Due to the fact that the pursuit of the south after the defense of Houguan Town was an unexpected and temporary decision, the entire legion did not have time to make arrangements in advance in the absence of the commander-in-chief as they usually did when Iger left, which was the reason why the backlog of letters from the top and bottom of the land was in Houguan Town but no one transferred to Egg, who was in the army, and finally caused Jaime, who had not received a response for a long time, to run back from Icegap Harbor in a rage.

After playing with the lion puppet given by the little princess, Egg took it in his arms and went back to his private office, where he began to process the letters that had been hoarded in the past few days.

In general, there is nothing new under the sun. In addition to Jaime's letters of inquiry, which were becoming more and more impatient, were the post-battle reconnaissance of the fallen fortress by the rangers in Icefjord Harbor and Fort Night, and the final battle damage statistics along the Great Wall.

Due to the timely evacuation of women and children from the Western Front fortresses close to the Great Wall, such as the Shadow Tower, the final human losses of the land grant in this human-ghost war were a little lower than Egger's previous estimate - the number of people killed and seriously wounded, completely lost the battle, and the number of laborers was stuck at less than 10,000, and the population loss of the entire land grant was not more than a quarter.

Less than a quarter, it doesn't seem like much, but once you consider that most of the population lost is young and strong between the ages of 15~40, and most of them are male, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as "heavy loss". The only "good news" that can be comforted is probably that, because of the peculiarities of the enemy, the vast majority of the more than 9,000 people lost are dead, and serious injuries are rare—although tragic, the pain will pass with gritted teeth and endurance, which is better than the long war between human beings: protracted, disrupting production, and creating a large number of cripples to be treated and cared for—not only pulling people back to the past, but also burdening the recovery and re-functioning of the whole society.

Although there were many letters, most of the repetitive and precedent transactional content was actually marked by Humphrey, the head of the land grant, in advance on the north side, and all Iger needed to do was sign to confirm or veto.

Among the many miscellaneous reports, one from Donghaiwang attracted Egger's special attention.

Originally, he thought that Jon Royce had died unexpectedly in the freezing of the sea and the rollover of the ship caused by a strong cold spell in Seal Bay, which was claimed by the last survivors who had survived and fled back to the East Sea, and the Night's Watch had intended to accept this claim. But what no one expected was that the army of ghouls who bypassed the Great Wall from the frozen sea and attacked Donghaiwang was probably so eager to carry out a lightning attack on the eastern part of the Great Wall according to the tactical plan formulated by the Night King, so that when they passed by the few warships frozen in the ice, they did not stop for a moment to pull out, destroy and transform the remaining soldiers trapped in the ships.

And the offshore waters of Seal Bay, which were frozen more than a meter thick, did not thaw after the end of the war.

The end result of these two factors was that when the Battle of Changhu in the south was over and the crisis was over, the night watchmen along the Great Wall began to cautiously leave the fortress to go out on reconnaissance and patrol, and the scouts of Donghaiwang were surprised to find that the ice was still strong and reliable for a large group of people to pass through. A little longer...... He was even more surprised to find that in the eastern part of the Great Wall, the de-icing team was blown over by the wind and froze in the ice, and the remaining members of the de-icing team who were trapped were still alive despite thirst and hunger.

Thus, the ugly truth emerged: the commander of the de-icing team who failed to return to the fortress with the survivors was not killed accidentally, but by his own brother who was greedy for life and afraid of death.

In the letter, Carter Pike reported the results of the investigation to Iger as it was, informed him that the surviving master and accessory had been arrested, and asked him for instructions on how to deal with it.

How to deal with it?Weima Royce didn't kill himself back then, so after Egger returned to Castle Black, he went through a battle of wits and courage to get out of danger, and now the evidence is conclusive to attack Shangguan, how else can he deal with it?

If that bastard named Zit had killed any other Night's Watch officer, the outcome would have made no difference—a canonical punishment, and a public execution as an example. But it was Jorn, the former head of the family who had a grudge against him and many of his family members who were still alive, who was in a bad situation—and it was gratifying to get the truth, but the results of the investigation were too untenable: Jorn's two remaining sons had heard that their father had been beaten from behind by a thug...... No, how would it feel to be killed by a hammer? Will they suspect that this person was instructed by himself, and that he ordered the murderer to be executed in order to kill the murderer?

After a moment of agitation, Iger realized that he didn't need to care too much about it. Reconciling with the Royce family is just one step in the busy schedule, so what if it fails?Not to mention that Runestone's status in the Vale has plummeted after the rebellion of the League of the Righteous was suppressed by Robert, even if it is the lord of the Vale?In the face of the powerful combination of Longa's artillery, all the old nobles are just ants in front of the wheels...... If this grievance can't be resolved, then run over it! It's a big deal to think about safety, and just don't go to the valley for the rest of your life.

He calmed down and replied to Carter Peck, ordering him to deal with the matter coldly: try the case within the Wangdan Fortress in the East China Sea, execute the main culprit and punish those who concealed it, and the Night Watch still maintained the official statement that "Jorn was killed in battle". On the other side of the valley, the messenger sent to explain it secretly...... Come to think of it, if Jon's two sons wanted to be faced, they would also prefer that their father would "fight the demons and die".

......

