The Glory of the Seven Gods of Ice and Fire

Chapter 199: Braavos Raiders
No matter how much chaos Westeros was in, in the East, across the Narrow Sea, Hugo's plan was proceeding in an orderly manner.

Apart from the most important task of gathering manpower and materials, the most urgent task for the newly reorganized Seven Kingdoms is to capture Braavos and beat this annoying rat into a state of immobility in one go.

The Braavos expeditionary force was composed of war refugees from the Riverlands and the Bay, as well as wildlings from the north. Hugo learned from the lessons of previous expeditions and intentionally left the useless women and children behind - but many people insisted on taking them with them, so he had no choice.

Even so, Hugo still managed to gather an army of between 20,000 and 30,000 people. The reason for the fluctuation in the strength of the army was because of the old problem of the expeditionary force, that is, people were joining and leaving every moment.

Hugo appointed Old Sparrow and Mance Rayder to lead the expedition. The former had enough prestige, and this was Old Sparrow's expertise. As for the latter, those savages were too unruly. Hugo needed someone to control these barbarians, and Mance was the most suitable choice.

As for the crimes he once carried on his head... for Hugo, this was not a problem at all, a problem that could be solved with a pardon. As for the attitude of the night watchmen, this group of people now eat and use his things, so how could they dare to have any opinions - and this was indeed the fact.

After a simple departure ceremony, the army set out on the journey.

They did not take the fixed passes where the secret city's fortresses and garrisons were located. Who knows how much time it would take to solve the difficulties they would face if they took those passes, but they chose to cross the mountains.

The expedition was very successful in the early stages. Over the years, the mountain Andals of Braavos have become more inclined towards their compatriots in the south, and even many Andal chiefs have sworn allegiance to the City of Hug - this is why Hug dared to set this path.

Under the leadership of these people, the expeditionary force found small paths in the mountains that only the locals knew about. Through these roads, they successfully crossed the mountains and entered the former part of the Kingdom of Kerlong.

However, when they crossed the mountains, they found that the Braavos were already prepared for their arrival.

They had originally prepared themselves for a tough battle once they entered the Braavos Valley, but in the end, apart from the local Andals who came to surrender, they didn't see a single Braavos person.

After asking the locals, they learned that the Braavos had withdrawn all the garrisons from several passes and valleys a few days ago, dismissed the Andals in the army, and burned all the food on their retreat route.

Even the Braavos immigrants scattered in the river valley were taken away by the Braavos army.

It seemed that the Braavos had received intelligence in advance that they were going to cross the mountains, so they withdrew all their forces in advance.

The old sparrow, who was tricked, was a little annoyed, but only a little. Although the Braavos people burned the food along the way, that was just along the way.

In fact, the locals still had a lot of food, and the expeditionary force easily obtained a lot of it, saving the precarious food reserves.

Those Andal soldiers who had been dismissed were called up again. These people had served in the Braavos army and were familiar with Braavos' military system and orders. They were invaluable help.

Although the bad habits of the savages from outside the Great Wall caused many conflicts between the expeditionary force and the locals, these minor problems quickly passed with the deliberate suppression of both sides.

However, the old sparrow and Mance Rayder had a very unhappy quarrel because of this.

In this way, after replenishing manpower and food, the expeditionary force continued to advance.

Then they came across the river fortresses of Braavos.

Braavos has long controlled the entire valley through its control of the Free Folk River.

But a fleet patrolling the river alone was not enough, and the Secret City immigrants needed garrisons and fortresses to rely on - so the river valley fortress group came into being.

However, although the fortress group was able to stand, the number of immigrants was still limited due to the environment full of barbarians, so the valley fortress played a limited role in expanding the Braavos settlement.

However, the valley fortresses played a vital role in dealing with the mountain Andals.

When the Braavos people first settled down, they were constantly in conflict with the locals. The Andals were constantly in conflict with the Braavos people. The Braavos people defeated these Andals time and time again, but they were never able to eliminate them. Whenever the Braavos people wanted to expand inland, they would conflict with the Andals.

Although the Secret City has been slowly and steadily advancing inland with its powerful strength, the cost is too high, and the damage to the environment makes it difficult to attract immigrants, so Braavos has been looking for a better way to get along with the locals.

With the Riverfort established, the Braavos had a key base for their inland activities, but more importantly, it provided a core from which they could exert influence over the mountains.

