Game of Thrones: Dawn of Justice

Chapter 16: The Rebellion in Duskendale, and the Growing Madness of Aerys
The sun sets in the west.

Several bonfires were lit on the beach.

Garen sat with Robert and Eddard, and in the distance four or five guards also lit two bonfires.

Everyone was chatting and laughing while grilling the freshly caught sea fish.

Some smaller fish with poor taste were thrown directly into the campfire. They only chose large and delicious fish and skewered them on tree branches to roast. Each person could get two or three fish.

It is conceivable that their harvest was quite bountiful.

Among these sea fish shot up, most of them were shot by Garlon.

A small part was shot by Ed.

Robert only hit two.

Robert's swordsmanship is okay, but his archery talent is really average.

Ed is good, but he can't compare to Garen, who has an excellent archery talent.

"Galon, why are you so accurate in shooting?"

Robert really liked the atmosphere of grilling fish around the campfire, so he asked the guards for two jugs of wine, ready to drink while eating grilled fish. In the light of the fire, Robert asked curiously.

Garlon turned the grilled fish in his hand and smiled slightly: "I don't know, maybe it's a talent."

This time, Garen did not keep a low profile.

Because his talent in archery is indeed stronger than that in swordsmanship.

Without any additional points, he had naturally practiced archery to 33%.

In a few years, it may reach 50%.

This progress is much faster than swordsmanship.

Even Sir Goodwin marveled at Garen's improvement in archery.

It is said that in the future, Garlon will definitely win the archery championship in the competition.

Garen didn't think it was that remarkable.

After all, every knight in Westeros wears plate armor.

No matter how good your archery skills are, it is difficult to break through plate armor. At most, you can only kill some soldiers.

He enjoys practicing archery simply for fun.

The feeling of releasing the bowstring and seeing the arrow hit the target is much more pleasurable than practicing swordplay.

"Galon, you will definitely be the champion of the tournament in the future!"

Ned was relatively silent, but suddenly he spoke out.

"Haha, it's still early."

Garen smiled, but he wasn't being too modest.

After all, according to his growth trend, and with some added panels, he will be able to dominate the continent of Westeros sooner or later, and he can easily win a tournament championship.

"By the way, Garlon, you didn't go to the tourney in Lannisport two years ago, but Ned and I both went. Rhaegar was quite formidable."

Robert narrowed his eyes and said.

For some reason, he felt inexplicably unhappy with Prince Rhaegar. He always felt that the other party was pretending to be profound and extremely showy.

"Lannisport is too far away, and my father is worried about me traveling so far."

Garen made up an excuse.

He actually wanted to go and see it, but it would take more than half a month to travel from Tas Island to Lannisport and back. He would be better off training and improving himself during this time.

"Robert, Rhaegar is three years older than you. It's normal for him to be powerful."

Garen smiled and continued.

"Tsk! I'm sure I can defeat him at the next martial arts tournament!"

Robert said unconvincedly.

Two years ago, he was 13 years old and Rhaegar was 16 years old. He watched the 16-year-old Rhaegar win the championship of the martial arts competition with envy.

Now that he was 15 years old, he was eager to emulate Rhaegar two years ago and win the championship of a tournament to show off.

Although he was hit by Garlon today, he is still very confident in his own strength.

A martial arts tournament is generally divided into three events: lance duel, team competition and archery.

The most exciting and important part of the event is the lance duel.

Robert was strong, had natural strength, and was an excellent horseman, which gave him an advantage in lance duels, so he felt that he was no worse than Rhaegar.

The next time there is a grand tournament that brings together knights from the seven kingdoms, he will definitely win the championship!
Garen couldn't help but smile when he heard Robert's words.

If the plot remains unchanged, Rhaegar will still be the champion of the Harrenhal Tournament four years later.

Not only would Robert not win the championship, he would also be outshined by Rhaegar.

However, it cannot be said that Robert is weaker than Rhaegar.

After all, Robert did kill Rhaegar head-on in the Battle of the Trident.

Rhaegar was good in tournaments, but Robert was better in combat.

This is the benefit of being born with supernatural powers.

One force can bring down ten.

No matter how good your swordsmanship, riding skills or archery skills are, I can kill you with one hammer.

It was Robert's record that made Garlon pay special attention to his strength and agility attributes.

He had hardly added any other attributes in the past two years, and all the judgment points he gained from judging prisoners were added to strength and agility.

