Chapter 529
The rise of the Dragon Queen has caused the world's sea trade to shrink rapidly, and her 60 million Golden Dragon project has made the food market unprecedentedly prosperous.
As a result, farmers on both sides of Little Rhoyne began to sow the seeds of wheat and soybeans on lands that had previously grown cotton, castor and hemp.
After the reclaimed farmland is planted, the manor owner also organizes farmers to reclaim wasteland and burn mountains to reclaim new farmland.
It can be said that Slaver's Bay is making a big leap in agricultural production, and the Essos west continent Rhoyne watershed is making a small leap.
Andals Deziel is also a member of the Great Reclamation. He even left his home and, together with his family, was arranged by the owner to be a long-term worker in Little Rhoyne, 500 kilometers away.
Because of his ploughing skills and experience, his master needs his skills to reclaim newly purchased wasteland.
Before the age of 15, Deziel was a shepherd boy at Harvest Hall, raising and farming cattle for Earl Arstan.
Harvest Hall's territory is perfect for farming, the granary of the Stormlands, and House Selmy's family crest - three golden ears of wheat - says it all, so Deziel has been raised as a tiller for as long as he can remember.
If nothing else, he should be plowing the ground for Earl with his oxen, and planting the last wave of winter wheat before the snow comes.
But although he is good at driving cattle, he doesn't like this profession very much.
The teenagers want to drive a sea ship, travel thousands of miles, go to Jade Sea, go to Ib, go to Yi Ti, and see different beautiful scenery in different parts of the world.
At the age of 15, after completing the contract with Earl Arstan, he did not follow the last wish of the dead Old Ghost father, marry a farmer's daughter, be a good farmer with peace of mind, and continue to farm for Selmy Earl.
He went to King's Landing and was employed by a Pentos seaman as a sailor on the "Soaring Men of Pentos" sea ship.
For the past two years, he has lived happily ever after sailing ships to Braavos, Gulltown, White Harbor, Oldtown, Myr and other cities he has never been to.
But that all changed two years ago.
The Dragon Queen takes Slaver's Bay, and the trade on the Summer Sea collapses in half.
To put it bluntly, Dragon Queen's actions have caused a terrible economic crisis in this world.
And the reduction of East-West trade immediately reduced the shipments and purchases of various cities along the Narrow Sea.
The Soaring Men of Pentos is just an offshore flat cargo ship, equivalent to a sea carrier.
Without goods from the East and fewer Western specialties destined for the East, the carrier is free and Deziel is out of a job.
Just in time, he meets a girl he likes and settles down in Pentos obediently and honestly.
He wants to buy a house. If there is no house, the girl's parents are reluctant to marry their daughter to him.
The house price here is too high. Buying a small house of 60 square meters outside the city, spending gold coins is equivalent to his 30-year salary.
Of course he doesn't have 30 years' salary, so he can only get a loan from Pentos Bank - Pentos Free Folk needs a loan to buy a house and live.
Then Deziel discovered a terrifying thing, that his and his wife's labor income is often lower than their food and clothing needs.
In order to eat enough, you have to borrow more.
In this way, his debts will grow day after day and never turn over.
Later, he met a fellow, Economics Maester from Oldtown, to figure out what was going on.
Falled in the war with Braavos, Pentos almost became a Braavos semi-colony.
Semi-colonies of course have to sign unequal treaties.
In addition to the restrictions on martial power - no battleships of more than 20 ships are allowed, no mercenaries are allowed, no contracts with free mercenary groups are allowed, no army of any kind is allowed beyond the number of city guards - The city is not allowed to retain slave system yet.
But the rulers of the city need slaves. Slaves are the cheapest, most obedient, and keep their value.
So, the city rulers thought of a way to turn Free Folk into slaves: deliberately increase the price of living materials, reduce the wages of Free Folk, and force them to borrow money from Magister, a trade that rules the city.
If you are in debt to your master, you have to work for your master.
This Free Folk is called "Free Slave" (this is the setting in the original book, Martin is mapping the old beauty), except for the name, it is essentially the same as the slave!
Deziel became the free slave of Illyrio, one of the trade Magisters.
Even before the Dragon Queen's 60 million Golden Dragon grain purchase plan, Illyrio began to expand the scale of grain cultivation, and then bought land on a large scale and hired farmers to reclaim the land.
By this time, more than 500 kilometers from Pentos to Little Rhoyne, there are Illyrio's manor-because there is a Valyrian road, the traffic is very convenient.
After two years as a free slave, Deziel finds it terrifying, because his life is no different from the Westeros Free Folk days.
He continues to farm the land for the Boss, who pays him a living wage.
It's the same everywhere.
In this case, he lives with peace of mind like thousands of absolutely free slaves in the city.
During this period, even if the news of Dragon Queen with many titles such as "slave liberator", "Breaker of Chains", "slave's Mhysa" and so on came, he could not be moved too much— - He is not a slave, how can Dragon Queen liberate him?
Perhaps, he will only hear her story in his life, and will not have a half-point intersection with it.
Until this day...
Around eight o'clock in the morning, the sun shone brightly, the temperature is neither cold nor hot, and the northwest wind is as gentle as a lover's little hand.
