14 Maintaining the status quo

Hello guys, something that I haven't asked you about, and I think it's important, the name of the city was thought to be Königsberg, but I want to leave it to you, since I had to cut this chapter a bit short because what follows are POV in the city, but I don't have the name.

Also don't be afraid to give ideas, I will see if I can add them to the story in the best way possible.

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Olenna Tyrell Pov

We had lost our home in Highgarden, humiliated in the war, many other lords wonder how almost, 100000 men lost against 70000 and to make it all worse Mace looks like a child crying because someone stole his favorite toy.

According to what I was told it was because of my imbecile son that the battle of ashford was lost, he decided to follow the glory before helping his infantry, making him fall in an ambush planned by the Prussians

Leyton Hightower and I put all the pressure we could on the faith to prevent the Prussians from taking what they were promised, we managed to get something, but the Tyrells lost everything while the Hightowers got it ''easy'', the lords who kept their castles had to pay a huge sum to the Hohenzollerns, much of this money was taken as loans to the Hohenzollerns, as no one had any gold to pay anything back, plus they gave up 80% of their fleets to limit our ability to recover from the punch we took.

Now Leyton was desperately trying to organize the other lords to try to support the lords who are rebelling in the north, to succeed in expelling the Prussians and my son, like the good oaf he is, plays along with Leyton to keep giving him the luxuries he has been accustomed to eating since he was a child.

''lords, it is gathered here to organize support for the northern lords who are fighting the war against the Prussian invaders, we must send them arms and armor, or they will just be easy prey for the armies of Lord Hohenzollern, we must return the Tyrells to their rightful seat said leyton to all the lords present.

At present, there are all the lords in the south and their knights in Oldtown trying to organize something, with what gold?, what steel?, the Prussian army is still intact and controls all the areas, if the northern lords were not hiding like mice the Prussians would have them on the executioner's chopping block.

''lord leyton with all due respect, but I am up to my neck in debt to lord Hohenzollern, I can contribute nothing, I barely have enough to keep my roads safe from bandits'' Lord Beesbury said.

''you are just scared coward, house Bulwer will contribute 600 armors and swords to the cause and when we get more gold we will contribute even more'' declared Lord Bulwer.

''I agree to expel the Prussians, but we should press the right of House Florent not the Tyrells, they were only the Gardener's castellans and we Florents are the rightful lords of The Reach'' said Alester Florent.

Well it seems that it would be destined to fall if it weren't for the fact that everyone agreed on one thing, we have to expel the Prussians, but no one has the head to see that if the Prussians realize that we are the ones financing the rebellions, they only need to send a letter to the king saying that we are breaking the king's peace, and he will defeat us again in battle and this time nothing will prevent him from taking complete control of the Reach, is there not someone with a cool head that thinks like that, now we have to be quite as good bannermen waiting attentively for the Hohenzollern boy to make a mistake, nobody is perfect, it's just a matter of time before he does something wrong, and it will be known.

''Lord Tarly has been very quiet, how do you intend to cooperate against the Prussians, you were the best treated by them, letting you recover your castle and your family without ransom and later letting you recover your soldiers'' asked Lord Leyton.

''with nothing, this plan is destined to fail, it will only serve to have our heads on pikes like the soldiers we sent to the forests in the Stormlands, I knew in person the ''BOY'' you are trying to defeat and for the seven I did not see someone more knowledgeable in military tactics and administration than him, he plans everything weeks in advance, it is likely that he has already anticipated this plan he is just waiting for us to put it in motion to crush us, he may not have honor to you, but he is willing to sacrifice his personal honor for the welfare of the people, the short time I was with him in his tent and when we gave our oaths of allegiance, I saw how his men love him with devotion they see him as a hero, I saw it in their eyes when I fought against them a fanatical madness towards their lord, and he loves them back, they are like one big family he is their father he is willing to do everything for them even at the cost of his own honor because, personally for Lord Hohenzollern honor is very important in his military traditions and if you think that some poorly trained peasants are going to defeat the fearsome Prussian army, you are mistaken'' said Lord Tarly as he stood up and left this meeting.

wow, I was wrong if there is someone with his head on his shoulders, I thought he would be the first to want to expel the Prussians for defeating him at Ashford, but it seems he doesn't, he even has respect for him, well, the Tarlies have always looked for maximum martial efficiency, and they found it in the Prussians, hopefully when Lord Tarly leaves they will all decide the same.

Lord Leyton tried for hours to convince the lords, but, it seems that the bucket of cold water thrown by lord Tarly calmed the spirits without including the florent's continuous crying of their legitimate claim that as one of their daughters married the king's brother he would support them, but eventually everyone is more hesitant to commit men and weapons to the fight.

it is a pity that the northern lords must die now, they could have died when it was really necessary; however, they rose up without knowing if they would have the necessary support, now we must grow strong, wait for the eagle to become confident to hang it and drive it out of the reach.

Friedrich Wilhelm POV 1 moon later

good news arrives every day, the rebel lords are crushed every day by my garrisons, well neither that a group of peasants armed with sticks can defeat expert soldiers with years of survival on the bloodiest battlefields of Europe.

