Not to mention Casey, a King's Landing boy who has just come of age, even Egg, who has "been a soldier", is still involuntarily stunned by the huge military camp in front of him.

Compared to this army rally, the Night's Watch's Black Castle is like a small outpost - of course, functionally, the Night's Watch is indeed the Sentinel of the Seven Kingdoms, and this contrast is not wrong.

How many people are there? 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000?

The so-called "a thousand people, the earth is even the sky, and the people are ten thousand, boundless". For ordinary people who have not received professional scout training, the number of people exceeds a certain level, and it becomes an impossible task to estimate their number - 10,000, 50,000 or 100,000, when approached by the naked eye, there is actually no difference, and this is an important confidence for the countries of the ancient world to dare to lie about their strength when they fought each other in an attempt to deter the enemy.

To be honest, Egg couldn't tell how many people were in the army assembly area in front of him, but in fact, after listening to Tyrion explain the population and economic situation of the royal domain, he still had a rough idea of the number of soldiers in the army assembly area in front of him.

......

The so-called royal realm is actually more directly under the jurisdiction, and you can understand that the duke of this territory is the owner of the Iron Throne, that is, Robert himself.

This plain, located just south of the valley, east of the river, north of the riverbend and the stormland, would have been a land of four wars if it had not been for its proximity to the sea...... Historically, there has never been an independent regime, but it was often contested by the Riverlands, the Stormlands, and many other forces, until Aegon the Conqueror landed here on a dragon to begin his conquest of Westeros, using the landing site as his main base and later the royal capital.

Before the conquest of the Dragon King, the total population of this area was less than 100,000, and after 300 years of rule by the Targaryen family, it has become the most prosperous place with the largest city, King's Landing, the most densely populated and the most wealth per capita in the whole of Westeros.

Wealth aside, the population density is the highest - since the royal realm is so small, if you remove the anomaly of King's Landing, its total population is about the same as that of the vast and sparsely populated North. In view of the lack of a complete population count of this era, it is estimated that the total population of the royal domain was about two million.

This time Robert went to the valley to suppress the rebellion was a small-scale local war, and the initiation was naturally not a general mobilization, in this case, the ruling class generally tried to ensure that the war did not affect the safety of people's lives and property and the sustainable development potential of the society. At the level of productivity of this era, the initial mobilization rate should be between 0.5%~1% - that is, between 10,000 and 20,000 rooms, which refers to the soldiers, not counting those who come to do business and miscellaneous servants. The exact number depends entirely on the authority of the ruler and the ability to control the princes.

Iger couldn't tell how many people were in the army assembly area in front of him, but it was definitely more than 10,000, and you must know that Cersei later frantically recruited troops to defend King's Landing, and the hysteria was only a few thousand - this huge disparity in the number of responders was actually the most intuitive manifestation of the control of the rulers of this "era of human rule".

＊＊＊

"That's a lot of people!" muttered the young squire, Casey, both eyes completely straight.

Egger actually wanted to say this, but after all, he was now the chief logistics officer of the night watch, and the "big man" in the young man's mind, no matter how shocking he was, he still had to show a calm and light face on his face.

"It's a lot, let's go, and see what the king has given us to stay, and how we are to move with the army. ”

Seeing that his patriarch was so calm, the young man suddenly felt that he must have seen too little, so he answered, and hurriedly drove his horse down the dirt slope with Egger, approaching in the direction of the assembly area.

If this army runs to the Great Wall, it can beat hundreds of thousands of wild people outside the fortress so that their parents don't know them, but now...... The group is going to run to the valley to save a madwoman who has murdered her husband...... Just because she used to be surnamed Tully, and she is the mother and guardian of the current Duke of Arryn.

......

On the road before, Egg was still slandering: before the fight started, he began to think about allowing Royce and other family members to wear black clothes after winning the battle, and even whimsically summoned himself, the "night watchman", and Robert, the fat pig, was really optimistic.

After seeing this army assembly place, he understood where the "mysterious self-confidence" of this warrior king came from.

Despite his extravagance, he is not a qualified ruler in Egger's eyes, but in terms of dominance and prestige, this guy is definitely above the excellent line. Although the Iron Throne regime was heavily indebted due to the fat man's years of indiscriminate wealth and waste, he personally gained astonishing support and great prestige among the middle nobility and the lower knight class who had obtained "benefits and honors". This advanced idea of "overdrawing the future and stabilizing the current ruling situation" through loans is not known to be Robert's crooked attack or really wise and foolish.

Admittedly, the prestige and control gained by scattering wealth is not secure – but it is not the same if the person who uses it also wins battles on a regular basis. As long as Robert does not die, and does not suffer a bloody defeat, this kind of unreliable control, in a short-term war, is no less than any regular army under any good social system.

This is only the king's army, plus the other six kingdoms...... If it weren't for the bloody danger, the "Alliance of the Righteous" in the Valley would not have been able to finish even a single battle!

＊＊＊

While working as a monk in King's Landing's Night's Watch office for a day, Egg also learned about the coats of arms of the nobles of Westeros, and as he rode into the army assembly area dressed in black, many of the coats of arms he seemed to recognize appeared on the flags planted everywhere. The most golden-crowned bucks that symbolize the Baratheon family are, which is nonsense...... In addition to this, he saw other motifs on the chests of soldiers and servants, silk banners decorated with spears and wooden spears, and tent curtains: the Cross War Hammer of the Lakers, the Golden-Cup Sheep of the Stowalkers, the pale green waves of the Harvard family, and so on......

Iger didn't go any further, Robert personally initiated the mobilization order, and he could guess without thinking: all the families of the royal domain must be absent, even if there is only one person left in the family, he will insist on carrying the flag and climbing here, trying to win military merits in the war, so as to revive the family.

With so many nobles gathered together, it was a good time to engage in financial scams and brainwash and accumulate money, but now the chief logistics officer needs to find the king first...... or at least the person concerned seeks placement.

After asking several soldiers in a row, Iger did not get any valuable answers, and no one seemed to know that King Robert had also brought a "night watchman with the army". This made Egger already faintly unhappy, and this was the helplessness of the disparity in power: he had expected that the so-called night watchman was probably just a miraculous idea of Robert after he was drunk, as could be seen from the fact that the servant came to him without even a token or a letter of appointment.

But there is no way, he has to come anyway, the reason is very simple: he came to the king but forgot about this trivial matter, in case he didn't come, but the king remembered it, then he would have to go around without eating. In any case, the precious farming time of this traverser has to be wasted in a boring expedition with the army!

Egger scolded the fat deer countless times in his heart, but he came here, and naturally there was no reason to go back, if that was the case...... Not to mention the big truth, his status in the eyes of his personal attendants must at least fall a big way.

We can't just ask questions aimlessly and keep hitting a wall, we must solve this matter quickly, otherwise it will be too embarrassing!

......

He rode his horse and continued to march deeper into the barracks, to be honest, the discipline and quality of the army in this era were so poor, that he could ride all the way to the middle of the army assembly without dismounting, and there was no enemy within a few hundred miles, but what if it was an assassin?

Iger wondered if he could ride to Robert's tent like this if he knew the road until he was stopped by the Kingsguards, and I wondered if this guy was in the army now, but anyway...... If there were explosive weapons like explosives, assassinating the king would be like playing.

Eventually, he saw someone he knew, and who could meet the king—a nobleman in King's Landing who had bought a bond. In addition, they redeemed it two days ago, and they can be regarded as acquaintances who have met twice and spoken dozens of words!

Fortunately, I didn't ask him about the penalty for redeeming the bond early, and now at least I don't have to worry about the other party pretending not to know me.

——