What? To cross the Narrow Sea and campaign in Essos?"
"Why the rush? Even if the population explodes in the future, the terraced crops in Westeros are completely sufficient to feed everyone now."
"Exactly! Our family is taking advantage of the commercial tax being halved to greatly expand our merchant fleet and trade.
If we go to war now, won't the initial investment be completely wasted?"
"Who isn't? And the barbarians from the other continent are not easy to mess with!
I heard that Braavos' Sea King Fleet is unmatched in the world.
Most lords in the Seven Kingdoms are not good at naval warfare, perhaps we will be sunk in the Narrow Sea before we even get close."
"Shush, keep your voice down!
If someone hears you say that, they'll either say your faith in the Dragon God is not devout enough, or that you are not loyal enough to the King."
As soon as King Jaehaerys finished speaking, the lords of the Seven Kingdoms in the Throne Room immediately started whispering and conferring with each other.
Prince Lucerys in the crowd heard most of these words, and knowing the inside story, he understood that this was his brother's war of revenge.
After all, he had been assassinated by those foreigners multiple times before, and it was even very likely that little Aegon was killed by them.
Moreover, his brother never fought a battle he wasn't confident in; since he proposed to campaign in Essos, he would definitely achieve final victory.
With a thought, Prince Lucerys immediately stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, I request to be the vanguard for your campaign in Essos."
"Very good, since Prince Lucerys has volunteered to fight, I will appoint you as the vanguard Commander.
To reward your courage, the first city you conquer this time will be the land I bestow upon you as your fief."
As soon as King Jaehaerys finished speaking, the lords of the Seven Kingdoms seemed to suddenly have a collective realization.
What if the fleet of those foreign barbarians was sharp, they had the power of seven dragons!
If they had fought harder for the opportunity just now, this city would have been theirs.
The lords of the Seven Kingdoms felt as if they had lost a city and were filled with regret.
"King, our Staunton family of Rook's Rest is willing to be the vanguard army and assist Prince Lucerys in first landing on the continent of Essos."
"Dragon God, our Rosby family was the earliest lord to believe in the Dragon God Church.
Please let us continue to prove our faith!"
"King Jaehaerys, our Rykker family of Duskendale…"
Watching the lords vying to be the vanguard, King Jaehaerys smiled and gestured for them to quiet down.
Having dealt with these self-serving lords of the Seven Kingdoms for over half a year, how could he not know their character?
So he calmly continued, "Since Prince Lucerys has taken on the role of vanguard Commander, his vanguard army is already set.
He has been with Duke Forrest's Frey Family for the past half year, and they must have already integrated very well.
They will serve as the vanguard force to first land on the continent of Essos."
The lords of the Seven Kingdoms immediately quieted down upon hearing this, as they all knew what King Jaehaerys said, and it was reasonable and couldn't be refuted.
However, some Agile lords of the Seven Kingdoms suddenly felt a chill run down their spines, a feeling of dread when they thought about it carefully.
It turned out that this King had planned this day since half a year ago.
King Jaehaerys's words were not finished, he just paused slightly before continuing to speak,
"Those of you who did not become the vanguard army do not need to be discouraged, I have seen your bravery and fearlessness.
This divine war is a prolonged battle, and you will definitely have the opportunity to fight for me and for Westeros.
As long as you can achieve victory and military merit, I will bestow upon you corresponding fiefdoms, titles, gold, silver, and treasures.
And now, I will roughly divide this divine war into three stages.
The first stage, Prince Lucerys and Duke Forrest will land on the continent of Essos, capture a city to establish a stronghold.
Then, using this stronghold as the center, they will slowly encroach upon the surrounding towns.
The second stage, no matter what method you use, acquire as many oceangoing ships as possible.
Then, just like the previous campaign against Dorne, form a fleet to transport all the valuable items you have plundered.
The third stage, transport Westerosi commoners to the conquered Essosi towns for permanent colonization.
Alright!
I announce that the first stage of the divine war against Essos will officially begin tomorrow."
Most lords did not know what colonization meant, so they understood this Essosi divine war as an upgraded version of the campaign against Dorne.
And the last campaign against Dorne not only made many lords rich, but also created a batch of newly emerging noble families.
So this time... the cake is bigger, and everyone can have a share!
"Hurrah, Westeros is victorious!"
"King, victorious!"
"Victorious, victorious!"
The shouts grew from small to large, gradually becoming a huge roar that echoed through the Throne Room.
