GOT: Chapter 404/405

Chapter 404: Make Friends with Distant People and Attack Those Nearby

Of course, it is to form an alliance with Dorne and the Reach to oppose the other five kingdoms. Is there any other way?

Daenerys opened her mouth, then immediately realized that Aegor's deliberate reminder of how strong the Reach was could not be without reason.

His implication was nothing more than telling her that the Reach, the strongest force, not only could not be brought into alliance through compromise, but must be defeated and taken into her own hands.

This was completely illogical.

"But besides Dorne and the Riverlands, the other five kingdoms all stood against the Targaryens in the Usurper's War and have a blood feud for killing my father and my brother with my family, well, now it is just me. Even if I were willing to win them over, they could not possibly stand on my side. I have no choice at all, so what 'how to choose' are you talking about?"

"First, forget those damned family feuds, simplify the model, and take it step by step." Aegor shook his head, stood, and fetched paper and charcoal pencils from a nearby cabinet. Fortunately, this room had once been a laboratory for pyromancers, and they often needed to calculate during experiments. Nothing was missing. With paper and pencils in hand, he returned to sit before the Queen and quickly sketched a rough topographic map of Westeros south of the Wall. "Number the Seven Kingdoms from one to seven, without considering closeness or distance, without considering ruling families' attitudes toward you, without considering culture or faith. Consider only geography. Suppose you are already the victor. How should you rule this Kingdom to ensure your control is strong enough that no one can obstruct any reform you wish to undertake?"

A Night's Watch man who could casually draw a map of the Seven Kingdoms? Daenerys gave Aegor a surprised look, then leaned forward, hips lifting slightly from her seat, like a child watching a teacher mark a paper, and looked down at the simple map across the table. Her Night's Watch "teacher" marked a series of numbers on the map. The Reach was 1, the Westerlands 2, the Riverlands 3, the Stormlands 4, the Vale 5, the North 6, Dorne 7. After a pause, perhaps feeling it was not complete, he marked the Crownlands as 8, the Iron Islands as 9. Finally, after a moment's hesitation, he marked the Wall's position as 10.

"Sorry, what I said just now was too vague. The Seven Kingdoms are not merely seven kingdoms, but ten forces, even ignoring Dragonstone and the Narrow Sea isles. Please look again, Your Grace. How do you want to rule this continent?"

Daenerys tilted her head and studied this ultra-simplified Westeros map for a long time, still unable to figure out the order's basis. It was clearly not direction, nor exactly strength, and certainly not resource abundance. As for how to rule this continent, she had not a clue.

What did it mean to consider only geography? She understood every word Aegor said. Put together, she could not follow his thinking at all.

She had not even won the war yet and was already being made to consider how to rule. Was that not putting the cart before the horse?

…

After turning from a proud Queen into a humble one, Daenerys became a helpless maiden again. She raised her eyes to Aegor with a look mixed with confusion and a hint of pleading, one step short of saying, "Please, sir, teach me."

Aegor looked up and met her gaze, could not help glancing at her face, close because she was leaning in to see the map, and breathed in the faint, surprisingly pleasant scent she carried. He suddenly thought that, stripped of her strong, proud shell, the little Queen before him was merely a girl of seventeen or eighteen, not even as old as Nina. Take away the title of Queen, and she was still someone who needed care, help, and guidance.

Stop. Aegor pulled himself out of his reverie in time, cold sweat nearly breaking on his back. This magical allure was simply insoluble. He thought he could resist with reason, but in truth, it was very likely that he was only being influenced more subtly, gradually falling in.

This was not the time for such thoughts. The persuasion was already halfway through. Do not stumble now from distraction.

"Here is a hint. Which parts of the Seven Kingdoms border the Crownlands, and which are relatively far?" He put away his wandering thoughts and handed the pen to Daenerys. "Mark the far ones with an 'X'."

The Queen hesitated as she took the pen, stared at the map a long while, then gritted her teeth and marked the North, the Iron Islands, and Dorne with an X.

"Basically correct." Aegor took the pen back, resisting the urge to deliberately touch Daenerys's fingers. He traced the three small x's made by the Queen's pretty hand into bold ×'s, then marked the Westerlands and the Vale with an X as well. "These two places may seem close to the Crownlands, but mountains separate them from the great plains and make transport inconvenient. Your Grace, do you see what these five places share that made me mark them with an X?"

