Inside and outside the walls of Oldtown and King's Landing, and throughout the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, large-scale searches and arrests targeting assassins and spies began.
At the same time, in the Narrow Sea, specifically on the waters east of Blackwater Bay, a fleet from the opposite shore was aggressively approaching Dragonstone.
The southeast trade winds filled the sails, and the bow swiftly cut through the shimmering waves. The Queen of the Rhoyne sailed steadily and lightly beneath the azure sky. At the tip of the tall bow, behind the stern of a graceful and pleasing female figurehead, Dizhdon Moegarya stood by the ship's rail, one hand on the railing, gazing out at the vast expanse of ocean ahead and the dimly visible outline of the island. Then, looking around at the massive fleet under his command, he felt an unprecedented sense of accomplishment.
As Volantis's new naval advisor and commander of the Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance fleet, he stood on the flagship of both the Volantene navy and the combined fleet of multiple city-states. Surrounding him, cutting through the waves, was perhaps not the largest fleet in the entire known world by number... but certainly the largest in total tonnage and the strongest in combat power.
And waiting for him ahead was the most evil and terrifying enemy the Free Cities had ever faced, the great dictator, the Dragon Mother, the slayer of slavers, Daenerys Targaryen, and her restored True Dragon Dynasty.
The Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance, which had been called for more than a dozen months ago, was only now officially launching its first frontal military offensive against the enemy. To be honest, it was indeed slow, but the reasons behind it were a long story.
The scattered Free Cities were distributed throughout western Essos, with complex, intertwined interests, grudges, and enmities between them. For anyone to call out and expect a hundred responses was a fool's dream. In fact, for the entire first year of the alliance's existence, it was merely a concept and an empty shell. Amid the commotion, quarrels, and wrangling, not even a framework had been built...
Only after the Dragon Queen achieved continuous victories on the continent of Westeros, seemingly on the verge of becoming the ultimate winner, followed by the tragic death of Pentos's diplomat Illyrio at the hands of guards in King's Landing, as well as traditionally neutral Braavos semi-publicly opposing the Targaryen Dynasty...
Only in the recent months following this series of events, which added fuel to the fire one after another, did everything begin to move forward. There were slight ripples, but overall, it progressed in an orderly manner.
The combined city-state fleet had been formed more than two months ago. After that, it began patrolling the Narrow Sea, hindering and attacking merchant ships traveling between the two shores, and transporting mercenaries to land and harass the coasts of the stormlands and Crackclaw Point.
The reason they had not immediately launched a large-scale attack seeking a frontal battle was, first, that they needed to assemble, train jointly, and establish a clear command structure. Second, before starting the war, they had to first attempt to win over the Vale and the Reach as allies, and properly communicate and exchange benefits with Daenerys's competitor, Aegon, making as many friends and as few enemies as possible to avoid a messy and uncontrollable war. The third reason, and the only purely tactical consideration, was that they could not win.
The destruction of the Iron Fleet in Blackwater Bay proved to the world with bloody examples the adaptability and overwhelming power of gunpowder as a weapon in naval warfare, coupled with the existence of dragons... The Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance fleet was at an absolute disadvantage in both the sea and air. No matter how any frontal decisive battle was simulated, it was bound to be a defeat, with no possibility of victory.
To solve this difficulty, the Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance's plan was this: what the enemy had, they must have as well.
This was not a whim.
As early as when Aegor led the Gift Army south to besiege Winterfell and captured the North's capital in one fell swoop with the help of gunpowder, this astonishingly powerful new weapon had entered the sight of the ruling classes of the city-states.
Under the instructions and financial support of the slavers, countless intelligence personnel, alchemists, craftsmen, and even wizards dedicated themselves to tireless work, using every method they could think of, theft, speculation, imitation, or simulated attempts, to produce gunpowder and cannons, lighting up a whole mess of technological paths in various directions... They even produced a number of similar-looking copper tubes, but ultimately achieved nothing due to the lack of propellant. It was not until the Illyrio espionage incident erupted in King's Landing, and the complete gunpowder formula was sent back to Pentos, that half of Essos boiled with excitement.
Under the coercion and inducement of other city-states, Pentos, on the condition that its own share of military expenditure be offset, disclosed the intelligence sent back by Illyrio to the entire Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance.
Next, the major city-states contributed money and manpower, collecting raw materials and jointly tackling the challenges with unprecedented unity and drive, quickly digesting the stolen knowledge... On this basis, the alchemists and master craftsmen keenly discovered that although the formula and drawings stolen from the Night's Watch industry were undoubtedly authentic in their general direction, the specific ratio figures appeared very rough and arbitrary. Producing and mixing according to the original data on them resulted in cannons that were either less powerful than ballistae and only made noise, or exploded and injured the testers.
After dozens of days and nights of desperate work and large-scale iteration regardless of cost, they finally adjusted the gunpowder ratio to appropriate values and thickened the copper tubes to a level where they would not explode... On this basis, the first batch of improved cannons, whose power and range both surpassed ballistae of the same weight and finally met the requirements for practical combat, were urgently cast and delivered to be loaded onto the main warships of each city-state... This last-minute catch-up was not only completed in time, but even went beyond simple copying.
Their cannons, although temporarily at a disadvantage in quantity, were likely stronger than those of the Dragon Queen and the Black Hand of the Queen!
