Eddard Stark was born in Winterfell, the capital of the North, in Aegon's 263rd year.
He is thirty-five years old this year, one year younger than King Robert.
Ed had a long face, dark brown hair, gray eyes, and a very neatly trimmed black beard.
Sixteen years ago, before the War of the Usurper broke out, his brother Brendan Stark led a group of noble sons to the Red Keep in King's Landing to duel Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, who had abducted his sister. They were captured by the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen. The Mad King used Brendan to lure Rickard Stark, Duke of the North, and then killed the Starks, Rhaegar, and their entourage of noble sons.
Having lost his brother and father, Eddard Stark succeeded to the title of Duke of Winterfell and became Lord in the North.
Eddard Stark was neither as robust nor handsome as his brother Brandon, nor as valiant in battle. To fight the Mad King, he married his brother's fiancée, Catelyn Tully, in order to gain the military support of Lord Hoster Tully of the Riverlands. He and Lady Catelyn had five children, the eldest of whom, at the age of fifteen, Robb Stark, was the heir to the family.
To the west of Tywin Lannister's West End lies the Sunset Sea, and to the east, the Riverlands, the domain of Lord Horst Tully. A river road connects the West End and the Riverlands through Lord Leo's Golden Tooth.
Duke Eddard was a man of honor, impartial and selfless, and kind-hearted. Because he always wore a serious expression, as stern as the frozen wasteland of the North, he was often misunderstood as cold and arrogant.
Because of his unwavering commitment to honor and his impartial and impartial conduct, Eddard Stark earned the respect and affection of the Northern nobles.
Among Jon Snow and his other children, their father, Eddard, was their role model.
Jon Snow has more pronounced Stark features than his half-siblings. He is lean, with a rectangular face like Eddard's, and dark brown hair and grey eyes like his father. His half-siblings, on the other hand, inherited their mother Catelyn's maroon hair and blue eyes.
Eddard Stark felt a pang of sorrow as he looked at the boy's eager expression. He knew perfectly well the boy's true identity, but he couldn't reveal it. Doing so would cause a huge uproar and jeopardize his friendship with King Robert and their relationship as ruler and subject.
Jon Snow is the son of Prince Rhaegar, whom King Robert despises most, and his sister Lyanna Stark. Sixteen years ago, Prince Rhaegar abducted Lyanna Stark, and the two hid in the Tower of Joy in the Red Mountains of Dorne, where their child was born. Years ago, Eddard and six companions found the Tower of Joy and engaged in a fierce battle with the three Kingsguard guards. Except for Eddard and one other friend, all the others perished in the battle.
This is the famous Battle of the Tower of Bliss!
Eddard Stark entered the Tower of Joy and found his sister Lyanna suffering from severe bleeding, with a newborn child beside her. Lyanna entrusted her child to her brother and died peacefully. Eddard Stark then took the child back, falsely claiming him to be his bastard. He raised the child for fifteen years, treating him as his own flesh and blood. Only his wife, Lady Catelyn, consistently rejected this illegitimate child and harbored contempt and hostility towards him.
"Father, I want to know who my mother is? Where does she live? Is she dead or alive? What is her surname? Is she the fisherman's daughter or Lady Vera?"
Eddard Stark looked at Jon Snow. Jon Snow was the surname of all bastards in the North. Snow was the most common thing in the North, and using it as a surname for a bastard was inherently discriminatory. For example, in Dorne, the southernmost part of the kingdom, which was mostly desert, bastards took the surname Sand, meaning sand. Sand was naturally the most common thing in the desert, and the implication of belittling the lowly and coarse birth of bastards was obvious.
"Jon, when I return from the South, I will come to the Wall to find you, and I will tell you everything about you and your mother," Eddard said solemnly.
Disappointment flashed in Jon's eyes, but he quickly composed himself, knowing that his father wanted him to be a strong person.
"Okay, Father, I'll wait for you to come back."
"Wait for me to come back!"
Then, Benjen Stark, the chief ranger of the Wall, bid farewell to his brother Eddard Stark, and Benjen and Jon Snow turned their horses and headed north. A snow-white direwolf, waiting for its master, galloped out of the roadside grass and chased after its master, Jon Snow.
Months earlier, Eddard Stark's soldiers captured a runaway Night's Watchman outside the Wolfwood. The man, terrified by something, incoherently claimed to have seen White Walkers in the Ghostwood beyond the Wall—legendary, cold, and malevolent creatures extinct for millennia. Eddard, of course, didn't believe him. He beheaded the deserter with his family's sword, Frostbite. On their way home, Eddard and his men discovered a giant direwolf, killed by a stag's antlers, and found six pups left behind.
So, each of Ed's six children received a wolf cub.
