The wind was howling outside the window, and it was another day as usual. Sam put on his clothes and boots, walked out of his room, looked up at the cloudy and gray sky, forced down the thought of returning to the warm bed and fell asleep, and walked towards the hall and the election field.

There was no color inside Castle Black, even the human skin was pale against the black clothes, and the ice walls were filled with cold, like a fire radiating heat. The cold wind tugged at the corners of his coat and trousers and poured into the gaps in his suit, and the cold sensation quickly spread from every part of his body, Sam pulled on his hood and tightened his cloak, and hurried to his destination.

It's really cold, and this is the result of the black castle with its walls and dense buildings, and most of the power of the cold wind is blocked. It's hard to imagine how bad the temperature and climate can be in the wilderness outside the walls. As for the world north of the Great Wall, which has been completely overrun by strangers and the dead...... Sam's body shuddered just thinking about it.

The cellar was full of the brothers who had come to vote as usual, and the election had been going on for almost three months, and there were only three candidates left who had not withdrawn. Patrolling outside the walls has long since ceased, the wildlings passing through the Wall have largely stopped, the commander-in-chief has not been chosen, and the ghouls have not continued to attack...... All the soldiers and officers were in a rather sluggish state, and even their daily drills were intermittent.

Everyone usually votes at the same time as breakfast every day, and then goes back to the tower or the top of the Great Wall to mingle around.

But today, as soon as Sam Fu entered the door, he felt something unusual: before he had even stepped down the stairs, a buzzing sound came to his ears...... The brothers huddled around the benches and tables, some eating breakfast, others looking to question their companions, and the voices echoed through the vaulted ceiling, making people feel like their heads were tingling.

This buzz only happened in the first days of the election, what happened?

Sam has a bad premonition, looks around, and finds his friends.

"What's going on?"

Piper turned around, "Damn, why are you only up now!"

"Doesn't it every day that I get up at this time? Sam replied in a muffled voice, looking at Glenn - the big man was always answering questions, never selling or joking, and although he sometimes seemed silly, Sam liked him: "What's wrong, why don't you leave after breakfast, and what are you discussing?"

The big man, nicknamed the Stupid Cow, replied honestly, as always: "Sir Dennis Mellister and Master Carter Pike have dropped out of the race, and both have voted for the new candidate, Jon Royce." ”

"Lord Royce received nearly 500 votes right away. Piper shrugged and added details: "With just over six hundred votes, he'll be the new commander-in-chief......

"Six hundred and seventy-eight. Sam subconsciously said the exact number, and his heart was cold: it's over, the worst is still here.

After a series of losses and additions, the total number of night watchmen has risen slightly from the lowest number, and now there are 1,007 members. With 678 votes, you can reach two-thirds of the total number of the Night's Watch and win the election to become the next commander-in-chief.

Having the support of the Commander of the Shadow Tower and the East Sea Watch does not mean that he will be directly elected Commander-in-Chief, but throughout the recorded history of the Night's Watch, every candidate who has received the support of the commander of both forts......

In the end, they were all successfully elected commander-in-chief.

That's right, every one, without exception!

The reason is very simple, the Shadow Tower and Donghaiwang are located at both ends of the Great Wall, and since ancient times, they have been the two fortresses with the largest number of soldiers stationed in addition to the headquarters of the Night's Watch...... Not to mention the 100 years since there were only three left.

While Commander Mormont reactivated a large number of forts along the Wall with the support of foreign aid during his lifetime, the other sixteen forts were not entirely garrisoned by the Night's Watch, and there were not as many "authentic" Night's Watch with voting rights as the Shadow Tower or the East Sea Lookout combined.

Ser Dennis Mellister and Carter Pike hold more than two-fifths of the voting rights of the entire Night's Watch Legion. For now, Jon Royce only had to manage to get a hundred more votes from the Brothers of Oath at Castle Black to seal the victory.

Shocked by the unexpected news, a tall Night's Watch Ranger approached the three-man discussion group and unceremoniously asked, "Hey, what now?"

......

The speaker was a Lannister guard who had followed Jaime Lannister to the Wall, and normally the Westlanders were a small group of their own, and would not and would not bother to deal with other Night's Watchmen, especially "cowards" and "fools" like Sam and Glenn. But now they had to talk to their allies: Iger was leaving asking them to vote for Carter Pike to close the gap between the top two and maintain the balance, but suddenly the top two were all out of the election, and the people of the West were overwhelmed and asked their reformist supporters.

