The War of The Five Kings(1)
Only 6 days after sending the letters, reports came from Daeron informing me of a successful attack.
We had not yet officially joined the war and the Riverrun navy was only focusing on groups troops, the Tullies had 80 River Galleys in total, however 10 were raiding in the Red Fork, luckily they were spread out on the 3 sides, 23 on each sides. We sent 40 Galleys to face the 23 ones.
They were outnumbered by a factor of 2 and therefore was quickly overwhelmed. But the fighting didn't escape the rest of the navies attention, however that's when Daeron did something unexpected. Before the battle he had sent 250 men from the 10 Longships to fight, he then went to the shore where he picked up an additional 250 Lannister men and transferred them to the naval battle, and he continued to do this.
The 40 other gallies had came just in time and had managed to push out men away from the ships currently under attack, but they had already wiped 7 ships. And therefore it was 62 Tully Galleys against our 40.
We were quickly pushed back as the men from the Tully reinforcement pushed onto the 16 tullies ship left in the middle. Battles quickly started, our men were superior in sheer skill but we lacked experience in fighting, which showed as the Tully commanders quickly managed to retreat those having fought a lot replacing them with new troops.
We were quickly out at a disadvantaged, however luckily naval battle was more about quality over quantity because only a selected few could fight at the same time, however due to their long experience in fighting on sea they could effectively rotate their men, which was significant harder on the sea than on the ground.
We had yet to gain the experience to do that yet.
However luckily, they had not noticed the Longships, and they landed on the back of their with the most experienced and skilled Lannister men, all the soliders had moved to the front line and there were therefore nobody to stop them from climbing above.
And truth be told, there is no infantry as efficient as the Lannister infantry, especially when Jaime Lannister shows up. The Vale has its cavalry, the reach its numbers, the north irs ferocity, the Riverlands the adaptability, the Stormlands its fury, dorne's klima and lastly, the Westerlands discipline and superior armor.
All the regions had it's strengths, and the Lannister proved superior on land. Due to their superior armor that no other lands can match.
You may also know that I didn't mention the Crownlands. That's because the Crownlands is a march between all those. The Crownlands depends on its King, but Crownlanders are usually the cruelest ones.
But the Lannister arrived at the back of the Tully formation and quickly began turning the battle. The tullies had placed their wounded and exhausted ones at the back and therefore stood no chance against the armed to the teeth and prepared Lannister soliders. Lannister started the battle by beheading the officer commanding the rotation on their single part of the battle.
Immediately chaos ensued while the Lannister soliders hacked at their back lines while staying together. Only the Stormlanders were better than the Lannisters at hacking down at unsuspecting and unprepared opponents.
The battle quickly turned. However their Commander was efficient and managed to turn majority of their back forces around and attempted to encircle the Lannister forces by their sheer number. Which worked and forced the Lannisters to retreat a bit, allowing the exhausted men to move away, but soon enough the second batch of Lannisters came and jumped in the unsuspecting encircling troops.
The Tullies had to fight a battle on two sides, and even with superior numbers, the never ending Lannister reinforcements exhausted the tullies. They tried to retreat to their gallies to attack the longships. However the Lannister troops had made defenses on the outer gallies from the tullies and they never managed to penetrate the defenses before new Lannisters came and attacked the attacking forces.
And soon enough the Tully Commander understood that they had lost and they surrendered.
This was an extremely beneficial battle. The Lannisters took 10 of the Galleys to attack the 10 remaining Tully galleys fighting their supply lines, while we got the other 60 Galleys, however 6 of them had been heavily damaged and sent back to Harroway for repairs. An additional 24 Galleys were sent with them to guard the Trident, most of them going to the Quiet Isle. Meanwhile the other 30 stayed.
I also had Tytos take the new 1000 Heavy Cavalry and the last 500 Light Cavalry to Riverrun. I had gotten Daenor to deliver a message to Jaime, asking him to let Tytos become his second in command. Which he eventually agreed to after the battle and our reinforcements.
Lastly I sent a letter to Jaime. Ordering him to Quiet Isle and spend every part of our coffers required to build a perfect naval defensive position. With iron chain towers on both side. Artillery, I had also stationed 2000 permanent men from there, not marines but normal infantry. With this we currently had 2000 Infantry at Quiet Isle, 34 Galleys, 20 Longships, 2200 Marines and a large host of builders and engineers.
I had also a 750 man Garrison at the Crossroads Inn. And a temporary force of 1000 Heavy Cavalry, 1000 Light Cavalry and 2000 Infantry stationed there with Tywin Lannister. I had only 3000 Infantry left. 1000 at Stone Hedge + 750 Garrison and 1000 men + 500 Garrison at Lychester. And lastly I had 500 each on Stoney Sept and Tumblers fall. And at last I had sent 1000 Heavy and 500 Light Cavalry to Riverrun completely using our entire army.
And at last I had to sent a recruitment task to Jaime, us requiring 3000 new marines. I would probably remove these later but we needed them now to defend against Stannis. The word name River in "Riverlands" explained this a lot.
