The king on the Great Wall

The blazing flames instantly engulfed dozens of ghouls stepping on the wooden boards, and divided the army of dead into two groups, the inner circle and the inner circle. There were less than a hundred ghouls in the inner circle, and they quickly turned into ghouls under the violent counterattack of the living people. Heaps of rotten flesh and bones or fireballs, the last batch of savages seemed to be saved!

"Keep throwing oil barrels." Melisandre tried her best to maintain the spell, but tried to make a casual expression of weightlessness, which helped to awe the onlookers: "R'hllor can't create such a thing out of thin air." A fire, something has to burn for it to continue."

With the facts in front of him, Mormont had no choice but to choose to believe her. The commander-in-chief turned his head to look at the surrounding soldiers, and shouted sharply, "What are you looking at, keep throwing!"

Iger felt the sudden surge of heat from Melisandre's body, poked his head out and continued to look at the situation below: the flame continued to burn violently, and quickly engulfed the entire wooden wall.The sound of the fence breaking and falling to the ground was clearly recognizable. In terms of the intensity of the fire alone, even dozens of cans of wildfire could hardly produce such power.

Ghouls are not intelligent, but the existence behind the scenes that controls them is not stupid. Seeing that no puppets can pass through the raging flames alive, the ghouls around stood still in unison, and even took two steps back and dispersed. Formation, in order to reduce the rocket's killing efficiency against them.

"My lord, quickly open the gate, the people below can still be saved!"

"But there are so many people... more than us in Castle Black and the Mountain Clan combined, just in case..."

"Give me an order, the highest security in Castle Black, raise the gate to the height of a man." Mormont ordered with a serious face, "Tell the brother who manages the portcullis today, once you hear the horn sound later, close the gate again immediately!"

……

The portcullis was raised a little over a meter again, and the excited cries from the bottom of the Great Wall could even be heard on the top of the Great Wall. Although the wild people suffered heavy casualties after a bloody battle, they were no longer like when they just escaped from the ghost forest. So flustered and mindless, whether it was under the command of James and other night watchmen or completely spontaneous, the male warriors and spearwives consciously continued to maintain vigilance on the periphery, letting the children and the wounded pass first.

It seemed that the crisis was about to be overcome with Melisandre's intervention, but the witch who was maintaining the high wall of flames quickly changed her expression and looked up at the edge of the ghost forest: "They are here."

Mormont followed the red woman's gaze, but saw no one: "Who? What?"

A familiar chill suddenly emerged on the surface of the skin, and Iger, who had experienced this feeling before, was the first to understand what the witch said.He looked towards the edge of the ghost forest, but he didn't catch the silhouette of the other ghosts, but he caught a glimpse of a cold light from the corner of his eyes, and the familiar fear came back to his heart.In the sense of danger that exploded, he did not hesitate to use his arms to push the red-robed woman hard.

-

Chapter 244

"Chirp—"

The sound of piercing the air, which should have been very clear and pleasant, was so loud that it hurt everyone's ears. Melisandre groaned and lost her balance, falling backwards on the dirty ice.

Iger broke out in a cold sweat.In fact, he didn't see the trajectory of the flying foreign object clearly at all, but the flash of light in his vision activated his deep-buried distress memories, and he responded in a timely manner reflexively—he knew very well: if the enemy If he wanted to attack someone present, he, who had left the imprint of the cold god because he had killed a different ghost, and Melisandre, who was a follower of the Red God and mastered fire magic, were undoubtedly the two most likely to be targets.

His push just now was not only to save Melisandre, but he also used the reaction force to retreat from the original place.

Then, sure enough, something flew over.

The gray-white shadow flew past where Melisandre was standing like a small ghost, and after a distance of nearly one league, it still hadn't finished, and quickly disappeared to the south of the Great Wall with the lingering sound In the gray sky.

If it weren't for Iger's push, the red-robed woman would have been pierced through her chest and killed on the spot.

……

The Wall was so high that few long-range weapons could reach anyone on top, and the Night Watch stood on it unaware.The other officers around only saw that Iger suddenly pushed the red-robed woman down, and then there was a loud noise piercing through the air, and it took a few seconds for the reverberation to dissipate before everyone reacted.

