Chapter 383 Who represents Westeros?

Is the war over?

On a broad level, Brynden Rivers brought back the news that the north was still uneasy, and that beyond the Great Wall was still hidden in the thick aura of the cold god and could not be detected.

In the south, Sunspear refused to participate in this meeting of nobles, saying that they would not come until they captured Highgarden.

So, one south and one north, the war is not over yet.

But every noble who came to King's Landing didn't think so.

Because with King's Landing as its core, a powerful new dynasty has been established. Even though the current capital is still full of charred ruins, it does not affect people's expectations for the future.

Either burn it or burn it, turn all the filthy, dirty, and ugly things into ashes, and let them be taken away by the free wind from the sky.

Red Fort.

Throne Room.

All traces of House Baratheon's brief reign have been completely erased from the fortress.

The stag carving was smoothed away and the dragon's head reappeared.

However, the black and red colors of the Targaryen were replaced by the gold and red of the Mandalay-Targaryen dynasty.

The dragon master is back.

The brazier was lit, and countless chairs were placed in rows and rows, filling the entire royal hall.

According to the king's request, the North, the Riverlands, the Vale, the West, the Reach, the Crown, the Iron Islands, and some remaining nobles in the Stormlands were divided into eight regions.

This is not the final position, for at this meeting Clay Manderly, the only king of Westeros, will announce his brand new policies.

As the morning sun shines on the white stone steps of the Red Castle in the cold wind, the rich bells ring.

The door representing the highest authority was slowly pushed open by burly guards wearing armor.

The nobles from all sides, who had been looking forward to it for a long time, looked at each other and stepped into the door of the throne room with what they thought was their best attitude.

As they found their seats and sat down slowly, everyone's eyes fell on the empty throne.

Some people noticed that the Iron Throne seemed to have undergone some changes.

The original sharpness of the intake was reduced and became more soft. In other words, it became more like a chair.

A richly decorated high-backed chair was placed on the right side of the throne.

This is a very clear signal that the queen will be there too.

This is the highest-level meeting, representing the country's initial political direction, so no one dares to neglect it.

They didn't wait long, and the two most important people in this meeting appeared in everyone's sight.

Clay Manderly, leading Daenerys Targaryen, glanced at the nobles present, and then, amid applause, ascended the throne.

"You have been waiting for this day for a long time, right?"

This was Clay's opening statement, which elicited a knowing smile from many.

This war, which lasted for five or six years from south to north, from east to west, resulted in countless civilian casualties. The number of nobles who had their families exterminated and stripped of their surnames was close to 20.

This is not a small number. The wealth and land they left behind are indeed now controlled by some nobles or Clay himself.

But this is not the end, because one of the purposes of this meeting is to give them a legal endorsement.

"Your Majesty! We can't wait any longer!"

Lord Jon Amber said loudly, attracting a large number of people to reunite.

Clay chuckled lightly and pressed his hand, signaling for the scene to quiet down.

"The position of the Royal Council, the division of territory, and my new policy. Which one do you want to discuss first?"

In fact, for the last point, Clay originally planned to find some gloves and use them as his own sounding board to raise the issue.

However, after thinking about it later, I gave up the idea.

Because it's completely unnecessary. Everyone can see that this is what Clay Mandler meant.

Clay is not afraid that his plan will fail. He is not a weak king.

After hearing his words, the nobles below looked at each other. To be honest, none of these three things can be discussed. However, since the king said so, everyone can only follow his wishes.

"Then please, Your Majesty, please tell us about the Imperial Council."

Behind her sat Lady Olenna, the Queen of Thorns, who was surrounded by the nobles of the Reach. She spoke slowly.

Their family has no other demands.

Territory is impossible, and the Peak family died miserably during the war, but this matter cannot be mentioned.

You can't really have trouble with the king, right?

Therefore, what Lady Olenna wants is to squeeze the power of the Tyrell family into the Royal Council.

