Steadfast Hold is located on the east side of the Red Lake Forest and was formerly the territory of the Oakheart Family, but with the decline of the Oakheart Family and the death of its last heir, it has now fallen into the hands of the House Rowan.
However, since it is quite far from the House Rowan's Golden Tree City, it was entrusted to the House Webber of Cold Howl Keep for care.
But the House Webber preferred to manage its own Cold Howl Keep and neglected Steadfast Hold, so over time, it became desolate, with only a few vagrants living there.
Although Steadfast Hold was abandoned, it does not mean that it is worthless; in fact, for smugglers, Steadfast Hold's geographical location is excellent because it is at the end of the Western Mountains, where there is a secret mountain path that can bypass The Reach's border patrols and reach Corn City in the Westerlands.
This secret path is known only to experienced smugglers, and to ensure it remains undiscovered and unobstructed, they even sent people disguised as vagrants to occupy Steadfast Hold.
However, now the smugglers disguised as vagrants in Steadfast Hold are all hanging from stakes in the castle, and a three-hundred-man army has now completely filled this not-so-large castle.
From their equipment, it's easy to see that this three-hundred-man army is composed of one hundred regular soldiers and two hundred irregulars.
The regular soldiers' equipment is relatively neat, and each of them wears leather armor and carries various types of weapons, and they also have dedicated logistics teams to provide them with food and drink.
As for the irregulars, they wear various kinds of clothes; some have thickened their clothes to increase their defense, while others simply strung wooden boards together as armor, and their weapons are also varied, mostly spears made of wooden poles, a few are pitchforks and sickles, and except for a few captains, hardly anyone is seen carrying a sword, indicating that they are likely temporarily conscripted ordinary farmers.
Although this army deliberately concealed their banners, it was still possible to discern from the obvious emblems on some of the knights that they should all be from the House Crane of Red Lake City.
At this moment, some people emerged from the only well-preserved hall in the castle; these were all knights, dressed in exquisite plate armor, and most of them walked with their heads held high, looking like a flock of combative roosters.
Among this group, two figures were particularly striking: one was the tallest among them, he was surrounded by the others, seemingly the commander of this troop, while the other followed behind them, he was the only one not wearing armor, and his height was second only to the tallest person, but these were secondary; the real reason that attracted attention was the three beast claw scars on his face, running from his forehead across his brow ridge down to his cheek, these three scars made him, who was originally quite handsome, appear somewhat fierce.
This troop was precisely the one organized by the House Crane to eradicate the bandits in the Red Lake Forest, and the leader was the famous Ser Joel Flowerof the House Crane.
Originally, this troop should have been in the Red Lake Forest, along with the House Rowan of Golden Tree City and the Oakheart Family of Old Oak City, to jointly encircle and suppress the bandits hiding in the Red Lake Forest, but now they had run to the edge of the Red Lake Forest and were stationed in Steadfast Hold, an action that caused confusion.
Not only outsiders were confused, but even the knightly retinue around Joel Flower were also confused; however, during the troop's movement, their trust in Joel prevented them from asking any questions, but after being stationed here for two days, someone among them finally couldn't hold back their confusion and asked.
"My lord, how much longer will we stay here?" a knightly retinue asked with concern, "Shouldn't we be in the Red Lake Forest eradicating those remnants of the Dragon House now?"
Hearing the knightly retinue's words, Linde, who was following behind the crowd, gave the knightly retinue a meaningful glance; it was clear that the knightly retinue's calling the bandits who had fled to the Red Lake Forest "remnants of the Dragon House" had ulterior motives, after all, compared to eradicating bandits, eradicating the remnants of the Dragon House would more easily gain the attention and favor of the new King Robert Baratheon, and correspondingly, the merits established during the eradication process would be more prominent.
