The Mountain of Ice and Fire

“I cannot complete the task! Father!” The Mountain said blandly. He very much wanted to take this opportunity to expand his forces. Not necessarily five hundred cavalry, three hundred would be good, especially since it was Lord Tywin's order. It was legitimate and he wouldn't have to worry about being envied by the nobles!

Besides, the war was less than a year away from breaking out.

But a little prevarication seemed more appropriate!

“Find the money yourself, I’ll give you the men.” Lord Tywin said coldly. He had just paid seven hundred gold dragons to the witch.

No vassal dared to defy Lord Tywin's orders, but the Mountain was an exception!

“Father, what kind of men are you giving me? The Knights of the Rock Guard Cavalry Regiment? Or the Lannisport City Garrison? I refuse!” The Mountain said with certainty. Help Lord Tywin train his guard? Forget it. After all the effort, he would just transfer them back with an order. To train such elite cavalry, they had to be his own men, with the name Clegane.

Lord Tywin's face grew even colder: “I will give you an additional hundred households of smallfolk.”

“The taxes from a hundred households are not much.” The Mountain was unmoved. “Recruitment is also very limited. Ordinary commoners simply cannot pass such high-intensity training.”

A hundred households of smallfolk, was that to send away a beggar? Lord Odbur of Lannisport had more than ten thousand households of smallfolk.

Maester, knights, centurions, Ser Kevan, and others all looked at the Mountain coldly.

Ser Kevan had never liked the Mountain, and even less a Mountain who had soldiers of his own family. If the Mountain became stronger, Ser Kevan would be even more hostile and resentful. He could never feel any goodwill towards the Mountain, much less trust him.

A beast should not be allowed to sharpen its claws more and more. Once the beast gets out of control, it will hurt people! Especially now that it is a time of peace, the King is the Duke's son-in-law, the Queen is the Duke's daughter, and the King's side, diet, daily life, entry and exit alert, are all Lannister.

The Lannisters are powerful and wealthy in the West, so there is no need to train a beast like the Mountain to be even stronger.

Because beasts hurt people!

But Lord Tywin obviously didn't think so.

Kevan felt that the Duke had deviated from his course recently because of the Mountain's series of inventions. He vaguely felt that the Duke was preparing for war.

This gave Ser Kevan a very absurd feeling!

He wondered what the Duke and the witch had said behind closed doors? That pretentious witch should be beheaded!

The Duke stared at the Mountain and said coldly: “Chiswyck is gathering his former men in Lannisport, at least a thousand men.”

Kevan said: “Lord Duke, Ser Gregor…”

Lord Tywin glared at Kevan, Kevan choked and closed his mouth.

“Father, Chiswyck is gathering his old troops to form the Clegane Mercenaries, with the aim of making money. According to my current family cavalry training, five hundred men are professional soldiers, they will not engage in any production. One person needs two horses, that's a thousand horses. Moreover, there is no war now, and we cannot support the war with war. Father, I cannot complete the order you gave me.”

There is no war now?

But the Duke already knew from the witch that the war would break out soon.

Of course, the Mountain very much wanted to have five hundred cavalry, but at the moment it would overwhelm him. After all, he still needed to store gold dragons for a rainy day.

The Mountain's first step was to train a hundred cavalrymen to create a special force within the special forces.

Before the transmigration, in China, if an ordinary soldier's salary was two thousand a month, then the special forces would be four thousand, and the elite special forces would be ten thousand. His goal was to create his own elite special team. First build a hundred people, focus on doing high, precision, specialization; once the war breaks out, reconnaissance, raids, maneuverability, close protection, a hundred people is just right.

If it is a battlefield breaking formation, these hundred people are the tip of the knife of the entire army, and he himself is the tip of the tip of the knife.

It would certainly be better to support five hundred such people, but that would be more than just an increase of 400 gold dragons in military pay each month. How much would the number of horses have to increase by eight hundred, and how much would the fodder have to increase? How much would the grain, armor, weapons, cloaks, and marching tents have to increase?

Although privately minting gold dragons, it has not yet formed a batch system of minting. Moreover, Lord Tywin took the lion's share.

“I must have you complete the task. What support do you want from me, tell me!” Lord Tywin stared at the Mountain, increasing his tone.

The Duke was determined to build an elite army to break through the formation, and this task could only be done by the Mountain!

Once the war started, the Duke decided not to give the enemy a chance to breathe, and the West would strike his enemies head-on.

Ser Kevan looked at Maester Botley, he hinted that the Maester should remind Lord Tywin that it was a time of peace and that he should not raise a monster like the Mountain. If the Mountain trained five hundred such cavalry, his military strength would be no less than that of the four major families in the West.

Once the Mountain's brutality and bloodlust get out of control, and he has strong troops in his hands, it will cause big trouble! If he kills a few nobles, it is very likely to lead to chaos in the West.

However, Maester Botley did not respond to Ser Kevan's eyes.

The Mountain was silent for a moment. He really wanted to expand his forces. Like Tywin, he knew that the outbreak of war was less than a year away, and there was not much time left for the people of the West to prepare. Because of his notoriety and enemies, he needed to strengthen his forces in the short term.

Since the criminal act of privately minting gold dragons was in his hands, it was no problem to do a little trick. The Duke also knew how much it would cost to raise soldiers. Anyway, it was the Duke's order, so let's do it, why pretend?

“Father, I need to choose the soldiers myself.”

“Agreed!”

“I want the prisoners in the dungeons of the major families in the West. If there are not enough people, priority should be given to serious criminals, criminals with mercenary backgrounds, and criminals proficient in swordsmanship, but my captains need to screen who we ultimately want.”

This time Lord Tywin didn't even say agreed, he just nodded.

“After screening, however many people there are, that's how many there will be, not limited to the number five hundred.”

“Hmm!” Lord Tywin snorted.

The Mountain admired Lord Tywin's political talent the most. Any decree that would take half a day to discuss in other dukes' courts would be issued by the Duke in the first moment. For example, improving shields and armor. As soon as he saw it and thought it was feasible, he immediately ordered the Maester to send out a raven to issue a military order to the entire territory, without the slightest hesitation or a heartbeat's worth of hesitation.

In any of the Mountain's historical memories, there was no record of similar decisive figures.

Lord Tywin's absolute strength, decisiveness, ruthlessness, and political talent for piercing the essence of problems were all rare!

He was a born politician!

However, no matter how powerful this politician was, he was limited by the shortcomings of the times. Compared with the Mountain, his overall view, civilization level, prediction of the future, and the direction and development of the world situation were already below the Mountain.

In the Mountain's historical and cultural memory, there was Cao Cao, a hero of the Three Kingdoms, who held the emperor to command the princes. He himself borrowed a gourd to draw a dipper, imitating it in this world of ice and fire, using the witch to drive Tywin!