Kalin Bay is an abandoned castle at the northern end of the Great Marsh Neck, and also a former stronghold of the First Men.
It is a natural choke point, protecting the North from southern invasions for thousands of years.
This is the territory of the North, naturally under the jurisdiction of the Stark Family, but it has been uninhabited for several centuries.
Until recently, Duke Kregen issued a conscription order.
Lord Reed, located in Greywater Watch, led his troops north, and after a three or four-day forced march, arrived at Kalin Bay just in time to rest.
Kalin Bay was once a magnificent fortress, with twenty towers, a wooden fort, and basalt walls as high as Winterfell.
But after the erosion of time, the former walls have completely disappeared, leaving only large pieces of black basalt scattered around, half sunken into the ground where the ramparts once stood.
The wooden towers had already rotted and been eaten by worms a thousand years ago, and only three towers, covered in green moss and white ghost grass, remained of the twenty.
However, if a war were to truly break out, the strategic position of the three remaining towers of Kalin Bay would be quite important.
Because to attack one of the towers, the enemy army would have to wade through waist-deep black mud,
cross a moat infested with lizard-lions, and then climb the moss-covered, slippery walls.
Normally, only a few hundred archers would be needed to defend these three towers, and almost no army could force their way up the towers under the arrow rain attack from the archers on the other two towers.
However, this is only in the case of attacking from south to north.
Because its original purpose was to defend against attacks from the south, its north side, and the west side bordering the Hot Waves River, are very vulnerable.
The Gatehouse Tower is one of the three remaining towers of Kalin Bay.
It is currently the only tower that looks relatively intact, with even a few feet of wall remaining on both sides.
Therefore, Lord Reed, who commanded nearly a thousand Greywater Watch soldiers, naturally occupied it as his temporary residence.
After sending people to clean the tower, Lord Reed brought his family members and high and middle-level officers to rest here.
Except for the personal guards and two hundred elite direct subordinates stationed here, the remaining seven hundred or so people camped and rested around the other two dilapidated towers.
Night gradually fell, and ten kilometers northwest of Kalin Bay was the Hot Waves River.
At this moment, a long line of lights was moving rapidly on the Hot Waves River, and it was only when this line of lights approached the shore that it could be seen clearly.
It turned out to be hundreds of Ironborn longships flying the Ironmen flag, this was the famous Iron Fleet.
If the Hot Waves River had not been too narrow, perhaps even more Ironborn longships would have come.
"King Dalton, why are we rushing day and night from Seagard to Kalin Bay?
Anyway, Kalin Bay has been undefended for hundreds of years, it's just a few broken towers.
We can just sail over slowly, occupy it for a few days, and casually deal with that boy from House Tully!
The brothers haven't even tasted how good the women of Seagard are yet!" Veyron Greyjoy complained to Dalton Greyjoy as soon as he got off the ship.
"Aemon Tully specifically instructed us to sail to Kalin Bay slowly, there must be some purpose.
So I simply rushed day and night, let's go, let's go see what's special about this place now." Dalton, fully armed, glanced at his brother and replied in a deep voice.
"Yes, leave two hundred brothers to watch our longships, and the remaining three thousand one hundred brothers will follow us!" As Veyron shouted the order, except for two hundred Ironborn left to guard the longships, the rest of the Ironborn, carrying torches, walked towards Kalin Bay, following the Dalton brothers.
These more than three thousand Ironborn were a large, dense group, and there was no formation or order during the march.
And the Dalton brothers also took it for granted and did not speak out to reprimand or command these Ironborn.
Just like that, this large moving fire mass, which was particularly obvious from a distance, arrived near Kalin Bay after more than two hours.
The night was already deep at this moment, and most of the Greywater Watch soldiers stationed in Kalin Bay had already fallen asleep.
So, except for scattered campfires, there wasn't much light.
The Ironborn walking in the front quickly reported this information to the Dalton brothers,
and they thought it was just some merchants traveling north and south, and they would just rob and kill them.
If it were really the army stationed here, they would have discovered them long ago and blown the horn, preparing for battle.
Just as the Dalton brothers thought, the archer sentinels on the three towers had long ago discovered this huge moving fire mass composed of more than three thousand torches.
And they reported this information to Lord Reed, who, upon hearing the news, waved his hand carelessly,
telling his soldiers to wait until the other party came over and then make contact.
