Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 124 Red Sea Monster: Can anyone tell me what happened?
"Your Majesty, it's not that we don't believe in your promise." A ragged brown brother, holding a seven-star Bible that looked old but was obviously well-protected, drank up the bean soup in his hand first, then stood up and said in a deep voice. "It's that we don't believe in our lord." He glanced at the old, young, and disabled people sitting around the young brown-haired king.

"The lord will send tax collectors to collect taxes. He will also enfeoff new knights, who will come to collect taxes again." The monk said, "Knights need horses and armor, while the people need bread and salt. The contradiction between the two is almost irreconcilable. Your Majesty, can you guarantee that the lord will not take the last copper coin and the last bean from us before the relief arrives?"

Longzel looked at the barefoot monk from head to toe with some surprise. He was already very old, and there was not a single hair on his shaved head. Even his sideburns were so sparse that there were only a few strands left. But the old monk's eyes were still as clear as a child's. Longzel could even see that his tattered bag was full of herbs.

If Longzel guessed correctly, this old monk was one of the ascetics who stayed in these villages. Unlike the monks in the temple, the poor villages could not afford to build temples for the monks. Therefore, these monks who swore to practice the teachings of the Seven Gods used the sky as blankets and the ground as beds to travel between villages to preach and also served as doctors. It seemed that this old monk was outstanding even among the ascetics.

After listening to the old monk's plea, Longzier wanted to hear what Jacaerys had to say. Jacaerys fell into thought, but soon, the young brown-haired king looked at the old monk firmly: "Monk, I don't know your name, but I would like to ask you to supervise the affairs after the grain arrives. My Hand of the King, Lord Longzier Vareses, has issued a grain order to the Reach. Lady Zhenxia will requisition enough grain to the north on behalf of Duke Lyonel Tyrell. The grain in the valley is also ready to be shipped from Seagull Town. The granary of the Hightower family has also been opened. They will pay the price for their betrayal. What I can guarantee is that the grain will definitely come to the Riverlands."

Jacaerys stood up and said, "If the food is not distributed to every village, I will personally ride my dragon to your lords' castles to question them. As for taxes, I will fly to each castle and warn them to understand your suffering." The young king bowed his head to the people. "This is the king's promise, and the king will do it."

"That's a nice thing to say." A man who had lost an arm in the war muttered, "It's all your shit." But the eyes of the others around him stopped the man from continuing, and he could only mutter and look at the ground. But the old monk still looked at the king who bowed to the people quietly, and also bowed his head: "I believe in your sincerity, Your Majesty, and please don't let your people down."

Longzel watched as Jacaerys repeatedly assured everyone that he would keep them alive through the winter and the plague, and sat among the crowd to listen to their demands and resolve disputes between several villages. He smiled with satisfaction, but when he thought of the prophesied giant dragon that died outside the Iron Sword Throne, he finally sighed deeply in his heart.

No idea what the Targaryens were thinking to create such a symbol of the throne with such a strong symbolic meaning. Longzel just felt that there was something wrong with their brains. The dragon was obviously the most important symbol of the Dragon King family's dominance, but they had to use the name of warning future generations to create an Iron Throne that was extremely vulnerable and tainted with incredible things. Although the Iron Throne did mean that Aegon I completed the basic integration of Westeros and created an unprecedented unified country on this continent, it did also let down his descendants.

Thinking of this, Longzel still resisted the urge to continue complaining. He followed Jacaerys's idea and began to conceive the integration and governance of his territory. The population of the borderland is not large, and the population of Dorne is not even comparable to the desolate and cold North. Even though he occupied the northern valley plains of the three rich areas of Dorne and absorbed a large number of immigrants during the rebellion of the three kings of Dorne, in fact, the core population of his territory is still the Volantis immigrants and the borderland people. Now, he has absorbed a large area of ​​fertile and populous territory in the south of the Reach, and has basically completed the integration and unification of the borderland. Of course, except for the Sven family of Stonehelm and the Granderson family of Allseeing, they are still loyal to the Baratheon of the Stormlands. This means that the population of the Reach has also entered his own population system. There are also 30,000 strong men in the North. The old wolves of the Winter Wolf Army also stayed in the south.

Lord Cregan Stark was very grateful to Longzel for taking in his army. He led an army of 30,000 southwards, but when he returned, he only brought dozens of people, hundreds of nobles in black, hundreds of ships of food, and a lady.

Cregan fell madly in love with Alysanne Blackwood. After talking with the girl for a day and a night, Alysanne Blackwood happily accepted the wolf's proposal. In the presence of Longzier and Jacaerys, the wolf and the raven got married under the heart tree of Harrenhal. Okay, the topic has gone too far. Let's get back to thinking. Longzier continued to think.

