The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Rosamund Lannister, the daughter of Lord Odbur of Lannisport, was born in 290 AC and is nine years old this year, bearing a striking resemblance to Princess Myrcella Baratheon.

In another month, Rosamund will be ten years old!

As soon as she arrived in King's Landing, she was welcomed into the Tower of the Hand by the Imp.

To replace Princess Myrcella of Dorne with Rosamund, the little girl had to be won over first. Although Lord Odbur was reluctant, he had no choice but to cooperate with the Imp's 'body double' plan.

The little girl came to the Red Keep in King's Landing with great excitement, met her father, Lord Odbur, and was then informed that the Hand, the King, and the Queen Mother were going to marry her off to Dorne to replace Princess Myrcella. The little girl's enthusiasm for attending the wedding completely disappeared, and she frowned ever since, but she was helpless.

In the Westerlands, the Lannisport garrison has only one thousand men, making it the most powerful military force in the Westerlands besides the Mountain. The other nobles have a maximum of two hundred men stationed at their family castles.

In the Westerlands, Rosamund could not contend with the Mountain and had to obey the orders of House Clegane; when she arrived in King's Landing, she found that she had no freedom either and had to obey any orders from the royal family, otherwise her father and she would be in mortal danger.

Originally, Rosamund had planned to report everything about the Mountain's business, trade, politics, and military affairs to the Hand, but after learning that the royal family's invitation for her to attend King Joffrey's wedding was a lie and that the real plan was to send her to Dorne to exchange for Princess Myrcella, Rosamund's sense of belonging to House Lannister dropped to an all-time low.

House Lannister is no different from the Mountain in essence!

Perhaps out of revenge, or perhaps out of numbness to fate, Rosamund chose to remain silent about anything that the Mountain and Jeyne were planning in the Westerlands.

In the little girl's heart, neither the Mountain nor the Lannisters were good people! However, she had no way to resist, nor could she escape her fate!

In order to prevent the Dornish from seeing Rosamund, Rosamund had to wear a veil every time she went out, covering her little face. If there were Dornish people at a gathering, Rosamund could not appear.

Rosamund lived like a year in the Red Keep of King's Landing.

In the blink of an eye, more than twenty days passed, and in another ten days or so, it would be 300 AC. No matter how much Rosamund prayed in her heart, the King's wedding would take place as scheduled, and she herself would be sent to Dorne after the King's wedding.

*

Meanwhile, in the Westerlands, the Mountain led his legion and more than six thousand mountain people into the territory of Tarbeck Hall.

From afar, the mountain tribe people saw a tall stone castle. The castle was majestic, like a giant beast crouching on the plain.

As they got closer, they saw that the high walls were covered with moss and weeds, and the city gate had long been abandoned, a huge doorway overgrown with weeds.

The army arrived at the city, and weeds and bushes as tall as a person submerged the road into the city.

The mountain tribe people's eyes glowed green. Even a castle that had been abandoned for decades was hundreds of times better than the small stone houses and tree houses they lived in.

Even farmland overgrown with weeds was a hundred times better than the farming conditions where they had to find soil in the stones to grow wheat and corn.

The Mountain shouted on Red Smoke Beast: "This castle is called Tarbeck Hall, and it will become the new home for some of you. The land outside the castle..." The Mountain waved his hand, including the hundred-mile-long mountains and the abandoned farmland on the plains below, "...these mountains and fields are all yours. The large area of farmland on the plains outside the castle will be where you grow wheat, corn, potatoes, cabbage, and graze pigs, cattle, sheep, and horses."

The mountain tribe warriors and people's eyes glowed green.

"Which tribes are willing to live here?" The Mountain asked.

Swish!

All the tribal chiefs raised their arms high.

"Are you all willing to live in Tarbeck Hall?" The Mountain looked back at the high walls behind him. The walls were dilapidated and collapsing, but the former majesty was still there. With a little repair and the installation of iron-clad oak doors, it could regain its former glory.

"Okay, you can hold a meeting to decide. Only half of the people and legions will remain here. The other half will go to Castamere, a hundred miles away, where the castle is more magnificent, with more rooms, and the scale of farmland and mountains is no less than here."

"Lord Mountain, I am willing to go to Castamere," said Tym, the leader of the Burning Men.

The Mountain said that the castle of Castamere was more magnificent than Tarbeck Hall, with more rooms, and Tym was immediately eager.

"I am also willing to go to Castamere, Lord," said Shagga of Stone Crows.

"Wherever the chief goes, we will go," Conn immediately stated.

Everyone wanted to move into a more magnificent castle with more rooms. Those were the castles where the great nobles used to live, and compared to their palm-sized stone houses, they were heavenly palaces.

"Let's go too!" Chella, the little beauty of the Black Ears, discussed with Gonsor, the leader of the Moon Brothers.

The Black Ears and the Moon Brothers had a good relationship. When they were in the Mountains of the Moon, the two tribes had always been close allies.

There were multiple factions in the tribes of the Mountains of the Moon, and tribes of the same faction were more willing to live together.

"Anyone can go. You can discuss and decide on your own first, but Castamere may be more suitable for the Cave Dwellers, Mountain Men, Black Ears, and Wolf Clans, because that castle was built underground, converted from old mines."

