"You should loosen your reins a bit, and trust your mount as much as you trust your weapon." Linde watched Nameria ride Moon Maiden like a whirlwind, giving her loud pointers on how to handle the Wild Horse King.
Nameria had chosen the larger of the two Wild Horse Kings and named her Moon Maiden, corresponding to the Moon Maiden constellation in the sky.
However, since the Wild Horse King was tamed by Linde, she still needed to tame her herself to ride her. After a few months, she was already able to ride Moon Maiden, but it would still take some time before she could fully control her.
As Linde watched Nameria adjust her riding technique according to his instructions, he suddenly heard a crow's cry. He looked up and saw a crow flying overhead, heading north.
More than half a year had passed since returning to Tengshi Town from Highgarden. Everything in Tengshi Town was changing in an orderly fashion. Some changes were within Linde's expectations, while others were not. The only thing that was certain was that Tengshi Town was now more appropriately called Tengshi City.
The castle in Tengshi Town had been completely renovated more than a month ago. Linde had originally thought it would take one or two years, but with Moroa taking over, the somewhat chaotic construction site was re-planned, and the division of responsibilities became simpler and more direct, saving a lot of unnecessary procedures, which doubled the speed of the old Tengshi Town castle's renovation.
Because the castle in Tengshi Town had been renovated, the ruins below the castle also began to be repaired and reincorporated into Tengshi Town. Therefore, Linde's military camp was moved to the other side of the Mander River.
Although this military camp was still somewhat rudimentary, Moroa had built it to the specifications of a fortress. Once completed, it could serve as Tengshi Town's second town.
Because of this, Moroa also chose a suitable location and began to build a more solid stone bridge.
So many projects were being carried out simultaneously, requiring not only money but also a large number of workers. Fortunately, in the past six months, Tengshi Town itself had attracted a large number of displaced people, and Linde's reputation had also attracted many Free Folk who believed in the Seven Gods, causing Tengshi Town's population to increase from a few thousand to over 30,000. This did not include the civilians who had no intention of settling here but were merely looking for work, so there was no shortage of available workers here.
The reason why several major projects in Tengshi Town were being carried out simultaneously, besides the appearance of Moroa, a knowledgeable person, was more importantly that Tengshi Town was not short of money now.
On the third day after Linde returned to Tengshi Town, the letter of appointment from Highgarden had already arrived in Tengshi Town. However, this appointment letter was only for Nameria. As Velas said, Highgarden appointed Nameria as the Guardian of the Mander River. Although this was just an empty title with no real power, it had extremely high nominal authority, almost the entire Mander River was within her jurisdiction.
In fact, the position of Guardian of the Mander River had existed for a long time, but this position was thankless and accepting it would incur the hostility of the lords along the Mander River. Therefore, the lords of The Reach all disdained this position. This position was usually held by a court noble of Highgarden, for example, the previous Guardian of the Mander River was concurrently held by the Steward of Highgarden during Duke Tyrell's time.
Along with the Guardian title came an interest-free loan of up to 100,000 silver stags from the Rose Bank and the right to mint coins. It was this 100,000 silver stags that accelerated the construction of Tengshi Town, turning it into a city of considerable scale in just half a year. It was also because of the acquired right to mint silver stags that there was no pressure on the subsequent construction funds for Tengshi Town.
Because Moroa re-surveyed the silver mine, she discovered that it was not only a super-large mine but also a slightly smaller gold mine. With these two precious metal mines, Tengshi Town would basically not have any funding problems for the next few hundred years.
After discovering the gold mine, Nameria considered mining it as soon as possible so she could repay House Tyrell's 100,000 silver stag loan. However, Linde advised her not to mine the gold or repay the loan, but instead to borrow another 100,000 silver stags from House Tyrell's Rose Bank.
Nameria didn't understand why Linde was doing this, but thinking that Linde wouldn't harm her, she didn't ask further and followed Linde's instructions. As a result, she still borrowed 100,000 silver stags, without being affected by the previous 100,000 silver stag loan.
Moroa, on the other hand, understood immediately after hearing Linde's suggestion that Linde wanted to use this method to make the relationship between Nameria's Tengshi Town and Highgarden even closer. In this world, any relationship can fade with time, only debt relationships will deepen with the extension of time. Once a debt reaches a certain height, then the debt can become the best umbrella.
