Chapter 165 Meeting

What is the most popular topic in King's Landing right now? Of course it is the Chosen Ones, White Walkers and Wights. Those legendary things have been presented to people. They have discovered that those ancient legends may be true, and even gods have their existence. It may be true that all kinds of items related to gods in the hands of port vendors have become the most popular commodities for a while.

However, no matter what the ancient gods' items are, they are not as good as the seven-pointed star of the Seven Gods, because the White Walkers were defeated by the Chosen of the Seven Gods, the wights were captured by the Chosen of the Seven Gods, and in the legend, Azor Ya Hai has not yet been reborn from the land of smoke and salt, but the Seven Chosen Ones are already busy saving the world from the White Walkers in the future.

The Great Sept of Baelor is now the most popular place in the entire City of King's Landing. In addition to the fact that believers come here to pray to the Seven Gods, more importantly, His Majesty the King led the ministers to verify the authenticity of the corpse, and then removed the corpse. The ghost was placed in the Great Sept of Baelor for the public to visit, letting the public know that the legendary end of the White Walkers is not far away from them.

Almost every day, there are people who are willing to line up all day long to take a look at the undead ghouls imprisoned in the temple, and some are even willing to pay a lot of money just to stab the ghouls.

Sanctuaries in other cities also submitted applications, requesting the Great Sept of Baelor to transport the corpses to various sanctuaries to place them for a while to highlight the glory of the Seven Gods.

However, the Great Sept of Baelor was obviously not very happy, so they pushed the matter to the Red Keep, claiming that the wights were handed over to His Majesty the King by the Chosen One. Since His Majesty the King placed the things in the Great Sept of Baelor, the Great Sept of Baelor naturally Don’t dare to take the initiative and put it somewhere else.

The other septs knew that this was the excuse of the Great Sepulchre of Baelor, but they could not refute it. They could only apply to King Robert. However, King Robert had no intention of paying attention to the issue of the ownership of the wights. He was worried about the expansion of the vigil. The matter of the human army.

"In other words, after several days of discussion, you gave me something like this to expand the number of prisoners sent to the Night Watch from heavy criminals to light criminals?" King Robert threw the scroll in his hand on the table. , without caring about Duke Eddard, Duke Tywin, Duke Horst and Duke Mace who were sitting in the auditorium, he cursed the ministers of the Royal Council in front of him, "Even the account book written by the brothel madam is It's more reliable than this. What about the support funds for the Night Watch Legion? We don't have any of these, so we just send some prisoners there. Is there any difference between this and the past? Don't you see that monster? Just an insignificant one among a group of monsters! Do you want these monsters to climb over the Great Wall and crawl into your bed, humming your grandmother’s bedside songs to you? "

Faced with King Robert's rebuke, everyone in the royal council fell silent. Jon Arryn looked at the finance minister, Baron Moran Molière, who was sitting beside him with his head lowered and did not speak. He thought to himself: It's not time to change the finance minister. The current Baron Molière is really bad, and the entire palace finance has been messed up by him.

It's not that Jon Arryn can't see the horror of the wights or the importance of the Night's Watch. It's simply because the Red Keep can't spare any extra funds to support the Night's Watch, or even manpower. There are only a large number of light-duty prisoners held in the cells, so sending these prisoners to the Great Wall to serve as night watchmen can not only reduce the pressure on the cells, but also provide manpower support for the night watchmen.

But this decision obviously does not suit King Robert's will. King Robert has decided to fully support the Night's Watch, and even boasted at a banquet with the Dukes that he would put on armor and lead the White Walkers when the doomsday war with the White Walkers begins in the future. With the knights of the Seven Kingdoms, they are at the forefront of the decisive battle.

However, the plan Jon Arryn now gives to support the Night's Watch is undoubtedly a slap in his face.

"These are enough," Eddard Stark said for his adoptive father: "Ordinary people's views on the Night's Watch cannot be changed in a short time. Forcibly recruiting people will only make civilians in other kingdoms hate the Night's Watch. Dissatisfied, and the manpower currently supporting the Night's Watch is sufficient, and no additional support manpower is needed. In addition, it is only Lord Lynd Terra who has discovered signs of White Walkers and wights outside the wall, and there is no sign of White Walkers. The army appears on the edge of the Great Wall, there is no need for us to be so anxious. "

"Ed is right," said the old Hoster Tully, his face extremely pale and his voice a little weak, perhaps because he was recovering from a serious illness. "In the past, the Night's Watch were all heroic knights of the Seven Kingdoms. The soldiers and soldiers voluntarily participated, but later the honor and responsibility of the Night Watch were lost due to various reasons, and the prisoners were replaced. However, with the reappearance of the ghosts and corpses, I believe that the honor and responsibility of the Night Watch will soon be replaced. The courage of the knights of the Seven Kingdoms will be awakened again. At that time, we will not need to send people. The knights will choose to go to the Great Wall and put on the black robes. Until then, it is also appropriate to continue to use prisoners to supplement the vacancies of the Night Watch. What do you think? ? Duke Tyrell, I remember that your heir, Willas, seems to have been supporting the Night Watch."

