Of course, Catherine is not the only one who thinks so, but the other families who also see it this way. After all, in those two battles, the Bannerless family was stuck in the city, no matter what, it was definitely easier to defend the city than to attack the city, so everyone admitted that the Bannerless family was very good at defending the city, but the head-to-head duel was not very optimistic.

However, they didn't know that Li Lingyi had been grasping this part all along, and he had been training intensively during this time, and although not all armies could be pulled to the plains to fight, at least the combat effectiveness of the core flagless army was really quite good.

Now the Flagless Army has expanded to 5,000 people, and it is still under the command of Li Ling alone, which is almost his own private army. This is also necessary, it didn't matter if there were hundreds or thousands of people before, but now with the population increasing, it is inevitable that there will be some generals with other ideas.

If there is no deterrence from the private army, then if there is a sudden split, Li Lingyi will not be able to stand it. But that's just the case, so far all the powerful generals Li Lingyi is familiar with it, so he doesn't worry about this.

Now that Catherine was silent, Li Lingyi also continued: "Of course, this also requires the help of the Stark family. It can't be done in a short period of time by relying only on the flagless family. ”

Is it short-lived......

Catherine noticed Li Lingyi's words, thought about them, and asked, "Do you mean that we are going to march together?"

"That's not a rush. Li Lingyi shook his head and said with a smile: "Madam, don't you know that there is a saying called 'clean the house before welcoming guests'." ”

Catherine looked puzzled, obviously not understanding Li Lingyi's Chinese metaphor.

"If you want to go south without any scruples, you must first condense the central and northern parts into an iron plate to ensure that no one will make trouble behind. ”

"You mean ......"

Li Lingyi turned over the cloth that had been covering the table, and it was printed with the style and topography of the continent, which was a map of the Westeros continent.

To the north, with Winterfell as the center, the Stark family is the only one unstable element in the entire land, and that is the Castle of Terror, which is located in the west of the north, facing the sea.

This is the territory of the Bolton family, the famous Peel and Skin family, because of their cruel abuse, the other families are not very willing to be with it, of course, they are also vassals of the Stark family, and belong to the subservients.

In the original plot, the Bolton family and the Frey family betrayed Stark together and became the new guardians of the North. Of course, he was also avenged and destroyed by Jon in the end.

But now because the Frey family took the dog in advance, the Bolton family did not show their fangs, and continued to play the good boy, but the hatred with the Stark family for thousands of years also made them think about being able to eliminate the Stark family all the time.

Maybe Stark didn't think it was anything now, but Li Lingyi couldn't tolerate such a threat, so he also mentioned it directly to Catherine.

"First of all, the Bolton family, you must be on guard against them. ”

"The Bolton family......" Catherine was a little puzzled, "Although their family has always been at odds with the Stark family in the past, they have also joined the coalition and went south together, I think there should be no problem, right?"

"Do you think they're willing to join? It's just that they don't have a choice. Li Lingyi sneered: "If you don't join, I'm afraid that the first thing your coalition army will do is not to go south, but to clean up the Terror Fort first, right?"

Catherine's lips moved when she heard this, and she remained silent.

Indeed, at that time, Robb issued an order to call on all vassals in the north. Since these vassals had sworn allegiance to Stark, they had to send troops to join the coalition at this time.

If he refuses, it is a betrayal of the oath and the coalition, and according to Robb's character, it is impossible to let go.

"In addition to the Burton family, the Arryn family naturally needs to communicate. Madame, you can go and talk to Lysa first, and if that fails, leave it to me. ”

At this time, Catherine was still thinking about the Bolton family, and at this time she came to her senses and nodded slightly, "I know, I will talk to Lyza and try to get her to join our alliance as well." I'm sure she'd agree, because her husband was killed by the Lannisters. ”

“……”

Li Ling was silent when he heard this, but he didn't tell the truth, on the one hand, he had no evidence, and on the other hand, he couldn't get anything if he said it now, so there was no need.

"And the Tully family of Riverrun, I think... This also needs to be talked about by Madame. ”

"Of course. Catherine said with a smile, Riverrun is her maiden home, and her brother has been doting on her since she was a child, so it can be said that she can be persuaded to join the alliance.

"As for myself, during this time, I will try to unite the small families in the central part as much as possible, and when the affairs of the three big families are resolved, it will be when we go south. As soon as Li Ling finished speaking, he got up and stretched out his palm towards Catherine, "Then I will avenge Duke Eddard." ”

"Thank you, Patriarch Ivy!" Catherine couldn't help but be moved to get up and hold Li Lingyi's hand when she heard this, so at the moment of shaking hands, the covenant between the two families was also concluded.

didn't stay long, after deciding to form an alliance, Catherine immediately took Arya back, and the poor little girl didn't have a chance to discuss swordsmanship with Li Lingyi, which also made her a little disappointed.

Li Lingyi is the same, but he is also very helpless, now as the patriarch of a big family, there are so many things that are terrible. Especially in the rise of the family now, all kinds of emergencies need to be dealt with by him, and after a while, when those people are familiar with his work, he will not be so busy with everything.

After Catherine's mother and daughter left, Li Lingyi naturally returned to Harrenhal, and immediately set out to unite the surrounding small families, and without any means, he directly sent an envoy to find out.

Those who are willing will be protected by the flagless family, and those who are unwilling... Let's see if the civilians in your own territory agree.

Not to mention anything else, at least the civilians in the Hejian Land have a very high degree of recognition of Li Lingyi, because the latter has never carried out looting, and often helps some poor people to find jobs, distribute food, etc., and do good things.

Therefore, many civilians in the territory of small families even hope that their lords can be loyal to the Bannerless Family, so that they can get a reliable backer, and they no longer have to worry about the bandits around them, and they no longer have to be so afraid of the Lannisters.

Of course, for those who are unwilling to live or die, Li Lingyi does not need to use force, just use a few sub-schemes, such as the simplest food shortage. Because 90% of the grain harvested in the riverland is now harvested by Harrenhal, it is not because it is forcibly robbed, but because this land was originally planted by the Wuqi family.

You say that those civilians have just joined the Flagless Family? I'm sorry, as long as they join, they belong to the Flagless Family, and the grain can only be sold to the Flagless Family after harvesting, which seems to be a bit of a forced buy, but in fact, the Flagless Family is also giving the market price, so no one objected.

As a result, most of the grain in the riverland was monopolized by the flagless family, and other families could only buy it at a high price if they wanted it.