One by one, the pile-up of letters and documents was rapidly decreasing with concentration and clarity of thought. About three or four hours after dark, Iger finished the job. After putting down the pen, he rubbed his sour eyes, and decided to do something else before starting to deal with the next thing related to the operation of the land grant and the work arranged by the Southern Expedition, so as to relax his mental fatigue after high-intensity mental consumption.

He called out to the guard at the door: "Go, tell Asha Greyjoy that I see her now." ”

＊＊＊

Asha Greyjoy, daughter of the Kraken, a restless prisoner in the North who was thrown into the custody of the Night's Watch in trouble, once seduced the male guards to find out the exact date of Egger's return, so that he stopped him at the gate of Crown Town as soon as the Commander-in-Chief returned......

Although the operation was comprehensible, the ending was hit by an iron plate: not only was the request to join the night watchman cruelly refused, but even the guards who leaked the news to her were investigated by reverse recourse, and after being transferred from the post, they were replaced by female spear women, making Asha's previous interpersonal relationship operations all in vain. After the lesson of that trip, the captain of the ship now seemed much more at ease: she no longer tried to "bump into" or intercept Egger on the road, but honestly conveyed her request for an audience through the guards below.

So well-behaved, Egger was too embarrassed to refuse. Of course, the more important factor is that Theon Greyjoy was shot in the head during the bloody battle of Long Lake for his outstanding performance in hunting the second King of the Strangers, and Asha was his own sister...... In any sense, it can be regarded as the existence of the families of martyrs, and it is natural to give a little preferential treatment.

As if waiting for Egger to summon him, the guards brought the seeker with him not long after he left.

Compared with the last time they met, the woman no longer has shackles and chains on her hands and feet this time, and her body has also changed from the ordinary cotton jacket of a land-giving woman back to her own tight leather pants. And what has not been worn out and deformed by more than ten months of captivity is not only her figure - but also temperament and pride, which Egger can see from her still bright eyes and the stubbornness on her face that does not admit defeat.

She knocked on the door and entered, stared at Iger with wide eyes for a moment, and was the first to speak, "Good evening, Lord Commander-in-Chief." ”

"Hey, hey. "Just praised you in your stomach for being a female man, and you slapped your face like this, Egger laughed funny, "Didn't you always call me by my name, when did you change your mouth?"

In the entire Houguan Town, only Asha would call his full name, Egger West, because he was quite impressed by it. The person who has always been hard-mouthed suddenly changed his honorific title, and this obvious show of weakness made him a little unaccustomed to it - more precisely, vigilant: "Forget it, I won't joke with you." I ordered someone to remove your shackles and anklets, you understand what it means?"

"I'm free. ”

"Yes, you're free, but this freedom was given to me as a 'substitute regulator' at my own behalf, and the Starks didn't let go, so I made this clear in advance, lest it happen again in the future. Egg nodded, "This treatment was paid for your brother's life, and it is not an exaggeration to reward him with two light bringers for his heroic performance in the war between humans and ghosts." I've decided to use some of it to convert into your free body, and I'm sure he won't object to it even if he's alive. As Theon's closest family member, I don't plan to swallow the dragon steel arrow prize that he won the runner-up in the Houguanzhen Archery Competition, and now it's yours. ”

"Shall I say thank you?"

"As you please—I almost forgot, you're not a prisoner now, sit down. After looking Asha up and down, Egg shrugged, pointed to the chair across the table, and continued, "You can now make a choice: take the Lightbringer that rightfully belongs to your brother and dispose of it yourself, or sell it to the Night's Watch for a sum of cash for your daily use. It is not clear how much a dragon steel arrow will be worth, but for the sake of safety, I suggest that you take up to one hundred gold dragons first, and I vouch for it in the personality of the commander-in-chief of the Night's Watch - it will be as much as it should be, and you can always come back to the Night's Watch in the future and ask for the difference from the market price. ”

"Thank you, Commander-in-Chief, for your generosity. Asha frowned, said this dryly, hesitated for a moment, pulled out a chair and sat down, two breathtaking pairs of long legs overlapping each other and cocking Erlang's legs - damn, she almost forgot the last time she was free to make this move, and while snorting, she almost burst into tears: "Do I have to leave the land grant anyway?"

"By 'go', I mean leaving the inner fort of Houguan Town—you are neither a prisoner nor a night watchman, and you are not qualified to remain within the walls. Egger also leaned back in his chair with his chest crossed, and after a night of handling letters, he didn't have much of the heart to sell to people now, and spoke very straightforwardly, "But out of the inner fort, it is your freedom to want to leave or stay in the land grant." Now that the population under my rule is seriously out of step with the territory, I personally welcome Miss Asha if she is willing to settle down in the land grant and marry and have children to breed the first generation of native subjects for the defenders of the Great Wall. ”

"Phew!&¥#%*!" Egger swore he was serious when he said this, but Asha felt mocked, she raised her eyebrows, cursed a slang of the Iron Islands that men couldn't understand, and then probably recalled her own identity and position, afraid that Egger would turn his face angrily after trying to understand what it meant, and hurriedly changed his words: "Keep your broken arrow to fool others, I'm not rare! Don't think that I asked you to see you this time to pray for release and alms, I came today to discuss a serious issue with you! Have you ever considered- The future of the Iron Islands?"

——