Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 123 News from King's Landing and Uninvited Guests

"The Tyrells have withdrawn to King's Landing? King's Landing has set up a large number of giant crossbows on the city walls? And iron scorpion arrows? And net-casting machines? Well, it's money to buy peace of mind. The Lannisters are quite smart. They know that the purpose of deploying defenses in King's Landing is not to stop the dragon, but to make people living in King's Landing believe that they can stop the dragon. This doesn't cost much, but it can stabilize the hearts of the people in King's Landing."

Grole brought his eldest son, Grek, the captain of the merchant ship spy sent by Viserys to King's Landing, to report the news he had learned from various sources to Viserys in the Table Hall. Grek was more refined than his father, and before Grole brought him to Dragonstone, his eldest son was originally planned to be sent to Illyrio's Merchant Guild to seek a supervisor. Unexpectedly, Grole was old and capable, and became a knight of the Seven Kingdoms under Viserys, becoming a son relying on his father's honor.

Now this captain with rich business experience in Pentos is responsible for gathering intelligence about King's Landing for Viserys. He follows the merchant route, Illyrio's business path - there is no other way. If he wants to create a wealthy businessman and do business with the business representatives of the powerful in King's Landing, it will take at least a generation to open up an independent new channel. Viserys has no time to wait, so he can only follow Illyrio's path and develop towards independent operation while walking. This is tantamount to exposing all his spies to Varys, but there is really no other way.

It was not until he did it himself that Viserys realized the value of Varys's claim that he was the most informed man in the Seven Kingdoms. In this world where communication was basically delivered by ships, carts, horses, and people, and ordinary people had no way to raise or afford ravens, it was a miracle that Varys could build an intelligence network in Westeros.

It was Greg's first time in the Table Hall. He was a little reserved, but he still told the news he had heard: "Your Majesty, we cannot talk about dragons openly in King's Landing, but there is a secret circulating among the dignitaries. The dragon's weakness is its eyes."

"Well, you were able to find out such secrets on your first visit to King's Landing. Where did you get the information?"

Greg didn't expect the king to ask this: "This"

Grolai, who knew how cautious the king was, quickly explained, "He was invited to a business cooperation banquet. Several dignitaries from King's Landing attended. The finance minister's business activities in King's Landing have been hit hard, but the secret chamber of commerce still has some connections in King's Landing. Greg took advantage of the shortage of supplies in King's Landing and disguised himself as a foreign partner of the King's Landing Spice Guild, using the name of a governor's guild in Pentos."

"Oh, it was the Chancellor's channel that worked." Viserys nodded. "That's not surprising."

"And, sire," Greg added, as Viserys was about to end the meeting, "I also heard at the feast in King's Landing that Balon Greyjoy, the false king of the Iron Islands, was dead, having fallen from the castle bridge during a storm."

There is a lot to hear at this party.

Viserys could not help but worry: "Gerrick, you must be extremely careful when you go back and forth to King's Landing to gather intelligence. People say that Varys's little bird is everywhere, and this is not a lie. You should stay in King's Landing to observe the material procurement of merchant ships and whether there are warships organized to attack Dragonstone. You don't need to take risks and enter the noble circle. Build a good intelligence network and don't go to King's Landing too often. By the way, you came up here through the report of the Intelligence Office down the mountain, right?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Okay, then you should be familiar with the process. Arrange some sailors you trust who have never been to King's Landing with you to go to the ports and taverns in various parts of the Narrow Sea to secretly spread the news that the Dragonstone Military Intelligence Office is interested in the military intelligence of various parts of the Seven Kingdoms and has something to reward. Remember to be vague about the price of the intelligence."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

This so-called Military Intelligence Department is the place where Viserys purchases military intelligence from various places. Since arriving at Dragonstone, he has been at a loss as to the war situation in the interior of the Seven Kingdoms. The lack of intelligence has led to him having to rely on guesswork in many situations.

Before he came to Dragonstone, he could still rely on his understanding of the original world line to brainstorm and roughly guess the situation in various places from the unfounded intelligence. But after coming to Dragonstone, although it was obviously closer to the inland of the Seven Kingdoms, he could only inquire about the news from the merchant ships in places with smooth trade routes, which was outdated for who knows how many days.