"These five places cannot be reached without crossing mountains?"

"Yes, but from a political view, the feature of 'cannot be reached without crossing mountains' means that even if you conquer these five places, it will be very hard to rule them from King's Landing." Aegor nodded. "Where I come from, there is an old saying. Befriend the distant, attack the near. That speaks to this situation, if you cannot control it, do not bother to occupy it. These five regions are far from the central core plains of the Westerosi continent, and transport is very inconvenient. Unless your dragons can flatten mountains and dry swamps and seas, even if you conquer them, direct rule will be hard. Appoint new Lords, and with time they will breed rebellion. Try to rule through a bureaucracy, and with 'the sky high and the Queen far away,' the burden of corruption will be passed to the people, which runs against your ideal of better lives. Therefore, my advice is, do not make enemies of these five regions."

"As for what remains after excluding those five…" Aegor did not give Daenerys a chance to ask. As if he did not need to look, he roughly marked the positions of Gulltown, King's Landing, and Oldtown on the map. With a few quick strokes, he drew a rather irregular large frame. Centered around the three major cities, with the plains as the body, it covered the entire Crownlands, almost all of the Reach, half the Riverlands, and small parts of the Westerlands and the Stormlands. Its area was large enough to compare with the entire North, almost one third of the land south of the Wall, and half of the southern regions beyond the North.

Putting down the pen, Aegor pointed to the large frame on the map and feigned surprise. "Incredible. I cannot help suspecting that when your ancestor Aegon the Conqueror chose the site of King's Landing and the Crownlands, he already considered what you want to do today. The Riverlands and the Stormlands border the Crownlands, and together they occupy the flattest, most fertile, and most densely populated core plains of the Seven Kingdoms. This plain accounts for seventy percent of Westeros's population and eighty percent of its grain production. Expand the Crownlands as shown, ruled directly by the royal house, and you will hold the Kingdom's lifeline. You can do what you wish, how you wish. So long as you do not push too far, you will be unassailable."

Daenerys widened her eyes at the large frame on the paper, her small mouth slightly open, unable to close for a long while. By the gods, she had really come only to read The Prince, Part Two. And now, with a sheet of paper and a few charcoal lines, she was a little frightened.

"But… but…"

"There are no 'buts.' Let us give it a name first. Expanding outward from the original Crownlands, why not call it Great King's Landing? Why has such a fine tract never been unified in Westeros's long history? It is simple, insufficient productivity, inconvenient transport, and no one had the ambition and ability." Aegor continued to entice. "But your ancestors cleared these obstacles over nearly three hundred years. King Jaehaerys I built roads and strengthened regional links. After so many years, the area of Great King's Landing that I have drawn now has a complete grid of routes like the River Road, King's Road, Golden Road, Rose Road, and Coastal Road. As long as these major roads are repaired to a certain extent, with a few supplementary north-south routes added, the whole of Great King's Landing will be joined together. Here, decrees can be carried out, and the localities can receive royal command directly, forming a complete Kingdom. If you are still hesitant and indecisive, then forgive my bluntness. Your Grace, please stop saying everywhere that you will break the wheel of history. It only invites ridicule."

(To be continued.)

Chapter 405: All Over the World

Daenerys, who had just been lectured like a child, had no thought of talking back. After being shocked by the breathtaking grandeur of the plan Aegor proposed, what followed was a long-lost thrill. Even she could not tell whether the excitement was for this so-called Great King's Landing plan, or for the Night's Watch Commander's heroic spirit as he pointed out the landscape and wielded his power.

For a Queen like her, unwilling to be ordinary and eager to leave her name in history, it would be false to say she did not yearn for this plan. Unfortunately, excitement was excitement, but it sounded too much like a fantastical dream. Having fought her way here, she immediately recalled the military problems involved. "This Great King's Landing area is indeed rich and densely populated, but how can such a completely undefended plain be secured against potential external attacks?"

"Where would external attacks come from? You are the one who is going to break the wheel of history. Should it not be that the whole of Westeros is your Kingdom, under sky there is no land that is not the Queen's land? Even if the areas outside Great King's Landing are not directly under your rule, they are still your subjects. The Wardens of the North, West, South, and East should not merely acknowledge your identity as before, but serve as stewards watching your distant lands." Aegor shrugged and continued, "So your question should be this. If in the distant future, those great Lords beyond the Crownlands grow disloyal and wish to rebel, how should the royal government defend and resist? That is a good question, which is why this Great King's Landing plan has a supplement, checks and balances."

