Putting down the well-made and valuable Mill lens in his hand, the current leader of the Golden Regiment, "Homeless" Harry Strykland, sighed, and the hot vapor exhaled quickly turned into a white mist in the cold air.

There are two emotions in this sigh.

One is admiration.

Not only admired the appearance and morale of the black army that was assembling on the bank on the other side of the river, but also the command of the legendary commander-in-chief of the Night's Watch.

Strykerland always thought old Griffin was ...... No, Jon Clinton, or the Prime Minister, is already a steady old dog, who would have thought that now he would encounter an even more difficult one: the land-giving army has been on the banks of the Blackwater River for more than an hour, and the pontoon bridge has already been erected, but they just stand in the cold wind and wait, and do not launch a river crossing operation.

He knew what the enemy was waiting for: in the coalition camp behind him, the troops of the princes of the Riverlands were braving artillery fire to sort out the grain and grass and carry out a large retreat in a panic.

The commander on the opposite side must have known that if he crossed the river too early, he would most likely face tens of thousands of troops in the river bends that had not yet retreated, and it would be easy to overturn in the event of a counterattack. Therefore, they had to wait until most of their side had withdrawn and only the troops behind the palace - that is, their own golden regiment - before they calmly began to cross the river to deal with themselves who were isolated and helpless.

The second is extremely unpleasant.

Thinking of this, Strycland was angry: in his opinion, in the face of that strange new weapon that would roar, the coalition army should happily abandon the barracks and retreat with the whole army, and the 50,000 fully organized and fully armed troops will move together, and then borrow a few dares from Egger West or the Dorn, they will never dare to chase after them.

Even if you don't want to leave the supplies to the enemy, you can burn them down!

But the insatiable nobles of the river bend were reluctant to leave anything else when they escaped, and they wanted to take away all their belongings except for the guard tower wall of the camp, and it was best not to leave even a tent cloth.

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The baggage will not only slow down the evacuation, but also consume a large number of troops to escort, affecting the formation and combat effectiveness of the entire army. In this case, if the commander of the land-giving army on the opposite side did not give the order to try to pursue it, he felt that he could not say anything.

In order to avoid the extreme situation of being crushed by the enemy on the back of the abdomen and protect the transfer of large troops with supplies, it is necessary to stay behind the troops.

So, little Griffin, no...... King Aegon personally ordered this difficult and important task to be entrusted to the Golden Regiment.

In this way, the strongest mercenary group that once dominated Essos, came by boat from the other side of the Narrow Sea, and was reduced to the situation of protecting the butts of a bunch of stupid nobles!

him...... No, them!

Scolding and scolding, but Strycland also knew that Aegon made such an arrangement not because he had any opinions about the Golden Regiment and wanted to take the opportunity to weaken them, but simply because: the order to retreat was given by him, and if he assigned the Riverlands army to stay behind, not only would he be suspected of "saving himself and consuming his allies", but Riverlands would also have to quarrel and discuss "which or families should keep the palace".

In order to avoid causing internal disputes or wasting too much time planning for the battle, King Aegon had no choice but to let his "own people", that is, the Golden Regiment, suffer a loss.

......

Back to the battlefield.

Just looking at the posture of the entire team of the land-giving army on the other side of the river, Stryclan could tell that this was an elite division, and even across the entire Blackwater River, he seemed to feel the murderous aura in them.

If he had been skeptical of the rumors that the Night's Watch had repelled the Strangers and saved the Seven Kingdoms, but now that he had grasped the momentum of this black-clad army? He was finally convinced.

Such an army that is both fierce and equipped with powerful weapons? It is completely reasonable to be able to repel the army of the dead, and even kill through the northern rivers to the banks of the Blackwater River.

If they meet in the plains and wilderness, Strykland is usually reluctant to fight such a terrifying army - although the Golden Regiment is more numerous than the Land-Granting Army, and the quality of individual soldiers is not bad, they are mercenaries? And the mercenaries? There will be no war without benefit.

Head-to-head with a strong opponent of equal strength? Break the bloodstream? Even if you win? Can you get more than a good name? But how many will survive to enjoy the fruits of victory?

To use an extreme analogy: the reorganization is a golden regiment of 10,000 people, and after a bloody battle, more than 9,000 were killed and wounded? The remaining hundreds of remnants of the defeated army? Dare to go...... Can you afford to ask your employer for the death pensions of the more than 9,000 people who died?

