The Glory of the Seven Gods of Ice and Fire

Chapter 188 Winner and Loser

The capital of the New Seven Kingdoms has had a fateful few months. First, there was chaos caused by the sudden resignation of the governor and his team, and then there was turmoil caused by the rebellion of the rebels. Although it has now been recaptured by Hugo Tollet, God knows if there will be any other unrest.

The streets of Mill are much more desolate than before, and ruins can be seen from time to time. These were unfortunately destroyed in the war. Now their unfortunate owners are rummaging through the ruins, hoping to find anything valuable.

This series of chaos also made some people decide that the countryside was safer than the city, so they left the capitals of the New Seven Kingdoms with their families and sought refuge in their hometowns or nearby villages.

The newly appointed officials unfamiliarly dispatched personnel and materials according to conventional practices and directed the city residents to carry out reconstruction.

However, no matter how hard they tried, the citizens did not trust these ignorant guys.

"We need to restore Myr to its former state as soon as possible, Lord Melis. I hope that the capital of the new Seven Kingdoms can get rid of its current predicament as quickly as possible and restore its former prosperity."

Hugo was walking on the deserted streets of Mill, surrounded by guards and officials. The person he was talking to was Melis, the principal of the academy.

Although everything around him was bleak, Hugo was in a good mood because he had just been freed from the hell of receiving guests - too many people wanted to visit him and want to get something from him, but he had to meet these people.

After meeting them, he either had to listen to them complaining about being poor and begging for money, or listening to them expressing their wild imaginations. Hugo still had to patiently talk nonsense with them - it would be so hard to rebuild what Little Finger had destroyed, as construction was much more difficult than destruction.

"Everyone in the academy will work hard for this goal, Master Hugo."

Melis was very interested. He was also an old friend of Hugo, so he was very satisfied with the current order and was even more happy about the further expansion of the power of the church.

He was even more pleased to see Hugo controlling Mir. Hugo was a very stable person who always put stability first. He would definitely be able to manage Mir well - most importantly, he was very close to the Church.

When Hugo's army broke through the walls of Myr, the students of the abbey immediately responded to Hugo's attack. Those Iron Throne supporters who were forced to flee into the abbey rushed out first and soon broke through the barricades in the city. This undoubtedly accelerated Viserys Targaryen's escape. At the docks, he decisively abandoned many Eastern citizens and left the city with the lucky ones who got on the boat in time. Stannis's fleet outside the harbor immediately greeted them, and the two fleets immediately sank into the sea level in the chase - the last descendant of the dragon family rolled out of Myr in such an embarrassing way.

What followed was Hugo's recovery of the capital of the new Seven Kingdoms. The city finally ushered in a new era, which was also a new era for the Church.

Littlefinger took away the most critical group of Mill officials. Now, in order to fill this vacancy, Hugo can only choose to use the power of the academy and put all the teachers and outstanding students of the academy into the bureaucratic system.

Of course, this move does not mean that teachers and students should give up their studies and go into politics, but allows them to enter the bureaucratic system as scholars to serve the new seven countries. When all aspects of the situation have eased in the future, these people can choose to continue to be officials or pick up their textbooks again.

Hugo knew that this would inevitably lead to the Church having absolute control over the Myr bureaucracy in the future, but now was not the time to worry about such things. He needed to restore Myr to its organizational level when Littlefinger was still there as soon as possible, so that he could smoothly mobilize the resources of the richest region of the New Seven Kingdoms.

Others may not know, but Hugo is very clear about the threat from the Far North. Recently, Eddie sent a letter back saying that they had defeated the invasion of the wildlings. Although this kid has not seen the White Walkers and the Wights yet, he also said that the Great Wall is indeed a bit weird. Although he has not seen those monsters yet, he has begun to believe in their existence.

Hugo immediately wrote back to Eddie, telling Eddie his attitude: If it is possible to negotiate with the wildlings, then negotiate with them and let them pass through the Wall under certain conditions. For every person who dies, the White Walker army will increase by one soldier.

Hugo didn't want all the wildlings to become White Walker soldiers. He believed that his opinions would have a huge impact on the Great Wall. As the largest funder of the Great Wall in the past ten years, he continued to input various volunteers. His influence had already penetrated into the Black Army, and his every word and action could have a huge impact on the Black Army.

Besides, he also wanted to bring the savages to the south...

The situation in the Far North had not changed much, which allowed Hu Ge to slowly proceed according to his original plan. However, after careful consideration, Hu Ge still annotated several additional documents for transporting supplies and manpower to the Great Wall.

Deep down in Hugo's heart, he still didn't want the Great Wall to be breached by the White Walkers. It would be best if everything could be resolved outside the Wall - but he also knew very well that that was simply impossible.

