In the central tent of the Bolton-Karstark coalition, Lord Leech and his spies were routinely exchanging intelligence.
At first, when he heard that Arthur led people to capture the Golden Tooth City, Marquis Bolton's expression was normal until he heard a piece of news that he couldn't believe.
A surprised Roose Bolton stared at his spy, "Say it again!"
The spy also heard that his master's tone was wrong, and he carefully said: "In order to win over several nobles in the northern part of the West, His Majesty Robb married Jeyne Westerling. This family brought fifty people to His Majesty.
Soldiers, and then the Frey family's twelve hundred cavalry broke away from His Majesty's army."
Mr. Leech's face was so gloomy that water dripped from his face.
He added: "When did this happen?"
The secret agent thought for a while, "It happened roughly after we set off from Riverrun. His Majesty was slightly injured when he attacked Cliff City, and the news that Theon Greyjoy led the ironmen to attack Winterfell reached him.
Side, this gave the King of the North a double blow, so..."
Roose Bolton was furious and roared: "So he married a 'noble girl' in the West who could only provide him with fifty soldiers, leaving twelve hundred, oh no, more than three thousand Frey soldiers.
own army."
The spy whispered back: "The two thousand Frey infantrymen on Arthur Bracken's side have not expressed their attitude yet!"
"Is there any difference?" Bolton clasped his hands tightly, "I can marry a fat man as my wife for the sake of my family's great business, but he can treat his most powerful vassal like a monkey for the sake of a beautiful girl.
"
The Frey family has always been despised by the mainland nobles, and Old Walder has been ridiculed by his lord, Duke Hoster, for his whole life. He finally climbed up to the top of the Stark family, but he did not expect to be treated like this.
Frey's army did not join the West March Army on the spot, which was a great loss to the King of the North.
After taking a deep breath, he muttered to himself: "Looking at the Young Wolf Lord's deeds and his various actions before Riverrun, he can be called a wise lord. But he became king, freed Theon, and married the daughter of the Westerland, which made Frey evil.
Three things make me doubt his mind. Didn't Lord Eddard teach him how to be a good house governor?"
"Duke Ed himself has never received such an education. His mind is full of glory, and he is like a knight." The spy followed the master's words and said.
Eddard Stark is the adopted son of Jon Arryn. He was originally trained according to the position of commander and warrior. He was also influenced by the Arryn family's clan language of "high as glory", so he behaves like the "alpha wolf" in history.
Tuckers are the complete opposite.
Only in the Usurper War, Ed, who had not lost a single battle, had enough reputation and influence (the Battle of the Tower of Joy is unknown) that he could control the entire Northern Territory.
Roose Bolton stood up and walked to the map hanging on the side. The spy cleverly came closer holding a candle.
"I can bear the instigation of the Greatjon and others to become king. There are already three kings at that time. I can tolerate this. Letting Theon go will threaten the north, but my territory is in the east and the ironborn have never been able to attack it. I can't
I can tolerate this mistake. But I really can't bear to hate Frey. Isn't this a doomed situation?"
In the current situation, the Western Border Army has a main force of 15,000 people and a new army of 3,000 people.
Among the 4,000 people in Golden Tooth City, 1,500 were captured, more than 1,000 died in the battle, and the rest fled into the mountains and became a rout.
If the Frey family did not break away from the Fish and Wolf Alliance, the Young Wolf Lord would have 14,000 men. Considering that the new army in the West does not have much combat effectiveness, the alliance's strength is not too small.
Lord Leech looked at the map to the south again and asked, "How are Storm's End and Bitterbridge? Are there any major changes?"
The spy swallowed and replied in a low voice: "Duke Renly was killed outside Storm's End. Stannis got the fifteen thousand men there, and another five thousand cavalry fled to the Reach. The news reached
At Bitterbridge, the army rioted on the spot, and Lord Randyll Tarly took action to suppress it, killing two to three thousand people before stabilizing the situation. Now the 60,000 people are still standing there, waiting for the Tyrell family to place their bets."
Although Renly claimed to have an army of 100,000, 20,000 were geishas, circuses, servants, etc. who served in the army, and only 80,000 were warriors armed with weapons. Of these 80,000, another 20,000 were brought to the wind by him.
