The Old Town is the cultural center of Westeros, the oldest and most affluent city, home to both the Church and the School, guarded by the Hightowers of the Tower of Heaven, armed with an oath of allegiance to the Church:

"Knights of the Holy Sword" and "Order of the Warriors of the Stars".

Aegon thought there would be a tough battle to be fought, but unexpectedly, Old Town opened its doors to welcome Aegon.

It is said that at the beginning of the conquest, the archbishop fasted and prayed for seven days, and was guided by the golden lamp of the old woman:

If they resist, the old town will be destroyed.

The pious Count Hightower accepted the bishop's advice and voluntarily surrendered.

I don't know if God is very holy or if man is very wise, in short, everything is God's will.

Aegon was not a believer in the Seven Gods, but given the Church's authority in Westeros, he chose to accept the blessings of the Church and convert.

Three days later, in the Chapel of the Stars, the Archbishop anointed Aegon with seven holy oils on his forehead, crowned him, and proclaimed him Aegon I Targaryen, King of the Andals, Royna, and Ancestors, Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms and Guardian of the Land

(The "Seven Kingdoms" is a fictitious title, as Dorne did not succumb and remained so for more than a hundred years.)

This day is seen as the beginning of Aegon's reign. In Game of Thrones, there are four continents in total, namely Westeros, Essos, Thross, and Wurtus, an unknown continent south of Yaxia.

Several continents are separated by the sea, between Westeros and Essos is the Narrow Sea, above Essos is the Trembling Sea, below Westeros is the Summer Sea, and surrounded by the Continents of Thothros and Essos is the Jade Sea.

This is the general distribution of continents and oceans in Game of Thrones, and the main story takes place on the continents of Westeros and Essos.

Also known as the Sunset Country, Westeros is an extremely narrow continent with a large north-south span and a large difference in climate, and it was divided into seven kingdoms before Aegon unified Westeros.

Later, the Targaryen dynasty unified the continent, dividing the continent into four main regions, northern, southern, eastern, and western, and setting up vassals to protect and administer them.

At the beginning of the story, the Westward is the Lannisters, the Easter is the Arryns, the Southside is the Tyrells, and the North is the Stark.

There is no detailed map of the land of eternal winter north of the Great Wall of Desperation, which has not been explored due to the extremely cold weather, and the places that are known to be within the range of the wildlings near the Great Wall of Desperation are:

Ancestral Fist Peak, Custer's Castle, White Forest, Antler River, Tough Fort, Ghost Forest, Frost and Snow Fang.

The northern border is the area north of the neck, which is sparsely populated because of the cold climate, and the people in the north mostly believe in the old gods, and the fish beam wood is their spiritual sustenance.

In the North, the Stark family, who live in Winterfell, have been the Kings of the North and the Guardians of the North for thousands of years.

On the northern frontier of the North is the Great Wall of Desperation, built by the ancestors of the Stark family and the giants to defend against the Strangers, and beneath the Great Wall is Castle Black, where the Night's Watch legions are stationed.

The Iron Islands are a group of islands located in Tiemin Bay on the west coast of the mainland, and there are many islands in them, and the inhabitants of them are called Tiemin by people in other regions, who also call themselves "Iron Seeds".

The inhabitants of the Iron Islands believe that the god is the Drowning God, and everyone who wants to sit on the throne will pass the test of the Drowned God, and the rulers of the Iron Islands are the Greyjoy family of Pike Island.

The Iron People claim to be the people of the sea, and their naval power is very superior among the continents.

Riverlands is a fertile area in the Three Forks River Valley, where the Tully family of Riverrun, Ned's wife and the mother of the wolf cubs, rules the Riverlands.

Because of its geographical location and abundant produce, the Riverlands have always been fat in the eyes of other kings, and the Southern Kingdom has invaded it many times, and it has changed hands many times.

Arryn Valley is a valley almost completely surrounded by the Bright Moon Mountains, ruled by the Arryn family, one of the oldest Andal nobles, and the center of power here is the Eagle's Nest, an easy-to-defend castle with steep terrain where the little devil was put on trial.

Located just north of the West Bend in the Riverlands, the Westfrontier is ruled by the Lannisters, who live in Castle Rock and are once the kings of the rocks, with many gold mines and a major source of wealth for the Lannisters.

Riverbend is a fertile land ruled by the Tyrells of the High Court, the family of Little Rose, and there is a more famous city, Old Town, which is the headquarters for the training of the Bachelors, and it is here that Sam is trained by the Masters.

To the south of the bend is Dorne, the southernmost part of Westeros, an independent kingdom that is not ruled by Westeros, and the people here are fierce and aggressive, ruled by the Martell family.

