Chapter 344 Harrenhal changes hands

"What a ruthless leech!" After reading the battle information just sent over, Linde couldn't help but show a look of shock on his face.

Margaery and Sansa, who were sorting out documents for Linde, couldn't help but look at Linde.

Sansa, who had just been transferred from Jon, was obviously not as bold as Margaery. Although she was curious about what Lynd had seen that made him appear so shocked, she did not ask, but lowered her head and continued what she was doing.

On the contrary, Margaery boldly walked up to Lind and looked at the battle report in Lind's hand. After reading it, the same question appeared on her face, and she couldn't help but exclaimed: "How dare he do this? ? Isn’t he an ally with the Riverlands?”

"Allies? It depends on where you stand." Linde put the battle report on the table, thinking about the next direction of the war.

Margaery picked up the battle report on the table, walked to her companion Sansa, and handed it to Sansa. Sansa looked at Lind with a little concern, and seeing that he had no objection, she took the battle report and read it. Just like Margaery just now, after reading the battle report, she exclaimed: "How dare Lord Bolton do this? The people in the Riverlands will probably hate us in the north!"

I saw that this battle report stated a siege that took place in the Riverlands two days ago. The location of this siege was at Harrenhal. The attacker was the Northern Alliance Army commanded by Roose Bolton. The defender was the garrison of Harrenhal in the West. The final result was that Roose Bolton captured Harrenhal, Amory Lorch died in the battle, and Davon Lannister and Gregor Clegane led the mountain. The remaining armies of the Westerlands retreated to Duskendale and joined Kevan Lannister who was stationed there.

What really surprised Lind was not that Roose Bolton captured Harrenhal, but that Roose Bolton's process of capturing Harrenhal was a bit unexpected, and could even be said to be unconstrained.

As we all know, Davon Lannister burned all the bridges on the Trident while escaping from Daisy Mormont. Later, in order to prevent Daisy from crossing the river, he sent men to destroy all the ships on the river. , taking advantage of the natural barrier of the Trident River, Daisy's strong Bear Island troops were blocked on the other side.

Doing so also dragged Daisy here, making her unable to support Robb Stark's raid on the West. Otherwise, with Daisy's strong Bear Island troops joining in, the defenders of the West would not be able to withstand such a force. , except for a few strong castles, all other places have probably been raided by the Northern Alliance forces.

It must be said that Davon Lannister is definitely a rare general among the younger generation of the Lannister family.

However, no matter how outstanding a general is, if he encounters a ruthless and careless peeling leech, his talents will obviously be inferior.

In order to allow the army to cross the river, Roose Bolton only did one thing. He secretly sent people to sneak into the other side of the river at the confluence of the Trident River on a raft late at night, and then dug a hole in the dike.

The mouth of the Trident River is a famous above-ground river, where the water from the three tributaries of the Green Fork River, the Red Fork River and the Blue Fork River converge.

Originally, the water flow here should be strong, and the sediment washed down from the upper reaches of the tributary should be washed away.

However, the river surface of this river mouth is wide and the terrain is flat. When the water reaches here, it slows down, causing a large amount of sediment to accumulate here, and the pile is getting higher and higher, making the river a lot higher than the surrounding land in the river.

The land in the Riverlands is originally low-lying. Most of it is plain, with few hills and highlands. Every rainy season, the Trident River rises and the water level rises. When floods occur, they always start from the mouth of the Trident River. Overflow river channel.

Therefore, in order to prevent the floods from the Trident River from inundating the land in the Riverlands, the Tully family and the lords of the Riverlands built a flood diversion channel to pour most of the floodwaters from the Trident River into the God's Eye Lake.

However, this time Roose Bolton sent people to completely dig out the embankment of the Trident River. Instead of overflowing from the embankment like the floods in the past, the raging river water surged from the breach in the embankment. When it came out, the opening expanded further, and finally the entire river embankment was completely washed away.

A large amount of river water poured into the plains of the Riverlands. The flood diversion canals simply could not divert so much river water. In just one night, the river reached Noble Heart in the west, Divine Eye Lake in the east, Red Fork River in the north, and the Red Fork River in the south. In the upper reaches of the Blackwater River, the entire plain area between the rivers has turned into a marsh, and countless farmland has been flooded.

