More than ten days passed, and the ruined camp was completely set up, with not only enough houses for the existing personnel but also houses needed for future army expansion.
Although the overall appearance was somewhat crude, they finally had a place to shelter from the wind and rain, which greatly reassured Linde's cavalrymen and boosted their overall morale.
During this time, Linde continuously dispatched scouts to gather information on the surrounding mountain folk, Savage Tribes, and villages, and also tracked down any bandits they found.
However, these bandits rarely had fixed strongholds and only roamed within a certain area, so most of them were only followed for a short distance before being abandoned.
Based on the intelligence collected by various scouts, Linde compiled a very complete map of the power distribution in the upper Mander River region, cross-referencing it with the information provided by Varys and Nameria.
In the area east of the Mander River, west of Kingswood and Rose Road, and south of Blackwater River, there were eighteen Free Folk Villages, seven mountain folk villages, four Savage Tribes, and more than a dozen bandit groups of varying sizes.
While not all of these forces could be considered enemies, none of them had a good impression of Linde's foreign bandit-suppression army, especially due to the negative impact of the former Bitterbridge and Iron Throne armies.
The Bitterbridge army, dispatched to suppress bandits back then, directly treated some mountain folk villages as bandit strongholds when they couldn't find any bandits, rushing in to burn, kill, and plunder while the young men of the villages were away.
However, their luck was not good; on their way back after the robbery, they encountered a Savage Tribes, were lured into a swamp, and fell into a Savage ambush, suffering heavy casualties, with only a small number of people escaping back and fabricating a story of failed bandit suppression.
As for the army dispatched from Red Keep, it was even more outrageous; they simply plundered all the Free Folk Villages once and returned, with no bandit suppression actions whatsoever.
The bandits entrenched in this area would not rob the local villages; instead, they would do business with the villagers, while the bandit-suppression armies would bring disaster to the villagers here; comparing the two, even a fool would know who to help.
Now Linde also understood why House Tyrell was willing to expend great effort to maintain the safety of Rose Road, even going so far as to build numerous outposts and relay stations along the road and arrange long-term patrols of cavalry to inspect road safety, rather than sending troops into this area to suppress bandits.
Perhaps in their eyes, to completely eradicate the bandits here, they would have to wipe out all the villages, mountain folk villages, and Savage Tribes.
If they really did that, House Tyrell's reputation would be completely ruined, and after doing so, the ultimate beneficiary would not be House Tyrell.
As for why Linde was sent to suppress bandits and given such great authority, perhaps it was because Linde had only recently joined House Tyrell; if he made any mistakes, House Tyrell could still use some means to distance itself, and at the Red Keep banquet, everyone could see King Robert's appreciation for Linde, so if something really went wrong, King Robert might not impose too severe a punishment.
After truly understanding the actual situation in this area, Linde was also extremely glad that he had not chosen to suppress bandits directly before, but instead came to Tengshi Town to establish a stronghold, build a good relationship with the Countess of Tengshi Town, and even bring the Countess onto his bandit-suppression bandwagon.
With Nameria, Linde had a legal basis when dealing with these permanent local forces; as long as he didn't go too far, others wouldn't be able to find an excuse to criticize him.
Now Linde's problem was what to do next: should he gradually reclaim the Free Folk Villages, mountain folk villages, and Savage Tribes, or should he first deal with the bandit groups entrenched near the abandoned road, restore that abandoned road connecting to Rose Road, and link Tengshi Town with the outside world?
For this purpose, Linde gathered his subordinates and asked for their opinions, and Nameria also came upon hearing the news and participated in the discussion.
Everyone expressed their views, with some choosing to deal with the villages first, citing the precedent of clearing the Kingswood Brotherhood, which proved that solving the village problem was key to solving the bandit suppression problem.
But someone quickly refuted, saying that the Kingsguard's method of dealing with those villages back then was to provide money and supplies, and it was only so smooth because they had the Iron Throne supporting them, but Linde didn't have that much money and supplies to buy off the villagers.
Therefore, the road should be cleared first, allowing the Tengshi Town trade route to operate, and only after Linde had accumulated sufficient funds could he solve the problem of the Free Folk Villages.
