Take the ride to dominate the game

Chapter 123 Sansa's Gift

Gendry ran in after the dragon, and after the nobles in the field stopped talking, he whispered to Arthur: "Alduin should eat, I fed him jerky, he shook his head, and flew to you .”

According to more than 20 days of experiments on the road, the young dragon really does not reject Gendry who has dragon blood, and allows him to wander around, and even eat the food Gendry gave him.

So Arthur asked Daniel to serve as Alduin's attendant, responsible for feeding a large amount of meat to the growing young dragon every day.

"It probably wants to eat fresh meat. I'll go out later and find some mutton or beef for it."

Arthur stroked Alduin's dragon head, said a few words to everyone, and took the dragon and Gendry out.

Leave these well-informed nobles to continue to make up their minds.

Mrs. He'an is the oldest and has the deepest understanding of certain legends about the Long family.

"If this is really a fire-breathing dragon, then Arthur should be of Targaryen blood."

She tried her best to recall, but she could only think of Aegon IV, the famous illegitimate son of the Dragon family, "Cold Iron" Aigor River, who could be related to both the Dragon family and the Bracken family at the same time.

"Cold Iron" who was active more than 100 years ago, like the famous "Blood Raven" Duke Brynden River, is the noble illegitimate son of the Long family, born of a certain Miss Bracken.Although both bore the surname of He Wen, the illegitimate son of the Riverland, after Aegon IV legalized their status, both were heirs of the Dragon family.

It is worth mentioning that the blood crow is the current body of the three-eyed crow.

"But Hantie went to the Eastern Continent, so it is impossible for him to have anything to do with the current Bracken." Willis denied this guess.

Hantie had participated in the Blackfyre Rebellion several times, and after one failure, he was sent to the Great Wall by water, but was kidnapped by his subordinates while passing through White Harbor, and went to the continent of Essos.

His subordinates are the first mercenary regiment known as the Free Trade City-state region and the continent of Westeros - the Golden Regiment.

Egg Riverwin himself is the founder of the Golden Company.After his death, he ordered his own skull to be boiled to remove flesh and blood, plated with gold, and hung on a high pole. His successors followed suit, so the Golden Group had many golden skulls.

"The cold iron branch is impossible, but it is possible for the mad king Aerys II." Robert said.

"I think Rhaegar is more likely than the Mad King. You know, the Mad King didn't even go out of the Red Castle a few years before the Harrenhal Tournament. As for the situation of Arthur's house, his mother couldn't possibly Go to King's Landing for a long time, and then get noticed by the Mad King."

Willis guessed.

Everyone has expressed their views one after another, but there is one thing that everyone agrees with.

That is, a certain Bracken was borrowed by the dragon family to lay a dragon egg.

And based on the fact that the blood of the Long family will be continuously diluted in intermarriage with ordinary people, it is very likely that Arthur's biological father is a Targaryen.

"Then he is a Targaryen prince." Sansa sounded pleased.

If Arthur's blood was higher, she could beg her mother and brother to change her betrothed to this Bracken.

"Impossible. According to the laws prevailing in the Seven Kingdoms, even if he has the blood of the Dragon family on his body, he can only be named Bracken now."

Serious Herman Tallhart thought that impossible, the notion that every member of House Targaryen in Westeros could be blamed was still seared into his mind during Robert's lifetime.

"But if the King in the North is willing to restore Arthur's dragon family name, he has more claim to the Iron Throne than Joffrey and Tommen."

Willis Road.

According to the 300-year practice of the Targaryen dynasty, the king can indeed restore the illegitimate son to a full member with the right to inherit.

Everyone discussed this topic for a long time, but no one could convince anyone.

……

Hayley, who managed the bills for Arthur, Bill, the mercenary who maintained the order of the civilians, and Dickon, who was still building a new army, were called to a certain hall—there were many useless empty rooms in the Burning King Tower, and the civilians helped clean and maintain In the future, these rooms can also come in handy.

On the one hand, Arthur needs a thorough understanding of the situation, on the other hand, the young dragon needs a lot of meat, and there are no other large numbers of animals for the dragon to eat except for a large number of horses in the castle.

Moreover, Locke Holt's subordinates also need to settle a part of the deposit. This mercenary with a good mouth but a far less flexible mind than his uncle has already tried to lead people to retrieve Wag's inheritance several times.

That was thousands of gold dragons.

If Arthur hadn't said that he had enough golden dragons, this group of mercenaries wouldn't have worked so hard.