Some of the characteristics here are somewhat similar to those of places such as Turkey, which is hot and arid, has many deserts, and is very different from other places.

The Throne is the center of the entire continent of Westeros, where the ruler is in King's Landing, which surrounds Blackwater Bay, and is located in the center of the continent, which is the center of power.

The geography of Westeros is an interesting question, the whole continent is like a chessboard, with mountains and avenues as its longitudinal columns, forests and rivers as its horizontal columns, and major families as chess players, and the top chess players have been playing the story of ice and fire on this chessboard for thousands of years.

The most typical is the War of the Five Kings, the root cause of which is very complex, the direct cause is Caitlin's private capture of the little devil, and Tywin then brazenly sent troops to the Riverlands under the pretext of protecting the family's reputation.

At that time, the Lannister army was divided into two lines:

The Western Army marched eastward, and the Northern Route Army, led by Jaime, with 15,000 men, attacked along the Riverside Avenue towards Riverrun.

The Riverway is one of the five avenues built during the reign of Jaehaerys I, King of the Targaryens, and it stretches from Castle Rock in the west, through Rushing City, Harrenhal, and to the Eagle's Nest in the east.

Halfway through the march of Jaime's army, the first battle broke out between the Golden Tooth and the Riverlands army, and they were victorious.

The Golden Tooth City is a pass built in the mountains and natural dangers, and the people of the western border hold this pass, so that foreign armies cannot attack the western border.

When the Andals first arrived in Westeros, the kings of the West's ancestors stopped the Andal's army here, and the Andals were unable to conquer the Golden Tooth City for a long time, and finally relied on marriage to enter the West.

To take an inappropriate example, the Golden Tooth City is the "Hangu Pass" of the people of the West.

The Southern Route Army, led by Tywin, numbered 20,000 men, initially marched along the Golden Mile, plundering Riverlands Castle as far as Harrenhal.

The Golden Highway is one of the five avenues built during the reign of Jaehaerys I, stretching from Castle Rock to Winter Solstice King's Landing in the west.

When Tywin saw that the Mad King was gone, he led his army to King's Landing, deceived the city gates, and plundered the army.

At that time, Tywin also led his army along the Golden Highway all the way to King's Landing.

The river avenue and the golden avenue in the western territory are opened up in the mountains.

The western territory itself is a relatively independent geographical unit, with higher terrain, more mountains and hills, and no specific name.

In the southern part of the Western Frontier, it borders the Riverlands, and historically there have been few large-scale military conflicts between the Westlands and the Riverlands.

There is a forest at the junction of the two, and this forest is not named, but there is a castle on the west side of the forest called the Chicken Hall, which is called the Chicken Forest.

The Yangji Forest is a buffer zone between the river bay and the western border, and on the west side of the forest, there is a narrow seaside plain on which the Yangji Hall is located.

An avenue starts from Kaiyan City in the north to Gaoting in the south, and is called Binhai Avenue.

Because there is little direct conflict between the western border and the riverbend direction, the appearance rate of this road can be said to be the lowest among the five roads.

Only during the First Blackfire Rebellion did the rebels who supported Daemon Blackfire invade Riverlands from the west.

When Tywin was captured, he had gathered the princes and prepared for war. On the northern side, it was a beat slower, and after learning that Ned had been beaten into the dungeon by Cersei, he began to gather his vassals.

A total of 18,000 people were summoned.

The northern territory is vast and sparsely populated, so although it is large, it has a small population. Robb gathered his vassals in Winterfell and headed south along King's Road.

The King's Road is one of five avenues built during the reign of Jaehaerys I, north to the Great Wall, passing through Carlin Bay, Harrenhal, King's Landing, Storm's End, and as far as Ellenwood in Dorne.

In the past three hundred years, the northern army has taken this avenue every time it has gone south, and this is the case during the Blood Dragon Dance and the same is true during the labor and righteousness.

Along King's Road, the northern army can reach King's Landing, and Robb can take his brothers from the north all the way south to warn Cersei and rescue Ned.

On the way south, Robb stayed at Carlin Bay, where Caitlin met with Robb after leaving the Vale.

Carlin Bay is a dangerous pass that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and has never fallen in history.

It was because of the existence of Carlin Bay that the troops of the Southern Army never reached the northern border;

It was because of the existence of Kalin Bay that the Andals were unable to completely assimilate the ancestors, and the old gods of the ancestors were able to survive in the north.

But why didn't Robb arrive at King's Landing with 18,000 northern brethren to free Ned?

The reason for this lies with Tywin, who, as mentioned in the previous section, arrived at Harrenhal with 20,000 men.

Tywin held Harrenhal and King's Road with 20,000 men, and if Robb were to lead his army south along King's Road, he would inevitably run into Tywin.

