the trip to the north

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There is torture in this chapter - light

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Friedrich Wilhelm POV

I was finishing the books that had to go to the capital to prove our payment of taxes when I heard a knock on my door.

''Charles, finally you arrive, I have a mission for you'' I said with a smile.

''How can this subject serve you, your majesty'' said the Teutonic knight.

''I need you and some of your men to guard the caravan that will take the taxes to King Robert, I don't want any problems with a bandit attack and losing such amount of gold'' I said while I showed him the accounting books.

''The roads are safe, the few bandits that are in our lands hide like rats from Aleksanteri's men'' said the Teutonic knight.

''I need you to go to the capital, Robert is fond of you and I need you to make an offer to the crown, Stannis Baratheon still hasn't even been able to rebuild 40% of the royal fleet and we could be the ones to rebuild it, since we have no need to build galleys, as most of them are the ones confiscated from our bannerman houses, that way we can continue maintaining the arsenal system and earn some gold'' I said explaining my plan.

''So my duty would be to be the face of the diplomatic mission again?'', asked Charles.

''Yes you will be the face again, since the king will be more willing to listen to us if you go, because I won't even go to the capital again, Robert last time almost didn't allow me to come back because the celebrations kept going on'' I said while remembering the past events.

''what you command my king will be done'' said Charles as he prepared to leave.

But a desperate knocking sounded at the door, entering a tired Friedrich

''my king... there is a problem with ..... the arsenal .... I have been informed that shipments of logs from crakehall are being reduced due to the fact that there are no more trees that meet the criteria needed to be used in ship building''said Friedrich trying to catch his breath.

The news was like a bucket of cold water, it takes about 2500 good sized logs to make a galleon, it is normal that the forests are running out of trees of an acceptable size, as almost 40 galleons are being built at the same time, not counting the other 15 that are completed already.

''When did the quartermasters know about this problem?'', I said in a serious voice.

''just 2 days, they were a little late because they wanted to confirm that they are not just rumors, but since that time the merchants are only bringing wood for construction, not to make ships and as many parts of the ships must be made from the complete piece the construction of the galleons will be compromised and we will not meet the deadlines that you ask with the construction of each galleon'' said Friedrich with a worried voice.

''we have the warehouses full it is not an emergency, but, we have a margin of time to find a way to replenish the supply chain, bring me a map of the seven kingdoms fast'' I said while trying to think of a solution.

We waited 5 minutes until a group of soldiers started to spread out a large map of the seven kingdoms that I had requested from some local cartographers, the map looked like it was made by a child, but it was the best I could access now

we went through the map looking for ways of how to obtain the much-prized shipbuilding material

''we can try to shop with the storm lords of the rainforest'' said Friedrich.

''yes, but the problem will be transportation, by land it will be very expensive, by sea very dangerous, that area is plagued by pirates and the iron born'' I said looking at the map

''and the kingswood, my king, I don't think the local lord will deny us to buy his wood'' said Charles.

''the kingswood is the king's personal hunting ground, not the local lords, this issue will have to be discussed with Robert or rather his hand of the king, something else to add to the mission to the capital, if we get the king's permission we could talk to the lord of faytown and send the logs down the river, only then we will have to wait for them to dry, but it will be a more efficient shipping system, as long as the course of the river does not change all the logs will reach the city eventually'' I said looking at Charles

''apparently those are the closest forests that have the most intact trees, that we will find in the area'' I said looking at all of them.

''what about the north sir, according to the map, they have large and abundant forests'' said Friedrich.

''if the problem lies in time and danger, a boat trip to the north would take 15-20 days not to mention the iron born are always lusting for good logs to build their ridiculous longships, so we would be carrying a fine selection of beef cuts in front of hungry wolves, but it's not a bad option, the Northmen have problems with the lack of grain in fact they buy quite a lot from the south we could offer a barter, grain for wood using the grains we didn't sell and are saving so not affect the market price, I think they would be very happy to receive this deal and many wouldn't think twice about even starting to cut down their forests to trade with me'' I said while running my hand over my chin.

''we can always use the galleons to transport the timber with a heavily armed escort, we can avoid any raid attempts from those raping pirates, we will just have to make the trips more lucrative, try to sell something to the north we can't just send empty ships, try to import more stuff from the north as well to ensure the ships return loaded with material and justify the cost of the crew in charge of the trips'' said Friedrich as he locked his arms

''but who do we send to negotiate?, I will be leading the negotiation with king Robert, a meeting with the paramount lord of the north cannot be done by just anyone, it must be a noble in good position to show respect to his position'' said Charles.

''I will go, and we will send an envoy to the lords of rainforest, the north can present many business options that should be taken on the spot, I do not want that every time the envoy see something interesting to negotiate he have to send me a raven to give my approval, I will go with a strong Teutonic escort, in case it is necessary to travel through the northern lands, since according to what they say, they are quite full of bandits after the war'' I said while I stopped looking at the map.

''But what about the administration, my king?'' asked Charles.

''we have a system that is already working well without my presence, but Friedrich can take the reins once again it shouldn't be that different from when we went to the capital, only now it might take a couple of moons because of how big the north looks'' I said looking at the map and then at Friedrich.

''no problem, my king I will take care of it, when you return everything will be in order'' he said as he beat his chest and stood up straight.

''well remember to meet with the merchants who are interested the more gold we can gather for the start of operations, the more profitability we can get when the spice trade begins'' I said as I prepared to leave and arrange everything for the trip

''remember to send a letter by raven to lord Stark and that we will arrive by ship and just have lord Tarly put up as much as possible for the expedition'' I said as I left the room.

