Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon

After a few days of tense sailing on the Summer Sea, the merchant ship sailed into the Gulf of Sorrow.

One morning, the navigator saw a fleet of merchant ships similar to theirs sailing in the opposite direction from afar on the sea. Grolai guessed that they were slave ships coming out of the Slave Bay.

Seeing these slave ships from afar, Captain Grolai felt that these ships were extremely familiar for the first time.

The appearance of this fleet meant that they were about to arrive at their destination, and they might not have to worry about encountering the vicious pirates who had frightened them for several days. After crossing paths with them from a distance, Grolai ordered the fleet to restore the original distance and ordered everyone to add a dish for lunch that day.

Grolai also specially sent someone to invite Viserys to the captain's room and said, "My lord, we are about to arrive at the Slave Bay. Do you want to go to Meereen or Astapor?"

Viserys' purpose is not difficult to guess. He borrowed money in Myr and Tyrosh-theoretically, no one except Viserys and his party knew how much he borrowed, so there was only one purpose for coming to the Slave Bay.

Buy slave troops.

Slave fighters can be bought in the fighting arena in Meereen, and Unsullied can be bought in Astapor. He would not go to Yunkai to buy bed slaves.

Viserys gave him the answer: "Astapor."

Grolai was in a good mood: "My lord, I dare say you will come to Astapor, you must have heard the story of the three thousand warriors defending Qohor."

More than four hundred years ago, the Dothraki first appeared on horseback from the east, looting and burning every town along the way. The khal who led them was called Temo. His khalasar was not small, with at least 50,000 people, half of whom were warriors with braided bells.

When the people of Qohor learned of the arrival of the Dothraki, they set about strengthening the city walls, doubling the number of soldiers, and hiring two mercenary groups - the Bright Banner and the Second Sons. As the situation was getting worse, they hurried to buy another 3,000 Unsullied from Astapor, but it was almost too late.

The Unsullied marched a long distance to Qohor, and saw smoke and dust from afar and heard the noise of battle.

By the time they reached the city, the sun had already set, and crows and wolves were feasting on the bodies of Qohor's heavy cavalry, while the Bright Banners and the Second Sons had already rolled up their banners and fled, as mercenaries would do when faced with a hopeless situation with a disparity in strength. As night fell, the Dothraki did not fight again, but retreated to their camp to drink, dance, and revel all night, preparing to break through the city gates and plunder the next day.

But at dawn, when Turmer and his bloodriders led the khalasar out of the camp, they found that three thousand Unsullied had lined up in front of the city gates, with Qohor's black goat banner flying above their heads. The Dothraki were mounted cavalry, and they did not take this small group of three thousand Unsullied seriously.

So the Dothraki attacked, and the Unsullied held their shields tightly, lowered their spears, and did not move. Facing the desperate charge of 20,000 bell-ringing roaring warriors, they showed no fear.

Eighteen times the Dothraki charged, but before the shields and spears they fell like waves against rocks. Three times Khal Temo sent out his horse archers, who circled the enemy and shot in turns, raining arrows down upon the three thousand warriors, but the Unsullied simply held their shields above their heads and refused to yield. In the end, only six hundred of them remained… but more than twelve thousand Dothraki warriors had fallen on the battlefield, including Khal Temo, his three bloodriders, all his khals, and all his sons. Three days later, at dawn, the new khal led the survivors in a solemn procession to the city gates, and one by one, each cut off his braid and threw it at the feet of the three thousand warriors.

From that day on, the garrison of Qohor was composed entirely of Unsullied, and each of them had a braid of human hair hanging on his spear.

It's hard to say whether the story is exaggerated, but a group of soldiers who can be brave and loyal, and can be sent to fill the gullies and die without any psychological burden is exactly what Viserys needs now. He doesn't trust the mercenaries, and building an army requires a base, and he doesn't have time.

Viserys said bluntly: "I have heard of the reputation of the Unsullied, and I came for this."

——

As they got closer and closer to Astapor, Dany already knew Viserys's plan. She was a little uneasy. Even in the distant free trade city-states, she often heard that the slave markets in the slave city-states of Yunkai, Meereen and Astapor here in Slaver's Bay were growing like pustules, and the related stories were terrifying.

And is it really the right thing to buy the slave army here to fight?

"Butch is the Unsullied." Viserys told her, "When there is nothing, we need absolutely loyal soldiers. Imagine a hundred Butchs working under us, not a hundred Jorahs."

This made Daenerys irrefutable.

But she still didn't understand: "But what can a hundred Butches do?"

Viserys planned to buy one or two hundred Unsullied depending on the situation.

Because he didn't have the money to buy more, nor could he afford to keep more. The money borrowed in Tyrosh seemed to fill several large boxes, but in fact, the actual loan contract clearly stated that there were only 60,000 gold coins, 30,000 Myr gold coins, and 30,000 Lys gold coins, and Viserys needed to pay back 80,000 in one year.

Ten thousand Tyrosh copper coins and two thousand kilograms of lemons were given as gifts.

