Chapter 261
2021-01-06
Chapter 261 The Swamp of BottleneckAccording to legend, in the Dawn Age, a group of humans "First Men "Crossing the Dorne Arm of the Land Bridge, armed with bronze weapons, leather armor and horses, began the invasion of Westeros. The aboriginal Children of the Forest were unable to stop the human attack, and they retreated steadily. They were driven to the north of the continent. Seeing that their death was imminent, they finally jumped over the wall and used Magic to summon a monstrous flood, which not only destroyed the Dorne arm of the land bridge, but also divided the land of Westeros into two. To stop the pace of human migration and invasion from the south to the north.
When the flood receded, the Dorne Arm became a stepstone archipelago, and the washed land in the middle of the continent formed "The Neck", which means "bottleneck's swamp".
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Myths are myths after all, but it is an indisputable fact that The Neck divides the Westeros continent into South and North. This marsh, quagmire and lake site is full of sinkholes, quicksand and, worst of all, some areas are covered with verdant green grass or aquatic plants - which can easily be seen as a firm foothold if you are not vigilant , but as long as the foot steps on it, the whole person will immediately fall into the water.
Merely slipping is not a problem. The countless poison insects, poisonous snakes, poisonous flowers, and dagger-like giant lizards bred in water pools and wet mud are the biggest adventurers who don't walk on the road. threaten.
If The Neck is the natural danger owned by the North people, then Moat Cailin is the "Bloody Gate" guarding this natural danger.
Moat Cailin was once a huge fortress with twenty towers and a Black Tortoise rock city wall the same height as Winterfell, which has successfully eliminated the Andals' attack countless times, making the North it guards a There is only one piece of land on the Westeros continent that is still completely controlled by the First Men who believe in the Old Gods.
However, with the subsidence of the terrain and the passage of time, the city wall of Moat Cailin has almost completely collapsed, the wooden fort has long been rotten and decayed, and only three of the twenty towers remain. seat. From the outside, this "castle" simply doesn't even have the qualifications to be marked on the map, let alone any military defensive ability.
This is just a small fortress standing alone in the wilderness, giving anyone a small army can completely destroy it in one round of attack.
But Robb Stark was forcibly held up here for weeks by this little tattered fortress, for one simple reason: Moat Cailin wasn't standing in the wilderness as it was supposed to be, but was built in The Neck.
The only dry route through this vast wetland is the causeway, and Moat Cailin's broken tower blocks the road's northern exit like a cork on a bottle. The causeway is narrow, and the fortress is strategically placed so that any enemy must pass under it.
The army coming from the south and north wants to attack Moat Cailin, they must first consciously "drill into the bottle" and pass through the long "bottleneck" - the causeway, before they can reach the fortress, and they want to attack the three Any of the remaining towers would be exposed to the arrows of the other two towers, the damp stone walls covered with moss and the sticky white spiritual grass hanging down, extremely difficult to climb, the marsh around the causeway The ground is a natural moat, and it is impossible to stand on, let alone pass.
The above are just the advantages of Moat Cailin itself. What's more tricky is that the causeway itself is also part of the natural defense: it is purely artificial, and its width can only be used by two carriages, only for the army. Through, as for the operation of staying, stationing, or even setting up a large-scale attack, don't even think about it.
……
The nearly 20,000 North army who went north to return home had to be stationed in several dozen li south of Moat Cailin, and the few rare ones in The Neck were located on solid ground. In the village - this means: the troops on the offensive mission start from the barracks every day and have to travel a large section of the road to reach the foot of the target. And because of the narrow roads, even though they were sitting on a hundred times the enemy's strength, it was difficult for the North people to attack with more than 200 people at the same time.
Bloody Gate is sturdy and steep. It is located at the mouth of Vale of Arryn. There is a large plain outside the valley for the army to camp and set up. After breaking it, it will enter the long and narrow Vale of Arryn. As long as you are willing to "at all" costs”, can always be taken down; and Moat Cailin, although tattered and looks like it can be pushed down, makes the attacker unable to even fight the enemy desperately.
