a land full of problems I

Chapter warning

Mention is made of the condition of the prisoners of the iron born

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Friedrich Wilhelm POV

Who the hell would have thought that these waters would be plagued by pirates, those iron born ships were not the only ones, we had seen several dozen of them during the trip, as I did not have all the time in the world, I did not devote myself to hunt them only when they were very exposed when they were docked on land or at night, I went out of our travel route, and we gave them a fight.

The iron born ships can be very fast, but they depend on oars and the men can not be rowing all day and that was their problem and mainly at night they were easy prey, since most of them slept and left only a few as watchmen at night, that was when we attacked.

During the next 4 days of voyage we hunted another 9 longships and captured almost 300 irons born with another 150 prisoners, we already had a part of the hold full of these rapist pirates, and we executed almost 100 during the free time.

I knew Lord Stark had bandit problems, but not pirate problems and I can understand why he hasn't asked the king for help, you can't get information out of these bastards, they can handle basic interrogation techniques if Aleksanteri was here he would have them singing to me in German, but unfortunately, I left him guarding my bannermen in the south.

Because of this, although if you catch them, they will only say that they are independent pirates, that they have no link with the reaper lord of the iron islands, but they were obviously under his command.

it was only a matter of seeing what they loaded in the holds, logs, many of them took their time to choose them, since they all fulfilled the requirements for the construction of ships and many slaves, I know that in one of the many memories I have of the future they will rebel; however, they are extremely active and there are still some years to go before their supposed rebellion.

I tried to interrogate the prisoners of the iron born, we could not get anything productive either, they did not know anything or they were traumatized by the experience they lived.

It was a matter of seeing them, a small part of the prisoners were men, and they were extremely beaten, the great majority of the prisoners were women who had clear signs that they were raped and beaten, they were full of bruises and numerous wounds in key areas, and they did not stop crying for their sons and husbands that the iron born killed, at least I will put them to good use, since with this action, I will earn a good reputation with the northern lords who must hate the iron born for all their savage acts.

While I continued to think what to do with the captured Iron born one of my knights entered my cabin.

''my king we are already arriving at our destination, we can observe the coast from the main mast so that you can prepare to disembark and be able to march to Winterfell'' said the knight with a serious tone.

''well, I was already getting bored with the boat trip'' I said while putting on my armor.

After that, I headed to a boat where my men quickly took me to shore, for the next 4 hours my men were unloading the horses of my knights to begin the journey and began to build a basic port to leave the garrison in charge of watching the ships, but we were interrupted by a host approaching us.

They were men at arms of the house of Glover, they were about 200 men approaching with their banners and seemed to be led by their lord.

Quickly, we mounted our horses to go out to greet the Glovers, but he looked quite nervous, after a few moments I could see why, we were not carrying banners, and he could not recognize which house we were and because of the fur coats we were wearing our tabards are covered leaving free interpretation who we might be.

''who you are and why you are on my lands'' said Lord Glover with a stern tone.

''lord Galbart Glover, I am Friedrich Wilhelm, paramount lord of the reach we had sent you a raven notifying you of our arrival'' I said with a kindly tone.

Quickly lord Glover opened his eyes wide''oh lord Hohenzollern..... I apologize for my insolence, I didn't know it was you for a moment we thought it was the iron born, as lately, they are plundering the coasts very often I had scouts watching, and they warned me of the arrival of a force by sea and I thought the worst'' he said with a tone of apology.

''we know Lord Glover on our way north we had a nice visit from them, but now many are chained on my ships awaiting trial for piracy'' I said, showing the iron born ships we had captured.

''oh you don't know how I thank you for your help, I haven't been able to do much against their raids every time I try to capture them, they just run away and look for another place to plunder'' he said while scratching his head

''yes I could understand their tactics with our fights at sea, they hardly see a similar fighting force, they would rather run away than fight, by the way, we also rescued small folks from slavery, but I don't know what I can do with them'' I said to lord Glover

I could see how lord Glover was biting his lips''poor people must have suffered a lot, I would be grateful if you leave them under my care, I will look for a way to give them a home and a job in my fields''he said seriously.

''How are things in the North, I have heard rumors in the South, but I would like to hear it from a Northmen lord'' I said with a cheerful tone.

Lord Glover began to grimace with his mouth''things are not very good, there is a plague of bandits raiding almost every road to Winterfell and the crops have presented problems due to an early snowfall and a shortage of hands''lord Glover said as he ran his hand over his frowning brow

''then I must hope that the road to Winterfell will be full of fun'' I said looking at my knights.

''So it will be lord Hohenzollern, unfortunately I will not be able to escort you to Winterfell due to having my hands full with the iron born raids'' lord Glover said with a sad tone

''don't worry lord glover I brought my own escort thinking that this might happen'' I said, reassuring the lord

''but let me take you into my home, so you can have a day of rest for when you leave for Winterfell'' he said with a little nervousness.

''of course I would be most grateful for your offer, let me settle a few things with my men, and we will leave for your castle'' I said as I turned to go back to camp.

Finally, I returned to camp and began to organize who would stay, all the sailors would stay and try to build a port in the area because if the trade treaty goes well this would be the ideal point to load the logs heading to neu danzig, I would take an escort of 800 Teutonic knights and 1000 Finns who would be doing their typical scouting mission.

The Finns were very happy because they could finally use their skies again, taking advantage of the snow in this area, they quickly began to take out their wooden skies and began to grease them with animal fat to be able to slide on the snow.

After they finished organizing everything, they returned with Lord Glover to go to his castle.

If you can call it a ''castle'' it was a wooden fortress if it wasn't for the wood being damp and full of moss setting this castle on fire would be no problem, with a good battering ram and a few men in 15 minutes you could reach the keep.

Entering his castle I was given bread and salt to fulfill the guest's right, and he proceeded to give us rooms, lord Glover had no room to accommodate so many men and many of my knights had to camp outside the castle

and not that the rooms in his castle are a wonderful, I would say they are a little better than sleeping in a tent, but I must make a trade treaty with this lord, since his house owns one of the largest forests in the seven kingdoms, getting the cheapest logs possible to make the trips profitable and trying to sell him something are now my priorities.

Luckily, the Northmen are as apathetic about politics as the Prussians only we know its importance, they just hate it and say outright that they think or want it.

When we are eating in lord Glover's hall I quickly hand him and his family several gifts, nothing too ostentatious, just liquor which from my knowledge tends to be desired by people who live in cold climates

''ahh an exquisite drink no doubt lord Hohenzollern'' said lord Galbart Glover as he set his glass down to order more from his servants.

''what did you say the name of that drink was?'' asked Robett Glover, the lord's brother

''vodka my lords it is produced in my distilleries in neu danzig, I am very pleased that my gift has been to your liking'' I said with a smile

''ahh yes a good gift lord Hohenzollern, but excuse me what is the reason for your journey from the south if we may know'' said lord Galbart

''well, recently we are increasing the production of this liquor, and we were looking for more buyers and remembering that the Northmen did not participate in the banquet where I unveiled these liquors, I thought it would be appropriate to try to do business in person'' I said while showing the bottle with its crystalline content.

Lord Galbar was thoughtful for a moment''I would like to buy some barrels, but I will not be able to buy much, as I must keep a reserve to buy grain from the south if things get worse''said Lord Galbart seriously.

''oh that's a pity lord Glover, I would be glad to help you with your problem with the lack of coin, do you have anything you would be willing to sell me?'' I said with a smile

''mhhh except for wood and furs there is not much I can sell you lord Hohenzollern'' said lord Galbart with a sad grim grimace

''well, my city always has a need to buy wood and good logs for ship building'' I said as I rubbed my hands together.

''then there will be no problem, let's make an agreement, won't we brother?'' said robett Glover

'' it's no problem, wood is plentiful on my land'' said Lord Galbart with a smile.

I thought for a few moments to think about my offer''I would be willing to offer 5 silver stags per log and 9 silver stags per log that meets our requirements for ship building''I said as I looked Lord Galbart in the eye.

''how about 7 and 14 that's the price we sell to the merchants'' lord Glover said in reply

''I will not be a merchant who comes and buys 10 logs lord Glover I expect to take thousands of them every month that is why I consider my offer to be fair, as you will have a constant influx of my ships to pick up the logs you cut and obviously, it means a steady income to your coffers my esteemed lord'' I said in a calm tone.

Lord Glover thought for a while and I took the opportunity to suggest the purchase of a plot of land.

''besides lord glover I will take care of building a port in conditions on the coast, obviously I will pay for the land, you will have the right to charge taxes to other merchants that use my infrastructures, that way we will facilitate a lot the transport'' I said with serenity.

''I would be truly grateful to you lord Hohenzollern of course I accept your offer, but the iron born will not be a conflict?'' said lord Galbart with a mixture of happiness and doubt.

''they shouldn't be a problem my ships will come with an escort accordingly, so we may also cause the iron born to avoid raiding your land to avoid fighting my fleet'' I said in a serious tone.

After that, the glover brothers were very happy with the deal, we signed a contract where we set the purchase price of the logs and that I would pay 1,000 gold dragons for the plot where the port would be built.

Finally, a business deal that moved as I planned, this time I came out as the winner, the Northmen have no idea that I was constantly manipulating them to talk about what I wanted.

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give me the power stones

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