The Glory of the Seven Gods of Ice and Fire

Chapter 185: The Conspirator in the Valley
Seagull Town has been prosperous since the Great Crusade - this is what the locals call the expedition.

Originally, after the end of the Usurper War, most people believed that Seagull Town would decline. Standing on the side of the loser would come at a price. Young Grafson was not favored by people. Even the Seagull Town Merchants, who had always been fearless, had a rather gloomy attitude towards the future.

But after Hugo Tollett's expedition, the fate of Seagull Town changed. A large share of the Narrow Sea trade flowed into the hands of Seagull Town. The city did not decline because of the defeat, but became more prosperous.

As wealth and goods poured into the city, Seagulltown reached its peak of development. The empty spaces within the city walls were quickly filled with new buildings, and cities began to proliferate along the roads outside the city walls.

And because of its geographical location, Seagull Town has become the first choice for people in the valley to go to the East, and the fixed route from Seagull Town to Holy War Port has also greatly boosted the city's economy.

For the residents of Seagull Town, the past decade or so has been the most glorious era, and it seems that their lives will always be in this prosperous state.

Therefore, immersed in the prosperity, the people of Gulltown became more and more pious to the Seven Gods. As an important stronghold established by the Andals after coming to Westeros, the people of Gulltown were already more pious than other places in Westeros, and now this piety was further enhanced.

In order to express their respect for the Seven Gods, the citizens of Seagull Town, the Seagull Town Merchant Guild and the Grafson Family raised funds to build a cathedral. They named this cathedral St. Hugo's Cathedral, which is smaller in scale than the St. Baelor's Cathedral in King's Landing.

Building such a huge church naturally requires an equally huge land, but there is no such open space inside Seagull Town, so they chose to build the site outside the city, and the expansion plan of Seagull Town was also put on the routine. If nothing unexpected happens, new city walls will be erected, and the area of ​​Seagull Town will also be expanded to include those buildings that have proliferated outside the city.

But it was at this time that the valley became chaotic as the barbarians from the Mingyue Mountains rushed out of the mountains.

Initially, Seagull Town did not take the invasion of the Alpine Clans seriously at all. It was not like the Alpine Clans in the Bright Moon Mountains had come down the mountain before. They could not even break through the defenses of the Bright Moon Mountains people and were repelled by the Valley Knights every time. Therefore, the invasion of the Alpine Clans was never taken seriously.

But as news of the capture of one town and fortress after another came in, the attitude of the people of Seagull Town changed, and some people began to realize that this invasion might be different from the past.

Moreover, in the north, news came from the Five Finger Peninsula that an uprising had broken out there. The poor knights and equally poor farmers and shepherds of the Five Finger Peninsula chose to fight against the rule of Eagle's Nest City, and even formed an alliance with the mountain clans to expel the Five Finger Peninsula nobles who were unwilling to join the rebels - however, this was also because there were no powerful nobles there.

Faced with the rampant barbarians and rebels, Lady Lysa stayed in the closed city of Winnest with the little Duke. She blocked her ears and pretended that both the Mountain Clan and the Finger Peninsula rebels did not exist. Apart from writing letters to the Iron Throne for help, she did nothing.

More than once, the nobles of the Vale had gathered before the Gates of the Moon, hoping that Lady Lysa would at least give them free reign to suppress the rebellion, but nothing came of it. As a result, everyone had been forced to mind their own business, and must be content to drive the mountain clans out of their own territories.

Jon Royce of Runestone City stood up in this dire situation. He sent letters to the lords of the valley, hoping to coordinate actions to fight against the roaming mountain clans together. But unfortunately, Bronze Jon's efforts were not obvious. There were always lords who were disobedient, and the mountain clans could seize the opportunity to escape from the encirclement.

As the old rival of the Royce family for thousands of years, the Grafson family of Seagull Town naturally disdained Royce's call, which made Seagull Town suddenly isolated from the valley lords who tried to fight against the high mountain clans without the Duke - especially when Seagull Town used a few trivial means to dismiss the requests for help from some valley lords.

The situation is getting worse and worse, and the situation around Seagull Town is getting worse, but before the big stick falls, how many people can realize the threat of the big stick?

Therefore, the awareness of these people was of no use at all. All they could do was to store up food in order to face the difficult times that might come at any time. Others, like devout believers in the Seven Gods, firmly believed that the rebellion of the mountain clan would never affect them.

As for the Earl and the Merchant Corps, they thought that Seagull Town was capable of protecting itself, so there was no need to support other princes and spend too much unnecessary money.

This superstitious blind obedience was finally ruthlessly shattered by the mountain clans. The army of the Painted Dogs arrived at Seagull Town one dark night. The descendants of the ancestors who were driven into the mountains by the Andals still have a strong hatred for the Andals and the Seven Gods. Therefore, they did not focus on looting Seagull Town, but instead put their energy into the towering Cathedral of St. Hugo.

