Chapter 161: The Riverlands Noble's Method of Rescue

The Riverlands, Maidenpool.

The red salmon banner of the Mooton Family, on a white field with gold trim, fluttered in every corner of the castle and town.

The Riverlands King's army had arrived here by water and was currently constructing defensive fortifications on the south side of the town.

In the castle hall, a dozen or so high-ranking nobles were discussing military affairs.

Although the enemy's movements were clear, the situation across the entire continent was becoming impossible to fathom.

During the time the Riverlands Army had been marching north, Randyll had not attacked Maidenpool but had remained in place; the movements of the remaining Reach Army were even more puzzling: Balon Swann of the Kingsguard had taken a detachment south across the Blackwater River to "suppress the rebellion" in the Stormlands, while Garlan had taken his own detachment, moving slowly along the Golden Road toward Deep Den, Silverhill, and other locations.

Currently, the salient of the Westerlands was in the hands of the Riverlands Army led by Dickon. It was a full three to four hundred leagues from King's Landing to Deep Den; at the marching speed of Garlan's unit, it should take over a month.

It seemed this Tyrell also had his own plans and had not fully complied with Cersei's orders.

"The change in King's Landing didn't actually trigger a mutiny among the Reach Army; I think Garlan has some ability after all," Hugo Vance quipped.

With the vast majority of lords taken prisoner, Garlan had actually managed to get thirty thousand Reach soldiers to peacefully withdraw from King's Landing and accept the command of the Lion family, which led many to exclaim how formidable Queen Regent Cersei was.

Everyone chuckled; after Cersei took the helm, the pressure the Westerlands and Reach alliance exerted on them had suddenly eased significantly.

With opponents like these, victory was only a matter of time.

Mathis Rowan, however, acted differently from the others.

"Your Majesty, it is said that the Shield Islands of the Reach have been captured by the Ironborn. Given the current situation, Euron will certainly send men to plunder the coastal areas extensively, perhaps even penetrating deep into the Mander River and the Honeywine to raid. With Cersei's temperament, it is impossible for her to consider the situation in the Reach territories; could we perhaps use some underhanded tactics here?"

Ever since Arthur had used a scheme to expose the rift between him and Mace Tyrell, Lord Rowan had also learned this method.

"Indeed, but it will take time to implement the details."

This was exactly what Arthur intended, but he did not want to reveal the specific plan to the many people present.

"Great Writer Hugo, what is the specific situation of Lord Randyll Tarly's army?"

This Ser Vance's name was the same as a certain great writer from his past life, so Arthur sometimes called him the Great Writer.

"He has led his army to occupy the ruins of Duskendale and has summoned the nearby farmers, stonemasons, and blacksmiths; it looks like he intends to rebuild the castle and garrison it long-term."

Of the ten-thousand-strong army under Randyll's command, the Tarlys themselves provided two thousand, the Red Apple Fossoway family provided two thousand, the Merryweather family of Longtable provided three thousand, and the Peake family of Starpike provided fifteen hundred.

The remaining fifteen hundred soldiers came from various minor families of the Reach.

It is worth mentioning that many of the Jiaodu of this unit had remained in King's Landing, waiting for the royal family to reward the Reachmen for their service.

This made Randyll's position unprecedentedly favorable.

He could use the change in King's Landing as an excuse to refuse to fight for the Lion-Flower Alliance, while also using his troops as leverage to secure more benefits for himself.

Ser Aiglon Oakhart suddenly stood up and suggested: "Randyll has an obsession with his lands, and since his heir is also on your side, perhaps you could enfeoff him with Duskendale and the surrounding earldom to win the support of Lord Tarly."

Several Reach nobles nodded in agreement with this suggestion.

To be honest, the Duskendale territory was not a good fief. To serve the massive noble and Knight class of King's Landing, the farmlands of the Crownlands were planted with large amounts of fruits, vegetables, and flowers; it was fine during peacetime, but it could not provide support to the lord during wartime.

Furthermore, because the entire Crownlands lay around Blackwater Bay, the climate was heavily influenced by monsoons and was often very windy, resulting in low agricultural output; meanwhile, one could earn more money doing manual labor in King's Landing than by farming.

Therefore, many young farmers had gone to the city to work, causing a severe loss of the Crownlands nobles' subjects.

With Arthur's "keyboard politician" level of insight, this phenomenon should be called the siphon effect of big cities.

The poverty belt around King's Landing, after all!

And Dickon Tarly had been performing very well; if Randyll came to defect with ten thousand troops, when it came time to reward merit later, the Tarly family's reward would certainly not be a ruin like Duskendale.

"Let's wait until things are stable before discussing rewards. Which Reach Knight has a good relationship with Lord Randyll? Go and make a trip for me."