However, some also said that they should first deal with the Savage Tribes; after reclaiming the Savage Tribes, they would gain enough manpower, and then it would be much easier to do other things.
Although what they said made sense, none of it was what Linde wanted.
"Why don't we do it together? I can take my people to those villages one by one and reclaim them in the name of the lord. You can start with the Savage Tribes, reclaim them, increase manpower, and then deal with the bandits. As for the mountain folk villages, we can completely deal with them later," Nameria said, offering her suggestion after looking at the regional power distribution map Linde had redrawn.
Although Nameria's suggestion was good, Linde still shook his head, seemingly not very satisfied with it.
"Actually, we don't need to deal with all the villages and mountain folk tribes; for now, we only need to deal with a few," Scholar Yves, who had come with Nameria, suddenly spoke up.
Everyone was stunned by his words and looked at Scholar Yves in unison.
Everyone in the room was familiar with Scholar Yves; many times when Nameria came here to discuss matters with Linde, Scholar Yves would follow along, but he had never spoken, which made Raul and the others wonder if Scholar Yves was mute.
Furthermore, although Scholar Yves was called a Scholar, he did not wear the academic chain links that a Scholar should have, which also made everyone curious, because only Scholars who had committed serious mistakes would have their chain links stripped by the Citadel.
With Nameria's status, she could have directly applied to the Citadel for a formal Scholar consultant, but Nameria chose Scholar Yves as her consultant, which made people curious about the reason.
It was precisely because of the various mysteries surrounding Scholar Yves that he became the focus of everyone's attention the moment he spoke.
Linde was also surprised that Scholar Yves spoke, but he quickly returned to normal and motioned for Scholar Yves to continue.
Scholar Yves pointed to several interconnected villages and mountain folk villages on the distribution map and said, "We only need to control these few villages and mountain folk villages; other matters can be taken slowly, even taking a few years to resolve is fine."
Others did not see anything special about the villages and mountain folk villages Scholar Yves pointed out, but Linde's face showed a smile, clearly indicating that Scholar Yves's suggestion pleased him.
In fact, when Linde saw so many local forces distributed throughout this area, a vague plan had already formed in his mind, but this plan lacked a clear path until Scholar Yves pointed out those few villages and mountain folk villages just now, and then his vague plan became completely clear.
Because he had previously dealt with the bandit alliance summoned by the Poison Scorpion Society and a secret army dispatched by Duke Tywin, Linde had momentarily forgotten the true purpose of taking on this mission, mistakenly treating the eradication of bandits in this area and preventing Duke Tywin from interfering with Tengshi Town's territory as his primary goals.
But in reality, Linde's true purpose was to use this bandit suppression mission to accumulate strength for himself, and this strength included both people and money; bandit suppression was secondary, to be dragged out as long as possible, and the villages and mountain folk villages chosen by Scholar Yves perfectly aligned with his goal.
Among the crowd, Bert, who was almost equivalent to a Scholar consultant, also seemed to have understood the meaning of the villages and mountain folk villages pointed out by Scholar Yves, and he directly stated, "These villages and mountain folk villages are all near that abandoned road. Scholar, do you mean for us to first restore the trade route, keep it open, and then consider other matters, right?"
Scholar Yves did not speak, retreating back to Nameria's side.
Linde, standing nearby, was unsure if Scholar Yves had truly guessed his intentions; he only knew that Scholar Yves's suggestion was very much to his liking.
These villages and mountain folk villages were key to controlling the abandoned road; once they were taken, that abandoned road would be completely under his control.
At that time, he could use Tengshi Town's trade route and his tax exemption to quickly accumulate wealth, increase manpower by reclaiming the Savage Tribes, and as for bandit suppression, there was no rush; after all, House Tyrell's maximum deadline was five years, and he only needed to achieve some results periodically within those five years.
Diligently eradicating these bandits in a short period would bring him no benefit.
After understanding this point, Linde told Nameria to go back and prepare; tomorrow, he and Nameria would each lead a hundred people to the nearest chosen village to see if they could take it.
That night, Jon, whom Linde had sent to deliver a letter, returned to Tengshi Town, but he did not come back by water but by land, looking somewhat disheveled, apparently having encountered bandits, and the few people escorting Jon also had some injuries.
