Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 253 Trouble
On Earth, politicians’ funerals, weddings, and inauguration ceremonies are all occasions for communicating and resolving important domestic and international issues.

However, the people of Westeros obviously had not formed such a custom yet, so when King Viserys gathered princes from all over the country during Prince Denys's tourney to discuss matters with his ministers, and held small meetings after the large meetings and banquets after the small meetings, and summoned the dukes of the three kingdoms, major princes and powerful figures who actually managed affairs in various places from time to time, many people were a little uncomfortable.

You know, in their cognition, except for the Harrenhal Tournament in the "Wrong Spring", there has never been a tournament that the king took as a serious political occasion to communicate with the princes.

Many people would think of Robert Baratheon, who held a tourney almost every year. Look at King Robert. No tourney was like Viserys's. It was not like a jubilant rest at all. Instead, it was like gathering the princes of the jurisdiction with great difficulty to take the opportunity to find out what the current situation in the jurisdiction was. This time, Prince Dennis's naming day was the first grand event in the jurisdiction. Except for a few who were too old or had something else to do, almost all the princes gathered.

Many people can't adapt.

Under the feudal system of Westeros, the local lords were actually equivalent to small kings in various places. Before this, there were few such inquiries, which made them feel like they were reporting to the great lords. Although Viserys only asked about the situation in various places briefly, he asked more about the implementation of the policies he promoted and the difficulties encountered during the construction process.

Moreover, he appeared very kind and gentle during the process, just like some nobles who wanted to be good lords would sometimes chat with the general stewards and main knights in the territory, which was essentially a means of winning people's hearts.

Because of Viserys's "diligence", the tournament took on a different meaning in the eyes of the powerful nobles. It seemed that the king still wanted to continue to innovate in the country.

As expected, although the king did not propose any new policies, after a series of communications with state ministers and powerful lords, the king still announced two major events, demonstrated two new things, and put forward a new idea.

There were two major events. The first was to appoint Denys as the crown prince. Although the child mortality rate was very high in this era, Denys was the child of two extraordinary creatures, and Viserys felt that he would be fine. The second was to re-establish the Kingsguard. Two candidates had been chosen so far. One was the captain of the Kingsguard, who was undoubtedly Barristan, who was now far away at the Wall, and the other was Quentyn Martell of the Martell family. The remaining five vacancies were being selected.

And even more shocking news followed, that His Majesty the King would provide seven sets of Valyrian armor and weapons for his Kingsguard.

When this news came out, the significance of this tournament suddenly became a matter of speculation. Many well-known knights were very excited and eager to try, and many people began to think that this was a preliminary test for the Iron Guard candidates.

Compared to the selection of the Iron Guards, which was related to the honor of the knights and could even go down in history, the two new things displayed by the king only caused a sensation among the great lords and generals who knew military affairs.

The two new gadgets are glass candles. This thing is relatively hidden and not many people know about it, because there are only four glass candles at present. It is said that after the glass candles are re-burned, they can play the role of remote communication in the hands of people with strong mental power, and even invade other people's dreams.

But the truth is, it is not as weird as the legend says, and the huge mental power required to invade dreams is simply not something that mortals can bear. Even Daenerys can't stand the invasion function of glass candles. However, if the user has strong mental power, it is true that remote fixed-point two-way communication can be carried out. Of course, it cannot reach the level of satellite phones on Earth that transmit voices thousands of miles away.

This was also a method Viserys thought of when he and Fremy went to Valyria, that is, to locate the point through mysticism and then communicate through fireworks.

So Viserys thought that even if he couldn't find someone with mental strength as strong as Viserys, Daenerys, and Fremy, as long as there was someone who could withstand the long-range fireworks from one glass candle to another, the message could be transmitted.

Yes, Viserys had thought of Morse code.

He discovered that he could use the mystical connection between glass candles to train specialized personnel to transmit basic information through the long and short leaps of fixed-point two-way fireworks between two places.

Doesn't this mean that Viserys now has four radio stations?
Therefore, Viserys wanted to train a "telegraph operator" in Oldtown, Storm's End, Highgarden, and Sunspear, using four glass candles to communicate in real time.