Seeing that the pre-war morale was so successful, King Jaehaerys waved his hand and allowed everyone to go to the banquet hall to enjoy fine wine and food.
Most of the lords of the Seven Kingdoms were sensible, and the few who weren't were dragged away by others.
A few minutes later, these irrelevant people left the Throne Room in groups of three or five.
Crack!
King Jaehaerys walked down from the Iron Throne steps and gave Prince Lucerys a bear hug.
"You've gotten darker, but taller and stronger!"
"Brother…"
Listening to King Jaehaerys's simple but sincere words, Prince Lucerys, who thought he had become strong, immediately had red eyes.
Joffrey, who was nearby, smiled widely at the sight, being the youngest brother.
He did not want to see his two brothers have a rift because of what happened half a year ago.
This hug now completely resolved all the dissatisfaction between them.
So Joffrey also joined in the fun, running up in two or three steps and opening his arms to hug his two brothers.
Dario and the White Knights watched the three royal brothers embracing each other, a heartfelt smile appearing on their faces.
Afterwards, King Jaehaerys chatted with Prince Lucerys about the affairs of the Seven Kingdoms while heading towards the banquet hall in Maegor's Holdfast.
During this process, King Jaehaerys kept nodding approvingly at his second brother from time to time.
It proved that letting Prince Lucerys go out alone to train was the right decision.
If he had always been protected under his wings, he would definitely have become someone with no opinions of his own, only knowing how to act according to orders like a mouthpiece.
Even his fiancée Rhaenyra would be able to manipulate him at will, to put it in a certain dialect from his previous life, he would be completely 'ear-pullable'.
And now, when Prince Lucerys is chatting, when he encounters opinions that differ from his brother's, he will firmly stand by his own opinion and explain the reasons in detail.
This also made King Jaehaerys more confident that Prince Lucerys could fulfill the duties of vanguard Commander.
The banquet hall in Maegor's Holdfast is probably only half the size of the small hall in the Tower of the Hand, and it can accommodate a hundred people for dining at the same time.
These lords of the Seven Kingdoms came today to answer the call to war, so they did not bring their families, and this banquet hall was completely sufficient.
As a Dragon God King who holds both divine and royal power, not being extravagant and licentious would definitely be incompetent.
The entire banquet hall was brightly lit, and behind each candelabra on the walls were large, perfectly polished silver mirrors,
This doubled the intensity of the light from the braziers and candles in the hall.
And the surrounding walls were hung with satin ribbons embroidered with the Black Three-Headed Dragon, as well as magnificent gold ornaments.
At this moment, Queen Baela, who had not appeared before, as well as the three royal consorts and five royal concubines, were all seated at the head table.
Seeing the three King Jaehaerys brothers arrive, they all stood up and curtsied.
Prince Lucerys stared at one of his brother's royal concubines, his brows gradually furrowing.
Of course, he was not looking at her strange white stockings made of velvet that clung to her legs.
Instead, he was looking at her obviously bulging belly.
Concubine Fina seemed to feel Prince Lucerys's gaze, and a smile appeared on her perfect face, then she nodded towards the King's brother.
Prince Lucerys had not gotten an answer from Joffrey before because Earl Samwell had rushed them on their journey.
Now he discovered that the one who was pregnant with his brother's first child was actually a royal concubine from a commoner background.
The grown and sensible Prince Lucerys immediately had a brainstorm in his mind, seemingly seeing the Blood Dragon Dance erupting again decades later.
King Jaehaerys glanced at the dazed Prince Lucerys, then followed his gaze.
With a turn of his head, he understood the reason and couldn't help but chuckle; his brother, after becoming sensible, seemed to be overthinking things again.
With him, a Dragon God King who is already considered semi-immortal, these descendants can only ever be heirs.
Perhaps when he gets tired of playing, King Jaehaerys will choose an excellent descendant from among them to abdicate to.
But even behind the scenes, he will always control the supreme power of Westeros and Essos.
After inviting his brothers to sit down, King Jaehaerys notified the maids to start the feast.
After becoming King, King Jaehaerys had been indulging in the pleasure of the tender embrace in the early stages.
But after nurturing over sixty flower buds into brightly blooming flowers, his novelty gradually faded.
And the monotonous food in this world suddenly made him feel unbearable.
So he personally improved the Chinese cuisine from his previous life into localized dishes.
