Chapter 167

Chapter 167 Summer Hall

  "Brother! Can I charge behind you?" asked Dickon Tarly while Samwell was wearing armour with the help of his servants.

  This time Earl Randyll did not come but sent his younger brother to lead 1,800 soldiers to respond to the call of the lord.

  This number is half of the last support to Eagle Island. It seems that Earl Randyll is not very happy to give his people to the Iron Throne.

  "You're representing Horn Hill now, what's the point of following behind my ass," Samwell said casually as he adjusted the hooks on the breastplate.

  "The Duke Mace would send someone to command the infantry of each family. The same goes for your people, So i can definitely charge with your cavalry !" Dickon's nose turned red with excitement.

  "Don't be silly, the Dornishmen won't fight us head-on in the open area again, this time they will definitely just hide in the city. Do you want to ride a horse and crash into the city wall?"

"Is that so..."

  Dickon scratched his head, a little lost.

  Samwell looked at his honest brother and shook his head secretly -

  If you don't think before acting, don't blame Earl Randyll for changing heirs again.

  However, Samwell also had to admit that Dickon was indeed quite strong. He had not seen him for a few months, but he had grown in size, about the same height as Samwell.

  "Let's go, don't be the last one." Samwell put [Dawn] on his back, and clamped the eagle-wing helmet under his arm, urging his younger brother.

  "Okay."

  The two brothers in full armour went out, walked through the winding corridors and beautiful courtyards, and came to the Knights' Hall of the main castle.

  It was early morning at this time, but torches were lit on every ledge in the hall.

  A herald stood at the door, loudly announcing the names and titles of the lords and knights who entered.

  Inside the door was a sea of armour and swords. Samwell glanced at it and secretly estimated that there might be thousands of knights here.

  And the war potential of the Reach goes far beyond that.

  As the centre of the faith of the Seven Gods in Westeros and the birthplace of the knight system, the Reach has the most knights in the Seven Kingdoms.

  Coupled with affluent living conditions and advanced forging levels, it can be said that the Knights of the Reach is also the most terrifying battlefield force in the Seven Kingdoms.

  It's a pity that the Tyrell family, which ruled the Reach, did not have the prestige to control this power, especially the contemporary Duke of Highgarden "Fatty Mace", let alone the ability to make all the knights in the Reach willing to charge for him.

  Samwell looked at the bloated figure on the high platform ahead, showing a secret disdainful smile.

  If this power can be owned by me...

  "Knights!" Duke Mace's voice came from the high platform as he began the pre-war mobilization speech.

  But the content was lacklustre, and Samwell felt drowsy after hearing it.

  After finally waiting for Duke Mace to finish speaking, he asked the Septon to come up to bless all the knights.

  Then a choir of seventy-seven nuns leads the hymn.

  Then the Septon came to lead everyone to pray...

  After a series of tedious and boring ceremonies were over, Samwell was really about to fall asleep.

  In the end, it was the Duke of Mace's yelling "Fuck the Dornishmen!" which aroused the enthusiastic response of the Knights of the Reach, which woke up Samwell.

  "Fuck the Dornish!" Samwell also yelled.

  Finally, we can leave.

  This group of lords and knights left the castle one by one and entered the barracks.

  As the flags with different colours and patterns began to flutter and move, the army staying outside the city of Highgarden also slowly moved its bloated body like a giant beast that had just woken up from a deep slumber and began to head east.

  While commanding his own army, Samwell secretly observed the Reach army.

  He roughly estimated that the number of troops dispatched by Reach this time was about 40,000. If the civilian men, horsemen, and peddlers in charge of logistics were added, the total number was estimated to be about 70,000 to 80,000.

  This is already considered a rather large army, but for the large-populated Reach, it is actually not a large-scale mobilization at all.

  Moreover, Samwell has already seen that the soldiers in front of him are mixed, and there are too many farmers who obviously just put down their hoes and went into battle after a little training, which also caused the marching team to look crooked, like a snake that is about to fall apart.

  In fact, this is not a surprise.

  After all, the cause of this war was to avenge Duke Jon Arryn, which had little to do with the nobles of the Reach. Naturally, not many lords of the Reach were willing to contribute all their elites.

  If it weren't for Dorne's feud with Reach, it is estimated that Duke Mace would not even be able to gather 40,000 troops this time.

  Although the quality is not very good, at least the quantity is here. Samwell has never seen an army of this size in his life.

  During the march of the army of more than 40,000 people, the flags covered the sun, the sound of horseshoes rumbled, and the ground trembling slightly.

Anyone who is a member of the army can feel their own insignificance, as well as the panic and awe of not being able to control their own destiny.

  But this feeling will also slowly subside as time goes by, and what comes up later is the irritability caused by the long and boring trek.

  Samwell heard more and more scolding and reprimanding, and more and more heads on wooden poles by the roadside.

