Chapter 166 Defection to the Chosen One

As usual, Martha Hyde, the owner of the Crossroads Inn, wiped the table, placed the freshly made pastries in the display window behind her, and ordered the servants to feed the guests' horses.

"Sir Tarbeck, are you leaving so early? The fog is still very thick in the morning. This is not the time to rush." ​​Seeing a man who looked like a knight coming down from upstairs, Martha spit out a piece of chewed food in her mouth. He took out a new piece of tobacco from his pocket, threw it into his mouth, chewed it twice, showed his blood-red teeth and a scary smile, and asked.

Although he was a frequent visitor to the Crossroads Inn, Sir Tarbeck still couldn't stand the innkeeper's behavior. He ignored Martha's questions and directly threw the two silver deer on the table and walked out of the inn.

Martha had long been accustomed to this kind of reaction from her guests. This was exactly the effect she wanted. Give her money, less trouble, and no trouble. She skillfully pinched the silver deer, threw it into her pocket, and then shouted loudly. The servant who had just fed the horse took the boots and clothes that had been cleaned of mud last night to the guest room upstairs.

Recently, there have been a lot more knights walking on the King's Road, the River Road and the Moon Mountain Road. Some of them are heading south to King's Landing to see the legendary wights, while some are coming from King's Landing after seeing the wights. , planning to go north to become a night watchman.

Martha also wanted to go to King's Landing to see the legendary wights, but she would also feel heartbroken if she missed the opportunity to make money out of curiosity.

You must know that her inn is the last inn on the north side of King's Avenue. Starting from her and continuing north to the Great Wall of Despair, there is no more decent inn on the roadside. People going north either find farmers in the villages on the roadside. Stay overnight at home, or stay in one of those terrible suburban hotels.

Therefore, those hot-headed knights who decided to go north to the Great Wall to serve as night watchmen would definitely stay overnight in her inn and spend all the money they could. For this reason, she specially found some prostitutes to stay in the inn. Those knights serve the knights, and I can make a lot of money by taking a commission from each prostitute.

As time passed, the knights who were sleeping upstairs also came downstairs. Martha immediately directed the servants in the inn to serve the knights the food that had just been prepared in the kitchen. When the knights left, She cuts the pastries in the cupboard and gives them to the knights for them to eat on the road. She believes that everyone who eats the delicious pastries made by her own hands will become her repeat customer.

This busyness lasted until noon. All the rooms in the inn were now empty. There were only a dozen knights and their attendants sitting downstairs. They were just passing by to take a rest and would not spend the night.

Servants and prostitutes each picked a few rooms to clean. This was not because they were diligent or liked cleaning, but because those careless knights would always leave something in the room, which allowed the cleaners to earn extra money. A sum of money.

Martha spit out the chewed tobacco again, replaced it with another piece, and then carefully calculated the recent income in the account book. She was thinking about whether to renovate the inn. The interior of this inn had not been renovated for more than ten years. , or strengthen the wooden piles under the inn. After all, some guests said that they felt the house shaking when they slept.

"How about building another inn next to it?" A new idea came to Martha's mind.

Just a burst of quarreling pulled her out of her thoughts, and she saw that the knights who were fine before in the hall were now divided into two sides, glaring at each other with swords drawn, and some of them had their hands on the hilts of their swords.

When she took over the inn, in order to avoid offending people she shouldn't have offended, Martha carefully studied the complex noble heraldry. Although a long time had passed, she could still identify the knight's origin through the heraldry.

Judging from the coat of arms, the two groups now at war with each other should be from the Frey family in the Twins, and the Rowan family from the Reach on the other side. There are also some knights holding prostitutes in their arms to watch the fun, and even deliberately moved the table Open, free up a piece of space, and let them do it later, which will be more convenient.

"Masters, please, please don't fight inside the store. You can go outside and fight. There is a lot of open space outside." Martha skillfully shrank herself behind the counter, popped out half of her head, and faced these people. The knights begged again and again, even though she knew that her pleas would be of no use, but she always behaved as she should.

