Chapter 76: War Planning

"I don't know why anyone would ever want this piss and shit smelling place." Lord Umber stated as he approached Aegon and Ned, who were observing the walls of Kings Landing.

"Indeed. I have half the mind to burn the place to the ground and start over, makes me a little jealous of my brothers city of Kandor. It has desensitized me to many other cities I have seen so far." Aegon replied with a nod as he studied the walls, noticing the several large covered objects along the walls.

"Kandor? Never heard of it. Is that in Essos?" Greatjon Umber questioned as he tried to think of such a city.

"No, you wouldn't know the city Lord Umber, but it is a majestic place. It was were my siblings and I grew up. I may need to ask my brother to build me a new capital over this shit smelling city. Is the command tent set up?" Aegon asked Greatjon.

"Aye, that it is my King." Greatjon answered with a nod.

"Call all the other lords to the tent, we will plan the attack for tonight. Have our men focus on their own tents and rest, no need to set up mine, I don't want to give that bastard time to come up with any tricks." Aegon ordered.

After receiving the order, Greatjon saluted respectfully and left to carry out the task of spreading his orders.

Ned waited till they were alone once again and asked, "Are you sure you want to attack at night? That will make the battle much harder."

"True, but that goes both ways. Not only is it harder to attack, it is also harder to defend. I am sure you have noticed those large things on the wall, I am not positive but I think they are weapons designed to combat our dragons. So attacking during the day would be foolish, we would hold the advantage at night since our dragons can see much better at night, plus they will not expect us to attack so soon. They are most likely expecting us to set up camp for several days and prioritize resting for a while." Aegon explained his reasoning.

"True. But if we attack tonight the only advantage is the dragons, unless you are planning to win the war with your dragons alone." Ned stated, trying to find out what his nephew was thinking.

Ned didn't think it was a good idea to use the dragons as the main force due to dragons fire would cause major damage to the city, many civilians would be caught up in such an attack.

"I'm not arrogant enough to think I can win this war in a single night uncle, however what I can do is destroy those things along the wall and take one of the main gates. Once we have the gate, we can open it and move our army into the city. By doing this we can start taking the city section by section, limiting our enemies fighting us on the ground, eliminating their ability to use any kind of trebuchet or wildfire against us, unless they want to involve the civilians in the battle. If Daemon does use it, he would do much harm to us, but also to himself since the people will side with us should he do so." Aegon explained his thoughts.

"Aye, hopefully he doesn't. Should he really use wildfire within the city, that will cause some serious issues for us and the people. There's no telling how much damage will be done before the fire can be brought under control." Ned said with worry evident in his voice.

"Not necessarily uncle, you forget that we Targaryens can control fire. I can have Rhae and Egg focus on controlling the wildfire should it be used. Come, let us get this meeting over with, I'd like to rest up a bit myself before we launch the attack." Aegon stated as he turned his large armored polar bear mount around towards their makeshift camp.

As the northern army held their meeting, within the Red Keep Daemon was holding his own as well.

"Is there any word on the location of the dragons?" Daemon asked his council.

"Not yet my King, the last report we had was they were at the Twins. My little birds have slipped into the followers camp and have heard that the Targaryens have been travelling by land since the Riverlands. They speak of King Aegon riding a massive armored white bear with Valyrian steel armor and Queen Rhaenys riding a large shadowcat and her brother has been riding a wolf, no word on the dragons as of yet." Varys answered respectfully.

This is what made Varys information gathering so dangerous and why he always used children, not many people would expect a child to be a spy, especially if they looked like a starving orphan. The blacksmiths and cooks that made up the following camp for the army would take such children in to assist with menial tasks.

"They have to be near, have our best men manning the ballistas starting just before first light. I expect they plan something come first light, have our men listening for any dragon roars and such, if we can take out even one dragon it will not only boost our mens moral, it will make Aegon hesitant to use them further in this war." Daemon ordered, then he had a thought and looked to a Maester in grey robes with a long set of chains around his neck, "Any word from or men in Highgarden? Have we captured the whore and her crippled brother yet?"

