Chapter 81 The Battle Begins
The intense sun blazes above, its scorching rays suffusing the air with oppressive heat.
A long and winding army was gathering towards Starfall City, looking down from a high altitude, it looked like countless ants returning to their nests.
The falcon hovered over the castle for a long time, and finally flapped its wings to the west, skimming over the barren sand plains and rugged mountains, and swooped down towards the seaside pier.
In the wooden house, Samwell opened his eyes, rubbed his slightly sore brows, and walked out.
As soon as the door was opened, Natalie stared curiously and timidly at the falcon sitting on the roof.
"Hey!" Samwell said suddenly, making Natalie tremble in fright.
She turned her head, stared wide-eyed, and said angrily, "You scared me!"
Samwell asked with a smile, "What are you doing sneaking around?"
Natalie glanced at the falcon on the roof again. , hesitated for a moment, and finally said:
"So you also have a bird."
Why does this sound so strange...
"Yes."
"Tell you a secret." Natalie took a few steps closer, mysteriously "I have one too."
Samwell held back a smile, "Really? You also have a bird?"
"Yes." Natalie nodded, "But my bird is not as big as yours."
Pooh!
Samwell finally couldn't help laughing out loud.
"What are you laughing at?"
Natalie was a little puzzled, "Do you want to see my bird?"
"Okay, okay." Samwell laughed even more.
Natalie pouted , little upset and then turned her head, "Huh! I won't show it to you!"
Samwell put away his smile, stepped forward to ruffle the little girl's hair, and ran away resolutely before she got angry open.
There were several supply ships docking at the pier.
"Ucha!" Samwell beckoned to the young savage who had just disembarked, "Come here."
Ucha quickly trotted over and saluted,
"Lord Caesar, what orders do you have?"
"I haven't been back these days, How is Eagle Island now?"
"Everything is fine, my brother-in-law is leading everyone to rebuild the wooden house, and he said that it will take another month for the territory to return to its previous appearance."
"How's the castle?"
"Vido is incharge of the castle renovations, and for the specific situation... I don't know much about it."
Samwell nodded and didn't ask much , but instead asked: "Is there enough food and supplies?"
"We have stored a lot before and for some missing supplies, my brother-in-law has already sent people to Sunflower City, and a batch of new supplies should arrive soon."
"Have you received a letter or seen anyone from the Reaach recently?"
"Not sir."
"Okay, you can leave."
"Yes, my lord."
Samwell looked at Ucha's leaving back and sighed secretly.
The support he was looking forward to never came, which made him a little anxious.
On the contrary, more and more Dornish people gathered on the opposite side, and Samwell had already seen the banners of other families besides the Dayne family. Obviously, the power that Arianne could mobilize far exceeded his imagination.
Although the opponent has not yet launched an attack, Samwell feels that day may not be far away.
If Reach didn't send reinforcements, it would be impossible for him to hold the pier.
Not only the pier, but also Eagle Island could not be held.
An ambitious woman like Arianne Martell won't let it go easily.
The previous fire attack tactics against Urik Sand might not work anymore and the brandy is also exhausted.
Moreover, the weakness of this tactic is very obvious. The effect was so good last time, mainly because the enemy was unprepared, and there will be no such good thing in the future.
Unless he can create a real "wildfire".
But according to Maester Qyburn, the creation of real wildfires is not only extremely time-consuming, but also expensive.
No wonder only the royal family has the ability to mass-produce in the original book.
"Lord Caesar, Lord Caesar!" A voice interrupted Samwell's contemplation .
"What's the matter?" Samwell recognized that the other party was Todd's new servant, who seemed to be called Hal.
Hal trotted up to Samwell, took a breath, and said,
"Master Todd asked me to tell you that the vanguard of the Dornishmen has arrived and may attack at any time."
Samwell was shocked, and quickly followed Hal to the front.
Coming to the ridge where the first line of defense was, Samwell looked down through the wooden fence.
Sure enough, a group of Dornish soldiers gathered on the wasteland below, estimated to be six or seven hundred.
This should be just the vanguard. Samwell looked far and could vaguely see follow-up troops coming from the direction of Starfall City.
From the looks of it, the Dornish people are indeed preparing to attack on a large scale.
In fact, with the help of Falcon's eyes, he had already seen a large number of troops gathering in Starfall City, so he was not surprised by this.
According to Hawkeye, the number of Dorne troops in Starfall City is probably almost 15,000 at this time.
After all, Dorne and Reach had a thousand-year feud, and now he, a knight of the Reach, actually led an army to the land of Dorne. It was no wonder that the Dornish people, who had always been xenophobic, would blow their hair.
Even so, Samwell was a little surprised by the charisma of the Dorne princess.
Familiar with the plot, he certainly knew that Prince Doran did not intend to pass his position to Arianne, but had other arrangements for her.
However, the lords of Dorne were of course unaware of this. In their eyes, Arianne was still the first heir of Prince Doran, the future Queen of Dorne.
But nearly 20,000 people... just to seize a pier is too exaggerated.
Apparently, the Dorne princess had ambitions far beyond just one pier.
This crazy woman is probably trying to take this opportunity to invade Reach!
Samwell's headache grew even worse as that Dorn's army was gathering more and more, and he had a total of 600 troops, and most of them were recruits...
Fortunately, he decisively occupied the superior terrain and built fortifications. Otherwise, Samwell had already fled by boat at this time.
But even if he occupies a good location, the situation is not optimistic, and his soldiers are not Spartans, so it is impossible to fight a hundred with one.
Therefore, Samwell can only look forward to the reinforcement of the Reach.
If the reinforcements did not come after a long time, then no matter how unwilling he is, he could only run away.
At that time, He would probably have no face to go back, and if he went, he would have to obediently be a dog to the Tyrell family. If this is the case, Samwell felt that he might as well go to the other side of the narrow sea to join Dragon queen .
The Dornishmen did not attack immediately, but waited patiently for the arrival of follow-up troops.
As the evening approached, nearly 20,000 Dornish troops had densely covered the wasteland, and they couldn't see the edge at a glance, which made one's scalp tingle.
Princess Arianne seems to deliberately want to show her full strength to the enemy, so as to break down the fighting spirit of the reach warriors .
However, the effect was not very obvious.
After a series of miraculous victories before, the soldiers of Eagle Island have already had a kind of blind trust and admiration for Samwell.
In their view, there is no enemy in the world that their lord cannot defeat.
However, what they didn't know was that the invincible Lord Caesar was also panicking now.
But in order to stabilize the morale of the army, Samwell still put on a confident look.
"It's just a group of farmers who just put down their hoes..." Samwell pointed to the Dornishmen at the foot of the mountain, and was about to taunt and boost his soldiers morale, but was interrupted by a dull sound of a horn.
In the afterglow of the setting sun, a team of four to five hundred people was seen from the Dornish army formation, approaching the defense line of the Reach people.
The Dornish soldiers in the front row held huge oaken shields, followed by spearmen and rapiers, and the last row was archers.
They were uniformly dressed in leather armor, marching neatly and orderly, with high fighting spirit, just like an elite soldier.
So the word "farmer" that Samwell was about to mock could only be held back in embarrassment.
He took a deep breath, suppressed all distracting thoughts in his heart, and ordered in a calm tone:
"Blow the horn! Ready to meet the enemy!"
[END]