38 -Chapter 34-

-POV 3rd-

-Royal Command Tent-

In the tent were the 10 Lieutenants of the Royal Army, Tristan, Vincent, Jordy, Carvin, Corian, Cédric, Elric, Samwell, Dorian, and Jonothor, as well as the lords Leo Lefford, Kevan Lannister, Gregor Clegane, Jaime Lannister, Tywin Lannister, Renfred Rykker, and Rolland Buckwell who had both distinguished themselves by almost annihilating what remained of the right army of the Tully Coalition.

"I must admit I am impressed and that's an understatement to devise such a complex technique and apply it on a battlefield, there's no denying you have a certain talent for war," said Tywin Lannister, allowing himself a rare glass of wine to celebrate the overwhelming victory of their armies over the forces of the Vale and the Riverlands.

"Thank you, I think so too," said the king with a small, mocking smile, a sign he was joking.

"Well now that we've celebrated our victory I want to know how many men were sacrificed to execute our plan"

"The right army was the most affected," said Jaime with a solemn air before adding: "We lost 5,011 soldiers 2,498 are severely wounded and I doubt they'll survive the night and 1,224 are slightly wounded"

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose with two fingers before saying:

"and the left one"

This time it was Kevan Lannister who said: "The left army was luckier it only had 1,534 dead 1,054 lightly wounded and 534 seriously injured we followed your orders to the letter trying to annihilate as many enemies as possible while sacrificing as few as possible"

I nodded and then looked at Samwell who said: "The Royal Army lost more than 1,676 soldiers, the severely wounded number 3,219 people and the lightly wounded more than 5,598 people"

I let out a deep sigh and then said, swallowing my cup of wine in one gulp: "I've just killed 8,221 people"

Tristan frowned and then for the first time stood up and said: "Your Majesty with all due respect you are mistaken"

Everyone turned towards the man of few words then without being daunted by all the looks on him he said: "Every soldier under your banner took up arms knowing there was a great chance of dying, we all made our prayers and me first, although I have faith in you I did not think that everyone in this room would still be alive at nightfall"

"He's right, Aegon there's still a possibility of healing and even better maybe the lightly wounded can fight for us as soon as tomorrow thanks to the medical unit you've set up," said Samwell

'I sent them to their death' was the only thing that persisted in my mind

"Give the total report of the battle," I said.

"We lost 8,211 soldiers, 6,251 are gravely wounded and might not have the chance to return alive to the capital and 7,876 are slightly wounded"

"So we lost 15,000 men"

"In fact, it's more 14,462 soldiers to be precise but yes in sum we've lost a lot of men"

"We've lost more than a fifth of our force in a battle"

"Not a battle your majesty THE battle, you're young but you're the king, you have the courage and the soul of a king now you just have to harden yourself, this is not the time to falter you still have to annihilate the bastard branch of your family," said Jaime.

I turned my head towards my Royal Guard and nodded: "You're absolutely right, but before that, we will finish the reconquest of the Stormlands"

"You're right, what are the estimated losses of the other side?"

"The losses hahahaha ...we annihilated them," said Jonothor laughing out loud.

I allowed myself a small smile seeing the giant's positive attitude and then said: "More seriously what are the exact figures"

"My army killed 6,000 enemy soldiers and captured more than 10,000 able-bodied men with some lightly wounded, the 5,000 more seriously wounded men remaining were killed," said Tywin

I nodded and looked at Sam who said:

"The army of the Vale was completely destroyed once we trapped them, out of the 50,000 infantry, more than 30,000 infantrymen have died, we killed 5,000 additional men more seriously wounded and we captured more than 15,000 enemy infantrymen, aside from the most important nobles we did as you ordered us before the battle, NO knight of the Vale not originating from a noble house was left alive"

"And as for the army commanded by Edmure Tully, it was the most affected it lost more than half of its forces and we only managed to capture barely 5,000 men," said Jaime.

"30,000 is still too much, we can't feed them all," said Tywin

"We're not going to kill them," I said in an authoritative tone to the old lion.

"There's no other choice," said his brother intervening in his favor.

I shook my head and then said: "We must find another solution"

"It's not just a matter of logistics we can't afford to have the rebellion of 30,000 prisoners on our hands," said Kevan Lannister without being daunted.

"And what do you suggest?" I asked the knight clearly more experienced but too cruel for my taste.

He said: "Let's kill the most seriously wounded among the lightly wounded we captured we could free up 5,000 or even 10,000 rations and this would leave us in clear numerical superiority"

His opinion wasn't useless nor devoid of sense but I didn't want to kill men simply because they had obeyed their lords by continuing this way I would end up having too much blood on my hands and I could even end up destroying a whole generation of my future kingdom.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose and finally said: "All prisoners will receive two meals a day and will build siege weapons, use the blacksmiths and tanners, the rest will be used as laborers to repair and carry the heaviest loads"

I stood up and once about to leave I added looking at the one in charge of all the logistics of this campaign.

"I want all the nobles we captured to be placed under the constant guard of at least 5 cohorts, I don't want a single one of them to be able to escape"