Game of Thrones: I'm flying a dragon on your face, how do you respond? - Chapter 84

c84 Preparing for war

After the reorganization, the number of troops that Dragonstone can directly control exceeds 25,000, including 8,000 cavalry and more than 12,000 infantry (4,000 light infantry and internal guards are deployed in Dragonstone and its surrounding areas), and the royal fleet navy and anti-smuggling armed forces reach 5,000.

These are all regular troops, not counting the auxiliary personnel such as craftsmen, crew members, grooms, and coachmen who serve them.

If the rules of ancient warfare are followed, Dragonstone can boast of an army of 100,000!

Of course, most of the troops are now in training and have not yet formed a complete combat effectiveness. In the words of Jaehaerys, most of the reorganized armies at present are child soldiers who have never seen blood.

After all, whether it is a real tiger or a paper tiger, it will take a hard battle to know.

Training in peacetime and actually going to the battlefield are two different things.

In training, targets are used. On the battlefield, seeing the situation like a slaughterhouse, it is good if you are not scared to pee your pants on the spot!

On the continent of Westeros, some great lords can easily recruit more than 30,000 combat soldiers, but it is unknown how many of them are peasant soldiers who have just put down their hoes.

Calculated in this way, the military strength of Dragonstone has already exceeded that of ordinary lords, and these are the troops directly belonging to Dragonstone, all full-time professional soldiers! The grassroots officers have all been on the battlefield and seen blood…

As the Minister of Finance of Dragonstone, Earl Robert Graveson is always worried about the huge military expenditure. His hair volume is decreasing day by day, and he will soon be bald.

He became bald and stronger, at least his vision has become higher. He used to think that Robert’s army and Lannister’s army were really strong, but now it seems that they are just so-so.

These soldiers are good soldiers, but they are too expensive!

The military expenditure of an infantryman is about 50 silver deer a month, and there are various losses during daily training, which are not a small amount when added up.

A cavalryman is equipped with at least 2 horses, and a heavy cavalryman is equipped with 3 horses, usually a warhorse is equipped with a riding horse or draft horse…

The feed of the horse cannot be bad, otherwise it will lose weight, especially the warhorse, which has to eat concentrated feed made of corn, wheat bran, soybeans and black beans for every meal. The feed for warhorses alone consumes tens of thousands of gold dragons every month!

It can be said that the cost of raising a cavalryman, even a light cavalryman, is enough to feed 5-10 infantrymen.

Fortunately! Foltelland is indeed a rich land. With the reclamation (mining) of a large number of fertile fields and mines, it has gradually become self-sufficient.

In addition to the army in the past, Dragonstone’s investment in the navy is also second to none in the Westeros continent, including some free city-states.

The main battleships are all newly built Caesar’s improved sailing ships. In order to improve the seaworthiness of various sea conditions, some maneuverability is sacrificed, and the height of the hull and the thickness of the armor are further increased, but the speed of the ship is still far beyond the sailing ships of Westeros.

In terms of equipped weapons, all of them have been changed to new siege crossbows. This crossbow uses fine steel as the crossbow arm and can fire 3 crossbow arrows at a time.

In fact, it is an enlarged version of the Myr crossbow.

A new capstan has been added, the structure of the crossbow arrow has been improved, the middle is hollowed out to add wildfire pots, the air resistance is reduced, and the iron tail fin has been added, which has greatly improved the range and accuracy of the crossbow arrows.

Nowadays, the pirates of the Stone Steps Islands are gradually becoming greedy and are no longer satisfied with collecting taxes on passing merchant ships. There are even a small group of them who have long forgotten the illustrious martial arts of the Dragonstone Royal Fleet and dare to blackmail and extort Dragonstone merchant ships flying the three-headed dragon flag!

Queen Leila ordered the commander of the royal fleet to pick out a few powerful ones when necessary to kill the chicken to scare the monkey!

The sword has not been out for a long time, and the world has forgotten its sharpness!

“Are you Ser Jorah Mormont?” Jaehaerys has another mission this time, which is to recruit talents…

Jaehaerys knows that after the plot begins, the War of the Five Kings will soon come, and the people of Westeros will be confused.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of various forces fighting for power in front of the Iron Throne, the rear must be stabilized first.

How to stabilize? Of course, this means muddying the water. Everyone is in chaos, which is equivalent to everyone standing on the same starting line again.

For the major city-states on the continent of Essos, Fortelland is not their own, and the latter’s powerful strength also makes everyone feel uneasy.

There is no doubt that once Dragonstone is caught in a bitter battle with Visserlo, many forces will rush up and divide Fortelland.

Therefore, a stable and united Essos continent is not in the interests of Dragonstone.

The Dothraki never unite, but that doesn’t mean they won’t cooperate. As Fortelland becomes richer and stronger, the wolf pack gradually approaches.

Although Drogo’s Khalasar once promised him that he would not come to harass, other khals would not give up. Merchants brought news that it was said that Khal Morro, Khal Jumo and Khal Zheko had publicly declared in Vaes Dothraki that they would ride across the Golden Fields and plunder the entire Fortelland.

In addition to the threat of the Dothraki, Myr in the south of Fortelland, Norvos and Qohor in the northeast are not easy to deal with.

They allow a cowardly Pentos to exist, but they will never allow a powerful Fortelland to rise.

Qohor has an army of 3,000 Unsullied, and Norvos has elite longaxe slaves trained by bearded monks.

Norvos has negotiated with the governor stationed on Dragonstone Island about the behavior of the Flatland (Fortelland) to expand its military power and train its army. It seems that they will start a fight if they disagree.

Jaehaerys was entrusted by Queen Layla to resolve disputes with major trading cities and Dothraki horse kings. For this reason, he had to arrange his honeymoon on the exotic Essos grassland.

In order to practice the methodology of making trouble by hitting the key points, Jaehaerys set his sights on the lords and knights who were once exiled.

They may not be good at making things happen, but who is more suitable than these people to make things go wrong?

“Your Highness, thank you for the grace of Her Majesty the Queen!” Jorah knelt on one knee, his face was as hard as a knife, and it was not difficult to see that he was tough, but he was definitely not good-looking.

For the Targaryen family, who are obsessed with appearance, it is indeed not very attractive in that aspect.

In addition to the big bear, he also carried pardons for Jon Connington, Owen Marewath and others. These two were once the prime ministers of King Aerys II, but were later expelled. They were people who could be won over.

Especially Jon Connington, who was once loyal to Prince Rhaegar and was also quite wise and brave.

According to intelligence, the inner guard said that Jon Connington and Owen Marewath had died, but Jaehaerys knew that Jon had faked his death and escaped, and Owen left behind a grandson named Orton Marewath.

However, these two were not in a hurry. When the time came, they would naturally appear. There was no reason to say that what Robert and Cersei could give, he could not give on Dragonstone?

Being able to take Jorah into his pocket, plus the spies of the inner guard, he was able to implement the plan.