As the new round of offensive and defensive battles in King's Landing gradually unfolded, Lynd's attention had to shift elsewhere, because compared to focusing on a war for power that had little to do with him, the events currently happening on the Essos continent were what he most needed to pay attention to and deal with.
First, Pentos and Lorath, one after another, submitted proposals to Lorath, wanting to officially join Lorath and become a city-state under Lorath, rather than existing as an autonomous city-state within Lorath.
Pentos submitting an internal annexation proposal was within Lynd's expectations, as there had been similar rumors before. These rumors were actively spread by the princely families and governors of the internal annexation faction, seeking to gain the attention of Lynd and Nymeria.
Afterward, Lynd and Nymeria simultaneously took action to help the internal annexation faction clear out the independent faction's governors in the city, and now Pentos submitting an internal annexation proposal has become a matter of course.
This internal struggle in Pentos, like the war on the Westeros continent, also attracted a lot of attention. After all, as one of the most important city-states among the Free Trade City States, Pentos's trade volume was almost the sum of the two city-states in the Disputed Lands, and its trade with various cities on the Westeros continent was also very close. Its internal struggle not only attracted the attention of many people on the Essos continent, but even some people on the Westeros continent involuntarily shifted their attention from the struggle for the Iron Throne to the Narrow Sea.
Almost everyone who paid attention to the internal struggle in Pentos did not quite understand the thoughts of the internal annexation faction, because Pentos had already joined Lorath as an autonomous city-state along with Norvos. Although city defense and public order were handed over to Lorath's army, the city's governance, maintenance, trade, finance, and so on were still controlled by the governors and other powerful figures of each city-state. In everyone's view, this form of autonomous city-state was the most suitable for the Free Trade City States to join Lorath, and there was no need to be completely ruled like other cities in Lorath.
Therefore, in the eyes of those people, the actions of the Pentos internal annexation faction were completely unreasonable, and anyone with a normal mind should not make such a decision.
It's just that, like a person drinking water knows whether it's cold or warm, their position completely prevented them from seeing Pentos's current situation, so they naturally couldn't understand why Pentos's princely families and governors would make such a move to voluntarily give up power.
In fact, after joining Lorath as an autonomous city-state along with Norvos, Pentos's governors already had some regrets, because the situation after joining was not what they had imagined.
Norvos and Qohor actively and voluntarily joined Lorath entirely due to their own reasons; they are both landlocked countries, and any output needs to be transported by water or land.
However, Lorath controls the Lorne River waterway, and the land route of the Valyrian Road is blocked by Ge Dohe at a vital point. Their only way out is to go north to Lorath and transport goods from the Shivering Sea, but this would double the time, manpower, and material resources compared to before. And taking the original Valyrian Road and Lorne River would inevitably incur certain taxes.
Regardless of the route, both city-states would have to pay a large amount of extra fees. These additional costs would naturally be added to the price of goods produced by the two city-states, ultimately resulting in the goods from both places having no price advantage whatsoever, further impacting the economies of the two city-states.
If they followed their previous approach, the two city-states would naturally resort to force to compel Lorath to open trade routes, allow tax-free goods, and so on. But now, not to mention the strength of Summerhall, the strength of Lorath alone was already sufficient to suppress the two Free Trade City States.
Since they couldn't win, they joined. So Qohor, feeling the pressure first, joined Lorath as an autonomous city-state. After surrendering its military and public order authority, it gained tax exemption and a large number of orders, which not only prevented Qohor from declining but made it even more prosperous.
Seeing Qohor's development, Norvos naturally couldn't sit still and actively submitted a request to join, gaining tax exemption. This allowed its various goods to be smoothly transported all over the world, and at the same time, a large number of cheaper, tax-exempt goods flowed into Norvos, benefiting its residents. Norvos's interests could also gain huge profits from the transactions of these goods, a win-win situation.
However, Pentos's situation was completely different; its decision to join Lorath was entirely influenced by Norvos, scared by its own imagination.
Given Pentos's situation, it didn't need to submit to Lorath at all. It was already a shipping hub, and its main trading partner was Westeros across the Narrow Sea.
Although Lynd's control and support of the Three City States in the Disputed Lands diverted some of Pentos's trade share, Pentos would not be significantly affected in the short term and would maintain its due prosperity. Therefore, maintaining the status quo was actually better for it.
It was just that Norvos's actions created an illusion for them, making them feel that if they didn't join Lorath, they would be suppressed. And the fear of Summerhall and Lorath led Pentos's governors and princely families to make a wrong judgment, submitting a request to join along with Norvos and becoming an autonomous city-state of Lorath.
However, after becoming an autonomous city-state, the situation did not develop as Pentos's governors and princely families had imagined. Their trade not only did not improve, but they also lost a large amount of income due to the tax exemption.
It should be noted that the other party in the mutual tax exemption was Lorath, not Westeros. Pentos's main trading partner was Westeros, which meant that the tax exemption Pentos received did not have much effect. On the contrary, the tax exemption Lorath received allowed goods from Norvos, Qohor, and even more distant places to pass through Lorath and enter Pentos tax-free, with spice trade being particularly impacted.
Besides spices, grain was also greatly impacted. Originally, grain produced by Pentos's flatland farms had always been a hot commodity, and it could earn double the price just by being transported to Westeros.
However, as Westeros fell into war, even though Westeros lacked grain, the routes for grain transportation were all blocked and could not reach Westeros at all. They were intercepted by Stannis's royal fleet halfway, and not only was the grain confiscated, but the ships were also converted into warships and incorporated into the royal fleet.
The grain that could not be sold in Westeros also could not be sold in other parts of Essos, because those areas were already supplied entirely by Lorath.
Since Lorath converted the Golden Tooth, the Disputed Lands, and the land around the Lorne River and Myr into farmland, the grain of Essos has been monopolized by Lorath. In the face of its low-priced grain, Pentos's grain had almost no advantage, and eventually all rotted in warehouses. All governors and princely families engaged in grain trade suffered heavy losses.
It was for these reasons that Pentos, which had just joined Lorath, quickly regretted becoming an autonomous city-state of Lorath.
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