"Lord Mountain, we are very willing to go to the castle built underground!" Haggai, the leader of the Cave Dwellers, immediately raised his hand to express his willingness. The Cave Dwellers warriors and people cheered.

The Mountain Men and the Black Ears followed closely behind, all enthusiastically expressing their willingness to live in the castle built underground.

The Mountain said: "Whether it is Castamere or Tarbeck Hall, there are gold mines, and you can mine gold for more than thirty years. We will all live a prosperous life, like true nobles and wealthy free folk."

Gold?

The people could farm while working as miners to mine gold and earn money?!

After receiving Lord Mountain's affirmative answer, the mountain tribe's soldiers and people burst into thunderous cheers.

Without a doubt, there would no longer be brutal battles between their tribes for a good sword or a good helmet. In the future, if they were to fight, it would be unanimously against outsiders. Tribes would not fight each other over a bag of flour or a set of armor.

There were already more than ten thousand mountain tribe warriors and people!

The enthusiasm of these ten thousand people immediately gave the silent Tarbeck Hall, which had been silent for decades, a lively atmosphere.

With a command from the Mountain, the mountain tribe people took out scimitars, wood knives, sickles, hoes, rakes... and enthusiastically cleared the road into the city.

With thousands of people working together, in a short period of time, a straight bluestone avenue was cleared.

The Mountain led his army into the city.

The city's streets, houses, squares, statues, stables, blacksmith shops... all kinds of buildings were still there, but they were all overgrown with weeds and vines. The walls of many houses had collapsed, but the outline and original appearance of each place could be seen.

The Mountain led his army to the courtyard in front of the city's main fort. He got off Red Smoke Beast and ordered everyone to work together to clean every place in Tarbeck Hall Castle.

The Mountain led his guard and cavalry of nearly six hundred men, responsible for cleaning the main fort tower; Earl Mooton led a thousand Mooton warriors, responsible for cleaning the maester's tower, stables, and restaurant; the mountain tribes were responsible for cleaning the rest of the place, such as squares, blacksmith shops, streets, walls, rooms and residences, gardens, livestock pens, kennels... all were cleaned up...

More than twelve thousand people worked together to clean a castle that had been abandoned for nearly forty years. The large and small wells and diversion streams buried by the soil were also re-excavated, and the canals that introduced water from the mountain streams were also re-cleared. Clear spring water flowed along the canals to every corner of the city.

Two days later, Tarbeck Hall was brand new. The garbage, soil, vines, and decaying leaves in front of and behind the houses were all cleaned up, and the streets were swept clean, just like a little girl's fair and clean face.

*

On the third day, Lady Jeyne arrived with two hundred heavy cavalry from Claw Isle, along with the young maester Harren. After half a day of arguing and concessions, in the end, twenty tribes of warriors and people chose Tarbeck Hall. Jeyne, Maester Harren, the Mountain, Earl Mooton, Maester Steinbeck, the maester accompanying Mooton's army... everyone registered the leaders, warriors, families, and people of each tribe, and roughly divided the area of twenty farmlands on the map that Jeyne brought, with each area corresponding to a tribe.

The residences on the main street of the castle were also divided into twenty areas, with each tribe moving into one of them.

It took a full two days just to divide the fields according to the map and then divide the housing areas according to the streets in the city.

The thirteen hundred carts of grain that the Mountain brought, three hundred carts of grain were first distributed to the people of these twenty tribes, so that every household would have food to eat first.

Several days later, the Mountain led another twenty tribes of warriors and people into Castamere. Lady Jeyne, Maester Steinbeck, and Maester Harren were responsible for staying in Tarbeck Hall to measure the fields, and after the measurement was completed, they would subdivide the fields into individual households. This work would take at least a month.

The Mountain and Earl Mooton led all the warriors to Castamere. Castamere was an underground city, and they encountered a tricky problem: underground water accumulation! The city's original drainage system was blocked and needed to be re-cleared.

About forty years ago, Duke Tywin attacked Castamere City but could not break through, so he dug canals underground, introduced river water, and flooded Castamere City...

So, more than four thousand mountain warriors, three thousand mountain people, more than a thousand Mooton warriors, and five hundred Clegane soldiers all worked together to drain the water first.

In the evening, House Westerling of the Crag brought a large number of workers and warriors, a total of more than two thousand people. Leading the way were Reynard Westerling, Sansa Stark, Maester Ysilla, Clegane army leader Foul Mouth, Pollyver's wife Ester, Ester's grandfather, the coining elder Boaz... They came with a thousand workers and a thousand warriors to assist the Mountain in clearing Castamere City...

Tens of thousands of people worked to clear Castamere. A day later, as the accumulated water was scooped out bucket by bucket and dumped, the underground city of Castamere gradually revealed its original appearance. Compared to Tarbeck Hall, everything in this castle was better preserved: houses, stables, towers, training grounds, gardens, streets, barracks, civilian residences... There were almost no stone buildings that had been destroyed... Only silt and rotten wooden furniture, as well as livestock bones, needed to be cleaned up for a while...