With this in mind, Viserys also wanted to take Daenerys to the ruins of Valyria again to see if he could find dragon eggs and glass candles. He also wanted to look for the Blood Temple in the capital of Valyria and the study in Tria to see if there were any written records, and to find out the manufacturing process of Valyrian steel and glass candles, as well as other technologies that might be used.
At this time, Viserys often found that he had overlooked some of his previous mistakes in Valyria - for example, that researcher, his head must be filled with thousands of years of Valyria's knowledge. Viserys should have confirmed whether the Red God's messenger had killed him. That guy was very weird, but he was a real researcher. With his arrogance, Viserys thought it was impossible for him to cooperate with others, but when he thought about his death now, he actually felt it was a pity.

In addition to the new gadget, the glass candle radio, there was another new gadget, the so-called "electric heating device" made of copper wire and steel.

Using his "witchcraft magic", Viserys demonstrated to the attendees selected by the king how to use the power of lightning generated by his "magic" to make the copper coils and steel of the "electric heating device" turn red under precise control.

Many people were amazed by it, but they didn't know what it was used for.

Viserys said that he would have a way to let the main officers in the army learn how to control "lightning" in the future. As for what this thing can do, it can be used for heating, boiling water, and removing ice and snow in winter. In addition, it may be used in conjunction with a thing called "electric light" that the Citadel is researching for lighting - yes, Viserys asked Dr. Marwin to set up a research institute in the Citadel to study tungsten filament lamps. In addition to electric lights, Viserys also envisioned a defensive electric grid for special operations in military camps.
Speaking of this, one of Viserys' new ideas is also related to "electricity". Viserys plans to let the four major jurisdictions organize the establishment of military academies, and let the princes arrange prestigious and responsible old generals and knight commanders in each jurisdiction to carry out learning activities. Viserys will specially arrange instructors from the Citadel to teach them the correct understanding of "electric magic" and let them learn and understand this magic. At the same time, he hopes that they can brainstorm and see if they can think of the use of "electric magic" on the battlefield.

Although many new things were discussed in this meeting, most of the participants were veterans and knights who had fought on the battlefield. They could not hear the new things clearly, but they grasped the most important point: "Your Majesty, are you saying that you have a way for us to use the same 'witchcraft' and power as you do?"

Viserys answered seriously: "Yes, but you need the cooperation of your soldiers. I have a way to give you some 'power', but I'm afraid you can't do it by yourself, and you need to learn first."

For a moment, these knights were all surprised, shocked and astonished.

Someone asked: "Your Majesty, it is rumored that the troops commanded by Prince Garin of the Rhoynar who once fought against Valyria could summon water magic to fight against dragons. Your Majesty, with all due respect, are you saying that you have a way to give us power similar to the legendary 'Great Garin'? Or is this the power that made Valyria invincible in the past?"

Another person said: "Could it be that thousands of years ago, the Arm of Dorne was also destroyed by an army with similar power?"

"Is that Neck Ze?"

Well, Viserys had been worried that these veterans and knight commanders wouldn't be able to accept new ideas and things that were beyond their usual way of fighting. He didn't expect that they would fill in the gaps in their own imaginations and find corresponding things from historical legends for reference.

Viserys replied, "You may assume so, but do not expect too much. After you actually try it, it is possible that this power can only be used to boil water, light lamps, and fix defenses."

When Viserys had finished what he was going to show.

Soon the turn turned, and it was the princes' turn to question him.

The most important one is the royal city. In the past year, since Viserys left Dragonstone, it has become difficult for the locals to contact the king because the king has been traveling around the jurisdiction with his royal carriage. They can only know the location of the center after the king sends a message. Therefore, the princes urgently need a stable royal city and national institutions to establish normal communication channels.

So there was another discussion, and finally it was decided to temporarily make the old town the temporary capital, not to build a royal palace for the time being, and to use a castle in the academic city as the formal temporary palace.

