The king on the Great Wall

Huabing can't be fooled by shrewd people, and Iger cuts to the chase.

"I won't say unnecessary harsh words. An end to the war as soon as possible is what everyone wants to see. To show my sincerity, I can promise: those princes of the River Bend who have survived the war are willing to lay down their weapons and surrender and accept punishment. I will guarantee their life safety."

Guaranteeing the safety of life, isn't this the minimum bottom line for surrender?Margaery crossed her arms and resisted the urge to roll her eyes: "So, what about the punishment?"

"War is not a game of play. Of course, you have to take responsibility and pay the price for your own choice. For those who wrongly support the false king and think about keeping their titles and territories after the war, I give them a word-whimsical !" Ignoring Margaret's ugly face, Iger began to list the details. "I sorted out the list, and regrettably found that: Up to now, no nobleman in the River Bend has sworn allegiance to the Queen, which means: the whole River Bend has chosen the wrong side, and all of them will be accused of treason."

Iger's tone was full of regret and helplessness, pretending.

No one in the whole river supported the queen, which was actually what he wanted to see, even under harsh conditions.

"Among them, if the castle of the territory has been occupied by our army, and the head of the family died in the war, and there are no adult heirs who can inherit the family business, all land, titles and property will be deprived, and they will be removed from the ranks of nobles."

He said in a cold tone without a trace of emotion - only what has not been obtained needs to be negotiated, and no one who has already eaten can let him spit it out.Among the people he mentioned above: those who are dead have no life to resist, and those who are separated from the land and the people lose their strength. These two types are naturally the softest persimmons. .

"The rest of the families, with the earldom as the unit, need to cut [-]% to half of their fiefdoms in addition to normally bearing war reparations in proportion. The specific number depends on their contribution in the rebellion and the degree of casualties and distress they cause to our army."

Taking the earldom as the unit means that Iger only settles accounts with the lords at the earl level. How to apportion the war reparations and cut up the land within the earldom is their own business.

"My Tyrell family doesn't have such a big face." Margaret's eyelids fluttered, and she finally couldn't help saying, "Land is the lifeblood of the nobles. If we touch this, even if we come forward to coordinate, there will inevitably be a large number of families with various schemes." Yangmou resists execution—”

"Wait for me to finish." Iger was unmoved, "Theoretically speaking, there must be a considerable number of combatants who have to wear black clothes and send them to the Great Wall and even beyond the Great Wall to be exonerated. But the Queen is kind and decided to give many people who were deceived and coerced Lost people have a chance to repent and redeem their sins: as long as each family sends elite soldiers and brings their own food and equipment to participate in the next war between my Westeros and the slave-owner city-state, the crime of treason will be cancelled, and even the punishment of cutting land and paying compensation , can also be reduced, exempted or returned depending on the size of military merit."

It is equivalent to letting the whole river... serve a military service for the queen to atone for his sins.

That's more or less.

The morale of the people in Hewan has just collapsed, but if they stand under the banner of the winning side, they still have the ability to continue fighting.

However, just as Margery's expression softened a little, Iger's next words made her fail again.

"But the premise of this series of conditions is that the request I made in King's Landing remains unchanged." He pointed at the stack of lists in front of Margaery across the table, showing an unclear smile, "Everyone here The River Bend nobles who entered the red circle on this list and were not expelled after the war must be invited by the Queen to live in King's Landing for at least two years."

"It seems that you are going to kill me to make this joke?" Margaret was a little crazy, the man in front of him is obviously a smart person, why is he so unreasonable on this point, "Then may I ask, 'The whole family moved to King's Landing, is this operation to be carried out before or after the end of the Trans-Narrow Sea War?"

Since this bastard has made up his mind, he must at least ask the key points clearly.

Iger grinned: As expected of Little Rose, the speed of discovering Huadian was not so fast.

"forward."

"Before?" Margaret raised her voice a section, "That is to say——during the whole process of the next battle for the Queen, the wives and children of the frontline soldiers will be under your control; Whether their sacrifices and bloodshed can make up for their crimes, how much compensation can be waived or refunded for their military exploits, and how much land they lose in battle is up to you and the queen to decide; even if we have opinions and dissatisfaction, we can only knock our teeth out swallow?"