Castle confronts his brother.
Roose Bolton didn't speak, so the spy had no choice but to continue: "It is rumored that Tywin has sent his brother, Sir Kevan, to go to Highgarden along the Corniche to discuss important matters with the mother of the Duke of Mace."
Although Duke Mace is the commander-in-chief of the Reach army, his own abilities are mediocre. His military talent can be seen from the fact that Randyll Tarly was needed to suppress the mutiny.
Moreover, the real person in charge of the Reach is the Queen of Thorns, the mother of the "Inflatable Fish", so the Lion family should go to negotiate with Olenna Tyrell.
"What's going on with Lady Stark and the Vale?"
"After following Renly to Storm's End, Lady Stark was nowhere to be found, and no news came out of the valley. She is probably still standing still as before."
"Failed." Roose Bolton groaned weakly, then walked back to the chair and threw himself in.
Lord Leech closed his eyes and thought, if there were no 4,000 people on my side, then the Young Wolf Lord would have at most 7,000 people. Even if he could fight, he would still be no match for the 15,000 main force and 3,000 new recruits from the Western Region.
What's more, the Hewan Army has not expressed its attitude yet. If these 60,000 people also side with the Lions, then...
Lysa of the Valley doesn't even give her own sister face. Now that the Yulang family is in an unfavorable situation, it's even more impossible to send troops.
"This boat is about to sink. Now it's precarious. I have to change to a bigger boat, a reliable boat." Mr. Leech whispered.
The spy hid in the master's ear and said, "It just so happens that a relative of yours wants to see you. He can point you in the direction."
Marquis Bolton was slightly stunned, not knowing what this confidant meant.
The latter quietly went out, and soon came in with a guest wearing a gray robe and a hood.
The guest lifted his hood and introduced himself: "Marquis Bolton, may you live long. I am your new wife's second uncle, Emmon Frey."
The Frey family's dowry was as much silver as the bride's weight. In order to maximize the benefits, Marquis Bolton chose the fattest Frey daughter, Walda Frey.
This woman is the second daughter of Old Walder's ninth son, Merry, and Ammon, who is in the Lion family camp, is her second uncle.
"I am a loyal minister of His Majesty Robb. If you come to our northern camp, aren't you afraid that I will skin you?"
Leech was worried about jumping off the ship. Emmon's purpose was clear without asking, but he still pretended to be loyal to Robb and sold himself for a good price.
Emmon Frey felt a little timid, so he bravely stated his purpose:
"After Frey's cavalry left, old Karstark was troubled by the pain of losing his son. He killed several prisoners and was beheaded by Robb on the grounds of military discipline. Seven hundred cahords from Kahor City also left.
The Queen of Thorns has agreed to join forces with our Lannister family, and the false king Robb has betrayed everyone, doesn’t Lord Bolton have any ideas?”
Since Emmon has lived in Casterly Rock with his wife "Vicious" Gina Lannister for a long time, he often considers himself a member of the Lion family.
"My loyalty to the Stark family is visible to the gods." Bolton emphasized his cheap loyalty again, "You can try to raise a price and see if the determined me will be bought by the weak lion."
These words made Emmon feel confident that as long as the price was raised, there was nothing Duke Tywin could not afford.
The richest wealthy family in Westeros is not just talk.
"Let's talk about our request first. You have to lead your army to Robb's side, pretend to gain his trust first, and wait until the decisive battle, then stab the wolf cubs in the back. What I'm giving you, the Northern Guard is the most basic
, Winterfell can also be inherited by the ancient Bolton family. In terms of money, how about ten times my niece's weight in silver?"
Amon carefully considered his words and stated three conditions. However, this was still far from the bottom line given by Lord Tywin.
"There is a lot of silver near Yinshan City south of Deep Cave Castle. I can lead my army to dig it myself and then retreat to my northern territory."
The main force of the Lion family is still confronting Robb in the middle of the Western Territory. There are very few troops near Deep Cave Castle, Corner Valley City, and Silver Mountain City. Marquis Bolton, who has four thousand troops, can indeed come and go freely.
