This feeling was so familiar, and when he thought about it, Egliu realized that he was actually shocked by this place for the second time: he was forcibly named by King Robert as the night watchman with the army, and he went out to the valley with the army of the six countries.

However, after calming down a little and clearing his thoughts, Egger realized that his inner touch was actually exaggerated to a large extent: compared to the "real" rebirth of the land grant, the development and change of the industrial park is actually not huge, but Egger was in the land grant during this period, and only saw the original appearance of the industrial park more than a year ago and the current grand occasion - It's like a parent who has left home to work and suddenly sees a left-behind child who has not been seen for many years: there is nothing magical about the child's growth itself, but if you don't witness the process and look at the results directly, you will feel that he has undergone earth-shaking changes.

Having said that, although the magnitude of the change in land grants is greater, it comes from a patchwork of loans and blood transfusions of external aid, which are piled up by resources. Once the war is over, the threat of the Stranger is gone, the Iron Vault begins to collect money, and the Lannisters begin to collect debts, they will soon face the pressure of collapse...... What happens here in the industrial park is the truly sustainable and healthy development.

It's a pity that this huge cash cow with lush foliage, the night watchman now has less than half of the controlling ratio (fortunately, it is still the largest shareholder and actual controller), and it is no longer completely the property of the defenders of the Great Wall.

The arrival of the Blackbird soon attracted the attention of the dock workers in the industrial park, the clouds of war had loomed over the place, and the cargo ships that had been coming and going in the past were nowhere to be seen. After inquiring about the identity of the visitor, someone immediately ran to the dark castle to report the news, and in a few moments, Nina, who had been in charge of the city day and night, hurried to the dock with a few people.

......

The face of this little strong woman was mixed with irrepressible excitement and happiness: "My lord, are you a prophet who can not be predicted? We are trying our best to contact you, but it turns out that you arrived first!"

Egg nodded and asked with concern, "What about the crows, if I hadn't gotten news from Winterfell by chance, I'd have been burned by the Dragon Queen and kept in the dark." ”

"Alas......" Nina put away her excited expression, sighed, and explained as she led him to the castle, "It's really hard to put into words, there were originally five letter crows in the industrial park that could fly land, but not long ago a small epidemic killed two of them, and the remaining three were when the Queen of Targaryen suddenly appeared and captured Dragonstone...... All of them were released to send new information about the collection of nitrate and the progress of production. The Red Keep in King's Landing may still have the letter crow of the Flying Black Castle, but in this chaotic situation, how dare we trouble the king and use the king's letter crow to convey the news of the Night's Watch industry?"

Unique to the world of Ice and Fire, the Crow is a pigeon-like bird that is far larger, stronger, and more intelligent than it, and can withstand the attacks of birds of prey, and with the right method, it is easy to train them to deliver messages between two places, or even to fly orientally in more than two fixed locations. But smart is smart, King's Landing is too far away from the land grant after all, and the night watchman can't get the guidance and help of the top crow experts from the school city, so he can only rely on private hired apprentices and semi-professionals...... The number of crows flying back and forth between the land grant and the 20 fortresses along the Great Wall is sufficient, but there are still very few "letter crow lines" between the industrial park and the land grant, and they can only send letters in one direction: this means that the ravens that Nina used to deliver letters to Iger must send people to bring them back to King's Landing after flying to the land grant, and the land grant must send someone to bring them back to King's Landing before they can continue to use it next time, and vice versa.

And people can't fly back and forth between the two places...... A cage of several ravens seems to be a lot, but when it is really used, it is often faced with a few important information in a short period of time, and the crows are all released and have not returned to the cage for a long time, resulting in the embarrassing situation of a short interruption of one-way communication, and once there is an unexpected loss, the situation will become more serious.

As for the letter crows in the Red Keep, it was used by the king to make announcements to the Seven Kingdoms, so how could it be used for business reporting by the unofficial organization of the Night's Watch Industry?

Iger remembered that he had received two or three progress reports from King's Landing in a few weeks before, and all of them were good news, and knowing that Nina's words were mostly true, he waved his hand to end the topic: "Forget it, contact the school city more, and put increasing the number of letter crows on the agenda...... What's going on with the castle over there, was it built by King Stannis to protect the Night's Watch property?"

