Bright and warm East Study.
Starpike returned after a long absence, and Titus successively met with his dear subordinates who were responsible for guarding the main city and taking care of their hometown during their absence.
Including: Starpike coach Sir David Robinson, Greg maester who assisted the coach in defending the city, and his little cupbearer Gardon Tars.
Should he say it or not, he did the right thing by accepting this wine waiter.
The location of Tarth is quite superior and critical. The previous maritime operation of House Peake was successfully completed thanks to the support of the Evenfall Hall Earl.
Although Selwyn Tas is an old man in the scumbag world who "must get a new wife every year", his ability to do things is absolutely reliable and he is also very tight-lipped. Their big island is the deep-water port with the best sea conditions along the southeastern coast of Westeros.
Before the Starpike force established its own New Harbor port, it had to rely on the help of House Tarth.
For example, now, the fleets of Oswin and Davos are still anchored at the northern end of Tarth.
-Dragonstone hasn't been defeated yet.
After asking a few questions about little Garedon's study situation, and knowing that the instructor Starpike had been bored and had taught this boy some basics of knight squire, Titus nodded happily and asked the instructor to continue teaching this boy when he was free.
When Sir Robinson left with Little Caledon, Bachelor Greg still didn't leave. Titus knew that he had something to say, so he asked with a smile, "What, Bachelor Greg, do you have anything else to do?"
Starpike's "messenger" Greg smiled slightly, and sure enough he took out a letter from his arms and placed it on Earl's big desk.
"Horn Hill's letter from Maester Vicky, I guess, should be Sir Wenda's report on the situation in Tarly's castle."
Peake held three cities at that time, but only had one Earl and one voice. This was because the family had always advocated a high degree of "centralization". The lord's brothers or powerful collateral lines must all obey the instructions of Starpike Earl.
There is only a city lord and no family separation.
This management method has also been extended to their castle bachelors.
Some important letters marked "Top Secret" would not even be opened easily by the bachelor in charge of the raven, but would be handed over to the lord in charge to open them personally.
This is why Greg waited until everyone else left before handing over the secret message.
After the death of the "Laughing Lion", he took over the power of Westerlands, and by annihilating the rebel judges, he was able to take advantage of the situation and establish "centralized rule" - the Duke of Casterly Rock, who has only been in power for twenty years, may not be as "strictly educated" as Starpike Peake.
Titus opened the seal and took out the secret letter. It turned out to be the "successful" letter from Lady White Eagle.
Since Whitegrove was captured, Sir Dirk, who was born here, led the soldiers who originally belonged to Whitegrove to stay and guard it.
Wenda took his bodyguard Platoon and Laurence Roxton's thousand people and drove southwest, passing through the Ringlet Knights' Territory just south of Highgarden, and drove all the way to Horn Hill, which was once dominated by House Tarly.
The resistance in this area is far stronger than Whitegrove.
Fortunately, the local knights and Hunter groups were transferred away by Randyll·Tarly at that time. Many of these people have now surrendered to Starpike Earl. It is difficult for the few old and young people who stayed in Horn Hill to form a large-scale resistance.
Wenda and his party not only led the troops to suppress the situation, but also had the authoritative endorsement of Iron Throne, coupled with the diligent assistance of Alyn Hunter, the leading party, some difficulties and obstacles were finally resolved.
After occupying the Tarly family's castle and giving gifts to Randyll's widow, Ms. Melissa, who knew something about mechanics as her name sounded, back to Florent's Brightwater Keep, they would have completely recovered the "Peake family's Horn Hill area".
Later, the commander of this trip, Wenda Storm Knight, took out Earl's order letter while Alyn Sir Hunter was dumbfounded.
She announced on the spot that the Ringlet knight would stay here as the acting city lord of Horn Hill city.
Moreover, Laurence, who has sworn allegiance to Starpike Earl, will also manage this place for Earl and further eliminate the local "bandits".
Not to mention the Horn Hill native Hunter, Ringlet Sir Laurence himself was also greatly surprised.
Before Black Earl left, he only asked him to obey Sir Wenda's orders, but he never mentioned this.
It felt like being hit on the head by a pie falling from the sky.
Although he did not suddenly become "Horn Hill Earl", he could transform from the leader of a knight's collar to manage a huge Earl collar. It is conceivable that Black Earl trusts and values him.
The new Horn Hill acting city lord wished that his family could have another Valyrian steel sword, so he sent it to Starpike's black Earl overnight!
It can be said that as long as Laurence Roxton secures his position as the Horn Hill City Lord, his status in the Starpike forces will be significantly improved.
Compared with the Roxton family owner who was surprised and happy, Alyn Hunter's mood was ups and downs, and he felt as if he was lost.
How could this happen?
Earl clearly promised it!
Wenda signaled to Sir Laurence, who could not restrain his joy, to retreat temporarily, and relayed Earl's explanation to Sir Alyn who stayed behind0
Captain White Eagle said very seriously, Starpike Earl never breaks his promise.
Master Earl promised at that time:
As long as the Hunter brothers are willing to surrender, fight for him, and make contributions - they will get a rare opportunity to become "lord of a city" - but he did not say that this "city" is Horn Hill.
