Although Ge Dohe was destroyed by the Valyrians and no one rebuilt it, this does not mean that Ge Dohe was completely abandoned; in fact, Ge Dohe was extremely prosperous, at least more prosperous than most towns on the continent of Essos, mainly due to its excellent geographical location.
Ge Dohe was located right in the middle of the Free Trade City States of Pentos and Norvos, and the Valyrian Road connecting the two places passed through it.
In addition, Ge Dohe was also located on the upper reaches of the Lorne River, and its convenient waterways connected it to all the towns on the main and tributary streams of the Lorne River, making it an extremely important trade hub during the ancient Ghis Empire period.
Before the rise of the Valyrian Freehold, Ge Dohe was already famous for its beauty and prosperity, praised as the Pearl on the Lorne River.
It was precisely for this reason that even though the Valyrians destroyed Ge Dohe, its role as a trade hub did not disappear; only the ships transporting goods on the Lorne River changed from legitimate merchant and cargo ships to smuggling vessels.
The reason Ge Dohe became a smuggling center was entirely due to the hostile relationship between Volantis and the other Free Trade City States.
After the fall of the Valyrian Freehold, various colonies and city-states declared independence, and Volantis, claiming to be the legitimate successor of the Freehold, sought to rebuild the Valyrian Empire; just as it invaded the Disputed Lands, it also sent troops up the Lorne River to attack Norvos and Kohor.
As a result, Norvos and Kohor defeated Volantis in the Battle of Dagger Lake, completely expelling Volantis's forces from the area north of Dagger Lake and prohibiting any Volantis ships from entering the upper Lorne River north of Dagger Lake.
While this prevented Volantis's invasion of the interior, it also had a significant impact on Norvos and Kohor, as most of their goods needed to be transported by water via the Lorne River; once the Lorne River shipping was cut off, Norvos and Kohor's goods could only be transported via the Valyrian Road, which doubled costs and time, directly leading to an economic recession in both city-states for a period.
To solve this problem, the two city-states decided to find another way, using smuggling ships to transport goods, and coincidentally, Volantis also wanted to use smuggling ships to transport local specialties, so smuggling ships appeared on the Lorne River with this tacit approval and gradually grew stronger; even after the hostile parties reconciled and ships from all three parties could travel and communicate, smuggling ships did not disappear because the interests involved were so enormous that no ruling power in the Three City States could handle them.
Corresponding to the massive smuggling force were the river pirates on the Lorne River; most of them were entrenched in the waters of Dagger Lake, with immense power; the Three City States had jointly encircled and suppressed them without any effect, and the Three City States even compared them to the pirates of the Stepstones.
In addition to Dagger Lake, river pirates would also occupy some abandoned or weak towns in the Lorne River basin as strongholds, collecting fees from passing ships like lords.
As one of the most important transportation hubs in the upper Lorne River, Ge Dohe naturally could not escape the occupation of the river pirates; they built a Watery Hold on the riverbank outside the ruins of Ge Dohe, and the owner of the fortress called himself the Governor.
Originally, the river pirates collected tolls from passing ships, but later, a certain Governor of the Watery Hold, being quite economically savvy, stopped collecting tolls and converted the fortress into a market, something like a smuggling transshipment center; by now, it has become a distribution center for smuggled goods and stolen property, with seventy percent of the Lorne River's smuggled goods being transported from here to Pentos, and then from Pentos to various parts of Westeros.
When Scholar Xiu Fu's team arrived at the Watery Hold of Ge Dohe, they were not inspected by the fortress's people like other merchant teams; instead, they were led by the fortress's people to a manor for accommodation.
Everyone felt that something was wrong, so Scholar Xiu Fu explained the situation: it turned out that the current Governor of the Watery Hold, Kevira, was actually his student, and in the past, he was also one of Pentos's powerful figures; however, his family lost a political struggle, and his entire family was destroyed by political enemies, with only he escaping with Scholar Xiu Fu's help; after that, he became a river pirate on the Lorne River and gradually grew, eventually seizing the Watery Hold here in Ge Dohe and becoming the new Governor.
This is why Scholar Xiu Fu dared to bring his students to Ge Dohe, a place full of bandits, smugglers, and wanted criminals, for archaeological purposes, because with the Governor's protection here, he had no need to worry about danger.
"Lord Linde, please come with me; I have something I'd like to ask for your help with," Scholar Xiu Fu suddenly whispered to Lynd as he took his commission and prepared to leave.
