Chapter 114: Presenting the Strategy
"Bloody Night's Watch—" Robert's face turned an even deeper shade of crimson in an instant.
As King, his original whim to bring along a Night's Watch attaché was born from a confident belief that he would seize the Bloody Gate with ease. Who could have guessed the war would stall, turning his unprecedented maneuver into a self-inflicted slap in the face? It would have been fine if Egger had stayed quietly in the Antlers' tents, but the man just had to jump out and offer a plan—every second this man in black stayed in his sight felt like a sting to his pride!
"How many times do I have to tell you lot before it sticks? They are rebels! Rebels! REBELS!" The King roared, grabbing the wine cup before him and slamming it onto the table with every shout. By the third rebels, the cup had cracked. Red wine spilled and leaked, flowing over his hand to pool on the table. Robert grunted, hurled the shattered remnants of the cup to the floor, and continued shouting as he wiped his hands with the tablecloth: "I am suppressing a rebellion! This is NOT internal strife! Do you understand? Now, either spit out your idea or get the hell out! Someone get me another cup!"
Egger froze for a second, then realized the last sentence wasn't directed at him. He had finally witnessed what it meant to serve a prince like a tiger and the true meaning of volatility. Even as someone accustomed to powerful figures and mentally prepared, he had flinched at Robert's outburst, nearly ducking to avoid the cup. Fortunately, the King had only smashed it on the floor. Though they were all among the most powerful men in the realm, not everyone was as reasonable and easy to talk to as Eddard Stark.
"Your Majesty, pray calm your anger. I only wished to confirm!" In the face of such a tyrant, Egger did not dare to be stubborn or act high and mighty. Besides, he had received the assurance he wanted—important things are said thrice, and it seemed even Robert understood that principle. By roaring rebels three times, he had defined the nature of the day's business: Egger offering a plan to suppress a rebellion was protecting the interests of the realm, not violating the discipline of the Watch.
In principle, as a senior officer and the fifth-in-command of the Wall, only Jeor Mormont had the authority to judge if Egger's actions violated their discipline. King Robert's word didn't legally count. But the reality was: might makes right. Since the King had made such an assertion in public, Mormont would never dare to contradict this established fact.
Egger glanced around, saw Robb Stark give him a friendly nod, and returned a smile before wasting no more time. "In the land where I hail from, there is a place where it is surrounded by mountains on three sides, with an uncrossable great river to the east. Its terrain is no less treacherous than the Vale. For a long time, anyone wishing to enter from the north had to pass through a fortification, which is far more difficult to assault than even your Bloody Gate."
"Yes, I know. And then someone captured this fortification of yours," Randyll Tarly, the famous general of the Reach and the only man in Westeros to have defeated Robert in open battle, interjected expressionlessly. "How did they do it?"
"Stop telling stories and get to the point!" Robert said impatiently.
Egger felt a bit helpless. Can't these brutes be more patient? By not following the narrative flow, he had to discard half of his prepared script.
When an army was set out to destroy the fortification, an army of a hundred thousand was stalled at the entrance. Facing the fortification, they couldn't advance an inch for months and were on the verge of retreating due to lack of supplies—a situation remarkably similar to Robert's current predicament.
Another example was Thermopylae. When Persia invaded Greece and faced three hundred Spartans, they suffered five-figure casualties and couldn't pass. What did they do in the end?
They took a side path.
Since Robert didn't want to hear stories, Egger skipped the grand storytelling and went straight to the conclusion: "Leave a large number of levies outside the Bloody Gate to hold the defenders' attention. Send your most elite units through the small mountain paths. Whether they race straight to the Eyrie to break the siege or launch a pincer attack to take the Bloody Gate from within and clear the way for the main host—that is entirely up to Your Majesty's preference."
...
"Hmph—"
"Tch!"
The surrounding lords and generals made sounds of disdain; some even chuckled softly. Randyll Tarly spoke coldly: "That is indeed a fine idea, but I wonder if the Chief Logistics Officer knows which 'small path' leads into the Vale?"
"I do not. If I knew of it, the Vale rebels would surely know as well, rendering such a path meaningless. What we need is a path the rebels do not know of, or a freshly carved one."
"Easier said than done! Do you think the countless armies that have attacked the Vale over thousands of years, or all of us here, are fools? The Moon Mountains surrounding the Vale stretch for hundreds of miles. How much time would be wasted wandering those peaks looking for a path?" Tarly said dismissively. "A month? Two months? Half a year? In the meantime, do our tens of thousands of men go home to farm, or sit at the Gate waiting? The Tyrells can provide the grain, but what of the travel costs and the wages?"
