Exploiting a Loophole
Four days had passed since Jon tried to persuade him to surrender, and the sky was a gloomy, leaden gray.
The military cadet estimated that it was going to snow.
If it's snowing in Riverlands, it means winter is really coming soon.
Despite the bad weather, the atmosphere in Stannis's army was quite good.
An incredible thing happened in Stannis's army: Queen Selyse personally came to the front lines to boost the morale of the troops.
Not only did the Queen personally attend, but she also brought many fine wines, supplies, and generous gifts.
The aroma of alcohol and the laughter of prostitutes echoed through the military camp.
The soldiers drank their liquor. The attacks that had cost them thousands of lives over the past few days had left them feeling irritable and repressed. They picked up their liquor jugs and poured the liquor into their mouths.
The officers and nobles, meanwhile, indulged in sensual pleasures with the beautiful women from King's Landing.
These were prepared by Petyr. Although the brothel had intervened, they were still very skilled and quickly brought in a group of technicians.
In short, everyone benefited from Selyse, and the military camp was filled with praise for Selyse. Some even compared her to the kind Queen Alysanne.
When Alysanne Targaryen saw that the Night's Watch castle was in ruins, she donated her own jewelry to help repair the castle and improve the living conditions, thus earning the praise of the Night's Watch.
Now that Selyse has done the same thing, the soldiers are naturally happy to say some nice things about her.
Among this army of tens of thousands, only one person felt dissatisfied: Stannis.
There were no carpets or incense in the tent, only armor, swords, and longbows hanging to the side.
Stannis, sitting behind the table, asked Selyse, who had rushed over, "What brings you here?"
Is this a place you should be visiting?
"I----"
Faced with her husband's questioning, Selyse instinctively dodged the question; after all, habits formed over a decade are not so easily changed.
However, thinking of Petyr's words, her daughter, and the abandonment and betrayal she had suffered, Selyse rallied and felt a surge of courage to confront Stannis.
"Your Majesty, the House Florent's betrayal is a significant blow to our morale—but until you depose me, I remain your Queen, and as Queen, I must shoulder the responsibilities of that position."
For the first time in over a decade, Selyse looked directly into Stannis's blue eyes, but her mind was filled with the rhetoric Petyr had taught her.
"The Queen's responsibilities?" Stannis looked at her strangely, finding the woman he had spent more than a decade with suddenly become a stranger.
"Where did you get the money to reward the soldiers?"
"My dowry, Your Majesty," Selyse looked at Stannis, a hint of disdain on her lips. The last vestige of emotion in her heart had been extinguished. "Consider this Florent's final act of loyalty."
"I would be much better off without Florent," Stannis said, his voice cold and tinged with disgust.
After Stannis said those words, the last bit of emotion in Selyse's heart turned completely cold, and she averted her gaze from those blue eyes.
"The Tyrell army will be here soon, what does Your Majesty intend to do?" she asked, looking at the only remaining chair in the tent.
Stannis stared at Selyse for a long time without speaking, before finally saying, "Return to King's Landing, preserve the army, and get through the winter first."
Stannis wasn't entirely convinced of the Long Night and the White Walkers, since those events occurred thousands of years ago, with only written records and no direct evidence.
In his view, the so-called Long Night was likely just a winter that was a bit colder and lasted a bit longer.
Winter is not a time to sustain large-scale warfare, especially since it greatly weakens the North's strength, which in turn weakens Jon's.
Overall, Jon's territory is further north, while his own territory, whether it's the Crownlands or the Stormlands, is closer to the south.
The Narrow Sea connects to the warm Summer Sea, and the temperature on the east coast must be even higher.
He could take this opportunity to strengthen ties with the Free Cities and accelerate the recovery of his strength; he was unwilling to admit defeat.
However, Selyse didn't think that much about it, and instead spoke coldly with a hint of sarcasm.
"His Majesty has decided to allow Jon, this rebellious and usurper, to become king?"
Stannis made a slight grinding sound through his teeth. "What do you mean?"
"It's nothing. If I had known our king had already surrendered, I wouldn't have needed to come."
"Woman, watch your words!"
Stannis almost wanted to explain to her why he had chosen to accept Jon's terms, but he had been used to bossing Selyse around for over a decade and wouldn't bow down to her because of a temporary setback. He even thought that if he were Robert, he would probably slap her across the face.
In fact, Robert did this most of the time.
The meeting between the two ended unhappily.
