Blood And Iron (ASOIAF/GoT)

Chapter 24: Just a passing cloud



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When the Teutonic knight provided the information that his monarch had been waiting for all day, he said goodbye to Aleksanteri

''Aleksanteri I wish you all the luck in this, if at some point you have to choose to flee to save your life or complete the mission I order you to return, you are irreplaceable for the next steps when we have to face against the expected rebellions of the populations in the reach'' I said touching Aleksanteri's shoulder.

''Luck is for rookies, I only trust my skills for something I train every day to keep my skills in perfect condition when I need a dagger in someone's neck, but thank you for your concern, my king, I wish you luck with the tyrell, but I doubt they will fight, they must be traumatized with what happened in the woods, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha'' said Aleksanteri leaving the tent laughing loudly while he put on his mask.

''Everything in order, Charles?'', asked the knight.

''Yes my king, you will be accompanied by thirty of my best brothers on your journey, no one will be able to lay a finger on you without your authorization'' said Charles as he walked towards the horses.

''That's good to know, well, I want to get this over with, let's hope they surrender without making too much trouble'' I said as I stepped into the stirrups and got on the horse.

The young Prussian monarch began to ride off to engage in conversation with the lord of the reach, Mace Tyrell.

he was accompanied by Charles and thirty of the finest swords within the ranks of the Teutonic order ready to sacrifice their lives to give their king time to escape if necessary.

The ride was short and the destination the Prussian monarch chose was a small hill where one could fully appreciate the Prussian war camp and see the tercios in formation while conversations between Prussians and Tyrells took place.

The Prussians stood waiting for a few minutes watching the tyrell army trying to form lines, but almost the whole army was tired and hungry, the little food they could get was on the basis of sacrificing the horses of the nobles and eating the horses, having to eat their shoes in soup

The sight of the Tyrell host did not surprise the Prussians, it was what they expected, a unit of peasants led by knights, the only unit that caught the Prussian monarch's attention were the troops of House Tarly.

Although for all the adversity they went through, they still maintained the discipline and organization expected of soldiers from one of the most militaristic houses of the reach.

'It seems the Tarlys were competent, Aleksanteri exaggerated a bit by calling it child's play, the men were well-disciplined, it didn't take them long, form a battle line, but still, they must be tired and hungry.'

After a moderately long wait, several horsemen began to approach the Prussian group carrying all kinds of banners of the respective noble houses, the reach.

Showing a colorful group of banners that contrasted seriously with the two banners carried by the Prussian monarch, the Prussian eagle and the black cross of the Teutonic order.

When the two groups were facing each other the young monarch stepped out of the formation of his knights to salute

''Greetings, I am Wilhelm von Hohenzollern, King in Prussia, Margrave and Elector of Brandenburg, in the service of Lord Jon Arryn as a mercenary supporting Robert Baratheon's claim to the Iron Throne, with whom I have the honor to speak on this great day of our lord'' I said in my most formal tone possible.

The nobles stared at the man who wore the largest suit of armor in the group.

''He is as fat as I had imagined him to be''.

''That's me....., mace tyrell, guardian of the south and paramount lord of the reach'' replied the fat man.

''Well I greet you, oh, lord mace tyrell, formalities aside, I have come to negotiate with you'' I said smiling.

''Negotiate, .... what?'' mace asked.

''Your surrender'' I said seriously

Mace showed a face of disbelief and began to look at his companions as another lord began to approach

''What makes you think we are going to surrender without a fight mercenary, we have a great army with which we can crush you'' replied a nobleman with the heraldry of a tower

'Hightower, Leyton'

''Oh, you must be Leyton Hightower your wife said many good things about you when I had the time to interview her''I said looking at Leyton

Leyton's eyes widened when he heard that.

''That .... if you are trying to provoke me you mercenary you are not going to succeed'' said the furious lord.

''Oh, I suppose you don't know, you must have been very busy in your siege of storms end, but your ancestral home oldtown, fell before my troops, your wife, sons and daughters are now under my care and in fact all of them have sent you letters to make you think about this hard situation you must be going through now lord Leyton, here you have the letters, so you can make the best decision'' I said with a soft tone, almost condescending, showing some letters I had kept in my pocket.

One of my knights got down from his horse, put his sword on the ground and took the letters and slowly approached Leyton, handing him the letters.

The nobleman opened them, almost desperate to read what was in the letters.

You could tell he was nervous reading the cards because his hands were shaking for every letter he read.

'Oh! and I also have letters for all your nobles, lord Mace, since all the castles in the reach are now under my control''I said taking out a huge amount of letters that had to be distributed among all the lords.

The knight himself took the cards and distributed them among all the nobles, using the heraldry to find the respective lord.