"What was that just now?" Mormont almost suspected that his eyes were blind. He looked back in shock, but he had already lost sight of what flew past him a moment ago.

"The weapon thrown by the White Walker, I was almost killed by this trick." Ice sword, ice spear, or just a stone? Iger didn't see clearly, he took two steps back, left the dangerous area, squatted down to help He called up the witch on the ground: "Ms. Melisandre, are you all right?"

"Well... I'm fine." The red-robed woman stood up, her face pale, her hand covering her left arm.Since Iger knew her, this woman has never acted so like an ordinary person: "As expected of the servants of the cold god, I was just thinking about how to ... careless them."

Before the words fell, there was another loud noise. The Great Wall seemed to have been hit by a shell. The ice surface under everyone's feet was actually loosened and cracked in the vibration. A section of the ice crenel on the edge that prevented the sentry from falling and the base collapsed for more than one meter. The wide, cracked ice rolled down with a clatter, scaring the surrounding soldiers to retreat away from the edge of the Great Wall.

The White Walker's second long-range attack hit the Great Wall!Judging from the location of the "shot", the enemy probably wanted to pierce through the ice to kill Melisandre, who had been pulled to the dead end of the throw, but the ice was frozen much stronger than the opponent imagined, so they failed .

It's not safe here!

"Ma'am, please leave the top of the Great Wall, the White Walkers can sense your position!"

The spell was forcibly interrupted, leaving the witch in dizziness and pain. She nodded without holding on.Let the attentive soldiers take the initiative to help her to the direction of the elevator cage, open the door to enter, and descend to the ground.

The White Walker that Iger killed two years ago, the ice sword thrown could only penetrate half a meter into the tree, but this time Melisandre encountered a solid ice layer that was more than one meter thick... What is the origin? Are the attacking White Walkers more powerful, or have the ghosts gotten stronger over time?

The second attack of an unknown projectile like a cannonball smashing part of the ice wall scared all the soldiers on the top of the Great Wall. Fortunately, the third attack did not come. It was not easy, and soon a night watchman exclaimed: "Master Commander, the fire below... seems to be extinguished!"

Regardless of the threat of the White Walker's long-range attack and Egger's dissuasion, Mormont approached the edge of the Great Wall and looked down: the wildfire and asphalt lamp oil in the oil barrel had already been consumed by the catalytic combustion of the combustion-supporting spell, and the towering flame wall a moment ago, In fact, it is entirely the wooden fence and the door panels that burn back and forth under the encouragement of spells—without the help of fire magic, a small amount of wood can't form this kind of burning effect at all. Once Melisandre's spellcasting was stopped, the wall of fire immediately withered into nothingness. There was a pool of red glowing charcoal on the ground, the heat was still there, but it could no longer immediately destroy the ghouls that stepped on it.

The dark tide of ghouls squeezed towards the entrance of Castle Black without hesitation. Two tall ghouls had strode unsteadily to the middle of the isolation zone between the Ghost Forest and the Great Wall—these two giants It would be a disaster if any of the gang squeezed into the passageway and jammed the gate before it closed.The simple undead may be easy to deal with, as long as a big fire is lit at the entrance of the tunnel, and some dragonglass weapons are prepared, even a hundred thousand ghouls cannot pass through the Great Wall, but Castle Black is now crowded with wildlings who have just passed through. In such a chaotic situation, if the ghoul got in, even if the night watchmen had all kinds of tricks, they couldn't do anything!

The ballista that could have returned the color has been moved down to prevent the wildlings from unrest, and the super-long-range "beheading" attack by the White Walker on Melisandre just now opened Mormont's eyes. What he faced was a group of intelligent and unknown opponents. Facing this group of cunning and dangerous enemies, as the commander-in-chief of the Night Watch, he dared not be careless.

Gritting his teeth, Elder Xiong made a difficult decision: "Horn! Get ready!"

"Has Jaime entered the Wall?"

"Probably not, there are still several brothers in black!" Mormont took a breath, determined to ignore him: "It's too late, blow the horn, and close the door!"

Iger stomped his feet, and before he had time to argue with his boss, he turned to ask the other night watchmen behind him: "Where's the little hanging basket, the one used when Mance came in to negotiate?"

