Chapter 171

Chapter 171 The Army marches

  "The first army is composed of the armies of the princes of the Northern Territory and Reach, they will be commanded by His Majesty himself. However, considering that His Majesty is still young and has no military skills, the command of this army will be handed over to the hand to the king, Duke Eddard Stark."

  Duke Eddard was stunned when he heard this, obviously, he didn't expect the old lion to entrust himself with such a heavy responsibility.

  Of course, he would not refuse, so he stood up and bowed slightly to Duke Tywin.

  Duke Tywin also nodded in return, and continued: "The first army will enter Dorne from the Prince's Pass and be in charge of the battlefield west of the Greenblood River."

"Yes."

  Duke Eddard took the order and sat down.

  "The second army is composed of the armies of the stormland, the vale, and the western region. I will personally command it and go south along the bone way to attack the central and eastern regions of Dorne."

Hearing this, Samwell knew that the two major passes through the Red Mountains is the main direction of this war.

  Since the Red Mountains lie between them, Prince's Pass and Bone Way are the only options to attack Dorne from north to south, but now there is actually a breakthrough point in the west of Dorne, Duke Tywin should not miss it.

  "Baron of eagle island."

  At this moment, Samwell heard his name.

  "Lord Tywin." He immediately stood up and saluted.

  "I hope you can represent the Iron Throne as an envoy to Starfall City to persuade Earl Natalie to join the side of justice."

  "Lord Tywin, Earl Natalie is the lord of Dorne after all, and rejecting the Martell family's recruitment is already the end of their acceptance. It's the limit of also what I can do."

  Duke Tywin stared at Samwell with those twinkling golden eyes:

  "Actually, my request is not high. I don't need her to make a clear statement, and I don't need troops from Starfall City. She only needs to allow our army to land in Starfall City."

  Samwell thought for a while and asked, "How big is the army?"

  "About 2,000 cavalry." Duke Tywin said, "This is the third route I planned. They will go deep into the hinterland of Dorne, harass and attack Dorne's rear towns, and cut off the supply line of the Dorne army."

  Samwell pondered for a while, thinking that the passage of an army of this size through Starfall City should not arouse strong reactions from the local Dornish people. At worst, they chose to land secretly at night.

  However, it is not his style to say yes.

  "Lord Tywin, this is probably very difficult to do. After all, you know how xenophobic the Dornish people are. I am worried that your third army will be trapped in Starfall City. What's more, how will the supply of this army be solved? It can't be all about plundering the Dornes, right?"

  "I remember that Starfall City owes a debt of 70,000 gold dragons, right?" Duke Tywin asked.

  "Yes." Samwell was overjoyed. Is the old lion planning to spend money?

  quick! Kill me with money!

  "You tell Earl Natalie that as long as she agrees to let my army pass and secretly provides daily supplies, after the war, the Lannister family will help her pay back the 70,000 gold dragons."

Samwell was overjoyed, you know, the 70,000 golden dragons that Starfall owed were to him.

  But then, he thought that the debt was mortgaged by the giant sword [Dawn]. If Starfall City also pays the money, does that mean that the mortgage must be returned...

It's okay, 70,000 is only the principal, and there is interest.

  Samwell was relieved, and immediately put on an extremely sincere expression: "Yes, Lord Tywin, I will write to Earl Natalie about your conditions, and I believe she will definitely not refuse the call of justice."

  Duke Tywin saw that the other party was so confident that he only wrote a letter without going there in person, so he knew that the arrangement of the army should be fine.

  "The Fourth Army is the Navy, which is composed of the Royal Fleet and the Arbor Island Fleet, under the unified command of Earl Paxter Redwyne. Their goal is to control the Green Blood River and cut off the connection between the Dorne towns along the route."

  "Yes, my lord." Earl Paxter stood up and took orders.

  Samwell frowned because he found out that the commander of the navy was not the Sea Lord, Duke Stannis Baratheon - of course, the eldest brother of the former king was not present at all.

  It seems that Duke Stannis has a lot of opinions on the Lannister family taking power.

  But since Duke Stannis did not come, it is estimated that the Royal Fleet will not have many ships to participate in the battle. The main force of the navy this time should be the Arbor Island Fleet.

  Now it seems that Duke Tywin's battle plan is basically the same as Daeron I's strategy of conquering Dorne, except that there is more cavalry from the landing of Starfall City to the heart of Dorne to harass.

  If all goes well, the Iron Throne should also be able to replicate the success of the conquest war that year.

  However, the difficulty in conquering Dorne has never been capturing the city, but how to make the people of Dorne kneel down and surrender.

  "Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken."

  This family language of the Martell family is an excellent portrayal of the character of the Dornish people.

  With the troops assembled by the Iron Throne this time, it is really not too difficult to capture the town of Dorne. But the problem is that after the town is captured, the Dornish people will not surrender easily, they will flee to the mountains Continuing to resist in the jungles and deserts, this kind of guerrilla warfare is the most troublesome.

  "The Conqueror" Aegon Targaryen brought three giant dragons and couldn't solve this problem. In the end, he was constantly attacked by the Dornish people and finally lost his dragon 'Meraxes'.

