Chapter 60 Fundamental Purpose

More than ten days have passed, and the ruins of the camp have been completely set up. Not only are there enough houses to live in for the current manpower, but also the houses needed to expand the army in the future have also been built.

Although the overall look is a bit crude, they finally have a place to shelter from the wind and rain, which makes Linde's cavalry feel at ease a lot, and the overall morale has also improved.

During this period of time, Linde has been constantly sending out exploration horses to collect information about the surrounding mountain people, savage tribes and villages. If bandits are discovered, he will follow them.

However, these bandits rarely have fixed bases and only wander around a certain area, so most of them only followed them for a certain distance and then stopped following them.

Linde compiled an extremely complete map of the distribution of forces in the upper reaches of the Mander River based on the information collected by various scouts, and by comparing the information provided by Varys and the information provided by Nymeria.

In the area east of the Mander River, west of Kingswood and Rose Avenue, and south of the Blackwater River, there are eighteen free folk villages, seven mountain folk villages, four savage tribes, and more than a dozen large and small bandits. .

Although it cannot be said that all of these forces are enemies, none of them would have a favorable impression of an external bandit-suppressing army like Linde, especially given the negative impact caused by the previous armies of Bitter Bridge and the Iron Throne.

Kuqiao sent out troops to suppress bandits. When they failed to find the bandits, they directly regarded some mountain villages as bandit strongholds. Taking advantage of the young people in the villages to leave, they rushed in, burned, killed, and looted.

However, they were not very lucky. When they returned from the robbery, they encountered a tribe of savages. They were lured into a swamp and were ambushed by the savages. Most of them were killed or injured. Only a few people escaped and then made up a The story of failed suppression of bandits.

As for the troops sent by King's Landing, it was even more outrageous. They simply robbed all the free people's villages and then returned without any action to suppress the bandits.

The bandits entrenched in this area will not rob the villages here, but will do business with the villagers here. However, the army that suppresses the bandits will bring disaster to the villagers here. Comparing the two, even a fool should Know who to help.

Now Lind also understands why the Tyrell family is willing to spend a lot of effort to maintain the security of Rose Avenue, even building a large number of outposts on the road and arranging patrol cavalry for a long time to inspect road safety, rather than sending troops into this area. Suppress bandits.

Perhaps in their eyes, the only way to completely wipe out the bandits here is to wipe out all the villages, mountain villagers and savage tribes.

If this is really done, the reputation of the Tyrell family will be completely ruined, and after doing this, the ultimate beneficiary will not be the Tyrell family.

As for why Linde was sent to suppress the bandits and given such great rights, perhaps it was because Linde had only joined the Tyrell family not long ago. If he did something wrong, the Tyrell family could still use some means to keep themselves out of the matter. , and at the Red Keep banquet, everyone could see King Robert's appreciation for Lind. If something went wrong, King Robert might not impose too serious punishment.

After truly understanding the actual situation in this area, Linde was extremely fortunate that he had not chosen to directly suppress the bandits before. Instead, he came to Tengshi Town to establish a stronghold, established a good relationship with the countess of Tengshi Town, and brought the countess to He also pulled on his own bandit-suppressing tank.

With Nymeria, Lind has a legal basis when dealing with these resident local forces. As long as he doesn't go too far, others will not be able to find excuses to accuse him.

Now Linde's question is what to do next. Should he recover the free people's villages, mountain people's villages and savage tribes one by one, or should he first deal with the several bandit gangs entrenched near the abandoned road and restore the abandoned road leading to the Rose Avenue. Roads connect Tengshi Town with the outside world.

To this end, Lind called his people over and asked for their opinions, and Nymeria also came after hearing the news and participated in the discussion.

Everyone expressed their opinions one after another, and some chose to deal with those villages first, because there was a precedent of clearing out the Royal Forest Brotherhood, which proved that the problem of suppressing bandits could only be solved by solving the village problem.

But someone quickly refuted that the way the Kingsguard dealt with those villages back then was to give money and supplies. Because the Iron Throne was behind it, it was able to go so smoothly, but Linde didn't have that much money or supplies on hand. People who buy villages.

Therefore, the road should be dredged first and the trade route in Tengshi Town should be operated. Only after Linde has accumulated enough funds on hand can he solve the problem of the free people's village.