Compared to the smooth implementation of Nameria's appointment, the appointment of Linde as the commander of bandit suppression throughout The Reach has been delayed. Without the official appointment, Linde cannot legitimately expand his army significantly. He can only temporarily expand the formal cavalry to a maximum of one thousand men, while the other soldiers are placed under Nameria's name.
After returning to Tengshi Town, Linde began to expand his cavalry. He first expanded his personal guard to five hundred men, one hundred of whom were mercenary knights, and the rest were Free Riders.
Although these were the lowest-ranking mercenary knights, it did not mean that their abilities were poor. In fact, their ability to survive on the battlefield after being hired by different noble lords already proved their extraordinary capabilities.
However, Linde could not recruit all of them. For a lord like Nameria, once Tengshi Town was fully built, relying on various tax revenues, being able to maintain four or five hundred mercenary knights would already be very good, mainly because there was a gold mine and a silver mine supporting it.
Most lords only kept a dozen or so mercenary knights at most, and would only temporarily recruit mercenary knights when needed. Only great nobles like House Tyrell could maintain two or three thousand mercenary knights, and if necessary, could temporarily recruit mercenary knights to double or triple their numbers.
Linde was able to recruit so many mercenary knights mainly because he made a large sum of money in Dorne, and his Lost Country Knight armor and sword did not cost any money. House Tyrell also provided sufficient military expenses every month, which allowed him to have ample funds to expand his personnel.
In addition to the expanded personal guard, Linde also expanded five cavalry teams, each consisting of a standard ten knights and ninety riders. The first and second teams were still led by Brin-He Wen and Scarface Mite, while the third to fifth cavalry teams were led by three sworn knights he recruited after returning to Tengshi Town.
After Linde's astonishing battle achievements and the title of Chosen One spread, a large number of mercenary knights came to Tengshi Town hoping to join Linde's command. Even though Linde was currently just an ordinary sworn knight of House Tyrell, they still believed that following Linde would lead to a promising future, and among these mercenary knights, there were many powerful experts.
Linde selected the three most suitable knights from these experts to become the captains of the three cavalry teams.
Among these three, the captain of the Third Cavalry Team was an acquaintance of Linde's: Balin, the knight from the Narrow Sea who won the jousting tournament in King's Landing a year ago.
After participating in the martial arts tournament, he disappeared after receiving his 50,000 silver stag prize money. Everyone thought he had been killed and his 50,000 silver stags stolen. The actual situation was that after the martial arts tournament, he encountered his enemies from Essos, who then stole his prize money and abandoned him on a deserted island to fend for himself.
It wasn't until recently that he fortunately encountered a ship returning to King's Landing from Essos, but which had been blown off course by a storm. When he returned to King's Landing, he was penniless. He happened to meet people from Tengshi Town who were recruiting displaced people for King's Landing, so he went to Tengshi Town to see if he could find work.
Upon arriving in Tengshi Town, he happened to encounter Linde's cavalry expansion and signed up. He then demonstrated his horsemanship and mounted combat skills in the competition, and also passed Linde's interview, finally being recruited by Linde to become the captain of the Third Cavalry Team.
As for the identities of the other two cavalry team captains, they were also extraordinary: one was Daisy Mormont, and the other was Rosso Brun.
Linde was also very surprised when he heard Daisy Mormont's name. In his previous life, when he read books, he was deeply impressed by this Northern female warrior who did not appear much but had a distinct personality. After all, in the entire Ice and Fire World, there were very few women with the same tall stature and superb combat skills as her. If she had not died in the Red Wedding, she might have become as famous as Brienne throughout the Seven Kingdoms.
Daisy Mormont's arrival in Tengshi Town was also an accident. For some reason, she was traveling through the Seven Kingdoms after coming of age, according to Bear Island customs, to gain experience. Along the way, to cover her travel expenses, she would also take on some escort missions for merchant caravans. This time, she received a mission to escort a merchant caravan to Tengshi Town.
Upon arriving in Tengshi Town, she immediately paid her respects to Nameria, because she had heard of the renown of Countess Na Melilia Fudeli of Tengshi Town in King's Landing, and knew she was an extremely powerful female warrior. Therefore, she wanted to meet Nameria and compete with her as a warrior.