…

"It was your ancestors' rule that created the conditions for you. Before Aegon's Conquest, those Kingdoms with harsh climates or poor soil were self-contained, their populations stayed low. And now? Centuries of basic peace in the North, Westerlands, and Dorne have made them accustomed to buying grain from the Reach and the Riverlands. They will no longer starve large numbers in famine or Winter. The Vale can barely be self-sufficient only because of its good climate and fertile soil, yielding more per acre. Due to the narrow terrain and limited arable land inside the Vale, that cannot last. Population growth strengthens these four regions on one hand, but on the other it makes them more dependent on the outside world. As long as Your Grace controls the grain lifeline, you hold the throats of all autonomous regions outside Great King's Landing."

"Of course, relying on grain alone is unreliable. Your Grace must also place shackles and collars on the four regions so your successors have no worries. The North has fierce customs and strong military power. My suggestion is division and containment. Transfer the Mountain Clans, people and land, to the Gift, and change the law, declaring the increasingly outdated Night's Watch system ended. The Night's Watch shall henceforth be directly dispatched and provisioned by the central government, under the royal family. By weakening the North's strength, stationing such a garrison behind it, and monitoring the Lords' every move, you remove the possibility of gathering troops to go south. The Westerlands are rich in gold, the wealthiest in the world. You must have heard Lord Tywin issued a Gold Control Order to grasp the Westerlands' economic lifeline and concentrate resources for post-war reconstruction. Your Grace need only follow suit, with a small change. The gold of the Seven Kingdoms, no matter whose it is, if it exceeds a certain amount it must be deposited in a bank for safekeeping, and the bank's main vault must be in the capital. That is, the gold of Westeros may not be yours, but its physical body must mostly be in your hands. When its owners use it, it only moves from one room to another, yet never leaves the Crownlands. Thus you eliminate at the root the chance of anyone using wealth to plot against your rule."

"The North and the Westerlands have always been strong and must be targeted with specific policies. As for the Vale and Dorne, there is no need to worry too much. Though the Vale boasts bright victories, that is mostly because they chose the right side rather than inherent strength. With small territory and sparse population, their power is average. For years they have not subdued their own Mountain Clans, and the wealth they accumulated over the last decade was wiped out in the recent League of the Righteous rebellion. As long as a garrison holds the Bloody Gate, the royal navy controls sea transport and Gulltown's foreign trade, and you order tribute in fruit, vegetables, and horses, using these non-grain crops to occupy their limited arable land and increase their demand for outside grain, they cannot cause real trouble. As for Dorne, although the slogan 'Dornishmen are as numerous as sand' is loud, and Aegon's failure to conquer it is legendary, in the end the Dornish are only good at desert guerrilla warfare. Those with bare feet do not fear those with shoes and can wear them down. With a sparse population and scarce resources, they are nothing outside their own nest. Similarly, as long as the two mountain passes are blocked and the grain supply is controlled, they will not become protagonists in the power struggle until the end of the world."

"Oh, I almost forgot the Iron Islands. A tiny place, a clown, forget them." Once cannon are on ships, the Iron Fleet these pirates boast of will be nothing. Aegor took another sip of the now cold wine and sighed. "But I must mention again, no matter how many tricks and methods Your Grace prepares in your lifetime, if your descendants are not capable, it is all in vain. Only strong personal strength is the eternal truth. By controlling Westeros's most fertile lands and placing reins on the remaining four Kingdoms' necks, then advancing productivity under that favorable situation, the royal family will soon have surplus wealth to maintain a standing army far beyond the King's Landing City Watch. On the basis of a stable state, diligently developing technology and staying one step ahead, your rule will be secure for generations."

The room fell silent. Aegor had finished what he needed to say, and he sat quietly where he was, leisurely shaking his leg, sipping the wine, and admiring the peerless young Queen, the most powerful woman in the world, thinking intently after being completely swayed by him, the wonderful contrast between the two.


---

Why had Aegor, when they met at Dragonstone last time, preferred to anger Daenerys rather than offer these strategies? Why had he been secretly pleased when he coaxed Daenerys down from the dragon and into the tower at Crown Town? Why did he emphasize not telling anyone about today's conversation?

