Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 159: The Rule of the Varese Family (Two in One)

"Look, what I said is true." The silver-haired stall owner Harald threw away the copper coins in his hand excitedly and rushed out of the stall. The lame man stood there for a while before reacting and following Harald into the manor wall. There were many people like them. Even a woman and several children came out of the beautiful stone house in the manor. Everyone excitedly ran to the large open space next to the temple. It was spacious enough for the dragon to rest. The open space was originally prepared for a cavalry commander of the Silver Blood Army, but that guy was recently pursuing the daughter of a Dornish noble in the Blemond Valley, so he gave up the river land allocated to him, and the land and the attached arable land were vacated. A few days ago, the priests of the temple wanted to reclaim this open space as the temple's own arable land, or make it into a square for the manor.

He didn't expect that it would be needed today. The brown-robed priest couldn't help but bow his head and pray. Fortunately, the old woman gave him wisdom. The oxen and draft horses that the Dothraki brothers promised to send in exchange for the wine he brewed had not arrived yet, otherwise the manor would not be big enough to accommodate the dragon.

"Priest, have the cows and draft horses that the short man promised a few days ago arrived?" An elderly northerner hurried to the door of the church: "The dragon needs food."

The priest shook his head and said, "It's too late even if it's delivered. Go and get His Highness." As he spoke, the priest also picked up his muddy robe and quickly followed the people pouring into the open space. The old man was stunned for a moment and stamped his feet hard. "Come on, young men, let's go deer hunting!" It seemed that this old man still had some prestige in the manor. After he shouted, several young men who rushed over immediately turned their heads. After seeing clearly that it was this black-haired old man, they immediately ran back home to get bows and arrows. A young man ran out of the long house and brought a war horse.

Among the people who gathered around were silver-haired and purple-eyed Valyrians, Andals, First Men, and some silver-haired or blond children. They had lost some of the characteristics of Valyrians. It was obvious that they were from marriages that took place after the establishment of the manor. The clothes of the residents living within the stone walls were still very good, but the clothes of the people outside the stone walls were not so good. However, they were still acceptable. At least they were relatively clean and no one was naked. They all had one or two pieces of clothing.

Xingge's dragon roar, like singing, came from the sky, which surprised the people below. "Old Cripple, you retired later than me, do you know which dragon's roar this is?" The stall owner Harald tried to identify Xingge's voice with a puzzled look on his face. "I don't know." Rick, an old soldier nicknamed "Cripple", also looked puzzled: "Harald, you know, I was stationed in the desert with the legion for the last few years of my service. I have been to Dragon's Nest City less than you have, and I have never heard such a sound."

The priest looked hard at the black spot in the sky which was getting bigger and bigger: "It's a big black dragon, is it His Highness Rey's Shadow Nightmare?" "No!" A silver-haired boy who came out of the stone house said loudly: "I heard from my father that the Shadow Nightmare is a very ferocious but very thin and very scary dragon. Its roar can even kill people directly. It is definitely not so nice to hear." The boy looked at the sky with longing, as if this would bring him closer to the giant dragon of his dreams.

"It really doesn't look like a Shadow Nightmare." The stall owner Harald had seen a Shadow Nightmare with his own eyes. He looked carefully at the black dragon that was obviously followed by the "mountain" of Wormisol, and felt that it didn't look like the Shadow Nightmare he had seen from afar. After all, when the Shadow Nightmare flew in the sky, he could clearly see the protruding bone spurs on its skinny body. The dragon looked more and more beautiful. Not only was its body fuller, but the curves from head to tail were also perfect. Both the length of its neck and tail were just right. Even the disc-shaped crown on its head had become larger and more prominent over the years. This black dragon looked more majestic. Especially the silver-gold patterns on its body that shone in the sun, more like bright stars in the night sky.

Xingge "sang" as it circled in front of people's eyes, and waited until Womisoel slowly landed on the open space next to the temple before landing. It turned out that Womisoel was really too big, and it had to coil its tail in front of its body to barely fit itself into the open space. The dust raised by the dragon when it landed almost blinded the eyes of the people who gathered around, so the crowd had to retreat to avoid being hurt by the dragon. Xingge was not small either, and it carefully flew around Womisoel again, and finally landed in a vegetable field next to a longhouse where radishes had just been harvested and not yet planted.

Ringol climbed down from Xingge nimbly, ran to his father with his short legs, and looked seriously at the people who had gathered around him. When these people saw Longzel climb down from the dragon's back, they did not waste a moment and knelt on one knee like a wave to welcome their prince.

Longzel nodded and touched Womisol's head. The bronze dragon growled muffledly and handed its tail to Longzel for him to sit down.

