Chapter 501
2021-01-06
Chapter 501 GambleStanding on the edge of a grove half a mile from the last Hearth, Roose Bolton stared at the castle in the distance, shrouded in snowflakes, his face ashen.
He was upset, very upset.
In order to facilitate the input of materials from the outside to support the war against Others, and also to ensure that troops can be mobilized quickly in the event of a war, the Kingsroad along the Wall and land grants leads to the south even after winter. During the most violent blizzard, there are still special teams responsible for clearing the snow... However, the front line is like this, and the rear is another scene: the entire North is covered with snow so thick that people can hide when they squat down. , out of the castle and the winter town, on the expanse of white snow, naked eye mortal embryos can't even distinguish between roads and rivers.
The reason why North does not arrange people to keep all roads open like land grants is not because northerners are lazy, but because of the helplessness of the combination of insufficient productivity and climate change: farmers The amount of food that can be cultivated and stored is limited, and the length of winter is difficult to estimate. Apart from this, we also need to allocate some supplies to aid The Wall and support the battle against the Ironmen... In this case, we can only save as much as possible. Only by using grain can minimize the probability of the disaster of "the winter is not over when the grain reserves are exhausted".
Sweeping snow for all the roads in a large area of the North requires a lot of labor, and labor consumes energy, which can only be replenished by ingesting food. The best way to save food is to sleep more and move less. Except for the nobles and servants in the castle, and the few soldiers responsible for defending the winter town, no one was allowed to do even a single thing that had nothing to do with wintering, and the people of North were actually like every winter for thousands of years. The same: hoard enough food for one or two years, drag your family and bring your mouth to the nearest winter shelter town, and enter a state similar to animal hibernation: most of the time in the house, relying on sleep and daze to spend this whole winter.
No one is responsible for clearing the snow, so it is impossible to talk about the convenience of transportation, even if you are a native of the north and ride a northern pony that wears a "bear's paw" and rides flat on the snow ...He traveled around Gushan, crossed the Mojiang River and crossed the snowfield from the Castle of Terror to get here, and he was still exhausted to death at his age.
Of course, the above is just gossip. The real reason Roose Bolton is angry is not that he is tired from the trip, but that he should not have done it at all.
After more than ten years, the surviving Targaryen returned to North with Dragon and Unsullied. After realizing that this was a great opportunity for House Bolton to replace Stark and determined the goal, Old Flayer fought hard to do it. With military preparations, he sent his confidant, Keli Snow, to the Queen's temporary palace to inform House Stark's "dragon-slaying operation".
However, when the informer came here in disguise and led the "caravan", he was stopped outside the city by the garrison ordered by Igor to be stationed here, unable to see the Queen, and tried everything possible. After failing to break through the blockade line, the leader decided to start a backup plan: while continuing to go north to Queenscrown to find the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch try one's luck, divide the troops back along the original road and report the situation to the owner Bolton count .
The agreement in the backup plan is: after arriving at Queenscrown, put back a Raven with a password every day to report the progress and what you have seen, until all Ravens are finished.
But in fact, the Raven received by Bolton in the Castle of Dread, except for the first one with the correct password and positive message, each of the following ones only reported safety, but No agreed mark!
If only the informer was blocked outside the last Hearth, it can also be explained that the Night's Watch adopted strict security to protect the Queen, then Keli Snow arrived at Queenscrown. The news is suspected to be under control. The loss of freedom points to a very bad situation: that Igor West, most of the time, he wants to go beyond the rules and join the Seven Kingdoms infighting, but at the same time protect House Stark and not make major changes to North's political ecology!
Whether he's "being a bitch and building a torii", or making a stupid decision driven by emotions, it's completely contrary to his Roose Bolton plan! This winged bastard not only got out of Robb Stark's control, but also made a waste of how much oneself said for him at the beginning and how much support and help he did to Night's Watch Legion!
The allies that he had worked so hard to cultivate turned into a thankless wretch, Old Flayer almost bit his teeth in hatred, but the anger of being betrayed can be slowly vented again, and the chance to catch up with the Queen war chariot is slightly less. Even if it is fleeting, it is the most urgent task at the moment. After discovering that Igor seemed to be planning to put oneself on the sidelines and go it alone, Roose Bolton did not care about the risk of exposing his intentions in advance, and resolutely chose to bring people here in person - Warner Buckwell can follow Igor's order to put Keli Snow like this The irrelevant characters are driven away without a word, but it is absolutely impossible to keep oneself out of the city without Daenerys even when the powerful lord of oneself comes to see him in person!
This is a meeting that stakes the future and destiny of the family. Only one of North, Stark and Bolton can live to see the birth of a new dynasty!