"As of now, the number of golden dragons in my hands is 810, 450 silver stags, and more than 4 copper plates."

Under normal circumstances, one golden dragon is exchanged for 210 silver deer, and one silver deer is exchanged for 110 two copper plates.

So this amount of money is still dominated by 1813 gold dragons.

"...all the food in the castle is stored in the basements of the Burning King Tower and the Wailing Tower. Now the number of civilians has exceeded [-]. The food collected before was only enough for us to eat for about four months."

In the past, Arthur had ordered the collection of all the food for the refugee civilians, and then uniformly provided three meals for everyone.

He thought the food would last for a long time, but now he can only last for four months.

The Burning King Tower is the residence of the noble knights, and the Wailing Tower is full of soldiers. These two places are safe to store food.

Haley finally added: "Recently, civilians have continued to seek refuge in the castle. They don't have much food. You have to solve the food problem for these people as soon as possible. As for the large and stable fresh meat you mentioned, you can only go to the distant place. The rural area bought it, and the east of Shenyan Lake basically did not suffer from the war, and the rural areas there may still have poultry and livestock such as chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep.”

This is also a method.

"Dickon drew a group of people, went to the east to buy some cattle and sheep, and asked Hayley to give them some money when the livestock came back."

Arthur waved Dickon to deal with it.

Now that the price of food has skyrocketed, poultry and livestock are even more expensive.

But there is no way, the dragon can only be raised with fresh meat.

"Bill took someone to pick a skinny horse and killed it as Alduin's rations for these two days."

There are quite a few war horses in Harrenhal. Although they can solve temporary difficulties, they can't do it often.

Now in war, war horses are as precious as food.

Gendry took the dragon and went out with Bill.

"As for the food issue, Haili, do you have any suggestions?"

Arthur asked.

He himself has a few ideas, but they are not necessarily economical.

"The price of grain in the river land has basically increased by five times compared to before the war. The price of grain in the valley and the bay should not have risen so violently. Sir, you can send people to buy grain in these two places."

The top three grain producing areas in Westeros are the Reach, the River, and the Valley, and only these three areas export to other regions.The grains of the other four kingdoms are self-produced and used.

Among them, the land between the rivers has become the largest source of food in King's Landing, relying on the convenience of transportation on the King's Road and the Blackwater River.

The Rose Avenue leading from the Reach to King’s Landing City is too long, which makes the food shipped over have no price advantage. Therefore, what the Reach Land sells to King’s Landing in peacetime is usually ale, wine, silk, cotton cloth, etc. with high added value. Spices etc.

This means that the price of food in the River Bend is lower in normal times, and there are basically no wars in the southern border, and the increase in food prices is within Arthur's acceptable range.

The valley was another story.

The land between the Vale of Arryn and the river has only one Blood Gate, and it is rough and rugged, not suitable for caravans.

Therefore, all trade in the valley is by sea.

Normally, merchant ships in the valley depart from Seagull Town, bypass the Crab Peninsula and enter Blackwater Bay, and then unload grain, poultry, livestock, handmade products and other goods at King's Landing Port.

And unlike the powerful aristocrats on land, in the valley's foreign trade, chambers of commerce and fleets dominated.

For civilians and landed nobles, under the influence of the long winter and war, it is unlikely to sell food now.

Even with a high price, the odds are slim.

The Chamber of Commerce is different. As long as the price is high, this group of people will really sell their souls.

"Then I'll send two groups of people to buy food in the Reach and the Valley respectively. Loras, the Knight of Flowers, has a friendship with me, and I should be able to buy a batch of grain from the Reach. The Valley can only use money to buy food." I bought it."

Renly is still alive now, and the Fish and Wolves Alliance and the Southern Alliance are de facto allies.

In the original book, Renly is very tolerant to Robb, not only recognizing the title of King of the North, but also agreeing to let the North become independent, but let Robb recognize him as the King of the Seven Kingdoms.

But before the two families could have a military interaction, Stannis killed Renly with shadow magic outside Storm's End, so the Lion family and the Flower family began to merge.

Thinking of this, Arthur suddenly made up his mind: "The guards outside, go and call Patrick Mallister."

The eldest son of Haijiang City is not strong enough, and his status is quite high.

Sending him to the Reach, he can really get a lot of food.

And right now Tai Wen's army is either in the East River, the West River, or in the West, and it is relatively safe to go north from Bitter Bridge to God's Eye Lake.

But the grain in the River Bend can only be bought this time, and the position of the Rose family is not stable. Even with the influence of Loras, it is not likely that they will sell grain to the Hejian people.

