Chapter 71 Dispatching troops

"He will pay for his arrogance." On the way back to Storm's End, Stannis said angrily.

Cole unfastened the buckle on his armor, took the stag horn helmet to his waist, and took a deep breath of fresh air. Hmm, with bursts of grass fragrance.

"Your Majesty, you don't have to be angry about this. An arrogant and underestimating opponent is much easier to deal with than a cautious and subtle enemy."

"You are Cole!?" Catelyn, who was suddenly following behind, exclaimed.

Cole smiled and turned around, "Long time no see, Lady Stark."

"How come you are here if you are not Lanny?" She took back her words and asked again.

"It's a long story, ma'am. His Majesty the King saved me, so now I serve him."

The knight following Catelyn, Harris Moran, also recognized Cole, and his heart was more shocked than Catelyn. He vaguely recalled the scene of the first time he saw this person, which was in Winterfell. The second time he saw him was on the battlefield of the Trident River.

Harris looked at his silver armor and thought to himself, "What on earth has this guy been through?"

After returning to Storm's End, Stannis quickly convened a meeting and decided that they would use Storm's End as a base to launch a defensive war. Axell Florent led the fleet to intercept the enemy at Shipbreaker Bay, and ordered Lord Velaryon to lead his fleet to transport supplies and food, while he personally led the army to defend Storm's End.

Lord Velaryon was dissatisfied with Stannis's repeated dispatches to transport supplies. He said that he would take his fleet to participate in the battle, and at the same time hinted that if Stannis disagreed, he would take his men back to Tidehead. Stannis eventually changed people and let Lord Celtigar take over his duties.

During the meeting, a group of lords and knights discovered that Sir Cole Julius was not entrusted with any duties, and the original commander of the city defense was taken back by Stannis.

Some people were gloating over this.

The silver knight sat in the conference room with a normal expression, without making any suggestions.

He went to the study room until the meeting was over.

Melisandre, the red-robed woman, Axell Florent, the king's brother-in-law, and several other members of the small conference slowly entered and sat around a table.

Except for the maesters Pylos and Cole, almost all of the people sitting here were members of the Queen's Party.

"My lords, the evil and powerful force is awakening, and the long night is coming. Only the Lord of Light can bring us dawn and salvation, and only the Son of Prophecy can lead us out of the darkness. The war is about to start, and brave people, you will be the horn before dawn and blow the song of victory. Everyone, I wonder who among you can take on this important task?" Melisandre stood up.

Her eyes looked at Cole, and the eyes of the old party also looked at him.

Damn, why didn't you call my name. He felt his scalp tingling, as if his heart was seen through by the red-robed woman. .

"Your Majesty." He turned to Stannis, "According to the news I have heard, the enemy's army seems to be marching quickly, and their food and baggage are in the rear. You can send a cavalry to intercept them in the King's Forest and the Rose Avenue."

"Well, that's what I mean. I will give you a thousand cavalry, and send Duran Bar Aemon with you." The king didn't mean to ask at all.

"I" He still didn't say anything. Sure enough, if he could think of it, others would think of it too.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I will try my best to intercept their food and army."

Coming out of the study, Cole couldn't help but sigh. He actually preferred to mess up the water in the rear, bastard.

Someone has to do this. He returned to the tower and quickly asked Camillo to gather people. They had to prepare quickly. A team of a thousand people leaving the city was too conspicuous, so they had to leave before Renly's army arrived, and it would be best to leave at night.

Cole only had fifty cavalrymen under his command. He didn't know the quality of the thousand cavalrymen Stannis had sent him. If there were too many hired riders, there would be no effect.

These guys who were paid to do things would probably surrender to the enemy as soon as their morale was low.

Stannis sent the fat earl to his command. Before he could go find Duran Bar Amon, the boy came into his tower excitedly.

Cole could only pour him a glass of wine, and Duran drank it in one gulp. His short neck under his double chin could not even be seen moving when he drank.

Is it feasible to take this guy to fight guerrilla warfare together? Cole couldn't help thinking.

"Sir Cole, when are we going to set off?" He asked with great interest, as if they were not going to fight, but to go hunting and playing.

"My lord, do you know what we are going to do?" Cole tasted the wine slowly, although he couldn't taste anything.

"Of course, I have 300 cavalrymen and 11 sworn knights. I will cooperate with you, sir. I know I am young and it is my first time to lead an army. The knights and the stewards all advised me to let Pope lead the troops, but I remember the motto of my family."

Cole saw that he had put on his armor and was obviously impatient.

"We still need to prepare some things, my lord."

Cole went to the parade ground to receive the cavalry sent to him by the king. There were 800 cavalrymen, 400 of whom were Stannis's personal troops, 200 of whom were knights leading their own lords' troops, and 200 well-armed free riders.

The number of people was a little more than the king promised. This should be all the strength of Stannis. If he wanted to fight a decisive battle with Renly, he could probably only rely on this cavalry.

It seems that he really wants to take a gamble on himself. Does he think that he can lead these people to defeat Renly's 60,000 troops?

