The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Chapter 1 Milk (Seeking Subscriptions and Recommendations)

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Duke Hoster suddenly smiled, glancing at the stiff face of his family's sole heir, Edmure, and said, "Ser Gregor, the value of Riverrun cannot be measured in gold dragons. This city has a history of thousands of years, and it has been renovated many times by the Tullys to achieve such a magnificent scale. I cannot afford the equivalent price to redeem the city; millions of gold dragons cannot match Riverrun's glory. Faced with a priceless ancestral castle, any amount of gold dragons would seem inappropriate. How about this, I express our Tully family's deep regret for this conflict with ten thousand gold dragons, and you return Riverrun to the Tully family."

Neither humble nor arrogant, reasonable, assessing the situation, clear and logical, and finally offering a sum of money to settle the matter, Duke Hoster had dominated the Riverlands for decades, a seasoned and formidable figure. Many of the older generation of knights were like this: eloquent, politically savvy, and capable of fighting on horseback.

Ten thousand gold dragons was a huge sum.

But if it were divided among the nobles in the city, shared by the dozens of imprisoned noble families, it would actually be a small amount.

The Mountain had captured all the nobles in the city and the heads or heirs of those wealthy merchant families. Even with twenty nobles, an average ransom of five hundred gold dragons per person was within the scope of ransoms for conflicts between nobles. Moreover, this was to redeem Riverrun. To emphasize Riverrun's value, as Duke Hoster said, millions of gold dragons could not measure the value of this ancient and famous castle, so this sum was indeed just an expression of the Tully family's regret for the conflict.

Ten thousand gold dragons to retrieve the priceless Riverrun was a great deal for the Tully family, arguably the lowest possible price; and for the Mountain, although Edmure was the instigator of this conflict, the Tully family's way of expressing regret had indeed reached the heavens.

There had never been a case of noble conflict with a higher price paid. There had never been such a thing in the history of the Seven Kingdoms! In times of peace, conflicts between nobles never involved demanding money to redeem a city. They would capture each other's people and force the other side to pay ransom. Killings were limited to the other side's lackeys, and conflicts were kept within a controllable range.

After all, in times of peace, there was the King and the Hand, the royal army, and the nationally unified laws and great lords loyal to the royal family. If anyone played with fire too much, the King would issue an order, and the nobles of the whole country would assemble their armies. No single family had the power to resist the power of the entire country.

"Deal!" the Mountain said.

Edmure's face turned pale!

Maester Vyman was dumbfounded!

The treasurer, Frawn, couldn't breathe, as if it were his own money!

Bernie's admiration for the Mountain reached its peak!

Bad guys always easily admire bad guys who are even worse than themselves!

"Bernie, take these six brothers and help Treasurer Frawn move the money to the ship and transport it to the west bank of the Red Fork," the Mountain said.

The money was only his once it was on the west bank. If it stayed in Riverrun, who knew whose it would be if the situation changed!

"Yes, Lord Mountain!" Bernie's voice sounded unreal to himself.

He had never seen so much money, a mere nobody like him. It was like a poor man who had never lived in a palace suddenly finding himself in one.

An hour later, thirteen thousand gold dragons were transported to the Clegane cavalry camp on the west bank of the Red Fork. This money was enough for the Mountain's Clegane cavalry to live comfortably until the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings. At that time, with the War of the Five Kings breaking out, the Mountain's army would sustain itself through war and not worry about money and food.

Count Leo watched with envy and excitement. The Mountain's ability to extort had improved, his appetite had grown, and he was lawless and unrestrained. He personally benefited, but the entire Westerlands bore the blame.

This was really…!

Count Leo and his knights were blinded by the Mountain's get-rich-quick schemes!

The Mountain was satisfied and in a good mood: "Ser Edmure, don't be angry. Bernie, give Ser Edmure a handful of Westerling noodles."

Westerling noodles?

Duke Hoster, Edmure, and Maester Vyman had never heard of them before.

Noodles, with the Tully family's wealth and power, they could naturally ask the cook to make them whenever they wanted. The Riverlands were abundant in wheat and rice, and grain had always been a strength of the Riverlands.

But they had never seen noodles so thin and so white, and every strand was the same size and neatly arranged.

Based on the cooks' experience in making noodles by hand, it was impossible for every strand of noodle to be the same length, and it was absolutely impossible for the noodles to be so thin and of consistent size. – The noodles that Duke Hoster and others ate were essentially chunks of dough.

