It turned out that Danny's guess was wrong. The nobles of the old town did not lose their sense of purpose. Most of the time, especially during Robert's reign, the tournament had two purposes: 1. To provide the upper class with an opportunity to gain glory; 2. To provide entertainment for the poor commoners, so that they could temporarily forget the hardships of life in the real world.
To put it bluntly, the tournament was the western medieval version of a large-scale reality show.
Music theory was still valid here.
Danny understood this principle even though she had not participated in the tournament. It was all because she had learned the techniques of the tournament.
Just like how her etiquette teacher taught her the common etiquette of various cities and races, Barristan also taught her the showy moves of the spear competition. On the real battlefield, it was useless.
She, who had personally participated in many battles, was fully qualified to say this.
Why did she say so?
The highlight of the tournament was the Spear Duel. Two fully-armored knights would stab each other with long, brittle pieces of wood. They were not allowed to stab the horse, neck, face, or thigh (points would be deducted). They were also not allowed to swing their weapons. They were only allowed to stab each other. Generally speaking, they were only allowed to attack the thickest part of the chest plate.
There was also a low wooden fence between the two riders. There would not be any accidents like tripping over the horse's hooves or colliding with the horse's head, which often happened on the real battlefield.
Moreover, it was a turn-based, smooth charge from the beginning to the end. There was only one chance to stab in between.
It was like an elegant lady taking a stroll in the courtyard.
This kind of skill was useless on the battlefield … Hmm, that was not right. The spear competition required high horsemanship, strength, and eyesight.
To put it simply, those who could become the champion of the tournament might not have actual combat ability, but they definitely had the talent to become a powerful knight. Therefore, other than entertaining the public, the feudal lord could also use the tournament to select warriors.
If one wanted to train killing skills, the tournament was useless. However, as a sport to train the body and horsemanship, it was very qualified.
Danny had always been disdainful of the spear charging technique, but her body had honestly practiced with the old knight for a period of time.
The two came to the old town and saw a large number of tents outside the city wall near the Honey River.
Blue, white, gray, sky-blue, red …
Tattered, gorgeous, as wide as a palace, as short as a large sleeping bag.
The setting sun was like blood. Within the fenced area, the tents were like cobblestones by the river, densely piled up under the city.
The shields of the knights were hung at the entrance of each tent, a long line of silk pennants with the family emblems, if any, fluttered in the wind, and fine steel swords and gilded spurs reflected a dim red light in the sunset.
At this time, the sky was already dark. The banquet was in full swing in the camp, and the string music did not stop. Pillars of smoke, like the white birch forest in the winter wind, rose densely and twisted into the dusky sky.
From afar, the singing of the singers and the sound of the harp and strings of the musicians could be heard wobbling into the distant Rose Avenue.
When Dani got closer, she saw a huge manatee with a tree trunk as thick as an arm pierced through its body. The charcoal under the manatee was bright red, and the fat above the manatee was dripping with oil like a stream. The smell of pepper, laurel, and burnt apples made the passersby swallow their saliva.
Her throat moved and her stomach rumbled. Danny stared at the yellow manatee and said to the old knight without turning her head, "I also want to participate in the tournament."
The old knight gently advised, "Not all riders are qualified to participate in Sir Tyrell's banquet. Even if you enter the camp now, you won't be able to eat those delicacies. Besides, even though the manatee looks fat, its meat is a little coarse and not as delicious as beef."
By asking the riders by the road, Danny and the rest also understood the ins and outs of this tournament.
As expected, the organizer was the family of Count Haithar, known as the heir of the count of Laughing Bailey and Linnis's elder brother, Belle Haithar.
However, outside the pure white tent with golden edges in the middle of the camp, which was as gorgeous as a palace, hung the flag of the Highcourt Tyrell family, a golden rose blooming on a green field.
The second son of the Highcourt Tyrell family, "Valiant" Garland, had also come. They had joined forces with the Haithar family to gather free riders in the old town to deal with the increasingly rampant Tiemin pirates.
The tournament was like a huge magnet, attracting all the free riders of Highcourt, Dorne, and even the Western Region and the royal territory.
They had never thought of recruiting a group of fierce leaders from the free riders, but it was easy to find three to five thousand elite riders.
There was no such thing as a mercenary in Westeros, but there were many similar professions.
As a knight civilization in the Seven Kingdoms, there were almost no foot soldiers or mercenaries. In other words, if you didn't even have a horse, employers wouldn't even consider you, and mercenaries wouldn't get any business.
According to status, Westeros knights were roughly divided into four classes: free riders (a wild knight with a sword, a broken leather armor, and a poor horse), mercenary knights (free riders hired by the lord), productive knights (knights granted land by the lord), noble knights (nobles with titles and land).
Danny and Barristan's current identities were wild knights, and there were as many of them as there were hairs on a cow in the Seven Kingdoms.
Of course, there were very few female knights, and most of them had a hard time making a name for themselves.
For example, "Beauty" Breyne and "Beauty" Malys, both of them had aspired to become great female knights since young, but in the end …
Sigh, it was fine to be mocked, but for the strong and ugly Breyne, if not for her "main character" aura, she would have been strengthened many times over.