  In order to maintain order, it is very common for nobles to kill people.

  The discipline of the army is maintained by such bloody and cruel means.

  Compassion does not command soldiers, in fact, this is what it means.

  Facing an army of this size, once the leading generals are a little bit kind and weak, people will fluctuate and even start to riot.

  I don't know if he was infected by this kind of emotion, Samwell's heart also began to harden, and he became more and more impatient with the soldiers who made mistakes. The minor problems that he would only reprimand on weekdays may become a whip.

  Fortunately, Eagle Island's army has always paid attention to discipline, so it was not enough for Samwell to kill people to build prestige.

  After the army left Highgarden, they walked east along the Mander River, turned to a tributary at the Cider Hall, and passed by the place where Lord Randyll Tarly defeated Robert Baratheon, Ashford.

  After Samwell and his younger brother Dickon briefly visited the old battlefield where their father become famous all over the world, they followed the army and continued eastward. After walking in the undulating mountains for half a month, they finally arrived at the Iron Throne's designated assembly point

- Summer Hall.

  Summerhall is located at the junction of the Reach, the Stormlands and Dorne. It is the summer residence of the former royal family Targaryen.

  More than a hundred years ago, Daeron II Targaryen married his younger sister to the Prince of Dorne, and finally completed the unification of the Seven Kingdoms through marriage. The Summer Hall was built to commemorate this great cause.

  Nestled among mountains, it looks more like a palace than a castle, but unfortunately, a fire more than 30 years ago reduced it to ruins.

  This is the famous "The Tragedy of Summer Hall".

  It happened at the end of the reign of Aegon V Targaryen, when the dragons of the Targaryen family had long since died out, and the dragon eggs left behind had become stones and could not be hatched. Aegon V made many attempts to hatch the dragon, and it is said that he found the way in an ancient scroll from Asshai - the fire sacrifice.

  So the king came to Midsummer Hall, prepared seven dragon eggs and [Wildfire], and decided to bring the dragon back to the world while celebrating the imminent birth of his first great-grandson.

  However, the Fire Ritual did not bring dragons, but only destruction.

  The terrible [Wildfire] got out of control and spread, burning the entire Summer Hall, and also devoured the lives of many princes and nobles including the king and his eldest son, only a few survived.

  But also in this fire, the granddaughter of Aegon V gave birth to the prince who later detonated the Robert's Rebellion —Rhaegar Targaryen.

  Prince Rhaegar, who was born in "The Tragedy of Midsummer Hall", could not get rid of the shadow of the fire all his life, so he also did a series of unreasonable things in the eyes of outsiders, which even led to his death and the downfall of the Targaryen dynasty.

  It can be said that the cause and effect of the Robert's rebellion had already been buried in the tragedy of Midsummer Hall.

  The Targaryen family was actually not a native of Westeros nobles, but from the other side of the narrow sea, a place called the Old Freehold Valyria, on the continent of Essos.

  There were forty dragon lord families in Valyria. They were extremely rich, noble blood, mastered witchcraft and were able to control dragons, so they were invincible and have established a huge empire. Targaryen was once one of these dragonlord houses.

  However, an apocalyptic catastrophe destroyed the Old Freehold Valyria and also caused the dragon empire to collapse.

  Among the forty dragon king families, only the Targaryen family knew the disaster from the prophecy and fled before the catastrophe came.

  They came to Dragonstone Island, and after several centuries of dormancy, they conquered Westeros with the three grown dragons and established the Targaryen Dynasty.

  But they followed the prophecy and also failed by prophecy.

  As the next end looms, the members of House Targaryen were haunted by new prophecies.

  Many Targaryens became paranoid and even crazy because of this.

  Aegon V is said to have learned something from the prophecy before he was obsessed with hatching dragons. He believed that only dragons could prevent the coming doomsday.

  Similarly, Prince Rhaegar also got some revelations, thinking that one of his heirs will be the prophesied prince, "the dragon with three heads"——

  The coat of arms of House Targaryen was a three-headed dragon.

  Back then, Aegon the Conqueror Targaryen also had three dragons, and he and his two younger sisters happened to control one each.

  But Prince Rhaegar's wife, Princess Elia from Dorne, lost her fertility after giving birth to two children.

  This made Prince Rhaegar panic. He felt that he had to give birth to a third child in order to meet the prophecy of "the dragon with three heads" and prevent doomsday.

  So he found Lyanna Stark from Winterfell and tried to woo the ice wolf to have a third son, regardless of the other party's already engaged marriage.

  The prince who wanted to save the world may not have thought that what he did would lead to the downfall of the Targaryen dynasty.

  Samwell looked at the ruins of the palace in the distance, his thoughts wandering.

  Of course, he didn't come here to remember the lunatics of the Targaryen family, but to think about the seven dragon eggs that might be buried under the ruins of Summer Hall.

  [END]