Amidst a series of commands, Linde's cavalry regiment departed from the camp where they had been stationed for several days, moving towards Tengshi Town, also known as Bumpy Hamlet.
However, this time Linde not only sent out the First Cavalry Regiment to scout ahead, but also dispatched the Second Cavalry Regiment as scouts, because through interrogating the captive from yesterday, Linde learned that a bandit force of seven hundred strong was advancing towards Tengshi Town, preparing to loot it.
These seven hundred individuals were primarily composed of thirteen bandit groups; the Poison Scorpion Society was the organizer, and the other twelve bandit groups were not from the area east of the Mander River. They had all fled here, like the Bloodshoe Brotherhood, from the Blackwater River and the Golden Road, after being encircled and suppressed by Lord Tywin's army.
After arriving here, they encountered the terrible weather of the rainy season, becoming trapped in this mountainous hilly region. Furthermore, they were unfamiliar with the local terrain, unable to find small villages to plunder, and frequently suffered attacks from the local mountain people and Savage Tribes. Their food had long run out, forcing them to gnaw on tree bark and grass roots, and even consume the corpses of their companions. It was, in essence, a desperate situation within a desperate situation.
Suddenly, one day, the Poison Scorpion Society sent people to contact them, informing them that Tengshi Town had stored a large amount of grain and proposing a joint raid on Tengshi Town. The Poison Scorpion Society was even willing to provide some provisions. These bandit groups, already at their wit's end, naturally had no other choice.
The Bloodshoe Brotherhood was also one of the bandit groups contacted by the Poison Scorpion Society, but the Bloodshoe Brotherhood still had some food at the time and, dissatisfied with the Poison Scorpion Society's desire to lead, did not agree, so the Poison Scorpion Society gave up.
As for why they suddenly sent people near the Bloodshoe Brotherhood, it was mainly because the leader of the Poison Scorpion Society was worried that the Bloodshoe Brotherhood might cause trouble when they made their move, so they preemptively sent people to keep an eye on the area, just in case.
If it was only the Bloodshoe Brotherhood that had escaped Lord Tywin's encirclement and suppression and fled to the area east of the Mander River, that might be understandable, as even the most perfect plan can have an oversight.
But now, over a dozen remnants of bandit groups from the Blackwater River and Golden Road areas had all escaped the encirclement and suppression and fled to the east of the Mander River and north of Bitterbridge. This clearly could not be explained by coincidence.
"Lord Tywin deliberately drove the bandits from the Golden Road over here," Jon Bulwer, riding beside Linde, couldn't help but voice the deduction he had made after hearing Scarface Mite's report.
Linde did not respond immediately, but remained silent for a moment, then asked, "Then what do you think Lord Tywin's purpose is?"
Jon thought for a moment and said, "To prevent the Rose Road trade route from recovering?"
Linde nodded and said, "That's possible. For the past year, all north-south trade has gone from Casterly Rock, along the Coastal Road, to Highgarden. This is the only overland trade route connecting north and south. The Westerlands has undoubtedly made a fortune this year, so they naturally wouldn't want the Rose Road trade route to recover. Therefore, driving the Golden Road bandits here to cause trouble makes sense." Saying this, he looked at Brin-He Wen and asked, "Bulin, what do you think?"
Brin-He Wen hesitated for a moment and said, "I wasn't thinking about Lord Tywin. I was just wondering how the Poison Scorpion Society managed to contact over a dozen bandit groups simultaneously, especially since these dozen or so bandit groups came from other places." He then said with a serious expression, "You know, even for us, determining the exact location of a bandit group is extremely difficult; we can only know their general area of activity. But the Poison Scorpion Society managed to determine the locations of eleven bandit groups in a short time and send people to contact them. If the Poison Scorpion Society truly had this capability, they wouldn't have been driven out of the Kingswood by the Kingswood Brotherhood back then."
Linde nodded approvingly and said, "I have the same question. The only explanation is that the Poison Scorpion Society has insiders within these bandit groups. But these bandit groups used to operate near the Golden Road, so how could the Poison Scorpion Society have the ability to plant insiders in bandit groups there? So I suspect those insiders were not sent by the Poison Scorpion Society, and perhaps the Poison Scorpion Society is merely a pawn of someone else."