"In the corner over there!"

"Put it down!"

The iron gate was pushed down with a bang, and the last savage who passed was almost crushed, lying on the ground and reluctantly rolled in. A woman holding a child saw that she had no hope of passing, so she threw the baby out of her arms and watched the child come out. Flying into the gap before the iron gate closed, he picked up the torch dropped on the ground contentedly, and turned to face the tide of ghouls.

The sound of the iron gate falling to the ground sentenced everyone who had not yet entered the passage to death. The oil barrels and rockets could no longer stop the pale ghouls from engulfing the last few hundred people. From the top of the Great Wall, you can clearly see the black faces of the night watchmen on duty today. The figure is like black ink dripping into the sewage, and it can no longer be seen in an instant.

……

The fine steel sword brought from Casterly Rock City has been sharpened, but it is still a slaughter weapon under James' hands. He spins at high speed like a top, chopping up every ghoul that rushes towards him.Seeing the endless undead rushing towards him with teeth and claws, the King Slayer felt relieved.

It seems that he can have a decent ending. The only regret is that he didn't even meet the legendary "White Ghosts", and he was driven to a dead end by these things that were said to be mere soldiers.

A black shadow swayed over his head. He looked up and saw that it was a small gondola that could only accommodate one person. Because it was not fixed by rails like a lift cage, it was spinning and swaying in the strong wind.Constantly swaying, he hesitated for a second, and finally chopped down a ghoul. When the hanging basket swung in front of him again, he jumped up decisively and grabbed the thick rope that was holding the hanging basket.

-

Chapter 245

The hanging basket is not connected with a winch and a bunch of other organs like a lifting cage, it is completely pulled by people with bare hands.The moment James jumped up, several ghouls also climbed up and grabbed the basket. The weight of one person and several ghosts made the rope strenuously increased, almost bringing down the few soldiers who were dragging the other end from the top of the Great Wall... a close shot At this moment, he swung his sword with one hand, cut off the part where the rope was tied to the hanging basket, then decisively threw away the weapon, grabbed the rope with both hands and climbed up half a meter, avoiding the dead body that had rushed to the Great Wall to try to catch him. The giant's giant palm successfully escaped from the tide of ghouls and ascended to heaven.

I don't know whether it was due to exhaustion of strength, or because they didn't know Jaime Lannister at all, but the White Walkers hiding at the edge of the Haunted Forest no longer used long-range means to attack the rangers who were pulling up the rope.After swaying back and forth in the bitter cold wind for more than ten minutes and having intimate contact with the ice wall of the Great Wall countless times, James climbed to the top of the Great Wall from the north side for the first time.

***

"Huh..." Panting heavily, James climbed up to the top of the Great Wall with hands and feet. After fighting and sweating, the cold wind blew for a long time. His whole body was frozen stiff, lying on the ground, and it took a long time to recover , thank you all.

"Don't talk yet, give him a blanket, and talk in the room below." Egger finally persuaded Mormont to leave the edge of the Great Wall: "Keep throwing oil barrels, we can't let the White Walkers turn the dead brothers into living ones." dead!"

"But my lord, the reserves are running out..."

"Execute the order! Throw away the oil barrels as soon as they are finished. Immediately... we will all change into wildfires! This is the first time that ghouls have been attached to the Great Wall for us to kill. If we don't take advantage of this opportunity to kill more, we will regret it in the future! "Iger has already made up his mind: immediately notify Donghai Watch after returning, and distribute the passivation wildfire brought by King's Landing to every fort along the Great Wall. The war between the living and the dead seems to have started earlier than expected. "My lord commander, I suggest that starting today, the number of sentries on the top of the Great Wall should be doubled again. When there is nothing to do, you are not allowed to lean on the edge of the Great Wall. Let someone help you and carry Sir James away!"

……

Because there is no need to worry about accidentally injuring living people, the oil barrels exploded at the entrance of the iron gate where the ghouls are most densely populated, frantically devouring the puppets of the cold god and the corpses that have not yet been "resurrected" on the ground.The army of the dead wiped out the last living person on the ground, and quickly retreated away from the Great Wall under the command of the remote control.