The attack of the Alpine Clan was so fierce and sudden that the Great Cathedral had no time to react before it was captured. The priests and monks in the cathedral were hanged in front of the cathedral by the Alpine Clan, and the heads of the seven highest-ranking people in the cathedral were chopped off.

Moreover, the Painted Dogs piled firewood into the temple. They planned to turn this huge temple into a huge torch, just like the sacred tree that the Andals once built for their ancestors.

After figuring out the purpose of the Gaoshan Clan, Seagull Town, which had been frightened by the fierce attack of the Painted Dog Tribe and had closed its city gates and tightened its grip, immediately became restless. As a city that devoutly believed in the Seven Gods, if the Gaoshan Clan really did accomplish this outside the city, the people of Seagull Town would not be able to survive in the future.

So, the citizens ignored the orders of the Grafson family, put on armor at home, took up weapons and rushed out of the city gate. The Seagull Town garrison, who was supposed to stop them, was also infected by this sentiment and put aside their duties and joined them.

But what the people of Seagull Town did was exactly what the Alpine Clan wanted. It could be said that it was for this reason that when the militia of Seagull Town rushed to the avenue of the outer city, the Painted Dog Tribe set fire to the houses that had already been filled with various fuels.

The Gulltown militia was caught in the flames, many were burned to death, many were suffocated to death, and their original anger was extinguished by the even more violent fire. But just when the militia were about to collapse, a group of pilgrims stood up. They were not from Westeros, but from Andas, a small order belonging to Andas. They came to Westeros to witness the conquest achievements of their relatives and the great power exerted by the Seven Gods.

These pilgrims ignored the raging fire and rushed forward, not retreating even if their companions were burned to death. Their actions inspired the militiamen, and others quickly followed suit and rushed across the road of fire.

The decisiveness of the people of Seagull Town frightened the Mountain Clan. They did not expect that there would be such brave people among the weak Andals. Seeing this, the Mountain Clan chose to retreat. Their goal had been achieved and there was no need to continue to fight.

The people of Seagull Town won this victory in this way, a victory with heavy losses and few enemies falling.

Seagull Town paid a terrible price for this. The bravest, most staunchest and most devout members of the city militia died on that bloody night, and even those who survived suffered severe burns.

The blood and corpses in the Cathedral of St. Hugo were like a scar, silently telling the people of the valley of their failure.

However, after paying such a high price in blood, Seagull Town also realized the threat of the Mountain Clan. They cleaned up the ruins and corpses, and the Earl and the Merchant Group took out their wealth, opened the arsenal, and summoned all those who were willing to enlist in order to defend their city.

It was at this juncture that Petyr Baelish, who was sent by the Iron Throne to suppress the Mountain Clans, and his army of the Valley also arrived in Seagulltown. The people of Seagulltown were very happy that Governor Baelish brought this army, and they felt even more secure when they saw that the bay of Seagulltown was filled with Myrish ships.

But soon, they found that something was wrong.

"What are you doing? This is Seagull Town!"

"We are ordered by the Guardian of the Valley and the Duchess of the Valley to take over the city's defenses and armory."

"Guardian of the Rift? When did Littlefinger become the Guardian of the Rift?" "This is an order from Lady Lysa. Now, get out of here, or I'll resort to violence!"

This kind of conversation took place in various places in Seagull Town. These places had one thing in common, that is, they were all key departments of Seagull Town, either military camps or armories.

Petyr's soldiers took the document appointing Petyr as the Guardian of the Valley and took over everything at the target location. If anyone insisted on resisting, they would be ruthlessly killed.

The people of Seagull Town never expected this to happen, and were easily disarmed by Petyr's men.

Even the Seagull Town fleet on the dock fell into the control of the Myr people. The Myr soldiers directly blocked the port and did not allow anyone to approach the ships.

Just like that, Gulltown fell into Littlefinger's control.

"How is Lord Gerold doing? Is he willing to come out for a good talk?" Standing on the bow of his ship, Petyr Baelish watched teams of soldiers patrolling the white streets of Seagulltown.

"The Earl was very fierce and scolded me, saying that even Lady Lysa could not do this, and then he continued to defend the Seagull Tower." said a civil servant in chain mail. This is Daxus, a talent discovered by Petyr in Myr. He is now his clerk and his right-hand man.

Daxus came from the streets of Myr and was able to enter the academy with the help of Petyr. He knew who gave him all this, so after graduation he came to work for Petyr and showed in his work that he could do anything.

At that point, he truly became Petyr's own.

"If he wants to stay, then let him stay. He will have to come out eventually. Rosso, I am sorry to trouble you with this matter. The food in the Seagull Tower can only last for a few days at most. When the time comes, go and invite Earl Jello over. Remember, be gentle, because he is the Earl."

Rosso Brun, who was chewing an apple on the side, just nodded silently without saying anything. Petyr knew that he heard it. This man from Crab Claw Peninsula has always been like this. Petyr has never been dissatisfied with his attitude because Rosso can always complete the task perfectly, no matter what the task is.

After giving the order, Petyr raised his head and looked at the bionic bird flag on his mount. Thinking of the occupation of Seagull Town, a strong sense of accomplishment surged in Littlefinger's heart.

