7017k
------------
Chapter 274 The Death of Tywin
The negotiations lasted for more than half a month. Lu Xuan was not surprised by this. As far as he knew, some major negotiations in later generations could drag on for half a year.
Ultimately, Daenerys successfully obtained a loan of 15 million gold dragons from the Iron Bank.
Of the eight million, it was in cash; the remainder would be converted into various goods according to Astapor's prices. Daenerys would have to repay this loan within twenty years, paying 20% interest.
Twenty percent—that's an interest rate, even higher than loan sharking. But this is also a typical manifestation of a distorted global economic model.
Missandei didn't die; she simply fell into Lu Xuan's control. The Iron Bank's ability to dominate the world for so many years wasn't without reason. They selected and trained countless children from a young age, much like Varys across the sea trained his little bird spies (child spies).
However, the Iron Treasury's training focused on culture. Cultured individuals always have an advantage. They selected bright, gifted children with talents in languages, mathematics, and even business. Using various methods, they sent these children to the courts of nobles and wealthy merchants across the land. Through these children, they learned about the economic situation of their targets. Based on this information, they made targeted strategic deployments.
The Iron Bank's ability to operate for so many years is not solely due to its wealth; its intelligence system and behind-the-scenes think tank are its true strengths.
To be fair, Lu Xuan actually admired this massive economic entity. However, unfortunately, its existence was absolutely unhealthy for the world as a whole. Throughout history, there had been monarchs who wanted to take action against the Iron Treasury. But sadly, they all ultimately succumbed to the Iron Treasury's financial power.
Lu Xuan doesn't plan to destroy the Iron Vault anytime soon. Frankly, it's quite difficult. There are already thousands of key-keepers alone, hidden all over the world. It's hard to completely destroy the organization in one fell swoop. Besides, they just gave him a large sum of money, and Lu Xuan is too embarrassed to do such a thing.
Even if she got the money, she still couldn't possibly pay it back. However, as Queen, Daenerys had to maintain her image. So, she couldn't tell everyone, "I borrowed money, but I'm not going to pay it back." That's something the United States does. Lu Xuan is a man of principle; he wouldn't normally do something so shameless. Therefore, she still needed to find a reason not to pay back the money.
But finding a reason wasn't easy, so Lu Xuan considered another path. He knew that a harsh winter would descend upon the world in a few years. In the business world, information is money. Lu Xuan knew the most important piece of information in this world. Fifteen million gold coins weren't really a lot.
“We need to continue stockpiling food,” Lu Xuan decided. He had just realized that the simplest solution was already in his mind. When winter arrives, food prices worldwide will naturally skyrocket. At that time, gold will become worthless. As long as he has food, fifteen million gold will be nothing more than a drop in the ocean.
Missandei was returned to Daenerys's side and resumed her original work. However, from then on, every message she sent was done under Lu Xuan's instructions. She was now essentially a double agent.
While the situation in Astapor was undergoing dramatic changes, a momentous upheaval was also taking place in Westeros. Well, calling it a momentous upheaval might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was indeed an event with a significant impact on the Seven Kingdoms: Tywin Lannister was dead.
As Lord of Casterly Rock, Shield of Lannistersport, Warden of the West, and head of House Lannister, Tywin Lannister is ruthless, cunning, and extremely controlling, making him one of the most powerful lords in Westeros.
There are countless famous quotes about Tywin Lannister. One such quote is that even Tywin's excrement is made of gold.
'When someone rises up to challenge you, you should resolutely respond with iron and blood; when they kneel in submission, you should personally lift them up, otherwise no one will ever be willing to submit again.'
Anyone who loudly proclaims, "I am the king!" can never be a true king. And so on and so forth, the list goes on and on.
But what he's most famous for among the common people is his son, or more precisely, his youngest son: Tyrion Lannister. This dwarf, known as the Imp, was Tywin's lifelong torment. His beloved Joanna Lannister died in childbirth while giving birth to the Imp. This led Tywin to blame Tyrion for Joanna's death deep down. (And that's not entirely wrong; it's likely that Tyrion's large head caused the difficult childbirth.)
