The afterglow of the setting sun spreads like diluted blood on the intricate streets of Flea Bottom.
The buildings here are built close to narrow alleys, almost close to each other. If it is the first time for an outsider to enter, it is easy to get lost here.
I walked through several alleys and found that although the road under my feet was still dirty, there were obviously fewer piles of garbage, and even the pungent smell of decay in the air seemed to have faded.
"It seems that guy Rorge has quite strong execution ability."
After walking for a while, Corleone joked, "At least I know how to start from where I can see it."
Hearing this, Yego who was following him snorted disdainfully and said nothing.
When he was in the Warriors, he had always been unhappy watching Rorge, and now... he was even more unhappy.
However, not long after Corleone's words of praise fell, there was a noisy quarrel in front of him, mixed with crying.
Hearing this movement, Corleone frowned and quickened his pace a little. As soon as he turned the corner, he saw a bunch of people gathered together, and there seemed to be a dispute.
With a wink at Yego, the strong Dothraki immediately pushed forward and forcibly pushed aside the crowd.
When the two of them entered, an extremely ridiculous scene unfolded before their eyes.
I saw Rorge and a dozen of his newly gathered men being blocked in a narrow alley by a group of "humanoid creatures".
Why do I say that? Because rather than saying that they are human beings, it is more appropriate to call these guys moving garbage dumps.
Most of them are stooped, and their skin is covered with thick dirt and unknown mucus, forming a special layer of "armor" that makes it almost impossible to see their original skin color.
Their hair was all brittle, greasy, and covered with lice, but their eyes were extremely fierce and full of beast-like light.
There were even several children of different ages who were as thin as skeletons and had distinct ribs.
Most of them held various weapons in their hands, including sharpened Wooden Club, broken pottery shards with sharp edges, and even a few dried hard lumps that looked like feces.
One of the boys, whose face was too dirty to see clearly, was hugging the wheels of a cart that had just been filled with garbage and crying, "That's mine. I saw that board first, you can't take it away!"
His voice was very sharp, and Rorge stepped forward irritably and kicked him.
"Get out of here! What's the use of a few pieces of rotten wood? Don't block the way!"
The boy immediately fell down in the mud, hit his head and started bleeding.
At this moment, as if a fuse was lit, the people around who were watching numbly showed angry looks on their faces, pointed at Rorge and began to insult and accuse.
"That's good wood. It can keep out the wind at night!"
"Rorge, shall I draft it!"
"Ralf never snatched things from us when he was here, why do you!"
There were constant denunciations from all directions, and Rorge became angry after being scolded. He jumped on the cart and roared, "I am helping you clean up the garbage, you bunch of ungrateful bastards!"
"If you dare to block my way again, believe it or not, I will kill you all and throw you into Brown Soup!"
After all, it has been flourishing in Flea Bottom for more than ten years, and Rorge's power is still there.
His threats worked, many people backed away in fear, and the insults gradually disappeared.
"Bah!" Seeing this, Rorge spat on the ground and cursed, "A bunch of wild dogs that want to be beaten, they will always be disobedient unless they are taught a lesson!"
"Go on...
But just when he ordered his men to take action, a hoarse voice came from the shadows.
"A few days after leaving Flea Bottom, he became a big shot, Rorge."
After hearing this, everyone looked and saw an old man with a hunchback walking out of the corner.
Seeing his appearance, Rorge's face flashed with a trace of unnaturalness, but he immediately said disdainfully, "Don't meddle in other people's business, Wes!"
"I was ordered by Lord Corleone to clean up this damn place."
"Take away this garbage and make the streets clean, so that you ungrateful bastards can live like human beings. Are you willing to live in feces and mud for the rest of your life, huh?"
"Shit? Mud?"
The man named Wes sneered, and his voice was more harsh and unpleasant than that of a night owl.
He stepped forward, patted the car full of garbage, and mocked. "As a human being, don't forget your roots, Rorge."
"Back then, you also grew up eating rotten food from garbage dumps. In order to get a bite of meat, your nose was bitten off by wild dogs. I still remember all this clearly!"
As he spoke, Wes raised his hand and pointed around, saying loudly, "Every pile of rags, every bone, and even every puddle of feces under your feet has an owner!"
"You take away the trash, what will my children eat? What will they wear?"