There are also other issues regarding the degree of policy implementation and the distribution of power between royal decrees and local managers. Although the royal power has not abolished or threatened the power of local princes, many measures have made the princes keenly aware that the king's power in the local areas is growing. Although it currently seems to be due to war considerations, and it has made up for the part that the princes did not play a role in and occupied some of the originally vacuum responsibilities, power has always been a sensitive thing.

Viserys and his ministers had no choice but to launch a "rumor-busting" campaign among the princes, saying things like "You have difficulties, I have difficulties too.", "The focus is on fighting the White Walkers.", "Tolerance is for the sake of the country." and so on.

The tournament of Crown Prince Dennis was in full swing in a situation that looked like just a tournament, but what actually happened was far more than just a tournament.

Some people were eager to get the position of Kingsguard, wanting to get the honor - this was the first Kingsguard to wear Valyrian steel armor.

Some were pondering the various new things the king had proposed during the tourney, new ideas that seemed to change the way war was fought.

Some simply rejoice in the event and enjoy the moment.

At that time, few people could realize that this martial arts tournament would be one of the few warm memories in their memories for the next few years.

After seven days of competition, the champion of the individual competition was Jerod Dane, a knight from the Dane family of High Hidden City, nicknamed the Dark Star.

However, it was also expected. Prince Oberyn, who had magic, was the Prime Minister and did not participate in the tournament. Among the young talents of the lords in the jurisdiction, only Loras of the Tyrell family in the south could compete with him. But Loras was stimulated and had a knot in his heart after returning from King's Landing. He was appointed Kingsguard in King's Landing, but when family interests and honor conflicted, his father, Duke Mace, forced him to make a choice, which made him confused. Even if the champion of Crown Prince Denys's tournament this time might become the first White Robe of Valyria Armor, he could not get over the hurdle in his heart.

But Gerold Dayne is different. He is a harsh and persevering man with ambition and means. The moment he heard Viserys rebuild the Kingsguard, the only position of champion was in his eyes.

This Dayne is not the same kind of person as the late Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.

But when the knight received the crown of love and beauty, he did not choose to wear it to anyone, but asked Viserys for approval and applied to become a Kingsguard, Viserys did not refuse.

Viserys also knew that the Dark Star would not be an upright knight, but that didn't matter. Dennis would become the crown prince in the future, which meant that he could not be a pedantic good guy. Viserys had high hopes for Dennis, so he would not arrange a baby bus team for the crown prince. The Dark Star was different from Barristan, but it was also a sharp steel knife if used well.

What's more, this man was born in the Dayne family, although it was a branch of the Dayne family in Starfall City, but he also followed the Dayne family's tradition of "learning martial arts, becoming a king". Jello Dayne may not become Dennis's "Sword of the Dawn", but he can become Dennis's "Dark Star".

So Gerold Dayne became the third member of the Kingsguard team established by Viserys for the Crown Prince.

As the tourney ended, Viserys rode back to the temporary capital, Oldtown, with a group of official Targaryen court personnel.

Originally, for the sake of a sense of ceremony, Viserys had planned to follow the slow-moving carriage step by step back to Oldtown with his family. However, he did not expect that just as the Citadel sent out white crows to various parts of Westeros and announced the arrival of winter, some new intelligence reached Sunspear, forcing Prince Doran to send fast horses to catch up with the carriage and deliver the information to Viserys.

After Viserys came back, he specifically told Oberyn to pay attention to the intelligence of Essos, because he concluded that something big must happen in Essos. Unexpectedly, the intelligence personnel sent by Oberyn to the Free Trade City of Essos had just started their work when they found out a piece of news that seemed unimportant but made Viserys feel horrified.

Blood plague broke out and spread in the east of Essos.

There are reports that the blood plague has appeared in the three cities of Slaver's Bay and the central Dothraki Sea.

In order to avoid the plague, the Dothraki began to migrate westward on a large scale - some also went eastward.

The merchants of Qohor who traveled to Vaes Dothrak were the first to discover the signs of the Dothraki gathering in large numbers and moved westward, so they sold the news to the governor of the city-state of Qohor. Considering that this gathering seemed different from the past, the people of Qohor wanted to follow history and organized a mercenary team to go to the three cities of Slaver's Bay to buy Unsullied for preparation for defense. However, they never expected to hear the news of the blood plague on the way.