Then after returning to the territory, I must do a good job of integrating the new population, so that I can smoothly take over such a large territory. The new territory must be divided among my own people. Valar and Rey also need the territory to support their offspring. Of course, family members should try not to be too far away. The administration and military of the territory will still be managed by the acting city lord sent by Longzel, and taxes can be paid on time.
Longzel did not think for too long, as he still needed to help Jacaris continue to appease the people in the kingdom. Jacaris was very motivated, and he rode on Womacks and flew to every castle in the riverlands, even many knights' manors and small castles, leaving the shadow of the king's dragon. Jacaris rejected the warm hospitality of all lords, and he and Longzel often flew over the castles suddenly, asking the lords to summon the people to hold royal courts, and the king would personally mediate various disputes.

In fact, there was no big dispute. The relatively intense one was the ongoing dispute between the Blackwood family and the Bracken family. After the Strong family donated their territory, part of Harrenhal's territory was given as a reward to the knights who were canonized in the war. Among them, a knight of the Blackwood family had a conflict with a knight of the Bracken family over a border mill, which eventually led to Red Robb leading his soldiers to the border. In the end, Jacaerys and Dragonzel arrived on dragons, and under the power of Wormithor, the two knights redefined the border and resolved the dispute.

After touring the Riverlands, Jacaerys flew to White Harbor, where he oversaw the arrival and receipt of grain ships, and then immediately flew to the Westerlands.

Pyke, Iron Islands.

The King's Harbor was already full of longships, the largest of which was none other than the "Deep King" owned by the current King of the Iron Islands, "Red Sea Monster" Dalton Greyjoy. The young king of the Iron Islands was standing firmly on the shaky long bridge made only of wood and iron chains outside the sea tower, watching with a gloomy face as nearly ten longships sailed into the King's Harbor.

Dalton is the pride of the Greyjoy family. This ancient family with a sea monster as its emblem is a well-known family in the Iron Islands. The number of their people who have been elected as kings of the Iron Islands is no less than that of the Greyiron family, the Hall family, and the Guber family. They are also descendants of the Grey King in the legendary Age of Heroes who killed the sea dragon Naga and used its pale bones to build a palace. Like all the iron families, the Greyjoy family is also keen on the ancient way of "brute force to win and hard work to do". When Dalton was 10 years old, he followed his family to drive a longship to participate in the looting of the Basilisk Islands. At the age of 14, he already had his own longship and married four concubines. His only failure was a head-on collision with Varese's Silver Fleet in the Summer Sea. In that battle, the plundering fleet of 16 longships of the Iron Islands faced 128 warships of the Silver Fleet. Only longships escaped, including Dalton's longship at that time. The Red Sea Monster regarded that failure as his shame, but since then, he has never tried to plunder the Silver Fleet's route again. It was also in that battle that Dalton, who was covered in blood, won the nickname "Red Sea Monster". After accumulating strength again, Dalton defeated his competitors and got a Valyrian steel sword "Nightfall" from them. The Red Monster thus established his position, and at the age of , in AD, he won the Kingsmoot and was elected King of the Iron Islands and Chief of the Plunderers by the iron races.

He was perceptive and immediately realized that turmoil was about to happen in the kingdom, so Dalton immediately ordered the Iron Race to temporarily stop looting, build ships, forge weapons and armor, and be ready to make a big move in the turmoil.

As expected, less than a year later, King Viserys died and civil war broke out. Both the Black Party and the Green Party extended olive branches to Dalton. Compared with the Green Party, which lacked naval power, the Black Party did not have such a great need for the navy, so the Queen only asked Dalton to attack the Green Party in the Westerlands and the River Reach.

So Dalton decisively chose the Black Party, but just when he assembled the fleet and was ready to practice the ancient ways.

The war ended in just four months. Almost all of the Green Party's dragons and male heirs were killed in the battle, the Hightower family was destroyed, and the Green Party suffered a devastating defeat.

Dalton was dumbfounded. I haven't even set out yet, and you're telling me the war is over? What about my pirate brothers? I can still tell them that the war is over and they can go home.

Impossible. There is now an entire iron fleet assembled in King's Harbor. Unless the iron races are satisfied with a hearty ancient road raid, they will not leave.

Thinking of this, Dalton Greyjoy couldn't help but look towards the south with some anger. Damn Hightower, damn Aegon the Great, damn Aemond, why didn't you hold on a little longer.

Even if I could hold out for another two months, I would be able to bring back shiploads of blood money and concubines from the West. What a waste! A bunch of waste. They have really let down the Greyjoy family's hard work.

No, we can't just let it go. Dalton Greyjoy thought, now that the war has just ended, the two dragon king families, the Targaryen family and the Varese family, will definitely focus on healing the wounds first, which means that they can't take care of their own affairs for the time being, but if they plunder Westeros itself, they will definitely be attacked by the dragons.

Thinking of the record of Vormithor killing Vhagar, Dalton couldn't help but shudder. It was too scary. That dragon didn't even need a fleet to send the entire Iron Fleet into the sea. Since he couldn't plunder Westeros, he couldn't disband his group of plunderers. Then it seemed that there was only one target left that would definitely not incur retaliation, and might even have some rewards, and he could make a lot of blood money.

"The Kingdom of Three Daughters."

The red sea monster couldn't help but licking his lips.

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(End of this chapter)