Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 282 A Spark
Although the spread of news in Westeros became extremely difficult after the Long Night, thanks to the spread of "interested people", King's Landing, a city with special significance in the hearts of Westeros, and what happened after the invasion of the White Walkers spread throughout the war zones in Westeros at an extremely fast speed.

The news spread from several cities with glass candle communications through the mouths of the rulers to the ears of the dignitaries, and then from the dignitaries to the ears of the knights' army, and then to the ears of the trained militia, and finally became known to everyone.

King's Landing was used as a typical case by Viserys to educate local officials. Although the city was once invaded by the army of white walkers, the damage caused by the white walkers was less than half of the damage caused by the chaos inside the city. The city's internal defense measures were insufficient, there were no planned street fighting defense measures, there were no planned wildfires and fuel reserves, and there were no planned blind arson, plus there were no fire prevention measures in the city. A series of problems eventually led to King's Landing being directly burned to ruins due to various blind responses like headless flies under the pressure of the white walkers.

Even a fortress as solid as the Red Keep was ultimately caused by man-made disasters, as half of the once majestic palace in King's Landing was burned down in a wildfire. Even the main structure of the main castle, Maegor's Holdfast, was burned down by the fire, and the throne room is still buried under the ruins - it is said that the last king and queen mother of Baratheon are still buried there, and are most likely dead.

It's ridiculous that according to current statistics, dozens of nobles in King's Landing died or went missing in the wildfire of the Red Keep, but there is no record of any of them being killed by wights.

Even more outrageous was the blind riot and escape of civilians in the south of the city. The mob seized the city gate, opened it and fled south, but this attracted a tide of zombies.

Judging from the results, except for the Steel Street and the northernmost part of the Muddy Road in the south of the city, the rest of the city was not affected by the fire at all. When His Majesty the King arrived, there was no wave of zombies. They could have survived by just staying at home. However, because of their "self-rescue", nearly 10,000 people drowned or froze to death in the Blackwater River. Many were trampled to death or injured during the crowded escape, and were killed by looters in the chaos.

The exact number of deaths in Junlin this time has not yet been counted, but based on current rumors, the result may be shocking.

I heard that His Majesty Viserys has now taken over King's Landing and summoned the 2,000 soldiers in the South Stormlands who were originally responsible for controlling the King's Road and receiving refugees, and 3,000 mercenaries of the Golden Company who were in charge of controlling the important trade routes on the side, as well as 1,000 new recruits from Hearthstone, a total of 6,000 people will go to King's Landing to take over the mess.

According to reliable news, most of the north and east of King's Landing were burned to ashes, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced and homeless, with their lives and property burned to ashes. These people can only live in temporary shanty towns and the scorched earth of some nobles' mansions. From Bitterbridge, Tengstone, Bronzegate, and Stonehall, the Targaryen grain and grass are running at full speed through the long night to King's Landing.

What caught everyone in King's Landing off guard was that Viserys left King's Landing less than two days after the war ended and rushed to the battlefield in the Vale.

It is reported that after briefly coordinating the situation in King's Landing, Viserys quickly handed over the management and logistics of King's Landing to Davos of the Stormlands - a fire captain brought in based on the principle of proximity, and the military affairs were handed over to Earl Bruce of Bronzegate - who was also pushed forward temporarily. Bronzegate is now under the jurisdiction of the crown. This can be regarded as Viserys' cultivation of the new direct lord.

Viserys' attitude was very clear. He regarded King's Landing as just an ordinary city and did not think it had much political significance.

This made many old King's Landing people who felt superior to the King's City feel very uncomfortable, and even the Church of the Seven Gods was somewhat unbalanced. Viserys only expressed symbolic respect for the passing of the High Septon, and did not even care about the election of the new Septon.

King Targaryen expressed only one attitude towards the so-called church center. That is, the Warrior Sons are illegal armed forces, but in extraordinary times, fighting against the White Walkers is the top priority, and they can be adapted as an independent militia.

What made the Church even more disappointed was that after Viserys expressed his attitude, he left King's Landing and rushed to other battlefields without even waiting for the Church to symbolically pull him. The Church could only wait for Davos, the acting commander of the King's Landing Army, who was heading to King's Landing, to conduct the next round of negotiations.

