Chapter 527 Fierce Battle

　　Boom! boom! boom!

 At the Jingze defense line, deafening explosions erupted continuously.

 In the deep darkness, gorgeous fireworks bloomed one after another.

Under the brief light of the fire, it was possible to see that the snow north of the defense line was crowded with a dense army of ghouls.

Each round of artillery fire can explode countless stumps and broken arms, but such casualties are not even a drop in the bucket compared to the nearly endless corpses.

They walked through the artillery fire, faced the boulders thrown by the trebuchets, braved the rain of arrows falling from the sky, crossed the trenches, and finally rushed under the neck defense line.

 Start climbing.

 “Shoot! Shoot!”

 “Can’t let them climb up!”

 “Fire! Burn them with fire quickly!”

 …

One after another orders sounded on the defense line.

This war between humans and the White Walkers has entered the most intense and cruel stage of hand-to-hand combat from the very beginning.

Ghouls have no sense of pain, no emotions, and no fear. Naturally, they will not test first and then attack like human armies. As soon as they come up, they will surge in overwhelmingly. It seems that they plan to use this "human sea" tactic to cover the neck of the defense line. Completely submerged.

This kind of fearless charge can easily make a timid soldier collapse. Fortunately, at this time, the Neck Defense Line gathered elite soldiers from the Seven Kingdoms.

Many of them have experienced the zombie craze in King's Landing, and have some experience and psychological preparation. Moreover, they all know that this battle is related to the life and death of mankind, and they have no retreat.

 So, even if the zombies showed an extremely crazy offensive posture as soon as they came up, the soldiers on the defense line were still able to maintain basic order and fight back in an orderly manner.

 Although the establishment of the Neck Defense Line was a little hasty and there was not enough time, the war fortress built with almost all the manpower and material resources of the Seven Kingdoms was not that easy to conquer.

Countless trebuchets, giant crossbows, rolling logs, and stones, including the newly developed artillery, roared along the hundreds of kilometers of defense line, pouring firepower on the ghoul army.

Countless corpses fell one after another like wheat in autumn.

However, ghouls are not considered living creatures, and some injuries that are fatal to humans cannot prevent them from charging madly.

Most of the ghouls who rushed to the defense line were missing arms, legs, or even their heads, but they continued to charge desperately.

Anyone who sees this kind of scene will have a numb scalp and a split liver and gallbladder.

 “Get these disgusting things out of here!”

The female knight Brienne Tarth from Dusk Advent Hall let out a roar, brandishing her dark sword and rushed towards the corpses climbing up the city.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——

　　Although Brienne is a woman, her fighting style is much more fierce than that of men.

"go to hell!"

The long sword struck a ghoul's head, like a red-hot iron rod inserted into butter, easily splitting it in half.

Before the two corpses fell from the top of the city, they melted like ice and snow in mid-air, turning into a mist and dispersing into the darkness.

 This is the restraint of dragon crystal weapons on ghouls.

 In order to prepare for this war, all the dragon crystal mines on Dragonstone Island were dug up.

 Weapons made from countless dragon crystals were distributed to frontline soldiers before the battle, becoming their most advantageous weapon against the ghouls.

 “Hold on! Don’t retreat!”

 Duke Edmure Tully is the lord of the Riverlands, but he still leads the charge on the front line.

When the soldiers saw this, they immediately became excited and the fear in their hearts also subsided a lot.

 “Get rid of these bastards! Take back our home!”

Earl Jon Umber, as the lord of the North, naturally has the deepest hatred for the White Walkers.

He held two special dragon crystal giant axes and swung them so tightly that they were like a walking meat grinder. Once the corpse emerged from the city wall, it would be chopped into pieces by the giant axe.

Not only them, at this moment, facing the pressure of the army of corpses, the nobles from the Seven Kingdoms, whether they are as scheming as Frey or as sinister and vicious as Bolton, are all fighting on the front line.

No matter what ulterior motives they had before, they had to unite under the pressure of the corpses.

 Because they finally realized that once the Neck Defense collapsed, Westeros would be finished.

 The Seven Kingdoms will be swept away by the corpses and become a ghost world filled with death and coldness.

At this moment, whether nobles, soldiers, or ordinary people, they all unleashed their greatest potential under the threat of death.