Lynd was stunned by the words; he had not expected to be recognized by Scholar Xiu Fu, so he followed Scholar Xiu Fu to the back garden of the manor.
"Scholar Xiu Fu, how did you recognize me?" Lynd couldn't help but ask out of curiosity.
"I once had a friend who was a priest of the Thousand-Faced God, and he revealed to me how to identify the disguises of the Faceless Men," Scholar Xiu Fu said truthfully. "I originally thought you were a Faceless Man assassin who had infiltrated my team, but after observing for these past few days, I found that you are definitely not a Faceless Man. Then I remembered what happened in the city when I left Pentos," he said, then pointed to the Lost Knight's Greatsword at Lynd's waist and added, "And although your two Greatswords have been somewhat disguised, I can still see that they are made of Valyrian steel; in this world, only you possess two Greatswords made of Valyrian steel, so I can basically confirm your identity."
Lynd removed the mask from his face, looked at the somewhat disguised Greatsword at his waist, and laughed self-deprecatingly, saying, "I thought I had disguised myself very well; now it seems I've made a fool of myself."
Scholar Xiu Fu explained, "Leaving aside the flaw of the Greatsword, in fact, your disguise, my Lord, is not much different from that of the Faceless Men; it's just that the Faceless Men have a very special aura, a very subtle aura, which only people like me who are very sensitive to people's auras can perceive, and you, precisely, lack this subtle aura."
Lynd's face showed a look of sudden realization; no wonder his disguise in the House of Black and White could never deceive the priests of the Thousand-Faced God and the Faceless Men; clearly, these devout followers of the Thousand-Faced God should easily distinguish the aura of their own kind.
This also made Lynd somewhat vigilant, reminding him to be more careful when using the Faceless Men's disguise methods in the future.
Lynd put aside the matter of the Faceless Man disguise and asked Scholar Xiu Fu, "What do you need my help with? I must tell you, I can't stay here for too long; if you want me to help you excavate ancient ruins, you might be disappointed."
"Of course, I know you are eager to go to Kohor, and my matter will not delay you for too long; it can be resolved tonight," Scholar Xiu Fu said with delight upon seeing Lynd agree. "Please follow me to meet someone first; that person is Kevira, the river pirate Governor of this fortress."
Lynd considered it briefly, then nodded in agreement.
Subsequently, Scholar Xiu Fu had Lynd disguise himself as an ordinary mercenary again, then led him out of the manor, through the woods next to the manor, and into another manor adjacent to the fortress.
After rigorous inspection by the guards around the manor, the two arrived in the living room of the manor's main house.
At this moment, Lynd already felt that the atmosphere inside the manor was somewhat off, because there were no servants to be seen inside the manor, only many mercenaries and Unsullied; everyone was as if facing a great enemy, and just entering this living room required three inspections, being careful to the extreme.
"It seems your student is in considerable trouble," Lynd walked up to Scholar Xiu Fu and whispered.
Scholar Xiu Fu gave a wry smile, indicating that he would explain it to Lynd later.
A moment later, footsteps approached, and then a middle-aged man, dressed lavishly, more like a Pentos noble than a river pirate leader, emerged.
What the middle-aged man used to look like was no longer discernible, as he now appeared extremely haggard; all his hair had turned white, and his dark eye circles indicated that he certainly hadn't rested well recently; as he walked in, he even tripped over an obstacle at the door, stumbling and nearly falling, looking very frail.
"Teacher, did something happen to Linna and the others?" the middle-aged man asked with great concern upon seeing Scholar Xiu Fu.
Scholar Xiu Fu quickly explained, "No, they're fine, they're all in my friend's manor, under very strict protection, nothing will happen to them."
The middle-aged man sighed in relief, then asked, "Teacher, are you here at this time because you encountered difficulties in excavating the ruins? I can still spare some people to help you."
"No, it's not my matter," Scholar Xiu Fu shook his head and said, "I'm here to solve your problem."
Saying that, he looked at the others in the room, then gestured to Scholar Xiu Fu.
The middle-aged man shook his head and said, "Teacher, you don't need to worry; they are all my confidantes; anything that happens here, any words spoken, they will not spread."
Seeing the middle-aged man say this, Scholar Xiu Fu turned to look at Lynd, and seeing Lynd nod indifferently, he continued, "Let me introduce you: Lord Linde, this is my student Kevira Jarad, the former Prince of Myr's son; the Ragged Prince of the Windblown is his cousin." After introducing the middle-aged man, he then introduced Lynd: "This is Lord Linde Terra, Lord of Summerhall, King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea, Chosen of the Seven, and Incarnation of the storm god."
