Chapter 160 The Rescue Method for the Nobles of the River Bend
Chapter 160 The rescue method of the River Bend nobles
Riverlands, Maidenpool.
The Mouton family's gold-edged and white sockeye flag fluttered in every corner of the castle and town.
The King of the River's army arrived here by water and is currently building fortifications on the south side of the town.
In the castle hall, a dozen nobles with higher status were discussing military matters.
Although the enemy's movements are clear, the situation on the entire continent is beginning to become unclear.
During the period when the Riverside Army moved north, Randyll did not attack Maidenpool, but stayed where he was. The movements of the rest of the Riverside Army were even more confusing. Balon Swann of the Kingsguard brought a southern army with him.
After crossing the Blackwater River and entering the Stormlands to "quell the rebellion", Garland took his own troops and slowly headed towards Deep Cave City, Silver Mountain City and other places along the Golden Road.
At present, the salient part of the Western Territory is in the hands of the river army led by Dickon. It is three to four hundred leagues from King's Landing to Deep Cave City. At the marching speed of Garland's troops, it should take more than a month.
It seems that this Tyrell also had his own plans and did not fully comply with Cersei's orders.
"The Change of King's Landing did not trigger a mutiny among the Reach Army. I think Garland is still quite capable." Hugo Vance joked.
When most of the lords were captured, Garland actually made 30,000 Riverside soldiers withdraw from King's Landing obediently and accept the deployment of the Lion Family. This made many people call Queen Cersei awesome.
Everyone laughed. After Cersei took the helm, the pressure on them from the Westerlands and the Reach Alliance suddenly eased a lot.
With such an opponent, victory is only a matter of time.
Matus Rowan behaved differently from the others.
"Your Majesty, it is said that the Shield Islands in the Reach have been captured by the Ironborn. Based on the current situation, Euron will definitely send people to plunder the coastal areas, and may even go deep into the Mander River and Mead River to rob. Is Cersei's
Temperament, it is impossible to consider the situation in the Hebend territory, can we do some tricks on this?"
Ever since Arthur used a trick to break up his relationship with the Duke of Metz, Count Rowan also learned this method.
"Indeed, but it will take time to implement the details."
This is exactly what Arthur planned, but he didn't want to reveal the specific action plan to so many people present.
"What is the specific situation of the army of Lord Randyll Tarly, the great writer Hugo?"
The name of Sir Vance is the same as that of a great writer in his previous life, so Arthur sometimes calls him the great writer.
"He led his army to occupy the ruins of Duskdale City, and summoned nearby farmers, stonemasons, and blacksmiths. It seemed that he was preparing to rebuild the castle and stationed there for a long time."
Among the 10,000 troops under Randyll's command, there are 2,000 from Tully's own family, 2,000 from the Red Apple Forsoway family, 3,000 from the Mariweis family from Long Table Hall, and 3,000 from Pei from Star Shuttle City.
The Ke family produced 1,500 people.
The remaining fifteen hundred soldiers come from various small houses in the Reach.
It is worth mentioning that many of the family governors of this department have stayed in King's Landing, waiting for the royal family to reward the people of the River Bend for their merits.
This makes Landao's situation unprecedentedly good.
He could not only refuse to fight for the Lion-Flower Alliance on the grounds of King's Landing, but he could also use his troops to gain more benefits for himself.
Sir Egilon Oakheart suddenly stood up and suggested: "Landao has an obsession with the territory, and his heir is also on your side. Perhaps you can combine Duskendale City and the nearby earldom.
Give him a reward to win the support of Earl Tully."
Several river bend nobles nodded in agreement with this statement.
To be honest, the territory of Duskendale City is not a good territory. In order to serve the huge noble knight class in King's Landing, a large number of fruits, vegetables and flowers are planted in the farmland of the royal territory. This is fine in peacetime, but cannot provide assistance to the lord in wartime.
And because the entire royal territory is located around Blackwater Bay, the climate is greatly affected by the monsoon, which is mostly windy. The output of farmland is very low, and active activities in King's Landing can earn more money than cultivated land.
.
Therefore, many young farmers went to work in the city, causing a serious loss of citizens among the royal nobles.
From the political perspective of Arthur Keyboard, this phenomenon should be called the siphon effect of big cities.
Huanjunlin is in the poverty belt!
And Dickon Tully has been performing very well. If Randall came to surrender with an army of 10,000, and when rewards were given based on merit in the future, the Tully family's reward would definitely not be the ruins of Duskendale.
"Rewards and other matters will be discussed after the situation is stable. Which Lord of the Riverbend has a good relationship with Earl Landau and wants to pay me a visit?"
