King of The Wall

2021-10-15

Chapter 647 either the fish dies or the net splits (Part 1)

All kinds of noise penetrate the wooden board Entering the carriage, the hawkers shouting, the customers bargaining with the vendors, the cats neighing, the dogs barking, and the children chasing and laughing...

Opening the curtains of the car and looking out, Illyrio watched It's King's Landing, a revitalized King's Landing under the reign of the Queen Iron Fist: after two deer fights, a long winter, and a series of sieges and breaches, the city finally survived the storm and ushered in a new century. Although the variety of goods sold in the market is still lacking, and the fat people lost in winter will not come back for a long time, but at least the streets have become lively. The harmonious state of interference, or the ease and hope on their faces when they were together, all revealed that everyone has stepped out of the shadows and started to work hard to get on the track of normal life.

It took a lot of effort to get to the South Gate by the trolley, and the treacherous journey through half of the city did not encounter any abnormality. The normally open Linhe Gate and the flow of people in and out also came into view, and he finally relaxed.

It seems that maybe oneself is too nervous?
Night's Watch industry released the news of the de-escalation of secrets, but King's Landing did not close the door to fight the dog, which means: either this is not a game against oneself, or oneself is resolutely and abnormally evacuated... Hit the setter completely unprepared.

"Sir, should we queue up to leave the city, or should we negotiate with the guards to apply for a priority pass?" The driver at the front turned to ask him for instructions, because Illyrio was on behalf of Pentos and had a semi-official diplomatic status. Can have certain privileges, so there is this question.

"The line isn't long, just wait a minute." Illyrio stroked his round belly and replied after thinking it over.

Outside the city gate is the wharf, and outside the wharf is the Blackwater Rush mouth and the two navy patrol lines around the Dragonstone. If Hand of the Queen is determined to target oneself, it will also Being chased back, leaving the city gate in the early moments is of no use at all... Instead of ramming around with diplomatic status like a flies, it is better to follow the normal procedure lightly and go out. minutes .

So the servants acted according to their words, and followed the carriage to the end of the flow of people out of the city.

It was past noon, and there was a long flow of people outside. Fortunately, the Unsullied and the freemen soldiers guarding the gate were only maintaining order and did not search and question those who passed the gate. The speed of the team was not moving forward. too slow. Looking at the Linhe city gate that was getting closer and closer, Illyrio's hanging heart became lower and lower, only the last half inch was still hanging in the air, and his mind became active with the recovery of his sense of security.

Return to the city to rule out first, all the work in King's Landing has been arranged properly, and the stealing of the Night's Watch industry has been carried out to the extent that it can be carried out without the command of oneself, even if it is only a ten-thousandth of the case. One may be a trap for oneself, and he will never remain in danger;
But returning to Pentos? He really planned to do so just now, but now that he thinks about it carefully, it doesn't seem feasible.

Pentos is only oneself's place of residence, not his place.

Illyrio is not a city-state diplomat. This trip is an opportunity to visit Westeros by taking the initiative to win. Before leaving, the Magister Council gave him a very clear mission: to travel between Daenerys and little Aegon Find out about their political leanings and their prospects and plans for future cross-strait relations. Find partners and allies, and do your best to preserve the existing resources and gain more benefits for Pentos in the new Targaryen Dynasty.

Now, he already knows Daenerys' political orientation, but little Aegon doesn't need to inquire about it at all - if there is no way to give the latter effective support immediately, can the Golden Corps and Reach be in the Queen's army? What is the use of knowing the policy plan of a loser?

Returning to Essos to continue to support the establishment of "city-state union" is a way, but it is difficult to save near fire, even more how there is a fact in front of him: If you return to Pentos now in dismal, If the diplomatic mission is not completed, he must first bear the censure and punishment of other Magisters. Whether it is fines, confiscation of part of the property, or repayment of certain debts in advance, he will use the funds that he has used to support the little Aegon to the extreme. The chain was broken, and the truth of his swollen face and fatty was exposed, causing the entire faction to collapse in an instant.

Can't go home!

In his thoughts, he thought of the last straw: Vale.

