Chapter 535: Danger

(Minimum guarantee chapter of 5000 words, only 1 chapter today)

*

The Great Sept of Baelor.

The High Septon's desk was covered with brocade, and on it sat the high Septon's seven-pointed crown inlaid with bright jade and beautiful pearls.

This seven-pointed crown was ordered by the High Sparrow to be sold to a wealthy merchant from across the Narrow Sea by Lancel Lannister, but this merchant knew that this seven-pointed crown was no ordinary treasure, it was a symbol of the highest faith of the Seven Gods, and private collection was actually inappropriate.

Out of a desire to protect the seven-pointed crown, the merchant bought it. He was a figure among the powerful, and he also deeply resented the High Sparrow's words and deeds of supporting the poor and oppressing the powerful.

After the High Sparrow was wiped out, this merchant did not take the seven-pointed crown to the other side of the Narrow Sea, but secretly came to the Great Sept of Baelor on the night the new High Septon took office, and presented the seven-pointed crown to the new High Septon.

This merchant came from Volantis, he dealt in silk fabrics, and was a very wealthy man. His name was Rheid Dylyn. He had his own villa in the Oldtown, and lived in King's Landing for about a few months a year, and was very familiar with the nobles of King's Landing.

Rheid Dylyn's name was written into the 'History of the Believers of the Great Sept of Baelor' by the monks, and written together with the names of the past High Septons.

Also because of this relationship, Rheid Dylyn became very good friends with the High Septon, and under the High Septon's introduction, Rheid Dylyn established a friendship with the Mountain.

The Mountain came to see the High Septon tonight, and Rheid Dylyn was also there.

Rheid Dylyn was fair and fat, with golden hair, a big beard, and brown sideburns. The beard was carefully groomed, braided into small braids, and tied with many small pure gold bells. Each small bell was smaller than a little finger, exquisite and lovely.

The wealthy merchants on the other side of the Narrow Sea liked to dress up and decorate their beards. When they went to see important people, they would also oil their beards to make them shiny.

The High Septon, Rheid Dylyn, and the Mountain could be regarded as close friends.

"Your Holiness, we have received a huge loan today," the Mountain said excitedly.

"Duke, who is preparing to take out a loan? How much is the amount?"

"The royal family is taking out a loan, the amount is 3.6 million gold dragons."

Rheid Dylyn was stunned. 3.6 million gold dragons, this was a huge fortune.

The High Septon's face was obviously disappointed: "Duke, the royal family simply cannot afford this money."

"The royal family really can't afford it, but the country can."

The High Septon was silent.

He looked at the Mountain, not wanting to dampen the Mountain's excitement, but some things had to be said. The High Septon was not in high spirits: "Duke, what is the collateral? Who will guarantee it?"

The High Sparrow waived more than one million gold dragons in debt for the royal family in order to develop the church's armed forces. This matter greatly stimulated the monks. The poverty of the royal family was well known to the monks of the Great Sept of Baelor.

They were all wary of lending to the royal family again, because it would definitely be a one-way trip.

"How will the country repay?"

"Tax revenue."

"This year is already the third year of the civil war, and neither the nobles nor the common people have any extra money to pay taxes."

"Yes, Your Holiness, we are not sitting idly by waiting for the kingdom's treasurer to collect taxes to repay us. If we do that, our money will never be collected. I have applied to the Hand, Her Grace the Queen Mother, and His Grace the King for the power to collect taxes ourselves."

"We collect taxes ourselves?" The High Septon was even less optimistic. "Lord Mountain, neither you nor I have the energy to collect taxes from noble families and common people's homes."

"Your Holiness, we only need to collect taxes from the lords."

Rheid Dylyn smiled and said, "Duke, what if the lords have no money? After these years of war, the common people in many places have run away, and if the common people have no money, the lords are not rich either."

"House Bywater has iron ore mountains," the Mountain said.

"House Bywater has money to pay taxes by selling iron ore, but it is difficult for other families," the High Septon said, "3.6 million gold dragons, we can't recover the principal. Don't even think about the interest, it's time-consuming, labor-intensive, and has little profit."

"Your Holiness, we can levy heavy taxes on House Bywater."

The High Septon looked at the Mountain: "Duke, are you planning to lead troops to forcibly levy heavy taxes? How much heavy tax can the Bywater family levy? The royal family owes us a lot of money, this is not appropriate."

