"The traveling caravan brought news that they had encountered a survivor of a caravan that had been robbed by bandits from Maidenpool (a trading town on the banks of the Blue Fork River), so they hoped to hire a group of our mercenaries here to escort them to King's Landing."
"At that time, my adoptive father's first reaction was, was it our people who did it? Ser, you may not know that there has been no banditry on the northeastern shore of God's Eye Lake for a long time." As long as the caravans passing through this place pay us protection fees, the adopted son Dorian added in his heart.
"So the first thought my adoptive father had when he heard the news was that one of our mercenary teams failed to control his own hands and feet. He therefore hired a twelve-man mercenary team for that caravan, while ordering a thorough investigation into this matter," Dorian continued.
"It was two days later that we received the news again. At that time, before our internal investigation had concluded, we learned that the caravan had been looted and that our mercenary team was almost wiped out. A team of twelve people—four cavalry, six swordsmen, and two longbowmen—in the end, only one cavalryman escaped alive."
"What happened?" Ian asked curiously. It was not normal for mercenaries to be wiped out, because they would not fight to the death. Once they found that the momentum was not right, the mercenaries would inevitably turn around and run away. In this situation, they were still annihilated, which only meant that their opponents either ambushed them or had considerable cavalry power.
"He said that they were attacked by a group of cavalry. There were about twenty or thirty people on the other side. They were all surrounded by cavalry from all directions. Since they were attacked by a surprise assault, they had no time to use carts to build a defensive line. They just met them face to face. He was rushed to pieces by the opponent. But he himself took advantage of the chaos to sneak onto a horse and escape."
"The enemy didn't chase him?" Ian asked, puzzled.
"I also asked him this question, and he said someone was chasing him."
"You didn't catch up in the end?"
"Yes, he was so scared at the time that he rode the horse and ran at full speed. The opponent gave up after chasing for a while. And he never stopped until the horse ran to exhaustion and died, and then he walked for a while, and then rushed back to the mercenary group's station."
Ian thought for a while and then asked: "Where were they attacked?"
"The Kingsroad, near the ruins of White Walled City. Most of the subsequent attacks also occurred there, so we speculated that White Walled City was the home of the bandit group."
"I think it's just the opposite." Ian shook his head. "I think their camp should be quite far away from the ruins of White Walled City."
"Why?" The adopted son Dorian was a little confused.
"If their camp is near White Walled City, what reason do you think they have to give up the pursuit? Obviously, if a survivor is released alive, the first thing you have to search is near the incident site. If their camp is really there, is it reasonable for them to bite the fleeing cavalry and hold on to it?"
"But if it were the other way around—their camp was quite far away from there—then it wouldn't be a big deal to let one person go alive. And because they are a bandit group, they won't prepare a large number of horses like regular armies when operating. If they are far away from the camp, they may choose to give up chasing an enemy who is desperately trying to escape in order to save horsepower." Ian expressed his conclusion.
"We have indeed not thought about this problem, because the vicinity of White Walled City is the only densely forested place between the east bank of God's Eye Lake and the King's Territory. To the east is a vast plain. They have nowhere to hide there. Yes, only here is there a place to stay," Dorian explained.
"This is another contradiction." Conflicts are a good thing. Things need to be puzzling to solve. Things that have no characteristics are difficult to start with. "Go on, continue telling your story."
"Okay, Ser," Dorian paused for two minutes to recall. "After the cavalry brought the news back, his adoptive father immediately recalled all the mercenary teams."
"You know that Westeros hasn't had a war for many years. The mercenaries here are not like Essos, where entire groups can be hired, so our mercenary group has always been scattered into small mercenary teams."
"After all the mercenary captains who could rush back came back, we held a meeting in Ser Harrison's castle. However, we all discussed together for a long time, and no one could give any valuable clues. It was as if this bandit group appeared out of nowhere."
If today were not the second day of the server opening, but the second month of the server opening, I'd have to wonder if this thing is the handiwork of a player, Ian thought to himself.
"You don't know what terrible news this result is for us who claim to have a dominant position on both sides of the northeastern shores of God's Eye Lake."
"What does it mean to have a dominant position on the northeastern banks of the God's Eye Lake? You, a small mercenary group, don't take those big lords seriously?" Ian couldn't help laughing and interrupted Dorian.
"Oh, great lord, tell me, which great lord is there in this land?" Dorian was not angry, but asked with a smile.
"The big lord here..." Ian was suddenly stuck. He found that he really couldn't tell who the big lord of this place was for a while. It wasn't that he had forgotten or didn't understand the situation in this area at all.
On the contrary, he knew it all too well.
Because the three big lords in this area were all "cold."
The first is the previously mentioned Butterwell family of White Walled City. This family was once very powerful and wealthy (as can be seen from their fantastic castle). Unfortunately, they sided with the Blackfyres twice during the Blackfyre Rebellions. In the end, the clan was wiped out by 'Bloodraven' Brynden. Not only was the White Walled City of the family castle destroyed, but salt was also sprinkled on the ruins.
The second one is the River House of Harrenhal. Their decline was fully recalled by Shion when he was still buying hunting clothes at Harrenhal. Anyway, they fell into ruin because they sided with the Targaryens in the Usurper's War.
The third one is the Darry family of Darry City. This was once a very powerful family. Its lineage can be traced back to the time when the Andals defeated the First Men and occupied Westeros, and has a history of more than six thousand years.
They are the staunchest loyalists of the Targaryen family. During the Blackfyre Rebellions, they chose to support the Targaryen side of the Iron Throne. Therefore, after the destruction of the Butterwell family, they gained the territory near the eastern shore of the Lake of God's Eye. With half of the fiefdom, it suddenly became the leading family in the Riverlands.
In the subsequent Usurper's War, they once again stood by the Targaryen family, even resisting the Tully family.