As the wars in various places ended, a report titled "Gains and Losses in the Defence Wars in Various Places - Our Experiences and Lessons" was sent out from Oldtown, and was rushed by fast horses from various military stations and post stations in the southern border. In just half a month, it was delivered to the Westerland, Stormlands, Dorne and the Crown, including the nobles of King's Landing and commanders of various lines. Among them, the city defense measures in King's Landing and the subsequent reactions of the defenders and civilians received the key instructions that "the defenders and civilians in various places must take this as a warning."

These are the more realistic parts.

There are some more mysterious parts in this battle in King's Landing.

Rumor has it that after the fall of King's Landing, many people saw strange phenomena in the sky. The explanation given by the Church later was "apparition of warriors", and many people who took refuge in the Great Sept of Baelor at the time said this. But civilians who were not present at the time believed that it was a manifestation of King Viserys's power before rescuing King's Landing.

Some people combined the two and spread the rumor that "the king riding a three-headed dragon is a warrior in the world", but this rumor has not caused any big waves so far and has only spread to a small area. After all, compared with other information, this rumor sounds a bit out of touch with reality, like an exaggerated ballad by a bard describing the king's bravery.

But what is meaningful is that the Holy See in King's Landing remained silent on these rumors and deliberately did not let them fade away. At the same time, it was collecting information about what the people of King's Landing had seen at the time.

All I can say is that this news, which sounds the most mysterious to others but is what Viserys cares about the most, is still fermenting.

Of course, Viserys is not just sitting there and waiting. He is now deliberately keeping a distance from the Church of King's Landing. In the eyes of outsiders, this is because the king is dissatisfied with the illegal armed forces of the Warrior Sons, and it is faintly revealed that he is trying to support the Starry Sept as the center of the Seven Gods. In fact, it is to put pressure on the bishops and monks of the Seven Gods in the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing, so that they can "think about change." Viserys did not directly interfere with the election of the Archbishop, and it is the same reason, so that they can "find a way out" by themselves.

Of course, even though he doesn't interfere openly, Viserys is bound to make some small moves in secret.

For example, when they think of Viserys and the warriors together, the bishop gives appropriate positive feedback to certain pious monks through the established pan-faith connection.

These people will sooner or later produce the Pavlovian effect.

Borrowing a hen to lay eggs and using someone else's body as a substitute is a slow and careful process, and Viserys cannot rush it.

It is too cheap to directly grant power to believers with sufficient spiritual strength through faith. They must be allowed to unravel the mystery and feel that it is their own piety, asceticism, and intelligence that lead to the will of God. Only then will they regard the oracles they have received as the guiding principle.

Speaking of this, Viserys could not help but feel envious of the Cold God. Compared to his exhausting work, the Cold God's way of recruiting followers was so simple, he only needed to kill and convert them, it was simple, direct, straightforward, and incredibly efficient.

However, King's Landing could not be considered a victory in this war, and the Vale and Riverlands were both defeated. The Twin Rivers and Sea Borders in Riverlands had already been lost, and the garrisons and civilians in both places had all been killed. The Iron Oak City and Red Fortress in the Vale had also fallen, and only a few people had fled to Seagull Town. A large number of nobles and civilians in the Vale who had learned of the crisis in the Vale were migrating to Runestone City and Seagull Town in the cold night and the threat of the wights. Even more civilians and small nobles who had no source of information at all died silently under the impact of the zombie tide and were transformed into part of the zombie tide.

Overall, in this battle, Viserys was at a slight disadvantage compared to the White Walker army.

The battle between the Great Wall and the North could only be considered a draw, while the Valley and Riverlands were badly defeated.

The army of white walkers was tricked by Viserys at the Wall, otherwise it might not be considered a draw.

This matter can be traced back to the time after Viserys won the first counterattack. He risked freezing to death in the long cold night and transferred the main force and armor transport troops of the Second Regiment to the Great Wall, and began to carry out new training for the defenders of the Great Wall. Although they had not formed sufficient combat power when the battle started, the Second Regiment still became an unexpected surprise force for the White Walkers.