Due to the special geology, the causeway is sinking every moment under the marsh's soaking, which requires sand and stones to be brought in from it at regular intervals to raise it... Raid and occupy the Ironmen After arriving here, the unmaintained causeway has already become bumpy and impassable after several baptisms of rain, which is even worse for the attackers.
Under the command of King Robert, he enjoyed the reputation of breaking the Bloody Gate, and he was like a hot knife through butter in the battle against the Westerlands, and even the battle against the Reach land was unsuccessful... When I got home, I was stopped outside the door. Unable to pass or fight, Robb Stark, who was so worn out, was forced to choose a detour strategy, splitting his troops to take the sea route and the trail in the marsh to the north of Moat Cailin, and removed the cork from the outside of the "bottle".
Due to the limited transportation capacity of Seagull Town and the difficult and dangerous roads, the number of troops who bypassed Moat Cailin and arrived to the north was only a few hundred, but these hundreds of troops could be replenished in White Harbor and the surrounding villages, and soon Thousands of troops can be gathered... When the time comes and the main force led by Robb Stark will attack from the north and south, Moat Cailin is just around the corner.
After all, the door of your own house is impossible to block the owner's house for too long - especially when there are still people in the house. Even if the land-grant army with Igor was not there, the fortress would soon be taken.
...
But the rebellious Balon Greyjoy dies suddenly, and Euron Crow's Eye, his replacement, publicly declares his support for Stannis Baratheon; Disappearing, and the good news that the Umber family assisted the land-grant army to retake Deepwood Motte, this trip to the north to save the family suddenly became no longer the most urgent.
In addition, there is another important reason why Robb decided to allow Igor to try his strategy of persuading him to surrender: the brilliant record of repelling the Reach army led by Randyll Tarly in the Westerlands and King's Landing twice, so that the young Young Wolf's self-confidence was so inflated that when Kingswood was ordered to block Reach's reinforcements to Storm's End, he chose to abandon all flexible tactics and face toughness. In this battle, although the Northern Army held on to the line of defense with the fierce and unafraid of death of its soldiers and generals, it suffered more casualties than a series of operations in the Westerlands and the recapture of King's Landing combined.
Randyll Tarly used the skillful and impeccable platooning technique to cooperate with the various arms, fiercely slapped the young opponent and slapped Robb's "oneself invincible" illusion.
Fortunately, Stannis led the Wang army to take a detour and attack the Reach army from the side at an unexpected time and place. Fortunately, the unfavorable situation was reversed. A winning streak...but only Robb Stark oneself knows it: he made a cocky and misguided decision that left thousands of Northers who had already plundered from the Westerlands never get a chance to bring their spoils home.
This kind of self-blame made him never resolute in attacking Moat Cailin, and he decided to accept the so-called "land-grant army" in today's battle meeting despite all the arguments. In fact, everyone knows that it is the help of Night's Watch.
Failure lessons can help people grow up. Randyll Tarly's slap not only woke up Robb's dream of winning a general, but also made him sober and mature quickly. He suddenly realized that oneself is not only a leader The soldier is the leader of the Duke, who is the least populous in the entire North - Seven Kingdoms. Compared with the false name of "invincible", his more important mission is to protect the lives and property of his subordinates and his subjects.
With this realization, Robb Stark is now leading two hundred elite North soldiers, standing on the narrow causeway overlooking the Moat Cailin with the Kraken flag high, patiently waiting for Night's Watch's plan to succeed. Or fail - the reason why you don't bring more people is because "two hundred" is already the maximum number that can be supported by the attacking Moat Cailin, no matter how many more people will not help, it will easily block the narrow causeway and allow your own side Become a living target for the defenders.
Not far away, the Drunkard Tower is still leaning; the broken spire of the Children of the Forest tower is still piercing the sky like a lance; on the wide city gate tower, the pale faces of the Ironmen defenders Kong hid among the crenels and broken pheasants to snoop.
There are still three or four hours before it gets dark. If Igor's persuasion strategy does not work in the end, Robb will send a signal an hour later, ordering the White Harbor army north of Moat Cailin to launch a general attack, and cooperate with oneself north and south. Flanking, forcibly opening the "cork".
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(end of this chapter)