When Nameria met Daisy Mormont, she immediately felt a kinship with this Northern female warrior. After a sparring match, they quickly became good friends.
Originally, Daisy Mormont was preparing to join Tengshi Town and serve Nameria, but Nameria refused Daisy's request to serve. She didn't think Daisy's strength was insufficient, but rather that Daisy would waste her talents by following her.
Because Nameria is currently the Countess of Tengshi Town, and according to the current development, Tengshi Town will soon stabilize and there will not be much conflict, let alone war. Daisy's skills should be used in combat, so she said she would wait for Linde to return and recommend Daisy to Linde, because she knew very well that even if the bandits around Tengshi Town had been cleared, Linde would go to new places and start new battles.
So when Linde returned, Nameria immediately introduced Daisy to Linde. After Linde confirmed that the female warrior, whose height was only slightly shorter than his own, was indeed the female warrior from Bear Island, he immediately recruited her into his command. Later, when forming the Fifth Cavalry Team, he appointed her as the captain of the Fifth Cavalry Team.
Daisy gained Linde's attention and became a cavalry team captain due to Nameria's introduction and Linde's own memory, while Rosso Brun earned the position of Fourth Cavalry Team captain entirely through his own strength.
The position of captain of the Fourth Cavalry Team was not directly appointed by Linde, but was chosen through a martial arts tournament. All of Linde's sworn knights participated, and ultimately Rosso Brun fought his way through to win the championship.
His final opponent was Daisy. Daisy's flail was clearly not suitable for this kind of one-on-one duel, and she was defeated when Rosso exploited a weakness, ultimately making him the captain of the Fourth Cavalry Team.
Linde initially only felt that the name Rosso Brun sounded somewhat familiar, but didn't think much of it. Later, while talking with Rosso, he learned that he came from the Crownlands and had a distant kinship with the Brun family of Brown Hole Mountain on the Crab Claw Peninsula.
However, he had gone to the Brun family hoping to rejoin the family, but the Brun family seemingly did not acknowledge him as a distant relative and drove him out.
After that, he wandered to King's Landing as a Free Knight. In a King's Landing tavern, he heard various legendary experiences about Linde, which led him to idolize Linde and decide to follow him.
It was then that Linde remembered who this Rosso Brun was.
If he hadn't appeared, Rosso Brun would later become Littlefinger Petyr Baelish's right-hand man, distinguishing himself in the Battle of Blackwater River, breaking through enemy lines alone, slaying Ser Edwyd Fossoway of House Red Apple and Knight Bryan, and then capturing Ser Jon Fossoway of House Green Apple, earning the nickname "Apple Eater."
Undoubtedly, this Rosso Brun is definitely a fierce general, and charging into battle to kill enemies is his forte. Therefore, his and Daisy's Fourth and Fifth Cavalry Teams both use mounted archery as a secondary attack, with their primary attack method being heavy cavalry charges. They also train with Linde, and in wartime, Linde will lead these two cavalry teams to charge and kill enemies.
Conversely, the entire Personal Guard was converted into light cavalry with short bows, and the other three cavalry teams continued to practice mounted archery tactics.
In addition to these units, Linde also had Rossos form a five-hundred-man shield and spear infantry, with the Greenblood River Orphans as its core, temporarily assigned to Tengshi Town. And White Deer Wenda's Rangers, after continuously incorporating various bandits, became a secret force numbering as many as five hundred.
This secret force is currently dispatched by Linde to the northern edge of Tengshi Town's territory, the area south of the Blackwater River, to understand the situation there and prepare for the future construction of a fortress in that area.
However, all of this needs to wait for news from Highgarden, and everything in Highgarden now seems to have stagnated. There has been no announcement of Velas and Princess Arianne's marriage, nor has the proposal for marriage been rejected. Red Viper and Princess Arianne have been wandering through various territories of The Reach for half a year as if on vacation, with Velas always accompanying them as a guide.
Any noble from The Reach could see that Velas and Princess Arianne had a very good relationship. They made no secret of their affection for each other, and during these past six months, Princess Arianne also gained the recognition of most of the noble lords of The Reach, no longer having the initial aversion to a Dornish princess becoming the Duchess of Highgarden. Everyone believed that there were no longer any problems with the marriage alliance between Highgarden and Sunspear, including the Iron Throne and the other Seven Kingdoms.
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