"Your Holiness, Earl Bywater will definitely not want us to levy heavy taxes on him, he will hope to have a good relationship with us, preferably we can exempt him from taxes."

The High Septon did not understand what the Mountain meant. Exempt from taxes, how could he recover 3.6 million gold dragons?

3.6 million gold dragons, a huge sum!

The High Septon and Rheid Dylyn both looked at the Mountain with puzzled eyes.

The Mountain smiled: "We can take this opportunity to have a good relationship with House Bywater and cooperate with him in the iron ore business. The weapon masters of King's Landing's Steel Street will have to spend a little more money to buy iron ore from us. We can also form weapon masters to smelt iron ore and forge weapons, control swords, armor, chain mail, arrowheads, and all iron-related products."

Rheid Dylyn said: "Duke, this is difficult to do. First, you need rich iron ore mountains, and second, King's Landing has many sources of iron ore. Even if you can convince House Bywater to cooperate, iron ore from the Riverlands, the Reach, and across the Narrow Sea will be shipped to King's Landing at a cheaper price."

"The power to collect taxes is in the Seven Kingdoms, even Dorne and the North are within the scope of jurisdiction. If iron ore from across the Narrow Sea is shipped over, it will be intercepted by the navy on the sea, unless they cooperate with us, otherwise, our taxes will be so high that they will never dare to come again. The same goes for iron ore from any other place. Mercenaries, warriors, cannot do without buying weapons and armor; farmers, hunters, and fishermen, who can do without the use of ironware? Claw Isle has iron ore mountains, so it is good to use them, hire miners to mine, and blacksmith masters to forge weapons. Mining, smelting, forging weapons, and sales, this is called assembly line operation."

The High Septon was silent!

The Mountain's method was indeed very profitable, just like his Arbor Gold wine. However, was this a bank loan?

Honestly, this method was not aboveboard! Not the right way.

The High Septon was a man of faith.

"Duke, the Great Sept of Baelor can take out a loan to the royal family with you, but we will only earn the interest we deserve on the principal, and will not send any monks to collect taxes with you."

The High Septon wanted to ensure the sanctity of the Great Sept of Baelor, and would not 'collude' with the Mountain. He could take the benefits, and let the Mountain do the bad things.

The Mountain wanted to take this huge loan from the royal family, this was indeed a big business, the annual interest income was hundreds of thousands of gold dragons, easily supporting the Mountain's tens of thousands of soldiers. The money in the Great Sept of Baelor had accumulated for hundreds of years, and it was just sitting there anyway. Through the bank, let's borrow it, with the Mountain's cooperation, the High Septon did not worry about not collecting the principal and interest.

On the market, Arbor Gold wine had stopped flowing in ten days ago, and the price of the wine was also rising steadily, and the Mountain had hoarded Arbor Gold wine on Dragonstone. His way of convincing Earl Redwyne was simple, but it gave him the sole right to sell Arbor Gold wine.

This inside story was only known to a few people. Even Rheid Dylyn, as a close friend, did not know that Arbor Gold wine was controlled by the Mountain. Three days ago, he was complaining that the price of Arbor Gold wine was high, but he was still willing to pay to buy it and drink it. First, it could show his identity, and second, he simply did not care about a few more silver stags than in the past. He could drink Arbor Gold wine no matter how many times the price doubled, without any pressure. It was just that compared to the previous price, he was just indulging his mouth and nagging a bit.

The Mountain would no longer sell Arbor Gold wine to ordinary people.

"Your Holiness, as long as you agree, I will do the rest. In addition to iron ore, there is also salt, Riverland's wheat wine and fruit wine, and the freshwater fish of the God's Eye are bestsellers to the Free Trade Cities across the Narrow Sea. We will cooperate with the lords in these places to do business, and collect a little tax. Let's take it slowly."

The High Septon's heart skipped a beat, the Mountain was not in a hurry to recover the principal by tax revenue. He tied the hands and feet of the entire country through loans.

Rheid Dylyn was moved.

"Lord Mountain, White Harbor has very exquisite silver wares of all kinds sold to the Free Trade Cities and Eastern cities, and I have long wanted to do the silver ware business of White Harbor. If we cooperate and become the only merchant of White Harbor silver ware, it will be profitable."