  Daeron I also captured all the towns of Dorne, but still could not prevent the people of Dorne from resisting. The guerrilla harassment of Dorne in three years caused the Iron Throne to lose 40,000 soldiers, and even the appointed governor was assassinated. In the end, Dorne rioted throughout the territory, and the Iron Throne army had no choice but to withdraw.

  Later, Daeron I was unwilling to fail, and once again assembled an army to make a comeback, but fell into the trap of the Dornishmen, and even lost his own life.

  In the end, it was the successor "Blessed" Baelor I who walked barefoot on the bone road alone and jumped into the deep pit full of poisonous snakes, finally convinced the people of Dorne to believe in the sincerity of the Iron Throne, and finally through marriage. Dorn surrendered peacefully.

  It can be seen from this that it is really not an easy task to lower the proud heads of the people on this land.

  This was also the reason why Samwell had clearly won the Battle of Starfall and wanted to push Natalie Dayne to the position of Earl.

  If he dared to sit in that position himself, he could expect a steady stream of assassinations and rebellions from the Dornishmen.

  So don't look at the menacing Iron Throne this time, the outcome of this war is really hard to say.

  If Duke Tywin dared to use the tough methods he used against the vassals of the West to deal with the Dornishmen, he would be bloodied.

  The bones of the nobles of Dorne are much harder than those of the nobles of the Western region.

  Afterwards, the details of the battle were discussed at the meeting. Samwell crossed his arms and watched coldly. In this war, he doesn't really care if the Iron Throne and Dorne wins or loses, as long as both sides bleed.

  After the meeting, everyone dispersed.

  When Samwell returned to the camp, he wrote a letter to Natalie, writing down Duke Tywin's requirements and conditions, and at the same time giving his own suggestions.

  Three days later, he received a reply, and of course, Natalie would not refuse his request.

  When he informed Duke Tywin of this result, the lion of the western border also formally issued an order to march on behalf of the king.

  Thus, the four-way army officially launched.

  Samwell's own Eagle Island army followed the Reach Army, under the unified command of Duke Eddard, and he was assigned to follow the third cavalry to perform the task of rear harassment.

  In fact, this task was also requested by Samwell himself, because if he followed the first army, there would be no benefit at all. It would be a boring siege battle, and Samwell had no interest in participating in it.

  If he follows the third army to harass the rear, he will have a lot more freedom in tactics. Although it is more dangerous, he can be said to be the best single-soldier combat ability in Westeros.

It is not difficult for him to escape without being trapped in the siege of the army.

  And with the falcons scouting in the sky, as long as Samwell is careful, he won't let himself be in a desperate situation.

  But for the five hundred soldiers he left behind, Samwell was a little worried that if he was not there, they would be treated as cannon fodder by others.

  He wanted to hand over these soldiers to his younger brother Dickon to take care of them, but Dickon also wanted to follow him to the rear to carry out harassment tactics.

  In desperation, Samwell had to hand over his army to his uncle, Sir Alekyne Florent.

  The eldest son of Brightwater Keep is quite influential in the Reach Army, and Samwell can rest assured that his army will not be on the frontline.

  The commander of the Third Army, this time is Earl Yohn Royce from Runestone City of the Vale.

  This old man known as "Bronze Yohn" was tall and had grey hair, but his thick palms and strong body were still not inferior to young people.

  The Royce family is one of the most powerful and oldest families in the Vale, and its history can even be traced back to the distant Dawn Era. This family has many sets of bronze armour that have been handed down from ancient times, which can protect the knight very well.

  The title of "Bronze Yohn" actually comes from this.

  At this moment, Samwell was staring at the suit of armour worn by "Bronze Yohn", unable to move his eyes away.

  Under the twilight of the morning sun, this bronze armour looked deep and introverted, but the mysterious runes densely engraved on it exuded a vague and mysterious aura.

  Really good baby!

  I don't know if the Royce family will sell it...

  "Lord Caesar, the ship is coming, let's go." Earl Yohn didn't care about Samwell's staring eyes. His armour had not been noticed once or twice, and he could only be proud of it.

  "Oh, okay." Samwell then calmed down and walked towards the big ship parked at the pier.

  But when he came close and saw the name of the first ship clearly, he stopped immediately.

  The Valiant Joffrey.

  Samwell felt that the ship might sink sooner or later...

  "Ahem, Lord Yohn, I'll take the next boat." Saying that Samwell ran away quickly.

  But the name of the second ship made Samwell frown even more—

  the Sweet Cersei.

  Doesn't this mother and son have any self-knowledge?

  Fortunately, there are quite a lot of ships coming this time so Samwell still has a choice.

  The third ship was called the Dauntless Robert.

  Well, this is fine, even though Robert is dead, Samwell still feels that this boat is safer.

  At least its name does not offend the gods.

  After the 2,000 cavalry and 4,000 horses were all boarded, the 17 large ships sailed slowly into the Dorne Sea.

  Heading towards the rising sun hanging high in the east.

[END]