The goal is to have a body that is extraordinary and can suppress everything.

"By the way, Robert, Ned, I heard from Maester Armor and my father that Rhaegar and his father have two extremes of personality. Is that true?"

Garen chatted casually.

Garlon's words almost made Robert and Eddard's expressions change.

Because they thought of King Aerys's "madness" in the last year or two.

"That's true. Compared to the king, Rhaegar is indeed much more polite."

"Especially after 'that incident' that happened last year, the king has become even more crazy."

Robert said with a frown.

Hearing Robert's words, Ed subconsciously glanced at the guards in the distance. After making sure that they could not hear Robert's voice, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Calling the king "mad" wouldn't cause any trouble given Robert's status, but if it got out, it would certainly be troublesome. After all, King Aerys was becoming increasingly cruel, and who knew what he might do.

Garen smiled faintly when he heard Robert's words.

The "thing" that Robert mentioned did cause a stir in Westeros last year.

This incident is now known by the nobles of Westeros as the Rebellion of Duskendale.

This is a long story, and the main reason is that a few years ago, the Hand of the King, Tywin, stopped using gold from the Westerlands to subsidize the treasury, which led to a tight treasury and financial deficits.

In order to solve the financial problem, King Aerys doubled the taxes at King's Landing and Oldtown ports, and tripled the taxes at other ports on the Westeros continent.

I have to say that this method is effective, but it is very stupid.

Iris's action offended almost all the nobles who had ports in the territory.

The Isle of Tas also relies on Sapphire Harbor for its livelihood. Earl Selwyn was furious about this a few years ago, and since then he has been very disgusted with King Aerys.

The king was essentially stealing money from the nobles' bowls to subsidize himself.

Don't underestimate this.

You know, the Targaryen family ruled Westeros for more than two hundred years. Why was it that when it came to Aerys, the nobles rose up and directly overthrew the Targaryen dynasty?
Is it simply because King Aerys is cruel and mad?

no.

Although Aerys is cruel, we can actually tolerate it. After all, we all behave ourselves. Why don't we just not go to King's Landing and avoid provoking this mad king?
Anyway, he is still the local tyrant in his own territory. If you don't provoke him, nothing will happen.

The most important thing is that Iris wants to snatch money from the bowls of the major nobles!
Port taxes and fees have been increased threefold, which is equivalent to taking away the bulk of the profits.

The nobles are used to a life of luxury. Who can bear it if you suddenly make them eat coarse food?
The key point is that it’s okay to eat coarse food, but you take our money and enjoy it yourself?

Then turn around and treat us like pigs and dogs, killing us whenever they want, burning us to death whenever they want?
It would be strange if we didn't rebel against you.

Lives are threatened, as are property.

The two reverse scales that the nobles cared about most were both touched by Iris.

This is also the reason why the nobles are secretly stirring up trouble.

The rebellion in Duskdale last year was actually a counterattack by the nobles.

Lord Denys Darklyn of Duskendale was the first to rebel.

Duskendale was once the most important port in Blackwater Bay.

It has been prosperous for the past hundreds and thousands of years.

But everything changed when the Targaryen family established their capital in King's Landing.

As King's Landing expanded and prospered, Duskendale's trade gradually dwindled and its wealth dwindled.

If it were just this, the Darklin family of Duskdale could still tolerate it, after all, it was like cutting flesh with a blunt knife.

But once Iris made the bold move of raising the tax rate by three times, he directly crushed Duskdale!
After all, Dusk Valley Town is close to you, both are in Blackwater Bay.

Aerys doubled the port tax in King's Landing and tripled the tax in Duskendale. So, in Blackwater Bay, which merchant ship would still dock in Duskendale?

It was equivalent to King's Landing directly swallowing up Duskdale's trade, leaving no residue for Duskdale.

Who can bear this?

The Darkling family became the biggest victim of Iris's tax reform.

The young Earl Denys Darklin did not tolerate Iris and directly refused to implement Iris's tax policy, and even stopped paying the previous port taxes!

This matter is still very serious, almost equivalent to an open challenge.

King Aerys was furious and issued harsh orders to Denys Darklyn to pay the port tax.

However, all of them were rejected by Denys Darklyn. Just when Aerys was about to send troops to attack Duskendale.

Lord Denys Darklyn begins his hunt for the Mad King Aerys.