White Harbor's silver ware was famous in the Seven Kingdoms and sold overseas. There was once a silver coin mint in White Harbor, but later the king took back the power to mint silver coins. House Stark was honest, so they obediently closed the silver coin mint. Eddard could not compare with the Mountain, the Mountain would secretly open a gold coin mint himself even if the Seven Gods stopped him. Eddard simply closed the silver coin mint and never reopened it.

"The North? Stark of the North has already proclaimed himself king, and now my hand is not that long yet. Lord Rheid, if you want to cooperate with me, let's cooperate with salt, snow salt."

"Is snow salt managed by Your Lordship? That is royal salt, a good thing, I have only eaten snow salt in Earl Osgrey's noodle shop, it is not available in the King's Landing market at all, no matter how much money you spend."

Snow salt, for royal use only, limited supply, extremely high price, like luxury goods, there is a price but no market, but this situation is all caused by the war.

Snow salt was invented in the Westerlands, but on Claw Isle, there are mountains that produce mineral salt, as long as there are people, it can be mass-produced at any time. Claw Isle is self-sufficient, whether it is ironware, salt, or cloth, the tribesmen mine, spin, and produce themselves. It is just that the production process is backward, but the resources of the peninsula are a treasure trove.

Unlike the Iron Islands, the iron ore resources on Great Wyk Island of the Iron Islands are rich, and the ironmen on Great Wyk Island sell the iron ore to the Westerlands, the North, and the Reach, and arbitrarily raise prices. The price sold to the Westerlands, which has no iron ore, is even raised and lowered according to their mood; but Claw Isle does not sell to anyone. The tribesmen do not come out, and outsiders should not think about entering. They close themselves off and kill each other between tribes on the peninsula, and do not have the concept of making themselves rich by doing business.

*

The next night, the Mountain's stone house.

Hand of the King Kevan arrived with red-cloaked guards.

On the second floor, Kevan met the Mountain.

The Mountain's guards were preparing. Tomorrow at dawn, the Mountain and his cavalry would leave the city and head to Riverrun to end the war in the Riverlands.

However, the Mountain did not reply to the royal loan.

The Hand had to come and ask in person.

Even if the principal and interest of the Iron Bank were not repaid, the national treasury needed money to cover daily expenses.

A city with more than one million people had huge daily expenses for maintaining various operations.

Money! After Littlefinger Petyr left, it was like a gradually drying well, becoming less and less every day. Even slightly larger expenditures were stretched thin.

"Lord Mountain," Kevan said sternly.

"Hand of the King."

"Did the Bank of Baelor agree to lend money?"

The Mountain stared at Kevan, Kevan's expression was as iron, with the shadow of Tywin.

"Earl Osgrey wants to go to Riverrun with me, and then return to the Westerlands. He said the Hand does not agree," the Mountain said.

"King's Landing needs Earl Osgrey's five hundred men to increase King's Landing's security."

"Hand, if you give me the administrative order for tax revenue of the Seven Kingdoms, the Bank of Baelor will give 600,000 gold dragons first thing tomorrow morning, then 1 million gold dragons in a month, and then 2 million gold dragons in half a year, a total of 3.6 million gold dragons. The minimum tax rate is 15% until it is paid off."

"Can't you give 3.6 million gold dragons in one lump sum?"

"No!"

"I have brought the administrative order." The Hand took out the administrative order document stamped with the King's seal and the 'Hand of the King' seal.

The Mountain took the document: "Hand, please have the Grand Maester release ravens to the Seven Kingdoms to inform the lords of various places, so that it will be convenient for me to take people to collect taxes."

"Duke, you must have a court scholar present to collect taxes."

"Then give me the court scholar, he must be able to ride a horse."

"Scholar Petyr can ride a horse."

"Where is Scholar Petyr?"

"He is in Maegor's Holdfast."

"I will leave the city at dawn tomorrow, he must come here now."

"Duke, after you return from Riverrun, Scholar Petyr will go with you to collect taxes."

"I will start collecting taxes along the way. I will collect wherever I go," the Mountain waved the document in his hand.

Kevan was silent for a moment and said, "Okay." He whispered something to the guard next to him, and the guard bowed and left.

"Hand, Earl Osgrey wants to go home and have a look, please let him go."

Kevan said: "The strength of the Westerlands in King's Landing is weak now, and House Tyrell is strong. Earl Osgrey cannot leave."

"What if Euron Crow's Eye of the Iron Islands attacks Lannisport and Casterly Rock?"

"Absolutely impossible," Kevan said lightly.

