GOT: Chapter 380/381

Chapter 380: Saltpeter Field

Aegor froze for half a second, then understood before exhaling completely. This was not a groundbreaking new discovery at all, but rather that he had been stuck in a situation where he knew a lot but lacked practical experience, overthinking it.

He only remembered that the snowflakes precipitating on the corners of the walls of privies, animal sheds, and stables were saltpeter, and that the soil in these places contained the bacteria needed for traditional saltpeter production. But he forgot that the saltpeter precipitating on the walls originally came from the soil underneath. While using this soil as a starter for saltpeter production was a sustainable long-term approach, if there was an urgent need for the product, directly boiling this soil to extract saltpeter could certainly solve the immediate problem.

Compared to producing saltpeter, directly boiling it was obviously a temporary measure, with the suspicion of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs and draining the pond to catch the fish. But the situation was now so urgent that they were waiting for the meat of these geese and fish to save their lives. Of course, he could not be limited by habitual thinking, insisting on establishing a complete production chain before giving up.

Damn it, Aegor quickly thought again. The reason he had the Industrial Park produce saltpeter in King's Landing originally was because the Gift's climate was too cold and tools and materials were scarce. But if they were to directly dig soil and boil saltpeter, there would be absolutely no requirement for geographical location. If he had realized this earlier, Crown Town and the entire North would have already started a vigorous campaign of saltpeter production.

The lost time could not be recovered, but it was not too late to mend the fold after the sheep were lost. After inwardly slapping himself several times in annoyance, Aegor did not show his lapse in composure on his face. "There is such a thing? How much saltpeter can be boiled from the soil dug directly from these corners, and what is the quality like?"

"The amount fluctuates, depending on the quality of the dug soil," Qyburn replied truthfully. "After a simple attempt, my assistants and I summarized the simplest method of differentiation. Grind the candidate soil and sprinkle it on red-hot charcoal. If it sparks, it contains saltpeter. We scrape down layer by layer until the quality begins to decline. As for the output, a cart of good saltpeter soil can be boiled down to a small jar. Since we have not been able to find a way to separate impurities like salt from the saltpeter, the quality varies considerably."

"Our merchant caravans sent to various places now have several tasks. When they set off, they take goods from the Night's Watch Industry to sell in various places. Upon reaching a place, the saltpeter prospecting personnel go to work first. The remaining people, after selling a batch of goods, immediately start looking for privies, animal sheds, and stables. The white residue naturally precipitating on the walls is high-quality saltpeter itself. After scraping it off and storing it separately, they then dig several layers of soil from the corners and load it onto carts," Nina was particularly attentive to the orders personally issued by Aegor and was well aware of the specific situation. "Of course, disturbing the soil in the fiefs of nobles, big and small, is often considered inauspicious by the owners. Doing so often requires some compensation to the landowners. Those willing to accept goods are compensated with goods, and those unwilling can be paid with copper or silver coins. It is treated as buying soil with money. As for the small number who want to demand a high price, my instruction is to give up directly. Although high-quality saltpeter soil is often only a thin layer on the surface, in the vast Seven Kingdoms, where are there no privies and animal sheds?"

Aegor's face regained its smile. This was the benefit of collective wisdom. He did indeed possess a vast amount of advanced knowledge and information that people in this world could not imagine, but even the wise make mistakes, not to mention that he never considered himself a sage. Limited by his scientific thinking and the inability to act on paper without hands-on experience, he would occasionally encounter situations like this where he should have understood immediately but got stuck in a dead end for various reasons. At this time, having a group of smart people from this world to fill in the gaps and remind him in time, great things could be accomplished.

"Very good." He did not hide his praise in the slightest. "Where is the saltpeter boiling field? Take me to see it."

"The carriage is outside," Nina had guessed as soon as she saw Aegor that he would want to see it sooner or later, and had already found an opportunity to arrange a series of things.

A moment later, the group arrived at the saltpeter boiling field, which was only about a mile away by carriage. The steaming heat accompanied by the smoke from burning fuel could be seen several hundred meters away. Closer still, the piles of soil, coal, and waste scattered outside the low walls of the saltpeter boiling field made it look like a battlefield from the age of hot weapons. Against the backdrop of war clouds hanging over the Blackwater Rush and the large profit-making departments of the Industry reducing production and tightening their belts to prepare for winter, this saltpeter boiling field, the only project that was burning a lot of money but would not yield any returns for a long time, was working overtime, in full swing, operating from morning to night, supporting a large number of workers laid off from other departments.

The scene inside the factory was nothing special. It was just an expansion of the previous saltpeter testing field by several times, with a large number of pots, pans, stoves, and furnaces for the final saltpeter boiling process recreated and arranged in a certain layout, leaving paths in between. The saltpeter boilers vigorously stirring the hot liquid in the large pots, the porters running around with small carts, stopping occasionally to scoop up a shovel of coal, the collectors scooping out the final product from the bottom of the pots, pieces of yellowish-white saltpeter lumps, crushing them, carefully loading them into earthenware jars, and sending them to the central storage area.

People came and went in a bustling manner, and for a moment, Aegor thought he was in the smelting area of Crown Town.

"Thanks to the dense population of the Crownlands, we transported a large amount of saltpeter soil from various places before the Dragon Queen landed, and there is still a little less than half left. As for fuel, wood is strictly controlled in the Crownlands, so we can only buy large quantities of low-quality coal from the Riverlands. This coal is cheap, but it burns with a small flame and produces a lot of smoke. Very few people use it. Fortunately, saltpeter boiling can be done in a semi-open environment, so we do not need to consider that much."

Qyburn, who had come along, also remembered something at this point and exclaimed with a look of sudden realization. "Ah. The person in charge of the saltpeter boiling field reported a situation to me a few weeks ago, a lot of salt precipitates in the pot during the boiling process. I have been thinking about how to use this to extract the saltpeter separately. Now that I think about it, is this not what the Lord said... Different substances have different solubilities in water, and the solubility of the same substance also changes at different temperatures. I guess if we cool the saltpeter water that has precipitated the salt, maybe we can freeze out the saltpeter."

Smart, even if it was not exactly right, it was close enough. Aegor probably understood that the salt and saltpeter his subordinates were talking about actually corresponded to the chemical terms chloride salts and nitrates, and the latter was the nitre he wanted. Although he did not remember the solubility curves of these two types of substances at all, the method Qyburn proposed at this moment, even if it could not purify the nitre, could at least further remove the impurity chloride salts.

But at the moment, Aegor was not in the mood to praise anyone. He eagerly asked, "Where is the finished product warehouse? How much saltpeter has been produced so far?"

"This way, Lord."

After a series of surprises, seeing the finished products, Aegor could not hide the surprise and disappointment on his face. "Only a few jars? Looking at the output of the factory, that should not be right."

Nina let out a chuckle. "Lord, you have misunderstood. This is today's morning production. You repeatedly emphasized to me how important this is, so how could I dare to pile it up here. The daily output of the saltpeter boiling field is loaded onto carts and sent to Blackwall Keep, stacked on the shelves of the first-class warehouse, which is fireproof, theft-proof, and moisture-proof, for proper storage. I have not been there for several days, but I estimate that a little less than half of the warehouse is already filled. Actually, it should have already been on its way to the Gift, but unfortunately, the Dragon Queen's fleet has blockaded Blackwater Bay, and that eunuch army has cut off the King's Road to the North, so it has been stuck in Blackwall Keep."

"Lord, most of that is semi-finished product," Qyburn volunteered, feeling that he had thought of a method and could not bear to hand over a mixture. "Give me half a month, no, a week, and I can purify all of it."