However, some people say that we should deal with the savage tribes first. After recovering the savage tribes, we will be able to obtain enough manpower, and then it will be much easier to do other things.

Although what they said was reasonable, none of them were what Linde wanted.

"Why don't we do it together? I can take my people to those villages one by one and take back the villages in the name of the lord. You can start with the savage tribe, take back the savage tribe, increase the manpower, and then deal with the bandits. As for the mountain people villages, We can wait until later to deal with it," Nymeria said after looking at the regional power distribution map redrawn by Linde.

Although Nymeria's proposal was very good, Lind still shook his head, as if he was not very satisfied with the proposal.

"Actually, we don't need to deal with all the villages and mountain tribes. We only need to deal with a few at this stage." At this time, Bachelor Ives, who came with Nymeria, suddenly said.

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, and all looked at Bachelor Ives.

Everyone in the room was no stranger to Maester Ives. Many times when Nymeria came here to discuss things with Linde, Maester Ives would follow her, but Maester Ives had never spoken before. , which made Raul and the others think that Maester Ives was mute.

In addition, although Bachelor Ives is called a bachelor, he does not wear the academic chain that a bachelor should have. This also makes everyone curious, because only bachelors who have made serious mistakes will be stripped of the chain by the city.

As Nymeria, she could directly apply to the city for a formal bachelor's advisor, but Nymeria chose Bachelor Ives as her advisor. People can't help but wonder why.

It is precisely because of the various mysteries surrounding Bachelor Ives that he became the focus of everyone the moment he opened his mouth.

Linde was also surprised that Academician Ives spoke, but he quickly returned to normal and motioned for Academician Ives to continue speaking.

Bachelor Ives pointed at several connected villages and mountain villages on the distribution map, and said: "You only need to control these villages and mountain villages. Other things can be done slowly. Flowers There has been no problem for several years.”

Others did not see anything special about the villages and mountain villagers selected by Academician Ives, but a smile appeared on Lind's face. Apparently, he was satisfied with the proposal of Academician Ives.

In fact, when Linde saw so many local forces distributed in various places in this area, he already had a vague plan in his mind, but this plan did not have a clear route until Bachelor Ives pointed out just now After those few villages and mountain villagers fell behind, the vague plan in his mind finally became clear.

Because he had previously solved the bandit alliance convened by the Scorpions and an army secretly sent by Duke Tywin, Lind temporarily forgot his true purpose of taking on this mission, and mistakenly decided to eliminate the bandits in this area and stop Tywin. The Duke made it his primary goal to intervene in the Tengshi Town territory.

But in fact, Linde's real purpose is to use this bandit suppression mission to accumulate strength for himself. This strength includes both people and money. The bandit suppression is the second priority. It can be delayed as long as it can. How long, and the villages and mountain villagers selected by Maester Ives fit his purpose exactly.

Among everyone, Bert, who is almost equivalent to a bachelor's consultant, seems to have seen the meaning of the villages and mountain people's villages that Bachelor Ives pointed out, and said bluntly: "These villages and mountain people's villages are all there. Near an abandoned road. Bachelor, you want us to restore the trade road first and keep it open before considering other things, right?"

Bachelor Ives said nothing and returned to Nymeria's side.

Lind on the side was not sure whether Bachelor Ives had really guessed his intention. He just knew that Bachelor Ives's proposal was in line with his wishes.

These villages and mountain villagers are the key to controlling the abandoned road. As long as they are captured, the abandoned road will be completely under his control.

At that time, he can use Tengshi Town's business routes and his tax-free rights to quickly accumulate wealth, and increase his manpower by recovering the savage tribe. As for suppressing bandits, there is no rush. Anyway, the maximum number of years given by the Tyrell family is five years. , he just needs to make some achievements from time to time in these five years.

Trying his best to wipe out these bandits in a short time will not do him any good.

After thinking about this clearly, Lind asked Nymeria to go back and make preparations. Tomorrow, he and Nymeria would each lead a hundred people to the nearest selected village to see if they could win it.

That night, Jon, who was sent by Linde to deliver the message, returned to Tengshi Town. However, he did not come back by water, but by land. He was a little embarrassed when he came back. It seemed that he had encountered bandits and was responsible for escorting Jon. Several of them were also slightly injured.

