Compared to Casterly Rock, Jon conquered Sarsfield with ease.
After capturing the castle, the army of over 10,000 temporarily set up camp there. After all, the Soldiers had traveled a long distance and needed to recover their strength, as well as wait for reinforcements and heavy supplies.
Inside the lobby of Sarsfield, the green flag with white arrows of the Sarsfield Family still hangs, much like the Lefford Family of Casterly Rock.
The men went out to fight, while the women stayed behind to guard the castle.
Lord Mewyn of Sarsfield had been killed in battle, leaving only his wife Sircle in the city. Sircle was brought before Jon for questioning.
Sircle is Maywyn's second wife. She is only nineteen years old, of medium build, with brown hair and a somewhat timid look in her eyes. Sircle currently has only one daughter, who is four years old.
If this four-year-old daughter were to marry, the Sarsfield family would be completely extinct. Furthermore, if circumstances change, Sircle himself might remarry.
"Lady Sarsfield, you don't need to worry. We are only using your castle as a temporary base and will not harm your family. As you saw, my Soldiers did not kill a single person after breaching the city, did they?"
Sircle nodded nervously, feeling uneasy and unsure of what to do with his hands and feet.
"Okay, what I want to know now is, what orders has Tywin given you during this period?"
" Lord Tywin, Tywin he—" Sircle was still nervous and stammered as he spoke.
After all, not long ago she was just a young noblewoman protected by her family. When she heard that Jon had killed the Mountain, killed Joffrey, and even used witchcraft to break through Casterly Rock, Sircle was still very afraid, even though Jon's attitude was already quite mild.
After she finished speaking haltingly, Jon told her to leave and instructed the Soldiers to protect her and her daughter.
Through Sircle's explanation, Jon learned about Dao. Tywin has gone all in; he has almost drained the Westerlands' manpower in an attempt to take them all down with him.
Wait, why does this look so familiar?
Jon suddenly thought of Mad King Aerys, who planted wildfire throughout King's Landing. No wonder those two got along so well when they were young.
They're practically half-brothers!
However, Jon didn't care about Tywin's hastily conscripted army.
Tywin doesn't care about these lives, but Jon does. Whether it's building up the West, defending against the Iron Islands ' invasion, or dealing with the Long Night and the White Walkers in the future, no one can do it without people.
Although the West had been ravaged by war, Jon saw it as a treasure trove where he could freely express himself.
Because of the previous wars, a large number of nobles in the Westerlands had died on the battlefields of the Riverlands and King's Landing, which meant that the power of the feudal lords in the Westerlands had been greatly weakened.
In addition, Tywin's suppression and repression of the Western nobles over the years have made Casterly Rock's power more concentrated than ever before.
Jon could easily create a class loyal to himself in the Westerlands!
For example, the household registration system is very suitable for the current Western Border, with military households, artisan households, and civilian households.
Regardless of whether this system will become rigid in the future, it will allow Jon to maintain the largest possible army size and combat effectiveness at a very low cost for at least several decades.
Jon also plans to relocate tens of thousands of Mountain Clan Tribes to the area around Casterly Rock, replacing those people and organizations associated with Lannister.
These Mountain Clans members will become Jon's staunch supporters, and will be the best source for selecting his attendants, guards, and maids in the future.
Just as the Kingsguard's primary principle is not martial arts prowess but loyalty, Jon is not building a Kingsguard but a personal bodyguard, and these Mountain Clan Tribes are the most trustworthy.
After all, their feat of climbing Canghuo Peak had made them regard themselves as gods.
Just as Jon was contemplating the future of the Westerlands, Robb Frey delivered a letter from King's Landing.
However, there was no Stannis's emblem on the letter; it was a letter from Varys, and it even carried Varys's distinctive lavender scent.
Jon was a little curious, wondering about Dao What was Varys's purpose in writing to him at this time?
After he opened the letter, his face slowly darkened.
Sure enough, the eve of victory is when betrayals erupt in full force.
In his letter, Varys told Jon that there was a debate in Stannis's court about whether or not to allow him to continue the offensive in the west.
A group of members, represented by "The Queens Party," believed that Jon and Lannister should share the West.
