Roose Bolton's eyes were the color of ice, and his thoughts flowed like an undercurrent.
He couldn't quite guess the young King's true intentions, and in the end, he could only respond, "Your Majesty, the Bolton family will do their utmost."
No matter what went wrong, he now had neither the power nor the courage to refuse.
At least twenty thousand soldiers here were loyal to Robb Stark, admiring the Young Wolf's undefeated reputation.
If he dared to refuse, the King would dare to arrest him on charges of defying a royal order!
"Good!"
The young King of the North drew his sword and pointed at the Western Army still holding the ford, saying, "Then I will trouble the warriors of the Bolton family, House Ryswell, and the Dustin Family to clear out the enemies blocking our path for me."
The soldiers of the three families he mentioned had suffered almost no damage.
"Oh, right, this kind of thing, in the distant Yi lands, is probably summarized as 'not fearing scarcity, but fearing uneven distribution.' That should be the meaning, right? I can't quite remember."
When he first saw Eddard, this thought suddenly appeared in Robb's mind.
Since most of the lords' soldiers here had suffered losses, then letting the Dreadfort soldiers suffer similar losses should be acceptable, right?
After issuing the command, the Young Wolf specifically observed the expressions of most of the lords.
Indeed, their previous anger had subsided, transforming into expressions of cold observation.
No one spoke to stop him, and no one was willing to fight alongside the Bolton family.
At this moment, Old Flayer finally understood the reason. His expression remained unchanged, still gentle and soft-spoken, he replied, "Mission accomplished, my King!"
With that, he flipped onto his horse and rode towards his soldiers.
What else could he do? Draw his sword and resist, then be attacked by the whole group?
Submission might offer a glimmer of hope; the Stark people were always very soft-hearted!!
The Bolton of Dreadfort, the Ryswell of Riverrun, and the Dustin of Barrowton, the soldiers of these three families slowly moved with the Flayer banners, forming a force of nearly five thousand men, steadily advancing down the hill.
Just the Bolton family alone had nearly three thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry, their strength alone even surpassed Winterfell!!
At this moment, everyone could see Roose Bolton's dark ambition hidden deep within, but only a few could truly understand it.
"My old man used to say that the Bolton family always felt that naked people had few secrets, and flayed people had no secrets. Looking at it now, has the Lord of Dreadfort also been flayed by me?"
Greatjon was smug about his discovery, completely forgetting the role another person played in this matter.
No one answered the Lord of Bear Island's question; instead, they followed orders, riding to take command of their own armies. In case the battle went poorly, everyone would have to personally join the fray.
Eddard stood in place, observing his surroundings, and then discovered something particularly noteworthy.
That was that the soldiers of the Tallhart family had also followed.
He remembered that these people should have been left in Twin River City to ensure that House Frey would not rebel.
Could it be that Old Flayer intentionally brought them out?
Was the Bolton family already planning to rebel at this time?
The plot had changed so much, and Robb Stark had no time or opportunity to meet other girls. For now, this young man's physiological needs were still being resolved by hand.
Did it still have to come to the Red Wedding?
It shouldn't!
Eddard secretly pondered. The current situation was excellent. After defeating the remaining enemy forces, according to Robb Stark's temperament, after a brief rest, the army would probably counterattack King's Landing.
Under such circumstances, would House Frey still dare to rebel?
Perhaps it was just a simple accident?
Due to too little information, Eddard couldn't understand the intentions of Old Flayer and Old Frey. He tugged on the reins, rode to Robb Stark's side, and whispered, "Robb, I saw the soldiers who were left in Twin River City also came. Was this your order?"
"No."
Robb Stark shook his head. He had also seen the banners of Torrhen's Square just now and didn't think it was a big problem.
Now, the war was going extremely smoothly.
Although all the previous plans failed to capture Tywin, they had eliminated about half of the enemy's forces, which was enough to prevent the Lannister from confronting him directly in a short time!
They were about to win!
In such a situation, whether or not the army was released from Twin River City shouldn't cause any problems.
However, he was a little curious as to why Eddard would bring this up. He blinked and asked, "Eddard, have you discovered any problems?"
Of course, there was a problem!
Before you were killed by Walder Frey and Roose Bolton, you also happily thought there was no problem, believing everything could be salvaged, but then they took your life!
You fool!
Eddard muttered to himself, then nodded and said, "Yes, Twin River City is too important to us. We still need to arrange more soldiers to help guard it. After all, with this crossing, we can quickly travel between Karin Bay and Riverrun, without having to worry about enemies intercepting us on the Trident Riverbank."
Looking at the map, the route from Twin River City to Riverrun was almost a straight line, making troop movement and support exceptionally convenient.
If they took the long way around via King's Road, the journey would be more than doubled, and the Trident River was a ford. Once the rainy season hit, the army would only be able to transport by small boats, which was both slow and dangerous!
The ancestors of House Frey also had great foresight, building a large bridge here to collect tolls.
The Green Fork River was not like the Red Fork River with many fords; the entire river only had one decent crossing.