After the nobles looked at each other, Mathis recommended Aiglon Oakhart.

"Your Majesty, the murals of Old Oak depict nothing but his family's blood feud with Dorne. Given the Tarly family's hatred for Dorne, Ser Aiglon will surely have plenty to talk about with Lord Randyll."

Arthur looked at the middle-aged Knight and nodded in confirmation.

"By the way, I recall your family has a territorial dispute with a family in the Westerlands? I shall settle that for you as well now," the Riverlands King asked.

Before the War of the Five Kings broke out, when he went to Highgarden, he had heard about this dispute between the family and the Westerlands.

But because the Tyrells could not influence King's Landing at the time, and the Lannisters had a Queen, Lord Mace had taken it upon himself to make the Oakhart family swallow their pride.

"It is the House Crakehall of Oxcross; they occupy twelve of my family's villages, a territory about the size of a barony. Because Ser Jaime once served as an Attendant at Oxcross, so... actually, my family's strength is not weak either; we also have a member of the Kingsguard, but Lord Mace simply refused to clash with the Westerlands for our sake."

Old Oak and Oxcross were both along the Ocean Road, and the border of their two families' lands was also the border between the Reach and the Westerlands.

Because Jaime Lannister had once served as an Attendant to Lord Sumner Crakehall, Oxcross had always enjoyed a close relationship with Casterly Rock.

Arthur waved his hand, "Once we take the Westerlands, the House Crakehall will compensate your family with twenty villages of territory. By the way, what is the name of that Kingsguard of yours? Where is he now?"

Aiglon replied: "It is Ser Arys Oakhart; I am not sure where he went. It is said he was sent by Cersei to protect her daughter Myrcella Baratheon, but I am not certain."

Although the Kingsguard, like the Night's Watch, were ostensibly detached from their own families, in reality, they were not.

Not to mention someone like Jaime who ran back to his own family whenever trouble arose, the vast majority of the Kingsguard still secured many benefits for their own families.

For example, "the Bold" Barristan Selmy, who hailed from Harvest Hall in the Stormlands. Because Ser "Gossip-stan" had served as a Kingsguard for several kings, including Jaehaerys II Targaryen, Aerys II, and Robert I, and had served as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard for fourteen years, this had turned the Selmys of Harvest Hall into a noble family.

"Then he might be in The Vale. What about Harlan Hunter of The Vale? Have him send a servant or attendant to deliver a letter and see if we can pull this Knight over; if we could get Myrcella out of The Vale, that would be even better."

Walder Frey's seventeenth son, William Frey, was the Maester for the Hunter family.

Because the Frey family and the Hunter family had a very good relationship, Harlan, as a hostage, had quickly integrated into the Riverlands circle; having him send a letter should be no problem.

Aiglon nodded and agreed.

Arthur did not expect to get a major hostage like Myrcella from a single letter, but since he had nothing better to do, pushing a pawn was at least a move.

What if it came in handy one day?

The Riverlands King looked over the map; there should be no major battles within a week or two.

Although he had promised to marry Sansa after resolving the affairs of The Vale, he might not be able to spare the time right now.

"Garlan's side should be coordinating all parties; perhaps Kevan will run from the Westerlands to King's Landing and then talk to his niece. During this gap, we must do more work to undermine them. Ser Aiglon, once I have drafted the letter to Randyll, you will depart this afternoon; keep your movements covert. The rest of you, go out and manage your own soldiers; we must still be prepared for Randyll's attack."

Arthur dismissed most of the nobles, then kept William Mooton and Aiglon behind.

After he and the loyal and honest William discussed the wording of the letter, Lord Mooton wrote it with a quill, sealed the parchment with hot wax, and stamped it with the red salmon seal.

The reason he used the Mooton Family's sigil instead of Arthur's own "Jiu Jiu Jiu Jiu Dadao" (Great Sword) emblem was to leave Randyll a little room for maneuver.

This old Earl was not a devout believer of the Seven—he had even hired two Warlocks to perform rites for his eldest son Samwell—but his subordinates were all believers of the Seven, and communicating with an enemy King was considered dishonorable.

"Tell Earl Tarly that after the war, Maidenpool can be his, and I can even carve out a piece of land for him in The Reach so he doesn't have to split his house. As long as he brings his great army to my side, everything is negotiable."

After giving his final instructions to Aiglon, Arthur dismissed him.

William Mooton listened to these words quietly, then questioned: "Your Majesty, aren't you being too generous with the granting of territories? There aren't many precedents for land transfers of this scale."

For thousands of years, the feudal fief system meant that land and castles were like pegs in holes; whenever one family gained a new territory, someone else inevitably lost one.