As the last force in the Seven Kingdoms not to stand in line and make a statement, the rulers of Vale must be discussing foreign policy and strategy in a mess at this moment... In the two traditional allies of North and Riverlands On the Queen's side, it's unlikely that they would go against the grain and ally with Reach, but given that the Westeros civil war is coming to an end, and the situation is starting to become clear, it is difficult to vote for Queen at this moment in exchange for enough preferential treatment and reward. In other words, theoretically speaking, the Vale princes have the motive and willingness to do things at this moment!

What I'm talking about here is, of course, not sending troops to the Crownlands to attack King's Landing - they wouldn't dare to borrow ten courage from the old Blackfish and the epilepsy Duke, but as long as Vale sends troops to reach the Queen and go deep into Mander At the critical moment of the entanglement and fierce battle between the Plains and the Greenhand lineage nobles, they marched out of Bloody Gate, and the junction of Vale-Riverlands... Even if the half step is no longer an actual invasion, it is only necessary to threaten the northern part of Crownlands, and negotiate with Daenerys with a strong attitude to acknowledge allegiance Conditions, to a certain extent, can relieve little Aegon's frontal pressure on the southern battlefield, and buy him a precious respite and wait for foreign aid time!
The difficulty is: what reasons and benefits should oneself use to convince the Vale group of soft eggs to take chestnuts out of the fire for oneself?
City-state union.

Probably because of the wit of frightened and flustered, Illyrio thought of the answer almost instantly - "City Union", the anti-Mother of Dragons alliance proposed by the Volantis, although it is still in reality. In swaddling, it didn't scare its imaginary enemy Daenerys himself, but the Vale people didn't know that!

Just tell them: Queen has a powerful city complex to deal with after Reach, and she has no intention to deal with Vale. You can just go up and negotiate terms with confidence. The Nine Cities across the narrow sea is your strong backing. And support... On this basis, provide some practical benefits, maybe this not-so-powerful chess piece can still be used across the river!
The final question is: where does this "little practical benefit" come from.

 …

Raging their brains, thinking about all the possibilities of breaking the game, the team escorting Pentos Magister staggered close to the Linhe Gate. The soldiers of the new garrison still waved their hands to signal them to pass quickly without any change. For a moment, Illyrio seemed to be about to pass through the door and enter the hastily restored King's Landing South Gate Pier, but at this moment, a rush of horses' hooves came from the north of the street, and the rhythm of his heartbeat seemed to be a mess, hurry up. Lifting the curtain and looking in the direction of the voice, what he saw immediately dispelled his last chance.

The galloping riders were indeed wearing a black jacket!

The change in the heart from hanging to the ground and then falling into the ice cave was so drastic that Illyrio felt that his blood was freezing in an instant... The worst and worst judgment finally came true, he Now there's no doubt about it: the man who killed Varys and planned to frame Mizedan was the new Hand of the Queen, Night's Watch Legion Lord Commander Igor West. Oneself came from Pentos in a hurry, originally thought must be in order to the dead companion to clean up the mess and recover the loss, but in fact, he stumbled into the trap woven by the enemy in a daze.

It's ridiculous—he was still thinking about how to block and create trouble for his opponent, but he didn't know—the enemy who was far and near in front of him had already figured out how to kill him!
Outside the window, after the expected jumping and shouting, the carriage, which was moving slowly, stopped, and the driver asked uneasy from the front: "Sir, the gate guards are preventing the flow of people entering and leaving the city, it seems that they want to Close the door. It seems to be coming at us, what should I do?"

"Don't act rashly, wait for my order!"

Although the answer is as calm as always, in fact, the person sitting in the carriage Beads of sweat had already rolled down Illyrio's forehead. How does he know what to do? The opponent has blocked all his escape routes. Today, unless R'hllor appears to save the field, he is determined to do without King's Landing half step - but unfortunately, from the information that has been learned, even The Red God sect are all on the Queen's side.

If as expected, the next step is to search the oneself convoy, and then some black clothed person must "find" the stolen gunpowder formula blueprint from the industrial park from some corner of the carriage, and then Oneself will be detained, under house arrest and censorship without any suspense, not only will the important military secrets of the land-grant be dug up, the poisoning case of Winterfell will be forcibly arrested because of the testimony of some unfathomable mystery. Putting it on oneself's head...