"Oh!" The Mountain glanced at Kevan sensitively, "Hand, what agreement did you reach with Crow's Eye?"

"None!"

"Crow's Eye will not abide by any agreement, wealth and conquest are what he wants most."

"Duke, after you subdue Riverrun, we will free up our hands to fight Euron Crow's Eye."

"Your agreement with Crow's Eye is to stabilize him first?"

"I have no agreement with Crow's Eye."

The Mountain glanced at Kevan again, he knew that Kevan and Crow's Eye had an unknown deal.

If Kevan and Crow's Eye reached a deal, what would it be?

It's very simple, think about who Kevan wants to get rid of the most? What is the thing he wants to get the most?

Kevan most wanted to get rid of Cersei Lannister, most wanted to eliminate the Mountain, and most wanted to obtain a huge fortune to keep the country running smoothly and solve the Iron Bank's debt problems.

Littlefinger wanted to use Oberyn Martell to get rid of the Mountain, but who did Kevan want to use to get rid of the Mountain?

Euron Greyjoy?!

The Mountain packed his plate armor, which two ordinary soldiers could not lift together. While packing his armor, he glanced at Kevan, wondering if the Hand of the King should have guessed that he was behind the wine shortage from the Arbor, but he held back and didn't ask, because he already had a plan to deal with me?

The Mountain suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

He was plotting to seize national resources and wealth through loans from the Bank of Bayler to further recruit troops and expand his strength, while neglecting to think about Kevan's secret actions. Kevan is as terrifying as Tywin and must not be taken lightly.

In that case, I must take Lord Leo away!

Kevan insisted on keeping Lord Leo in King's Landing, which must be for some purpose, so take Lord Leo away. Doing things that are detrimental to Kevan is the right thing to do.

Lord Leo is a Lannister. With him around, if Kevan has any plans, having Lord Leo on hand is somewhat of a bargaining chip to take the hit.

"Lord Hand, I am the Master of War. Lord Leo is a general, not a courtier. I am going to conquer Riverrun, the capital of the Riverlands, and I need Lord Leo's help." The Mountain packed his plate armor into a large wooden box, stood up, and shouted outside the door: "Captain Alyn, pass my order, Lord Leo and five hundred soldiers from Lannisport will all follow me on the expedition to Riverrun."

"Yes, Your Grace," Captain Alyn replied loudly.

Kevan's face stiffened!

The Mountain is the Master of War and has the right to transfer Lord Leo. Lord Leo is not a courtier, but a general of the Westerlands, and the Mountain is the Warden of the West.

"Your Grace..."

"Lord Hand, to subdue Riverrun, take the entire Riverlands, and restore production in the Riverlands as soon as possible, so that hundreds of thousands of Riverlander refugees can return, I need Lord Leo to help me." The Mountain looked down at Kevan and said lightly.

Outside the stone house, the sound of horses' hooves rang out.

Captain Alyn went to deliver the order.

Kevan's face was ashen, and he said in a calm tone: "Alright, Your Grace, I hope you have a good start and, with the help of Lord Leo, take Riverrun and unify the Riverlands."

"I'll try my best," the Mountain said.

In the memories brought from before the transmigration, Euron Greyjoy would attack Lannisport, Casterly Rock, Fair Isle, the Crag, and Crackclaw Point... These Westerlands castles are all on the coast. Euron's warships exceeded a thousand, and his strength was strong. No one in the Seven Kingdoms can match his naval power. What exactly did Kevan promise? Only then did he reach a deal with Euron! What did they trade?

The Mountain didn't know.

The original trajectory of the world has changed too much, but judging from Kevan's firm assertion that Euron would not attack the Westerlands, Kevan has already made a move. The Mountain understood that he was being kept in the dark.

Kevan's words are not credible!

No wonder the Arbor wine supply was cut off. The Mountain did not explain to Kevan, and Kevan did not ask. Kevan said that he would cooperate with the Mountain to make money.

Bernie's intelligence also had no news about this. Kevan's contact with Euron seemed to have been hidden from everyone.

Single-line contact!

Kevan is even more cunning!

The Mountain felt a crisis. He had not yet figured out where this crisis was coming from, but the crisis was coming, there was no doubt about it.

"Should I kill Kevan?" The Mountain asked himself in his heart.

A hired assassin, a knife, or a crossbow.

The safest way to deal with someone who is unfathomable and brings a sense of danger is to kill them.

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