The Riverlands can be said to be the most powerful of the seven kingdoms, with the largest population, the largest army, the richest family, the most prosperous agriculture and animal husbandry, and the most powerful cultural radiation ability.

But for nearly 300 years, there has not been a normal battle in the riverbend.

In the War of the Five Kings, the Riverbend supported Lan Li and provided 80,000 people to Lan Li!

Correspondingly, the Stormlands only provided 20,000 men for the Blue Rites; It is also mentioned that only 18,000 people went south in the north and 35,000 in the west and east. The 80,000 people in Riverbend can be said to be overwhelmingly superior to any of the rest.

After Robert's death, Lance wanted to win over Ned and overthrow Joffrey and Cersei at a smaller cost.

However, Ned rejected Lan Li's plan to force the palace.

Therefore, Lan Li had to go south to the High Court with the Hundred Flowers Knight, and gathered the 100,000 troops of Riverbend + Storm Land in the High Court, and then took these 100,000 troops to the north along the Rose Avenue to King's Landing.

The Rose Avenue is also one of the five avenues built during the reign of Jaehaerys I, starting from the old town in the south, passing through the High Court, Kuqiao, until King's Landing, and then reaching the town of Makuya and Nüquan in the north.

From the High Court to King's Landing, it was originally a flat river, and there was no natural danger to hinder it.

However, the comprehensive strength of the Riverlands is too strong, so Martin does not let the Riverlands army go north smoothly.

As soon as Lan Li and his army reached the Bitter Bridge, they heard that Stannis was besieging Storm's End with his own mini-army, so he ordered the main army to stay at Bitter Bridge and only bring cavalry to rescue Storm's End.

Everyone knows what happened next, but this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened.

It was the same during the Blood Dragon Dance period.

The Riverlands army, dominated by the Hightower army, marched north along the Rose Avenue to King's Landing, but stopped at a place called Tenstone Town, where they refused to move for a long time due to leadership disputes, and finally dispersed in a hurry.

It was even more bizarre when the army of the river bend attacked mosquitoes with cannons, and went out to besiege a small fort of Wind's End, missing the decisive battle between Robert and Rhaegar at Ruby Beach.

The reason for this may be that Martin also thinks that the army of Riverlands is too strong, and if it is a normal war, no one can defeat it, so he adds all kinds of accidents and obstacles to it.

It's either a leadership dispute, or the king dies halfway, in short, he doesn't let it go north as usual.

Historically, the Riverlands had two larger enemies. One is the Iron People of the Iron Islands; One is the Dorn.

On the southern border of the Riverlands, there is a tripartite buffer zone called the Dorne Territory, and the Riverlands, Stormlands, and Dorne each occupy a portion of the area.

(Just as the Indian Ocean doesn't all belong to Asan, the Dorne Frontier doesn't belong entirely to Dorne)

The topography of the Dorne Frontier is dominated by mountains, and the longest stretch of the mountain range is called the Crimson Mountains.

Its name comes from a tragic battle between Riverlands and Dorne, in which the blood of both sides stained the entire mountain range red.

For thousands of years, the three sides have been fighting a tug-of-war on the Dorne frontier, winning and losing each other.

When the Dornes were at their strongest, they crossed the Crimson Mountains and conquered the High Court; When the Hewan people were strong, they drove the Dorne people back to their hometown, and they did not dare to go north for a hundred years.

The three parties have divided the warrior families in the war-torn land of the Dorne Frontier, such as the Selmy family where Barristan is located, the Dondelion family where the "Lightning King" Berry is resurrected seven times, and the Tully family where Sam is the winner of life

It wasn't until Dorne was incorporated into the Seven Kingdoms through marriage that the area was able to win hundreds of years of peace.

To commemorate the peaceful return of Dorne, King Daeron II built a castle on the Stormlands side of the Borderlands, named Summer Hall.

The Midsummer Hall is the place where Aegon V played with fire and set himself on fire, and it is also the place where Lao ** won three victories a day and shocked the world.

Let's talk about the Iron Islands, judging from their geographical location, there are only three ways to develop.

Facts have also proved that its strategy is divided into three types: northward, eastward, and southward.

To go north is to plunder the north, to go east is to attack the west and the riverlands, and to go south is to plunder the riverlands.

Among them, the northward and southbound strategies were implemented in the Battle of the Five Kings, and although the eastward strategy did not appear in the Battle of the Five Kings, it was often seen in history.

