As the Commander of Grus said before, it was Beoro who had betrayed the covenant back then.
However, since Grus is a fortress city, the city walls are very wide and long, and there are several circular towers in the middle of the city walls blocking the line of sight.
If one were to rely solely on a Commander, they would be unable to oversee the entire situation, leading to loopholes in command.
So Beoro led a group of personal guards and heralds in the central command, having his left and right hands, 'Butcher' Viller and 'Viper' Gery, assist in the defense on the left and right sides of the city wall.
'Viper' Gery has a short gray beard, a hooked nose, and long hair that reaches past his shoulders.
He often wears a magnificent golden cloak over his tall, thin body.
From his appearance alone, it was impossible to see any connection to his nickname.
But friends who were familiar with him, or enemies who had fought him, all knew.
Gery is cunning and deceitful, like a viper hidden in a cave, only revealing its fangs when it is time for a fatal strike.
As for 'Butcher' Viller, he is a warrior with extremely rich battlefield experience, known for his burly physique and cruel bloodlust.
These two, one scholarly and one martial, were chosen by Beoro from his many pirate subordinates; they could each hold their own and fully share the burden for him.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Edmund's soldiers quickly moved forward pushing siege towers; since the forest was located on the right side of Grus, they quickly arrived at the section of the right city wall defended by Gery.
Without any hesitation, as soon as Gery saw the enemy army enter range, he immediately ordered the archers to nock and fire in unison.
Thud thud thud!
Arrows continuously struck the siege towers, but Edmund's soldiers hidden within the siege towers were already tightly gripping the edges of the siege towers.
When they heard the sound of arrows piercing the air, they skillfully ducked and hid inside the siege towers covered with raw oxhide, and were not greatly harmed.
Those pushing the siege towers were all civilians temporarily rounded up from various places in the Disputed Lands, and their equipment was clearly several grades worse than that of Edmund's soldiers.
Therefore, the rain of arrows that fell among the civilian crowd produced a very good killing effect.
However, the entire right side of Grus was defended by less than three thousand five hundred soldiers, and there were less than a hundred archers.
Compared to the dense mass of at least ten to twenty thousand civilians from the Disputed Lands below the city wall, the damage caused by this arrow rain was basically negligible.
Gurgle, gurgle!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
When over a dozen siege towers were pushed to the front of the south city wall and were no longer swaying, Edmund's archers hidden inside the siege towers immediately stood up and began to draw their bows and shoot at the south city wall.
The archers on the Grus city wall and Edmund's archers on the enemy siege towers thus began to shoot at each other.
Since the siege towers were built a section higher than the Grus city wall, the archers on the enemy siege towers clearly held a shooting advantage.
At the same time, other Westerlands archers who had entered shooting range began to shoot upwards from below the city wall.
However, at most seven or eight archers could stand on an enemy siege tower, and the force and accuracy of arrows shot from below upwards were very poor.
So for a time, the battle between the archers was back and forth, evenly matched.
While their own archers were providing suppression, the civilians from the Disputed Lands close to the bottom of the city wall propped dozens of siege ladders steadily against the city wall.
Some brave civilians whose courage had been spurred by pre-battle rewards immediately climbed up the ladders, wanting to compete for the generous reward for being the first to scale the city.
However, reward and risk are directly proportional!
Bang bang bang!
What greeted them were countless stones from above, and blood and brains immediately splattered everywhere.
The first batch of brave attacking civilians thus simply and easily died below the city wall.
As the frequency of stones being thrown down from the city wall decreased, the attacking civilians had slowly climbed to the upper half of the siege ladders, nearing the parapets of Grus.
Two Grus soldiers who had already prepared for the defense, waited until these attacking civilians were about to reach the top.
At the same time, using the 'Y'-shaped fork sticks in their hands, they hooked the left and right sides of the siege ladders and then violently pushed them back.
Ah! Ah!
Bang!
The seven or eight attacking civilians on the siege ladder that was successfully pushed away fell heavily to the hard ground with cries of alarm.
The attacking civilians who had not climbed high at the bottom of the siege ladder were fine, basically not suffering any serious injuries.
But the two or three attacking civilians at the front were lying in slowly seeping pools of blood, twitching non-stop.
An unlucky archer at the bottom of the city wall was just hit by an attacking civilian falling from the sky, and both fell to the ground, their fates unknown.
Gurgle, gurgle!
Due to the significant difference in numbers between the two sides, the defending archers on the Grus city wall were gradually suppressed.