"What to do?" I don't know, Sam looked left and right in a panic. As Egg was on his way back from the North, Jon was urging and warning him, and the Kingkiller hated stewardship and brainstorming the most...... Right now, in this huge black castle, this timid fat man has become the principal of the reformers?

"Hurry up, vote for Bookwell, or renominate Sir James and give him your vote?" urged, the Westfrontier in displeasure, "it can't be to abstain or throw the vote to Royce, right?"

Abstention is impossible, and according to the law of the Night's Watch, in order to ensure the election of a commander-in-chief, only two-thirds of the actual votes are required for victory, and even if half abstain, the first place needs only two-thirds of the remaining half of the votes to be elected...... Each abstention brings the first place one step closer to being elected.

Messed things up himself, and Sam felt like he was about to pee out. But it was not their own fault, and whoever got the votes of Sir Mellister and Carter Pike was invincible without any suspense...... He held back without trembling, and was silent for a while trying to hide his panic by pretending to think, but a voice suddenly came out of his heart.

(No, it's not over yet.) ）

"Invincible" is not the same as "victory" after all.

It is true that every candidate who has the support of both the Shadow Tower and Donghaiwang has become the commander-in-chief, but not every candidate who has become the commander-in-chief has the support of both the Shadow Tower and the Donghaiwang. There is no necessary causal relationship between these two events, and in the final analysis, the key is still the two-thirds ratio - as long as the combined number of night watchmen in these two fortresses does not exceed two-thirds of the total number, then "having the support of these two commanders" cannot be equated with "becoming commander-in-chief".

Sam wondered if Jon Royce had used charisma, a quid pro quo, or some other means to persuade Sir Mellister and Carter Pike to vote for him...... But he was in a different situation than the hundreds of commanders who had relied on the support of the Shadow Tower and Donghaiwang to win the election: he had only received votes for these two fortresses for the time being.

Dennis Mellister and Carter Pike, both old men who have been dressed in black for decades, are familiar to the soldiers of Castle Black, even if they don't know him. But Jon Royce, to most of the night watchmen of Castle Black, was just a former earl and a disgraced nobleman from a distant valley who had been sent by King Robert for rebellion—just as Osser withdrew from the election and could not allow the hundreds of brothers who supported him to vote for a particular person, and the commanders of the Shadow Tower and the Eastern Sea Lookout could vote for him the four hundred or so votes they represented...... But they can't order the brothers in Castle Black who originally supported the two of them to vote for Royce too!

As long as you take advantage of this opportunity and don't all the tickets lost from the two commanders go to Jon Royce's name, things will take a turn for the better!

The reason is very simple, and children can understand it, but how to do it?

(Drag!)

Another word came to mind, and Sam didn't have time to think about it, so he stammered and quickly instructed the impatient Westsiders: "Just vote for Warner Bookwell, there's no reason, anyway...... It's all the same anyway, just don't vote for Lord Royce. ”

The Westerners glanced at Sam, who couldn't hide his panic, and understood that the other party probably didn't have an idea, nodded, turned around and walked back to his small group.

"Hey, Sam. A melancholy Eddie also walked over: "If you don't have any good ideas, our new commander-in-chief is Jon Royce...... I don't have a problem with this guy, but I've heard that he has a grudge against Egg, and if it's a careful eye, and we're Jon's friends, and Jon is Egger's friend, and he's the commander and wants to put on our little shoes, that's a big deal!"

"Oh, it's so easy to come up with a good idea. Add, don't you make a mess, okay? Sam was thinking hard about what to do, and he hugged his head when he heard this. He has neither influence nor many friends at Castle Black, so it can be said that it is difficult to stop the situation from changing in a small way, and after thinking about it, he can only hope to delay the time and wait for Egger or at least Jon to return first and then find another way. "Glenn, please hurry to Houguan Town later, whether Egg arrives or not, at least call Jon back first. ”

"Okay. The big man shrugged indifferently. "Do you want to go now?"

"No, wait, I'll write you a note, and if you see Egg, give it to him, and if you don't, give it to someone who is reliable in Houguan Town, and make sure that the Chief Logistics Officer can see it before returning to Castle Black. Sam looked left and right, found no pen or paper, and was about to return to his room to get it, when he heard the other brothers around him who were waiting to vote.

......

"Who are you voting for?"

"Whatever, I'll vote for Royce. This has dragged on long enough, I've had enough, and I'm finally able to elect a commander-in-chief, so what are you waiting for?"

