The Glory of the Seven Gods of Ice and Fire

Chapter 151 The Reluctant Kao
Ever since the Valyrian Empire collapsed in the Doom and the Dothraki emerged from the depths of the Great Grass Sea and destroyed the kingdom of the High Men, the Great Grass Sea has become a nightmare for many of the surrounding settled nations.

The grass of the Great Grass Sea is tall and thick, rolling like waves in the breeze. It is also in the wave-like grass sea that the fearless horse tribes roam and fight in it, and sometimes they even rush out of the Great Grass Sea, bringing killing and destruction to the surrounding areas.

Life in the Great Grassland Sea is not good. Although there are some rivers here, most of the rivers in the Grassland Sea are very shallow and change their courses with the seasons. Moreover, the output in the Great Grassland Sea is also very poor. There are no minerals here, let alone agriculture.

Even during the era of the Kingdom of Salor, this civilized country relied on the Sarn River basin in the north, rather than the vast and desolate Great Grass Sea.

However, the gods of the centaurs also gave them a gift, which enabled them to conquer all directions and establish immortal achievements - that is, there are countless herds of wild horses here.

No one knows how these countless wild horses survive in the barren grassland. Anyway, there are "endless wild horses" here. When you need to catch wild horses, you just catch them. No one says "these wild horses are mine" because who would declare ownership of something that is everywhere?
Relying on wild horses, the horse people raised the largest cavalry group in the entire East Continent. Relying on wild horses, the horse people were able to roam quickly around the East Continent. It was also relying on wild horses that the horse people were able to make every tribal member have a strong body - the flesh and blood of wild horses provided the horse people with sufficient oil and water.

Under such circumstances, the centaurs posed a huge threat to the surrounding settled peoples. Every farmer had to worry about the falling scimitars of the Dothraki at any time. The centaurs were also proud of it, believing that they were the most powerful nation. Even the problem of having no armor due to the scarcity of resources in the Great Grass Sea became the pride of the Dothraki.

However, this is just the worldview of ordinary centaurs. There are still knowledgeable people among the upper class of centaurs.

Under countless flags with paintings of fine horses, the Great Kaa of the Great Grass Sea was sitting on a carefully selected warhorse of the tribe, with a large number of "fully armed" centaurs at his side. At the side of Kaa was a scene of a large number of centaurs marching. It was a scene of billowing smoke and dust, and people and horses seemed endless. The centaurs puffed out their chests, showing their muscles as much as possible, and from time to time there were centaurs chasing and playing.

If a farmer who had never left his hometown saw such a scene, he would probably be frightened and dare not move. Such an army could indeed overwhelm most of the armies in the East Continent.

However, even though he was leading such a huge army, Khal Balboa was still not very excited. As a great Khal, he had a lot to think about, such as the fact that his men were "fully armed" now - in fact, everyone was wearing thick clothes, or slightly thicker Dothraki vests.

Khal Balbo has a typical Dothraki face, in other words, he can hardly be seen in a crowd. He wears a robe with beautiful patterns and a Dothraki scimitar inlaid with gold and silver on his waist.

Although Balboa is a Dothraki, he grew up in the Free Trade Cities and later returned to the Great Grass Sea to take back his tribe. This experience gave him different thoughts and ideas from many horsemen on the Great Grass Sea. He realized how barbaric and backward his people were, and he has been trying to change them.

Moreover, he saw clearly that the so-called hegemony of the Dothraki tribe was entirely based on the needs of the cities in the East Continent. The city-states treated the centaurs like thugs and fools. After all, they only needed to send some gifts to satisfy the pathetic self-esteem of these grassland barbarians and drive them to do things.

Balbo did not want his descendants to be like this, indulging in false hegemony and becoming a savage chief in the great grasslands, isolated from civilization and the so-called hegemony. Therefore, since he took the leadership of the tribe, Balbo began to work hard to change his tribesmen, but with little success.

The centaurs were too stubborn. Most of them respected the bad habits of the Great Grass Sea that had lasted for hundreds of years, just like worshiping gods.

He tried to make the centaurs learn more skills, but most Dothraki blacksmiths were only satisfied with scimitars and horseshoes; he tried to make the centaurs semi-settled and grow some food casually, which almost led to his overthrow; he also tried to make the centaurs less reckless, but the results were only satisfactory.

The horse people cling to their customs as if they were their lifeblood and are unwilling to accept any changes.

There was also external suppression. Other khals looked down on people like Balboa who were "full of weakness". More importantly, behind these attacking tribes, Balboa could vaguely see the big hands of the city-states. If it had continued like this, Balboa's final fate would have been the same as those few smart people on the Great Grass Sea. After working hard, he got nothing and was forgotten, or he would have become a typical Dothraki khal, indulging in false glory. However, the war in Westeros brought changes.

The iron fist of the Iron Throne smashed the original system of the East Continent. The gold and silver that originally flowed into the grassland through the slave trade was cut off or greatly reduced. The Great Grass Sea was in chaos and entered an era of war. The khals changed from wandering around to actively looking for enemies to attack in order to obtain food and money.

The original large tribes soon disintegrated in the chaos, and the small tribes fought day and night. Suddenly, the Great Grass Sea was filled with much more blood than before.

It was in such chaos that Balboa seized the opportunity. He used words to win over the first tribe, used charm to win over the second tribe, and used force to tame the third tribe... He was once in extreme danger, but he still managed to get through it. Relying on his brain, he finally became the Great Kaa of the Great Grass Sea.

After becoming the Great Kao, as the first person to unify the Great Grass Sea in hundreds of years, Balbo finally had the prestige to reform, and the first change he proposed was "armor piercing".

However, this armor is different from the cast armor worn by people living in stone houses. Instead, it is made of leather or iron plates inlaid on the coat.

Balb's past experience taught him that if he wanted to bring about change, he couldn't do it all at once, as that would only arouse strong opposition. So this time, he said to the centaurs, "We are not wearing armor, we are wearing clothes."

Wearing clothes is obviously much easier to accept than wearing armor. Coupled with the prestige of the Great Khaa and the fact that the Dothraki tribe has repeatedly run into obstacles in front of the Iron Man of Westeros, the centaurs finally accepted it.

But unfortunately, this kind of "dressing" is only accepted in his tribe. Most of the centaurs are still naked, and they always mock the "dressing" behavior of the Great Kaa tribe in private - however, these guys also added some stuff to their vests to a greater or lesser extent.

Things teach people, and people will learn by teaching. Yes, the centaurs are not afraid of death, but after continuous setbacks and large-scale battles, these barbarians' stone heads finally relaxed a little.

But at least this was a start, and then Bulbo began to make many small changes in details. Some of these were successful, some failed, but they also allowed Big Kao to see that the centaurs were beginning to change - although only slightly.

Balbor felt really tired of leading such a nation, and he didn't want to fight this war at all. However, the social mechanism of the Dothraki determined that after the Great Grass Sea was unified, they would have to carry out external plundering - especially at a time when the reputation of the centaurs was constantly being damaged by the Iron Knights in the West.

The khals and tribes who had bowed to his authority joined in the commotion, and succeeded in putting him in a position where he had to start a war.

So he was forced to launch this war, mobilizing a super army beyond the imagination of all the centaurs, and launched an attack on the people of Westeros.

No matter how fanatical the crowd was below, Balboa's idea was simple: he just wanted to plunder before the Westeros people arrived. He didn't want to have a decisive battle with Robert - now was not the time.

Big Kao thought so, but the development of things is often not dominated by human will.

(End of this chapter)