Capítulo 111: Considerations
A Field of Fire.
Those were the words on everyone's tongue is they heard the news of what had happened. Many of the eyes had been upon two fronts, the marching army of Randyll Tarly and his host that marched north. Its huge size spread across the land like a never-ending river, the marching of its soldiers shaking the ground upon which they walked, the sound of its movements, deafening to all that could hear.
And if they were not watching that, they were watching the movement of Aegon Targaryen and his army. His clashes with Tytos Blackwood as his host continued to close in upon Riverrun. The eyes of Westeros were upon these two areas, allowing the arrival of Daenerys Targaryen to go relatively unnoticed.
Yet, she had made her presence known quickly.
Clashing with the thirty thousand men led by Dickon Tarly, her Dragons were unleashed, reducing the host to nothing but ash. A second Field of Fire that showcased the power of Dragons to Westeros once more.
Not a single loss incurred on her side, Daenerys now made haste towards Kings Landing, a clear path straight to the capital. "What news do we have on the movements of Robb Stark and his forces?" Jon Connington asked, looking to Oberyn Martell who had personally requested to be put in charge of the scouts.
The man had earned his reputation as the Red Viper and an accomplished warrior, but none more so than in this war. He fought fiercely in the Battle of Widow's Ford. Then led the charge of the cavalry against Tytos Blackwood, earning victory time and time again. All the while he was overseeing the movements of the scouts with the aid of his daughters, the Sand Snakes.
"Jason Mallister has arrived at Riverrun. Meanwhile, a large cavalry contingent led by Lord Rodrick Forrester has broken off from Randyll Tarly's host. Considering the previous positions of both them and Tytos Blackwood, it's likely the two groups have linked up. Their current objective is unknown, but their numbers should be around twenty thousand at most." Oberyn explained simply, many frowning at the news.
A host of men that size, even comprised fully of cavalrymen would require a host of equal size to comfortably combat it. The cavalry they had would no longer be enough to fight them off and would in fact, be the ones to be defeated. They could no longer continue their advance towards Riverrun.
Not that it would matter anymore.
News had reached them days ago that Margaery Tyrell and a large contingent of soldiers that had been defending Riverrun had departed for the Golden Tooth. It left only three options for them to pursue her, but only one would give them victory and now with Jason Mallister there, that path was no longer open to them.
They would first have to besiege and take Riverrun, which would leave them exposed to attacks from Tytos Blackwood and his now much larger cavalry force. With them also having to split their forces into three, it would be simple for him to crush their forces one by one.
Even if by some miracle they did manage to take Riverrun before that happened, they would then have to travel down the River Road and to the Golden Tooth. There they would once again have to besiege the city. At that point, they would be stuck in a mountain path that would leave them dangerously exposed to them to a devastating cavalry charge by Tytos Blackwood.
Their gamble had failed and all of them knew it.
The question now was, what move did they take now?
All of them looked to their ruler and King who had remained silent. "Uncle, what are the movements of Randyll Tarly at the current moment?" He asked.
"By the last account, he was coming up by the Rushing Falls."
Harry Strickland hummed, a deep frown upon his face as he looked upon the map spread out across the table. "Considering the size of his army and their movement speed, they should be nearing High Heart at this point." He muttered. "Tytos Blackwood is camped just north of Lychester. That cuts off any escape south, but we do have our ships still in the bay of Widow's Ford. We could march north and cut across them there, make our way up to the North or into the Vale."
Jon nodded his head. "The harsh terrain of both kingdoms would be a detriment to all sides, but especially for the Stark forces. Their large host will actually work against them and we can use the terrain to find areas that remove the advantage of numbers."
It was a suggestion, all looking to Aegon who sat overlooking the map closely. His mind was at work, considering their next course of action carefully as he looked at the positioning of the various armies. The soldiers at Riverrun would not move, nor would those under the command of Tytos Blackwood.
The question was though, how would Randyll react to the actions of Daenerys Targaryen. Would he break off his pursuit of them and turn back south? Or would he instead continue to focus on them, aiming to take out one of them and then focus on the other afterwards? Either option had its ups and downs, but Aegon didn't know for certain which one he would choose, or what Robb would do either.
No one even knew where the Wolf King was, it was like he had disappeared. There were even rumours being spread that Robb Stark had been part of the thirty thousand hosts that had been decimated by Daenerys and her three Dragons.
There were rumours that Robb Stark was dead.
Aegon didn't know if they were true, nor did he believe them. He hoped they were true, but he wasn't going to base his plans upon that. Even so, he had to think and imagine what Robb Stark would do, what had his actions in the past been and how would that mindset translate to this situation?
"We will not be going North," Aegon said, murmurs filling the tent. "We know that Lord Mallister has reinforced Riverrun and they will too. Our attempts to take Margaery have failed and so they will now be aiming to trap us. More than likely, Tytos Blackwood and his men will be moving past us and heading north, no doubt intending to destroy our ships or at the very least, set up a position on the other side of the embankment."
Considering that riders and ravens took time to arrive, the delay meant that Tytos would have already left, Aegon was sure of that. By the time Aegons camp was packed up and his army ready to move, Tytos would be ahead of them by quite a large margin. Even if he sent his cavalry ahead to slow them down, the difference in numbers would be meaningless, their situations now reversed.
Whereas before it would be Tytos trying to slow them down, if Aegon pursued this option it would be him trying to slow them down. Unlike Tytos however, Aegon had nowhere to retreat to.
"Randyll meanwhile will continue to march north, he won't be going south." If he considered the options, it was more profitable in the long term to take care of one enemy and then focus on the other, rather than fight both at the same time. Robb and Randyll were both calculated men, they took risks, but measured ones. They worked to control as many factors as possible and that made it easier to figure out their next moves.
Aegon on the other hand was not a man to try and control as many factors as possible, he was a man that liked risks and gambles, he had no patience for things like that. He liked to move quick and fast, just like Robb had done in the beginning. Even his current position that required bold actions and risk-taking, Aegon was still that man anyway.
Now was no different.
His plan, much like they always were, was risky. But his earlier plan had nearly succeeded, it was just the fault of his men that cost victory. It was his plan that defeated Tytos Blackwood, it was his plan that led to the Stark's near-certain victory to almost come undone. And now, his plan would once again snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
"So, what do we do, your grace?" Jon asked.
"My original plan was never to wager everything on the battle at Kings Landing," Aegon said simply. "I suppose now, however, that is precisely what we are going to do."
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