The First Vassal

"I, Sandor Clegane, swear allegiance to Jon Stark and his future family, from this day forward, until my death, to the Old and New Gods." Sandor raised his sword high above his head. "My sword will be at your command!"

"My will and my mission will guide your sword." Jon recalled the etiquette he had received with Robb, "There will always be a place for you at the table, and a fire that will always burn for you in the fireplace."

The ceremony was completed, and the subordinate relationship was established.

A chilling smile returned to the Hound's face. He put on a smirk and said, "Sir, if you need to call me in the future, just say 'Dog, come!'"

"Dog, come here?"

"My lord!" Sandor stood up abruptly with a fawning smile on his face.

"Is that what Joffrey usually calls you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Now that you are my vassal, I believe that one should treat one's subjects with respect. From now on, I will only call you Sandor."

"My lord—" Sandor felt a lump in his throat, but insisted, "My lord, you can just call me the Hound."

"Gods, why did the Lannister turn you into this?"

Jon felt a little uncomfortable, but still insisted on calling him Sandor, after all, he wanted a warrior, not a slave.

Referring to Sandor as a dog might add a touch of wicked humor when one is powerful, but when trouble comes, one will find that this added wickedness is far too costly.

Jon looked at Sandor was a good half a head taller than him, and said, "Now that you are my vassal, I'll tell you something that many people don't know yet."

"Please speak, sir." Sandor bowed, his face still bearing a fawning smile.

"His Majesty Stannis has ordered me to go to Riverrun to persuade Robb Stark, my brother, to lay down his crown and pledge allegiance to the Iron Throne once more. If I succeed, His Majesty will bestow upon me the Lord of Casterly Rock and the Warden of the West. Of course, I will have to take both Casterly Rock and the Westerlands myself."

Hearing Jon's words, Sandor's eyes widened, even his left eye, which was dissatisfied with the burn scars, stared like a boiled egg.

"My lord, you're going to be the Lord of Casterly Rock? Casterly Rock isn't easy to conquer!" Sandor warned.

In his opinion, Harrenhal was not bad either; it was a bit dilapidated, but it was big enough and sturdy enough. Casterly Rock was good, but he estimated that Jon would still be unable to enjoy it.

Sandor, like everyone else, hoped that Jon wouldn't set his sights on Casterly Rock.

He even told Jon precisely how many arrow towers, armories, and hidden troop caves were on Casterly Rock.

Seeing Sandor's genuine concern for him, Jon felt quite pleased.

He asked with a hint of joking, "What if I really want to attack Casterly Rock? We just had the vassal ceremony. If you want to leave, you still have time; no one will know."

Sandor looked into Jon's eyes, opened his mouth as if to say something but hesitated, then said with a hint of helplessness, "The Seven Hells, nobody knows, but the gods do. If you insist on fighting, I'll do as you say."

Jon chuckled inwardly. He knew there was no absolute loyalty in the world, but Sandor's ability to maintain this level of loyalty after just pledging allegiance was far superior to that of the average mercenary.

He stood up, patted Sandor on the shoulder, and said, "Don't worry, I'm not the kind of person who doesn't value human life. I heard those Westerlands surrendered soldiers are still in the POW camp. Let's go see them together."

Since Haken and Harrion left, Jon Snow has only about two thousand troops directly under his command.

There were about four or five thousand soldiers from the Westerlands who surrendered that day after being surrounded by Wildfire.

Although they were almost all Lannister and Westerlands elites with relatively high loyalty, the most loyal Lannister among them were burned to death because they charged too fiercely, and the remaining ones were not without the possibility of being recruited.

Furthermore, how could a feudal lord possibly have done much good for the army? Most of these soldiers came from peasant families, at most their families were slightly wealthy.

What the Lannister can offer, Jon can offer too; he doesn't believe he can't win over this group.

Dragonpit was originally a place where the Targaryen housed their dragons.

