Chapter 861
Cities close to the capital will not be too big because of the siphon effect of the capital.
In the world of Song of Ice and Fire, the same rule applies.
Rosby is just 30 kilometers north of King's Landing. The city is very small, with no prosperous commercial districts or tall and magnificent buildings. Except for House Rosby's castle, there are wooden slats and mud huts everywhere.
Rich businessmen, worthy Sers, and even Earl Rosby oneself live next door at King's Landing.
But Rosby is very wealthy, or rather, the narrow strip of land on which the Crownlands is located, either near the bay or in the Blackwater Rush basin, both fertile and productive.
In War of Four Kings, only Rosby and Stokeworth (Bronn's domain) provide half of King's Landing's needs.
Also because of the Iron Throne efforts in War of Four Kings, Rosby can't even feed Second Stag's 20,000 Vale army now.
This day, under the dim sky, a Wyvern flew from the east and landed on the spacious school grounds in front of Fort Rosby.
There were a lot of people on the school grounds, but no one paid any attention to the old Knight who came down from Wyvern's back.
Hundreds of people in a circle, doing some ceremony.
Davos is the Hand of the King, and as he approaches, those in front of him consciously make way for him.
After a while, Onion Knight squeezed to the front, near the central log pile, and saw King with a cold and iron complexion, and a graceful Red Woman, already tied to the stake and desperately begging for forgiveness Eight Knights with mercy.
"What's the matter?" Davos finds oneself's son, Stannis.
Well, not Second Stag, but Davos' sixth son.
Onion Knight had seven sons, the first four of whom died at the Battle of Blackwater Rush at the hands of the dwarf.
The fifth Devan is 15 years old and was originally a squire for Second Stag. But one day, Onion Knight noticed the way the fifth man was looking at Melisandre.
That's the look in the eyes of a man looking at a woman, full of intense desire and inextricable love.
Afterwards, he quietly asked someone to inquire, only to find out that Second Stag did not take Devan with him when he left Wall for Winterfell, because Melisandre offered to keep Knight squire with oneself.
Actually, this is a misunderstanding.
Melisandre knows that Onion Knight doesn't like oneself, but he respects him very much.
The reason why Devan was left was not the "loneliness in the boudoir" that Davos was worried about, but because Red Woman knew that Second Stag's trip was dangerous, and Devan would probably never return with him.
She pitied Onion Knight for killing four children at a time in Blackwater Rush, so she wanted to save Devan.
She understood Devan's love for her and was happy about it, but she didn't do anything to him.
Davos didn't know the twists and turns, so he left Devan at Cape Wrath Rainwood on the pretext of being away from home for a few years and returning home to visit his mother.
Out of loyalty to Second Stag, he brought his 13-year-old son over to serve Second Stag.
The sixth is named Stannis, and the 10-year-old seventh is awesome and named Steffon (Second Stag's father's name).
"They are Braavos mercenaries who violated King Your Majesty's military order, not only leaving the garrison area without authorization, but also looting a 14-year-old peasant girl in a village three miles away, taking her... .."
Little Stannis' childish face was full of indignation, and the eyes of the mercenary on the pillar were full of... a frenzy that scared Davos.
A few days after this child came to Your Majesty, he began to look forward to seeing the stake!
Davos thought worriedly.
Second Stag stood silently in front of the pillar, listening to the pleas of every prisoner before turning back...
His eyes were first on the stocky Ser Suggs Sweeping over with the scar-faced Ser Richard, without the slightest hesitation, he continued to move backwards.
"Axell, can you?"
"Your Majesty, your faith is what I serve." A simple and stocky middle age person said solemnly.
"Let's get started, then." Second Stag sighed softly.
In the past, the people who led the red heart Knight to sacrifice ceremony were Godry Farring and Richard. After Godry was shot to death by Greatjon, Ser Suggs took over.
Richard is still wearing a red heart cape, but he has a bright white seven-pointed star on his chest.
Suggs even though he was dressed in the same way as before, but he died once, and Soul didn't go to Lord of Light to report, but was resurrected by Dragon Queen.
What does it say?
Suggs has no faith in R'hllor either.
Unbelievers cannot lead believers to sacrifice.
And Axell Florent is a speculator, and he converted to Lord of Light more to win the favor of King and Queen, and to gain power. His faith is not as pure as Godry and Richard before.
"Lord of Light, listen to us!" Axell said loudly.
"Lord of Light, protect us." The Red God followers sang in unison, "Because the Long Night is long and dangerous everywhere."
Ser Axell looked up at the dark sky, Shout: "True Lord, please restore the light of the sun, please guide us to drive straight in, and annihilate the enemy bandits. Please expel the clouds that cover the sky, and let us restore the brightness of the stars."
The believers Prayer: "Lord of Light, protect us and drive out the merciless darkness."
Melisandre glanced, the firewood around the eight stakes roared, and the sacrifice began to howl and curse.
"R'hllor," Ser Axell raised his voice, "we offer eight sinners. Pure and sincere, to the True Lord. With blood, sacrificed. With God's help, we swear to destroy the pirates. Please accept this offering and lead us to King's Landing to clear the heathen!"
"Lord of Light, accept the offering." Hundreds of voices shouted simultaneously.
The flames greedily licked the skin and hair of the sacrifice, and their pleading turned into a high-pitched cry of incomprehension.