People also stood up. Looking at Longzel, and then at Lingol beside him, they seemed to understand something. The woman in the stone house bowed slightly and saluted: "Your Highness, Your Highness, we are already preparing food. Please forgive us for our sins. We didn't know you would come."

"It's okay." Longzel waved his hand: "I just brought the child to see our Silver Blood Army soldiers and what the manor under my rule looks like, and let him see you too."

"It is our pleasure, Your Highness, Your Highness." The woman said happily. "I will go to serve you and the prince right away." She looked at the dragon in awe. "I saw Uncle William taking the young men hunting. There are deer and wild boars in the nearby forest. They will provide food for the dragon."

"No need." Longzel said to the people gently, "Womithor and Xingge have fed enough food before they set out. We just come to visit you and solve your problems. We don't want to cause you too much trouble." Longzel looked at the silver-haired people in the crowd. These Valyrians followed their three brothers across the ocean to come here and took root here without complaints. You know, ten years ago, most of these people didn't even know where Westeros was, but now they are here to marry, have children, and put down roots.

They are an important cornerstone of the rule of the Varese family, and their existence must be valued. But they cannot be overvalued, and they must be allowed to integrate more smoothly into the local area, rather than being superior to the locals.

This requires the power of marriage. It seems that the marriage here is going well. At least some of the newborn children have inherited their father or mother. Of course, the mother has a few Valyrian characteristics, but more of them have inherited the appearance of their native relatives.

"Everyone can speak freely in front of me." Long Zeer looked at everyone with a smile, and stretched out his hand to hold his upright son in his arms. "If you have any problems, you can report them to me directly. I will solve the problems for you here today." Long Zeer moved his territory court to the people again.

Ringol recalled the political traditions of Westeros that Hoffa and his father had introduced. Generally speaking, the political structure of Westeros was: my vassal's vassal was still my vassal, and only the knights who obtained land directly from the lords were basically dependent on their lords. The lords had to swear allegiance to both their feudal lords and the king on the Iron Throne, and the oath to the Iron Throne was even higher than the oath to the feudal lords - but since Aegon's conquest, the Targaryen kings on the Iron Throne seldom bypassed the major dukes to directly command their vassals, so everyone unanimously ignored this rule.

But in A Dance with the Dragons, this matter was very obvious. When the Tully family, the lords of the Three Rivers, had not yet decided on sides, the earls of the Three Rivers had already begun fighting. When the Tyrell family of the Reach had not yet expressed their stance, the Rowan family and the Hightower family had already begun to gather their armies and prepare to fight. Moreover, the Bisbury family, as a vassal of the Hightower family, was the first to rise up against the Hightower family. This already illustrates the characteristics of the political system of Westeros.

The way for the lord to rule the territory was definitely not to collect taxes out of idleness or to exercise the right of first night which had been abolished many years ago, but to convene the lord's court in the castle, mediate conflicts in the territory, and listen to petitions from vassals and the people.

The Varese family also used a similar political system. The difference was that during their rule over the frontier areas, the Varese family established special courts in larger towns and conducted regular tours to assist the local lords in their rule.

It was very rare for the lord to attend the court in person, and it was even rarer for someone like Longzel to come on a dragon and take the initiative to listen to the petition. So after hearing Longzel's words, there was a commotion among the crowd, but it calmed down after a while.

"Who's going to go?" The crowd whispered. "The priest has to go, and, and, Harald, you have to go too, you're the big businessman in our estate."

"Cripple, don't hurt me, why don't you go?"

"I am just an ordinary veteran. Your Highness may have never seen me before. I won't have much to say if I go up to him."

"The lady has to go up too. Her husband is the governor of the manor." "Who else?"

"Let little Harry go. Harry will have to serve when he turns fifteen next year. He is representative."

"One more, one more."

"Can we come from other villages?"

"Of course you can. It's not easy for Your Highness to come here once."

"Thank you so much." Just as the crowd was discussing, the sound of horse hooves was heard. Little Harry and several young men rushed into the open space with William, an old hunter from the north. The young men unloaded a little wild boar from the back of a warhorse, and their warhorses were dragging a stag that was killed by a spear behind them.

"Your Highness, I have brought food for the dragon." The old hunter named "William" looked at the giant dragon that was dozing with its eyes closed in awe, and handed over the prey.

Longzel waved his hand and said, "Thank you for your hard work. However, my dragons don't want to eat right now. They want to have a good rest. How about this? Let's roast the deer and wild boar for dinner tonight. How about we share it?"

"Long live Prince Longzel! Long live Prince Lingol!" When people heard that there was good meat to eat today, they were all excited. The wife of the Archon had to use a lot of effort to persuade everyone not to be impulsive. After all, petitioning Longzel was their most important task now.

"Ah, me?" Harry pointed at himself. In front of him was the youngest son of the manor governor, the silver-haired boy Ron who came out of the stone house. "Ron, why don't you go? Your father is the cavalry captain of the Silver Blood Army." Harry whispered nervously in his good friend's ear.

