Chapter 159: The Rule of the Varese Family (Two in One)

"You see what I said is true." Harald, the silver-haired stall owner, threw away the copper in his hand excitedly and rushed out of the stall. The lame man froze in place for a while before he realized what he was doing. , followed Harald and rushed into the manor wall. There were many people like them. Even a woman and several children emerged from the beautiful stone house in the manor. Everyone ran excitedly to the large open space next to the church. It was spacious enough for the dragon to rest. The open space was originally prepared for a cavalry commander of the Silver Blood Army, but that guy was recently pursuing the daughter of a Dornish nobleman in Bramont Valley, so he gave it up. He allocated the land in the river bend, and that land and the accompanying farmland were freed up. A few days ago, the priests of the church wanted to reclaim this open space and use it as self-cultivated land for the church, or turn it into a square for the manor.

I didn't expect to use it today. The priest in brown couldn't help but bow his head and pray. Fortunately, the old woman gave him wisdom. The horses that the Dothraki brothers promised to send in exchange for the oxen he brewed for the wine have not yet arrived. Otherwise, the manor would not be able to use it. There isn't that much room to accommodate a dragon.

"Priest, have the oxen and draft horses promised by the short man a few days ago arrived?" An elderly northerner hurried to the door of the church: "The dragon needs food."

The priest shook his head: "Even if it is delivered, it is too late. Go and pick up His Highness." After saying that, the priest also picked up his mud-stained robe and quickly followed the people pouring into the open space. The old man was stunned for a moment and stamped his foot hard. "Come here some young men and go deer hunting with me!" It seemed that the old man still had some prestige in the manor. As soon as he shouted, several young men who rushed towards him immediately turned their heads. After seeing clearly that it was the old man with black hair, he immediately ran back home to get his bow and arrows, and a young man who ran out of the longhouse brought a war horse.

Among the people gathered around were Valyrians with silver hair and purple eyes, Andals, the First Men, and some children with silver or blond hair. They had lost some of their Valyrian characteristics. It was obvious that they came from After the marriage after the establishment of the manor, the clothes of the residents living in the stone wall were still very good, but the clothes of the people outside the stone wall were not so good, but it was still reasonable, at least the people were relatively clean. There is no naked body, there are more or less one or two pieces of clothing.

Xingge's singing-like dragon roar came from the sky, which made the people below stunned. "Old cripple, you retired later than me. Do you know which dragon's cry this is?" The stall owner Harald tried to identify Xinge's voice with a puzzled look on his face. "I don't know." Rick, a veteran nicknamed "Cripple", also looked puzzled: "Haral, you know, in the last few years of my service, I have been stationed in the desert with the Legion. I have been to Dragon's Nest City as many times as I can. Not as many as you, and I’ve never heard such a voice.”

The priest tried hard to watch the black spots in the sky getting bigger and bigger: "Is it a big black dragon, the shadow nightmare of His Highness Rey?" "No!" A silver-haired boy emerged from the stone house and said loudly: "I I heard my father say that Shadow Nightmare is a very ferocious, but very thin, and very scary dragon. Its cry can even kill people. It is absolutely impossible to hear it so well." The young man looked at the sky with a longing look, as if this was the case. You can get closer to the dragon of your dreams.

"It really doesn't look like the Shadow Nightmare." The stall owner Harald had seen the Shadow Nightmare with his own eyes. He looked carefully for a while at the black dragon that was obviously followed by the "big mountain" of Wormisor. He also felt that it didn't look like he had been far away before. I have seen Shadow Nightmare. After all, when Shadow Nightmare flies in the sky, you can clearly see the protruding bone spurs on its skinny body. And the dragon looks more and more beautiful. Not only does the body become fuller, but the curves from head to tail are also perfect. , both the length of the neck and the length of the tail are just right, and even the crown-like saucer-shaped crown on top of the head has become larger and more prominent over the years. This black dragon seems even more majestic. Especially the silver-gold patterns on its body that shine under the sunlight are more like the bright stars in the night sky.

Star Song "singed" and circled around in people's eyes, and waited until Wormisor landed slowly in the open space next to the church before landing with it. It turned out that Wormisor was indeed too big. It had to wrap its tail in front of its body to barely fit itself into the open space. The dust raised when the dragon landed almost blinded the eyes of the people who gathered around it. The crowd had to retreat to prevent being injured by the giant dragon. Xingge was not young anymore. It carefully flew around Wormisor again before finding a piece of radish that had just been harvested next to a long house. The vegetable fields that have not yet been sown have been planted.

Lin Ge quickly climbed off Xinge's body, ran to his father's side with his short legs, and looked seriously at the people gathered in a circle. When these people saw Long Zell rising from the dragon's back, Climbing down, without wasting a moment, they all knelt down like a wave to greet their prince.

Long Zell nodded and touched Wormisol's head. The bronze dragon roared low and handed over its tail to Long Zell to sit down.

