The bypass of Ashford was more complex than the bypass of Valdenmarch had been, and the complexity was the point.
Valdenmarch was a fortress isolated in open terrain, its garrison unable to sortie against a screening force without abandoning the walls that gave it strategic value. The garrison of a stone fortress was defined by the stone fortress itself, its strength was its immobility, and that immobility was also its limitation. A force that declined to assault the walls could move around them without interference from a garrison that could not pursue without surrendering its own purpose.
Ashford was different. The town's garrison was infantry, infantry that could move through the buildings and streets of its own defensive position faster than an external force could move around the perimeter.