"I guarantee with my personality that the exploits of the River Bend Army against the Slave Owners' Alliance Army will be judged and measured openly, fairly and impartially. Of course, if you think my personality is not trustworthy and you insist on saying it so badly... I And I had to answer honestly: yes.”

Yes?

She had never seen such a brazen person!

The anger was ignited with a bang, and even temporarily overwhelmed the cautiousness of the defeated, but it quickly cooled down and extinguished before it reached its peak—it was useless to lose your temper under the current situation, Margery slowly Loosening his clenched fists, he said coldly and peacefully, "I'm afraid a considerable number of families will swear to the death and resist to this condition. I suggest that the Prime Minister carefully consider and cancel or at least relax one or two of them."

(Will some families resist to the end?)

Iger almost laughed out loud: Isn't that good.

He was worried that Hewan had surrendered as a whole, and he didn't know who to kill.

Rebellion is such a thing, how can anyone fight if he wants to, and vote if he wants to!

He would not say such arrogant words. After staring at Margery's pretty face with a sneer for a few seconds, he asked back: "Ms. Margery, what side do you stand on with this suggestion?" Mentioning?"

What's the meaning?Margaery felt that she couldn't keep up with Iger's thinking: As the "eldest princess" of the river bend, I came to negotiate with you on behalf of the Tyrell family. Should I consider the issue from the side of the queen?

"My lord, I don't understand what you mean."

Seeing Margaery admit it frankly, Iger doesn't want to be more of a villain.He snorted: "It's my fault too, I didn't finish the sentence. Remember the question I asked you just now: 'Will it be turned into powder and become the dust of history, or embrace it with open arms'?"

"Forgive me, Your Excellency Prime Minister." Margaret once again resisted the urge to show a disgusted expression, and said softly, "Your conditions really make me unable to give birth to the urge to hug anyone."

"That's right, all the above conditions are aimed at all the other princes of the bay except Tyrell's family. And for my close allies in the future, there is another set of tailor-made plans." Iger's mouth curled up, Showing an evil smirk, "The Tyrell family will not be punished in any way-whether it is title, fief or property. You will still be the lords of the river bend, and you will still control the most fertile people in the heart of this green land. Land is still the wealthiest family in the Seven Kingdoms except for Lannister... There is even a royal seat waiting for you to sit in."

In Margaery's eyes that suddenly brightened for a moment, Iger purposely shut it down for a few seconds, then picked up the kettle and filled both parties with hot water.

"The position of Chief Intelligence Officer has been vacant ever since Lord Varys was poisoned by villains in Winterfell. Of course, Madam Margaery, as Aegon's 'false queen', is naturally not suitable for this position, but...you You can purify yourself by converting to the Red God or putting on black clothes, and then let your father or brother be named, and then make suggestions and assist him behind the scenes...be an invisible imperial minister. After a long time in the court, the Queen If you are so familiar in front of you, maybe you can be a female advisor who can influence the country's affairs without a real title, wouldn't it be wonderful!"

A dense mist rose from the water glass in front of her, Margery remained expressionless, but her shoulders, neck and even her back under her clothes were completely frozen.

Such conditions, even for the Tyrell family on weekdays, can be called "good", not to mention the moment when the rebellion failed and was on the verge of extinction?

"So, what's the price?"

"Just one thing—sit on my side." Iger knew that there was a pun in this sentence, but he didn't care. "To expand, it probably means: the Tyrell family needs to take the lead in surrendering to the Queen and provide intelligence information , take the initiative to publicize the legitimacy of the queen's rule to the nobles and residents of the river bend, try to get as many river bend princes as possible to put down their arms and accept the terms of the peace treaty and the arrangement of the queen's policy, and actively contribute money and food in the ensuing war against the slavery city-state. Provide military loans and even take the lead in the war. When the nobles of the River Bend who are stubborn and determined to resist to the end appear, they actively persuade and mediate, and finally when diplomatic means fail, they take command to fight and eradicate the rebellion..."

