At noon, with the blazing sun hanging high, an army clad predominantly in blue marched in neat formation, about to leave the encampment beneath the Golden Tooth.
The sky was cloudless and the air still. The banner of the golden rose on a green field hung limply from its pole, as if accepting its fate of returning empty-handed yet again.
Like a diverted river, the Tyrell army marched southward right under the noses of the Golden Tooth's defenders.
Leading the departure was Loras Tyrell. His handsome face was pulled into a long frown. To him, Jon's so-called strategy was nothing short of a joke.
"Hah... Lord Jon, are you sure this will actually make Daven move his troops out of the Golden Tooth? What if we make this trip for nothing?" Loras's tone was full of impatience.
In his own plan, he should have been the first to scale the walls of the Golden Tooth after a bloody battle, and then he could thoroughly humiliate Jon, proving that all of Jon's past military achievements were just due to luck and opportunism.
Instead, Jon had assigned him a glorified errand-boy task: lead five thousand Tyrell troops in a feigned march south, and then return to Riverrun a few days later.
Jon told him the plan was to trick Daven into moving the defenders out of the Golden Tooth by pretending to march south.
But no matter how he thought about it, this plan seemed unreliable. After all, wouldn't they just send a raven to the southern castles to ask if the army had actually arrived?
In Loras's eyes, Jon's plan was utterly stupid.
"Rest assured, Ser Loras. If my plan fails, the army will be yours to command and deploy. I will step down as Commander-in-Chief," Jon said with a smile.
"I don't care about being Commander-in-Chief," Loras said, his brown eyes darting around. "If your plan fails, leave my sister alone!"
"Lor!" Garlan warned from the side. That demand was clearly excessive.
The marriage alliance between House Tyrell and Jon was a done deal; there was absolutely no possibility of changing it.
"How about this: if my plan fails, House Tyrell will have priority in selecting and mining the gold mines we capture in the future," Jon offered as his stake.
Loras had never lacked money growing up—or rather, with his status, he never needed to use money. But thinking about how the Lannisters always loved to tie themselves to gold, the gold mines must be extremely valuable. After a brief thought, he said, "Fine. Since it's a bet, what do you want?"
"If my plan works, then after Margaery and I are married, you come to Casterly Rock and serve as my Commander of the City Watch."
Jon knew perfectly well that after conquering the Westerlands, the Tyrells would definitely want a piece of the pie and would try to plant their people around him under various pretexts.
Most importantly, he didn't have the leverage to refuse. After all, he was alone and couldn't be everywhere at once; he really did rely on Tyrell manpower and resources.
Since that was the case, he might as well choose someone not so bright to keep close.
"No problem, as long as you can actually take Casterly Rock." With that, Loras bade farewell to Garlan, mounted his horse, and led the troops away.
After sending Loras off, Jon handed over the military affairs to Garlan and Martin. He then left the army alone and headed for a temporarily abandoned small village nearby.
Soon, Jon arrived at the village, which was nearly deserted due to the war. He entered a large house that had been temporarily converted into a rookery.
This large house originally belonged to a knight's manor. The knight had likely died in battle, leaving the house empty.
Inside, twenty or thirty raven nests were fixed onto wooden racks, each housing an adult raven.
Seeing Jon enter, the ravens became visibly agitated. They flapped their wings, cawing raucously.
All the crows had their eyes on the food box in his hand.
Jon hadn't been idle while waiting for the main army to arrive. He had been preparing these ravens for a month, personally feeding them fresh meat and dried fruits.
Jon intended to use these ravens to intercept and tamper with the Golden Tooth's communication with the outside world.
His inspiration actually came from Tywin using ravens to "verify" if the Red Keep had fallen.
Jon needed enough ravens to monitor and intercept the raven traffic from the Golden Tooth. And to control enough ravens at once, he needed to upgrade his [Warg] trait.
With a thought, the trait status appeared before his eyes:
[Warg: Blue]
[Remaining Upgrade Points: 3]
Currently, Jon only had one maxed-out Red trait—Sword Saint.
Based on previous experience, he could upgrade the Warg trait to the maximum level in one go.
However, the Golden Tooth was just the first hurdle in attacking the Westerlands. Who knew what challenges lay ahead? So, Jon decided to just add one upgrade point to the trait for now, just enough to make it usable.
With a flash of purple light, the Blue trait turned Purple.
