Although the sleigh carrying the black dragon was large and heavy, fortunately, the snow outside the fireplace that had not been cleared for a long time was thick and smooth enough, and the land grant convoy that had been ordered to move Zhuo Geng out of the woods at the corner of the road outside the castle half an hour later, and drag him to a position where he could see from the city wall.

After climbing the wall and seeing a black dragon curled up on a combined sleigh, Rickard Karstark began to order his troops to be reorganized and evacuated from the last Hearth.

The old man's whispering of sending his son away didn't escape Egger's eyes, but fortunately...... After all the work inside and out, what he feared most did not happen: instead of taking him hostage, the Karstark army divided into two groups, the main force and the rear of the palace, and cleanly retreated the last man before dark, completely relinquishing the castle.

After some twists and turns, this battle for the empty city has come to an end.

......

Dragons do have some use.

No matter how much he felt that the queen of the dragon was easy to control, Egg had to admit it.

With ground forces alone, it would be difficult for a figure like Rickard Karstark to surrender the castle without a single blow. But only one dragon...... It was still a dragon that was not huge in size and had just experienced a general state of war, and easily completed a task that was impossible for an army of 100,000 with its deterrent power.

Iger realizes that he has been caught up in a mistake for a long time.

He came from another world, and no matter how magical a creature is, it will never be more mysterious than the "crossing" itself, so ...... His perception of dragons could not have been the same as ordinary people from the beginning. In addition, he understands the plot, already knows the existence of dragons, knows their weaknesses, and has seen weapons that can deal with them...... Iger subconsciously despised dragons, believing them to be only suitable for dealing with ghouls, and only a burden in a war of conquest.

But he overlooked: not everyone can see magical creatures with the same mentality and perspective as he does, and not everyone knows astronomy and geography and has seen dragon hunting crossbows - even if they did, with the technological level and productivity of this world, it is difficult to quickly popularize a new weapon and install it on a large scale.

If the enemy ignores the dragon's presence, these flying fire-breathing behemoths can display terrifying and destructive power that surprises the dragon rider and frightens others, while if the enemy makes it his first priority to deal with the dragon, he will have to spend time, energy, and materials to craft weapons and train the people to use them...... And these attritions will inevitably lead to a shortage of resources invested by the forces in dealing with conventional forces -- this is the irreconcilable contradiction between the "backward productive forces" and the need for "those in power to deal with extraordinary enemies". It is conceivable that this contradiction will persist for a long time before the spread of weapons such as guns, which can both slay dragons and kill people.

And it is this contradiction that makes dragons have great value even if they are not engaged in battle!

The dragon is the nuclear weapon of this world, although it cannot be compared in terms of destructive power, but it is superior in deterrent power. Even if I wish they were dying so that the queen could be grounded, I should at least wait until the big picture is decided before thinking about it—at least for now, I should be glad that they are in my camp!

With this epiphany, Egger took the rescue of Zhuo Geng to heart. He gave orders to the first soldiers who were gleefully pouring into the castle to begin devouring the last west gate of the Hearthh, so that Drogon could be transported into the castle.

After a short while, the Houguan Town Guard, the core of the land-giving army, also escorted the queen into the castle.

......

"The Fireplace City is yours at last, Your Majesty. Iger bowed to Daenerys briefly and announced in a mocking manner, then tried to suppress his reproachful tone, "But, didn't we agree before: I'll go into the city to check on the situation, and you wait a little farther outside the city, don't let the dragon appear...... Why did you still let Rego fly over the castle?"

Iger didn't even tell Rickard ...... Agree with Daenerys that "if you don't come out in an hour, you will let the dragon burn the city". Brother Lei's flight turned an ordinary inquiry as if he had entered his own home into a one-man adventure—not that he was unwilling to take risks, but that he hated such unplanned and unnecessary risks. Although he finally succeeded in convincing the other party to evacuate by using the deterrent power of the dragon on the spot, he doubted that Ricard was really impressed by his promise. More likely, the old guy pretended to be attracted by the temptation to divide the land, but in fact immediately complained to Robb Stark as soon as he returned to Cahoe, claiming that the Night's Watch had seized Amber's castle with bad intentions.

The seeds of conflict have been planted, and the plan to let the north provide dragon crystal and nitrate as usual may not be able to proceed smoothly.

It's impossible to say that there is no resentment, however, no matter how you plan and calculate, the queen is also a queen, and she is not a puppet controlled by herself. Egger wouldn't be stupid enough to be overtly guilty of asking his allegiance to the monarch why he was going to trap him.

"You've been in for so long, I'm afraid you're in trouble. Danielly explained imperceptibly, "What if something happens to you, and I don't know anyone in the land-giving army?"

