Chapter 536
2021-01-06
Chapter 536 Advance and RetreatOut of prudence and respect for allies, Igor is entering the main fort Before seeing Robb, I met with Littlefinger and made a final decision, and under the banner of oneself idea, I briefly outlined to him Myrcella's proposal - the bold idea of letting the wolf go back to the mountain as it should be by rights to scare the Hand of the Queen. Jump, but the idea of "the three-division of the North princes" has been approved by Petyr. But while praising this mindset of simplifying the problem, he also offered oneself.
"In the stomach, we can classify the North nobles into three categories: easy, difficult, and impossible to win, but in practice, you can't just give up just because you judge some of them can't be attracted - otherwise it will be counted in the future. account, they can claim that we did not communicate enough with them to refuse to accept the blame and bear the consequences." Petyr said seriously, "Speaking of this, Lord Commander should have some knowledge of the general situation of the North princes? I am overseas. After staying for many years, this is definitely not as good as you who are in a land grant."
"Of course. North's noble nobles are probably these: Karstark's in Karhold, White Harbor. Manderly in Deepwood Motte, Glover in Deepwood Motte, Bear Island House Mormont, Ryswell in Rills, Dustin in Barrowton, Reed in Greywater Watch, Torrhen's Square Tallhart, Hornwood in Hornwood, Old Town Locke...and Widow's Watch And the two Flints of Flint's Finger." I have just taken the time to sort out my thoughts, and Igor now speaks like a treasure: "Although the Queen's request is 'the allegiance of all the nobles in the North', I think: only these It is only necessary to count the upper-class nobles who are directly loyal to House Stark. The position and loyalty of those subordinate to the lower-class nobles should be 'represented' by their monarchs. Otherwise, we are carrying out a mission that is impossible to complete forever. "
"Indeed, even if Varys or Bolton disagrees at this point, we should be able to easily persuade the Queen to understand and approve." Seeing so many new allies of oneself, Littlefinger felt relieved The tone also became relaxed: "Is this all the bannermen directly under House Stark in North, why do I feel that there is something missing?"
"I'm about to add what I'm missing—except for the above-mentioned In addition to the family, there are House Bolton of Dread Castle, Castle Cerwyn's house, several 'chief counts' in the mountains... Skagosi of Skagos, and finally Umber's house of Hearth." Igor nominee and said, "Among them, House Bolton has already Be loyal to the Queen first, you can naturally skip it ; Clay Severn was captured by me during the night attack on Winterfell, and asked Lady Stark to go to the cell to persuade him, most of which can be persuaded; some chiefs of the mountain clan are loyal to Stark in name, but they have already been conquered by me, from the lifeline of food economy to the army They are all influenced and controlled by the gift of land, making them recognize the Queen is just a matter of words; Skagos, a group of Barbarians who devour raw meat and fowl, I even doubt whether the Queen has heard of or needs their loyalty; as for the Umber family, it seems that It has been destroyed at the hands of the Others, but I happen to have a plan here to bring it back to life...and allegiance to the Queen. ”
So, Igor used the information provided by Little Princess and the fact that if the true person could not be found, the civet cat could be replaced by the Crown Prince - in short, it could be reincarnated in someone else's body and let the Umber family reappear in Shi and gave a brief introduction to the idea used by oneself... Of course, without mentioning Myrcella.
"A coup, Lord Commander! After hearing this, Petyr's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed sincerely, and then extended the hand: "So... Karstark, Manderly, Glover..."
Watching Petyr Baelish stand on a It's quite a strange experience to count the numbers while muttering like a little child, but the fact is, with the complexity and difficulty of remembering many North families, if you count directly in your heart without any auxiliary means, it will be true for a while. I can't figure it out.
After a few seconds, Littlefinger put down his hand: "We actually only need to settle twelve more families before we can roughly think that we have conquered North, and can tell the Queen without any guilt. - 'All the nobles north of The Neck have pledged their allegiance to her'! ? "
"That's right. "
"Um..."
Putting away his cheery expression, Petyr frowned: the number doesn't seem like much, but each of these families occupies a large tract of land and rules With tens of thousands of subjects, each surname has a long history and ancient pride... In Westeros before the war, just picking one out of them is enough for him to seriously design a set of winning strategies like a boss. And to put it into practice in person, and now, a whole dozen suddenly appeared in front of them, and need to deal with it immediately!
Neither of them have Avatar Technique, even more how the current situation, whether it is for themselves or Queen's safety considerations are not suitable to leave Winterfell to leave Varys alone with Daenerys? In this situation, how to settle the "trifling twelve" family, but they have to use their brains.