The knightly retinue's little scheme naturally did not escape Joel's eyes, but he had no opinion on it; in fact, from the moment he heard that the bandits in the Red Lake Forest claimed to be remnants of the Dragon House, he already felt that something was amiss; undoubtedly, in front of the powerful new King, they needed to do something to please the new King and show their current attitude, and at the same time, it could prevent the new King from finding trouble with them.
"Our purpose here is to suppress the bandits," Ser Joel looked at his retinue and responded simply.
However, the people around him did not understand what the connection was between being stationed at Steadfast Hold and suppressing bandits, and they all still looked bewildered.
Seeing this, Joel couldn't help but sigh and patiently explained, "If you are surrounded by enemies, and at this moment you suddenly discover a gap in the encirclement, what would you do?"
The retinues looked at each other, and one of them tried to answer, "I would send people to check if that gap is dangerous, and if it's not, I would lead the people to break through from that gap, My Lord, am I right?"
Joel did not answer, but merely nodded slightly and continued, "If you break out and find that all retreat paths are very dangerous, and there is only one relatively safe retreat path that can completely avoid the enemy's blockade, allowing you to quickly move to a safe place, and this retreat path is also extremely secret, known to few people, what would you do then?"
"Of course, we would..." someone immediately responded, but he stopped mid-sentence, seemingly having thought of something, and then said, "You mean those remnants of the Dragon House will break through from Steadfast Hold?"
Joel nodded, no longer hiding anything, and said, "There's a secret smuggling mountain path near Steadfast Hold that can pass through the Western Mountains, perfectly bypassing the areas around Red Lake City and directly reaching the mountainous region outside Corn City. There should be many smugglers among those bandits; they definitely know this smuggling route and will undoubtedly use it to escape the encirclement."
Hearing Joel's words, the knights also became excited, clearly seeing this as their best opportunity to gain merit, but one of the knights also expressed concern, "I remember those bandits number several hundred. Even if they lose some people during their escape, the remaining ones will still outnumber us, and there are quite a few defeated soldiers from the Dragon House among them. These soldiers have rich combat experience. Can our small number of people stop them?"
Upon hearing this, the excited expressions on the knights' faces gradually faded, and their expressions became serious; although they wanted to achieve great deeds, the prerequisite was that they could survive on the battlefield.
After a moment of thought, someone suggested, "This place is not far from the House Webber's Cold Howl Keep. Why don't we go ask the House Webber for reinforcements?"
This suggestion quickly gained the approval of the knights, who simultaneously looked at Joel, all waiting for him to give the order.
However, Joel said nothing, merely gestured for everyone to follow, and then continued to inspect the conditions of the various troops within the castle, as if he had not heard the suggestion just now.
Joel's actions puzzled the knights, but they did not dare to question Joel further and could only silently follow him.
Soon, the group completed their inspection of all the troops, and Joel also issued his orders; before they returned to the great hall, Joel instructed his knightly retinue to each take a group of people to survey the surrounding terrain and find suitable locations to intercept the fleeing bandits.
However, before dismissing the knights, Joel called out to Linde, who was also preparing to leave, and once only the two of them remained in the castle's great hall, he asked Linde, "What do you think?"
"What do I think?" Linde was stunned, not immediately understanding Joel's meaning.
"About asking the House Webber for reinforcements," Joel clarified.
Linde hesitated for a moment and said, "You shouldn't be asking me about such an important matter, should you?"
"I want to hear your opinion now," Joel said, not letting Linde off the hook.
Linde didn't stand on ceremony and directly said, "I don't think we need to ask for reinforcements. The House Webber should proactively send people to support us, probably sometime later today."
Hearing Linde's answer, Joel, who had been slumped in his chair, straightened up and asked with interest, "Explain why the House Webber would proactively support us?"
