Therefore, no matter how you look at it, the meat-carving knife had already been plunged into the plumpest part of the Lannisters. Even if Lord Tywin was unwilling, he had to hold his nose and suffer the loss.
Of course, among them, the happiest person was unexpectedly not Duke Ned, but the Usurper himself.
You know, Robert owed his father-in-law a huge debt of more than three million Gold Dragons.
And as a son-in-law, after owing his father-in-law so much money, he couldn't hold his head up because of it.
Just like just now, even though Jon took action and stripped a large piece of fat meat from those blond fools, and the one who took advantage was not the Usurper himself.
But as long as he thought of the unlucky faces of the Lannister family, it was enough to make the Usurper feel physically and mentally happy, even more comfortable than hunting boars or frequenting prostitutes.
With such bad taste, Robert thought about it seriously for a moment, and then nodded in agreement with this proposal.
Then he ordered Jon to find his scribe, ready to formally sign such a royal decree.
It wasn't until this moment that Duke Ned, who was lying in bed sulking, struggled to get up and dissuade Robert.
"Wait, Your Grace, this matter cannot be done."
Hearing Ned address him solemnly as "Your Grace," the Usurper narrowed his eyes.
"Alright, shut up, you damn fool! Just lie in bed peacefully. As for those messy things you have on hand, I think just let this little guy handle them."
With this matter settled, Robert quickly completed the signing of the order.
After that, it was made in duplicate, and sent to Casterly Rock by the Kingsguard and ravens in two separate ways.
After completing these, Robert prepared to get up and go to the Stormlands to hunt an elk to reward himself for his hard work, having absolutely no intention of staying in King's Landing.
In the following days, Jon restarted participating in the relevant topics of the Small Council as the King's Squire and Secretary to the Hand.
Although he did not have the right to vote, the young baron had an advantage of being close to power, that is, he could collect everyone's opinions using the identity of the Secretary to the Hand.
After summarizing them, he reported to Duke Ned face to face, and then the Hand of the King proposed handling opinions.
However, because Ned's injury still needed recovery, others who wanted to meet the Hand were blocked outside by Jon and Jory.
Therefore, this also gave Jon greater room for manipulation.
Similarly, after experiencing this attack, although Duke Ned had to wear the badge of the Hand of the King again, he was much slacker in handling the kingdom's government affairs, obviously completely disappointed with the kingdom and Robert.
In addition to taking milk of the poppy for a long time to relieve pain, Duke Ned, who was originally unable to concentrate due to the unbearable heat, fell into a dizzy state even more. Almost all matters required Jon to draft opinions first before approval could be made.
Most of the time, the opinions proposed by Jon were directly adopted by Duke Ned, followed by signing and stamping, and then handed over to the Small Council for discussion and execution.
However, for several ministers of the Small Council who simply didn't want to take any responsibility, this was simply too easy.
They only needed to see the Hand's signature and seal, and would not raise any objections anymore. Almost all were passed by collective resolution.
And in this situation, Jon was even more able to manipulate things, using this information gap to seek great benefits for himself.
The new baron handled government affairs for only a week, but under the pretext of the power vacuum formed by both sides, he sought a lot of benefits for himself.
First, under the excuse of public security issues in King's Landing, he began to intervene in rectifying the Gold Cloaks.
Although Janos Slynt couldn't be replaced directly at present—after all, this guy had completely defected to the Lannisters, and even as the Hand, wanting to replace the Commander of the City Watch required giving the Usurper a reasonable explanation.
So, what Jon could plan was to completely swap the captains of all city gates on the grounds of exchange and rotation.
And this seemingly reasonable lateral transfer naturally did not cause much vibration and opposition.
After completing this step, he took the opportunity to hold a full-member tournament in the City Watch on the grounds of reviewing the Gold Cloaks' duty capabilities.
The winners could not only get generous rewards but also challenge the superiors of the next level across ranks.
And the reason why Jon issued this requirement was to fit the "last-place elimination system" he proposed.
Regarding this approach of introducing KPI assessment, although the entire Gold Cloaks complained incessantly and even produced small-scale turbulence.
But because several city gate captains were not in this assessment rank, even if some squad leaders expressed strong dissatisfaction, it was like throwing a stone into a lake—except for causing a ripple, there were no waves to speak of.
This work sounded simple, but in actual operation, it took Jon half a month.
As for Duke Ned, he had actually long been unable to stand the corruption and laxity of the Gold Cloaks, but suffered from having no way.
Since Jon could push this matter, he was naturally happy to sit back and enjoy the results.
However, in order to further mix in sand, Jon had to activate several veterans from White Harbor to replace those squad leaders who were incompetent.
After dispersing them to various city gates, Jon also stopped tormenting the Gold Cloaks, and turned his gaze to Dragonstone.
Perhaps thinking that watching the excitement wasn't enough, Jon soon sent a letter through the Small Council, ordering the Lord of Dragonstone and Master of Ships to end his recuperation immediately and return to King's Landing to report on his duties as soon as possible.
The letter also requested at the same time that Lord Stannis must submit a patrol plan for the Dragonstone fleet as soon as possible, and use this as a blueprint to start patrol training.
Besides these, Jon also signed a sternly worded inquiry letter in the name of Duke Ned, hoping that Lady Lysa Tully could set off for King's Landing and make a face-to-face statement at the hearing on the investigation of Duke Jon Arryn's death.
Of course, to ensure the safety of the mistress of the Eyrie, the "Hand" also simultaneously issued a transfer order, specially allowing Lady Lysa to deploy a thousand-man team from the Vale to ensure her absolute safety.
Although the letter did not mention any arrangements for Robert Arryn, based on Jon's understanding of this poisonous trout, she would definitely not leave her son behind unless Littlefinger ordered it.
After finishing these things one after another, nearly a month passed.
During this period, Robert, who left King's Landing to hunt, sent people to the Tower of the Hand every few days to visit his brother to show importance.
For this reason, Jon had to ask Grand Maester Pycelle to write to the King, guaranteeing that in another month, Duke Ned would be able to walk on the ground. Now he only needed to change the medicine and clean regularly, waiting for the wound to heal completely.
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