Chapter 262
2021-01-06
Chapter 262 "Convincing People with Reason" (Part 1)A squad of soldiers will be full of food and drink Asha brought her to the northernmost end of the causeway, and one opened the shackles for her, and the other handed back her weapon that belonged to her.
"quickly go and quickly return ." The leading officer dropped these words and took his subordinates back to the camp.
Asha didn't answer, she inserted the dagger into the jacket, pinned the hatchet to the shoulder strap, rubbed her wrists, moved her feet, and even jumped in place, trying to find her body. Unrestricted feeling.
Then, she looked behind her with complicated eyes—the combined barracks of two thousand Land Granters and hundreds of White Harbor soldiers was not terribly large, but it was a huge challenge to the sparsely populated Iron Islands. In other words, it is also a very impressive force.
That "army" from a land grant, led by a Night's Watch, is odd. Asha is 100% sure: most of the peasants have never received any training, just good physical strength developed in harsh living conditions, and some don't even know how to hold a weapon.
be that as it may, but overall they showed a high level of execution of tactics and command: whether it was besieging Deepwood Motte but leaving a gap to the south, or coming early the next morning Running to the beach to block oneself's retreat, and even after retaking the Deepwood Motte, the march was fast and not chaotic for several days, until the camping, guarding and patrolling after arriving at the destination. Or walk into the barracks to take a closer look, and outsiders will only think that this is an elite division.
This contrast and irrationality with Asha's experience confuses Kraken's daughter, who lacks military literacy.
...
Don't think about things that don't make sense, at least now that she has her weapons back and her freedom is briefly restored. If she had a choice, she would rather use a dagger to pierce the heart of the damned Night's Watch than to persuade him to surrender, but unfortunately the guy didn't take her to the end of the causeway in person; she also considered persuading the Ironmen in Moat Cailin to pay North broke out and fled back to the sea, but given the consequences of oneself's decision to abandon Deepwood Motte, plus the number and performance of the land-grant army behind him, oneself had no chance of success.
There was no other way, for the safety of the fifty three brothers, she could only humiliately do as the enemy said.
After warming up, she took her long legs and walked towards the small fortress to the south. In front of Asha is a short causeway to Moat Cailin, the fortress stuck in the bottleneck at the northernmost end of the wetlands, the marsh is dangerous to the south of it, and the north is gradually beginning to dry - in several It transitions from pools to wet mudflats within a distance of one hundred meters, and finally becomes solid ground after several hundred meters.
The air was damp and heavy, and while the threat of marsh to the north of Moat Cailin was reduced, the causeway was not bothered to be raised and maintained, and it was impossible to tell the difference between it and the surrounding mud without looking closely. Asha cautiously chose the road, stepping on the logs and planks laid by the North army when it went south a few months ago, towards the three towers.
She quickly approached the fortress, where the high walls of the ancient Moat Cailin rose thousands of years ago, now only scattered black Black Tortoise rocks remain. They were big enough to be pushed by a hundred men each, and some were so deep that they were barely visible in the muddy swamp; others were crumbling like Gods' abandoned building blocks, cracked and shattered and covered with moss.
Of the three remaining defensive towers of the Moat Cailin, one leans as if it could collapse at any moment; squeezed through a gap in the stone wall to the north of it. The only thing flying over the ruins of the old castle was the golden Kraken flag on a black background, which should have given her some consolation, but for some reason - it wasn't at all.
For a Warrior, the despair of "defeating" is more uncomfortable than death.
There are corpses on the road, when the Ironmen just landed on the Redang River and took Moat Cailin by surprise, the White Harbor count had sent troops to try to retake it, but at that time Victarion Greyjoy was leading a large number of Iron Fleet crew to sit here, the Manderly family's army Without any suspense, he dropped dozens of lives and returned without success. There were people and horses among the corpses. They were rotting and turning green, and the surface was covered with maggots. A little farther away from the causeway, two were already deep in the mud and only their faces and fingers were exposed. It is conceivable that some of them must have been completely destroyed. marsh engulfed. Thousands of years later, The Neck is probably the largest cemetery in the entire Westeros, and there is no tombstone.
After being captured by the Night's Watch, Yara Grejoy, who was approaching the tower, was quickly recognized by the guards on the guards.
"Stop!" someone shouted, "Did you bring the troops camped over there, why are you messing with the Manderly's?"
Asha became impatient. Hands on hips, raised his head and asked the questioner at the wall, "Since you recognized me, are you going to let me in, or just talk through the wall?"
The guard shut his mouth. , disappeared from the wall after hesitating for a while, the wall of Moat Cailin was silent for a moment, then the door suddenly opened, and the previous voice sounded again: "Come in!"