In a bloody and ill-conceived battle, the White Walkers manage to keep the last of the wildlings from making it through the Wall, while bringing chaos to Castle Black.On the human side, there are also many things to be thankful for. Although the only mage on the Great Wall was lured into the trap, he survived the unimaginable ultra-long-range sniper. The army of dead people suffered heavy losses under the fierce bombardment of the night watchmen. Disk, but the number is not more than before the war.

The remaining ghouls retreated into the Haunted Forest, and the battle was over.But the troubles caused by the White Walkers to the night watchmen are far from being resolved: Castle Black is now full of wildlings, children are crying and calling for their parents, women are desperately looking for husbands, and some men are angrily asking why the "crows" let go The gate cut off the way of life of their people.

The night watchmen were able to ensure that the savages disarmed obediently, handed over food and important livestock, and then accepted the arrangement, relying on the absolute number and force superiority of each batch of "new land granters", and semi-forced them to accept the arrangement, but now …The number of disaffected, angry, or confused wildlings in Castle Black greatly exceeds the number of Night Watchmen and Mountain Clansmen, and this large group of people obviously has no intention of obeying orders at this moment.

"Let them leave the gates of Castle Black first. Only when we regain full control of the fortress can we continue the process of converting them into new land-grants. If there are not enough manpower, we will transfer another hundred from the Queen's Gate..."

Jon looked carefully at the huddled savages, hesitating a bit: "But these people fled in a hurry, didn't bring all the food, and just lost many relatives. Even so, do they still have to carry out the original plan?"

"The key is not to have them hand over all their belongings to the night watchman, but to teach them how to use coins, and to incorporate them into the first layer of the small social structure of the land grant, so as to manage them in the easiest way, understand ?Even if they lost most of their belongings while fleeing, even if they lost many relatives outside the iron gate just now, they can’t disrupt the plan, otherwise, the loss will only continue to expand!” Iger shook his head: “Okay, you go immediately Do it, don't make trouble, I'm going to have a meeting with the commander-in-chief."

……

"How many of our brothers are on duty in the fence below today?"

"Thirty, the Lord Commander opened the gates for the last time, ten of them came in to show the wildlings the way. Of the remaining twenty, only Sir Jaime was rescued."

This is already a blessing in misfortune, but apparently some people are still dissatisfied: "Nineteen brothers! Just in exchange for more than 2000 mouths, they escaped in such a hurry that they didn't even bring in all the food!"

When Bowen Marsh said this, he stared straight at Iger, obviously aimed at him. The chief affairs officer is a typical conservative among the senior members of the Night Watch. He has long been dissatisfied with Iger's radical plan, but Commander Mormont has always There is nothing you can do to support the latter... This time such a big event happened, and finally I can rely on it to criticize and attack the other party.

But the latter clearly has no intention of compromising.

"Master Marci thinks that those nineteen brothers are more important than these thousands of people who will soon become new land granters. I dare not object to the touching comradeship. But as the chief logistics officer, I am more accustomed to using numbers We have lost nineteen brothers, but are about to get nearly three thousand new land-grants, and even if only one percent of them can fight, it will make up for the loss." Iger said: "More Besides, I'm sure your lords must have heard of the concept of a spearwife."

"Yeah, female savages can also fight. Out of [-] people, maybe [-] can fight. I admit that when the White Walkers kill the Great Wall, they will probably be on our side... But if they turn back today So what if the water makes trouble in Castle Black, or one day we should join forces with the remaining wildlings who left the large army and fled to the Haunted Forest to capture the Great Wall?"

"We seem to have discussed this issue, how to prevent this from happening, the responsibility is on me." Iger shrugged: "Control Mance Rayder and his family, and disperse all possible tribes... Control them with a complete social system, and within half a year, they will be as law-abiding and hard-working as farmers in any area of ​​the Seven Kingdoms."

"Stop arguing about this matter. I chose Iger's adventure plan, and it's too late to regret it now." Mormont knocked on the table, interrupting the conversation: "The wildlings in the castle, have you been driven out?"

"Jon is taking care of it."

"How to deal with such a large group of people?"

