The rise of the Dragon Queen led to the rapid decline of the world's sea trade, and her 60 million gold royals project made the food market more prosperous than ever before.
As a result, farmers began to appear on both sides of the Little Lorne River. They sowed wheat and soybean seeds on the land previously used for cotton, castor, and hemp.
After the reclaimed farmland was planted, the manor owner also organized the farmers to burn the mountains and reclaim new farmland.
It could be said that Slaver's Bay was making a big leap in agricultural production, while Ursus was making a small leap in the Lorne River basin.
Denzel of the Andals was also one of the pioneers. He even left his home and was arranged by his master to work at the Little Lorne River 500 kilometers away.
Because of his good farming skills and rich experience, his master needed his skills to reclaim the newly purchased wasteland.
Before the age of 15, Denzel was a shepherd boy at the Harvest Hall. He raised and plowed cattle for Count Astan.
The Harvest Hall's territory was very suitable for farming. It was the granary of the Stormlands. The emblem of the House of Selmy — three golden wheat ears — said it all, so Denzel was trained as a farmer for as long as he could remember.
If nothing unexpected happened, he should be driving the cattle to plow the Count's land and plant the last wave of winter wheat before the winter snow came.
But although he was an expert at driving cattle, he did not like this profession.
The young man wanted to drive a ship and sail thousands of miles to the Jade Sea, to Iban, to the Barren Land, to see the different sceneries of different parts of the world.
When he was 15 years old, after completing his contract with Count Astan, he did not follow his dead father's last wish to marry a farmer's daughter. Instead, he settled down as a good farmer and continued to work for Count Selmy.
He went to King's Landing and was hired by a Pentos merchant as a sailor on the Flying Pentos.
For the first two years, he sailed to Braavos, Seagull Town, White Harbor, Oldtown, Mill, and other cities that he had never been to before. He was very happy.
But everything changed two years ago.
The Dragon Queen seized Slaver's Bay, and the trade on the Summer Sea collapsed by half.
To put it bluntly, the Dragon Queen's actions caused a terrible economic crisis in the world.
As trade between the East and the West decreased, the number of goods sold and purchased by the cities along the Narrow Sea was greatly reduced.
The Flying Pentosian was just an offshore flat-bottomed cargo ship, equivalent to a carriage driver on the sea.
Without goods from the East, the number of Western specialties that were sent to the East decreased. The coachman became idle and Denzel lost his job.
Coincidentally, he met a girl he liked, so he settled down in Pentos.
He wanted to buy a house. If he did not have a house, the girl's parents would not be willing to marry their daughter to him.
Unfortunately, the housing prices here were too high. Buying a 60-square-meter house outside the city would cost him 30 years of his salary.
Of course, he didn't have 30 years' worth of salary, so he could only get a loan from the Bank of Pentos. If the free people of Pentos wanted to buy a house or live, they had to take a loan.
Then, Denzel discovered something terrifying. The income he and his wife earned from their labor was often less than what they needed for food and clothing.
In order to fill their stomachs, they had to borrow again.
As such, his debt would continue to grow day by day, and he would never be able to recover.
Later on, he met a fellow villager, a bachelor in economics from the old town, and only then did he understand what was going on.
After losing the war with Braavos, Pentos almost became a semi-colony of Braavos.
Of course, a semi-colony had to sign an unequal treaty.
In addition to the military restrictions — no more than 20 warships, no mercenaries, no contracts with freelance mercenaries, and no military force beyond the number of city guards — the city was also not allowed to maintain slavery.
But the ruler of the city needed slaves. Slaves were the cheapest, the most obedient, and the most valuable.
So, the ruler of the city thought of a way to turn the free people into slaves: deliberately raising the price of living goods, lowering the free people's wages, and forcing them to borrow money from the governor of trade who ruled the city.
If they owed their master, they had to work for their master.
These free people were called "free slaves" (this was the setting in the original book, Martin was mirroring America). Apart from the name, they were essentially no different from slaves!
Denzel became a free slave of one of the governors of trade, Illyrio.
Long before Dragon Queen's 60 million gold royals grain purchase plan, Illyrio began to expand the scale of grain farming, and then bought land on a large scale and hired farmers to cultivate the wasteland.
At this time, from Pentos to the Little Lorne River, there were Illyrio's estates — because there was Valleglia Avenue, transportation was very convenient.
After being a free slave for two years, Denzel found that there was nothing to be afraid of, because his life now was no different from when he was a free Westeros.
He continued to farm for his boss, and his boss paid him a living wage.
It was the same everywhere.
In this case, he lived with a clear conscience like the thousands of free slaves in the city.
During this time, even if there was news of the Dragon Queen, "Liberator of Slaves," "Shackle Breaker," "Misha the Slave," and other titles, it did not move him too much — he was not a slave, how could the Dragon Queen liberate him?
Perhaps, he would only hear her story in his life, and would not have anything to do with it.
Until this day …
Around eight o 'clock in the morning, the sun was shining brightly, the temperature was neither hot nor cold, and the northwest wind was warm like a lover's hand.
Denzel was wearing a gray linen shirt and shorts, and his bare feet were bare. His exposed skin was as tanned as an old cow's.