Now, the Riverlands and the North were practically tied together, and future battles would inevitably involve back-and-forth movements, so Twin River City could not be lost.
Robb Stark actually understood this principle, but the war had been going too smoothly recently. The Young Wolf's young heart had swelled, and he felt that the enemy was no match, so there was nothing to worry about.
He nodded and said nonchalantly, "Let's talk about this after the battle is over."
"Mm."
Eddard didn't say much more, turning his gaze to the battlefield below the high slope.
By this time, the sky had begun to darken, and the sun had completely sunk into the distant mountains, leaving only a faint afterglow still struggling.
Before launching the attack, Roose Bolton rode his horse around the perimeter of the Lannister formation. After gathering enough information, he continuously issued orders, dividing the more than three thousand infantry into three parts, having them form a more powerful wedge formation.
Heavily armored soldiers in mail, wielding greatshields and battleaxes, formed the sharpest arrowhead, followed by spearmen and sword-and-shield wielders, slowly advancing to the unhurried beat of drums, ready for the charge.
Over a thousand longbowmen stood in three ranks, positioned on both sides of the enemy. After checking their bowstrings, they nocked their arrows and slowly advanced with light steps.
The officer in charge of the archers raised his bow for a test shot, watched the arrow turn into a black dot and land in front of the enemy formation, then took a few more steps forward and shouted loudly.
"Halt!!"
"Raise bows!"
"Fire arrows!!"
Over a thousand archers raised their bows and unleashed a volley of arrows, a dense shower of arrows raining down like hail upon the enemy.
The Lannister soldiers standing in place raised their greatshields, covering their vital points.
Arrows clinked against the shields, some found gaps and pierced flesh, the wounded cried out and fell, their positions immediately filled by others.
"Quick! Forward! Forward!"
The Lannister archers also moved quickly forward, launching a counterattack with the command to "Fire arrows!" Arrows continuously flew into the sky, first one, then ten, a hundred, a thousand, instantly obscuring the sky.
The first volley of arrows had just landed, the second was already in the air, and the archers had already nocked their third arrow.
Both sides exchanged blows, and wave after wave of soldiers fell in the arrow rain.
Roose Bolton's ruthless and cold gaze was fixed on the Lannister formation. As soon as he detected a slight disarray due to them dragging away corpses and wounded, he decisively waved his longsword, and his attendant shouted loudly, "Charge!!"
The drumbeats suddenly became rapid, thumping and pounding, drilling into the soldiers' ears, making their hearts pound violently, blood surging, as their feet sprinted across the soft grass.
"Kill!"
In just a short arrow's flight, the tall Northern men, bathed in the arrows shot by the Lannister, violently crashed into the hedgehog-like spear formation.
Facing the gleaming spear blades, some were directly stabbed through the neck, some had their chests pierced, while others parried attacks with their shields, mercilessly cleaving their battleaxes into the enemy's heads, only to be killed by a second thrusting spear.
Spears came from all directions, mercilessly killing the encroaching enemies.
"Kill!" "Take them down!"
The shouts of battle grew louder in the approaching night. Blood splattered on the grass, trickling down the green blades into the soft earth, then gathering into small streams flowing into the Red Fork River.
The turbulent river water was even stained red with blood.
Amidst the shouts of battle, the Lannister spear formation held back the Northern soldiers. In a very short time, thousands lay on the grass, and the shield wall inevitably developed some gaps!
Whoosh~ whoosh~ whoosh whoosh whoosh.
The sound of a horn, like the wailing of the north wind, blew, making all the soldiers tense up. Hoofbeats also rang out at this moment. The five hundred cavalry of the Bolton family also formed a wedge formation, slowly moving forward, each man holding a thick, long military lance.
The Flayer banners fluttered in the air as the cavalry violently crashed into the spear formation. Some warhorses stopped their charge at the last moment, some riders were thrown from their horses, some were killed by spears, and some escaped the fate of being favored by the Stranger, impaling their military lances into the enemy's chest.
Some warhorses directly charged in, trampling several people before being pierced through the chest by spears, then crushing two more as they fell.
After falling from their horses, the cavalry drew their battleaxes and warhammers and engaged the enemy in close combat.
In the air, the shouts of battle grew more intense, and the smell of blood was as pungent and sickening as ever.
The desperate charge of the five hundred cavalry directly tore a huge gap in the Lannister spear formation. This gap then gradually widened and merged with the infantry line, even breaking through, completely segmenting the enemy.
"It's over."
Eddard watched the battle, shaking his head regretfully.
The Dreadfort soldiers were extremely powerful in combat; they didn't break even after suffering one-third casualties upon contact, and Roose Bolton's command ability was good enough that he deployed the cavalry at a crucial moment, decisively defeating the enemy.
By this time, the sky had finally completely darkened.
If only more had died.
Unfortunately, the battle ended when Ser Kevan offered his weapons, and Robb Stark's punishment of Old Flayer would also end there.
Advance Chapter Available In Patreon
patreon.com/Achilles_Stein
patreon.com/Achilles_Stein