For example, he had no way of knowing about the retreat of the Tyrell army and the deployment of defenses in King's Landing, which were obviously caused by the flapping of his wings like a butterfly.

It was unknown how long it took for the news of Balon Greyjoy's death to reach Viserys' ears.

The establishment of an intelligence agency is a long and arduous task. During this period, the military camp under the town has also gathered a lot of free riders and hired riders who have come to surrender. Viserys plans to use these people as scouts to disperse to various ports in the Stormlands to see what Stannis is doing. The loyalty of these people may not be guaranteed, and they can only be restrained by bounties, but they basically don't know the plans of the Dragonstone high-level officials.

It is better to say that these people are used to this kind of work. Being a scout for the lord who came to seek refuge is part of the way of survival of the hired knights, and it is also part of the war organization form of Westeros. Fighting in Westeros, you must get used to this. You also have to get used to summoning vassals to assemble troops, not dividing them by arms, but by family, by fiefdom, and after forming a large army, the generals who command the troops command the leading representatives of each family instead of specific soldiers.

To coordinate such an army, a great lord who can command the people is necessary.

In particular, one must guard against the situation in which the leader is beheaded and his soldiers leave the army and go home.

However, this form of war is the most advantageous to Viserys. The larger the scale of the war, the easier it is for the side with dragons to win, because a large army formed in this form can easily defeat part of the enemy and form a reversing pearl curtain effect on the battlefield. On the contrary, the smaller the scale of the battle, the more difficult it is for the side with dragons, because a small-scale battle often means that the enemy is more organized than a large-scale army. They may be from the same family, or they are familiar with each other and trust each other, so it is easier to form guerrilla warfare and exert personal strong fighting spirit.

How does the saying go: It is much easier to capture 30,000 people than 30,000 pigs on the battlefield of a large-scale battle.

The simplest thing is to attack the castle. Of course, there is also a prerequisite that the people in the castle choose to defend it to the death instead of breaking up and dispersing into the wild.

Back to the present, this first spy trip to King's Landing was able to reveal so much information. It was obvious that Varys was deliberately leaking information to Viserys, but Viserys had no idea what Varys' attitude towards him was.

Varys and Illyrio's plans have gone astray as they can. Viserys is not sure whether they intend to change sides or continue to secretly support young Aegon.
As for the defense of King's Landing, and knowing that the dragon's weakness is the eyes, Viserys is not worried at all. He had been more prepared than King's Landing. He knew all the weaknesses of the dragon, and even had magical props that people in this world could not imagine to restrain it. Although the dragon-slaying team he organized only had 100 people, the dragon-slaying team was basically saturated, because the combat contact area with the dragon was so large, the more people there were, the harder it was to coordinate, and the more concentrated they were, the more dangerous it was.

However, despite being well prepared, when the dragon flew high into the sky and cast high-altitude magic, the ground team that slayed the dragon was helpless. Back then, Viserys had the cooperation of various Hylian tribes in the dragon-slaying team to barely defeat an ordinary ancient ork. The team suffered serious damage that time, and this was because the human species in the high magic world had strong endurance. When they were sprayed by the dragon's flames, they would only faint if they had fire-resistant armor, and there were also flying species to cooperate with.
The most regrettable thing is that after finally defeating the dragon, its materials fell into the lake and were sucked away by the whirlpool.
It was after that that Viserys realized that manpower is limited. Instead of organizing a dragon-slaying team, it is better to directly hire a legendary swordsman with extraordinary abilities. After all, knowing that the enemy was prepared, Viserys would not be so stupid as to attack in close range. He had magical means of high-altitude combat. And he had no intention of attacking King's Landing.

Just after seeing off Grolai and his son, news came from the sea.

The news came from the ravens of Stoneyon Keep, which had just been incorporated into Dragonstone. The patrol longships sent to the coast of Stoneyon Keep discovered a Tyroshi fleet consisting of five large ships heading towards the Throat, including two three-hundred-oared ships and three one-hundred-oared ships.

The fleet of three hundred-oared ships is very noteworthy. After all, if three hundred-oared ships are hiding soldiers and horses, they can hide nearly a thousand people. If they change the flag, they will be a small fleet. According to the current response method of the Dragonstone Navy, if these ships are destined for Dragonstone, they will be forced to stop by the sea patrol fleet when they are close to Dragonstone and ask about the situation.

