Under the dark sky with no stars and moons, the lights in the temporary camp of the Northern Army were bright, and everywhere were soldiers running around and the longing figures they had brought up.

The lightly armed cavalry scouts and the strange ravens that flew to deliver the letter to Robb with pinpoint accuracy—both brought the same information: the army of ghouls had reached ten miles north of the avenue before dark, and at a normal pace, would arrive at the makeshift position they had hastily erected by midnight.

Lucky for the North, this northern army is about to face an enemy that has been weakened to a tenth of its peak and the magic of the Wraiths is nearly exhausted, but at the same time, they are about to become the first human troops in this war to engage the ghouls on level ground with no wildfire, no explosives, no dragon steel weapons, and no strong fortifications.

In the afternoon, the troops of the Tauha family also arrived from the rear to join the army, and the total strength of the northern army reached 7,000. Fragile fences and barricades built by spending a whole day on newly cut trees and shoveling snowdrifts, as well as a small amount of incendiary weapons such as dragon crystal and fire oil asphalt—that's all they have at hand.

The enemy, on the other hand, is what the scout describes as ...... "densely packed with a large black tide." ”

The torches and oil lamps brought by the army were all taken out and lit without hesitation, and the light illuminated the entire defensive line, but it did not penetrate the heavy snow that shot into the darkness outside the camp. Soldiers grabbed their bows and spears and stood behind a low wooden wall facing the north, quietly waiting for the final battle to come.

The nobles gathered and took the soldiers to the north as soon as they received the order, and they were the elites who participated in the battle against the lion in the west, against the remnants of the Lanli Baratheon, against the Riverlands, against the Golden Regiment, and even against the Iron People not long ago. But now, shrouded in cold darkness, the stories told by the old people years ago that can make small children scream and big children have nightmares keep coming to them: white ghosts in the woods, cold shadows, human hunters chasing hot blood on giant spiders......

Fear buried deep in the soul churned up, and no matter how brave and well-informed a warrior was, he could not help but shiver from nervousness and cold.

......

The crows were the first to stir, flapping their wings and making a frantic noise, and as time went on, they even began to hit the crow cage, looking like they were mad to tear it off and fly away, and the caretaker tried to soothe them with minced meat and corn, but they were pecked through the cage and gloves, so they had to give up and let them toss.

Then there were the dogs, each of which more or less habitually brought with them for the purpose of pursuing and hunting to replenish their war preparations, especially the hounds brought by the Bolton family from the Fort of Terror—they at first only whimpered in fear with their tails between their legs, but soon became frantic as if they were infected by the fluttering crows in the cage, and though they were not extreme enough to bite, they barked and barked like a frenzy, desperately trying to break free from the rope and flee south. The trainers didn't even hold on to any of them when dealing with the situation, allowing a few of them to escape with their chains and quickly disappear into the night.

In the end, the dogs had to be tethered to wooden stakes that had been driven deep into the frozen ground to barely end the mess they caused.

But even with a firm grip, the brutes roared and wailed, pulling the leash so loudly that the soldiers cursed.

As the snow began to fall heavier and heavier, the soldiers had to add oil and block the falling snow to maintain the flames in the iron basin and on the torches, and the impatient nobles began to question whether the ghouls had escaped their camp by burrowing into the wolf forest. After waiting for more than expected for an hour or two, the enemy finally appeared in the sentry's field of vision.

Due to the lack of the commanding height advantage of a strong wall, the oncoming sea of ghouls was not a black tide in the eyes of the northern soldiers on the low guard tower, but a thick black line, as if it had suddenly been conceived from the dark horizon in the distance, kicking the snow and rushing towards them, from the sound of the alarm to the imminent sight, a total of only a few minutes.

The crows, the barking of dogs, the neighing of horses, the inhalation of cold air and the whispered exclamations of the soldiers around them—all sounds seemed distant, weakened by the heavy snow, but in the next second, the loud orders of the front-line commanders on the watchtower brought everyone back to reality from their trance.

