Out of caution and respect for his allies, Iger met with Littlefinger before entering the main castle to meet Robb, and briefed him on the Messila's suggestion that the bold idea of letting the wolf go back to the mountain would naturally startle the Queen's hand, but the idea of the "trichotomy of the northern princes" was approved by Petyr. But while praising this mindset of simplifying problems, he also offered his own opinion.

"In the belly, we can classify the nobles of the North into three categories: easy, difficult, and impossible to win over, but in practice, you can't just give up just because you judge that some of them can't be won over - otherwise in the future, they can claim that we haven't communicated enough with them, and thus refuse to accept the blame and bear the consequences. Petyr said solemnly, "Speaking of which, the Commander-in-Chief should have some idea of the general situation of the princes of the North, right? I have been overseas for many years, and this must not be as good as you in the land grant." ”

"Of course. The nobles who can be called in the north are probably the following: the Casstark family in Kahoe City, the Mandalay family in White Harbor, the Glover family in Deepwood, the Mormont family on Bear Island, the Leswell family in Stream Lands, the Dustin family in Deserted Mound, the Leader family in Grey Water, the Tauha family in Torun Fangcheng, the Howood family in Howood City, and the Locke family in Old City...... and the two Flint families of the widow and the finger of Flinter. Having taken the time to sort out his thoughts just now, Egger opened his mouth at the moment, a little like a treasure: "Although the queen's request is 'the allegiance of all nobles in the north', I think that only these upper-class nobles who are directly loyal to the Stark family need to be counted, and the positions and loyalties of those subordinate to the lower-class nobles should be 'represented' by their feudal lords." Otherwise, we are on a mission that will never be done. ”

"Indeed, on this point, even if Varys or Bolton disagree, we should easily persuade the Queen to understand and approve. Seeing that his new allies were so numerous, Littlefinger felt a little relieved, and even his tone relaxed: "Are these all the vassals in the north who are directly under the Stark family, how do I feel that something is missing?"

"What is lacking I was about to add—in addition to the above-mentioned families, there are also the Bolton family of the Castle of Terror, the Severn family of Severn City, and a number of 'chief counts' in the mountains...... The Skags of Skaggs Island, and Amber's house in the last Hearth. Egger nodded, "Among them, the Bolton family has already pledged allegiance to the queen first, so it is natural to skip it; Clay Severn was captured by me during the night attack on Winterfell, and asked Mrs. Stark to go to the prison cell to persuade him, most of them can be convinced; several chiefs of the mountain clans are nominally loyal to Stark, but in fact they have long been subdued by me, from the food economy lifeline to the army, they are controlled by the influence of the land grant, so that they can recognize the queen is only a matter of words; Skaggs[ ] I wonder if the Queen has even heard of or needs their loyalty, and as for the Amber family, it appears to have fallen at the hands of the Stranger, but I happen to have a plan here to bring it back to life...... and pledge allegiance to the Queen. ”

So, Egger briefly introduced the information provided by the little princess and the idea that if he couldn't find a real person, he could exchange the tanuki for the prince—in short, he could resurrect the Amber family with the corpse and use it for himself...... Of course, there is no mention of Messira.

"What a move, Commander-in-Chief!" Petyr's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed heartily, then stretched out his hand: "So...... Karstark, Mandalay, Glover, ......"

It's a strange experience to see a character like Petyr Berlishi standing there like a child muttering and counting with his hands, but the truth is that with the complexity and difficulty of remembering the many families in the north, if you don't need to count them directly in your mind without some auxiliary means, you really can't count it for a while.

After a few seconds, Littlefinger lowered his hand: "We actually only need to settle twelve more families before we can approximate that we have subdued the North, and can tell the Queen without any intention that 'all the nobles north of the neck are loyal to her!?"

"That's right. ”

"Hmm......"

Putting away his excited expression, Petyr frowned: the number may not seem large, but each of these families occupies a large area of land and rules over tens of thousands of subjects, and each family has a long history and ancient pride...... In Westeros before the start of the war, picking out any one of them was enough for him to seriously design a set of wooing strategies and implement them himself, and now, a whole dozen of them appeared in front of them at once, and they needed to be dealt with immediately!

Neither of them has a doppelganger technique, not to mention the current situation, whether it is for the sake of their own safety or the queen's safety, it is not appropriate to leave Winterfell and leave Varys alone with Daenerys?

"The Starks have publicly declared their support for Your Majesty, and at the moment the North is at least on the Queen's side, and politics is indeed our greatest advantage right now...... As long as this is taken advantage of, those who are willing to negotiate will be bribed at a cost, and those who refuse to be loyal will be labeled as rebellious and disobedient to the prince, and it will never be as difficult as imagined for the princes to change their positions. After thinking for a moment, Littlefinger reopened, not knowing whether he was talking to himself or cheering up Egger, "I...... The Berese family's fiefdom was close to Biting Bay, the land was barren and could not grow food, and they had been subsidizing the family's foreign trade in White Harbor, and I had been in charge of such affairs for a while before I left for Seagull Town to be the tax collector, so I had dealings with the Mandalay family and the Locke family, and I was half a friend...... I will personally write to these two families and send reliable people to contact them, but the principals of the next ten families, I may not even recognize them when they really walk in front of them, and how to deal with them, I am afraid that I will have to rely on the commander-in-chief, or make other plans. ”

