Ironically, when Jon Arryn decided to join the rebels against his lord "Mad King", his vassal, Count Marco Graffson of Seagulltown, decided to rebel against Jon Arryn.

This is not strange in the eyes of the people of the Celestial Empire, after all, our Celestial Empire has always been a centralized feudal system in which all courtiers are loyal to the emperor. In fact, I don't think it's right to call it feudalism, it should be understood as an imperial system.

Similar to the continent of Westeros in the European Middle Ages, the feudal feudal system was still relatively backward, with the king divided into dukes, dukes divided into counts, and so on, and Westeros pursued a stable and strict hierarchy.

There is a figurative description of the European feudal system: "The lord of my lord is not my lord!" In other words, Count Marco Grafson, as a vassal of Jon Arryn, should theoretically obey the instructions of his direct superior, Duke Jon Arryn, instead of overstepping the king's orders.

Therefore, his actions can be described as shocking in Westeros, based on the feudal feudal system, as a king, he should not interfere in the affairs of the duke's territory, otherwise it will be regarded as a provocation to the feudal system.

However, the feudal feudal system itself is a rather unsafe thing, if the superiors do not have enough influence on the subordinates, it is easy to listen to the situation of not listening to the announcement, for example, the Frey family almost ignores the instructions of the Tuli family, and even worse, there may be a situation where the lord is weak and the minister is strong, so the wise ruler of the Celestial Empire abolished this backward ruling system.

The worst thing is that the European feudal system is very unfavorable to the integration of national forces, for example, a duke has 2,000 people in his own hands, and there are 5 earl vassals, one person has 1,000 people, and now the duke is going to war, he mobilized his own 2,000 people, leaving 200 to defend the city, and the 5 vassals in the best relationship, fully support the duke's war, and also leave 200 people to watch the house, which means that the duke can integrate a total of 5,800 people to enter the war.

This is still an optimistic situation, assuming that the relationship between the duke and the vassals is not good, they will not do their best to help the duke to fight, and even some of the more afraid of death will directly choose to pay money to exempt from military service, which means that it is likely that the duke can only mobilize 3,000 to 4,000 people.

But suppose that in a centralized state, the king wants to wage war, and the king also has 7,000 men in the case of equal strength, then he can mobilize a full 6,800 men to fight, because there will be no lord to hide.

However, one thing is obvious, the war elasticity and defense under the European feudal system are relatively strong, and there will not be a situation like Guandu Yuan Shao who lost a battle, due to the sub-feudal system, which means that there will be a large number of large and small fortresses in the territory, even if you lose the battle, you can go back to pack up the remnants of the army and defend the city, and then mobilize the remaining vassals to support.

Jon Arryn had anticipated Count Marco Grafson's rebellion, because when he began to gather his vassals, only Count Marco Graffson stayed in Seagull Town after gathering a few good lords around him, and had no intention of coming to Eagle's Nest City to join him.

Sure enough, he chose to rise up against Jon Arryn as a royalist force, in Jon Arryn's impression, this young earl is a good knight, his wife is a woman from an earl from the royal realm, his territory Seagull Town is the only port connecting the valley with King's Landing and the Stormlands, controlling the entire trade and transportation hub between the valley and the south, and Robert needs to take a ship there to return to the Stormlands, if he can't get it, Robert's plan to return to the Stormlands to gather vassals is considered yellow, This would result in the loss of an important pillar on the rebel side, enough to shape the situation of this war.

Jon Arryn has assembled 2,000 knights, as well as 3,000 servants, who are reserve knights, and there is usually a "one-on-one coaching" between them and the knights, most of whom are also born in aristocratic families, as long as they finish this battle, they have the hope of "turning positive" according to their performance, so it is not modern that there is a concept of temporary workers! They even have to live and be fed and clothed by the corresponding knights after that, just so that one day they can "become a daughter-in-law".

Their equipment was not necessarily much worse than that of knights, because the horse armor and weapons were self-contained, some servants from aristocratic families could even have an old plate armor, ordinary servants could have a set of chain armor, and the worst had leather armor.

Plus 8,000 conscripted infantry and 2,000 archers, a total of 15,000 men, it is worth mentioning that bows and arrows are not very popular in the valley, only Earl Ian Hunt of the Longbow Hall brought 1,000 archers, and the remaining 1,000 were pieced together.

Archers are actually quite chicken in this era, after all, they can hardly pose any threat to the heavily armed knights, that is, they just bully and bully the levies, shoot two waves within 200 meters, and the opposite side will rush to the front, counting on the bow and arrow to deal with the knights? It's just wishful thinking.

You ask me about the Battle of Agincourt? The miracle of Agincourt cannot be replicated (in fact, the British did copy it several times). First of all, the English longbowmen are unique to England, and there are no such powerful troops in the Vale, and perhaps only the Iron Islands will have a bow force that can compete with the English longbowmen in the whole of Westeros. What's more, even the miraculous Agincourt relied on stake fortifications and geographical advantages (muddy terrain) to win.