Jon looked at his original raven. Its eyes instantly dilated and became sharp, mirroring Jon's own grey eyes perfectly. Meanwhile, Jon could still control his own body.
Previously, when warging into a raven, his own body would go into "AFK mode," as if asleep. Now, it was like Jon had a "split screen" in his vision—one side was his main body's perspective, and the other was the raven's.
Then he tried to warg into a second raven. Sure enough, the two "split screens" became three.
He could now see himself, see what the first raven saw, and see another location, as if he had grown three eyes that could move independently.
However, the original two views were a bit blurry, and the sensory feed felt a bit laggy.
When Jon tried to operate a fifth raven simultaneously, he felt like his head was going to split open.
Looks like I need another level.
So he added another upgrade point. This time, the trait turned Gold!
Under the effect of the Golden trait, Jon felt the headache recede rapidly. He continued to take control of more ravens!
Five, six... eleven, thirteen...
The ravens, originally eyeing the food box in Jon's hand eagerly, saw their expressions change one by one.
For every raven he took control of, Jon made it stand on the table. When he reached about twenty, the pain returned.
Finally, Jon discovered that if he gave up control of his main body, he could control twenty-four ravens simultaneously!
I am the Swarm! Jon suddenly thought of that line. He figured the White Walkers who could control wights must all be master wargs.
Over twenty ravens were enough for Jon to intercept ravens entering and leaving the Golden Tooth, so he saved the last upgrade point.
Soon, a flock of ravens flew out of the room, their wings catching the wind as they headed toward the Golden Tooth.
Jon, remaining in the house, felt like he was watching over a dozen surveillance screens at once, though the images on these "screens" were all pretty much the same for now.
Forests, fields, mountains, and rivers flashed by below. Now, all he had to do was wait—wait for a raven from Casterly Rock, intercept it, and replace it!
Ravens flew fast. Soon, they crossed the military camp and arrived above the Golden Tooth.
The Golden Tooth was flanked by mountains on both sides. Aside from a frontal assault, there was no possibility of flanking it. That was what made the fortress so formidable.
After selecting his spots, Jon had the ravens lurk inside and outside the Golden Tooth, especially near the rookery, to intercept news.
Just as Jon expected, although Daven didn't move his troops away from the Golden Tooth just because of Jon's performance, he still sent a raven to ask for Tywin's opinion.
Jon, having returned to the camp, had a dozen ravens wait in the woods southwest of the Golden Tooth for two days. Sure enough, they soon spotted a raven coming from the direction of Casterly Rock.
The Lannisters' wealth showed in every aspect. While message tubes used by other castles were made of bronze, the ravens from Casterly Rock carried tubes made of gold.
Gold was more malleable, allowing for thinner, lighter tubes that could hold messages with more content.
But the golden tube also made it easier for Jon to spot.
Just as the raven saw the Golden Tooth and was about to speed up, six or seven ravens burst out of the woods like startled bats, surrounding it.
Ravens are intelligent birds. Encountering such a situation, it was visibly terrified and turned to flee back toward Casterly Rock.
But it didn't expect to be blocked from behind as well. Three or four ravens worked in perfect coordination, their long beaks pecking at its body and wings. Dizzy from the ambush, the Casterly Rock raven made an emergency landing, only to fall into an even larger encirclement.
A few more ravens arrived, controlling it completely like a capture net. They removed the golden tube from its leg and brought it to Jon.
Jon tipped the message out of the tube and found the content very brief. It was a short order: Tywin didn't buy Jon's diversionary tactic either. Instead, he told Daven to hold the Golden Tooth firmly and not to waver.
There was one other point that surprised Jon. Tywin bluntly mentioned that Daven should not get too close to Lady Lefford of the Golden Tooth.
Although he didn't know the reason, Jon figured doing the opposite would be fine.
So, mimicking the handwriting in the letter, he rewrote a message. He ordered Daven to deploy three thousand troops south toward Cornfield, and at the same time, told him to get closer to Lady Lefford.
Since the enemy relied on ravens to determine Jon's troop movements, Jon could rely on ravens to feed them false information.
In this way, he achieved the goal of "commanding the enemy."
Now, he just needed to keep acting. When the commander of the Golden Tooth saw with his own eyes that the besieging army had shrunk, and simultaneously received orders to move troops, he would inevitably move the defenders out.
Once the garrison inside the Golden Tooth was reduced to a certain level, Jon could launch a full-scale assault and take the fortress in one fell swoop.