Compared to Casterly Rock, Jon's conquest of Sarsfield was remarkably easy.
After occupying the castle, the army of over ten thousand temporarily camped there. After all, it was a long march, and the Soldiers needed to recover their strength and wait for subsequent infantry and heavy supplies.
In Sarsfield's great hall, the green-and-white arrow banner of the Sarsfield Family still hung. The situation of the Sarsfield Family was similar to that of the Lefford Family in Casterly Rock.
The men went out to war, and the women stayed behind to guard the castle.
Earl Maywen of Sarsfield had already died in battle, leaving only his wife, Sircle, in the city. At this moment, Sircle was brought before Jon for questioning.
Sircle was Maywen's second wife, only nineteen years old this year, with a medium build, brown hair, and somewhat timid eyes. Sircle currently had only one four-year-old daughter.
If this four-year-old daughter were to marry, then the Sarsfield Family would be completely extinct. Even with a change in circumstances, Sircle herself would remarry.
"Lady Sarsfield, you don't have to worry. We are only borrowing your castle as a temporary base and will not harm your Family. As you can see, my Soldiers did not kill even one more person after breaking through the city, did they?"
Sircle nodded nervously, feeling utterly uneasy, unsure of what to do with her hands and feet.
"Alright, what I want to know now is, what orders did Tywin give you during this time?"
"Lord Tywin, Tywin he—" Sircle was still nervous, speaking haltingly.
After all, not long ago, she was just a noble Young Miss protected by her Family. She heard that Jon had killed the Mountain, killed Joffrey, and even used sorcery to break through Casterly Rock. Even though Jon's attitude was gentle enough, Sircle was still very scared.
After she stammered through her account, Jon dismissed her and had Soldiers protect her and her daughter.
Through Sircle's narration, Jon learned that Tywin had already gone "all in"; he had almost drained the manpower of the Westerlands to perish with him.
Wait, why does this operation seem so familiar?
Jon suddenly thought of the Mad King Aerys, who had buried wildfire all over King's Landing. No wonder these two could get along so well when they were young.
They were practically blood brothers from different fathers and mothers.
However, Jon was not concerned about Tywin's hastily conscripted army.
He only needed to launch a few crushing battles to minimize population loss. Tywin didn't care about these lives, but Jon did. In the future, whether it was rebuilding the Westerlands, resisting the invasion of the Iron Islands, or dealing with the coming Long Night and the Others, people were indispensable.
Although the Westerlands had been ravaged by war, in Jon's eyes, it was also a treasure trove where he could freely display his talents.
Due to the previous war, a large number of Westerland nobles had died in the Riverlands and King's Landing battlefields, meaning the feudal lord forces in the Westerlands had been greatly weakened.
Coupled with Tywin's suppression and oppression of the Westerland nobles over the years, the power of Casterly Rock was more concentrated than ever.
Jon could completely create a class loyal to him in the Westerlands!
For example, the household registration system was very suitable for the current Westerlands: military households, artisan households, and common households.
Regardless of whether this system would become rigid in the future, at least for several decades, it could allow Jon to achieve the largest army scale and combat effectiveness at an extremely low cost.
At that time, Jon also planned to relocate tens of thousands of Mountain Clan Tribes to the area around Casterly Rock, replacing those associated with the Lannister Family and organizations.
These Mountain Clans people would become Jon's loyal supporters, and in the future, they would be the best source for selecting personal attendants, guards, and handmaidens.
Just as the primary requirement for the Kingsguard was not martial prowess but loyalty, Jon intended to form not the Kingsguard but personal guards, and these Mountain Clan Tribes were the most trustworthy.
After all, the feat of climbing Canghuo Peak had made them regard him as a god-like being.
As Jon pondered the future of the Westerlands, Robb Frey sent a letter from King's Landing.
However, the letter did not bear Stannis's insignia. It was a letter from Varys, and it even carried Varys's unique incense scent.
Jon was somewhat curious, wondering what Varys's intention was in sending him a letter at this time.
After he opened the letter, his face slowly darkened.
Indeed, the eve of victory is when betrayals erupt most intensely.
Varys informed Jon in the letter that there was a debate in Stannis's court about whether he should continue to attack the Westerlands.
Many members, represented by The Queens Party, believed that Jon and the Lannister Family should simply divide the Westerlands.
