The morning light shone on the broad river outside the city, sparkling, and the morning mist had not yet cleared. The castle on the other side of the river stood quietly in the light golden sky, and the Tully Silver Trout flag on the city wall was gently fluttering in the morning breeze.
Everything seems peaceful and poetic.
Of course, Edmure Tully was in no mood to admire the scenery.
Because he was woken up by a ladle of cold water mixed with urine, or rather, just pure urine.
"Get up!"
With a loud shout, Edmure, whose dream was disturbed, opened his eyes and immediately greeted the other person's mother... or grandmother in a daze.
However, this didn't change anything. Two Frey soldiers picked him up from the haystack and carried him out, half dragging him and half carrying him.
As we gradually approached the city gate, a huge gallows came into view.
The wood of the shelf has been turned gray by the wind and sun, but the key joints are reinforced with iron sheets, so it looks like it won't be a problem for another three to five years.
At this moment, there was a circle of people gathered underneath, and the leader was a pale and not very handsome knight.
...Edwyn·Frey.
This guy was carrying a hemp rope and was wearing the iconic gray armor of the Frey family. The breastplate was engraved with the coat of arms of the Twin Towers Twisting River City.
To be honest, the armor itself is pretty good, but it always feels indescribably awkward when worn on him, because this guy's appearance is really too disappointing for the audience.
He has a pointed chin, a narrow forehead, thin and everted lips, and two slightly protruding front teeth, like a malnourished and skinny monkey.
Standard Frey appearance.
It's not that the Edmure family is discriminatory, because the Marquis family of Li River City has always been known for being ugly, and this is famous throughout Westeros.
When Edmure heard that his nephew Robb Stark had agreed to marry him into the Frey family, he was actually quite resistant in his heart.
After all, the Frey daughters all look like shoehorns...
But fortunately, Old Walder Frey later gave him a surprise. His new wife Ros Lin Frey turned out to be quite good-looking. In this matter, Old Walder showed a respectable business integrity.
But later... this "integrity" was quickly and completely destroyed.
"It's time to work, uncle." Edwyn's voice pulled him back from his distraction.
"Wrong, Ros Lin is your grandfather's sister, you should call me... how do you say this title? Granduncle?"
"Stop fucking nonsense!" But Edwyn obviously has no interest in discussing ethical issues with him.
After all, Walder Frey had more than twenty sons, seven daughters, and countless illegitimate children. He also had too many grandchildren and great-grandchildren in his marriage to count. The family relationship was so complicated that even they themselves were often confused.
It is said that last year, a young man from the Frey family forcibly took over a girl. After the incident, he discovered that the girl was also named Frey and was the daughter of a nephew he did not know.
This may be ridiculous in other families, but for Frey it cannot be said that it happens often, but every once in a while some jokes will happen.
So much so that some people ridiculed that old Lord Walder Frey must have the blood of the legendary hero "Greenhand" Garth.
What's more, he also joked that House Words and "Everlasting Life" of the Tyrell family should be given over to House Walder.
Edmure curled his lips and stood under the gallows very cooperatively. He looked up and saw that even the lines on the beams were very familiar.
I remember that when the siege first started, Lyman Frey would stand in front of the gallows and deliver an impassioned speech, trying to persuade Brynden to surrender.
But it had no effect for a long time, and the frequency of speeches dropped from once a day to once every three days, and then to once a week. Later, Lyman, who lost his patience, simply left the whole matter to his eldest son Edwyn, and hid in a tent and had a good time with women from nearby towns.
Edwyn was quite excited at first. After all, taking Riverrun was a great achievement.
But as time went by, Edwyn seemed to be tired of this "9 to 5" life.
"What's the show today?" Edmure Tully put his neck on the gallows very cooperatively without any struggle.
After all, they have been here almost every day for the past three months or so.
"Same as yesterday, my men are responsible for shouting, hoping that your uncle will open the city and surrender."
Edwyn said as he tied Edmure Tully with a rope skillfully, so many times that he could complete the entire process with his eyes closed.
He even had the time to help Edmure turn the collar out and smooth it out.
"If that black fish doesn't surrender before lunch, I will hang you up and put you down before dinner.
"I know, I know." Edmure nodded quickly.
