Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 220: Old Town Inspection Record

After a few days, Oldtown had gotten used to the two baby dragons circling in the sky while the king patrolled around Oldtown.

Oldtown is a large city with a population of 400,000 to 500,000 people. It is more planned and cleaner than King's Landing. The canals and cobblestone streets form a picture of a water town with small bridges, flowing water and people's homes. There are drainage canals and closed sewers in the city. In the eyes of many Westeros people, King's Landing, the political center, is like a huge dung heap. The city is congested and dirty, and the dirtiness of the slums is unbearable. Civil unrest breaks out from time to time.

In comparison, Oldtown, a city only slightly smaller in population than King's Landing, is clean and tidy, with all kinds of streets and lanes, making it an exquisite and elegant city. To be honest, this place reminds Viserys of ancient Athens.

In the past two days, Viserys, accompanied by Lord Leighton, visited the town hall and the bank in the old town standing along the river on the west bank of the Mead River.

To be honest, it was only when he was really there that Viserys realized that Oldtown was very different from the big cities he had been to before. Not to mention King's Landing, even Braavos, Pentos, Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh in Essos were not as much like a real city as Oldtown.

Viserys realized that there was such a thing as urban planning in Oldtown, and it seemed that there had been plans for expansion and renovation since its inception.

This means that the city builders and later managers of the city expansion had a broad enough vision and must have "seen the world" in order to build a well-organized city in such a medieval world.

The centerpiece of the city was the towering Hightower Tower, one of the nine man-made wonders of the world. Even Viserys could not have imagined how a towering building could be built in the Middle Ages until he saw it with his own eyes.

But after seeing it with his own eyes and entering it, even though he was from another world, Viserys could not help but sigh at its grandeur and ingenuity. Although the actual height of the tower is not as exaggerated as the legendary 800 feet, it is certainly not much less than the 700 feet of the Wall. The top of the tower reaches straight into the sky, and the light of the bright lighthouse on the top of the tower can be seen even hundreds of miles away.

But from the top of the tower, he could not see the Wall as people said. But the fact was that from the towering tower, just like Viserys flying high in the sky, he could clearly perceive the curve of the far horizon and the sea level, and from this he naturally inferred that the world was a huge sphere.

The base of the towering tower is an island in the river called Conquest Island. The base is a square fortress made of a rough black stone of unknown origin. Viserys asked curiously, but Lord Leyton could not tell the source of the black stone. He only quoted a hypothesis proposed by Dr. Corleone of the Citadel, believing that the fortress was related to the maze builder of Lorath.

Viserys knew that all buildings related to Blackstone were ancient and could block magical prying eyes. With a huge Blackstone fortress and the ability to build stone towers hundreds of feet high on the fortress, there was no doubt that Hightower must have some kind of ancient magical heritage.

You know, before the Earth's Industrial Revolution, it was unimaginable to build a 240-meter-high building.

The most bizarre thing is that there is an "elevator" similar to the Great Wall in the towering tower, which is a "vertical ladder" made of weights and pulleys that can transport goods and people. The ladder is made of heavy chains and iron bars.

No wonder people say that the towering tower and the Great Wall were probably the work of "Brandon the Builder".

But in fact, the architecture of the towering tower is very scientific and does not seem magical at all.

The towering tower is divided into five layers that can be seen by the naked eye. There are obvious boundaries between the layers. The largest and widest is the base. The lower you go, the rounder the tower becomes, and the higher you go, the thinner the tower becomes. The whole tower looks like a layered cake. It is easy to tell that the tower was built in different periods and eras, including the "elevators" that are not connected between the layers.

When observing the city from the towering tower, it is obvious that the old town's parish and school city were later replanned into a "city within a city". It can be vaguely seen that the two urban areas were expanded from the original city walls and the urn. The parish is located on a low hill in the city. The former Cathedral of the Seven Gods and the Starry Cathedral, the residence of the Archbishop, are at the top of the hill. There is also the Sailor's Cathedral nearby. The Lord's Cathedral, the Seven Temples and the House of the Virgin stand in the parish.

There is a huge camp in the Starry Temple. It used to be the garrison of the Sons of the Armed Warriors of the Order and the Poor Assembly. It is now occupied by the Old Town Garrison, which is responsible for maintaining law and order.

The Citadel is located on the west bank of the Mead River, completely occupying the southwest corner of the old town. As a typical city within a city, the tall stone walls and towers make the Citadel independent of the city, and there are only seven gates including the main gate for entry and exit. If you ignore the university attributes of the Citadel, it is a typical medieval giant military fortress. When a war breaks out, the Citadel closes its gates and becomes a military base that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

There are many towers in the academy, and the towers and domes are all connected by stone arch bridges, and the residential buildings are built on the bridges.

It is no wonder that when Aegon arrived in Oldtown, people thought that Aegon would set up his capital in Oldtown.

This was the most serious and classical city Viserys had ever seen since he traveled through time. The fact that the city was neither dirty nor messy alone made it far superior to all the cities Viserys had been to in the World of Ice and Fire.