"It doesn't matter. Cersei has performed great service for us, and many Jiaodu in the entire Reach have been killed by her. Their order of defection to me is very late, so reducing their fiefs is perfectly normal."

In fact, it is not just the Riverlands and The Reach; if Arthur unifies Westeros, the Stormlands and the Westerlands can also squeeze out a large amount of territory to reward those with military merit.

Who told these two regions to follow the wrong person all along, and to have so little military strength left?

The Riverlands King had thought it would take time for all the Reachmen to defect to him, but a visitor in the evening overturned this thought.

In the middle of the night, Hobber Redwyne personally took a boat to the port of Maidenpool to visit the Riverlands King.

"Why have you come? Where is your brother Horas?" Arthur asked.

His relationship with the Redwyne twins was not bad, and because the two always appeared together, he was curious about where the other one had gone.

"He took my family's seventy-plus warships back to The Reach."

Hobber was clearly very anxious, and over the next period of time, he poured out his plans and his purpose for coming here all at once.

Since the great upheaval in King's Landing, feeling that the Lannister were difficult to serve, he had taken the remaining Redwyne warships to Dragonstone to avoid orders from the Red Keep.

There, he contacted Earl Randyll Tarly of Maidenpool many times, and the latter suggested he go find Duke Mace, who was in the hands of the Riverlands King, to test the waters.

"My uncle is in your hands. Currently, besides my grandmother, he is the only Tyrell who can decide the attitude of the Reachmen, so..."

Duke Mace was Hobber's uncle.

Arthur found it amusing that these Reachmen were actually thinking of letting a captive decide the allegiance of thirty or forty thousand soldiers.

But this was very favorable to him, so he ordered Podrick to bring the Pufferfish Lord.

Upon meeting, Hobber could not care about anything else and immediately asked Duke Mace to find a way to get his old father, Paxter Redwyne, out.

"Uncle, you know that I don't have much prestige among the minor lords of The Reach. After this King's Landing affair, Garlan's weak handling has made many nobles remaining in The Reach dissatisfied..."

Duke Mace had already known about the great upheaval in King's Landing, but he was powerless to do anything.

Facing his nephew, the Pufferfish pulled a long face and said: "You mean for me to go to King's Landing alone to rescue those Jiaodu and Knights? Do you think I can fight my way into King's Landing alone, then attack into the Red Keep, and then kill my way into Maegor's Holdfast?"

Because the Red Keep is also a giant castle and Maegor's Holdfast has its own separate moat, it really isn't easy to take those two checkpoints.

"Who said to let you fight your way in?" Hobber did not care about the etiquette between elder and junior, grabbing his uncle's hand and pointing out the locations of several Reach Army units for him.

"Maidenpool, the south bank of the Blackwater River, the Golden Road—these three units combined have forty thousand fully armed soldiers. As long as you give the order, it is enough to gather these forty thousand people together. When that time comes, would Cersei dare to touch a hair on us Reachmen? Once we besiege King's Landing, won't she have to obediently hand over the hostages?"

Since the Lannister had committed such an act as the King's Landing upheaval, Hobber and the others had no intention of continuing to serve the so-called "Tommen Baratheon".

"But we have died for the Lion family for at least twenty thousand people, haven't we? These lives are money; the cost of changing to a new King is a bit high." Mace glanced guiltily at the Riverlands King, who was sitting to the side watching the two of them talk.

"Oh, Uncle, most of those who died were servants and laborers; how many real warriors actually died?" Because Earl Randyll had already calculated the accounts for Hobber, he spoke without hesitation.

"Besides, with Cersei's madness, if we continue to follow her, I'm afraid all the Reach soldiers will die. How much money does it take to train a soldier? And The Reach?"

Duke Mace frowned and thought for a long time before saying slowly: "Since Cersei dares to do this, we must be ruthless. But my mother is still in her hands, and I really don't want to... Sigh, Loras and Margaery are also there, along with that whole bunch of Earls and Viscounts. If Cersei completely throws caution to the wind, then our feud with the other Reach families will be huge."

The Pufferfish Lord was afraid that Cersei would kill the hostages, so he could not make up his mind for a long time.

Seeing that the atmosphere had been built up to this point, Arthur stated: "Actually, I have a way."

There is a quite complex system of secret passages and cellars beneath the Red Keep; Varys's Little Birds pass various messages to the Master of Whisperers from beneath the Red Keep.

The uncle and nephew hurriedly looked at Arthur and asked in unison: "What method?"

"I can take a team of men, enter the secret passages from the sewers of the Red Keep, then kill my way in, kill Cersei first, and then rescue the nobles of The Reach," Arthur said.

PS: Seeking recommendation votes and monthly tickets.

(End of this chapter)