He was already familiar with this process.
"That...
But just before the gallows went up, he looked back at Edwyn with some embarrassment. "Can I see Ros lin tonight...
","No!" Ward immediately refused with a cold face.
"Ros Lin is pregnant. Great-grandfather said that you cannot see her until she gives birth to the child."
"If the baby is a boy, we will kill you."
.. So I am just a reproductive tool?" Edmure protested.
"So you should work hard and persuade your damn uncle to surrender in Kaicheng as soon as possible instead of thinking about sleeping with women all day long." Edwyn Ward kicked him in the calf.
It's no wonder that he feels resentful. After all, in order to let Ros lin get pregnant as soon as possible, Edwyn Frey not only had to send Edmure to the gallows during the day, but also had to send him to a tent to consummate his wife's marriage at night, and he also had to watch and supervise them outside!
As time goes by, a person's mood will not be very good.
Why!
Are you a fucking prisoner or am I?
Fortunately, Edmure was in good health, and soon Ros lin became pregnant with the child, thus ending Edwyn Frey's painful night watch.
Then again.
Edmure is really a big-hearted guy. His sister and nephew were killed, and he was trapped in an enemy camp. He did whatever he had to do without any delay.
Soon, the daily operations under Riverrun City began.
Up and down the city wall, both sides were spitting and urinating, and all kinds of obscene words came out of their mouths.
"Edmure Tully! Your uncle doesn't want you!"
A Frey family herald shouted with a broken gong, "He would rather see you hang like a wild dog than open the city gate and surrender!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Tully soldiers on the city wall immediately responded, "Isn't that old Walder Frey still alive?
Stranger is getting impatient waiting for him!"
Frey was not to be outdone. "When we take Riverrun and tear off your broken trout flag to wipe your butt, we will see how stubborn you are!"
One side clamored to hang Edmure, but the other side ignored him and told them to kill him quickly. After killing him, remember to throw the body over with a trebuchet.
"I said, don't you have something new to do? Just these few sentences over and over again?" Edmure, who was hanging high, yawned and shouted to the bottom.
No one paid attention to him.
The Frey soldiers have long been accustomed to the captive Duke's foul talk, and the best way to deal with him is to pretend he doesn't exist.
One of the soldiers guarding the gallows even drew Twin Towers sigil on the ground with the tip of his sword out of boredom, while the other soldier beside him whispered whether he could get a piece of pickled pork at noon.
Edmure was asking for trouble, so he could only sigh and cast his eyes boredly to the distant castle where he was born and raised but had not been able to set foot in for a long time.
A gray-white figure could be vaguely seen above the city gate. Even across the wide water of the moat, Edmure could recognize it at a glance.
That was his uncle, Brynden Tully Ser-"The Blackfish" himself.
Edmure smiled bitterly inwardly.
He knew that his uncle had never thought highly of his nephew, but he didn't expect that he didn't even care about his life or death.
In the eyes of his uncle, he, Edmure Tully, has never been a qualified heir. Perhaps the only thing he can do well is liven up the atmosphere at banquets and joke with the noble ladies.
He had imagined countless times that his uncle would lead an elite force to break out of the city at night and rescue him behind the familiar city wall.
But fantasy is just fantasy after all.
This Blackfish seemed to be as hard-hearted as his father had said. He watched helplessly as he was humiliated and threatened by these Frey bastards day after day, and he might even be hanged, but he didn't even blink an eyelid.
Despite this, Edmure tried his best to act free and strong, because he had not forgotten that his surname was Tully, and even if he was captured now, he would never lose the family's face in front of these Frey family bastards.
On the city wall, Brynden Tully looked at the farce below and snorted disdainfully.
Coward.
He cursed fiercely in his heart.
Walder Frey, the old immortal, was a coward who took advantage of the situation, and the children and grandchildren he gave birth to were all weaklings who only bullied the weak and feared the strong.
The siege lasted so long, and apart from pushing Edmure out and embarrassing themselves, they couldn't even organize a decent attack.
Do you want to capture Riverrun with just these guys?
Brynden, who was about to turn sixty, firmly believed that even if he turned eighty, he could easily defeat ten of these Freys without even taking a breath while mounting his sword and mounting his horse.