After the cook kneaded the dough, they would manually tear and pull it into arbitrary shapes of 'noodles' and throw them into boiling water to cook. That was the 'superior noodles' enjoyed by Duke Hoster and others.

Refined?

No!

Thin?

No!

Various ingredients such as eggs, seasonings, meat sauce, and snow salt added to the noodles?

No!

The noodles that Duke Hoster and others had eaten were primitive and rough, unevenly thick chunks of dough. Compared to the Mountain's refined noodles, one was in the dirt on the ground, and the other was a refined civilization delicacy several levels higher.

"They can be eaten raw, cooked, or stored. These noodles are also dry!" the Mountain said.

Bernie picked up the Westerling dried noodles and ate them. He was happy to demonstrate to the nobles, especially the great nobles.

"The dried noodles contain eggs, snow salt, seasonings, and spices! I want to thank Lord Edmure for taking our food bags without throwing them away or crushing them," the Mountain said.

He pulled out some noodles and handed them to Duke Hoster, Lord Edmure, and Maester Vyman: "Try them. If you are interested, we can cooperate on the dried noodle business. These dried noodles can be sold in shops to nobles, knights, soldiers, and commoners."

Faced with such refined dried noodles, Duke Hoster was not only enlightened, but his taste buds were also completely hooked.

Adding eggs, meat sauce, spices, and snow salt to the noodles themselves was something they had never heard of; making noodles so that every strand was the same length and size was something they had never seen; noodles that could be dried and stored were something they were seeing for the first time!

But what surprised them even more was yet to come.

The Mountain said: "Lord Duke, July is coming soon. The Riverlands' milk, fruit wine, fisheries, wheat, and rice are famous throughout the Seven Kingdoms and sell well across the Narrow Sea, but July and August are often disastrous months for the milk industry. Disease-ridden milk often breaks out in July and August. We in the Westerlands, or rather, Jenny Westerling of House Westerling, have discovered a way to turn disease-ridden milk that can only be poured into the stinking ditch into delicious milk, cheese, milk noodles, milk cakes, and all kinds of healthy milk foods."

Duke Hoster, Lord Edmure, Maester Vyman, and Treasurer Frawn all stared at the Mountain as if looking at a monster talking in his sleep!

"The Riverlands' milk production is the highest in the Seven Kingdoms. If the Duke is interested, if the Tully family can turn disease-ridden milk into healthy milk and produce a variety of milk foods, then the thirteen thousand gold dragons you gave today will soon be earned back by the Tully family. Moreover, the two hundred thousand people of the Riverlands will no longer have to pour milk into ditches and the Trident River."

Duke Hoster said, "Ser Gregor, what you said…"

But his words were rudely interrupted by the Mountain: "Lord Duke, don't doubt my words. The snow salt you have never seen is real, the Westerling dried noodles you have never seen are real, and turning disease-ridden milk into healthy milk is also real. You only need to send someone you trust to visit Crakehall of House Westerling, and you will immediately know the truth. Snow salt, Westerling dried noodles, turning disease-ridden milk into healthy milk, we can cooperate on all of these."

Duke Hoster and others looked at each other, uncertain and suspicious!

However, sending someone to Crakehall of House Westerling to take a look was a feasible plan.

Duke Hoster and Lord Edmure reached a consensus through eye contact to send someone to Crakehall. After all, when disease-ridden milk broke out, the milk poured into the Trident River dyed the rolling river water white.

"I'll go!" Lord Edmure said somewhat abruptly. His decision took Duke Hoster by surprise!

The Mountain said: "Lord Hoster, our conflict has been perfectly resolved, and we no longer have any grudges against each other. This chapter is now turned over. I swear by the honor of House Clegane and the name of the Seven Gods, plus the piety of the Old Gods, as long as Lord Edmure goes to Crakehall of House Westerling, I will personally escort him back and forth and guarantee his safety with my life!"

*

A day later, the Mountain and Edmure set off. They were about to depart from Riverrun to Crakehall of House Westerling. They had just left the city gate and were getting on the ferry when, on the opposite bank of the river, a group of people came howling, and the red-robed general at the head shouted on horseback: "Mountain, stop right there!"

Thank you Chau534 for the reward, thank you, handshake!