The core of the northward strategy is the capture of Carlin Bay.

Although King Balon's troops attacked the northern border in three directions, the only one that really had strategic value was to attack Carlin Bay.

The strategic value of Carlin Bay has been described in detail before, so I will not repeat it.

In normal times, even if the Iron Folk captured Carlin Bay, it would not have much effect, Carlin Bay has never failed to defend against the southerners, but it is not impregnable if it is attacked from the north.

In the War of the Five Kings, the northern army poured south, which gave the Iron People a golden opportunity to hold on to Carlin Bay, so that the northern army could not return to the north.

And the deep forest fort that Asha fought and the city of Torun that Theon fought were actually not critical.

In the TV series, Baron only gave Theon one ship, but he actually gave eight ships, which is not much different from Asha's 12 ships.

Theon's private decision to fight Winterfell is also consistent with the original book.

However, after the fall of Winterfell, the Northern Princes organized a small army of 2,000 men to counterattack, which was not filmed in detail in the series:

The 2,000 troops of the North to retake Winterfell were led by Sir Roderick Kesso, with the majority of the Mandalay family at White Harbor.

The Mandalay army marched north along the Whiteblade River to the vicinity of Winterfell.

This Whiteblade River is also one of the Five Rivers of Westeros.

In even more ancient times, pirates from the Three Sisters often traveled north along the Whiteblade River, raiding the coast and threatening the safety of Winterfell.

In order to defend against pirates, the Starks originally built a military fortress here, named the Wolf's Lair, and assigned a Stark here.

This Stark is the Grey Starks.

Since the establishment of the Wolf's Lair, the pirates of the Three Sisters have rarely raided the northern hinterland along the Whiteblade River.

Later, however, the Grey Stark family colluded with the Bolton family to overturn the Stark family, but fortunately, the conspiracy was revealed and the Grey Stark family was deprived of their territory.

Later, at the site of the Wolf's Den, Stark divided the Mandalay family, and the Mandalay family was good at business and finance, and established White Harbor on the site of the Wolf's Den, which has developed into one of the five major port cities in Westeros and the richest family in the North.

In the main story, Catalin takes a boat from White Harbor to King's Landing, returns to the north at White Harbor, and heads west to Carlin Bay to meet Robb.

The Three Sisters, on the other hand, were in decline at the time of the main story, but they were a key part of history.

Both the North and the Vale wanted to occupy the archipelago, so a millennia war broke out, and the Vale army even attacked the North by ferry, burning the wolf's den at one point.

The so-called eastward march is to plunder the western border and the area between the rivers to the east.

As for the raiding of the Riverlands, it has already been said that the genius leader of the House of Hall, Halwin Hall, ordered his men to reach the Blue Fork River with a longboat, and thus conquered the Riverlands along the Trident.

In the West, the Iron Min's favorite raider is Lannisport.

Lannisport is also one of the five port cities of Westeros, and coexists with Castle Rock.

Almost every time the Ironmen go out, Lannisport suffers.

In the last three hundred years, during the Dance of the Blood Dragons, the time of Aerys I, and the time of Robert, Lannisport was beaten three times by the Iron People (and of course all three times).

During the War of the Five Kings, Theon returned to the Iron Islands with confidence, with the aim of persuading Baron to attack Lannisport once again and flank the east and west of the northern border.

However, after all, the western frontier is mountainous and fortified, and it is easy to raid and rob, but it is even more difficult to occupy it for a long time.

Among them, the Lannisters' castle of Cayrock is particularly strong, and has not fallen for 8,000 years, and when Visenya, the sister of Aegon the Conqueror, saw Cayrock and exclaimed:

"Even if there are dragons, it will be difficult to take this place."

Traveling south, Baron's second brother "Crow's Eye" Euren assassinated Baron and became the new king of the Iron Islands through the Election Society.

He repatriated most of the Iron People's army in the north and began to move south with all his might.

After Ulun led the iron construction team to the south, the first place he conquered was the shield islands.

The role of the Shield Islands was to defend against the Iron Min, who in ancient times often followed the Mandeb River deep into the heart of the Bends, burning and looting along the way.

Later, one of the king of the river bend drove out the Iron People, and he divided four families in the Shield Islands, and they kept the Iron People's longship out of the Mandeb River.

Since then, the riverbend basin has enjoyed thousands of years of peace.

As mentioned earlier, the Mandalay family in White Harbor was originally in the Mandeb River valley, and their family name is also based on the name of the Mandeb River.

