Chapter 527
2021-01-06
Chapter 527 Kraken in the Lion's Mouth (Part 1)Winter is shrouded in the Westeros, so naturally the Westerlands Included. Since it is located in the south, there are mountains to block the cold current, and it is also bordered by Riverlands Reach. The climate here is milder than that of North, and the products are more abundant than North. Therefore, there is no need to report to the group for heating, and naturally there is no "winter shelter". "City" customs and policies... Despite this, there are still many wealthy people who have relatively well-off conditions but do not yet own a castle. They will choose to temporarily move into Lanisport when winter comes, relying on the city's strategic reserves. Abundant supplies to weather the harsh winter more comfortably - as a result, the number of residents in the only city in the Westerlands always skyrockets seasonally, only to slowly return to normal after spring.
And this seasonal population gathering is especially evident this year.
The explosive political upheaval caused by the scandal of King Robert's son and the resulting Six Kingdoms lion crusade dealt a huge and heavy blow to the Westerlands, but House Lannister not only failed to spread the money to help the bannermen In trouble, instead, he took the opportunity to implement the "gold control" to further strengthen his control over the Westerlands. Today, most of the remaining gold in the Westerlands has been moved into the vault of House Lannister because it is on the control list, and almost all of the top nobles have been forced to move their families to the wealthy area of Lanisport in the name of protection, leaving only the steward. Maintaining the original Fiefdom...
Lanisport's already solid political and economic center position has taken a step further, so that even in this depressing winter, there are still couriers and couriers traveling between the streets and alleys. Soldier.
At this moment, in the center of this big city that has not hibernated, a tall building with the Golden Lion emblem hanging in front of the door - the Lannister Bank headquarters, "Imp" Tyrion is on the side of the reception room. Shaking Erlang's legs to review the ledger, while waiting for a special "guest" to arrive.
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After the great crisis of the siege of the Six Kingdoms was instantly overturned by the death of Robert and the usurpation of Renly, House Lannister was able to take the Staying out of the big melee: Both sides of the war are busy dealing with each other, thinking that the Lion Family has been beaten and ravaged and has no value to squeeze and win, so they neither invaded the Westerlands nor forced it to join the war to support themselves. Therefore, in the two years when the confrontation between the two major alliances between the North and the South was in full swing, the lions huddled in their old nests to make a fortune, licking their wounds to accumulate strength, and secretly preparing for their return to the political arena.
"Gou"'s strategy has not been smooth sailing. The Ironmen under the rule of Euron Greyjoy, their neighbors in the sea to the west, have been harassing them under the guise of "Westerlands do not send troops to support King Stannis to suppress the rebellion", along Ironman's Bay. And the burning, killing and looting of the West Coast has brought more torture and suffering to the already devastated Westerlands people. It was not until Duke Tywin called on all the residents of the Westerlands to unite to defend against foreign enemies, and established a set of practical and effective coastal defense systems under the advice and leadership of Tyrion. Can plan, consciously retreated and plundered the coastlines of other countries.
The calm continued for a few days, until the previous two days when militiamen patrolling around Banefort sent out a warning that they had found the Ironmen battleship near the coastline.
I didn't forget that the people of the Westerlands were facing a great enemy, but when the guards and militiamen of Banefort and several surrounding villages were assembled, grandiose rushed to the location indicated by the alarm, but did not encounter the expected landing. Ironmen raiders, but after a carpet search, caught a woman in a grove.
A woman with a special status.
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Dwarf's thoughts were interrupted by the knock on the door, and the guard's voice came from outside the house: "Lord Tyrion, someone is here."
"Bring in."
The door opened, and two soldiers brought in the special female prisoner, pushed her into a chair across the table from Tyrion and handcuffed her to the armrest On, only after saying hello, he backed out.
The reception room was quiet again, and Tyrion carefully looked at the person opposite with a puzzled expression for a while, and then said again with a puzzled expression: "Miss Greyjoy, the guards at my house have abused you or failed to take care of you. Zhou's place?"
It wasn't that he wanted to pretend to be a gentleman to lower the opponent's defenses, but the appearance of Kraken's daughter at the moment made him suspicious: the once proud and free Princess of the Iron Islands is now complexion pale With a decadent expression, he was clearly unharmed and not starving or freezing, but he slumped into the chair as if his bones were taken away, as if it was difficult to straighten his waist.
And he specially greeted him and asked Haosheng to take care of this person.
It is not a big problem for the female family members of the enemy to be abused, but if the orders and demands of oneself, the head of the Lannister Bank, the second-in-command of the ruling family of the Westerlands, are disobeyed or ignored by the people below, this is intolerable!
"No, thank you for your concern." Asha tried to lift the head, and even seemed feeble to speak, "Why didn't your father see me?"
"My father is a busy man." Tyrion Reassured, he smiled slightly at the female prisoner: "He ordered Maester to write a letter to Pyke to ask for your ransom, and then completely left you behind... After I carefully asked what happened to the person who arrested you, I had to Admit it, he's right. No matter how you look at it, you don't look like you're doing us much good, and if you don't mind, can I ask what's going on?"
what happened? Asha smiled bleakly and shook her head: "I don't know where to start, can you ask for more details."
