10th Moon 115AD
So according to Lord Mooton, if I really wanted to, I could raise an army of twenty-one thousand men, it just so happened I will more than likely go through all that good coin the Braavosi lent to us faster than we could bring in through the scutage payments. Then that wasn't taking into account that I couldn't actually use that Braavosi coin to actually do something about the infrastructure.
So good news, Lord Mooton clearly took to his new job as my Finance Minister admirably. Probably helped that I now happened to be his goodson (his daughter's dowry had been very pleasant to the eyes), so he was behooved to look after me.
Bad news, I couldn't raise a force of twenty-one thousand men which would then have been divided into three legions of seven thousand men each. Perhaps my goodfather had done me a rather good solid when he had told me if I had carried on as I did, I would have leaked coin from the treasury faster than we could bring in.
For now, anyway.
Those tax reforms were starting to take effect. It wouldn't be long now.
To my surprise, I had somewhat...forgotten that my base of operations and that my primary officer recruits were going to be riverlander nobles. Riverlander nobles that were notorious for being quarrelsome as fuck and thus liable to fuck with each other to get one up on some sort of perceived slight.
Or some sort of incident that had happened hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years ago, Brackens, Blackwoods, I'm looking right at you.
There was a very good risk that some lordling officers that were not loyal to me or Riverrun could very well go on to lead a legion...it didn't bode well if said lordling had a grudge or delusions of power. Actually, should make a note to myself to open up the officer positions to the sons of well-to-do merchants and the likes.
It wouldn't hurt to dilute the officer ranks a bit if I was beginning to run out of little lordlings from lands directly sworn to Riverrun.
So that meant I had to change the unit organization. Goodbye the legion model and hello the regimental-system. I had even gone so far to make sure that each regiment was composed of people that came from similar areas.
I couldn't help but stroke my back at the stroke of genius that I had in making sure that records where kept of where each company of men had been raised. That made it easy to keep the people who knew each together and foster some...what was it called again? I can't remember what it was called.
It was something, something, spirit. Oh well, it didn't matter.
All I cared about was the fact that ever since the regiment-system was in play, no military coup had ever been succeeded back when I could still enjoy modern sensibilities and customs. It also didn't hurt that an oversized regiment held in reserve will always be in command by a very loyal person to House Tully and Riverrun.
In that order.
One can never be too safe.
***
I was quite pleasantly pleased and perhaps feel some pride at what I was seeing in front of me. Well-oiled and drilled killing machines ready to be turned on enemies of the kingdom and I was positive that hands down, I had the best foot in all of the Seven-no wait, it's eight kingdoms now.
The stormlanders can go suck it.
They had their little levies. I had well-armored and armed infantry and they were less likely to go down to some pansy little arrows as well.
…
It was amazing that I could recall such a tiny fact that in canon, the stormlanders apparently had the best foot out of the canon Seven Kingdoms. I mean, it was nice to know, but not exactly something useful that I could use to further prolong my life in this hell-hole, but whatever, hopefully, the next little nugget of info that I could recall would be of more use than that.
But back to my army.
The men in front of me was the last of the batch to finish their seven (yes, seven) month long basic training to finally go on to join my oversized regiment that was in the direct command of Ser Patrek of Fairmarket who happened to be its general.
The other two regiments had already been deployed at their respective new garrisons in the south and south-west of the kingdom and were already well into their duties of nothing more, at the moment, glorified laborers.
I'm sure that many of them were wondering whether it had been worth it, doing all those drills, all those joint-training with cavalry and artillery.
To that, I would say that they had short shovels among their standard equipment for a reason, they might as well start to use them.
Speaking of which, I had received some reports about some occasional trouble in Blackwood lands. Nothing too troubling by the looks of it since it seemed to be well in hand, but I couldn't help but wonder what Lord Blackwood was doing. Or what any of his vassals were doing.
My soldiers shouldn't be the ones going around breaking up fights between small folk.
