Prime Minister Turtle hesitated, yet was not angry. He said, "Your Majesty, your request is actually quite rude."
"We are allies. Isn't it normal for us to help each other? How is that rude?" Dany was thrilled at first, then puzzled.
The old turtle's words proved that he did indeed possess a top-tier water-element meditation method.
"Mother taught us a meditation method that involves part of the authority over the Song of Water. You are a Holy Spirit, your talent far surpasses mine. If you learn the meditation method Mother taught me, you will have an even greater chance of condensing the Song of Water."
"Right now, I still hold a portion of the Song of Water that Mother gave me. If one day you condense the Song of Water, the part in my hands will disappear.
Without the Song of Water, even if I still possess the divinity of the River God of the Lorne River, I will lose more than half of my water-controlling ability."
Prime Minister Turtle was very honest. He explained everything clearly, his voice filled with embarrassed helplessness.
Dany thought for a moment and asked, "Do you still remember the responsibility of a True God? You were the one who told me that a True God commands the laws and sings the Song of the Laws so that the world may function properly.
Now, the Song of Water has lost its master, and the world's operation is malfunctioning. And our world is still in the midst of falling.
It has only been eight thousand years since the last Long Night.
Eight thousand years may be long for humans, but for a world that has existed for tens of millions of years, it is nearly the blink of an eye.
You have lived longer than I have, so tell me: how many years passed between the calamity before last and the most recent Long Night?
Because the laws are incomplete, the world is falling even faster."
The old turtle raised his head and stared at the pitch-black night sky, where the stars had vanished, for a very long time.
Just when Dany thought he was going to play dead and muddle through, he spoke bitterly. "You are right. I have already lived fifty thousand years, but the last Long Night was still the first time I encountered the calamity of the world's fall."
"…I will teach you."
In a voice like a cow's lowing, the old turtle sang a song to Dany, imprinting on her Third Soul Ring one hundred and eight runes combined into the Lorne River.
That was right. Her Third Soul Ring became a circular Lorne River.
It was like cutting the Lorne River out of a flat map and looping the paper into a ring.
The old turtle never appeared before others. Before dawn, he dove into the deep sea and swam all the way to Meereen.
After learning the Lorne River's water magic, Dany again found herself plagued by a severe lack of time for cultivation.
She longed to cast everything aside and return to the "Five Dragon Cave" carved into the southern mountains, where she could train in seclusion for a hundred years.
After a hundred years, she was confident she could slay gods and subdue demons.
Unfortunately, she did not even have a single free day, let alone a hundred years. At dawn she summoned the Unsullied to transport the Valyrian steel ingots to the blacksmith's forge.
Eight hundred molds had long been prepared. Dany and Drogon entered blacksmith mode and spent three days melting sixty Valyrian steel ingots—fifteen tons in total—into molten iron, which they poured into sand molds. The master smiths then forged the rough breastplates into exquisite suits of armor.
Yes, eight hundred molds represented eight hundred Valyrian steel soldiers.
Too much ordinary steel had been poured into the Sphinx statue, so the five thousand Valyrian steel warriors Dany had dreamed of could not be realized.
Of the eight hundred Valyrian steel troops, five hundred were Unsullied, two hundred fifty were centaurs, and the remaining fifty were paladins of the Mother of Dragons' royal guard.
The Unsullied had no families or heirs. Dany would support them for life, and in return they would serve the Dragon Queen for life. Their five hundred suits of Valyrian steel armor would forever be the standard equipment of the Queen's Guard.
The two hundred fifty centaurs came from Dany's khalasar, the elite Roaring Warriors and her most trusted followers.
These suits of armor would also be the inherited equipment of the khalasar's elite Roaring Warriors, belonging not to any single person or family.
Only the final fifty suits would be bestowed upon Dany's most meritorious subordinates. Roughly fifteen would be gifted to those with exceptional achievements.
For example: Jon Botton, commander of the Red Dragon Banner's royal guard; Scarback Simon, commander of the Free Wing Cavalry; and Count Cleon of Broken Chains.
The remaining thirty-five suits would go to paladins who had strength but no great achievements.
They had to be devout followers of the Seven and possess noble character.
Out of eight hundred suits of armor, only fifteen would circulate outside, becoming heirlooms of the nobles of Slaver's Bay. Dany hoped her descendants would always tightly control the remaining seven hundred fifty suits.
Valyrian steel was nearly indestructible. Because of this, the armor was much thinner than ordinary steel armor, weighing at least half as much. Each suit weighed about twenty-five pounds, and with weapons the total was around thirty-five pounds. Forging eight hundred suits consumed fourteen tons, leaving about one to two tons of Valyrian steel unused (seventeen tons in total existed, but the old turtle had only transported fifteen tons; the remainder had been flown back by Dany's dragons in multiple trips).
Dany planned to use another ton to forge four hundred hybrid swords, each weighing five pounds.
Knights would wear ordinary armor but wield Valyrian steel swords.
Their defense might be slightly weaker, but their offensive power would not be inferior to the Valyrian steel soldiers.
With over a thousand pounds left, Dany considered making a belly guard to protect Little Green's neck and chest.
Previously, only Viserion and Drogon had dragon armor, but Little Green had now become a magic dragon and had absorbed some divinity at Qarth, which greatly increased his carrying capacity.
After staying a few days in Astapor, the eight hundred suits of armor and twelve hundred Valyrian steel swords were still not finished. Dany left Drogon to assist the blacksmiths and rode Little Green back to Meereen.
Slaver's Bay's three cities each had one dragon: Drogon in Meereen, Viserion in Yunkai, Little Green in Astapor. Little Gold and Little Red stayed with Dany, following her wherever she went.
