Early the next morning, Arthur followed one of the stewards of the Rose family to the arsenal to pick out the weapons and armor promised by the Duke of Metz.
Mr. Inflatable Fish said last night that he was very domineering and could pick whatever he wanted, but his manager was very fussy about it.
He only asked Arthur to choose fifty sets of plate armor, and the remaining two hundred and fifty sets were chain mail.
This may be because the King of Hell is easy to see, but the devil is difficult to deal with!
The lord of the Moulin Rouge didn't care about him. After selecting armor and weapons, they were all combinations of half-handed swords and one-handed bucklers.
After picking them up, the steward asked people to load them on an ox cart and take them to the ferry town.
This still satisfied Arthur.
The price is quite affordable, with 50 sets of plate armor, 250 sets of chain armor, and 300 sets of weapons, totaling 2,465 golden dragons.
When checking the account with the Duke of Metz, he wiped out sixty-five golden dragon zeros with a wave of his hand.
The Rose family and Earl Paxter's steward had already settled the bill for the 2,100 golden dragons on Qingting Island.
In terms of money, the Duke of Metz is still very reliable and does not embarrass Arthur at all.
Arthur's current money in Rose's house was 53,500 gold dragons. He thought about the upcoming situation and decided to withdraw 1,500 gold dragons and store the rest in High Court.
Anyway, with the strength of Highgarden and the alliance between Hightower and Redwyne, no one in the entire continent has touched them. It is very safe and reliable to exist here.
Second only to the reliability of the Iron Bank of Essos in the East.
Moreover, during the War of the Five Kings, you don’t have to pay for big things, you rely on the strength of your troops. For small things, it depends on Arthur’s mood, just give some money to his subordinates who can do things well.
In the afternoon, he went to the ferry town to select the mercenaries who were arriving one after another with the leaders of the Blood Troupe, Wag, Angai and others.
Today was much better. It was estimated that seventy or eighty people were organized by the mayor in the center of the town, waiting for the arrival of Arthur, the financial backer.
"Master, choose me, choose me, choose me."
"I can kill the Devil Mountain alone. Your Majesty is right to choose me."
"Moshan will kill you to death. This person is full of dirty talk and he is a bastard at first sight. Master, I am different. I will do whatever you ask me to do."
"This group of people are not good enough to go to the battlefield. Sir, you should find someone like me who brings his own bows, arrows and armor."
Before Arthur even walked in, the mercenaries had already begun to promote themselves.
The leader of the Stuttering Troupe, Wagg, was very familiar with this situation. He asked a key member of the Blood Troupe to step forward and shout twice, and the surrounding area suddenly became quiet.
Arthur knew that he had no experience in recruiting mercenaries, so he put Wagg and Ange in charge of this matter. He sat on the chair that the mayor had kindly moved and supervised the two of them in their work.
Nearly two hours passed by in a flash, during which mercenaries continued to arrive.
Wag and Ange finally selected sixty-three people.
Most of them bring their own armor, mainly chain armor and plate armor, and their weapons are mainly bows and arrows and half-handed swords.
There are actually very few mercenaries who use spears like the Dornish.
The salary is mostly between fifteen and twenty gold dragons.
The price that Wag negotiated for his entire mercenary group was only twenty gold dragons per person. It was impossible for him to let this group of skirmishers get more than his own men.
The person who didn't pick also received two silver deer. In the process, Wagg put in a lot of effort, and he directly drove out the people who fished in troubled waters.
[Sixty-three Riverbend infantry have joined your team]
After paying the deposit, a blue light curtain indicated their joining.
…
The morning before departure was almost the same as yesterday.
Maybe because the news spread, more mercenaries arrived than yesterday.
In the center of the ferry town, after nearly three hours of selection, eighty-seven available candidates were finally selected.
According to An Gai, apart from not being able to face the Demon Mountain, this group of people can fight on the battlefield, burn down villages to collect taxes, etc. just like the family soldiers.
After all, Westeros has been at peace for nearly ten years, and mercenary work is very scarce, so this profession is still relatively busy.
Those who can be picked out are all available.
[Eighty-seven Riverbend infantry have joined your team]
The convoy that the mayor found was also ready. Six hundred sets of armor and weapons were placed on more than twenty bullock carts, and the remaining carts were filled with food.
It takes two to three weeks to go north to the Riverlands, and it's impossible not to prepare enough food.
After everyone had lunch, Arthur gave the order to set off.
When I came to Highgarden this time, in addition to the urgently needed armor and weapons, I also found 161 mercenaries with combat experience, which was a good deal.
Six days later, by the Bitter Bridge.
"Lord Arthur, I'm here as promised." Dickon, wearing silver plate armor, led two followers and caught up with Arthur and others who were waiting here.
Arthur noticed that the two followers were wearing chain mail, carrying bows on their backs, half-swords hanging from their waists, and wearing the robes of the Tully family's walking hunters.
Rumor has it that the family motto of the Jiao Ling family is "Be the first on the battlefield." From these two followers, we can see that this family is really martial and warlike.
When the two sides got closer, Dickon's serious face actually showed a hint of liveliness.
"Where is your team?" asked Dickon, who reined in his horse.
Arthur did not waste any time. After signaling him and his two followers to continue on their way, he said, "Let's go ahead."
In fact, since the mercenaries in the Reach were all infantry and the ox-cart convoy was extremely slow, the time it took greatly exceeded Arthur's expectation.
It took them six days on the Avenue of the Roses to reach Bitterbridge.
Then, Arthur let the convoy go first, and he took Angai and others to wait for Dickon.
Half a day later, the Tully boy went to the appointment.
After arriving at Bitter Bridge, they were only one-third of the way north. Next, they had to go straight north to the Golden Road, and then cross the Blackwater River before they could enter the Riverlands.
At that time, Arthur will be able to know the movements of King's Landing, the army of the West, and the small forces in the Magic Mountain from the pedestrians on the Golden Road.
"Look, what do I have?" Dickon was a little excited. He rode up to Arthur and raised his sword to him.
Arthur took it and weighed it twice, feeling that the sword was surprisingly light.
"This is a tile steel sword, right? It's the one you own..."
"Broken Heart." Dickon exclaimed with some excitement, "It's called Broken Heart. It was my father's sword, and it was also the sword of every generation of our Tully family. I stole it. From now on, it will be with me on the road.
The mainland has taken risks."
"Hey, this is really..." Arthur smiled and shook his head, unable to think of an adjective to accurately describe this behavior.
According to the original plot, after Dickon's eldest brother Sam returned to his home, he also stole the "broken heart" and left home.
These two brothers are from the same origin.
I just don’t know if Sam, who is still vigilant at the Great Wall, will go home and steal some of his father’s treasures in the future.
After throwing the broken heart back to Dickon, Arthur stopped talking and led everyone on their way.
Seven days later, a convoy of nearly 300 people arrived at the junction of the Golden Avenue and the Blackwater River.
Here, Arthur finally got timely information.
As expected, the little devil Tyrion Lannister has been captured and taken away by Catelyn Stark. It is said that Duke Tywin was furious and decided to summon his vassals and troops on the spot after receiving the information to give Lady Stark and her
I asked my relatives to give me some color.
The Tully family in the Riverlands did not want to be slaughtered by others, so Edmure summoned a large number of vassals and their armies in the name of his father, and assembled near Riverrun and the Tengshi River on the upper reaches of the Red Fork River.
The two families are at war with each other and are ready to fight.
PS: I went to see a doctor today and was delayed a bit. Please forgive me for posting this chapter a little late.