Roose Bolton did this just to cross the river unexpectedly, and he did it. As the upper river water vented towards the breach, the water level of the lower river water dropped rapidly, and finally dropped to a level where ordinary people could easily cross it. degree.

Subsequently, Roose Bolton led tens of thousands of troops, successfully crossed the river, and unexpectedly rushed to the gates of Harrenhal. The warrior group and other mercenary groups that Roose Bolton had bribed in advance attacked the city gate by surprise, killing the Amory who was guarding the gate. Loki and the defenders were killed, and Roose Bolton entered the city effortlessly.

In this completely passive situation, Davon Lannister still led the remaining army to escape from Harrenhal, and finally saved most of the defenders, and also set up an ambush halfway to kill the warriors who came over. The regiment was ambushed, and all members of the warrior regiment were annihilated, which was regarded as revenge for themselves.

With the battle between Harrenhal and Roose Bolton, the Western Alliance forces have fallen into a dangerous situation. Tywin and Kevan were completely separated, and both sides were restrained by a group of troops. It is no exaggeration to say that As long as they are not careful, the Western Alliance Army may fall into a situation that is beyond redemption.

After reading the battle report, Sansa was shocked, but her face also showed joy. For her, as long as she saw the defeat of the Western Alliance, it was good news.

"You have all read this battle report. Tell me, what problems did you see in this battle report?" Linde also broke away from his contemplation and asked the two people in the room.

This is not the first time that Linde has asked two people for their opinions. In the past few days, he has often asked them for their opinions on government and military affairs, or to be more correct, he has guided them to think.

So after hearing Linde's inquiry, both of them fell into deep thought.

In the past, Margaery was the first to answer, but this time it was Sansa. It seemed that after seeing the defeat of the Western Alliance, her mood improved a lot and her mind became much more alert.

"Although Lord Roose Bolton was able to successfully capture Harrenhal, the price paid was too great. Half of the riverlands were submerged, and all of them were the best farmland. This incident will definitely lead to the destruction of the north and the river. There are cracks in the cooperation between the two lands." Sansa's face became serious and she said solemnly: "If Robb doesn't handle it well, the cracks may get bigger and eventually affect the war in the West."

"Yeah!" Linde nodded and asked, "How should he deal with it to make up for this rift?"

"He certainly can't punish Lord Roose Bolton for capturing Harrenhal, otherwise the lords in the north will be heartbroken." Sansa thought about it seriously and said, "If I were Robb, I would All captured western territories will be compensated to the stricken lords. Those lords' territories were only temporarily submerged by the water. When the water recedes, the territories will still be there, and they will be able to get a piece of compensated territory. Naturally, those lords will not have any resentment, and they will not be resentful. They will fully support the Northern Territory in order to defend the newly acquired territory, because only if the Northern Territory wins can the compensation be truly owned by them. "

"It's a good idea." Linde approved, then changed the topic and asked: "But if you do this, what will the northern lords think? They attacked those castles and towns in the western territory, and they still have What would they think if they did not receive a reward but were given to the Riverlands? You must know that before the North entered the Riverlands, the Riverlands were almost completely occupied by Duke Tywin's Western Army, and all the lords When they were at the end of their rope, it was the Northern Army that defeated the Western Army led by James, took over the siege of the Riverlands, and then tied up the lords of the Riverlands to conquer the territory. Now the lords of the Riverlands are snatching the spoils from them. , what will they think?”

Sansa was stunned when she heard this, her face became a little ugly, and she fell into deep thought again.

After a while, she shook her head and said, "I don't know what to do to satisfy both parties?"

Linde smiled and said: "Everything in the world cannot satisfy everyone, so once you encounter a dilemma, all you need to do is to satisfy yourself, and ignore whether other people are satisfied for the time being."

"Satisfy yourself?" Sansa hesitated and said, "You mean you don't need to pay attention to the dissatisfaction of the noble lords of the Riverlands?"