However, they weren't worried about Jon rebelling after occupying the Westerlands, but rather about the Tyrell Family.
The time Jon took to break through Casterly Rock and the cost he paid were far lower than Stannis's expectations. They originally thought Jon would be bogged down in front of Casterly Rock for half a year, or fight a major battle with Tywin in Cornfield to the south, paying a price of several thousand lives before entering the Westerlands.
But unexpectedly, Jon took Casterly Rock in just one month, with only a few hundred casualties. This way, it wouldn't achieve their most desired goal of depleting the Tyrell Family's strength.
In the letter, Varys also told Jon that Stannis's side, although not yet accepting Tywin's peace talks, was already testing each other's demands and bottom lines.
Regarding loans, Stannis's demand was that Casterly Rock not only had to waive all debts but also had to bear the Crown's debts to the banks of the Free Cities.
This added up to an astronomical sum of six million gold dragons. Although it wouldn't completely empty the Westerlands, Casterly Rock would definitely be drained.
Tywin believed that a penalty of waiving three million in debt was sufficient and was temporarily unwilling to concede.
And all these negotiations were conducted without Jon's involvement.
"Good, everyone is playing cards here, aren't they?" Jon sneered, dropping the secret letter into the brazier and lighting it.
Currently, Tywin and King's Landing have not reached a peace agreement, mainly because Jon has not taken further action. At this time, there are still tens of thousands of newly organized troops in the Westerlands. If Jon can defeat these tens of thousands of troops, King's Landing will demand a higher price.
Conversely, if Jon fails to achieve a Breakthrough on the battlefield, Tywin will speak with more confidence.
Both sides are currently in a tug-of-war because they both believe that Jon cannot take Casterly Rock. As long as Casterly Rock is captured, Jon becoming the lord of casterly rock is a foregone conclusion.
Stannis cannot go back on his word.
But Varys's letter made the difficulty of taking Casterly Rock secondary; now there was also a time limit.
If too much time passed, Stannis might reach a peace agreement with Tywin, and Jon would be left stranded.
A single Casterly Rock alone was far from satisfying Jon's appetite. Casterly Rock was still in Lannister hands, and he couldn't even effectively rule the Westerlands.
Without effective rule over the Westerlands, he couldn't effectively accumulate strength. Then, either the Night King would march south and turn everyone into wights, or Daenerys, the Dragon Queen, would cross the sea and burn everyone to death on her Dragon.
If he couldn't prove he was a Targaryen, his fate would definitely not be good.
Jon's plan was to ensure he had a standing army of twenty thousand men before winter, a reserve army twice the size of the standing army, sufficient population, food, and weapons, and he also had the trouble of Euron to deal with.
In short, he must take Casterly Rock!
And the first step to taking Casterly Rock was to cut off the "internet connection" between King's Landing and Casterly Rock!
Casterly Rock was open on all sides, Jon couldn't ambush ravens like before, waiting for the ravens inside the city to be sent out.
He needed more ravens to constantly monitor Casterly Rock, which required upgrading the Shapeshifter entry to the highest level.
[Shapeshifter]: Remaining upgrades: 1
After adding the last upgrade to the Shapeshifter entry, the golden entry was enveloped in red light—[Spirit Shifter].
"Hmm? It's not about controlling more ravens, is it?"
The change in the upgraded entry surprised Jon. Although he could indeed control more ravens now, the changes brought by the red entry were clearly more than that.
Jon found that he seemed to be able to indirectly control other animals by controlling ravens, and he didn't need to cultivate affection through feeding or spending time with them.
It was as if the shapeshifted creatures he controlled became "Shapeshifters" themselves. However, the control time and quantity were limited by the shapeshifted creature itself.
For example, the raven he currently controlled could probably control three to seven more ravens.
This way, there was no need to send out a dozen ravens simultaneously for attacks and ambushes, as was done with Casterly Rock previously; just one raven would be enough to intercept.
Or, more simply, Jon could directly send ravens to infiltrate Casterly Rock's rookery, allowing them to control the ravens Casterly Rock intended to send out and intercept ravens from King's Landing.
These ravens would eventually fly directly to Jon, effectively cutting off communication between Casterly Rock and King's Landing.
Realizing the utility of his new ability, Jon immediately dispatched three ravens to infiltrate Casterly Rock's rookery.
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