Hearing the speech of the host of the banquet, everyone, whether it was a nobleman or a merchant, stopped talking and left their attention to Ma Shen.

"I have three main purposes for holding a banquet today. "The first purpose is to celebrate the holding of Harrenhal and not to let him fall to the clutches of the Lannisters," said Masan with a glass of wine from the table. ”

Everyone nodded in agreement, if Harrenhal had not been held, there would have been no chance to hold a banquet here, I am afraid that most people are still on the run.

"The second purpose was to celebrate the knighthood of Sir Jeffs and Ser Loger, both of whom had contributed to the Battle of Harrenhal. ”

Ma Shen said and nodded to Jeffs and Loger, who were sitting next to him, and everyone present applauded the two of them.

After the applause stopped, Ma Shen continued: "There is a third purpose, as you know, I have just been canonized as an earl, so I need to canonize a few knights to serve me. ”

The word "knighthood!!" suddenly exploded in everyone's minds, the nobles were inexplicably excited, what elegance, what etiquette had long been left behind by them, that was a knight, although even a knight could be canonized as a knight, the problem was that the knight who was canonized casually was not recognized by others, and if he was unlucky, he would have some bad nicknames for life.

And if Ma Shen in front of him canonized a knight in the name of the earl, no one would deny his reasonableness, just like the knight of Lojev who was a lowly mercenary at first glance.

"My son is willing to fight for adults!"

"My brother is also willing to fight for adults!"

"My adopted son is willing to serve the adults!"

As long as they thought they were the right person, they all reported it, regardless of whether Ma Shen knew which one of their sons, brothers, adopted sons, or illegitimate children was, and what they looked like.

Listening to their words, Ma Shen did not agree or refuse, and just looked at them with a smile all the time.

"Please be quiet," as the scene was too chaotic, some anxious nobles hurriedly stopped the others from speaking, "Please be quiet and let Master Ma Shen continue." ”

"As you know, knights are not arbitrary, they must have merit, so that I can justifiably canonize them as knights. Ma Shen took a sip of the wine in his glass, "I will choose the three people with the greatest merit to be canonized as knights." ”

Some nobles who did not understand what Ma Shen meant automatically understood it as glory.

Baron Legge exclaimed, "My lord, my son Dude has been formally trained since he was a child, and he has personally killed three Lannister soldiers before, and I think he is the most suitable knight to serve you." ”

"My lord, my brother Renlond, rescued Lord Leger's son by killing the robbers' den alone a year ago. The nobleman standing next to Baron Legger, dressed in a delicately embroidered silk tunic, also said loudly.

"Ahem" Hearing the dismantling of the stage by his friend next to him, Baron Legge next to him coughed a little embarrassed.

While the nobles were in the midst of a bustle, a chubby, amiable-looking merchant with a gold ring set with precious stones on his hand suddenly stood up and shouted at Ma Shen in a loud voice, his voice drowning out everyone.

"I am willing to provide your lord with 3,000 gold dragon coins so that you can gather soldiers to defend Harrenhal. ”

The hall fell silent in an instant, and the nobles all turned their eyes to the lowly merchants, and even the merchants, who thought they had nothing to do with them, looked at the fat companion with disbelief.

These fools, if they have nothing to do with us, how could Lord Ma Shen invite us to a dinner party with the nobles, this chubby merchant glanced at his peers with hateful eyes: "My lord, you said that as long as you have the greatest merit, you can become your knight." ”

"That's right, the person with the greatest merit can not only be canonized as a knight by me, but also get a piece of territory in the ancestral wasteland. Ma Shen bowed slightly, and finally a smart person appeared, and there were two types of people in the Seven Kingdoms to talk about who was the richest, one was a nobleman, and the other was a merchant.

"I wonder if this counts as merit?" the chubby merchant asked, ignoring the whispers of the others.

"This... I guess so. Ma Shen replied with a feigned hesitation, unable to show that he was hungry, as this would leave the others with the image of the Count of the Wolf Slayer who regarded wealth as his life.

"I'm willing to donate 2,000 gold dragon coins and 1,000 pairs of armor to help the adults arm the soldiers!"

"I'm willing to donate 3,500 gold dragon coins!"

"I'm willing to provide 1,000 gold dragon coins and 3 big ships"

Hearing Ma Shen's admission, the merchants stood up one by one, shouting loudly to Ma Shen, and some even pressed their whole belongings up, as long as they could become nobles, they would do whatever it take.

Merchants seem to be rich, eat and drink well, but how do others know the sorrow of merchants, except for some small merchants, every big merchant must trade under the protection of the nobility if he wants to protect his property, and at the same time have to pay expensive protection fees.

They have always been like slaves of the aristocracy, working for the nobility, and now that the door to high society has been opened to them, how can they still control themselves.

"You lowly merchants want to be noble knights!" shouted a young nobleman.

"Most of the noble nobles were also converted from lowly commoners. "Some merchants broke their jars, anyway, they also have the support of the nobles behind them, and their main place of business is not in Harrenhal, so they don't instigate these Harrenhal nobles at all.

The merchants who appear here are in a sense big merchants, each with at least 10 shops under their names, and the reason they are concentrated in Harrenhal is related to the recent fire in the Riverlands.

The riverland was burned by the Lannisters, and many people were displaced, but most of the lovely coins in the hands of the refugees were still there, and the merchants brought a lot of grain from the south, and then sold the grain to the refugees and the local nobles at a high price.

Merchants from almost all the Seven Kingdoms took the risk and gathered in the Riverlands.

"Thank you for your support, and when the banquet is over, I will ask the servants to give a note to those who wish to do so, please write on it the merits of your recommend, and I will choose 3 of them to be knighted. Ma Shen started a secret auction mode, and did not immediately announce the results, which is the best for himself, "Excuse me, please continue to enjoy the banquet." ”

Having said that, everyone was a little tasteless, and their minds were not at the banquet at all, and they were all thinking about what kind of price they would have to pay for the knight's place later.

While everyone was thinking, there were some merchants who thought they were hopeless or uninterested in the knighthood were looking around, merchants had the mind of merchants, and they could use the resources at their disposal to support a person to participate in the "scramble".

"These lowly merchants. The nobles were always like this, scolding on their lips, but in their hearts they had another thought, thinking about whether to exchange some insignificant price for the support of the merchants.