Game of Thrones: The Black Dragon King

A nation's ability to survive, continue, and thrive is itself a testament to its unique survival wisdom, and the Dothraki's survival wisdom was specifically tailored to the survival rules of the wilderness.

The advantage of having "four legs" is that if you win a battle, you have the ability to pursue and kill the fleeing enemy and quickly expand your gains; if you lose a battle, you have the ability to quickly retreat and minimize your losses!

Even during their retreat, the Dothraki would make every effort to carry away their belongings. Roaring warriors would stuff gold and silver into their saddlebags, while women would hang as much food as possible behind their horses. The elderly would wield whips to drive the livestock, and the young boys would skillfully climb onto the abandoned warhorses.

Aside from the wounded who were unable to move and the Roaring Warriors who had lost their will and sat on the ground with their braids cut off, more than 70% of the Dothraki escaped unscathed, taking with them most of the old and young of the Khalasar, as well as most of the livestock, warhorses, wealth, and supplies.

Among these fleeing Dothraki, the most capable Roaring Warriors will soon emerge as leaders of small tribes. These tribes, after several days to months of fighting and annexation, will form new khalas or smaller khalasas, or be annexed by other larger khalasas.

During this time, the boys will quickly grow into warriors capable of riding horses and fighting, and new life will be born in the bellies of women, thus restoring the lost population in another form.

Like wild grass on the wasteland, it is eaten by cattle and sheep, scorched by wildfires, and trampled by horses' hooves, but in the end, it will turn the wasteland green again and again in the spring breeze.

Reid's cavalry was reduced to only forty-odd men, all of whom were exhausted and unable to pursue.

So the final result was more than 800 people, a number that included the wounded still groaning outside the defensive perimeter and the Dothraki prisoners who sat there with resigned expressions after their queues were cut off.

Reid suffered over 170 casualties, with the heaviest losses occurring among melee units such as halberdiers, heavy swordsmen, and heavy cavalry, followed by ranged units such as archers and crossbowmen.

After cleaning up the battlefield, the final spoils were: over 500 untamed wild horses (the remaining ones from the looted Oelris), over 200 Dothraki warhorses, over 200 sheep and over 70 cattle, over 200 Dothraki prisoners, over 1000 slaves, 200 captured merchants whose purpose was still unclear, 45 carts of furs, 32 carts of cheese and dried meat products, as well as a pile of gold and silver statues, a pile of crushed gold and silver artifacts, some natural gold nuggets, unprocessed gemstone ore, and a variety of gold and silver currencies (golden dragons of Westeros, silver stags, Pentos gold coins, Braavos silver coins, Rhys naked woman gold coins, Tyrothy silver coins, Slaver's Bay gold coins, etc.). These gold and silver hard currencies mainly came from the Dothraki. Just as Reed had guessed, the returning caravans were mostly carrying goods and not much money.

"Not counting cattle and sheep, the total value of various gold and silver coins, gold and silver products and jewelry is approximately ten thousand gold dragons," the clerk, wearing a brown linen hooded robe, reported.

"Not bad!" Reed said. This amount wasn't small. Even in a crisis, when O'Ellis promised to double the commission, Reed's group's commission for this trip was only 2000 gold dragons. That was roughly one-fifth of the final profit from this trade operation. Reed's losses were estimated at between 1300 and 1500 gold coins. The commission outweighed the losses, and the loot was substantial!

Meanwhile, on the continent of Westeros across the sea, it was the third year of Viserys Targaryen's reign as the "Young King" of House Targaryen. The peace and prosperity inherited from the reign of the "Old King" Jaehaerys made the gold dragons extremely valuable and powerful in terms of purchasing power.

A warhorse costs between 8 and 15 gold dragons, a simple but complete set of fine steel armor with a choke and helmet costs about 4 gold dragons, and a sword of the same material costs only a quarter to a fifth of that price.

One Golden Dragon can be exchanged for 30 Silver Moons or 210 Silver Deer, while one Silver Deer can be used to obtain a hearty meal with wine and meat at the tavern, along with the bed-warming service of a tavern maid.

The annual fee for a mercenary wearing ordinary armor and wielding an iron weapon ranges from 1 to 5 gold dragons, depending on their skill and reputation, while a knight's fee ranges from 8 to 15 gold dragons. Reed's ability to command high commissions stems from his elite manpower and excellent reputation.

"What should be done with those merchants and slaves?" the clerk asked.

Having been captured by the Dothraki and then seized by Reid, these people were, in principle, already slaves. However, selling them directly as commodities in Slaver's Bay would only yield less than a thousand gold dragons. Reid, who had already acquired five times that wealth, raised his moral standards somewhat, and felt a little guilty about selling them as slaves.

Besides, many businessmen don't put all their eggs in one basket. Some people may look down on themselves and poorly clothed now, but they're probably still wealthy. Doing a good deed and helping them will bring even greater rewards, and you can also expand your network and improve your reputation along the way.

After a moment's thought, Reed made his decision: "Ask their identities. If they're wealthy and willing to pay a commission, sign a contract, treat them well, and escort them to Slaver's Bay. If they can't afford to pay, sign a short-term mercenary contract, give them some captured weapons to make do, and after this mission, those who are still usable can stay, and those who aren't can get lost. If they choose neither, let them fend for themselves."