The Maester began to sweat a bit, "I haven't heard word yet your highness, not since the last communication stating they would be initiating the raid on the castle which should have started several days ago. We should be hearing something any day now, but I am confident that we will receive good news when we do, Maester Lomys is a trustworthy man to assist in getting the men into the castle without being seen."

"Good. With that wrinkled old hag out of the way and with his son and daughter in our hands, that fat fuck Mace will have no choice but to fall in line." After a pause Daemon then looked to Varys and said, "I will write a letter to Lord Stark threatening that me and my men will begin having some fun with his wife each night unless he turns over all of the Targaryens within his army and bends the knee, for an older woman who has had five kids she is quite beautiful. Make sure he receives it as soon as possible."

"Surely you are just threatening with such behavior, right? I don't need to remind you the repercussions should you follow thru with such a threat, the north would never submit if you were to sully Lady Stark." Varys looked to Daemon with wide eyes.

Varys knew that Daemon already had Cersei being treated like a common whore, he had chained her to a room within the Red Keep and allowed his soldiers and guards to do as they pleased on their off time as long as she didn't die. He didn't want to see Catelyn being subjected to the same considering the North had much bigger fangs than the Lannisters currently.

"That depends on Lord Stark, I wouldn't really share her with my men but I don't mind turning that fish into my nightly bed warmer should they really begin to attack. Actions have consequences Spider, if he attacks after such a threat has been given, then it is his own doing that brought about his wife's suffering." Then turning to his Master of ships Jalabhar Xho, Daemon asked, "When will our reinforcements arrive from Essos?"

Jalabhar Xho was a exiled prince from the Summer Isles with dark skin and a shaved head. He wore a extravagant feather cape made from vibrant green and scarlet colored feathers. Being from the Summer Isles he was an excellent sailor and knew the seas like the back of his hand, which was why Daemon, upon learning he was in Kings Landing, had offered him the position.

After losing a ritualized war against another prince, he was exiled from his territory of the Red Flower Vale, he had come to petition King Robert to request gold and swords to retake his lands. Robert did have notions to conquer the Summer Isles so he never denied the help, however with events playing out the way they did Robert couldn't afford to focus on the conquest, so he kept putting off the help telling him to wait.

Because of this Jalabhar had been staying as a guest within the Red Keep for quite some time, when Daemon took over the throne he promised to assist him in not only retaking his lands, but that he too planned to expand out to conquer the Isles.

After Daemon offered him Lordship over the Summer Isles if he joined him as his Master of Ships on his small council, Jalabhar readily accepted those terms and began working for Daemon.

"They will be here in about a week, there are just over five thousand men and plenty of food and water which will give us an additional year supply in case this seige goes longer than we expect, my King." Jalabhar responded.

"Glad to hear it." Then Daemon turned to a stout man with a balding head and frog like face with saggy flesh around his jower cheeks and jaw area wearing a gold cloak. "What do you have to report, Commander Jonas Slynt? How many men were we able to recruit for our defenses?"

"I was able to recruit eighteen thousand men bringing our total to twenty thousand defenders. However they are not of very good quality for the most part considering so little time to train, but they should be fine for the wall, my king." Jonas said after he stood up to give his report.

Kings Landing had a population of about five hundred thousand people, and due to Daemon working hard to gain the people's loyalty, they were able to gather quite a large number of men from the population to help defend it. However these eighteen thousand weren't soldiers, they were mostly beggers and tradesmen.

"We need more men, go door to door, any family with more than one son, conscript any men between the ages of twelve and thirty. Inform them that if they come willingly, the crown will give the family a gold dragon per person to join, they will also ensure their family will receive food rations during the siege. That should get us plenty more men. Make sure you bring along our Master of Coin Hendry Bracken so that he can ensure payments will be made to each household that cooperates."

After Daemon finished the meeting he and Varys left so that he could write the letter for Ned Stark, Jonas and Hendry left to begin conscripting more men for the upcoming battle.