She didn't mention at all that Clay Manderly had promised her a position on the Royal Council.

At this moment, they were not the ones to annihilate the Lannister, so the Tyrell family did not have much confidence, and things like the school city had happened, so it was the best choice to have nothing happen in the first place.

"Okay, let's talk about the Imperial Council first."

Clay held out his palm.

"Let's talk about our wallets first, Chancellor."

Clay started by talking about a not-so-important position.

He looked at the nobles sitting below and said with a smile:

"Let's change the way. Come on, I won't appoint someone to ask you to agree. You can sign up freely. If you think you can do it, stand up. I'll leave the floor in the middle to you and tell everyone why you can do it."

"In addition, the guy who comes forward has to tell us about your understanding of this position and what you are going to do."

Competing for jobs is such a simple matter.

Of course, he was the one who made the final decision, but this was much better than him making the final decision.

The power to control everything is actually a symbol of weakness.

It is best to release some unimportant things appropriately and control the key ones.

The nobles of Westeros had never experienced anything like this before, and they all had strange expressions on their faces.

However, the silence only lasted for a few minutes before someone stood up.

"Your Majesty, I, Jero Grafson of Seagull Town, hope to share your worries."

This was the first one. Immediately afterwards, Baelor Hightower, the heir to the Earl of Oldtown, also stood up:

"Your Majesty, on behalf of my family, I also hope to get this position. After saying that, I also glanced at the Earl of Seagull Town."

Clay didn't say anything, just nodded, and then looked at the others:

"Any more?"

No one answered him. Everyone knew very well that the position of the Royal Council was not something that a small family could take over. Petyr was able to become the Minister of Finance because of the glory of Seagull Town.

Now, except for the three big guys in Westeros, King's Landing, Lannisport, and White Harbor, who can't participate, the spokespersons of the remaining two major trading ports have spoken out. What else are the others fighting for?

This is just a money-making position, and others have no advantage at all.

After waiting for a while and seeing no one answer, Clay said:

"In that case, then, you two, tell me, tell everyone, your views on finance."

"Don't follow the example of your predecessors, who took out loans and opened brothels to support expenses. They did nothing but put Robert Baratheon deeply in debt."

Clay reminded.

"Your Majesty means that you need a stable tax source?"

Earl Grafson reacted and spoke out.

"Yes, that's what it means."

Clay nodded approvingly. In the past, most of the royal family was supported by royal nobles and commercial taxes from King's Landing. However, the inefficient administrative system resulted in very few actually reaching the king's hands.

Does Westeros have the concept of a treasury?

If the royal family's private property is considered, then it does exist.

But that's not right.

The king represents the country, both externally and internally. Why should he represent the country when giving out money? When receiving money, he can only make money from his own one-third of an acre of land.

Under feudalism, the king was indeed the lord of great proportions.

Finance is a fatal link.

Clay had no intention of overthrowing the decadent feudal building of Westeros in one fell swoop. The newly born country could not stand such a violent tossing.

Military power is now completely in Clay's hands, and the next step is financial power.

Taking advantage of these backward-thinking guys before they can react and taking advantage of the advantageous position, future games will be easier to handle.

"You two, you should be very aware of the current situation on King's Avenue. Weeds have damaged the roadbed in some places, and there are even cases where local nobles set up cards to collect taxes."

Clay spread his hands and said with a smile:

"If you were the chancellor, tell me, how are you going to solve this problem?"

Ser Baelor Hightower frowned:

"Your Majesty, this seems to be the responsibility of the Prime Minister. The Minister of Finance has no power to punish local nobles."

Clay shook his head:

"That's a problem with the military. To put it bluntly, it's still too brave. What I'm asking you now is how to ensure that we have enough golden dragons to regularly maintain roads across the country."

"Don't tell me that each house maintains its own lot. The rich can lay carpets on it, and the poor can dig out the roadbed and build houses."

