Highgarden.
The name of this castle is composed of two words in the Common Tongue, literally meaning "high garden."
It seems casual, but the amount of information contained within it is not small at all, divided into two parts: "high" and "garden."
The first part is self-explanatory. The castle is situated on one of the highest hills in the core plains of the Reach, with the hilltop rising more than a hundred meters above the surrounding land. Although this height would not even be considered a "mountain" by the modern geographical standards of Earth, it undeniably stands out among the surrounding plains within a hundred-mile radius of Highgarden. Looking across the Mander River basin, any hills higher than it are certainly not by the river, and any hills by the river are not higher than it, while those both by the river and of similar height would inevitably fail to meet the condition of being "located in the heartland of the Reach, protected by vassals." Successive residents and owners have spared no effort to build the castle higher. To this day, anyone who ascends to the highest point of the castle can survey half of Highgarden's territory with a single glance.
When Garth Greenhand I decided to settle here and build a castle, what he likely valued was its expansive view, ease of defense, distance from the borders, and proximity to water sources.
What about the "garden"?
Highgarden is built of white marble and is recognized by most people in Westeros as the most beautiful castle in the Seven Kingdoms. Besides this basic common knowledge that anyone can tell you, the more important reason is, of course, that this castle truly has a garden within it. Among the three circular walls, low, middle, and high, all completely white, the lowest one encircles the entire base of the hill. Between it and the second wall on the hillside is a meticulously maintained circular botanical maze. This maze can be used during wartime to confuse invading enemies and serve a defensive purpose, and during peacetime, it can be used to entertain guests, as well as for viewing and recreation. Countless flowering plants are grown in this circular garden, their types, quantities, and even colors meticulously planned and calculated to ensure seamless transitions between their blooming periods and complementary colors, allowing the entire garden to have colorful flowers in bloom during every season except winter.
No matter when or in what season you visit Highgarden, the area within the first wall is lush and green, with flowers blooming everywhere, dotted with garden pavilions, sculptures, pools, fountains, and artificial waterfalls. It is a paradise on earth.
Uh, I have strayed. Let us get back to the main topic.
Its height allows Highgarden to be seen from extremely far away, and naturally, it can also see extremely far. Its white color gives it extremely strong light-reflection ability and makes it highly distinctive.
Even when he was just a small Chief Logistics officer, Aegor had heard a Reach merchant in King's Landing boast like this: on a clear day with good weather, Highgarden could be seen from dozens of miles away.
Take the square root, then multiply by one hundred and thirteen...
After silently plugging the values into the simple formula he remembered and doing some calculations, Aegor found this claim to be surprisingly rigorous. If the size and shape of the planet of the world of ice and fire were similar to Earth's, assuming the height of Highgarden's highest tower was close to two hundred meters, and taking the observer's own height into account, then it could indeed be directly observed from a distance of fifty kilometers.
Unfortunately, although he should be within that distance according to the map, he did not find the target in his field of vision as expected. Putting down the telescope in his hand, he frowned, let out a long sigh, and gradually realized there was nothing strange about this.
The calculated number was, after all, only a theoretical value, while the visibility of the naked eye and the performance of telescopes in this era had their limits. Highgarden should indeed be within his field of vision, but because the lens magnification was insufficient and its apparent size was too small, it could at most appear as a small white dot.
Those who had been to Highgarden could, through experience and familiarity, know that the white spot at the edge of their vision was Highgarden, while someone like him, who had never visited the capital of the Reach, would probably have to observe and search carefully for a while before possibly finding that small dot.
And at this very moment, he had absolutely no mind or energy to do the sort of thing a tourist would do.
He was currently shouldering an extremely arduous task: commanding the main force at the center of Daenerys's Western Expeditionary Army, continuing to approach Highgarden in a rolling formation.
Rolling forward was certainly novel, at least unheard of for the Reach nobles of this era, but at its core, it was merely a slightly complex set of coordinated movements. In the Heavenly Dynasty before his transmigration, during the Sui and Tang dynasties or even earlier, elite troops had already been capable of far more complex formation changes and maneuvers than this.