As this was happening, Aegon had received a pleasant surprise visitor as they finished their own meeting. Just as he was about to dismiss the northern lords to rest up for the rest of the day four men walked into the tent, two men with golden blond hair, one was a tall handsome man in white armor and the other was a dwarf in red regal clothes. The other was an older man in white armor and another was a tall man with black hair and a scar on his face.

This was Jaime and Tyrion Lannister as well as Barristan Selmy and Sandor Clegane, they had just arrived within the camp and were here to offer their assistance to Aegon and his army.

"Ser Jaime! You made it." Aegon said excitedly as he hadn't seen the man in some time.

Jaime offered Aegon a smile and replied, "Aye, my King, I wouldn't miss fighting to take back the throne. I hear Ser Arthur and Ser Gerold are also on their way as well and should be here within the hour. I have brought you Ser Barristan Selmy and Ser Sandor Clegane, both of whom are fellow brothers and wish to join your Kingsguard. They can be trusted, especially Ser Barristan here, he fought alongside your father at the Trident and has been working with us on the inside since Robert took over." Jaime introduced the other two Kingsguard who both bent the knee to Aegon.

"Please stand, no need for formalities my good knights, since Ser Jaime trusts you both, I welcome the two of you with open arms. I take it this is your younger brother Tyrion?" Aegon asked with a smile as he approached the group.

"Aye, I brought him along because he has intimate knowledge of the hidden passages into the Red Keep, it was he who snuck our sister into the castle to take it from Robert so I thought he may be of some help." Jaime introduced to which Tyrion gave a bow.

"Is this true Lord Tyrion?" Ned asked, a hint of excitement in his voice.

All the other lords to studied the dwarf intently, they knew if this was true then the battle for Kings Landing would go much smoother than they anticipated.

"It is Lord Stark. King Aegon, I humbly offer my services to your cause, I know many of the secret entrances into the castle, and can draw a map for your men to allow them to sneak into the castle undetected. There would just be one man you would need to watch out for which is Varys, he knows these passages much better than me but he isn't a warrior, so as long as you deal with him if you do meet him within these hidden passages, you won't have much worries."

"Excellent, I would have you draw this map for me Lord Tyrion. What would you want in return for this valuable information? And don't say nothing, I am a firm believer in rewarding those who provide assistance to me." Aegon stated firmly, he knew this information was extremely valuable due to it would save many lives in the upcoming battle.

"If you require me to choose a payment, I would only ask that you allow me to serve you on your small council, my king. I am not much of a warrior like my brother here, but I do pride myself on my intellect. I have served as the Master of Coin before, and although I at first didn't want to since my father had forced me into the position, I did find myself growing attached to the position before I had to escape my sisters assassination plots. But if you already have someone in that capacity I could do any other you deem needed, I am good at management and feel that I could help your rule prosper." Tyrion bowed respectfully to Aegon.

"You shall have it Lord Tyrion. I shall need you to get caught up though in some advanced learning in economics once this war is over. I shall talk to my brother Aiden in getting you access to Kandor's knowledge to assist you even more. I look forward to working together." Aegon responded with a warm smile.

He knew from Jaime that Tyrion was highly intelligent due to constantly being criticized all his life. Because of this Tyrion studied hard and learned many things to try to show his worth. Aegon knew the man could bring him many benefits if he had him working with him.

After Tyrion drew a map for Aegon, they dismissed the meeting and began to ready for their initial attack that night. Once they were able to get inside the city, they would be able to take advantage of the route given to them by Tyrion.

Aegon, Rhaenys, and Egg would bring a few soldiers on their dragons to drop them off onto the walls of the city so that they could open the gates, then they would begin taking out the large weapons that were scattered across the walls and towers after they were done.

Ned Stark, Greatjon Umber, Howland Reed, William Dustin, Jorah Mormont, Ethan Glover, Mark Ryswell, Martyn Cassel, Jaime Lannister, and Barristan Selmy would be the men to be dropped off on the wall above the Dragon Gate to get it opened.

Once the gates were opened, Arthur Dayne and Gerold Hightower were going to lead the rest of the army into the city to take control of the Dragonpit. This would give them the highground and give the dragons somewhere to rest safely once they gained control of the area.