"Lord Tywin!" Brin-He Wen and Jon Bulwer said in unison.
"Yes, so I suspect Lord Tywin isn't targeting the Rose Road trade route at all, but rather Tengshi Town," Linde's expression grew serious. He then turned to Raul and instructed, "Order the troops to accelerate. We must reach Tengshi Town before it becomes a ruin, or it will be too late."
As Linde's order was given, the speed of the troop's march increased significantly. To accommodate the logistics team, some riders from the Royal Guard had to ride two to a horse, freeing up horses to carry the logistics team's supplies and food.
Seeing this, Linde made a mental note to prepare more donkeys and horse carts for the logistics team in the future.
Perhaps due to the improved weather, the troops did not get lost again on this journey and no unexpected incidents occurred. They traversed the mountainous terrain smoothly for two days, finally arriving in a dense forest near Tengshi Town.
Linde did not allow the men and horses to advance further. Instead, he arranged the troops to hide in the dense forest. He did not send out scouts, but instead had everyone don their armor and equip their weapons, maintaining a state of readiness. Then, he released Glory, sending it to investigate the valley where the scouts had discovered armed individuals hiding.
Before approaching Tengshi Town, the First Cavalry Regiment's scouts had discovered people in a hidden valley outside Tengshi Town. When they got closer, they saw armed personnel stationed there. The exact number was unclear, but it was certain that they were in an ambush position, as they hadn't even lit fires for cooking by midday. Therefore, they suspected they were bandits from the Poison Scorpion Society.
After Glory left for a while, Linde had Jon and Raul stand by, instructing them not to disturb him. He then attempted to project his mind into Glory's body.
This time, it was very successful. He quickly synchronized with Glory's vision, seeing everything that Glory could see.
Although it wasn't the first time he had synchronized with Glory's vision, Linde still wasn't quite used to it.
However, it must be said that Glory's eyes are extremely useful for scouting enemies, as they can see the heat radiating from living bodies, much like a thermal imager.
This was not a mutation caused by wraith energy, but a unique ability of the Shadow Lynx. It was this ability that helped them precisely locate prey in the dark dense forest and deliver a fatal blow.
Glory ran very fast, and as it ran, its fur began to darken, blending into the shadows of the surrounding trees, silently approaching the small valley.
Soon, it discovered the armed personnel mentioned by the scouts. Linde's command appeared directly in its mind through mental transmission, and it followed the order, crouching low to the ground and moving towards the valley. It quickly found a good position from which it could overlook everything in the valley.
Upon seeing the armed individuals concealed in the valley, a question arose in Linde's mind, because the attire of those armed individuals could absolutely not belong to ordinary bandit groups, much less bandit groups that had been starving for days and had to resort to cannibalism to survive.
This armed force numbered about three hundred people. They were equipped with very fine leather armor, no worse than that of a great noble's regular army. Moreover, they had enough horses, which meant they were a cavalry regiment. This was not something an ordinary bandit group could possess; even a powerful group like the Kingswood Brotherhood did not have organized cavalry, and only great lords had sufficient financial resources to support organized cavalry regiments.
"Dragon remnants," a term immediately came to Linde's mind. At this moment, he also recalled a rumor Fotimo had mentioned to him: Countess Na Melilia Fudeli of Tengshi Town had connections with the Dragon remnants.
Clearly, this contingent of men lurking near Tengshi Town perfectly fit the characteristics of the Dragon remnants. Although the Dragon family had fallen a year ago, this did not mean that the Dragon remnants would be living in destitution.
At that time, everyone's attention was focused on King's Landing. Among the Dragon remnants, there were some who could clearly see the situation. They knew that the Dragon family had lost, so they collected as many usable supplies as possible and went into hiding. Those supplies would last them for a long time.
Linde instructed Glory to get a little closer. Receiving the command, Glory lowered its body, almost sticking to the ground, quickly moving through the shadows, avoiding their sentries, and reaching the vicinity of their camp, close enough to hear their conversations.
"Lord Hogan, how much longer do we have to stay here?" someone impatiently asked.
In the middle of the camp, a red-haired middle-aged man poked the bonfire with a stick and said, "Anyone who wants to leave can leave. I won't stop you."
Everyone fell silent. They all knew very well that if they left this group, they would certainly not survive ten days. There were plenty of people willing to capture any one of them to exchange for a bounty in King's Landing.