Tywin Lannister has never been a child; he always projects a cool and wise image. But few know that he often makes foolish mistakes when dealing with family issues. For example, he refuses to understand the relationship between his two children, Cersei and Jaime.
Although the entire Seven Kingdoms knew about their incestuous relationship, he simply refused to believe it, or rather, refused to truly understand. For example, he knew perfectly well that of the three children, only Tyrion Lannister inherited his intellect, but he just wouldn't admit it.
Even his sister once said, "Tyrion is the only one who inherited your mind." He could go for six months without speaking to his sister (one theory is that this statement implies that Tyrion is the only one of his three children!).
As for the things he did to Tyrion over the course of more than twenty years, there were many that were things even a human or a dog wouldn't do.
For example, Tyrion had fallen in love with Tessa, the daughter of a farmer, and they had secretly married. Therefore, he decided to teach her a "severe lesson."
He ordered his eldest son Jaime, who had witnessed the entire incident, to tell Tyrion that Tessa was merely a prostitute he had hired to let his brother experience his first woman. Jaime dared not disobey his father and told his brother the lie.
But he didn't expect that Tywin would later take Tessa to the army camp at Casterly Rock and have all the soldiers gang-rape her. He even ordered Tyrion to watch the whole thing. Each soldier who raped Tessa gave her a silver coin. Finally, Tywin forced Tyrion to rape Tessa as well, and even paid him a gold dragon (doesn't that make you want to scream?!).
No matter how much time has passed, for Tyrion, this is a wound in his heart that will never heal. And it was this wound that led him to take up a crossbow and shoot his own father, Tywin Lannister, into the toilet.
Throwing away the crossbow, Tyrion felt an indescribable surge of emotion welling up inside him. He wanted to laugh out loud, to vent his frustration at finally doing what he had dreamed of day and night. He also wanted to weep bitterly, to cry for killing his father, for losing everything.
But he eventually put on a cold expression and walked out of the castle through the secret passage he had left years ago when he oversaw the construction of the city's drainage system.
7017k
------------
Chapter 275 The Day the City Falls (Please Subscribe)
Tyrion had been adrift at sea for an unknown period. Burdened with the grave crime of murdering the Hand of the Seven Kingdoms, he could not reveal himself. Varys hid him in a barrel on the ship and secretly set sail. The arduous months at sea nearly drove Tyrion mad.
"I can't stand living in a bucket anymore. Do you know what it's like to eat and sleep in here every day? And what it's like to have to throw out your own poop every day?"
Warish immediately retorted.
"Do you know what it feels like to receive your poop every day and then throw it into the sea?"
Tyrion: "..."
...............
The Iron Vault's strength is truly not to be underestimated. In just three months, eight million in cash and a large amount of supplies were transported to Astapo. The remaining supplies will likely be continuously transported back within the next six months.
At this point, Daenerys made a new request.
“Currently, all the free city-states on the continent of Essos are targeting me. Therefore, if possible, I would like to exchange half of these eight million gold for various supplies. I can pay five percent of that as compensation.”
This was, of course, without a problem. The Iron Bank, never missing an opportunity to make money, readily agreed. Their connections in the business world were far beyond Daenerys's reach. The blockade by the Free Cities was essentially meaningless.
However, this brings a happy problem: there are simply too many supplies.
"Our newly built warehouses are already overflowing with all sorts of supplies. But there's still more to come. We need to think of a solution." Daenerys had never imagined that Freedom would one day be worrying about something like this. Thinking back to the Red Wasteland, when they were starving and exhausted, and then looking at them now, they had so much food they couldn't even store it all.
"It's simple. We just need to consume a batch or find a place to store it. There are two large enough cities not far from Astapo. I think we can store twice as much food."
"Meereen and Yuankai, are you going to make a move?"