…
To be honest, I doubted that was something very much high on the priority list of many lords, so I guess I couldn't fault them? It was still sloppy and words needed to be said to Lord Blackwood. Luckily, I'll have such a chance in the coming tourney-slash-fair-slash-convention that I was going to be holding at Riverrun.
But matters of public order and state can wait for later. Right now, it was about these men in front of me. The last group of men that were going to be inducted into the oversized regiment that would act as a strategic reserve to the other two regiments already out and about.
A thousand men stood in parade in front of me, the shadow of Harrenhal looming behind them, Harren's folly reaching out to cast as much of the world as it could in shadow. The steel mills had been doing their job, producing the arms and armour of my men. Apprentices actually doing some actual blacksmithing helped improve the rate of production as well.
These well-oiled and drilled killing machines were dressed in half-armour that had a trident engraved at the front and a crowned leaping trout engraved onto the shoulder pauldrons. Underneath the armour, they wore a red dyed gambeson, which, despite being cloth, was quite effective in making sure people didn't die too much. The combination was finished off with a nicely topped open faced helmet that provided a protection to the cheek, with a nose guard for the nose, a cap to protect from rain and falling arrows along with a tailed off laminated defence for the back of the head and neck.
Like I said, I had the best damned infantry of any of the kingdoms.
And I appraised them thoroughly as I walked up and down the parade, eyeing them like a hawk eyes a cowering mouse from hundreds of feet in the air. Strange analogy, I know, but I made sure to give them the best stern king stare I could muster.
These being the last batch of the recruit and their first time seeing me in person or so close, and to make it worse, the rest of their regiment was standing at parade right behind them. Probably watching in amused at the greenhorns get themselves eyed by the king.
After all, they had been on the receiving end of this particular ceremony before, with other watching on in amusement, and now, it was their turn.
I came to a halt in front of one century of a hundred men and craned my neck to the last men and then back again. "Who is the captain of this fine group of men?" I asked.
Stupid question, I already knew who was the captain, it was the guy with the red and white feather plume decorating his helmet. Said man stepped forward, his helmet held at his hip, tucked in their by an arm.
"It is I, Your Grace, Jason Whent." The young man replied, nearly making me double-take before I caught myself.
A Whent!
I know what a Whent is! Well, only one of them cos of the whole Batman thing they had going on, but that was still something. To be honest, until long after I'm dead, they were pretty much boring, so I didn't particularly care for them.
Who knows, they might even produce a couple of individuals that might actually be worth the recognition that had brought me.
It was quite surprising that I had only come across a few lordlings that actually came from my more influential and principle bannermen. A Mallister cousin and a Goodbrook. That was the only names that came to mind.
I gave him one final look over and noticed that he was quite comely to look at, tall, dark and handsome. "Tell your men to take a knee, captain." He did as I asked and quickly barked an order to his century and they all dropped to one knee, setting their helmets aside. I made to stand in the middle and recited words that I had said thousands of times before. "Do you all swear to hold to the standards required of men of the Army of the Trident?"
"Aye, I do." They all said as one.
"Do you all swear to hold allegiance and faith in the House Tully of Riverrun, the anointed Royal House of the Kingdom of the Trident?"
"Aye, I do."
"Do you all swear to oppose all the enemies of your king and those who threaten the peace and lives of the subjects of the Kingdom?"
"Aye, I do."
"Then, I, Edmyn, First of His Name of House Tully order you to rise, as loyal men sworn to defend House Tully and our kingdom from those who threaten it."
The men stood as one and a cheer erupted from the older ranks at the back that were spectacle to the ceremony. I nodded once more and Jason Whent stepped back into his century and I moved on to the next one.
***
Zhoe Mooton had vast tracts of land.
What did that say about me that was the first thing that I noticed about her? Not anything good that's for sure. She was also short and quite curvy. I wouldn't exactly call her pretty, but she was attractive in her own way. She also made for good company.
Her lord father also happened to be my Finance Minister, quite rich and in control of an important port city in the east. In other words, I couldn't have chosen anyone better to be the mother of my future children since no-one seemed to be willing to marry their princesses to me from the surrounding kingdoms.
Lord Mooton had also sold her as the more numerically gifted of all his children, so I supposed that was going to be useful.
In other words, I think I had chosen well.
"Lady Ellyn's twins are quite the children." She mused as walked around the castle gardens, arms linked together. "The two of them have got quite the lungs on them, enough for all the children in the castle and then some."
I nodded my head as she spoke. "Hm, I think that means that they are quite the healthy parasites then." I think that's how it went. The louder they were, the more healthy and robust they were.
Considering I had introduced Jaime to birthing babes in a clean an environment as possible, Ellyn Mallister nee Bracken had quite a healthy birth and the world was introduced to two more Mallisters, Edmund (I had to hold back from rolling my eyes at that) and Anya Mallister.
Hopefully and I was praying to any god that was listening, there wasn't going to be a Lannister dynamic between those two. No-one needed that sort of mess.
A single lone eyebrow made its way up her forehead in quiet amusement. "Parasites? Is that how you view babes?"
Oh, that was a bad word choice. I had nothing against babies, children and all that in truth, but even I know how much of a parasite I was to my parents. That's what children were, parasites leeching you of all life until the day you die.
My parents were very much well aware of that.
I shrugged my shoulders. "They might be cute. They might be cuddly. They might be all kinds of adorable, but they are still just another breed of parasite."
She giggled then. "A word of warning husband, it's best you not say that in the hearing of Lord Lyam and Lady Ellyn."
"Eh, Lyam's a champ, he'll take it." Then I thought of his lady wife and whatever confidence I had about being able to describe her children as such left me. "But you give good counsel wife, I think I'll keep such thoughts between you and me."
"Best you do, it would be a shame if Lady Ellyn has to leave court, she is such a wonderful lady companion to have."
Oh, the wives were getting along? That was good, I think. It's not like me and him got up to any nefarious shenanigans of the sort. "It's nice to see you have settled so well in court."
"It helps that father is here and familiar faces from my home."
"You miss it, Maidenpool?"
She laughed airily. "It's the only place that I have ever known. Father was rather adamant that me and my sister never travel out of the city in fear of us being taken by the ironborn." She looked up to me. "In truth, this is the furthest I have ever travelled. The journey here was quite entertaining and enlightening all on its own. Who knew the Riverlands were all so many colours?"
Lord Mooton had kept his daughters locked up? I couldn't actually blame him in truth. If a random ironborn decided to take any of his daughters as a saltwife, there wasn't much he could do apart from kill them and try to make sure that the bodies would never be found.
If found, well...
I took the palm of her hand and kissed her knuckles. "There's more to the Sunset Kingdoms than just Westeros, perhaps one day, you might very well see the golden sands of Dorne."
"A bold claim, husband." She said to me. She then blinked and cocked her head to the side. "Sunset Kingdoms?"
"It's what the Essosi refer to the lands of Westeros. I mean, the Seven Kingdoms is actually catchy, not so much for eight. There's now Eight Kingdoms, so..."
"Hm, Sunset Kingdoms," She hummed as she tasted the words. She then nodded, her brunette trestles bouncing as she did so. "You are right husband, there is a certain flavour to the words. Far easier to the tongue than the Eight Kingdoms."
I did a little victory pump. "And my ingenious plan to conquer the Sunset Kingdoms through the use of words begins..." I said, to some light laughter as we continued going for our walk.
"Oh yes, before I forget, I do believe I'm with child."
In my credit, that little bombshell didn't even disrupt my stride and somewhat disappointed my lovely lady wife judging by the slight pout she had on her lips. I held back a grin of victory.
"I suppose we shall have a feast for the announcement and then celebrate some more at the Fair." I said, nodding my head as I made plans for the future.
In truth the Fair was going to be massive, it was going to-.
Nah, better not tempt it.