Tyrion was truly extremely busy.
After accompanying Nina on a tour of the Flea Bottom ruins, issuing appointments, and assigning tasks, he got into his carriage and rushed nonstop toward the west side of the city for another appointment.
Ever since Daenerys's army breached King's Landing and took the Seven Kingdoms, the Vale regency, which had been holed up behind the Bloody Gate, maintaining neutrality and staying out of affairs, began extending olive branches to Daenerys through Riverlands relatives and friends. Sporadic communication between the two sides continued for a long time, until news arrived of Aegor's campaign in the Reach and his great victory at Highgarden. Realizing that their strategic value was rapidly decreasing, the people of the Vale grew anxious. After deliberation, they sent their chief regent, Ser Brynden Tully, "the Blackfish," and Lady Anya Waynwood to King's Landing to conduct formal negotiations and finalize an agreement.
Daenerys personally met with the Vale noble delegation, showing friendliness and generosity, but made no promises or guarantees to them. Instead, she handed the specific negotiations over to the Small Council.
Due to differing ideas and demands, the peace talks progressed very slowly.
The proposal brought by the two Vale nobles was this: the Vale would recognize Daenerys as Queen and pledge fealty, while Daenerys would preserve House Arryn's status as Wardens, as well as the titles, lands, and property of the Vale lords, and acknowledge King Robert's, or rather, "Deposed King" Robert's, appointed regency for young Robin after the League of the Righteous was quelled.
In short, everything would return to the prewar state, only with a different Queen.
The negotiators appointed by the Small Council, however, insisted that the demands of the Vale nobles could be met, but they had to pay a price for participating in the rebellion of the Deposed King back then, and for not immediately submitting when Her Grace Daenerys returned as Queen. The specific terms were: first, cede the Bloody Gate for occupation by the royal army; second, purchase a large sum of Targaryen Bonds; third, hand over control of Gulltown's port to the Royal Navy.
It was naturally wishful thinking for the people of the Vale to hope everything would return to how it was. As one of the significant participants in the War of the Usurper, it was clearly unfair to the other six kingdoms for them to bear no losses or costs.
But the harsh conditions proposed by Daenerys's representatives also clearly exceeded the reasonable scope. It was essentially a case of "claiming to want to tear down the roof when only wanting to open a window."
Ask for the sky, settle for the ground. That was how negotiations should be. But the current situation was this: with the surrender of Oldtown, and even the successful surprise attack on Volantis by the Westerlands Fleet, the situation was changing rapidly, while the Vale's capital and confidence for bargaining were also rapidly shrinking and disappearing. Realizing that they might truly be able to "tear down the roof," Daenerys's representatives became increasingly tough in negotiations. The talks between the two sides made no progress, and even meetings and discussions became sporadic instead of daily occurrences. In fact, the short-tempered Brynden "the Blackfish" slammed the table after being ignored for a few days and prepared to leave for the Vale. Fortunately, Lady Anya Waynwood kept her composure and persuaded him otherwise, so the Vale delegation remained in King's Landing and began trying to use their connections and networks for bribery and lobbying.
And all of this was actually already within Daenerys's plan.
The act of letting the fish go so it could be caught more firmly was almost over. It was time for the tough man to appear.
Besides the two Vale nobles, those invited today also included a group of Northmen and Reach nobles who had finished the western campaign and gathered in King's Landing. After meeting up, the group, led by Tyrion, marched out of the King's Gate in a grand procession and began their tour of the "New Long Night Industrial Park," which had been expanded yet again.
...
A warm early summer breeze blew. Riding leisurely along the planned tour route on horseback, the visiting group successively passed the vast, foul-smelling saltpeter boiling base, swathes of lush and promising experimental food crop fields, smoky charcoal-burning grounds and smelters whose heat could be felt from afar, and that black castle, painted entirely black and now world-famous.
Due to the use of advanced technology and organizational methods, as well as the large-scale scientific adoption of coal as the main fuel, the difficulties that had previously hindered the increase in metal output for the people of this world were solved one by one, and large-scale production finally matured. Unlike the guesses and prejudices of ordinary people outside, the Industrial Park, operating at high speed day and night, was not merely an arsenal manufacturing weapons of slaughter. It also contained harmless research institutes and agricultural colleges, as well as their subordinate workshops and factories specifically responsible for processing raw materials filtered out by the arsenal for being slightly inferior in quality, using them to forge iron farm tools.
Some of the farm tools produced here would be rewarded to soldiers who fought loyally for Daenerys, while others would be transported across the country, especially to the Reach. Registered farmers could purchase new tools on credit and loans with reliable guarantees, then put them into this year's cultivation. Not only was agricultural tax temporarily exempted, but tools were also actively provided. This measure would not only benefit the postwar recovery of the Seven Kingdoms, but also rapidly enhance Daenerys's administrative control over various regions, achieving effective rule at the fastest speed.
All of this was built upon burning money like mad. To be precise, it was built on consuming the wealth plundered from the Reach nobles. This was a grand act of giving a gift using borrowed resources. And as the imperial war machine rumbled forward, the slave masters across the Narrow Sea would soon be swept beneath its wheels, becoming sacrifices onto whom contradictions were shifted and from whom blood was drawn.
Tyrion introduced everything along the way to the invited visitors in as much or as little detail as appropriate, but in the end, he did not invite them into the famous "Blackwall Keep" to rest. Instead, he led everyone onward toward the west side of the Industrial Park.
The road gradually became narrower, the weeds on both sides grew increasingly lush and tall, and the buildings and signs of human habitation in view became lower and sparser. This was outside the wall of the old Industrial Park, a place that had only been developed after Aegor and Daenerys took King's Landing.
Where on earth did this damned dwarf want to take them?
The nobles muttered inwardly, but in the end, it was not until Blackwall Keep had become a small black speck lying on the horizon behind them that they arrived at a flat area that suddenly opened up before them.
This was the artillery test-firing range developed by the Long Night Industrial Park. A large number of soldiers patrolled around it to guard against possible espionage and sabotage. Dozens of unarmored test personnel were already waiting there, busily working around something. Among them, a massive, ugly, dark greenish-glowing, strange columnar object, resembling a stretched-out giant bell, was fixed horizontally on a sturdy base constructed from iron frames, wooden planks, and stones. The slightly thicker end of the giant column pointed diagonally toward the sky, as if performing some strange piece of performance art that blasphemed the gods... Coupled with the serious, awed, and slightly pious expressions on the faces of the surrounding personnel, as if they were about to conduct a religious ceremony, the air was filled with an eerie and heavy atmosphere.
"Now, gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce to you the star of today's show," Tyrion said, standing before the strange metal artifact and patting its hard, sturdy rear. "The most powerful weapon ever created by mankind, one of the supercannons forged from the Iron Throne: 'Regalia'!"
(To be continued.)