"Oh...... That's it. Nina glanced at the black castle-like building, "It has nothing to do with His Majesty, the industry is developing rapidly, and the valuable assets, production raw materials and commercial or technical secrets that need to be protected are becoming more and more, this is the plan approved by the majority of shareholders after a collective vote at an important meeting half a year ago: allocate funds from the expansion cost of the industry, build a high wall in the most critical location of the industrial park, enclose the core departments and high-level warehouses and research institutes, so as to prevent threats from such as bandits, rebels, etc." In order to identify it, the project is made from the very beginning with dark materials without increasing costs, and the deficiencies are made up for with black dye or black cloth and black flags, and the final result is what you see. It wasn't a castle per se, but the surrounding residents and King's Landing people who were now dependent on the industry were more accustomed to calling it by its nickname 'Blackwalled Castle'. ”

"Blackwall......ed Fort?

Egger smiled knowingly, and also remembered: the industrial park report he saw in Houguan Town a few months ago did mention the construction of this wall, and he wrote back to agree. He thought it was a wall that surrounded the entire industrial park, but he didn't expect Nina to focus on taking care of the core area and build such a spectacular appearance, no wonder he felt that the amount of funds was much higher than that of ordinary walls.

However, although the Night's Watch industry earns thousands of gold dragons a month and has a lot of money for building the wall, it is impossible to build a complete castle. Although he instructed the industrial park not to transfer the money to the donated land for its own use, the purpose was to "concentrate on solving the problem of nitrate supply", not to engage in image engineering. King's Landing has built such a large castle on its own initiative, how can there be extra funds to collect nitrate and develop methods for producing nitrate?

Egger was uneasy, but the previous order was given face-to-face when Nina came to give the land, she absolutely knew what she meant, it was impossible to make such a mistake, guessing that there might be something hidden, he did not question directly, but tactfully put forward the worries in his heart: "This is all down, I have a lot of money, I didn't approve such a large amount of money, the extra part - no, it should be said, who came out of most of it?"

"Nobody came out, and that part didn't exist. The completion of the 'Black Wall Fort' did cost a lot of money, a small part of the overrun than expected, but not as much as adults imagined...... You can see the reason for this. ”

......

The castle was not far from where the ships docked, and Egger was pressed to follow Nina for a while, and finally approached the castle and entered it.

It soon became clear to Iger why Nina had said that she had not spent as much money as she had imagined: the dark fortress-like structure was really just a "black-walled" fort.

It is not as solid and majestic as it looks from afar: the almost pure black exterior looks as tall as the walls of King's Landing, but the actual thickness is quite slender - about three meters at the bottom and less than two meters at the top, minus the thickness of the inner and outer battlements, and the passage between the walls is just right for two people to walk side by side, and it is naturally no problem to patrol and guard every day, and it is more than enough to deal with the outcasts and bandits who do not have siege weapons, but if there are really siege weapons or a large army attacking, it is not resistible.

In addition to the landmark wall, the interior of the castle is completely different from that of a military fortress: there are no tall and sturdy watchtowers, fortresses, school yards, or weapons depots, only a few civilian commercial and residential buildings that can be vaguely seen as prototypes: this one is the office of the industrial management, the other is the dormitory of the Ministry of Security, and the next is a first-class warehouse...... Compared with before Egger left, it was only slightly reinforced and heightened to increase the space, and it seemed to be a black copper wall from the outside, but in essence, it did not change the material and use, and it could not withstand the war at all.

Come to think of it, King Stannis was also overwhelmed by the continuous war, and his pockets were empty, and it was already very principled not to ask the Night's Watch for money, so how could he still post the money upside down?Although he was a little disappointed, it was okay...... If it was true that the Iron Throne had spent money to build a castle to protect the Night's Watch industry, then Iger really didn't know how to break off the relationship with the Deer family camp and maintain neutrality.

