The war situation in King's Landing was transmitted across Westeros at an unprecedented speed by ravens, and all the nobles, lords, and knights who were paying attention to this war were discussing its progress.
Everyone believed that King's Landing had performed exceptionally well in this engagement, managing to annihilate Stannis's vanguard and burn all of his siege engines at such a small cost, while the shanties outside the city were not even considered.
However, they seemed to have misunderstood that the Commander on King's Landing's side in this battle was Adam Marbrand, and not Little Devil Tyrion Lannister. Perhaps they knew, but were unwilling to admit that a "half-man" could possess such wisdom, capable of causing a renowned general like Stannis to suffer such a heavy loss.
At Duskendale, Stannis attacked King's Landing, and the Westerlands were invaded by Robb Stark. All of this pushed the Westerland army into a predicament. Duke Tywin had already considered retreating, wanting to fall back to Harrenhal, and then reinforce King's Landing, holding onto the most important territory.
But he still clearly understood that his every move now had to be extremely careful, because in this standoff, a rash retreat of the army could very likely be exploited by the enemy, ultimately leading to a complete rout.
If it were before, Duke Tywin might have dismissed Edmure, who was confronting him, believing him to be nothing more than a pretty fool. But now he no longer dared to underestimate this fool. Not long ago, the other party had dealt him a solid heavy blow. Fortunately, the other party did not bring many people, otherwise his losses would have been even more severe, and he might have already retreated to Harrenhal by now.
"Tell me, what are your thoughts?" Tywin asked in a deep voice after his subordinate officers had all finished reading the content.
Ser Ryk from House Brax of Hornvale stood up and said, "Lord, the safety of King's Landing is too important. We should have the Harrenhal garrison march south to reinforce King's Landing."
"What about Harrenhal then?" Tywin asked.
Ser Ryk continued, "Lord Kevan is still stationed in Duskendale; we can have Lord Kevan return to govern Duskendale."
Tywin rubbed his forehead, not commenting on the proposal.
Ser Foss Lantell of Lannisport, who was nearby, objected, "If we do that, it would be better to just have Lord Kevan reinforce King's Landing directly. Why go to such trouble? But if we do this, the entire Crownlands will completely fall into Stannis's hands, and those who were suppressed by Lord Kevan on the Crab Claw Peninsula will also take the opportunity to march south and converge with Stannis, making Stannis's army even stronger."
"In that case, Lord Foss, do you have any way to relieve King's Landing?" Ser Ryk, seemingly not on good terms with this Lannister collateral branch, questioned stiffly.
"Lord, I don't think we should continue to confront Riverrun here," Foss Lantell ignored Ser Ryk's question and looked at Tywin, saying cautiously, "Our continued presence here is a useless waste of time, squandering a large number of troops for nothing. It would be better to actively retreat, yielding the Riverlands territories we have already controlled. This way, the Riverlands lords will certainly reclaim their own territories first, rather than pursuing us, and Riverrun's strength will be greatly dispersed. This way, the Riverlands' strength will not pose a threat to us in a short time, and we can concentrate our forces to deal with Stannis, this important enemy, first."
"No," someone immediately objected as soon as Foss finished speaking. "If we do that, the army might mutiny. You know that after we captured the Riverlands' lands, we already promised to let the soldiers cultivate those farmlands. If you return all these lands, it's equivalent to taking things away from the soldiers under us..."
Tywin interrupted the man, saying with a serious expression, "Enough! Don't talk about retreating anymore. If we retreat now without even a frontal engagement, it will only make people think we have already failed and want to flee back to the Westerlands. In that case, the enemy's attacks will be even fiercer. Therefore, we absolutely cannot retreat."
As he spoke, Tywin looked meaningfully at Foss Lantell, who had just suggested retreating. Foss also lowered his head, as if admitting his mistake.
In fact, Tywin called this meeting not because he genuinely wanted to ask his subordinates how to solve the current predicament, but rather to test their thoughts on retreating. The Lannister collateral branch member who had just suggested retreating was merely obeying his orders, serving as a scouting stone.
And the effect of this stone had just appeared. When the suggestion of retreating was brought up, all the noble generals in the room showed clear expressions of dissatisfaction.
Although they claimed that the soldiers below would mutiny due to losing the gains they had acquired, in reality, these summoned noble lords were the ones who would suffer the greatest loss, because by rule, at least one-third of the occupied Riverlands land belonged to them. Once they retreated, all the land would have to be relinquished, which was enough to make them feel the pain of cutting off flesh, and naturally, they strongly opposed it.
As an observer, Tywin had already noted these people in his mind. In the next battle, these people would be sent to the front lines, and whether they would survive would be left to fate. He also had not given up the idea of retreating, but was secretly making arrangements, and once the time was right, he would be able to execute it.
Just as Duke Tywin was considering how to retreat and clear out the unruly elements in the army, in Bitterbridge to the south, Littlefinger was still waiting for an audience with the Lord of Highgarden.
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/TripleCrown
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"