"You have cleaned up the excrement, what will the wild dogs eat? If even the wild dogs are unwilling to come to the flea nest, do you want us to run outside and catch the dogs and eat them at the risk of being beaten to death by the golden robes?"
His reasoning is very simple and twisted, but it has to be said that this is the reality of Flea Bottom.
Even Rorge was brought back memories by Wes's words and took half a step back unconsciously.
However, Wes continued. He opened his arms as if to embrace this filthy the Seven Kingdoms: "I know what you are thinking, Rorge!"
"You are working for the big shots. You sweep the streets clean so that the gentlemen's carriages can come in. What next?"
"The price of land will be high, and we will be driven to a stinkier and farther corner to wait for death!"
"Filth is our moat and stench is our city wall. Now you want to tear down our city wall and you say it's for our own good?"
"You have clearly betrayed Flea Bottom!"
He pointed at Rorge's nose... and shouted loudly, immediately winning the approval of everyone around him.
Thinking that they would have no garbage to eat in the future, the crowd began to roar in unison.
"Ho! Ho! Ho!"
They used sharpened pieces of wood and ceramic shards to knock on the walls and the ground with terrifying force.
Seeing this, Rorge's face looked uncertain.
Wes is right, he did grow up in Flea Bottom, and he knows the rules of survival here very well. In fact, he is not optimistic at all about whether Corleone can change Flea Bottom.
But... there is no way.
He cannot disobey Lord Corleone's order, because this is the foundation for him to settle down and live in King's Landing.
Seeing that the sky was getting dark, but the final area could not be taken down, Rorge gritted his teeth, a flash of fierceness flashed in his eyes, pointed at Wes and shouted to the men around him, "Damn it! Get it!"
"First kill this old guy who is leading the nonsense and see who dares to block the way!"
After hearing Rorge's order, several of his subordinates looked at each other with some hesitation.
"Boss...
One of them whispered, "Old Wes is the eldest in Flea Bottom. He has watched most of the people here grow up, and... didn't we eat his food when we were children?"
"Fuck you!"
Rorge slapped the man in the face and roared, "Even if he is my biological father, I will kill him today!"
"If you keep talking nonsense, I will be the first to kill you right now!"
Hearing this, the men had no choice but to bite the bullet, took out the daggers and sticks they carried with them, and approached Wes step by step.
A trace of fear flashed in old Wes's eyes, but he still held on and did not retreat.
Behind him, the roars of countless scavengers became more intense, and the conflict was about to break out.
Just then.
"It seems that my people have encountered a little trouble."
A calm voice came, but it miraculously suppressed all the noise.
People followed the sound and saw two more people at the entrance of the alley.
The man walking in front had a well-proportioned figure, and the afterglow of the setting sun shone on him, outlining a faint golden outline.
He is clean, upright and calm, and is incompatible with his surrounding environment.
But it's strange that even though he didn't speak, he seemed to have a strange aura that made the originally boiling scene instantly quiet, as if he was born to be the ruler here.
Under everyone's gaze, he just stepped forward, and the tall and strong Dothraki Warrior followed closely in his footsteps, keeping his right hand pressed on the hilt of the sword.
Behind Corleone, the black cape swayed from side to side, walking slowly through the crowd, and finally his eyes fell calmly on Wes.
"I'm sorry, Your Excellency...
Seeing his appearance, Rorge was about to explain, but Corleone just raised his hand slightly and silenced him immediately.
Wes swallowed, stared at the extraordinary stranger in front of him warily, and asked, "Who are you?"
Corleone didn't stop until he was only a few steps away from Wes.
"I am Vito·Corleone."
His self-introduction was simple and direct, without any nonsense. "From today on, I will set the rules of Flea Bottom."
"This is impossible...
Wes was about to retort when a sharp sword blade touched his neck so fast that no one present had time to react.
"Put Wes!"
"Let him go, outsider!"
Dothraki Warrior's actions aroused public outrage, and people shouted and demanded his release.
Seemingly gaining confidence, Wes, who had a sword on his neck, straightened his chest without fear and looked directly at Corleone.
However, the expected anger or scolding did not appear. Corleone just looked slowly across the crowd, scanning those numb, crazy, and frightened eyes.
This group of people live at the bottom of the cesspit, but they regard the cesspit as their home and defend it to the death.
