When the household guards returned from their brief pursuit, they saw Su Qin talking to a merchant.
The merchant wore a woolen robe and barely qualified as a moderately well-off trader.
He was a salt merchant who sold white salt!
Speaking of salt, the salt in Westeros deserved a mention: it was a coarse-grained sea salt!
It was certainly white! When eaten, it tasted much like ordinary table salt!
There were no stories of salt poisoning, either! So the salt-drying techniques in Westeros were probably decent!
Su Qin looked at the merchant, whose face was full of gratitude as he fumbled inside his robes with both hands.
He took out a small pouch!
"My lord baron, these are fifty gold coins. I am deeply grateful to you for rescuing me today!"
Su Qin nodded to his household guards, telling them to accept the money!
Even ordinary mercenaries earned something from escort missions! Su Qin did not mind giving each of the ten household guards who had accompanied him five gold coins!
Su Qin looked the merchant over. He was quite fair and clean-looking!
"Ker, I'd like to know where you obtained this shipment of salt!"
Salt was, after all, a strategic resource in this era, and Su Qin had designs on it!
Ker hesitated. It was not really a secret.
After some thought, Ker began explaining the sources of salt in detail!
From what Su Qin learned, most salt was produced by drying seawater, then putting it through several rounds of a filtration process developed by the maesters!
The largest salt-producing region in all of Westeros was Dorne's Salt Shore Territory. Their territory was literally named Salt Shore! Because of the temperature, this region produced the most sea salt!
Salt was also Dorne's greatest resource and source of gold! Most of Dorne was desert, so grain was in very short supply!
But salt and minerals were not!
The other salt-producing regions did not produce very much!
After learning about salt production, he began asking about the nearby bandit companies!
No one knew bandits better than merchants!
These bandits, rebel knight companies, and thieves often took advantage of weak village defenses to rob them!
With the great lords keeping them in check, these people did not dare abandon all restraint and burn, kill, and plunder!
Women, however, would most likely suffer! Property might be stolen!
But common women in this era did not place such importance on chastity, and some villages even welcomed these people of their own accord!
If they paid, it counted as a source of income, after all!
This had much to do with inadequate productivity and a shortage of resources needed to survive!
Su Qin slowly unfolded the parchment map he carried and had Ker mark the largest bandit bases in Runestone Territory!
Although the bandits showed some restraint, they still warranted attention!
He might even wipe them out outright once he grew powerful in the future!
Kelun pointed to the location of the former Seagull Port and looked up at Su Qin.
"My lord, Runestone Territory has two major mercenary companies and two major bandit companies!"
"One organization in Gull Territory is called the Gull Company. It's a mercenary company organized by local nobles, responsible for taking routine commissions posted by merchants in Gull Territory!"
"Its commander is the eldest son of your Right Minister of Finance!"
Su Qin nodded. He knew about this; he often encountered these people in the harbor tavern!
"I know. A mercenary company of around a hundred men!"
"The commander's name is Red-Haired Jon. I've received him!"
That young fellow's attributes were actually quite good!
"Yes, my lord, that's Red-Haired Jon!" Ker said.
"Tell me about the two major bandit companies!"
Ker nodded. "The first bandit company is called the White Tooth Company. Its commander is White-Toothed Byla, and it makes its living collecting protection money from timber merchants from other regions!
"Its base is west of the former Seagull Port!"
Su Qin nodded. Since they only collected protection money from outside merchants, they were probably covert agents of the authorities!
Such things actually had the Earl's tacit approval!
There were benefits and drawbacks!
The drawback was that it restricted commerce!
The benefit was that outside merchants would do less buying and reselling for profit, encouraging local merchants to export redwood elsewhere!
"The second is the Greenstone Company, with a hundred or so men in all. Its commander is a rebel knight, Lame Byron!"
"They usually make their living robbing middling merchants like us who sell salt, iron ingots, pottery, and the like!"
Su Qin nodded. "Where are these people based?"
Ker marked the map. It was the old abandoned port, Seagull Port!
