Chapter Twenty-Eight: Soldiers of the North
For another two days, along the road, as Jeffs had said, Ma Shen encountered burned houses, fields, forests, and many homeless refugees along the way.
Objectively speaking, Duke Tywin's method had to be regarded as a good one, once he felt that he could not hold on, he immediately retreated, with the mentality that since he didn't have it, no one else wanted to have it, he burned it to the ground, and handed over such a big piece of rag to the princes of the Riverlands, for example, the problem of refugee resettlement, which was enough to keep them busy for a while.
Just as he was sighing, Ma Shen suddenly saw a sloppy woman holding a girl rushing to the front of the team from the side of the road, and began to kowtow without saying a word.
"Is there something wrong?" Ma Shen sat on the horse and asked with a frown, the refugees along the way saw the heavily armed soldiers on their side, they would be busy dodging to the side, and no one had taken the initiative to approach so far, could it be that just like the housekeeper who was far away in the sky, it was also because of his unintentional actions to repay the favor.
Seeing the principal of the soldiers, the woman was a little frightened and hugged the weak girl in her arms, and begged hoarsely, "Can you give me some food?" The food has been snatched away by others, and my daughter has not eaten for almost 2 days. ”
"Yes. Ma Shen sighed, nodded and agreed, then turned around and ordered the soldiers behind him, "Omar, give her something to eat." ”
Hearing that Ma Shen promised to give food, the woman hurriedly kowtowed in surprise: "Thank you, thank you, my lord."
"Let's go, let's move on. After Omar handed a small bag of food to the woman, Ma Shen ignored the woman's thanks, looked coldly at the refugees who were about to move, and continued to set off with the team.
There was everyone on the way to escape, the good people would become evil, the wicked would be more vicious, and the woman's food would be robbed by others.
Moreover, there are so many refugees, unless they are really in a desperate situation, or they are more pleasing to the eye, otherwise they will not give food to these refugees.
Time passed quickly, and after questioning some refugees at the expense of food, the party was getting closer and closer to the army of the North.
"Wait" Ma Shen, the leader of the horse, slowly stopped, looked up at the tree, and saw the three female corpses hanging on three trees, with a long rope around their necks, fluttering in the wind.
The three female corpses had hideous faces, ragged clothes, only a few rags hanging on their bodies, and the blood under their crotches was still dripping down drop by drop, it should be that someone abused these three women again, and then hung these women to a tree one by one.
It's not a long time, the blood in the female corpse is still flowing, who did it, robber or refugee, Ma Shen moved some compassion, the ancients once said that a gentleman is a beast, see its life, can't bear to see its death, smell its voice, can't bear to eat its flesh, although he is not a gentleman, but if the murderer has not gone far, he can't sit idly by.
"Oba, take 3 people to put the female corpse down, and the others follow me. Ma Shen's words stopped abruptly, because he heard some movement in the woods.
"Hahahaha, that bitch screamed so loudly just now. ”
"It's cool to scream, just now I saw that she had no sound, and there was movement again after a knife was cut. ”
Three northern soldiers wearing leather armor and carrying long swords at their waists walked out of the woods with a smile, but suddenly saw many heavily armed soldiers staring at him, and subconsciously pulled out his long sword: "Wait, who are you!"
"I'm Ma Shen, and I used to be the swordsmanship teacher of the Stark family. Ma Shen took a few steps forward and introduced himself first, "Are you soldiers of the Northern Army?"
"Scared me, I thought those Lannister mongrels had the guts to run back again. The black, curly-haired soldier of the North smiled and put his sword back, "Hahaha, I've heard of you in the North, Wolf Slayer."
"It's not my own people. Ma Shen pointed to the female corpse on his head, "Did you hang these women?" ”
The smiles of the three northern soldiers who were walking towards Ma Shen with a smile suddenly froze on their faces, and they secretly exchanged glances, and the tall soldier in the lead snorted: "Don't get me wrong, my lord, these bitches are all from the Lannister family, and we found out and wanted to resist, so we hung them up to blow the wind." “
"These women don't look like Lannister soldiers. Ma Shen debunked the soldier's lie with a blank face.
"Look at what you said, how can any soldier be a woman, they are the family members of the soldier. The tall soldier smiled awkwardly, and by the way, he took a step back, and he also saw that something was wrong.
"We'll talk about the details later, you guys go to Robb with me first. Glancing at Ed on the carriage, Ma Shen shouted, and the 20 soldiers behind him raised their spears and surrounded them, "Take them down, hand them over to Lord Robb, dare to resist, and kill them on the spot!"
"Sir, we're our own people. The tall soldier shouted and drew the long sword at his waist, and if he was brought to Robb, he would join the death squad, if he didn't die.
"That's why I'm going to let Lord Robb deal with you and lay down your arms. ”
"Get out of here!" Seeing that Ma Shen insisted on taking them to Robb, two northern soldiers were obviously unwilling to be caught like this, and roared angrily and raised their swords to shoot a few spears before trying to escape.
"Dare to resist. Ma Shen's eyes widened, if it weren't for Ed sitting in the carriage, in order to avoid affecting his image, he persuaded them so patiently, could it be that they still thought that they wanted to run away surrounded by so many spears, stupid reckless.
As Ma Shen expected, the two northern soldiers who wanted to escape shot a few spears before being stabbed to the ground by other spears.
The wind was blowing, and the black-haired curly-haired northern soldier was left unmoved, and in order to prevent others from misunderstanding, he threw his sword far away: "I am willing to go with you to see Lord Robb." ”
"Take him. Ma Shen said lightly.
The armies of the North were dominated by infantry, armed with a wide variety of blunt weapons - clubs and maces were far more common than swords, and the armor was mostly leather or animal skin, and if anyone could afford real armor, it was often chain mail rather than plate armor.
As for horses, the North was not as capable of gathering large cavalry as other places, and raising horses was very expensive, especially in winter, which would take up a lot of food, and with the exception of lords and knights, even if a person owned horses, they were generally not suitable for war.
In battle, the armies of the North would form units according to their fiefdoms: all the soldiers, whether peasants with pitchforks or knights in heavy armor on horses, would surround their lieges, and in this way, the armies of the North would form a number of semi-independent units.
After walking for an hour, under the supervision of some cavalry, Ma Shen led the team to the gate of the camp, and at this time Robb, who received the news, was already waiting at the gate of the camp with many knightly vassals.
"Sir, it's been a long time, but you've done me a great favor. Robb gave Ma Shen a hug when he met, according to the etiquette of the boys in the North, "If Harrenhal hadn't broken the Lannister's ass, we wouldn't have forced them back so easily."
"It's everyone's responsibility to fight the Lannisters. Ma Shen smiled modestly, "Look who else I brought!"