The Frey family assembled their army much faster than Linde had anticipated; not long after his army crossed The Twins and reached the south bank, the Frey cavalry unit was already formed and led by Ser Stivren Frey, the eldest son and heir of the Frey family, joining Linde's rebel suppression cavalry.
Although the Frey family was quick to assemble their army, the quality of the army itself was not good; apart from over five hundred warhorses, the other two thousand plus horses were all nags, and not all the warriors were cavalrymen, the vast majority were infantrymen who could barely stay on horseback.
However, the Frey family did send a hundred mercenary knights, primarily to protect Stivren Frey, the heir of the Frey family; and to outsiders, the Frey family even sending their own heir showed their loyalty.
But in Linde's eyes, Old Walder's move might have been an attempt to use him to replace an heir, and in doing so, gain a good reputation for sacrificing an heir in suppressing a rebellion for the Iron Throne; he did exactly that during the War of the Five Kings more than ten years later.
However, for Linde, it didn't matter; he didn't expect the Frey cavalry to bring much combat power; all he needed was a show of attitude from the Frey family.
After the Frey cavalry joined, Linde did not break up these disorganized troops from the Frey family and incorporate them into other units, as that would reduce combat effectiveness.
However, he did arrange Jon Umber behind the Frey family's army; once battle began, if the Frey family dared to slack off, Jon Umber would act as a disciplinary squad, driving the Frey cavalry to fight.
Linde did not immediately set off for Sea Frontier City, but instead sent scouts to understand the situation in Sea Frontier City; he rested overnight outside The Twins and only departed the next day, marching towards Sea Frontier City.
A day later, outside Sea Frontier City, Rodrik Greyjoy watched a unit that had just plundered a nearby village enter the camp, laden with various stolen supplies, and his expression did not improve.
For Rodrik, pillaging villages was merely a way to boost his men's morale; he had already promised his men that he would take none of the spoils from the villages, giving it all to them, and he did this because he wanted to capture Sea Frontier City as quickly as possible.
Not long ago, he had learned that his uncle Victarion had captured Kalin Bay, successfully blocking the Northern Allied Forces in the north; and he had far more men than his uncle, his father even secretly sent an additional three thousand men for him to command, yet Sea Frontier City still had not been breached, and he remained blocked outside the city.
According to the plan, he should have already occupied Sea Frontier City by now, and using Sea Frontier City as a base, quickly moved south along the Green Fork River, Blue Fork River, and other Riverlands rivers deep into the Riverlands, harassing and plundering the Riverlands, and tying down the armies of the various Riverlands territories.
But he was still stuck at Sea Frontier City; the original plan could not be implemented at all, which was a complete failure for him.
"We do not sow" is the Greyjoy family's motto and the core ideology of the Ironborn of the Iron Islands; Rodrik knew that even if he was Balon Greyjoy's eldest son, if he could not lead the Ironborn to acquire enough wealth, then even as heir, whether he would ultimately sit on the throne on Pyke was unknown, after all, he was not an only child, and had many siblings.
"Lord Rodrik, a letter from the Iron Islands." Rodrik's captain of the guard hurried over, holding a piece of paper.
Rodrik took the paper and read it, his expression growing even more grim.
The content of the paper was simple: Victarion Greyjoy had been recalled to the Iron Islands and would participate in the upcoming attack on Arbor and Oldtown fleets, and afterwards, he and his other uncle Euron would be sent south to The Reach to plunder The Reach, forcing The Reach's allied forces to withdraw from the Iron Throne's levy.
Undoubtedly, this was absolutely bad news for him; among the Seven Kingdoms, anyone with a bit of sense would know which of The Reach and the Riverlands possessed more wealth; plundering The Reach would definitely make his two uncles and their men rich beyond measure.
At that time, the people who were with him attacking Sea Frontier City would become dissatisfied with him, and then question his ability, shaking his inherent position.
And more importantly was the attitude of his father Balon Greyjoy; although the paper did not explicitly state his father King Balon's attitude, merely by recalling Victarion, who should have been guarding Kalin Bay, to the Iron Islands to participate in the upcoming crucial naval battle, but not recalling him, the eldest son, to the Iron Islands, was enough for Rodrik to feel that his father was likely disappointed and dissatisfied with him for not yet breaching Sea Frontier City.