It is true that he has the double body protection amulet of "Queen's benefactor" and "Pentos diplomatic envoy", as long as he surrenders obediently, then the jailer guarding oneself is Daenerys' cronies and will not be attacked by Daenerys. Bought and infiltrated by Igor, it is very likely that he will be released as a convict and deported from Westeros after a period of incarceration. However, Red God is on...

What he lacks the most right now is time, time, time!

During the period of being detained, there was no oneself in the peripheries to draw firepower to reduce the pressure for little Aegon's child, the Queen's army's "suppression of rebellion" against Reach must be like a hot knife through butter; this is enough to kill, What's worse is that oneself has actually reached the point where there is nowhere to go.

Illyrio Mopatis, at this moment is far weaker than the outside world thinks!
Pentos is oneself's home, but it's definitely not his alone. Without oneself, the other guys who are in the same First Rank as oneself - those Magisters and Princes who eat people and don't spit bones first thought of definitely not to get oneself out immediately, but to hit a person when he's down - Take advantage of oneself's bad luck and take a bite out of his business and property!
This is nothing, if he is still big enough to have a big business, he can reluctantly cut the meat, and after giving up one or two of the four major businesses of spices, gems, dragon bone and slave, he will break the bank and save the disaster. Those bastards will wipe their mouths contentedly and back away after they each ate a piece of his meat. Even if someone wants to swallow him into a fatty, the other Magisters will definitely unwritten out of morality, balance, general trend, and their own safety. The rules consider to help him and prevent him from falling down completely.

But the truth is: he has already spent all his wealth in supporting the little Aegon to seek the country, he has no meat to eat, and he has no money to use to eliminate disasters! Since the outbreak of the civil war in Westeros, from the time when the two deer fought to the arrival of the Golden Corps in Westeros, he was purely relying on his prestige and reputation... "shua face" continued to maintain the big stall. As long as the first person takes the first bite greedily, the spectators will be surprised to find: Illyrio, one of the top leaders of Pentos, not only is the vault empty, but the flow of water in the accounts has already reached the state of making ends meet, already in name Only, there is only "rich businessman Magister" which seems to be a bluffing empty shell.

After careful calculation, after all his assets were discounted, he could not even fill in the fraction of the arrears and debts.

Assumers and creditors who want to eat meat but find that their prey is only skinny, will swarm up in an instant, trampling on each other and dividing him up without a hair...even if oneself can leave the Queen alive The prison escaped King's Landing, and will also face nothing but a land of eternal damnation of creditors and enemies!

…

The higher you stand, the harder you fall.

He went all in on the Game of Thrones gamble, only to lose to a new player who came to the table last. Ordinary person stumbles, at worst gets up and starts all over again, but Magister, a wealthy Pentos businessman, falls from the top of the mountain and falls to pieces!

The fat body trembled, almost shaking the carriage. Outside the window, dozens of army soldiers at Linhe Gate had surrounded the convoy under the leadership of the officer, and the leader was already using Common Language and Valyria. With repeated calls to get him out of the car to be searched, even the driver and bodyguards began nervously urging him to respond quickly.

Illyrio's head was buzzing and he couldn't hear what they were shouting.

As a formidable person of a generation who has been hiding for more than ten years, he does not allow the curtain call of oneself to end with an obediently surrender. oneself is still the Pentos rich businessman Magister, the diplomatic ambassador of one of the Nine Free Cities - although these multiple identities can't help him out of desperation, they can be used - and finally disgust the enemy.

He's finished, completely finished. If he lived to this day, he would be a complete loser - but as long as he can die in the next minute, he can be transformed into a hero who opposes the tyranny of Dragon Queen and a martyr who maintains the tradition of slave system!

The cushions on the seats in the carriage were lifted, revealing a short bow shimmering with golden light.

The followers outside the carriage are all faithful and reliable servants, but not all of them are dead men like Mizedan. They are willing to kill for oneself and sleep with oneself...but they will never Willing to die for oneself. If you want the next good show to be a big one, you can't count on them, you can only start it by oneself.

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(end of this chapter)