Chapter 343 Pantos and Loras

As a new round of offensive and defensive battles in King's Landing gradually unfolded, Lind's attention had to shift to other places, because instead of focusing on a power war that had little to do with him, it was now happening on the continent of Essos. The things above are what he needs to pay most attention to.

First of all, Pentos and Loras submitted attached proposals to the Kingdom of Lorne, hoping to formally join the Kingdom of Lorne and become a city-state under the Kingdom of Lorne, rather than an autonomous city-state. Establish a foothold in the country of Lorne.

Linde had expected that Pentos would submit the annexation proposal, because there had been similar rumors before. These rumors were actively spread by the princes, families and governors of the annexation faction, in order to obtain Linde and Nymeria's attention.

Afterwards, Linde and Nymeria took action at the same time to help the internal factions clear out the independent governors in the city. Now it is natural for Pantos to submit the internal proposal.

This internal fight in Pentos is just like the war that took place on the continent of Westeros, and it also attracted a lot of people's attention. After all, Pentos is the most important city-state among the free trade city-states, and its trade volume is about the same. It is the sum of two city-states in the disputed land, and its trade with various cities in the Westeros continent is also very close. Its internal fighting has not only attracted the attention of many people in the Essos continent, but also the people in the Westeros continent. Some people also involuntarily pulled their attention away from the battle for the Iron Throne and shifted their attention to the other side of the Narrow Sea.

Almost everyone who pays attention to the internal strife in Pentos does not quite understand the ideas of the inner faction, because Pentos has joined the Kingdom of Lorne as an autonomous city-state with Norvos, although the city's defense and security have been handed over to The army of the Kingdom of Lorne, but the management and maintenance of the city, trade and finance, etc. are still in the hands of the governors and other dignitaries of each city-state. In everyone's opinion, this form of autonomous city-state is the most suitable for the free trade city-state to join Lorne. In the form of the country, there is no need to be completely ruled like other cities in Lorne.

Therefore, in the eyes of those people, the actions of the Pentos faction are completely unreasonable, and no one in their right mind should make such a decision.

However, just like people who know when they drink water, they cannot see the current situation of Pentos from their position. Naturally, they cannot understand why the prince family and governors of Pentos would do such an act of voluntarily giving up their rights. .

In fact, after joining the Kingdom of Lorne as an autonomous city-state with Norvos, the governors of Pentos had some regrets, because the situation after joining was not what they thought.

Norvos and Qohor will actively join the Lorne Kingdom entirely because of their own reasons. They are both landlocked countries, and any output needs to be transported by water or land.

However, the Kingdom of Lorne controls the waterway of the River Lorne, and the land route of Valyria is blocked by Gor Doho. Their only way out is to take Lorath to the north and transport goods from the Shivering Sea, but As a result, the time, manpower, and material resources consumed will be more than doubled than before, and if you take the original Valyrian Avenue and the Rhoyne River, you will inevitably pay a certain amount of taxes and fees.

No matter which route is taken, the two city-states will need to pay a large amount of extra expenses. These extra expenses will naturally be added to the goods produced by the two city-states. The final result is that the prices of goods in the two city-states will have no advantage. It further hit the economies of the two major city-states.

If we follow the previous practices, the two major city-states will naturally use force to force the Lorne Kingdom to open up trade channels, duty-free goods, etc. But now, not to mention the strength of the Summer Hall, the strength of the Lorne Kingdom alone is enough to suppress Two major free trade city-states.

Since you can't defeat it, join it. So Kohor, who felt the pressure first, joined the Lorne Kingdom as an autonomous city-state. After handing over military and security rights, he obtained tax exemption rights and a large number of orders, allowing Kohor to Not only did Hall not decline, it actually thrived.

Seeing the development of Kohol, Novos naturally couldn't sit still. He took the initiative to submit a franchise request and obtained tax-free rights, which allowed the various products he produced to be smoothly shipped to all over the world, and at the same time made large quantities more affordable. Duty-free goods flow into Novos, benefiting the residents of Novos, and the rights and interests of Novos can also obtain huge benefits from the transaction of these commodities. It can be said to be a win-win situation.

