Chapter 162: Dispatching Troops from
Longbow Hall, Plotting for the Vale
The Vale, Longbow Hall
Longbow Hall is the castle of House Waynwood in the Vale. It is situated beside Oak Lake, a massive freshwater lake formed by countless streams from the Mountains of the Moon, which eventually flows eastward into the Narrow Sea.
The geographical location of Longbow Hall is of vital importance, as it is the strategic bottleneck connecting the Eyrie to the southeastern corner of the Vale. If someone were to occupy this place, then the Redfort, Wickenden, Gulltown, and Runestone would be cut off from House Arryn.
Lady Anya Waynwood is the current head of House Waynwood. There have been several instances of female rulers in the history of the Vale; even during the Dance of the Dragons, the Lady of the Vale and Warden of the East was a woman.
Longbow Hall is a castle built by a lake. To increase the castle's defenses, the builders of Longbow Hall specifically diverted water from Oak Lake to serve as a moat.
"Wooo..."
Amidst the continuous blasts of horns, fully armed mountain clansmen emerged from the high mountains after Timett led them to capture the Bloody Gate.
The nobles of the Vale, having received orders from the Eyrie, had also promptly assembled a force. Perhaps due to a misjudgment or missing the maneuvers of the clansmen warriors, this force had actually stationed itself directly at the Gates of the Moon below the Eyrie.
Precisely because he received this information, Timett launched a surprise attack on Longbow Hall under Jon's command. When Lady Anya, who remained at Longbow Hall, saw the dense army of clansmen warriors, she immediately lost her composure.
"Quickly send word to the Gates of the Moon and Gulltown! We need reinforcements. Those loathsome fellows have reached Longbow Hall."
After setting down the Myrish lens, Lady Anya lost her usual poise and elegance. This was unavoidable; there were only a little over a thousand people left to defend Longbow Hall, and most of them were the old, weak, or sick, without even a few proper knights among them.
"My lady, look, what are those fellows doing?"
The steward beside Lady Anya was also holding a Myrish lens. Unlike Lady Anya, he was focused on what the soldiers were carrying in their hands.
"That is...!?"
Upon hearing this, Lady Anya hurriedly picked up her Myrish lens and looked through it.
She saw the clansmen soldiers holding various pieces of timber and equipment; they appeared to be components for some kind of large wooden object.
"Those are components for a siege tower, my lady!"
Maester Ambrose of Longbow Hall, who had been in constant attendance, spoke the term with some bitterness after taking the Myrish lens from the steward and examining it.
"What!? How can that be? Those illiterate fellows actually know how to assemble a siege tower? Are you joking!?"
Lady Anya screamed upon hearing the maester's explanation. She was now in a state of complete chaos, not knowing what to do!
The nobles of the Vale had not fought a war in over twenty years since Robert's Rebellion, so most of them appeared somewhat panicked when faced with such a situation.
This was especially true for Lady Anya. Normally, she only managed the castle's affairs and left matters of war to her sons, but now she was at a loss.
"Lady Anya, please do not worry. What we must do now is quickly close the gates, check the armory for equipment, and then rally the soldiers remaining in the castle to defend it."
The speaker was Ser Hal Stone, the master-at-arms of Longbow Hall. The knight was sixty years old this year, and because he could no longer ride a horse, he had been left behind in the castle.
However, this battle-hardened knight was quite familiar with siege defense strategies. Sensing his lady's panic, he offered his perspective.
"Yes, yes, yes. Go down and arrange it immediately. Follow Ser Hal's plan for the defense. Since its founding, Longbow Hall has never been breached. As long as everyone defends diligently, we will be fine!"
Lady Anya proved herself worthy of being the head of House Waynwood; once she had a plan for defense, she quickly calmed down.
Soon, following Lady Anya's orders, the entirety of Longbow Hall was mobilized. Basically everyone in the castle who could move was brought out.
Most castles on the continent of Westeros had been tempered by war. Although few external armies had entered the Vale in history, these castles were generally equipped and configured for defense according to the standards of the other Six Kingdoms and the Crownlands.
While the soldiers and civilians of Longbow Hall were busy organizing their defense, the clansmen warrior forces outside the city began to gradually approach the castle. Most of these clansmen warriors were seeing such a castle for the first time.
