Standing on the edge of a grove half a mile away from the last Hearth, Ruce Bolton stared at the castle in the distance, shrouded in snowflakes.

He was upset, very unhappy.

In order to facilitate the import of supplies from the outside world to support this war against the Strangers, and to ensure that troops can be quickly mobilized in the event of a war, there are still special teams along the Great Wall and the King's Road leading to the south in the event of a battle, even during the heaviest period of the snowstorm after winter...... But this was true at the front, and it was a different story at the rear: the entire northern frontier was covered with snow thick enough to crouch down to hide people, and out of the castles and winter towns, there were so white snowfields that no mortal could tell the road or the river to the naked eye.

The reason why the north does not arrange personnel to keep all roads clear like land grants is not because the northerners are lazy, but because they are helpless under the dual effect of two factors: the farmers are trying to cultivate and store limited food, but the length of the winter is difficult to estimate...... In this case, only by saving as much food as possible can we minimize the possibility of a catastrophe in which "the winter is not over after the food reserves have been exhausted."

Clearing all the roads in such a large area of the north requires a lot of labor, and that labor consumes energy, which is only supplemented by food. The best way to save food is to sleep more and move less. Except for the nobles and servants in the castle and the few soldiers who were responsible for guarding the winter town, no one was allowed to do anything unrelated to wintering, and the people of the north were actually like every winter in the past few thousand years: hoarding enough food for a year or two, dragging their families to the nearest winter town, and then entering a state similar to animal hibernation: spending most of the time in the house, sleeping and dazing the whole winter.

There is no one in charge of clearing the snow, so it is impossible to talk about the convenience of transportation, even if you are a native of the north, and ride a northern pony that wears a "bear's paw" and walks on the snow...... Rushing here from the Castle of Terror across the Mojiang River around the Lonely Mountain, he was still tired to death.

Of course, the above is just gossip, and the real reason why Luce Bolton is angry is not that he is tired from this trip, but that he should not have run this trip in the first place.

After more than ten years, the surviving Targaryens returned to the North with dragons and the Unsullied, and after discovering that this was the perfect opportunity for the Bolton family to replace Stark and determine the policy, the old skinned man made military preparations while sending his henchman Currie Snow to the Queen's temporary palace to inform the Stark family's "dragon slaying operation".

However, when the informant came here in disguise and led the "caravan", he was stopped outside the city by the garrison ordered by Egger to meet the queen, and after trying all means to break through the blockade, the leader decided to activate a backup plan: while continuing north to Houguan Town to try his luck with the commander-in-chief of the Night's Watch, he divided his troops and returned the way he came, to report the situation to his master, Earl Bolton.

The agreement in the backup plan is that after arriving in Houguan Town, a letter crow with a code will be returned every day to report the progress of the secret and what it has seen and heard, until all the letter crows are released.

But in fact, the letter crow that Bolton received in the Castle of Terror, except for the first one with the correct code and a positive message, each of the following crows only had the content of reporting safety, but there was no agreed mark!

If it was only the whistleblower who was blocked outside the last Hearthplace, it could also be explained that the Night's Watch had taken strict security to protect the Queen's well-being, then Curry Snow broke off the news after arriving in Houguan Town, and was suspected of being controlled and losing his freedom, but it pointed to a rather bad situation: Egger West, most of the time, wanted to transgress the rules and mix in the Seven Kingdoms while protecting the Stark family and not making major changes to the political ecology of the North!

Whether he was "both a bitch and a torii", or he was swayed by his emotions and made a stupid decision, it was completely contrary to his Luce Burton's plan! This hard-winged bastard not only escaped Robb Stark's control, but also made all the good things he said for him, and how much he funded and helped the Night's Watch legion!

The allies who had worked so hard to nurture had been transformed into white-eyed wolves, and the old skinning almost gritted his teeth with hatred, but the anger of betrayal could be slowly vented again, and the opportunity to catch the queen's chariot was fleeting, which was the immediate priority. After discovering that Iger seemed to be planning to leave himself out of the loop, Luce Burton didn't care about the risk of exposing his intentions in advance, and resolutely chose to bring people in person - Warner Buckwell could follow Egger's orders to drive away such an inconsequential character as Curly Snow without a sound, but it was impossible for Daenerys to stop himself outside the city without telling him the powerful lord of the party!

This is a meeting that gambles on the future and fate of the family, and only one of the Stark and Bolton families in the north will live to see the birth of a new dynasty!