"Lord Tarly, your questions are valid." Egger had expected this skepticism and had a solution ready. "If King Robert allowed the Vale Houses who have not joined the rebellion to attend this council, they would tell His Majesty: side paths into the Vale have existed for ages, and there is more than one. It is simply that the Mountain Clans who know and control these paths do not submit to the Eyrie or the Iron Throne. Outsiders who don't know the Vale are blinded by the saying: 'To enter the Vale, one must pass the Bloody Gate.' That saying should actually be: 'To enter the Vale via a flat road, one must pass the Bloody Gate!'"
A small blind spot in thinking—piercing it required no effort, but the key was how to utilize it once seen. Taking a side path wasn't something you could do just because you wanted to.
He paused, revealing the final answer: "But if the goal is merely to end the war, we don't necessarily have to take the Bloody Gate. Therefore, the strategy I offer is this: the main host stays put, continuing daily feigned attacks with catapults and arrows. Send several thousand elites with light supplies into the Moon Mountains to hunt the Mountain Clans. Through a mix of threats and bribes, force them to surrender. Once these people who know the terrain are leading our strike force, the deed is done!"
"To avoid raising the defenders' suspicion, we should have these strike forces disguise themselves as dismissed levies heading home to farm. They pretend to leave the battlefield, but in reality, they circle into the Moon Mountains. The rebels would never dream that the men left behind are just rabble and new recruits for show, while the battle-hardened elites have actually left the camp. By the time our men appear behind the Bloody Gate, it will be too late!"
The plan sounded simple, but it actually contained a series of strategic concepts: feigning in the east to strike in the west, the golden cicada shedding its skin, and crossing the sea under a veil of deception. Any modern person would find it obvious, but to formulate it from scratch in a backward world without military academies—where simply knowing how to arrange troops made one a strategist and leading a charge made one a hero—it bordered on divine calculation.
To come up with such a complete plan in a single day... did Egger have a hidden military genius? In truth, the Watchman had been subconsciously pondering how to break it since the day he arrived. Once he realized the war was tied to his interests, he looked back and found the solution already waiting in the depths of his mind.
The tent fell silent. A minute ago, when Egger mentioned taking a side path, most were filled with disdain and mockery. But now that he had provided a concrete solution, who could raise an objection?
A handsome, slender young squire brought a new cup for Robert and filled it with wine, but the King uncharacteristically left the cup untouched. He sat quietly behind the table, thick fingers tapping the surface rhythmically. Even the flushed color of his drunken face seemed to fade slightly.
Robert truly wanted to be the first king in a millennium to storm the Bloody Gate. But with Littlefinger's defection and the crown's current finances, even if he took it by force, he likely couldn't afford the pensions for the fallen. Between his dream and the stability of his rule, he could still tell which was more important.
After a silence of about a minute, he spoke: "And the rest of you? Give me your opinions. Is the Other-Slayer's idea feasible?"
"I believe it is feasible. If he hadn't spoken, how many in this tent would have remembered the unbowed Mountain Clans in those peaks?" Randyll Tarly's tone was still stiff, but his attitude had shifted 180 degrees. "This is interesting, Lord Egger West—I heard you came from across the sea and were sent straight to the Wall. How is it you know the situation in the Vale so intimately, even better than us native Westerosi?"
"There is a thing called 'books,' my lord," Egger replied with a smile. He wouldn't tell them the book was called A Song of Ice and Fire. "There is also a saying: 'One need not step out the door to know the affairs of the world.'"
...
"Your Majesty, I also believe it is feasible!" Robb Stark was the first to speak up. "The North has many mountain clans as well. The Karstarks and Umbers have experience dealing with such savages. Furthermore, the Mountain Clans have the blood of the First Men in their veins and worship the Old Gods. It would be easier for Northmen to negotiate their surrender than anyone else. I am willing to lead the Northern elites to execute this plan!"
"Dorne is a land of many mountains, Your Majesty," Oberyn surprisingly jumped in as well. "Most of my spearmen have no fear of climbing. As long as we have a guide, we can be put to use!"
Now that there was a viable method, every House naturally volunteered. It wasn't that they had immense faith in the plan, but rather—no matter how hard the Moon Mountains were to climb, it was a thousand times better than being sent to storm the Bloody Gate.
"Very well, Other-Slayer... next, we shall see if your idea actually works. If it succeeds, you shall be richly rewarded. If it fails again, well, I suppose I'll just have to lose face and talk to those rebels." Robert had uncharacteristically regained his composure. Not only was his voice much softer, but he also conveniently shifted the potential blame onto Egger, setting the stage for a future compromise if needed. "Now, you may leave. The rest of you stay; we shall discuss the specific assignments together."
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