Chapter 106: Arrivals from the Northern Army

The night was deep, the moonlight dim, and all was silent around Harrenhal. If one listened carefully, a few wolf howls could be distinguished from very far away.

These were sounds from the Isle of Faces in the Gods Eye, and if there were no surprises, they were from Arya's mother direwolf and her offspring.

Robett Glover, Hosteen Frey, and four attendants crouched under a patch of woods, waiting for the Lannister cavalry carrying torches to pass by.

The former was the younger brother of Galbart Glover, the Count of Deepwood Motte; he was tall and thin, with well-defined facial features.

A two-handed greatsword hung at his waist, and a deep red cloak was fastened on his shoulders with heavy silver clasps in the shape of armored fists; even while crouching on the ground, his head remained held high.

The latter was the sixth son of Lord Walder Frey; he was tall and had a square face with a pointed chin, and because he was slow-witted and unstoppable once enraged, he was also called "Ser Stupid."

The four attendants consisted of two Deepwood Motte soldiers and some Frey infantry, each wearing chainmail and carrying round helmets.

The only way to distinguish them was by their surcoats; the Deepwood Motte soldiers wore surcoats with a silver armored fist on a red background, while the Frey infantry's surcoat pattern was a blue tower bridge on a silver-white background.

"The Old Lion is actually willing to let cavalry patrol the siege at night; his house is truly wealthy," Robett Glover sighed in a low voice.

He was a noble from The North and naturally much poorer compared to the southern nobles; seeing the enemy use precious cavalry for night patrols, he was naturally envious.

Hosteen Frey snorted coldly and said in a low voice, "Perhaps it's because they fear the infantry won't be able to run out of the attack range of us Riverlanders; after all, there are quite a few fierce Riverland generals inside Harrenhal, such as Ser Ma Ke Piper, Lord Arthur Bracken, and so on."

Robett shook his high-held head, unimpressed: "If you Riverland nobles were truly as fierce as the rumors say, would it still be our turn to come south from The North to rescue you? Judging by the current state of the southern Riverlands, most Riverlanders are softies."

"Of course, except for that Bracken who captured the Kingslayer amidst ten thousand troops; I can barely consider him a warrior equal to a Northman."

Hosteen glanced sharply at Robett, the Northman, and only after taking a few deep breaths did he say:

"Don't mock us either; you Northmen also fought mediocrely on the south bank of The Twins. During the daytime confrontation, your troop strength far exceeded Kevan's, yet the ratio of soldiers killed in action was one to one."

Hearing his companion expose the Northmen's shortcomings, Robett replied with forced courtesy:

"Why not mention that battle outside Riverrun, where you lost nearly five thousand men in a single fight, and the commander Edmure even ended up seriously wounded? Afterward, the various counts actually led their troops away, leaving the remaining several thousand soldiers to cower inside the city, letting the Western Lands Army gallop across your lands. And us? We win small victories by day and chase the Westerners by night; aren't we much stronger than you?"

The two nobles began to argue, each favoring their own side's battle record.

A soldier behind them saw the patrolling Lannister cavalry move far away and whispered a reminder: "My lords, it is time to go."

The two then stopped arguing and slipped toward the massive castle not far away.

After jogging all the way to the foot of the city wall, Hosteen Frey, who was more familiar with the area, took the lead, and the six of them crept toward the East Gate.

Upon arriving, the two soldiers began to knock on the iron gate, while Hosteen and Robett, along with the remaining two soldiers, nervously observed their surroundings.

According to rumors, Harrenhal was tightly besieged, and even at night, there were people constantly watching the two gates, so they naturally dared not be careless.

"Who goes there? State your liege lord and house." An impatient shout came from inside the gate.

It was impossible for Western Lands Army soldiers to come knocking at this hour; if they were commoners, they had to be let in according to Lord Arthur's orders and then have their identities verified.

"I am Hosteen Frey, the sixth son of the Lord of the Crossing, and my liege lord is Lord Hoster Tully. Beside me is also Lord Robett Glover of Deepwood Motte in The North; we have been sent to deliver some words."

The gate guard inside the castle was quite annoyed; no one was happy to have their sweet dreams interrupted.

But after hearing these two names from outside the gate, he suddenly gave a start.

The Frey family had never responded to Lord Hoster's call to participate in the war against the Lannisters.

And the Riverlanders were very unfamiliar with the nobles of The North, so this soldier was not sure if there was such a Glover.

Could it be a spy sent by the Westerners?

"Do you have proof?" the gate guard asked while pushing awake his sleeping companions beside him.

"I have letters from my father, the Lord of the Crossing, and Lord Robb of House Stark," Hosteen continued to answer.

He was certain he saw a line of torches approaching from afar.

This meant that an equal number of Western cavalry were drawing near.

Robett also discovered the enemy approaching and became anxious, raising his hand to pound the gate fiercely: "Open the gate quickly."

"Right away, right away," the first gate guard replied.

After he and more than twenty Riverland soldiers picked up their weapons, the iron gate was slowly opened a crack.

At this moment, the Lannister cavalry, alerted by the news, had already begun to shoot arrows at the few people in front of the iron gate.

