Chapter 379 The lion hangs its head, the weight of knowledge

Maybe Tywin Lannister was meant to be.

No matter who it was, he was finally forced to drown in the smelly urine along with his own blood when he was so honored.

do you remember?

It was a gloomy, thundery night.

The Duke of the West's screams before his death were completely crushed by the indifferent wind and rain.

So, no one knows, Tywin Lannister.

Have left this world.

Until the next morning.

The foul smell attracted the guards who came to look for him.

Everyone was shocked by the ignominy death of the Duke of Westland.

However, they all breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts.

The old lion finally died, and the option they had always blocked was opened.

Jaime Lannister rushed over and saw his father's body.

There was not much sadness on his taut face.

This has nothing to do with being filial or not.

He took off his coat and covered his father's unsightly body.

He let out a long sigh and scanned the people around him.

Maybe trying to find flaws in their bodies to identify the murderer?

It doesn't matter anymore.

Now, there are more important things that need to be dealt with by him, Jaime Lannister, the new Duke of Westerland.

For example, leading the entire Lannister family to declare surrender to Clay Manderly's army outside the city.

…

The heavy gate made a ferocious "creak, creak" sound, under the gaze of 20,000 soldiers of the king's army.

The east gate of Casterly Rock City, the capital of the Western Territory, slowly opened towards the inside.

"Tsk, these Lannisters are really hypocritical! They want to surrender, why not earlier? The wind blew us outside for so many days."

Rickard Karstark put away the sword in his hand and tried hard to control the raised corners of his mouth.

It sounded like he was complaining, but anyone could hear the pride in his words.

Casterly Rock City, although there was no battle, was still prostrate in front of his horse's hooves.

This sense of honor makes Rickard Karstark feel very good now.

They didn't know it yet, but the biggest fish they thought they had caught was already belly-up in the water.

Otherwise, the Lannister family would not surrender under his iron fist until now.

"Come on, let's go into the city."

Lord Tytos Blackwood raised his riding crop and pointed in the direction of Casterly Rock.

He was not as happy as Lord Rickard Karstark.

As a cautious person, in his opinion, he can rest assured only if he sees the old lion's head, or captures all the Lannisters, and takes complete control of Casterly Rock City.

He doesn't think this idea is superfluous.

If it weren't for this caution, how could he, Tytos Blackwood, have reached his current position step by step in this back-and-forth battle for several years?

Tytos has been following Clay for a long time, and he can somewhat guess some of his majesty's plans for the future.

The fall of House Lannister from the Westerlands.

The Arryn family is extinct.

The Tully family has also been deliberately weakened by His Majesty Clay.

The current direct line of the Baratheon family, except for a little girl, is all dead.

In other words, the ultimate goal of His Majesty, who came from an ordinary noble family, may be to get rid of almost all the guardian duke families.

Almost all the influential families in the old days are on His Majesty's list.

I, the Earl of Blackwood, was brought out by His Majesty to compete in the ring with Riverrun.

Otherwise, why not other families in the Riverlands?

Although his Crowtree City has some strength, it is not at the top.

The only way to go further is to carry out His Majesty Clay Manderly's will meticulously.

…

After entering Casterly Rock City and seeing that Tywin Lannister was not among the group of people standing in front of the fortress of Casterly Rock City, the two finally knew what had happened.

Just the day before their meeting, Tywin Lannister died in the castle's toilet.

There was a crossbow arrow stuck in his chest. This wound drained almost every drop of blood from Tywin Lannister's body.

Everyone who saw this scene had no intention of going up to rescue him.

With this amount of bleeding, even a cow would be lying on the ground dying, let alone an old man.

Jaime Lannister, who took over the family, took only half a day to complete the decision of the Lannister family to surrender.

So, early the next morning, he ordered the soldiers to open the city gate and let the besieging troops outside the city enter the fortress.

Seeing Jaime Lannister standing there with an expressionless face, Lord Rickard Karstark mocked:

"Hey, regicide, why are you surrendering to me? Haha, you eggless bastard, why were you so bold when you killed the king?"

Jaime Lannister glanced at the proudly dressed Karstark in front of him, and sneered:

"Northerners, you can laugh at me, I don't care, but remember, I, my family, have never been defeated by you. If Clay Mandler was your enemy, you might not even have ashes now. There’s nothing left.”

When it comes to the honesty of most people in the North, it is really hopeless.

Rickard Karstark was stunned for a moment when he heard these words, and then he actually remained silent.

Obviously, he could not refute the regicide's words.

He imagined in his mind the scene of the man riding the giant dragon that covered the sky and controlling the dragon to spray dragon flames on him, and he became frightened.

Seeing Rickard Karstark's reaction, Jaime Lannister just cursed in his mind and stopped talking.

Such a simple-minded guy is really boring to deal with.

Lord Tytos Blackwood watched this scene with cold eyes, then stepped forward and said:

"Jaime Lannister, since you have chosen to surrender, from now on, Casterly Rock will come under the king's banner. You and your family members will all board the carriage and go to King's Landing."

"Clay Mandler wants to see me?"

Jaime Lannister asked rhetorically.

Lord Tytos Blackwood frowned and replied:

"It is His Majesty's decision how to deal with you. We do not have the power. Now, hand over your sword and help us take over Casterly Rock City."

Jaime Lannister shrugged.

He had dealt with Clay Mandler, but as a prisoner.

The man, who was much younger than him, left a very deep impression on him.