Lynd did not rush to write Duke Tyrell's reply, but asked Jon what happened on the road.

In Jon's narration, they went smoothly and went down the river all the way to Bitter Bridge. Then they landed at Bitter Bridge, found a few horses, and drove through the night. Two days later, they were still far away from New Barrel City. He caught up with the Duke's motorcade more than a hundred miles away.

After meeting Duke Tyrell, Jon immediately brought Lind to Tumbling Stone Town. He established a relationship with Nymeria Fudley, the lord of Tumbling Stone Town, and annihilated a bandit alliance of nearly a thousand people. And reported to Duke Tyrell about Lord Tywin.

After hearing this, Duke Tyrell did not immediately give a reply. Instead, after discussing with the dignitaries of Highgarden for a night, he made a decision the next day and handed the sealed reply to Jon.

When Jon came back, he was delayed for several days because of the blockade of Bitterbridge Castle. The reason for the blockade seemed to be because something happened to Baron Caswell's only son. Baron Caswell blocked Bitterbridge to hunt down the murderer.

After leaving Bitter Bridge, Jon followed the route they had taken to Tengshi Town and headed north by land. However, they were attacked not long after leaving Bitter Bridge, and then encountered several waves of bandits on the road. Fortunately, they were lucky. , there was no near miss, only minor injuries, no loss of personnel.

After recounting this experience, Jon made some guesses about the hidden identities of the bandits he encountered and told Lynd.

"Do you suspect that these waves of bandits are disguised as Bitterbridge guards?" Lind looked at Jon with some surprise, and then asked: "Why do you have such suspicion?"

Jon explained: "Although those people are dressed similarly to bandits, their temperament and some characteristics are very different from bandits who live in the wild all year round, and someone recognized that one of the bandits seemed to have appeared in Bitterbridge Castle , is a Bitterbridge guard."

Lind asked with confusion: "Why did Baron Caswell send people pretending to be bandits to attack you? Did you do something when you were at Bitter Bridge to offend Baron Caswell?"

Jon gave Lind a strange look and said, "Sir, maybe you have offended Baron Caswell, and we are just implicated by you."

"Me?" Linde was stunned, and quickly remembered what happened at Kuqiao, and asked: "Isn't that incident in the past? Why is that old guy so vindictive?"

Jon explained: "I heard that when you were at Bitterbridge, you were punished by Baron Caswell because a certain blacksmith's son injured Ser Lorent Caswell. This time you almost killed Lorent Caswell. Lunt Casway's man seems to be the blacksmith's son."

After listening to Jon's words, Lind couldn't help but froze, and suddenly felt like he was being tricked by fate.

It's not that he's afraid of Baron Casway. Even if Baron Casway sends people pretending to be bandits to come here to cause trouble for him, he can easily handle it.

But the problem is that after the commercial road in Tengshi Town is reopened in the future, the Bitter Bridge controlled by Baron Caswell will become the key, because all ships starting from the upper reaches of the Mander River need to pass through the Bitter Bridge.

If Baron Caswell finds an excuse to close the Bitter Bridge and prevent ships from passing through, then the trade route in Tengshi Town will not be able to operate at all.

Thinking of this, Lind couldn't help but have a bold idea in his mind, to secretly deal with Baron Casway and his only son. The new Baron of the Casway family who replaced him would definitely not hate him, but would thank him.

"If he really gives me trouble for this reason, just shut him up completely." Linde quickly made a decision. Although solving the trouble through assassination may cause more trouble, For him, the opening of business roads in Tengshi Town is related to his original capital accumulation, and there cannot be any mistakes, even if he uses some extraordinary means.

Lynd did not show his decision, but motioned for Jon to go back to the room prepared for him to rest.

After Jon left, he opened the letter of instructions given to him by Duke Tyrell and read the contents.

After reading the content, Linde also had a smile on his face.

Except for some polite words, there are only two core contents of this letter. One is to ask Lind to help Nymeria restore the water trade road in Tengshi Town as soon as possible, and the other is to let Lind not worry about Duke Tywin. , as long as the Western Army enters the territory of Tengshi Town, they can take action directly, no need to be polite.