The only armies that could come from the west of Kalin Bay were those from Flint's Finger and Barrowton.
If it were really an enemy, why would they come so ostentatiously with torches? Wouldn't a sneak attack be better?
It's a coincidence that both sides had the same mindset.
To be honest, if Dalton had truly followed Aemon Tully's instructions and sailed slowly,
they should have been able to perfectly stagger the time, with Lord Reed leading the army north, and the Ironborn army being able to occupy Kalin Bay without losing a single soldier.
But due to various reasons and changes, this seemingly miraculous encounter battle at Kalin Bay occurred.
...
The Ironborn army continued to advance for more than ten minutes, and the Ironborn in the front, carrying torches, had already entered visual range.
When they saw hundreds of soldiers lying or sitting around the three towers, and a large number of black crocodile banners fluttering in the night wind, they were instantly stunned.
And the Greywater Watch soldiers on night duty around the towers, as well as the archer sentinels on top of the towers, had the same expression.
Finally, the first to react were the archer sentinels of the Leed Family.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
More than ten arrows suddenly shot from the top of the three towers towards the dense Ironborn army.
Instantly shooting down more than a dozen Ironborn who had no formation and were crowded together.
Woo!!!
A sharp horn sounded, instantly breaking the quiet night of Kalin Bay.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The Greywater Watch soldiers living in the Neck are called Crannogmen by the Seven Kingdoms.
Most of them are hunters skilled in archery, and they also poison their arrows.
The Greywater Watch soldiers awakened by the horn immediately picked up their bows and arrows and shot fiercely at the unprepared Ironborn army in front of them.
"Enemy attack, enemy attack!
Find cover, find cover and hide first!" Although land warfare is not the Ironborn's strength, Dalton has extremely rich combat and command experience.
Without waiting for the Ironborn in front to report the situation, he immediately ordered all his Ironborn to hide.
After leaving behind one or two hundred bodies, the Ironborn army scattered and hid in the woods around the three towers.
After entering combat state, Dalton immediately started thinking about how to fight.
The weapons of these more than three thousand Ironborn were varied, some carried bows and arrows and held short daggers, while some used various long and short swords.
Most of the Ironborn used short-handled battle axes.
The handle of this battle axe is about a meter long, which is convenient for holding and can also unleash the power of chopping.
And a hook is added to the back of the axe handle, which was originally used to hook the gunwale to climb or to hook enemies to attack.
But they did not bring shields, after all, the brave Ironborn always attacked by boarding ships in naval battles.
So there was only one way before Dalton, and that was to charge through by sheer numbers.
Fortunately, the enemy's vigilance was not high, allowing them to walk so close to the three towers.
At this distance, the enemy can only shoot at most two rounds of arrows, and the Ironborn will be able to rush to the bottom of the three towers.
As long as they can fight at close quarters, Dalton is very confident in the combat strength of his brothers.
As soon as the battle plan was made in his mind, he quickly assigned the attack targets and corresponding Commanders.
Dalton, as the King Dalton, naturally led a thousand Ironborn to attack the well-preserved and most defensible Gatehouse Tower.
And his brother Veyron led a thousand Ironborn to attack the Children of the Forest Tower, which looked tall, thin, and pointed, with half of its spire missing.
Finally, a capable subordinate, Bob Pike, led the remaining thousand Ironborn to attack the leaning Drunkard's Tower.
When Dalton ordered the attack horn to be blown, their three Ironborn armies attacked the three towers almost simultaneously.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
There are now hundreds of Greywater Watch soldiers holding bows and arrows in the three towers of Kalin Bay, waiting with their strings drawn.
When these three teams of Ironborn rushed out of the hiding forest, it was a wave of free shooting.
The arrows shot by the archers on the towers drew beautiful parabolas and fell into the charging Ironborn army.
And the other Greywater Watch soldiers below the city wall directly shot the arrows in their hands in a more damaging flat trajectory.
Suffering attacks from two directions at the same time, these three Ironborn armies charging head-on immediately suffered heavy casualties.
Ah!
Except for the Dalton brothers and important officers who wore double-layered armor, the other Ironborn wore thin, tight leather armor.
This leather armor made the Ironborn very Agile, but it could only weaken some of the cutting force of swords and knives, and could not block the penetrating power of sharp arrows at all.
A unlucky Ironborn next to Dalton was shot in the eye by an arrow, and the sharp arrowhead, dripping with blood, pierced through the back of his head, and he fell to the ground without a sound.