...
As soon as the ceremony was over, Davos was eager to find Stannis.
"Your Majesty, are you going to storm King's Landing? It's not what we planned before!" he asked uneasily.
"I don't want to wait any longer. The people of King's Landing may not have anything to eat, but the Red Keep must have a lot of food in reserve. Your plan to besiege the city and cut off food won't work.
Just waiting Vale and Dragonstone's food arrives, and I'll attack the city," Stannis said softly.
Using the Wyvern to throw Wildfire recklessly, the Onion Knight will be able to break through King's Landing before the Second Stag returns from Winterfell.
But he didn't do that.
Not only Iron Throne's tens of thousands of armies, but also Sparrow who believed in The Seven all over the city, prevented Second Stag from entering King's Landing.
The Crownlands and the Riverlands were withered after successive battles, and the people of the two population-rich areas were all transferred to King's Landing, and all of them joined the Church's Poor Fellows.
At this time, their whole body is clean and tidy, and there is nothing but faith.
Unless Second Stag can solve the livelihood problems of those people, let them resume production and business, and have food to work, then rebelling against the Red God King is inevitable.
When King Aegon's True Dragon Alliance besieged King's Landing on that day, King Aegon's enemy was only Iron Throne, and the common people and Church were only numb to watch.
And facing the Second Stag army attacking King's Landing, King's Landing hundreds of thousands of Sparrow were excited.
They picked up wooden sticks, bricks and rusted kitchen knives, climbed up the city wall, and even poured out of the city gate, shouting the slogan "Long live the Seven, for Mother", using the flesh and blood of oneself. The body went to the Vale army that attacked the city.
The Vale princes shrank first.
They also believe in The Seven, and the Second Stag is just for political reasons. Loyalty doesn't exist, so it's impossible for them to slaughter The Seven followers for Second Stag.
The last person who slaughtered Church believers was Maegor during the founding period.
What happened to Maegor?
Maegor and dragons, Balerion!
A crazy person like Cersei only dares to kill High Sparrow quietly.
In addition to the sparrows, the countless old, young, sick and sick refugees crowded under the city wall is also a big problem.
King's Landing is full of people at this time, crowded with people, if the city is burned with kerosene, it will inevitably affect a large number of innocent people. Even if Davos dared to slaughter the Church Forces like Maegor, he would not have the heart to attack ordinary people.
So, he only blocked the land passage of King's Landing and Highgarden, blocked the sea passage of Blackwater Bay, cut off the food input into the city, forced the hungry people of King's Landing to open the city and surrender, and then used food to appease those who were starving. believers and people.
"Your Majesty, if you burn the King's Landing and slaughter the people, the Vale princes will no longer pledge their allegiance to you.
The mercenaries hired from Braavos are not to be trusted at all, they even I want to terminate the employment contract and escape back to Braavos without Others.
At that time, even if the King's Landing city gateway was open, but there were no soldiers, how would you occupy King's Landing? How would you rule the country?" Davos persuaded road.
No basic disk is indeed one of the dilemmas that Second Stag is facing at this time.
As the Duke of Dragonstone with a small territory, he didn't have many henchmen. After wandering around in North, he lost Storm's End and Dragonstone, and he became completely alone, with only a few hundred flaming red heart Knights left.
Braavos mercenaries, North 2,000 cavalry, Vale princes, they seem to be powerful, but they cannot be built on.
It's time for Second Stag to clench his jaw and grind his teeth hard.
But now he's pale and dull, not like a living person's withered cheeks, without even showing a trace of emotion on his cheeks, he just said indifferently: "Davos, I don't have time to delay, it's Long Night, Others are infiltrating The Neck, Go south to the Riverlands. If the disruption continues, you will suffer from chaos."
Davos sighed helplessly, "How to deal with the Poor Fellows and the refugees?"
Second Stag's deep eye sockets flashed a flash. Dusk, said: "As long as they can temporarily fill the belly of commoners, they don't care if Iron Throne is an Angel or a devil.
They love Margaery, who murdered her husband, and call him 'Mother' Margaery' because Highgarden brought them bread and cheese.
They were ruled by the wild Tommen and the street criminal Cersei, or because the food from the Highgarden kept them alive."
"I believe in Red God, but is Euron a devout believer of The Seven?" Second Stag patted Hand of the King on the shoulder, indifferently said: "The common people are much easier to deal with than the nobles, as long as they don't starve to death , they are the most honest and obedient people.
The desires of the nobles are endless, and it seems that they can never be satisfied without sitting on the Iron Throne. For example, that woman, that dwarf. Have you agreed?"
"Tyrion rejects the proposal to divide the Riverlands into two..." Davos recounted all of this afternoon's negotiations.
"Daenerys can give up Iron Throne, but she wants to inherit the Fiefdom of Targaryen ancestors, which is Crownlands.
If the new King does not want to move out of King's Landing, it can also be used with other Dragonstones. Compensation for similar land, such as the Three Rivers watershed."
"Targaryen is just an outsider, there is no inherent Fiefdom." Second Stag coldly said.
"Your Majesty, forgive me to speak bluntly, your ancestor Orys Baratheon and Aegon the Conqueror were a gang." Davos said embarrassedly.
They are all foreign robbers.