Countless arrows, boulders, and artillery were flying in the air, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers fought desperately on the defense line, causing huge casualties to the ghouls.

Of course, the one with the most terrifying attack power is the dragon.

Three giant dragons, one white, one black, and one green, soared back and forth along the Neck Defense Line from where the battle started. The flames they spit out were like flaming giant swords falling from the sky, plowing death ravines in the endless tide of corpses.

Countless corpses let out shrill screams in the flames, turning into ashes and smoke and disappearing between heaven and earth.

Every time the dragon breathes out, it can trigger a burst of enthusiastic cheers among the defenders.

At such a life-or-death moment, facing such a terrifying enemy, the existence of the dragon gave human soldiers great psychological comfort.

Especially the white dragon Cleopatra. The flames she spewed out were like a sea wave sweeping across the sea. Even if they were several miles apart, the soldiers could feel the heat coming towards their faces.

In the cold winter snow, they seemed to be in a furnace.

Perhaps the performance of "Conqueror" Aegon Targaryen in the "Fire Prairie" battle was nothing more than this.

As a result, some people gradually gave Cleopatra the nickname "White Death".

Hope that this "White Death" can help them defeat the ghosts from the eternal winter land in the north, so that midsummer can return to the continent of Westeros.

Countless corpses died under the dragon flames, but unfortunately, the number of corpses was still too huge. Even if there were countless casualties, the tide of corpses would not be cut off.

They seemed to be really endless, pouring out from the darkness in the north, carrying arrows, boulders, artillery and dragon flames, rushing to the defense line, and engaging the defenders in hand-to-hand combat.

 This is a great test for the soldiers.

Not only is the ghoul incapable of feeling pain and not afraid of death, it is an extremely terrifying opponent. What is even worse is that once a human soldier is killed by a ghoul, he will stand up again under the influence of ice magic and become a zombie. A member of the ghost army attacks his former companions.

The most terrifying thing is that the corpses are tireless and don’t seem to need to eat or rest. They can launch desperate charges day and night, but humans cannot always maintain a fighting state.

Before the war, the kingdom's headquarters also considered this and divided the defenders on the defense line into three batches, taking turns to fight forward. But even so, as time went by, the human defenders inevitably became tired and slack.

Faced with the tide of zombies that never seems to stop, this kind of laziness is fatal.

After holding on for two days, a certain defense line east of Carlin Bay was finally accidentally broken through by the ghoul. The surging army of the dead poured in like a tide. The human soldiers and the civilians behind were caught off guard and collapsed instantly.

 "Can't retreat! Can't retreat! Hold on! Hold on for me!"

Count Matus Rowan, who was in charge of the defense here, roared at the top of his lungs.

 But his voice was so fragile and ethereal in front of the raging tide of corpses. Seeing that the situation was critical, a huge white figure suddenly fell from the sky.

　　Boom!

Cleopatra landed in front of the defense line and used her huge body to block the position broken by the zombie army. At the same time, it opened its huge mouth, and orange-red flames spurted out from the depths of its throat, in the darkness in front of it. Sweeping across, turning countless corpses into ashes.

 “Quick! Get on top!”

Count Matus quickly took this opportunity to gather his troops.

Samwell also stood on the back of the white dragon, the giant sword in his hand emitting dazzling light, like a small sun, piercing the deep night, as if it could bring people hope of victory.

"Warriors of the Seven Kingdoms, we cannot retreat! Because behind us is our home, our relatives, and everything we love. I, Samwell Caesar, will fight with you until the last moment, and fight until victory comes. that moment!"

The king's voice stabilized the scattered military morale. The soldiers gathered in the direction of the light again and began to re-strengthen the defense line and continue fighting.

"Your Majesty, how many ghosts are there!" Count Matus found the king and couldn't help but whisper.

 “What? Are you scared?”

"Of course not!" Count Matus said reflexively, "I'm just worried that if this continues, the soldiers may not be able to hold on."

 “This is a difficult test, but we will win in the end.”

 The king's tone was very calm, but it contained a strong confidence.

After hearing this, the hesitation in Count Matus's heart could not help but dissipate like smoke, let alone other young nobles.