"Originally, Earl Buckwell suggested that we set up dragon hunting crossbows at the top of the wall as densely as King's Landing to prevent the dragon queen from riding a dragon, but I considered that this was simply a provocation and declaration of war by the Red Fruit, and it would be contrary to the neutrality of the Night's Watch, so I finally rejected this proposal, and separated the production of dragon hunting crossbows as much as possible and moved them to King's Landing. Nina led Iger up the nearest staircase to the top of the wall, her arm outstretched to point to the new industrial park that covered almost the entire field of vision outside the wall, "Not only that, but we also worked overtime to paint the roofs of the buildings in the entire area of the industrial park in black and gray...... Efforts were made to allow the Dragon Queen to clearly distinguish the Night's Watch from King's Landing when looking down from the dragon's back in the sky, so as not to accidentally damage them. ”

"Well done. ”

Egg nodded approvingly, even if he controlled the Night's Watch property remotely, he couldn't do more. If she really wanted to destroy the industrial park, Daenerys didn't even need to use dragons, her army could easily do it...... Although the discipline of the half-modern army of the Logistics and Security Department of the Night Watch is good, after all, it has not been baptized in actual combat and there are only a few hundred people, and he is not arrogant enough to think that he is a blind soldier and can beat the innocent with a few hundred people with a few hundred people. The kind of iron army that is not afraid of death, no matter how much the Night's Watch industry prepares and builds stronger fortifications...... Even with the first generation of thermal weapons, it is difficult to stop.

Although they did not communicate with each other, Nina made the correct judgment and command in full accordance with reason: instead of embezzling the funds that should have been invested in Pantech and spending a lot of money to prepare for a war that should not be fought and cannot be won, it is better to spend a small price to strengthen its own "neutrality" identity, so as to avoid conflicts as much as possible, keep quiet and accumulate strength for more important causes.

The "Black-Walled Keep" is actually a huge statement of neutrality, telling Daenerys that this is the Night's Watch's territory, and you have a debtor and a debtor, and you want to take revenge on King's Landing.

That's right, this kind of behavior is called "avoiding war" at best, and "cowardice" at worst. And even if it's a nice statement, it can make people feel aggrieved, why doesn't Egg want to punch the Night King, kick the Mother of Dragons, and stomp his feet outside King's Landing to scare Stannis into giving up the Iron Throne?

Nina, who was praised, did not show a smug expression: "Lord Xie praises, but there is only so much we can do on our side, although I also want to send someone to make a stand to the Dragon Queen, but I am not qualified for this, and our shareholders ......"

Egger certainly understands that no matter how much Nina has his trust, no matter how much she is respected and supported by the executives of the Night's Watch industry, she is just a civilian girl, without identity, status, and popularity, it is impossible for Daenerys to go to Dragonstone Island. And those "investors" are either rich or expensive, but unfortunately, at least for now, the royal nobles are all vassals and supporters of Stannis, and with the tough and cautious personality of the second eldest of the deer family, it is impossible to let himself be betrayed again and again without realizing it.

"That's why I'm here. Egg comforted Nina, "Don't worry, I've already said hello to the Dragon Queen, and most of the time it's fine." He glanced at Melisandre, who was not interested in the Blackwalled Fort beside him—in fact, his request was not answered affirmatively by Daenerys, but at this juncture, it was impossible to say frustrating words in front of his subordinates, and he could only believe that the red-robed girl and her godstick companion could be relied on, "Okay, there's no hurry to visit the Blackwalled Fort, it's a matter of nitrate...... How's it going?"

In addition to seeing the Mother of Dragons, the second major purpose of his trip to the south was to come for this thing. The first task was to collect and store the Night's Watch Logistics Department in the South and store it in the King's Landing Industrial Park, and bring it back to the land grant because of the interruption of transportation due to the war...... Since you are here, of course, you can't run in vain, but also take a look at the progress of research and development, and see if there is anything you can do and can give a little guidance.

"Wait a minute, my lord, Vice President Coben has always been in charge of the nitrate production project, so I will send someone to call him and ask him to report the specific situation to you in person. ”

"Good. Iger nodded, and the next second, his eyes suddenly widened, "Who?

——