He didn't believe that Clay Manderly would kill all the Lannister families. As for the reason, he couldn't give him a reason yet, but he believed in his intuition.

"Then let's go, let's not waste any time."

Jaime Lannister made a gesture of invitation and spoke slowly.

…

The Reach.

Old town.

Clay looked at the continuous buildings at his feet from Galesos's back.

Oldtown is the largest and oldest city in Westeros.

From here the Mead River flows into the Whispering Bay and the mouth of the Sunset Sea.

The Rose Avenue built from King's Landing is the end point of the southern line.

Now, Clay frowned slightly as he looked at this theoretically the last place where Westeros refused to accept his will.

Before he left Old Town, the Hightower family, the lords here, had already expressed their surrender.

However, Earl Hightower stated in his letter that he had no way to deal with the school city that refused to open its doors.

Clay knew what he meant.

The school city is not a problem. From a purely defensive point of view, it has been bulldozed long ago.

But the real trouble is that the people inside, or what they represent, are the bachelor system that has been prevalent in Westeros for a long time and has long been ingrained.

In Clay's view, this group of people who swore to be the masters of various lords were simply unforgivable.

First, they have a monopoly on all avant-garde knowledge.

Anyone who has made achievements in learning will eventually enter the academy.

The dazzling array of books there is enough to fill the underground part of King's Landing.

However, the book was locked.

This in itself represents the attitude of the school city.

We have knowledge, but we are not ready to share it with outsiders.

For hundreds or thousands of years, the productivity of Westeros has been what it was before and what it is now.

It has no effect on society as a whole.

Clay didn't believe it. If the knowledge in the city was now open to the entire Westeros, would it still be like this?

Let’s not talk about these macro aspects, let’s talk about being a bachelor himself.

Except for those crooked herbalists, the bachelor is almost the hospital in every territory.

The problem is here, no matter how skilled one person is, how many can he save?

Moreover, bachelors will most likely be able to express their opinions on the daily health of nobles.

In addition, the raven, which triggers all communications in Westeros, is almost always raised and controlled by maesters.

Their energy is simply too great.

In other words, the academy has never ordered bachelors to take control of the city. Otherwise, the nobles would have been unable to tolerate them.

The school city indeed no longer expressed hostility towards him.

However, they still did not let go of their pride, and still arrogantly refused the order of their own troops to garrison the academy and escort them to King's Landing.

According to the reply, Chief Doctor Nolen expressed in a euphemistic tone that the place in King's Landing is a garbage dump. We noble people who are bathed in the ocean of knowledge will not join in the same trend with His Majesty the King.

Besides, we have already expressed our submission to your rule, so just do what you mean and don’t push yourself too far.

That very interesting letter is still in Clay's hands.

You could say this is the confidence of a group of nerds, or worse, arrogance.

Perhaps inappropriate.

That’s what everyone else says anyway.

Oh, by the way, this other person specifically refers to Lady Olenna, the Queen of Thorns, who talked to Clay.

However, if Clay were to evaluate it, it would be very simple, with only four words:

"act recklessly".

Of course he knew why Mrs. Olenna said that.

Because all the resources consumed by the former school city were supported by Old Town and Highgarden.

In other words, these two places are the financial backers of the school city.

Therefore, they have a good relationship with those doctors, and they also enjoy some benefits from the school city.

Now, Clay Manderly wants to uproot the Citadel and move it directly to King's Landing under the King's nose. Of course Lady Olenna will object.

After all, with the Citadel gone, the Reach has really become an image of wealthy locals.

Without the technical blessing of the academy, Gao Ya would have nothing to do with people like them.

But that's what Clay wanted.

This institution, which had influence throughout the country, did not accept the will of the king.

This is something that he, who pursues the unification of another type of version, simply cannot accept.

Only now, the army marched to Old Town, and the dragon soared over the school city.

Clay didn't care what other people thought of him.

What he wants now is for his orders to reach every noble castle or organization in Westeros.

The technical difficulty of transferring royal power to the countryside is too high. Without a suitable official selection system and a sufficient team of bureaucracy, there is no way.

Don't even think about it.

Therefore, at this stage, what he is pursuing is the unification of national entities.

If you don’t know how to speak, your words won’t work well in some place.

Lord Tytos Blackwood was right, he was indeed deliberately attacking the original guardian family.

Bran Stark of Winterfell is actually half of his own family. Now, the only ones left are Tyrell of Highgarden and the Martell family of Sunspear.

"What does this Clay Mandler want to do? Do you think his giant dragon can scare us?"

Chief Nolen and Chief Theobald stood together, looking at the visually impressive dragon shadow in the sky, their lips trembled.

It is said that the ignorant are fearless, but unfortunately, as the most knowledgeable group of people in Westeros, they know very well that the dragon has now become an irresistible force.

There is nothing one can do.

Galesos passed by at a low altitude, and the dust it brought up made the two men cough violently.

They still can't believe that Clay Mandler is actually here.

At this moment, the door behind him was pushed open, and a doctor hurried in with a letter.

"Boy, Hightower sent us a letter."

The doctor gave the letter in his hand to Chief Nolen who took it, and left directly.

"What did the Dragon King say?"

Chief Theobald said quickly.

Chief Nolen's expression was very bad, quite bad.

"The Dragon King wants us to carry out his orders, otherwise, he will burn the city to the ground and kill everyone here."

Theobald's eyebrows almost flew up.

"He's crazy, here..."