Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon

According to the feudal knight fiefdom system in Westeros, if Viserys needs Dorne to engage in war, a Dorne lord like the Uller family of Hellgate, the Fowler family of Skyreach, and the Arlion family of Godsgrace can provide 100-200 knights and 1500-3000 sergeants respectively, and the Yronwood family of Yronwood can provide at least 200 knights and 4000-6000 sergeants.

If these Dorne families fully support Viserys's kingly cause, they can directly form an army of tens of thousands of people.

Not to mention the knights and army of the Martell family, as well as other nobles from all over Dorne, it would be easy to pull out a full team of 30,000 people.

According to the knight fiefdom system of Westeros, these recruited nobles and knights can be recruited by the king and their lords for 40 days of military service for free. The nobles and knights are self-sufficient in terms of consumption and food during these 40 days, but if the service exceeds 40 days, the king and the great lords will have to negotiate and pay for the extra time.

This means that for a war lasting more than 40 days, Viserys needs to provide wages and material guarantees for the recruited knights and troops in order to legally organize these people to fight for him. However, during wars, the logistics of the king and the lords are often not guaranteed due to various conditions, so most lords and knights choose to supply part of the logistics with dry food and part of the local supply, and then reward and divide the spoils after the war.

In order to meet the needs of military supplies and money and food, when a local lord goes to war, he will take the opportunity to levy shield taxes on the area during the war. Freemen, serfs led by knights, and able-bodied men from tenant farmers will be conscripted to serve as free labor for militia and logistics supply to participate in the war.

This "militia" is the sergeant among the conscripts. The feudal fiefdom system of Westeros stipulates that freemen and tenant farmers with an annual income of more than 17 silver deer must have a complete chain mail, a helmet, a shield and a spear or a sword at home; those with an annual income of 10-17 silver deer must have a light armor, a helmet and a spear at home; and all civilians must have a cotton or leather armor, a helmet and a spear at home.

These weapons and equipment prepared by civilians are not allowed to be sold privately, and even the lords are prohibited from depriving civilians of their weapons and equipment. If they do not follow the regulations, all civilian families will have all their property confiscated. At the same time, civilians are not allowed to hold higher-level weapons and equipment. These militias are often an important part of the vassal army that is recruited. The castle's coach will regularly train the militia during the off-peak season to make them qualified battlefield consumables.

Wartime plunder is the only source of income for the militia soldiers besides the military pay for exceeding the service period and the post-war rewards.

Therefore, this "local supply" is often the source of the corruption of military discipline, because the vassal army fighting in other places, in order to save the materials they need to pay, often forms a special plundering force to "collect food" in local villages, towns and cities. The burning, killing, looting and bullying of women and children that are born from this are often the reason why the hatred between the two war zones is as deep as the sea.

It is very outrageous. The wealth plundered by the lords during the war is not included in the proper war spoils, so this part belongs to the extra income of the battlefield. Therefore, unless the lord with a special sense of honor can restrain the army, it is impossible to control the army during the war from plundering the local people.

And the personnel who are recruited to be responsible for logistics are even worse, they are pure free corvée.

In addition to these, the army also includes free riders who voluntarily surrendered to the king and various lords. But free riders are the easier part to control, because free riders usually join one side to seize spoils on the battlefield, and they usually have no share in local looting. Unless they form an organized group, but that is usually a mercenary group.

Because the army in this world is like this, most wars are fought later, whether it is the victor or the loser, the entire territory will often fall into serious economic recession after the war, with insufficient population, and even after a winter, the entire noble territory and knight territory may disappear.

The reason why Viserys wanted to streamline the Dorne army is because of these reasons.

When a war only requires 10,000 people to win, but 30,000 people are recruited, the harm caused to the local area and the source of the army is no different from a massacre.

Especially when the spearhead is directed at the Stormlands and the South, the Dornish people and many families in these two places have deep hatred for each other.

As the saying goes, thieves pass by like combs, and soldiers pass by like combs.

Too many feudal armies are sometimes not a good thing. The more feudal armies there are, the more difficult it is to make up for the damage caused by the war.

In this era, the only way to restrain the military discipline of the troops is to streamline the troops and horses, meet their logistical supply needs, use rewards instead of plundering, etc. to form an effective system and develop the habits of the army, so as to prevent such things from happening as much as possible.

We can only prevent it as much as possible. It is basically impossible to eliminate such plundering in this era.

The reason why Viserys needs an army is that he needs to use the army to force his opponents to form a large-scale army of the same size to fight against him, rather than to fight in a guerrilla way.

Forcing the opponent to fight with him in a large-scale army is the most efficient way of fighting, and often one battle can determine the ownership of a place.