Forty kilometers northeast of Gulltown lay a natural harbor, Seagull Port. But its great castle and surrounding buildings had been burned down like Harrenhal, so no residents lived there!
Normally, such a place would have been cleared and rebuilt!
But perhaps because it would have consumed too much manpower and too many resources, House Royce had not rebuilt Seagull Port!
The question, however, was why Yaron allowed these bandits to exist!
With House Royce's military strength, raising five thousand regular troops would be no problem. So why had they not wiped them out?
The most likely possibility was that this bandit company served as eyes and ears planted in Runestone Territory by a greater house!
That was why they had left these bandits alone!
One move could affect everything. Taking action signaled hostility toward the other side, and conflict and war would not be far behind!
Then would my attack on the Greenstone Company this time put pressure on House Royce?
Could it become the spark for some incident?
He set that question aside and would wait to see the other side's response!
After bidding the merchant farewell, Su Qin continued toward Four Crossroads Fortress, planning to rest there for a night before heading to Runestone.
He set out early the next morning!
Morning, Runestone.
A woman dressed in black entered the castle. She had a voluptuous figure, wore a patterned mask, and carried a bundle.
After the castle guards verified her identity, she entered the castle.
Delia had her head lowered as she sorted intelligence materials.
This was the sewing room, a spacious room with many tailors.
The person outside knocked on the door, while Delia continued looking down at the information.
Much of the intelligence required careful consideration, and some might even be false! It was not impossible for the Scissors to turn traitor!
Noticing the knock, Delia looked up at the hourglass. Ten hourglasses into the morning.
"Come in."
The woman wearing a silver mask walked up before Delia's mask, knelt on one knee, handed over a letter, and opened a box.
Inside were some gold coins!
Delia accepted the letter and glanced briefly at the box of gold coins.
She looked at the design on the sealing wax. "You may leave."
It was a red butterfly-the Golden Tailor!
She slowly opened the letter, and its contents came into view.
"My lady:
Geda Arryn has designated Jon Arryn as heir to the Vale. Jon Arryn will become heir to the Vale in one month. Ravens inviting the nobles of each territory to come swear allegiance will fly out in three days.
Signed: Golden Tailor"
Delia tossed the letter into the fire and pondered deeply for a while.
After thinking it through, Delia sighed faintly.
"What a fine move. The old duke is as venomous as ever."
"Jon Arryn, you wife-killer, do you even deserve it?"
"Jon, who doesn't know about your little schemes? Joining forces with the wolf, stag, and falcon-would you really dare rebel?"
The fish house was playing both sides as usual and had yet to raise its stake on Jon!
Delia gathered the gold coins and placed them in the silver box beneath her bed!
"Then the marchioness of Ironoaks can only retreat. House Targaryen is still declining by the day. I'm afraid some within the Vale's Dragon Party will wait and see, or switch sides!"
"Troubled times!" "King's Landing, what are you doing!?"
"King's Landing probably regrets all those years of marriage alliances with House Arryn going to waste!"
"The First Men have been driven into the Mountains of the Moon, and someone in the west keeps House Arryn in check. The east still requires some caution!"
Delia drank a cup of wine!
"I must remind Crown Prince Rhaegar to beware of House Lannister. Tywin has been making far too many little moves!"
The intelligence showed that the Dragon Party's forces within the various duchies were being reshuffled!
The final years of a dynasty!
When the central authority could not sufficiently suppress separatist powers, rebellion would breed!
A short while later, outside the sewing room.
"Knock, knock, knock..." A series of knocks sounded.
"My lady, the Baron of Gull Territory is one kilometer from Runestone."
Su Qin had arrived, because there was a betrothal ceremony!
No great nobles had been invited to this betrothal, since Su Qin's rank was low. A simple ceremony would suffice!
As for why the Earl's family was doing things this way, who knew the reason!?
The Runestone (Royce) family was no minor house. For a marriage alliance, their first consideration should have been nobles of marquess rank!
Nobles of marquess rank generally had succession rights to a duchy!
Delia tidied her appearance in the mirror, looked at her violet eyes, pinned up her hair, then left the city to welcome him.