At noon, under the blazing sun, a neatly arranged army, dressed primarily in blue, was about to leave the camp beneath Casterly Rock.
The sky was cloudless and the wind was still. The green flag with gold flowers drooped limply on the flagpole, as if it had accepted its fate of returning empty-handed once again.
They were like a diverted river, heading south in front of the Casterly Rock garrison, which was Tyrell's army.
Loras was in charge of leading the army away. His handsome face was long and drawn, and he thought Jon's plan was a joke.
"Heh~ Lord Jon, are you sure this will really get Daven to move the troops from Casterly Rock? What if we make a wasted trip?" Loras's voice was full of impatience.
In his plan, he was supposed to be the first person to climb Casterly Rock after a bloody battle, and then he could humiliate Jon and prove that Jon's past achievements were nothing more than opportunistic tricks.
Jon instead assigned him a errand, requiring him to lead 5,000 Tyrell troops in a feigned southward march, and then return to Riverrun a few days later.
Jon told him that he planned to use this feigned southward movement to get Daven to move the garrison at Casterly Rock away.
But this plan seemed unreliable no matter how you looked at it. After all, whether the army had actually marched south or not, they could have simply sent ravens to ask the castles in the south to find out.
Loras thought Jon's plan was utterly stupid.
"Don't worry, Ser Loras. If my plan fails, the army will be under your command. I can relinquish my position as Commander-in-Chief," Jon said with a smile.
"I don't care about Commander-in-Chief," he said, his brown eyes darting around. "If your plan fails, then leave my sister!"
"Luo!" Garlan reminded Dao from the side, this request was clearly a bit excessive.
The marriage between House Tyrell and Jon is a done deal, and there is absolutely no possibility of it changing.
"Here's the deal: if my plan fails, Tyrell will have priority in selecting and mining the Gold Mine we conquer in the future." Jon offered his wager.
Loras had never lacked money growing up, or rather, given his status, he never needed it. But considering Lannister's penchant for associating himself with gold, the Gold Mine must be incredibly valuable. After a brief moment's thought, he said to Dao, "Alright, since it's a bet, what do you want?"
"If my plan works, then after I marry Margaery, you will come to Casterly Rock and be my Casterly Rock garrison commander."
Jon knew perfectly well that once the West was conquered, Tyrell would definitely try to get his hands on it, placing his own people around him under various pretexts.
Most importantly, he had no reason to refuse, since he was all alone and had no way to clone himself, so he really had to rely on Tyrell's manpower and resources.
If that's the case, then why not choose someone who isn't so smart to have by your side?
"No problem, as long as you can take Casterly Rock." After saying that, Loras bid farewell to Garlan, mounted his horse, and led his troops away.
After seeing Loras off, Jon handed over all military affairs to Garlan and Martin, and then left the army alone to go to a small, temporarily vacant village not far away.
Soon, Jon arrived at the village, which was almost deserted due to the war, and went to a large house that had been temporarily converted into a crow house.
This large house originally belonged to a knight, who must have died in battle, and the house has been left vacant.
Upon entering the large house, twenty or thirty crow nests were fixed to the wooden frame inside, with an adult raven inside each nest.
When Jon entered, the ravens became noticeably agitated. They flapped their wings and emitted hoarse, mocking cries.
The crows all had their eyes on the food box in his hand.
Jon didn't sit idle while waiting for the army to arrive. He had been preparing for these ravens for a month, personally feeding them fresh meat and dried fruit.
Jon plans to use these ravens to cut off and tamper with Casterly Rock's communication and exchange with the outside world.
Interestingly, his inspiration came from Tywin's use of ravens to verify whether " Red Keep" had been compromised.
Jon needs a sufficient number of ravens to monitor and intercept ravens coming and going at Casterly Rock. To free up enough ravens in one go, the [ Shapeshifter ] trait needs to be upgraded.
With a thought, the status of the entry appeared before my eyes:
[ Shapeshifter: Blue]
[Remaining upgrade attempts: 3]
Currently, Jon only has one red max-level attribute – Sword Saint.
Based on previous experience, the Shapeshifter entry can be upgraded to the highest level in one go.
However, Casterly Rock is only the first hurdle in the invasion of the West, and the challenges ahead are still unknown. Therefore, Jon will still allocate one upgrade point to the attribute first, as long as it reaches a sufficient level in the end.
A flash of purple light appeared, and the blue entry turned purple.