Seeing Longbow Hall with its towering walls and deep moat, the clansmen warriors, who had never participated in a siege, felt a bit lost. If it weren't for the fact that they had been winning this entire time, some soldiers would likely have raised objections already.
"Lord Timett? What should we do next?"
Shagga, holding a battle-axe and wearing a horned helm, asked eagerly. They had been advancing through the forests this whole time for the sake of seizing their first castle.
At the thought of the treasures and women inside the castle, Shagga was so excited he could hardly contain himself. This was something he had never even dreamed of before, but now they had not only taken the Bloody Gate but had also broken directly into the Vale. This made many of them feel as if they were in a dream.
"You don't need to worry about this at all. We just need to maintain the posture of besieging the castle here. Also, have your men quickly assemble these wooden frames. Lord Aegon said that as long as we put these things together here, the enemy will send troops, and then we can just defeat them like we did before."
Timett had never intended to actually storm the castle; everything he was doing now was according to Jon's plan.
"Will that be enough?"
Chella, a hideously ugly woman, asked in a shrill voice.
"If you want to fight, go ahead and try! I brought you here to live a good life in a castle, not to send you to your deaths. Do any of you know how to attack a castle?"
Timett's words immediately shut everyone up. This matter was too complicated—so complicated that these clansmen warriors simply had no way to handle it.
"Actually, if we had enough men, I'd be confident in taking this place. It's not much different from the cliffs in the Mountains of the Moon. The Burned Men are very formidable."
A middle-aged brute with a green-dyed beard said with some regret after seeing the castle.
"Lord Timett! Why did you leave those fellows from the Stone Crows and the Milk Snakes in the forest? If we dragged their three thousand men over, we would have even more warriors. Then, with our numbers and these strange contraptions, we should be able to break into their castle."
The speaker was Hake of the Moon Brothers, a thin man who had shaved off all the hair on his body. He was a very close bedfellow of Chella.
After Timett captured the Bloody Gate, many mountain clansmen had flocked to join him. Although most of these fellows were a disorganized rabble, Timett had still thought of a way to utilize them.
"They need to stall those people at the Gates of the Moon, while we just need to cause harassment everywhere here. During this time, you can do whatever you want, as long as you don't lose your lives."
Timett had already decided on the arrangements for the Burned Men and the Moon Brothers; he specifically let these fellows burn, kill, and pillage in the surrounding areas to lure out the nobles' armies, thus completing his mission.
"You're not joking with us, are you?"
After hearing Timett's arrangements, both Chella and Shagga felt a bit envious, but when they thought of Timett's strength, they suppressed their budding schemes.
Timett had once told them that as long as they followed Jon's arrangements, those who were obedient would gain extraordinary power and status. They were different from those who did not listen.
Therefore, thinking of the bright future and the great power Timett had obtained, these two, who were the first to join Timett, also suppressed the excitement in their hearts.
In this manner, under Timett's arrangement, the troops originally belonging to him began the work of building a camp. Under the influence of the Heart of the Moon God, Jon could often exert influence over Timett through the power of the system.
It was precisely because of this that Timett was able to win all the way and devise one strategy after another.
Timett had now expanded his force to a scale of five thousand men. He could have had even more warriors, but Jon's policy of elite soldiers meant he could only select the most suitable ones to form the team.
Although these clansmen warriors could not compare to knights who could each take on ten men, if they learned discipline and obedience, they could form a very powerful fighting force.
After being refined through a series of battles, they would gradually become a strong army. Jon naturally did not rely on these fellows to conquer the world for him; what he truly needed was an auxiliary force that could follow orders.
As long as such an army existed within the Vale, he could gradually erode the power of the Vale until the region became his private property, rather than a state within a state.
If Jon were to rule the Seven Kingdoms just like his ancestors, the country would quickly fall into chaos again after he was gone. Even if dragons were truly resurrected, there would be another Dance of the Dragons, and without dragons, who knows when another Robert's Rebellion would occur.
Therefore, what Jon had to do now was to cultivate forces in advance that could rival the local nobility. The mountain clansmen and the merchants were the tools Jon released to balance the power of the Vale.
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