"What a ruthless leech!" Lynd's face couldn't help but show a shocked expression after reading the battle report that had just arrived.
Margaery and Sansa, who were organizing documents for Lynd, both looked at him.
Sansa, who had just been transferred from Jon, was clearly not as bold as Margaery. Although she was curious about what Lynd had seen to make him so shocked, she didn't ask, but instead lowered her head and continued with her work.
Margaery, on the other hand, boldly walked over to Lynd's side and looked at the battle report in his hand. After reading it, her face showed the same expression of shock, and she couldn't help but exclaim, "How dare he do this? Aren't he and the Riverlands allies?"
"Allies? That depends on your perspective," Lynd said, placing the battle report on the table, his mind considering the future direction of the war.
Margaery picked up the battle report from the table, walked over to her companion Sansa, and handed it to her. Sansa looked at Lynd with some hesitation, and seeing that he didn't object, she took the battle report and read it. Just like Margaery, after reading the report, she exclaimed, "How dare Lord Roose Bolton do this? The people of the Riverlands will probably hate us Northerners to death!"
The battle report described a siege that took place in the Riverlands two days ago. The location of this siege was Harrenhal. The attacking force was the Northern Allied Forces led by Roose Bolton, and the defending force was the Western army garrisoned in Harrenhal. The final result was that Roose Bolton captured Harrenhal, Amorey Lorch was killed in battle, and Davos Lannister and Gregor Clegane, the Mountain, led the remaining Western army to retreat to Duskendale, where they regrouped with Kevan Lannister, who was stationed there.
The real reason for Lynd's surprise was not that Roose Bolton had captured Harrenhal, but that the process by which Roose Bolton captured Harrenhal was quite unexpected, even fantastical.
It is well known that when Davos Lannister was fleeing from Daisy Mormont's pursuit, he burned all the bridges on the Trident River. Afterwards, to prevent Daisy from crossing the river, he sent men to destroy all the boats on the river, using the natural barrier of the Trident River to block Daisy's strong Bear Island forces on the opposite bank.
Doing this also trapped Daisy there, preventing her from supporting Robb Stark's raid on the Westerlands. Otherwise, with Daisy's strong Bear Island forces joining, the Western army would have been unable to resist such combat power, and aside from a few strong castles, other areas would likely have already been swept clean by the Northern Allied Forces.
It must be said that Davos Lannister is definitely one of the few military talents among the younger generation of the Lannister.
However, even the most outstanding military talent would fall short when encountering a ruthless and unscrupulous leech like Roose Bolton.
To enable his army to cross the river, Roose Bolton did only one thing: he secretly sent men by raft at night to the opposite bank at the confluence of the Trident River, and then dug a breach in the embankment.
The mouth of the Trident River is a famous elevated river, where the waters of the Green Fork River, Red Fork, and Blue Fork River tributaries converge.
Normally, the current here should be swift, and the silt washed down from the upstream tributaries should be carried away.
However, the river mouth here is wide and the terrain is flat, causing the current to slow down, which in turn leads to a large amount of silt accumulating here, piling higher and higher, making the river channel significantly higher than the surrounding Riverlands terrain.
The Riverlands' terrain is inherently low, mostly plains with few hills or highlands. Every rainy season, when the Trident River swells and its water level rises, floods always begin to overflow from the Trident River's mouth.
Therefore, to prevent the Trident River's floods from inundating the Riverlands, the Tully, in conjunction with the lords of the Riverlands, specifically built a flood diversion channel to divert most of the Trident River's floodwaters into Gods Eye Lake.
However, this time, Roose Bolton sent people to completely dig open the embankment of the Trident River. It was not like past floods that overflowed from the embankment; the surging river water poured out from the breach in the embankment, further expanding the opening, and eventually completely washing away an entire section of the embankment.
Large amounts of river water poured into the Riverlands plain. The flood diversion channel simply could not handle so much water. In just one night, from High Heart in the west to Gods Eye Lake in the east, from the Red Fork in the north to the upper reaches of the Blackwater River in the south, the entire Riverlands plain became a waterlogged land, and countless farmlands were submerged.