The siege towers were activated again, starting to move closer to the city wall.
"Prepare to throw oil!"
Gery calmly gave the order to his herald, then as if remembering something, he stopped the herald who was about to leave and continued, "Oh, and remember to inform Lord Beoro in the middle and Viller on the left city wall of this order."
"Yes, sir!"
Lord Beoro may not know Viller's background, but his subordinates are very clear about each other.
Viller looks burly and has the frightening name of 'Butcher'.
In reality, he is a very cautious and timid person. Gery was worried that the section of the city wall he was defending would have problems, so he specifically sent the herald to inform him.
But he couldn't say these words directly to Beoro.
If he did, setting aside the immediate confrontation with Viller.
Even Beoro would probably think that Gery was trying to curry favor and seize power by speaking ill of Viller behind his back.
After all, Viller's previous reputation was indeed earned through his own efforts.
Getting back to the main point!
When Edmund's siege towers moved to a distance of about four or five meters from the Grus city wall, Edmund's soldiers armed with swords and shields, hidden on the second level of the siege towers, nervously swallowed their saliva.
At first, there had been the sound of arrows hitting the siege towers, but now it had eerily stopped and become quiet.
It was this abnormal silence that caused their tension to skyrocket to its peak.
Bang!
The siege towers reached a position about two meters from the Grus city wall, and the archers at the top cut the sturdy ropes tied to the left and right sides, causing the thick rampart at the top of the siege tower to smash directly onto the Grus city wall.
Ah!
Edmund's soldiers hidden on the second level immediately vented their tension with roars.
As soon as the rampart fell, they stepped onto the thick rampart that had become a gangplank and charged towards the Grus city wall.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Crack!
The enemy archers who had been waiting for them saw this and immediately drew their bows and fired.
At the same time, the defending soldiers holding clay pots with burning rags stuffed in the necks threw these just-ignited clay pots fiercely at Edmund's soldiers who were preparing to board the Grus city wall.
Most of the arrows were blocked by Edmund's soldiers holding shields, but the clay pots that hit them instantly shattered, and the black oil inside the clay pots immediately spilled all over the shields and Edmund's soldiers.
Ah!!!
The flames on the rags directly ignited the black oil, and the few Edmund's soldiers who were the first to rush out of the siege tower immediately became human torches.
Two soldiers covered in flames panicked and jumped directly from the siege tower. The other few, still burning, jumped towards the Grus city wall.
Hiss!
As soon as these few Edmund's soldiers jumped onto the parapet, a line of Grus guards armed with long spears directly stabbed them down from the city wall.
One burning soldier luckily avoided the spear attack and stepped onto the Grus city wall.
The infantry behind the spear guards, with long swords or axes in their hands, directly hacked him into a bloody mess.
In the central area of the Grus south city wall, Beoro completely disregarded his own danger and was personally participating in the battle, wielding an axe.
His posture in battle with the axe looked brave, still having the demeanor of a former fierce general.
But in reality, he was surrounded by a layer of elite personal guards.
After Edmund's soldiers jumped down from the siege towers, it was difficult for them to break through these elite personal guards with their excellent martial skills and get close to Edmund.
Indeed, Beoro's current status is different from when he was a pirate.
He is the Commander-in-chief of the ground forces of the two-city allied army.
If he were to be harmed in close combat, this last fortress city would basically be handed over.
Huff, huff!
Viller hid behind a group of shield-bearing personal guards, quietly watching Edmund's soldiers who had already started climbing the city wall via the siege towers.
With his current status, he indeed no longer needed to participate in the battle personally; he only needed to stay here and direct the defense.
As early as when he heard that this group of Westeros enemies had several dragons capable of burning cities, the idea that dragons were invincible had taken root in his mind.
Although the enemy dragons had not yet appeared, Viller had already prepared to flee at any time, and he had even prepared a boat for escape.
Viller is not a fool; on the contrary, he sees things very clearly.
He had been plundering everywhere as a pirate for so many years, wasn't it all for the sake of enjoying himself later?
With creatures like dragons, which usually appear in stories, appearing in the enemy army's ranks, what was the point of fighting anymore?
Whoosh!
While Viller was lost in thought, a stray arrow with a whistling sound shot through a gap in a personal guard's shield.
It passed by Viller's ear, piercing the throat of a tall personal attendant beside him.
Gurgle, gurgle!