"Temporarily placed outside Castle Black, in the ruins of the original Mole Village. When the reinforcements from the Queen's Gate and Sable Hall arrive, they will surround their temporary residence and force them to follow the same procedures as the previous waves to become new grantees. "

"You should have noticed that the people who passed the Great Wall today carried far less food than the previous batch of savages. This made our material situation worse again. How to solve it?"

"It will take ten to 20 days to start the second step of our plan in advance, so that the new land grantees will get used to 'doing things with money'." Iger replied: "Then, I will organize a large-scale 'grain transportation' to organize two At least 3000 people will go south to the north, to the areas harassed by the Ironmen, and bring back food."

"I'm afraid the savage won't work so obediently for you."

"I'll pretend I'm there only to 'accidentally discover' that the Ironmen have half the North, and tell them we'll starve to death in the middle of winter if we don't get rid of the pirates and get the food in the North. By then, They can’t help it.”

"If we want to take advantage of this ironborn invasion, make contributions and obtain food from the northern princes, we probably have to hurry up." Maester Aemon coughed and said tremblingly, "The latest is from the south According to the news, King Stannis did not regain Storm's End, but returned to defeat the Reach Army... This time it was a real defeat. It is said that even Earl Tarly was shot by arrows when he was trying to gather the rout. Died instantly."

Mormont frowned. "Does Sam know?"

"No, but it's just rumored that I haven't received the body, so I can't be sure." The old bachelor shook his head and continued: "In addition, news came from the Long Night Fort that they ran into some people who were trying to sneak into the fort. Three children, one Tall fool, judging from the description, it should be that Bran Stark and the Reed siblings are right, so how should we deal with this?"

Bran Stark was actually stopped before going out of the wall?

Iger was a little surprised. It seems that the Green Prophet is not omnipotent.However, strictly speaking, Bran’s failure to get out of the wall is largely due to the fact that his land-grant resettlement plan has filled the Great Wall with people... Will this ruin the Green Prophet’s business again? To be hated by him?

He became uneasy, the Green Prophet would never give up on Bran's matter... No matter what measures he took, at least he himself would never take the initiative to intervene again.

……

Mormont didn't know what was going on behind the incident of this little brat running away from home. He touched his chin and came to a conclusion without much thought: "Send someone back to Winterfell."

The chief ranger reminded: "But this has to be done by the night watchman who knows the way. The people inside and outside the Long Night Castle are all newcomers, and they have no ability to send people to Winterfell safely."

"And the king's road is still being harassed by the ironmen. From my point of view, it's the same as the last time Miss Stark came here. First, send someone to watch over the three children, and send the news back to Winterfell, so that they can take care of themselves." Send someone to pick it up."

"That's fine, Maester Aemon, I'll leave this to you."

The blind bachelor nodded. As the weather got colder day by day, his health seemed to be getting worse and worse. He had just reported two new news, and now he seemed to have lost the strength to speak.

Mormont looked around the room and nodded with a serious expression: "Okay, let's end the meeting today, and the relevant personnel will go outside to watch, to ensure that the wildlings who passed today are evacuated outside the fortress wall as soon as possible...and send patrols to monitor and ensure that they Don't run around."

Chapter 246 Emergencies

The militiamen from Queen's Gate and Sable Hall quickly rushed to Castle Black. Under the strong "order maintenance" of more than a thousand soldiers, thousands of savages who were temporarily arranged outside Castle Black were forced to cooperate with the arrangement. After going through some procedures , has also become an official new land-grant citizen.

In the case that almost every savage who passed through the Great Wall recently lost relatives and friends in the attack of ghouls, this kind of behavior that is neither sympathetic nor full of hostility naturally makes them hate and curse... However, the savages anyway Originally, he didn't have a good impression of the night watchman, and he didn't have to worry about debts. Adding another layer of trouble would not change Iger's plan.Under the productivity of the current era, it is impossible for the upper management to satisfy all the residents... The most reasonable way to concentrate on major tasks is to oppress the people moderately, but ensure that their emotional state remains within a certain red line under.

In this regard, the land-grant actually has a natural advantage. Its ruling class, the Night Watchman Legion, is a military organization. A series of conditions make the "red line" of this small land-grant society much higher than that of other places.

