Chapter 218: Throw Gold Coins at Us
More than ten hours later, the fleet arrived at Dragonstone. Daenerys divided the fleet into two, one team led by herself to attack Braavos, the most militarily powerful of the Nine Cities.
The other team, led by Yara, started from Pentos and attacked other cities one by one.
Braavos is located diagonally across the Narrow Sea, close to the coast of the Shivering Sea, and is about the same distance from Dragonstone as Dragonstone is from King's Landing.
Braavos is different from the other eight free trade cities. It was not ruled by the Valyria Freehold in those days and was known as the bastard of Valyria.
It's not that Braavos is strong enough to fight against the Valyrian Freehold, but that the people who founded Braavos were the descendants of slaves of the Valyrian Freehold.
Their ancestors, who were rowing slaves, did not want to be under the rule of Valyria, so they launched an uprising, seized a small fleet, and fled to present-day Braavos.
A city was slowly built there. When the Dragon King family of Valyria learned of the existence of Braavos, they had no intention of conquering the descendants of their former slaves.
Braavos has maintained its rule to this day after paying a huge compensation for the loss of Valyria's fleet.
More than ten hours after leaving Dragonstone, the three hundred warships led by Daenerys arrived in Braavos.
This is a city made up of hundreds of islands in a bay. The outer edge of the bay is surrounded by islands as high as mountains, and there is only one strait that can accommodate only one warship.
The gorge was built into a Titan statue, spanning both sides of the gorge.
The giant is made of gray-brown rock and bronze, with his left hand supporting the mountain and his right hand holding high a broken sword.
The Titan is a sculpture as well as a fortification, with arrow towers and arrow slits all over the giant's chest to thighs.
Looking at Braavos' natural defenses, one feels like there's nowhere to start, of course this is only when there are no dragons.
"Tell the Sea King of Braavos to surrender and leave the city, otherwise don't blame me for burning the Titans and leading the fleet into Braavos." Daenerys said to Jorah beside her.
The Sea King is the de facto ruler of Braavos, elected from among all citizens by the Governor of Braavos and the Keykeeper of the Iron Bank.
The election process is complex and mysterious, the most complex of all public election procedures.
After receiving Daenerys' order, Jorah wrote a letter and had someone row a small boat and shoot it into the fjord with a longbow, waiting for their reply.
On a small island in Braavos not far from the Titans, the four sat facing each other.
They are the old and frail Sea King Frego, a kind old man wearing a hood, a serious middle-aged man in a gray-brown coat, and a woman in her thirties covered in white gauze.
"The Mother of Dragons is here, tell me what to do!" Aquaman Frego said weakly, leaning back in his chair.
After Frego finished speaking, he waited for two minutes. The three of them remained silent. He then spoke again, "I told you not to provoke the Mother of Dragons and her dragons. Now that she's attacking you, why are you all silent?"
"All mortals must die! The Faceless Man is not afraid of her. As long as she dares to enter this city, only death will greet her!" The kind-faced old man had no fluctuations in his eyes, but his words were extremely cold.
"With the protection of our god, Braavos will be worry-free!" said the Moonsinger priest in white veil.
"I didn't see your god come out to rescue the soldiers of Braavos when the coalition forces were defeated last time!" The middle-aged man in brown, who had been silent, sneered at the Moon Singer Priest.
He is none other than Albert, the current leader of the Iron Bank of Braavos.
"My...my god is just a little weak!" The Moon Singer Priest glared at the middle-aged man in brown clothes and his voice became a little softer.
Albert glanced at the Moon Singer Priest and said nothing more.
Sea King Frego glanced at the three people, fixed his gaze on the kind old man, and said: "I know the Faceless Men are powerful, but if the assassination fails, we will all bear the flames of the black dragon. Do you want to drag the entire Braavos into the abyss?"
"I don't agree with the assassination! Daenerys is protected by a black dragon, so even the Faceless Men would have a hard time succeeding. Even if they succeed, are you sure you can assassinate the black dragon?"
"Well!"
The kind old man's expression froze. Kill the Dragon God? Use poison? Poison is hard to kill even ordinary dragons, let alone the Black Dragon God Drogon.
Imagining the horror of the black dragon when the coalition forces blocked the Dragonstone fleet, they all felt a sense of powerlessness in their hearts. Even a sea monster as huge as a warship was no match for Drogon, so how could their ordinary soldiers defeat him?
"We did not surrender during Valyria's reign. Are we going to surrender now to a queen with only three dragons?"
A hint of excitement appeared on the kind old man's originally calm face.
As soon as he finished speaking, Aquaman and Albert glanced at him at the same time.
Didn't surrender? That's because Valyria doesn't think highly of us, the descendants of slaves, otherwise they would have incorporated Braavos into their territory long ago.
Daenerys does have only three dragons now, which is not comparable to Valyria, but among all the dragons in Valyria, is there a single four-legged dragon? Is there a single dragon that can withstand a ballista?
"Let's negotiate!" Albert said helplessly, looking at the Sea King.
"She asked us to surrender, how can we talk?" Aquaman asked back.
Surrender means submission, and Braavos will be incorporated into Daenerys' territory. The best outcome is to become a vassal city of Westeros, but they find it difficult to accept these two points.
However, they do not seem to have much choice now. If they really wait until the black dragon destroys the Titan and the army rushes into the Bay of Braavos, then negotiating will not only incur huge losses, but the conditions will probably be even more harsh.
At the Titan Fjord, a small boat rowed out of the bay and arrived at the lead ship of Daenerys' fleet.
Jorah ordered his soldiers to pull Aquaman and Albert onto the ship, and the two men expressed their request for peace talks and compensation.
When Daenerys heard that the two men wanted her to withdraw her troops just in exchange for a simple compensation, she directly rejected their request.
The soldiers who fought outside Dragonstone could not die in vain, and Daenerys certainly would not easily let go of Braavos, which had the most flags at the time.
Hearing Daenerys' reply, Aquaman and Albert smiled bitterly at each other. Albert could only say again: "Your Majesty, we are willing to pay a huge compensation for that war. Please name your price!"
[Are you going to throw gold coins at us?] Hearing what Albert meant, Drogon really wanted to see the wealth of the Iron Bank.
The Iron Bank is as wealthy as all other Free Cities banks combined. Not only are they wealthy, they are also very powerful.
They have a famous saying: "The Iron Bank does not tolerate arrears!"
Their debtors are spread across Westeros and the nine free cities, and Robert, the former King of Westeros, was once their biggest debtor.
If a debtor is unwilling to pay back the money, they will collect it forcefully.
If a king failed to repay his debts, they would provide money to support the king's opponents, let the opponents assume the king's debts, and then recover the loans after defeating the king.