After the nobles looked at each other, Matus recommended Egilon Oakheart.
"Your Majesty, the murals in Ancient Oak City all depict the feud between his family and Dorne, and the Itali family's hatred of Dorne. Sir Aggieron will definitely have many topics to talk about with Lord Randyll."
Arthur glanced at the middle-aged knight and nodded in confirmation.
"By the way, I remembered that your family still has a territorial dispute with a certain family in the Western Region? Now I will also judge it for you." King Hejian asked.
Before the War of the Five Kings broke out, when he went to Highgarden, he heard that this family had disputes with the West.
But because the Rose family could not influence King's Landing at that time, and the Lannister family had a queen, the Duke of Mace took it upon himself to make the Oakheart family tolerate this.
"It's the Crake Hall family. They occupy twelve villages of my family, which is about the size of a barony. Because Sir James once worked as a squire in Rail Hall, so...my family is actually not very powerful.
Weak, we also have a member of the Kingsguard, but the Duke of Metz is just unwilling to fight against the West for us."
Ancient Oak City and Crake Hall are both along the Esplanade, and the boundary of their territories is also the boundary between the River Bend and the West.
Because Jaime Lannister once served as a squire to Lord Sumner Craher, the relationship between Crake Hall and Casterly Rock has always been close.
Arthur waved his hand and said, "When the Western Territory is captured, the Kraihe family will compensate your family for the territory of twenty villages. By the way, what is the name of your Kingsguard? Where is he now?"
Egilon replied: "It's Ser Arys Oakheart. I'm not sure where he went. It's said that he was sent by Cersei to protect his daughter Myrcella Baratheon, but I don't know.
Sure."
Although the Kingsguard, like the Night's Watch, appear to have separated from their own families, they are not in fact.
Not to mention someone like James who always runs to his own home whenever something goes wrong, most of the Kingsguard have fought for a lot of benefits for their families.
For example, the "Fearless" Barristan Selmy was born in Harvest Hall in the Stormlands. Because Lord Gossip Stan served as the Kingsguard of Jaehaerys II, Aerys II, Robert I and other kings,
And served as captain of the Kingsguard for fourteen years, which turned Selmy of Harvest Hall into an earl family.
"Then he may be in the valley. Where is Harlan Hunt in the valley? Let him send a servant or something to deliver a message to see if he can bring this knight over. If he can bring Myrcella out
It would be even better in the valley.”
William Frey, Old Walder's seventeenth son, is the bachelor of the Hunter family.
Since the Frey family has a good relationship with the Hunter family, Harlan, the hostage, quickly integrated into the circle of the River people. It should be no problem for him to send someone to deliver a message.
Aijilun nodded and agreed.
Arthur didn't expect to get Myrcella as a big hostage with just one letter, but killing her with nothing to do was still a move.
What if it is used someday?
The King of Hejian looked over the map and saw that there should be no major battles within a week or two.
Although he promised to marry Sansa after settling the matter in the Vale, he may not be able to take the time now.
"Garland should be coordinating all parties. Maybe Kevan will run from the West to King's Landing and talk to his niece. Taking advantage of this time, we need to do more poaching work. Sir Aggieron, wait until I come up with something
After finishing the letter to Landao, you will set off this afternoon and keep your whereabouts hidden. The rest of you will go out to manage your own soldiers. We still have to prepare for Landao's attack."
Arthur sent away most of the nobles, leaving only two, William Mouton and Aggielon.
After he and the loyal and honest William discussed the wording of the letter, Earl Mouton wrote the letter with a quill pen, then sealed the letter paper with hot wax and stamped it with a red salmon seal.
The reason why the Mouton family's emblem was used instead of Arthur's broadsword and prancing horse emblem was to leave Landau some room for maneuver.
The old earl was not a devout believer in the Seven Gods - he even asked two wizards to do things for his eldest son Samwell - but his men were all believers in the Seven Gods, and it was considered dishonorable to correspond with the enemy's king.
thing.
"Tell Lord Tully that after the war, Duskendale City can be given to him, and I can even give him a piece of land in the Reach to prevent him from dividing his family. As long as he leads his army to me, everything can be discussed.
.”
After giving final instructions to Aijlon, Arthur sent him away.
William Mouton heard these words quietly, and he questioned: "Your Majesty, are your rewards for the territory too generous? There are not many precedents for such a level of territory changes."
The feudal fiefdom system for thousands of years has made territories and castles a carrot and a pit. As long as a family gains a new territory, someone will inevitably lose it.