For example, the first battle decided by Viserys was to recapture the Stormlands. The conquest of castles in the Stormlands was far less rapid than the victory or defeat of a large-scale field battle or siege.

And Viserys planned to take Shireen Baratheon with him. If Stannis avoided the battle, Viserys would directly let Shireen settle in Storm's End as the new Duke of Stormlands to command the lords of Stormlands.

"This is the "Prohibitions and Rewards Regulations for the Targaryen Army's Expedition" I drafted. Everyone, I have said in advance that now is a negotiation. If you have any questions about this provisional regulation, you can speak freely and point them out, but wait until the agreement is signed. No matter which great lord, the army recruited by me must strictly follow this regulation. After everyone confirms that it is safe, this regulation will become the military law of the Targaryen army when it goes out!"

As the second consultation meeting with the Dorne delegation proceeded, Viserys put forward the final requirements for the army.

The content of the previous negotiation was mainly Viserys's policy towards Dorne and some details of cooperation. Viserys will follow the policy towards Dorne since Daeron II, and will clearly let his heir marry a Dorne princess, and the third-generation heir will be the son born by the Dorne princess.

The entire Dorne will be incorporated into the rule of King Viserys, and the king has the right to collect taxes, tributes, and labor from his people. In addition, the lords and knights will make various oaths of allegiance to the King of Dragonstone and the Targaryen family, and perform various duties and obligations of vassals.

There was still a little problem between the two sides on the issue of sending troops last time, so the second negotiation was mainly about the army.

After seeing this regulation, the lords of Dorne quickly understood the reason why Viserys insisted on only sending 10,000 troops from Dorne.

The two regulations have the greatest impact on the current situation of the army.

First, Viserys banned the old policy of the army supplying itself locally in the regulations, and instead established a special logistics unit to supply the needs of the troops going out to war; second, it banned looting in the battlefield, and instead established a military merit system for rewards - the king planned to expand the scale of the war merit recorder in the war supervision team on the basis of the original war supervision team, responsible for recording the military merits of the headquarters including the militia soldiers, and replace looting with unified rewards after the war.

In this regulation, the army was subject to many restrictions during the war. Except for the army's main duty of fighting, the rest of the activities were more or less restricted. Especially the war looting part was explicitly prohibited.

There is no doubt that the king wanted to rectify military discipline and make the army he led into an honorable army born only for fighting.

This approach cannot be said to be too conservative, because among the lords of Westeros, there are many nobles who abide by honor and restrain their troops in this way during war, but it is indeed the first time to write a regulation in the name of the king to control it.

The only part that made them feel generous was that the regulations clearly stated the distribution of battlefield spoils. The king was very generous in sharing the spoils, and there were corresponding reward regulations for battlefield captives.

In a sense, it can be said that the king used explicit regulations to express his attitude: he supported his army's plundering on the battlefield, but not plundering outside the battlefield.

Prince Oberyn felt strange and did not comment on the regulations. Just to say that King Viserys's understanding of the army was even more organized than some veterans in some places, which made Oberyn suspect that Viserys had formed a mercenary group himself and had rich experience in leading troops.

But Oberyn knew very well that retaking Dragonstone was the king's first battle.

This reminded Prince Oberyn that privately, people rumored that the king had landed in the ruins of Valyria, learned mysterious magic in the ruins of the Valyria Peninsula, and his dragon was also obtained from the ruins of Valyria.

But this rumor has never been confirmed. It is said that the fleet commander Ser Grole, who served under the king, had arrived at the ruins of Valyria with the king. People said that it was his superb sailing skills that led the king deep into the misty sea of ​​the Valyria Peninsula and landed the king at the ruins of Valyria before he was knighted.

Although the knight has repeatedly refuted those rumors as nonsense, there is no doubt that the king himself is full of mystery.

According to King Viserys's consistent strength, this regulation finally passed the trial version and became one of the contents of the agreement for Dorne to send troops under the rule of Dragonstone.

"Then, Prince Oberyn," Viserys said, "please send a letter to Prince Doran, asking him to prepare food and fodder along the Bone Road. When the time comes, 10,000 Dornish troops will set up camp at Summerhall from the Bone Road, and I will personally lead the Dragonstone troops from Blackwater Bay into the Wender River and up the river. The Dornish and Dragonstone armies will join forces at Felwood, capture Felwood and Bronzegate, and then move south to attack Storm's End. We will strive to win the Stormlands in one battle. Once the Stormlands are pacified, the next step will be to turn our swords to the South." As he spoke, Viserys raised his glass, "Everyone present here is a witness and participant in this agreement. I sincerely hope that the Targaryen dynasty will prosper with your help. Let us drink this cup together!"