He was propping up an old black buffalo that was shiny with oil, and turning over the wet and soft black soil.
His wife and mother-in-law were holding a green gourd ladle filled with soybeans, and following behind the snow-white plow, counting the beans.
"Whoosh —" The sky suddenly darkened, as if a large dark cloud was covering it, and there was the sound of air turbulence.
"Moo —" The big buffalo, which was steadier than an old dog, suddenly stopped, its hind legs went weak, and it collapsed into the mud.
Before Denzel could be angry, he heard his wife yell at the top of her lungs, "Dragon —"
"Dragon?" Denzel was shocked, and looked up. Sure enough, he saw two Megalosaurus, one black and one green, cutting through the blue sky like two sharp knives.
Their speed was too fast, and they left behind two clear traces of flight among the white clouds.
"Dragon, this is a Megalosaurus, a Targaryen, a Targaryen! Dragon Queen, the one sitting on it must be Queen Danny Rize, the queen of the Andals, Loynar, and Forerunners, the protector of the entire realm … "
For some reason, Denzel suddenly felt a surge of passion, and he lost his composure as he shouted at his wife and mother-in-law.
It was as if he wanted to tell them, 'Did you see that? That's the queen of the Andals, and I'm also an Andal, a former Westeros.'
His mother-in-law did not think highly of her son-in-law just because he was separated by thousands of miles from the Dragon Queen. She only kept urging him.
"No matter who is on the dragon, it has nothing to do with you or us. Hurry up and pull the old cow up, there are still seven or eight acres of land waiting for us to work on!"
His mother-in-law was wrong, the Dragon Queen's arrival this time had really crossed paths with them.
After only fifteen minutes, the black dragon flew back.
Then, they were shocked. It was just as the street bards said, the Dragon Queen's black dragon could speak!
"Farmers employed by Governor Illyrio Mopatis, immediately lead the cows and horses along the Valleglia stone path to the mouth of the river."
"Farmers not employed by Illyrio, if you are willing to earn a gold Radiance coin, you can also go."
The Megalosaurus's voice rumbled like thunder, and it could be heard clearly from miles away.
Denzel was still in a daze, unsure if he should listen to the Megalosaurus's words.
He saw the manor's steward drenched in sweat as he galloped on the fields on a mule, shouting, "Immediately head to the west.
Men, women, old, and young, all of you. If you don't get there in half an hour, your wages will be deducted. "
What else could Denzel do?
He could only quickly remove the plow from the old cow's back, then lead the cow and jog to the west with his wife and mother-in-law.
Along the way, they met many farmers, stewards, and even mercenaries who were riding horses and herding cows.
Yes, a small mercenary group that guarded the manor.
There were more than a hundred people in the group.
"Why are we going to the west?" His wife asked as she tugged at his arm with her large, calloused hand.
"Perhaps we have to cross the river and go to Gedo on the other side," Denzel said uncertainly.
He could not understand. Other than a statue of a dragon's body and waist-high weeds, there was not even a ferry — the two sides of the river were connected by a stone bridge.
But he was wrong again. They did not cross the river. Instead, they stopped near the statue of the female Dragon King.
"Look, there's a knight." His wife pointed at a knight in full armor in the middle of the crowd.
Denzel's body trembled. A white leather helmet with rainbow feathers, an exquisite white glaze armor inlaid in front of his chest, and a wide, milky-white cloak that shone as white as snow and as bright as a young girl's hope. Wasn't this the legendary White Knight?
He was excited again.
His previous master, Count Selmy of the Harvest Hall, and his granduncle, Barristan, was the legendary White Knight known as the "model of Westeros knights."
After that, he found out the identity of the White Knight from the steward, Jorah Mormont.
Coincidentally, he also knew this person. It was because the reputation of the Count of Bear Island, the man whose wife ran away with another man, was too resounding, and everyone knew him.
Not only did the steward of the Illyrio family's manor come, but everyone in the nearby manors also came with men, ropes, and carriages.
It was said that the Dragon Queen rode on a dragon and visited every manor nearby. The terrifying "Wings of Death" and "Great Guardian of Light" roared, "Listen to me, I am the Great Guardian of Light. Otherwise, the Wings of Death will descend."
What else could the stewards do?
Denzel looked left and right. There was only Sir Mormont and a weathered middle-aged knight called Sir Clinton. There was only a green dragon in the sky. There was no sign of the black dragon or the Dragon Queen.
However, he did not have time to let his imagination run wild. Three to four hundred people came one after another. The group was split into two. The White Knight led a group of people to the manor to get bricks and build a "fortress" (forge) on Valleglia Avenue. Sir Clinton instructed people to move the Sphinx statue with a woman's head and the body of a Megalosaurus.
A few thick hemp ropes were tied around the statue. The ropes passed through the pulleys on the giant wooden frame in front of it and split into forty to fifty strands, each of which was pulled by an old bull.
There were also people who placed gravel, coarse sand, and bricks between the statue and the stone path.
After doing all this, Sir Clinton pushed a cart of iron balls the size of a child's fist. They were smooth and smooth, as if they were one.
In front of the statue, he placed an iron ball a palm's width apart. There was a total of thirty to forty iron balls.
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