However, the situation of Pentos is completely different. It chose to join the Kingdom of Lorne completely due to the influence of Novos and was frightened by its own imagination.

In the case of Pentos, it does not need to surrender to the Kingdom of Lorne at all. It is itself a shipping hub, and its main trade object is the continent of Westeros on the other side of the Narrow Sea.

Although with Linde's control and support of the three major city-states in the disputed land, the three major city-states diverted part of Pentos' trade share, Pentos will not be greatly affected in the short term and will still maintain its trade share. Some are prosperous, so it would be better for them to keep the status quo.

It's just that Novos' actions gave them the illusion that they would be suppressed if they didn't join the Kingdom of Lorne. The fear of Summer Hall and the Kingdom of Lorne made the governor of Pentos and the princely family make mistakes. With his judgment, he and Novos submitted a request to join, and it became the will of the autonomous city-state of Lorne.

But after becoming an autonomous city-state, the situation did not develop as Governor Pentos and the prince family thought. Not only did their trade not improve, but they lost a large amount of income because of the tax exemption.

You must know that the other party with mutual tax exemption rights is the Kingdom of Lorne, not the continent of Westeros. Pantos's main trading partner is the continent of Westeros, which makes the tax exemption rights obtained by Pantos not very effective. , on the contrary, the tax-free rights obtained by the Kingdom of Lorne can allow goods from Norvos, Qohor, and further afield to pass through the Kingdom of Lorne and enter Pentos duty-free. Among them, the spice trade has been hardest hit.

In addition to spices, food has also been greatly affected. The food produced by Pantos' flat farm has always been a hot-selling commodity, and it can earn double the price by simply transporting it to Westeros.

But as the continent of Westeros fell into war, even though Westeros was short of food, the ways for food transportation were blocked. It could not be transported to the continent of Westeros at all. It was stopped by Stan halfway The royal fleet in Nice was intercepted. Not only was the food confiscated, but the ships were also transformed into warships and incorporated into the royal fleet.

The food in Westeros cannot be destroyed, nor can it be sold in other parts of the Essos continent, because all the food in those places is already supplied by the Kingdom of Lorne.

Ever since the Kingdom of Lorne transformed all the land in the Golden Wilderness, the Disputed Land, and the Mere area of ​​the Lorne River into farmland, the food in the Essos continent has been monopolized by the Kingdom of Lorne. In the face of its low-priced food, Pentos' grain had almost no advantage, and eventually it all rotted in the warehouse. All the governors and prince families engaged in the grain trade suffered heavy losses.

It is for these reasons that Pantos, who had just joined the Kingdom of Lorne, soon regretted becoming an autonomous city-state of the Kingdom of Lorne.

It's easy to join, but it's very difficult to leave. The Miracle Fleet stationed in Pantos and the army of Lorne are like ropes binding their hands and feet, and the security station in the city is like a knife. It is on their necks, and as long as they make any abnormal movement, the crime of treason will fall on them, leaving them in ruins.

After finding that there was no way to leave, some governors and prince families of Pentos went to the other extreme. Since they could not leave, they fully joined and became a formal city-state of the Kingdom of Lorne under the direct rule of the Kingdom of Lorne. , just like Ge Doha.

The reason why they did this was not because they were confused, but the result of careful consideration, because they found that although becoming a directly governed city-state would cause them to lose some rights, it would also allow them to gain many benefits, such as being able to directly report to the city-state. Midsummer Hall purchases some controlled items that were previously unavailable, various mysterious potions produced by the Black Cave, sophisticated weapons and armor produced by the Midsummer Hall Forge, etc.

By trading these controlled items, they can obtain more benefits, and they can also enter the core of power in the country of Lorne, unlike before, they are still half outsiders.

However, some people want to fully surrender, while others cannot let go of the only rights they have. They feel that compared to the benefits gained, maintaining the semi-independence of the city-state and grasping the rights in their hands is more useful.

There is not much difference between the two forces in Pentos, and no one can do anything to the other. However, after the Kingdom of Lorne announced that it had five dragons, the balance quickly tilted towards the inner faction.