As for other parts of Westeros, developments were beyond Hugo's expectations.

As the heart of the kingdom, the situation in King's Landing is completely different from the original story. The rebuilt capital has completely gotten rid of chaos and disorder, and has become the strongest barrier of the royal family; Robert is no longer the incompetent and lazy king. His desire for conquest and centralization makes Hugo feel like a thorn in his side. If he is not sure that the king's fate is doomed and the threat from the north will eventually move south, he will probably completely give up his ambition after the expedition and become a loyal minister of the Baratheon dynasty for life.

Fortunately, although Robert is no longer incompetent, Cersei is still stupid. For the survival of the kingdom and his achievements, Robert is willing to put aside his doubts and go on in confusion, but Cersei's paranoia and arrogance make her too lazy to even read the will of the dead. When Blackblade told Hugo some details of the Red Castle coup, he, who had been calm and restrained for more than ten years, couldn't help but open a bottle of fine wine in private; Hugo knew that only the will that reflected Robert's prestige could suppress the conflicts between the parties. Without this will, all alliances established to defend the order of the Iron Throne would lack a solid foundation, and Cersei directly burned the original will. Afterwards, even though many people knew about the will and even had detailed memories, there was no evidence to prove the authenticity of the content.

Facts proved Hugo's idea. Although Stark and Lannister formed an alliance after ending Cersei's chaos, there was a lack of trust between the two sides, and it soon collapsed due to Eddard's disappearance. The war between the Lion and Wolf also made Hugo feel relieved: although the process has changed greatly, the general outline of the story is still moving forward.

But the recent incident was different. Renly was not killed by Stannis's red woman's magic. Now Stannis is controlling the Stormlands. Renly led the army of the River Reach back to the River Reach, where he regrouped and prepared for a decisive battle with his brother.

It is said that Renly suffered heavy losses in this defeat. Stannis was determined to kill his brothers. In order to escape from Stannis's pursuit, several of Renly's beautiful Rainbow Guards died, and the nobles and knights who usually surrounded him suffered heavy casualties.

The situation in the Reach was also unstable. Stannis's vigorous attack on Renly had shaken many Stormlords and Reach Lords. More than half of the Stormlords chose Stannis, and several in the Reach also raised the Flaming Stag - the first of which was naturally Stannis' father-in-law Florent.

Since Stannis cannot kill Renly quickly, the battle between the Baratheon brothers will inevitably be protracted. With such a big variable, it is impossible to predict where Westeros will go next.

However, Hugo soon calmed down and faced the changes calmly; after all, the change in events was expected. He had brought such huge changes to the world that the reference provided by the stories in his memory was already limited. On the other hand, if everything continued to develop as it was, that would be terrifying enough.

More importantly, Hugo is no longer a small pawn who can only go with the flow and rely on others. After the withdrawal of the forces of the Iron Throne, he became the most powerful noble in the New Seven Kingdoms and the undisputed leader of the Seven Eastern Kingdoms. In addition, he has been carefully managing the country for more than ten years and has never stopped communicating and making friends with his colleagues. No matter which path he chooses, he has sufficient confidence and capital.

When the expeditionary force just liberated Andas from Pentos, Hugo led a new kingdom surrounded by enemies and with internal rifts and barriers. If he took a wrong step, he might be doomed. Fortunately, although he was nervous, timid and doubtful like everyone else, these emotions were firmly suppressed by calmness and rationality. He did not panic, nor did he become a coward or a long-legged general. Instead, he steadily solved the problem: the marriage with the saint stabilized the hearts of Andas, the strategy of attacking first eased the passive situation, and the examples and promises during the period gradually brought together Andas, which was a mess. Every action over more than ten years finally made it the powerful leader in the East today.

Rationality, never-ending consolidation, and patiently waiting for opportunities - this is Hugo's creed that he has always adhered to. It was at this moment that Duke Andas finally waited for his chance: the royal family was killing each other and had no intention of looking east. With a powerful enemy at hand and lacking support from the West, the remaining forces of the Iron Throne were willing to follow him and accept the command of the strongest of the Seven Eastern Kingdoms. This time, the Eastern Alliance was gearing up to take this opportunity to drive the Westeros people off the Narrow Sea, and Hugo also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to use his strength and military exploits to make himself the unrivaled leader of the Eastern countries.

If the process goes smoothly, when the invasion of the Northern Confederation is repelled, Hugo will contact his allies and mobilize them to work together to build momentum, using the old example of Frey being nominated as the ruler of Pentos to pave the way for himself to be nominated as the "Grand Ruler of the East".

Recommending people based on merit and virtue, only in this way can Hugo legitimately rule the East, and only in this way can Hugo legitimately integrate the Seven Kingdoms and prepare for the invasion of the White Walkers...

Before they knew it, they arrived at the Governor's Mansion in Myr. Looking at the presence of the head of the new Seven Kingdoms, Hugo couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion - when he set out for Myr a few years ago, he was still worried about the territory and title, but now, even Myr was under his rule.

Petyr, if the Iron Throne still wants your title and your identity to constrain me, I don't mind leaving the position of Governor of Myr vacant for you. But if you intend to return across the sea and take back the power of Myr in the future, don't daydream. Looking at the bionic bird flag that was abandoned in the corner of the mansion by Viserys's soldiers, Hugo thought silently, since you have chosen to give up Myr, you must also be prepared for the citizens of Myr to give up you; you are good at changing with the situation and taking the initiative, which is not my style. I like to play it safe. Nowadays, people in the seven kingdoms of the East and the West always compare you and me. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. After the real crisis is resolved, let's have a fair duel to show the world whose route is more in line with the path of this world.

He did not indulge in this emotion for too long, because this was just a victory and there were still troubles in other places. The day after taking Myr, Hugo ordered his knights to return to the north at full speed.

As if to support Viserys' actions in Myr, the Northern Confederation's offensive has been fiercer during this period. The Andals can still hold on relying on the mountain pass fortress, but Upper Lorne is obviously unable to hold on - the Confederacy and the Centaurs have crossed the Lorne River, Nasa Star is surrounded, fierce fighting continues on the Golden Fields, the large territory is in danger, and Lannister and Martell sent letters for help one after another.

The situation in Pentos was not optimistic either. Aenys's two incompetent sons - Aegon the Bloody and Rhaeghe - plotted an assassination, intending to seize power in Pentos in a coup after killing their father - fortunately they failed; later, these two unfilial sons gathered some frustrated young people of the Frey family to escape from the city and join the army of Braavos. Their joining allowed Braavos to gain an intelligence advantage over Pentos, and most of the barriers and defense lines originally built by the Freys were lost, and the enemy had surrounded Pentos.

Aenys was now caught between Braavos and Darry, and he could neither move nor not move. Of course, he actually had a final choice, which was to lead his army to break through to Andas, but this was unacceptable to Aenys and the Frey family. The north was in urgent need of military support, so Hugo asked the knights to go back. With the professionalism of the knights, it was enough for Pentos and Upper Lorn to hold out for a while. Once he had completely stabilized the situation in Myr, they would also go north together. It would be at most a week later.

"Lord Melis, I want to know what's happening to the warlords in the disputed land now?" Hugo asked.

"Those guys are now hiding in the disputed land. Some of them have switched sides, while others still maintain their original attitude. However, they seem to have found someone to support them." When talking about those people, Melis showed a distressed look on his face. "My informant told me that Volantis seemed to have made some promises to them, so these people are not begging us to recruit them as much as before."

"This is really troublesome."

There was a rare hint of disgust and irritation in Hugo's tone. He didn't want to go to the disputed land to play whack-a-mole, and he couldn't stay in the south for too long.

"Tell those warlords who have come back and have not yet expressed their views that if they want to be pardoned, they should attack the rebels."

Hugo thought for a while and came up with this idea, which would undoubtedly make the name of the disputed land worthy of its name again, but this was the only way to do it for now.

He can clearly distinguish the importance and urgency of things.

.

On the sea, Viserys Targaryen leaned against the side of the ship and poured the wine in the leather bag into his mouth desperately, but no matter how fine the wine was, it tasted bitter.

This is the feeling of failure, Viserys thought, and it hurts.

This was not the first time Viserys had experienced failure. When he was wandering in the Free Trade Cities, he had lost face countless times and received so many rejections in his attempt to seek funding. He was even nicknamed the "Beggar King". His mentality had long since gotten over it.

But this damn fate always gave Viserys a glimmer of hope, and then extinguished it after his efforts; it was like this in the Battle of the Great Road, and it was also like this time.

Just a month ago, the Dragon Prince controlled a vast area of ​​land from the outskirts of Pentos to the coast of Lys, and occupied one-third of the New Seven Kingdoms. But now, he has been defeated again - the city of Myr has fallen, the army he had worked so hard to build has been destroyed, and the loyal ministers who followed him from Westeros have also suffered heavy losses. Only a few ships escaped. He didn't even know whether Jon Connington had escaped or not, because it was too chaotic at the time, and Stannis's small fleet was still chasing them.

Although he had already prepared himself for today's failure, when he really faced failure, he still felt immense pain and sorrow. He remembered those faces, but now most of those faces had completely disappeared, and perhaps they were rotting and stinking somewhere.