"Yes, Willas has always supported the Night Watch Legion. He has always remembered the importance of the Night Watch Legion to mankind." Mace Tyrell raised his head and said with great pride: "If the Night Watch Legion's If funds are insufficient, High Court is willing to donate 20,000 gold dragons to the Great Wall to support the Night Watch."

Although Mace Tyrell thought that by doing this, he could not only relieve the Night's Watch's urgent funding needs, but also demonstrate the strength of Highgarden in front of the Iron Throne, in fact, what he did was just a slap in Robert's face. Bo looked at Mace Tyrell with even more disgust.

Duke Tywin quietly looked at everyone's reactions and said: "Because Lord Stannis led the royal fleet to clean up the pirates on the Stepstone Islands, my fleet has made a lot of gains recently and earned me a lot of golden dragons. I am willing to lend this part of the golden dragon to Your Majesty for emergencies."

Robert's expression became slightly better when he heard Duke Tywin's words, while Stanlis, the Sea Lord at the Royal Council, remained expressionless and did not show any proud expression because of Duke Tywin's praise.

At this time, Renly, who was sitting next to Robert, also said: "The Stormlands are also willing to use part of the funds to replenish the Iron Throne's treasury."

Hearing Renly's words, Robert smiled and touched Renly's head and said, "No, your brother and I still have some money."

Stanlis on the side looked at his brother with slight disgust. At this moment, he must be thinking that everything Renly has now should originally belong to him.

Robert turned to Jon Arryn and said, "Draw up a new plan. Even if you can't give enough manpower, you must still give enough financial support to the Night's Watch. Who knows what the Night's Watch will encounter in the north?" Since we can’t give them enough help, we should give them more money so that they can eat better and get better equipment.”

"But our current finances..." Jon Arryn frowned and said.

Robert shouted: "Then go and borrow them from the church. Instead of putting the yellow, white and green ones donated by the Seven Gods believers in the basement, it would be better to lend them to me."

"It's difficult to borrow money from the church now." Jon Arryn reminded: "The church is building a castle and a port city for the Earl of Summerhall, and they can't allocate more funds to lend us."

"Damn it! This Lind will really cause trouble for me!" Robert couldn't help but curse, but there was not much anger in the curse, but a sense of helplessness.

"Recently, I have received some things related to this Lord Chosen One. Do you want to hear it?" Varys, who had been silent until now, suddenly said.

"Has he got any news again?" Robert sat up straight and urged: "Speak quickly, tell us quickly!"

Varys recounted: "The first thing was that he and the sworn Night's Watch encountered an army of White Walkers at the Fist of the First Men outside the wall. It was said that there were more than 100,000 corpses. At that time, Lord Linde also felt that he might It was over, and the blizzard suddenly stopped, and then the White Walkers led the army of zombies and retreated in front of Lord Linde. "

"You just retreated like this?" Everyone showed surprised expressions. They were still waiting to hear how Linde fought his way out of the White Walker army, but the result turned out to be such a surprise.

"The snowstorm suddenly stopped?" Archmaester Pycelle heard some clues and said in a hoarse voice: "I have seen records about the White Walkers in the school city. The records always mention that when the White Walkers appear, they will be accompanied by... Blizzards and extremely cold weather. If Lord Lind’s encounter is true, then it proves that there are conditions for the White Walkers to go south, and that is extreme cold weather.”

"Could the extremely cold natural disasters that have occurred in the past two years be the reason why the White Walkers appeared outside the wall?" There were many smart people in this meeting hall, and they quickly connected the two.

"Not long ago, the city sent news. After measurements, they found that our entire Westeros continent may enter a long summer season for a long time in the future, so I think the White Walkers should not be a threat to us in the short term. ." Grand Maester Pycelle gave his judgment, but added: "But the Night Watch Legion should still be prepared, because if the next long winter appears, it may be the time predicted."