…
As we approach our destination, all kinds of information come from a variety of channels: the good news is that the former House Umber castle has now been taken over by Unsullied summoned by Daenerys In defense, Bolton at least doesn't have to worry about being intercepted and attacked by the martial power of Igor's Night's Watch; the bad news is that Varys and Petyr Baelish have already arrived here. With these two slippery heads, oneself wants to fool the Queen into riding a dragon. To burn Winterfell, I am afraid it is an impossible goal to achieve.
The matter has come to this point, and now I can only take one step at a time and prepare myself mentally for confrontation with the entire North - it is conceivable that even with the help of the dragon, this will not be too easy.
More than half an hour after sending people into the city to report, the gate of the castle in the distance slowly opened under the gaze of Roose Bolton, and a small group of men and horses filed out of it, wading towards them in the snow. .
Squinting to observe the visitor for a moment, Bolton relaxed: The head of the visitor is wide and fat, although he can't see his face clearly with a hood on, this figure is obviously not the short and thin figure in the legend Littlefinger...mostly eunuch Varys.
That's good news, and Bolton won't forget: Petyr Baelish was an adopted child at Riverrun and had a pretty close relationship with the women of the Tully family, including Robb Stark's mother and aunt. And that's sort of like "Littlefinger and House Stark befriend". To sue the Wolf Family to such a guy is tantamount to scheming with a tiger and sticking his head into the crocodile's mouth to play juggling—not that Bolton felt that Littlefinger's loyalty was impossible to betray his friends, but he had a vague hunch: There is a high probability that oneself will not be able to pay the price of bribing him to do so.
And Varys is different - Bolton doesn't believe it at all: the notorious The Spider will be absolutely loyal to Queen or anyone, as long as oneself shows sincerity and offers enough political interests and chips to make this eunuch heart , he is absolutely happy to shake North's political situation, using oneself as a starting point to plant tentacles and roots in this piece of land where his influence has never penetrated.
Thinking like this, Roose Bolton twitched the muscles of his face, forced a smile, and greeted him.
"Aiya, Lord Bolton, I've already heard of the Flaying Family's illustrious name, and now I can finally see the living Castle Lord, which is really exciting." Varys was ahead of him. He opened his mouth and rubbed his hands eagerly a few meters away: "I don't know why you have come all the way to see the Queen in such bad weather?"
" You are too polite, Lord Varys." Bolton secretly admired in his heart - the other party has an ability that oneself does not have: even if he wants to work hard, he can't pretend to be as warm and kind as eunuch, "I came to warn the Queen. : House Stark is secretly plotting a conspiracy against Your Majesty and her two dragons, I hope she can be vigilant and take appropriate measures in time to avoid danger!"
Eager to find new accomplices or When it comes to political allies, Old Flayer doesn't prank or cheat, and then he tells the story that he has already made up, and repeats the one he sent to tell Igor before: House Stark colluded with the North princes, pretending In fact, Heping is planning to use the opportunity of Night's Watch expedition beyond the wall to subvert the land granting order, and is also secretly producing and assembling dragon hunting crossbows, intending to kill them and their masters in one go.
It's easy to sum up, but the face-to-face description and communication can't have only the outline. It took Old Flayer a lot of work to tell the story with details and content...and the same but different from Igor. Yes, Varys, who has been struggling in the dirty waters of politics all the year round, has roughly guessed the truth of the matter before listening to the visitor's story.
The Lord of House Bolton in front of him intends to seize the God-given opportunity of the Queen's presence and become the owner of North!
Oneself can see through holes in Bolton's story, and Bolton probably knows it too. If normally, such a powerful nobleman came to show his tendency to cooperate, Varys would definitely invite him into the house to have a private chat, carefully and prudently discuss the form and content of cooperation, considering that oneself can learn from the other party. What benefits are obtained from him, how much effort and price it takes to win this new "friend", and how much use value can be squeezed out when he goes back and betrayed him.
House Stark, as a veteran nobleman, is extremely difficult to manipulate in the palm of his hand, but to support House Bolton, the new lord must need external support if he wants to secure his position, and asking for help must pay a price. With this coming and going, North, the last piece of territory along the oneself line that is still insufficient, will also be able to be put together!
But rather than expanding the intelligence network, what Varys wants to do now is to ensure that the Queen can return to the south as soon as possible - to end the long-delayed siege of King's Landing, to overthrow the Baratheon Dynasty, and to join forces with the Golden Corps to support Prince Aegon joins. Regardless of whether the two Targaryen will combine with each other or separate the primary and secondary and the monarch and minister, they can at least reduce the number of forces participating in the competition for power by -2, so that the resistance that oneself may encounter in the next planning and deployment can be reduced by two orders of magnitude!
