Gendry ran in behind the dragon. After the nobles in the room stopped talking, he whispered to Arthur: "It's time for Alduin to eat. I fed it dried meat. It shook its head and flew to you."
."
According to more than 20 days of experiments on the road, the young dragon did not reject Gendry, who had dragon blood, and allowed him to hang around and even eat the food Gendry gave him.
So Arthur made the bull serve as Alduin's caregiver, 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, beef or something for it."
After Arthur stroked Alduin's dragon head, he said a few words to everyone and went out with the dragon and Gendry.
These well-informed nobles are left to continue to think.
Mrs. He'an is the oldest and has the deepest understanding of certain legends of the Long family.
"If this is really a fire-breathing dragon, then Arthur should have the blood of the Targaryen family."
She tried her best to recall, but she could only recall that during the reign of Aegon IV, there was a famous illegitimate son of the Dragon family, Aegor "Bitter Iron" Rivers, who was related to both the Dragon family and the Bracken family.
The active "Bitter Iron" more than a hundred years ago, like the famous "Bloodraven" Duke Brynden Rivers, was a noble illegitimate son of the Long family, born to a certain Miss Bracken. Although they were both named Riverlands
The surname of the bastard son River, but after Aegon IV legalized their status, both of them were members of the Dragon family with heir rights.
It is worth mentioning that Blood Crow is the physical body of the current Three-Eyed Crow.
"But Han Tie went to the Eastern Continent, so it cannot be related to the current Bracken." Willis denied this speculation.
Hantie participated in the Blackfire Rebellion several times. After a certain failure, he was sent to the Great Wall via waterway. However, when passing through White Harbor, he was kidnapped by his men and taken to the Essos continent.
His men are none other than the Golden Company, the first mercenary group famous in the Free Trade City region and the continent of Westeros.
Aegor Riverwin himself was the founder of the Golden Company. After his death, he ordered his skull to be boiled of flesh and blood, plated with gold, and hung on a high pole. His successors followed this practice one after another, so
The Golden Company has a lot of golden skulls.
"The Cold Iron branch is impossible, but Mad King Aerys II is possible." Robert said.
"I think Rhaegar is more likely than the Mad King. You know, a few years before the Tourney at Harrenhal, the Mad King couldn't even leave the Red Keep. And the situation in Arthur's family is impossible for his mother.
Go to King's Landing and stay there for a long time before being noticed by the Mad King."
Willis guessed.
Everyone expressed their opinions one after another, but everyone agreed on one thing.
That is, a certain Bracken was borrowed from the dragon family's nest to lay dragon eggs.
And based on the fact that the blood of the Long family will continue to be diluted through intermarriage with ordinary people, it is very likely that Arthur's biological father is a Targaryen.
"Then he is a Targaryen prince." Sansa sounded happy.
If Arthur's bloodline was higher, she could ask her mother and brother to change her engagement partner to this Bracken.
"It's impossible. According to the laws prevailing in the Seven Kingdoms, even if he has the blood of the Dragon family in his body, he can only be named Bracken now."
The serious Herman Talha thought this was impossible, as the idea that every Targaryen in Westeros was to be killed when Robert was still alive was still imprinted in his mind.
"But if the King in the North is willing to restore Arthur's Dragon family name, he has a better claim to the Iron Throne than Joffrey and Tommen."
Willis said.
According to the 300-year practice of the Targaryen dynasty, the king can indeed restore an illegitimate child to a full member with the right to inherit.
Everyone discussed this topic for a long time, but no one could convince anyone.
…
Hailey, who managed the bills for Arthur, and Bill, the mercenary who maintained order among the civilians, and Dickon, who was still building a new army, were called to a certain hall - there were many useless empty rooms in King Burning Tower, and civilians were helping to clean and repair them.
In the future, these rooms will also come in handy.
On the one hand, Arthur needs to thoroughly understand the situation, on the other hand, the young dragon needs a lot of meat, and apart from a large number of horses, there are no other large numbers of animals in the castle for the dragon to eat.
Moreover, Locke Holt's men also need to pay part of the deposit. This mercenary, who has a good mouth but is far less clever than his uncle, has tried to lead people to recover Wagg's inheritance several times.
That's several thousand golden dragons.
If Arthur hadn't said he had enough golden dragons, these mercenaries wouldn't have worked so hard.