"No, I do not have that time to wait," Aegor breathed a sigh of relief and waved his hand in rejection. "Pack your things, bring your trusted assistants, and prepare to return to the Gift with me. Saltpeter production cannot be carried out in the ice and snow there, but boiling saltpeter can. Nina, immediately send someone back to Blackwall Keep to arrange for porters to load the saltpeter in the warehouse onto the blackbird as soon as possible. It is too late today. King's Landing will open for half a day tomorrow noon, right? I plan to go see King Stannis or the Hand of the King then, and then immediately set off for the North. The purification can be done by the Pyromancers in Crown Town, and the separated salt can just solve the problem of the salt shortage in the Gift."

(To be continued.)

Chapter 381: Going Through the Motions and the Battle for the Molten Sword

Due to facing threats from Daenerys by sea, land, and air, only the Lion Gate and King's Gate, facing due west and southwest among King's Landing's seven gates, are now open for half a day in the afternoon on good weather days. It was already late when Aegor sailed back to the mainland from Dragonstone. After visiting the nitrate he was most concerned about, he made do with resting for one night in Blackwall Keep.

The Night's Watch logistics department in King's Landing, which took Aegor as its lead, had briefly gained complete ownership of the Industry after the capital's nobles who supported Renly Baratheon were overthrown and took the black. However, as the new nobles loyal to Stannis in King's Landing gained a firm foothold and began to seek benefits, Nina had to represent the Night's Watch and voluntarily cede some profitable ventures. Fortunately, these new nobles in King's Landing were themselves divided into the Crownlands faction and the Narrow Sea faction of Stannis's old retainers who came ashore. Even within different factions, they were not entirely united. By carefully controlling the size of the cake allocated to these noble lords to balance each other, and with Aegor's own reputation and the status and influence he gained after being elected Commander, as long as King Stannis did not have any crooked ideas, no one would dare to think of monopolizing the Night's Watch Industry.

Giving up half of the cake did greatly reduce the Night's Watch's income from the Industry, but the benefit gained at this cost was completely avoiding the risk and consumption of struggling with the nobles when Tyrion and Aegor were both absent and the Industry lacked a leader. After defeating Janos Slynt, the Industry, through Allar Deem, controlled the gangs in King's Landing and influenced the common people. By relying on large dividends as protection fees, the nobles, who were the white path, also became their own people. It can almost be said that the number one boss of the City Watch of King's Landing is the King, and the second boss is the Night's Watch Industry.

Industry employees wearing black clothes or black vests were almost considered VIP citizens by the soldiers of the City Watch of King's Landing. With this convenience, after resting for a night in his small dwelling in Blackwall Keep, Aegor leisurely arrived at the King's Gate the next day without rushing, only asking Nina to say hello, and then bypassed the long queue waiting for the gate to open, cutting directly to the front, becoming one of the first people to enter the city as soon as the gate opened.

After entering the city, they went straight to the Red Keep. Since the appointment had already been made through internal channels of the City Watch, they were successfully allowed in.

Entering was easy, but in the Red Keep he could not enjoy the solemn reception he received at Dragonstone. Because Melisandre had concealed his arrival, King Stannis, who had written several times to the Wall asking her to return, did not show his face at all. Only the famous Onion Hand, Davos Seaworth, agreed to take time to meet Aegor. The meeting place was also in his personal office rather than a formal setting like the throne room, and the time was only a short half hour.

This difference in attitude is actually easy to understand. Daenerys, who returned from across the Narrow Sea, needed to win over all possible forces to pave the way for her to retake the Iron Throne, but Stannis occupied King's Landing and sat on the Iron Throne. He neither needed a group of exiles to acknowledge his legitimacy, nor was it possible for him to entertain the idea of asking the Night's Watch far away to come south to serve the King. He had no public requests and no personal relationship, so naturally he did not care about the Night's Watch Commander.

Aegor came to ask the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms for reinforcements. He knew this was a doomed and futile attempt, but he still decided to go through the motions as planned. The blackbird's arrival in King's Landing would inevitably pass through Blackwater Bay, which was controlled by House Targaryen. Even a fool could guess, he must have been allowed to dock by Daenerys. Someone would definitely murmur in private. In order to obtain this passage, did the Night's Watch promise or give anything to the Dragon Queen?