"The enemy has arrived. The bell-loud voice roared, "Draw the arrow, light the fire, and make the bow!"

Hundreds of feathered arrows were drawn from hundreds of quivers, put onto the flames, lit the oilcloth wrapped around the tip, and attached hundreds of bowstrings.

"Oh my God...... How many are there?"

"Don't talk nonsense, hold steady and don't panic!" said in a bell-like voice, "Okay, hold on...... Wait for me to order...... Draw the bow!" The taut bow creaked, the tail feathers of the rocket were pulled to the ears of the archers, and the bright light at the front of the tip made it impossible for them to see the outside world at all, and they could only feel that the things were coming towards the camp through the snow through a low wall, and the terror and fighting spirit made their arms tremble. "Wait a minute!" the commander's voice re-emphasized, and after two seconds of the archers opening their bows, finally—"Release!"

Hundreds of feathered arrows whizzed out, flew over the low wall, and crashed into the tide of ghouls like falling stars, visibly slowing the enemy to a beat.

"Light the fire again, take the bow!"

Another whizzing sound of feathered arrows.

"Change the dragon crystal arrows!The infantry step forward, prepare!"

After two rounds of rockets, the Kuroshio rushed to the wooden wall, and the archers had no time to wait for the rockets to heat up, and finally began to use the small number of obsidian weapons that the Night's Watch had provided earlier. The ghouls who came in the dark sea of ghouls stumbled and fell under the attack, and some of them burst into flames, but the huge numerical advantage made them completely unafraid of losses, and after a round of dragon crystal arrow rain, the sea of corpses finally reached the low wall made of ice and wood, and began to really hit the defense line of the soldiers in the north with a roar.

Due to the lack of time, it was impossible for the soldiers in the north to build the wall strong and tall, so they simply sharpened the newly felled trees and nailed them into the frozen ground as much as possible, and then piled up as much snow and snow as possible behind the wall to support them. It was more of a wooden fence than a fence, and beyond this fence the soldiers had cleared the snow as the night watchmen had prompted, and had made a narrow barrier with dismantled wagons, barrels, and even the materials for setting up tents, and doused them with oil. The dense rockets quickly ignited it to form a raging wall of flames, giving the soldiers in the barracks a sense of security.

......

Relying on the guidance sent by the Night's Watch with the crows, Robb Stark also developed a simple strategy for this battle.

Spiked stakes and low walls created a vantage point on both sides of the King's Road, slowing down the enemy's advance, allowing the archers to shoot arrows for the first batch of kills, while a flame barrier was effective in killing enemies who were stuck outside the wall, and the infantry lined up behind the wall to harvest the enemy who had rushed through the flames and climbed over the wall, while the cavalry and reserves patrolled back and forth with torches, ready to deal with any enemy who broke through the line.

Anyone with a discerning eye should be able to see that Robb is trying to replicate the proven tactics of the Night's Watch in the wilderness on the shores of the Long Lake.

There was no problem with its thinking and tactical arrangement, and the strange ghosts who were seriously lacking in magic power no longer cast spells to extinguish the flames like they did after attacking Guanzhen...... However, the difficulty of insurmountability was that the flame barrier made of ordinary materials could not be compared with the fire annihilation zone carefully prepared by the night watchmen in terms of firepower, scale, and span, and the single-story low wall or wooden fence hastily built out of wood and snow could not compete with the high and thick walls of stone and frozen earth that had been built of stone and frozen earth for months at various strongholds along the Great Wall, and the limited number of dragon crystal weapons was even worse.

A little bit here, a little bit there...... In the end, what was presented in the battle was a worlds of difference in comprehensive effects.

And what about their opponents?

