When one side is determined and immune to persuasion, and the other side does not have much leverage to change their minds, negotiations become unfun and challenging – often accompanied by meaningless and one-sided agreements.

Iger had suffered such a deflated ...... when he was negotiating the price of technology transfer with Margaery Tyrell Time has passed, and he is in the same situation when facing another important female character on the Great Wall of Desperation, thousands of miles away.

It's just that this time he became the one who had the upper hand.

Melisandre misjudged him to be the son of prophecy and offered to help uninvited, while Iger was confident that he had been elected commander-in-chief by his own means and resources. It's good that the red-robed woman can help, but without her, it's just a little more effort on her own - everyone is grateful for sending charcoal in the snow, but it is too much to underestimate her political IQ if she wants to grab or share her influence and voice in the land grant and the Great Wall with the icing on the cake.

Happily, the priestess seemed to see Egger's determination—perhaps willing to compromise with her own chosen Child of Prophecy—and after a little bit of wrangling and pestering, Melisandre finally gave up her third claim altogether, without diminishing any support. In a way, it's almost unconditional surrender.

......

The day after his return to Castle Black, the election continued, and all of Iger's campaign arrangements began to be implemented simultaneously. Warner Bookwell withdrew from the election, and the votes that belonged to him were transferred to Iger after a very small shrinkage, while some of the Castle Black brethren, who had wavered before his return the day before and had finally voted for Jon Royce, had changed their minds to Iger today.

In stark contrast to the reformist camp, where a single person is united, the conservative side, despite its large numbers, presents a clear internal unconsensual chaos: Jon Royce hastily withdrew from the election after a "one-day campaign for commander-in-chief", while the other two commanders who had made way for him the day before rejoined. To the disappointment of many onlookers, the two Old Men of the Night's Watch still couldn't reach an agreement with each other, and they voted for themselves as usual, and everything seemed to be back to square one.

And unlike any other day, the brethren at Castle Black didn't buy much of their account this time.

The first vote on the Chief Logistics Officer's return to Castle Black was close in the morning, with Egger coming out in the early 400s, well ahead of Dennis Mellister's 300 votes and Carter Peck's 200 votes...... The stats are a stark reflection of the attitude of the Castle Black Night's Watch: compared to the peak time, the commanders of the Shadow Tower and the East Sea Lookout both had more than a hundred fewer votes, and the latter fell even more - in addition to the votes of all the soldiers he represented in the fortress, Carter Pike's votes from the Castle Black Night's Watch dropped to a single-digit level overnight.

If the voting results are still within everyone's expectations, then the next few news that seem to have nothing to do with the vote but are actually closely related to it will surprise the uninformed:

Twenty or thirty southern nobles who followed Melisandre applied en masse to join the Night's Watch. Twice during his time in King's Landing and Crown Town, Egg refused to allow criminals to join the Night's Watch...... But Commander Mormont later vetoed him this power, which meant that no Night's Watch officer had the right to refuse someone else to be dressed in black. And recruits like the post-party members who have a noble background, a name and a surname, and have been knightly trained, have always been the most welcome to join the legion.

In order to train Jon Snow as his successor, Mormont sent his former Castle Dark head Erisha Thorne to the south to retire. Sir Andrew Tuss, the current head of the Night's Watch, publicly announced in the afternoon that a new recruit would be open to all men under the age of 50 who were in good health.

The Shadow Tower Commander Dennis Mellister, after having lunch in advance, led the retinue of packed packages and set off for the west, leaving only one subordinate to vote on behalf of all the soldiers in the fortress.

＊＊＊

It can be seen from the number of votes that even though Iger was publicly accused of inaction, Dennis Mellister still received nearly 100 votes from the night watch group at Castle Black, and he alone accounted for nearly one-third of the votes...... This is the most obvious embodiment of "being recognized", this old man who is over the age of old, the number one opponent in Egger's mind, actually left without saying a word when the situation is still good.