To be exact, it was not the longbows of England that defeated the French knights, but their own chaotic chain of command and their quick intelligence!

As for the levies, this is a group of peasants who take up arms, poorly equipped, with a spear of 1.8 meters in one hand and a rudimentary shield in the other, only about a third of the levies can get helmets or leather armor for themselves, these are already relatively wealthy kulaks.

For the poor, you can go to the battlefield without wearing armor, but you can't do without a shield, shields and spears are standard, because a shield can greatly increase the chance of survival, the shield can not only help novices easily block attacks, but also can be used to resist bow and arrow shooting, it can be described as inexpensive, a good baby necessary for expeditions.

This is also one of the benefits of the European feudal system, that is, the weapons and equipment are provided by the soldiers themselves, and there is no need to spend money to support them in peacetime, which largely saves the wallets of the lords.

Therefore, in the Middle Ages, it was really a very miserable thing to be a commoner, not only to be exploited, but also to go to war, to fight and sell their lives without money, and to pay for their own equipment and weapons, their only advantage was that after winning the battle, they could pick up the equipment and weapons left by the enemy and sell them for money.

Of course, these things are worth a lot of money, so to a large extent, the peasants still have a little hope for the war, if they can pick up a few good swords, good armor, and sell them, the living expenses for more than ten years are no problem, and no matter how bad they are, they can mix up the living expenses for a year or two, which can be described as a huge profit! Of course, this is the case of having to come back alive.

Jon Arryn marched towards Seagull Town with all his troops, arriving at Seagull Town in the afternoon.

When they arrived at Seagulltown, they were greeted by an army flying the banner of the Burning Tower (the Graffson family crest).

According to the scouts' reports, they had about 6,000 levies, 1,000 archers, as well as 500 knights and 1,500 servants, a total of 2,000 cavalry, a total of more than 9,000, nearly 10,000.

Seagulltown, the largest town in the valley, is densely populated, allowing Count Marco Grafson to pull up a large levy force, which is presumably why he dared to play the rebellion.

Count Graafson placed 4,000 levies in the center as the center, the archers as cover for the front of the right flank, and the left flank was composed entirely of cavalry.

"This Earl Grafson is a bit of a level! Lo and behold, the levies were wearing leather armor, and even the ones in the front row were wearing chain mail! Han Xing stood on a high place and looked at Count Grafson's army.

"Yes! But it seems to me that this Earl of Graafson doesn't seem to have a lot of brains, and wants to go out of the city to play Armageddon with us! See if I don't hammer him! Robert wielded a sledgehammer and wore a very ordinary set of plate armor, and it was clear that he was very excited about this war and wanted to show his skills on the battlefield for a long time.

"Let me lead the troops as a vanguard!" Robert spoke, and he was eager to try.

Jon Arryn shook his head and said, "Count Marco Graffson is a good lad, a knight of integrity, and I don't want the valleymen to kill each other if I can, I want to talk to him." With that, he stepped forward, came to the front of the formation, and shouted to the opposite side, to go and interview Count Marco Graffson.

You may ask if the other side will sneak up on Jon Arryn? The answer is no, absolutely not, the Europeans have a lot of rules and regulations to fight wars, which is why in World War II there will be the Geneva Convention, it is very dishonorable to sneak attack the opposite master during the conversation, and it is a great insult to those who practice chivalry, so they basically do not do it.

They will even negotiate the location of the decisive battle in advance, the war in the European Middle Ages is very much like a fight, after all, the European army has always been relatively small, if you don't make an appointment in advance, it is likely that the two sides have not found each other for two days.

"Lord Grafson, I am your lord, Jon Arryn, Duke of Eagle's Nest, why didn't you fulfill your obligation to respond to my call to join us in Eagle's Nest? Now that you are gathering a large army and setting up a position, do you want to rebel? Jon Arryn rode on a white horse in a shiny plate armor and a blue heraldic cloak, and spoke to the other side. In fact, the rebellion of Earl Graafson is a well-known fact, and now Jon Arryn is only picking this out, both in the hope that the other side will learn from his mistakes, and in order to demoralize the other side by exposing the other party's violation of feudal obligations.

"Duke Arryn, you have committed rebellion, humiliated and threatened the royal envoys, and openly raised troops against His Majesty the King, you are a rebel and thief!" Earl Graffson clearly understood Jon Arryn's intentions, and both men sought to take the moral high ground.

"The Mad King was brutal and brutally executed without trial, and I raised my army to rebel against his tyrannical rule! Marco, this is your last chance! Don't be obsessed, as long as you give up your resistance and ask me for your guilt, I promise to be merciful and not punish you in any way. Erryn was also angered by Count Marco Graffson, and finally warned loudly.

"His Majesty is the rightful ruler of Westeros, your lord, and he has his own reasons for what he does with traitors! I also advise you, Duke Arryn, to surrender as soon as possible, and personally go to King's Landing to plead with His Majesty, for he will be merciful to you!" Earl Graffson returned Arryn's words as they were, and it was evident that they had broken down.