Emotionless ghouls are not demoralized by losing a series of battles, and they are not afraid of spikes, barricades, and flames. There are still more than 10,000 ghouls on a narrow front and no difference in density and attack intensity compared to 100,000 or 1 million: they are all over the mountains anyway. Under the determination of the manipulators to fight to the death, the ghouls relied on their flesh to skewered sharp stakes, relied on corpses to fill the low wall, relied on the weight accumulation and impact of you to press me and I stepped on you, and after being delayed outside the low wall for less than ten minutes, they began to climb over or tear down the wooden fence in sections, and poured into the camp as if they were walking on the ground.

The archers retreated behind the shieldmen and spearmen and continued to shoot arrows to kill the enemy, while Robb Stark, who was personally supervising the battle, raised his torch in his hand and shouted at the soldiers: "Soldiers, fight with me, stop these monsters, long live the North!"

"Long live the North!"

Hundreds of soldiers lined up in an array of shoulder-to-shoulder tsunamis to meet the ghouls who squeezed past spiked stakes, dashed through flames, and toppled fences.

"Kill!"

"Damn, why are there bears?Spears—help!"

The roars of the fighting, the screams of the wounded, and the muffled sound of weapons colliding with flesh filled the makeshift camp in an instant. The participants in this battle are the elite of the North, a victorious army that has not been defeated in the whole of Westeros under the leadership of Robb, and can still play with momentum even in the face of ambushes. Even in the absence of an abundance of dragon crystal weapons, they devised and arranged alternative tactics: shieldmen and spearmen fend off and control the ghouls, and then men armed with torches or dragon crystal weapons to kill the enemy.

Ideal and correct tactics, the soldier's combat literacy is enough to execute efficiently and accurately, but after all, the battle is not a one-sided business. In actual combat, more often than not, the situation does not go as planned: the onslaught of the ghouls can often knock the shield man over and knock him down, while the spearman can approach the gun as if nothing had happened, scratching the soldier's surprised face. Snap his poorly protected neck, and as for the flames, it was indeed a powerful weapon to destroy the enemy, but it didn't work fast enough, and it was littered with ghouls still fighting the soldiers of the North with fire on their bodies, and humans were not restrained by the flames, but they were defenseless to the heat burns......

The panic and tension of fighting the ghouls for the first time, and the severe lack of restraint weapons...... Subjectively and objectively, a large number of unfavorable factors could not be filled by morale and bravery, and the array continued to retreat with the advance of the enemy, and the screams and wails of pain became more and more dense, and the rapid entry of the reserves into battle did not reverse the unfavorable situation in the slightest. A few minutes after the start of the battle, the collapse had not yet appeared, but the experience accumulated from dozens of battles had clearly told Robb that he had no chance of winning this battle.

"My lord, the lord of the north cannot afford to be lost, we will resist here, please retreat to the back!"

"Shut up!" Robb hadn't forgotten that he had paid the price of losing Icewolf Grey Wind in his last retreat, and he had to admit that he really should have retreated that time. But this time, faced with a strange enemy completely different from the Iron Min, he retreated to the rear at the moment, waiting for the ghouls to step through...... No, when he controlled the corpses of the elite of the North around him and went straight to Winterfell and the hinterland of the North, where could he retreat to?" "You have sworn allegiance to me, then you will fight to the death with me! Whoever dares to pull me off the battlefield today, the first thing I will do when I reach safety is to cut off his head!"

The feudal lord issued a declaration of fighting to the death, and the followers and soldiers alike summoned up the courage to fight back, and those who had not yet confronted the ghouls set fire to their tents, food, and remaining fire oil at the command of the commander...... Just when the soldiers in the north launched a counter-charge that looked at death but could not reverse the decline, Robb also held a torch and squeezed into the center of the battlefield against the trend surrounded by his henchmen, a thunderous roar suddenly sounded in the sky directly above the battlefield.

Before the first person could react to what had happened, a huge pillar of orange-red fire slashed out of mid-air like a sword of divine punishment and plunged into the tide of corpses that had just crossed the wall.

——

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