Linde becoming the captain of the cavalry squad caused a small stir within House Tyrell's camp. Those who had stayed in King's Landing with Mace Tyrell a year ago were one thing, but almost everyone who had come from Highgarden to King's Landing this time was somewhat surprised by Linde's promotion.
Not long ago, Linde had been demoted from a knight's squire to a scout, and now, in just over half a month, Linde had once again become Fortimo Klenne's knight's squire, and had even obtained the real power of a cavalry captain, which was truly incredible.
However, those who had witnessed Linde's strength also knew very well that it was only a matter of time before Linde became Lord Fortimo's knight's squire again. Even though the process was a bit fast, the outcome did not exceed everyone's expectations too much.
But compared to caring about Linde becoming the cavalry captain, they were more concerned about the news of Linde forming a cavalry squad.
Although they were both soldiers, the difference between cavalry and infantry was like the difference between commoners and nobles. Compared to infantry, who even had to prepare their own weapons, cavalry would be supplied with horses, armor, and weapons by House Tyrell, not to mention their pay and benefits.
So when the news of Linde forming a cavalry squad spread, many people voluntarily came to Linde, hoping to join the cavalry squad.
Facing this situation, Linde did not play any games. He directly selected ten people from the guard warriors, exercising the right to choose that Fortimo had given him in just a few minutes, without giving any opportunity for bribery.
Many people secretly called Linde foolish for not taking advantage of such a good money-making opportunity, and some of those who were not selected questioned the qualifications of the people he chose. This was because all the people he selected were those who had gone hunting with him in Kingswood a while ago. All of them were hunters by origin, with excellent archery skills, but the problem was that none of them could ride horses, so they had no basic qualifications to be cavalrymen.
This led many people to believe that Linde made such a wrong choice because he lacked experience. Some people even waited to see Linde's downfall, as Linde had been too prominent lately, which had caused dissatisfaction among some. Garlan and others, however, did not care about this matter at all. Perhaps, in their view, even if Linde's cavalry squad had problems, it was nothing, and could just be considered a normal expense for training Linde.
As for Linde himself, he had no intention of explaining either. After selecting the candidates, he led them to collect equipment and horses that very day, and began training in horsemanship in a relatively secluded open space far from Lion Gate.
After training, he would pay out of his own pocket to take his subordinates to the taverns in the Dung Gate dock area for drinks. In just a few days, his relationship with his subordinates had improved significantly.
With the arrival of Tywin Lannister, Prince Joffrey's banquet was held on time. Garlan, Fotimo, and others had already gone to House Rose's temporary residence in the city early to attend the Red Keep banquet with Duke Mace Tyrell.
Because there were no restraints above them, the people in the camp also relaxed a lot, and many even ran to the martial arts tournament grounds to watch the excitement.
Although the official martial arts tournament was to be held tomorrow, the martial arts tournament grounds had already gathered many free knights from various places. Most of them had no fame, no property, and could not be hired by nobles. They could only find a suitable master for themselves by participating in the martial arts tournament to gain fame.
All things considered, Linde was already doing well. He was able to successfully become Fortimo's knight's squire and gained the attention of Garlan Tyrell, joining House Tyrell. If nothing unexpected happened, he would certainly become a knight of House Tyrell in the future, and if he then achieved military merits, becoming a landed knight would not be a problem.
However, among the knights participating in this martial arts tournament, there were not only those who came for a chance at fame, but also some knights who came entirely for the generous prize money of the martial arts tournament.
It should be known that in martial arts tournaments held elsewhere, a prize of ten thousand gold dragons was already very good, but Robert Baratheon was extremely martial and loved martial arts tournaments. In the year he ascended the throne, he held three martial arts tournaments: one was when he first ascended, another was his wedding to Cersei, Duke Tywin's daughter, and the third was when Cersei was pregnant. The champion's prize money for each of these three martial arts tournaments was as high as twenty thousand, and other participants, such as the runner-up and third-place winner, also received substantial prize money.
This martial arts tournament celebrating House Baratheon having an heir had already begun to be promoted several months ago, and the announced champion's prize money reached an astonishing figure of fifty thousand gold dragons. Such a huge prize money, let alone Westeros, even knights from Essos rushed to King's Landing impatiently.
Someone estimated that more than a thousand knights participated in this King's Landing martial arts tournament, not including archers and warriors participating in the archery competition and team battles. If those were included, the number would be doubled. Therefore, some also said that the scale of this martial arts tournament definitely exceeded any previous martial arts tournament held in Westeros.
And such a large number of warriors pouring into King's Landing was undoubtedly an extremely severe challenge to the public order of the entire King's Landing. The city guard of King's Landing totaled only over a thousand people, making it impossible to keep an eye on so many experienced warriors. Therefore, King's Hand Arryn ordered that all those participating in the martial arts tournament were not allowed to enter the city of King's Landing, and could only reside outside the city, completely throwing the trouble outside the city walls.
With so many energetic warriors crowded together, conflicts and friction were naturally inevitable. Every day, one could see constant disputes in the slums outside the King's Gate and by the Blackwater River, with armed clashes and fights being common occurrences.
The job of the city guard was to wait until the battle ended, then go collect the bodies, and confiscate any remaining valuables on the bodies as fines. If the bodies were claimed, a fee was paid to take them away; if unclaimed, they were directly thrown into the Blackwater River, floating down the river to Blackwater Bay to feed the fish.
Previously, conflicts in the slums were limited to ordinary warriors, but in the past two days, conflicts occurring at the martial arts tournament grounds have turned into conflicts between knights.
Before the official martial arts tournament, knights needed to inspect the grounds, especially needing to measure the width and length of the grounds with their own legs based on the horse's length. Doing so allowed them to find the correct rhythm when charging with a lance and calculate the position to strike, so as to accurately hit the enemy.
However, the measurement time before the martial arts tournament officially started was mainly reserved for knights participating from prominent noble houses, while ordinary knight participants simply had no measurement time whatsoever. Therefore, these ordinary knights had no choice but to measure beforehand, before the official martial arts tournament began.
Although the venue might be adjusted after the martial arts tournament begins, for those ordinary free knights, having a measurement is better than not having one, at least psychologically it will feel better.
However, the venue was only so large, and nearly a thousand knights suddenly poured in, all scrambling to measure the grounds. No one was willing to wait, and thus disputes arose.
So these past two days, the knights at the martial arts tournament grounds have already had a series of duels in advance, and such a spectacle is not usually seen. For a time, the guards in the various noble camps who had nothing to do all arrived early around the martial arts tournament grounds, waiting for the show to begin.
By the time Linde and his men arrived near the grounds, it was already somewhat late. Because they needed to train on horseback, it was already close to evening when they reached the martial arts tournament grounds. From the conversations of those around them, they learned that during the day, there had already been more than a dozen fights here caused by disputes over the order of measuring the grounds, and even two free knights had died in the conflicts. Both of these knights were the second sons of minor nobles, and their deaths in King's Landing did not cause any ripples.
Although it was already dark, the spectators were still not satisfied. They proactively found firewood and lit the braziers around the martial arts tournament grounds, illuminating the entire martial arts tournament grounds so that the knights who had not yet had time to measure the grounds could continue to contend for the right to measure, and they could continue to watch the excitement.
After Linde arrived near the grounds, he and his subordinates were separated by the bustling crowd, or more accurately, he deliberately used the crowd to intentionally separate himself from his subordinates.
After he could no longer see his subordinates, he quickly squeezed out of the crowd, then followed the small island along the Blackwater River to the fish market port located outside the Dung Gate city wall.