Although the person in charge of the relevant project suggested that cannons required artillerymen and that even better second and third-generation products would soon be available, with the surprisingly rapid defeat and death of Aegon Targaryen, and the surrender of the Reach, especially Oldtown and the Arbor, they could no longer wait.
By starting the war now, the allied fleet only needed to face Daenerys's royal fleet and one dragon.
If they delayed for a while longer, perhaps the fleet could indeed be equipped with more and better cannons, but they would also have to face the royal fleet plus the Arbor, or even the fleets of the entire Seven Kingdoms, and two dragons.
In addition, Dizhdon had also learned a highly confidential piece of internal news from his father, Malacho Moegarya, one of Volantis's current triarchs: Braavos might take certain actions against Aegor and Daenerys in the near future.
If the action succeeded and the two main enemy leaders were killed, the Targaryen Dynasty would instantly crumble into dust, and his current advance would face no resistance at all, gaining a great merit for free.
Even if it failed, as long as the timing of his attack matched the assassination, with coordination from inside and outside, he would definitely be able to gain more battlefield advantages in the chaos and greatly increase the chances of winning this battle.
By taking Dragonstone and using it as a springboard and forward base, King's Landing would be wide open to the Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance, with no protective screen to rely on. At that time, whether they continued the war or took advantage of the situation to negotiate with exorbitant demands, he would be the foremost hero of the war against the Dragon Mother, second to none.
"Clang, clang, clang..."
On the crow's nest at the top of the mast, the lookout sounded the alarm bell.
"Enemy ships spotted ahead, thirty in number!"
So the assassination did not succeed? Dizhdon was slightly disappointed, but quickly reignited his fighting spirit. "Order the fleet to disperse into battle formation!"
His plan was not complicated. Have a small number of main ships equipped with cannons engage the enemy head-on to buy time, while the rest of the ships outflanked from both sides and fought a traditional naval battle.
They were at a disadvantage in the number of cannons, but they at least had some. This was a breakthrough that could strike at the enemy's morale. When the opposite side heard the roar of cannons from their own fleet and were hit by a few shots, realizing it was not a bluff, they would definitely flee in panic toward the port. Then, the warships on the flanks that were not equipped with cannons would move in for ramming or boarding...
With the advantage in numbers, speed, and tonnage, by paying a certain price, victory was sure to be within reach!
The flag signals were quickly given, and the entire fleet continued to advance at its original speed while slowly spreading out. A moment later, the enemy ships came within a distance where they could be seen without climbing the mast. Dizhdon raised his spyglass and carefully observed the enemy he was about to annihilate. Within the circular field of vision, more than twenty medium to large warships had lowered half their sails and were arrayed in a single line with Dragonstone as their backdrop, facing him sideways. It seemed they were simply waiting for him to enter range and receive the baptism of cannonballs.
Hmph.
Let these fools, whose minds were full of crushing the enemy with weapon superiority, be happy for a moment longer. A cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth as he began to imagine the surprise and panic on his opponents' faces when they suddenly discovered that he also had the same killer weapon, and an even more powerful one.
Today, on the sea one mile ahead, the first naval duel between firearms in the history of the entire world would be fought, and he would be the winner of this historic battle, his name etched in history!
...
A string of fine flashes interrupted his reverie. Clusters of white smoke suddenly appeared around the hulls of the Dragonstone fleet ships in his field of vision. Dizhdon initially suspected he was seeing things, until several seconds later, a rumbling sound arrived, and only then did he react with extreme surprise.
The enemy ships had opened fire first!
At twice their own range!
They can shoot that far? They must be guessing blindly!
Before the rumbling sound dissipated, the sharp whistling of cannonballs followed closely, whooshing through the air. Dozens of towering white columns of water splashed high within a hundred meters or so around the ships. In the rain of falling water, Dizhdon's original tactical plan and beautiful vision for the future were completely ruined.
He was right. The first naval duel between firearms in the history of the world of ice and fire would indeed take place here, but they had misjudged the performance of their own weapons.
Several months ago, after the Reachmen had guessed the gunpowder formula, Aegor went along with the mistake and staged a grand play of "leaking" information with Illyrio. It was already excellent that the military industry system of the Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance could discover that the data in these leaked materials had huge room for improvement... But no matter how clever the slavers were, Aegor was one step ahead. They had no idea that this was a trap Aegor had set from the very beginning.
Before cannons were first put into battle, the Night's Watch military industry conducted hundreds of days and nights of secret experiments on testing grounds in the Gift before launching the first generation of mass-produced Gift Type I cannons and their matched propellant. With such an accumulated technical foundation, how could they be surpassed in just a few dozen days?
If the combined power of the original Gift Type I cannon and its matched gunpowder was set at 10 points, then the "secret" deliberately leaked by Aegor had been cut down to 3 points.
The Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance spent dozens of days optimizing it, thinking they had improved the cannons from 10 points to 20 points, but in reality, they had only roughly raised 3 points to 6 points.
Meanwhile, the warships of the royal fleet at Dragonstone and King's Landing were equipped with the 2.5-generation King's Landing Type II, an improved version that increased range and power by 20% through innovations in materials, technology, and gunpowder type.
The slavers thought they were fighting with 20 points against 10 points, but in reality, they were fighting with 6 points against 12 points. Being crushed by twice the weapon performance without any psychological preparation, and then adopting erroneous tactics based on an incorrect understanding, it was easy to imagine how the battle would unfold.
(To be continued.)