Viserys believed that King's Landing, the largest city in Westeros, was definitely not like Oldtown.

Even from memories before the age of eight, Viserys seemed to remember the stench of the city that he could smell even in the Red Keep.

King's Landing is a typical city that was built at a rapid pace without any planning.

When Viserys thought about living in King's Landing in the future, he felt that his future was bleak. In this era, the quality of citizens could not be counted on, and King's Landing was a big city, and sea and land transportation was extremely easy to be controlled. Whenever there was a war, King's Landing's supply lines would basically be cut off, and riots would break out.

Such civic riots occurred from the time of Maegor to the reign of Joffrey I the Ancient of Days.

However, after visiting the old town for a few days, Viserys had more confidence in medieval urban planning.

At the same time, he also became more wary of the Hightower family.

Apparently, this family had a very clear idea of ​​what they wanted the city to look like since the beginning of its establishment, and the ancient bloodline of such a family can be traced back to the ancestors. In the Dawn Age, they were kings, ruling the Old Town and its surrounding areas. Even after that, even though they "surrendered" to one new king after another, they still remained entrenched here.

This family even existed as early as the time of Garth the Greenhand, the ancestor that some families in the Reach traced back to, and may be even older.

This means that the Hightower family has ruled Oldtown for at least eight thousand years. Even in Westeros, where families can easily continue their inheritance for thousands of years, the Hightower family is one of the oldest.

This means that dealing with the Hightowers may also result in something similar to the Starks' "The North will never forget" incident.

Of course, the reference answer Aegon the Conqueror actually gave a version, that is, Aegon dealt with the Hall family of Harrenhal. Aegon's answer was to wipe out the entire family and cut off their descendants.

It must be said that Aegon's reference answer was undoubtedly the most efficient. But Viserys also knew that once some switches were turned on, they would be difficult to control.

Actually, the people of Oldtown originally thought that Viserys would hold court and preside over trials in Oldtown, just like the kings who had visited Oldtown before, to demonstrate the majesty of a true king.

But the fact is that Viserys has been inspecting and visiting these days, as if he really came to Oldtown to assist in the defense and cooperate with the Citadel for experiments.

These days, accompanied by Lord Leyton, Viserys first inspected the deployment of maritime defenses, and then inspected the defenses of the camps and city walls of the various garrisons in the city. And to Lord Leyton's surprise, King Viserys did not even ask to take over the defense of Oldtown, but only arranged the so-called "support troops" in a camp near the Citadel. What he could not have imagined was that after the troops arrived, they had strict military discipline, did not disturb the people, and did not cause trouble, as if they were a reserve force of friendly forces to help Oldtown defend against unexpected events.

Accompanied by Lord Leyton, King Viserys pretended to see the city defense preparations, then began to visit the famous Starry Cathedral in Oldtown. In the Great Cathedral, he discussed the Seven Gods' doctrine with the bishop of the cathedral, and listened to a cathedral reading hosted by the bishop. Finally, he fasted and bathed in the cathedral, and stayed overnight, which made the monks and bishops of the Starry Cathedral have a good impression of the king.

After the era of Maegor, the Hightower family and the Starry Sept were no longer so closely connected, and the number of Hightower family bishops in the Sept gradually decreased. After the Great Sept of Baelor was built, the Starry Sept completely lost its status as the center of the Seven Gods, and its appeal and status in the church were no longer as good as before. The current situation is that Viserys does not need the Starry Sept to add glory to himself, but the Starry Sept needs Viserys to add glory to the Sept.

These news will undoubtedly spread to the people, making the citizens of Old Town more and more accepting of the king.

Now, wherever Viserys went, when the citizens discovered the king's arrival, there were always onlookers and flowers.

Viserys has been making his presence felt in Oldtown these days. At the same time, his political ideas, chicken soup stories, and the political policies that have been reached are also spreading wildly in Oldtown. King Viserys is undoubtedly the top star in Oldtown these days. Viserys's presence will undoubtedly make the citizens feel that the king is around. It is hard to say that this is not for some political purpose.

But Viserys also knew that there had to be a limit to his presence and popularity. When the citizens began to get used to it, he should do something else to make others feel close to him as a king.

In a short period of time, Viserys conveyed his image in Oldtown as a good king, cordial with the church, with the people, and friendly with local rulers.

This kind of political show seems necessary to Viserys, and in a sense it can be called creating the image of a victim.

And now that Viserys has almost finished the show, it's time to start doing things.

It just so happened that the iceberg monster in the port had been dragged to an open area by the water in the old town in the past few days. It was traditionally used as a venue for martial arts competitions. With the cooperation of the scholars of the Citadel and the King's Guards, a huge and clean academic venue had been built.

The king's magical advisor and the doctors of the Citadel will work together there to dissect the sea monster that has aroused the curiosity of the entire city.

This conference was originally just an academic exchange, but it has undoubtedly attracted the attention of the entire city.

(End of this chapter)