Beneath the King's Gate, thick smoke from asphalt burning on siege engines covered large sections of the city walls. The flaming red heart banner on the head of the city was broken by arrows many times, but it always hung strong at the top of the flagpole...... Just like the city defense army that held the city walls.

Beneath the city walls, corpses lay on the ground, blood flowed all over the field, and the thick smell of blood and burnt paste overlapped, mixing into a strange and stimulating aura.

Stannis sat on the highest tower, heavily armed, but did not go into battle himself, but only overlooked the whole situation under the protection of his cronies, and duly directed the reserves to rush to the most critical points.

The Stormlands army with the Crown of Stags launched several charges against the walls, only to be shattered and repulsed like a tidal wave crashing against a reef, and the only siege warrior who climbed the city wall did not have time to envision which place he would become, when the Replenishment Force assigned by Stannis swarmed and slashed with his sword.

The battle continued from midday until the sun set in the west, and hundreds of Storm River Bend soldiers ordered the Fall King to come to the city, and after the last of the siege ladders were thrown into the battlefield but failed, the rear commander finally ordered the withdrawal of the troops.

The soldiers had long lost hope of taking the city wall today, and when they heard the sound of the long waiting cornet of retreat, they turned around and ran to the camp behind them like a traveler in the desert seeing a water source.

The defenders were also tired and tired, but their casualties were much smaller than the corpses strewn all over the city. And those who are careful will find that the casualty ratio of the attacking and defending sides is far more than 3:1, according to this trend, even if Lan Li kills all the troops outside the city, it will not be able to make the defenders lose more than half, not to mention that the defenders can continue to levy citizens to the city to help.

But before the heroes who were defending the city wall could breathe a sigh of relief, a new order was conveyed to all sections of the city wall: all those who could still walk gathered at the city gate and prepared to go out of the city to pursue!

......

Everything is in plan.

Standing high above the city, Stannis squinted contemptuously at the Blue Rite soldiers who were receding like the tide, and calculated the distance in his mind: he would open the door and attack the retreating enemy infantry when they were just halfway between the walls and the Blue Rite camp, and Barristan would lead the cavalry charge...... As long as they succeed in capturing the aircraft, their cavalry will drive the enemy's returning infantry to their own camp like ducks. As long as you use the rout army to disrupt the stormland cavalry guarding Lan Li's side, and then lead the rest of the infantry out of the city to attack the entangled Lan Li army......

If this move is successful, even if he can't take Lan Li, he can lose half of his army outside the king's gate and destroy the enemy's spirit of attacking the city. And then ...... All you need to do is sit firmly in King's Landing, calmly wait for the arrival of the three northern lands and the king's Qinwang troops, and the Iron Throne will sit firmly and securely, and no one can take it away.

Stannis pinched his fingers to count the time, but a panicked voice interrupted his train of thought. A Dragonstone Island soldier with crooked clothes and hat rushed to the city wall: "Your Majesty, the big thing is not good, the old city gate garrison ...... The auxiliary defense troops gathered by the king's leadership have mutinied, and they have opened the north gate of King's Landing and let the enemy into the city!"

"What?!" Stannis turned his head in surprise, and even the bones in his neck clicked with a crisp sound: "What about the city reserves? Let them rush to the north of the city and retake the city gates!"

"The ...... has been notified But Your Majesty, since the garrison of the old city gate will rebel, it is difficult to protect the Dragon Gate and the Gate of the Gods...... Even the golden robes in these places of the Red Fort are not the same, I implore Your Majesty to quickly retreat to the Red Fort, defend according to the danger, and plan later!"

Stannis, who was reminded, suddenly came to his senses: Eddard Stark gathered all the family members of the royal princes in the city into the Red Keep, not only to protect them, but also to take them hostage and force the relevant troops to defend the city...... If the mutinous garrison and the Storm River Bend Army of the advanced city go straight to the Red Fort...... The consequences are unimaginable!

"Leave a hundred men to continue to guard the gate, send someone to inform the defenders of the rest of the gates, and return to the Red Fort. Barristan! Bring the cavalry with me first, and clean up the rebels entering the city as soon as possible!"

＊＊＊

At the gate of the Red Fort, Egg looked at the dozen or so golden robes in front of him who raised their spears and pointed them at him, and wondered in his heart: Which side of the people is this? Should he turn around and flee back to the Red Fort now, or force himself to escape into the city?

Soon realizing that any of these options would have terrible consequences and undermine his hard-fought neutral status, he hesitated and decided to take the risk: "It's me!"

(The soldiers of the garrison in front of them are all very angry.) Egger made a frank appearance, riding a horse to approach the roadblocker, and after looking around, he secretly said that he didn't know the people in front of him. Fortunately, before he could figure out how to bluff a bunch of golden robes that he had never met, someone recognized him first: "Eggwest? What are you doing here?"