Hearing Scholar Xiu Fu recite his string of titles gave him the illusion of seeing Missandei at Dragonstone reciting Daenerys's titles to Jon Snow, who understood nothing.
However, compared to Lynd's calmness, Kevira and his confidantes were all in a state of shock; even deep inland, they had still heard of Lynd's renown, and various stories related to Lynd had become enduring ballads in taverns; even the people of Yi Land knew that Lynd was perhaps the person closest to a god in this world, not only because of his title as the Godsworn but also because of his strength.
Kevira quickly recovered from his shock; although he didn't understand why Lynd would appear here, he realized that Lynd being brought by his teacher was definitely a good opportunity to resolve his current crisis.
So, he saluted Lynd very excitedly, saying, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Godsworn."
"Formalities are unnecessary; let's be direct!" Lynd said very straightforwardly. "You are clearly in great trouble right now, and your teacher has brought me here to help you solve your trouble. Now tell me exactly what kind of trouble you've encountered, and I'll see if I can help you solve it."
Hearing Lynd's words, Kevira hesitated slightly, then organized his words and explained the trouble he had encountered.
It turned out that the matter was very simple: Quinan Tassis, the second son of the Tashi Family of Norvos, saw the enormous profits contained in Ge Dohe, this distribution center for smuggled goods and stolen property, and wanted to occupy it, but it was not good to use Norvos's people, after all, this place was very close to Pentos, and having Norvos station troops here would more or less provoke a reaction from Pentos, and if it caused a conflict between the two city-states, things would be bad.
Therefore, the powerful figures of Norvos separately contacted White Skull Udau, the great river pirate of Dagger Lake, to attack Kevira's people from the water, and also invited a team of Dothraki who had long been entrenched in this area to attack the Watery Hold by land, thereby completely destroying the Watery Hold; at that time, he could find people to disguise as river pirates and rebuild on the ruins, and then control this territory.
However, the plan was good, but some small errors occurred in its implementation: White Skull Udau, while heading north, encountered an obstruction from a rival, and was unable to reach Ge Dohe in time, and the Dothraki, without the cooperation of the river pirates, merely attacked the Watery Hold briefly and then withdrew.
Realizing that something had gone wrong, the powerful figure came up with another idea: to hire a Faceless Man to assassinate Kevira.
The Faceless Man acted, and succeeded, but killed the wrong person, killing a decoy Kevira had found; he himself had actually led his river pirate ships south to deal with White Skull Udau at the time, and when he learned that his decoy had been assassinated, he worried about his family, leading to a command error that resulted in nearly half of his subordinates drowning in the river.
When Kevira returned and understood the situation, he guessed that the Faceless Man would strike again, so to avoid danger to his wife and children, he sent them to Scholar Xiu Fu in Pentos first, while he stayed behind to deal with the Faceless Man's assassination and prepare men to resist White Skull Udau, who had already arrived in the waters near the fortress.
After listening, Lynd said in a deep voice, "The Faceless Men are not just killers; they are also priests. They kill to offer sacrifices to the gods, because the gods have designated their offerings. However, the Faceless Man hired to kill you killed the wrong person, which means he got the offering wrong. He then needs to repay a qualified offering to the Thousand-Faced God, usually someone with the same status as you. If it's a particularly devout fanatic of the Thousand-Faced God, they might even offer themselves as the sacrifice."
"Are you saying I won't be assassinated by the Faceless Men again?" Kevira asked excitedly.
Lynd shook his head and said, "No, you will still face assassination, because a new, more skilled Faceless Man will continue the previous Faceless Man's mission until it is completed. If you are lucky enough to escape three Faceless Man assassinations, then you will be considered blessed by the Thousand-Faced God, will no longer be an offering to the Thousand-Faced God, and will never be assassinated by the Faceless Men."
Hearing Lynd's words, Kevira's face turned incredibly pale; just one assassination had already made him so apprehensive, and now there were two more; he did not believe he had the ability to survive these two Faceless Man assassinations.
"I can help you deal with that river pirate named Uda U, I can save your life from the Faceless Men, and I can help you completely resolve the troubles you're facing, but I have one condition," Lynd said in a deep voice.
"What condition?" Kevira asked eagerly.
Lynd demanded, "I want you and your people, and the entire Watery Hold of Ge Dohe."
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