"Should we wait until night to launch a sneak attack?" Nameria asked, looking at the Ironborn camp below.
"No need, let's do it now!" Linde shook his head and said, "Now is the perfect time."
The Ironborn camp was in a bit of chaos because of Rodrik's orders. Various nobles were busy gathering their armies, and the Ironborn in each army were looking for their leaders. Everyone's attention was on the camp, and they didn't notice that an uninvited guest had arrived on the hill not far from them.
Linde rode his horse back to the front of the army formation behind the hill and assigned tasks to everyone: "Nameria, you lead the Tengshi Town army to clear out the deserters on the periphery. The cavalry will perform mounted archery on the periphery according to past training methods, and only after exhausting their arrows can they launch a cavalry charge." Saying that, he turned to Stivren Frey and Jon Umber, and said, "Lord Stivren, Lord Jon, you will lead the Frey cavalry to charge with me later."
Jon Umber excitedly raised his weapon, indicating he was impatient.
"Ah?" Stivren, on the other hand, looked panicked and said, "Lord, many of our cavalry have just been formed and have no ability to fight on horseback at all…"
"This is an order, not a discussion, Lord Stivren." Linde did not give Stivren a chance to explain, and said in a deep voice, "You will follow closely behind me later, don't fall behind, understand?"
"Yes, Lord." Stivren felt the pressure emanating from Linde and had to lower his head and respond.
As the order was given, the troops began to gather according to their respective camps. The Frey cavalry, looking bewildered, followed Linde under Stivren's leadership.
After all the units were in position, Linde gestured for Glory to stay with Nameria, then urged Black Wind to trot over the hill. Stivren, with a bitter expression, dared not delay and quickly led the Frey cavalry to follow. Jon Umber's Northern cavalry followed closely behind, acting as a disciplinary force.
As the army just crossed the hill and charged down, the Ironborn camp saw them, and the Ironborn were slightly panicked, but quickly calmed down. Rodrik, standing in the camp, roared loudly, arranging defenses and gathering the Greyjoy soldiers around him.
Teams of Ironborn picked up their weapons and rushed out of the camp. Some Iron Islands knights and nobles directed their subordinates to form up and defend.
However, they clearly underestimated the speed of Black Wind under Linde. Black Wind, which was still galloping on the hill a moment ago, had already charged out of the camp at this moment. The Frey cavalry behind were pulled a long distance away, and it wasn't that Frey was deliberately slowing down, but that Black Wind's speed was simply too fast.
The Ironborn saw someone charging alone and thought this person was crazy. Although the giant warhorse charging towards them looked very intimidating, the Ironborn still skillfully raised their long spears, wanting to impale the person and horse charging towards them like a honeycomb.
Unfortunately, they encountered Linde. The heavy armor specially made for Black Wind easily deflected the long spears in front, and then Black Wind transformed into a giant rock rolling down from a high mountain, directly knocking away the Ironborn blocking the way. Those on both sides of the warhorse were even worse off; they only saw a flash of light pass before their eyes, and then they were all cut in half and lay on the ground.
Linde and Black Wind, his warhorse, were like two unstoppable monsters, carving a bloody path through the crowd. Whether it was those blocking their way or those too close, all met their demise. Blood flowed in their wake, forming a trail of crimson, as if they had stepped through a river of blood.
When Stivren led the Frey cavalry to the camp, the Ironborn's newly formed defensive formation had already been completely broken, and Linde had already charged all the way to the center of the camp, with at least hundreds of corpses lying behind him.
Stivren was shocked by Linde's combat power, and even developed a strange sense of admiration, but he had no time to think now, because he and the Frey cavalry had already collided with the Ironborn warriors.
Because Linde had already shattered the Ironborn's morale and broken their formation, these Ironborn were completely unable to organize resistance against the charging Frey cavalry, and one by one they were cut down by the extremely excited Frey cavalry.
The Frey cavalry were also extremely excited at this moment, because they had never encountered such a smooth battle. The enemies they faced were like wooden stakes standing in place, allowing them to hack and slash, and it seemed that with every strike they could kill an enemy.
The Northern cavalry, led by Jon Umber, followed closely behind, quickly bypassing the Frey position and charging towards other assembling troops in the camp.
At the same time, outside the Ironborn camp, Nameria led the others, splitting into two groups, galloping rapidly along the edge of the camp, while picking up specially made short bows and shooting strong arrows into the camp.