The tall personal attendant, spitting blood from his mouth, seemed to want to say something to Viller, but ultimately couldn't make a sound and fell softly to the ground.
Viller watched the personal attendant take his last breath, and his face suddenly became somewhat grim.
The most feared thing on the battlefield is this kind of stray arrow, completely unpredictable.
If it had been just a little bit lower, this stray arrow would have almost taken his life.
Damn it, haven't all my assets been transferred to the Iron Bank in Braavos already?
Why am I still risking my life here?
That's right! I can use this...
Looking at the enemy arrow stuck in the personal attendant's throat, Viller suddenly had an idea.
He bent down and pulled out the arrow with force, then took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and carefully wiped away the blood.
Then... he gripped the front end of the arrow tightly with his right hand and fiercely stabbed it into his left shoulder.
"Ah!!!"
Viller let out a loud scream, covering his left arm which had started to bleed, and shouted to the personal guards beside him,
"Damn it, I've been hit by an arrow!
Quick, quickly take me back into the city to treat the wound!"
His ridiculous actions were naturally witnessed by the group of personal guards.
However, as a group whose honor and disgrace were tied together, the personal guards would naturally help Viller, to whom they were loyal.
So, while shouting that Lord Viller had been hit by an arrow, they protected Viller and walked towards the city wall stairs.
While Beoro was enjoying the slaughter, Gery was focused on directing the defense of the city, and Viller was pretending to be hit by an arrow to escape, the battle on the entire battlefield had entered a fierce stalemate.
The enemy siege towers had also joined the battle on the west city wall of Grus, and many of Edmund's soldiers were preparing to board the city via the gangplanks.
On the west city wall of Grus, the lids of the cauldrons that had been covered before had now been opened, and a foul stench was wafting over the city wall.
Those cauldrons were all filled with boiling golden yellow liquid, which was 'golden juice' made from the feces of horses and humans in Grus.
Of course, the so-called golden juice was the ancient Chinese term from the previous life.
This kind of golden juice was a very traditional weapon for defending cities in ancient times, divided into two types in total.
The first type was metal golden juice obtained by melting various metals at high temperatures.
Pouring this metal golden juice out with containers would cause great harm to attacking civilians if it splashed on them, killing them in an instant.
For specific effects, one can refer to the tragic appearance of 'Beggar King' Viserys Targaryen, who was crowned with molten gold by Khal Drogo.
This metal golden juice could also effectively defend against siege weapons; as long as it was poured onto siege weapons, the high temperature was enough to destroy and ignite them.
However, metal was scarce in this era, and few defenders would spend a large amount of resources to boil metal golden juice.
The second type was biological golden juice boiled from animal and human feces. The materials for this biological golden juice were extremely easy to collect, 'large in quantity and satisfying', making it an excellent weapon for defending cities.
In this era, if an attacking civilian was splashed with biological golden juice, it was basically equivalent to death.
Because burns from this kind of biological golden juice were extremely difficult to heal, and at the same time, there was a very high probability of death due to severe bacterial infection.
Perhaps some people will have questions, wasn't this biological golden juice boiled and sterilized?
In fact, many bacteria require long-term continuous high temperatures to be killed.
Moreover, even if the biological golden juice itself does not carry bacteria, it is a highly nutritious medium for bacteria, which can accelerate the reproduction of bacteria in the air, thereby infecting and corroding wounds.
Splash!
An Edmund soldier who was preparing to jump onto the Grus city wall was directly doused with a ladle of golden juice by a Grus guard, covering his head and face.
Ah!
His entire face was directly scalded by the golden juice, and at the same time, a foul stench went directly to his brain through his nasal cavity.
It was pure physical and psychological torture.
However, this torture soon stopped affecting him. This Edmund soldier, struggling with his hands covering his face, did not pay attention to his footing and directly fell from the gangplank of the siege tower, dying on the spot.
His body happened to fall beside an attacking civilian who was loudly shouting to attack, and the golden juice and blood from the body splashed all over the soldier's body and mouth.
Cough, spit, spit!
The attacking civilian, who clearly felt that the taste was wrong, immediately opened his mouth and spat violently.
The Grus guards using this biological golden juice did not need to care whether Edmund's soldiers and the attacking civilians had good equipment; it was a direct defense-ignoring attack that caused continuous damage.
Due to this disgusting method of defending the city, the entire Grus siege battle had entered a brutal stalemate at this moment, and the entire battlefield was like a meat grinder, devouring flesh and blood. (End of this chapter)