And there is no doubt that this money cannot allow Viserys to buy 8,000 Unsullied as Daenerys exchanged for dragons in the original book.

In fact, after Lord Tyrosh originally listened to Viserys's talk about how to build an army on his own using the Unsullied Legion as the skeleton, he only planned to lend Viserys 30,000 at the estimated price, but after Viserys finished talking to him, When he was about to go out, he agreed to borrow another 30,000 yuan.

Lord Tyrosh told him. The price of the Unsullied depends on the situation, ranging from 200 to 400 gold coins per person, and changes according to the training cost and the number of molds. Compared with the Unsullied, the Maharaja recommends him to buy a slave fighter.

If you buy one hundred Unsullied, you can buy at least five hundred slave fighters with the same money.

A young child in the slave market was worth only a silver coin. Lord Tyrosh believed that it would be difficult for a hundred Unsullied to take advantage of the advantages of the Unsullied as an organized legion.

But Viserys valued loyalty, not numbers.

Speaking of which, Viserys had no intention of violating business reputation and defrauding the Unsullied army like Daenerys did in the original work, and then raising the banner of anti-slavery against these seemingly evil and backward slave-system city-states. Conduct an attack.

Slavery is undoubtedly a backward and evil system, but it is deeply rooted in the continent of Essos. To eradicate this system, it cannot be solved by setting fire to Slaver's Bay and attacking a few cities.

Personal dependence has been a big problem since ancient times. To destroy a backward system of personal dependence, it is necessary to implement another system that can effectively replace it. Change has always been the most difficult. Even if the same backward feudal system is used to outlaw slavery, it will take at least one generation to complete this change on this continent, and the counterattack will be strong.

He's just here to buy the Unsullied. Viserys was determined from the beginning to regard this trip as a business activity, and everything should be done according to business logic.

"Dany, a hundred Butchs can do a lot of things." Viserys answered Daenerys's question, "This means that we will have a hundred loyal guards who are not afraid of death, and a hundred swords. . And now we have just the two of us, a sword and a dagger."

Dany was convinced.

The merchant ship arrived at Astapó successfully at noon that day.

This is an ancient city, Daenerys thought as she disembarked from the ship, but it is no longer as prosperous as it once was, not nearly as prosperous as Tyrosh, Pentos or Lys.

Accompanied by Captain Grole and a few strong sailors, Viserys and Dany followed them into Astapor and contacted the Good Master who sold the Unsullied—the slave traders here called themselves the Good Master.

They were waiting for the display of 'merchandise' at a red brick fountain in Pride Square in the center of the city.

The water in this fountain smells like sulfur. In the center of the fountain is a huge bronze harpy statue, which is twenty feet high.

The three cities of Slaver's Bay claim to be descendants of the ancient Gith empire that once ruled this land.

This empire of Gith was defeated by the flourishing Valyrian nation five thousand years ago and was completely reduced to the dust of history. Its pyramids, its streets and buildings were reduced to ashes by dragon fire, and every inch of its land was destroyed. Sprinkled with salt, sulfur and dry bones.

But the three cities of Slaver's Bay still claim that they are descendants of the Gith Empire. They built the pyramids of the Gith Empire in their city-states, used the totems of the Gith Empire's harpies, and followed the slavery system of the Gith Empire. But they do not speak Ghiscari, but Old Valyrian - the language of the Valyrian conquerors who destroyed the empire of Gith.

While waiting, Viserys observed the strange statue of the harpy with great interest, wondering if such a magical creature really existed.

"The goods are here." The slave merchant Krazny Mo. Nacroz shouted to the slave girl who was acting as a translator. "Tell him quickly that the bronze statue in the square is not for sale and ask him to see the goods. I bet that even Even this purple-eyed foreigner from the land of sunset can see how good my goods are."

The High Valyrian speech of the slave traders was distorted by the thick, guttural tones unique to Gist, and mixed with the slang of slave traders. Viserys could basically understand it, but he still hired Captain Grolei to act as an interpreter for him, and similarly, the slave trader also had a slave girl by his side who translated Common Tongue for him.

Heavy footsteps sounded around the huge square. These steps came from the feet of a thousand Unsullied Ones, just like one person.

About how to guess the price of the Unsullied.

In the original work, the Unsullied did not have an explicit price. Daenerys planned to exchange all the goods (mainly spices) loaded by three merchant ships, but the good Lord said that she could only exchange for a thousand to describe it sideways.

Then this is the only way to derive it.

Assuming that the load capacity of the three ships is similar to that of merchant ships from the 16th to 18th centuries, then it is about 300 tons. However, the oar boats are relatively small, so Daenerys had about 200 to 300 tons of goods at that time.

The prices of goods from the 16th to the 18th centuries were roughly as shown above. The above unit price is Dutch guilders from the 16th to the 18th century (the unit in the third column is Dutch guilders/kg). We assume that 1,000 Dutch guilders is equivalent to 1 gold coin in the world of ice and fire, and we take 100-200 gold coins/ton which can be easily calculated.

So the price range is about 200,000 gold coins to 600,000 gold coins to buy a thousand Unsullied.