With my new paper presses that are already 20 of these beautiful machines, we are producing enough paper to supply my bureaucracy, and we are even selling to the merchants, but the demand is not very high, it is an expensive product yes, but little requested, since only 2-5 % of the population of the seven kingdoms can read, and I think I am being generous, the amount we earn selling is not something that can alleviate the great amount of money we spend month to month for the building materials, but it helps

the city is growing day by day when we finally got the blast furnaces installed, the steel started to flow, and we could make steel support beams for the buildings and start building houses that could stand the test of time.

Now that is increasing my control over the northern lands of the reach started a common problem in these areas, how to implement justice, we don't have a legal system to take care of everything, it is the lords who must listen to the small folks to solve as judge their problems and being the only lord for 2/3 of the reach many have requested audience with me, as I was not planning to give titles over the land because I want direct control over all the farmland to in the future start a water canal project, now I had to deal with this burden of listening to the small folks

but as in my army we already have judicial bodies I only have to delegate this work to them, but I must teach them how, to seek true justice is the best with the law, but sometimes following the law strictly can produce conflicts, what I seek is a system that seeks to bring stability and peace not justice, for the time being

I had gathered all the future judges of the territories to see me solving a typical conflict in order to understand what should be done in some cases.

I was sitting in the lord's chair being watched by many of my men as slowly 2 peasants approached.

''welcome, I hear you have a conflict'' I said to the applicants for an audience.

''yes..yes.yes.yes my lord ehh you see I married his daughter and to look the other way because of the defects of her face, I was promised 1 cow and 3 pigs as dowry; however, we agreed that it would be delivered after the marriage after consummated the marriage he only gave me 3 pigs as dowry, and I would like what I was promised to be delivered'' said with a fearful voice

What this man says is true?'' I said, looking at his counterpart.

''yes sir, what he says is true, but I could not fulfill my lord, your .... your men took my cattle when they were in our village and I was unable to fulfill what was agreed'' said the man with fear.

What's wrong with you all why are you afraid of me, if you lose I'm going to kill you or what?, but finally the problem happened because of me ehhh, I could force you to comply, but this could affect your family and leave if effect the dowry is against the customs, and this is where the conciliation comes in at the expense of my pocket.

''How much would be the value of that cow in conversion to legal currency?'' I asked to the plaintiff.

''2 golden dragons my lord'' he answered seriously.

''well I have come to a result, the dowry will be respected; however, it will be paid by the Hohenzollern house, you can go with my quartermaster to pick up your 2 golden dragons in gold or silver if you prefer it''.

the 2 men were astonished, they thanked me and withdrew

''well I hope you have understood my reasons, there is a conflict here, that its resolution may cause harm not only to them, but to their families, they are neighbors or at least close, since one daughter married the other, what we seek is not justice it is to keep the masses calm and if they are calm, the fewer ears they will make to those who ask them to rise up against my government''

''that is your only duty, there will be some moments where you will have to apply the law strictly, but in very severe cases, since in most cases it will only be a conflict over a few meters of land or that the neighbor has more cows than me or that they cursed my crops, things like that, it is your duty to judge and apply the law or keep the peace and if it is possible, both, you can retire'' I said with a serious voice.

5 moons later

interesting news came from the capital, stannis failed in his attempt to take dragonstone and the queen managed to escape with her children, according to what I know about her, she must have died, but apparently she managed to survive and reach Essos with many men behind her.

The rebel lords had been executed, my government is absolute in the reach, a real shame I was hoping that other lords in the south would join, but it seems that some were smart and held back from participating, but soon a harvest will be collected that will allow me to establish how much is generated in the reach, in the next harvest the system of 4 fields will be applied to be able to produce in a constant way.

Recently, I found out that the summers here last YEARS and even then, there are famines from time to time in the middle of summer; however, the winters are just as long, just prepare the barns well and there will be no problems in the future, I hope.

My city was already growing at an impressive rate, if everything goes according to plan in 1 more years the city will be able to house almost 150000 people; however, the port was finally finished, the mander river is safe now, since the city was being made on both banks of the mander river, leaving a chain in the middle and a gate with steel bars, if raiders want to get to the heart of the reach they will have to take the fortress to lower the chain and open the gate, which looks difficult, although the fortress is not completely finished it is a star bastion that will resist the hardest of sieges when it's ready

however, this comes to another problem I am spending too much gold in the last 6 moons it has been under construction in fortress city I have spent almost 3 million golden dragons at this rate in 10 years I should be almost out of gold in the coffers

with yearly expenses of almost 8 a million dragons and only generating 3 million, if I go by the tyrell ledgers, I have had to find other ways to maintain my operations.

4 months ago, I started with new types of businesses to generate income, I had planned to produce chocolate, sugar, glassware and alcohol

but currently only 2 have been able to flourish the sugar and alcohol, while we are still trying to get a stable cocoa bean supplier in the summer islands and the crystal we have not yet managed to get a clear shade of glass that I would like to sell.

Sugar is a luxury item in the seven kingdoms and is mainly exported from essos, but they have never realized that they are feeding their livestock with the sugar beet.

Recently, I had started to buy sugar beets and process them to obtain their sugar, the only flaw is that it is white, the normal is that it is brown because they extract it from sugar cane, which makes many, merchants and lords have doubts about the quality of my sugar, but I have been dealing with these thanks to the king, I convinced the king to hold a banquet and I will present my products to him in person and if all goes well I should be able to regularize my earnings.