Fighting a war is like playing chess, and until the last battle of the last battle breaks out, the commander's orders play a crucial role in its direction.

The war is flanked by Aegon Targaryen and Daenerys Targaryen, but today the two sides are Egger West, the Alien Slayer, Savior of Humanity, and the Night's Watch Commander-in-Chief, and Jon Clinton, Earl of Eagle's Nest, patriarch of the Clinton family, and former Prime Minister of Daenerys' father.

The former crushed the latter in terms of fame and victory, but Earl Clinton also had his advantage, that is, he was fortunate enough to make all the mistakes that a man should have made in his youth without dying, and he had gone through all the hardships and was now sophisticated, cautious, and shrewd, and would be a respectable and difficult opponent for anyone.

Such a man leading the army, hoping to frighten his troops to collapse with a burst of artillery is tantamount to a fool's dream.

At the moment when he realized that the "thunder" was not a celestial phenomenon but some new weapon of the enemy, a great deal of thought had already gushed out of the depths of Earl Clinton's mind, and his rich experience in actual combat made him instantly consider all possible situations and dangers.

Among the many possibilities, there is a very extreme, but highly probable, scenario that poses the greatest threat to one's side: the Queen's Army on the North Shore has not only battled this new weapon that makes a roar, but is also ready to cross the river and ride the Dragon's Face, and even the Dorne Army to the south has been persuaded to ally with it, sharpen their knives, and prepare to attack their old rivals.

The direct casualties of the bombardment are only a drop in the bucket compared to the stampede caused by the collapse of order in the chaos and the dissipation of military discipline, the rout of soldiers being pursued by the enemy, and even the losses caused by the two bread clamps!

After arranging for the king and his wife to quickly leave the open area to find concealment, Earl Clinton vigorously commanded the core overseers to maintain order in the camp, sent the Golden Regiment to guard the banks of the Blackwater River, asked the allies to guard the south, and prepared the dragon crossbow for air defense......

Countless orders were distributed by a large number of heralds to all parts of the grassroots, after killing a few "chickens" and tens of thousands of "monkeys", the order of the battalion quickly stabilized, except for the fresh and terrifying experience of an iron ball falling every few seconds and ten seconds, the entire southern army entered the combat state, and began to assemble and move under the command and mobilization of the king's hand, and went to different positions.

Relying on the superiority of several times the number of troops, Clinton had many more chess pieces than Egger, and although he did not know the name of the artillery, he saw the advantages and disadvantages of this weapon: although the sound was terrifying, the number and power were insufficient.

So his countermeasure is: withstand the pressure and stay still like a mountain.

In a way, this is indeed the perfect way to crack it, even if Egger's solid cannonballs can hit a Confederate soldier every five rounds, the casualties he can cause if he finishes all the shells are only a few hundred? Accounting for 1 percent of the total number of the Yugoslav Army, the attrition rate is negligible, and it can be completely resisted.

However, the soldier though is a pawn of the commander? But it's a chess piece with thinking and feelings? It is impossible for each of them to be as strong as steel and to die.

The same casualties, the morale blow caused by 1,000 wounded enemies and 800 self-losses, or even 1,000 self-losses of 1,000 enemies? It's not as terrifying as being completely passively beaten - your own side has hundreds of casualties, but the opposite side doesn't even lose half a hair.

In the new command of the Yugoslav Army, a small dispute had just ended.

......

The new command post is a simple tent set up behind a small dirt slope with a large dead tree at the top of the dirt slope that can slightly block the shells? A temporary reinforcing parapet was built on the north wall of the tent with thick planks to ward off the attacks of the flying iron pills. At this moment, all the important people, including the king, the queen, and the upper lords? They were all huddled in it, dodging the artillery fire from the north shore.

Many of the nobles of the Riverlands, including Duke Mace Tyrell, expressed stress about being shelled? They all suggested retreating a few miles first and re-encamping before making plans? But Clinton knows? The Dorne army is likely to be waiting to the south for a misguided response, and if they are weak, they will immediately summon a stormy siege.

With the king's position as prime minister, Clinton was able to force the princes to stay where they were and be shot? But it didn't come without a price: he had to do something to fight back? so that the nobles willingly continue to obey him.

"Prime Minister, report from the riverbank! The enemy army is moving the raft at the water's edge, preparing to cross the river!"

"Let Captain Strykran set up a defensive formation, calm down, and wait for the enemy to cross the river halfway before attacking!"

"Your Excellency, the enemy troops on the other side of the river are not crossing the river by boat, but are connecting small boats with ropes, and are preparing to build a large number of pontoon bridges!"

Build a pontoon bridge? This night watchman has a lot of brains!

Jon Clinton's heart sank slightly, but he didn't panic: "Order the siege camp to move to the riverbank, set up long-range weapons, and obstruct the enemy's bridge!"

Information was sent into tents, orders were taken out, and soldiers braved the shells flying overhead.

The strategic objectives of the Southern Army include King's Landing, which has been stationed for so long and naturally has prepared siege equipment, but their range, even the maximum range, is completely incomparable to artillery. The catapults were pushed to the bank of the river, and after only a few shots, they had just wounded a few small boats that were not manned, and then they were met with a dense artillery fire: they had been parked in the large camp behind the wooden wall, and it was impossible to determine their exact location, but as soon as they were brought to the bank of the river, they were immediately exposed to the field of view of the observers, and the effective range of the artillery!

After another round of rumbling artillery, the Confederate army left behind a few corpses and several pieces of damaged equipment in disarray, and hastily evacuated the riverbank.

Realizing the huge disadvantage in range, Clinton thought of a stronger piece of equipment in his hands: the Dragon Hunting Crossbow.

Although this weapon is intended to deal with Daenerys's dragons, it is only an improved and upgraded version of the normal bed crossbow, and can be used against ground targets as long as the orientation is flattened - and the key point is that with all the high-quality craftsmanship and materials and parts known in this era, their maximum range is far superior to that of other ordinary weapons.

Dozens of siege equipment and dozens of dragon hunting crossbows, scattered and laid out layer by layer, are absolutely enough to completely overwhelm the north shore in terms of quantity, and force them to shoot at each other against the disadvantage of insufficient range and far inferior power!

However, just when Clinton was struggling with whether to take the risk, the two demon dragons they had been "looking forward to" for a long time finally appeared - after hovering a few times at an altitude of hundreds of meters beyond the reach of the dragon hunting crossbow, they fell into the industrial park on the opposite bank!

Although it did not land and spew flames, the dragon's entry completely dispelled Clinton's plan to hunt the dragon's crossbow for other purposes.

"Prime Minister, the situation is stronger than people, there is no need to hold on any longer, please order a retreat!"

Duke Mace Tyrell was distressed and persuaded that the equipment and personnel of the siege camp were from the riverbend, and he was naturally in pain, and although it was a little inappropriate to point fingers at the prime minister on the day he became the king's father-in-law, he had already given Earl Clinton the opportunity to prove his ability, and the fact was that he could not deal with the night watchman.

"Lord Tyrrell, don't be impatient, even if you want to evacuate, you must only act after figuring out the position of the Dorne army, ensuring the safety of the rear road, and negotiating a proper strategy.

"The Dorne army did not leave the camp, and the scouts were expelled as they approached their camp!"

Is it good news?

Not necessarily, if the Dornes took advantage of the cannon fire to attack, then the two sides could clearly understand the hostility and fight happily, relying on the advantage of the defenders of the camp, the strength was far superior to the enemy's riverbend army, if not a big victory, it was impossible to be defeated.

Just like the Queen's two dragons hovering overhead and falling into the industrial park, the most fatal thing is this intermediate state.

After a moment of relief, more pressure came up.

Are these two events a coincidence, or is it a pressure move by the enemy to slowly tighten the noose?

"I understand what the Prime Minister is worried about. Margaery suddenly spoke, as a woman, she was not qualified to participate in the battle meeting, but now that she is in this house, at a critical juncture, she naturally wants to say what she thinks: "Defending the camp, we can also rely on the deep ditch and high fortress and a large number of erected dragon hunting crossbows to fight against the invading enemy and the demon dragon in the sky, once we retreat, we will definitely be defeated if we are attacked by the enemy army and the demon dragon in the wilderness." But Mr. Clinton, have you ever thought of a possibility: Egger did not start to connect the boats to prepare the pontoon bridge until the battle, not because he did not think of it in advance, but because he did not intend to attack at all at all? His real plan was to keep bombarding with that gunpowder weapon until our morale completely collapsed? From what I know of Egger this person, he will never let his advantage go and talk to the enemy about rules and reason, he is afraid that he is fighting this idea!"

A group of nobles began to discuss with each other, and many of them unequivocally supported the queen's opinion, and Clinton, who had been resolute, was hesitantly silent: Margaery's words actually revealed his true thoughts—deep down, he felt that his opponent today was young and vigorous, and would inevitably take advantage of the advantages of new weapons to attack the whole army to seek a decisive battle.

If the guess is correct, it is naturally the best choice to stick to the big camp and engage under artillery fire, but if the guess is wrong, the other party will only shoot artillery and not send troops like a despicable scoundrel, and drag on until their own morale is exhausted, then the Southern Coalition will face a catastrophe!

"If Iger was going to take advantage of the chaos, most of the river would have been halfway crossed by now. Margaery no longer spoke to Clinton, but turned to her husband, the young King Aegon, "Your Majesty, there are two paths before us now - either retreat immediately or never retreat, and carry it to the end, please decide!"

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