The Vale Campaign(1)
The realm didn't stay quiet as I was waiting. Jaime had gotten to King's Landing and was training with his left hand. The Wildlings had been spotted in large amount behind the wall. Stannis Baratheon was preparing his fleet and the Lannisters and Tyrell's were fighting.
A moon after my meeting, 8 mountain clans showed up. The; Stone Crows, the leader of the mountain clan as the strongest, Burned Men, Black Ears, Howlers, Milk Snakes, Moon Brothers, Painted Dogs and Redsmiths numbering a total of 7.000 men. Two of the Wilding Clans didn't come. Sons of the Mist and Sons of the Trees.
I gave them Iron Weapons that I had prepared. I also had all my light cavalry work together with the Wilding Clans to map out the secret paths through the mountains and their different camps, this would help when I ruled the Vale.
I had struck a deal with the Tyrell's before leaving King's Landing. Mainly buying shit ton of Grain. And having them send weekly amounts of grains until I asked them to stop, I payed for it, of course. There is more than enough meat and water in the Riverlands but not enough grain.
And surely enough, after 2 moons, the lords showed up. One after another they came. The smaller Lords first, and lastly the Frey's. Being a week late, of course.
But no matter, we set out. The Houses also came in clutch with more than troops. I paid for their men's pay and food. But they gave me shit ton of horses to use. I had 6.000 war horses and 30.000 work horses. Enough to transfer Barry half our forces by horse, but we would need to work either way. And as such I had all my horses transfer wood and weapons instead of carrying men. And as such we had miles long roads full of carriages.
There were some problems though. Mainly between the Vance and Frey. House Vance was quite honourable and therefore was disgusted by the Frey's.
But that's not all. With our slow army, it took a whole fucking week to reach the Crossroads.
When we arrived I sent the Mountain Clans alongside my 2000 Light Cavalry to hunt down any messages from the Bloody Gate, not allowing them to report anything.
Our army consisted of;
3000 Heavy and 2000 Light Bracken Cavalry
1000 Heavy and 2000 Light Mallister Cavalry
500 Heavy and 2000 Light Vance Cavalry
3000 Light Frey Cavalry
500 Heavy Mooton Cavalry.
1000 Light Smallwood Cavalry
5000 Heavy Cavalry and 10.000 Light Cavalry and 1000 scouts or extra's.
Out of 66.000, 16.000 is cavalry and 50.000 is Infantry, this includes 7.000 Mountain Clans, and 15.000 Bracken making only 28.000 from the other Houses.
After doing that we began marching.
After 4 days of arriving our first scouts could see the Bloody Gate, and we made camp. We were still out of their sight but barely.
That's when Daemon reported to me. He came into my tent.
"M'Lord!" He said as he bowed on one knee.
"Yes, General Daemon?" I asked. Daemon was made General and leader of our cavalry.
"I have mapped the Mountain Clan's routes. There are around 16 different roads. 9 on the right side and 7 on the other, with your permission I will send the 10.000 Light Cavalry through the roads on the right side and have them wait on the other side of the Bloody Gate in case of a retreat. The mountain roads are too harsh for the heavy cavalry." He said.
"Very well, however take the Mountain Clan men with you, when we launch our attack they will attack from the Vale side." I said as he nodded before leaving.
And that's when I called my Generals.
"Jon, please get my war council here." I said.
"Yes, M'Lord." I heard as someone walked off, presumably Jon.
And one after another they came in. Lord Keryl Vance, Jason Mallister, Tytos Rivers and Emmon Frey.
"Alright, so the Bloody Gate is manned by five thousand men. The Bloody gate is a kilometre long or 1000 meters. It includes one large gate and it connects with the mountains. It is impossible to enter the Gate Straight through the Mountain. We have discovered roads that go around the Bloody Gate, and we have sent 10.000 Light Cavalry and 7000 Mountain Clansmen there. We will launch a two side attack, and shoot down every Raven." I said as the other 4 men began thinking.
"I don't trust the Wildings, they may turn on us." Emmon said.
"Like you did the with the Starks?" Karyl Vance asked.
Emmon became quiet at that.
"I agree with you, Lord Alexander. That is the best course of action, however. I also suggest we send a small force in first, 200 men, probably your "undead" squad. If we're luckily they can hold the gate open long enough for our Heavy Cavalry to push through." He said.
"Hmm, that is indeed quite smart. We can send them in as merchants." I said as I began thinking.
"But it's wishful thinking. They will just get slaughtered by them. The gate isn't held up at the entrance, it's a spot above and they won't get there without alerting the entire fort." I said.
"Aye, I agree. It's too risky." Karyl stated.