Another Ironborn was shot in the chest by an arrow, and the sharp arrow pierced through his leather armor and his body.
This Ironborn fell to the ground, spitting blood and screaming, while grabbing Dalton's calf, wanting him to save him.
Rip!
nightfall in Dalton's hand slashed across the Ironborn's throat, directly cutting off his head.
"What is dead may never die!
While they are re-nocking and drawing their bows, brothers, charge through!
The first to ascend the tower will be rewarded fifty Golden Dragons, and afterwards you can choose any slaves and salt wives you plunder in the North!" Dalton, after helping the suffering Ironborn die cleanly, loudly motivated his troops with a heavy reward.
For these Ironborn who lived by plunder, this tactic was indeed very effective.
Charge!
One after another, the Ironborn, with red eyes, shouted and screamed fearlessly, rushing towards the three towers at extremely high speed.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
There were a total of over six hundred archers near the three towers of Kalin Bay.
Because the cunning Ironborn were scattered and using trees for cover, the two rounds of arrows they shot only caused about five hundred Ironborn casualties before the enemy approached the towers.
And before the Ironborn approached the towers, the other three hundred Greywater Watch soldiers, who had already been awakened, had entered the towers and were ready for battle.
They held sharp spears that gleamed with cold light, waiting silently.
Bang!
When a dull thud sounded outside the tower, the spearmen in the tower knew that the enemy had arrived.
Bang bang bang!
Many Ironborn outside the tower fell to the ground haphazardly, there was not only slippery moss on the ground, but also a lot of frozen black ice.
After all, in the severe cold weather of the North, any dew will form invisible but extremely slippery black ice.
"Stab!"
A Commander in the tower, watching the Ironborn climb up from the ground, supporting themselves on the wall, immediately shouted.
Pfft!
Hundreds of sharp spears that gleamed with cold light stabbed out fiercely from the various round holes in the already dilapidated tower.
An unlucky Ironborn was instantly stabbed in the eye by a spear, and the entire spearhead pierced into his head.
And he did not fall to the ground, but hung limply on that spear.
"Retract!"
Following the Commander's second order in the tower, the forest of spears, which had killed at least dozens of Ironborn this time, slowly retracted through those broken holes.
Bang bang bang!
After the Ironborn bodies hanging on the spears were pulled out, they all fell to the ground, and a large amount of blood slowly oozed from beneath the bodies.
Now these three towers are like three hedgehogs that can freely extend and retract their sharp quills, causing great damage to anyone who dares to offend them.
"Hmph, they're really a bunch of cowards.
Have the brothers with bows and arrows come over and shoot arrows into these broken holes with all their might.
Then the other brothers get ready to follow me and charge in together!" Dalton snorted disdainfully at the Greywater Watch soldiers who were cowering in the towers and defending with spears, then loudly gave his command.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The Ironborn archers who had followed the order took advantage of the moment when the spears were all retracted, and accurately shot through the large and small broken holes in the wall.
Ah!
Although many arrows were blocked outside by the spears blocking the holes, two or three managed to shoot into the interior of the tower through the round holes, piercing into the flesh and blood of the spearmen inside.
One of the spearmen was shot in the head and fell straight down. And the other two spearmen were shot in the body and fell to the ground screaming.
"Damn it, give these two brothers first aid, and then have three brothers go and fill the positions!" Seeing a gap in the spear formation in the tower, the Commander immediately directed the rescue and replacement.
The Greywater Watch soldiers waiting on the side stepped forward, dragging the two people and a body to the corner of the tower, and then began first aid.
And the other three stepped forward to fill the gaps.
For now, the three towers of Kalin Bay can still be defended.
But in terms of numbers, the Greywater Watch soldiers are far fewer than the Ironborn army, they cannot afford to lose!
At the same time, Jacaerys, far away in Essos, received urgent intelligence from King's Landing.
Only now did he know that rebellion had broken out again in the Riverlands of the Seven Kingdoms, and the White Walkers had somehow been resurrected and was starting to move south.
Baela had gone to the North alone on Moondancer, and there had been no news of her until now.
And according to the intelligence here, the ground forces of Lys and Volantis in the Disputed Lands are gathering together.
The remaining fleet of Braavos is also restless, seemingly brewing a great storm.
Now, Jacaerys faces a choice, to return to Westeros, or to continue to stay in Essos!