Chapter 227: Impregnable
From the west side of the Wall, news came that Mance Rader's all-out assault had begun, and the Wildlings intensified their efforts to cross the Grand Canyon and turn back to attack the West Bridge, attempting to capture and repair the Skull Bridge that had long been cut off by the Night's Watch across the Grand Canyon...... Ser Dennis Mellister led the Shadow Tower defenders to repel several wildling attacks, but the defenders suffered heavy casualties, and Mormont sent another hundred men from Castle Black to support.
But there was good news, that when Ygritte announced to the night watchmen that day, Mance's plan of attack must have been thought that with a hundred times the number of ravens, the scheming could also win, and she and Mance would never have expected it...... One of the freaks of the Night's Watch, who is not even in the upper echelons of the Great Wall, returned to the front line at a critical moment and came up with a way to break the situation by force.
With several coping strategies put in place at the same time, the shortage of manpower was finally temporarily alleviated: when Egg first crossed into this world, the land was inhabited by seven or eight thousand ordinary inhabitants scattered along the Great Wall, providing nearly half of the Night's Watch legion's supplies. As the wild men crossed the wall and looted and slaughtered, these inhabitants died, and those who fled south fled south, leaving only more than 2,000 people...... Now, Commander Mormont has relocated all of the more than 2,000 inhabitants to the nearby Night's Watch stronghold where the garrison is stationed. These ordinary people are not strong enough to fight against the Wild Men who have crossed the wall, but it is still no problem to hide in the wall to assist in the defense, or to do some repair and construction work under orders.
With these helpers, the Night's Watch itself was able to move more freely.
......
In addition, the people of the clan were more efficient than expected, and by the time Egger had returned to the Wall with a few of the ordinary prisoners in the dungeons of Winterfell after arranging many follow-up arrangements in Houguan Town, the Fillint Clan's migration advance party had already arrived at Castle Black.
It is true that the largest clan in the north is the Worr, but since they need half of their members to stay in the fishing villages along the shores of Frozen Bay, the Fillint clan has the largest number of people who can move in the land grant to support the Night's Watch. According to the previous agreement, the first settlers were relocated to the Long Night Castle, a few dozen miles west of Castle Black.
The Long Night Castle was a traditional night watchman's base camp that could accommodate up to 10,000 people when it was originally built, but it never filled more than half of the space, and was a typical product of the "ancestors overreacted to the invasion of the ghosts" until the Night's Watch declined to the point where they could no longer maintain such a large fortress two hundred years ago, and finally abandoned it in favor of the new headquarters of Castle Black at the end of King's Road.
The largest fortress along the Great Wall, for the clan with the largest number of people about to settle in, it simply couldn't be more suitable.
The abandoned complex needed a lot of care and repair before it could be inhabited, but fortunately, the fortress, which could accommodate 10,000 people, was demolished and repaired for 1,000 people, and the materials were sufficient. Mormont sent ten craftsmen to cooperate, and the first fortress with reinforcements was settled.
Iger paid the elder Flint fifty gold dragons to start up to ensure that they settled smoothly, which was a huge sum of money in the north, where prices and living standards were generally low...... Castle Black had enough supplies for a thousand Night's Watch to live for a year, and Mormont agreed to sell them if Iger promised to replenish them in the future. The clansmen could trade money for whatever they needed at Castle Black, and Iger had negotiated the pricing of all the goods with Mormont and the clerk to make sure they were neither too unaffordable nor too low to make people want to resell.
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"On the side of the Grand Canyon, I'm afraid that just a hundred people will not be enough, I plan to recruit people from the clans and land donors who have been stationed along the Great Wall one after another, and after simple training, fill in the Shadow Tower and the West Bridge to ensure that the Skull Bridge is foolproof. "At the same time, if what the wild woman said is true, then Mans will probably send people to dig holes and climb walls along the Great Wall, and the vigilance and patrols on the top of the Great Wall must be restored as soon as possible." ”
"If you want to resume patrols, you must first clear the road again, and the number of craftsmen is not enough, so I am afraid that it will not be able to resume in a short time. ”
"The commander-in-chief and I have already arranged that the clans stationed in the Great Wall will be prioritized to several fortresses such as Shimen Village, Long Night Fort, Sable Hall, and Beacon Tower, so as to realize that there will be a group of people stationed every dozens of miles along the Great Wall. Iger said, "And the top of the Great Wall in these fortresses and nearby areas is the responsibility of the assigned clans...... I'm going to recruit artisan assistants, sentinels, and patrols from among them, and I'm going to make the defense along the top of the wall as seamless as possible, so that every inch is in charge, and wherever the wildlings climb the wall or burrow from, someone will immediately take action. ”
"Do the clansmen have the discipline and consciousness to complete the tasks you have assigned?" Jeremy questioned, "You let them go to the city to guard or patrol, just afraid that they would find a corner and go to sleep wrapped in blankets." ”
"Quite possibly, so, we will have a night watchman to supervise and manage every fortress where clansmen are stationed. One or two craftsmen and clerks, and a number of rangers were to lead the duty in shifts...... Each fortress only needs to send ten to twenty night watchmen to manage hundreds of clansmen, and once the walls are built, the entire Great Wall can be made like an iron wall, so that the wild people who come to gnaw will be covered with blood. ”
"What will we do to ensure that the wildlings obey the stewardship of the Night's Watch we have assigned?"
"Qian Bei, the clansmen who go to the city to participate in the repair of the road on the top of the wall, the sentry and the patrol along the way, can be paid, what kind of amount I am studying, but this is undoubtedly the most efficient means, who does not obey the management...... Okay, go to the fortress on the ground and eat the living expenses, some people are willing to do it. My agreement with the clan leaders was to make sure that no one starved to death, and they would soon find out that 'no starvation' really meant literal if they didn't do anything to help. ”
"How can everything be money, money, money?" the Chief Affairs Officer complained, "and there is no other way." ”
"Please forgive me for my businessman's thinking, if there is any other way, Lord Bowen, I will listen to you. ”
"All this money is from the logistics department, and it stands to reason that we are not in a position to object. The clerk did not speak again, but Mormont spoke: "What I am worried about is ...... The origins of the black-clothed brothers are already confused, in case they enter the fortress where the clan people live, they leave the supervision and management of the chief, take the lead in laziness and enjoyment, and even embezzle......"
More than 30 percent of the current members of the Night's Watch are criminals, and most of the remaining 70 percent are desperate to survive...... As for the poor quality of the rebels, Westeros feared that no army could be worse than the Night's Watch, and Mormont's concern was justified.
"I can only try to pick those who have volunteered to join, and those who have noble backgrounds to give priority to the commanders of the newly activated fortress. "Voluntary membership and noble birth do not mean that the character is more noble, but at least it is much better than picking from among criminals:" Also, I will send a staff member of the Night's Watch property in each fortress to manage the salaries and the sale of goods, and incidentally secretly supervise the seriousness of the defense of each fortress." ”
The money was from Egger, and of course he would not have a problem if he wanted to let his own people take care of it, and in this matter, he really didn't do it entirely out of selfishness: the members of the industry who followed him north, except for the basic soldiers, were basically educated, and at least they could settle accounts...... And most importantly: to receive a salary that is definitely high in this era. With a high salary and a salary of hundreds of silver deer, Iger really didn't believe that his people would toss those copper plates with his clansmen.
"Another question, it's good for the clansmen to use this management method, but what about the original land-donors?" the chief craftsman asked, "A lot of land-givers are helping me build and maintain the walls of the Black Castle, what if they find out that the clansmen can get paid, but they just take care of the food and work for free, what if they have an opinion?"
"It's the same salary. ”
"Can the logistics department support it?"
"It can't be supported, but it can be offset by the cancellation of the rice pipe. The clansmen are foreign aid, and they should be fed, but the donors are supposed to support the night watchmen, and now they don't want to farm, and they don't want to do some work......?" In this way, the pressure on the night watchman does not increase much. ”
After a moment of silence in the commander-in-chief's office, the Chief Ranger voiced his concern: "Burning money like this is certainly the best way to solve the emergency, but no matter how cheap the clan people and land-givers are, the number of people and time is not a small number, and it is naturally good that Lord Iger can be even." But what I'm more afraid of is another effect—if the clansmen and land-givers are paid to help patrol and keep guards, what will the Rangers and other Night's Watch think?
"Then pay them their salaries too. Iger shrugged, there were only a few hundred night watchmen, and it wasn't much of a burden to add in, and if you didn't bring a few clans, everything would be solved.
"No, what is the point of the Night's Watch that the Night's Watch wants to be paid for performing their duties?" Mormont decisively rejected Egger's proposal for the first time: "The Oath Brothers must not be involved, otherwise the Legion will not be a Legion." It's a big deal, when the dissatisfaction of the brothers grows, the allowance will be gradually increased for pocket use, and this expense will be borne by Castle Black itself, although it is poor, but the legion still has a little savings. ”
A brief ventilation meeting was over, and the Great Wall's defenses were beginning to see hope. The blueprint of the iron wall has been drawn, but after all, it has not yet been built, and the situation can only be called stable when all the clans contacted are in place, each fortress is guarded by walls, and every section of the Great Wall is guarded by special personnel.
Everyone is busy, and the one who is most stressed is Egger. The stability of the Great Wall's defenses came at the cost of a large number of residents losing their jobs, and with the continuous arrival of foreign aid in the future, the Night's Watch would need to feed more and more people, and the storage of the Black Castle could feed a thousand people for nearly two years, and once a thousand became ten thousand...... Even if these 10,000 people have never seen the world again at a low price, it is a huge pressure, and now, this pressure is all on logistics.
This is the best chance to compete for credit, to help the Night's Watch through these difficulties, and the honor, influence, and voice, everything will flock to you, but only if the person who takes the job can survive it.
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