When the Gardeners ruled the Reach, the Mandalay family's growing power aroused the vigilance of King Pithon III of the Reach, who ordered his vassals to expel the family from the Reach.
After wandering for many years, about nine hundred years before the Conquest, the King of the North accepted this southern family whose flag was the mermaid, and gave the Mandalay a large territory near the mouth of the White Blade River.
After that, the mermaid family used the wealth they brought to build White Harbor, one of the five largest cities in Westeros, and allowed the family to maintain prosperity for thousands of years.
Like the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, House Manderly is best known for its management and wisdom.
In fact, among the recent generation of lion and wolf families, only a few have the characteristics of their ancestors, such as the smart, eloquent little devil, Arya, who has the blood of running wolves. Tywin's strength and Ed's noble character are both caused by special reasons, not the images these two families have shown to the world over the past millennium.
As the first heir of White Harbor, Willis behaves very much like the Mandalorians.
"Could this be a scam?"
He first raised his doubts, and then suggested not to negotiate and the army set off directly.
Willis's words won over some stability-seekers.
For the current coalition forces, with Joffrey as the most important hostage, they have considerable initiative.
Arthur thought for a while and said: "That's okay. You go first. I'll take people to King's Landing. If I don't go into the city, I'll chat with them for a few hours in front of the gates of the gods. The golden robes don't have a lot of horses. , unable to pursue quickly, I will catch up after the army is far away."
Although the number of defenders in the city is only five or six thousand at most, if Queen Cersei, who is dedicated to protecting her son, goes crazy and sends the defenders out to snatch her son back, then the coalition forces of 10,000 will also die. Only a few people can escape.
And when Robb had no intention of the Iron Throne and only wanted to pursue the independence of the United Kingdom of the North and the River, the conflict between the Lion family and the Starks was actually not as intense as the conflict between them and the two kings Baratheon.
After all, both Renly and Stannis claimed that they were the masters of the Iron Throne, and that the other kings were all false kings.
But Renly, who has nearly a hundred thousand soldiers and is eyeing the Bitter Bridge, should be Lord Tywin's biggest headache.
Sansa discussed with several great nobles in the north for a while, and felt that what her brother Robb wanted was to have a truce with the Lions at the right time, and then have the Iron Throne recognize the independence of the rivers in the north.
"Then go ahead. Each of the adults present will give Arthur some people, under the banner of your family, to make this protracted negotiation look more formal."
Sansa suggested.
Everyone nodded in agreement, so Arthur set out with twenty mercenaries, one hundred and twenty coalition soldiers, as well as some food and water.
In order to increase their momentum, these one hundred and forty people actually carried eighty or ninety flags, ranging from the Stark family's white-headed wolf, the Bolton family's X-shaped skinned man, the Mandalay family's blue-green mermaid, Stark's black sun star, Frey's The twin tower flags, the brown sentinel tree of the Taoha family, the silver battle ax of the Severn family, the orange moose of the Horwood family, and the flags of various colors and shapes of the small families in the north. In short, It really looks like the same thing.
Of course, Arthur's golden sword and horse flag were at the front of the team.
After the negotiating team left, the 10,000 coalition troops began to cook, and after having a meal, they headed north along the King's Road.
…
Outside the gates of the gods.
From a long distance away, Arthur ordered not to move forward, and then sent a senior Stark officer to deliver a message outside the city gate.
After being tricked once outside Shili City, he began to pay attention to traps.
King's Landing obviously didn't expect Arthur to be so cautious. After waiting for a while, everyone from the Royal Council appeared on the tower.
Considering Bracken's deeds of capturing Jaime and kidnapping Joffrey on his own, the people on the tower did not dare to leave the city.
The distance between the coalition's negotiating team and the city gate should be greater than 500 meters, so communication is still impossible.
So Finance Minister Baelish was sent to have the first confrontation with Arthur.
"Her Majesty Cersei promised that after the coalition forces release His Majesty Joffrey I, the North and the River will be allowed to be independent, and the war between the Lannister, Baratheon and Stark will end."
Littlefinger was wearing a knee-length black close-fitting robe, looking smart and capable.
Behind Baelish, there were more than a dozen gold-robed men riding horses. They also carried more than a dozen flags. In addition to the Deer family and the Lion family, there were also some flags of the royal nobles.