Selyse went to Petyr immediately after leaving.
Naturally, Petyr soon learned that Stannis intended to negotiate with Jon.
This is exactly what he and Varys least wanted to see.
On Selyse's ship, candles were lit in front of the two, and they began to talk intimately in the flickering candlelight.
"Your Majesty, we have one last chance. Since Stannis intends to negotiate, all the noble lords must be gathered together. We only need to eliminate a few people to preserve your and Shireen's positions."
"You mean kill him?" Selyse asked.
When she said those words, even she was startled by her own words, and she quickly accepted her own distorted mindset.
Although they didn't say Stannis's name, both of them knew who he was.
Petyr didn't speak, but his eyes gave an affirmative answer.
But then Selyse suddenly hesitated and said, "But Petyr, what if we kill him?"
"Then, of course, we'll return to the Vale," Petyr said.
The Reach army arrived from the south, blocking Stannis's way back to the Crownlands's King's Landing, but the road from Harrenhal to the Vale remained unobstructed.
After killing Stannis and seizing military power, Petyr planned to lead his army back to the Vale.
"Unless that bastard has a dragon, how could he possibly break through the Blood Gate? Once we retreat to the Vale with our army, we'll have nothing to fear."
"Blood Gate ----" Selyse was also an educated noble lady, so she naturally knew how famous the Blood Gate in the Vale was.
The Blood Gate was built on a valley opening in the Vale. The road in the middle of the opening was very narrow, making it impossible to deploy any formation. On both sides were tall and steep rock walls, and directly opposite the rock walls was a heavy bronze gate.
The attackers had to carry arrows and logs from both sides of the valley to break through the gate.
However, the gate wouldn't be easily breached by attackers using battering rams; there were also piles of rolling stones on both sides that could block the gate in an instant.
The attackers could only continue their assault on the gate by moving the boulder aside.
But after paying the price of countless lives, all they gained was the opportunity to continue moving "stones".
The Vale has as many stones as there are sands in Dorne.
Lords of other castles often boast that their castles can be defended by only a dozen men, but only the Blood Gate is truly impregnable.
A hundred men here are enough to hold off an countless army.
Aside from the Dragon King being able to ride a giant dragon around it, the Blood Gate is virtually impossible to breach.
"Rest assured, Your Majesty. Once we bring the army to the Vale, someone will immediately take Her Highness the Princess from King's Landing and head directly to Gulltown Gulltown, from where they will enter the Vale."
To convince Selyse of her complete faith, Petyr continued to paint a bright future for her.
First of all, their army of over 60,000 is unparalleled in the world, and now that they control the Vale, Jon certainly won't be able to break through.
Once they reach the Vale, Shireen will be crowned Queen in the the Eyrie.
After Shireen's coronation, they marched south to attack the Crownlands's King's Landing.
After capturing King's Landing, you can arrange a marriage between Shireen and Martell to win back Dorne.
In this way, the Vale, the Crownlands, the Stormlands, and Dorne would all be under Baratheon's banner, possessing the strength to rival Jon Snow.
Selyse wasn't a particularly intelligent woman.
She couldn't see how incredibly dangerous every step she took was, but Petyr had already brainwashed her—that if she didn't kill Stannis, she and her daughter would lose everything.
"Alright, then I'll leave it to you. I'm handing over the entire guard we brought from King's Landing to you for command," Selyse said earnestly to Petyr.
"Rest assured, Your Majesty, I will certainly not disappoint you."
Petyr said solemnly, lowering his head to hide his gray-green eyes, which couldn't conceal his amusement.
The next day, Stannis returned to Harrenhal with his personal guards and Selyse, but left the army at God's Eye.
"Your Majesty, will there be any problems with what we're doing?" Alexander asked with some concern.
"What's the problem? Do I need a bastard's permission to go anywhere?" Stannis retorted, somewhat annoyed.
He had somehow found a loophole: Jon only restricted the movement of the Iron Throne Coalition, but placed no restrictions on Stannis himself.
Furthermore, Stannis believed that even if he left the army at God's Eye, Jon wouldn't be able to find out.
Stannis soon returned to Harrenhal and decided to accept the treaty, meaning the war would not continue.
Stannis, who had been on edge for a long time, relaxed and handed over the work to Yorn Royce.
Meanwhile, Petyr used this time to continue his activities among the lords under the guise of distributing and investigating supplies.
He needed to identify the lords he could win over and select those who absolutely needed to be purged.