commanders.

As the king of the Ironborn, Dalton naturally led a thousand Ironborn to attack the city gate tower, which was in good condition and had the strongest defense.

His younger brother Velen led a thousand ironmen to attack the Forest Children Tower, which looked tall, thin and pointed, with half of its spire missing.

The last capable subordinate, Bob Pike, led the remaining one thousand Ironborn to attack the already tilted Drunken Tower.

When Dalton ordered his men to blow the attack horn, the three Ironborn armies attacked the three towers almost at the same time.

shhhhhh!
There were now hundreds of Greywater Watch soldiers in the three towers of Moat Cailin, armed with bows and arrows, waiting for them with drawn strings.

When Dalton's three teams of Iron Men rushed out from the forest where they had been hiding, there was a wave of free shooting.

The arrows shot by the archers on the tower drew beautiful parabolas and landed among the charging Ironmen army.

The other Gray Water Watch soldiers at the bottom of the city wall simply shot their arrows in the usual way, which caused more damage.

Attacked from two directions at the same time, the three Iron Men armies that were charging forward suffered heavy casualties.

Ah!
Except for the Dalton brothers and important officers who wore double armor, all other Ironmen were wearing thin tight leather armor.

This leather armor makes the Ironborn very flexible, but it can only weaken the power of swords and knives, and cannot block the penetrating power of sharp arrows.

An unlucky Iron Man next to Dalton was hit in the eye by an arrow. The sharp arrow pierced through the back of his head with blood, and he fell to the ground without a sound.

Another Ironborn was shot in the chest by an arrow, the sharp arrow piercing directly through his leather armor and his body.

The Iron Man fell to the ground, spitting blood and screaming, while grabbing Dalton's calf, trying to ask him to save him.

Tear!

The Nighthawk in Dalton's hand suddenly slashed across the throat of the Iron Man and directly chopped off his head.

“The dead never die!
While they are restringing their bows, brothers, rush over!

The first person to climb the tower will be rewarded with fifty gold dragons, and you can choose any slaves or concubines you plundered in the North!"

After helping the suffering Ironborn to a quick death, Dalton loudly encouraged morale by offering a generous reward.

This trick is indeed very effective for these iron men who make a living by looting.

Go!

I saw the Iron Men with red eyes, shouting fearlessly, and rushing towards the three towers at an extremely fast speed.

shhhhhh!
There were more than six hundred archers in total near the three towers of Moat Cailin.

Because the cunning ironmen were scattered and used trees for cover, the two rounds of arrows they fired only caused more than 500 ironmen casualties, and the enemy had already approached the tower.

Before the Ironborn approached the tower, the other three hundred Greywater Watch soldiers who had been awakened had already entered the tower and were ready for battle.

They were seen holding sharp spears that shone with cold light, waiting with bated breath.

Bang!
When a muffled sound was heard outside the tower, the spearmen in the tower knew that the enemy was coming.

Bang bang bang!
Outside the tower, many Iron Men fell to the ground. The ground here was not only covered with slippery moss, but also with a lot of condensed dark ice.

After all, in such freezing weather as in the North, any dew would form invisible but extremely slippery dark ice.

"prick!"

A commander in the tower watched an Ironman climb up from the ground with the help of the wall and immediately shouted.

Pfft!

Hundreds of sharp spears flashing with cold light stabbed out rapidly from the round holes in the already ruined tower.

An unlucky Iron Man had his eyes pierced out by a spear in an instant, with the entire spear tip piercing into his head.

Moreover, he did not fall to the ground, but was hanging limply on the spear.

"receive!"

Following the second order from the commander in the tower, the forest of long spears that had killed at least dozens of Iron Men were immediately and slowly retracted through the holes.

Bang bang bang!
After the spears were pulled out, the bodies of the Ironmen hanging on the spears fell to the ground one after another, and a large amount of blood slowly seeped out from under the bodies.

Now these three towers are like three hedgehogs that can retract and extend their sharp spines at will, and will cause great harm to anyone who dares to offend them.

"Humph, what a bunch of cowards.

Let the brothers with bows and arrows come over and shoot arrows into these holes for me.

Then the other brothers were ready to follow me and rush in together!"

Dalton curled his lips in disdain at the Greywater soldiers who were hiding in the tower and defending themselves with spears, then gave his orders loudly.

shhhhhh!
The Ironborn archers who came following the order took advantage of the time when the spears were retracted and accurately shot inside through the large and small holes in the wall.

Ah!
Even though many arrows were blocked by the spears blocking the entrance of the hole, there were always two or three that passed through the round holes and shot into the tower, penetrating into the flesh and blood of the spearmen inside.

One of the spearmen was shot in the head and fell straight down, while the other two were shot in the body and fell to the ground screaming.

"Damn it, give these two brothers first aid, and send three more brothers to fill in the gaps!"

Seeing that there was a gap in the spear formation in the tower, the commander immediately ordered the rescue and filling of the position.

The Gray Water Watch soldier who was on standby stepped forward, dragged the two people and a corpse to the corner of the tower, and then began to provide first aid.

The other three stepped forward to fill the vacancies.

At present, the three towers in Bay Kalin can still be defended.

But in terms of numbers, the Greywater Watch soldiers are far fewer than the Ironborn army, and they can't afford to waste time!
At the same time, Jacaerys, far away in Essos, received urgent intelligence from King's Landing.

Only now did he learn that a rebellion had broken out again in the Riverlands of the Seven Kingdoms, and that the army of the wights had somehow been resurrected and were beginning to move south.

Benilla rode Moondance to the North alone, and there has been no news until now.

According to the intelligence here, the ground forces of Rees and Volantis in the disputed land have gathered together.

The remaining fleet of Braavos is also ready to move, and it seems that a big storm is brewing.

Now, Jacaerys faces a choice: return to Westeros or stay in Essos!
(End of this chapter)