"When will our independence be allowed? This is too disrespectful to His Majesty Robb. Let your Queen Mother reorganize the terms."
Anyway, to waste time, Arthur started messing around with such small details.
Many northern soldiers behind him quite recognized this statement and nodded in agreement.
Littlefinger had no choice but to tighten the horse's rope and lead the people back.
During the second conversation, King's Landing's words were much more polite.
They promised that Joffrey would be the guardian of the Five Realms from now on, and that the North and the River would never be within the Iron Throne's sphere of influence.
Arthur refused because the terms were not clear enough, and asked King's Landing to give an accurate armistice time and specific territory.
Littlefinger's dark and stern face led people away again.
Sure enough, Queen Cersei's anger was borne by him again.
"What does he want? This damn Bracken." Cersei stood on the city wall with a distorted face, staring at the group of flags in the distance.
If the Lannister heavy cavalry was here, she would have ordered them to rush over and crush the river bug to death.
It was Bracken who took away her brother, and it was also Bracken who took away her eldest son.
Grand Maester Pycelle admired Duke Tywin very much, so he secretly defected to the Lion family.
So he was also very concerned about Joffrey's capture. After thinking for a while, he said: "Maybe the rebels feel that they haven't gained enough benefits. Otherwise, we should give them some gold dragons and treasures first, so that their attitude may be better."
"Don't, the northerners are stubborn and self-respecting. Giving gold before the conditions are clear will make them think it's charity and sending away beggars." Intelligence Chief Varys opposed this.
"That's right, we don't have much money on hand. It cost a lot of money to expand the garrison. If we don't borrow money, the Red Castle can't be maintained."
Beelish knew best how much money the Iron Throne had, so he refused to give gold dragons first.
Joffrey's brother, Prince Tommen, also followed his mother. He suggested, "As long as we keep agreeing to their demands, we can always satisfy the people of the North. Let's talk a few more times."
Cersei took a few deep breaths and told Baelish about the conditions she could offer.
Littlefinger had no choice but to confirm Cersei's bottom line first: "After returning His Majesty Joffrey, all soldiers loyal to the Iron Throne will withdraw from the Riverlands, and Robb's territory will be guaranteed to be as large as the two kingdoms marked on the map."
The Queen Mother nodded and waved Littlefinger to leave.
The reason why Arthur refused this time was that the Westerland soldiers had to withdraw from the Riverlands before Joffrey could be returned.
In this way, the two sides negotiated about ten times outside the Gate of the Gods, delaying for a full four hours.
After thinking that the coalition army had also walked out of four or five leagues, Arthur clearly refused to return Joffrey and led his men away.
On the tower, Cersei was dumbfounded. She was already wearing a mask of pain, and she was even more confused and resentful.
Now it was her turn to understand Mrs. Stark's feelings.
The cruelest thing was to give hope and then ruthlessly extinguish it. The "rebels" sent people to negotiate, which made the Queen Mother think that her son would be back soon, but Bracken turned around and left, telling her that these people were just playing a trick on her.
"If my son makes a mistake, I will kill this Bracken. I swear to the Seven Gods!" Cersei gritted her teeth and said hatefully.
...
Hurrying hard, Arthur finally caught up with the coalition with his men before dusk.
A bad news was waiting for him.
Under the instigation of many young northern nobles, Sansa wanted to kill Joffrey to avenge her father.
And the more rational Willis, Herman Tallhart and others were trying to dissuade them in the central army tent.
Before entering, he heard the constant noise in the tent, and Arthur felt something was wrong.
Rushing in, Joffrey, who was tied up tightly, was looking at the northern nobles surrounding him in fear.
The usually majestic king now looked like a little lamb, waiting to be turned into a kebab.
"Hey, hey, hey, we can't kill Joffrey now." He hurried over and separated several northern nobles holding daggers.
"Miss Stark, why are you confused?" Arthur shook his head at Sansa, indicating that Joffrey really couldn't be killed now.
At least it couldn't be spread that it was the northerners who killed Joffrey, otherwise the Lion family would really not stop the war.
Sansa looked at Arthur, who still hadn't cleaned his armor, and suddenly became a lady.
"Then listen to Lord Arthur, let's all go." Miss Stark said.
Many northern nobles were indignant, but they had no choice but to leave the big tent.
Of course, they still spit before leaving.
Joffrey, who was full of panic, was also led out of the tent by Sansa's personal soldiers.