Blood plague is an infectious disease that can spread very quickly.

The Dothraki were fleeing, and so were the merchants from the three cities in the Slave Bay, with a large number of refugees following behind them. The blood plague was spreading along the slave trader's road along with their movements.

Qohor and Volantis, the cities closest to Dothraki and Slaver's Bay, have already begun organizing forces to prevent anyone from the east from entering their territories. They are even considering closing the city gates to isolate everything from outside.

At the same time, Volantis issued an order allowing anyone who was able to do so to attack and burn any merchant ships from Slaver's Bay found at sea.

But will the Dothraki from the west bring plague to Essos? Will it affect Westeros?

At this time, no one can explain it clearly.

Prince Doran sent the news to Viserys on horseback because Westeros was purchasing a large amount of food from Essos, and the food source was mainly from the Disputed Lands. The Dothraki coming from the west would almost certainly cross the Rhoyne River, head to the Golden Fields, and even go deep into the Disputed Lands.

So Daolang wanted to ask, should we first gradually reduce the purchase of food, and then resume normal purchases when there is no news of an epidemic outbreak?

Although the Slaver's Bay is far away from Westeros, and Volantis and Qohor are also the ends of the earth for many Westeros people, the plague is not like other things. If it is accidentally brought in from land or sea, it will sweep through a city or a city-state in just a short time.

Viserys was not unaware that in the original world line, when Daenerys was besieged by the slave owners' coalition during her reign in Meereen before winter, the blood plague spread and she suffered severe damage.

The blood plague was first discovered in Meereen as a dying Astapor trooper aboard a pale mare, earning it the nickname "The Pale Mare".

But Viserys didn't expect that, outside of Daenerys's vision in the original world line, the blood plague actually affected the Dothraki, causing them to migrate in large numbers and potentially become a source of pollution.

Come to think of it, it makes perfect sense.

The plague sweeping the "world" - the "barbarians" from the eastern grasslands - the end of the world, this connection made Viserys inexplicably feel a sense of rationality that transcended time and space, and he even found a sense of déjà vu in the medieval history of Earth in another world.

As a sign of the coming of the "end of the world", a plague and the westward migration of the grassland people are so reasonable.

Needless to say, Viserys immediately informed Daenerys, then summoned the ministers accompanying her and asked them to send a letter to the ports where grain was imported immediately, requesting statistics on the inflow and outflow of each port, so that the ministers and officials who controlled grain imports could estimate how long the amount of grain purchased would be enough for. At the same time, they asked the princes in various places to check how much gap there was in the granaries.
The import of grain may have to be accelerated. Viserys roughly estimated the pace of the Dothraki and prepared to gradually reduce large-scale purchases after a month and strictly control the source and inspection of grain imports.

At the same time, additional epidemic prevention inspection departments should be set up in ports across the country, and plans should be made to directly close ports and stop trade with the Essos continent when necessary.

The area under his jurisdiction cannot be taken lightly either. Viserys plans to find a medical doctor to jointly draft an epidemic prevention manual as soon as he returns to Oldtown. Even if Westeros cannot use it, it can be used to trade with friendly city-states in Essos.

No matter what, it is always right to be prepared and take precautions.

Suddenly, Viserys wondered if the messengers of the Red God had been prepared for the plague.

This idea has no real evidence, but it makes Viserys feel very feasible. If Viserys were the "God's messenger", in order to expand his influence in the shortest possible time, if Viserys had foreseen the plague, he would undoubtedly use the plague to show his skills and make a fuss.

In the following days, intelligence from Essos seemed to confirm Viserys's suspicions.

The Dothraki moved westward in large numbers, directly crossing the Rhoyne River and entering the familiar Golden Fields. However, the Golden Fields had turned into a swamp in the previous storm and had not yet recovered. The area could not meet the Dothraki's garrison needs, so they continued to move into the inland controlled by the major city-states.

