Chapter 286: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Savages are like tides, like ocean waves, like unstoppable flowing glaciers gushing out of the woods, advancing towards the Great Wall of Desperation in waves. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info They lined up in battle formations, gathered together according to the division of weapons, and covered each other. Jon has traveled with the wildlings and learns about their past state. In the past, the wildlings were nothing more than bloated insects gathered in tribes, marching sloppily and slowly, not as they are now. Although it is far inferior to the knights of Winterfell, it already has the rudiments of an army.
"Mance Red!" Jon gritted his teeth. Only this former night watchman knows how to march and fight, and only he can gather hundreds of tribes outside the fortress to form this unprecedented army.
Jon reached the edge of the cliff and leaned out to look out. The eternal cold wind blew from the north and went straight into his eyelids, but the tears could not flow because of the freezing. He saw hundreds of mammoths, and giants, with clubs, cones, or stone axes, riding on mammoths like people on horses. They tied the trunks of a dozen large trees together, stripped off the bark, sharpened a section, and made a terrible crashing cone. The giant pulled a cart with ten wheels on it, and it was loaded with this terrible contraption. Jon leaned down and saw the direction of the city gate. Although he knew that the gates were made of the finest steel, weighed more than a thousand pounds, and were impregnable. However, I am afraid that what is coming today is the real test.
The drums of war sounded, the trumpets sounded loudly, but they all belonged to the savages. The night watchman was silent, except for the screams of the red flames in the brazier being blown by the wind, poof, poof, poof.
"They must have 100,000 men!" Sardine from Mole Village howled, "what are we going to do? How can we stop them?"
"There are not so many people, and the Great Wall will stop them. Jon heard himself. By the way, how did his father mobilize when he led his troops in pursuit of the wild people who crossed the border? He felt that he should do something, like when Mike walked towards the army of ghouls with his twin knives. Morale, it's all about morale. So he turned to everyone and raised his voice: "The Great Wall will stop them, and the Great Wall will protect itself." He felt that what he was saying was a bit hollow, but he had to repeat as much as he could, as much as possible, for that was what the brethren were eager to hear. The Great Wall needs its own voice, not just the pop of a dying fish on the shore. "Mance, you want to scare us with numbers? does he think we're all stupid?" Jon shouted at the top of his voice, "Chariots, cavalry, and fools on foot, giants, mammoths, we are a desperate wall two hundred and twenty meters high! Let them climb! Have you ever seen a mammoth climbing a wall? Let them climb with their hands and feet, and then they have nothing left, wild people don't have tails! Even if they spit, we have an advantage of two hundred and twenty meters!"
He laughed, and his brothers laughed too: "They're nothing, they're worse than these straw sentinels! they can't reach us, they can't hurt us, they can't scare us, can they?"
"Yes!" Gülen shouted.
"They are under the Great Wall of Desperation, and we are stepping on them. Jon said, "Hold the gates, they won't be able to pass, they will never be able to pass the Wall!" The people shouted in unison, shouting the same words, brandishing their weapons as Jon did, their cheeks flushed with excitement rather than cold and timidity. "Let them hear us! What about the trumpets? Blow the trumpets of war!"
Two horns sounded to represent the arrival of the wild men, followed by the echoes of other horns, until at last the whole wall seemed to tremble. Quite a few wild men raised their heads, and then lowered their heads and moved forward. Their king, Mance Red, also heard the horn, a sound familiar to him. When he was a night watchman, two trumpets meant battle. It's the same now, but he's changed his faction and identity.
"The city gates. He said to his subordinates, "Only the gates are the key to letting everyone pass, understand?" Mance Rader knew the limits of his abilities, and it was a matter of almost exhausting all his energy to let the wildlings put aside their contradictions for a while, to avoid fratricidal warfare, and to march south together. Although he knew that the savages were far from being called an army, he didn't have time to train anymore. The harsh winter doesn't give him this time, and the god of cold won't give him this time.
"Archers!" Jon commanded in a loud voice as the sound of the trumpets had subsided, "aim at the giants pushing the battering rams, aim at them! From now on, let me command you to fire, and no one will move first! The giants and their rams will rain them down." Wait for them to get into range and then shoot, no one should waste it, otherwise they will climb down and pick it up themselves, do you understand?"
"Got it, Master Snow!" shouted Nerd Owen, "We all get it!"
Jon laughed, infecting his brothers and himself with his laughter. Ser Elisha's face was grim, but he knew Jon was right. For the benefit of the Night's Watch, he did not bother Jon and came to the trebuchet.
"Damn fool, don't load the stone first, replace it with thistle! Throw the thistle before the cavalry arrives, the stone is used against the slow infantry!"
The Night's Watch stopped shooting arrows for a while, and the wildlings accelerated forward, shooting their bows and arrows. They always rush a few steps, set up their bows and arrows, stop to shoot, and then continue to rush forward, and so on. These arrows couldn't fly at all, they were all wasted. Jon looked down and thought to himself, they did lack discipline and experience. Mansred wanted to scare us to death with the superiority in numbers, but the Night's Watch would die, but never to die.
He looked to the left and right, and the head of the Great Wall of Desperation was illuminated by braziers, stretching to both sides until it was darkness. What is truly terrifying is not the enemies in front of you and under your feet, but the length of the Great Wall itself. Mansredman could have sent men to climb up from other places, the night watchman could not take care of the twenty miles to the left and right, but the Great Wall was thousands of miles long. It only took a hundred men to climb up, which was more than all the people who were guarding the city.
Jon quickly banished the thought or would be too frightened to fight. The giant pulled the battering ram into range, and he also bent his bow and aimed underneath. May the gods of this world bless the Night's Watch, Jon prayed. But the Night's Watch and the Wildlings both believe in the same god, and the Wildlings are also praying to the Old Gods, will the gods bless them, after all, they pray more people?
"Shoot the arrow, draw the bow, and release!" The black feathered arrow turned into black rain and flew towards the snow-white ground. "Shoot the arrow, draw the bow, and release!" again and again. "With rockets, throw oil cans, burn battering rams!"
A flame rose from the giant's cart, the brightest fire ever made. The wounded mammoth screamed, and the giant roared angrily. The archers of the Night's Watch fired vigorously and without stopping.
Ser Alyssa came to the edge of the wall, looked down, and said to Jon, "Snow, it's nice to take out the siege engines, but it won't win. You continue to shoot arrows comfortably on the city walls, and I'm going to go to the city gate below, where the real battle is. ”
He didn't wait for Jon to answer, flicked his cloak and turned away. Jon glanced at his back, then shouted, "Archers, shoot freely! Aim at the giants! Shoot where there are a lot of people!" )