Jon looked at his original raven, and saw its eyes suddenly enlarge and then become sharp, just like Jon's gray eyes, while Jon could still control his own body.
Previously, when controlling Raven, his own body was in an "AFK" state, as if he were asleep. Now, it's as if Jon has a split screen in front of him, with one side being his own perspective and the other being Raven's perspective.
Then he tried transforming into another raven, and sure enough, the two split screens became three.
He can now see himself, the ravens, and other places, as if he has three eyes that can move freely.
However, the original two images were somewhat blurry, and the perceived images were also somewhat sluggish.
When Jon tried to control the fifth raven at the same time, he felt like his head was going to split open.
Looks like I need to be promoted another level.
So upgrade points were added again, and this time the item turned gold!
Under the influence of the golden key, Jon felt his headache quickly subside, and he continued to control more ravens!
Five, six, — eleven, thirteen —
The ravens, who had been eagerly eyeing the food box in Jon's hand, began to change their expressions.
Jon would let them stand on the table whenever one was empty, and when there were about twenty, the pain returned.
Jon eventually discovered that if he relinquished control of his own body, he could control twenty-four ravens simultaneously!
"I am the swarm!" Jon suddenly thought of this sentence, thinking that perhaps the Others who could control wights must all be masters of shapeshifting.
With over twenty ravens, Jon could easily intercept the ravens entering and leaving Casterly Rock, thus saving his last upgrade point.
Soon, a flock of ravens left the rooms of the large house, their wings drinking in the long wind, and flew towards Casterly Rock.
Jon, who remained inside the main house, felt as if he were watching a dozen surveillance screens simultaneously, only now the images on all the screens were almost identical.
Forests, fields, mountains, and rivers rush past beneath you. All you have to do now is wait, wait for the ravens from Casterly Rock, then intercept them and take their place!
The ravens flew very fast and soon flew over the military camp, arriving above Casterly Rock.
Casterly Rock is flanked by mountains on both sides, making any flanking maneuver impossible except for a direct frontal assault. This is what makes Casterly Rock fortress so formidable.
After selecting the location, Jon deployed ravens to lie in ambush inside and outside Casterly Rock, especially near the ravens' huts, in order to intercept news of Casterly Rock.
As Jon predicted, Kevan did not transfer the army away from Casterly Rock because of his performance, but he still sent Raven to ask Tywin for his opinion.
Jon, who had already returned to the military camp, had a dozen or so ravens wait in the woods southwest of Casterly Rock for two days. Sure enough, they soon spotted a raven coming from the direction of Casterly Rock.
Lannister's wealth was evident in every aspect; while the messengers of other castles used bronze harpoons, the ravens from Casterly Rock carried harpoons made of gold.
Gold is more malleable, allowing for thinner and lighter letter tubes that can hold more content.
But the golden letter tube also made it easier for Jon to spot.
Just as the raven spotted Casterly Rock and was about to accelerate its flight, six or seven ravens, like startled bats, fluttered out of the woods and surrounded it.
Ravens are very intelligent birds, and when faced with this situation, they become visibly frightened and turn to flee towards Casterly Rock.
But he didn't expect there to be an ambush behind him. Three or four ravens worked together seamlessly, their long beaks pecking at his body and wings. The Casterly Rock raven, disoriented in the ambush, made an emergency landing, only to find itself surrounded even more.
Several more ravens arrived and, like a net, completely subdued it, then removed the golden siphon from its leg and brought it to Jon's hands.
Jon emptied the message from the mailbox and found that it contained very little, just a very brief command. Tywin did not believe Jon's feint and instead told Daven to hold Casterly Rock firmly and not to waver.
Another point that surprised Jon was that Tywin bluntly told Daven not to get too close to Mrs. Ralph of Casterly Rock.
Although he didn't know the reason for Dao's actions, Jon believed that as long as he did the opposite, there would be no problem.
So he imitated the handwriting in the letter and rewrote it, ordering Daven to send three thousand troops south toward Cornfield and to be closer to Mrs. Ralph.
Since the enemy uses ravens to determine Jon's troop deployment, Jon can use ravens to give them false information.
In this way, the goal of "commanding the enemy" was achieved.
All that's left is to continue the charade. The commander of Casterly Rock will see the number of troops below the city decrease with his own eyes, and will receive a message from afar requesting them to redeploy troops. He will inevitably redeploy the troops.
Once the number of defenders inside Casterly Rock is reduced to a certain level, Jon can launch a strong attack and take Casterly Rock in one fell swoop.