And Roose Bolton did this only to cross the river by surprise, and he indeed succeeded. As the upstream water rushed towards the breach, the downstream water level dropped rapidly, eventually reaching a level where even ordinary people could easily walk across.
Subsequently, Roose Bolton led tens of thousands of troops, successfully crossed the river, and unexpectedly charged to the foot of Harrenhal. The Brave Companions and other mercenary groups, whom Roose Bolton had bribed in advance, launched a surprise attack on the city gates, killing Amorey Lorch, who was guarding the gate, along with the garrison. Roose Bolton easily entered the city.
In such a completely passive situation, Davos Lannister still led the remaining troops to escape Harrenhal, ultimately preserving most of the garrison, and even set an ambush halfway, ambushing the pursuing Brave Companions, annihilating all their members, which counted as revenge for himself.
With Harrenhal captured by Roose Bolton, the Western Allied Forces had fallen into a dangerous situation. Tywin and Kevan's two forces were completely separated, and both sides were being held back by a force. It is no exaggeration to say that with just a slight misstep, the Western Allied Forces could fall into an irreversible predicament.
After Sansa finished reading the battle report, besides being shocked, her face also showed joy. For her, seeing the Western Allied Forces suffer a crushing defeat was good news.
"You've all read this battle report. Tell me, what problems did you see in it?" Lynd also emerged from his contemplation and asked the two people in the room.
This was not the first time Lynd had asked for their opinions. In the past few days, he often consulted them on political and military affairs, or more accurately, guided them to think.
So, upon hearing Lynd's question, both of them simultaneously fell into contemplation.
Usually, Margaery would be the first to answer, but this time it was Sansa. It seemed that seeing the Western Allied Forces suffer a defeat had significantly improved her mood and sharpened her mind.
"Although Lord Roose Bolton was able to successfully capture Harrenhal, the cost was too great. Half of the Riverlands were flooded, and all of it was the best farmland. This incident will definitely cause a rift in the cooperation between the North and the Riverlands." Sansa's expression became serious, and she said in a deep voice, "If Robb doesn't handle it well, the rift might grow larger and larger, eventually affecting the war against the Westerlands."
"Hmm!" Lynd nodded, then asked, "How should he handle it to mend this rift?"
"He certainly cannot punish Lord Roose Bolton for capturing Harrenhal, otherwise the Northern lords would be disheartened," Sansa thought seriously and said, "If I were Robb, I would compensate all the affected lords with the captured Westerlands territories. Those lords' territories were only temporarily submerged by water, and once the water recedes, the land will still be there. At the same time, they would receive a piece of land as compensation. Those lords would naturally have no grievances, and they would fully support the North to defend their newly acquired territories, because only if the North wins can those compensations truly be theirs."
"That's a good idea," Lynd approved, then changed the subject and asked, "But if you do that, what will the Northern lords think? Those castles and towns in the Westerlands were captured by them. They haven't even received their rewards yet, but they're being given to the people of the Riverlands. What will they think? You should know that before the North entered the Riverlands, the Riverlands had almost been entirely occupied by Duke Tywin's Western army. All the lords were at their wits' end. It was the Northern army that defeated the Western army led by Jaime, lifted the siege of the Riverlands, and then helped the Riverlands lords reclaim their territories. Now the Riverlands lords are snatching spoils of war from their hands. What will they think?"
Sansa was startled by the question, her face turned a little ugly, and she fell into deep thought again.
After a long while, she shook her head and said, "I don't know how to satisfy both sides."
Lynd smiled and said, "It's impossible for everything in the world to satisfy everyone. So, when you encounter a dilemma, what you need to do is satisfy yourself. You don't need to worry about whether others are satisfied for the time being."
"Satisfy myself?" Sansa hesitated and said, "Do you mean I don't need to care about the dissatisfaction of the Riverlands noble lords?"
Lynd shook his head and said, "I am not Robb, and Robb is not me. My choices have no reference value. "Saying that, he turned to Margaery and said, "Didn't you used to be very eager to answer my questions? Why are you so quiet now?"