Everything happens for a reason, but this time, Iger really couldn't figure out Dennis's purpose. By leaving Castle Black, he is abandoning his supporters at Castle Black, admitting that he will not be elected, and almost withdrawing from the election – a corollary that contradicts his return to election today.

This kind of negative behavior of nearly 100 supporters who gave up their hands and did not vote for other electors can be understood as a silent struggle on weekdays: if you can't vote for others, don't want to be elected. This can be done with Robb Stark's visit to the Wall......

It's like slapping the Guardian of the North in the face, forcing Robb to take Egger's suggestion - cancel the voting rights of the Fortress Commander's representatives and give the latter a big gift!

Could it be that this old guy judged that Robb would do this sooner or later, so he simply returned to his fortress and greeted the soldiers under his command in advance - and did not vote for himself in the upcoming general election?

Egger was puzzled, and finally understood that Dennis had tacitly acknowledged that he was about to win, but he couldn't change his face and vote for himself, so he simply couldn't see it.

......

Robb Stark was just a young man after all, and he couldn't bear it...... The day after Dennis left Castle Black, the third day after he returned to the Wall, the first round of voting ended in the morning, and when the young Guardian of the North found that Dennis's remaining representative of the fortress at Castle Black still voted for his commander, the Shadow Tower, he could no longer sit still and finally intervened.

Robb announced a decision that he was theoretically out of control, but in fact was applauded by many of the night watchmen: suspend the election, send back all the "voting representatives" except the candidates, and begin preparations for the one-person, one-vote election for each night watchman.

＊＊＊

To ensure fairness, Robb will send personnel to every fortress along the Wall with a Night's Watch to oversee the election. The team he brought with him from Winterfell was large enough to take on the task, but the guards of Winterfell were not familiar with the Wall, and it would take some time to prepare. But the truth is that the universe does not revolve around the Great Wall and the election of a gang of night watchmen, and after the election of Castle Black was suspended for a few days, two more major events occurred in the land grant:

1. The purchase of grain from the north began to be transported to Houguan Town one after another, although many families were not very happy to hear that the grain was to be fed to the savages, but seeing that the night watchman sent troops to help drive away the iron people, and was willing to spend money instead of taking it for nothing, the procurement was barely smooth. Although the amount is not large, combined with the small amount of inventory that was left, it is enough to last until the arrival of Braavos' grain ship without collapse.

Second, Stark summoned a delegation of the four families who were next to the land grant, and also rushed to Castle Black.

......

The head of the Stark family and the guardian of the north came to the Great Wall in person, and the four families of Glover, Amber, Karstark, and Burton, as vassals, naturally could not send individuals to deal with the matter casually, in addition to the arrival of the parents, the family members and attendants of the four groups were also dozens of people in each family. They gathered in Houguan Town before heading north, and arrived at Castle Black, where two or three hundred men were crowded, and the headquarters of the Night's Watch, which had been walled and shrunk in size, was so crowded that even the empty rooms that had not been inhabited for decades were used. The night watchman, the chief clerk and the craftsmen, who were the landlords, were so busy receiving these distinguished guests that they lost their minds for a while to deal with Egger, and the black castle, which had suspended the campaign and internal struggle, had a long-lost peace and excitement with the visit of this large number of guests.

Robb hosted a banquet on the arrival of the four delegations to receive four important vassals.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why I have summoned you here has been written in my letter. The late Commander-in-Chief of the Night's Watch, Geo Mormont, implemented a 'resettlement plan' in the land grant, which will contain surrendered wildlings to be converted into land-grantees to support the future operation of the Great Wall and solve the problem of manpower shortages - on the other hand, the wildlings have been our greatest threat since ancient times, and in order to ensure the safety of the north, I will summon everyone to patrol the land grant together to decide whether or not we want to interfere with this project. ”

The leaders of the four great families nodded their heads in understanding, and Gabbert Glover was the first to speak: "We heard that the Night's Watch is electing a new commander-in-chief when we were in Houguan Town, but I don't know if the election results have been announced?"