After Viserys showed up at the Wall, he immediately went to King's Landing to fight for his cause. As expected, after showing up at King's Landing, the White Walkers on the Wall immediately launched an attack, attacking the Wall fiercely, and even sending out magical ice dragons. The attack was so fierce that it once threatened the Wall. It was a classic re-enactment of the first battle, with the First Regiment attacking the Ice Dragon Summoner from a distance. The White Walker commander played a trick and summoned a second ice dragon to attack during the attack.

Although the formation of the second regiment was not yet mature, they still cooperated when they engaged in the battle. Although it took a lot of time, causing the beacon tower that had already collapsed once to collapse for the second time, they managed to successfully smash the ice dragon after arriving at the battlefield and did not cause a larger area of ​​collapse.

The only pity is that the First Regiment only forced back the Summoner outside the city but failed to kill him, otherwise it would be considered a small victory in the direction of the Great Wall.

Although the beacon tower collapsed for the second time, allowing the cold wind of the cold god to blow in more, Viserys thought that the Great Wall had not been lost during his three days away, which was a very good performance. And as the Second World Regiment gradually formed its combat effectiveness, the formation of a survey team led by the Thunderstorm Knights could begin.

Compared with ordinary troops, this army is more resistant to cold and has more combat effectiveness. The defenders of the Great Wall can bear certain losses and send people to places farther away from the Great Wall to scout the movements of the White Walker army. In this way, the defenders can know the gathering location and movements of the White Walker army earlier than now, guess the attack direction of the White Walker army, and effectively distribute the defenders of the Great Wall, so that they don't have to wait for the zombies to attack every time before the reserve troops start to move.

The support response time of the Great Wall is now six to twelve hours, and the general support of the reserve team takes half a day to a day and a night. Although the defenders believe that this response speed is unique in the world, the response is always delayed and very passive. Viserys cannot stand the current situation that his most powerful defense, the Great Wall, can only raise his fist to fight back every time the White Walkers attack.

Although it sounds outrageous, the fact is that the sign of the end of the second full-scale attack of the White Walkers was that Viserys resolved the crisis in King's Landing, rescued Gulltown in the Vale, and then went north to scare away the White Walker army besieging White Harbor, and finally returned to the Wall.

To put it another way, the White Walker's chief commander respected and valued Viserys greatly, and would not stop fighting on other fronts until he saw him, even though he had already achieved a local victory. He would even rather cause unnecessary losses to confirm Viserys's location.

But the White Walkers' attack on most of Westeros has actually exposed some problems. The White Walkers have a large army, but they are too scattered. And maybe it's because of the shadow of Viserys in the Battle of White Harbor that the troops they deployed on the local battlefields are no longer a large, centralized legion, but have obvious echelons and divisions of labor.

The bad news is that the White Walker army may have tasted success in the North and began to use catapults as a tactic on a large scale on various battlefields.

You know, building a machine like a trebuchet is very time-consuming, but Viserys judged from the equipment outside the city that the White Walker army spent time moving logs and equipment from other places to build large trebuchets during this attack on King's Landing.

Fortunately, the corpse servants of the White Walkers could not use fire to help tan the logs to make roller skates, cranks and wheels. The large trebuchets they built abandoned miniaturization, mobility and precision, and the equipment was huge, primitive and bulky. This means that sooner or later they will run out of components removed from trebuchets elsewhere, and they cannot make those things by themselves, so the trebuchets of the White Walker army are one less. Viserys specifically mentioned his discovery in the summary of the war, and made suggestions to the army fighting against the White Walkers: when defeated, try to destroy the roller skates and wheels on your own trebuchets, and if you find the trebuchets of the White Walker positions when you win, try to destroy them.

With the end of this round of war, the whole of Westeros fell into a brief period of silence.

It goes without saying that during the silent period, the White Walker army must be slaughtering and transforming in the wild, deploying troops on the battlefield to prepare for the next round of attack. At the same time, the human side can only tragically enter a long and tiring waiting period, waiting for the next round of attack from the White Walker army.

The big picture is quiet, but there are endless small fights all over the country.

In the Battle of King's Landing, Viserys caught the White Walkers off guard. He almost wiped out all the White Walkers' troops attacking King's Landing. They lost at least 70% of the army they had gathered to besiege King's Landing. It is difficult for them to pose a threat to King's Landing and the eastern foothills of Stonetown in the short term. However, the scattered White Walker army resumed the scattering tactics and continued to do evil in some remote mountains and human settlements. Even part of the corpse tide that was defeated in the Battle of King's Landing crossed the Blackwater River and entered the northern part of the Southland.

