The Dornish army made a breakthrough, breaking through the Borderlands and besieging Highgarden, the capital of the Reach.
The heir of the Tyrell family, Willas Tyrell, replaced his father as the commander-in-chief of Highgarden, and personally climbed up the city wall to command and strengthen the defense.
While strengthening their defenses, the Tyrell family also released ravens, asking for help from their most wealthy and powerful vassals, the Hightower family in Oldtown, hoping that they could lead their vassals and soldiers to relieve Highgarden.
siege.
The Hightower family is one of the oldest and proud nobles in the history of Westeros. Like the Stark family, their bloodline can be traced back to the ancestors, and they were kings during the Dawn Era.
However, since then, instead of resisting the invasion of the Andals, the Hightower family has assisted, and later surrendered to the successive kings of the Reach, giving up the crown at the cost of retaining their ancient privileges and status.
Although the owners of the Tower are powerful and extremely wealthy, they prefer trade to war, and rarely participate in the civil wars in Westeros.
But during this siege of Highgarden, the Hightower family, which had always had a precise investment vision and was known to take sides, responded to the lord's call.
It seems that Ironheart sided with the traditional nobles to resist the will of the Iron Throne. They sent a new army to Highgarden since receiving the Raven.
Heavy troops gathered here, and thick clouds of war suddenly enveloped the fertile river bend.
A grand wedding had just concluded in King's Landing, and the Reach was in turmoil. Dorne had won a great victory in the Battle of Nightsong and then besieged Highgarden. These were all things that had happened recently and had not spread yet.
In the Stormlands next to the Reach, the Baratheon family should have been the most active response after King's Landing was captured, striving to retake the capital and recapture the imprisoned king. However, Storm's End became silent.
It seems that he is indifferent to the news from the outside world.
When Rhaenys personally led the Golden Company to besiege King's Landing, Renly promised Jaime to send an army to support King's Landing, but no one knew where the support army had gone.
Storm's End is only a short distance from King's Landing, and when King's Landing fell, no soldiers from the Baratheon family arrived.
Perhaps they heard the news that King's Landing had fallen halfway, and then turned around and returned.
The entire Stormlands seemed to have been offline since the return of the Targaryen army, waiting to die.
This time Dorne sent troops to break through the frontier, but it attracted the attention of the Stormlands. Renly sent a support army to escort some supplies, and then there was no sound again.
However, it is not that Renly does not want to take the initiative to make a difference, but that the situation in Storm's End is more complicated than outsiders imagine.
Since the defeat of the coalition forces after the Battle of Riverrun, Stannis was defeated and captured on the battlefield, but his importance is not as high as that of King Robert and the Warden of the North Eddard Stark. There are people around the clock 24 hours a day.
Watching, so the intensity of supervision is not strong and slightly negligent.
Stannis's aide, the "Onion Knight" Davos Seaworth, was very loyal to him. After escaping from the battlefield, he hired a group of mercenaries to plan and rescue Stannis, and finally succeeded in kidnapping Stannis in King's Landing.
However, Stannis was kidnapped from the prison in King's Landing by his men, but he had no suitable place to go.
His fiefdom of Dragonstone has long been occupied by the Targaryen army. Now he has no soldiers, no generals, and no money. Therefore, he is forced to return to his hometown of Storm's End and join his army.
brother.
The current Duke of Storm's End is Stannis's youngest brother, the fifteen-year-old Renly Baratheon. When he heard that his brother had returned, he did not take any precautions and solemnly welcomed his second brother home.
He even held a banquet to honor his brother.
But this young man who didn't have any precautions at the beginning may be filled with regret now.
Stannis is actually not as fair as others say. He is a serious person and lacks a sense of humor. He does not know hypocrisy or flattery. However, he also has selfish motives, but he is shrouded in a tough and indifferent attitude.
Under the surface, it is difficult to see through.
Renly was canonized as the Duke of Storm's End, and the three brothers of the Baratheon family were only a few years old when they separated. Therefore, it is difficult to say how deep the relationship between the brothers was.
The simple-minded young man warmly welcomed his brother, but Stannis was a wolf in the sheepfold.
Although his knees were injured and he could not stand for a long time, he quickly used his skills to occupy a place in Storm's End and won over many former ministers.
Because Stannis held the city for a year during the Usurper's War ten years ago, he has an unrivaled reputation in Storm's End.
What's more, the two brothers are only at odds with each other openly and secretly, and have not openly turned against each other. Stannis is also named Baratheon, so many of Renly's vassals secretly flirt with Stannis without any psychological burden.
But now for Renly, he realized his brother's ambition too late.
As the nominal lord of the Stormlands, the Duke of Storm's End, he has nearly half of his forces out of control. If he turns against his brother now, he may soon face a situation where the Stormlands will be torn apart.
Renly's advisors had given him two options.
The first is to persuade him to strike first and send assassins to seize the opportunity to kill Stannis. Don't delay, otherwise things will become more and more troublesome. However, Renly was hesitant to face this proposal.
Because parricide is an extremely serious sin in the faith of the Seven Gods, even though Renly could ignore it, he could not silence the world.
The second option proposed by the staff is to surrender to the Iron Throne and hand over Storm's End and even the Stormlands without a single soldier in exchange for the Iron Throne's forgiveness for Renly and even the Baratheon family.
Observing the way Viserys dealt with Cersei, the former queen can still live in the Red Keep, Tyrion has also been admitted to the royal council, and Renly should be able to gain certain benefits if he hands over Storm's End, at worst
As a result, life can be saved.
However, Renly was also hesitant and undecided about the second option, because surrendering on the knee was equivalent to putting his head under someone else's knife, and he had to leave life and death to his own will.
So he tentatively released some news, hoping to see the Iron Throne's reaction.
But what disappointed him was that the Iron Throne did not react in any way.