Margaery looked puzzled and said, "I just have a question I can't figure out, so I haven't answered your question."
Lynd smiled and said, "What question can't you figure out? Tell us, and we'll think about it together."
Sansa also looked at Margaery curiously.
Margaery said with a puzzled expression, "I can't figure out why Lord Roose Bolton did what he did?"
Upon hearing this, Sansa's face was also blank. She completely failed to understand what Margaery was asking. What did she mean, why did Lord Roose Bolton do what he did? Wasn't it to defeat the Western Allied Forces and capture Harrenhal? The content of the battle report was so obvious; let alone Margaery, even an ordinary person should be able to understand it.
However, upon hearing Margaery's words, Lynd, on the contrary, showed a surprised expression, as if he was somewhat unexpected that Margaery could ask such a question.
"Why do you think Roose Bolton did this?" Lynd asked with interest.
Margaery explained, "Although Lord Roose Bolton's actions seem to be about winning against the enemy by any means necessary, there was no need for him to divert the river by breaching the dam to cross the Trident River smoothly. It was completely unnecessary."
"How could it be unnecessary?" Sansa couldn't help but retort, "Lady Daisy Mormont has been blocked by this Trident River for several months. If he didn't use this method, it would be impossible to cross the river."
Margaery looked at Sansa and calmly said, "Sansa, you are very clever, but sometimes you don't know how to use it, and you are easily influenced by emotions. If you think calmly, you will know why I said it was unnecessary."
Sansa was stunned, then thought seriously. Just as Margaery said, she was very clever, and she quickly thought of the reason for Margaery's confusion. Her face also showed the same puzzled expression.
Seeing the change in Sansa's expression, Margaery also knew that Sansa must have thought of the same problem she was currently pondering. She said, "It seems you've thought of it too. The reason Lady Daisy Mormont has been trapped for so long is entirely because her forces are all cavalry. For cavalry to cross a river, they either need to build a sturdy bridge or take large ships that can transport horses. Otherwise, they can only abandon their horses and cross as infantry. But if Lady Daisy's army were to become infantry, they certainly wouldn't be a match for the tens of thousands of Western Allied Forces on the opposite bank, which is why Lady Daisy has been trapped on the other side of the river. But Lord Roose Bolton is different. His army is all infantry, with very few cavalry. Next to the Trident River are the Moon Mountains, where there is plenty of wood that can be used to make rafts. He could completely make a large number of rafts upstream, then float downstream and complete the river crossing and assemble his army before the Western Allied Forces could arrive to stop him. So, there was no need for him to breach the river embankment and drain the river water."
"But why did he use such an extreme method to cross the river?" Sansa still looked confused and said, "Could it be that he didn't think of any other way?"
"How could that be? Lord Roose Bolton must be an incredibly intelligent person. If we can think of ways to cross the river, how could that lord not think of them? The methods he could think of to cross the river would only be more than ours, not fewer." Margaery denied Sansa's guess, then said with a serious expression, "In my opinion, the result of Roose Bolton doing this is only two things: one is to make the world believe that he is an extremely ruthless and unscrupulous formidable person, and the other is to create a fundamental and irreconcilable rift in the cooperation between the Riverlands and the North."
"How is that possible?" Sansa quickly shook her head and said, "Now the North and the Riverlands are closely cooperating to fight the Westerlands. How could Robb allow Lord Roose Bolton to undermine the cooperation?"
"Who said your brother Robb Stark instructed Roose Bolton to sabotage the cooperation between the Riverlands and the North?" Margaery sighed, looking at Sansa with a slightly strange expression, and said, "The relationship between your Stark and the Bolton has always seemed to be not very good. Several of your family's past King of the North were captured and flayed by the Bolton, and many people from the Bolton have also died at the hands of the Stark in the past…"
"That was a long time ago. Now the Bolton are loyal to the Stark. My father once said…" Sansa was about to refute Margaery's words, but suddenly thought of something and froze. Then, an undeniable look of suspicion appeared in her eyes, and she said, "Margaery, do you mean Roose Bolton intends to betray my brother?"
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