"What about the Dothraki prisoners?"

This one really can't be let go! But the Dothraki, especially the Roaring Warriors, are hard to absorb once captured. They will refuse to fight and are willing to be used as slaves unless a new Khal or Koh rescues and leads them. Besides, Reid has decided to be a "good guy" and doesn't want to ruin his reputation for less than two hundred gold dragons.

Reid suddenly had a brilliant idea and said with a wicked grin, "Give him to O'Ellis, he's his prisoner! Also, bring him along when you're checking the identities of those merchants and slaves; as a wealthy merchant, he's an expert at smelling money."

Yes, Oelris is still alive. He had been frantically pushing his way to the front lines, worried that Reid would run away. Fortunately, due to the Dothraki's lack of supplies, the arrow that hit him was made of bone, which was stopped by the bone inside his eye socket after piercing his eyeball.

The doctor who treated him afterwards roughly removed his shattered eyeballs, filled the eye sockets with a hemostatic pack made of spices and herbs such as compass grass, rosemary, bone meal, and beeswax, and then tied on an eye patch carefully sewn by a maid. The guy quickly recovered.

However, according to his own account, money is the only cure-all for a businessman.

Reid thought it might be true. After all, he had personally witnessed this guy go from pale and lifeless to radiant and energetic in just one sentence.

Those words were spoken by Reed himself in his ear: "This trip didn't lose money; in fact, we made more profit than originally planned."

The Dothraki attack cost the fat man 470-480 Dothraki horses (another 200 warhorses were Reid's spoils and not included in the count), as well as seven or eight cartloads of goods (half of which ended up in the mouths of Reid's soldiers), and approximately 5000 gold dragons.

However, he earned 3000 gold dragons from signing an employment contract with the rescued merchant. In addition to the approximately 6000 gold dragons he extorted in total, O'Ilis took half of the profits by offering to prevent Red from taking on other jobs after accepting the employment, to handle public relations and reception, to be responsible for collecting subsequent debts, and to buy out Red's debts with cash.

He helped Reid ship 2500 gold dragons (dozens of cartloads of goods captured by Reid; the rescued merchants wisely refrained from mentioning ownership issues); he also helped him capture over two hundred Dothraki prisoners, and build connections and friendships with merchants of all sizes from various trading city-states.

If they weren't currently in Dothraki territory, this fat man would definitely have held a banquet on the spot and made sure the benefits were realized.

The Eurystra trade route began in Pentos, carrying spices, salt, amber wine, and large sums of money. It proceeded eastward along the roads built by the Valyrians, crossing the upper tributaries of the Lorne River, passing through the Velvet Hills into the Andas Mountains, and passing through cities and free trading states such as Gödoho, Norfos, and Kohor. Along the way, it acquired textiles, grains, iron weapons, and other goods needed by the Dothraki. Afterward, it followed the old trade route through a series of ruined cities such as Viskadoc, Viskor, and Wuga Samuis, finally arriving at Vis Dothraki at the foot of Mount Our Lady on the shores of Lake World's Womb.

In this city, which was actually led by the Dothraki, trade was conducted under the guise of "exchanging gifts," acquiring Dothraki horses and various plundered spoils, as well as cattle, sheep, furs, dried meat, and dairy products.

Then head south to the vicinity of Vismeyha on the upper reaches of the Skazardan River, then along the banks of the Skazardan River, passing through the Kaisai Pass, to reach Slaver's Bay.

Merchants would purchase a considerable number of trained slaves in Slave Bay, sell some horses and other low-value goods, and then sail back to the major trading cities to complete the final sale of traded goods and the settlement of profits.

Actually, we forgot to mention the most profitable commodity: slaves! The Dothraki were Essos's largest supplier of slaves, and the annual raids and battles between the Dothraki and the Khalasas generated a large number of slaves. Some passing merchants traded slaves, and the Dothraki themselves would also travel to Slaver's Bay to trade slaves. Ultimately, a large number of slaves would flow to Slaver's Bay, where they would be exchanged for gold, silver, handicrafts, weapons, wine, and grain, which would then flow back to the Dothraki Grasslands.

The three prominent city-states of Slaver's Bay each had their own approach to the slave trade. Meereen acquired strong and healthy prisoners of war, which the Great Lords used to train gladiators; Yunkai acquired handsome men and beautiful women from among the slaves, and the Wise Lords' main specialty was providing service workers skilled in various forms of sexual arts; children and the elderly were the favorites of Astapor, and the Benevolent Lords trained the former to become "Unsullied" and the latter to train "Unsullied."

Completing just one segment of such a trade route can yield more than three times the profit. After completing the entire trade cycle, one can generally earn six to seven times the profit. If one is ruthless enough to include the slave trade, the profit can reach more than ten times.

However, high profits are accompanied by high risks. Bandits along the way, nascent centaurs like the Karasa who are on the rise in their careers, and two-faced mercenaries can make speculators switch between being merchants and commodities at any time.

But the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish. With a profit of one time, a merchant might sell the noose he hangs on his head. With the profit of three nooses, a merchant would dare to trample on all human laws. The profit of three tramplings plus one noose is enough to make countless people rush headlong into the world for the big merchants of a money-obsessed trading city.

If even one-tenth of the merchants liberated by Red could become partners on this trade route, they would make a fortune.