"Letting the Hewan people fight the Hewan people will probably be a bit embarrassing, so you can rest assured that the troops responsible for the task of 'sweeping the remnants of the rebels' will be allocated from the Western Expeditionary Army. The number of cavalry, infantry and artillery will not exceed [-]. Some things will not be missing, the Tyrell family only needs to hang a name and carry a flag, and then act as a guide leading the way." Under the dumbfounded eyes of Little Rose, Iger paused for a breath and continued, "If you don't If I have the heart to kill, I will also accept the Tyrell family to capture alive after they break through the rebel castle... But the cost of sending their family to the Great Wall and the subsequent living expenses of establishing a foothold outside the Great Wall will be up to you."

When the Queen's Western Expeditionary Army invaded, a banner was erected to call the princes of the whole river to resist... After the defeat, he immediately transformed himself into Daenerys's loyal minister, not only leading her to conquer the river, but also to fight against the people who were still sealed off a moment ago. Ministers, subordinates, and even comrades-in-arms and relatives raised their swords?

What will the world think of the Tyrells?

After going around for 300 years, they are still the loyal dogs of the Targaryen family - the only difference is that this time they can enter the imperial court to chew on the bones.

The aristocratic circle is a huge humane society, doing so is tantamount to outright social suicide. From then on, it is firmly bound to the queen's chariot and attracts the hatred and contempt of the whole river for Daenerys. become impossible!

The Tyrell family would rather share the joys and sorrows with all the vassals, and survive the engulfing dragon king storm like a winter together. Even if they stand on the top of Highgarden Castle and jump down, it is impossible to accept this kind of filth. The extreme transaction, cut itself off from the people of Hewan, leaving a reputation of eternal infamy!

Margarita wanted to point at Iger's nose and yell out this sentence, but...

"If the Tyrell family rejects this proposal with a simple sense of responsibility and a noble sense of honor, I will not be angry." Iger put away his joking expression and concluded with a serious face, "On the contrary, I will be full of reverence and respect , personally directed the attack on Highgarden, presided over the trial of the Tyrell family after the war, and watched you put on black clothes and join the convoy going north to the Great Wall, and then with the same agreement, helplessly find the next family—— The less proud and tough Riverbend family."

-

Chapter 700 An Old Account

Devil, this man is definitely a devil!

Margaery was shaking again, her hands and feet were cold.

But it was different from the last trembling and cold just a few minutes ago: this time she didn't have a mess in her mind, but was clearly aware of the other party's intention: to throw herself and the Tyrell family into a terrible and useless situation. solution game.In the earth world where Iger came from, this conspiracy has a well-known name-the prisoner's dilemma.

He proposed to buy the Tyrell family with a relatively small profit in exchange for them acting as a leading party and selling out the River Bend...to be precise, the huge overall interests of the River Bend noble class.

In 99% of the cases, it is impossible for the Tyrell family, who are the highest lords of the River Bend, to agree to such conditions—as the rulers of the duchy, their reputation and connections in the entire aristocratic class are the greatest long-term benefits Interest, such a betrayal will make 300 years of hard work come to naught, even Margaery's father is not as naive as to do such a suicidal stupid thing for a seat in the imperial court.

But now, they seem to have no choice.

The only solution to the Prisoner’s Dilemma is—all the families in the whole River Bend are advancing together, resolutely oppose this agreement with a high degree of unanimity, and resist this agreement by threatening to fight to the death... However, in this extremely ideal situation, even if only There are two families, and it will be an extremely sinister and dark intrigue, but how many families are there in the river bend?

As long as any one of them fails to withstand the threat of life and the temptation of interests, the resolute arrogance of the Tyrell family will only become the pedantic stubbornness that will help the next Lord of the River Bend.The innocence is still in the world, but who will remember a loser who has been erased after a few years! ?

or...

Pretend to agree first, and then do a backstab when Iger is paralyzed?

Margaery smiled wryly in her heart: Just look at that - she was a weak woman who asked to see her and was searched - she was so cautious to the point of pervert, she didn't think anyone could play tricks with Iger.

And after thinking quietly for a short moment while her body was icy cold, she suddenly connected a series of messages.

After the Queen's Army entered the river bend, they have been promoting the slogan "When the Queen comes, she will not pay her food".At first, Margaery, like most of the nobles in the River Bend, thought that it was Aiger's means of public opinion warfare to weaken the people of the River Bend's will to resist.But now, it seems that this strategy echoes the strategy of "Qianhewan is stronger than King's Landing", and has become a set of combined punches against the nobles of Hewan?