Now, he could only go to his sister. He was such a useless brother. As soon as this thought came to Viserys' mind, he took another gulp of wine, hoping that the alcohol could numb his mind a little, but sadly, it had no effect at all.

"Damn, what horse urine." Viserys threw the leather bag into the sea without hesitation.

In stark contrast to his failure, Daenerys was very successful in Slaver's Bay. It is said that she has captured two Slaver's Bay cities and captured the slave owners from the magnificent pyramids and imprisoned them.

Right now, only Astapor has not been conquered by the centaur army, and it is said that Daenerys is leading the centaurs there.

Alas, Dany is the conqueror of Slaver's Bay, but I...

"There's a ship ahead!"

The roar from the mast attracted Viserys' attention. He quickly looked forward and saw the mast on the horizon.

Viserys immediately became nervous. If it was an enemy, he would be doomed... As the saying goes, what you fear is bound to come true. Soon, Viserys saw an octopus with bared fangs and claws on the sail of the ship. There were more than one ship, but many of them.

Yes, it was crowded, but what really made Viserys feel hopeless was the words spoken by the sailor on the mast in a tearful voice.

"That's the Serenity! The Serenity!"

Silence, everyone knew what this name meant. Encountering this ship was basically equivalent to death. Viserys's hope of getting away with it also disappeared. That was Euron, that madman who would do things without thinking.

Soon, the Tranquility Fleet surrounded Viserys's ship. Viserys's ship did not resist. First of all, they were now merchant ships, and secondly, resistance was useless.

Some resolute crew members chose to cut their own throats with knives before the sea monster boarded the ship, while others jumped into the sea with heavy objects in their arms. Viserys saw many sharks swimming along the waves, and soon he saw blood-red rising from the water. These people would rather die at the hands of themselves or wild beasts than be "warmly cared for" by the Tranquil Fleet.

"Why don't I just go and meet the Seven Gods like this?" Viserys thought as he looked at the crew members who chose to commit suicide. Unfortunately, when he was ready to act, he found himself as if he was filled with lead. Not only could he not move, but he couldn't even speak. He could only stand among the crew and watch the Silence getting closer and closer to the merchant ship.

Then, in the desperate eyes of the crew, a figure nimbly boarded their ship. That appearance could only belong to one person, Euron Greyjoy.

Although this was only their first meeting, Viserys was sure that he would never forget this man's appearance for the rest of his life - if he could survive. Unlike most ironmen, Euron had black hair and beard, handsome appearance, his left eye was covered by an eye patch, and the other eye and lips were blue. Moreover, he had been ravaging the sea for many years, but his skin was pale and lifeless; all of this seemed too contrary to common sense, full of the evil charm of heresy. The aura of this one-eyed sea monster, the son of the sea wind, was like the smile he often wore on his face, making the places he passed by even more weird and terrifying.

As different as its master was from others, Euron's armor was also different; in the atmosphere of despair, Viserys tried his best to maintain his sanity and noticed this. The scaled armor Euron wore was as black as smoke and as light as a thin silk shirt. Even the most violent movement between ships did not hinder it at all. The red-gold edges of the scales flashed an unusual light; if you look closely, you can see that there are patterns on the armor, with spirals, runes and mysterious symbols covering the surface. It is said that the object reflects the person, and looking at the entire known world, the person and the armor, there is no other such a perfect match.

"This... is this Valyrian steel armor?" Viserys couldn't help but think, and he remembered the introduction of this armor in the book he read.

In the world of today, only Valyrian steel armor can achieve such an effect, but the armor worn by Euron is difficult to make even for the most famous master forger in the city of Qohor. There has never been a rumor in the world about which place or tribe has preserved the real Valyrian steel armor. In this way, there is only one possibility for the truth - just as those terrible rumors that he once ignored said, Euron entered the cursed tomb of the empire and successfully left with a full harvest. This is truly an unprecedented achievement.

But then again, what if those terrible legends of Euron, like his trip to Valyria, were all true? Thinking of this, Viserys suddenly felt a chill rising straight into his skull, and he dared not continue to speculate.

"Viserys Targaryen, come out. I came here specifically to see you. I have been waiting for a long time to see you."

Viserys sighed. The others' target was so obvious that he had no choice but to stand up. "Here I am, Lord Euron. What do you want to see me for?"

"What?" Viserys looked at Euron with a crazy light in his eyes. "Storm gave the order, but now I need a key, a key to open the forbidden land. So, Lord Viserys, please be thankful that you can live longer. Oh, please don't think about suicide or anything like that, otherwise I can guarantee that you will suffer more than death."

As Euron spoke, his men held Viserys down, and one of them pried his mouth open and searched roughly inside, only letting go when they were sure there was no foreign object.

What could Viserys do? In the hands of this madman, all he could do was pray to the gods.

(End of this chapter)