''I hope you all understand now what is happening, while you were playing siege with Stannis Baratheon, I took all the important fortifications in the reach, so if you expect to get reinforcements or supplies it will not be possible, so appealing to the life of you and your men I ask you to surrender'' I said with a kind tone.

everyone was perplexed, except for some who still kept a stoic face like Lord Tarly who only looked at me with curiosity.

''No...letter...for me?''asked mace, pointing his finger at himself.

''Oh, how clumsy I am, I must say that your family lord mace is .....charming, I spent very good moments with your sisters, while they told me how their childhood was, but your mother was what surprised me the most, our conversations were a bit rough.... but we managed to understand each other at the end of the day, since I could make her understand that giving up would be the best option, take a letter from your mother''I said smiling handing the last letter to him.

I waited patiently for everyone to read what it said and I could see how fear came to their faces.

'As the good Aleksanteri would say, fear could be smelled in the air'.

after that Leyton began to whisper in lord Tarly's ear to speak to mace again and looked at me fixedly

''Well, I guess.... we can..... set terms for our surrender''said lord mace very nervous and starting to sweat

''NEIN, no terms, unconditional surrender, you are in no condition to fight, your men have not eaten in days and have been sleep-deprived long enough, your forces will not withstand the first charge of my infantry, just surrender your weapons and avoid the bloodbath that will ensue here''I said with a serious tone.

Mace looked back to his banner men for help, as he didn't know what to do.

'Come on mace, how pathetic can you be, the decision is yours and yours alone.'

Leyton leaned closer and whispered in mace's ear with a defeated look on his face.

''If we surrender.... will we get a respectable treatment, considering our..... social position''asked mace.

''As well as your families, who are my guests, you will receive the same treatment, I will not harm anyone, I will not subject anyone to torture and you will not be deprived of the basics, be it clothing, food and water, you will be my guests until you face trial for your support of the Targaryen against Robert'' I said with a kind tone.

This time, Mace looked at the letter and looked at me again.

''We surrender, .... lord Hohenzollern, what do we have to do....now''I said mace rather sadly

''Go back to your army and start sending your men out in groups of a thousand, and they shall deliver their weapons to the feet of my soldiers to begin the work of sorting out your equipment, as well as the armor, you and your knights can keep your property'' I said with a serious tone.

When hearing this many nobles began to return with their men to comply with my request, but Lord Tarly stared at me.

''What is it Tarly my orders were not clear?'', I said looking at the lord.

''I have a question I would like you to answer,'' said Tarly approaching me on his steed.

''Keep your distance westerosis'' said one of my knights pointing his sword at him.

''All right, let him come closer'' I said, calming my knight.

'I suppose he's asking about his pregnant wife?'

''Actually there are two of them, I hope it won't be a problem'' said lord Tarly keeping his face serious

''Go ahead'' I replied waving my hand at him

''Horn hill my home, how long did it resist the siege, what did my men fail to do, I trained them well, that's why I don't understand how my home fell so fast, we have always prepared for something like this even in peace time'' lord Tarly said staring at me.

'Wow, I was wrong, it seems you don't care about your wife'.

''Well, how do I explain it to you.... well one of my scouts got the armor of one of your captains and used it to infiltrate your castle and taking advantage that your men were extremely obedient to your officers they obeyed everything he told them he took advantage of that to generate a problem inside the castle and opened the doors, so your home fell in less than ten hours'' I said trying to explain that situation.

Lord Tarly pressed his lips together and began to touch his eyelids with his hand and gave a long and loud sigh.

''What a pathetic performance my men made, well, something to improve in the future, the men who attacked us in the forest that speak a strange language are under your orders?'', asked lord Tarly

''Yes, I ordered them to harass you back to the reach'' I said looking at lord Tarly.

Lord Tarly sighed heavily again

''So we were all the time playing your game, you planned all this long in advance'' said Tarly looking at me sharply

''That's right, I spent several days planning this and it has paid off a victory without a fight, the best victory of all victories'' I said spreading my arms out showing the battlefield.

''Someone who knows strategy besides just charging the enemy, from your professional point of view of strategy, if we had not been attacked by your men in the forest, did we stand a chance?'' said Lord Tarly keeping his tone serious.

''No, none, we would have had many casualties, but victory was certain, my soldiers are trained in group combat, they are professionals, not temporary soldiers recruited in times of need, if they are not fighting, they train for the next combat, even if there are times of peace'' I said smiling lightly.

Hearing the words professional soldiers Tarly's eyes lit up.

''Well, I hope that in the future we can talk without being in this kind of situation'' said lord Tarly going to his soldiers

''The militaristic ideals of house Tarly, are remarkable, the Prussian virtues might please you very much.''

The Prussian monarch returned to his camp.

As groups of a thousand tyrell men began to move and throw their equipment in front of the watchful eyes of the Prussian soldiers who watched as huge mountains of swords, spears and shields began to be produced.

By the end of the day all the soldiers were in chains and the nobles were under a shelter befitting their status.

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