They do not desire change, but have a deep-seated fear of change.
Because they have never seen a good life, they cannot imagine what "good" is like, and even think that "good" will bring greater disasters.
These people reminded Corleone of the group of farmhands who accused him when he first traveled through time.
Same stupidity.
"Wes."
Finally, Corleone once again looked at Wes, the poor man who was king in the cesspit. "You are a pathetic manager. You have trained your people to become maggots who rely on garbage to survive."
Hearing him say this, a trace of pain flashed in Wes's eyes, but it was immediately replaced by stubbornness.
"For people like you, you don't understand anything at all...
"Two choices."
However, Corleone was not in the mood to listen to him talk about some tragic and painful tirade, as if the whole world owed him.
He just held out two fingers and spoke calmly, "I'm only going to say it once, so listen."
"One, take your ownership of these maggots and feces and sink to the bottom of the blackwater river forever."
"The Dothraki warrior beside me will make sure you sink deep enough."
As he finished speaking, the sword in Yego's hand exerted a little force, leaving a bloody mark on Wes's neck.
That kind of indifference towards life and death made Wes truly feel that death was coming.
one"
Corleone continued to speak, his tone still not softening. "Forget your trash, you and your people will work for me."
As he said that, he looked around, looking at the eyes that were still full of hostility and confusion, and said loudly, "Work for my Cleaning Crew, and you can eat enough every day, and I can guarantee that the bread will never be sour!"
As soon as these words came out, the hostility of the people around him seemed to immediately weaken a bit.
Can you eat enough every day?
Or fresh bread?
This description is like paradise to this group of people who have been hungry for a long time.
"I... why should I believe you!"
Even Wes couldn't help but be moved. He licked his chapped lips, with a look of longing and suspicion in his eyes. "A noble nobleman like you, who is so superior, is the best at lying to others."
Hearing this, Corleone made a gesture without any nonsense.
Yego Seeing this, he immediately took back the sword blade in his hand, took off the heavy baggage on his back, and opened the bag.
Wow!!!
Under everyone's gaze, countless Gold Dragon poured down like water, falling onto the filthy ground.
The afterglow of the setting sun reflects on the gold, and the dazzling light almost stings the eyes of those who live in darkness all year round.
A lot of money!
Some people have never seen Gold Dragon in their entire lives. Even if they exhaust all their imaginations, they cannot estimate how much money is here!
Their eyes widened to the limit, and they made meaningless "gurgling" sounds in their throats.
Some people subconsciously stretched out their hands to touch it, but then retracted it as if they had been burned. Others were completely at a loss.
Obviously, their brains were completely unable to process this extremely impactful picture.
Gold Dragon lay quietly on top of the filth, but Corleone didn't even look at them.
It is common sense that wealth should not be exposed.
But for Corleone, who is about to establish absolute authority and credibility, at this moment, showing unrivaled financial resources is the most direct and effective way to gain trust and respect.
He glanced at everyone's faces and knew clearly that his goal had been achieved, so he loudly declared, "Remember, from this moment on, you are no longer protecting garbage!"
"You will work for Corleone family, you will protect my streets, my order!"
"Whoever continues to obstruct me is stealing my money and becoming my enemy!"
Then, he lowered his head and looked at Wes, who was lying beside Gold Dragon, who was burying his head and crying loudly. He turned his head to the side and ordered to Rorge, "Have someone take them to clean them, and then start work."
"Yes... yes, Your Excellency!"
Rorge was obviously shocked by Corleone's generosity, and it took him a moment to react.
It was not that he had never seen so much money before, but the scene of dumping Gold Dragon in the feces and mud like garbage was really shocking.
"Wait."
But just when Rorge was about to follow the order and do something, Corleone stopped him again and pointed at Wes who was still sobbing on the ground.
"After this guy calms down, ask him if there is anyone behind them."
"Also.
1
"Send people to Gold Cloaks Headquarters to find Herb·Lake, Old Moss and Pock, and say...Corleone needs them to repay the favor."
After saying that, Corleone turned and left, not looking at the people behind him again.
As he entered the Blood Pit gate, the sunset completely sank into the horizon, and night fell.
The old era has passed, and the new order, with the arrival of Corleone, has taken root and sprouted in this darkest land.