"Not yet, several candidates have not been able to reach an agreement for a long time, and they have no choice but to do so. I have made an exception by abolishing the system of voting for the representatives of the Night's Watch Fortress and replacing it with a one-person, one-vote election under my supervision. Robb glanced at the several high-ranking Night Watch members present at the table with a serious gaze, and summarized the situation with displeasure. The Night's Watch was not his subordinate or vassal, so it was inconvenient to criticize him in public, and although he was dissatisfied, he did not say much after explaining, "The cost of this dinner will be borne by Winterfell, and you have worked hard all the way, and although you have let go of it, we will set off on these two days to inspect the Great Wall and the land grant together, and determine our final attitude towards the land grant and resettlement plan." ”

"There is an order for the guardian of the north, and we will follow after the saddle. Luce Bolton glanced at the few men in black present with his pale eyes, and questioned: "It's just that the Night's Watch Legion has not yet elected a commander-in-chief—this means that the attitude of the brothers in black to the land grant resettlement plan may not have been determined, in this case, even if we have opinions and opinions on the land grant resettlement plan, to whom should we express our demands, and what can we do?"

This is indeed a problem, Robb did not even think about it, so that it took a few seconds for Leng to reply: "The election of the commander-in-chief of the Night's Watch has been going on for more than two months, and although I have interfered, it is not good to interfere too much, and in this case, no one can say when it will be over." However, the safety of the northern border is at stake, and the final decision on the resettlement plan is not easy to delay...... So I decided to take a look at it, and if the situation is not right, and the wildlings still have a tendency to threaten the north, then we will ignore the election of the commander-in-chief of the Night's Watch and simply call off the resettlement plan. Otherwise, no measures are taken, and the problem is returned to the north, and the problem is resolved internally by the Night's Watch. ”

Luce Bolton frowned and nodded: "There is no problem with doing this in itself...... It's just that there is a suspicion that this is too much and complicates the whole thing. If you want me to say, in troubled times, we shouldn't stick to the rules, just name a person to succeed as commander-in-chief, and then inspect the northern border, and give feedback to this person, wouldn't there be a lot of trouble, and save a lot of manpower and time?"

The word popped into Egg's mind, he thought that the northern frontier was the most important in the Seven Kingdoms, but he didn't expect Luce Bolton to have this kind of thought...... Sure enough, ordinary people have thousands of common laws, but ruthless characters all have one thing in common, that is, they are rarely bound by inherent concepts.

He secretly raised his guard against this guy in his heart.

......

"Lord Burton, the Great Wall has stood here for thousands of years, and no Commander-in-Chief has ever been named by the Guardian of the North!" Carter Pike immediately objected. He was originally a little annoyed by Dennis's return to the Shadow Tower and Robb's cancellation of the voting rights of the deputies, but now he saw the old peeler and realized that some people's unreasonable cards were far above his imagination: "Lord Stark ordered reasonable changes to the electoral system, and everyone agreed, but if it was directly appointed, then the brothers' attitude towards the new commander would be difficult to say!"

Earl Glover also disagreed with Bolton's opinion: "I also think it is inappropriate, the night watchman's own election of the commander-in-chief means that this man has the support of most of the soldiers, and can ensure that the defenders of the Wall do what they are told—if they break the convention and force a man who cannot be convinced, the immediate trouble will be solved, but it is difficult to judge whether it will be good or bad for the future defense of the Great Wall." ”

If Robb Stark had to name someone to be Commander-in-Chief, it would be Egg himself, as he was the most familiar, well-known, and close-knit Night's Watch of the new Guardian of the North—not one. But in this situation, using this means to ascend to the throne is inevitably a feeling of victory, and there are endless troubles, even the possible beneficiary, Iger himself, does not approve of it.

Thankfully, Robb didn't seem to have the idea.

"Adults don't need to worry about not finding anyone to give advice. He found the right time and took the first step to make his position clear: "Zai Nai's supporters of the former commander can be regarded as the heir of Xiong Lao's implementation of this big plan. Everything about the land grant and resettlement project is now under my arrangement...... In two days, I will also lead you to inspect the donated land, and if you have any comments or suggestions, just let me put them forward. ”

——