As a neutral member of the Night's Watch, if he had traveled south with great difficulty, only to meet the Targaryen who came across the sea to restore the dynasty and not visit the true King on the Iron Throne, once this was known and used to question his position and intentions, it was likely to put the Night's Watch Industry in the predicament of having just left Daenerys's dragon's nest and entering Stannis's stag's mouth.

What he had to do was to use this visit today to create a false impression and clear himself. His trip south was merely to ask the King for reinforcements. He had asked for help, but did not get it, and the various consequences resulting from this should not all be blamed on him in the future.

Davos, who came from Flea Bottom, could be considered approachable, but Stannis was indeed facing internal and external difficulties and struggling to protect himself. After more than ten minutes of not-so-pleasant bickering, the Onion Hand still insisted that he could not dispatch reinforcements to the North, and could at most allow Aegor to pick the prisoners he wanted from the prison to take back to the Wall, and as for scum, the latter naturally firmly refused to accept them.

After the brief meeting ended unhappily, Aegor left the Red Keep with a stern face, met up with his entourage waiting outside the gate, and only regained his normal expression after leaving the Red Keep for a while. "Alright, the act is over. There is one last stop. After finishing the important business, we will leave King's Landing before the city gates close. If all goes well, we will be able to leave the river and enter the sea on the blackbird before dark. As long as there is a moon, we will sail day and night."

The so-called last stop was Tobho Mott's blacksmith shop. As the number one weapon forging master in King's Landing, his shop was located at the top of Steel Street on Visenya's Hill. According to the blacksmith himself, he was the only weapon master in the city who could infuse color into metal rather than just paint the surface. Aegor guessed this was likely achieved by tinkering with various metal ions. This was not the key. The real reason Aegor went to find him this time was that Tobho Mott had studied forging in Qohor and had taken advanced courses in the method of reforging Valyrian steel. In the original work, he was the one who reforged the Stark family sword Ice, which had fallen into Tywin's hands, into two swords and gave them to his son and grandson, so his reliability was guaranteed.

As the technical personnel to be brought back to the North this time, Qyburn had been following Aegor's side today. From the Commander's personal guards, he had already heard what Aegor wanted to ask Tobho Mott to do.

"Lord, it is said that you unexpectedly obtained Dark Sister from beyond the Wall, is this true?"

"It is true, why?"

"Do you know that Dark Sister was the sword of Aegon the Conqueror's sister Visenya?"

"I know, Mr. Qyburn, do you have any insights?" Aegor already roughly knew what the other party was going to say. He glanced at Melisandre, who was also riding a horse next to him. The Red Priestess indeed looked at him as well, perhaps she had some expectation, hoping that the newly emerged Qyburn could persuade him not to melt the sword.

"Such a famous Valyrian steel sword, its very existence is extraordinary. Whoever holds it enjoys great honor. Why would Lord want to melt it?"

Extraordinary meaning? Aegor shook his head helplessly. "Mr. Qyburn, you were once a Maester, you must be very knowledgeable. I ask you, when did Dark Sister last appear, and in whose hands was it?"

"Prince Aemon the Dragonknight passed it to Lord Bloodraven, who is the last recorded owner of Dark Sister."

"Let me tell you, Lord Bloodraven went on an adventure beyond the Wall and finally died north of the Wall, and this sword remained there with him, until a certain member of the Night's Watch picked it up not long ago. It was neither given to me by its previous owner, nor was it a trophy I won by skill. I merely picked it up. May I ask, in the laws of Westeros, am I considered its legal owner?"

"This..." Qyburn's main area of expertise was natural science, and he was not very clear about legal knowledge. "But House Targaryen has been destroyed..."