And Edmure...
Brynden's eyes stayed on the hanging figure for a moment, and then looked away again.
That kid was not bad at all, but he was terrible at everything he did. He was skilled in swordsmanship, archery, and horseback riding, but he was sparse in all of them. Most of his occasional cleverness was used in places where it shouldn't be used.
Brynden admitted that Edmure's performance on the gallows in the past few months had indeed played a role in stabilizing the morale of the troops.
At least he didn't cry like a wimp, which gave the defenders in the city the confidence to hold on.
But Brynden also knew that the reason why this boy acted so "tough" was not because he was brave in his heart, but because he did not take the danger at hand seriously.
When the Freys brutally murdered Robb's family, Edmure had already been carried out by the Bridal Chamber people and did not even witness the tragic scene.
Even though I knew that my sister Catelyn was killed, I didn't see it with my own eyes.
That kid probably naively thought that the Freys were just trying to scare people and wouldn't really do anything to him.
Maybe one day the negotiations are concluded, or reinforcements suddenly arrive, he can be released safely and continue to be the confused Duke that he was.
He has no idea what the real danger looks like, nor does he know that war and politics are far more cruel than people imagine.
Thinking of this, Brynden shook his head, hating the iron in his heart even more.
"Let's go, it's the same old thing, there's nothing to see." He turned around and prepared to leave the city wall.
Instead of watching these boring tricks here, it's better to check out the city defenses.
But the moment he turned around, a large plume of smoke suddenly appeared on the horizon, speeding towards Riverrun.
"Wait."
Brynden immediately raised his hand to signal Adjutant beside him to stop, his eyes fixed on the diffuse dust.
Is it reinforcements?
Or reinforcements from the Frey family?
But as the distance got closer, two fluttering flags came into view clearly, and Brynden's expression suddenly changed.
"Alert!"
"Inform everyone and come to the city wall quickly!!!"
Under the city wall, the farce continues.
A Frey boy, who looked to be at most sixteen or seventeen years old, probably got over his head with the scolding, and yelled at the top of his voice in the direction of Riverrun: "You bastard of the Tully family! When we attack the city, I'll use your black fish's head as a toilet!!!"
As he spoke, he actually reached out to unbuckle his belt, raised his bare butt high with his back to the city wall, and began to fly freely in full view of everyone.
However, just as he emerged, a low rumble suddenly came from the distance, and even the ground beneath his feet began to tremble slightly.
"Enemy attack... Enemy attack!!!"
The boy Frey was so frightened that he hurriedly cut off his pants and hurriedly went to pick up his pants. But the more anxious he became, the more mistakes he made. He couldn't fasten the belt of his pants, and even fell down, with his butt just sitting on the free flight.
The surrounding soldiers were also panicked by this sudden turn of events. They clenched their weapons and looked nervously in the direction of the rising smoke.
However, Edwyn Frey, who was not far away, frowned, glanced at the rapidly approaching smoke in the distance, then looked down at the idiot who was still struggling with his belt, and walked forward quickly.
Without saying a word, he rounded up his arms and hit the back of the kid's head with a big, solid butt!
"The enemy is attacking ass!"
"Those are reinforcements from the Iron Throne! Put away all the fucking weapons, you're in disgrace!"
Boy Frey covered the burning back of his head and looked at Edwyn in confusion.
Reinforcements?
What reinforcements?
How come he doesn't know?
But looking at Edwyn's cannibalistic expression, I didn't dare to ask any more questions.
Edwyn Frey was too lazy to pay attention to this idiot anymore. He quickly adjusted his armor and called on the few guards around him to come forward.
While running, he yelled at the soldiers who were still stunned, "Get the hell out of my way! Make way for me! Don't block the adults' horses!"
Soon, the cavalry troops rushed forward.
The first one flying was a flag with a white background of Black Hand, which looked particularly eye-catching and cold in the sun, followed closely by a green flag with Striding Hunter embroidered on it.
"Lord Tully!" Edwyn Frey had a smile on his face.
However, Randyll Tarly, the leader, ignored him. Instead, he took a cursory glance at the scene in front of Riverrun, with a trace of contempt flashing in his eyes.