 In their hearts, King Caesar was simply a god-like figure. When they heard such words, they were even more excited and couldn't control themselves. They all echoed loudly and declared that they would fight to the end.

Samwell looked at the defenders here regaining their fighting spirit and stabilizing the defense line, with a look of satisfaction on his face.

 But when he turned his gaze back to the deep darkness in the north, he still showed a hint of worry.

Of course, Samwell knew that he must not show such emotions in front of outsiders. As the king of the Seven Kingdoms, the hero in the hearts of the people of Westeros, and the last hope against the White Walkers, he must maintain strong self-confidence and a calm posture.

 Otherwise, the morale of the entire defense line will collapse.

Seeing that the defense line here was stabilized again, Samwell mounted the white dragon and took to the air again.

 As time goes by, there are more and more similar "embankment breaches". Three giant dragons patrol back and forth, acting as fire fighters, but they still cannot prevent the neckline defense line from gradually becoming unstable.

 Seeing that the defense line was in danger of collapsing, Samwell became anxious, so he rode a dragon back to the Gulf of Moulin and entered the battle headquarters.

 “Your Majesty!” The officers in the headquarters stood up and saluted.

 Samwell waved his hand to indicate that they would not be polite, and then asked directly:

"How is it going?"

Lord Randyll Tarly, the commander-in-chief of the battle, replied:

"It's worse than we expected. The time is too short, the defense line built is not high enough, and the weapons prepared are not sufficient, especially the artillery ammunition, the reserve is almost exhausted. And the number of corpses is far beyond our expectations. , Now it seems that if the fighting continues with this intensity, I am afraid that the Ningze defense line will not be able to hold on for three days."

 Samwell nodded, quite helpless about this.

 In fact, the power of current artillery can only be said to be unsatisfactory, and the production speed of artillery shells is too slow, far unable to keep up with the consumption rate on the front line.

He took the hot wine from the attendant, took a sip, and then made up his mind to use the most important weapon against the White Walkers.

 “Command the entire army to use [Wildfire]!”

"yes!"

As the orders were passed on, countless civilians at the rear began to carefully transport ceramic jars covered with black cloth to the front line.

　　　【Wildfire】As a masterpiece of the pyromancers, it has always been a terrifying explosive well known to people.

However, due to the complicated preparation process and expensive materials, this terrible substance is not common.

In the Battle of Blackwater Bay, Tyrion Lannister used [Wildfire] on the largest scale, and also made people aware of the huge potential of this terrible substance in war.

But the [Wildfire] used by Tyrion has been treasured by the Targaryen family for hundreds of years. It would be extremely expensive to prepare it again.

 Fortunately, Archmaester Coben used brandy as the basic raw material to develop a low-profile version of [Wildfire]. Although it is not as powerful as the original version, it is easier to make and less expensive.

Since the wights are afraid of fire, when preparing for this war, Samwell specifically asked Archmaester Qyburn to create a large number of [wildfires] as a secret weapon against the wights.

I didn’t expect that not long after this offensive and defensive battle began, the battlefield situation deteriorated drastically, and humans had to use this weapon in advance.

 “Be careful, don’t fall!”

 “Hurry up, move faster!”

 Civilians transported cans of [Wildfire] to the front line, and soldiers placed the cans on catapults.

With a muffled sound, these cans were thrown high into the sky, crossed the Neck Defense Line, and fell into the tide of corpses.

 Bang, bang, bang!

The sound of jars breaking could be heard one after another, and it was clearly audible on the battlefield.

 The unintelligent corpses naturally don’t know what these things are, and they still continue to charge forward.

 The original [Wildfire] will explode after a violent impact, but the one optimized by Grand Maester Coburn will not.

 But in terms of flammability, the two are comparable.

 “Change rockets! Shoot!”

 “Fire! Fire!”

As burning rockets and shells filled with explosives fell into the tide of corpses, and met the [wildfire] flowing on the snow, green flames exploded instantly.

The soldiers on the defense line only heard a rapid and sharp low whistle, as if someone was breathing in their ears.

 A heartbeat later, the gasping turned into a howl.

Green devils twenty to thirty meters high rose up from the snow in the north. They lazily extended their flaming arms and swallowed up everything nearby.

 In front of the Jingze defense line, it seemed as if a door to **** had opened.

 (End of this chapter)