Capítulo 15: Chapter 15:Second Turtle War(Karna's POV)
Sar Mell and Volon Therys have been developing quite a lot. The city of flowers, Sar Mell, already exported some perfumes to the city closer to them, but following my ideas, the city is now able to produce a fragrance that can last much longer.
I made this by introducing production techniques closer to the modern ones but adapted to this era's current technology level and using several spices to come up with a more diverse amount of fragrances than the only floral perfumes that the city produced before.
The product was a hit, especially in the Valyrian Freehold. The mountainous climate is quite cold in Valyria, so only forty of Valyria have the habit of bathing, as they have private thermal waters for their exclusive use.
Meanwhile, Volon Therys is gradually gaining a reputation for its textile exports. I developed the sector in the city by introducing a copy of the Spinning Mule, a machine that combines the use of the Spinning Jennye and the water frame. It was a key machine in the development of the industrial revolution. With this Epoque-making invention, cloth with better quality and cheaper could be provided.
How did I alleviate the impact that the new technology has on the artisan class and the resulting opposition to technological improvement? At this time there is no true manufacture in the true sense, the closest that exists is some valyrian lords owning a large group of slave artisans that work in big artisan workshops.
Instead of having large manufacturers under my name, I paid for the building of a large amount of equipment around the river banks that I rent for low costs to the small family business that can't afford their own. I allowed the small local businesses to sell to the ones who could afford the equipment. I used the increase in production to balance the loss of 'employment' and deal with the declining Sarhoy to quickly export the excess through a sea route.
Making it so the impact of the excess production is felt by Myr merchants. I made all this effort because my aim is not to become super rich but to develop the city's economical power, to better finance the city's social development, and a stronger army.
I also make sure to reach a deal to export deeper Rhoyne through Chroyane, though this might be only possible while Valysar and Selhorys in between do not block the river, although a blockage in such a large river as the Rhoyne may not be the most effective, and I doubt this two town would be brave enough to start a war with Rhoynar wealthiest city(Chroyane) without enough preparation and the support of a dragon rider.
I could have introduced vapor machines as well, but I don't want Volon Therys to end up as polluted as the industrial revolution London. Don't want Volon Therys to become the 'Big Smoke' of this world. Strangely, this world history seems to progress quite slowly so I don't think that even with my changes the industrial revolution will come so soon. If it was inevitable I would rather want magic to be able to provide a less self-destructive path, than the use of fossil fuels.
The days were quite calm and uneventful, until recently. After much preparation, the Triarchs of Volantis decided to raise arms and prepare for a war against Sar Mell and Volon Therys, as the town's peculiar situation have been dragging on for too long.
A valyrian freehold colony being ruled by a Rhoynar prince was a very strange situation. Now that I was done with sending gifts to the Valyrians and had dissolved the governor's positions, the situation has reached a point of no return.
Although I doubt the dragonlords from Valyria believe that I killed that giant dragon, I guess they were sort of hesitant to attack before, because they were doubtful about how a dragon that size could be successfully killed if even ballista might be useless against it, making them over think and suspect that we had a sort of secret weapon. With inconclusive investigations, they may have concluded that the only way to know their enemy's secret cards was by forcing them to reveal them.
The Volantis, Valysar, and Selhorys seemed to come up with a plan. I have to describe a few valyrian towns first. Selhorys is a walled town located at the confluence of the Selhoru and the lower Rhoyne. It lies north of Valysar, northwest of Volantis. Valysar is a walled town on the western bank of the Rhoyne, to the north of Volon Therys and the south of Selhorys.
They had the idea of instigating a war in the most aggressive way possible leading to a reckless decision from the Sar Mell and Volon Therys alliance. Selhorys would kill an Old Men of the River, starting a war. Then, being joined by Valysar.
When the alliance attacked with all their strength, Volantis would attack the weakened defense of Volon Therys from behind, and later they would surround Sar Mell from both sides. I guess the background of the Second Turtle War was sort of like that except that Volon Therys was not on Sar Mell's side.
Selhorys sent a group of hundreds of mercenaries with ballista and hunter equipment to hunt an Old Men of the River, but they were annihilated with only one surviving to tell the tale. Later they sent thousands and tens of thousands and the same happened again.
To make it worst a group of three Old Men of the River attacked the city of Selhorys and destroyed the town's sandstone walls, turning the shelter shops, stalls, and storehouses along the piers into ruins. Selhorys's towers felt. The domes collapsed with their building. The cobbled paths were driven to chaos. The survivors ended up as refugees in Valysar.
Valysar and Volantis claimed that the Volon Therys and Sar Mell controlled three giant turtles to destroy the town of Selhorys and declared war on us.
I, my mother, stepfather, uncle, my grandfather, and grandmother were in a war council discussing this coming war.
"Grandfather and grandmother, what do both of you think might be the strategy performed by our common enemies?"I inquired.
"The enemy will be on the offensive, as they feared if given enough time to prepare our mages may attack them with Old Men of the River or that we may simply drown Volantis and Valysar. It will be different than the previous war as Volon Therys feared to fight us at the river and be drowned by our water magic so we could sail the Rhoyne and fight them at the open field.
This time, Valysar's army can attack Volon Therys at their south, only Volantis would need to cross the river to attack Sar Mell in normal circumstances. They could cross the river path by land, but it would take too long. In theory, we should eliminate the Valysar threat first. At the same time, we have to guard the river path to ensure that Volantis don't sneakily reach our shores." Grandfather answered.
So our combined forces marched to Valysar. When we reach there we heard that there had been dragon attacks happening at Sar Mell and Volon Therys.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder