Just as Riverrun and High Heart were fully embroiled in bloody conflict, Oldtown, which had just recovered some vitality, once again welcomed the formidable enemies they had always been wary of—the pirates from the Iron Islands.
In the Iron Islands, off the central west coast of Westeros, resides a fiercely independent, ferocious, and even brutal people, whom the mainlanders call the Ironborn, and who call themselves the Ironborn.
The Ironborn are children of the sea, and their maritime hegemony was once unrivaled. They thrived in the harsh natural environment of the archipelago, disdaining the weak way of life of farming and herding on the green lands.
Neither the Old Gods nor the Seven Gods worshipped by the Andals are widely believed in among the Ironborn. In contrast, they are more devout believers in the drowned god.
The islands' soil is barren and rocky, and commoners have no cattle or horses for farming. Their mineral resources are also not comparable to the rich Westerlands; the Ironborn toil all day, obtaining nothing more than cheap iron ore.
Therefore, since ancient times, the Ironborn have formed a tradition of living by plunder. Not only Westeros, but their longships have spread across almost all seas, making them the most notorious pirates in this world.
When the Iron Islands' longships first entered Whispering Sound, they were discovered by the Bulwer family of Blackcrown City, who quickly lit signal fires to transmit the enemy's presence as quickly as possible.
The Oldtown Garrison guards in the Old Town Wharf watchtower also immediately lit their signal fires after observing Blackcrown City's signals, informing the entire Oldtown of the pirate attack.
Daniella, in particular, immediately lit the green signal fire on the Hightower, sending the message to nearby lords. At the same time, she opened parts of the underground labyrinth for Oldtown residents to take shelter.
The underground labyrinth beneath Oldtown is larger than Oldtown itself, and even after half a year of full-scale development, it has not yet been fully explored. However, the quick passages for troop transport and the Hightower Family's hidden treasury have all been cleared out.
At the same time, a large area was cleared and repaired to be used as a refuge and a warehouse, which is almost enough for all the town's residents to take shelter there.
The four major vassals originally belonging to the Hightower Family—the Bulwer family of Blackcrown City, the Beesbury family of Honeycomb City, the Costayne family of Three Towers, and the Cuy family of Yangwu City—could all clearly observe the Hightower's signal fires.
However, the Cuy family has now perished. Mongo, who was helping Danni guard Yangwu City, saw the signal fire and quickly gathered his troops, rushing towards Oldtown. The other three major families dared not slack off either and immediately began to gather their knights and soldiers.
However, unlike Yangwu City, which was always on standby, when Mongo had already set out with his troops, the knights and soldiers of the three major families had not yet fully assembled.
The Oldtown Garrison at the wharf, while raising the river-locking iron chain, evacuated the ships from the wharf towards the Honeywine River. Because of the help of dragons, Danni had already cleared and widened the nearby Honeywine River when she was in Oldtown.
Now, except for the giant seagoing vessels, all ships can pass, so the ships at the town wharf were quickly evacuated.
For the remaining dozens of giant seagoing vessels, the Oldtown Garrison also organized manpower to send all their cargo into the underground space near the wharf.
The underground space cleared out at Old Town Wharf was the most extensive, and the garrison had rented it out to passing merchants as temporary warehouses. These spaces were not only indestructible but also very concealed. Without someone to guide them, outsiders would not be able to detect them at all.
As for the dozens of giant seagoing vessels, they could only be left to fate. If they were captured by the pirates, these ships would certainly fall into the hands of the Ironborn.
As soon as the evacuation work was completed, a fleet of hundreds of Iron Islands longships, with their black kraken sails, had already arrived outside Oldtown. The Iron Islands longships and the Summer Isles swan ships are currently the fastest ships in this world.
The bows of the Iron Islands longships are all embedded with huge ramming heads shaped like sea monsters, giving them extremely terrifying impact force, making it almost impossible for any ship to withstand a longship's ramming.
"Fire!"
As the triumphant Ironborn were preparing to wreak havoc, dense volleys of flaming arrows and giant bolts were suddenly shot at them from the watchtowers on both sides of the harbor.
"Shields!"
The captains controlling the longships ordered the Ironborn to raise their oak shields.
Although the Ironborn's oak shields could withstand the attack of arrows, the longships' sails could not, so many were instantly set ablaze.
"Crack!"
The giant bolts that followed immediately pierced through the planks of many longships.
The giant bolts deployed on the Oldtown watchtower were newly developed this year by the craftsmen of Holy Flame Island, making them arguably the most advanced giant bolts in this world. Furthermore, a clay pot was tied behind the arrowhead of each giant bolt.
"Bang!"
When the giant bolt's arrowhead pierced and tore through the longship, a loud explosion accompanied by terrifying green flames instantly rose, revealing that the clay pot contained Wildfire.
Wildfire, as the alchemists' proud creation, possesses extremely terrifying lethality. Once this green flame adheres, it is almost impossible to extinguish unless the flame burns itself out.
Moreover, Wildfire can burn completely even on water, so water cannot extinguish it. Only by burying it with a large amount of sand can it be extinguished.
"Ah!"
Terrifying Wildfire, like a maggot attached to bone, adhered to people's bodies, and even the finest steel armor could not withstand its erosion.
Immediately, hundreds of Ironborn were unfortunately covered in Wildfire, and amidst screams of agony, even after they all jumped into the sea, they were still quickly burned into zombies.
And the dozens of longships that were hit were slowly engulfed by Wildfire. Two or three hundred Ironborn and slave shipwrights were forced to jump into the sea to survive.
The Ironborn had never encountered such a blow before, but accustomed to iron-fisted methods, they were not at all intimidated. Led by some experienced captains, some longships quickly approached the cliffs below the two watchtowers.
"Charge!"
These Ironborn, with an axe in one hand and a shield in the other, charged rapidly towards the two watchtowers like a biting cold wave.
However, the watchtowers were built on easily defensible cliffs, and even if these Ironborn climbed desperately using both hands and feet, it would still take some time to reach the watchtowers.
The Oldtown Garrison inside the towers would not give them a chance to get close; they had enough defensive materials.
Because they were too close, arrows were now difficult to harm these Ironborn. So the Oldtown Garrison picked up the Wildfire clay pots stored in the watchtowers and threw them at the group of Ironborn.
When the clay pots exploded, the Wildfire inside instantly rushed out like an unleashed green flame demon, immediately igniting all the nearby Ironborn.
In the face of the terrifying Wildfire, even Ironborn with an iron will could not help but wail and fall down the cliff, until they were burned into charred corpses.
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