The Dragonpit's Lair was originally the Sept of Remembrance, a place Aegon the Conqueror used to commemorate his second wife, Rhaenys.

However, the Sept of Remembrance was destroyed during the brutal "Maegor period," when Maegor bloodily suppressed a church rebellion and built Dragonpit on the ruins of the Sept of Remembrance.

After all, the Sept of Remembrance commemorates Rhaenys, Maegor's mother was the Queen Mother of Visenya. Maegor was known for her volatile temper, so she naturally wouldn't concern herself with such matters.

After the Dragonpit became extinct, the dragon's lair was abandoned and became the territory of thieves, prostitutes, bandits, and gangs.

After Jon's decisive victory at the Red Keep, he captured the trapped Westerlands troops and imprisoned them all in Dragonpit.

Since there wasn't much food King's Landing, Jon only gave them one meal a day and a small amount of water to keep them alive so they wouldn't starve and cause any trouble.

When Jon and Sandor arrived at the Dragonpit, they heard a cacophony of laughter. As they rode closer, they found a group of House Florent soldiers mocking the surrendered soldiers from the Westerlands.

Several House Florent soldiers were seen surrounding a few surrendered soldiers from the Westerlands, tossing and catching rice balls.

The starving Westerlands soldiers could only chase after rice balls like monkeys, looking disheveled and pitiful.

Soldiers from Riverlands were also there, making a fuss.

But Jon didn't intend to intervene, because he figured these Westerlands soldiers had probably abused civilians in the same way back in Riverlands, so it was only right that they suffered a little.

A moment later, a soldier from the House Florent sensed that an army was approaching. He turned around and saw an army of about a hundred men approaching.

Upon discovering that the leader was Jon, they quickly came over and bowed.

They knelt before Jon, looking rather reserved.

The House Florent army was Stannis's most loyal force, representing the Queen's faction. Jon didn't want to get into any conflict with them over some morally questionable surrendered soldiers.

"Get up, I've come to see the surrendered soldiers."

"Yes, sir."

So the group led Jon to the ruined Dragonpit's lair.

Soon, four or five thousand prisoners were brought out. They hadn't eaten enough for ten days, and the long march had left some of them with clearly visible ribs.

Stepping out of the Dragonpit, many people shivered due to the sudden drop in temperature. The light outside the Dragonpit was also much brighter, causing many to squint uncomfortably upon arrival.

It took almost a quarter of an hour for the thousands of surrendered soldiers to adjust somewhat.

Sandor looked at the timid and cowering Westerlands Army before him, which had completely lost its indomitable spirit, and couldn't help but feel a little sad.

He was also curious about how Jon planned to recruit these Westerlands soldiers.

At this moment, one of the surrendered soldiers suddenly spoke up, "Sir, are you going to kill us?"

The speaker was a soldier with brownish-yellow hair. It was unclear whether he was related to the Lannister by blood, but even if he was, they were probably worlds apart.

Jon looked at the soldier and then said, "I am indeed here to kill, but not all of you."

The wind carried Jon's voice to most people's ears, which cheered many up.

Sandor, standing nearby, pricked up his ears and glanced sideways at Jon, wondering why Jon was killing soldiers if he was trying to recruit them.

"I know you people are having a great time looting and pillaging in the Riverlands. If the Lannister win, you'll probably be able to plunder King's Landing just like you did a decade or so ago."

The surrendered soldiers listened to Jon's words, their faces tense.

"But I know that Tywin's leniency played a part in this, but that doesn't mean I'll forgive you. If the rest of you want to live, form groups of ten and vote to execute the one who has committed the most evil. The rest of you will live, and I will take you back to the Westerlands. Let's begin!"

Jon's words immediately caused a huge uproar among the surrendered soldiers, and some of them even revealed their ferocity.

But upon seeing the heavily armored soldiers surrounding Jon, they knew clearly that they had no chance of winning.

To suppress these surrendered soldiers, Jon brought his most elite Heavy Armor Battalion.