"I sent troops to Deepwoodburg two years ago to expel the Iron People, and I saved Robert Glover's wife and children. Iger also began to count how many he could handle: "On Bear Island, the former commander-in-chief of the Night's Watch was from the Mormont family, and later the North and the Land Grant joined forces to form the West Coast Fleet, and there was a long-term cooperation in Icefjord Harbor, which is quite a bit of friendship...... I can send the man who returned the ashes of Jeo Mormont to visit again, and for the sake of the love of the acquaintance, even if I can't win it over, at least I won't lose my life. ”

"There are also the two Flint families of Widow Wang and Flint Finger, they were originally from the mountains, and they were granted fiefs because of their merits, but after all, they are of the same blood as the original clan, and they have blood kinship, I will let the chief of the mountain Flint send his heirs to lobby, and there is a great confidence that they can be subdued. "It's not that I don't know, but I don't know...... There seem to be a lot of northern families he can handle, "If you count everything that can be related to it a little, in fact, there is also the Gray Water Wang's Reed family, Miss Mera Reed and his younger brother Jiujian previously escorted Bran Stark out of the fortress to accept the inheritance of the Green Prophet, and after returning to the Wall, she lived in the Night's Watch Fortress for a while, and was entertained and protected by me, so she is barely familiar with it, but I don't know how much influence she can have over her father." ”

"I've heard of Holland Reed, probably because he lives in swamps rather than in tundra, and his personality is not as tough as that of ordinary northerners, but close to the slick and cunning of the Riverlanders, and it shouldn't be difficult to deal with as long as you can negotiate a bargain...... I'm only worried that your people won't find Greywater Lookout, legend has it that this castle will move in the swamp. ”

"It's not the castle that's moving, it's the geomorphological features of the swamp around the castle. "If someone tries to rediscover a certain wood, a quagmire, or a river based on their memory, they will naturally come to the one-sided conclusion that 'the greywater is moving'. The good news is that the cold winter has frozen the neck tightly, and the 'position' of Grey Water Hope must have not been touched for at least a dozen months, and some of my men have visited it during this time. ”

"Let's hope everything goes well. Petyr sighed, "Optimistically, assuming that all of the ones you mentioned go smoothly, then what about the five that are Karstark, Leswell, Dustin, Tauha, and Horwood, and we can't do anything?"

"I really haven't had any friendships. Iger shrugged helplessly—not only did he not have any friendship, but two of them didn't like him, and Kastark was even more opposed to supporting him as commander-in-chief from the beginning. "But coincidentally, according to the available information, at least four of these five families have now stationed troops or are leading their troops to the city of Severn. When they are all together, it is difficult to send envoys to negotiate in the usual way. ”

Littlefinger's previous words were correct: even if you judge that you can't win over, you have to send someone to talk, what if it happens? But there are not many literate and capable people in the land-giving army, and even fewer can talk and fool people, and I don't want to list a separate 'can't win over' classification to give up communication, there are really only a limited number of people available, so I can only refer to the logic of Tian Ji horse racing, and first use the capable people on the family that hopes to achieve results, and focus on the overall situation.

Petyr clasped his hands to his chest in the cold wind, and his right hand propped his chin in deep thought.

After several years of getting along, he has known Daenerys well enough, and the queen was only stimulated by the revival of Varys's old events in the afternoon when she wanted to "rule the North first", and after a little calm, he would definitely be able to convince her to accept the fact that "not everyone in the North supports and loves her", so as to lower her requirements. However, even if the two have judged that they can win over and clearly distribute the eight families, it is unlikely that all of them will be taken without a bad time, and if this is calculated, it is very likely that in the end there will be a situation where "six or seven or even more big families are unwilling to bow their knees and surrender".

There are less than twenty big families in the North, and no matter how you count it, at least twelve or fourteen families must respond to be called a "majority", right? If there are more than five big families, including Casstark and Leswell, openly refuse to change their flags...... That ratio is how much Daenerys can regain her senses and lower her requirements, it is difficult to justify.

Iger and himself must not risk going out on their own, and the subordinates who can be used as negotiators are quite limited, so ......

After thinking about it, Petyr reluctantly found that the crazy idea that Iger had put forward when they met just now and that he had directly rejected in his heart was actually the only trick that could be thought of temporarily, and it was the only way to break the predicament.

"So, the key point now is the few that have gathered in Severn City?"

"That's right. ”

"Damn!" Littlefinger clapped his fist high-five, annoyed and unwilling.

"Damn it, what does the Prime Minister think?" Egger asked with a wry smile, expecting Littlefinger to come up with a better solution with a roll of his eyes, but it was clear that Petyr couldn't do anything about it. So he planned to let the wolf go back to the mountain...... I was both jealous and excited.

"Now that you've made an appointment, don't keep you waiting, let's go to the main castle and talk to Robb and the kid. Anyway, even if we finally decide to let him go, it is impossible to leave tonight, let's talk about what should be said first, if anyone can come up with a better idea before he leaves, then cancel the trip, otherwise, we can only take the risk that this trip cannot be avoided. Littlefinger stretched his brows, showing the courage and responsibility that the queen's hand should have: "If it can be done, you and I will share the credit, and if it is a mistake in judgment, the responsibility and consequences will also be shared by us...... This is called advancing and retreating together, what does the commander-in-chief think?"

is a bright and upright political strongman, and I don't know if Littlefinger's personality has changed with the enrichment of experience and the rise of status, or has his acting skills been tempered to perfection?

Whatever it is, Iger has to admire.

"That's very good, then Prime Minister...... Please. ”

——