Chapter 20: Battle of Gulltown
***
As soon as Jon Arryn heard this he was a little panicked. Even though he had confidence in breaking through Gulltown's defenses with time. If they got an influx of soldiers and supplies he would be the one at a disadvantage. But he still looked at the scout and asked. "What banners were the ships flying?"
"A red hawk in a dark and green field, my lord," answered the scout a little nervously. The man was just a peasant who got roped into this war thing that had nothing to do with him.
He even had three sisters to take care of back home. His father also died in a war like this and he wasn't exactly enthusiastic about fighting, that is why he accepted being a scout. But what choice did he have?
When he hears this, Jon Arryn frowned in confusion. He had never heard of a banner like that.
Then suddenly another soldier comes into the strategizing tent. "My lord, an envoy from the ships has come to speak with you."
Jon Arryn just covered his map with military plans on it, and then he said. "Let him in."
The guards nodded and one of them went outside. Then a man in full light armor comes inside. He had short, almost all gray hair and a gray trimmed beard.
He just looked at Arryn, bowed, and said. "My lord, my name is Davos Seaworth, I am sent here as an envoy of Arthur Redhawk, he was also known by the name Arthur Frey here in Westeros. He has said that he is here to help Robert Baratheon, he has brought 500 ships together with twenty thousand soldiers to help you all."
When Jon Arryn heard this he became overjoyed. Having the number of ships and men that Arthur offered could be a decisive factor in this war.
Though on the outside, Arryn only had a small smirk. Even though Jon was a little skeptical of this. He still asked the question. "How does Arthur Redhawk plan on breaking through the defenses of Gulltown?"
Davos just looked a little unsure as he tried to explain. "Well my lord. Lord Arthur hasn't said anything about the strategy to me. But he did say that he will hand over Gulltown to you by tomorrow. I was just mostly sent here to reassure you that we don't have any hostile intentions."
…
-Arthur (XXI)-
I sat down on the chair in my cabin on the ship. My room was as minimalistic as it could be, there weren't a lot of accessories. Just a simple bed and a simple wooden desk and a chair that is covered in wool and made comfortable.
Gunpowder, also known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur (S), charcoal (C), and potassium nitrate (saltpeter, KNO3). The sulfur and charcoal act as fuels while the saltpeter is an oxidizer.
I will not introduce this world to any gunpowder or anything like that. Not even my soldiers will be equipped with any type of weapon.
That was way too dangerous. I was pretty much asking people to use it against me if I ended up doing something stupid like that.
But will I still use gunpowder to my advantage? Obviously, yes. I was the smartest man in this world just because of the knowledge that I possessed. Well, maybe not the smartest, but certainly the most knowledgeable.
Well, that was unless other people were reborn here. In which case I will kill them all. Because they would be a bother to my plans. I don't care if they were even a close friend in my last life, people change with time, and I wasn't taking a risk.
Anyway, I will use modern tactics to deal with this problem.
I might not know everything about politics and such. But I knew that Magic had been my crutch during these times. Though, if I do know something really good from my past life. It was physics, buildings, and destruction. Essentially, Civil Engineering, which was my job.
Humanity in my last world created weapons with the ability to destroy a city in the blink of an eye. If I didn't know how to destroy a wall I would be a shame to the last world.
…
Then I started explaining to them the job that they would do during the night and how they should do it. Where to put the support wooden pillars and all that. They all had a little experience in digging and mining that is the main reason why I chose them.
Also, they were stupid enough and wouldn't notice the small traces of Magic that would be used to dry the earth so it wouldn't cave down.
***
Then they went to the shore by boat to dig.
I followed them by looking through the vision of my hawk. When I saw that they started digging I called my army and got ready to attack. Soon I just notified the whole army to be ready for an attack.
I only took fifty of my guards and the ten thousand meatshields… I mean Sellswords. They are the expendable soldiers that will be bleeding for my benefit.
**
As darkness came about, and the moon rose in the sky. We all got ready to attack.
At night time they all get ready. We landed on the shore and went to attack Gulltown at its North wall.
I just smiled at them.
***
As the miners were digging underground, they were happy. Soon they will finish this job and be done with it and Arthur would pay them a hefty reward. As they were digging.
*Ciu!*
A bird loudly chirped, then the workers turned around to see what it was and. They saw a bird holding a candle no. At least that was what it seemed to them, a sizzling red candle that was burning quite fast.
"What the hell is that?"
Anyone with modern world knowledge would be able to tell that it was dynamite. None of them knew how dangerous that small "candle" could be.
*BOOOOOOOM!!!*
The explosion wasn't big. Because Arthur doesn't truly know how to make anything truly lethal like a real bomb or a stick of stronger dynamite.
People can't see something like an explosion at all, so there is no way they would figure out gunpowder just from that, or
even know about it.
Arthur was making sure that no one knew about gunpowder and erased all traces of it.
***
Above ground, in the darkness, the sellswords were waiting for something to happen and even the people in the walls were confused.
They had everything ready for a siege and even if they attacked they would be losing their lives.
*boom*
Suddenly, the walls just fell as if they had no foundation. Arthur's smile widened at this and thought.
'The medieval walls were strong at the time they were used. But their foundations aren't deep, so making them fall is just too easy.' - he contemplated before unsheathing his sword and yelling out. "Kill the enemy!!"
Two of my men blew into some trumpet horns, giving out a signal to the rest of the soldiers to move. My orders weren't heard through the army, but this would give them the signal.
Ten thousand men rushed past me like a raging wave, I could see their bloodshot eyes and everything seemed to slow down as the smell of battle pricked my nostrils. The first to die were the men that had been atop the wall when it had crumbled down.
My men yelled out like barbarians to pump up their spirits and I noticed that the Sellswords were calmly cutting down people.
Their war cries could be heard even from far away. I was at the back end of the army, with my fifty personal guards. The real reason I was even here was to give my men the impression of me not being afraid.
I was sending in mercenaries and didn't care how they felt. But I for sure do want some of them to die while taking over the city.
The Sellswords were made up of smaller groups of Sellsword Companies that came together to get the job that I had offered them. After all, I do pay quite the hefty price.
I just watched all of this from the ground far away from the battle. Gulltown only had around a thousand soldiers holding it. So my mercenaries outnumbered them ten against one. I liked these odds, plus attacking them at night where they weren't expecting an attack or their walls to suddenly crumble. Yeah, the odds were overwhelmingly in my favor.
This battle should be over in around half a day. And after half an hour, the mercenaries will start raping women, and after another couple of hours then they will be back to their senses.
**** was a cruel, but normal thing during war. That was true even in my last world. During the wars, there was a lot of it going on behind the scenes, the things that the media wouldn't report.
Even though it was night, I could see the killings and the blood of people painting the streets red. I saw the panic of the civilians, the screaming. Some were begging on their knees for the soldiers to have mercy, some good men didn't do the unspeakable. Then others rȧpėd and killed indiscriminately.
Evil and good, how ridiculous, they were both the sides of the same coin. The world isn't black or white, but a disgusting shade of grey.
When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. So that is why… I will use cheat codes.
***
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