"House Stark has publicly announced its support for Your Majesty. Right now, North is on the Queen's side at least on the surface. Political correctness is our biggest advantage at the moment... As long as we take advantage of this, we will be willing to negotiate. The price was bought, and those who refused to be loyal gave him the hat of treason and disobedience to the monarch, and it was not as difficult as imagined for the princes to change their positions. After thinking for a while, Littlefinger spoke again, not knowing whether he was muttering to himself or encouraging Igor, "I... Baelish's Fiefdom is near Bite Bay, the land is barren and no food can be grown, until now they are rubbing against Baigang. The foreign trade subsidy family of the family, I managed this kind of business for a while before going to Seagull Town as a tax officer, so I have dealt with the Manderly family and the Locke family, and they are half friends... I will write and send them personally. Reliable personnel will go to contact, but the principals of the next ten houses, I really don’t know how to recognize them when they walk in front of them. I am afraid that I will have to rely on Lord Commander, or make other plans. "
"I sent troops to Deepwood Motte two years ago to expel the Ironmen, and I saved Robert Glover's wife and children. It's a favor to them, and I'm sure I can win this one." "Igor also began to rank and count how many companies oneself can handle: "Bear Island, the predecessor of Night's Watch, Lord Commander, came from House Mormont. Later, North and land-grant teamed up to form the West Coast Fleet, and they have long-term cooperation in Bingxia Port. A little bit of friendship... I can send the man who returned Jeor Mormont's ashes to visit again. Judging from the feeling of acquaintance, even if they fail to win, at least they won't lose their lives. "
"There are also two Flint families of Widow's Watch and Flint's Finger. They originally came from the mountains and were awarded Fiefdom because of their merits, but after all, they came from the same lineage as the original clan, and they have blood kinship. , I will let the mountain Flint chief send his heirs to lobby and have a good chance of winning. "I don't know, I don't know, I count...the North family that he can handle seems to be quite a lot." If you count all those who can be slightly related, there is actually the Reed family of Greywater Watch, Miss Meera Reed. He and his younger brother Jiu Jian escorted Bran Stark out of the fort to accept the Greenseer inheritance. After returning to the Wall, he lived for a period of time at Night's Watch to be within the wall. He was entertained and protected by me. How much influence a father can have. "
"I've heard of Howland Reed, probably because he lives in the marsh rather than the tundra, and his personality isn't as tough as a normal Norther, but closer to the Riverlands." People are so cunning and cunning, as long as they can negotiate the price, it should not be difficult to deal with... I'm just worried that your people can't find Greywater Watch, it is said that this castle will move in the marsh. "
"It wasn't the castle that moved, but the features of the marsh surrounding the castle." "Igor spread his hands, "If anyone tries to rediscover a certain wood, which quagmire, or a river based on its memory, it's natural to come to the one-sided conclusion that 'Greywater Watch is moving'." The good news is that the winter has frozen The Neck so hard that the Greywater Watch's 'location' must have been untouched for at least a dozen months, during which time someone from my staff visited it. "
"Hopefully all goes well." "Petyr sighed." Let's be optimistic. Assuming that the ones you mentioned are all done smoothly, what about Karstark, Ryswell, Dustin, Tallhart and Hornwood? We have nothing to do? "
"I really didn't have any friendship. "Igor reluctantly shrugged - it's more than no friendship, two of them are not very happy with oneself, and Karstark is against supporting oneself as Lord Commander from the very beginning. "But coincidentally, according to the existing information, these five There are at least four of them in the family, and they are currently enlisted or heading towards Castle Cerwyn. When they are together, it is difficult to send messengers to negotiate by ordinary means. ”
Littlefinger was right in what he said earlier: even if he judged that he could not win over, he had to send someone to talk. What if he did? But there are not many literate and capable people in the land grant army. There are even fewer people who can talk and fool people, and oneself does not want to list a separate category of 'unable to win' and give up communication. There are really limited people available, so we can only refer to the logic of Tian Ji's horse racing, and use the competent people first. For families that hope to achieve results, the bigger picture is more important.
Petyr both hands crossed near chest in the cold wind, right hand rests his chin in deep thought.
After spending a few years together, he already knew enough about Daenerys. Queen only wanted to "rule North first" on a whim in the afternoon when she was stimulated by Varys's reinstatement. After a while, oneself will definitely be able to convince her to accept "Not everyone in North support and love her”, thereby lowering the requirements. However, even the eight companies that the two have judged to be able to win over and assign them clearly are unlikely to win all of them without any difference. There is a situation where "six or seven or more Great Families refuse to bend their knees to acknowledge allegiance".
There are less than twenty Great Families in North, no matter how you count them, there must be at least twelve or four Great Families. The response can be called "majority", right? If there are more than five Great Families including Karstark and Ryswell who openly refuse to change their flags... Then this ratio, it is difficult for Daenerys to regain his senses and lower his requirements. It makes sense.
Igor and oneself must not take the risk of going out in person, and they have very limited subordinates who can be used as negotiators, so...
Silai Wanting to go, Petyr found helplessly: the crazy idea that Igor had just met and rejected by oneself was actually the only way he could think of temporarily, and the only way to break the predicament.
“So, The key point now is which ones are assembled in Castle Cerwyn? "
"That's right. "
"Damn it!" "Littlefinger slapped the fist, annoyed and unwilling to exhibit one's feelings in one's speech.
"Damn it, how does the Prime Minister think? Igor asked with a wry smile. He also expected Littlefinger to turn his eyes and come up with a better solution, but it was obvious that Petyr had nothing to do. So he was afraid of the risky strategy of letting the wolf go back to the mountain... I'm excited again.
"Since you've made an appointment, don't make people wait too long, let's go to the main castle and talk to that child Robb. Anyway, even if we finally decide to let him go, it is impossible to leave tonight. Let's say what we should say first. If anyone can come up with a better idea before he leaves, then cancel the trip. If not, we can only risk it. This trip is unavoidable. Littlefinger raised his brows, showing the courage and responsibility that Hand of the Queen should have: "If it succeeds, you and I will share the credit, and if we make a mistake in judgment, the responsibility and consequences will be shared by us... This is called advancing together and retreating together." , what do you think, Lord Commander? ”
He is a straightforward and upright political strongman. I don’t know if Littlefinger’s character has changed with his rich experience and rising status, or his acting skills have been tempered to the point of perfection?
Either way, Igor has to admire it.
"That's great, then the Prime Minister...please. ”
—
(end of this chapter)