......

As we approached our destination, information came from a variety of sources: the good news was that the former Amber castle had now been taken over by the Unsullied summoned by Daenerys, and Bolton at least did not have to worry about being intercepted and attacked by the Night's Watch under Egger's command, and the bad news was that Varys and Petyr Berish had already arrived here, and with these two slippery heads, it was probably an impossible goal for him to trick the queen into riding a dragon to burn Winterfell.

At this point, we can only take one step at a time, and be mentally prepared to confront the entire northern realm - it is conceivable that even with the help of dragons, this will not be too easy.

More than half an hour after sending people into the city to inform them, the gate of the castle in the distance slowly opened under the watchful eyes of Luce Bolton, and a small detachment of men and horses rushed out of it, wading through the snow towards them.

Squinting at the visitor for a moment, Bolton breathed a sigh of relief: the leader of the crowd was wide and fat, and although he couldn't see his face clearly while wearing a hood, this figure was obviously not the short, thin little finger of legend...... Most likely the eunuch Varys.

This is good news, and Bolton will not forget: Petyr Berish was once an adopted son in Riverrun, and had a fairly close relationship with the women of the Tully family, including Robb Stark's mother and aunt. And this is also equivalent to "Littlefinger is on good terms with the Starks". To sue such a guy about the wolf's family is tantamount to conspiring with a tiger and sticking his head into the crocodile's mouth to juggle - not that Bolton felt that Littlefinger would never betray his friend, but he had a vague hunch that he would probably not be able to pay the price for him to do so.

Varys, on the other hand, had no idea that the notorious Octopus Spider would be absolutely loyal to the queen or anyone, and that he would be more than happy to pry the political situation in the north and use himself as a starting point to implant his tentacles and roots in a land where his influence had never been able to penetrate.

Thinking like this, Luce Bolton twitched the muscles of his face, forced a smile, and greeted him.

"Oh, Lord Bolton, I've heard of the Skinning Family's prestige, and now I'm finally able to see the living Lord of the Castle of Terror, which is really exciting. Varys spoke before him, and he rubbed his hands eagerly several meters away: "I wonder why you have traveled thousands of miles to meet the queen in such bad weather, my lord?"

"You're so kind, Lord Varys. Bolton secretly admired in his heart - he had an ability that he did not possess on the other side: even if he wanted to work hard, he couldn't pretend to be as warm and cordial as a eunuch, "I came to warn the queen that the Stark family is secretly planning a conspiracy against His Majesty and her two dragons, hoping that she can be vigilant and take appropriate measures in time to prevent falling into danger!"

Eager to find new associates or political allies, the old skinner did not twist or sell off, and then he told the whole story he had already made, and repeated the same set that he had sent to tell Egg: the Starks had colluded with the princes of the North, and in fact, they were preparing to take advantage of the Night's Watch expedition to the outside of the fortress to overturn the order of the land grants, and at the same time, they were secretly producing and assembling dragon hunting crossbows, intending to wipe them out with their masters.

It's easy to summarize, but face-to-face description and communication can't just be a synopsis, and it takes a lot of effort to tell the story in detail and content...... Like Egger, but different, Varys, who has been crawling in the dirty waters of politics for many years, has already roughly guessed the truth of the matter before listening to the visitor's story.

The head of the Bolton family in front of him plans to seize the heaven-sent opportunity of the queen's visit and turn over to be the master of the north!

I can see through the holes in Burton's story, and Burton probably knows that. If, on a normal day, such a powerful nobleman came to show his willingness to cooperate, Varys would have kindly invited him into the house for a private chat, carefully and carefully discussing the form and content of the cooperation, considering what benefits he could gain from the other party, how much effort and price it would take to win this new "friend", and how much use he could squeeze out when he betrayed him again.

As an old nobleman, it is extremely difficult for the Stark family to manipulate in the palm of their hands, but to support the Bolton family to take the throne, the new lord will inevitably need external support if he wants to sit firmly in his position, and he will inevitably have to pay a price for help.

But instead of expanding his intelligence network, Varys wants to make sure the queen returns to the south as soon as possible - to end the long-delayed siege of King's Landing, overthrow the Baratheon dynasty, and join Prince Aegon with the Golden Order. Regardless of whether the two Targaryens combine with each other or separate the primary and secondary ministers, they can at least -2 the number of forces participating in the power struggle, and reduce the resistance they may encounter in the next planning and development by two orders of magnitude!