……

In the end, nearly [-] wildlings were completely settled in the land grant, one-third of them settled in the nine ruined strongholds that were not reopened by Mormont because they were too dilapidated, and the construction of walls was expressly prohibited; They were arranged to live outside the walls of the ten fortresses that had already been activated, and they were always under the supervision of the garrison; the remaining third were arranged in the heartland of the land-grant, and distributed in a town centered on Guanzhen. huge range.

Ordinary new land granters are easy to deal with. The most difficult thing to deal with is the hundreds of giants. Although the giants are as docile and vegetarian as their mounts, they are also quite difficult to deal with when they lose their temper. Egger specially marked a spot for them It is not far from Houguan Town, where there is water and grass, and a place where mammoths can be easily supported for living.

***

People have come in, what we have to do now is to think about how to manage them well.

Iger's first work project for the newly donated land residents is to build roads.

To get rich, build roads first, this is an unbreakable truth.Although getting rich is not the first thing to consider in granting land, the reason is that the transportation is not convenient enough, and everything is off the table.

As far as the current land-grant situation is concerned, infrastructure construction is not an imminent matter, but what Iger is anxious to do is nothing more than to do something for the visitors from outside the Great Wall who have become new land-grant residents, and feed them justifiably, so that they don't mind It's all about planning something messy, and at the same time establishing the concept of the importance of "money".

The newly donated land residents who accept the work will get a simple tool, and will be led by the relevant personnel to the planned route position, simply clear the weeds, remove the stones, dig the mud and pile the soil, and finally use the tools Shoveling and compacting... The road surface needs to be higher than the surrounding wasteland to be clearly visible to the naked eye, and wide enough for two horses to ride together.This is not a low requirement under the conditions of the land grant, which is sparsely populated and difficult.

The wages are settled daily, and although the work is hard, everyone who participates in the work can get the equivalent of tens of dollars in remuneration after the hard work of the day... If you just take the standard of being able to eat enough, this kind of "high salary" means One person works and the whole family has nothing to worry about. With the supplies of the night watchmen complete and sufficient, the power of money quickly began to show: it was difficult to recruit even the first release workers, and it didn’t take long for a large number of new lands to be donated every day. Min went to the place early and waited for the staff of the logistics department to release the task assignment.

……

There was another trouble at the Long Night Fort. After Bran Stark and the Reed siblings tried to sneak through the Great Wall and were stopped, they were left to live in this fortress, waiting for the people from Winterfell to pick them up. .Among them, apart from Bran's important status and physical disability, so he was ordered by Commander Mormont to watch over him, Hodor and Reed's freedom was not restricted...Among them, sister Meera Reed was active around the Nightfort At that time, they were actually harassed by the new land-grant residents who were arranged to live near the fortress and accepted the supervision and protection of the Flint clan, and they were almost dragged away and raped.

The marriage concepts and customs of the people outside the Great Wall are quite strange. They think that real men will snatch the opposite sex from afar to strengthen their clan. Therefore, men need to go to other tribal territories to "steal" women to reproduce for themselves.Apparently, the new grantee who caused trouble this time took Meera Reed who appeared outside the Long Nightfort as a woman from a southern tribe, and tried to "steal" her to give birth to her own child.

This barbaric custom has long been strictly prohibited in the new law formulated by the Night Watchmen. Only wild people who agree to abide by the law are allowed to pass through the Great Wall...but only a few days after they were let in, they were immediately uncontrollable The new land-grant people have committed a crime.Compared with Bran Stark, Meera Reed is naturally not an important role, but she is also a noblewoman after all, one of the important vassals of Winterfell and the daughter of Earl Howland Reed. Injuries on the territory must not be taken lightly.

Since Egger refused to go to the Long Nightfort to deal with the matter, the commander-in-chief Mormont decided to go there personally to arrest and punish the offending Newlanders, and at the same time bring Bran and the Reed siblings back to Castle Black so that they could live in a more peaceful environment. A safe place to wait for someone from Winterfell to pick him up.

……

The plan to lure the new grantees to accept the rule of the night watchman with money is progressing smoothly. About two weeks after letting [-] savages enter the Great Wall, Iger released the second major task besides road construction: recruiting [-] new The land-grant residents, the grain transportation team of the logistics department, which is about to set off, will go south to the northern border to obtain winter food assistance from the northern border for the land-grant.