Everyone agreed with Grand Maester Pycelle's inference, or they hoped that Grand Maester Pycelle's inference was correct. After all, the sudden appearance of the legendary White Walkers made them panic, and they needed some time to adapt and adjust. A long summer might be just the right time.

"This is the first thing. Are there any other things related to Lind?" Robert asked impatiently.

"This matter has something to do with Lord Willas of the Duke of Mace's family," Varys looked at the confused Duke of Mace Tyrell and said, "This time Lord Linde went to the outside of the Great Wall mainly because of the influence of Willas. Master Si asked me to find the legendary artifact, the Horn of Winter."

Hearing Varys's words, everyone became focused. All of them had heard the old lady's bedside stories and knew the story of the King Beyond the Wall, Qiaoman, blowing the Horn of Winter to awaken the giants in the underground and end the rule of the Night King.

"Has he found it?" Robert asked anxiously.

"Yes, he found it!" Varys nodded and said: "It is said that he also found it at the Fist of the First Men, and at the same time that the Horn of Winter was found, the White Walker army appeared on the mountain at the Fist of the First Men. The feet seem to be heading towards the Horn of Winter."

Ed Stark heard the news for the first time and couldn't help but said excitedly: "Fortunately, fortunately, the White Walkers retreated and did not take away the Horn of Winter."

Although it was just a few short words, everyone present could feel the tension at that time, because once the White Walkers get the Horn of Winter, the defense of the Great Wall will no longer exist, and the White Walker army will march straight in, and the seven major The kingdom will be undefeated

"Damn, damn! I shouldn't be sitting on this iron chair. I should be at the Fist of the First Men and face the White Walkers. I should create a legend like Lind Terra and become a part of the eternal legend. "Robert slapped the table with great annoyance, regretting that he was not there at the time.

Jon Arryn said solemnly: "Your Majesty, you are now part of the legend. Solving the Mad King's rule and restoring peace to the Seven Kingdoms has been written into the history books of the Academy. There is no need for any additional information." The legend.”

"Okay, okay! I'm just talking." Robert waved his hand extremely impatiently.

Duke Tywin was more concerned about other things and asked Varys, "Can the Horn of Winter still be used?"

"It can't be used." Varys shook his head and said: "Someone used a weapon to open a crack on the Horn of Winter. It might be..." As he said, he looked at Ed Stark and said: "It may have been done by Brandon, the "Liberator" who was the King of the North back then."

"Ed, it seems that your ancestors also did a good deed!" King Robert said with a laugh.

Eddard Stark smiled, not knowing what to say for a moment.

"In other words, this Winter Horn is now a useless waste?" Duke Tywin said slightly disappointed.

"The Night Watchman also asked Lord Linde this question, but Lord Linde said that although the Horn of Winter was damaged, it still contained extremely powerful power, and was connected to some mysterious power in the Great Wall. He still had a strong influence on the Great Wall. A big threat." Wallis replied seriously: "So Lord Linde decided to bring the Horn of Winter to the south and give it to Lord Vilas for safekeeping."

"How can it be placed in Highgarden?" Robert couldn't help but frowned and said: "There is no safer place in the world than King's Landing or the Red Keep. Of course the Horn of Winter must be placed in the Red Keep. Yes, what do you think? Lord Duke of Metz."

"Of course, the Red Castle is more suitable than Highgarden." The Duke of Metz nodded in agreement.

After hearing the Duke of Metz's reply, King Robert nodded with satisfaction. Bachelor Pycelle's eyes also lit up with his head slightly lowered. He was also very interested in this legendary magic.

"The last thing is a lot more interesting. It is said that Lord Linde conquered more than twenty giants outside the wall. Each giant is as tall as the city wall." Varys then said the last thing, saying: "Now Lin De Lord De has already arrived at Winterfell. I believe he will be able to come to King's Landing in the near future. By then, King's Landing will be a lot more lively. "

"Giant?" Robert's eyes widened after hearing this, and he said with great envy: "When he passed by King's Landing, I should have gone with him to the north and beyond the wall. This is so..." said Then, he looked at Duke Aylin who was about to say something, then sighed again and said, "I know, I am a king and I shouldn't be so willful. Let's adjourn the meeting! I want to be alone for a while."

After hearing this, everyone stood up and left the meeting hall. When Eddard Stark left, he saw Robert sitting lonely on the chair, and suddenly felt that maybe Robert becoming the king was a mistake.