That's the most important thing in everything, but it's ten thousand times more important than Luce Burton's little ambition.

At this juncture, when it was hard to convince the queen to forget the promise of the Night's Watch and return south, Varys would not be so trivial as to listen to Luce Burton's story, so he turned around and ran back to the castle to report this "urgent news" to Daenerys, so as to anger the queen and make her suffer from the flames of the skinning family...... Change your itinerary and stay behind to deal with the North - an enemy that could have been saved until the end!

"On behalf of the Queen, I thank you for your sincerity in coming to warn [ ] in person, Lord Burton. "But you can rest assured that the Queen will soon be leaving the North, and she will not be harmed by the Stark family's schemes......"

"What!" Luce Burton's eyes widened for a moment, "but the Night's Watch has sworn allegiance to her, is Your Majesty planning to leave behind the forces that support him on the side of the land grant?"

"Of course not, I will try to inform Commander-in-Chief Iger as soon as possible, and arrange for the Unsullied to go north to support Houguan Town, and the Queen will definitely not sit idly by while the North persecutes her loyal vassals and true defenders of the kingdom. Varys smiled and soothed, "As for your ......."

He took a step forward and approached Luce Bolton, and glanced secretly at the soldiers brought by the old skinning in a burst of fat powder: "I want to ask your lordship, are these people you brought reliable?"

Bolton subconsciously wanted to look back, but suppressed his instinct: "They are all people who have been loyal to the Terror Castle for generations, reliable." ”

"Then I'll tell you the truth, the queen's plan has been decided, and she will definitely not change her itinerary due to any external factors. If I were an adult, I would immediately return to the Castle of Terror, pretend that this trip never existed, and continue to spend the winter in peace in the North...... When His Majesty has pocketed the six southern kingdoms and is preparing to conquer the northern realm and unify Westeros, I will contact the adults and try to unite the inside and outside, and take the barrier between the north and the south in one fell swoop. In that case, when the time comes, even if you don't mention it, the position of the new guardian of the northern realm can only be properly owned by the Bolton family. What do you think?"

Luce Burton's heart suddenly became cold: What do you think? The eunuch in front of him spoke beautifully, and the subtext was not to give an eviction order, telling himself that it was better to go home, and that he would not take him into the city to meet the queen? The plan proposed by Varys certainly sounded feasible, but after living for such a long time, how could he not know the truth that "the plan could not keep up with the changes"? He had staked everything for this big gamble, made many preparations, and even did not hesitate to leave the Castle of Terror himself...... And now you're telling me to wait?

There is no impermeable wall in the world, the sword is pulled out of its sheath and inserted back to wait for the opportunity, can you survive that time!

But he had no choice, the Queen's intelligence director wouldn't let him enter the city, and he, a northerner who had never dealt with her, could still kill the team of unsullied people in front of him and break into the last Hearthh City to rush in front of Daenerys...... Shouting out a piece of news that is not true in the first place? This is a whistleblowing, and the report is still false news, and if you have to act rashly when things don't go well, it will definitely make things worse and worse!

Holding back his calm expression, Luce Bolton was about to open his mouth to agree, and then quietly sneaked back to the Horror Castle with his subordinates, but he opened his mouth, but did not speak, only stared blankly in the direction of the castle, his eyes raised higher and higher.

Over Varys's shoulder, he saw a dark green dragon rise from the castle, flap its wings a dozen times above the city walls, and let out a high-pitched and crisp roar, heading west away from the group. Even if it's not the first time I've seen a dragon, it's better to observe such a behemoth during the day than to catch a glimpse in the dark on the night of the Battle of Long Lake...... It's still a very different visual stunning!

The eunuch also heard the dragon's roar, he turned his head and frowned as he saw the green dragon disappear into the snowflakes flying in the sky, and uneasiness came to his heart: the demon dragon doesn't like cold climates, and after Zhuo Geng was transported to the school field of the last fireplace city to recuperate, Rhaeggar, who was only slightly injured, also regarded the other end of the castle far away from the black dragon as a dragon's nest, and ate and slept every day, and he hadn't been to the sky for a while, what was it...... Or who, let it suddenly be energetic today?

Without bothering to deal with the old skinning again, Varys beckoned to an Unsullied One: "You, go back to the castle and inspect it, and make sure that Your Majesty has changed to ride the green dragon away?" ”

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