Later, the Mandalay family was expelled by the princes of Riverbend because of their misdeeds, so they came to the north and established White Harbor.

But now the shield archipelago has fallen, and the entire hinterland of the river bay is exposed to the iron hooves of the Iron Folk warships.

The area of the river bay may seem intricate, but in fact it is also a large river civilization, and most of the cities are built along the river, and the Mande River is the backbone of the river bay.

Therefore, the fall of the shield archipelago may seem insignificant, but the blow to the entire river bay land is fatal.

Because of the fall of the Shield Islands, Redwin's fleet, which was besieging Dragonstone, had to come back to help, and the Knight of the Hundred Flowers was seriously injured in a hurry.

Garland Tyrellle, who was besieging Brightwater, had to evacuate Brightwater and try to defend against the Iron People, and the Riverbend Princes were all in danger.

In the Battle of the Five Kings, the valley is shrunk in a tortoise shell throughout, so it has no sense of existence.

In addition, the sick mother and daughter of Lysa and Humiliation are very unlikable, so there are far fewer fans and brothers of the Arryn family than Stark and Lannister.

In fact, it is not only the Battle of the Five Kings, but even during the period of Aegon's conquest and the Dance of the Blood Dragons, the valley's presence is not strong.

Vesenya in Aegon's conquest started with one man and one dragon, and surrendered the valley;

During the Dance of the Blood Dragons, although the valley openly participated in the war, it did not send troops to join the battle until the war was almost over.

Although the sense of presence is not strong, the friends can't despise the valley because of this. Regardless of overall strength or individual indicators, the valley is not weaker than other regions.

The terrain of the valley is dominated by the mountainous terrain, and the long mountain range near the side of the river is called the Mingyue Mountain Range, and the only way to enter the valley by land is the Blood Gate.

This blood gate, like Carlin Bay, Golden Tooth City and other places, is a place where no one can open it.

Suppose Robb takes 18,000 northern brothers with kitchen knives to the Eagle's Nest to force the palace and force Lysa to send troops to help him fight the Lannisters.

First of all, it is necessary to storm the Bloody Gate, a fortress that has never fallen in history.

Then, with the surviving brothers, walk through the narrow valley mountain road, and slowly march towards the Eagle's Nest City.

On the way, you will encounter guerrilla harassment from the hill tribes, sneak attacks by the valley army, stabbing the Lannister army, and endure the hardship of material shortages.

The hill tribes are the descendants of the ancestors who were forced to flee into the mountains when the Andals conquered Westeros and drove away their ancestors.

They disobeyed the commands of the Eagle's Nest and lived a relatively primitive life in the mountains, often attacking passing caravanserais.

In the end, when she came to the city of Eagle's Nest City, a stubborn woman like Lysa must die to save face and resolutely not send troops to help Robb.

Therefore, Robb must ask his brothers in the north to forcibly attack Eagle's Nest City, and convince Lysa to send troops to help Robb with the truth in person.

So, take the brothers from the north to force Lysa to send troops, it's good to think about this in your heart......

As can be seen from the above description, it is almost impossible to conquer the valley by land - unless there are dragons.

Queen Visenya and Meg I have twice forced the Eagle's Nest to surrender without a fight through the parachute of the magic dragon.

After the extinction of the dragon, Eagle's Nest City has completely become a self-reliant and self-sufficient place outside the law.

It's a different story by sea, where the Andals invaded Westeros and expanded outward from the valleys.

They first landed on the Five Fingers Peninsula, the area of Littlefinger's hometown, and then encroached on the entire valley (of course, the Eagle's Nest had not yet been built), and then used the valley as a base camp to conquer the remaining five countries in the south, driving the ancestors and the old gods to the north with harsh weather conditions.

Of course, the great migration of the Andals is, after all, a thing of the past.

However, the strategy of conquering the valley was still by sea, and although it was difficult, it was at least theoretically possible.

The conquest of the valley by land is theoretically possible.

When Aegon conquered, he tried to open a road to the valley by sea.

However, the Long family's fleet was completely wiped out by the Valley Navy near Seagull Town, and finally relied on the dragon to save a trace of face.

And the Dorne area also has two first-class days, the so-called two-day first-class, that is, two natural hazards, one river.

In the War of the Five Kings, although Dorne has not yet joined the battle, Prince Dolang has gathered two large armies and is ready to go north at any time.

One was stationed at the intersection of the bone road, and the other was stationed at the Prince's Pass.