Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 154 The Golden Group Gets on the Bus First and Buys the Ticket Later
The troubles brought by war, whether it is pre-war preparations or post-war reorganization, are very troublesome.

Even those who surrender need to consider the fines.
Those who died with Stannis were to be stripped of their titles, redistributed, and exiled to the Wall.
There is also the issue of rewards that needs to be considered.
Stannis's proactive attack disrupted Viserys' plans.

The Stormlands were recaptured earlier than expected, leaving Viserys unable to cope with the situation.

Stannis's army is complex, and dealing with the surrendered at the mouth of the Wend River is a troublesome matter. Some of the lords of the Narrow Sea need to be sent back to the Narrow Sea for disposal, but in addition, there are also lords of the crown lands other than the Stormlands and lords of the Reach represented by Florent. These lords originally joined Stannis to help him become king. Now that Stannis's kingship has failed, they are not under the rule of Shireen, the Duke of Storm's End, who was appointed by Viserys, so in theory they surrendered to Viserys.

It was not an easy task to recruit and deal with these people. After discussion, it was decided to first reorganize them as guest troops and let them help Shireen unify the Stormlands, and then deal with them separately. He had to make a clear reward and punishment decision at Storm's End.

Now that Viserys has returned to Dragonstone for a short time, he has only time to settle the captives, brainwash Stannis to prevent him from going on a hunger strike, and appease the Dornish delegation visiting Dragonstone. He simply appoints Oberyn as his Hand of the King, partly to appease the fact that his previous plan to attack the Stormlands had completely failed, and partly because he really needs a more suitable manager than Earl Gunther to assist in managing state affairs.

Viserys temporarily asked Oberyn to help him manage the Narrow Sea areas, and then he called up the stewards and part of the guards of Dragonstone, and took Daenerys and Nightfire on a boat to the mouth of the River Wender.

In an emergency, as there were still two weeks before Viserys' wedding, only those who stayed behind on Dragonstone could continue preparations, while the protagonists of the wedding went to the Stormlands to help Shireen retake the Stormlands.

Viserys had to guard against any unrest in King's Landing and possible resistance in the Stormlands.

To ensure that everything went perfectly well, when the allied forces from Dragonstone and Stormlands returned along the same route that Stannis had taken, Viserys began to patrol the sky over Blackwater Bay and the Kingsroad from Storm's End to King's Landing with Nightfire.

Fortunately, Jun Lin never dared to move.

The troops that sent Shireen back to Storm's End to take up the office of Duke of Stormland were directly divided. The cavalry rode quickly to Hayhall and Bronzegate, while the infantry took boats upstream along the Wend River. Although the Wend River was relatively flat, it still took a lot of time to find trackers along the river.

In order to avoid exposing his ability to transform into a dragon, Viserys had to demonstrate the dragon's ability to shrink while on the ship, which amazed the trackers, lords and soldiers of the Stormlands, and made them feel that King Targaryen was unfathomable.

Rumors began to spread among the army that King Viserys had visited the ruins of Valyria and had acquired magic and dragons there.
The return journey was a forced march, and in just four days the infantry and cavalry on board the ship met at the King's Road on the south bank of the River Wend.

At this time, Hayhall and Bronzegate have already surrendered to the new Duke of Stormlands, Shireen Baratheon.

When the army gathered together and went to Bronze Gate City to rest and prepare to go to take over Storm's End the next day, considering that the commander left behind in Storm's End was Alister Florent, everyone felt that everything was foolproof.

Even Viserys felt that as long as Shireen returned to Storm's End and used ravens to spread the news that she had succeeded the Lord of Stormland, the Stormland could be directly recaptured without a fight. He only needed to consider how to deal with these surrenderers fairly, how to punish them, how to subdue them, and how to calm people's hearts.

No one expected that that night, Bronze Gate City received a request for help from Wind's Rest Castle.

A knight from the Florent family named Alette Florent rushed to Bronze Gate City along the King's Road overnight and was captured by scouts symbolically deployed by the coalition forces.

Only then did Viserys learn that something had happened at Storm's End.

"The Golden Company surrounded Storm's End two days ago."

According to the knight, he was receiving a batch of shipping materials at the port outside the city and stayed in the inn at the port. It was not until the soldiers of the Golden Group came to block the port that the knight realized that something was wrong. He wanted to escape back to Storm's End. Unexpectedly, when he approached the castle, he saw that the Golden Group had already blocked the outer perimeter of Storm's End.

There were already four to five thousand people at that time, and the mercenaries of the Golden Group continued to appear from the west.

This is the most bizarre part, the Golden Group actually surrounded Storm's End by land!
But Storm's End had not received any news before.

This was a premeditated and planned raid.

Daenerys, who was accompanying her, asked, "Should we gather the princes to discuss this?"

Viserys was not in a hurry. He just ordered nonchalantly, "No need. Come, arrange for this lord to rest. Send someone to notify the camps to protect them at night and arrange the sentries properly. The army has been traveling day and night for the past few days and is exhausted. They should rest well tonight. We will discuss the rescue of Storm's End tomorrow morning."

