Three days later:
A large group of strong women and children walked along the spacious mountain road of Raven Ridge.
Notably, some of the teenagers had red foreheads with a dragon pattern tattooed on the left side.
The strong women and young children traveling with them did not have these tattoos.
According to the new law issued by His Royal Highness, all the young and strong men in the prisoner camp and boys taller than the wheels must have a dragon pattern tattooed on the left side of their foreheads using the tattoo technique of the Mountain clan.
All young, strong men in the prisoner camp, as well as boys taller than the wheels, must have a dragon pattern tattooed on the left side of their foreheads using the Mountain clan's tattoo technique.
The tattoo represents their origin from the Mountain clan and signifies that they are prisoners.
Similarly, His Royal Highness kept his promise and provided them with an opportunity to leave.
As long as they help build River Valley Town, they will receive the first dragon emblem tattoo on the right side of their foreheads once construction is complete.
This symbolizes that they have washed away their sins and become official citizens of River Valley.
The old patriarch of the Painted Dogs and the old blacksmith of the Firesmiths had three dragon emblems on their foreheads, more than anyone else.
Together, the three dragon emblems matched the Targaryen family's three-headed red dragon emblem.
This proved their loyalty and that they were the messengers of the "honorable dragon king." They were a moderate-sized cadre.
"Beep!"
Aemon rode a white deer at the front of the group, blowing a bone whistle hanging around his neck.
The white deer turned its head and glanced back, its eyes full of curiosity.
After waiting a moment, there was no movement.
Aemon looked up at the sky and muttered, "The Painted Dogs can train dogs with whistles, but they are not qualified to train dragons."
"Hiss!"
After a long time, a gray shadow emerged from the thin clouds and mist, poking its dragon head out to observe His Royal Highness.
"Didn't we agree to call it for food?" Aemon was upset. You came out when the whistle stopped.
He wanted to use the bone whistle instead of shouting to give simple instructions to the gray shadow accompanying him.
As can be seen in the melee, the accompanying dragons are difficult to communicate with and have difficulty reacting immediately.
Silverwing is fine. He is an adult dragon. However, unless it is tamed and a bond is established, no one can command it.
Gray Shadow is still young. With training from a young age, it should improve.
"Hiss?"
Gray Shadow looked puzzled and turned back to the clouds.
Aemon rolled his eyes and continued to ponder the bone whistle.
Gray Shadow is not sensitive to the whistle yet and doesn't understand its meaning.
The bone whistle is made of poor material, so it cannot convey instructions to a dragon effectively.
"Why not try dragon bones?"
Aemon had a flash of inspiration.
Maybe it's feasible. They should go back to Dragonstone and dig up a piece of dragon bone.
The team hurried, and a road repair team appeared ahead.
It was almost noon.
The elderly, weak, and strong women of the road repair team were paving the last section of the road, while the cook next to them was cooking thick porridge.
His Royal Highness is kind, providing three meals a day for those who do heavy manual labor.
"You will work with them to build the road later," Aemon said.
Aemon gave instructions and said habitually: "Once the road is built, you will be free."
The valley knights in charge of supervision took away as many as two thousand strong women and children.
Most of them were family members of the Painted Dog Clan. They accepted their fate after being persuaded by the old patriarch.
"Hiss!"
Syrax stood on a pile of rubble and spat out dragon flames to burn lime.
Aemon rode a white deer and slowly approached.
When he got closer, he saw the silver-haired girl in the corner.
Rhaenyra was squatting on the ground, hugging her knees with her hands and staring at the ants moving around. She looked almost jade.
"Haven't you thought it through?"
Aemon led the white deer forward.
Her poor dragon-riding skills were indeed a flaw.
Throughout the period of "Dance with the Dragons," Rhaenyra and Syrax were both soy sauce parties who carried out life's greatness and death's cowardice to the end.
Rhaenyra raised her eyes, glanced around, and buried her head even lower.
