บท 69: A beautiful night in lannisport
If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
I may have more errors than usual as I am returning to writing in English again.
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2 extra chapters per week should be a good amount, so 300 power stones per extra chapter.
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287 AC third moon
Tywin Lannister POV
That damned Hohenzollern has never ceased to be a constant headache for me, always being the root of all problems with his revolutionary ideas.
It was not enough for him to ruin my revenge against the Martells by preventing Ellia Martell from being killed, he also had to kill the dogs I had been training to do my bidding, getting another Gregor Clegane will not be easy, especially with the new problems that have been going on lately.
That Prussian lord acts more like a merchant than a king as he claims to be, during his short stay in Westerosi society, he has been almost constantly trying to sell the goods that his small folks make at all sorts of nobility gatherings.
He has also taken advantage of his friendship with the new king and the king's new hand, obtaining all kinds of benefits and privileges that one could imagine, since according to what Pycelle says, Jon Arryn does not wish to upset or anger the Prussian lord, since up to now he has always acted in favor of the kingdom in every way.
When he offered me the juicy deal of simply telling my banner men to do business with and give him miners/spies in exchange for a valyrian steel sword with a lot of history in the seven kingdoms i thought he was an ignorant fool who didn't know he had given up a priceless possession for something so simple.
I thought I was in the presence of a North men because of his crude way of looking at social relations, but now he is showing the claws he claims to have in his eagle.
The spies I sent camouflaged among the miners none of them reported anything to my surprise, I thought they had simply betrayed me but with further investigation, the group of spies had died a few days after arriving in the Prussian territories, natural death said the information that reached me, but it was too suspicious that only my spies had died.
But my uncertainty was recently answered as I have been sending spies frequently to their lands to try to attract their nobles and officers to train my army and to obtain information and details about Prussian technology as to the surprise of most of the Maester the Prussians are extremely technologically advanced compared to us in every way.
But no spies have returned, they arrive in the city or their territories and disappear in the best of cases, they send a letter that they had settled in the territory and would begin to make relations with the locals and that was it, they were never heard from again, making it clear that the Prussian master has measures to eliminate any unwanted guest in their lands and was extremely efficient in silencing them permanently.
I paused to look at my desk and see the huge pile of complaint letters from my banner men.
Just the sight of it made my head hurt
I don't know what kind of trickery, sorcery or technology the Prussians are using, but one thing was obvious they were producing more food every harvest their production was increasing, which has been causing a general drop in food prices in the seven kingdoms, not to mention that they also managed to take away the sale of grain to the north which was a good way to make easy gold by selling the shaving grain or rotten grain to the idiots in the north.
This has caused many small folks who were harvesting our lands for their livelihoods to migrate to the cities, greatly benefiting whoever owns them, in my domains it has caused many to migrate to Lannisport weakening my banner men and strengthening me with respect to them, but equally a not insignificant number have been escaping to the Prussian lands.
This has caused me to receive constant complaints from my banner men that entire villages have been abandoned, and the land left untilled, leaving many to lose a large part of their income as they have no people to collect part of their harvest from.
I also sent a complaint to the capital, but the hand of the king does not wish to disturb his beloved protégé as he is desperate for funds to finance Robert's expenses and his response was vague, that we lords are responsible for taking care of our property and that each lord must take the necessary measures to prevent his small folks from deciding to escape.
A weak answer that hides his favoritism for the Hohenzollern's, and above all because Arryn has not been affected in the least by the situation.
But what really hurts because of the presence of the Prussians is that the value of the precious metals has begun to drop alarmingly.
Although i don't know if he is doing it with intention or if it is just an effect of his policies, with the trade with essos and the summer isles, immense amounts of gold and silver have begun to arrive to the Prussian coffers which have begun to spend so much gold and silver in their construction policies that it has practically reduced its price since now silver is quite common in small folks and there are even cases where peasants have a golden dragon.
This is the strongest blow that house Lannister has suffered, even more than it suffered under the constant attacks and humiliations of the mad king against my house or the terrible handling of the finances of my father, since this affected the pillars of power of house Lannister, gold is the main source of income for most of the houses in the western lands since we are the suppliers of precious metals of the kingdom which has always allowed us to control the supply of this metal, now by the Prussians has caused that the stability of the price of gold is not constant and has begun to affect our finances, as everything is slowly rising in price.
This problem is not something that can be solved easily as it would mean that we would have to stop mining gold if we want to stabilize the price of gold, which would mean that I would have to stop using the main source of my income and look for other alternative ways to supplement it.