The knight leading the king's personal army is a knight named Geoffrey Floren, who is from the queen's family Floren.

"Lord Julius." Geoffrey saluted and greeted.

Cole inspected the cavalry regiment and then began to distribute tasks. A cavalry regiment of 1,000 people could not just ride away on horseback, and there was a lot of logistics behind them.

The free riders were handed over to his deputy Camillo to lead, and at the same time, 20 people from his personal guards were assigned to Camillo's men, and each of them was ordered to lead a team of ten people and set off first as scouts.

Cole spread out the map. The scouts would set off from two directions, one to enter the Royal Forest and the other to enter the Dorne Mountains. Their goal was to explore the way, and eventually the scouts of the two sides would meet at the intersection of the Wend River and the Lambrun River.

Cole personally led Bar Amon and 700 men of the King's personal army as the central army. The logistics were in the charge of the fat Earl Durran, who would lead his sworn knights and 200 nobles and logistics troops to station in the Dorne Mountains.

The White Dragon had already found several places for logistics points.

There were about 500 logistics personnel, and a total of 700 cavalry.

Before leading the army to attack, Cole asked to see Stannis. He suggested that he could form an alliance with the North and Dorne. Now the area of ​​Highgarden in the South was empty. If Dorne was willing to contribute, it would have the effect of besieging Wei to save Zhao.

Eddard Stark was in a very bad state recently. He did not fall down during his wandering days. Instead, he fell on the maester's bed. Now he was unconscious and awake, which made people worry.

Cole knew the grudge between Dorne and the Baratheon family. The Dorne side also put the blame on Robert and Baratheon for killing their princess.

But you see, the real murderer Lannister sent a princess over, and the relationship with Dorne eased instantly. Of course, this kind of easing does not mean that the past is really forgiven. Prince Dorne's political means and vision are extremely high, and his means of revenge must be subtle and silent. Cole can feel that Dorne is keeping a low profile and waiting for the opportunity.

Cole led the cavalry out of the city, with José by his side. This kid made a small contribution in the battle of Storm's End and was promoted by Cole.

Soon after the march, Cole attacked and killed three waves of scouts. Their traces were captured by the white dragon in the sky, but the white dragon could not monitor in all directions, and was not sure whether any scouts slipped away from his eyes.

The speed of the entire cavalry was extremely fast. Before the scouts could bring the news to Renly, the traces of the cavalry disappeared.

In one day, they went from Storm's End through the Royal Forest to Greendale. The castle was ruled by the Medou family. The current head of the family, Baron Medou, had surrendered to Stannis. He was the deputy of the acting lord of Storm's End before. After Ser Cortanay Penrose was killed, he quickly knelt down to pledge his allegiance.

Baron Elwood Medou, now under Cole.

Cole led his troops to the castle. The castle was connected to a bridge across the Lambourn River. Before the garrison at Bitter Bridge made no movement, Cole planned to station troops here and use the white dragon to observe the enemy's movements.

In the past two months, the white dragon's wings and scales have become stronger and can fly higher.

The castle will temporarily provide them with food and grass. After Cole entered the castle, he immediately took over the city defense and sent all the garrisons of Greendale to collect food and grass.

Although this made Baron Medou very dissatisfied, Cole was really worried that the baron would directly become a traitor after seeing Renly's army.

After Renly was sure that his brother Stannis would not fight him, he quickly ordered the garrison at Bitterbridge to march to Storm's End. He himself only brought 20,000 vanguard troops to Bronzegate, most of which were cavalry.

There were still 40,000 garrisons at Bitterbridge, almost all of which were infantry and logistics. Although the rear army had more people, the combat power was almost concentrated on the 20,000 people Renly took with him.

The charge of armored cavalry against infantry was absolutely crushing. You should know that the so-called infantry here is not the kind of infantry wrapped tightly in armor, with swords hanging from their waists, steel spears in their hands, and javelins on their backs. They are pitchfork farmers who don't even have armor.

It is difficult for cavalry to be fully armored, let alone infantry. The neatly armored charge in the game is deceptive. It is extremely difficult to arm a hundred people, let alone tens of thousands of people.

Renly should have about a thousand armored cavalry, while Stannis has less than three hundred armored cavalry, and most of them are now given to Cole.

Cole then settled in Green Valley City, seemingly no longer paying attention to the earth-shaking war outside, and occasionally sent cavalry to intercept and kill the scouts coming here.

He didn't know that he had been scolded to death in Storm's End. Renly attacked the city so peacefully, and no one disturbed him when he cut trees and built equipment.

When the city walls of Storm's End were in full swing. On Rose Avenue, a huge convoy began to travel north, with a scale of nearly 10,000. When the leading carriage had reached the middle reaches of the Lambun River, the carriage at the end began to set off from the Bitter Bridge Camp. There had been a series of convoys passing by before, and under the escort of the army, all arrived safely in Bronze Gate City.

A pair of eyes in the sky followed the convoy closely. And in Green Valley City on the other side of the river, a silver-haired figure drew a few crosses on the line on the map.