"As of now, I have 1,813 gold dragons, 450 silver deer, and more than 40,000 copper coins in my hands."
Under normal circumstances, one golden dragon is exchanged for two hundred and ten silver deer, and one silver deer is exchanged for one hundred and twelve copper plates.
So this amount of money is still based on 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 30,000. The food collected before was only enough for us to eat for about four months."
In the past, Arthur had ordered to collect all the food from the civilians who were taking refuge, and then provided three meals to everyone.
He originally thought that these grains would last for a long time, but he didn't expect that he could only last four months now.
The Burning King Tower is the residence of noble knights, and the Wailing Tower is full of soldiers. These two places are very safe for storing food.
Hailey finally added: "Recently, civilians have continued to enter the castle to take refuge. They don't have much food. You have to solve the problem of feeding these people as soon as possible. As for the large and stable fresh meat you mentioned, they can only go to distant places.
The rural areas have been purchased, and the east of Shenyan Lake has basically not suffered from the war. There may still be chickens, ducks, cattle, sheep and other poultry and livestock in the countryside there."
This is also a method.
"Dickon sent a team of people to go east to buy some cattle and sheep and wait for the livestock to come back, and asked Hailey to give them some money."
Arthur waved Dickon to deal with the matter.
Now that food prices have skyrocketed, poultry and livestock have become even more expensive.
But there is no other way, the dragon can only be raised with fresh meat.
"Bill took someone to pick out a skinny horse and kill it to serve as Alduin's ration for the next two days."
There are many war horses in Harrenhal. Although they can solve temporary difficulties, they cannot do this often.
There is a war now, and war horses are as valuable as food.
Gendry carried the dragon and went out with Bill.
"As for the food issue, Hailey, do you have any suggestions?"
Arthur asked.
He does have a few ideas, but they are not necessarily economical.
"The price of food in the Riverlands has basically increased five times compared to before the war. The price increase in the Valley and the Reach should not be as severe. My lord, you can send people to these two places to purchase food."
The top three grain-producing areas in Westeros are the Riverlands, the Riverlands, and the Vale. Only these three areas are exported to other regions. The remaining four kingdoms produce their own food for their own use.
Among them, the Riverlands has become the largest source of food in King's Landing due to the convenience of transportation on the King's Road and the Blackwater River.
The Rose Avenue from the Reach to King's Landing City is too long, which makes the food transported there have no price advantage. Therefore, what the Reach sells to King's Landing City in peacetime is usually high value-added ale, wine, silk, cotton,
Spices etc.
This means that the price of food in the River Bend is lower in peacetime, and there is basically no war in the southern border now, so the increase in food prices is within Arthur's acceptable range.
It's a different story again in the valley.
There is only one bloody gate leading from the Arryn Valley to the river. It is rugged and not suitable for caravans to travel.
Therefore, all trade in the valley is carried out 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, handicrafts and other goods at King's Landing Port.
And unlike the great nobles who hold a strong position on land, in the valley's foreign trade, the chamber of commerce and fleets occupy a dominant position.
Common people and landed nobles are now unlikely to sell grain due to the long winter and war.
Even if you offer a high price, the possibility is very small.
The Chamber of Commerce is different. As long as the price is high, these people will really sell their souls.
"Then I will send two waves of people to the Reach and the Valley respectively to buy food. Loras, the Knight of Flowers, has some friendship with me. I should be able to buy a batch of food in the Reach. In the Valley, I can only use money.
Bought."
Renly is still alive, and the Fish and Wolf Alliance and the Southern Alliance are de facto allies.
In the original book, Renly was very tolerant of Robb. He not only recognized the title of King of the North, but also agreed to make the North de facto independent. He only asked Robb to recognize him as the King of the Seven Kingdoms.
But before the two families could have any military interaction, Stannis used shadow magic to kill Renly outside Storm's End, and the Lions and Flowers 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 good at martial arts, but his status is quite high.
Sending him on a trip to the Reach could really get him a lot of food.
Moreover, Tywin's army is either east of the river, west of the river, or in the west. It is relatively safe to go north from Bitter Bridge to God's Eye Lake.
However, the food in the Reach can only be bought once. The position of the Rose family is not stable in the future. Even with Loras' influence, they may not sell food to the people in the river.
The Valley has always been a potential ally of the Fish and Wolf Alliance.