The four people designated by Sansa to participate in the command stayed.
"This won't work. There are more than 10,000 coalition troops. It's possible that someone will sneak away to kill Joffrey." Arthur said.
Lord Tallhart suggested: "Perhaps a team of people can take Joffrey away first and send him directly to Harrenhal or Riverrun."
Willis said: "What if the news leaks out and King's Landing knows about it, and they send a bunch of elite riders to take Joffrey back?"
King's Landing does not have a large number of cavalry troops, but a small force of one or two hundred nobles and knights can still be put together.
"I can send Joffrey to each other, and we don't have to decide which castle to go to first. In this way, even if someone in the coalition reports this to Cersei, they don't know my route." Arthur suggested.
In fact, he wanted to take Joffrey to hatch dragons, but Jules had no news at all, so he thought of going directly to Summer Hall.
"Okay." Robert had a good impression of Arthur and nodded in agreement.
Glover, who had always held his head high, only recognized Arthur as a riverman.
So the plan was finalized.
At midnight, Arthur took all the Qohor mercenaries and left with Gendry, Qyburn and Joffrey.
Gendry was brought along because he was Robert's illegitimate son, and Robert's grandmother was a dragon family. In other words, Gendry has slightly more than one-eighth of the dragon family blood.
The reason why it is said to be slightly more is that the Deer Family itself is a close relative of the Dragon Family, and there is always a little bit of blood bonus.
Although Gendry cannot ride a dragon, the dragon family blood can make the young dragon close to him.
Arthur himself does not have the slightest dragon family blood, and he does not know whether the dragon hatched in this way will recognize him as the master.
If not, Gendry will have to take care of the young dragon.
The team of more than 200 people made a lot of noise, and several spies who were closely watching the movements of Emperor Joe immediately reported to the masters.
Of course, what puzzled these potential traitors and Sansa was that Arthur actually led people to the south.
…
Four days later, Arthur's team walked out of the Royal Forest, and five days later, they arrived near Summerhall.
This was once the summer palace of the Targaryen family, that is, the castle for summer vacation.
In the year 259 of the Conquest of the World, Aegon V decided to hold a grand party in Summerhall to celebrate the birth of his grandson Rhaegar, and some members of the Dragon family and half of the court officials gathered accordingly.
At the same time, Aegon V wanted to use some magic rituals to hatch dragons, so he used wildfires to heat the dragon egg fossils.
But this caused a fire, and the entire nobles participating in the party were burned down like Summerhall.
This made the Targaryen, whose population was already declining, even worse.
Twenty-four years later, the Dragon Dynasty, which had been passed down for two generations, was destroyed.
On the bone road leading to Dorne, Arthur led his team eastward, and then saw the ruins of this huge castle.
Even from a distance, he had to admit that the fire was big enough. Almost forty years later, the ruins of Summer Hall were still charred.
When he led his men closer, he found that there were still more than a dozen people active on the ruins.
Among them were the soldier Piper and Arthur's uncle Jules.
"Why did you come in person, nephew? I heard that the fighting in the north is fierce. It will not be easy without a brave general like you?"
Jules saw Arthur coming with his troops in person, and hurriedly came up to him, smiling and holding the horse rope.
"How is the stone search going?"
Jules glanced at the riders behind his nephew and whispered, "The approximate location has been determined, but it is slow to find because of the lack of manpower."
Because Summer Hall is still a large castle, it is impossible to find it in a short time with two people, so Jules went to the nearby village to hire a dozen farmers and farmers to help find it.
According to Jules, they have already gone through about 80% of the area and confirmed that there is no "oval stone" in it.
The remaining 20% of the area is where the dungeons and halls of Midsummer Hall are located. Because most of the buildings are made of stone, it is a bit difficult to search, which delays the progress.
"Since you brought so many people, it will be found soon." Jules said.
Arthur also wanted to end this matter as soon as possible. After all, Cersei, who lost her son, was not far from madness.
So more than 200 mercenaries were also sent to find the "oval stone".
Under the command of Jules, who had already planned the search plan, the whole team was engaged in the intense work of finding stones.
During this period, Arthur also helped to move several large stones, and then found seven jeweled dragon egg fossils under a giant pillar.
According to the current timeline, the mother of dragons has hatched three dragons, so the magic of the whole world has begun to revive.
Then blood magic should be useful.