People also stood up one after another. After looking at Long Zell and then at Lingol beside him, he seemed to understand something. The woman in the stone house bowed slightly and saluted: "Your Highness, Your Highness, we are already preparing food, please." You forgive our sins, we did not know you were coming.”

"It's okay." Longzel waved his hand: "I just brought the child to see our Silver Blood Army warriors and what the manor under my rule looks like, so that he can see you too."

"It's our honor, Your Highness, Your Highness." The woman said happily. "I'll go for you and the prince right away." She looked at the dragon in awe. "I saw Uncle William taking the young people to hunt. There are deer and wild boars in the nearby forest. They will solve the dragon's food."

"No need." Longzel said to the people gently: "Wormisol and Xingge have fed enough food before they set off. We just come to visit everyone and solve everyone's problems. We don't want to cause you too much trouble." Longzel looked at the silver-haired people in the crowd. These Valyrians followed their three brothers across the ocean to come here and take root here without complaint. You know, ten years ago, most of these people didn't even know where Westeros was, but now they are here to marry and have children and take root.

They are an important cornerstone of the rule of the Varese family, and their existence must be valued. But we can't attach too much importance to them. We need to let them integrate into the local area more smoothly, rather than being superior to the locals.

This requires the power of marriage. It seems that the marriage here is not bad. At least some of the newborn children have inherited their fathers or mothers. Of course, the mother is a minority of Valyrian features, but more of them have inherited the appearance of their native relatives.

"Everyone can speak freely in front of me." Longzel smiled and looked at everyone, and stretched out his hand to hold his upright son in his arms. "If you have any problems, you can report them directly to me. I will solve the problems for you here today." Longzel moved his territory court to the people again.

Ringol recalled the political traditions of Westeros that Hoffa and his father had introduced. Generally speaking, the political structure of Westeros is: my vassal's vassal is still my vassal. Only the knights who directly obtain land from the lords are basically dependent on their lords. The lords must swear allegiance to both their lords and the king on the Iron Throne. The oath to the Iron Throne is even higher than the oath to the lords. However, since Aegon's conquest, the Targaryen kings on the Iron Throne rarely bypass the major dukes to directly command their vassals, so everyone unanimously ignores this rule.

But in A Dance with Dragons, this is very obvious. When the Tully family, the feudal lord of the Three Rivers, had not decided to stand on the side, the earls of the Three Rivers had already started fighting. When the Tyrell family of the Reach had not yet expressed their position, the Rowan family and the Hightower family had already begun to gather their armies and prepare to fight. Moreover, the Bisbury family, as a vassal of the Hightower family, was the first to rise up against the Hightower family. This has already explained the characteristics of the political system of Westeros.

And the way the lord ruled the territory was definitely not to collect taxes or exercise the right of first night that had been abolished for many years, but to convene the lord's court in the castle to mediate the conflicts in the territory and listen to the petitions of the vassal and the people.

The Vareses family also used a similar political system. The difference was that the Vareses family set up special courts in larger towns in the rule of the borderland, and regularly toured to assist the local lords in ruling.

It was very rare for the lord to personally attend the court, and it was even rarer for someone like Longzel to come on a dragon and take the initiative to listen to the petition. So after hearing Longzel's words, there was a commotion among the crowd, but it calmed down after a while.

"Who will go and speak?" The crowd whispered. "The priest has to go, and, and, Harald, you have to go too, you are the big businessman of our manor."

"Cripple, don't hurt me, why don't you go?"

"I am just an ordinary old soldier, Your Highness may not have seen me, there is nothing to say if I go up."

"The lady has to go up too, her husband is the governor of the manor."

"Who else?"

"Let little Harry go, Harry will have to serve when he turns fifteen next year, he is representative."

"Another one, another one."

"Can we have people from other villages?"

"Of course, it is not easy for Your Highness to come here once."

"Thank you very much." Just as the crowd was discussing, a sound of horse hooves came, and the little Harry and several young people rushed into the open space with the old hunter William from the north. The young people unloaded a small wild boar from the back of a warhorse, and their warhorse was dragging a stag killed by a spear behind it.

"Your Highness, I brought food for the dragon." The old hunter named "William" looked at the giant dragon with closed eyes and dozed off with awe, and handed over the prey.

Longzel waved his hand: "Thank you for your hard work, but my dragons don't want to eat at the moment, they want to have a good rest, how about this, we roast this deer and wild boar for dinner today, how about we share it?"

"Long live Prince Longzel! Long live Prince Ringol!" When people heard that there was good meat to eat today, they were all excited, and the wife of the archon had to work hard to persuade everyone not to be impulsive. After all, petitioning Longzel was their most important task now.

"Ah, me?" Harry pointed to himself. In front of him was Ron, the youngest son of the manor's consul, the silver-haired boy who came out of the stone house. "Ron, why don't you go? Your father is the cavalry captain of the Silver Blood Army." Harry nervously whispered into his good friend's ear.