If Lysa, the mistress of the Arryn family, hadn't stopped him, the second most powerful figure in the Vale, Lord Royce, "Bronze Yohn" would have really led the troops to help Robb fight.
Moreover, food shortage problems will occur from time to time, so it is imperative to establish a stable trade route for buying food.
Patrick arrived soon. After listening to Arthur's words, he readily agreed to take this trip.
"There are no candidates on this journey to the valley. Please recommend me a noble with some influence." Arthur said to Patrick.
"Do you still have to think about it? A good candidate like Willis is in front of you. He is the first heir of White Harbor and has good relations with the Chamber of Commerce in Seagull Town and the big businessmen across the Narrow Sea." Patrick said in a brisk tone.
.
Although White Harbor is the smallest of the five major cities in Westeros, it does have a lot of influence in the Narrow Sea area.
Opposite the Mandalay territory is the famous Free Trade City of Braavos.
"Yes, I don't have much money on hand right now. If you go to the Reach, you can withdraw ten or twenty thousand 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 will wait until Lord Edmure's wedding before heading south. Do you think that's okay?"
The wedding of the heir of the Tully family is also a major event in the Riverlands, and the heir of Seaside City does not want to miss such a big occasion.
"You go and clean up now, and I'll set off before tonight's evening. The situation is so tense, and you still want to delay it?"
Arthur ruthlessly interrupted Patrick's fantasy and asked him to go out and prepare to go south.
The fat man Willis was also called over. After hearing the task given to him by Arthur, Mandalay, who was good at actuarial calculations, gave more appropriate suggestions:
"The food in the valley is only temporarily urgent. Pentos and Volantis across the narrow sea are the main exporters of food. Their food prices have not been affected by the war, and they are enough to supply the riverlands.
"
Of the two city-states mentioned by Willis, the former is famous for its rich products in the Narrow Sea, while the latter dominates the entire West Essos with its powerful force.
Pantos has several large plains such as Velvet Hills and "Flatland" under its name. It is the second largest grain-producing area in West Essos, so there is no shortage of grain or anything else.
Volantis, on the other hand, is a regional overlord with a standing army of over one hundred thousand slave soldiers. Relying on its vast territory, this huge city-state also sells food to the outside world.
"If you still have experience, please go to the valley and make another trip to Pantos to talk to the governors and ask them to send some ships to Crab Bay to sell food." Arthur said to Willis.
This big fat man was very serious when giving suggestions, and when he heard that he was sent to contact people, he grimaced.
"Okay, since I have nothing to do, I just made this trip." He was not keen on attending Edmure's wedding.
After all, he is from the north and has been on the eastern front since he went south. He has never even been to Riverrun.
Since Arthur and Willis were not very familiar with each other, he asked the fat man to set the departure time for tomorrow morning.
Because all of Arthur's money was stored in the Rose family, there was no cash for these two people.
Fortunately, Patrick can directly pay for the money and bring back enough golden dragons. Willis can also use his identity to ask the Chamber of Commerce to organize a cargo ship to Maiden Springs or Earl Harroway's town, and then wait until the goods arrive.
Payment.
The food problem has come to an end.
Just when Arthur was taking off his somewhat worn plate armor and the chain mail underneath in his bedroom, and was about to go to the Hall of Hundreds for dinner, Sansa suddenly came to the door.
She was holding a golden cloak in her hand, which seemed to have embroidery on it.
"I know you are very busy, so I came to see you at this time." Sansa explained in a panic.
"This is?" Arthur asked, pointing to the thing in her hand.
"Ah, this is the cloak I made for you. It was dyed gold according to your new flag. I also embroidered some patterns. I don't know if you like it or not."
Sansa first looked at the gift in her hand, and then handed it over.
Even though Arthur touched her white and tender hand when taking 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 placed it on the table. "I'm sorry you still want to make this for me."
Arthur thought it was troublesome and didn't wear a cloak before.
"As long as you like it." Sansa was a little shy, so after seeing Arthur accept it, she walked out quickly.
"Why are you walking so fast? I also want to have dinner. Let's go to Bailu Hall together."
Arthur, wearing only a set of linen clothes and trousers, rushed up and walked side by side with Sansa.
The two began to talk, and Arthur weaved in many details about Joffrey being mauled to death by a wild boar, which made Sansa feel happy.