She often complained about not being born a boy and believed that her gender caused the public to view her unfairly.
The Battle of the Moon Mountain shattered this idea.
She was so frightened on Syrax's back that she almost turned the tide of the battle.
Regardless of how you evaluate her, she was unqualified.
"You can blame yourself, but you still have to eat."
Aemon squatted down and took a silver plate out of his bag.
Rhaenyra had no appetite and was about to bury her head in her arms when she smelled a familiar, pleasant aroma.
When she looked up, she saw a small cream cake.
"Where did it come from?"
Rhaenyra's beautiful eyes widened, and she had many thoughts in an instant.
Aemon shook the plate and said, "Johanna made it. The ingredients were specially shipped from Seagull Town. It's very expensive."
Cream is a luxury item, and even ordinary nobles can't afford to eat it more than a few times a year.
The valley doesn't produce anything, so all items must be regularly purchased from Seagull Town.
"She made it especially for me?"
Rhaenyra couldn't believe it.
Aemon said, "Eat it. There are important events today."
He may be stupid, but he's here to help.
He's still busy making trouble.
Click!
A teardrop fell onto the silver plate, leaving a small mark on the cream.
Before Aemon could react, a pair of arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
"I'm sorry," Rhaenyra said, burying her head in his neck and sobbing uncontrollably. "I didn't mean to kill them."
After the melee, only 569 of the original 800 longbowmen remained.
She was responsible for the number of casualties.
Aemon couldn't forgive her for the dead. Leaning his face against her hair, he said seriously, "Everyone makes mistakes, but you have to remember the pain so that you won't be scarred again."
"I'll remember everything."
Rhaenyra bit her lower lip, hugging her tighter.
Feeling her softness against his chest, Aemon showed helplessness and patted her back. "Okay, blaming yourself too much is a sign of weakness."
When they chose to join the army, they should have been prepared to face the Stranger.
In this regard, he inherited his father Daemon's cold-bloodedness.
When a person dies, it's like a light going out. The living should look forward.
Just remember that, and it will be enough.
Rhaenyra was softhearted and easily persuaded.
After calming down, she took the cream cake and started eating it.
She completely forgot about royal etiquette and began eating it with the plate.
"You eat it."
Halfway through the meal, she brought the plate to Aemon's mouth.
"Thank you."
Aemon took a bite but couldn't get used to the cream's sweetness.
Rhaenyra loved it very much. Leaning sideways in his arms, she concentrated on eating the cream cake.
She had been hungry for several days.
Aemon acted as a chair, pressing against her thighs.
Occasionally, she could smell the sweet cream, but she couldn't tell if the smell came from the cake or the people around her.
Until the cake was all gone.
Rhaenyra licked the cream off her fingers and whispered, "The five hundred women and children of the Firesmiths can repair a hundred meters of road every day. Now, they have repaired six miles."
The mountain road from Raven Ridge to the valley is fifty miles long.
Aemon estimated that the arrival of 2,000 women and children from the Painted Dog and Black Stone clans would increase the speed of construction to 300 meters per day.
However, the number of people is not proportional to the distance of road construction.
Anyone who has built a road knows that acquiring materials and excavating the road surface are the most time-consuming tasks.
There is no card to provide materials for the project. The project depends entirely on ox carts to pull fine sand and clay and to burn lime separately.
Excavating the road surface is even more difficult.
The mountain road of Raven Ridge is wide, but it is covered with vegetation and vines, and the surface is bumpy.
Before the road was built, Aemon rode Vermithor and burned the ground with dragon flames.
The vegetation within 50 miles burned, as did the boulders in the way, which burned into volcanic ash.
This also caused the cliffs on both sides to turn pitch black and left traces of smoke and fire.
This will also be a feature when the road is completed.
Despite the help of dragon flames, the road construction team still had to dig a one-meter-thick, twenty-meter-wide roadbed.
The cement road surface is only ten meters wide. One meter of roadside soil is reserved on both sides. Eight meters of sand and stone flatland are expanded. Finally, one-meter-wide drainage channels are dug on each side.