"Get in quickly," the gate guard shouted.

So the six of them squeezed in, scrambling over one another; the last Deepwood Motte soldier to enter was almost hit in the buttocks by an arrow.

"Safe at last," Robett said, head held high, uttering words that did not quite match his posture.

But the next second, he changed his mind.

The twenty-plus people around them held hand-and-a-half swords against the necks of the six of them.

Hosteen turned his head awkwardly and said to someone who looked like a squad leader: "Is there some misunderstanding? We are legitimate allies."

The squad leader snorted coldly and waved a large hand: "It's the allies we're arresting. Tie them all up and wait for Ser Patrick to deal with them."

Ever since Ma Ke was injured in the camp raid, it had been Patrick who was responsible for the affairs of the city gate.

Robett's eyes widened, and he roared: "Is this how you Riverlanders treat your allies? Once Lord Bolton arrives with his troops..."

This Glover was cursing, already beginning to greet the mothers of the Riverlands' Jiaodu one by one.

Hosteen, who was tied up alongside him, was also suppressing his anger, but he did not speak rudely.

Only the Frey soldiers who knew his personality felt that something was wrong; if their own "Ser" became completely enraged, then this mission might be in trouble.

Fortunately, the scene did not remain awkward for long; a sleepy-eyed Patrick, surrounded by soldiers, walked to the murder hole at the East Gate.

As soon as Hosteen saw someone he recognized, his suppressed anger erupted, "Patrick, you must give us an explanation."

The heir to Seagard rubbed his eyes, confirmed that he was indeed looking at the sixth son of the Frey family, and immediately ordered them to be untied.

The Twins and his family's territory were not very far apart, so the two were quite familiar with each other.

"My apologies, my apologies. Lately, the Westerners have been disguising themselves as all sorts of people, attempting to sneak into the city to open the gates; it is reasonable for my men to be a bit tense. Please forgive us, two lords, forgive us," Patrick said while smoothing things over, personally stepping forward to untie the ropes for the two nobles.

Hosteen and Robett were quite angered by this incident, but out of consideration for Patrick's humble attitude, they did not cause trouble for the time being.

The two quickly explained the reason for their arrival, hoping to see the person in charge at Harrenhal to convey some orders from Robb Stark.

Upon learning the situation, Patrick nodded and said: "No problem; to be honest, we are also waiting for news from the north."

He instructed several soldiers to run to the King's Pyre Tower to wake the Riverland nobles who were already fast asleep, while he accompanied the two guests on foot to the meeting place.

……

Arthur, having just put on his linen robe, hurriedly pulled on a pair of soft leather boots, smoothed out his already long hair, and walked out of the room, heading toward the Hall of a Hundred Hearths below with the soldier who had called him.

After descending three flights of stairs, he reached his destination.

The few lights in the hall were emitted by the torches held by the soldiers.

Near the lord's main seat, quite a few people had already gathered.

Except for Raymond, who had gone out to seek troops, and Beric, who had left with the Brotherhood Without Banners, basically all the Riverlands nobles who could come had arrived.

Even the severely wounded Ma Ke had been carried down by two of his personal guards.

Robett Glover, who was chatting heatedly with the Riverlands nobles, caught a glimpse of a tall, handsome young man with long hair walking over, and asked the Bracken beside him: "That must be the famous Arthur Bracken, right! When I was at Moat Cailin, I heard legends of him capturing the Kingslayer single-handedly every day."

Although it was phrased as a question, the tone was as firm as an exclamation.

Hendry was full of jealousy, but he still replied to Robett: "Indeed, he is also my cousin."

Arthur strode toward them and said in a clear voice: "These two must be our friends from House Frey and House Glover, what do we need to do in the North?"

Robett took a letter sealed with the wax seal of a headless wolf from the package on his back and handed it to Arthur.

"This is what Lord Robb wants you to do."

Arthur glanced at it hurriedly; it stated that the Riverlands Army near Harrenhal should hold back a portion of Tywin's forces until the thirty-thousand-strong North-Frey coalition moving south crossed the Trident.

As soon as he saw it, he knew the letter was half-true and half-false.

Not to mention which side the North Army was coming from, the mention of a thirty-thousand-strong army alone was enough to prove it was fake.

The North-Frey coalition had at most just over twenty thousand.

The purpose of writing the letter this way might be to prevent the messenger from being captured by the enemy and revealing classified information.

But since these two had traveled hundreds of leagues to deliver the letter, it was naturally impossible for them to be delivering a fake letter; the real message should be in their heads.

After all, in the wars of Westeros, the treatment of captured nobles was generally quite good; even during wartime, both warring sides could exchange captives for Gold Dragons.

Therefore, high-ranking nobles often sent messages and discussed major events; for example, in the original story, Lady Stark crossed the war zone to reach Renly's camp near Bitterbridge to seek an alliance.

After reading it, Arthur passed the letter to Patrick beside him.

As soon as the latter caught sight of the words about thirty thousand reinforcements coming south, he immediately shouted excitedly: "We have thirty thousand reinforcements! When the time comes, we will defeat the old lion in one fell swoop and strike at his home, Casterly Rock."