If unarmed surrendered soldiers dared to retaliate, they would face slaughter; otherwise, if they obediently accepted being whipped, they would have a 90% chance of survival.

Jon waved his hand, and at Martin's command, the Riverlands soldiers behind him pulled out groups of ten soldiers from the Westerlands and made them vote for each other.

"I only killed two people, and you told me to do it."

"Bullshit! You clearly killed four people, two of whom were raped to death!"

These soldiers were mostly rough men, and when faced with a life-or-death situation, they didn't have many nice words left.

"Those two women were already dying, and you! Jayne, you were the strongest when you were with them, so it's your fault!"

"Stop arguing and vote now!" a soldier from Riverlands shouted angrily.

Soon, the first group of ten voted out a soldier with a long, thin face. The soldiers from Riverlands gave each of them a dagger, and each of them stabbed the soldier once until he collapsed and convulsed.

Next group----

Just before darkness completely fell, the eleven-day execution, ostensibly for the purpose of punishing criminals, finally came to an end.

Because when they were divided into groups, soldiers who knew each other were often grouped together, and they were killing people they knew, which further eroded the already existing cohesion among these surrendered soldiers from the Westerlands.

When the more than five hundred corpses were laid out to one side, these surrendered soldiers from the Westerlands were completely like lambs to the slaughter. Soon, soldiers brought firewood, Jon set fire to the bodies of the soldiers who had been voted to be executed.

A huge bonfire was lit in the Dragonpit.

The orange bonfire shot into the sky, dispelling much of the darkness.

This was another mass execution more than two hundred years after Maegor burned church rebels.

The orange glow of the fire illuminated everyone's faces, and the air was filled with the nauseating smell of burnt protein.

Sandor looked at the silent, trembling surrendered soldiers, then at Jon, who was as docile as a dog. The ruthlessness of killing hundreds of people so readily reminded Sandor of Tywin Lannister's annihilation of the House Reyne years ago.

Tywin poured water into the underground hideout of House Reyne, drowning them all, and House Reyne was thus expelled from Westeros.

The flames were still burning. Jon looked at the surrendered soldiers and could sense that their morale had not only declined but had completely vanished.

In other words, their army as a collective has completely disappeared.

"Alright, let your sins vanish with these flames. I said I would take you back to the Westerlands, but anyone who dares to harm innocent civilians will know what their fate will be."

Jon had finished speaking, but no one answered.

After a long while, a still somewhat childish voice came from the corner. "Sir, will you really take us back to the Westerlands? You won't continue, you won't kill, no—"

Even though the soldier who was speaking stuttered a bit, the people around him automatically made room for him so that Jon could see his face clearly.

Jon looked at the young soldier, who appeared to be no more than seventeen or eighteen years old.

"How about this, I won't leave tonight, I'll sleep here with you all."

"Hey, sir?!" Sandor tried to stop him, but Jon swept him away with a wave of his hand.

Jon walked into the middle of a group of surrendered soldiers in front of the soldiers, and then chose a small, relatively high mound to ensure that most people could see him.

He spread his cloak on the ground and lay down on it. "It's getting late. Anyone who wants to sleep can go to sleep. I'll have someone bring breakfast tomorrow."

"My lord, I'll accompany you—" Sandor was interrupted by Jon before he could finish speaking.

"Go back and protect my sisters. Make sure to prepare plenty of food and some wine for tomorrow. That's all."

After saying that, Jon was about to lie down with his head on his arm, but then suddenly sat up again.

He casually tossed aside the sword Stannis had given him at his waist, muttering "It's hard to hold," before lying down again under the dumbfounded gazes of the soldiers.

A gentle autumn breeze blows, and the stars overhead shine as brightly as lanterns.

At first, the soldiers sat in small groups, whispering among themselves, but soon some of them fell asleep with trepidation.

Once the first one appeared, a second and a third followed, and soon thousands of soldiers were lying in the open in a vast expanse.