Iger needed a proving ground to carry out practical testing and refinement of the bomb: his original plan was for Nina to find a suitable location outside of the land grant: the Iron Vault had only eight observers stationed at the Great Wall and Houguan Town, but according to the terms of the loan contract, they were entitled to move freely within the jurisdiction of the Night's Watch.

Out of some selfish desire to not be able to say the exact reason for this for the time being, Iger wants to have exclusive possession of the killer weapon for as long as possible - and this requires excellent secrecy.

Tiemin's harassment of the northern border gave him inspiration: he had no right to prevent outsiders from approaching the 19th National Congress stronghold and Houguan Town along the Great Wall, but this "Ice Gorge Port" was a secret military port built for the northern border, and he had every reason to have a strong barrier and generously prevent outsiders from approaching.

Externally, under the pretext of protecting military secrets in the north, he will prevent unrelated people from approaching the Cold Ice Bay; internally, under the guise of developing a "strange ghost buster" containing wildfire, he will cover up the constant sound of explosions coming from the test site; finally, by exercising a certain degree of personal control over the technical personnel, he will be able to ensure that even if the existence of gunpowder is leaked, he will be able to maintain absolute superiority in technical details in a short period of time.

The test site will be set up in the mountains more than ten miles east of the port, ensuring that no matter how the ironmen make a surprise attack on the port or from the land, they will not accidentally discover this important research base.

......

In addition to the proving ground, there was another important reason for Egger to make this trip himself—some secret plans that could not be put on the table, and he needed to explain to the commander of Icefjord Harbor of his choice on the spot: the money raised from the northern princes, even counting Luce Bolton's unexpected 10,000 gold dragons, was far less than expected, and in order to make up for it, he received Robb Stark's promise of "reimbursement for the construction of the port".

Pan Technology is a bottomless pit, no amount of money is too much, Iger is determined to throw away his face and use Robb's promise to make a good profit.

Since it is "reimbursement", it is naturally impossible to give as much as you want, even if there is no invoice, the name must always be there. With the craftsmen and technicians coming from outside the land grants, Egger finally decided to make a fuss about "weapon consumption" and "defenders' salaries".

[Weapon Consumption]: The Northern Navy will use the solidified and aged wildfires that Iger brought from King's Landing as naval weapons against the Iron Fleet, these terrifying substances are still much stronger than ordinary fire oil even if they are passivated, but they are not as strong as the newly made liquid wildfires when used against the Strangers. Iger simply used it and used some of it to equip the Northern Navy, with a plan for the use of incendiary bombs.

When these dangerous substances were removed from the underground of the Alchemist Guild in King's Landing, Egger didn't pay a penny except for labor costs, but now they are sold to the North, but they are not given away for free.

Set a similar price and sell as much as you want.

[Defender Salary]: Iger plans to build Icefjord into the largest stronghold of the Night's Watch outside of Houguan Town, with hundreds of staff from various departments and thousands of defenders - the numbers will not be watery, but the personnel are not actually trained elite soldiers, but temporarily recruited mountain clansmen and new landowners. Iger decided to make Icefjord a rotational training base for the land-granting residents, and each group of recruits would be led by a small number of officers to train and take on the duties of the harbor defenders.

Here's the point: on the reimbursement form, these rotational recruits are "soldiers". As for the soldiers, they have to pay military salaries, and since they are port defenders, they are naturally in the category that can be reimbursed. Set a price that is cheaper than the soldiers recruited by the northerners themselves, and if you increase the number of people, you can also report dozens or hundreds of gold dragons more every month.

In this way, the expenses of the land-granting residents during the military training period are equivalent to being borne by the northern territory - the less money spent on the land-granting is equivalent to Aigerdo's money. In this way, he hopes to squeeze out as much as possible sufficient funds for the upgrading of military science and technology.

＊＊＊

Under the threat of the Alien Spirit, the whole army is just the beginning. A certain amount of training and arming of the inhabitants of the entire land grant has long been on the agenda, and the reason why this work was not started until several months after the release of the wild people was nothing more than a "transitional period".

If the new landgivers start training at the beginning of their arrival, they force the last remaining young men of the tribes to leave their families and go to a place designated by the Night's Watch to be trained...... Most of them will force half of the tribe to rebel against the Night's Watch or flee south to attack the north, leaving the north of the neck in ruins.

Now it is different: the socialization of pay-for-work has been going on long enough to penetrate the hearts of the people, and the work of weakening the prestige and influence of the clan leaders has been going on well for three or two months. The deterrence of the bloody removal of the Tours tribe comes first, and the preferential treatment and promises of the Ministry of Logistics come later...... In a two-pronged approach, although the tribal leaders had quite different opinions, in the end, no one openly obstructed them.

If the process of converting the foreigners into land-grantees was boiling frogs in warm water, then Egger estimated that he was already seven or eight mature—the threat of the strange ghost made him dare not wait any longer. Now, it's time to start training them, not to fear a backlash.

Egger's plan is to get more than half of the adults on the land grant to achieve the following goals as soon as possible.

1. Accept basic training to be commanded, be able to understand simple lingua franca instructions, and implement them correctly;

2. Carry out basic physical training to ensure good physique and endurance;

3. Basic familiarity with the performance of standard weapons, and understand the use of various dragon crystal and incendiary weapons.

The above are collectively referred to as the three basics.

Of course, the purpose of the rotation training is not to train all the people in the land grant into elite soldiers for a hundred battles - not to mention whether it can be done, even if it can, each clan has elite troops and will threaten the dominance of Houguan Town.

Needless to say, the training of weapons and physical fitness, under the command of Mance Red, fought wits and courage with the strange ghosts for two years, and then attacked the Great Wall, and the warriors of the Cypriots were all lost, leaving only some ordinary members with yellow faces and thin muscles and cowering. The logistics department mobilized resources to pile them up, hoping to fatten them up as soon as possible, and this rugged patrol route along the Grand Canyon is a ready-made training ground for trail running—fed and a certain amount of exercise, even if you starve to death, you can quickly recover to what looks decent.

And discipline ...... This thing in itself does not make a person brave and combative, but it can significantly increase the level at which troops can withstand attrition and carry out orders. An undisciplined unit may die one out of a hundred, or even collapse at the sight of a strange ghost, or even if there are no casualties, the battlefield is a complete mess and there is no possibility of any movement. And such a situation often makes the people who should be a helper, but when they are really about to fight, they become a burden because of panic.

Egger's requirements are not high, as long as the decisive battle comes, the residents of the old and new land grants can carry out the plan and follow the command without causing chaos...... That's enough. As for how to defeat the strangers and win the final victory of the war, that is the responsibility of the leader himself.

Everything is laid out in a step-by-step manner, just waiting for the ultimate challenge.

——