Winterfell, which was approaching spring, was completely devoid of the bone-chilling cold of the past. The winter snow also melted very quickly. Many of the Northerners who came to the town to avoid the winter felt a different kind of winter this year.
After a long summer of 10 years, many scholars believed that the world would fall into eternal winter, but with the emergence of Marco's Valyrian Empire, it seemed to bring a ray of dawn to the world, making this winter much warmer, and the ice and snow did not take away many people's lives as usual.
Moreover, Marco's fire pit technology has been vigorously promoted in the Northern Territory, and soon replaced the fireplace. Now, except for some castles and large houses, basically few people will bother to build a fireplace, and the cost of a fireplace can basically build three fire pits.
The speed at which this thing spread was completely beyond Marco's imagination. You know, in this era of extremely closed information, many news may not be able to spread from King's Landing to the North in a year and a half, especially the news among civilians.
However, Marco later learned that all of this was due to the efforts of the Wolf Spirit Squad. In order to expand Marco's influence in the Northern Territory, they had been using the opportunity of opening a tavern to convey some information that was conducive to the rule of the Valerian Empire.
This new type of "fireplace" named "Earth Fire Furnace" by the Rock Clan has always been a key propaganda item for them. Now, the entire Northern Territory, large and small castles or towns, have basically been infiltrated by the "Wolf Spirit Squad".
At this year's Winter Festival, Marco also announced that the "Wolf Spirit Squad" was officially renamed "Wolf Spirit". The main personnel of this secret force has now reached about 1,000 people.
Without realizing it, they became a very important ruling force for Marco, and in the process of expanding the team, they also encountered a lot of resistance from the outside world, especially the Iron Throne's intelligence network.
After the fall of the Targaryen dynasty, some of its original intelligence network was sold by "Octopus Spider" Varys to the new dynasty's Hand of the King, Jon Arryn, who was then instigated by Littlefinger Petyr Baelish, as well as his wife Lysa Tully's "pillow talk".
Out of distrust for Varys, Jon Arryn handed over all the intelligence network he had to Littlefinger Petyr, which is why Littlefinger can compete with the Spider on intelligence. Fortunately, the power of these two guys in the North is not too strong, otherwise the members of the Wolf Spirit would suffer a lot. However, the members of the Wolf Spirit also spent a lot of effort to find them.
After Marco took the intelligence from Brynden, his eyes narrowed unconsciously, as if he felt a little novel and funny.
Although Roose Bolton's army was suffering defeat after defeat at Maegor's Holdfast, the army left behind at the Dreadfort was winning battle after battle. Domhnall Bolton and his brother Ramsay Snow were doing well in the Two Rivers, and at one point they even fought near White Harbor.
If Stannis Baratheon hadn't appeared out of nowhere, the entire land east of the North would have been replaced with the Bolton family's flayed man banner. Stannis's army relieved the crisis of the Manderly family outside the walls of White Harbor, and also won him the allegiance of all the large and small Northern nobles in the Two Rivers.
After that, Stannis made the old castle of Wolf's Den at White Knife his new castle, and Stannis also announced that he would retake the Iron Throne and demanded that all the nobles of the North be loyal to him, and even Marco received his raven letter.
"Who gave this guy the courage? I feel that this generation of the Baratheon family, except for Robert Baratheon, are basically idealists! Stannis does have military talent, but it is a pity that he is a little paranoid and terrible. As for Renly, my God! I am too lazy to comment. A person who holds an army of 100,000 people actually prepares to attack King's Landing like playing a game, traveling all the way. It is a pity that the reputation of the Storm Kings of the past dynasties."
Brynden Bloodraven sighed to Marco on the side, "People on the Westeros continent basically know that the Valyrian Empire has dragons, but this Baratheon, who claims to be the orthodox of the Iron Throne, actually asked the Valyrian Empire to surrender to him in the crow letter. This made Brynden unable to believe that there would be such a paranoid and arrogant guy in this world."