Soon after the Kingdom of Lorne signed a comprehensive alliance agreement with Daenerys, who controlled Qarth, the inner faction became the general trend, because the current situation in the Kingdom of Lorne reminded them of the Valyrian Free Fortress.

With the addition of Daenerys, the Kingdom of Lorne now controls eight dragons. This does not include the three dragons in Summer Hall. Such power is already comparable to that of the Dragon King family of Valyria Free Fortress. No one can It can be seen that the number of dragons in the hands of the Kingdom of Lorne will only increase, and it is not impossible to eventually have hundreds of dragons like the Valyrian Free Fortress.

In this case, the sooner and more proactively you join in, the more benefits you will get. It is always better than passively surrendering when the army presses the border later.

That's why Pentos submitted an attached request to change himself from an autonomous city-state to a city-state directly under the jurisdiction of Lorne.

Although what Pantos did was beyond the expectations of many people, there are still traces to be followed, which can be seen from the internal fighting between Pentos' internal faction and the independent faction in the past.

But this time Loras and Pentos submitted a request to the Kingdom of Lorne, and no one expected it at all, because there were no signs in advance.

Loras's envoys even joined Pantos's envoys to go to Nasa.

Loras is located at the northern end of the Essos continent, next to the Shivering Sea. Apart from fish, there are no other valuable specialties here. It is almost invisible in the Free Trade City. If it weren't for Loras' sailors scattered around the world Across the country, most people don't even know that the city of Loras exists in this world.

The biggest feature of Rollas is that it has the best sailors in the world. Perhaps because of the year-round exposure to the extremely harsh Shivering Sea, the overall quality of Rollas' sailors ranks first in the world. If most ship owners are recruiting sailors, Priority will also be given to recruiting Lorathian sailors, and some even dye their hair to look like Lorathians in order to facilitate recruitment.

Lind's Miracle Fleet also has a patrol fleet, all composed of Lorathians, responsible for the security of the frontline waters of Braavos.

It was precisely because Loras was too barren and the Kingdom of Lorath could not use Loras' sailors for the time being that Nymeria only sent a team of ten people to Loras after establishing the Kingdom of Lorath. , completed the routine establishment of diplomatic relations, and then the ten-person team stayed in Loras to conduct trade contacts with Loras on behalf of the country of Lorne.

However, although it is said to be a trade connection, the trade between Lorne and Loras has only been carried out twice in these years, so Loras's name is not included in Nymeria's list of conquests at all.

Although Loras's annexation came suddenly and without warning, Nymeria had to accept the other party's annexation. After all, others had directly annexed themselves to become a direct city-state. If she refused Loras's joining, it would undoubtedly have consequences for the future. Conquering other city-states would have adverse effects, so even though she knew it would cost a huge amount of money, Nymeria could only accept it.

However, Nymeria was smart enough not to take over Rollas by herself. Instead, she had someone pass the news that Pentos and Rollas were annexed as city-states to Lind, and then asked Lind to take over on her behalf. Rollas.

Lind naturally had no objection to this, because he happened to want to explore the situation of the Shivering Sea and see what was in the polar ice sheet north of the Shivering Sea. This would also allow him to better understand the White Walkers.

Moreover, Lind was also interested in the land to the north of the Essos continent. It was a place that no one in Westeros had ever explored. The sea serpent Corlys Velaryon once visited the legendary Thousand Islands. , had contact with the Nigel Kingdom there, and Linde was also interested there and wanted to form an expedition team to explore.

The appearance of Loras just solved the problem of selection, because Loras has the best sailors, and these sailors are very adapted to the harsh climate and extremely cold temperatures of the Shivering Sea. With their help, at least there is no need to worry about the dangers on the sea.

Therefore, after receiving the news from Na Sa Xing, Linde immediately formed a fleet of messengers and sent people to Loras to take over the city defense work. As for the management personnel, they had to wait until the army was fully stationed and the security was completely taken over. Send clerks there.

Unlike Pentos, neither Lind nor Nymeria know anything about Loras's situation, so they will not immediately take over the government affairs of the entire city, but will continue to be managed by the three original princes of Loras, etc. The clerk took over the government affairs after getting familiar with Loras' situation.