Deziel was wearing grey linen shorts and a pair of big bare feet, and her bare skin was tanned like an old cow.
He was holding a shiny old black ox on his head, turning over the moist and soft black soil.
And his wife and mother-in-law, carrying green bottle gourd scoops full of soybeans, followed the snow-white coulters to order beans.
"Hula--" The top of the head suddenly darkened, as if there was a large cloud cover, and at the same time there was the sound of the air torrent.
"Moo——" The big buffalo, which was even more stable than Old Dog, suddenly stopped, his hind legs were weak, and he slumped in the mud.
Not waiting for Deziel to be surprised and angry, he heard his wife shouting, "Dragon------------"
"Dragon?" Deziel was surprised , looked up and saw two dragons, one black and one green, like two sharp knives, cutting through the blue sky.
The speed was too fast, leaving two obvious flight marks in the white clouds.
"Dragon, this is dragon, Targaryen, Targaryen! Dragon Queen, there must be Queen Daenerys sitting on it, that is Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Protector of the Realm .. ...."
I don't know why, Deziel suddenly burst into a passion, yelling at his wife and mother-in-law lost self-control.
It seems that he wants to explain to them, you see, that is the Queen of Andals, and I am Andals, a former Westeros.
The mother-in-law did not look at him because her son-in-law was thousands of miles away from the Dragon Queen, and only urged continuously:
"No matter who is on the dragon, it is with the Dragon Queen.
You, it has nothing to do with us, quickly pull up the old cow, and there are still seven or eight acres of land waiting for us to work!"
The mother-in-law is wrong, the Dragon Queen's arrival this time has really intersected with them .
Just a quarter of an hour later, the Black Dragon flew back.
Then they were shocked on the spot: The Dragon Queen's Black Dragon can really talk as the street Bard sings!
"A farmer employed by Magister Illyrio Mopatis immediately leads his horse and horse and follows the Valyria stone road to the estuary."
"How can a farmer not employed by Illyrio be willing to earn a Gold Honor's wages, you can also go."
dragon's voice was rumbling, like a thunderbolt cracking the sky, and it could be clearly heard from miles away.
Deziel was still in a daze, wondering if he should listen to dragon's words.
I saw the manor's steward, brow beaded with sweat, riding a mule on the ridge, shouting:
"Go to the West Ferry now, men and women, young and old, all of them, If you don't make it within half an hour, you'll be deducted."
What else can Deziel do?
He could only swiftly remove the coulter behind the old ox, then lead the ox and trot towards the West Ferry with his wife and mother-in-law.
Along the way, they also met many farmers, stewards, and even mercenaries who drove cattle on horseback.
Well, the small mercenary group guarding the manor.
grandiose, more than 100 people.
"Why are you going to the West Ferry?" The wife asked, grabbing his arm with a big hand full of calluses.
"Maybe to cross the river to Ghoyan Drohe on the other side." Deziel was uncertain.
He couldn't figure it out. Except for a dragon body statue and waist-high weeds, there was no ferry at the ferry—the two banks of the river were connected by a stone bridge.
But he was wrong again, instead of crossing the river, they stopped near the statue of that female Dragonlord.
"Look, there is a Knight." The wife pointed to a full-body armored Knight in the middle of the crowd.
Deziel shuddered, wearing a white iron helmet with seven-color feathers, an armor inlaid with exquisite white glaze on his chest, a large milk-white cloak, as bright as snow, bright as Maiden's hope, isn't this what it is? The legendary White Cloak?
He was excited again.
His previous owner, Selmy Earl of Harvest Hall, and his great-uncle, Barristan, was the Legendary White Cloak known as "the exemplar of the Westeros Knight"?
Afterwards, he inquired about White Cloak's identity from the steward, Jorah Mormont.
He just happened to know this person. In fact, the reputation of Earl of Bear Island is too loud, it is known.
Not only the steward of the Illyrio family's manor is here, but there are each one in the nearby manor, and one cannot run. All of them bring people, ropes and carry over.
——It is said that the Dragon Queen rides a dragon to every nearby manor, and the terrifying "Deathwing" "Great Protector of Light" roars: listen to me, I am the Great Protector of Light, otherwise, Deathwing will come.
How about the stewards?
Deziel looked left and right, only Ser Mormont and a middle-aged Knight called Ser Connington, there was only one Green Dragon in the sky, and there was no trace of Black Dragon and Dragon Queen.
But he didn't have time to think about it any more, three-four hundred people came one after another, and the team was divided into two: White Cloak led a group of people to the manor to demolish the house to pick up bricks and build it on the Valyrian road" Fortress" (forge); Ser Connington directs the removal of the Sphinx statue of a woman's head and dragon's body.
Tie a few thick hemp ropes to the statue. The hemp ropes pass through the pulleys on the giant tree support in front of the statue, and the forty-fifty roots are forked to be pulled by the old cows.
There are also gravel, grit and bricks between the statue and the stone path.
After all this was done, Ser Connington pushed another iron ball the size of a child's fist on a scooter, smooth and smooth.
He was in front of the statue, a palm-width apart from left to right, and placed an iron ball, a total of thirty or forty.