"Shut up, weasels of the Frey family! How dare you say that you fought side by side with Lord Linde? Saying Lord Linde's name from your dirty mouths is the greatest blasphemy against him!" Several young and handsome men said The knight angrily scolded several knights of the Frey family.

Facing the contemptuous rebuke, several Freys looked extremely ugly. One of them said loudly: "Am I wrong? During the Iron Islands Rebellion, Lord Steveron led the army of the Twin Rivers and Lin Lin. Lord De Terra fought side by side, and also assisted Lord Linde in capturing the two cities of Fortress and Cliff City. But what about your Rowan family? The names of your Rowan family were not even mentioned at the light celebration banquet in Nice Port."

"How dare you insult the Luowan family like this!" The knight of the Luowan family immediately became furious and finally couldn't help but draw the sword from his waist.

"Kill him! Kill these weasels!" The reputation of the Frey family in the Riverlands is very bad. No one likes them, so when they saw the knights of the Rowan family drawing their swords, some people couldn't wait to shout.

"No! Don't die here." Martha, who was hiding behind the counter, couldn't help shouting loudly. This was not because she was afraid of seeing dead people, but because the blood stains left behind were difficult to clean up.

Several Freys also drew their swords at this moment, pointing the sword tips at the enemy in front of them without showing any signs of weakness. It can be said that a fight is about to break out.

However, at this time, a knight who was watching the play seemed to suddenly feel something. He asked the prostitute who was making noises to quiet down, then listened for a while and said loudly: "Everyone be quiet, you listen."

This knight seemed to have some authority. When he spoke, the knights and attendants who were making noises around him also became quiet. Even the two opposing groups stopped.

At this moment, everyone heard roars coming from outside, as if some heavy object hit the ground repeatedly. Then they found that the drinks on the table were shaking slightly, and the entire inn house was also shaking slightly.

The knight who was the first to notice the abnormality immediately pushed away the prostitute who was sitting on him, stood up, and ran outside the inn. Others rushed to run out, and soon the inn lobby, which was full of people just now, was empty.

Martha was also stunned by the sudden change and didn't understand what was happening, but she could feel the house shaking and felt like it would collapse at any time, so she didn't think much about it, stuffed her money bag under her clothes, and ran out After entering the inn, other servants and prostitutes also rushed out.

When they ran out of the inn, they found that all the knights who had rushed out before were standing on the roadside, transformed into stone sculptures, looking towards the King's Road to the north.

When they walked out of the shelter of the inn out of curiosity, walked to the roadside, and looked to the north, they were completely stunned like the knights. Some prostitutes with weak psychological tolerance could not help it. Screamed, then passed out.

On the King's Road, a group of giants about the same height as the inn house were walking towards us. They were wearing huge clothes sewn from animal skins, and they were holding a tree trunk in their hands as they walked. , while punching the ground with the tree trunk in his hand, this is how the previous rumbling sound and the vibration of the ground came out.

"Giant, this is the giant that Lord Linde conquered outside the Great Wall!" Someone immediately recognized the origin of the giant, and at the same time, their eyes moved to the knight riding a giant war horse in front of the giant queue.

I saw that the knight was wearing a piece of exquisite armor and two big swords on his waist. There was a giant beast beside him. With such eye-catching features, it was very difficult to admit his mistake.

As Linde led his giant men closer, all the knights quickly arranged their clothes, then puffed up their chests one by one, stood solemnly by the roadside, and looked at Linde solemnly.

"Lord Linde, I am Beot Rowan of the Rowan family."

"Lord Lind, I am Leonor Frey of the Frey family."

"Lord Lind, I am Tiget Malbrand of the Malbrand family."

When Linde came to them, they all saluted to Linde, and then announced their names and identities in a hurry. The scene seemed a bit chaotic, which was in sharp contrast to the orderly scene just now.