"The Prince's order to me is to protect the Countess. I will not leave here," the red-haired middle-aged man looked coldly at the few people around the bonfire and said, "You came to seek refuge with me out of desperation, and I accepted you and took care of you. You should be grateful, understand?"
The faces of those few people turned very ugly, but they still had to lower their heads and say to the red-haired middle-aged man, "Yes, Lord, we understand."
After speaking, perhaps feeling too uncomfortable to continue sitting there, the few people each found an excuse and got up to leave.
After these few people left, the red-haired middle-aged man gave a meaningful glance to his subordinates nearby. Those few also successively got up and walked out. Clearly, the red-haired middle-aged man no longer believed the words of those few people and wanted to resolve these troubles once and for all.
Linde did not let Glory continue watching. He already knew that these people were likely former Kingsguard, sent by Prince Lemony of House Martell to protect Countess Na Melilia Fudeli, along with other desperate Dragon remnants from the past year.
After ordering Glory to return, Linde exited the synchronized vision, returning to his normal state.
"What's wrong?" Linde then noticed that Jon and Raul were both looking at him with strange expressions.
Jon Bulwer replied, "Lord, your body was like it was burning just now, emitting a very strong heat, like a bonfire."
Linde was stunned by the words. In the past, when he projected his mind onto Glory, he was always alone, and he had never noticed such a phenomenon occurring during the process.
It seemed that in the future, when he did such things, he should try to be alone as much as possible, so as not to be noticed if any other incredible phenomena occurred. After all, not everyone had a liking for mysterious things.
"Pass the order: stand down from combat readiness and enter alert status. Send out scouts to check the surrounding situation, but do not approach that valley, and do not let yourselves be discovered by others," Linde rapidly issued a series of instructions, "Also, do not light fires."
Upon hearing this, Jon immediately went to relay Linde's orders.
Linde walked towards a nearby hillside, from where he could clearly see Tengshi Town. Raul wanted to bring men to follow Linde, but Linde stopped him.
Tengshi Town, now referred to as Bumpy Hamlet, was built on a small hill by the Mander River. Around a typical Reach tower house, there were forty to fifty low thatched cottages. A wooden fence enclosed these buildings, and outside the fence were some farmlands. Near the Mander River was a small dock, where one or two small fishing boats were moored. Overall, it looked no different from an ordinary fishing village or farmstead.
On a hill upstream, not far from this Tengshi Town, lay the ruins of the former Tengshi Town. Although it was a ruin, one could still discern the appearance of Tengshi Town in its prime.
A towering castle, shaped like a tower, was built on the summit of the hill. Stone-built houses encircled the castle, extending down the slope to the foot of the hill. From a distance, these houses looked like a series of city walls guarding the castle. At the foot of the hill, a cluster of houses formed a town, and by the river, there was a dock capable of accommodating five or six large ships.
Undoubtedly, a Tengshi Town of this scale should have been qualified to be called a city.
However, such a city had now been reduced to ruins. After enduring the elements and the passage of time, the remaining structures had also collapsed, and only from the relatively stable foundations could one discern the former appearance of this city.
However, Linde saw even more. Just like the scene he witnessed in the Dragon's Den, he also saw a large amount of wraith energy lingering around the ruins. Moreover, compared to the Dragon's Den, the wraith energy here was even stronger, or more accurately, the wraith energy belonging to dragons was more intense. He could even clearly discern the general appearance of the dragons in life, not just a vague phantom.
Legend had it that during the Dance of the Dragons, two dragons died here. Now it seemed this was not just a legend, and only the magic formed after a dragon's death could produce such an effect.
Glory, now back to its normal state, emerged from a thicket. It circled Linde twice, nudged Linde's foot with its head, and then let out a few barks towards the ruins of Old Tengshi Town, its barks filled with urgency.
"Are you craving something?" Linde asked with a smile, stroking Glory's head.
Glory licked Linde's palm, then bit Linde's sleeve and tugged, appearing quite eager. There was no doubt that absorbing wraith energy at the Dragon's Den last time had made it somewhat addicted.
Linde did not continue to tease Glory. He turned and returned to the dense forest, gave some instructions, and then mounted his horse, galloping towards the ruins of Tengshi Town with Glory.
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