The loose and undisciplined siege soldiers, as well as the gallows hanging in mid-air, look like a farce no matter how you look at it.
Frey.
Sure enough, seeing it once is better than hearing it a hundred times.
This look caught Edwyn's eyes, making him feel an unknown fire rising up.
Because this look is so... familiar.
In the Riverlands, whenever someone mentions the Frey family, they always have this look in their eyes.
"What's your name, kid?" Randyll Tarly finally withdrew his gaze and looked down at him.
"Edwyn Frey, sir." Although he was unhappy in his heart, the other party was the Minister of Justice after all, so Edwyn remained as respectful as possible.
"My father is Lyman Frey. He should have informed us a few days ago that the Iron Throne would send reinforcements."
As he said that, Edwyn looked behind Randyll Tully.
Nearly a hundred knights are full of momentum, and the war horses under their crotches are the best of the best.
Especially the fully armored knight following Randyll Tully. He was extremely tall and had a two-handed hammer Warhammer that seemed to weigh at least twenty or thirty pounds hanging on his horse. Just seeing the size of the hammer head was enough to make one's scalp numb.
Edwyn Frey was secretly speechless.
These are the real elites, and they are not at the same level as their Li Hecheng troops.
Even if these hundreds of people could fight, how effective would they be against the solid walls of Riverrun?
Well, it must be the vanguard, and the army must still be behind.
"Can you explain to me what's going on, Edwyn Frey." Randyll Tarly's voice brought him back from his thoughts.
I saw Earl of Horn Hill pointing at the gallows not far away with his riding crop.
"Sir, we are intimidating the defenders in the city!" Edwyn explained righteously.
"The one hanging above is Edmure Tully. We hope to use continued pressure to break down the will of the defenders in the city to resist and force them to open the city and surrender as soon as possible."
"Of course I recognize Edmure Tully."
However, Randyll Tarly interrupted him coldly and asked, "Is this effective?"
"Uh... this..." Edwyn Frey was speechless for a moment. He looked at the motionless gallows and replied hesitantly, "More or less...
"It still has some effect. The morale of the defenders in the city must have been hit hard...
Seeing this, Randyll Tarly shook his head slowly.
He was too lazy to listen to this Frey boy's nonsense, and he had no interest in exposing his lies to deceive children.
But fortunately, he has never looked down upon the Frey family, a bunch of cowards and despicable people who betrayed the rights of guests on Red Wedding.
I didn't have any high hopes before coming here, so I can't say how disappointed I am now.
A group of people who only use such dirty tricks, what can you expect them to do?
He ignored Edwyn Frey and winked at the burly knight holding Great Hammer next to him.
The knight understood immediately.
Without saying any nonsense, he stood up and dismounted neatly. Under the puzzled gazes of everyone in the audience, he walked straight to the gallows that had stood for several months with the hammer in hand.
"Hey! What are you going to do!" Edwyn Frey instinctively felt something was wrong, and subconsciously wanted to step forward to stop him.
But the knight just continued to move forward, and the huge force knocked him staggering.
Then, before Edwyn could react, he came directly to the gallows, suddenly picked up the huge Warhammer and snatched it up!
With a dull whistling sound, the hammer head hit a thick wooden pillar supporting the gallows!
Eighty!!!
There was a loud noise and sawdust flew.
The whole shelf shook violently.
Eighty! Eighty!
The knight was like a tireless battering ram, hammering down one hammer after another, each blow being powerful and heavy.
The surrounding Frey soldiers were stunned, but no one dared to step forward to stop him.
Click!!!
In less than ten strikes, the piece of wood, thicker than an adult's waist, broke, and the entire gallows collapsed!
"Ah!!!" Edmure Tully, who was hanging in the air, exclaimed, and his whole body and the broken wooden frame fell heavily to the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust.
The knight's chest didn't even rise much, and he silently stepped aside while holding the hammer.
Amid shocked eyes, Randyll Tarly rode forward.
The horse's hooves trampled through the broken wood and dust on the ground, and stopped in front of Edmure Tully, who was smashed to pieces. He looked down at the titular Duke of the Riverlands from a high position.
"I'm here to negotiate terms, Tully."
"I bring the will of the Iron Throne, and... a reason you can't refuse."