Hearing this news, most of the Riverlands nobles became happy.

Only Hosteen and Robett did not speak.

Arthur did not dampen everyone's spirits and turned to ask about the situation of the war in the north.

The two envoys described the situation before their departure to everyone, one after another.

Eight or nine days ago, Robb joined forces with House Frey and fought a great battle against Kevan, who was heading north; although they achieved a small victory due to their numerical advantage, the coalition also lost nearly three thousand men.

That night, the coalition, bolstered by Direwolves, launched another attack on Kevan's Western Lands detachment, and the results this time were much more fruitful.

Kevan's subordinate detachment had already lost three thousand men during the day, maintaining only a force of just over ten thousand. After this night raid, the Western Lands detachment was completely scattered, and most of the soldiers only cared about fleeing for their lives, without forming any battle formations.

In this battle, the coalition killed over three thousand enemies and captured over a thousand Western Lands soldiers and dozens of prominent Western Lands nobles, such as Lord Gawen Westerling of The Crag, Lord Damon Marbrand of Castamere, Lord Andros Brax of Hornvale, and so on.

Less than five thousand Western Lands soldiers escaped to the south, which immediately clarified the war situation in the western Riverlands.

Robb made a prompt decision and personally led 5,500 cavalry of the coalition to pursue the fleeing Western Lands soldiers, and of course, the Lannisters like Kevan and Jaime.

The remaining 15,000 infantry were led by Lord Roose Bolton of the North, who crossed The Twins and marched south along the Kingsroad, heading straight for the Ruby Ford of the Trident.

And just as Robb gave this order, the two were sent to the south to ensure that Harrenhal, Maidenpool, and other places still holding out would protect the river crossings.

To save time in delivering the order, the two took a small boat down the Green Fork, and since all the Ravens along Kevan's route had been shot down by the North-Riverlands coalition, the Western Lands Army on the south bank of the Red Fork should not yet know the news of Kevan's crushing defeat.

"The task Lord Robb and Lord Bolton gave you is to not let the crossing at Lord Harren's Town fall into the hands of the Western Lands people, so that it is convenient for the Northern infantry to cross the river," Robett Glover explained.

"It's the coalition infantry; my house also contributed 2,800 infantry," Hosteen reminded.

"Same thing." Robett held his head high and waved his hand to indicate it didn't matter, "After the Northern infantry arrives, we can join fierce warriors like Mr. Arthur to give Tywin a hard kick in the ass."

He still did not change to the term "coalition," which made Hosteen Frey feel very angry.

"When you passed through the town on your way south, what was the situation there?" Arthur asked.

Robett thought for a moment and stated his impression: "Soldiers from Maidenpool and a numerous mercenary group were controlling the town."

"That mercenary group is your subordinate, Mr. Arthur," Hosteen added.

Arthur, being called, was stunned; he hadn't sent a mercenary group to control Lord Harren's Town.

The Brave Companions had all died in battle, the King's Landing Mercenary under Bill were all at Harrenhal, and the Reach mercenaries under Karry were at the Red Mill on the middle reaches of the Red Fork.

He thought about it repeatedly; only the core member of the Brave Companions he had sent out at Xieercun two months ago could match this mercenary group.

At that time, Vargo Hoat had promised to send a core member to Essos to recruit people, capable of recruiting over two hundred mercenaries.

Counting the time, it was about time.

It was just unclear why they appeared here at the Trident.

"Understood, does Robb have any other instructions?"

Hosteen slapped his forehead and realized: "I remembered one more thing. Lord Robb said that if Tywin leads his army to reinforce the Western Lands, all the troops in the southern Riverlands should follow Lord Bolton and launch an attack on King's Landing to the southeast."

Robett nodded, "That is correct."

Arthur formed a circle with his right thumb and index finger to signal that he understood.

It seemed that Robb's operational intent was still similar to the plot of the original work.

If Tywin and the Bolton-Riverlands coalition were entangled around the Gods Eye, the cavalry of the Fish-Wolf coalition led by Robb would attack the hinterland of the Western Lands along the River Road.

If Tywin returned to reinforce, he would let Roose Bolton lead the North-Riverlands coalition infantry to strike straight at the Crownlands and King's Landing.

In any case, the two major foundations of the Lion House—the Western Lands and the Crownlands—were one in the east and one in the west, which was the perfect time for Taiwen Laoye to be unable to attend to both ends.

In this way, as long as Lord Harren's Town was held, the 15,000-strong army led by Ramsay Bolton could cross the river to confront Tywin's main Western Lands force.

The Fish-Wolf Alliance would temporarily have the upper hand.

And Stannis of the Stag House and the part of the Redwyne Longships supporting Renly were still struggling in the waters of Shipbreaker Bay, Blackwater Bay, and others, so they really had no time to intervene in the land war between the Lion House and the Fish-Wolf House.

After so many days of standoff, the Western Lands Army truly lacked the capability and tools to scale the walls of Harrenhal, so there was no need to worry about this place.

"Since that's the case, we will set out tomorrow, taking five hundred men to hold the ferry town," Arthur decided.

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(End of this chapter)