It seemed that this was not the first time that Linde encountered such a scene. He did not dismount, but sat on the horse. He nodded and saluted the knights, but did not stop and walked directly with them.

Moreover, the knights did not feel that they had been treated coldly. On the contrary, they felt that Linde's ability to nod in return was the greatest respect for them. Each of them was in a state of surging emotion. When they looked at the giants walking past one by one, they also felt that If you feel scared again, all that's left is shock.

However, when the giant queue passed in front of them, they discovered that there were hundreds of knights and their attendants following behind the giant queue. It was not difficult to find from the coats of arms on these knights and attendants that they were all from different countries. Many of them even left the inn in the morning, preparing to go to the Great Wall to serve as night watch knights.

Soon some smart people realized that instead of working as a night watchman in the north, it was better to join Linde's command directly. In the future, he could still make achievements and leave his name in history, and he didn't have to have as many restrictions as the night watchman.

Thinking of this, some of the knights who had planned to go to the Great Wall of Despair changed their minds and joined the following team. Only a few determined people still did not change their minds.

Linde knew very well what the knights behind him were thinking. Except for a few who were mercenary knights, most of the other knights were second sons, third sons, or even illegitimate sons from various families in the Seven Kingdoms, etc., without the right to inherit. Descendants of nobles.

Although these knights have shortcomings such as weak willpower, Lind still needs these people to join, because the knowledge and abilities possessed by these people are far beyond those of the low-level hired knights and wandering knights.

In the past two years, although Lind's reputation has grown and become the most legendary figure in the Seven Kingdoms, for some unknown reason, there are not many noble knights willing to take refuge with him. Most of them are hired knights and wandering knights.

Mercenary knights and wandering knights are fine for fighting, but they are much worse for managing places.

Now, Linde's knights with certain governance capabilities, such as Bryn Hewen and Wise Rowan, have been completely decentralized by Linde. However, even so, there are still many positions that lack suitable manpower and need to be filled by one person. Multiple jobs.

Although this kind of part-time job will not cause any major problems in a short period of time, in the long run, one person holding multiple positions will not only affect a person's work efficiency, but also make him or her too powerful, causing trouble. .

So all along, Linde has been thinking of ways to fill the staff vacancies.

He once thought of recruiting bachelors from the city to serve as chief officers of various departments, but not only Nymeria was opposed to this idea, but even Moroya declared that this was the stupidest idea she had ever heard. For the first time, Nymeria and I had the same opinion on something.

The reason why they objected was that doing so was tantamount to destroying the power structure of the Seven Kingdoms. Bachelors could only assist the nobles. Once they became chief officers, it would be equivalent to robbing the nobles of their rights, which was the largest in Westeros. taboo.

Not to mention whether there is a bachelor who has the audacity to agree to Linde's appointment, even if a bachelor agrees to the appointment, it will not be of any benefit to Linde. All the surrounding lords will reject Linde, even if they have signed a contract with Linde. The Covenant's Green Valley City, Black Harbor and Weir City will also draw a clear line with Lind, because Lind is challenging the noble lords of the entire Westeros.

Therefore, before Linde set out for the Great Wall of Despair, he had already decided that after returning from the Great Wall, he would directly send people to the castles of the Seven Kingdoms and the Free City-State Alliance across the Narrow Sea to post recruitment orders to recruit capable knights and nobles. Active recruitment is always more effective than passively waiting for people to join you.

However, it seems that there is no need to advertise for talents now, because this trip beyond the Great Wall has truly pushed him to an equal status with the legendary heroes. In the future, there will definitely be a large number of real noble knights taking the initiative to join him, and now The knights who followed him back to Summer Hall are the best proof.

After Linde's giant team crossed the Trident River, he encountered more and more knights. Most of these knights chose to follow Linde and go south together, even though Linde never mentioned it from beginning to end. Recruit these knights under your command.

When Linde arrived at King's Landing, the team of knights behind him had increased to more than 500 people. Counting the attendants, there were over a thousand people. The vast force looked like a complete army.