"Lady Jeyne, the troops are in chaos and the main camp has already collapsed. If you have a trump card that can turn the tide, use it immediately. Otherwise, after today, there will no longer be an allied army," War God Kaiyuan urged.
Jeyne stared at the distant camp that was slowly falling apart. Her elegant brows knit tightly, her hesitation clear.
"If we fight head-on without using a strategy, I fear we won't be able to kill Daenerys," she said softly.
"Lady Jeyne," Grazdan stomped in frustration, "I've said it many times and gone through it even more. Against the Dragon Queen, schemes only backfire. None of us are smarter than she is. How can a fool outwit someone intelligent?"
Jeyne's fair face instantly darkened. "You being a fool does not mean I am as stupid as you."
Slap! War God Kaiyuan clapped his hands and pointed at Jeyne. "Yes, that is exactly the right mindset!
I and many others have had similar thoughts, but unfortunately, thoughts like that are only held by people who are not very smart.
A truly smart person should learn from those who came before and face reality."
Jeyne's fists clenched. Blue eyes flickered with multiple pupils layered over each other as magic surged through her body. In the next moment—
Seeing this, the triangular-faced Sibellio hurriedly cut in, "High Priestess, the situation is critical. The alliance is finished. Even if you have a thousand strategies and ten thousand tricks, none of them can take effect now!"
"Sigh, Lady Jeyne, I will be honest. Please don't get angry!" War God Kaiyuan realized his earlier words had been inappropriate, but he had bottled up so much frustration that he could not hold back.
"You've kept your ultimate gambit hidden in your hand and did not even tell a high commander like me, but the problem is, can you really hide it?
Five thousand elephant soldiers vanished without a trace, and every three days, a large quantity of supplies mysteriously disappears. Even if I were a fool, I could guess you dug tunnels.
If they are not on the surface, not in the sky, and definitely not in the sea, then they must be underground!"
Kaiyuan's tone was firm. Jeyne was left speechless.
"Is the Dragon Queen stupid?" he continued. "Only a fool thinks she is stupid. So surely she has already guessed it, and maybe even knows you have—"
"Dragonworms," Grazdan interrupted slowly after a moment's hesitation.
"The only creatures capable of digging underground tunnels on such a massive scale are the dragonworms unique to the Valyrian volcanoes!"
Jeyne lamented internally: Far too much time has been wasted.
Now even this repeatedly defeated war god noticed something was wrong and managed to deduce her trump card.
Daenerys, who scouted the allied camp every day, was certainly not fooled.
"My original plan was to abduct Aegon quickly, luring Daenerys to appear, then have the dragonworm burst from the ground and swallow her whole.
But the situation in Westeros is far too complicated, and too much time has been wasted."
At this point, Jeyne no longer tried to hide her intentions.
She was not stupid. If five thousand elephant soldiers disappeared for only a week or two, everyone would slowly investigate and wonder where they were hiding. If they disappeared for a month, and every possible location was searched with no trace, people would deduce the truth.
Just like when a person goes missing. It takes more than twenty-four hours before family becomes alarmed and calls the authorities.
Jeyne's original plan was to abduct King Aegon within that metaphorical "twenty-four-hour window." At the time, the Twin True Dragon Alliance armies were pressing King's Landing from two directions. If Aegon had not fallen at Winterfell, Euron's "Wyvern Mercenary Corps" would already have clashed head-on with him.
At that moment, not even three days had passed since the elephants vanished.
But after that, everyone knows what happened.
"Stannis took Aegon and left Winterfell for White Harbor. They rode for over a week. Then they traveled to Deepwood Motte, spending another week at sea. When they finally reached Deepwood, the Ragged Prince met them, and then there was even more delay.
Sigh, so much precious time was wasted."
"So that is how it was!" Kaiyuan, the triangular-faced man, and the dwarf finally understood why Jeyne had left such an obvious flaw with the "missing five thousand elephants."
In short, the waters of Westeros were too muddy. Even a powerful allied army could not grasp the situation there.
Jeyne's eyes gradually firmed. Pointing toward the northern camp being trampled by the horselords, she instructed Sibellio, "Pull the troops back. Lure the horselords ten kilometers deeper into the camp. Today I will shut the door and kill the dogs. They will not return!"
Sibellio cried out with joy, "I will see it done!"
Jeyne stared coldly at the Dragon Queen slaughtering wyvern riders in midair. "Be careful. Do not leave traces. Lure in all the horselords if possible. I intend to slaughter them as well."
"Our army truly is collapsing. Faking it would be difficult."
The triangular-faced man gave a wry smile and galloped away.
"You are not leaving?" Jeyne asked coolly, turning toward Kaiyuan.
Grazdan forced a bitter smile. "You did not tell me about the dragonworms because you did not trust me, right?Now you are luring the horselords into the trap. Before the outcome is decided, how could I leave your sight?
Besides, the main force this time is the dragonworms. Whether I am here or not hardly matters."
Ah yes, during the fall of New Ghis, War God Kaiyuan, along with Xaro and Qhoj, had been branded "counter-revolutionary spies."
Even after Jeyne discovered the secret of the shapeshifting beast companions and the trio were exonerated, they remained in an awkward position. Still distrusted, shunned by their former comrades, and subjected to all kinds of cold hostility.
In a fit of rage, Xaro and Qhoj did indeed betray the alliance and became the Dragon Queen's lapdogs.
Grazdan, however, stayed loyal. Not even the Dragon Queen dared try to corrupt him.
But who can truly know another's heart? His loyalty was invisible to everyone else.
For example, Jeyne doubted the war god even more than she doubted Xaro and Qhoj.