Eighteen wyverns were also spread across the three cities, helping the dragons patrol the skies.
Dany made only a brief stop in Meereen before heading straight for Dragon Town, one hundred fifty kilometers east of the city.
This was the small settlement Jon Botton had been ordered to establish, recruiting shepherds from Lhazar.
It was located on the banks of the White River, about thirty kilometers from the confluence of the HLJ and the White River.
Prime Minister Turtle had already been waiting there for a long time.
Dany's plan was simple: build a large dam at a narrow section of the White River.
Previously, such a project would have required a hundred thousand laborers working for three to five years and still might not have been completed.
But now things were different. Dany had Prime Minister Turtle.
Jon Botton had originally led the royal guard to farm the land around the confluence of the HLJ and the White River, casually building another small town: Queenstown.
In the Dragon Queen's plan, Queenstown would block the Jade Sea mercenary alliance coming across the Rhoyne during the Battle of Meereen.
After the Battle of Meereen, Queenstown would not be dismantled. It would become the political center of HLJ and the White Dragon River basin.
The three cities of Slaver's Bay cover more than two hundred thousand square kilometers, larger than the combined area of the two Koreas, yet their population is only 1.7 million (including more than one hundred thousand Goatmen immigrants).
The fertile lands of HLJ and the White Dragon River basin had never been cultivated, and Queenstown was built specifically to develop that region.
Three days earlier, after receiving the Dragon Queen's orders, Jon Botton led eight thousand of the Queen's Guard out of Queenstown and arrived at the narrow stretch of the river almost at the same time as Dany.
The river ran through a gorge, and its narrowest point was only forty meters wide.
Prime Minister Turtle's body was forty-five meters long and thirty meters wide. Floating on the river, it looked like a small island.
"I want to build a dam here and finish it within a week," Dany said to Jon Botton.
"Your Grace, we only have eight thousand men. I'm afraid that's impossible," Big Jon said with a pained expression.
"If you can't do it, then why did I bring you here?" Dany gave a faint smile and whistled toward the river.
A thunderous rumble rose from beneath the emerald water as a massive black shadow surged upward. Water splashed everywhere, revealing long, thick, beam-like bone spurs. Then, a landmass covered in thick water plants and shells rose to the surface.
"Moo!" Prime Minister Turtle snorted out two thick white streams of water. The sound was like both a cow's roar and a train whistle.
"What kind of monster is that?" Jon Botton's eyes nearly popped out.
"Seven Gods above, what a massive sea beast!"
"It's a turtle, not a sea monster."
"Mother above, it looks just like the legendary Old Man of the River!"
The Queen's Guard soldiers around them shouted in shock. Some of the Rhoynar-descended soldiers even spoke the truth.
"Prime Minister Turtle, this is Ser Jon Botton, who is in charge of constructing the dam," Dany called to the old turtle, then said to the stunned Big Jon beside her, "The giant river turtle is the Old Man of the Rhoyne. He is now my Prime Minister Turtle.
Starting today and until the Battle of Meereen is over, you and the Queen's Guard must keep this secret. Do not tell any of the nearby Goatmen."
"I understand."
Jon looked at the old turtle with deep awe, and toward the Dragon Queen with reverence as if she were divine.
The legendary Old Man of the River was already the stuff of myth, yet now this legendary being was the Queen's chief minister. What did that imply?
Dany unfolded an architectural blueprint on the campaign table and pointed to an arch bridge. "Prime Minister Turtle can turn his body sideways and block the river.
You will use his body as the foundation and pile up massive stones and sandbags. This will allow us to build a dam to block the river in the shortest possible time.
But this project is enormous. Without a reasonable explanation, anyone with half a brain would become suspicious.
Therefore, we will publicly announce that we are constructing a bridge across the river."
"Your Grace, you intend to flood the coalition army?" Hermann Tully exclaimed.
"You guessed it?" Dany nodded with a smile.
Jon Botton traced the map between the dam and Meereen with his finger, hesitating. "Shouldn't we be closer? Ideally within ten kilometers for the best effect.
This place is at least two hundred kilometers from Meereen. No matter how much water we store, very little will remain by the time it reaches the city."
Dany raised her chin and nodded at the bearded Hermann. "Hermann took one look at the dam and immediately guessed I planned to drown the army.
The coalition commanders aren't all fools.
If they saw the dam from atop their wyverns, how could they not guess my intent?"
"But the distance is too great. I fear the effect won't be good," Big Jon said.
In reality, aside from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the deliberate breaching of the Yellow River or the Huai River in real wars was usually not meant to kill the enemy, but to hinder their movement with floods and disrupt their strategy.
As for enemies being washed away, well, perhaps because later generations read Three Kingdoms, commanders learned to survey the terrain and set up camp on high ground.
Without the old turtle, even if Dany breached the Meereen River dikes, she could only soak the enemy camp. She might prevent their elephant and cavalry units from charging, but drowning a hundred thousand coalition soldiers would be nearly impossible.
Unless, as Botton suggested, the dam was built ten kilometers outside the enemy camp.
But the enemy had wyvern riders. Even a blind man would notice something strange happening on the river.
"Don't worry. We have Prime Minister Turtle. He can use 'water-driving magic,'" Dany said with a smile to the two knights.
In ancient times, the Rhoynar used water magic to flood Valyrian cities. They didn't conjure water out of nothing. The entire flood came from the Rhoyne.
With the "Divine Turtle Dam" arranged, Dany returned once more to Astapor.
Old Jon had returned.
(End of Chapter)
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