"The Commander-in-Chief meant that he had been sure to persuade the Kastarks to give up the castle, but your Majesty had let the dragon fly over their heads, which had put him on the back foot. Macchiro smiled at Iger and said, "That's what you mean, sir?"

"Well, maybe I'm care, sorry. But...... It's fine if you're okay. Daenerys was not hard-mouthed, but shy and apologetic, without any arrogant and innocent appearance, but blocked all the resentment of Egg.

This little queen, the brain circuit is not the same as herself, Iger thought helplessly. She probably really cared about herself rather than deliberately causing trouble, and what was worse - she did it with her random manipulation and crooked beating, which really scared Kastark away, but it was herself, but it was not like Macchiro said, she could dissuade the Karstark family without relying on dragons.

This thrill was certainly triggered by the Queen's rash actions, but I am afraid that he should have been responsible: he should have guessed the purpose of the Karstark family to occupy the last Hearthh City in the first place, and should not have had illusions, but should have directly besieged the city, forcing them to give up the city by force and dragons.

"Forget it...... It's nothing. ”

Thinking about this, Iger suddenly couldn't get angry, he shook his head helplessly, and decided not to complain about the woman - eat the dumb loss and remember the lesson.

If a subordinate fails to carry out an order, he can probably avoid a similar situation by alienating or not reusing that person. Relying on this method, Iger did establish a command system and leadership team with high enforcement power, however, the queen ...... You can't just kick her out and change it just because she made a mistake once.

The more you go to work, the higher the salary, but as a supposedly neutral night watchman, if you keep changing sides in politics, you will make yourself more and more despised and worthless.

He is a vassal, at least for now. If the allegiance to the king has a particular brain circuit and temperament, then what he should do is to take this into account as a variable in advance, rather than expecting to reverse the former's way of thinking. Iger has a hunch that a situation similar to that caused by different personalities will only be more and not less in the future.

After thinking about this, he no longer dwelled on this matter: "I will personally monitor the construction of the temporary dragon's nest for Zhuo Geng to recuperate." The weather is cold, and please ask Your Majesty to go into the house to rest, and I will arrive later. ”

"Hmm. Daenerys nodded, and entered the main castle accompanied by Machiro.

......

Putting the unpleasantness behind him, Egger first began to arrange for the construction of a temporary dragon's nest: the land-givers would first try to transport Drogon into the castle, then lay a dry area of wood above the ground between the fortress and the walls adjacent to the schoolyard, and erect a large shed to create a shelter from the wind and snow and a largely confined space for the injured black dragon. Such a temporary structure may be too simple to live in, and it is inevitable that it will be too cold without a stove, but the dragon itself has a high body temperature, and as long as it can create an environment where heat loss is slower than the open air, the dragon's nest will naturally be warm, and there is no need to worry about the dragon freezing to death.

He then sent several detachments to several other large winter settlements south and northeast of the castle to collect live sheep from the local population to feed the dragons.

With this in mind, Iger finally summoned the ...... from the Great Wall and led by the Castle Black Rangers The "Old Night's Watchmen" who had been dressed in black before they were elected commander-in-chief had given them a new mission: to immediately travel to various parts of the north to collect dragon crystals that had been distributed to the local residents and teach them how to boil the nitrate.

With positions at odds, and the land grant and the fragile peace in the north not sure how much longer it would last, Iger decided to stop as much as he could before the situation collapsed.

An old-school night watchman like Jon Snow, who volunteered to join the garrison of the Wall and pursued honor and retirement as the goal, could not approve of and support himself to break away from neutrality and help the queen fight the world. It's not much use to keep them around...... Sending it out is clean: the labels of black clothes and conservatives that have long been worn are the best talisman at this time - even if there is a full-scale war, the strategic goal of the north is definitely to change an obedient commander-in-chief rather than eliminate the night watch legion, and for those ordinary night watch soldiers, the north must be mainly to win over and exploit, rather than directly arrest or even open the knife. This means that sending a Night's Watch soldier out on a resource-gathering mission would naturally bring back the desired nitrate, but even if it fails, the result will be empty-handed, which is just right for the task.

After some bits and pieces of arrangement, Iger thought about it and walked to the middle of the castle, entering the main castle where Amber's family had lived for generations.

The fireplace was blazing with firewood and the house was already a little warm.

The soldiers inspected every corner of the castle as instructed, and the corpses and bloodstains had been cleaned up long ago, and there was no one who should not be there...... Except for valuables such as gold and silver utensils that are suspected to have been taken away by the Kastark family, there is basically no shortage of facilities and items. The queen and the two priests of the Lord of Light had been waiting for him for a long time, and Iger did not dare to waste any more time, so he sat down in the shiny chair of the unknown Amber family, and began to discuss the next move in front of the incomplete queen.

——

Wonderful Book House