"Hahaha... Brynden, you don't need to be surprised. This is normal for a paranoid person. If he had a little bit of his brother's character, he wouldn't have ended up where he is today!"
"Stannis is a born commander," Mark Mullendore told Brynden, "but he cannot rule the Seven Kingdoms as his brother did."
In some ways, he was like Eddard Stark and his sons, willing to ignore what anyone else thot and stick to his principles even if it meant getting his head bashed in.
Then Brynden gave Marco a brief summary of some of the things that had happened recently. In King's Landing, the Hand of the King, Tywin Lannister, had declared Tyrion Lannister and the Spider, Varys, to be traitors for attempting to murder and poison him. The two men had now fled King's Landing and the Iron Throne was hunting them throughout the Seven Kingdoms.
Like other news, there was little change for Marco, such as Dorne joining the Privy Council, and Lady Lysa of the Valley falling off the Moon Gate.
After listening to the report, Marco looked at the scroll in Brynden's hand and said to himself, "Tywin Lannister didn't die. Is it possible that some forces have intervened?"
Marco's words made Brinden, who was standing on the side, full of questions. After seeing his appearance, Marco reacted and explained to him:
"I forgot to tell you that Varys is actually a member of the Blackfyre family. I contacted him when I went to King's Landing. This guy seems to have some forces hidden behind him. If he controls them well, it is estimated that the Lannister family and the Tyrell family will be disrupted by him."
When Brynden heard the word "Blackfyre," his heart was filled with mixed feelings. This word almost covered the first half of his life, and Brynden had too many unforgettable experiences that were basically related to it.
Marco patted Brindin on the shoulder to comfort him and bring him back to his senses. Then Marco continued:
"I suspect that your Shirei Hightower did not really die, or that she is living in some form on a member of the Hightower family. This question can only be known after we have captured Oldtown. Anyway, no matter what she becomes, just grab her back to be your wife. I will host the wedding for you. You are my prime minister, the noble head of the Bloodraven family. Don't always carry this funny bloodline theory. I don't like my subordinates always having a bitter face, you know?"
Brinden then composed himself and bowed to Marco, saying, "Yes, Your Majesty! I will try my best to get rid of this problem."
After the things here were settled, Marco arranged for Blinden to go down and summon the soldiers, and after Blinden left, he called out the system interface to check.
City: Winterfell
Emblem: Holy Sun
Tribal Language: Light and Order
Owner: Mark Bellaris
Hero Level: 14
Hero Skills: Intermediate Offense, Advanced Leadership, Diplomacy, Retribution, Estates...
Special abilities: Regal Presence, All-Knowing.
Buildings: Town Hall, Stables, Farm, Castle, Market, Tavern, Blacksmith, Hero's Hall.. (omitted)
Building Level: 18
Has troops: 4500 Rabble, 424 Crossbowmen, 40 Royal Griffins, 312 Defenders, 1 Holy Unicorn, ..omitted (Winterfell Garrison).
Has resources: 2423 gold, 30 wood, 30 ore, 19 crystal, 16 mercury, 10 gems, 10 sulfur.
Marco can harvest about 10,000 gold coins every month, which sounds like a lot, but in fact it is not much. So now, he plans to convert to about 10,000 thug soldiers first. The three cities owned by Marco have basically been built to the full level, so what he needs now is to accumulate resources and expand the army.
Just looking at the gold resources that had become a thousand units again, Marco felt that his conquest was bleak. No matter what kind of world he went to, money was never enough!
"It seems that we can only eat one bite at a time!"
Marco silently said in his heart that he only wanted to get more resources now, and the system seemed to have heard his mumbling, and directly began to jump the interface.
"Ding! The magic node has been accumulated, and the transformation of Skaggs Island has been completed. The system will continue to transform the surrounding area of Skaggs Island. In this process, magic gathering points may be generated, and some flesh and blood life will be transformed into wild system creatures by magic. Please deal with it in time! (Note: After these powerful magic gathering points are broken, the system will issue corresponding rewards.)"