"This is a state highway, not for my use, Clay Manderly, but for all of you."

Westeros' ability is by no means limited to this, but the aristocracy's attempts to sweep away the door have made internal friction too serious.

Clay planned to start with financial power, and King's Road was the point he picked to break the situation.

Other things are too expensive and will frighten these nobles, but how much can a road on the plains cost?

Clay is actually confusing concepts and replacing the concept of country with the royal family.

If only I were a country.

Robert Baratheon represents the interests of his family, the Baratheon family in the Stormlands.

But Clay Mandler definitely doesn't want that.

The royal family represents the interests of all of you, not just the tax recipients of the royal nobles.

This is a big difference.

Now, let's see how long it takes before someone can come back to their senses.

Westeros has never had a legal code that stipulates that the king cannot represent the country.

In fact, in a secular state, the king holds some state powers, such as waging war with foreign countries.

It would obviously be inappropriate not to take advantage of this.

If Robert Baratheon had the ability to directly ask several big nobles for taxes, would he still need to ask Littlefinger to borrow money everywhere?

As for establishing a national tax collection system, that is impossible.

Don't even think about it.

If Westeros were turned over, there wouldn't be that many technocrats to do the job.

Besides, there may be no such thing as bureaucrats at all.

But you can't compare these positions in the imperial council with the six ministers in the previous life. They are completely different things.

"Your Majesty, I wonder what... the purpose of repairing the King's Road will be?"

Mrs. Olenna originally wanted to ask, what are the benefits of doing this for us, but this is too straightforward. After all, in her opinion, this is the new king asking for money from the nobles of the country.

You can give this money, but you have to give something in return, right?

"Simple, as long as there is a stable source to support this road, the royal family will send troops to remove all tax cards and ensure that there are no similar things in the caravans of each family to anywhere connected to the King's Road."

It seems that Clay actually did nothing, but only made an empty promise to send troops to protect the road.

But the eyes of many nobles, especially those doing business, suddenly lit up.

They also set up tax cards, but many of them were forced to do so.

The current social environment in Westeros cannot develop large-scale trade that is completely divorced from the aristocratic system.

For example, the people from the North took several carts of furs south to the Reach, but the tax cards along the way would make the goods that were originally cheap in the place of origin become extremely expensive and sales would be stagnant.

There is no other way, so the people in the north have no choice but to set up their own tax cards and make up for the lost money.

But the nobles who have done a little bit of similar trade all know that even though they have such good trade channels, they end up taxing each other across the country, which is simply making themselves uncomfortable.

Only when goods flow, the income will increase. If it is just a pool of stagnant water, everyone might as well just farm.

The previous kings had no motivation to care about this matter.

Because in their view, as long as the royal nobles hand over the money to them on time, there is no benefit if they can't control other places.

But now, Clay is considering this issue from the perspective of the country, and he knows very well that doing so will definitely be of great benefit to him in implementing his future plans.

The nobles murmured for a while, and those who didn't understand were quickly educated by the veterans around them.

Now is the time when the new dynasty is at its strongest, and it just happens to solve this problem.

Don't think that the nobles are all a bunch of die-hards who are stubborn about the past.

They know that there are things they want in other places. If you were a noble, would you be willing to spend one gold dragon without increasing the price, or would you go through layers of ups and downs to get the goods for who knows how many gold dragons?

You know, the poorer the place, the higher the tax rate, and often no money is collected.

They want to change this situation so badly.

Therefore, in the deep thoughts of several nobles, this proposal, which was selected by the finance minister and proposed by the king, was quickly approved by the meeting of nobles.

As for the choice of finance minister, Clay also made a fancy decision.

Both of them are, the Earl of Gulltown is responsible for the north of King's Landing, and the heir of Oldtown is responsible for the south of King's Landing.

If you encounter a problem, report it to the king. As long as it is true, you can mobilize troops.

Of course, if there is a problem somewhere, of course, who will be responsible.