After making eye contact with the speaker for a second, Egg recognized him as the captain of the Old City Gate, a member of the Buckwell family, an important investor in the Night's Watch industry, and the one who recommended investment in the Night's Watch property to the Earl of Antlerhorn in the first place, and he was also on Tyrion's list of visits after escaping King's Landing...... As the captain of the old city gate guard, he didn't guard the north gate of King's Landing, what did he do in the Red Keep?

Of course, this question cannot be spoken, and it is even stranger for a night watchman to appear in the Red Keep at this moment than the old city gate guard: "Uh...... Hello, Sir Bookwell...... I've come to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to report on the Night's Watchman's income for the past two months. As soon as he saw that the door of the Red Keep was open and unguarded, he rode in...... What's going on here?"

The night watchman in front of him is a year-old friend who is very much valued by the head of the family, and he is also an important business partner of the Buckwell family, and the god of wealth in the eyes of countless forces. Sir Bookwell stared at Egger for a few seconds with the hilt of his sword, and finally decided not to get along with the money: "With all due respect, Lord Egger, what is happening here has nothing to do with you, hurry home and close the door, and when the chaos is over, continue to open the door and make a lot of money!"

Egger made eye contact with him, and quickly nodded calmly: "Hmm...... Understood, Eli, let's go, go home. ”

......

Arya often runs around the city, and often goes in and out of the King's Gate to go to the Night's Watch Industrial Park, Egger is now only afraid that she will be recognized, but the worst case did not happen in the end Luckily, Arya has never been to the old city gate, and at the moment she is dressed as a man dressed in black, and the attention of the soldiers of the garrison is all on Egg, thinking that the boy in black on another horse is Egger's squire, and under the order of the commander, he put away his spear, let the gate open and let them go.

Holding back his nervousness, Iger led the girl on horseback past a dozen golden-robed soldiers armed with steel spears, and came out of the Red Fort from the eyes of the rebels.

There are a lot of friends, and it can really come in handy at a critical moment!

"Master...... This...... What's going on?" Arya was so frightened by the corpse of her own guard that she had just seen that she stammered, "Sansa...... It's still in there, we'...... Is it just gone?"

......

Do you need to ask, the part of King's Landing's garrison that is loyal to the king's lordship...... It can even be said that the forces behind the Night's Watch industry and the sponsors of their own business betrayed Stannis and took advantage of the emptiness of the Red Keep's defenses to seize it at the moment of the Blue Rite siege, cutting off an important way back for the new king!

Cold sweat quickly wet his back, if it weren't for the fact that his own night watchman industry and the royal princes had formed a solid community of interests, and the garrison officer he met today happened to be a garrison officer who had dealt with each other and knew each other, and he was afraid that the chief logistics officer would have been killed by Arya if he was not confused. The army that staged the coup d'état has always been the most murderous executioner, and at the critical moment, who cares if you are dressed in black and are a night watchman who "does not interfere in the internal affairs of the Seven Kingdoms"?

The coup d'état surprised Egger, but when you think about it, it was not for nothing, and it could even be said that it was already predestined on the day Stannis ascended the throne: as the brothers raised the flag of rebellion and approached the capital, news spread in the city that the new king was about to implement a series of reforms: closing casinos and brothels, banning the printing and sale of small yellow books, and strictly limiting the frequency of jousting tournaments...... I don't know if it's true or not, but it fits the style of the "decent" Stannis very well.

It's a good thing to be decent, but if you touch the interests of others, you can't do itThere are a few brothels and casinos in King's Landing that are not the properties of the princes?

The damage to the interests of the nobles was not a big deal on normal times, but on the eve of the rebels' attack on King's Landing, how many of the neutrals who wavered between the two Baratheon brothers would fall to the Blue Rite?

......

Looking at the Red Keep behind him, the golden robes who launched the coup d'état did not chase after him, and even closed the door, Egg put the heart back in his stomach and glared at Arya in annoyance: "You and Sansa are members of the Stark family, since those soldiers want to help Lan Li compete for the throne, as long as they are not crazy, how can they hurt you? But now that you are with me, if they recognize me, I will be unlucky!" Don't say a word more, let's go!"

No matter how much she wanted to stay out of the matter, how much she cherished the neutrality of her night watch, Arya called herself a master after all. Although he deliberately made friends with her for the purpose of exploitation, how could he not have any feelings for such a long time? Egger could accept that she was captured by the renegade garrison in the Red Keep and fell into the hands of Lan Li, but he could never watch her be taken away from his hands. Although the ending is similar, the nature of the two situations is completely different, and in any case, people always have a little bottom line.

On the way back, Egg witnessed Stannis, dressed in military uniform, roaring back to the Red Keep with a group of cavalry...... Seeing their red-eyed and desperate posture, the idea of handing over Arya to their guardianship suddenly disappeared, and they couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly: how can it be that no matter what big things happen in King's Landing, he will always be involved?