"In the battle, I request you let the Frey forces fight in the vanguard. I acknowledge the fact that we are not quite trustworthy in your eyes, but we wish to gain that through this war." He said with meaning and a hint of shrewdness in his eyes.
Oh well, if you wanna sacrifice yourself, okay.
"WHAT!?" Keryl screamed.
"My Lord! Please let House Vance lead the Vanguard." Keryl asked.
"No, let House Mallister do it!" Jason stated.
"My Lords…. There will be tens of battles, all of you will get the chance to fight in the Vanguard. But very well Frey, you will get this chance. Do not disappoint me." I said, and they became quiet.
"Lord Keryl will lead the right flank, Lord Jason the left flank, Emmon the Vanguard and Tytos the main force. It will be like this until I say otherwise. I expect all of you to use your experience in war to make sure we achieve great results. Great merits means great rewards." I said. And after saying our goodbyes they began leaving one after another.
And with that I went to sleep. The battle would happen in 3 days.
The 3 days quickly passed. The 1st day was partying, 2nd sobering up and eating and 3rd preparing.
When the sun reached the middle of the sky on the 3rd day, we began marching.
After only 2 hours we arrived in front of the wall and arrows began raining on us. Once we arrived I had the Frey forces approach the wall and wait, they stood just out of reach for the stones being thrown down.
"Blow the horn and send in the battering ram." I said.
A loud sound began playing through the battlefield. Firstly the horn beside me. Then one every corner of the battlefield. Even the 5000 defenders on the walls got shocked by that.
All their defenders were holding their ears cause of the high sound. That's when one young recruit instead of bowing down turned around and bowed down.
He looked back just in time to see a large herd of mountain men flowing through the forest and towards the stairs.
He immediately screamed.
"MOUNTAIN RAIDERS!" However the horns were much higher than his own sound and very few heard it. Therefore be had to go around pointing at them. But that way of giving information was too slow. And by the time they could form up at the bottom of the stairs, the mountain raiders were already there. And 5000 against hardly 300 definitely isn't fair and they got slaughtered.
The mountain men plowed their way through the unsuspecting men of the Bloody Gate. And when the horn stopped and the defenders could hear again, the screams of their brothers were already too close.
The Mountain Clans broke through the main gate defenses and opened the gate. And the Frey men charged through and the Vale defenders routed and attempted to run. But they found themselves a wall of horses running at them. They didn't get far.
And with that. The Bloody Gate was successfully sieged.
We camped at the Bloody Gate, I was sitting in its command room when Daemon came through.
"M'Lord, could I speak to you alone?" He asked.
Around me were my generals.
"Very well, leave us." And with that they left.
"M'Lord, as you said we shot down all the ravens, they sent 15, 15 fell to the ground. However a Frey rider attempted to sneak away, luckily I spotted him and followed him." He took a deep breath before continuing.
He ran out of the forest and towards the Eryie. The Frey plans on betraying us." He said.
I looked shocked but inwardly I was happy.
Perfect! Mother fucking perfect!
"Very good Daemon, keep this silent. Nobody must know." I said. Daemon nodded before leaving.
"Jon! Notify everyone. We are departing tomorrow at noon."
"Understood, M'Lord!" He said before running off.
Soon enough tomorrow came. The Mountain Clansmen have a lot of energy and doesn't really need to rest, meanwhile the Frey's didn't even fight.
And we began marching. The Eyrie was 12 hours away from us and we would march every second of it.
While we were marching I talked with my war council.
"Any of you good lords have any plans on how to capture the Eyrie?" I asked.
"I say we just host a normal siege, it's kinda hard to do anything else." Emmon said.
"Winter is coming, we can't maintain our large army for long. Even if it's from your coffers Lord Alexander." Keryl Vance said.
"What do you suggest?" I asked.
"The scouts reported that the 20.000 Arryn army left the Eyrie. They will likely regroup with their other Houses and attack our siege camp. I suggest we leave a small force and attack their main army." Keryl suggested. It was a fair plan, but after watching the story. I had another plan.
"Bronn, please enter." I said.
And then Bronn entered.
"This is Bronn of the Blackwater. He will lead my force of 200 alongside 50 mercenaries who has experience in climbing, even a few wildings from climbing the wall. Their prison keeper named Mort is dumb, just scream and he'll open the door and come in." I said.
"I don't really wanna depend on mercenaries. But because your private unit is coming along I guess it will be possible." Emmon said.
"I agree with the plan, if we can climb to the sky cells we can take over the Eryie." Jason said.
"Very well, then it is settled." I said.
And with that they left after we finalised some last details. The Vance forces would lead the vanguard along side the Mountain Clans.