Fortunately, the solution was not so far away nor so difficult to, trade, like the Prussians, I have in my domain a large port city that would allow us to dedicate ourselves to trade and begin to compete with the Prussian merchant fleet, with the help of my brother Kevan we had almost finished the construction of almost 100 merchant ships to start trading, we have some of the best craftsmen working the gold, compete with the Prussian merchants will not be difficult.
While I was pondering, how to counteract the growing Prussian influence, I heard a knock on my study door.
Kevan, my brother, entered with a worried look on his face.
I stood watching him, until Kevan began to speak.
''Brother, I bring news of the spies and the capital,'' said kevan , looking me in the eye.
''Well, tell me, any luck this time with the spies or should we send more?'' I said with a serious tone.
''Well , this time a spy came back brother the merchant who went to collect the information brought back the spy'' said kevan , moving his lips in annoyance.
''I guess that's good isn't it?, he's the first spy to return alive from neu danzig, what information did he bring back about how the Prussians make their steel or the plans on how they make their galleons'' I said looking at kevan.
''Yes, he came back alive, but without his tongue, eyes or fingers, apparently this time whoever is in charge of eliminating our spies sent him alive to give us a warning, the maester says the wounds are incredibly well treated, the work of an expert'' said Kevan disgusted.
''Damn it Kevan you told me those spies were experts, how is it possible that you paid them 20,000 dragons just to end up like this, they didn't get anything, finish the job and eliminate the spy and the merchant so that the information about this doesn't spread'' I said hitting the table.
''They are experts brother, well, they were, but it seems that whoever Lord Hohenzollern is employing is much better, we had no luck with the Prussian nobles brother, no one accepted our offer, only 2 approached us to listen to our offer, and they rejected it immediately after speaking with our messenger'' said Kevan looking me in the eyes.
''Yes, it is clear that the Prussian nobles do not think of betraying their lord, their society is extremely loyal and honorable, and they give their absolute loyalty to their lord, I would have liked to have such banner men and not depend on fear to keep our most conflictive nobles in order, well, tell me the news from the capital'' I said very annoyed.
''It's not good either, a new tax'' said Kevan handing me the royal decree.
The decree establishes a tax on ships seeking to use the trade routes protected by the Prussian navy, and the person in charge of collecting this tax was ....
Lord Hohenzollern, but why?
''when was this approved and why wasn't I informed earlier'' I said, staring at kevan
''Pycelle sent a letter explaining what happened at the king's council, apparently the Prussians set up an ambassador in the capital, and he has been visiting lord Arryn frequently and managed to convince him to create this new tax to use the trade routes under Prussian protection 30% for lord Hohenzollern 70% for the crown'' kevan said.
''Why no one consult me, it's good that Arryn doesn't want to bother or insult the Prussian I understand that he gave a great part of the soldiers to win the rebellion, and he is the biggest taxpayer of the kingdom, but this tax is obviously to affect us, so we can't compete commercially against the Prussians'' I said angry.
''It's only 5 golden dragons per ship that sails those routes every moon brother it's not that much either, besides you said yourself that you wanted to keep secret that you wanted to enter the trade to avoid the Prussians doing something, the tax was introduced because of that lack of information'' said Kevan trying to calm me down.
''5 golden dragons that will not be in my coffers and that part will be in the coffers of that child, something else to report, if not go away I need to think'' I said, looking at Kevan.
''The new Master of Coin wants to talk to you about a loan for the crown, it seems that the king's expenses are getting out of control and apparently the coffers are already empty with the road project currently being done by the crown,'' said Kevan.
''I will see the conditions of the loan later, you may leave,'' I said pointing to the door.
Kevan obeyed and left my study.
Damn it, I underestimated that boy, I thought he was an idiot, but he has shown he knows how to play the game, I must travel to the capital and pay a visit to the king, I must do what I can to get the Prussians expelled from the court as long as they are within earshot of the king they could still do more things, I can use the loan to the crown to get the exemption from that new tax.
Yes, I can do that, I underestimated him once, it won't happen again, this is a dangerous enemy far more dangerous than my banner men Reyne-Tarbeck or the mad king's madness, the Prussians are an enemy on par with the Lannister, the Prussian has many enemies, I just have to find them and use them to bring their destruction.
I got up from my chair and began to look out the window.
It will be difficult to change the economy of the western lands to one more centered on the manufacture and trade, but it is something we must do, if we continue to depend on the fluctuation of the price of gold we will stagnate and the Prussians will continue to get richer, lannisport will continue to grow with the arrival of servants escaping from the lands of my banner men, in time I will be able to implement policies that will allow me to control my banner men more and create a legacy that will last hundreds of years more, leaving the house Lannister as the most powerful house of the seven kingdoms.
I already had a plan, while I was preparing my plans for the future,the port of Lannister began to burn.
The night was illuminated
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