Hundreds of millions of feet away, the fusion light of the central body of the system still stubbornly penetrates the clouds, bringing a new dawn to the northern land.

In the gloomy morning light, the walls of the castle, which had stood for thousands of years, were already covered with a black cloth symbolizing the land grant and the Targaryen Red Dragon Banner indicating its faction.

After spending the middle of the night clearing out the remnants of the enemy and taking full control of the castle, and even sending people down to search the Stark family's grave, Egger set out from the Wintertown headquarters on foot, surrounded by reserve soldiers who had not been able to do so, to the castle he had visited countless times, but had entered non-peacefully for the first time.

The ruins of the stables, which had long been burned out, could no longer emit a few wisps of smoke, and the frightened horses had been pulled together, and in the wide, but unruly open space inside the gate, a large number of captured defenders had gathered in a row, forced by swords, to wait for the fall. Most of them were still confused, not knowing how they had lost the battle, but a few recognized the Night's Watch Commander-in-Chief as he walked through the gates and squinted with angry and disdainful glances, two of whom were particularly brave and cursed "chameleon" and spat in the direction of Egger...... Unfortunately, their courage and courage did not win them applause and cheers, only a blow from the guards who threw them to the ground in the crook of the knee.

Egg didn't have the heart or strength to deal with these pawns who didn't know anything, and there were more important things for him to deal with.

The dead had to be cremated, the wounded needed to be treated, the captives had to find a large enough place to be held, and the civilians had to be driven back to the winter towns outside, not to mention the blasted east and north gates that needed to be repaired as soon as possible...... Moreover, more important than all of this is combined: although the land-givers have taken the castle, they have not yet taken Winterwinter completely.

A little north of the castle center, the main fort as the core building is still under the control of its original owner.

It wasn't that the land-giving forces that had invaded the city were unwilling or unable to take the building in one fell swoop, but that Iger had already explicitly ordered that attacks on the fortress were forbidden. Egger prefers to take it gently rather than assault it, to ensure that its occupants are not harmed.

This is an era when nobles are human beings, and the inevitable casualties of soldiers during the siege will be forgotten by those "adults" in a blink of an eye, but if Egg accidentally kills one or two of the Stark family, not only will his original overall arrangements for the North be forced to transfer to Plan B, but the reputation of Grace's revenge will also spread in the upper circles of Westeros for the rest of his life, and he will never be shaken off again.

And now, the tall circular building in front of him was more like a giant urn than a fortress, holding firmly all the people in the world who were still alive and surnamed Stark.

Oh no, not all, it's all minus one.

Robb Stark, the supreme ruler of the North and the owner of the castle that had just been taken, was wounded in last night's battle and captured alive!

"Lord Robb came out from the side with a squad of soldiers when we attacked the arsenal last night, and almost caught us off guard, but we threw all the bombs we were carrying in time, and this unfortunate guy rushed to the first one and was knocked unconscious. The commander of Robb's group of captives explained to Egg, "After that, the people who followed him tried to snatch him out desperately, and that's how we judged that we had caught a great man, and chased after him and caught him: Hey, there's an ice wolf coat of arms on the armor!"

Robb was able to survive even though he was stunned, in addition to his own hard life, and part of the reason was actually due to the new reward and punishment rules of the Land Grant Army.

Due to a number of considerations, Egger wanted to minimize casualties on the defenders in this battle - both the Stark family members and the regular soldiers who were loyal to them. But emotional softness is one thing, and reason clearly tells him that he is the supreme leader of the land-giving army, and he is first and foremost responsible for the lives of his own soldiers, not the enemy. It was impossible for Egger to simply and rudely give orders such as "Strike lightly" and "Don't hurt Stark" to tie the soldiers' hands and feet, and after thinking about it, they could only decide to save people in the end.

He deliberately stipulated: the reward for victory in this battle is not determined by the number of prisoners killed, and each living civilian and defender prisoner corresponds to a certain bounty, which is divided equally among the whole army after the total, and the reward for a single live capture of a member of the Stark family is 100 gold dragons, which is only shared within the captured team!

One hundred gold dragons, this is not a lot of money for the nobles of Westeros, but at this time, the results of long-term control of the price and standard of living of the land grant are manifested - in the eyes of the land grant soldiers, this number is simply as tempting as the tens of millions of huge prizes in the modern world, even if they have to share it with dozens of people, it is already rich enough to make most of them think more about the moment they want to make up the knife or kill them all, and then affect the final result.

......

"Good. Iger didn't hesitate to praise and nodded in affirmation. "The reward goes to all of your team's accounts...... It saves me a lot of effort. ”

"Not only that, but we learned from the same captives that Robb commanded the fire fighting on the school grounds when we broke the city, so we didn't have time to escape into the main fort and defend it. And, also because of this fire, I dare say that the number of guards in the main fort at the moment is definitely not more than double digits, maybe even a dozen, and it is easy to take it. This should be regarded as a great achievement, and the adults should have to give him a bounty. ”

It's her, not him...... Iger said in his heart. Of course, he will not be so confused as to reveal that Messira is his "internal response": she already has an unbearable life experience, and if it is known that she actually "betrayed" the adoptive family, then the saying that "evil seeds are inherently vicious" is estimated to be flying all over the sky again, and it will be difficult for her to get out of the predicament if she changes her identity again.

Funny to say, he asked the little princess to set this fire before, and he thought far more about "stabilizing her" than expecting what results this fire could create, and even regretted it a little bit when he asked for it. Who would have thought that this random move ended up bringing him far more than he expected: not only did he move the tiger away from the mountain and tear down the defenders in the city, so that the siege troops could break through one by one, greatly reducing the intensity of the street fighting, but also fished Robb Stark, a big fish, out of the main fort.

In the original battle plan, Egger judged that Robb would inevitably retreat into the main fortress after the city was broken to continue to resist, and formulated follow-up countermeasures for this, who would have thought that it would seem to be useless now.

Most of the bounty messella is not needed, and when she is free, she will be rewarded with one of her other wishes.

Retracting his thoughts, Iger quickly frowned again: "Wait, since the troops in the main fort are empty, and Robb is in our hands, then the persuasion should go smoothly, why is there no news yet?"

"Uh...... Although Robb survived, his injuries were not light, and the doctor said that he was lucky to be able to save him, and he was afraid that he would not wake up in a day or two. No matter how much we shouted, there was only one answer in the main castle: let's hand Robb over to them. Look, sir, are we carrying Robb over unconscious, or?"

People want to make sure Robb is safe and sound, and it's useless to carry him half-dead over?

After a moment's struggle, Iger realized that he had been too happy earlier.

The capture of Robb by his men meant that Egger could choose not to take any further hostile action and instead drag the latter to persuade his family to surrender when he woke up, but he had already learned from the reports he had received before entering the city: Maester Lewyn had released all of Winterfell's letter crows last night, and it was clear where they were flying. The northern army that had already gathered in the city of Severn could march here in less than a day, and although he could easily defeat them with the advantage of firearms, it was pointless to consume the war preparations and fight the northerners when he had already taken Winterfell to achieve its strategic goal. The spent gunpowder was wasted, and the fallen soldiers died in vain, not to mention that Luce Burton and Daenerys Targaryen would arrive at no known time.

Time may seem to be on its side, but it doesn't!

After pondering for a moment, he finally gritted his teeth: "Carry Robb Stark to the arsenal and arrange for someone to take care of it." Tell the artillery squad to bring the guys in, and we're still going as planned!"

——