According to Officer Stark, when the coalition forces discovered that the fire had started, there were not many casualties, but Lord Bolton sent a lot of people to rescue military supplies and logistics, and the King's Landing defenders attacked again.
So under Lord Bolton's order, there were 2,500 Stark soldiers, more than a thousand soldiers from various river families, and more than 600 soldiers from the Northern Streams, the White Blade River, the Horwood family, the Severn family, etc.
Soldiers from smaller families formed an interception line and sniped at the enemy, who numbered about seven thousand.
Another part of the Qohor mercenaries did not receive orders from Arthur himself, so they withdrew directly and did not participate in the interception according to Bolton's orders.
When Arthur arrived, there were only about 800 people left on the interception line, including more than 500 Stark soldiers, more than 200 soldiers from various river families, and more than 120 soldiers from small northern families.
.
Fortunately, most of the golden robes were recently recruited civilians, so the Northerners killed 2,780 enemies at the cost of more than 3,300 people, and their performance was not bad.
But what's worse is that basically all the nobles responsible for participating in the interception died in the battle, such as Raymond Darry of the Riverlands, Earl Meech Severn of the North, Earl Harris Horwood, and Cahor City.
Harion Karstark was captured on the spot.
When the family soldiers are very loyal to their lord, the death of these nobles can seriously affect the soldiers' position.
For example, in the original book, after Count Karstark was beheaded, the Kahor City soldiers on the western front dispersed on the spot, and the Kahor City infantry on the eastern front directly defected to Roose Bolton after the news came.
"Where's Patrick from Seaside City?" he asked.
"The young master was called away by Lord Bolton because he had something important to do." A Seaside City soldier replied.
"This old guy!" Arthur yelled angrily.
It seemed that he also knew that the person who blocked the enemy's attack had a low chance of surviving, so he called Patrick away to give the Mallister family face.
After most of the counties on the south bank of the Red Fork River were largely ignored by the people of the West, the status of Seaside City in the Riverlands suddenly rose, which is why Bolton made such an appearance.
Roose Bolton is fully responsible for how the battle ended tonight.
Lord Leech may not have secretly communicated with King's Landing, but he must have the intention of consuming the power of the Wolf family and the pro-Wolf family.
Originally, the Fish-Wolf Alliance had a smooth start. If the Eastern Front captured King's Landing in one fell swoop, and Robb from the Western Front attacked the West, then the war between the Fish-Wolf and the Lion Family would basically be over if Robb had no intention of taking the Iron Throne.
it's over.
What's left is Stannis and Renly of the Lion and Deer families fighting for the Iron Throne.
But in tonight's battle, Lord Leech sent a wave of kills to King's Landing, which caused heavy losses to the Eastern Front Allied Forces.
According to Roose Bolton's approach, even if the coalition forces have the strength to capture King's Landing, he can still kill a wave of people and flee.
To reduce the advantage of the Fish-Wolf Alliance and take advantage of the opportunity to preserve its own strength, this is what Mr. Leech wants to do most right now.
If the war started normally, Arthur could still influence Roose Bolton's decision-making through Sansa, but in this emergency situation, he was powerless.
After all, he is not the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, nor is he from the North.
It means catching Lord Leech's mistake, and then asking Sansa to unite with the northern nobles to depose Roose Bolton as commander. The new commander must be a northern noble.
The nobles on the eastern front and the northern border are generally not as smart as the Great Jon on the western front.
"Bring the wounded who can still move, let's go find the main force."
After the soldiers rested for a while, Arthur ordered.
After walking westward along the Blackwater River for almost two leagues, it was almost after dawn that they arrived at the temporary camp of the coalition forces.
Most of the soldiers had no tents and could only lie on the flat ground to rest. Dozens of monks and bachelors accompanying the army were bandaging the burned soldiers.
Fortunately, dozens of oxcarts carrying military rations were brought out, so there was no food crisis for the time being.
Arthur let the soldiers he brought with him rest on their own, and asked the Qohor mercenaries who retreated first to protect Joffrey, who was still unconscious, before walking straight to the tent area.
…
"Arthur, you came just in time." Robert Glover immediately discovered Bracken covered in blood. "We are discussing where to go next."
"We lost four to five thousand men in this battle, and nearly two thousand soldiers were burned. We can't take King's Landing, but fortunately we have captured the little devil and Robert's illegitimate son Gendry. We can
Consider exchanging these two for Lord Ed's remains and his tile-steel sword Hanbing, and then we can lead troops to West Hejian, or go north to capture Dusken Valley City."