Because after Zaro and Qarth there had been almost no mishaps, whereas the Yunkai War God and the entire Eastern Route Army, tens of thousands strong, were completely wiped out, and even Bayasabhad fell to the Dragon Queen.
All of this happened because the Eastern Route Army's plan to secretly converge along the Kaise Mountain Road beneath the walls of Meereen was discovered in advance by the Dragon Queen.
The Yunkai War God was the supreme commander of the Eastern Route Army.
If he did not shoulder the blame, who would?
Jenny looked at the War God coldly and said, "You seem not to be optimistic about my plan of luring the horsemen into a trap?"
The Yunkai War God shook his head repeatedly. "Your plan is very good."
"If this time we achieve a great victory, no one will be held responsible. You fear responsibility. What does that indicate?" Jenny said calmly.
Grazdan gave a helpless smile and asked in return, "Given that she could have guessed beforehand that you possess dragon worms, would Daenerys really make no preparations? I think it is more likely that she would habitually turn the tables and play along."
"Actually, you should have waited for Aegon to arrive before sending the five thousand elephant troops into the tunnels," the dwarf could not help saying.
Before Jenny could reply, Grazdan shook his head. "You are wrong. The elephant troops had to disappear during the march before reaching Meereen.
The allied army numbers more than a hundred thousand, divided into hundreds of units. Even the Dragon Queen cannot monitor every single unit.
In that case, when she discovers the disappearance of the elephant troops, her first suspicion would be that they were lost halfway along the route.
Once we are close to Meereen, the allied army remains under the Dragon Queen's surveillance. If we were to wait until we had pitched camp beneath the walls of Meereen, and then one day…"
"Screech!" A flaming sword pierced a throat, dragon blood sprayed everywhere, and a wyvern flapped its wings in a mournful cry before plummeting rapidly from the blue sky.
Another swamp dragon was slain by the Dragon Queen.
Gazing at the figure that dissolved into the wind in the sky, Grazdan fell silent for a moment, then sighed and continued, "If the elephant troops inside the camp suddenly vanished, not only would the Dragon Queen immediately guess where they had gone, but spies within the allied army would also pass the news along.
Do not doubt it. Although I am not a spy, there are certainly many within the allied army who secretly collude with the Dragon Queen.
Just look at her. How could such a Dragon Queen not inspire fear?"
"This is really…" The dwarf was utterly speechless.
He had thought that only the power games of Westeros followed the rule of always standing with the victor. He never expected that the allied army's so-called revolutionary warriors would play the same game.
A dim glint flashed through Jenny's eyes as she said calmly, "Actually, there is another reason why the elephant troops must be sent into the tunnels immediately."
"What is it?" the dwarf asked curiously.
"How many elephant troops have you seen underground?" Jenny countered.
The dwarf pondered for a moment, then was suddenly struck with dread.
He had seen giant elephants underground, and also elephant troops who drove them, but the total number was no more than a thousand.
He had previously thought the remaining elephant troops were hidden in other tunnels, but the implication in Jenny's words…
Sure enough, Jenny continued, "Do dragons need to eat? What about wyverns? What about dragon worms?"
His Tessa was a glutton, eating at least one sheep a day. What about dragon worms?
In an instant, a chill shot from his tailbone straight to his scalp, and the dwarf's face turned ashen.
"Eaten?" It was as if he heard his own trembling voice coming from someone else's throat.
The Yunkai War God beside him was not foolish either. He immediately understood what Jenny and the dwarf were talking about, and a wave of cold ran through his body. He looked at Jenny with eyes full of fear.
"Would cattle and horses not do?" the Yunkai War God asked softly.
Jenny shook her head helplessly and said, "I originally had no intention of feeding precious war elephants to dragon worms, but when even people are on the verge of starvation, the ones that eat the most have to be eaten."
Hearing this, the Yunkai War God could not help but give a bitter smile.
Indeed, a month ago the allied army had already begun slaughtering packhorses and dairy cows. Half a month ago, even the reserve warhorses, with each regular knight equipped with at least three, had gradually appeared on the soldiers' dining tables.
"How many elephant troops are left?" the dwarf asked.
"Two thousand."
"So many?" the War God said in surprise.
The dwarf's mouth twitched. "That is not even half of the original total."
"I thought they had all been eaten. Now it feels like we suddenly have two thousand extra elephant troops," the War God said awkwardly.
"War elephants are huge and filling. If dragon worms are not digging tunnels, their consumption is far less than that of true dragons," Jenny said.
War drums thundered atop the walls of Meereen. Amid blue skies and white clouds, a figure wreathed in flames drifted and flickered. One wyvern after another spilled blood across the heavens, their wails carrying for more than ten kilometers around.
To the north of the allied camp, the excited cries of "Ula" from the horsemen rang out from afar. Hooves trampled the encampment for more than ten li, and the allied army's cries of panic and flight intertwined with the lamentations of the wyverns in the sky.
But it was clear that although more than fifty thousand horsemen had previously besieged the camp, after breaking through the gates and shattering the allied army's will, only about one-fifth of them charged into the camp to herd "ducks." The rest spread out across the vast plains outside the camp, hunting down allied cavalry who were fleeing on horseback.
In the front half of the camp, tents lay toppled, blades were broken and arrows snapped, entrails spilled across the fields, and blood soaked the earth.
Fences burned, black smoke billowed into the sky, like the withered fingers of the god of death reaching upward to claim the lives of every living being on this land.
"Only a single ten-thousand-man unit," Jenny said with a dark expression.
"The allied army has completely collapsed, the soldiers have no fighting spirit. One energetic ten-thousand-man unit is enough to sweep away a hundred thousand demoralized fugitives," Grazdan sighed.
"In that case, let the blood and bones of the horsemen reforge the soul of our army!"
(End of chapter)
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