Seagulltown, he had long wanted to control this important port, but in the initial plan, taking over by force was not an option. However, when he learned that Seagulltown showed a clear isolated attitude in the chaos that swept the entire valley, Petyr knew that the opportunity had come.

The Graveson family's huge profits from the Narrow Sea trade have already aroused the jealousy of the lords of the Valley, and their focus on the East has made the relationship between the Graveson and the lords of the Valley even more alienated - but even this is not enough.

The most important thing is that during the rebellion of the mountain clans, Grafson did not unite with the lords of the valley. Even after being looted by the mountain clans, he still maintained his original isolated attitude and did not send any rescue to other lords of the valley. This caused widespread resentment among the lords of the valley.

The reason for the Gaoshan Clan's rebellion was to collect money from the chaos in Seagull Town - of course there were merchants from other families, but at this time everyone tacitly ignored them and pretended they didn't exist - and now Seagull Town still has this attitude, and has not yet provided much supplies to other families to suppress this chaos.

Therefore, Petyr judged that his forceful takeover of Gulltown would not cause much resentment, and after he took out the wealth in the treasury of Gulltown and distributed it to the lords of the Valley, no one made a fuss - in fact, he had already received replies from some lords, including the Royce family.

Petyr was happy with his decision and happy that he had a solid position, but what followed was the ridicule of those Lannisters.

The Lannisters thought he was here to seize power, so they used the affairs of the Vale to send him away, but this was also one of Petyr's goals.

Petyr did intend to seize the opportunity to take control of King's Landing by leading his army into the capital, but when he found that it was impossible, he settled for the next best option and decided to go to the Vale as a backup.

However, he had never expected the large-scale migration of the mountain clans. Petyr had made some preparations and operations for the mountain clans over the years, but he had only steadily and slowly raised the prices of some goods produced in the Mountains of the Moon, thereby prompting Seagull Town to be more eager for mountain goods - and this process would inevitably lead to the exploitation of the mountain clans, and with the character of these barbarians, they would never tolerate it.

But this was just to allow the Mountain Clan to disrupt the order in the valley. He never thought that the Mountain Clan could do this. Moreover, as information was collected, Petyr was sure that someone else had interfered in the affairs of the Mountain Clan - those weapons and equipment reminded Petyr of the Westerly Territory.

However, this also allowed Petyr to come to the Vale more easily. With just one order, that woman Lysa would hide in the Eyrie and refuse to give any orders to the lords of the Vale. Then she would send a letter for help to King's Landing, and he could come here himself.

In his original plan, he wanted to use the rebellion in the Five Finger Peninsula to achieve this, but now the rise of the mountain clans has given him a perfect excuse to go to the valley.

Yes, the rebellion in the Five Fingers Peninsula was led by Petyr. As the son of a wealthy knight from the Five Fingers Peninsula, although Littlefinger hated his poor hometown, he restored his ties with his hometown after becoming a feudal lord on the Iron Throne. As his position changed, Petyr realized the importance of making moves at will. Maybe I didn't use it at that time, but who knows when it will be useful in the future.

Petyr's plan also paid off. As a smart man, Petyr already had a network of fellow villagers in the Five Finger Peninsula, including knights and civilians. With just a little investment of resources, Petyr made them stand out from the Five Finger Peninsula and become important figures in the Five Finger Peninsula - most importantly, because of their relationship in the past, they were more loyal to him, not to mention that he also screened them before investing.

He also knew that his poor hometown had always been dissatisfied with other parts of the valley. They hated the discrimination against them and the barrenness of the land. Therefore, it only took a few authority figures to slightly instigate the farmers who made a living on the barren land, the shepherds who were exposed to the wind and sun, and the dissatisfied knights to rise up.

However, Petyr did not indulge in complacency for too long, because he knew that although everything seemed perfect, it was too dangerous to get to this point.

With the blessing of the Seven Gods, if any link went wrong, his original plan might be ruined. Thinking of this, Petyr felt fortunate.

Now he also has to be more cautious, because there are many things beyond his control. In addition to the Gaoshan Clan's far-beyond-expected military strength, there is the alliance between the Five Finger Peninsula and the Gaoshan Clan - this is not what was planned.

And there was Mia Moonvale - this was the surname she gave herself - the king's illegitimate daughter who came to the Vale to gather troops for her fiefdom, but was forced to stay in the Vale because of the chaos in King's Landing. Now Bronze Jon used the king's eldest daughter as a banner to keep putting pressure on Lysa.

Petyr saw the more dangerous point. Bronze John could use the king's eldest daughter as a banner to unify the princes of the Vale. This was something he absolutely did not want to see. It was also the biggest challenge he would face in the Vale.

Petyr understood that he had to make a new plan, but Littlefinger was already used to this. Compared with his initial plan a few years ago, the current plan had been changed hundreds of times. Things were always changing. Perhaps only the seven gods in heaven knew where fate would lead.

(End of this chapter)