Robert introduced the preliminary idea of the Northerners to Arthur.
Arthur glanced at Tyrion lying in the corner of the tent. His face was wrapped with a bandage. He looked injured and was unconscious.
"It's funny, when we found him, he was being hunted by Ser Mandon Moore of the Kingsguard, but we were his saviors." Lord Herman Taohar added.
He didn't say what happened to Moore, but he thought he went to see the Seven Gods.
The fat man Willis Manderly chuckled and said: "It seems that his nephew or his sister wants him to die."
The little devil was not Arthur's focus for the time being. He asked in confusion: "Why do you know that Gendry is Robert's illegitimate son?"
"Lord Bolton said it." Patrick, who was alive and well, replied.
He is the only river noble left in the coalition except the Frey family and Arthur.
Arthur looked at Bolton, who said slowly and logically: "You made such a big noise to find Gendry, so I naturally want to check his identity. According to the memories of the king's civilians outside the city, when Gendry fled King's Landing,
Around that time, Joffrey sent the Golden Robes to kill many children, who were suspected to be the illegitimate children of the late King Robert. So Gendry's identity was obvious."
"But Gendry is mine." Arthur searched around but couldn't find him. "I won't agree to them exchanging him for ice. What's more, the ice should have been sent to Tywin at this moment and is not here."
King's Landing."
The Lannister family originally had a cork steel sword "Light Howl", but it was later lost by a certain King of Casterly Rock, so the Lion family no longer had a cork steel sword.
Tywin, who was dedicated to revitalizing his family, had always wanted to get a cork steel sword, but no one would sell it.
Because this is a sign of a long family history and ancient bloodline.
Moreover, the corrugated steel sword also has a special characteristic, that is, it can only be divided and cannot be reconciled, so it also cuts off the path of fusing several small corrugated steel daggers into a big sword.
So getting a Valyrian steel sword became one of Lord Tywin's pet peeves.
After the coup in King's Landing, Cersei, who knew her father's thoughts well, would naturally send the ice she got to Tywin.
Lord Bolton nodded, "Since Ice may not be in King's Landing, we don't have to be so cruel. After all, Joffrey will definitely kill him after sending him back."
"But you must not stop the little devil. Lord Ed's body is the two reasons why we came to King's Landing, and the other is the two Miss Starks. Since Miss Sansa is very sure that Miss Arya escaped from King's Landing,
, then we only need to take away the remains and report them to His Majesty Robb."
Lord Bolton saw that Arthur didn't look very good, so he talked for a long time, just to get Bracken, who had amazing combat power, to agree to this.
Arthur looked at the little devil who had not yet woken up, and suddenly remembered his intention to escape last night.
When Jaime was still a member of the Kingsguard, Tyrion was the first heir to Casterly Rock and the next Warden of the West.
And Jaime, his uncle Kevan and other Lannisters are actually pretty good to Tyrion, so the little devil still loves the Lion family.
Only when Tyrion is completely disheartened by his sister and father can he actually run away from home.
"Okay, I agree to trade Tyrion for Lord Eddard's body."
If nothing unexpected happens, Arthur will have to take Joffrey to the south recently to find Yule and dragon eggs in preparation for hatching the dragon.
When the time comes to head north from the Royal Forest, we will find a way to get the little devil out.
Zhuge Liang had to capture and control Meng Huo seven times. Arthur thought he was not as charming as Zhuge Liang, so he didn't rush to tie the little devil to his chariot.
At this moment, a Bolton officer broke in, walked quickly to his lord, and whispered a few words in his ear.
Master Leech's expression changed slightly after hearing the news.
"You tied up Joffrey?"
Bracken admitted frankly, "Yes. Since he violated the rules and ordered Lord Eddard to be killed, then I want to avenge Duke Stark, so naturally I can only tie him up first."
According to the customs of the Seven Kingdoms, even heinous people have the right to choose to put on black clothes and go to the Great Wall as a night watchman, let alone Duke Stark, who failed in the coup.
So Joffrey really has a way to die.
When the people in the north heard this, they immediately became excited.
Several lower-ranking northern nobles, such as Rhona Stowe, clamored to kill Joffrey on the spot to avenge Lord Eddard.
The rest of the people, such as Willis Manderly and Robert Glover, even came closer to Arthur and praised him for a job well done.