After the people he had arranged to go down, Viserys said to Daenerys, "The Golden Company's goal is probably not Storm's End. They are probably not hired, but marching on their own initiative."

Daenerys wondered, "What do they want to do?"

Viserys curled his lips. "They want to board first and pay later."

"what?"

"Our ship is a great ship now, Dany," Viserys said.

"You said they want to join us?"

"We'll see tomorrow." Viserys suddenly said, "Can you slow down the dragon egg beside you and not sing to it any more?"

Daenerys brought the dragon egg she brought from the tomb of Einar with her on this trip, and every day she insisted on taking a piece of dragon bone into her dreams and singing to it. Now, as her flames burned, the magic in the dragon egg seemed to gradually become more agile. It seemed to be shaping a new soul.

"Why? I have a feeling it will soon come back to life." "Wait until the matter at Storm's End is over before trying again. The Golden Company has always been associated with Blackfyre. I don't want anyone to covet the dragon you worked so hard to hatch."

Daenerys asked warily, "Do you think there is a Blackfyre in the Golden Company?"

"It's always good to be on guard."

-

The next day, the army did not set out at the expected time. The commanders of various units received orders early in the morning to meet in the central military tent where Viserys was to discuss military situation.

When everyone was present, Viserys asked Arlette Florent, who had arrived last night, to reveal the information in public.

"What, the Golden Company? Could it be that they were hired by the Lannisters of King's Landing?"

"Damn it, can we defeat this army while we're away?"

"Your Majesty, please allow us, the Stormland army, to be the vanguard and clear the way for you!"

With a giant dragon on their side, no one took the Golden Group seriously, and they were all furious and asked to fight. Especially the newly surrendered Stormland lords, they were eager to make meritorious deeds in order to reduce possible punishment.

Viserys thought for a moment. "Pass the word down that we should stop here for now," he said. "Send out scouts along the way to learn about the Golden Company's movements. I will go to Storm's End first to see what's going on. Everyone should come to my tent at noon to discuss the battle."

After giving the order, Viserys immediately returned to his tent in the rear. Soon, he and Daenerys took off from the camp and headed south along the King's Road to Storm's End at high altitude.

Soon, Viserys saw the camp set up by the Golden Group to siege the city from high in the sky. The legion was stationed in three camps, and each camp was compact, neat and orderly.

A deep trench was dug around the camp, with sharp stakes in it. The tents were lined up in rows, separated by wide avenues. The latrines were in the hollows. The horse stables were to the north, and in front of them, even two dozen elephants grazed by the river.

Yes, this group of mercenaries had thousands of horses and an elephant cavalry consisting of elephants.

Towering cloth-of-gold banners flapped from long poles around the perimeter of the camp, and below them armed sentries patrolled with spears and crossbows.

The Golden Company seemed to have fought a battle with the defenders in Storm's End. There were many corpses under the castle. On the walls of Storm's End were the soldiers of the Florent family who stayed behind. They were boiling pitch barrels and preparing catapults. The smoke of gunpowder went straight to the sky. In addition to the red and gold fox flag of the Florent family, the flaming red heart flag of Stannis was also hung on the walls of Storm's End. Perhaps because the ravens from Bronze Gate were unfortunately intercepted by the Golden Company, Storm's End still didn't know that Stannis had been defeated and captured.

Soon, both groups saw the giant dragon high in the sky.

To be honest, even Viserys didn't expect what would happen next. He just appeared in the sky for reconnaissance and had no plans to do anything.

But in just a moment, both the Golden Company and Storm's End raised the Targaryen flag with a black background and a red dragon and waved it high into the sky.

Even Daenerys was speechless by this strange scene on the battlefield: "This"

Sure enough, the situation that Viserys least wanted to see occurred. The Golden Group chose the strategy of getting on the bus first and then buying the ticket.

Viserys believed that Jon Connington and Aegon Targaryen must be among the mercenaries today.

And Viserys knew who was behind this. There was no doubt that it was Illyrio, the Minister of Finance, who had gone to Braavos to borrow money for Viserys and had not returned, and Varys in King's Landing.

Now think about it, if Stannis had set out a few days later, Melisandre would have been able to save Viserys from a lot of trouble.

Daenerys had never seen such a scene before. Seeing Viserys just circling around, she couldn't help but ask, "Should we go down?"

Viserys sighed inwardly, "No, let them meet us at Bronzegate."

Viserys swooped down from Storm's End, the wind howling as he spoke: "Meet me at Bronze Gate."

Then, he spread his huge bat wings and flew over the tops of the three tents of the Golden Group. No matter what they thought, he just said, "Meet me at Bronze Gate City."

After saying this, he flapped his wings and flew straight into the sky towards the north.

After Viserys flew away, the senior officers of the Golden Company walked out of their tents in shock and looked at the receding shadow of the dragon in shock.

Legion commander "Homeless" Harry Strickland looked at the group of surprised and speechless officers, and after the shock, he couldn't help feeling secretly delighted.

I wonder if his commanders, inspired by Jon Connington, regret today that they laid their swords at the feet of the young prince and swore their loyalty.

(End of this chapter)