Aegon and Lord Buckwell reached a consensus, no longer dwelling on the matter of getting Jarman out of The The Wall. After traveling a bit further, they arrived at the encampment of the Buckwell army, amidst dozens of tents with blue and white stripes featuring antlers.
Lord Buckwell arranged one of the dozens of tents, right next to the Lord's tent, for Aegon and his young attendant to stay in. In a state of war, being able to occupy a dwelling alone despite being a temporary arrival was quite good treatment befitting an esteemed guest.
...
The army set off on time the next morning. On the matters of "punctuality" and "not oversleeping," Robert, the King and Commander, was quite competent. The Crownlands army, which was boundless when gathered in a group, was even more magnificent as it lined up in a long column and marched the North under command. One could not see the head of the line looking forward, nor the tail looking back. Aegon was mixed among the brightly armored Buckwell army, his notoriously low-key black clothes instead appearing conspicuous. Soon... everyone knew there was a Night's Watchman in the army.
"Waiting to buy the captives we catch at a low price, so they can be sent to The The Wall."
The soldiers didn't know that Aegon was actually forced to come. Joking about his presence like this was somewhat treating the "Night's Watchman with the army" as a mascot – in the thousands of years of Westeros history, this was the first time such a strange fellow had appeared.
(If even the neutral Night's Watch bets on our side winning, this campaign to suppress the rebellion will surely be an easy victory.) Most soldiers held this thought, and no one even mentioned the superstitious saying that "black generally represents bad luck."
...
Aegon accompanied Lord Buckwell throughout the march, listening to him tell stories from the time of the War of the Usurper, and quickly remembered many families whose key members were forced to don the black because they supported the Targaryen.
At first, Aegon thought: If he pretended to have a channel to get people out of The The Wall for these families, provided that the industries the Night's Watch Logistics Department established in King's Landing developed well, could he attract more investment and customers? But soon, he realized it was unlikely. The War of the Usurper had ended more than ten years ago, and most families who had backed the wrong side had recovered from their punishments. The position of that unlucky fellow who donned the black had probably been replaced by his brothers. Only the Bookwell family, because the eldest branch had not been able to produce a male heir, had the idea of getting their son out of the Night's Watch – this was an isolated case and not universal.
The idea of starting a "retrieval" business fell through, but the plan to make connections with the participating nobles remained unchanged. The Crownlands army marched continuously for about ten days. After passing through several Crownlands villages and towns, including Sow's Horn, they met the first Riverlands forces at Lord Harroway's town.
***
Although this ferry town was named after Lord Harroway, the family had actually died out long ago. When the Lord Harroway family was powerful, they were granted Harrenhal. Unfortunately, like the builder of this largest castle in Westeros, they could not escape the curse of "family annihilation" and successfully became one of the families that "owned Harrenhal and then perished."
A thousand Riverlands soldiers were stationed here to guard the ferry against any harassment from the Vale rebels attempting to cross the river to the King. However, they were not needed. The Crownlands army crossed the Trident River quite smoothly and began advancing towards the Vale, arriving at the famous Inn at the Crossroads from the A Song of Ice and Fire story a day later.
This three-story building is also a legend. In the original plot, Catelyn and Rodrik met Tyrion returning from The The Wall here and arrested him; after the Hound escaped King's Landing, he took Arya the North and encountered and killed some of Gregor Clegane's men here; in the subsequent plot, Brienne the Beauty also passed through here and caused some trouble...
Due to Aegon's active intervention, these plot points are unlikely to happen again. However, this does not affect this inn's status as Westeros's "primary place of trouble" – this is not due to anyone's malicious intent, but because of its unique geographical location: the intersection of the King's Road, running north-south, and the River Road, running east-west, two important transportation arteries. Whether you are traveling between Winterfell and King's Landing, or planning to go from Riverrun to the Vale, you will inevitably pass through here.
Thus, this time it became the meeting point for the Crownlands army and the Riverlands army.
The Riverlands army joining Robert's forces here numbered close to twenty thousand. The Commander was the heir to the Lord of Riverrun, one of the founders of the Stag-Wolf-Fish-Falcon Alliance, Hoster Tully's son – Edmure Tully. Catelyn, who was besieged in the Eyrie by the rebels of the "Alliance of Justice," was a Tully daughter, Edmure's older sister. How could he not care about saving his own family?
The Riverlands and The Reach are two relatively special territories in the Seven Kingdoms – although their fiefs are among the top two in terms of wealth, because their ruling families were not local Kings before Aegon's Conquest, despite sitting in the position of Lord, they severely lacked control over their territories. On the surface, they were powerful, but in reality, they lacked the confidence and cohesion to contend for the Iron Throne or rebel and claim kingship. They could only seek powerful patrons and stabilize their position through marriage alliances. It was also fortunate that Robert was still alive, which is why everyone would give face to the legal liege Lord, allowing the Tully family to easily assemble an army of such size.
Aegon noticed that even the Frey family, who would later orchestrate the horrific Red Wedding and who, relying on their own strength, had always been nominally subordinate but disobedient to the Tully family, had their banners flying among the Riverlands forces. Robert Baratheon's deterrent and control over the Seven Kingdoms was probably even greater than he had previously estimated.
After the two armies merged, the combined force instantly swelled to over thirty thousand – Aegon, being in the army, knew this was a real figure, counting only combat personnel and not logistics. In a backward feudal era, this was already an astonishing super army... and this was only the two closest of the other Six Kingdoms besides the Vale.
The Crownlands and Riverlands forces did not stop here but continued marching east. Aegon, passing through here for the second time, was unable to enjoy the beds of this famous inn again.
...
Two weeks after setting off from King's Landing, the Crownlands-Riverlands forces finally entered the territory belonging to the Vale. The army marched until the narrow entrance of the Vale of Arryn was visible to the naked eye before stopping. Under Robert's command, they split into two branches, one left and one right, encamping several miles apart at the valley entrance, one south and one north, forming a pincer movement that firmly blocked the passage between the Vale of Arryn and the outside world, and then settled down there.
The army of over thirty thousand was fully capable of attacking Bloody Gate, and siege equipment also arrived shortly after. But Robert did not plan to act first – this time, he not only intended to fight but also wait until all the forces from the Six Kingdoms had arrived: the War of the Usurper was already a distant past, and Balon Greyjoy's rebellion had been suppressed for ten years. It seemed that the Seven Kingdoms were gradually losing their awe of him. This time, he wanted to remind these people that he was the King, and a very capable fighting King at that.
Aegon guessed the King's thoughts and found it amusing. Hand of the King Eddard Stark remained in King's Landing to continue overseeing the Seven Kingdoms. Robert only brought four Kingsguard with him on this trip. The remaining three, including Jaime, stayed in King's Landing to "protect" Queen Cersei and other royal family members. In this Vale civil strife, the Lannister twins were likely to become the biggest winners.
As the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, his wife was having a great time having affairs at home, while he was still sitting in front of Bloody Gate in the Vale, waiting for an audience to put on a big show – the most ridiculous thing was that most of the money for the show had to be borrowed. This act of forcing himself to show off reminded Aegon of a certain country before he transmigrated, which was about to host the Winter Olympics but had a severe budget shortfall.
Countless facts have long proven that showing off requires powerful strength as a backing. Swelling one's face to look fat usually doesn't end well.
Now, the Chief Logistics Officer could only secretly pray that this campaign to suppress the rebellion would not be too ugly, and at least that he wouldn't be dragged into it.
--