Malys didn't have the status of a count's heir, and was born in a normal mercenary knight family. She didn't meet her "Jaime" (Jaime Lannister saved Breyne), and the key was that she didn't look as safe as Breyne, so she couldn't survive in the Westeros. According to the red-haired Lila, her lord led a few knights and knocked her sword away, knocked her off her horse, and then ridiculed her while taking turns with her.
Left with no choice, Meryl could only cross the ocean and become a mercenary in the neighboring trading city. However, her teammates weren't anything good either. After getting drunk, they went berserk, and more than half of the mercenary group took turns with her …
Like a beast, they cut off her breasts, bit off her ears, chewed off her nose, and finally left a deep cross scar on both of her cheeks.
She was able to survive all because of her extraordinary willpower and unyielding spirit.
Fortunately, the Ragged Prince took her in, and the reputation and atmosphere of the Wind Blowing Group was much better than other mercenary groups. Malys met a "wise lord", and slowly revealed her talents, and became an officer of the Wind Blowing Group – an interrogator.
Well, it was said that Malys could torture the person being interrogated for a whole month before they died.
The world of ice and fire was too cruel to women, noble girls were taken for marriage alliances, or played with by nobles of higher status (her family was mostly happy about it).
Girls from normal families were even worse, the beautiful ones were strengthened by their lords, and the ugly ones … Sigh, no matter how ugly you are, can you be uglier than "Beauty" Breyne?
Even she couldn't keep her chastity many times.
As for abilities …
It was fine if it was a high warrior or high magic, but strong people like Breyne and Malys might be able to defeat a male warrior one-on-one, and if they were lucky, they could win one-on-two or even one-on-three, but when there were more than five enemies, even Arthur Dane couldn't guarantee his life.
After passing through the tournament camp and waiting in line to pass through the city gate, the old knight leaned close to Danny and whispered, "Lady, women can't participate in the tournament."
The sky was dark, and there were already torches on both sides of the city gate. Because of the tournament, there were more wild knights coming from all over the world, and there were many riders and carriages waiting in line at the city gate.
"The tournament this time is mainly to recruit riders, and there are no restrictions on the identity of the participants, who would know if I'm a man or a woman if I wear a helmet?" Danny asked with a smile.
The rules of the tournament were mostly fixed, but depending on the venue and the host's personality, some small details could be different.
For example, a lord who was a devout believer of the Seven Gods and held a tournament in the name of the Seven Gods at his doorstep, it was very likely that only regular knights with holy oil were allowed to participate.
But the tournament was a social event that everyone in the Westeros knew about, almost similar to the Asian Spring Festival. In most cases, as long as you had a horse, anyone could participate in the tournament.
Even if the rules didn't allow women to participate, no one would check the competing knights' little Gigi one by one.
Catching a glimpse of people looking over, Danny's expression didn't change, she pursed her lips and continued, "I know how Barristan got the title 'Fearless'.
Fifty years ago, in the tournament at Dark Harbor, Barristan, who was only ten years old, "picked up" a set of armor from somewhere and participated in the tournament as a mysterious knight, and even dared to challenge Prince Duncan.
In the end, he was defeated by the prince, and his helmet was lifted, causing everyone to laugh loudly at him.
But Prince Fran was very fond of him, not only did he express sympathy and appreciation, in the end, he even gave him the nickname 'Fearless Barristan'. "
The old knight was like a living history book, he even knew the first generation of men who broke off their engagement.
"The armor was not picked up," the old knight shook his head sadly. "At that time, he was the knight squire of Sir Manford Swann, and when they learned that he had the idea of participating in the tournament, the sons of the knight pooled their money to make a small set of armor for him."
Fifty years had passed, not to mention the grand knight who had served him, even his childhood friend was no longer alive, it was really sad to think about it.
The old town was a bit similar to Volantis, both wrapped around the mouth of the river into the city, but the Honey River was not as wide as the Rohn River, and the water volume was much lower, there were many gray stone arch bridges on the river.
There were also a few small islands in the center of the river, many of which were built with tall houses, connected to the banks by stone bridges, and there were also arched stone bridges between the neighboring islands.
Ignoring the western architectural style, Danny had the illusion that she had come to the Qinhuai River in Yangzhou, where three or four-story brick buildings stretched out colorful paper lanterns on both sides of the river.
Passersby walked leisurely along the river, there were brightly lit flower boats on the river, the smell of cosmetics, the laughter of women and the sound of zither could be faintly heard.
"God, the base is even bigger than the old Great Pyramid of Gith, the Towering Tower, it really lives up to its name!"
In fact, outside the city, the tower could be seen stretching into the indigo night, the 240-meter-tall building, its top floor was burning with flames, providing the most clear direction for the ships coming to and from the Whispering Bay.
After getting closer, she was shocked to find that the Towering Tower occupied the entire island, it was as huge as a big castle, roughly more than ten thousand square meters.
"Of course, the Towering Tower is one of the Nine Wonders of the World!"
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