"You are to return to Casterly Rock immediately." Inside an inn in Duskendale, in Duke Tywin's temporary Hall of Affairs, Tywin rapidly signed one order after another, instructing Tyrion Lannister without lifting his head. His tone was so cold that it was not as if he was speaking to his heir, but rather like he was commanding a complete stranger.
Tyrion said with a displeased expression, "Dear Father, shouldn't you be looking at your son properly and asking if he's injured? After all, he just came back from the battlefield."
Duke Tywin looked up at Tyrion with a cold gaze and said, "Instead of bantering with me here, why don't you think more about how to govern Casterly Rock?"
"Govern Casterly Rock?" Tyrion looked at Duke Tywin with a surprised expression and said, "Did I mishear? You're actually telling me to govern Casterly Rock?" As he spoke, he seemed to understand something and said, "Oh! I see, Jaime is missing, so you think he's dead, and without even searching for him, you're eager to remove him from the list of heirs and pull me, the one you kicked to the bottom, up. Honestly, you should play the role of a loving father right now; perhaps that would move me a little."
"How do you know I haven't looked?" Duke Tywin said with a gloomy expression, "I even sent people to Riverrun, offering all the Riverlands territory I currently control as a price to exchange for Jaime, but they didn't even show any intention of negotiating. You are very clever; you should know what this means, right?"
Tyrion said excitedly, "Perhaps they don't have Jaime either. Jaime is just missing, not dead. We haven't even seen his body..."
Duke Tywin angrily rebuked, "Enough! I have more important things to do than play a game of 'find my son, find my brother' with you here. You should be very clear that the entire Westerlands is now in danger of survival. If we're not careful, we'll be doomed forever. Now, you and I both have more important things to do, more important than finding Jaime's whereabouts or confirming whether he's alive or dead."
Facing Duke Tywin's sharp gaze, Tyrion had no choice but to lower his head. Then, as if changing the subject, he asked, "What do you plan to do next?"
Duke Tywin said in a deep voice, "I plan to use Eddard Stark as a bargaining chip to make the Northern Allied Forces retreat."
Tyrion was stunned and looked at Tywin with a puzzled expression. Although the situation seemed unfavorable for the Westerlands, the Westerlands still had strong war potential. It was too early to negotiate peace now, which was unlike Tywin's character.
Moreover, now was not a good time for peace talks, because the allied forces of the North and the Riverlands were high in morale, and taking the initiative to negotiate peace now would only put them at a disadvantage.
Also, with Jaime's fate unknown, no matter how cold and ruthless Tywin acted, he should not make a decision to negotiate peace at this time.
Facing Tyrion's confusion, Duke Tywin said nothing, directly taking out a piece of intelligence and handing it to Tyrion.
Tyrion read the contents, and his face became extremely grim, because the information was definitely not good news for the Westerlands.
First, the wedding of Margaery Tyrell of House Tyrell of Highgarden and Duke Renly of Storms End was to be held in a few days. The forces of the Stormlands had already gathered at Storms End, and the allied forces of The Reach had also gathered at Bitterbridge, making the situation very unfavorable for the Westerlands and King's Landing.
Another piece of news was that although Stannis Baratheon was nominally announcing that he would attack Renly and seize Storms End, which rightfully belonged to him, he was actually feigning one thing while doing another, landing near Duskendale and preparing to launch a surprise attack on the Crownlands.
Fortunately, Duke Tywin was one step ahead and had already deployed a large number of troops in Duskendale, repelling Stannis's army.
However, Stannis did not return to the sea but instead headed north to the Crab Claw Peninsula, taking Rook's Rest, Dreadfort, and Whispering Sound. He was now subjugating the Savage Tribes of the Crab Claw Peninsula. Once he subjugated the Savage Tribes there, he would be able to gain a large replenishment of troops, directly threatening the Crownlands.
"The current situation for us..." Tyrion put down the intelligence report in his hand, just as he was about to say something, Tywin's adjutant rushed in with a letter, without even knocking on the door.
Duke Tywin's expression froze. He knew very well that his adjutant was an extremely disciplined person, and now he looked panicked, clearly something big had happened.
"My Lord, a message just arrived from King's Landing." The adjutant handed over the letter in his hand and directly informed him of its contents, saying, "His Majesty Joffrey publicly executed Duke Eddard."
Duke Tywin was completely stunned when he heard the news and didn't even take the letter. Tyrion, on the other hand, took the letter and read it carefully, his expression also becoming grim.
"Now that Duke Eddard is dead, one of his daughters is missing, and the other was taken by Lynd. We no longer have any bargaining chips for negotiation? There can be no more peace talks with the North." Tyrion put down the letter in his hand, his mind working quickly, and said, "This might not be a bad thing."
"What do you mean by that?" Duke Tywin suppressed the anger in his heart and asked Tyrion.
The more critical the situation, the clearer Tyrion's mind became. He analyzed seriously, "No matter how outstanding that Young Wolf is, he is just a child, and a child cannot suppress emotions. Duke Eddard's death at Joffrey's hands will inevitably make him no longer revere the Iron Throne. At this time, if someone incites him, he will certainly declare himself King."
Duke Tywin vaguely sensed some of Tyrion's thoughts, but could not fully understand them, so he gestured for Tyrion to continue.
"Once Robb Stark declares himself King, then their relationship with the Riverlands will become somewhat delicate. Either the Riverlands will submit to the North, or the lords of the Riverlands will also declare themselves King." Tyrion analyzed seriously, "If the Riverlands lords declare themselves King, they will certainly be looked down upon by the North. The people of the North will not believe that those with less than half their territory are qualified to be compared with the King of the North. This kind of discrimination will quickly cause cracks in their cooperation. As for submitting to the North, the Riverlands lords will certainly not be comfortable with it. What was originally an alliance will now become a subordinate relationship. This psychological gap will certainly make them uncomfortable, and the Northern lords have always been rude, greedy, and unfeeling. This time, they did not seize enough spoils of war when they came south. Both the lords and the soldiers will be dissatisfied. It only takes a little secret provocation for the relationship between the two sides to quickly deteriorate."
Duke Tywin's mind suddenly cleared after hearing Tyrion's words, and various thoughts immediately surfaced in his mind.
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/TripleCrown
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"