This proposal was strongly opposed by the upright and righteous Prime Minister Ed, who felt it was wrong to target a girl and the innocent baby in her belly. The Targaryen family had already been destroyed, and there was no need to continue persecuting this poor girl.
But His Majesty Robert, who still hated Rhaegar Targaryen for taking his fiancée, insisted that Varys send assassins to kill Daenerys.
Of the high officials in the Chamber, only the fearless Ser Barristan Selmy, Captain of the Kingsguard, supported the Prime Minister.
Intelligence Chief Varys, Chancellor of the Exchequer Petyr Baelish, and Grand Maester Pycelle all supported His Majesty Robert's decision to cut the weeds down.
Even though Prime Minister Ed threatened to resign, he still failed to change the king's mind.
Varys still sent the killers to assassinate Daenerys.
Jason Liu had no idea what was happening in King's Landing at this time. After he spoke with Lady Catelyn and Robb about leasing the land around Saylor Lake, he immediately went to the logging camp and recruited another 500 soldiers.
This time, he almost recruited all the young men from 16 to 21 years old in the logging camp.
Some young men who had previously worked as lumberjacks were also recruited into the army.
The vacant lumberjack positions would be filled with newly recruited workers from other territories in the North.
The 500 newly recruited soldiers were quickly formed into a new cohort, which was trained by Marbu and McCann, along with other veterans who had already been training for more than four months. These veterans assisted Marbu and Captain McCann in managing the recruits.
Jason Liu believed that the favorable lease terms for the land around Lake Saylor proposed to the Stark family would not be denied. So, the first step was to prepare for the construction near the lake.
Because Lake Saylor was nearly 400 kilometers from Winterfell, it was already at the edge of Winterfell's domain.
Being so remote, it would lose the protection of Winterfell, attracting robbers, wildlings, or even the ambitions of other Northern nobles.
To ensure his own security, Jason Liu carefully expanded his troops by half again.
With the addition of 500 new recruits, he now had 800 soldiers under his command.
Removing 300 soldiers who stayed at the sawmill to assist with management, the remaining 300 veterans plus 200 new recruits—totaling 500 men—were brought to the area around Lake Saylor.
Since the sawmill was only 10 kilometers from Winterfell, it was unlikely to suffer large-scale attacks. Leaving 300 recruits to train while defending the sawmill would be enough.
With 500 new soldiers added, Jason Liu returned to purchase thousands of units of modern anti-armor gear and battlefield camouflage, as well as matching riot helmets to arm these new recruits.
But weapons alone were not enough.
Beyond swords, Jason Liu also intended to equip his soldiers with bows and arrows.
He had wanted to equip them with firearms, but he hadn't managed to smuggle any.
Unlike the backward Westerosi disdain for bows and arrows, Jason Liu planned to purchase a number of modern compound pulley bows.
Bows and arrows in Westeros had a major flaw—an archer could shoot at most 20 arrows before his arms grew too tired to continue.
With modern, lightweight, labor-saving pulley bows, however, any soldier could fire hundreds of arrows.
But lethal compound bows weren't easy to obtain in the modern world, as they were also considered controlled items.
Of course, Jason Liu had his own way.
He had already bought a large number of steel swords from IronForge Props Company. The two sides had established a solid relationship and mutual trust.
Jason Liu now intended to hand over the production of compound pulley bows to IronForge Props.
Coincidentally, the 500 newly recruited soldiers also needed a large number of steel swords, making this a major order for IronForge Props Company.
Considering that his troops would likely continue expanding in the future, the number of weapons required would only increase.
Suddenly, Jason Liu came up with the idea of taking a stake in IronForge Props Company.
Going further, he hoped that IronForge Props would relocate to his City, which would make transportation much more convenient.
The batches of steel swords he'd bought previously were all secretly transported, and he was always worried they might be discovered. After all, the swords they made were controlled items!
If IronForge Props is relocated, the swords, bows, and arrows could be shipped directly to the warehouse of Fusion Trading, eliminating the risk of being discovered during transport.
The more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed. Jason Liu directly called Ethan from IronForge Props Company.
"Hey, is this Ethan? I'm Jason Liu!"
On the other end of the phone, Ethan and his team were busy making retro armor for a film production. When he received a call from the boss of Fusion Trading, a major client, Ethan handed over the work to a colleague and stepped outside the factory with his phone.
"Hello, Mr. Liu, this is Ethan. Long time no talk! Thank you so much for your support of IronForge Props Company!" Ethan was very enthusiastic toward this client who had spent millions with them.
He had no choice—business in the film props industry hadn't been great. Especially with this year's pandemic, many film crews had halted operations, and prop factories like theirs were on the verge of shutting down.
Thankfully, he'd met the major client from Fusion Trading, who ordered hundreds of steel swords and even paid for a few custom-made ones, earning their factory hundreds of thousands. That had helped them survive the last few months.
Now that the pandemic had stabilized and filming resumed, the factory had taken on some new jobs, but the revenue still couldn't compare to what Boss Liu had brought them.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Ethan couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Liu, do you have any big orders coming up? To be honest, since we finished your last sword order, our factory has been idle for two months. We haven't had any business, and I'm not sure we'll survive this year."
Ethan was being honest. There were too many prop factories, and competition was fierce.
Usually, prop orders from film crews went to those with connections. Small factories like his were often overlooked.
If he didn't love the props business, Ethan wouldn't have stayed in it two years after graduating college.
Jason Liu picked up on the bitterness in his tone and felt even more confident.
"Ethan, I have a suggestion. If you're willing, I'd like to invest a sum in IronForge Props Company and acquire 30% of the shares. In return, all future orders from Fusion Trading for retro items—like swords and bows—would be handled exclusively by your company. What do you think?"
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