Asha confirmed the position of the dagger and walked into the door Inside.
......
The door slammed shut behind him, and behind the door was not the imaginary large number of Ironmen waiting, only the one who opened the door was alone. It was an ugly man, and Asha had a bit of an impression of him, but couldn't remember the name. He put down the crossbar, turned his head nervously to stare at the girl, squinted to check, his lips twisted suspiciously: "Now we can say, why are you here, did Victarion ask you to bring someone over to support us? Others What about the people? What happened to the army to the north?"
"Those were northerners, I beat them at Deepwood Motte and they were captured."
"Captured ?" The man opened his eyes wide, looked at the broken axe attached to Asha's shoulder strap, and stretched his hand to the hilt: "Then what are you doing here."
"Entrusted by the wolves, Come and negotiate." There was a strange rancid stench in the air, and the mouth burrowed into the lungs. Asha was a little impatient with the other party's constant inquiries: "Are you the commander here?"
"Me?" Asha's calm demeanor made the Ironmen hesitate, perhaps thinking of the legend about the woman in front of him, or perhaps thinking of the surnamed Fang Greyjoy, who took his hand from the hilt of his sword and looked more respectful. "I'm not, ma'am. The commander assigned by Commander Victarion is Ralph Kenin, and I'm just a gatekeeper."
Asha glanced at the rotting but empty one lying by the door. The cleaned body resisted the urge to ask about its identity, the status of the gatekeepers and the general situation in Moat Cailin, the status of the defenders obviously at a glance. The situation is not optimistic, I am afraid that even if the northerners don't fight, their oneself is about to collapse: "Take me to see the commander."
"Ralph Kenin died two days ago..."
Asha frowned: "How did he die?"
"He ate a marsh devil's arrow on the battlement, it was just a bruise, but...the gang of devils put poison on the arrow, Put oneself's shit and worse on it. We wash his wounds with boiling wine, but it's no good."
so that's how it is—marsh the devil is certainly not a real devil, It's just Ironmen's name for Crannogmen, Asha shrugged: "Then forget him, what about the deputy commander?"
"Usually in the city head or in the hall, people who don't sleep drink. Miss. If you want, I'll take you to find it." Asha's protagonist-like attitude made the other party lower his body, and the man thought about it, dropped the gate that was only guarded by him, and led Asha to the city gate tower.
The Blackstone lobby, with its high ceilings, is smoky despite being airy and spacious. The stone walls were dotted with huge patches of white moss, and only a piece of peat was burning low in the fireplace, blackened by the age-old fire. A large, centuries-old carved stone table occupies the main space of the hall.
Twenty or thirty Ironmen were drinking at the table, only a few of them watched the leader enter the door with indifferent and dull eyes, and no one even questioned why he left the gate that was supposed to be guarded and deserted...until Asha Stepping in the door, their eyes lit up.
...
"Yara Grejoy!" The leader stood up: "Where are you Uncle people, and Iron Fleet? Are you here to pick us up?"
...
"Yara Grejoy!" p>
"If you hadn't killed Maester and his Raven, you would have heard the news: my long-lost Uncle Euron Greyjoy has suddenly returned to the Iron Islands and won the Kingsmoot. Now, Victarion has given the new King of the Iron Islands ordered to go south to the Reach coast to attack the Rose family, and 'support' Stannis."
"What?" It seemed that the Ironmen who stayed behind did not get the news. Asha's words caused a great uproar in the hall, and everyone was talking about it. Quarrel.
"This bastard just left us like this!?"
"I said I shouldn't have killed Maester!"
"More How can you get food with a mouth? You don't drink less than others when we stew raven soup!"
"Shut up!" A man with a cloak fastened with a silver cod-shaped buckle Roaring loudly, he stood up: "Victarion swore before he left that he would wear the Driftwood Crown and lead a thousand warriors to Return of the King. He broke his promise, we will settle the account in the future, and now we should care about oneself— Asha, how many people did you bring? Where did the boat stop? How did you get around the eyeliner of the Manderly pigs to the north to Moat Cailin?"
"I didn't pass anyone's eyeliner, I am now a captive of the northerners and have been sent to negotiate with you."
...
This answer caused even more shock, and the Ironmen exploded.
"Surrender? The northerner won't let us go!"
"House Greyjoy's men take us to a dead end, let the House Greyjoy women pay the debt today!" One In the Iron Islands, the Ironmen patted table that Asha had coveted for a long time stood up, took the opportunity to attack, took a few steps towards Kraken's daughter, pushed her back a few steps, and pressed her against the wall.
--
(end of this chapter)