Black Earl is generous, he gives the opportunity that the knight class dreams of -
The city lord of Dunstonbury, located to the west of Highgarden and downstream of the Mander River, will be held by Alyn Hunter.
After hearing this, Sir Alyn felt lucky that Sir Earl still kept his promise and threw it away before using it up. He was also sad for "losing" Horn Hill, and his mood was quite complicated.
The territory of Dunstonbury is actually not much smaller than that of Horn Hill, and its material output is not inferior. It also belongs to the fertile land on the south coast of the Mander River, and it also has a better outlet to the sea than Highgarden.
What is lacking is that there is no decent castle, and the original dock has long been abandoned. At the same time, due to the geographical location, it is destined to compete with Highgarden for business on the Mander River.
The lords there can't do it without certain skills, and the person who manages Dunstonbury must be firm and cannot be easily bribed by Highgarden.
The Hunter brothers from Horn Hill were selected by Titus----
Titus read the report from Wenda in the letter and thought that Sir Alyn was quite sensible. If he had to ask him the question "who is more suitable to be the acting city lord of Horn Hill", his reply to Wenda would be:
What this Earl gives you is yours; if I don't give it to you, you can't take it away.
As a good helper of the Tarly family, the Hunter family has a long history, and has even been married to Tarly several times.
If this representative of the indigenous knight family is really allowed to manage the entire Horn Hill, then is this Horn Hill still his Titus·Peake?
From another perspective, Titus also gives Hunters the opportunity to start over, change into a new environment, and stay away from the place of right and wrong.
Horn Hill is different from Whitegrove. In addition to belonging to Dornish Marches, Starpike has limited influence here. Titus is not a soft-hearted person. He plans to clean up the grassroots managers within Horn Hill - that is, the old knight class that is deeply rooted in the local area.
Laurence·Roxton As an outsider, he can strike more easily and more ruthlessly--unlike Hunter, who can bring about family ties at every move, so how can he strike?
When Horn Hill's number of knights became vacant, in the "Battle of Usurper", the new knights who were handed down by Titus also had new places to go.
This group of new knights who were personally promoted by Black Earl and awarded titles for their merits are the cornerstone of his "rule" Horn Hill.
Today.
House Peake's new territory is divided into two sections, the south and the north.
Counting from west to east in the southern section, Horn Hill, Yougu City, and Starpike are almost located on a horizontal line. These are all traditional territories belonging to the Reach Dornish Marches.
Whitegrove, which returns to Peake, is located northwest of Starpike; to the west of Whitegrove is Ringlet; if it goes further west, it is Dunstonbury next to the Mander River.
-This is the northern section of the Peake territory, dominated by the fertile and fertile land south of the Mander River.
Among them, Whitegrove of White, Ringlet of Roxton, including the larger Dunstonbury, originally belonged to the direct territory of House Tyrell of Highgarden.
Especially the Roxton knight collar, which is currently regarded as a punishment for launching a war against Tyrell and failing, and is a backhand reward to Starpike Earl who has obtained the allegiance of House Roxton.
If Dunstonbury in the northwest (upper left) corner, Horn Hill in the southwest (lower left) corner, Whitegrove in the northeast (upper right) corner, and Starpike in the southeast (lower right) corner are taken as the four vertices -
The territory where the six castles are located, taken together, is exactly equivalent to a "parallelogram" that is somewhat irregular and tilts to the left.
After Column burned down the Highgarden port area and Queen of Thorns chose to redeem himself, House Tyrell lost more than just a million gold dragons.
When Starpike Earl completely took over his new territory, the Golden Rose lost three of its lands south of the Mander River, leaving only a piece of land near Highgarden.
Their direct territory was deprived of less than half by Starpike and Iron Throne. If it were not for the large amount of fertile land on the north bank of the Mander River, Highgarden would have basically ended up with a Luoyi similar to the Emperor of Zhou, and would have been left to the slaughter of the princes and powers.
But even so, the size of the Tyrell family's territory has been greatly reduced compared to before, and only the best areas have been lost.
If we take numbers as an example, the direct territory of Tyrell is currently: 7-3=4 (leaving the only remaining Highgarden on the south bank and the land on the north bank)
The territory owned by Peake is: 1+2+3=6 (Starpike+recovering the second ancestral city+three new lands)
4:6
Yes, in terms of the land area controlled by both parties, although Peake has not reached the peak level of Tyrell, it has exceeded the area currently occupied by Highgarden.
As the only military aristocrat in the Reach to stand in support of the "Robert Uprising", whether due to special preferential treatment due to political considerations or due to a large number of solid military exploits, Titus·Peake has become one of the most powerful figures in the entire Southern Territory.
If you don't want to save some face for Tyrell and Hightower, this "one" can also be removed.
On the coat of arms of House Peake, there were originally three castles.
Later, he lost two cities in a row because of "Blackfyre Rebellion" of "Noble Bastard".
At the stage of the "Peake rebellion", they were almost killed and the entire clan was wiped out----even if they managed to kill a king, a Earl member of the second largest Westerlands family, and the heir of a duke----
But today, when the foundation of Starpike was passed to Titus, the city and territory actually controlled by his family doubled!
He became the lord of six cities.
Sir Dirk from Whitegrove:
At the request of book friends, here is a reference map: