At night, the whole of King's Landing was plunged into deathly darkness and silence.

In order to prevent fire and theft and to avoid the infiltration and destruction of spies, it is a routine operation to impose a curfew in the city at a critical moment when it is under siege, and naturally there is no need for much explanation.

But on top of that, Stannis has to be wary of Daenerys riding dragons at night...... Through the lights, you can observe the military layout in the city and the exact location of the Red Fort. The walls are full of dragon crossbows facing the sky, ready to be fired, but in the dark of night, the enemy garrison can only rely on sight, and they will probably not notice their existence until the dragon flies close and starts spewing fire.

Out of this concern, he added that the ...... was ordered Probably the first lighting control order ever in Westeros.

In the battle room, where thick curtains block the light, Stannis meditates on the sand table that represents the internal and external situation of King's Landing, but he can't find his chances of victory.

In his not too short life, this is the third time he has fallen into a predicament of exhaustion.

The first was the Siege of Storm's End. On that occasion, the army of the Riverlands under the command of Duke Mace Tyrell and the fleet of Qingting Island led by Earl Paxter Redwin carried out a year-long siege of the base camp of the raiders, and the defenders could only slaughter horses, cats, dogs and even rats for food, and they were only one step away from eating people. It was his brother Robert who miraculously overthrew the Targaryen dynasty at the Trident River and saved himself at the last moment.

The second time was when the two deer fought. His bastard brother's ambition was so big that he was in cahoots with Riverbend after Robert's death in a vain attempt to steal the Iron Throne. Under the cooperation of the traitors in King's Landing and the Tyrell army outside the city, he actually broke through the capital of the Seven Kingdoms and seized the Red Keep, drove himself back to Dragonstone, and illegally occupied the capital of the Seven Kingdoms!

But what about this time?

The Night's Watch raised the banner of rebellion, the north and the river rebelled, the west was thousands of miles away, the valley refused to respond to King Qin's call, and the remaining half of the kingdom was all mortal enemies...... Even Melisandre, the red-robed woman, had already left the court on the pretext of fighting against the god of cold, and she might be in the enemy's camp at the moment.

He has no reinforcements to look forward to, no witches to use inside, and occupies a throne that even sits down with his buttocks, and everyone betrays his relatives and leaves, which is a sign of despair!

Not only does he have little chance of winning militarily, but he even has to keep his ears up and be vigilant at all times, in case the other party also uses magic as a cheating method to taste the horror of shadow piercing his heart.

......

When he was exhausted, a doubt lingered in his heart.

When the Night's Watch asked King's Landing for help, did they not send troops north, was it really a mistake in strategic decision?

Judging from the results, the answer is undoubted, but even if he is given a hundred more chances to choose again, it will be difficult for him to make a different choice.

If he had sent a large army north to help fight the Wraiths, the troops left in the south would not have been able to stop the Golden Regiment's rampage and the siege of King's Landing by the Mad King's Daughter on land and sea...... When the time comes, I am afraid that the king who sent troops to the north has become his predecessor before the stranger has crossed the wall, and the soldiers of the Baratheon family have instead replaced the restored Targaryen family to defend the northernmost part of the country.

It is definitely a safe decision not to divide the army, but who would have thought: that girl of the Targaryen family, the remnant of the mad king's bloodline, actually sneaked herself to the Great Wall, not only just in time for the strange ghosts to enter around the wall to participate in the Armageddon of man and ghost, but also to accept the land gift, coerce the north, and swarm the forces north of the entire neck to the south to kill it?!

Affection...... What you do is wrong?

In this unbelievable evil situation, it was hard for him not to feel that she, Daenerys Targaryen, was the destiny of heaven, and that her false son of prophecy was only a stepping stone and a monument to her return as king, and a memorable stroke in her glorious achievements in the future!

It's all that day-killing Melisandre!

If it weren't for the red-robed woman's purging and encouragement all the way, he didn't have a strong desire for power, why would he work desperately to fight for the throne, kill his relatives and brothers against his principles, and abandon the Night's Watch at the critical moment when the kingdom needs to be protected, and finally gave the excuse of land donation and anti-water in the north, and ended up losing all his face!?

This bad psychological suggestion is too strong to blow the will of the person, and the expression on Stannis's usually serious face is already heavier.