Taking advantage of the victory, all the nobles of the River Bend were pulled out of the castle and placed under house arrest in King's Landing, so that they would be separated from the land and lose their ability to resist. Supported by the subjects, continue to conspire to rebel or even openly confront, go into the mountains to fight guerrilla warfare, etc... Even if the big nobles are all under control, they can still use the vassals of the small nobles to exert force from afar, fooling the people and setting off waves of anti-royal power.

But what if the Queen hadn't started collecting taxes immediately after conquering the Bend?

Then the situation is reversed: the people of Hewan, who have just experienced the harsh winter and war, are exhausted both physically and mentally. A queen who is so powerful that she does not impose taxes and corvee.

When the new dynasty's control over Hewan stabilizes and an effective ruling order is established, and then the Hewan nobles imprisoned in King's Landing are returned to their fiefs, and at the same time they take advantage of the situation to start collecting taxes again, it will be easy for the people of Hewan to perceive Here, the two concepts are bound together: Hewan nobility = tax corvee.

What a way of alienation!

Margaret recovered from the association, and admitted a fact in a cold sweat: Iger killed the river bend nobles and must move to King's Landing. I'm afraid it was not a joke or a stubborn paranoid nonsense from the very beginning, but It is the beginning of a grand, systematic and orderly castration of the nobles of the River Bend!

Since there is a beginning, there is naturally a process and an end.

She was suddenly shocked, realizing how stupid she was before.

Such a grand, ruthless, and seemingly highly feasible plan for governing the country, is he still thinking about whether he should resist it like a car?

The decisive battle for the conquest of the Reach took place under the city of Highgarden, so Tyrell was the first family to be able to negotiate with Iger and obtain the opportunity and qualification to join the victor. !

[Should it be turned into powder and become the dust of history, or should it be embraced with open arms? 】

This metaphor that I was mocking just a moment ago, after thinking about it, looking back, it is simply not too appropriate!

Then, there is no need to say how to choose.

"Join the Tyrell family!" She squeezed the words through her teeth, "But, just one imperial seat is not enough!"

……

Dealing with smart people is easy.

After a brief silence, Margaery Tyrell figured out the pros and cons. She not only happily sat her "butt" on Iger's side and completed the position switch in minutes, but also used her proficient and superb negotiating skills to make Tyrell My family's loyalty, influence, and espionage network fetched a reasonably high price...

Do you think this is over?

No, the next part is the part that really impresses Iger: I don’t know whether it is to show her sincerity or she is already pregnant with the determination to break the boat. After negotiating the price, Margaery seamlessly started to make plans for Iger’s plan on the spot. Patch: such as how to make good use of the housekeepers and lower-level nobles to achieve a stable social order transition after the upper-class nobles are under house arrest, such as organizing the marriage of military upstarts in the land-grant army and unmarried women or widows in the river bay nobles, both rewards The hero can silently strengthen the control...

What a rose with thorns, ruthless.

Among these suggestions, some are contrary to Iger’s long-term goals, and it is impossible for him to adopt them, while others are so refreshing that he almost has the urge to take notes on the spot.Time passed by, and outside the tent, the celebratory banquet gradually stopped, and inside the tent, the fuel in the oil lamp had been refilled once.

This negotiation has been going on for too long, and now the terms have been decided, it is time to come to an end, and another time will be set for more detailed negotiations and document signing.

"It was a pleasure talking with you, Ms. Margaery. I believe that the alliance between the Tyrell family and the Queen will be mutually beneficial and bring the greatest benefit to both." Iger smiled and began to conclude the meeting, but At the last moment when it was time to see off the guests, his tone changed again, and another topic was brought in, "However, at the end of this negotiation, I still want to settle a settlement with you." The corner of his mouth mentioned, "A sum with the Queen Irrelevant... Do you still have any memory of the old account of the three thousand golden dragons?"

(Absolutely not.)

Margaery was at a loss, and of course knew that this was not the correct answer.After a brief daze, Princess Hewan's face quickly changed from bewildered to surprised, and finally stayed flushed with embarrassment.

She remembered.