Facing the densely packed enemies in the camp, they didn't need to aim specifically; they only needed to shoot upwards at an angle.
Arrows flew through the air, arcing downwards to strike the Ironborn in the camp. The metal arrowheads brutally pierced their leather armor, embedding themselves deep within their bodies and organs, instantly incapacitating them.
Because these arrows came from all directions, there was no way to hide. Ironborn warriors in the camp fell in droves under the arrow rain, and even more Ironborn frantically searched for cover, even carrying the corpses of their companions to shield themselves from the arrows.
Many knights and nobles commanding the army died in the rain of arrows, unable to organize a defense. All Ironborn blindly moved towards the Greyjoy Kraken banner in the center of the camp.
However, just as they gathered in the center of the camp, they saw the Kraken banner fall, and standing beneath the severed flagpole was a terrifying knight in exquisite armor, holding two knight Greatswords, and in the knight's hand was the head of Rodrik Greyjoy, the commander of this Ironborn army.
At this moment, none of the Ironborn had any thought of attacking this knight, because the countless corpses piled up like mountains around the knight had already shown them the outcome of attacking him.
It's unclear who was the first to drop their weapon and kneel with their hands over their head, but in any case, the despairing Ironborn one by one laid down their weapons and knelt in surrender.
Soon, this wave of surrender spread from the Greyjoy barracks in the center of the camp, quickly encompassing the entire Ironborn camp.
At this point, the Frey and Northern cavalry were already in a killing frenzy. When they saw the Ironborn surrender, they still wanted to raise their swords and hack, but dozens of arrows flew over, striking their arms and stopping their actions.
Immediately after, Daisy was seen leading the cavalry to them, shouting to Stivren and Jon Umber, who were not far away: "Lord Stivren, Lord Jon, have you forgotten Lord Linde's instructions? Or are you going to disobey Lord Linde's orders?"
Hearing Daisy's shouts, both men immediately sobered from the slaughter and quickly yelled at their subordinates, "Stop! Everyone stop! Lord Linde has ordered, surrender and live! Surrender and live!"
The cavalry of both houses quickly recovered from their killing frenzy, and those who hadn't yet sobered up were directly kicked off their horses by their comrades. They didn't want to be punished by Linde because of some fools who couldn't control their hands.
In this battle, they truly realized that all the Seven Gods Church's propaganda about Linde was true, and even the content of that propaganda was far from comparable to Linde's true combat power. They didn't know how many people Linde had killed, but they could be sure it was at least over a thousand, and the reason this battle ended so quickly was entirely due to Linde's display of god-like combat power.
Under the influence of extreme fear and admiration for Linde, including Stivren and Jon Umber, everyone spontaneously raised their weapons and cheered loudly, "Chosen One Linde! Chosen One Linde!"
While the battle inside the camp had ended, the battle outside the camp had not. Many Ironborn chose not to surrender, but instead fled the camp, heading towards distant forests, hills, and even the sea, attempting to escape the slaughter.
However, Linde had specifically trained his and Nameria's cavalry on how to pursue and kill those who fled.
These fleeing Ironborn were herded together by Nameria leading the Tengshi Town cavalry, and then faced countless arrows, being harvested in groups. In the end, except for two or three lucky ones who escaped into the sea and submerged themselves, the remaining thousands of people all died in the pursuit.
On the walls of Sea Frontier City, Patrick Mallister and his advisors, and the Sea Frontier City guards, all watched the battle outside the Ironborn camp in shock. It wasn't that they didn't want to support the battle outside, but simply that there wasn't enough time to do so.
From the moment the battle began until it ended, only about twenty minutes passed. Patrick had just put on his armor, organized all the Sea Frontier City cavalry, and arrived at the city gate of Sea Frontier City, ready to raise the gate and charge out to fight the enemy with the reinforcements outside the city, but the battle had already ended.
When Patrick led his men back up the city wall, he heard cheers coming from the Ironborn camp, and the only name being cheered was Chosen One Linde.
And in the eyes of the people of Sea Frontier City on the city wall, it was very easy to identify who Chosen One Linde was: in the middle of the Ironborn camp, where Rodrik Greyjoy's main tent had been, a knight in magnificent armor sat astride an unusually tall, heavily armored warhorse, surrounded by mountains of blood and fragmented corpses, and thousands of Ironborn kneeling on the ground, not daring to look up.