"You will be serving next year." Ron said with some envy, "I still have two years, and you are the only one among us who has to serve right away. If you don't explain the situation to His Highness, who will? By the way," Ron said mysteriously, "Remember to tell His Highness about our war horses. I've been coveting the horses in the big tent for a long time." "It's just too expensive." Harry was also coveting the horses raised in the nearby Dothraki settlements. Although those Dothraki did not do business, they would give the horses as gifts to the tax collectors of the Varese family, and then exchange them for enough gold, wheat, wine, salt and spices, silk, and cloth in return. The tax collectors would put some of the horses on the market for sale.

The young men were coveting the horses on sale. Even though they were not the best quality ones, they were better than the local horses in the River Bend. However, they were too expensive. One horse cost 1,300 silver deer, which was nearly five gold dragons. These young men could not afford it.

"I'll tell you." Harry nervously watched the wife of the Archon introducing the situation of the manor to Longzel, not daring to breathe: "Why don't you come here, Ron? I'm a little scared when I see His Highness." Ron rolled his eyes helplessly and ignored his good friend.

"Your Highness, there are now a total of 103 households in our manor, and the heads of 31 of them once followed you to this land." The Archon's wife is also a silver-haired Valyrian woman. She and the Archon, who is a Silver Blood Cavalry officer, were married and had children before coming to this land. When she was in Volantis, she was the account manager of a manor, so she naturally knew the situation of the manor quite well.

"Of these thirty-one households, only nine were married and had children before you took over this land. The rest married locals. Of the remaining seventy-two households, nineteen were immigrants from the borderlands, twelve were elderly and middle-aged people from the north, and the rest were locals from the Reach. According to your orders, my husband and his comrades divided the land among us. Currently, we can pay twelve gold royals in taxes a year. We also have ten carts of wheat, five carts of barley, three carts of rye, three carts of oats, and six carts of vegetables."

Long Zeer nodded, indicating that he knew the current situation of the manor. "What about those people outside the stone wall?" Long Zeer knew very well that each Silver Blood Army manor had a lot of land, and these lands could not be cultivated by the men and women in the manor alone, so there must be tenant farmers near the Silver Blood Army manor. Although these people made a living by renting the land in the manor, they were also Long Zeer's people, and Long Zeer had to ask about it. Although he also knew that the existence of tenant farmers was not only inevitable, but also that they were exploited by the landowners.

It can be seen from the clothes of these people that a tenant representative spoke right after the wife of the governor. His speech was very simple. The old tenant farmer asked Long Zeer to set a fixed rent and tax. They rented the land of the Silver Blood Army Manor, and the rent they had to pay was always set by the landowner. This led to vicious competition among the landowners, resulting in the rent being either very high or never being raised. Long Zeer did not avoid this issue. He used the Silver Blood Army Manor in the border area as an example. However, the land in the river bend was more fertile and produced more, so both the rent and the normal taxes collected from the landowners were slightly higher.

"I will ask the tax officer of your castle to set a standard and use it to set your rent and taxes." Longzel also knew that this problem was difficult to solve and could only be solved step by step, or even over and over again.

But he has time and a son, and Longzel is reassured by Ringol's adherence to the established rules. As long as he sets the rules, Ringol will definitely enforce them.

"Your Highness." The next person to speak was a priest from the cathedral. "The Jacaerys Cathedral in King's Landing has distributed a new version of the Seven Star Bible to all priests, but we still accept the version of Bishop Korron. Do we need to switch to the new version of King's Landing?"

Longzel shook his head. "No, the new edition of King's Landing is just a beautiful cover added to Bishop Korren's edition." Longzel looked at the sturdy oak tree behind the cathedral. He didn't know where they got such a good tree. "Your Highness, that's the heart tree." The priest saw Longzel and Ringol's eyes flashing with doubt at almost the same time, and hurriedly explained, "There are not many fish beams in the River Reach anymore. We can't get it, so we can only use oak instead."

The priest closed his eyes devoutly. "Bishop Korran told us that the Old Gods were the beliefs of our ancestors before they were inspired by God. They worshipped nature, and nature was the product of the mighty power of the Seven Gods. Therefore, the Old Gods were also the Seven Gods. Our ancestors cut down the fish beam trees for the sake of the land in order to change the wrong belief of our ancestors who offered blood sacrifices to the Seven Gods and let them return to the right faith."

Ringol listened to the priest's remarks with a look of shock.

He remembered that these were not included in the content he had read about the Seven Gods?
How did Bishop Collen come up with this?

Today is a relatively complete chapter, so I will continue to update it. There will be three updates from 10.3 to 5.

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(End of this chapter)