Chapter 17: Planning

Andrew acted decisively and efficiently; in just a short while, the three hundred soldiers were assembled, and then they set off.

What surprised Arthur was that among the three hundred soldiers, only two hundred and thirty were combat personnel, while the remaining seventy were logistics staff such as cooks and engineers.

Of course, the soldiers recruited on the road were all warriors who carried swords.

In other words, the five hundred soldiers Hendry promised were actually only four hundred and thirty.

When asked, Andrew said this was Hendry's intention.

Moreover, the food and drink for these five hundred people would all be tallied up in the end, and Arthur would have to pay the bill.

Arthur immediately gained a new understanding of the shamelessness of the nobles.

Furthermore, these soldiers were all wearing relatively cheap chainmail, belonging to low-end troop types.

Their combat effectiveness was not very strong.

But the good news was that the opposing Blackwood House also had the same equipment.

The Westeros of the Game of Thrones world is generally a feudal monarchy like Western Europe in the Middle Ages, but daily necessities, weapons, and armor mostly correspond to the Renaissance period.

That is to say, Tiezajia is the mainstream soldier equipment, and chainmail is already relatively backward.

Like House Lannister of the Westerlands, their main forces all wear black Tiezajia, with extremely flashy bright red cloaks as accessories, and their helmets are also custom-made in a lion style.

They look very capable in a fight.

As for the Riverlands, only the elite troops of great nobles like the Tullys, Blackwoods, Freys, Vances, and Pipers can afford Tiezajia, and their helmets are still the standard-issue round ones from Westerlands workshops.

Ordinary troops mostly have round helmets, chainmail covering the torso, and leather bracers and pauldrons; some might have greaves.

As for cloaks, those are for the Knight lords.

In the even poorer North, the vast majority of soldiers have leather armor and iron helmets; chainmail is something only elite troops have.

These three regions represent the equipment levels of Westeros.

The Reach, led by House Tyrell, has soldiers with equipment slightly inferior to House Lannister but superior to the Riverlands.

The Stormlands of House Baratheon have equipment roughly equivalent to the Riverlands.

Dorne, which has the smallest population, has equipment on par with the North, but for the sake of heat dissipation, they mostly wear padded armor.

Leather armor is too hot and cannot be worn in the desert.

The Knights of the Vale are slightly different from the six regions mentioned above.

The Knight lords mostly wear plate armor, paired with white cloaks, and the visual impact is even stronger than the Lannister army.

Their equipment is said to be even better than House Lannister's, but their numbers are much smaller.

Of course, the Vale does not need that many warriors.

The only road that can reach the Vale by land is through the Bloody Gate, with the rest blocked by the towering Mountains of the Moon.

One hundred heavy crossbows are enough to guard the Bloody Gate.

Thinking of this, Arthur felt he should find a way to get some armor.

The War of the Five Kings is only a few months away from breaking out; if he wants to make a name for himself in this great war that will sweep across the six regions, an excellent army is indispensable.

And an excellent army, besides sturdy new recruits and extensive training, also requires fine weapons and armor.

It all has to be piled up with money.

The good news is that the Mount and Blade System can allow his soldiers to bypass part of the training, and he can get experienced veterans just by leveling up the soldiers.

The bad news is that Arthur has no money.

The greatest wealth belonging to him right now is the one hundred and eighty Gold Dragons he just won from gambling.

Those seven hundred are likely not coming back.

And one hundred and eighty is equivalent to the breastplate parts of thirty-some sets of chainmail.

To buy a full set of chainmail including bracers, pauldrons, greaves, leather boots, etc., this bit of money would get less than twenty sets.

Better Tiezajia would require even more Gold Dragons.

And even with money, you can't buy them immediately.

One or two sets can be bought at Meiren Jishi next to the Red Fork in the north.

About ten sets can be provided by large shops in King's Landing.

For dozens of sets, one can only find the weapon workshops under the name of House Lannister in the Westerlands to produce them.

And it takes time to make them from scratch.

Arthur estimated that even if he had enough money to buy dozens of sets of Tiezajia, by the time they were made, the War of the Five Kings would have just broken out.

Then House Lannister would just seize them for their own use.

The Vale does have workshops that make better plate armor, but most are on the east coast of the continent; it would take a month or so just to go there and place an order, and by the time they were made, The Mountain would have already ravaged the banks of the Red Fork.

Moreover, although the plate armor of the Vale is of excellent quality, the price is much higher, which is not cost-effective for the poor Arthur.

It's difficult!

Arthur, riding his horse beside the main force, looked at these three hundred or so soldiers and suddenly cursed himself for being stupid.

Ready-made armor is right before his eyes.

If he can't buy what House Lannister makes, can't he buy this existing stock?

If he could get a large amount of Gold Dragons, buying dozens or hundreds of sets of armor from a great noble shouldn't be a difficult task.

The Tyrells of the Reach, House Hightower, and House Redwyne are all great nobles with nearly ten thousand troops; they could easily produce hundreds of sets of armor.

As long as the price offered is high enough, is there any fear of not being able to buy them?

But how to get the money?

Brynden might not be worth much money here; if the Blackwood House Jiaodu, Lord Tytos, were to be furious, Edmure would only try to smooth things over, let Arthur release the prisoners, and then tell the Blackwoods not to invade Arthur's territory, and that would be the end of it.

Arthur thought for a while, feeling his head ache, so he shook his head and cast the matter aside.

Besides expanding the army, strengthening the defense of the territory is also something that should be done.

Arthur could handle The Mountain himself, and if he couldn't win, he could hide inside his castle; The Mountain's small detachments could not take a sturdy stone fortress.

But the thousands of smallfolk would have no such way.

These smallfolk were Arthur's initial power base and could not be abandoned.

Arthur's castle was not very large and could not accommodate thousands or tens of thousands of smallfolk like the Tully family's Riverrun.

After thinking it over, he still had to expand his castle.

It didn't need to be built very sturdily or very high, as long as it could withstand the charge of warhorses.

Coincidentally, the castle was on a small hill, providing a certain advantage of looking down from a height.

This project would not cost much money; it could be carried out just by mobilizing the smallfolk.

Arthur decided that after finishing with Brynden's affairs, he would have Jiesi and the Village Chiefs organize the strong farmers to get to work.

As long as they could survive the period when The Mountain was raiding the banks of the Red Fork, Arthur's territory would be safe.

Because when the Lannister army entered the Riverlands in force, only the Hedong Diqu on the south and east banks of the Red Fork were disturbed by the chaos of war.

And Arthur's territory happened to be on the north bank of the Red Fork, which was relatively peaceful.

The Hedong Diqu mainly consisted of the main Bracken branch, House Vance of Wayfarer's Rest, House Piper of Pinkmaiden, and House Whent of Harrenhal.

After the great war began, these two houses, Vance and Piper, acting on Edmure's orders, scraped together four thousand troops to block the Lannister army, preventing them from crossing the Red Fork.

Although Arthur felt that this order from Edmure was too saintly, thinking that his own territory was being protected, he felt more favorably toward Edmure.

PS: New author, new book; seeking collections, recommendation votes, and monthly tickets.

(End of chapter)