In the long night, some military stations along the supply line that were still being transported to Shitang Town in the cold were once attacked by scattered zombies. Although this unexpected contact did not cause heavy casualties, it still caused a very strong reaction from the defenders along the line. Each military station, post station and militia was on high alert, and the patrols and scouts all had their eyes wide open.

The vanguard of the White Walker invasion also learned a lesson from human gathering points such as military stations. The tide of zombies fleeing from the battlefield of King's Landing into the Reach no longer attacked human gathering points with a uniform style such as military stations and post stations. Instead, they followed the same strategy as in the Riverlands, the Valleys, and the North and began searching for civilian gathering points such as farmers' and tenants' villages, fishing villages, etc.

During this period, there have been several reports from patrol teams in Tengshi Town and Kuqiao area about uncertain shadows appearing and disappearing in abandoned villages and forests.

By this time, Viserys estimated that the White Walker advance team should have discovered that the Southland was different from other places. Because of the news from various military stations, Viserys judged that the corpses entering the River Reach did not choose to continue to go deep into the Southland, but turned east, probably along the plains of the Lambroon River, and went deep into the King's Forest and Stormlands.

This is the benefit of having battlefield information.

Even if Viserys could not find the exact location of the zombies, he could roughly judge the movement of the zombies from the scattered military stations and post stations when the zombies were insufficient and the magic of the God of Cold did not suppress them. In this way, he could prepare for war in advance for the fortresses and stations in the Royal Forest, such as Felwood Castle and Hay Hall, to guard against possible surprise attacks.

Fortunately, although the southern territory has also entered a long night, most areas are still covered by the warm current coming from the land of midsummer.

It's just a pity that the advantages that the long night brings to the cold gods and the white walkers have not yet reached their peak. Non-magical forces, naturally formed high-pressure cold air masses will gradually form in the plateau area as the long night covers, and then these cold air masses will bring waves of natural cold waves to the Reach and even Dorne. The planet's displacement and rotation stopped not long ago. With the change of the planet, a new climate environment is being formed in this world. It will take several months to several years for a new climate and atmospheric circulation environment to form.

Only when the climate stabilizes can people know how cold the temperature will be after the long night arrives and where the new snow line will extend.

What surprised Viserys was that after two rounds of fierce attacks in Westeros, the White Walkers' attack seemed to have slowed down.

After the Riverlands captured the Twins and Seareach, the White Walkers only concentrated their forces to attack Beautymarket, and then stopped in front of Raventree Keep and Stonehedge, and did not even besiege Riverrun. Viserys was prepared for the fall of most of the Riverlands, but the news would only stay with him and would not spread to others, but he ended up waiting for the Riverlands' offensive to pause.

The zombies seemed to have grasped Viserys's defense through the advance parties in the riverlands and the south, and then responded by focusing on the areas where Viserys had no effective defense.

As a result, the Valley and Hejian-Eastern part of the Royal Territory became the disaster areas hit hardest by the zombie tide after the North.

In this regard, except for large castles such as Runestone City and large cities such as Seagulltown, which have sufficient troops and can be rescued by Viserys when necessary, Viserys can do nothing to help other places.

One thing that made Viserys both happy and sad was that the zombie tide began to invade deep into the mountains and valleys in the slowest way as Viserys had hoped, slaughtering and transforming in remote areas. The good news was that this would greatly ease the situation of the zombie tide's all-out attack, but the sad thing was that many places would become no-man's land from then on, where there would be no chance of survival.

And this also means that next time the White Walkers strike again to attack the areas that Viserys has already taken defensive measures, it will be a long-build-up war, a heavy blow.

Westeros continued to cool down after entering the long night. Every bit of temperature remaining in the atmosphere was being drained away bit by bit over time. The naturally formed cold air and cold waves were advancing southward every moment. Even God's Eye Lake, the largest inland lake in central Westeros, began to freeze naturally.

The snow line moved southward rapidly, and even the old town, which had not seen snow for thousands of years, had a sleet after the long night. Although the falling snow did not accumulate, it quickly melted into snow water.