This is the top priority of everything, and it's 10,000 times more important than Roose Bolton's little ambition.
At this juncture when she finally persuaded the Queen to forget the promise of Night's Watch and set off to return south, Varys would not be so indifferent to just listening to a story of Roose Bolton, then he turned his head and ran back. The castle went to report this "urgent news" to Daenerys, to anger the Queen, and let her take chestnuts for the skinning family fire... Change the itinerary, stay and deal with North first - this enemy who could have been dealt with until the end!
"Lord Bolton, on behalf of the Queen, I thank you for your sincerity in coming to provide the warning in person." Varys said with an undiminished friendliness, "but you can rest assured that the Queen will be leaving North soon. Definitely won't be harmed by House Stark's conspiracy..."
"What!" Roose Bolton's eyes widened for a moment: "But Night's Watch has sworn allegiance to her, does Your Majesty plan to abandon this land grant? Does one party support his forces?"
"Of course not, I will try to notify Igor Lord Commander as soon as possible about the Night's Watch part of this matter, and arrange for Unsullied to go north to support Queenscrown, and Queen will definitely not sit back and watch North. Persecuting her loyal vassals and true guardians of the kingdom." Varys smiled reassuringly, "As for your lord..."
He stepped closer to Roose Bolton, glancing at the scent of powdery powder Glancing at the soldiers brought by Old Flayer: "I want to ask your lord, are these people you brought reliable?"
Bolton subconsciously wanted to look back, but restrained his instinct: "They are all people who have been loyal to the Dreadfort for generations. They are reliable."
"Then I will tell you the truth. The Queen's plan has been decided, and it will definitely not change the itinerary due to any external factors. If I am Sir, you will immediately return to the Dread Fortress, pretending that this trip never existed, and continue to spend the winter in the North peacefully... When Your Majesty takes the six southern countries in your pocket, the sword points to Moat Cailin and prepares to conquer the North to dominate the Westeros At the same time, I will contact the adults again, try to coordinate the inside and outside, and take down the barrier between the north and the south in one fell swoop. This is the way to really maximize my own value and impress Your Majesty the most. That way, when the time comes, you will be rewarded on merit and deed Get up, even if you don't mention it, the position guarded by the new North can only be owned by House Bolton. How do you feel?"
Roose Bolton's heart suddenly became cold and cold: meaning How's it going? The eunuch in front of him said it beautifully. Isn't the subtext still an Expulsion Order, telling oneself it's better to go home, he won't take oneself into the city to see the Queen? The plan proposed by Varys sounds feasible, but how could oneself not know the truth of "the plan can't keep up with the changes" after living so old? oneself bet everything for this big gamble, made a lot of preparations, and even left the Dread Fortress in person... Now you tell me to wait?
How can there be an airtight wall in the world, the sword has been pulled out of the sheath and inserted back to wait for the opportunity, can oneself hold up to that time!
But he has no choice, the Queen's Master of Whisperers won't let oneself enter the city, oneself a northerner who has never dealt with her, is it possible that he can still kill the team of Unsullied in front of him. Breaking into the last Hearth to rush to Daenerys... Shout out a piece of news that is not true? This is a whistleblower, and the report is still fake news. If things go wrong, you have to be emotional, it will definitely make things worse!
Holding his calm expression, Roose Bolton was about to open his mouth to agree, and then quietly led his subordinates back to the Castle of Dread, but he opened his mouth, but did not speak, just stared blankly The direction of the castle, the line of sight is raised higher and higher.
Across Varys' shoulders, he saw a dark green dragon spread its wings from the castle, flapped its wings a dozen times above the city wall, roared loudly and clearly, moved towards turning away from this side. Fly to the west of the entire group. Even if it's not the first time to see a dragon, observing this behemoth in the daytime, and seeing it in the dark on the night of the Battle of Long Lake... still has a completely different visual impact!
Eunuch also heard the dragon's roar, he turned his head and frowned as he watched Green Dragon disappear into the snowflakes flying away, uneasiness came to his mind: Demon Dragon didn't like cold weather, Drogon was transported to Hearth's last After recovering from injuries on the school ground, Rhaegar, who was only slightly injured, also regarded the other end of the castle far away from Black Dragon as a dragon's nest. He ate, slept, slept and ate every day. Make it suddenly full of energy today?
Ignoring the Old Flayer, Varys beckoned to call an Unsullied: "You, go back to the castle and check to see if Your Majesty is leaving on a Green Dragon? If not, let Ser Buckwell send his cavalry to chase, Be sure to find out where Rhaegal went."
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(end of chapter)