"Your Majesty, rest assured, even with my not-so-keen eyes, we have at least three possible chances to win this offensive and defensive battle. ”

On the other side of the sand table, Stannis's prime minister, the famous Onion Knight Davos, saw the uneasiness and discouragement of his feudal lord, and promptly offered words of consolation.

"The fact that the Golden Regiment, Riverbend, and Dorne are neither united nor withdrawn on the south bank means that they are not exactly all the way. If the enemy is not united, this can bring infinite possibilities - the first way to survive is: if the rebels on all roads do not negotiate the terms of the distribution of spoils and start infighting or even a battle, we can sit back and reap the profits and even seize the opportunity to go out of the city to fight and crush the besieging enemy in one fell swoop; the second way of life is that even if the other side commits a deep breath and does not fight directly, the side that takes the lead in attacking the city will inevitably be restrained or even threatened by the spectators, and if the other side cannot attack with all its strength, we can calmly defend, delay time and wait for variables; With his knuckle intact right hand, he drew a triangle on the map between the four camps and King's Landing in the south and north of the Blackwater River, representing the enemy's three or more forces, "And even if the worst happens—the enemy has negotiated the terms of the spoils and decided to cooperate in the siege together, we still have a plan: since the siege side is too strong to resist, we simply rely on the three hills, especially the Red Fort, to establish multiple lines of defense in the city, and then let the enemy enter the city after feigning resistance." When the time comes, I don't dare to speculate on Riverbend and Dorne, but at least Daenerys and Aegon, two Targaryens, will surely covet the first achievement of 'taking the lead in breaking through the Red Keep and reclaiming the Iron Throne'. ”

"And once the other side has more ideas, the command will inevitably be confused. The several siege armies thought that we had given up our resistance and retreated back to the Red Keep, and that we would surely follow the avenues of the city to the high hills of Aegon......" Davos's finger struck several more times across the main roads of the city, "and when the time comes, we will empty the avenues and let them pass, and when the enemy is unable to balance the head and tail, we will kill them, cut them into several sections, try to cut down their banners, and kill their heralds." At that time, the defects of the enemy's many different commands will be exposed, and they will not only fall into chaos, but if they are lucky, they will also fight chaotically with each other because of the problems identified by the enemy and us.

Stannis sighed and followed the Prime Minister's point to the map.

He is also a veteran of the season, and of course his tactical acumen cannot be worse than a smuggler who has left home halfway, and he can think of all three pieces of advice made by Davos.

However, to put it bluntly, the first two are counting on pie in the sky - even if the enemy himself is really in chaos, as long as he is not lucky enough to explode Daenerys and Little Aegon in the chaos at the same time, then he will still only be able to catch his breath for a few more days to guard King's Landing and the Iron Throne.

Only the third plan is to give full play to one's own subjective initiative, and there is a real chance to turn defeat into victory and fight a lot.

However, it is easy to talk on paper, but how can it be so simple to operate?

Although the more than 10,000 defenders of King's Landing are all loyal and directly obey their orders, if you really want to elaborate, they are also divided into the "original team" of the Narrow Sea Princes brought out from Dragonstone, the Stormland Army, and the original King's Landing garrison. The number of these people has gone from small to large, but the degree of reliability and combat effectiveness have decreased in turn.

Unless he can command every soldier directly like a ghost controlling a dead man, the moment the enemy enters King's Landing, the defenders scattered throughout the city will surrender or even defect...... Let the originally well-planned counterattack strategy most likely become the last counterattack before his death and reputation, and annihilate a lot of waves in the overwhelming enemy.

Sitting still is not Stannis's style, desperate for a moment, he still cheered up, leaned down to the table, and approached the general terrain of King's Landing, trying to see some details that had been overlooked before from the intricate buildings and alleys, so as to judge what the chances of turning the tables were if the attack and defense really came to the step of breaking the city and street fighting. Whether it is one in ten thousand, or there is a few percent of the possibility, at least it will not be completely zero and hopeless.

And even if it's just one in 100,000 hope, it's worth fighting for!

When the onion saw that the king had stopped his daze and thoughts, he did not continue to speak, and the room fell silent, but at the same moment a series of footsteps came from far and near outside the house, and came to the door.

The guards informed the identity of the visitor, a soldier of the defenders of the Iron Gate in King's Landing.

"Your Majesty, the patrol ships of the royal fleet have intercepted a small boat in the eastern waters, and the person on board claims to be the emissary of the King of the Iron Islands, and has asked for an interview with you, what should we do?"

——