chsdbacks Chapter 128 1 Road Drifting
Chapter 128 1 Road Drifting
Chapter 128 Drifting Along the Way
"Even the ten fingers are not all the same length, let alone the courtiers in the Red Keep." King Joffrey often sighed in private.
"Besides, every family has its own problems."
Baron didn't care about the deeper meaning behind it.
But he immediately noticed the flaw in that sentence.
The Seven Star Bible is found throughout the castles and sanctuaries of Westeros; there is one in my father's bedroom.
It was a finely bound book, with a leather cover, metal trim at the four corners, and a chain that secured it to the desk to prevent theft.
But Baron had never seen his father open it.
As for the fingers—
"It's a pity that the Onion Knight's amulet is lost," Baron said.
Ronald Storm turned to look at him, puzzled.
"If his fingers aren't reattached, his left hand will be the same length," Baron added.
Ronald laughed heartily.
He was the illegitimate son of Lord Red Roland, Earl of Eagle's Nest, and was sent to King's Landing as a hostage by his father after the war. King Joffrey then gave him to Balon as a squire.
The child had a very fierce personality and inherited his father's appearance and red hair.
But as a companion, he was far less interesting than Sandor Clegane.
Sandor is more ferocious and looks more intimidating than Roland.
But he always managed to catch up with Baron's remarks.
In addition, Sandor was very wealthy and won tens of thousands of gold dragons from the martial arts tournament.
The king bought him a tavern in King's Landing, and Balon was often invited there to drink for free.
One afternoon, the two of them were drinking and discussing this matter.
That is, when Stannis cut his finger, was it one cut or four cuts?
Sandor was certain it was a single stab.
"If you cut it cleanly with one stroke, all three in the middle will break off. At most, you can trim the nail on your little finger," Baron said.
Sandor stretched out his large palm and gestured with his right index finger: "Just cut it diagonally."
Baron shook his head: "That proves Stannis is lying."
"He promised to only cut off the tip of the fingers, so the middle and ring fingers will have to be cut off by more than half."
Sandor's lips twitched.
"Then I respect him as a true man. A normal person would have run away after being stabbed a third time."
The two argued for a long time without reaching a conclusion, and finally compromised on one point.
That was two cuts.
Make one cut in the middle three, and then make another cut on the little finger separately.
Unexpectedly, a treacherous person in the tavern went to report on them.
"You two seem to have a lot of free time," King Joffrey called them over. "Why don't you lend a hand and just bring Davos and Stannis here so we can get to the bottom of things?"
And so, those good days in King's Landing were gone forever.
Sandor's main job was as the king's personal bodyguard, which at least allowed him to stay in the city.
Baron, however, did not have such a good job. He was sent directly outside the city to miserably manage the soldiers in the Royal Forest to farm.
This area has an official name: the Garrison Agricultural Reclamation Area.
The name was complicated and difficult to pronounce; I had never heard of it before. It felt like a word that the king had made up.
But these kinds of things happen all the time, and everyone's gotten used to it.
"His Majesty has a message for you," a supply knight approached Balon. "It concerns when you will be able to return to King's Landing." Balon looked at him hopefully.
"After the chickens have finished pecking at the grain and the dogs have finished licking the flour, the fire will have burned through the lock."
"You can come back when you have trained an army of 400,000 and built 8,000 warships."
"At that time, His Majesty will also appoint you as a lord."
"Great article!"
"His spirit is awe-inspiring, his presence is timeless." Earl Riverey exclaimed repeatedly, holding a piece of wood in his hands.
"Let these wood chips drift to the Narrow Sea, where everyone can see them."
"The morale of the military and civilians on Dragonstone Island is bound to be thrown into chaos!"
"Your Majesty, there must be quite a few of these wood chips piled up on Stannis's desk by now."
Oh dear, Riverley is almost turning into a treacherous minister.
No matter what Joffrey does, he always has to praise him.
However, he had already used this tactic of winning hearts and minds before conquering cities many times before, so it was not a new trick.
"Sir, take a look at the other pieces of wood," Joffrey gestured.
Rivery took it and examined it carefully.
"How come all these words are exactly the same? Even their positions are exactly the same?"
The little devil picked up a piece and gently fanned it in his hand.
"The principle behind this is the same as the pattern on the cards in the martial arts tournament."
"They first make the mold, then put the lettering on it. The materials used are leftover scraps from building construction, so it's a way of making use of waste."
This can be considered the precursor to woodblock printing, and the technique was already quite advanced.
However, the current problem is with the materials.
If you use wooden chips as a carrier, you have to cast an iron mold, and you can't print too many words.
If we switch to wooden boards, the cost of paper is too high.
Although in the far east, in a country called Yi, a man named Cai invented inexpensive paper.
However, the paper was traded all the way to Westeros, where the price was several times higher than parchment, and the papermaking technique was kept strictly confidential by them, with no outsiders knowing anything about it.
Joffrey had previously mentioned the papermaking method to Tyrion based on his vague memory, and asked him to find someone to research it.
The finished product was thin and rough, so rough that it was uncomfortable to even wipe one's bottom.
Besides, knowledge in Westeros was monopolized by maesters, so there were very few literate people, and no one was willing to put in the effort to study it.
He gave lessons to his soldiers, teaching them to recognize some characters.
A clay slab and a piece of chalk are enough to handle it.
Joffrey stopped dwelling on papermaking and got down to business.
"The main weapons against the White Walkers are dragonsteel and dragonglass, which are Valyrian steel and obsidian."
"The former is too rare to count on."
"But Dragonstone has a lot of obsidian, and getting Stannis to hand it over is a big problem."
There were both pro-war and pro-peace factions within the Red Fort.
"Duskvalley responded to the Iron Throne's call without selling a single grain of food to Dragonstone," Riverey replied, his tone filled with hatred for Stannis.
After all, their family had been robbed by pirates.
"Stannis has been trapped on Dragonstone for months, and his food supplies are almost exhausted. As long as we strictly implement His Majesty's blockade strategy, he will eventually surrender."
The little devil shrugged.
"Dragonstone is a military fortress with only a few small fishing villages on the island, and it has never been able to be self-sufficient."
"Stannis has been plotting a rebellion since last year. Do you know how much food he's stockpiled?"
"Besides, who can guarantee that the other feudal lords will obediently abide by the prohibition?"
"As long as Stannis is willing to pay a high price, someone will definitely smuggle grain secretly."
"Moreover, he could have easily gone to the other side of the narrow sea to fetch grain, even if the journey was long and the cost was high, he would never have surrendered obediently because of this."
"In my opinion, it would be better to lift the food embargo, reach a trade agreement, and exchange it for obsidian."
"Fighting is fighting, and doing business is doing business; we can do both without neglecting either."
Of course, it would be even better if we could plant a few spies inside.
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