"It's simple, to clear themselves of suspicion," Lindegave a vague answer, then explained in detail, "After those bandits robbed the House Rowan's caravan, they passed directly through the House Webber's territory, yet the House Webber made no attempt to intercept them, simply letting them enter the Red Lake Forest. Anyone can sense that there's something amiss, which is why, even though the House Webberis so close to the Red Lake Forest, there was no one from the House Webber in the troop the House Rowan assembled this time. It's clear that the House Rowan of Golden Tree City no longer trusts this subordinate house of theirs. If the House Webberdoesn't want the House Rowan to settle scores later, then they will certainly have to be proactive and diligent in this bandit suppression, even at the cost of manpower and resources, to completely eliminate these bandits, leaving no excuse for anyone to make trouble for them."
Joel was also very surprised that Linde could give such a detailed answer, but he skillfully concealed his emotions and continued to ask, "Is that all?"
Linde was silent for a moment, then continued, "The reason you are stationed at Steadfast Hold, besides it being the bandits' only escape route, is also to create a false impression for the House Webber, making them think you were sent by the House Rowan to monitor them. This way, they will assist us even more diligently in eradicating the bandits."
At this moment, Joel could no longer hide his surprise, looking at Linde with a strange gaze, as if he were looking at a monster rather than a young man of only fifteen or sixteen years old.
Undoubtedly, Linde's performance just now had far exceeded normal standards; let alone a hunter like Linde who had never left a small village like White Village, even a maester who had received special training at the Citadel and had rich experience, or an old knight, might not possess his insight and analytical ability.
Taking a deep breath and calming the strange emotions in his heart, Joel asked again, "Do you think the House Webber is connected to those bandits?"
Linde shook his head and said, "Whether there's a connection now is no longer important; what's important is that the House Webber must prove there isn't."
Joel said, "But I want to know if there's a connection."
Linde pondered for a moment and said, "I personally think those bandits were likely secretly supported by the House Webber, but the House Webber didn't expect those bandits to be so audacious as to rob the House Rowan's caravan and even kill an important member of the House Rowan. I think when those bandits passed through the House Webber's territory as they usually did, they probably held back some information, not telling the House Webber the truth, wanting to drag the House Webber into trouble. By the time the House Webber received the news and realized something was wrong, it was already too late."
"Who taught you all this?" Joel looked at Linde and asked, "This is not knowledge a hunter could learn."
"I have to thank Old Man Bain," Linde naturally wouldn't tell the other party that he came from another world of knowledge and information explosion, nor did he mention anything about the Warrior's blessing among the Seven Gods to Joel Flower; such words would not only have no effect on someone like Joel Flower but would instead cause unnecessary suspicion, so he directly attributed all of this to Old Man Bain, which was also what he and Old Man Bain had agreed upon.
Joel seemed to believe Linde's words and said, "It seems he truly values you. Not only did he find you an excellent sword instructor, but he also hired a scholar to teach you. It looks like he's placed all the aspirations he couldn't fulfill in his youth onto you."
"Aspirations?" Linde asked curiously, "My Lord, could you tell me about Old Man Bain?"
"Didn't he tell you?" Joel asked back.
Linde shook his head.
"Actually, I'm not very clear either; I've only heard some rumors," Joel leaned back in his chair, recollecting, and said, "Back then, Old Man Bain and I both participated in the battle where the Mad King's Kingsguard encircled the Kingswood Brotherhood. I was with Barristan and didn't interact with him. However, on the battlefield, I saw him lead his spear company directly pierce through the Kingswood Brotherhood's defensive line, forcing the Kingswood Brotherhood to retreat, which ultimately led to a complete collapse of their front. Although in the eyes of others, the famous knights were the protagonists in that battle, they were the force that swayed the battle, in my opinion, what truly had a crucial impact on that battle was Old Man Bain's spear company."
"Old Man Bain actually has such a brilliant battle record?" Linde also felt a bit surprised, because during their time together, the Old Man Bain in his eyes, while not very ordinary, should still be somewhat far from legendary, but now it seems he had indeed underestimated Old Man Bain's past; presumably, just participating in the battle to encircle the Kingswood Brotherhood could already be considered a legendary experience, let alone having achieved merits in the battle.