But the impressive part of what Aegor was doing this time while leading the Western Expeditionary Army was that the troops did not roll just once or twice, but repeated it endlessly, one wave after another. Yesterday, the Reach cavalry had initially expected the Western Expeditionary Army's formation to deform during the rolling, exposing weaknesses and creating opportunities, but the reality was that the enemy kept rolling from morning until near dusk, when they began setting up camp, always unbelievably maintaining a perfect trapezoidal formation close to a semicircle, completely impregnable.
What the Reachmen could not guess was that this was not due to skilled coordination between the Western Expeditionary Army's units or Aegor's exceptional command ability, but rather thanks to a cheat they knew nothing about, the avian wargs. Relying on the unprecedented aerial perspective provided by these New Gift people with their abilities, Aegor could constantly fine-tune the positions of each phalanx after every change in formation, thus keeping the overall defensive capability of the entire formation consistently high, leaving the enemy stuck like a bone in their throat, unable to attack.
...
Yesterday's engagement concluded with the Reachmen being shocked all day and Aegor winning by a narrow margin.
Today's confrontation, however, had only just begun.
After finishing their first meal early, before the smoke from the cooking fires gathered overhead had dispersed, the Western Expeditionary Army swarmed out from their slightly more makeshift camp than usual, setting up the same river-hugging trapezoidal formation as yesterday. Under the threat of the Reach cavalry unit appearing on the southern edge of the horizon as punctually as an appointment, they began alternately moving and rolling forward.
The sun gradually shifted from the east toward overhead, and the rolling advance proceeded smoothly wave after wave. The increasingly proficient Western Expeditionary Army successfully advanced about three more miles toward Highgarden in the morning and comfortably took turns enjoying lunch at noon. For a moment, it seemed as though this Western Expedition might end with the Reachmen continuously retreating, unable to organize a frontal confrontation.
But this dull and boring situation was finally broken after another round of rolling past noon, when an extremely wide and large colorful forest composed of various colored flags and long weapons blocked the Western Expeditionary Army's westward path. Red, orange, yellow, green, gold. All the colors a normal person could imagine at first glance could be found in this forest of flags, interspersed with a large amount of sharp, dazzling metal glint. From a league away, the many coats of arms and patterns on the flags were unclear, but even with a simple mind, one could guess that all the Reach noble armies supporting Tyrell and King Aegon were gathered here.
In terms of width and number, this forest of flags and weapons was similar to the Reach infantry vanguard scattered by several rounds of shelling yesterday, but a brief aerial reconnaissance using the avian wargs revealed that the depth of this "forest" was far beyond that of the Reach army's vanguard from yesterday, and the neatness of the military formation was far ahead of the vanguard. Both quantity and quality were a notch higher. This was clearly the genuine main force of the Reach infantry, without a doubt. And what surprised Aegor even more than their scale and military bearing was the battle line they had set up.
It was a low, elongated earthwork running north to south, lying across the Western Expeditionary Army's direction of advance, concealing the Reach army's formation, which was several miles wide, behind it like a natural cover. Thus, a gentle terrain feature with height fluctuating between single and double digits and a slope angle easily counted on one hand was naturally like flat ground for marching troops, with no obstruction, but for artillery firing horizontally, it was an insurmountable barrier. It was clear that the Reachmen setting up their defense line here was no coincidence.
Of course, it was impossible for a plain to just happen to have a complete earth slope several miles long that could serve as a defense line. Due to the undulations, this natural cover could actually only protect about one-third of the Reach infantry. This was where Aegor became alert: in the remaining less than two-thirds of the sections that did not form cover, the Reachmen had built artificial embankments five or six feet high using earth, stones, and sandbags, just high enough to conceal adults of average height behind them. Using these dashed-line-like segments of embankments, and the similarly discontinuous segments of earth slope, they mutually compensated for and fitted together with one another, finally assembling a Highgarden defense line without gaps, powerfully demonstrating their determination not to retreat again.
Aegor's heart tightened, realizing that the most troublesome situation had still occurred. He had ultimately failed to subdue the enemy without a fight. Today, a real tough battle would take place here, and the outcome of this battle would determine whether he would be renowned for eternity or nailed to the pillar of shame in Westeros's history.
(To be continued.)