Although these people didn't say it explicitly, they seemed to be ready to go out and stab Joffrey several times.
Seeing that the situation was not right, Arthur said loudly: "Don't rush to kill him yet, he is still useful to me."
Bolton also poured a layer of cold water at the right time, "That is, we haven't replaced Lord Eddard's body yet, so there is no need to form a deadly feud with Cersei first."
It is not a secret that Cersei loves her three children, many nobles know about it.
Since the actual person in charge of King's Landing is Cersei, after she learns of Joffrey's death, she will definitely join forces with the Fish and Wolf Alliance to fight to the death.
Robb's request is not to compete with the Lion family for the Iron Throne, so Roose Bolton feels that it is not easy for him to deal with Joffrey. He has to correspond with Robb and listen to the king's orders.
Many northern nobles began to calm down under the comfort of the two, but there were still many people who wanted to kill Joffrey.
"In this case, we can first exchange the little devil for the corpse, then take Joffrey north calmly, and then let His Majesty Robb deal with him." Lord Leech suggested.
After all, Joffrey was captured by Arthur, and Bolton would not dare to make a casual decision without his consent.
"Let's get the corpse back first." Arthur waved his hand, "I have other uses for Joffrey."
So Lord Herman Talha took the little devil and a hundred soldiers to the outside of King's Landing, preparing to exchange for the corpse of their lord.
The rest of the group continued to discuss where to go next.
Arthur took the opportunity to slip out and find Sansa.
"Do you know the whereabouts of Ali?"
In daily conversations, he always calls Arya "Ali" to prevent any leakage.
Sansa was staying in her tent, sewing a piece of clothing, when she suddenly saw Arthur bursting in, covered in blood.
She first asked with concern: "Why did you get so much blood? Are you injured?"
Then he answered Arthur's question, "I don't know the whereabouts of Arya either. Ever since the fire burned and the Rivermen were sent to intercept the golden robes, your camp has been in chaos. I sent people to look for it."
Checked it, but couldn't find it."
"I'm not injured. This is the enemy's blood." Arthur thought for a while, "Gendry should know some news about Ali. I'll go and ask him first."
So he came out again and saw Gendry being tied up where the Bolton soldiers were gathered.
"Let him go."
Arthur ordered to the Bolton soldiers.
An officer in chainmail stood up and said, "This is not acceptable. We only obey the orders of my lord."
Arthur gave him a cold look, and the man immediately gave up.
"Let it go, let it go, since Lord Arthur said it, then rounding it up is equivalent to my master's order."
Not to mention the blood all over Arthur's body, the giant hammer in his hand was enough to intimidate these soldiers.
After Gendry was untied, he stretched his muscles and then walked up to Arthur to thank him.
"My lord, thank you very much."
Arthur took him back to the place where the mercenaries gathered, and asked as he walked: "Do you remember which direction Ali went after the fire burned last night?"
Gendry obviously remembered it very clearly and immediately replied: "After the fire burned, your soldiers were sent by Lord Bolton to intercept the enemy, and the camp was in chaos. After I dressed up, I wanted to find Ali and Hot Pie to escape the fire.
But the direwolf was still in a cage, so Ally ran to save the beast. Hot Pie and I were afraid of it, and the fire came back, so we left first."
"Later I heard a wolf howling from the north, so Ali and the wolf must have walked north along the King's Road."
Arthur nodded, indicating that he understood.
Since you are walking north along the King's Road, there is no need to worry.
As the Eastern Front Allied Forces marched, they wiped out the royal nobles along the way, leaving some people behind to garrison the small castles.
Therefore, the area around this road is within the control of the coalition forces, and Arya and the direwolf will be safe.
At this moment, Arya, who was worried about Arthur, was finishing her hands off, but suddenly she caught a glimpse of her Nymeria running north.
"I know you are anxious to go back to see your wolf cub, but there is no need to be in such a hurry."
Arya muttered as she chased after her.
The inherent talent of the wolf family bloodline is the wolf spirit.
That is, in the dream, sneak into the wolf's sight and even control the wolf's actions.
When Arya was in King's Landing, she dreamed that this female wolf had a secret meeting with a gray wolf in the Riverlands and gave birth to a litter of wolf pups.
So she knew Nymeria's little secret, but didn't tell anyone else.
In the grove behind Arya, a rider wearing plate armor and a dog-shaped helmet appeared quietly.