Ammon thought for a while, "Then change it to ten carts of silver. After we deal with the false queen, we will attack Riverrun. Sansa in the city can be given to you by then. Lady Stark is still in the south, and we will let her go quietly."
Die silently in the countryside. All northern soldiers who go south, except yours, will die. Are these conditions enough?"
"My loyalty to His Majesty Robb goes beyond that. Mandalay and other families are still loyal to the Wolf family, and their White Harbor cavalry has not moved."
Of the four major families in the north, Dustin only sent a small number of people south, Mandalay sent 1,500 people, and there were at least 2,000 people in the territory.
Coincidentally, one of the two supports the Wolf family and the other is against the Wolf family.
Emmon was determined and told the bottom line: "When we deal with Stannis, two thousand elite Lannister troops will go north to follow the newly appointed Guardian of the North to quell the forces that support the false king."
"My loyalty to the Iron Throne is evident to the gods, and I wish His Majesty Tommen I a long life." Lord Leech quickly changed his statement.
After learning of Joffrey's death, Queen Cersei had ordered Tommen to inherit the throne.
Ammon was very satisfied with the attitude of the Marquis of Bolton, oh no, the Duke.
The two discussed in the tent for a long time and finalized all the details.
Finally, they swore to the Seven Gods and the Old Gods, cementing this alliance with a sacred oath.
On the second day, Roose Bolton led his army westward along the Golden Road, and at the same time sent people to report his marching route to the King in the North.
Then, attracted by the more than 800 Northern troops led by Arthur Bracken, the main force of the West began to return to Lannister Port for reinforcements.
Five days later, Burton's tribe and Robb's tribe, who were heading south, joined forces to prepare for a decisive battle with the Western Army on the flat coast.
…
Half a league away from Lannister Harbor, Arthur's men are camping.
In the main tent of the Chinese army, Little Jon, Great Jon, Rhona Stowe and others were looking at each other with big eyes.
Arthur also looked at the distribution of enemy and own forces marked on the map and felt a little confused.
The battle of Golden Tooth City happened half a month ago. After being intercepted by Arthur and others, Da Feng led his people back to the south gate. After fighting, he was squeezed to the west border where he could not even breathe.
More than 1,500 soldiers surrendered, and some others took advantage of the chaos and fled up the mountain.
The richness of the loot far exceeded the imagination of the coalition soldiers. In order not to provoke a mutiny, Arthur ordered three carts of gold to be divided on the spot.
Of course, the golden dragon coins of the nobles on the river bank that were robbed were also exchanged, and then Arthur was asked to return them to the nobles on the south bank on the spot.
However, after receiving the gold, the soldiers no longer thought of fighting for their lives to gain wealth, and most of them began to cherish their lives. This made Arthur and his troops stay in the Golden Tooth City for two days to solve the problem of morale.
Then, the Frey family cavalry led by Lyman Frey arrived at the Golden Teeth City.
Since he had expressed his stance of neutrality in the war, and the relatively loyal Steve Lun had died in the battle, Arthur did not dare to let this group of people enter the city.
But the cripple Rosso promised that he could make the Freys of the eldest son line obey, and finally allowed the Frey cavalry to pass through the Golden Tooth City and return to the Riverlands.
Most of the Frey infantry also left.
Aenys and Rosso agreed to raise an army to fight for the Iron Throne for Arthur who owned the dragon, not to follow him and work for other kings.
Moreover, Rosso and others still have to go to Twins City to deal with Lyman, Black Walder and the other eldest sons, so staying in Golden Teeth City will also delay things.
Fortunately, Roslin's half-brother Olifa was intercepted by Arthur, and he was somewhat useful because he was loyal to Robb.
After many negotiations, two hundred Frey infantrymen stayed in Golden Teeth City in the name of protecting Olifa, and also participated in the defense of the city.
Donald Locke from the North also stayed to defend the city with 300 Northern soldiers. Of course, they also had to deal with a huge number of prisoners.
In order to facilitate management, all prisoners had their hands and feet tied, and then were locked up in an abandoned mine outside the city.
Amory Lodge's head had been pickled and sent to Riverrun. To celebrate, the head was also placed in a big pie.