As descendants of slaves, the Braavos realized the correct way to get along with the mountain Andals very early on. They adopted trade and employment to resolve the hostility and resistance of the mountain people. The so-called trade is to buy various mountain treasures from the mountain residents at a relatively normal price, and then exchange the funds obtained by the mountain people by importing goods and flexibly adjusting the prices of goods.

The influx of large quantities of goods and tools caused the mountain population to surge. It was also at this time that the Braavosi would hire Andals as mercenaries and immigrants to go to battlefields and colonies throughout Braavosi.

In this way, on the one hand, the number of mountain people was reduced, and on the other hand, those who left the mountains would be assimilated into the more civilized and advanced life of Braavos within a few generations.

Under this policy, in general, the relationship between Braavos and the Mountain Andals was still very harmonious. Although the Mountain Andals were dissatisfied, they were still firmly incorporated into the political and economic system of Braavos.

However, getting along well with each other does not mean that the Mountain Andals are not greedy for the wealth of Braavos. In fact, among the Mountain Andals, the faction that advocates plundering Braavos has always been a powerful force.

It's just that in the past few hundred years, these people have never sought opportunities, and the attitude and policies of the Braavos people towards the mountain Andals in sharing profits have made ordinary people unwilling to pay attention to these people.

But the situation changed after Hugo's expedition. The miracle in the south changed the situation. The Andals, who should have softened under the various attacks of Braavos, saw another path, a path that would make the Andals great again instead of disappearing silently.

Needless to say, what happened next was that what happened on the other side of the mountains changed the people on this side. As the new Andal regime became more stable, the mountain Andals became more and more inclined towards their cultural compatriots.

Hence, the cooperation of the mountain Andals came about this time.

The Braavos were well aware of this, so after the expeditionary force disappeared from their sight, they realized that the enemy would most likely choose to pass through the mountains. Therefore, they withdrew all their troops from the front line and concentrated their forces in the valley fortress.

The expeditionary force immediately began to gnaw on the bones. Mance's wild men initially planned to divide and surround the fortresses one by one, but when they broke into the fortresses, they found that the form of war was completely different from the raids in the Far North.

The people of Braavos used the fortress group to send out troops to continuously kill Mance's troops. If Mance had not reacted quickly, he might even have died there, and the wildlings might have suffered heavy losses.

Later, Mance came into conflict with Old Sparrow over this, with the King-Beyond-the-Wall accusing Old Sparrow of ignoring their plight.

The Old Sparrow said that this was a problem caused by Mance's own decision. The two sides quarreled so fiercely that even the troops on both sides gave up the siege of the Braavos people and turned to be wary of each other.

In the eyes of the savages, Old Sparrow and his "kneeling men" are a group of arrogant bastards, while in the eyes of the believers, these pagans from the north are a group of unreasonable barbarians, and it is a big mistake for Lord Hugo to cooperate with them.

Naturally, the matter came to Hugo's attention.

.

"It seems that Braavos still needs me to lead the troops there. Only I can make these two people put aside their conflicts."

After reading the news sent back by Snow who was with the army, Hugo made a comment with helplessness on his face. It was really terrible that the relationship between the two sides had become so strained.

"Then bring the army you have gathered, Hugo. Since we have to focus on dealing with the monsters in the north in the future, we cannot let Braavos mess around in the back."

Duchess Statina said as she looked at her son who was practicing swordplay. There was no expression on her face and no emotion could be seen.

As Hugo's bedmate, he naturally told her the news of the White Walker invasion. The Archduchess believed her husband's words. Her husband was the spokesperson for the will of the Seven Gods. How could what she said be false?
The Duchess has not changed much over the years and is still as beautiful as ever, but she has been attending public events less and less, preferring to stay at home.

Hugo could feel that his wife was trying to save him trouble. Although she didn't want to, her identity meant that a group of Andals would surround her.

This was caused by the interests and status of the locals. Even after Hugo's miracle and Statina's reclusiveness, they still held this attitude, expecting Statina to come out and represent their interests, but the Saint of the Valley never paid any attention to these people.

"Yes, we must completely destroy Braavos." Hugo agreed. He had originally thought so too.

Now both the East and the West are in a stalemate, and this is the best time for him to clear up the trouble in the North.

(End of this chapter)