For the next 3 days, I was preparing the men who would accompany me and preparing the cargo, as I would be taking grain, liquor, salt and some jewelry to give as gifts to the north to gauge if possible for sale in the northern markets, as well as taking plenty of clothing to withstand the harsh climate of the area.

We would set sail with a small fleet of 5 galleons and 10 war galleys, a considerable enough force to prevent an ambitious pirate from attempting to raid us at sea.

Finally, we set sail, the vast majority of the crew are locals, as the Prussians are not known for their maritime prowess, with the help of our navigation techniques, in 6 days we were sailing close to the iron islands, we were on high alert all the time in case they tried anything, for the next 3 days all my men slept with their armor on, although it was a lighter version than what we happened to wear in order to avoid sinking to the bottom of the sea if someone fell in.

Until we finally passed the iron islands without any inconvenience, not even a single ship of those pirates was seen, finally arriving to the northern waters, the weather could already feel the change and I could see how the men of the reach were cursing for the cold weather, but for us children of these climates it was like coming back home.

It had already been 10 days, and we were sailing close to cape kraken it was a foggy morning, and we couldn't see clearly the surroundings, but everything seemed calm

''BLACK SAILS, IRON BORN'' shouted a sailor on the top of the galleon.

After that warning, we began to communicate by light signals with the other ships to coordinate the combat against the pirates.

''HOW MANY SHIPS ARE THERE'' I shouted to the watchman.

''ONLY 3 MY KING, IT LOOKS LIKE THEY HAVEN'T SEEN US YET, THEY'RE STILL GOING AGAINST US'' the sailor answered me.

''Then they have no intention of attacking us, false alarm'' I said to calm the crew.

Quickly, I climbed the mast a little, so I could see over the fog and spot the iron born with my spyglass.

It seemed that the iron born could just see us and were moving incoherently because they were facing 15 ships in front of them.

I was about to give the order to let them pass, but I noticed one of their oarsmen who was chained, and then I saw several more, they have prisoners, future slaves, probably Northmen, I quickly thought of an idea to earn a good name in the North.

''PREPARE FOR COMBAT, DEPLOY THE WAR GALLEYS, DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO PASS I DON'T WANT THEM TO ESCAPE GIVE THE ORDER TO THE OTHER SHIPS'' I shouted to the crew.

''We will not use Greek fire, they have prisoners we can save'' I said to the man who was sending signals to the war galleys.

For my good fortune the iron born are upwind they will not be able to escape they have to fight or surrender and knowing their religion they will not surrender.

For a while, they did their best to avoid the combat by trying to flee, but quickly the galleys were at their side throwing grappling hooks to hook them, and then a battle of projectiles began.

My men were using their crossbows, while the Iron born were shooting arrows with their bows and throwing axes when the ships were close enough.

For 10 minutes the pirates tried their best to flee, but they had already lost too many oarsmen to the crossbow bolts to continue fleeing and forced by desperation they tried to board the ships, but they were only an easy prey for the other galleys that surrounded them and continued bombarding them with bolts until finally the battle seemed to be over.

My men proceeded to board their ships and wipe out any remaining resistance.

After 20 minutes, I received a report from a captain of the ships that boarded the iron born' ships.

''my king you were right, the iron born had about 40 prisoners, they also had holds full of fish, grain and freshly cut logs'' the captain gave his report.

''well, how many men did we lose?'', I asked the captain

''we have no casualties, but several wounded by their arrows'' said the captain with a smile.

''well not bad for our first naval combat, how many of those pirates did we capture?'' I asked again

''at first they were 140, but only 60 of them survived, many of them seriously wounded by the bolts, we started to heal them?'', said the captain.

''spend valuable medical equipment on them?, they will not survive long, as I will not leave piracy unpunished'' I said without much importance.

''those who are very serious wounds will be punished with Keelhauling, so they can meet their drowned god, the rest we will hand over to the Northmen when we disembark'' I said as I headed to my cabin.

''my king, excuse me, what is Keelhauling?'', said the captain doubtfully.

''a form of execution/punishment where the person is tied with a rope that goes under the ship and is pulled by the sailors to be drowned or mutilated by the barnacles of the ship's hull'' I said without much importance.

I could see the captain's eyes widen when he heard this punishment, probably this punishment has never been applied in the seven kingdoms.

While we were making preparations for the execution we tried to get information out of the captured, but they just kept spitting at us or talking about how the drow god would punish us, apparently there was no one noble in the crew that I could recognize at least

finally, a rope had been placed, and we began to execute the iron born.

''I hope you like sea water you son of a bitch'' said one of the sailors who was about to pull the rope.

''what is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger'' said the iron born with anger.

Finally, I gave the order and my men pushed the idiot into the sea, they started to pull for a full minute, the bastard was underwater until he came out the other side

when they pulled him up to the deck he had a mangled back full of deep, bleeding cuts, he quickly started vomiting seawater

''it looks like your god doesn't want you with him yet, throw him back in,'' I said as I watched him vomit up the sea water.

The process was repeated 2 more times until the pirate came out of the sea dead and this process was repeated with another 30 crew members, apparently the men of the reach were happy to be able to punish the iron born in this way probably for having conflicts with them in the past, we quickly threw the body into the sea so as not to carry the dead until we disembarked.

Finally, I went to my cabin while my men continued executing the iron born.

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Stop, this is a robbery delivery power stones NOW!.

have a nice day