The Wedding Couldn't Be Held

In the sunlit square, Jon and the other lords were happily dividing up the gold and silver.

What they received consisted partly of payment and partly of orders and loans.

Stannis's Queen's faction believed that Jon's legitimacy to rule the Westerlands came entirely from the Iron Throne, and therefore he could do whatever he wanted. Jon, however, refused to let them take advantage of him.

This also made Jon feel lucky that Varys could be so useful.

Then Jon looked at Paxter, "Lord Paxter, I've decided to give you five hundred pieces as well!"

"Your Grace, this is too much." Despite knowing that Jon would certainly make other demands as he had with Black Walder, Paxter declined.

"Not much, not much. If you think it's too much, then find a way to send me some wine from Arbor," Jon said with a smile. "Wine? Then I guess you'll have to empty my wine cellar." After all Paxter still had the characteristics of a businessman. Now that Jon's status had become that of a major customer, he naturally couldn't hide his smile.

In fact, even if you emptied the wine cellars on Arbor, it would still be far from enough to make up for the extra portion.

Finally, the two negotiated some other agreements, such as Redwyne sending Jon some captains to help him build his fleet.

Jon believed he didn't need to remind Paxter himself controlled a route to the Free Cities, and Jon would sell a large portion of it later.

Jon distributed a couple hundred pieces to the officers around him who had performed meritorious service. Since distributing treasures directly to the soldiers was too much, he distributed the gold coins from the treasury instead.

In Westeros, soldiers belong to a profession that lives for the moment, and they quickly spend their money.

They're in the Westerlands, and they'll only spend their money Westerlands. For Jon, it's like the meat is overcooked in the pot—there's no loss at all.

Then they gave Tyrell several hundred more items, requesting that they send more food, artisans, and supplies later.

Jon glanced at the remaining portion and saw that there was still about half left. He planned to leave some for Stannis, since Stannis had genuinely sent people to help him.

Jon thought for a moment and said, "Ser Loras, take three hundred more pieces as my betrothal gift to Miss Margaery!"

Others, like the relatively poor Gavin Westerling, shook their heads at Jon's extravagant spending; once these treasures were distributed, it would be difficult to get them back later.

In this way, Jon gave away more than half of the six thousand treasures under various pretexts, leaving Stannis with a quota of one thousand.

Although the vaults were mostly emptied, they were transformed into various tangible and intangible assets stored up by Jon, which the Queen's faction members could never take away from these people.

Moreover, Jon's actions had an advantage: he could directly use these treasures to buy grain from the lords, who in turn would use their gold coins to buy grain, which would inevitably lead to higher grain prices for a period of time.

This would encourage farmers or estate owners to increase grain production, and more people would survive the harsh winters and Long Night to come.

Moreover, the distribution of these thousands of treasures will increase the amount of currency circulating in the market and boost various activities, which will help the Seven Kingdoms recover from the trauma of war more quickly.

I wonder if the Seven have a merit system; otherwise, with all that accumulated merit, Jon would probably be canonized on the spot.

However, Adam, who had remained silent, was getting anxious. Jon's reward for him had already been decided, and he was not concerned about himself, but about Jon.

As the lords lined up to move the treasures, Adam approached Jon and whispered, "My lord, you still have to hold a wedding for Miss Margaery. Now that you've spent all your money, although there are still some treasures left, they can't be turned into money immediately."

He felt very pleased to see that Adam had actually noticed this detail.

"You don't need to worry about that, Sir Adam. I plan to go directly to Highgarden to marry Margaery, which will save me the money."

Adam: "!!!"

"Casterly Rock is just my spoils of war. It's neither my home nor Margaery's home, and there will definitely be many inconveniences. So I plan to hold the wedding directly in Highgarden," Jon added another reason.

Getting married is a very complicated matter, requiring many people to handle it, and they must all be trustworthy.

Although Jon has a group of followers around him, they are all rough men, and it's hard to trust them to get anything done.

The Lannister have been entrenched here for a thousand years. They are like a colossus that has collapsed. When the colossus crumbles, stones fly and dust fills the air. If I were to hold my wedding in Casterly Rock, someone might come out to cause trouble.

Highgarden was a fortress that Tyrell had managed for three hundred years, and their family had served as stewards for the House Gardener for countless years.

Highgarden is an absolutely safe base of operations; holding a wedding there would be absolutely foolproof.

Then Jon said to Adam, "Adam, don't rush to the Wall. While I'm at Highgarden, stay and guard Casterly Rock with Ser Brynden until I return. You can also settle your family there."

"Thank you so much, sir." Adam felt a lump in his throat.

Not long after Jon divided the spoils, the lords began to leave. Loras led the spoils and his army back to Highgarden first, escorted by Paxter's fleet.

Loras was quite happy because Jon had proposed holding the wedding in Highgarden, Paxter even decided to stay and wait for Jon to finish dealing with the affairs of the Westerlands before leaving with him.

Black Walder also led his troops out of the Westerlands. This time, the House Frey did not leave empty-handed as before. They not only gained a great deal of wealth, but also gained a powerful ally like Jon.

After the others left, Jon held another trial for the soldiers who had burned, killed, and looted in the Riverlands, but this time it was not as severe as the King's Landing.

But in the end, they managed to select a few dozen of the most vicious criminals. Jon wrote to the Wall, asking them to send Alliser, who had once chased him in the Wolfswood, to take her in.

Jon sent Alliser to Casterly Rock not to show off in front of him.

When Tywin tricked Alliser into opening the gates of King's Landing, Allissa was still fighting for Aerys. She eventually laid down her weapons and surrendered, but Tywin still threatened her with either execution or going to the Wall.

This is unfair to Alliser.

Although Jon doesn't intend to get him out of the Wall immediately, he can give him a promise first, such as returning with Adam in a few years.

In this way, he would willingly act as their eyes and tentacles on the Wall.

Most importantly, Jon plans to take the old maester Aemon away when the time is right. Aemon's Targaryen blood is much purer than Jon's, and it would be bad if someone wanted to use him as a sacrifice or do some kind of dark magic. Jon needs to take precautions.

If Aemon is unable to successfully hatch a dragon in the future, and he needs to form an alliance with Daenerys, then Aemon would be a good point of intervention.

Upon learning that Casterly Rock had changed hands, the lords of the Westerlands submitted their pledges of allegiance to Jon and would soon arrive at Casterly Rock to swear allegiance to him.