A few years ago, in the Night Watchman's office in King's Landing, Iger planned to transfer the complete papermaking and printing production technology to the Tyrell family at the price of five thousand gold dragons... This is a very reasonable price, given Margaery's usual Style, it is likely to pay the original price after a little negotiation, and the extra part is considered as a friend.But that day, in order to avenge Iger's indifference when he was in Robert's barracks outside the Blood Gate in the Valley, she deliberately pretended to be stupid, teased him, and finally pushed the price to an unbelievable bottom line, and finally won it with two thousand gold dragons. Down.

That was one of the rare times when she completely gained the upper hand in her contact with Iger, and because of this, Margery even felt brighter for several days.

Who would have thought that that small, thoughtless, let alone malicious joke would now become the reason for this man to cause trouble?

Apologize and pay back double?

That's too embarrassing, it's impossible for Iger to be short of these thousands of golden dragons.

Angrily accusing him of being a big man but having a small belly, how can such a trivial matter be remembered for many years?

She loses in a hurry.

(If you don’t settle this joking so-called “old account” in one go, I’m afraid it will be endless in the future!)

After thinking for a while, the blood faded from Margaery's face, and she thought of a counterattack strategy that would not let her down.

"The Tyrell family admits to this old debt." She raised her chin, straightened her chest, with a confident, soft and provocative look—forgive you, and an elegant posture that seemed to be dancing. Turning around in a circle, "Master Prime Minister thinks, how much am I worth standing in front of you, can I pay for it?"

-

No.11 Reign of Kings

Chapter 701

As a magical creature, every drop of body fluid, every muscle, every bone, and even every plexus of nerves in the dragon's body is naturally filled with a faint semi-free magic power.Unfortunately, due to lack of intelligence, they cannot actively use these magic powers like Warlocks or Mage.

And this also means: In addition to maintaining a high body temperature and vigorous vitality, and improving a little magic resistance...

[Most of the magic power in the dragon body is a waste of resources. 】

—A certain Valyrian "Dragon Herder" who lived thousands of years ago.

After long-term research, this big man who is also a dragon knight, a dragon scientist, and a dragon farm administrator has come to this conclusion, and along with this conclusion, he has logically invented a set of "waste utilization" for these wasted resources. The best method: dragon control technique.

Using the impure but huge amount of magic power in the dragon beast as the energy source, the dragon knight and its genus dragon are linked together by magic, sharing the emotions, physiological state, and thinking of both riders to a certain extent.

The invention of this spell not only simplifies the matter of riding a dragon from an "unbelievable miracle" to a "very challenging but reproducible mission", but more importantly, it realizes a long-standing goal of the Valyrian rulers. A grand military idea: to overcome the solitary and aggressive nature of these brutal behemoths, and gather more than one adult dragon together to carry out a certain mission together.

It was the emergence of Dragon Control that gave birth to the forty dragon king families of Valyria; it made it possible to defeat the once huge and mighty Harpy Empire—Ghiscari; The epic legend that [-] giant dragons were dispatched in World War I to destroy the Rhoyna civilization.

Thousands of years have passed, and the great power who created spells has long since passed away, but his genius concept has been preserved because it is recorded in "The Book of Dragon Control". In the hands of the Dragon King Lian, and finally let the lucky Iger pick up a bargain, he can save countless dangerous dragon riding exercises and directly enjoy the most advanced technical assistance of the Valyrian Freedom Fortress.

Iger didn't know the "ritual" of controlling the dragon until he stood in front of Lei Ge again and heard Daenerys relay the spell to Jinvara, the second red-robed woman, and reminded him of the precautions. It's a "magic ritual".

Unexpected but reasonable, this spell has a strong taste of blood magic: first draw a magic circle on the top of the dragon's head with magic paint, fill it with magic power to activate it... then let Iger provide a small amount of blood to drip into it .There is no brilliant magic effect, in a faint blue smoke, the blood he dripped on the dragon scale and the paint forming the pattern of the magic circle were evaporated at the same time (maybe it was absorbed?), and then a ball was not complicated. Strong information suddenly slipped into his brain.

……

The comfort of being in the pleasant warm wind in the early spring, the comfort of eating and drinking enough and having enough rest, the faint nostalgia for "mother" Daenerys, and the familiarity with another slightly larger black similar person not far away Annoying vigilance... and awe and submission to the man in black standing in front of his head—to be precise, to the powerful aura emanating from Iger.