The Mountain of Ice and Fire

At Casterly Rock, servants were busy preparing for Jeyne and the Mountain's wedding, while a rather 'unique' military meeting was taking place in Lord Gawen's study.

It was unique because the conscription military meeting included two people who shouldn't have been there: Lord Leo Lefford of Golden Tooth and Lord Damon Marbrand of Ashemark.

Damon Marbrand's severed hand had been treated, and the wound was healing at an astonishing rate. This secretly surprised Maester Yassa, but pleased Lords Gawen and Leo. Lord Damon's mood had also transformed from dejection and resentment to cold aloofness, and his speech had become sharp and sarcastic.

The Mountain had invited Lords Leo and Damon to participate in his conscription plan. One lord readily agreed, while the other nodded with a contemptuous look.

At Casterly Rock, all the knights captured by the Mountain overnight had been released, including Ser Addam Marbrand of Ashemark. All families had returned all the Westerling lands. Lord Damon hadn't left because of his severed hand; he needed Maester Yassa's medical skills.

In this world, once a wound became infected and festered, there was only one path: death!

There were no anti-inflammatory ointments in this world. After the maesters did everything they could, whether a person's wound would become infected and fester was left to be decided by a greater physician: the Seven Gods.

Lord Damon's severed hand had bled non-stop. When the bleeding was stopped, Maester Yassa's subsequent treatment abilities became apparent. Lord Damon's wound healed at a very rare speed, which surprised Lord Leo, Lord Damon, and Lord Gawen, all of whom had been injured before.

Thus, Lord Damon stayed behind to receive further treatment from Maester Yassa at Casterly Rock.

In fact, Maester Yassa himself was also surprised and didn't understand why Lord Damon's wound was recovering so quickly.

The Mountain was very respectful and friendly to Lords Leo and Damon, as if nothing unpleasant had ever happened between them. Lord Damon's severed hand seemed to have nothing to do with the Mountain.

Now, the Mountain wanted to build a thousand-man infantry regiment on his father-in-law's territory. The first step was, of course, conscription. The Mountain invited Lords Leo and Damon to participate, saying that both lords were very capable military generals, and the Mountain wanted to hear their opinions.

Lord Damon was naturally very happy to do so.

He had formed a hatred with the Mountain and the Westerling family. If Ashemark were to take revenge in the future, knowing the other side's strength would definitely be beneficial to him.

Lord Leo was the only guest the Mountain had invited to attend his family's wedding. He had nothing else to do anyway, and the wedding was still five days away. Since the Mountain had invited him, he would come!

Lord Gawen originally disagreed with inviting both Leo and Damon to this meeting, but when he faced the Mountain's huge body, he found that he couldn't even open his mouth. So, Lord Gawen nodded.

The training of the Casterly Rock garrison and guards, and the Westerling family's conscription, were all directed by the Mountain. Lord Gawen and Lady Sybelle were unwilling to conscript on such a large scale, for a simple reason: money!

Raising soldiers costs money!

Raising even one soldier is not easy.

Food, clothing, supplies; weapons, armor, training, and even military pay, every aspect costs money.

The Westerling family found it difficult to support even one hundred and eighty professional soldiers, let alone suddenly adding a thousand infantrymen.

Fortunately, they were infantry. If they were cavalry, it would be even more expensive.

In peacetime, apart from the Great Houses and a few large nobles who kept thousands of soldiers, the rest of the nobles, apart from the necessary guards, would not keep professional soldiers.

Because every commoner is the noble's soldier.

Letting the commoners earn money, do work, mine, farm, hunt, or fish, allowing them to support themselves while also supporting the nobles' soldiers. Once something happened, a conscription order would force these commoners to obediently bring their own weapons to fight. This not only saved the nobles a lot of expenses but also earned them considerable tax revenue.

Letting soldiers live among the people, allowing the commoners to be self-sufficient, was indeed very good, especially for a declining noble family like the Westerlings. There was only one downside to doing so: when a real war broke out, the combat effectiveness of the assembled soldiers could not be compared to that of a professional army. Many such armies, once the general or centurion was killed, or slightly defeated, were very prone to collapse.

Professional armies were different. In a well-trained professional army, if the general was killed in battle, a lieutenant would immediately take his place. If the lieutenant was killed, a centurion would immediately be elected to continue leading the group. Even when fleeing, they would be different from the commoner soldiers. Someone would be elected from the collapsing ranks to be the leader, leading a group of people to continue fleeing.

A snake cannot move without a head, and an army cannot be organized without a general!

However, if a snake only has a head and no body, if an army only has a general and no soldiers, it is equally useless.

The Mountain wanted the Westerling family to not only have generals but also soldiers. Soldiers and generals must train, live, grow, and become professional together.

Because, within a short year, war would break out mercilessly.

In the trajectory of his previous life, Casterly Rock would be easily taken by Robb Stark of the North. But this time, Casterly Rock would bring the flames of war to other people's homes.

As for money, what income could be faster than privately minting coins?

When the country is in chaos, civil war breaks out, and the great families fight each other, who would care whether the gold dragons you take out are privately minted or issued by the state?

The country's financial system will not collapse because of war, because gold, silver, and copper have always been the hard currency of this country. Whether in the past thousands of years of history, or in the nearly three hundred years of Targaryen rule, or in the current sixteen years of Robert Baratheon's rule, gold, silver, and copper stars have been the hard currency of this continent.

The same is true of Essos across the Narrow Sea.

With gold in hand, whether it is a round gold dragon or the different styles of gold coins minted by each country and nation across the Narrow Sea, as long as it is made of gold, it is the hardest currency that can circulate freely and smoothly.

The Mountain spread the map of Casterly Rock's territory on the desk and began to check the population, families, and the ratio of men to women area by area. The Mountain discovered a very important problem: the commoners on the lands mortgaged or sold to the surrounding nobles were wealthier, more numerous, and had a higher birth rate than the commoners in the territories directly led by the Westerling family. Moreover, the number of households had increased by about two hundred.

Because the birth rate was high, the population increased.

The originally estimated 1,300 households had now become more than 1,500.

In this sense, although those nobles bought the Westerling family's land at a very low price, when they returned it, these lands had appreciated in value.

This was a more secret 'legal income' than directly extorting the nobles, but it also showed that the Westerling family did not provide enough help to its commoners, or rather, completely ignored them due to their decline, allowing the commoners under their rule to fend for themselves, just like the Mountain used to treat his own commoners. Apart from collecting taxes, no help was ever given.

This would not do!

War would break out in March of next year and continue for a very long time. Such a long civil war would require the commoners to continuously provide strong tax revenue to support the war effort.

Therefore, while conscripting soldiers, there also needed to be a consideration for enriching the people. Only by enriching the people could the army be strengthened.

In this damn semi-pastoral and semi-agricultural era, nobles needed to bring their own food and all living supplies when they went to war. Those commoner soldiers had to provide their own swords and armor. If the commoners were very poor, they couldn't even afford slightly better swords, and the combat effectiveness of such an army would naturally be very low.

Without a doubt, while conscripting soldiers, a way to enrich the people had to be found immediately!

But how to enrich the people?

This was a problem that had plagued the Westerling family for generations!

Insoluble!

However, the Mountain, who came from a civilization several levels higher, gained the wisdom and inspiration to solve the problem from the precious soil of Eastern Chinese history and culture.

Enriching the people and strengthening the army was something he had thought about before he came. What is difficult for those who don't know is not difficult for those who do!

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