This is the ancient road construction process.
The roadbed should be thirty meters wide, with trees planted on both sides to block the wind and guide traffic.
Unfortunately, the mountain road is not that wide, so there is no need to plant trees on the cliffs on both sides.
"I have seen the previous section of the road, and the cement road surface is very solid."
Rhaenyra said proudly.
However, considering the paving speed, it's still a time-consuming and labor-intensive project.
Aemon pondered and said, "Raven Ridge is fifty miles away, and the high mountains lead to the Vale of Arryn for thirty miles.
It will take about six months to pave all of it." The river valley runs one hundred miles from east to west, so paving the road will take another half a year.
There is a long way to go.
"Come with me. There are still big things to do."
Aemon secretly encouraged himself and picked up Rhaenyra, who was lying in his arms.
"You're an older girl, but you don't have the demeanor of an elder sister at all.
You're much worse than Laena.
...
Under the river valley.
The skull of Meraxes was brought out again.
According to the plans of the housekeeper Johanna and the maester Muntor, a "bluffing" ceremony was held, shocking the 5,000 laborers in the prisoner camp.
"Hiss—"
Vermithor and Silverwing flew together, turning shock into astonishment.
"Your Highness."
The old patriarch of the Painted Dog Clan, Black Bone, and the old blacksmith of the Firesmith Clan, Shaga, knelt down one after the other, completely surrendering in joy.
"Govern your people well. The ceremony is about to end."
Aemon looked indifferent as he walked alone to the shore of the Long Lake.
Then, he took out the red card, the Iron Wall.
Construction of Valley City is booming, and the walls of Valley Town cannot be lowered.
He has unique insights into planning city walls.
First, the palace is rectangular, so the city walls do not need to be square.
Based on the shape of the walls of King's Landing and Highgarden, the outline is determined to be polygonal and circular.
The area should be large, about 12 square kilometers.
The general topography is such that the foot of the mountain extends to the vicinity of Long Lake, where the palace, River Valley City, was built.
The city wall begins at the high-altitude River Valley City and extends in an arc shape close to the Long Lake shore.
Coincidentally, a protruding estuary on the Long Lake shore resembles a pacifier at the foot of the mountain.
The city wall surrounds the estuary, abandoning the original East Gate and establishing a Long Lake Wharf.
The fishing industry in the territory is encouraged to make up for the lack of water transportation.
Aemon directly increased the height and thickness of the city wall.
It is ten meters high and six and a half meters thick at the bottom. Its main feature is that it is indestructible.
One outer wall is not enough, so an inner wall was built.
The inner wall is eighteen meters high and twelve meters thick at the bottom, making it more majestic.
It resembles a mountain higher than another mountain with no end in sight.
This double wall defense system will crush any enemy's hopes.
Even if the dragon leaves the dragon's nest in the mountains one day, River Valley Town will remain as stable as Dragonstone.
"Bless you, Balerion!"
Aemon whispered softly and placed the card in his hand on the lime-drawn foundation of the wall.
[Iron Wall]: "The card effect has been activated. Please name your city."
Buzz!
The red card shattered instantly, turning into fiery red fireflies that drilled into the solid foundation.
The next second—
An inexplicable wave spread outward from the center, like soft ripples on water, faintly emitting a red glow.
Aemon closed his eyes and felt it. He said the name that had been decided long ago: "River Valley Town."
One and a half months were wasted on the foundation when building River Valley Town.
Because of the previous disadvantage, the card was used early this time to block the construction period.
The card's task list gave a prompt:
"River Valley Town has been named successfully, and the construction period is scheduled for two years."
"Let's get started."
Aemon opened his eyes, and his subordinates stood behind him.
Black Bone and Shaga did not dare delay and ordered the tribesmen to start construction.
They dug foundations, moved stones, and burned lime.
From above, it looked like a nest of ants moving around and building a new nest.
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