After teaching these dishes to the chefs in the Red Keep, they unexpectedly spread quietly.
These dishes have now become an essential part of every meal for the lords of King's Landing, and it is believed that they will soon spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms.
Only a small portion of these lords today are from King's Landing and the Crownlands, most of them are 'country bumpkins' from all over the Seven Kingdoms.
So when they tasted the improved dishes served by the maids, their eyes lit up and they devoured them greedily.
The lords from King's Landing and the Crownlands scoffed at the sight, completely forgetting that they were the same when they first tasted them.
After this banquet, there was drinking and clinking of glasses, with the king and his subjects enjoying themselves, and night also fell, and the night passed quickly.
Early the next morning, the Conqueror Fleet quietly sailed from Blackwater Bay towards Blackwater River.
Five thousand Frey Family soldiers were already waiting in Fisherman's Square behind River Gate.
Naturally, the lords of the Seven Kingdoms would not miss the spectacle of this divine war's first campaign.
They stood on the walls of River Gate, looking around, anticipating when and how their Dragon God King would appear.
Transporting these five thousand men only required one-third of the Conqueror Fleet.
When the ships of various sizes docked, Earl Samwell, the Minister of Maritime Affairs, immediately ordered the vanguard force to board.
The neatly arranged Frey Family soldiers immediately began to act upon hearing the order.
It took about half a day for these five thousand vanguard troops to complete boarding.
Whoosh, whoosh!
At the same time, Arrax, with a pearly white body, carried Prince Lucerys and flew towards River Gate.
Even in Twin River City before, Arrax was provided with the best dragon feed by dedicated Dragon Guard.
So it has grown from a size of about eight meters to about twelve meters.
In the eyes of the lords of the Seven Kingdoms, this size is already very imposing.
But at this moment, Womax, ten times larger than Arrax, broke through the clouds in the sky and appeared.
Its huge dragon wings, with a wingspan of two to three hundred meters, cast a huge shadow below, as if completely covering half of the entire River Gate.
"Look, the Dragon God is standing on top of the Protector Dragon!
Is he going to jump down from such a high altitude again?"
As a sharp-eyed lord of the Seven Kingdoms exclaimed, tens of thousands of people around River Gate simultaneously looked up, then squinted their eyes and looked at Womax's head.
A figure wearing a black suit and a red cape was standing proudly on top of the dragon's head.
As if sensing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, the black figure was about to walk down from the top of Womax, which was hovering dozens of meters in the air.
Yes!
King Jaehaerys actually walked down from the sky out of thin air like this.
When the strong wind in the high altitude blew up his cape, he truly looked like a deity descending from the divine realm.
This scene was deeply imprinted in the minds of the tens of thousands of people at River Gate, and it is estimated that it will spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms in no time.
But in places they couldn't see, every step King Jaehaerys took, the air under his feet would show a distortion and fluctuation.
On Womax's dragon saddle, Ela, wearing a magical artifact mask carved with strange runes on her face, looked at King Jaehaerys, who had only walked one-third of the way in the air, with a bad expression.
Then she took out a magical artifact mask similar to the previous one from her In arms, and directly crushed it.
A translucent mist surged into Ela's body, and her eyes immediately shone like stars.
Focused on magical research, she completely did not understand what King Jaehaerys was doing.
This air magic that served as a stepping stone for him in the air seemed simple, but it was actually an advanced magic that Ela had recently learned after breaking through her realm using the previous resources.
Since it was advanced magic, the consumption of magic power was naturally extraordinary.
To cooperate with King Jaehaerys's performance of showing off in front of people, she would at least have to waste three magical artifact masks storing magic power.
If King Jaehaerys hadn't provided double the amount of dragon materials, she would never have wasted precious magical artifacts on such a boring thing.
And what Ela considered a boring thing brought great shock to the Frey Family soldiers who were about to go on campaign.
King Jaehaerys, who was walking in the air like a deity, walked to a height similar to that of the River Gate city wall,
Then he drew Blackfyre with his right hand and shouted towards the continent of Essos in the east, "My warriors, you will receive the protection and power of the Dragon God.
Now, go and conquer the continent of Essos!"
"Wooah!!!"
The entire vanguard force immediately had a soaring momentum, and the Conqueror Fleet also took this opportunity to set sail towards the continent of Essos.
Westeros is sending troops to a foreign land, and the two continents that have been at peace for nearly ten thousand years are about to collide fiercely!