I quite don't understand why no Houses other than Tully, Freys and Us invested in a River Navy. The one who controls the Rivers control Riverrun is what I think. Each of the Major keeps except for Mallister and Blackwood have rivers in it. If Stannis came in, even without river galleys, he had at least 300 Galleys, he would cripple the entire Riverlands, The Freys, The Mootons, The Darrys, The Tullies, The Brackens, A bit of Blackwood, House Cox, House Whent and perhaps 5-7 more small houses.
However barely a few days later, the Starks would attack the Lannisters, the battle happened as usual, but I had ordered Tytos to be prepared. When the Lannister forces came, even without me giving his advice. Instead of having the troops on the side of the Westerlands he moved those being on the same land as Stone Hedge move over. Being assisted by the naval forces, the 60 Galleys managed to move all their troops over within a few minutes and only moving one time.
Meanwhile the Westerlands forces were ready for everything, Tytos was personally there and sure enough, a strong stark force of 3000 attacked, however the 8000 Lannister men being ready and having their weapons out easily managed to stop them and begin killing the cavalry. The Starks had no heavy cavalry and were there easy pickings for a prepared force.
The Stark forces quickly had to retreat on both sides as the Lannister reinforcements had reached the first battle and quickly repelled the small stark forces.
However the damage had been done and Jaime Lannister had been captured, however that information wouldn't reach King's Landing in time.
The next day, the trial of Eddard Stark began.
I was standing on the podium beside Cersei, Joffrey and Sansa, I stood between Cersei and Sansa, showing my worth and superiority. I had also managed to place Jon and Jorgen on top. Jonnel and the unknown man at arms now having found out is named Uyn.
Jonnel was squiring under Jack and Uyn under Jorgen I had recently found out.
The trial then proceeded, when it was time for Joffrey to give the final sentence he did his usual dumbassness.
As he began with;
"A long as I am your King, treason shall never go unpunished" I put my hands on Sansa's shoulder. And she looked at me with pleading eyes.
"Bring me his head." He said and both Sansa and Cersei began screaming, I still held my hand on her shoulder holding her back. Meanwhile Jon stopped the King's Guard attempting to approach Sansa.
"Step away, Ser King's Dickrider." Jorgen said with his usual foul mouth.
Meanwhile, 2 Lannister men behind put their hands on their sword. At the same time Jonnel and Uyn came up and did the same, standing between the 2 men at arms and the King's Guard.
Ilyn Payne then stepped up and got his sword out.
I then pulled Sansa back. And out the head in my chest, she would see her head later, but now was not the time, I was still a head higher than her and she stopped resisting. I had saved her before, and she knew I wouldn't hurt her. I don't know which brainiac thought it was smart to have a fully armoured 30 year old man hold a 14 years old, completely stupid.
Either way, the execution passed and Eddard was killed. After that I took Sansa with me and left. Following me as Jon, Jorgen, Jonnel and Uyn.
We went straight to her quarters. She sat down as she composed herself and stopped crying.
"Sansa my dear, I know these are troublesome times, and you have little to no allies, but it's now you need to stay strong." I said
"How can I! My Father is dead! My mother and brother is rebelling! Arya is gone! I'm completely lost." Sansa said.
"Sansa, this is not the end. Your brother is fighting for your freedom. You need to stay strong, do whatever Joffrey ask of you. You can still become Queen. And you will have my full support in doing so." I said
"How can I, I have no support, no guards, nothing. Even Varys is safer than me." She said.
"That is wrong. Jonnel and Uyn here will stay as your personal guards alongside 13 other of my guards. You are also extremely rich. The Lannister couldn't steal the stark money as that would be looked bad upon by all houses. All his inventory has been given to you. Take them, buy taverns, houses, you need more power in King's Landing, and to do that you need money." I said
"But Lord Bracken, I am 14 years old, I don't know how to deal with this?" She said.
"Please, call me Alexander, and I can send you a economical expert. I also control the entirety of the city watch. If you ever need them, please ask me. And a bit of advice, stay clear of Baelish, you can trust Varys to some extent, do whatever Joffrey says, he is too strong for you right now." I said, and with that I left. Uyn and Jonnel stayed. I also sent 13 guards to her room. And lastly I called the guy Jaime has been teaching. Jason, he's 20 but already becoming a good guy at economy, would be a good practise. And with that I went to Cersei.
I entered her room as her guards let me.
"Bad move Cersei." I said
"I know Alexander, but I couldn't undermine his decision in public. In the end we still have Sansa." She said
"Well, you sadly don't have Sansa as an effective hostage. As they have something much much more valuable to you." I said
"Explain, I have no reports of them having any hostages." She said, I looked at her with pity and she saw my look.
"Cersei, my queen. They have taken Jaime, yesterday, during the siege of Riverrun they ambushed the Lannister troops. Tytos my Commander stopped them, but sadly Jaime was already taken." She then looked at me with wet eyes before sitting down.
"Why! WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME!!!!" She screamed
"Cersei, it was already too late, even my bad information of merchants which is extremely slow. However, Varys undoubtedly knew, his information is 100 times faster then mine." I said planting deep suspicion on Varys.
She then began crying as she stood up to leave, she attempted to hide her crying and stay strong. She didn't do it outwards, but I could see it.
I decided to take advantage of this, and I let her cry in my shoulders, this would give me a lot more authority and influence.
And we stayed like that for a long time.
*****
I will begin releasing chapters at 15:00 everyday GMT, one is already made and scheduled for tomorrow.