"Ding! Congratulations to the host, the initial immersion of the world has been completed, and the magic will continue to affect the area around Skagos Island. Now, the host is rewarded with 2 vitality magic wells. The location of the magic wells, the first location, the entrance of the mysterious cave in the wild, and the second location, the sacred wood forest of Winterfell in the North."
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the hidden mission, 'The Impregnation of Magic Power', and the host is rewarded with the construction blueprint of the two-way teleportation gate."
"Ding! The recruitment technique is being activated. Please select the location to place it. Ding, the first location is the Griffin Castle. Ding, the second location is Winterfell."
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for opening the magic node. Within the triangular area formed by the three nodes, there may be random summoning points for the troops. At present, only the troops of the 1-3 level human forces and the troops of the 1st level natural forces are limited (Note: Affected by the world consciousness, the 2nd and 3rd level troops may have unknown changes.)"
This series of prompts made Marco stand there dumbfounded. He had always known that the Vitality Magic Spring and the Griffin Fortress were transforming the environment of Skagos Island, but he had not expected that the long-term quantitative change would bring about such a big qualitative change, directly affecting the area occupied by Marco, and rewarding him with so many things.
Marco believes that under the influence of magic, the North in the future will definitely become a very prosperous place. These changes can be seen from the "abnormal" climate this winter. Marco does not expect magic to turn the North into the Reach, but he only wants the climate to be normal, so that the vast land of the North can feed a large number of people.
Soon, Brynden had his men assembled, and Marco would take the Dreadfort in one fell swoop, forming an encirclement of the Karstark family and forcing them to surrender.
Although the Bolton family did not win the "Battle of White Harbor", they still have a very strong military force. If Marco directly attacks White Harbor now, he is likely to be attacked by Stannis, or directly attacked by the Bolton family in Winterfell.
So, after comprehensive consideration, Marco decided to take the Dreadfort first to break the current situation directly. According to the recent news, the Bolton family seems to have received a large number of foreign aid, and the number of their family army plus mercenaries seems to have reached about 5,000.
Moreover, according to the exact information sent back by the Sea Eagles, there seems to be a powerful army hidden in the Lonely Mountain behind the Dreadfort, which is likely to be the Unsullied from the continent of Essos, or some special troops.
This time, Marco will send out a mixed force of about 8,000 people, of which about 3,000 are system troops, and the rest are the allied forces composed of savages and northern soldiers. These soldiers will be used as reserve auxiliary arms and engineers, and the main attack will still rely on system soldiers.
This time, Marco chose to hold the roll call ceremony at Dongdaemun. Today, he was wearing a dark blue military dress uniform and slowly walked out of Dongdaemun riding the unicorn Silver Flash, looking very handsome.
"My soldiers, you are the warriors I am most proud of. You have eliminated the monsters that appeared in the tombs of the First Men, and you have rescued a large number of civilians. I am very pleased. Tomorrow, we will break thru the White Blade River and reach the Dreadfort directly to face the legendary Flayer. Tell me, are you afraid?"
"Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid!"
Under the leadership of the system soldiers, everyone was shouting excitedly. Looking at the warriors and system soldiers who were completely reckless, Marco had a relieved smile on his face.
"That's right! My soldiers, you don't need to fear at all, because you are the army of the Dragon King, the army of the magic controller, and the army favored by the gods. In the future, you will also have the opportunity to become a powerful existence like a paladin, so tell me, my soldiers, will you take Terror Keep for me?"
Macona's impassioned words stirred up everyone's emotions, filling their hearts with infinite courage and longing. Godric and the other paladins had always been the envy of the imperial soldiers, and some people even regarded them as divine elect who had descended from the heavens.
"Yes, yes, yes... Long live..."
The waves of shouts made the whole Winterfell tremble slightly. It could be seen that these soldiers hoped that Marco would win again.
"Your Majesty, the envoys of the mountain clans have arrived..."
Just at this moment, a voice suddenly came from behind Marco, pulling Marco's thoughts back!
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