Strategy, the mother of conquests

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Here is the extra chapter

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Wilhelm von Hohenzollern ''enjoy victory like the sweetest nectar or the juiciest fruit, but never get used to the feeling, no matter how many times you have enjoyed it''

Wilhelm POV

'Since the battle of Stony Sept, almost five days have passed, with a fast, swift and organized march we managed to arrive at the reach territories, a problem that arose was the number of people who began to follow us in our journey through the villages that passed our patrols requesting supply many people followed them to join our camp'.

'Many children among them who wished to become squires or be anointed knights for service, but our rules are clear, we do not allow strangers in the camp, and they had to sleep in the open, although there have been cases where they have been let in, as many of my men are not self-sufficient with regard to certain camp duties and as morale is quite low among the soldiers we are not applying the harsher penalties of the military code'.

'But for the moment, although morally affected, it has not meant that their effectiveness has reduced, for we have marched at record speed, you can tell the difference when an army is organized and trained to march, Hoster Tully's brother said it would take eight days to arrive, but it is not yet over this day, and we already had the camp ready for what would happen tomorrow which would begin a battle to control as much territory as possible by besieging the castles in the area and getting supply and food for my army by sacking villages and the granaries of local lords'

The young monarch's tent was full of Prussian nobles trying to monopolize the map that the Finnish scouts had brought, trying to devise the best strategy to take the enemy territories in the shortest possible time, minimizing casualties.

Currently, I was looking at one of the maps I had gotten with my scouts, although at the moment it only includes some castles in the area, it was quite accurate in pointing out where some villages and hills were located

Although there were some quarrels about strategy from some nobles, they were interrupted by the voice of Brynden Tully's translator

"Currently, the Tyrell army is besieging the capital of Stormlands, so we can expect minimal resistance in the castles, the house guard of the respective nobles and some patrols taking care of the security of the roads, the tyrell took everything to besiege Robert's territories, they are confident that Robert's rebellion is dead because of Jon Connington, as when Robert was defeated at ashford he only managed to escape with a couple of thousands of his men and the king's hand was only a couple of days behind him," stated Brynden Tully

"How quickly can the local lords mount a resistance?" asked Friedrich von Roon, looking at the map in the center of the table.

''As I said, they only left garrisons and patrols, so a couple of thousand men between all the castles, Mace Tyrell's army is almost as big as yours, besides the lords don't know you have plans to attack, they should coordinate through ravens to mount a good enough defense to hold out until Mace returns from the Stormlands'' said the Brynden Tully pointing to Stormlands

''Can you explain to me how the ravens worked,'' I asked Brynden.

''Don't you guys use ravens to send messages? '', said Brynden, rather surprised.

''No, we use horse messengers through courier posts to ensure that the message is carried as quickly as possible'' I answered Brynden's question.

''Ravens are used to send messages between castles, it is important to take them down to avoid a leak of information, the less they know about us the better'' said Brynden Tully.

''So the speed with which we act is critical, tell me Brynden, where do the lords of the seven kingdoms keep the ravens, any specific location or does it depend on the whim of the local lord'' I asked him as I looked at the map

''They are usually kept in the highest tower of the castle, to prevent the crow from crashing in the first seconds of flight, so they are well guarded, you will need good archers if you want to be able to shoot them down before they can send information and coincidentally the Maester before a siege usually release several at a time to prevent the besiegers from shooting them all down'' said Brynden with a serious tone.

''We have good archers in the army, so we could shoot down those birds before they cause problems'' said Aleksanteri, looking at Brynden

''Well, thank you, lord Brynden and lord corbray for your presence at our meeting you may leave'' I said, looking at the westerosis guides and pointing to the exit

''Can't we help you in your decision-making?'', asked Lyn Corbray.

''You are here because you are guides and not officers, we have heard your opinions, now we must discuss how to proceed to take the northern part of the reach to force the Tyrells to fight against us'' I said, looking at the westerosis.

After those envoys sent by the rebel nobles withdrew from the tent, all eyes focused on the young monarch, who was thoughtful.

''Does anyone want to offer their idea on how to proceed'', I said looking at my officers.

Lothar asked to speak

''We must divide our forces and attack several places at the same time, this way they will not be able to organize themselves and with the chaos, we generate we can quickly take the castles without risking direct combat, besides generating confusion with their lines of communication, since if they receive several of those birds at the same time they will have to act in several directions at the same time, and we must watch those heathens we cannot trust that they will not betray us'' lothar said with a serious tone

Lothar's words are well received by the Prussian high command because he is the highest-ranking officer after me.

''I want to offer a different view, playing the kind of stratified society that these gentlemen present'' I said to my officers with a kind tone

''Recently, we captured many banners from the royalists, we could use them to try to enter the castles without fighting, as we can pretend we are the king's hand men and we need to talk to the local lord, ensuring a quick conquest, and we avoid the problem of the ravens, he the sooner he takes the castle the better'' they all seemed to hesitate except Lothar and Aleksanteri who nodded as if it was a better plan

Charles asked for the word

''My king that would not agree with our cavalry vows, maybe it is the best strategy, but not the most honorable, we do not need to commit dishonorable acts to win this war, his army is more than capable of taking all the territories he intends, our engineers can raise our siege machinery in just hours'' almost my men nodded at his words.