Even the area near Highgarden, outside the fortress was becoming a cold land that was difficult for humans to set foot on. The space for patrol teams was being compressed every day, the transportation of supplies was becoming more and more difficult, and land transportation was taking longer and longer, to the point where the transport troops had to start being mentally prepared for non-combat casualties.

And Viserys also experienced the dilemma of the Three-Eyed Raven.

His battlefield reconnaissance capabilities in the northern region of the Reach were gradually compressed into a small area between transportation routes and post stations.

Every day, Viserys had new insights into the "long snake formation", which could only be deployed along the transportation supply line. As the weather became colder, Viserys finally made up his mind and issued instructions: if there was no accurate enemy intelligence, when the supply line was attacked, the garrisons at each station were prohibited from going out to rescue, and only large troops with Thunderstorm Armor were allowed to rescue when they were fully prepared.

Viserys had already made up his mind that such "rescues" would only be carried out when supply lines had to be activated, so in many cases, the attacked stations would never receive reinforcements. Their role was Viserys's marker lights and scout posts on the battlefield, the roots of Viserys's tentacles extending outward, and the necessary sacrifices for Viserys's overall war situation.

"I must say, Viserys, that I am impressed by your plans for the Seven. If R'hllor had followed your gentler ways of expanding the Faith, perhaps he could have held Qohor."

Viserys looked at the suddenly appearing Three-Eyed Raven, distracted by controlling the dreams and perceptions of the Seven Gods' followers, while distracted by dealing with the Three-Eyed Raven: "Qohor has been lost?"

"It's not surprising," said the Three-Eyed Raven. "The Red God's messenger was taken to Norvos by the alien gods. When the alien army was approaching the city, the restorers of the Black Goat Cult of Qohor were still fighting guerrilla warfare with the Red Hand in the sewers and slums. The mercenary group guarding the side gate saw that the situation was not right and collapsed at the first touch. They directly seized the boat and fled from the Qin River. This move triggered the powerful to flee. The city was in chaos before the wights climbed up the city wall. When the main force of the Red Hand climbed up the city wall, the wights poured into the city from the port. It's just like King's Landing. Unfortunately, there is no god in Qohor to personally help."

Viserys thought for a moment and asked, "What kind of decoy could carry out the Red God's messenger?" He had seen the messenger's speed and had no doubt of his destructive power.

"Ice dragon." The Three-Eyed Raven paused, "The summoner rides on an ice dragon on its back."

Viserys narrowed his eyes. "A new type of enemy?"

"They just don't dare to act like this in front of a god with your speed and destructive power."

Viserys felt a little worried. "An ice dragon has appeared south of the Wall. Is this a sign that the power of the God of Cold has reached a certain level in the south?"

"Don't worry too much. That kind of magic consumes a lot of energy. It would be a waste of money if he used it to conquer the small cities in Westeros. If he is unfortunately destroyed by you, he will lose everything. He will not be willing to use it on the small cities in Westeros."

The major city-states in Essos are all large cities with larger populations than King's Landing in its heyday. From the perspective of revenue alone, the revenue from conquering a large city in Essos far exceeds the population conversion that the White Walkers gain in the North. Thinking of this, Viserys had a very distorted feeling, and he couldn't help but ask the Three-Eyed Raven: "Is Essos the main target of the White Walkers at this stage?"

The Three-Eyed Raven did not deny: "The Wall of Westeros is also their main attack direction."

This is not surprising. Although Westeros was attacked first, judging from the strength of its troops and the speed of its fall, Essos probably had more troops prepared.

A strange idea suddenly occurred to Viserys.

Perhaps there were some omissions in the Lord of Cold's initial arrangements before the war, because he focused more on the east and less on the west in his war arrangements. As a result, although he achieved his early strategic goals, due to Viserys's disruption, the western front of Westeros did not get the best situation he wanted.

The more Viserys thought about it, the more it made sense. After discovering the strategic omissions in the general direction of the Cold God, Viserys suddenly felt that the pressure since the war began suddenly eased a lot. Although the Cold God had the advantage of weather and intelligence, it would still make mistakes. Making mistakes meant that the opponent would also have to rack their brains to calculate the gains and losses on the battlefield.

Although this discovery did not change the situation at all, for some reason, Viserys's chances of achieving the final victory that he had been calculating in his heart were much greater.

(End of this chapter)