"I've had enough, I've had enough of life without the Commander-in-Chief, no one is forcing me to practice, and I don't have to worry about who's going to be sent out of the wall to die. ”

"Shu Tan is Shu Tan, I watched the whole thing from the top of the wall on the day the ghouls attacked the city! Those ghosts are now on the north side of the wall, trying to figure out how to kill us—I heard that the leader of them is still wise. I don't want to be comfortable for a while, and then I don't know when I'm overwhelmed by dead people. ”

"Damn, it makes sense. But I don't know anything about this Jon Royce. ”

"No worse commander is better than nothing, and besides, Sir Mellister and Master Carter Pike have their back, and how bad can he be. ”

......

"Wait a minute, wait for me to give you the note before you go. Sam realized something wasn't good. The matter of sending a letter to Iger can be slowed down, but if no one stands up to say or do something at the moment, it makes no sense to send as much news to whom...... But he looked around and found that none of his friends could do the job except Jon.

It seems that he can only appear by himself.

Sam swallowed, walked into the aisle, and shouted with all his might, "Everyone, please listen to me!"

......

No one paid attention, everyone still discussed their own opinions, and even intermittently some people went to the stage to vote, and I don't know whether to vote for Royce or Bookwell.

"Stupid cow, up. Piper put his shoulder on the big man.

Glenn was not as stupid as he looked, he immediately understood, "bang, bang" slapped the table with his thick palm, and shouted in a voice more than ten times that of Sam: "Be quiet! Maester Aemon's assistant has something to say!"

Sam was disliked by his father because of his fat and cowardice, and few people in Castle Black looked up to him, and only under the name of Maester Aemon's assistant could he barely make people quiet and listen to him.

"Our Sir Fat Pig has something to say?" someone laughed, "did you have something to say, or did Maester Aemon tell you what he meant?"

Sam knew he couldn't answer the question. Seeing hundreds of pairs of eyes turning to him in unison, he suddenly felt that his legs were weak, but he still forced himself to speak: "It is really ...... that Sir Mellister and Master Carter Pike can finally put aside their prejudices and come to an agreement Rejoiced. I don't know if Master Royce will be a good commander, but I'd like to remind you that the Night's Watch Commander-in-Chief is a lifelong position, and once chosen, you can't go back. ”

He looked at the two commanders and swallowed again before continuing: "Whoever you vote for, I want you to vote because you know the candidate and support him, not because 'he has the most votes, and he will elect the commander-in-chief'...... And make a rash choice. ”

"Mistress Tully. Dennis Mellister, who was sitting at the front table, turned around and looked at Sam with a gentle expression: "Is this what Master Aemon is admonishing?"

No, Sam understood that he couldn't reply, and he carefully considered the words and gave an ambiguous answer: "The bachelor put on his necklace and took an oath...... He said that he would never take sides in the election, and this is my personal opinion: I do not know Lord Jon Royce, and I hope that you will be given a few days before you all vote for him, to explain the policy he will adopt when he becomes Commander-in-Chief, and to prove that he is capable of doing so. ”

The old knight smiled slightly: "Master Aemon is very thoughtful, I agree with this view, brothers, before voting, you can first go to Lord Royce's table and sit down, have a drink, and listen to his experiences and thoughts." ”

(This has nothing to do with Maester Aemon, they have to associate it, but they don't mean to lie.) Sam had no intention of picking up the fact that he had accidentally faked himself, and Maester Ammon had no more seniority and prestige among the Night's Watch, if not for that connection...... No one will listen to their own "dead fat" half a sentence.

......

"But who can we vote for?" Someone immediately asked, "We don't know Jon Royce, but Warner Bookwell has only been on the Night's Watch for a few months, so how good is it?"

"Vote for yourself. The melancholy Eddie hugged his chest and replied, "At least you can't become the commander-in-chief inexplicably, Master Aemon's meaning is very clear - it is better to lack than to overuse!"

"Vote for Lord Royce, and he will probably become the Commander-in-Chief, but if we vote for someone else, we will still have time to think carefully and judge. Sam caught a glimpse of Jon Royce, who was sitting not far from Sir Mellister, looking coldly at this side, and shuddered, knowing that he could not say any more: "I have said what I want to say, and it is up to you brave brothers of the Night's Watch to do what remains so as not to show partiality...... Decide for yourself. ”

His whole body trembled as if it wasn't his own, and before he could show his ugliness, Sam quickly turned around and motioned for Glenn to come with him, and ran out of the hall as fast as he could.

——