"This will be a world-renowned painting!" Patrick, who understood painting, excitedly etched everything before his eyes into his memory, and secretly decided to paint it.
"Lord, you should go and welcome Lord Linde now." Tiers also looked at the battlefield outside the city excitedly, reminding Patrick.
"Yes, yes! I should go and welcome Lord Linde." Patrick nodded repeatedly, preparing to go down the city wall to welcome Linde.
"Wait, Patrick." But he was stopped by Hoth General Manager, who then said, "The battle outside has just ended, and there are still many people in the Ironborn camp. Although they have surrendered now, if they realize they outnumber us later and resist again, you will be in danger if you go over, and it will also obstruct Lord Linde and his men. So, it's better for you to stay in the city. It's more appropriate for me to represent the Earl and go outside to welcome the reinforcements."
Patrick was naturally unwilling, but he couldn't argue with Hoth General Manager. In the end, Hoth General Manager led a dozen knights, over three hundred cavalry, and a thousand soldiers out of the city to welcome Linde, and incidentally, to assist Linde in incorporating the prisoners.
Afterward, the integration of the Ironborn prisoners was not particularly smooth. During the process of incorporating the surrendered Ironborn, some attempted to resist, trying to seize the cavalry's warhorses and escape, but they were quickly detected by Linde's cavalry and shot full of arrows, turning them into porcupines.
With the example of resistance, the remaining people also gave up the idea of escaping, obediently accepting discipline. They disarmed themselves, had their hands tied behind their backs, and every ten people had a noose around their necks, connected by a single rope. They were told that if one of them escaped, everyone on that rope would be executed.
It's no wonder Linde had to use such a collective punishment method, because there were indeed too many prisoners this time. The entire Ironborn camp had over ten thousand people in total, of which nearly six thousand died in the battle that lasted just over twenty minutes.
Linde himself directly killed at least over a thousand people during his charge, most of whom were Greyjoy warriors protecting Rodrik. This doesn't even count those he killed on his way to the central camp; if those are included, it's roughly two thousand people.
The Frey and Northern cavalry, following Linde, pursued and killed the scattered soldiers, also killing over two thousand. Nameria and others killed over a thousand with mounted archery outside, and another thousand were killed chasing fleeing Ironborn. In total, it's roughly six thousand people.
Of the remaining over nine thousand Ironborn, after removing those with fatal injuries and those who were severely wounded beyond recovery, there were finally over eight thousand Ironborn prisoners.
To facilitate the management of these prisoners, Linde had to break them into teams and use the collective punishment method, making them monitor each other. If one person in a team escaped, the entire team would be punished. If one team out of ten escaped, all ten teams would be punished.
Although this method was tyrannical and unreasonable, it was extremely efficient. Several times, when prisoners tried to escape, they were reported by fellow Ironborn prisoners before they could even act. Some even ganged up to strangle their unruly companions to avoid being implicated by them.
In this battle, Linde's cavalry and Nameria's army were all on the periphery, primarily engaging in mounted archery or pursuing deserters, and did not face any strong resistance. Only Nameria's army had a few dozen injured.
The Frey cavalry, on the other hand, directly followed Linde into the camp, targeting those Ironborn who had lost their will to fight, and only suffered over a hundred casualties.
Only the Northern cavalry led by Jon Umber directly confronted the Ironborn. Although the Ironborn they fought against had been terrified by Linde and were unable to form formations or cooperate to face the enemy, when facing death, the Ironborn's ferocity still played a role, adopting a suicidal fighting method, trading one for one with the Northern cavalry.
Ultimately, the Northern cavalry suffered heavy losses, with over four hundred dead and more than two hundred severely wounded. Almost everyone sustained minor injuries, including Jon Umber.
However, even so, the Northern cavalry felt this battle was very worthwhile. A few thousand men defeated an army of over ten thousand, at the cost of a few hundred casualties, killing thousands of enemies and capturing nearly ten thousand prisoners. Such a result is worthy of praise in any classic war.
Not only did they not resent Linde for leading them into battle, but they even felt Glory to be able to participate in such a splendid battle, and even developed an extremely strong admiration for Linde, including Jon Umber, who had always looked down on Southerners.
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