Lind shook his head and said: "I am not Robb, and Robb is not me. My choice does not have any reference." As he said, he turned to look at Margaery and said: "You answered my question before Weren’t we all so enthusiastic when we were there? Why are we so quiet now?”

Margaery looked confused and said, "I just have a question that I haven't been able to figure out, so I didn't answer your question."

Linde smiled and said, "If you don't understand something, tell me and we can think about it together."

Sansa also looked at Margaery curiously.

Margaery said with a puzzled look: "I don't understand why Lord Roose Bolton did this?"

When Sansa heard this, her face was also confused. She couldn't understand what Margaery was asking. Why did Lord Roose Bolton do this? Isn't it to defeat the Western Alliance and capture Harrenhal? The content of the battle report is so obvious that even ordinary people can understand it, let alone Margaery.

However, after hearing Margery's words, Lind showed a surprised look, as if he was a little surprised that Margery could ask such a question.

"Why do you think Roose Bolton did this?" Lind asked with interest.

Margaery recounted: "Although Lord Roose Bolton's actions seemed to be to defeat the enemy at any cost, there was no need for him to divert the river water by breaking the embankment to allow himself to pass through the Trident River smoothly. , completely unnecessary.”

"How could it be unnecessary?" Sansa couldn't help but retorted: "Lord Daisy Mormont has been blocked by the Trident River for several months. Without this method, it would be impossible to cross the river."

Margaery looked at Sansa and said calmly: "Sansa, you are very smart, but sometimes you don't know how to use it, and you are easily affected by emotions. If you think about it calmly, you will know why I said it is unnecessary. ”

Sansa was stunned, and then thought about it seriously. Just as Margaery said, she was very smart. She quickly thought of the reason why Margaery was so confused, and she also had a confused expression on her face.

Seeing the change in the expression on Sansa's face, Margaery also knew that Sansa must have thought about the problem she was thinking about now, and said: "It seems that you have also thought about the reason why Lord Daisy Mormont is trapped. It took so long entirely because all of Count Daisy's men and horses were cavalry. If the cavalry wanted to cross the river, they had to either build a strong bridge or take a large ship that could transport horses. Otherwise, they could only abandon their horses and become infantry to cross the river. But Daisy If the Earl of the West's army were turned into infantry, they would definitely not be able to compete with the tens of thousands of Western Union troops on the other side. That's why Earl Daisy was trapped on the other side of the river. But unlike Lord Roose Bolton, his army was all infantry. There are very few cavalry. Next to the Trident River is the Mingyue Mountains, where there is a lot of wood that can be used to make rafts. He can make a large number of rafts upstream, and then go down the river, and finish them downstream before the Western Alliance forces arrive to stop them. He crossed the river and gathered his troops, so there was no need for him to dig up the embankment and drain the river."

"But why did he use such an extreme method to cross the river?" Sansa still looked confused and said, "Is it because he didn't think of other ways?"

"How is that possible? That Lord Roose Bolton must be a very smart man. We can think of a way to cross the river. How could that Lord not think that he can only think of more ways to cross the river than we do?" "Little." Margaery denied Sansa's guess, and then said with a serious look: "In my opinion, Roose Bolton has only two results, one is to make the world think that he is extremely cruel and unscrupulous. character, while the other wants to create a rift in the cooperation between the Riverlands and the North that cannot be eased.”

"How is this possible?" Sansa shook her head quickly and said: "Now the North and the Riverlands are cooperating closely to fight against the West. How could Robb let Lord Roose Bolton destroy the cooperation?"

"Who said your brother Robb Stark instigated Roose Bolton to destroy the cooperation between the Riverlands and the North?" Margaery sighed, looked at Sansa slightly strangely, and said, "You guys The relationship between the Stark family and the Bolton family seems not to be very good. In the past, several kings of the North in your family were captured and skinned by the Bolton family. There were also many people in the Bolton family in the past. Died at the hands of the Starks..."

"That was a long time ago. Now the Bolton family is loyal to the Stark family. My father once said..." Sansa was about to refute Margaery's words, but suddenly thought of something and froze, and followed her eyes. He couldn't hide his suspicion and said, "Margaery, do you mean that Roose Bolton plans to betray my brother?"