Linde did not rush to open Duke Tyrell's reply but instead asked Jon about his journey.
According to Jon's narration, their journey there was smooth; they went downstream all the way to Bitterbridge, then disembarked at Bitterbridge, found some horses, and rode through the night, catching up with the Duke's convoy two days later, about a hundred miles from New Barrel City.
After meeting Duke Tyrell, Jon immediately reported to Duke Tyrell that Linde had arrived at Tengshi Town, established a good relationship with Nameria Fudeli, the lord of Tengshi Town, annihilated a bandit alliance of nearly a thousand people, and also informed him about Duke Tywin.
Duke Tyrell, after hearing this, did not immediately reply but discussed it with the nobles of Highgarden for a night, and then made a decision the next day, handing the sealed reply to Jon.
Jon's return was delayed for a few days because Bitterbridge Castle was locked down; the reason for the lockdown seemed to be that Baron Caswell's only son had suffered an incident, and Baron Caswell had locked down Bitterbridge to pursue the culprit.
After leaving Bitterbridge, Jon followed their previous route to Tengshi Town, heading north by land, but they were attacked shortly after leaving Bitterbridge and then encountered several more waves of bandits on the way; fortunately, they were lucky, escaping with only minor injuries and no casualties.
After recounting this experience, Jon then shared some of his conjectures about the hidden identities of the bandits he encountered with Linde.
"You suspect that these waves of bandits were all disguised Bitterbridge guards?" Linde looked at Jon somewhat surprised, then asked, "Why do you have such a suspicion?"
Jon explained, "Although those people were dressed like robbers, their demeanor and some characteristics differed greatly from bandits who live in the wild all year round, and someone recognized one of the bandits as having appeared in Bitterbridge Castle, a Bitterbridge guard."
Linde asked, full of confusion, "Why would Baron Caswell send people to impersonate bandits and attack you? Did you do something to offend Baron Caswell while you were in Bitterbridge?"
Jon looked at Linde with a strange expression and said, "My Lord, perhaps you offended Baron Caswell, and we were just implicated by you."
"Me?" Linde was stunned for a moment, then quickly remembered what happened in Bitterbridge and questioned, "Didn't that matter pass already? How can that old man hold such a grudge?"
Jon explained, "I heard that when you were in Bitterbridge, because of a blacksmith's son, you injured Ser Laurent Caswell, and thus received punishment from Baron Caswell. The person who almost killed Laurent Caswell this time seems to be that blacksmith's son."
After hearing Jon's words, Linde couldn't help but be stunned, suddenly feeling as if he was being played by fate.
He wasn't afraid of Baron Caswell; even if Baron Caswell sent people to impersonate bandits to cause him trouble here, he could easily handle it.
But the problem was that once the Tengshi Town trade route was reopened in the future, Bitterbridge, controlled by Baron Caswell, would become crucial, because all ships departing from the upper Mander River would need to pass through Bitterbridge.
If Baron Caswell then found an excuse to close Bitterbridge and prevent ships from passing, then the Tengshi Town trade route would simply not be able to operate.
Thinking of this, a daring idea surfaced in Linde's mind: secretly eliminate Baron Caswell and his only son; the new Baron of House Caswell who replaced him would certainly not hate him, but rather thank him.
"If he really comes to trouble me for this reason, I'll just make him shut up for good." Linde quickly made a decision; although resolving trouble through assassination might create more problems, for him, the opening of Tengshi Town's trade route was crucial for his initial capital accumulation and could not have any mistakes, even if it meant using some extraordinary means.
Linde did not show his decision but instead motioned for Jon to return to the room prepared for him to rest.
After Jon left, he then opened the instruction letter Duke Tyrell had given him and read its contents.
And after reading the contents, a smile also appeared on Linde's face.
Aside from some polite remarks, the core of this letter contained only two things: one was to have Linde assist Nameria in quickly restoring Tengshi Town's waterway trade route, and the other was to tell Linde not to worry about Duke Tywin; if any Westerlands army entered the territory of Tengshi Town, he could directly engage them without ceremony.
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