However, they weren't worried that Jon would rebel after taking control of the West, but rather that Tyrell O
The time and cost Jon took to breach Casterly Rock were far less than Stannis had anticipated. They had expected Jon to be stuck at Casterly Rock for half a year, or to fight a major battle with Tywin in Cornfield to the south, costing thousands of lives before entering the West.
Unexpectedly, Jon took down Casterly Rock in just one month with only a few hundred casualties. This defeats their goal of weakening Tyrell.
In the letter, Varys also told Jon that although Stannis and his side had not yet accepted Tywin's peace talks, they were already probing each other's demands and bottom lines.
Regarding the loan, Stannis demanded that Casterly Rock not only forgive all debts but also assume the Royal Family's debt to Free Cities Bank.
This adds up to an astronomical figure of six million gold dragons. While it might not completely drain the West, it would definitely empty Casterly Rock.
Tywin believes that forgiving the three million debt as a penalty is sufficient and is unwilling to compromise for the time being.
All of these negotiations were conducted without Jon's involvement.
"Well, so you're all playing cards here?" Jon sneered as he placed the secret letter into the brazier and lit it.
Tywin and King's Landing haven't reached a peace agreement yet, mainly because Jon hasn't taken any further action. At this time, there are still tens of thousands of newly organized troops in the Westerlands. If Jon can defeat these troops, King's Landing will demand an even higher price.
Conversely, if Jon fails to achieve breakthrough on the battlefield, Tywin will become even more defiant.
The two sides are still locked in a stalemate because they both believe that Jon cannot conquer Casterly Rock. If he does conquer Casterly Rock, then Jon becoming the Lord of Casterly Rock is a foregone conclusion.
Stannis can't possibly contradict himself.
But Varys ' letter made conquering Casterly Rock less of a challenge; now, a time limit has been added to the mix.
If this goes on for too long, Stannis might negotiate with Tywin, leaving Jon stranded.
Casterly Rock alone is far from enough to satisfy Jon's appetite. Casterly Rock is still in Lannister's hands, and he can't even effectively govern the Westerlands.
Without effective control over the West, it is impossible to effectively accumulate power. In the end, either the Night King will go south and turn everyone into zombies, or the Dragon Mother Daenerys will cross the sea, ride the Dragon, and burn everyone to death.
If you can't prove that you are Targaryen, your fate will definitely not be good.
Jon's plan was to ensure he had a standing army of 20,000 men before winter arrived! A reserve force twice the size of the standing army, sufficient manpower, food, and weapons, plus the troublesome Euron to deal with.
In short, he absolutely has to get this Castelly Rock!
The first step to taking down Casterly Rock is to disconnect the network cable between King's Landing and Casterly Rock!
Casterly Rock was surrounded by open space, so Jon could no longer have the ravens lie in ambush and wait for the ravens in the city to be released, as he had done before.
He needs more ravens to constantly monitor Casterly Rock, which requires upgrading the [ Shapeshifter ] entry to the highest level.
[ Shapeshifter ]: Remaining upgrade attempts: 1
After adding the last of the upgrade attempts to the Shapeshifter entry, the golden entry was enveloped in red light—[Easy Spirit].
"Hmm? It's not about controlling more ravens?"
Jon was quite surprised by the changes in the upgraded terms. Although he could now control more ravens, the changes brought about by the red terms were clearly more than that.
Jon discovered that he seemed to be able to indirectly control other animals by controlling the ravens, without having to build a bond through feeding or interacting with them.
It's like turning a shapeshifter into a shapeshifter under your control. The only limitation is that the control time and number of shapeshifters are restricted by the shapeshifter itself.
For example, he can currently control about three to seven ravens.
This way, unlike the previous attack on Casterly Rock, which required sending out a dozen or so ravens to attack and ambush, only one raven is needed to intercept it.
Or to put it more simply, Jon could send ravens to infiltrate the crow houses at Casterly Rock and have them control the ravens that Casterly Rock wants to send out, as well as intercept the ravens coming from King's Landing.
These ravens will eventually fly directly to Jon, effectively cutting off any possibility of communication between Casterly Rock and King's Landing.
Realizing the usefulness of his new ability, Jon immediately sent three ravens to infiltrate the crow house at Casterly Rock.
>