He invited King Aerys to come to Duskendale to negotiate and resolve the dispute.

Originally, Iris had no intention of agreeing to Dennis Darklin's request.

After all, there are security issues.

But at this time Tywin came to add fuel to the fire.

He used his tough stance to get King Aerys to reject Denys Darklyn.

Garen guessed that Tywin must have said other sarcastic words, such as that everything was caused by your raising of port taxes.

Tywin's words irritated King Aerys, who hated Tywin's preaching. He insisted on going even though Tywin had told him not to. He insisted on using his authority as king to enforce the increase in port taxes and personally resolve the troubles in Duskendale.

So he took a Kingsguard and a small guard as an escort and went directly to Duskendale.

He planned to negotiate with Earl Darklin first, and if the other party did not agree, he would execute him.

As a result, King Aerys was detained by Denys Darklyn as soon as he arrived in Duskendale.

Iris was completely stunned. He didn't expect that the Darklin family would actually dare to rebel and even detain him!
But no matter how confused and regretful he was, Dennis Darklin was not going to let him go.

Denys Darklyn threatened Aerys to either rescind the order to triple the port tax or grant Duskendale the right to set its own taxes.

How could Aerys agree?

If I agree, won't I be treated like a clown by Tywin and his ministers?
Then he yelled at Dennis Ducklin.

Denys Darklyn was completely enraged and imprisoned Aerys before negotiating with Tywin, the Hand of the King.

However, Tywin immediately rejected Denys Darklyn's "negotiation" and immediately led his troops to besiege Duskendale.

Tywin's attitude was extremely tough. He would only accept Denys Darklyn's surrender and release the king, and would not accept any negotiations or threats from Denys Darklyn.

Dennis Darklin was in a difficult situation. If his rebellion could not obtain any written promises, Duskendale would be doomed sooner or later.

So Dennis Darklin chose to hold on and continued to communicate with the Imperial Council during this period.

But all of them were rejected by Tywin, and he even stopped receiving envoys from Duskendale.

Now Dennis Darklin was completely confused.

He vented all his anger on Mad King Aerys and began to insult and torture Aerys.

In this way, the siege lasted for half a year.

No one knew the humiliation and abuse Aerys suffered in Duskendale.

Half a year later, Tywin lost his patience and decided to attack Duskendale.

Some in the King's Council raised objections, believing that this would anger Lord Darklyn and lead him to execute King Aerys.

Tywin is said to have replied, "He may or may not, but if he does we shall have a better king."

What this sentence means is that Aerys's death will allow the wise Rhaegar to become king.

Tywin's words actually made the ministers in the royal conference shut up.

Because everyone thought what Tywin said made sense.

There is no harm without comparison. Isn't it better to have the young, handsome and polite Rhaegar as king than to have the crazy fool Aerys as king?

At this time, Rhaegar was also in the army besieging Duskendale, and he did not protest fiercely against the proposals of Tywin and his ministers.

Look, no matter who becomes the king, his defense will be broken.

All the ministers thought that Aerys was stupid and his son Rhaegar was wise. Some even hoped that he would be tortured to death by Denys Darklyn. How could King Aerys not be crazy?

Tywin's calculations are also very obvious.

He wanted to marry his daughter Cersei to Rhaegar.

If Aerys was killed by Denys Darklyn, he would have made Rhaegar the king, and Rhaegar would have married Cersei in order to win over the Lannisters.

By then, Tywin will be the Hand of the King, his daughter will be the Queen, and the power of the Lannister family will reach its peak.

If things develop as Tywin expected, it would actually be pretty good.

At least the Seven Kingdoms will remain peaceful and prosperous.

Who knew that at such a critical moment, there was a powerful person who turned the tide!
That's Barristan Selmy!
The captain of the royal guard, known as "Barristan the Fearless", proposed to fulfill his duties as a royal guard on the eve of Tywin's attack, hoping that Tywin would let him make one last attempt to rescue his king.

He intended to enter the town secretly at night, find the way to Dunburg, and bring the king to safety.

This idea can be said to be crazy and bold.

A man sneaks into the castle and rescues the king from the heavy guard.

Everyone thought this was impossible.

Tywin thought so too.

Perhaps in order to cover up his intention to "deliberately force the king to death", Tywin praised Barristan for his loyalty, bravery and fearlessness in front of everyone, and gave him a day to try his plan.

