Early the next morning, a piece of news shocked King's Landing—Eddard Stark had escaped!
When the dungeon guards changed shifts in the morning, they only saw melted iron gates, the corpses of patrol soldiers scattered everywhere, and broken secret passages; in some of the tunnels, there were even the charred corpses of children.
Eddard Stark's cell was already empty, and the soldiers followed the tracks to find the exit leading to the beach.
This turn of events sent Cersei into a rage. It was one thing that Sansa and Arya had escaped, but now Eddard had run off too. The Northmen no longer had any constraints; whether they declared themselves kings in the North or marched south to join the war, nothing could stop them now.
"Useless! A bunch of useless fools! If they can't even keep people in the dungeon, what use are they?"
In The Red Keep, Cersei was hysterically smashing everything within reach, while the Servants could only watch the Queen's tantrum in terror from afar.
At this moment, The Spider walked in, his round face as gloomy as the Blackwater Rush.
In just one night, Varys had lost more than 20 of his little birds; the closest one had died in the secret passage right next to his bedroom.
Varys had always been complacent about his intelligence network, but at this moment, he felt fear.
"If their target last night hadn't been to rescue Eddard Stark, I fear even I would have..."
Varys hurried forward to stop Cersei's madness: "My Lady, what we need to do now is to immediately search The Red Keep to prevent anyone else from hiding in those secret passages."
Although Cersei was driven mad with rage, she still retained some basic reason. She issued orders to her subordinates: "Go and notify my father now, tell him to come and serve as Hand of the King. And the other lords, tell them all to come here. Such a huge incident has happened in The Red Keep, and they still have the leisure to rest!"
The people of King's Landing were also buzzing with discussion over this news. Everyone was guessing who could have such supernatural powers to rescue Eddard from the dungeon, while simultaneously cursing Cersei.
"That bitch is going to bring her bastard father to King's Landing! I swear, if I ever get the chance, I'll kill Tywin!"
"Stop talking! Do you have a death wish?"
Tywin had sacked the city in the past, Cersei was vicious, and to secure the succession, the Lannister family had recently been conducting large-scale hunts for Robert's bastards in King's Landing.
Now that the iron throne held no hostages from House Stark, Cersei was becoming increasingly frantic and unscrupulous in her actions.
Even Kevan Lannister knew this. He had worriedly reminded Tywin, urging his brother to properly discipline his daughter and grandson.
However, Tywin didn't have the leisure for that, because his operations in the Riverlands had met with obstacles.
Tywin had dispatched multiple squads to harass the Riverlands, but they were all crippled within the territory of Harrenhal.
One unit was even beaten until only five men remained. These survivors kept muttering incomprehensible words like "fire," "dragon," "giant," and "iron tower," clearly having been scared out of their wits.
Tywin was still waiting for news from Harrenhal; he did not want to encounter Roman so soon.
Therefore, when Tywin heard that Roman was clearing out Lannister bandits within his territory, he finally dared to let Jaime begin his operations.
At Casterly Rock, Edmure had deployed 4,000 Riverlands troops at the mountain pass below, only to be scattered in one fell swoop by Jaime, who led 15,000 men from the high ground.
Through Fili's account, Roman roughly understood the entire process of the battle.
"High ground against low ground, numerical advantage, and Edmure's deployment was a mistake. Now House Tully has no troops left, and Riverrun is about to be besieged."
Roman truly couldn't understand Edmure's train of thought. If you're going to challenge someone, at least pick a good spot. What was the point of deploying at the foot of someone else's mountain?
"The Riverlands army has to charge uphill to fight; they'll be exhausted before they even encounter the enemy. How can they fight a war like that?"
Fili looked at the map, where the Lannister line of attack was marked like a red noose, particularly glaring.
"Lord Roman, should we go to support Lord Edmure? House Tully's forces have all been dispersed to wipe out The Mountain's troops, and the other nobles are unable to react in time. We are the only ones who can provide support now."
"Support? The nobles around us won't even agree to let Harrenhal's soldiers enter their territory. Even if we wanted to support them, we have no way to do so. We can't just beat them up too, can we?"
Roman had sent out tentative letters when the surrounding nobles were attacked by Lannister forces, but they had all sternly refused Roman's offer to bring troops to help, and it was the same now.
Even though Edmure was in dire need of troops after his crushing defeat at the Battle of Casterly Rock, the other nobles would rather be beaten by the Lannister forces than not keep their soldiers to guard against Roman.
"Compared to Tywin, these guys are even more afraid of me, even in the current situation."
"Forget it, Fili. We should just look after ourselves. Let Tywin teach them a lesson; it will be convenient for us to take over these territories in the future. For now, let's accumulate our strength and focus on the east."
Fili nodded, and then, following Roman's instructions, used ravens to warn the Darry Family, the Mooton Family, and the residents of the Crabs Claw Peninsula to prepare for war.
Afterward, he came to the military camp, where the giants were training.
Roman divided the giant soldiers into three categories.
The first type provided ranged firepower, such as using giant bows and other weapons, though most of the giants could only throw stones.
The second type was close-quarters combat giants. Because Harrenhal currently lacked large machine tools, the giants wore thick, solid wood armor and carried massive spiked clubs or shields. Even so, they were enough to sweep through the vast majority of troops.
The third type was the reserve force, composed of the elders among the giants. They mastered various skills and could even assemble a trebuchet on the spot based on blueprints; this was one of Roman's trump cards.
Because Fili was influenced by Roman, her influence over the surrounding creatures had become stronger. These giants already possessed considerable intelligence, roughly equivalent to a group of mischievous children.
"Roman! You're here! What are we eating today?"
"Yeah, what's for food? Are there any beets?"
When the giants saw Roman and Fili arrive, they all walked over to beg for food, acting just like children in a kindergarten.
Several older giants nearby saw this and quickly shooed them back to training.
"Lord Roman, Lady Fili, apologies for the disturbance. These guys are just unruly; we'll discipline them properly in a moment!"
Roman waved his hand: "As long as they don't cause trouble, it's fine. We came this time to see how well you understand the combat tactics and formation coordination; the war is coming soon."
After hearing this, the giant elders quickly went back to practice, and the other giants began to form battle formations under their command.
The ordinary soldiers of Harrenhal also gathered to form infantry phalanxes. A complete infantry phalanx, in addition to various heavy infantry, archers, and spearmen, was also equipped with five giants.
Two giants held shields and clubs to form the line at the front, two giants used ranged weapons to snipe key enemy targets, and one giant elder coordinated with the phalanx commander in the center. Each of them was also equipped with a raven to stay informed at all times.
The Lannister forces from a while ago had been crushed by such phalanxes. Often, just as they caught sight of the Harrenhal giants, they would be pelted in the face by rain-like stones or have their commanders shot dead by a giant elder's arrow.
The Harrenhal soldiers were arguably the best at frontal combat in the Riverlands. Since Roman couldn't go to Riverrun, he had no choice but to set his sights on The Crownlands to the east.
Cersei was currently trying to strip the Hean Family of their right to rule Harrenhal on charges of treason; Roman would use this as an opportunity to attack the lands to the east.
"Fili, get some good rest lately. We'll have to spend a long time in the military camp from now on."
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