"No, if this continues, I'm finished." Rodrik tightly gripped the note in his hand, crumpling it into a ball, and then ordered his captain of the guard: "Pass down the order, we attack the city tomorrow, we must take Sea Frontier City tomorrow!"
"My Lord, if we do that, we will lose many men." The captain of the guard reminded him, "We have already lost over a thousand men in the previous assaults, if…"
"Shut up!" Rodrik grabbed the captain of the guard by his clothes, pulling him close, and said fiercely, "You just need to pass on my orders, you don't need to say anything else, understand? Corven Pyke."
"Yes, My Lord." The captain of the guard's heart trembled, and thinking of the fate of Rodrik's previous captains of the guard, he replied tremblingly.
As Rodrik's orders reached the hands of his subordinate noble officers, the dissatisfaction with Rodrik in the camp increased even further.
Because Rodrik's failed command of the attack on Sea Frontier City during this period had caused their men to lose some people, more or less, totaling over a thousand, and they had yet to see any of the promised treasures.
But no matter how dissatisfied they were, they dared not disobey Rodrik's orders, after all, Rodrik commanded five thousand Ironborn warriors loyal to Greyjoy.
So, they returned to their respective camps, mobilizing soldiers and preparing siege engines for tomorrow's assault.
The Ironborn did not conceal their actions; standing on the walls of Sea Frontier City, their every move could be seen clearly.
Patrick Melistre, who had been living and eating on the city walls these past few days, immediately noticed the activity in the Ironborn camp and quickly determined what the Ironborn were about to do.
He allocated defensive positions to the Sea Frontier City garrison soldiers while checking every defensive strongpoint on the city walls to avoid any oversights; at the same time, he also sent people to the refuge to mobilize the Sea Frontier City residents who had entered the city to escape the Ironborn, telling them to take up arms and be ready to step in when the defensive forces on the city walls were insufficient.
As Patrick gave orders to his subordinates, Tiers River, the captain of the Earl's guard, who was behind him, looked at the heir to Sea Frontier City with a look of relief.
Before this Ironborn invasion, everyone in Sea Frontier City disliked Patrick, believing him to be a playboy who spent every day in brothels and taverns, or went hunting and playing, completely lacking the demeanor of an Earl's heir, making people worry about the future of Sea Frontier City.
Not long ago, when Lord Jason Melistre fell ill during the great frost, with a persistent high fever and unconsciousness, everyone in Sea Frontier City worried that if the Earl died and Patrick succeeded him, how badly Sea Frontier City would be ruined by him.
However, surprisingly, when Patrick handled the affairs of Sea Frontier City on behalf of the ailing Lord Jason, there were no mishaps, nor did he act recklessly as people had imagined; instead, he handled the governance of Sea Frontier City in Lord Jason's manner.
Although his handling was still somewhat immature, it at least showed some of Lord Jason's shadow.
Later, during the Ironborn invasion, this playboy in everyone's eyes also performed admirably; he did not shy away from battle, hiding in the castle, but instead had been guarding the city walls since the start of the war, sharing hardships with the warriors on the walls.
Doing so might not directly increase the warriors' combat power or the castle's defensive capability, but it greatly boosted the morale of the garrison soldiers, which enabled them to repel the Ironborn attacks again and again.
"Lord Tiers, do you think there are any flaws in my arrangements?" As usual, after making various city defense arrangements, Patrick turned to his father's guard captain and asked.
"No problem at all! My Lord, you have done very well." Tiers replied.
"How is father's health?" Patrick then asked.
"The Earl's health has improved, and he can get out of bed and move around; he wanted to come to the city walls to participate in the battle, but Maester Bert prevented him."
Patrick nodded, slightly relieved, and then asked, "How long can the food in the city last?"
Tiers said sternly, "At the current rate of consumption, it can last for at least another month, but Maester Bert suggested slightly reducing the rations for the refuge residents, which would ensure sufficient rations for the garrison soldiers participating in the battle, and also make the food last longer."