Tyrion realized that oneself was a little inappropriate at the moment, so he put down Erlang's legs and leaned forward , took the jug on the table and poured a glass for the female prisoner too... Then realized that the other party's hand was tied to the arm of the chair and couldn't drink, so he patted his head and asked a question: "As far as I am concerned. You know, you were taken prisoner by Night's Watch in Deepwood Motte before and locked up in a land grant, how could you show up on Banefort's side, or was it sent ashore by a boat?"
"I was guarding We escaped from Night's Watch harbor without paying attention."
"Ha!" I believe you, Tyrion didn't try to hide his suspicions, but he didn't get to the bottom of it, because it wasn't The key, "As Balon's daughter, you must be planning to return to the archipelago to seize power. Then I'm a little curious - if you succeed, it should be the Queen of the Iron Islands at the moment, and if you fail, how can you leave alive? ?"
If I just didn't tell Tyrion that Igor let oneself leave because of the spirit of the contract and couldn't sell his teammates, then on this topic that won't involve others, Asha, who has just suffered the biggest blow in his life Not even the strength to make up lies.
"I wanted to assassinate Euron, but he found out and was arrested and imprisoned. It was my uncle 'scholar' Roderick who arrived and rescued me."
" Oh? If I'm not mistaken, Euron is your pro Uncle, and you want to be a Kinslayer?"
"He's my pro Uncle, but also my father-killer, and Seastone Chair He takes the Ironmen on a Road of No Return, and he and I are absolutely irreconcilable."
It was supposed to be an emotionally hostile letter, but Asha was treated like an answering machine without Soul. The same calm and composed read out, making Tyrion unable to shake his wit.
"Well, what the patrolling militias said 'two boats exchanged fire, one sank the other' was actually between Euron Greyjoy and Roderick Halo. A sea battle, an Ironmen infighting?" dwarf paused, but couldn't help but ask: "Excuse my little dwarf's unfamiliarity with Ironmen ships—all sailboats in the world look alike to me, eh? Who sunk whom in the end?"
Who sunk whom? Asha's lips trembled and her mouth parted slightly, trying to answer, but the tears had already rolled down first.
……
A few days ago, Asha, who had just escaped alive on the "Sea Song" from Pyke, was awakened by the footsteps of peng peng peng above her head— —As a skilled sailor and captain, she is of course familiar with the sound of a large number of people scrambling across the deck. Feeling vigilant, she turned over and sat up. After putting on her clothes and going to the upper deck, she easily found her uncle at the stern who was observing the rear with the Myr lens.
"scholar" saw his niece approaching, he didn't say much, but silently handed her the lens, Asha lifted it up and looked at the far horizon right behind the ship, and soon saw the commander. Her heart-pounding sailboat: On the light-colored horizon, the dark red hull of "Silence" is so slender and low, and the dark-colored sails blown up by the wind are like a black hole in the sky, even if it is far away, You can also feel the cruelty and terror coming from it.
Euron's strange battleship, for some unknown reason, actually accurately judged the direction of the sea song's escape in the dark, and caught up with it at an incredible speed!
Seeing her niece's terrified expression of determination, scholar laughed, and asked her to use the lens to look towards the bow of the boat.
The contours of land are already looming in the narrow, circular field of view of the Myr lens.
"I don't know how that madman tracked down the Sea Song, and admired that he could drive a sailboat as fast as it could over the water, but he came a step late."— —The Island Lord of Hal Loh declared so confidently, and he was proven right, until the boat that brought Asha ashore and oars back to the Sea Song did Silence come within sight of the naked eye. , when it caught up with Scholar's boat, Asha had already left the beach and hid in a grove not far from the shore, and began to think about whether to try to cross the Westerlands or surrender directly to House Lannister.
But then, she saw a horrific scene that would remain her nightmare for the rest of her life.
The "Silence", who had finally caught up, didn't slow down, forcibly hit the "Sea Song" from the side, and the ferocious and thick impact angle deeply stuck into the latter's hull , smashing the oar, tearing the deck and hull, overturning the towering mast... It was almost cut into two sections, and after a moment of unclear detail but inevitably bloody and tragic boarding, uncle oneself - one of the few in the world, she The car of the person who was still close and trusted was broken into two pieces by the fire, and was left behind by Silence, who turned the bow and flew away, and slowly sank into the seabed!
The size and staffing of "Sea Song" is not much different from "Silence", and theoretically the battle strength should be similar. But its captain intends to confess his guilt to the king of oneself and resign to go back to his old age. How can he have the mental and physical preparation to fight the latter?
There is no doubt about the outcome of the battle.
"scholar" Roderick was so smart that he still underestimated the madness of Euron, and died for it.
Ironmen have always regarded ships as an important resource, not to mention the main sail battleship such as "Sea Song". Since Euron sank such a famous ship, Asha has reason to believe that the ship There will be no survivors, it will disappear completely and silently from the Ironmen's eyes, leaving only countless mysteries except for oneself to know the cause and effect.
Was Euron's sinking of the Seasong an impromptu or premeditated plan, out of anger at being betrayed, or to silence the crew who had heard of his magic eye? Asha has no way of knowing, she only knows that oneself's naive assassination plan not only failed to drag the Ironmen back from the wrong path to the dark, but also lost oneself's last friend who could speak in the archipelago!
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(end of this chapter)