"It doesn't matter, Cersei has done great service for us. She has killed many house governors in the entire Reach. They are very low in the order of surrendering to me. It is normal for them to have their titles reduced."
In fact, not only the rivers, but also the rivers and bays, if Arthur unified the continent of Westeros, the Stormlands and the West could also squeeze out a large amount of territory to reward those with meritorious service.
Who caused these two realms to keep following the wrong people and not have much military strength anymore?
…
The King of Hejian originally thought that it would take time for all the people in Hewan to turn to him, but the visitors at night made him overturn his idea.
At midnight, Hob Redwin personally took a boat to the port of Maidenpool and visited the River King.
"Why are you here? Where is your brother Horace?" Arthur asked.
He had a pretty good relationship with the Redwin twins, because the two kept appearing at the same time, so he was curious about where the other one had gone.
"He took my family's more than seventy warships back to the Reach."
Hopper was obviously very anxious. In the next period of time, he stated his plans and the purpose of coming here.
After the great changes in King's Landing, he felt that Lannister was not easy to serve, and he took the remaining Redwyne warships to Dragonstone to avoid orders from the Red Keep.
There, he contacted Count Randyll Tarly of Duskendale City many times, and the latter suggested that he go to the Duke of Mace in the hands of the King of the River to test the situation.
"My uncle is in your hands. Apart from my grandmother, he is the only Tyrell who can determine the attitude of the people in the Reach, so..."
The Duke of Metz is Hopper's uncle.
Arthur found it funny that these Reach people actually thought of letting a prisoner decide the allegiance of an army of thirty to forty thousand men.
But this was very beneficial to him, so he ordered Podrick to bring the inflatable fish master.
As soon as they met, Hopper didn't care about anything else and asked the Duke of Mace to find a way to find his old father, Paxter Redwin.
"Uncle, you also know that we don't have much prestige among the lower-level lords in the Reach. After the King's Landing incident, Garland's weak handling made many noble members who stayed in the Reach dissatisfied..."
The Duke of Metz had known about the great changes in King's Landing before, but there was nothing he could do.
Facing his nephew, the inflatable fish said with a bitter expression: "You mean to let me go to King's Landing alone to rescue those house governors and knights. Do you think I can break into King's Landing by myself, then attack the Red Keep, and then kill them?"
Into Maegor's Tower?"
Since the Red Keep is also a huge castle and Maegor's Tower has its own separate moat, it is not easy to conquer these two levels.
"Who said you were allowed to fight in?" Hobo ignored the etiquette between elders and juniors. He grabbed his old uncle's hand and pointed him to the locations of several Hebang troops.
"Duskendale City, the south bank of the Blackwater River, and the Golden Road. Together, we have 40,000 fully armed soldiers. As long as you give the order, it will be enough to bring these 40,000 people together. Then Cersei dares to touch us.
A hair from the Reach? When we besiege King's Landing, she won't be able to hand over the hostages obediently?"
Now that the Lannister has done something like the Change of King's Landing, Hobb and others have no intention of continuing to be loyal to the so-called "Tommen I".
"But at least 20,000 of us have died for the Lion Family. These lives are money, and the cost of replacing a new king is a bit high." Metz glanced at He who was sitting aside and staring at the two of them talking guiltily.
The king of time.
"Oh, uncle, most of the dead were servants and servants. How many real soldiers died?" Because Earl Landau had already settled the accounts for Hopper, he spoke up.
"What's more, with Cersei's madness, if she continues to follow her, all the soldiers in the Reach will die. How much does it cost to train a soldier? And there are more than six million people in the Reach, and some are servants, but retired soldiers
How much is it? Can you appreciate the logic behind this?"
The Duke of Metz frowned and thought for a long time, and then said leisurely: "Since Cersei dares to do this, then we must be more ruthless. But my mother is still in her hands, and I really don't want to... Alas, Loras and Mago
Li is also there, as well as a lot of earls and viscounts. If Cersei is completely willing to go all out, then our enmity with other Reach families will be great."
Lord Inflatable Fish was afraid that Cersei would kill the hostages, so he couldn't make up his mind.
Seeing that the atmosphere had reached this point, Arthur said: "Actually, I have an idea."
There is a rather complicated system of secret passages and cellars underground in the Red Keep. It is from the underground of the Red Keep that Varys's little birds deliver various messages to the intelligence chief.
The uncle and nephew looked at Arthur hurriedly and asked in unison: "What method?"
"I can lead a team of people to enter the secret passage from the sewers of the Red Keep, and then fight in, kill Cersei first, and then rescue the nobles of the Reach." Arthur said.
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