Tywin felt stable at this time, and he even began to think about how to get Cersei to marry Rhaegar.

After all, Cersei is incredibly beautiful and deeply in love with Rhaegar, so this is a good marriage.

However, Tywin never expected this.

Barristan created possibilities out of the impossible and created miracles out of desperate situations!

He climbed up the city wall with his bare hands at night, then disguised himself as a beggar, sneaked into the castle, killed the guards along the way, secretly fought his way to the dungeon, and rescued the king.

You have to know that Barristan fought his way into the dungeon with only his sword and without wearing plate armor.

The most exaggerated thing is that after rescuing King Aerys from the dungeon, Barristan took Aerys and fought his way out of the castle, stole a horse from the stable, and took Aerys to fight his way out of Duskendale successfully on horseback before the castle gate was closed.

This experience is so outrageous and legendary.

Not only Tywin didn't expect it, no one expected it, including Prince Rhaegar and Aerys himself.

It was also in this battle that Balister was completely deified and became a living legend of the Seven Kingdoms.

Tywin's face turned green when he saw Aerys being rescued alive.

The ministers were also helpless.

At that time, the entire Royal Council and the great nobles had already decided to let Rhaegar succeed to the throne.

Who knew Barristan was so powerful?

What to do? Just hold your nose and let Aerys continue to rule.

Afterwards, Aerys took vengeance on the Darklyns, slaughtering all of them, including distant relatives. Even Denys Darklyn's relatives, the Hollards, were stripped of their rights and exterminated.

Only Ser Simon's young nephew, Dontos Hollard, escaped death—and only because Ser Barristan, in his pity, begged for mercy.

This experience in Duskendale caused the already moody King Aerys to change his temperament drastically, and now he is almost crazy.

He particularly disliked Tywin, the Hand of the King, and his eldest son, Rhaegar.

He hated Tywin's cruelty and his inherent contempt for him, and he hated his son Rhaegar even more.

He felt that Rhaegar wanted to replace him.

He felt that Rhaegar wanted him dead.

Even Barristan was able to rush into Duskendale at night to rescue him, so why did Rhaegar, the champion of the Seven Kingdoms, stand by and watch him die without helping him?

As long as Aerys thought about this, he could not forgive his son.

Iris felt all alone and no longer trusted anyone.

After hearing that there was a eunuch named Varys across the Narrow Sea who had unique talents, he summoned Varys into the palace and appointed him as the chief intelligence officer.

He wanted to use the information provided by Varys's little bird to confirm whether anyone was going to betray him.

Varys became an intelligence chief similar to the Imperial Guard.

His initial duties were to spy on the nobles and ministers and report them to the king.

This is also why the nobles and ministers hate Varys.

Who wants to be monitored and reported on?

In addition to setting up an intelligence organization, Iris's character gradually became more cruel and erratic.

He gradually developed an obsession with fire and fell in love with wildfires.

He increasingly used wildfires to execute prisoners.

Garen heard from Earl Selwyn that in recent times, Aerys had even begun to gather charges and burn nobles to death with wildfire.

It can be said that it is getting crazier and crazier.

Garen estimated that in a year or two, Aerys would be completely dubbed the "Mad King" by the nobles.

Garen also had many feelings about the chaos in Duskdale.

The person he complained about the most was Barristan, the legendary royal guard.

Barristan has spent his life protecting the king.

But if he hadn't saved Aerys, the Targaryen dynasty might not have fallen.

After all, Tywin's ambition was never to usurp the throne, but to control power and make his daughter the queen.

It was Barristan who saved Aerys, which led to a series of events that followed.

Later, Barristan sighed and said: If he had defeated Rhaegar in the duel at Harrenhal, and Rhaegar had not given the "Crown of Love and Beauty" to Lyanna Stark, then perhaps all the tragedies would not have happened.

There is some truth in what you said.

However, at this time, no one, including Barristan, Rhaegar, and Tywin, knew what dramatic changes would happen in the future and what earth-shaking waves would be set off.

Only Garlon, who was quietly grilling fish at the moment, knew all this.

"Robert, he is the king. No matter how crazy he is, we can't do anything about it. I think Prince Rhaegar is in a very awkward position now."

The fat from the grilled fish dripped onto the firewood, making crackling sounds and causing flames to rise. Garen smiled at Robert and Eddard.

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(End of this chapter)