"You will serve next year." Ron said with some envy: "I still have two years. Among us, you are the only one who will serve immediately. If you don't explain the situation to His Highness, who will explain the situation? That's right." Ron said mysteriously: "Remember to tell His Highness about our war horses. I have been coveting the horses in the big tent for a long time." "It's just too expensive." Harry also coveted the nearby Dothraki. Horses raised in human settlements, but although those Dothraki do not do business, they will give horses to the tax collectors of the Varese family in the name of gifts, and then exchange them for enough gold and wheat from the tax officials , wine, salt and spices, silk, and cloth in return, and the tax collector would put some of the horses on the market for sale.

What the teenagers are envious of is the horses for sale. Even if they are not the best quality, they are still better than the local horses in the Reach. However, they are too expensive. One horse actually costs 1,300 silver deer. , the price of nearly five golden dragons is beyond the reach of these young people.

"I will tell you." Harry watched nervously as the consul's wife introduced the situation of the manor to Ronzel, and did not dare to express his anger: "Why don't you do it Ron? I was a little scared when I saw His Highness. ." Ron rolled his eyes helplessly and ignored his good friend.

"Your Highness, there are now a total of one hundred and three families in our manor, and thirty-one of them have heads who followed you to this land." The consul's wife is also a silver-haired Valyrian woman. She and the Archon, a cavalry officer of the Silver Blood Army, had been married and had children before they came to this land. When she was in Volantis, she used to manage the bills of a manor, so she naturally knew the situation of the manor quite well.

"Of these thirty-one households, only nine were married and had children before you ruled this land. The rest were married to locals. Of the remaining seventy-two households, nineteen were immigrants from the frontier areas. People, twelve families are old people and middle-aged people from the north, and the rest are natives of the Reach. According to your order, my husband and his colleagues divided the land for everyone. At present, we can pay for it in a year. The tax is twelve gold dragons, and there are ten carts of wheat, five carts of barley, three carts of rye, three carts of oats, and six carts of vegetables.”

Long Zell nodded, indicating that he knew the current situation of the manor. "What about those people outside the stone wall?" Long Zell knew very well that every Silver Blood Army manor has a lot of land. These lands cannot be cultivated by the men and women in the manor alone, so Silver Blood Army There will definitely be tenant farmers near the Blood Army Manor. Although these people make a living by renting the land in the manor, they are also Long Zell's people, and Long Zell also needs to ask a question. Although he is also very clear that the existence of tenant farmers is not only inevitable, but their exploitation by landlords is also inevitable.

It can be seen from the clothes of these people that a representative of the tenants spoke immediately behind the consul's wife. His speech was very simple. The old tenant asked Longzel to establish a fixed tax. They rented silver blood. The rent to be paid for land in military manors has always been set by the landowners, which has led to vicious competition among landowners, resulting in rents that are either extremely high or never raised. Longzell did not avoid this issue. He used the Silver Blood Army Manor in the Borderlands as an example. However, the land in the Reach is more fertile and the output is more, so whether it is rent or tax, it must be collected from the landowners. The taxes collected are slightly higher.

"I will ask the tax officer of your castle to set a standard and set your tax according to it." Longzell also knows that this problem is difficult to solve, and he can only do it step by step, or even one step at a time.

However, he had time and a son. Lingol's adherence to the rules made Longzeel feel reassured. As long as he set the rules, Lingol would definitely implement them.

"Your Highness." The next person to speak was the priest of the church: "The Jakaris Cathedral in King's Landing has distributed a new version of the Seven-Star Bible to all the priests, but we still accept Bishop Collan's version. Do we need to change it? For the new version of King’s Landing?”

Longzell shook his head: "No, the new version of King's Landing is just a beautiful cover added to Bishop Collan's version." Longzell looked at the thick oak tree behind the church, not knowing where they came from. Such a nice tree. "Your Highness, that's the Heart Tree." The priest saw the eyes of Longzel and Ringor flashing with doubt almost at the same time, and hurriedly explained: "There are not many weirwoods left in the Reach, and we can't get it either." , can only be replaced by oak trees.”

The priest closed his eyes piously: "Bishop Collan told us that the old gods were the beliefs of our ancestors before they were inspired by the gods. They worshiped nature, and nature is the product of the power of our seven gods. Therefore, the old gods The gods are also the Seven Gods. Our ancestors cut down the weirwood trees for the land in order to reverse the wrong belief of our ancestors' blood sacrifices to the Seven Gods and let them return to the true faith. "

Ringol listened to the priest's remarks with a look of shock.

He remembered that there was nothing like this in the content about the Seven Gods Religion that he had read?

How did Bishop Colran come up with this?

Today is a relatively complete chapter, so there will be no more chapters. It will be updated three times from October 3rd to 5th.