'I am surrounded by honorable fanatics, they would rather risk a conventional tactic that could cause us to have several casualties from the sieges, than look for an alternative way to take a castle by taking advantage of deception''

''I have to remind you all what situation we are in?, we can't trust that the rebels will respect our deal, from what I have heard many think they can betray us and the best way we can guarantee they will respect our agreement is to keep our military force as intact as possible, as long as we manage to outnumber these lords they should listen to us and in case you betray us we can always take what we want by force, that's why now we can't think like honorable knights, we must think about how to survive and guarantee our future for us and our people'' I said quite annoyed looking at my officers.

''They are heathens, they don't follow our faith, we should just burn them all starting with that Brynden, the sooner we start by attacking them both the better'' said lothar

''That's exactly what we should avoid lothar, if the local population starts resisting it will make us have more problems that we could avoid just ignoring the situation, it's better to act with caution now, we shouldn't provoke them, so it's strictly forbidden to attack them for their faith, is that clear?'', I said looking at lothar

''They are in a civil war, because of their corrupt and savage religion we could take everything if we set our minds to it, we outnumber them for the moment, if we act fast god will help us and guarantee us victory, since our cause is just and our will is unbreakable'' said lothar looking me in the eyes.

''If we could do it and what happens when the rebellion is over, or we defeat all their armies, do we know how much is the population we should rule?, if we were based on the percentages similar to the Prussian army the population for the armies that these lords have should be close to thirty to fifty million, to rule them with only one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers of whom barely twenty percent can read and write would be an administrative pain we could not bear, and we would have to depend on them, and it so happens that the people are not usually very cooperative with their invaders unless we can control them with an iron fist and that is not going to happen if there is resistance by religion and culture, as we would be moving to put down rebellion after rebellion until we die of attrition''I said looking at lothar.

''So we will act under my strategy and I want no objections, it is better to try and fail than to have to suffer casualties from long sieges, likewise if the plan should fail, we can go back to conventional sieges using our trebuchets to take down their walls or just assault them if we can limit our casualties, so act safely and do not seek battle if you cannot guarantee more damage to the enemy and that the benefits of that battle will be worth it, a battle is no good if they discover our movements and call for help, we must have as few casualties as possible in this campaign '' I said looking at my officers.

''My men have already started to deploy through the territories of these lords, they have orders to capture the enemy patrols before the bulk of our army passes through the roads, so you can be sure that you will not encounter problems along the way, you should only concentrate on the castles, in a couple more days I might have further information if the prisoners cooperate by delivering that valuable information and some of my men are already infiltrating in the big cities of this territory'' Aleksanteri said looking at my officers

''Don't torture nobles, it's frowned upon in any culture, but others you can use any methods you want'' I said, looking at the Finn who was wearing his white cloth mask.

Aleksanteri nodded

''We will divide into 4 strike forces, the first strike force will be led by lothar, his duty will be to take the northern territories of the reach and prepare and scout the terrain for when the mace tyrell forces try to return if they manage to send distress messages, so when you secure all the territories in the north you should prepare a camp near ashford where the Tyrells are most likely to return to defend their territories'' I said looking at lothar von ruppin.

''The second group led by Charles will take the castles bordering the western lands concentrating mainly on gathering supplies for our men and horses and you are to continue until we reach our meeting point at Highgarden where we will make a joint attack on the largest castle in the area, I must remind everyone that if the rebel envoys ask we will only attack the north, but our objectives is to take all the castles before we face the tyrell, we will squeeze the treaty'' I said looking at all the nobles.

They all nodded at my words

''the third group will be led by me and I will take all the castles on the mander river and meet with Charles' group to attack Highgarden and the fourth group will be led by the scout leader, his mission will be to take all the castles that the other 3 forces I don't consider a priority, I expect the highest levels of discipline from my soldiers, I don't want unnecessary killings, I don't want rape and that the looting is done according to our customs just taking a part of their food and all the metals you find, is that clear?'''I said with a serious tone.

Everyone nodded

the Prussian officers started to leave the tent, leaving the monarch alone, although he was still accompanied by Charles and Aleksanteri.

''Aleksanteri you will take the rebels' men, keep them occupied as much as possible, try to gain time, and they can't know what is going on'' I said with a calm tone

''Can I assign them to suicide missions'', asked the Finnish man

''No, they must come back alive, but their knights are not vital if you consider it necessary, do it'' I said, looking at the Finn.

Aleksanteri nodded and came out of the tent.

''My king, are you sure about this, this will be the first impression these nobles will have of you, to be seen as someone without honor, and it is difficult to change the prejudices against you, this ruse could stain your name for life'' said Charles quite worried

''pretty sure Charles, every life we can save by acting under the deception helps lay the groundwork for further negotiation against the rebels or the royalists if anything should happen'' I said, looking at the Teuton

''I hope with all my heart my king that you are right, I will go and prepare my men, with your permission I will leave my king'' said CharleS leaving the tent.

''The state has no morals, no matter the prestige and personal honor if I can guarantee the objectives of the state'' I said to myself even if no one listens to me.