Months passed, and the wolf cub had grown to the size of a hunting dog. Jon's wolf was named Ghost, and its fur was pure white without a single blemish. Ghost was hunting in the grass when it realized its master was gone, and immediately gave chase.
Not far ahead on this road, another group awaited Benjen and Jon Snow. Among them was Yoren, a Night's Watch recruiter and an experienced "raven," who was leading two young men convicted of theft to the Wall to join the Night's Watch. Also present was Tyrion Lannister, the second son of Tywin Lannister, Lord of the Westerlands, and his two squires.
Tyrion Lannister was born deformed, with short, thick legs and a disproportionately large head that made one worry he would fall off his neck while walking. He had a prominent forehead, an ugly face, one black eye and one blue eye, long, shiny white hair, and a tangled beard of brown and gold on his chin.
He followed his brother-in-law, the king, to the North to fulfill a great wish: to go to the edge of the world—to the top of the Wall—and urinate on the icy world to the north.
The southern end of this King's Road leads to King's Landing, thousands of miles away, while the northern end leads from Winterfell to Castle Black, a military fortress on the Wall, thousands of miles away!
Every generation of Starks sends one Stark to serve as a member of the Night's Watch at the Wall, a tradition that has continued for eight thousand years. The Wall, one of the Nine Wonders of the Ancient World, stretches for thousands of miles from east to west and is seven hundred feet high. It serves as a northern barrier, preventing the wildlings from raiding and pillaging southward.
*
While the obese King Robert Stark, accompanied by his courtiers and his Hand of the King, marched south, in the Westerlands, the Mountain was intensifying his conscription and training. He was working on three fronts simultaneously: at The Rock, he was personally recruiting nine hundred infantrymen; at Lannisport, Chiswick Clegane was gathering his former Warblades, aiming for a thousand men; and Sweetmouth Ruffalo Clegane and Dunson Clegane, carrying Lord Tywin's conscription order, were recruiting from the dungeons of the various nobles in the Westerlands, aiming to fulfill Lord Tywin's order for five hundred Clegane cavalry.
The recruitment of the first batch of 300 new soldiers in Cliff Rock City went more smoothly than expected, with the number of citizens signing up exceeding the estimate by ten times. Stimulated by the benefit of tax reductions for the entire family for those who served, the exemption from grain taxes during the first year of military service, and the allure of a monthly stipend of seven silver deer coins without the need to carry weapons or armor, the enthusiasm of the citizens to enlist was unprecedented. They lined up as early as midnight, creating a bustling and endless stream that disturbed the sleep of Cliff Rock City.
Ten days later, the conscription of Cliff Rock City was successfully and perfectly completed. All nine hundred new recruits had arrived, and the original one hundred and fifty garrison troops of Cliff Rock City were all incorporated into the new recruits. In just half a month, Cliff Rock City had a 1,050-strong infantry force, which began near-brutal combat training under the nose of the Demon Mountain. To Earl Gavin's surprise, the brutal training did not elicit any complaints from the soldiers; their enthusiasm for training was high.
Such an efficient troop-building speed swept in like a whirlwind, leaving Earl Gavin of Cliff Rock in a daze, as if he were dreaming.
*
night.
The Earl's bedroom in the main castle.
A large wooden chest was pushed in front of Count Gavin and Sibel.
The Mountain and Jenny, along with old man Booz and his granddaughter Esther, who had just arrived from Clegane today.
Old man Booz arrived in Rocky Hill by carriage with his granddaughter Esther, on orders to bring this box to Earl Gavin of Rocky Hill.
Esther is the newlywed wife of knight Polliver Clegane.
At the Mountain's prompting, Count Gavin opened the large wooden chest.
The next second, the count and his wife's eyes widened.
A large wooden box, filled with golden dragons.
There is another box like this, placed in the hall below.
The golden dragons are very beautiful, radiating a bright golden glow, as if each one were brand new.
That's right, this is the result of the Demon Mountain's unauthorized minting of coins.
With its own abundant gold mines, as long as the mint has enough manpower, and everything is done in an assembly line, day and night, minting coins directly would be a very simple matter.
"Father, here are five hundred gold dragons. Adding them to the five hundred in the hall, that's enough to pay the army's wages for three months," said Demon Mountain.
Earl Gavin and Lady Hipper were overjoyed.
"I told you, I'll handle the gold coin issue," the Mountain said. "And as for the milk purchase, it's not just about winning over the hearts of all the people in the territory; it could actually be a very lucrative business. Jenny, have you gotten the glass tubes I asked for?"
"I have asked the merchants in the city to find several different types and sizes of glass tubes in Lannesport. Teach me how to make them."
"I'll teach you tonight. Father and Mother, come along too," said the Demon Mountain.