"What if Daenerys Targaryen rides a dragon here to find me and wants to reclaim her family's ancestral sword, do I give it or not?" Aegor continued to ask. "Of course, I can hide its identity. Unfortunately, every Valyrian steel sword in the world has a name and origin. If I do not reveal the existence of Dark Sister, how much use can a Valyrian steel sword of unknown origin, no matter how extraordinary its meaning, be to me?"

He raised his hand to stop Qyburn from interrupting. "Alright. Suppose the Dragon Queen and the Prince both die in the war against King Stannis, and there will be no more Targaryen to come to me for this sword. Then, I must ask, what is the extraordinary meaning of the sword Dark Sister? Did it kill some noteworthy great enemy in some epic battle, or play some important role in some legendary event?"

"During the Dance of the Dragons, Prince Daemon pierced Prince Aemond's eye with this sword during their duel above the God's Eye."

"Dance of the Dragons... Hmph, just a stupid civil war caused by lust for power. If there is any Targaryen in the world who is proud that Daemon killed Prince Aemond, I honestly look down on him." Aegor snorted disdainfully. "Let me tell you, compared to other Valyrian steel swords in the world, the only special thing about Dark Sister is that it comes from House Targaryen. And even among the two Valyrian steel swords within House Targaryen, it is the less important one. Even its more famous brother, the sword of conquest Blackfyre, has never had any legendary deeds. Aegon the Conqueror once wanted this sword to be buried with him after his death, and Aegon the Unworthy gave it to his bastard son Daemon instead of his legitimate heir Daeron, not because he wanted Daemon to inherit the throne, but simply because the former was a better swordsman."

"Do you understand what I am trying to say? Since its owner was a legitimate Valyrian Dragon King, its quality might be better than those bought by nobles, but in terms of extraordinary meaning, even in the eyes of the Targaryen themselves, it is just a Valyrian steel sword. It neither represents kingship nor signifies legitimacy. Everyone who wanted to be King based solely on this sword has died. As the Night's Watch Commander, I picked up a lost ancestral sword of a destroyed family. If any important person in the Seven Kingdoms thinks highly of me for this reason, then he is a fool."

"Hmm..." Qyburn was suppressed by Aegor's eloquent arguments and could not think of a rebuttal for a moment. "But, even if we do not consider the meaning of this sword, an incredibly sharp, indestructible Valyrian steel sword, even if its identity is not announced to the world, just using it as a peerless treasure sword, is it not a weapon to restrain White Walkers?"

"What kind of Commander would not rely on military preparedness, but expect a sword to win a war? No matter how sharp Dark Sister is, how many times can it be used against White Walkers? And if it is cast into arrowheads, I have calculated that it can be conservatively divided into fifty parts, this means it can attack White Walkers at least fifty times. Moreover, this is just one part of the great gift I have prepared for the White Walkers." Aegor did not want to discuss this issue anymore and lightly kicked his horse's belly to speed up. "We are all impressed by Dark Sister because it was the sword of Aegon the Conqueror's sister, and she was one of the founders of the Targaryen dynasty. But who still remembers the name of a King's sword from the time of Azor Ahai? In this great battle of life and death, I have prepared several great gifts for the enemy, determined to win, and no matter which surprise ultimately kills the Night King, in the official public announcement, the Night's Watch will declare, we shot him to death with a set of arrows called Lightbringer."

The sound of horse hooves clattered on the smooth road of King's Landing's main avenue, and everyone had to speed up to keep up. Amidst the bumps, no one raised any more questions.

To be honest, Bran bringing back Dark Sister was just an extra surprise. Aegor did not care at all whether or not to melt the sword. But precisely because he did not care, when people kept complaining about such an insignificant matter and draining his energy, he became stubborn. "The fame and meaning of a weapon are given by its user, and history is written by people. I dare to bet that in a thousand years, people will only remember that I, Aegor West, defeated the Night King with Lightbringer, and no one will ever remember that a Queen of a long-destroyed dynasty had a sword called some damn Dark Sister."

(To be continued.)