Gudi has always been a potential ally of the Fish Wolf Alliance.

If the mistress of the Arryn family, Lysa, hadn't obstructed him, and the second person in the valley, House Governor Royce, "Bronze Jon" would have led troops to help Robb fight.

Moreover, the problem of food shortages will appear from time to time, so it is imperative to establish a stable road to buy grain.

Patrick came soon, and after listening to Arthur's words, he readily agreed to take this trip.

"There is no one to choose on the way to the valley. You can recommend me an influential nobleman." Arthur said to Patrick.

"Do you still need to think about it? Willis is such a good candidate in front of you. He is the first heir to White Harbor, and he has a good relationship with the Chamber of Commerce in Seagull Town and the big merchants across the narrow sea." Patrick said lightly. .

Although White Harbor is the smallest of the five major cities in Westeros, it does have a lot of influence in the Narrow Sea.

Opposite the Mandalay territory, it is almost the famous free trade city-state Braavos.

"That's right. I don't have much money right now. If you go to the Reach, you can withdraw [-] to [-] gold dragons from Tyrell's house, and then pay the bills to the grain merchants in the valley."

Patrick thought for a while and said, "Anyway, there is enough food in Harrenhal for several months. I'll wait until Lord Edmure's wedding and then go south. Do you think it's okay?"

The heir to the Tully family's wedding is also a big event in Hejian Land, and the heir of Haijiang City doesn't want to miss such a big event.

"You go and pack it up now, and leave for me before this evening. The situation is so tense, and you still want to procrastinate?"

Arthur ruthlessly interrupted Patrick's fantasy and told him to go out and prepare to go south.

Fatty Willis was also called over, and after hearing the task Arthur gave him, the man who was good at actuarial calculations gave a more appropriate suggestion:

"Food in the valley is only urgently needed. Pentos and Volantis on the other side of the Narrow Sea are the main exporters of grain. Their grain prices have not been affected by the war, and they are enough to supply the land in the river. "

Of the two city-states mentioned by Willis, the former is famous for its rich products in the Narrow Sea, while the latter has dominated the entire Sierussos with powerful force.

There are several large plains under the name of Pantos, such as the velvet hills and the "flat land".

Volantis is an existence at the level of regional hegemony. There are as many as [-] slaves on standby. Relying on its vast territory, this huge city-state also sells food to the outside world.

"If you still have experience, then I would trouble you to go to the valley again and go to Pentos to talk to the governors and ask them to send some ships to Crab Bay to sell food." Arthur said to Willis.

The big fat man was very serious when making suggestions, and it hurt his fat face to hear that he was sent to contact the relationship.

"Okay, anyway, I have nothing to do, so I just ran this trip." He was not keen on attending Edmure's wedding.

After all, he is from the north, and he has been on the east front since he went south, and he has never even been to Riverrun.

Since Arthur and Willis were not very close yet, he set the fat man's departure time for tomorrow morning.

Because Arthur's money was deposited in the Rose family, there was no cash for the two of them.

Fortunately, Patrick can directly pay the money on this journey, and then bring back enough golden dragons. Willis can also use his identity on this journey. Payment.

The problem of food came to an end.

Just when Arthur took off his worn-out plate armor and chain mail underneath in his bedroom, and was about to go to the Hundred Hearth Hall for dinner, Sansa suddenly came to the door.

In her hand she held a golden cloak that seemed to have embroidery on it.

"I know you're busy, so I came to see you at this time." Sansa explained in a panic.

"This is?" Arthur asked, pointing to something in her hand.

"Ah, this is the cloak I made for you. It was dyed gold according to your new flag, and I embroidered some patterns. I don't know if you like it or not."

Sansa first glanced at the gift in her hand before handing it over.

Even though Arthur touched her white and tender hand when he took it, Sansa did not avoid it.

Arthur held up the cloak and unfolded it, and it turned out to be a pattern of swords and horses.

"I like it very much." Arthur folded the cloak and put it on the table, "It's hard for you to think about making this for me."

Arthur thought it was troublesome before, so he didn't wear a cape.

"As long as you like it." Sansa was a little shy, so she walked out quickly after seeing Arthur accepting it.

"Why are you walking so fast? I'm going to have dinner too. Let's go to Bailu Hall together."

Arthur, wearing only a linen suit, rushed up and walked side by side with Sansa.

The two began to talk, and Arthur weaved a lot of details about Joffrey's death by the boar, which made Sansa happy.

(End of this chapter)