Chapter 294: Chapter 294: The Wildling Menace
In the afternoon, sunlight filtered through the sheer curtains.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"King Beyond the Wall, Mance Rayder, has been captured by Stannis."
Ramsay Snow had been given a chair to sit next to Viserys, the two of them alone in the otherwise empty study.
Viserys sat behind his desk, holding a letter containing the latest intelligence from across the Narrow Sea.
The news had taken a while to reach them, so it wasn't exactly fresh by the time it arrived.
But there was no helping it.
Ramsay had rushed over as soon as he received the news.
He also held a letter from his father, Roose Bolton, the Count of Dreadfort.
However, this letter was not written to Roose's bastard son, Ramsay Snow, but to Viserys.
Although Ramsay was his bastard son, Roose Bolton only saw him as a tool, not as his own flesh and blood.
Sending him to Viserys was a kind of hedging strategy.
Roose Bolton hadn't expected Ramsay to gain some importance in Viserys's court, thus making him a rather significant tool.
At least in Roose Bolton's eyes.
"The usurper burned him alive."
Ramsay continued to explain.
This event had caused quite a stir in the North.
But in the areas south of the Neck, it didn't make much of a splash. For the people of the South, the King Beyond the Wall was a complete unknown.
Even the Wildlings were just creatures of legend.
Giants? Cannibals?
How could such things truly exist?
However, due to the lack of information, most of the farmers in the South didn't know that a large number of agile Wildlings had escaped to the areas south of the Neck.
They hid in the deep forests during the day to avoid the noble armies, and at night they attacked and pillaged the surrounding villages.
There have been numerous cases of Wildling massacres near the Twins and Seagard.
Upon hearing this, the old Lord Frey was reportedly furious, but he dared not curse King Robert, only blaming the Northerners for letting the Wildlings escape the Neck and causing damage to his property.
Subsequently, old Lord Frey sent his sons to lead the Frey soldiers to capture these Wildlings and bring them to justice.
However, these Wildlings were cunning and had a keen sense of danger.
They caused some destruction here today, and ran to another place to cause more destruction tomorrow.
They were like guerrilla fighters, causing great frustration for Stevron Frey, the eldest son of Lord Frey.
Although the family soldiers were poorly trained and not very combat-effective, they did have a fair number of cavalry.
However, they were always led by the nose by these Wildlings, especially since the Wildlings liked to retreat into the mountains.
Every time Stevron and his father, Lymond Frey, led the Frey soldiers and were about to catch up with these damned Wildlings, they would retreat into the dense forests of the mountains.
The infantry had long been left behind, and the cavalry was not suited to enter the mountains, so they had to dismount and go in on foot.
However, as soon as Stevron and Lymond Frey led the soldiers off their horses and pursued them, they encountered an ambush by the Wildlings.
A rain of large stones and arrows fell, causing many casualties among the soldiers, who fled in panic.
But this wasn't because the Wildlings were particularly strong, but because the Frey sons were too incompetent.
In contrast, at Seagard, it was a different story.
A main force of Wildlings suddenly attacked Seagard, seemingly trying
to seize the castle and town, capture the ships there, and then escape by sea.
This was the strategy set by Mance Rayder for the Wildlings: don't try to fight the king's army, don't try to resist, just run, desperately run to the warmer south.
If they could seize a port and steal a few ships, that would be even better, they could board the ships and escape to the continent of Essos.
Mance Rayder's plan wasn't flawed, even though he had been burned alive, more Wildlings had managed to survive.
He didn't care about the fate of the people south of the Wall, everyone was out for themselves. They were barely surviving themselves, who cared if others could survive or not.
So, the Wildlings scattered, desperately fleeing to the south, not engaging in combat with the nobles or the king's army, and running into the forests whenever they encountered them.
However, it seemed that the Wildling tribe that attacked Seagard had gotten their directions wrong.
Even if they had captured Seagard and the ships, they could only reach the Iron Islands from there.
To reach the more prosperous and vast continent of Essos, they would need to navigate around the Summer Sea.
But Seagard was home to House Mallister, and Count Jason was not as incompetent as the Freys.
This brave count had once led his army to resist the Ironborn, killing the son of King Balon and driving them all back to the sea.
Now, these Wildlings trying to attack Seagard had really kicked an iron plate.
Subsequently, Jason Mallister led the soldiers of Seagard directly out of the city, repelled the Wildlings' attack, beheaded thousands, and drove the Wildlings all the way into the mountains of Flint's Finger.
These defeated Wildlings fled towards the Westerlands.
Meanwhile, in another location.
The Vale's strongest 'fortress', the Mountains of the Moon, was home to a large number of mountain clans.
It seemed that traces of the Wildlings had also appeared here.
However, these Wildling tribes did not clash with the mountain clans, both were tribes that did not submit to the king or the rule of the Lord of the Eyrie, and mainly survived by raiding.
They hid in the mountains, and the knights of the Vale couldn't enter the mountains to exterminate them, often encountering ambushes instead. The mountain clans had always been a major problem for the Vale.
Now, it seemed that the Wildling tribes and the mountain clans had joined forces, causing havoc along the Green Fork, the Kingsroad, and even in the towns and villages of the Vale, raiding caravans and travelers.
They disturbed the peace of the towns along the Mountains of the Moon, causing smoke to rise everywhere.
The damage caused by the influx of hundreds of thousands of Wildlings into the Seven Kingdoms was still ongoing, and like a spreading plague, it was rapidly expanding to various regions.
Now, traces of the Wildlings had successively appeared in the North, the Riverlands, the Westerlands, and the Vale.
However, this influence was still continuously advancing towards the south.
Perhaps it wouldn't be long before we see the shadows of these Wildlings near King's Landing and the Riverlands.
Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King who was stationed in King's Landing, was already at his wits' end dealing with these issues.
But Viserys, thousands of miles away, found the reports quite interesting.
In truth, the destruction caused by the Wildlings was just a minor irritation, not enough to overthrow the rule of the Iron Throne.
Because apart from the Battle of Seagard, these Wildlings did not systematically attack castles, they merely harassed villages.
If they tried to attack King's Landing, that would truly be a death wish.
However, it was this kind of minor irritation that was incredibly annoying.
Jon Arryn couldn't possibly call for another conscription in the name of the king, leading a large army to roam around the world to wipe out these annoying Wildlings.
He could only let the nobles of each region clean up their own mess, rather than just driving them around.
Although the Battle of Seagard was a great victory, the Wildlings who were driven to the Westerlands caused a lot of destruction there, leading to protests from Casterly Rock.
Deal with your own problems, don't expect the king to clean up after you. What Jon Arryn feared most now was that these nobles would use the Wildlings as a tool for political struggle.
Those that could be killed were not killed, they just needed to drive them to their competitor's territory, causing them headaches.
Time flew by.
In the blink of an eye, it had been almost a year since Robert had led his troops to campaign in the North and left King's Landing.
However, at this time, another matter arose that made the already busy Jon Arryn even more anxious.
That was the rumor that suddenly spread in the streets of King's Landing.
Queen Cersei was pregnant.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone