After "dedicating" herself to coaxing the jealous Arya with a little sweetness, the situation finally settles down: Miss Stark no longer tries to assassinate the "Mad King's daughter", and Daenerys, unaware of the existence of the former, is comfortable working as an otaku in the tower of the island in the middle of the lake. While flipping through books such as The Night's Watch's Fantastic Adventures, Egger had brought her to relieve her boredom, while waiting for the great war to come...... Of course, as the owner, the latter will still visit the tower regularly, and continue to throw out some follow-up feasibility details of the Great King's Leader plan to stabilize the prey's mood so that the hooked fish will not get off the hook, or take her around the walls of Houguan Town, so as not to make her feel that she is under house arrest.

In addition, Iger sent a trusted subordinate to the Great Wall to accompany Lady Caitlin Stark on her visit, hoping that she would slow down her return to Houguan Town so as not to further the chaos of the situation.

Day after day...... The Dragon Crystal bombs were installed along the Great Wall, and the "Light Messenger" was distributed to every fortress in the plan, but the final battle that was about to break out still did not happen - after waiting for the dead to attack for a long time, it turned out that bad news from the living came from the direction of Ice Gap Harbor first: the patrolling northern navy found a large number of warships in the waters of Cold Ice Bay.

The Iron Folk fleet, which had been constantly operating and plundering along the river and the western border, probably received the news that the patrol was the only one to escape after the last time the patrol was still defeated by four enemies and one enemy, and regrouped, and returned with a large force to take revenge and find a field, and by the way, the new navy in the north that threatened it came to eradicate it.

There were three warships in Icegap Harbor at the moment, and the fourth was still under construction - and even more embarrassingly, there were still only enough skilled sailors to control two ships. In such a situation where everything is lacking, of course, it is impossible to take the initiative to go head-to-head with the Euron fleet, which has dozens or hundreds of ships. Therefore, the northern "fleet" will retreat into the harbor after discovering the enemy's situation - if the Iron Fleet attacks from the sea, the harbor fortress will have a large number of stone throwers and wildfire incendiary bombs that can crush the enemy with long-range fire, and if the Iron Folk disembark from a distance and attack on land, they will find themselves facing a strong fortress with thousands of troops stationed in front of them.

The many defensive arrangements made under Egger's orders, although not all of them were prepared for the Iron People, still made this port fortress built by the North and the Night's Watch a hedgehog with nowhere to go for the enemy.

......

Another important event occurred on the other side of the Great Wall: Daenerys's "Scripture Fleet" sent ten days earlier arrived at Donghaiwang.

The two ships tasked with taking care of each other, and the personnel on them were originally tasked with obtaining "The Monarch (II)" and bringing it back to Dragonstone Island for the queen to read, but unfortunately Daenerys finally couldn't hold back herself and flew over on the dragon, and as soon as she entered Houguan Town, she was fooled so much that she was reluctant to leave. The existence of the book picking team seems to have lost its meaning in an instant...... However, the reality is not so bad: the dozens of Unsullied on the ship are living and combative, and the Marchiro who came with him was a powerful wizard on a par with Melisandre - there were only a handful of high-ranking priests in the Red God Cult, and now the Great Wall accounted for two of them...... Not to mention anything else, at least to deal with strange ghosts, there are more supernatural means, and the odds of victory are obviously greater.

However, while he was worried about where to settle Crown Town when Marchiro and a bunch of Unsullied people arrived, Daenerys first called the guards to summon him.

"Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, I thought about your plan again last night, and I have a new question. Daenerys asked softly, "The 'King's Leader Project' is undoubtedly the best solution for our ideal of breaking the wheel, but ...... Riverlands sided with my father and brother in the Wars of the Raiders, and now that I am back in Westeros, they were also the first to send a letter to confess my identity. How can I refuse the support of such a duke who has no grievances with me in the past and no enmity in the near future, and can even be regarded as a loyal duke, or even turn against them?"

The answer to the question was already in Egger's womb, but what he noticed was that Daenerys used subconsciously intimate words like "we", which obviously meant that she was convinced of the fact that "she was her comrade", and his heart was relieved to understand that some things that could not be said casually were now safe and bold to say.

"Good question, before answering your question, I'm going to help you clear your mind: First, is Riverlands really loyal to House Targaryen?" he said without hesitation, "To answer this question, we must first distinguish between the concepts of 'House of Tyrrell' and 'Riverlands.'" Since the former was promoted by Aegon the Conqueror to become the lord of the riverbend, both in terms of title and reign time, his rule over the riverbend has always been superficial. The Tyrells are necessarily loyal to the Targaryens – because the legitimacy of their rule comes from your family. However, the large number of gardener bloodlines that really spread and actually control the riverbend always hold a grudge against your ancestors' insulting practice of having a steward as their lord......"

Daenerys shook her head and interrupted disagreeingly, "This is all malicious speculation, almost all of the nobles of Riverbend are on my father's side in the War. With their strength, if they had dissenting intentions at that time and directly joined the rebel camp, my father and brother would have no power to resist at all. ”

"That's right, but the reason why the nobles of the Riverbend Land protect the king is because there is no place for them in the 'Deer, Wolf, Osprey' Grand Alliance, and even if they defect, it will only be the icing on the cake, and they will not get much gratitude from the side of the snatcher. Not to mention: 'Baratheon' and 'Targaryen' are similar in their eyes, they are just odious outsiders and nouveau riche, and it is not good for them to change the king of Baratheon's house - only a weak royal family is fundamentally in their interest, so ...... They will never help the strong side and crush the weak side. The defeat of the king and the rebels is the outcome they want to see. Iger continued to follow the temptation, and in a way, he was indeed a courtier who was slandering the monarch...... Fortunately, the group of guys he wanted to frame were not loyal martyrs themselves, and they found a lot of handles, so that he had no psychological burden: "Let's take a look at what the Riverland army that sided with your father and brother in the war of the Raiders did in the war." ”

......

"The forward of the Riverbend Army led by Earl Randolph Tully repelled Robert Baratheon's army in the Battle of Cen Shutan, but did not take advantage of the victory to pursue, and then the main force of the Riverbend Army that arrived on the battlefield went directly to the east, grabbing and burning all the way to the Storm's End...... Things were normal up to this point, but then it was magical: the 50,000 or 60,000 river bay land and sea army that was enough to turn the whole war around, surrounded the fortress of Storm's End, which had no more than a thousand defenders, for a whole year, regardless of how the royalists and the army of the raiders in the north were fighting, they just calmly drank, barbecued, and held martial arts competitions outside the castle, and from beginning to end, no troops were sent north to support the king's army, and the castle was not captured until the victory or defeat of the war. ”

The queen was still trying to speak for the nobles of the Riverlands: "But Storm's End is the stronghold of the Raiders after all, and it is not for nothing that the Riverbend Army surrounds it. Either way, they're better than the Lannisters' two-faced. ”

"The siege of Fort Storm's End is an irreproachable strategic decision, and if it is all there is, it is at best a misjudgment of the situation on the battlefield, a mistake rather than a crime. "But it was three other unconscionable actions that made me doubt their true loyalty." ”

"The first point is that the siege of Storm's Rest does not need so many people at all, 10,000 is enough, even if you consider that you want to prevent other nobles in the Stormlands from coming to the aid of the outside world, 20,000 is also a sky-high number, and it is difficult for anyone to make any waves in the face of the tenfold difference in military strength, and the remaining 30,000 people can go north to join Prince Rhaegar and Robert in the decisive battle on the banks of the Trident River, and make or break the outcome - you must know that the total number of troops invested by the rebels in that battle is only more than 30,000, and it is a narrow victory. Your Majesty, think about it, if your brother still had 30,000 Hewan troops in his hands in that battle, what would be the outcome of the battle?"

Iger didn't give Daenerys another chance to interrupt and went straight down.

"The second questionable point is that after the death of Prince Rhaegar - the Lannisters traveled thousands of miles from Castle Rock to King's Landing, opened the gates and entered the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, committing the shameful crime of destroying your family, but if you have some impression of the map of Westeros, you will find that the distance from Castle of Castle to King's Landing is twice as far as that of Castle Storm's End! Duke Tywin, who traveled twice as far as the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, was still feasting at Castle's End in the Riverlands army that was only twice as far away! That's right— It's not that they're slow to catch up, but they haven't moved at all!" Egg took a deep breath and put on a sad look: "It's true that Storm's Rest is the lair of the Reelers, but no matter how important it is, can it still be above King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms and the king of Elis!"

Daenerys's face changed subtly, and she was naturally a little impressed by what Egg had said and the map of Westeros...... Although the other party has added fuel and vinegar and emotional tendencies between the words, he does not make things up.

"And one last thing - after the fall of King's Landing and before the attack on Dragonstone, the Targaryens weren't really dead - they were taking refuge on Dragonstone with your Queen Layla, your brother Prince Viserys, and you, who were still in the womb. Although the royal army has been almost completely wiped out on land, it still has an overwhelming advantage on the sea - there is no navy in the north, in the valley and between the rivers! If the river bay has the heart to protect the king, it is only necessary to withdraw the army to the river bay to hold on, and then let the Qingting Island fleet go north to help, even if it cannot reverse the situation, at least you and your brother can be saved and sent overseas for refuge safely. ”

"But the actual approach of the nobles of the Riverlands was to immediately reach an internal agreement - 'the tide is over', and then the army of more than 50,000 fully formed troops happily surrendered to the Eddard Stark army, which had only 10,000 men left, and after a brief agreement on the conditions, they returned to the Riverlands with all the men and horses unscathed. And the Qingting Island fleet immediately turned against each other, followed Stannis Baratheon, who had been besieged by them for a year, and came north to attack Dragonstone!" Iger sneered and threw out the last bomb: "It was not the looters who forced Sir William Dary to leave Dragonstone Island with you and your brother in a hurry and flee to the other side of the Narrow Sea, but the Qingting Island fleet that was supposed to protect the Targaryen home. ”

＊＊＊

It's basically true, and Iger has only made a slight adjustment in the causal connection and sequence: the Qingting Island fleet didn't really attack Dragonstone - because the last Targaryen navy was actually destroyed by the violent storm on the night Daenerys was born long before it arrived - yes, "Stormborn" in her title It was not the Tsing Pavilion fleet and Stannis who were heading north, but the traitors within: the acting lord of Dragonstone, who began to consider whether to surrender and sacrifice the last two children of House Targaryen to the rebels in exchange for forgiveness.

But, with this little trick, Iger succeeded in evoking the Queen's memories of her own childhood.

Daenerys vaguely remembered Sir William Darey - the one who gave her the warmth of an elder in her first memories was neither her famous father of the "Mad King", nor Queen Layla, who died in childbirth when she gave birth to her, but the gray-bearded man who left everything to protect her and her brother Viserys from the clutches of the Raiders.

Sir William rented them a house in Braavos with a red-painted door, and Daenerys remembered vividly that in that house she had her own room and a lemon tree outside the bedroom window.

Even though he was half-blind later, Sir William could still roar and give orders from his sickbed. The servants were afraid of him, but he was always kind and kind to him, and never said a word of hard words—sometimes he called himself "little princess", sometimes "my lady...... His hands were as soft as leather, and his arms were as warm as a furnace. Yet the kind old man had not left his hospital bed for as long as he could remember, and was haunted day and night by the smell of illness and the sweet and disgusting smell of medicine.

After Sir William's death, the servants stole what little money they had left, and they were soon expelled from the spacious Red Room. When the red lacquered doors are closed forever for Daenerys and her brother Viserys, the warm childhood ends, and a cold and cruel teenage age ensues.

A strong sadness and a familiar tear welled up in her eyes, and the queen resisted to cry in front of the Commander-in-Chief of the Night's Watch. Along with the revival of warm memories of Sir William, there was a sudden surge of anger in his heart. For the annexation of the riverbend to establish the King's Domain, the last bit of guilt and regret in Daenerys's heart was also burned by the flames.

——