Thanks to the fact that Commander Viserys of the First Fleet brought back enough ships from Pentos, the Dragonstone Navy was able to take shape and was no longer stretched to the limit.

Otherwise, the navy's new ships can only wait for the two vassal states, Chaotoubao and Xiedao, to build new ships in their respective shipyards, but it is unknown how long it will take for the new ships to be launched.

Speaking of which, all the ships in Viserys's fleet now belong to Grole, except for the captured Lysse warships. He is also considered a loyal vassal among Viserys's vassals who has raised his own fleet with the help of his family to serve as the king's vanguard.

The merchant fleet of five Tyroshi ships attracted Viserys's attention, and he asked the observation posts in the castle to pay more attention to the situation near the coast.

The news received by the castle was quickly sent to the port. Viserys could see from the castle that his offshore patrol fleet quickly formed a mixed fleet at the call of the horn and headed for patrolling the outskirts of Dragonstone.

Viserys's requirement for coastal defense is to patrol only as far as the castle can see, and ignore any farther, so as to avoid him being unable to rescue in time if something happens. As for the vassal's territory, as long as they can send out a raven, Viserys can rush over to rescue.

Stonehenge and Dragonstone were not close on the map, but half a day passed after the news reached the castle's observation post, using a Myrish telescope, and saw from afar that a maritime patrol and a merchant fleet were meeting at sea.

It seems that the destination of the Tyrosh fleet that Stonehenge warned about is indeed Dragonstone.

To prevent any accidents, Viserys went to the observation post in person.

Fortunately, they seemed to be merchant ships. After being forced to stop, only one ship was allowed in, and the other four were persuaded to go to the port of Chaotou Island or Point.

The reason why only one ship is allowed into the port is that the dock policy implemented by Dragonstone has not changed. Dragonstone is still implementing strict "port entry control". Only merchant ships that are confirmed to be coming to Dragonstone for business and have been guaranteed by merchants in the town can enter the port. Otherwise, they are not allowed to enter the port. The docked ships must leave at the agreed time and are not allowed to extend their stay.

And today there seems to be only one dock space available.

Despite such strict entry regulations, the port of Dragonstone was still full every day some time ago. It took a long time to queue for a berth at the dock, which forced Viserys to make further changes. He required ships coming to Dragonstone to queue up to enter the port. When the dock was really not large enough, merchant ships had to queue up at Pointe and Tidefort. Viserys knew, of course, that many merchant ships had ulterior motives, but there had to be a way to deal with them.

Dragonstone is a small place with a small dock, unlike the large ports like King's Landing, Oldtown, and the Free Cities, which have several large docks.

For many things, it is better to smooth things over than to block them. By now, the tense period at the docks and shipyards has passed.

After all, Dragonstone is a town with a castle, so there are not so many commercial activities. The dock is now basically in the stage of calming down. Although there are still occasional shortages of space, it is much better than before. Viserys thinks that in the near future, the "port entry control" policy can be gradually relaxed and return to normal.

Viserys didn't know it yet, but these ships were sent by the Lord of Tyrosh, and on board was Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper of Dorne.

The Lord of Tyrosh did not inform the Kingdom of his visit to Dragonstone in advance, so the envoys from Tyrosh were uninvited guests.

But it's also a matter of time.

When Viserys was in Tyrosh, he sent a letter to visit. Now, the envoys from Tyrosh have to go through the same process if they want to see Viserys when they come to Dragonstone.

Jorah Mormont, the envoy sent by Viserys to Dorne, caught Dorne by surprise. Now, it was the turn of Dorne's Red Viper to catch him by surprise.

In the original book, Sam said that the distance from Oldtown to his hometown, Horn Hill, is about 100 leagues, which is about the same as the entire length of the Great Wall. One league is equivalent to 1 miles, which is about 3 kilometers. In other words, Oldtown is 4.8 kilometers away from Horn Hill, which is about the same as the distance from Shanghai to Lishui, Zhejiang. It takes 480 hours by high-speed rail, 2-5 hours by car, 6-2 days by bicycle, and 4 days by walking 80 kilometers a day.

The distance from Dragonstone to King's Landing and Storm's End is about 100-200 leagues.

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(End of this chapter)