Hit a well-meaning employer? Probably a severance pay will be given to the rest of the people, black-hearted, silently dispose of the people who come to ask for the account and then repay the debt, in the dark and chaotic history of the free trade castle, it is not that this kind of thing has not happened!

Defeats can be eaten, losses can be had, but they must not be fought to the point that they even lose the capital to ask for accounts, this is the logic and philosophy of Harry Stryclan's management of the Golden Regiment.

He commanded the mercenary group, and if he encountered a strong enemy, he would often retreat after a "hard fight", and if he encountered other mercenary groups that had no blood feud, it would be even simpler - the two sides sat down to drink and compare the military strength, and after knowing who was strong and who was weak, they would "fight" a "bloody battle" to create some momentum, and the weak side would take the initiative to retreat.

It not only made a difference but also kept the lifeblood of the legion, so why not.

Of course, a small mercenary group can't do this, and it will soon be so bad that it can't take on business, but the golden group can. Because they are the top mercenary groups, only large Dothrakkalasa and a large legion of the Unsullied can force them back, and in the vast majority of cases, the opposing side will feel "defeated".

Isn't the employer looking for a mercenary group just to win the battle? Who would nervously demand that the mercenary group must have a certain number of achievements or kill all the opposing sides?

It's not like this kind of strange request Harry Stryclan hasn't encountered before, add money, as long as the money is in place, anything can be said!

Indeed, under this logic, Harry Strycoland is secretly known as "the most cowardly leader in the history of the Golden Regiment", and the reputation of the Legion in the past ten years has indeed decreased slightly compared to the past, but it is still at the top of the food chain, and it is developing better and better, isn't this also an achievement!?

＊＊＊

Normally, Strycland would not take on the terrible and dangerous task of "covering the retreat of the large army", especially when dealing with a strong army with dragons and cannons on the other side of the river. But today, despite his complaints, he went to the front in person, observed the battle situation covertly outside the field of view of the artillerymen on the other side of the river, and conducted the command of each hundred-man detachment down to the detail.

Conscientious, but not because of loyalty, but because there is no way back.

The Golden Regiment has invested too much.

More than 10,000 elite soldiers of the Legion crossed the sea to Westeros in the stormy autumn, losing and scattering more than 2,000 on the way, and another 3,000 casualties in the long and chaotic battle of the stormlands, although they were later supplemented by the selection and recruitment of locals with excellent quality, and now there is no surplus of more than 6,000 people.

He had already spent half of his chips in this gamble, and if he broke with him today because of an order to King Aegon, all the investment he had made in the early days would have been wasted.

And the reason why he made such a heroic side, which was completely inconsistent with his cautious character, was because the expected benefits of this war were far greater than before.

Harry Stryclan's nickname "Homeless" does not mean that he has no place to live (in fact, he has a lot of personal property and has a small fortune in several free trade city-states), but because his ancestors were once one of the nobles of Westeros, and it was only because of his failed support of the Blackfire Rebellion that he was stripped of his title and exiled outside Westeros.

Although he always happily boasts of his "four generations loyal to the Golden Regiment" on weekdays, it is just a helpless misery.

, what's so proud about being a mercenary?

Mercenaries are well-paid, mercenaries are unrestrained, and mercenaries are free and romantic...... That's right, but mercenaries don't die well.

Stryclan had thought that when he died, his skull would be boiled and fleshed and gilded with gold, and later generations would hang it on the top of his spear as a military flag, but more than two years ago, the fat man of Illyrio of Pantos offered a very different way out - to support Aegon Targaryen's restoration.

Once this happens, the Stryclans will regain their fiefdom, and he will also change from a wandering mercenary back to a member of Westeros, completely getting rid of the name of "homeless" and becoming a homeless Earl Harry Stryclan!

When a mercenary wins a battle, he can get a bag of gold at most, and after he succeeds in the dragon country, he can become a hereditary nobleman!

He will be able to spend the rest of his life comfortably in his own castle, in the service of his maids and servants, in the warm lord's chamber with a burning fireplace, on a luxurious bed covered in velvet, and buried in the family cemetery behind the manor, to be admired and prayed to by future generations!

And these, for him, who is tired of running around the world, either fighting or licking blood on the way to battle, is really more tempting than how lucrative the mercenary contract is!

......

A long, mournful trumpet brought Harry Stryclan back to reality from his vision of the future, and he didn't need to lift the lens anymore to realize that the land giveaways on the other side had begun to cross the river!

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