On the outside of the pie, bacon, cheese, etc. are put into the pie base, mixed with pre-prepared egg liquid mixed with fresh cream and milk, and baked in an oven.
This move was just out of fun, but what Arthur didn't expect was that in a few months, Rocky Pie would become a popular snack on the entire south bank of the Red Fork River.
When some river nobles meet, they often greet each other with "Have you eaten Rocky Pie?"
What’s even more amazing is that a few months later, Bolton’s pie, which originated in Winterfell, also became a popular northern delicacy.
Back to business.
After leaving 500 soldiers to defend the city, Arthur led more than 800 people along the River Road towards Casterly Rock City and Lannister Port.
I thought that this small amount of troops would not be able to attract the main force of the Lion family, but Duke Tywin gave Arthur a lot of face. He first sent 3,000 new troops to garrison in Lannister Port, and then personally led 15,000 main troops south to defend him.
Your own base camp.
This greatly improved the living space of Robb's men, and they were able to go south to join Bolton's men and prepare for the decisive battle with the West March Army.
The current situation is that Tywin's troops are within a week of Casterly Rock, and the combined forces of Robb and Bolton are two leagues north of Casterly Rock.
Arthur's mini-army is east of Lannister Harbor, which is southwest of Casterly Rock.
The Greatjon's son, Youngjon Umber, was sent to deliver the orders of the North and the King of the Three Rivers:
"Your troops are too small. In the decisive battle from tomorrow night to the morning of the day after tomorrow, you will not participate in attacking Taiwin's headquarters. Instead, you will be responsible for guarding and harassing the enemies in the port direction, and intercepting the fleeing deserters."
As usual, the Young Wolf Lord still decided to start with a night attack.
It's just that there are too many soldiers participating in this battle, so the battle may last until the morning the day after tomorrow.
Arthur nodded, indicating that he understood the instruction.
Although our own troops do not have an advantage, with the support of the direwolves, night fighting has always been the strength of the Northern Army.
I just don’t know if Lord Tywin has learned any experience from his several night raids.
"Qyburn, who is commanding the new army in Lannister Port?" Arthur asked.
He wanted to make sure there would be no enemies from the port direction joining the battle.
Qyburn flipped through his notebook and said, "Stafford Lannister is a very mediocre general of the Lion family."
"Isn't it a coincidence that his son is still in my hands?"
Because Dickon had previously introduced that Stave, a mediocre man, entered the center of power of the lion family because his sister married Tywin, Arthur could still clearly distinguish the kinship between the lions.
"The fight won't happen until tomorrow night. Tomorrow morning, someone will go outside the port and ask Stave if he is willing to give up a cart of gold in exchange for his son."
Arthur said casually.
Little Jon was very dissatisfied, "Why, you want to exchange this prisoner for gold? You can't even think of doing this without the order of the King of the North."
He was not familiar with Arthur yet, so he acted very businesslike.
The Great Jon glared at his son and argued: "Arthur has his own reasons for doing this."
"This is a cover. The people in the West would never have imagined that we would fight so quickly. As long as we offered to exchange prisoners for gold, Staphyr would never lead his troops to attack us before getting his son back."
Arthur explained to everyone.
They only have 800 people here. Even if the three thousand new troops of the Shi family are less effective in combat, they still won't be able to bear it if they join together.
"Let me go." After hearing the explanation, Little Jon offered to go to the port.
That's how it was settled.
The next day, everything went as planned.
Stafford promised to raise enough gold within two days, and at the same time asked the people in the north not to harm his son.
But before he could wait to get Davon back, the war had already broken out.
In the middle of the night, Arthur and others, who had already eaten and slept well, were dressed neatly and looked toward the northeast where the fighting had begun.
The sound of fighting there could be heard even from a league away.
"I can't bear it anymore, let's go there and join the war!" The warlike Great Jon was the first to speak out.
Later, Little Jon, Rhona Stowe and others all expressed their desire to fight for the King in the North.
Arthur glanced at Lannister Port, where there was no movement at all, and ordered in a deep voice: "Okay, let's go north and kill the red robes."
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