Just like Drogo, who had threatened the major city-states for nearly a year, these Dothraki began to demand treasure and supplies. They also brought the plague, although when they found suspected patients, they would immediately drive them out of the tribe without hesitation, even slaughtering and burning them to death. But the plague was still brought into the interior of Essos.

Plagues began to break out in villages and towns outside some city-states, and death spread.

Especially in the disaster-stricken areas that were previously swept by the storm, ordinary people who had lived on the fertile land had just seen some improvement when they were hit again by the closure of trade routes and the Dothraki invasion. Many civilians, even those with sufficient risk resistance, could not escape the fate of bankruptcy and the destruction of their families.

At this time, many Red God priests went to the Dothraki's looting areas and plague-infested areas to spread the gospel and save the suffering civilians. The Red God sect was able to absorb a large number of believers in a short period of time and become fanatics, becoming the Red God's reserve force.

Even in the cities, with the dual threat of Dothraki force and plague, radical Red God cults began to spread terror in major cities, declaring that the Red God had come to the world and the gods had come. Only those who believed in the Red God could survive the Dothraki and the plague.

As more and more news came, it was said that Volantis had been controlled by the Red God Cult. Volantis relied on believers to form the Flame Army to resist the Dothraki tribe that invaded Volantis and burned everything related to the plague.

And Volantis called on the states in the disputed lands to unite against the Dothraki.

Because of Volantis' radical resistance, most of the Dothraki tribes who went there were killed in the brutal and explosive resistance movement, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the Dothraki people, and some large tribes began to march towards Volantis.

But Volantis resisted two major attacks and performed a miraculous act of burning a Dothraki horde in one battle.

This angered the Dothraki, and the Dothraki tribes that had already entered the inland began to plunder the place, replenish their war preparations, and return to attack Volantis.

During the looting, the city-states were originally planning to stand aside and watch. But the Red God believers in the city-states suddenly seemed to have a plan and started to stir up people everywhere, refuting the indulgence of the city-states towards the Dothraki. They used magic and witchcraft that ordinary people could not understand to spread the suffering that Essos was going through and the "miracle" that happened in Volantis, announcing to the people that the messenger of God had come to the world to lead the world to fight against evil and gain salvation.
There were already a large number of Red God believers in Essos, and this premeditated incitement caused a strong response from believers everywhere.

With the Red Temple as the center, armed groups of the Red God were formed in many city-states where refugees were resettled, with the intention of seizing power by force.

In order to quell this wave, the city-states chose to provide financial assistance, providing these fanatical armed forces with supplies and weapons, allowing them to go and join the gods of Volantis.

For a time, going to Volantis to see the angel became a trend among all the Red God followers in Essos.
The Red God's messenger was obviously using the Dothraki migration to the west and the plague to deceive the people with the Crusades and organize religious forces in Essos.

And considering that the "Emissary of God" is real, Viserys estimates that it won't be long before the "Crusaders" of the Red God sect will grow exponentially and become a force that can influence the situation in Essos.

But Viserys still underestimated the Red God's messenger.

As time went on, after he had enough followers and armed forces, he even set his sights on the Dothraki.

It is said that the god personally killed and resurrected a Dothraki horse king, and showed the resurrected horse king a miracle to drive away the terrible plague, turning him and his tribe into believers, and driving the tribe to annex one Dothraki tribe after another, and leading them to the area around the Qohor Forest to meet the real great war.

The rumors were so bizarre that a lot of the information seemed like nonsense, artificially fabricated, and inconsistent.

But Viserys didn't think so. These seemingly confusing intelligence indicated that the Red God's messenger was in a hurry to do things. The more impulsive and weird his actions were, the more anxious he seemed.

This means that the Red God is feeling a lot of pressure.

However, Viserys has been busy preparing for Westeros these days. After discovering that the Red God's messenger was taking advantage of the plague, Viserys's epidemic prevention preparations seemed less important, but various predetermined policies were still being implemented.

What happened in Essos also made Viserys feel pressured, so he paid special attention to the development of the situation in the North and the situation of the Great Wall.

(End of this chapter)