Robb knew that he couldn't beat Tywin, and even if he won Tywin, Tywin packed up the remnants of his army and held Harrenhal, but he still couldn't go south;

If you ignore Harrenhal and force your way south, you run the risk of being caught between Tywin and Joffrey from the north and south.

This is where the strategic significance of Harrenhal lies, if Westeros is a big chessboard, then the Riverlands are the heart of this chessboard, and Harrenhal is the heart of the Riverlands, that is, the center of the center.

Whoever holds Harrenhal will have the best advantage. Defending this place, the northern army could not go south, and the western army could not advance eastward, which was very uncomfortable.

And Harrenhal is the product of the great success of the "black-hearted" Heron, and the castle is a big exaggeration.

So you can hoard a lot of supplies and garrison a lot of troops here.

Only a bug-level weapon like a dragon can conquer here.

During the Dance of the Blood Dragons, the "Ranger Prince" Daemon also adopted the River Strategy with Harrenhal as the core, and finally annihilated all the Green Party troops in the north.

During the Laoyi period, Rhaegar could have taken the strategy of holding Harrenhal, dragging the Wolf-Fish Eagle Alliance into the quagmire of war, waiting for reinforcements from the riverbend.

But I don't know whether it was a slight enemy or a lack of military acumen, in short, Rhaegar left Harrenhal behind and chose a decisive duel, and finally swallowed the bitter fruit of defeat.

Complementing Harrenhal is the Trident River. As you can see in the picture above, the Trident River runs almost through the central part of Westeros, and its three tributaries merge north of Harrenhal into the main stream and flow into the Narrow Sea.

Historically, the northern army went south, and crossing the river was a big problem. Most of the time, they chose to avoid the western location of the Trident River and cross the river directly to the confluence of the three rivers of the Trident.

That's why the King's Road crosses from here;

That's why the Harrenhal location here is so crucial;

That's why the showdown between Rhaegar and Robert takes place here;

That's why Tywin's 20,000-strong army is holding here.

However, there is no only crossing at the Three Forks.

Robb knew that it would be difficult to defeat Tywin, so he abandoned this easy path and chose another side path, which was the Freys' Twin River Cities.

Located on the Green Fork River, Twin Rivers City is the only junction of the Green Fork River, and it is the only intersection that you have to pass through whether you are coming from the south or going north. It was here that the Frey family collected tolls and became one of the richest families on the road.

Therefore, Robb was afraid of Tywin's military situation, so he had to reroute to Twin River City, and there was no other way to go but here.

The Green Fork River is only one of the three main tributaries of the Trident River, and the three tributaries from north to south are the Green Fork River, the Blue Fork River, and the Red Fork River.

And there is an important castle on each fork river, and each castle plays a certain role in geopolitical defense.

The specific arrangement of the forks and castles is as follows:

Twin River City and Rushing River City are very famous, and anyone who has read the story should know it, and those who don't know it are those who haven't seen it.

But Haijiang City is relatively unpopular, and in the episode, he just casually mentioned it through Theon's mouth:

Haijiang City is almost next to the Blue Fork River, and at the same time, it is very close to the Iron Islands, so it has been plundered by the Iron People many times in history.

It is known that at the time of Aegon's conquest, the Riverlands were being ruled by the Iron King Heron Hale.

The way the Hall family conquered the Riverlands was to land near Haijiang City, resist the longship to the Blue Fork River, and then attack the entire Trident River basin along the Blue Fork River, and finally conquer the Riverlands.

This strategy can be said to be very fanciful.

As can be seen from the above, the battlefield on the northern front of the War of the Five Kings was almost a situation in which the armies of all sides were fighting in the river.

With Carlin Bay in the north and Golden Tooth City in the west, you can sit back and relax without worrying about a fire in your hometown.

In the face of foreign troops, there is no danger to defend in Hejian, and there is no unity within itself, so there is a saying in the world of ice and fire:

"As soon as the Seven Kingdoms fight, blood is shed among the rivers".

The western and northern borders thought that the rear was worry-free, so almost all of them poured out of the nest and chased the deer and the river.

But not long after, his hometown was on fire.

The Golden Tooth City in the West has never fallen in history, but Robb's Icewolf Grey Wind found a mountain path near the Golden Tooth City, and the Northern army bypassed the Golden Tooth City and invaded the heart of the West. It can be said that Robb's plug-in is also very powerful.

Carlin Bay in the north has never fallen in the face of the southerners.

But the fleet of the Iron Islands landed on the northern side of Carlin Bay and successfully raided here from north to south.

The fall of Carlin Bay also exposed its biggest shortcoming, which is easy to defend against the south and difficult to defend against the north.

This is the northern front of the War of the Five Kings...