"No, since the commoners trust our Melistre Family and come to the castle for refuge when in danger, then our Melistre Family must provide them with the protection and care they deserve; this is the responsibility and duty of a lord." Patrick righteously rejected Tiers' suggestion, then thought for a moment and said, "If we truly run out of food, then kill the horses!"
Tiers frowned and said, "My Lord, those horses are ones you specially brought from Dorne…"
Patrick calmly said, "If the territory is gone, what good are horses? Besides, those horses are just a small hobby of mine, worthless compared to the stability of the territory."
At this moment, Hoth General Manager of Sea Frontier City, hurried over, handing a letter to Patrick and excitedly saying, "Good news, this is good news!"
It was no wonder Hoth Melistre was so excited, because all the messages he had received from ravens recently were not good news, for example, asking Riverrun for help, but Riverrun had to respond to the King's summons and could not spare extra men to help Sea Frontier City.
Another example was asking The Twins for help, but Old Walder demanded an exorbitant aid fee and also wanted Patrick to marry a Frey woman; this was simply an insult to the ancient Melistre Family, who had once sat on the throne of the Trident River King for a period, and still had some royal blood flowing in their veins, how could they marry a parvenu's daughter.
This time, when the raven brought news again, Hoth had initially given up hope for this message, because not long ago, he had received news that the Riverlands allied forces had already gone to King's Landing, meaning the Riverlands could no longer send reinforcements, so there would be no good news.
But when he read the contents of the letter, he found it to be the best news he had received in a long time, so he eagerly brought the letter to the city walls to let Patrick know as soon as possible, to boost the morale of Sea Frontier City.
"Kalin Bay has been recaptured by Chosen One Linde, and now Chosen One Linde is leading men to reinforce Sea Frontier City?" Patrick carefully read the letter in his hand, a look of surprise on his face.
He remembered mentioning to his father that Kalin Bay had been captured by the Ironborn; at the time, his father, upon learning that over three thousand Ironborn were garrisoned in Kalin Bay, concluded that Kalin Bay could not be breached and told him not to consider any northern support.
In his father's opinion, let alone three thousand men, if Karling Bay Castle was defended by two thousand men, it would be enough to withstand a siege of tens of thousands.
However, now Kalin Bay had actually been recaptured, which made Patrick curious as to how it was recaptured and how many people died.
"Is this Chosen One Linde perhaps Bear Hunter Lind, who almost achieved a hundred kills in that martial arts tournament in King's Landing over a year ago?" Patrick asked with curiosity.
"Yes, it is Lord Linde Terra." Hoth General Manager nodded.
Hearing Hoth General Manager's words, Patrick couldn't help but get excited.
Having spent a long time in taverns and brothels, he naturally heard many songs sung by bards, and the hunter of bears song had always been his favorite tune; and over the past year, as Linde's achievements were continuously praised, the hunter of bears song gradually became the Chosen of God song, and he also developed a sense of reverence for Linde.
And now, his idol was actually leading troops to rescue him, which made Patrick incredibly excited; he was already eager to see Chosen of God Linde, as sung in his songs, reap the lives of his enemies like an envoy of the Stranger.
"What should we do? How should we cooperate with Lord Linde?" Patrick asked Hoth General Manager.
Before Hoth General Manager could answer, Tiers, who was reading the letter, pointed to a passage at the end of the letter and said, "It says no cooperation is needed, we just need to hold the city walls."
"No need?" Patrick was stunned, then took the letter and looked at it again, showing a slight disappointment, and then asked, "Should we send a letter to ask when Lord Linde's support will arrive?"
Hoth General Manager analyzed, "No need; according to the distance between here and Kalin Bay, counting from the day the raven was released, they should reach Sea Frontier City in three or four days."
Just as they were still discussing when Linde's support would arrive on the walls of Sea Frontier City, on a small hill not far from Sea Frontier City, a patrol of Ironborn cavalry lay dead on the ground, riddled with arrows, and an army stood silently on the hill, looking down at the Ironborn camp outside Sea Frontier City.
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