It was simple. His grand blueprint, which seemed to consider Daenerys in all respects and was tailored to her ideal of breaking the wheel, had plenty of his own agenda, highlighting the benefits while avoiding the drawbacks. It was enough to fool a Queen with limited knowledge and experience, but if even one old hand like Varys or Petyr had been present, they would have quickly pointed out the flaws and omissions in his grand theories. That would have been a small matter compared to failing to show off smoothly and stun the Queen. If they refuted him and left him without a shred of dignity, it would be over.

Aegor knew his capabilities clearly. Apart from his far superior knowledge and understanding, his political maneuvering and scheming could not match the eunuch or Littlefinger. The best effect he sought from this performance was to make Daenerys believe she had met a like-minded comrade, an unparalleled expert. To make her suddenly realize there was another person in the world who could give her what no one else could, thereby quickly gaining a certain place in her heart, even being viewed differently, despite meeting her later than others.

To achieve that, this meeting had to be one on one, without outside interference. If it could be on Aegor's turf, giving him an extra layer of psychological advantage as host over guest, all the better.

This little tower in Crown Town could not have been more perfect.

No matter how noble the slogan or cause, nothing wins loyalty better than self-interest. The development of productivity makes the pie bigger, but the share never changes from one hundred percent to one hundred and one. To get a piece in this game, Aegor, tucked in a corner and completely off stage, had to do one thing first, eliminate some of the noble class, kick some players from the table to make room for himself and the Night's Watch force that follows him.

As for why he persuaded the Queen to establish Great King's Landing rather than conquering the entire realm and moving straight to centralization, there were many reasons. Leaping directly from feudal division to centralized rule is theoretically the maximization of benefits, but a unified dynasty, while seemingly wonderful, has a huge drawback. Its rules change from a complex system of interest distribution, exchange, and mutual checks to a simple winner take all, and that unchecked nature greatly increases the cruelty of power struggles.

If the Seven Kingdoms are a card room, then Aegor, the Crossing, is a sudden intruder like a god of gamblers. With foreknowledge of the plot, insight into character, and his own vision and learning, he possesses card skills like cheating. Yet he is still an outsider in this card room. If everyone plays by the table's rules, he can make a fortune. If the table is flipped and the room descends into a brawl, with too little foundation, he may not be the one who laughs last.

These four autonomous regions in the North, South, East, and West. Publicly, they are the ballast to stabilize royal power and ensure a smooth transition of Westeros's ruling structure from one model to another. Privately, they are Aegor's own insurance. Once the great cause is achieved, these four unconquered Kingdoms will be the bandits he keeps to hold as leverage, his hedge against being discarded after the quarry is taken. Not to mention, among the four, the North and the Westerlands have quite some friendship with him.

…

As a foreigner, even with a killing tool and fame throughout the Seven Kingdoms, Aegor could not suddenly jump onto the table as banker without status or title. He needed a stepping stone to leap out of the Gift. Supporting King Stannis was the worst option, thankless. He knew nothing about the little Aegon in the South and could not guarantee it would not end in vain. Joffrey Baratheon, whom he held in hand, was a good pawn, but if he declared him legitimate and raised an army, he would be fighting alone until he broke through the North and Riverlands to meet Tywin, and the reputation penalty of incestuous bastard would make the game hellishly difficult.

Considering everything, Daenerys became the best choice. Aegor had some grasp of her temperament and character, and she controlled considerable armed strength. Most importantly…

Aegor took a deep breath and reluctantly admitted it. The Queen's cheat had worked on him. Though on the surface he remained rational, deep in his subconscious he vaguely realized that he had already made defecting to the Dragon Queen his first, even final decision, and was even a little impatient to serve her. As long as she extended an olive branch once more, he would accept it.

However, when he looked up at Daenerys's conflicted expression, Aegor smiled again. They were in the same boat. She had captivated him with that inexplicable allure, and he had captivated her with an incredible prospect. Although Littlefinger and Varys are top players, limited by their vision, interests, and class, no matter how they rack their brains, they cannot offer the Queen a strategy more alluring than the Great King's Landing plan.

He seized the moment while Daenerys was away from advisors and alone, and spared no effort to present a table full of delicacies. It is hard to return to frugality from luxury. From now on, no matter how fragrant and sweet the other two make their feudal coarse bread, she will only find it tasteless.

Aegor was certain that no matter how the Queen weighed pros and cons, she would ultimately yield to the strong desire and yearning in her heart and walk the path he had drawn for her.

(To be continued.)