Despite his criticism and wait-and-see attitude about the new commander-in-chief's methods and political leanings, Dennis Mellister had to admit that Egger's title of "Phantom Slayer" should be changed to "Wrath Buster".

He, it seems, did anticipate every move of the enemy.

The Night's Watch had focused their defense on the Great Wall for thousands of years, and Egger had to open a new line of defense on the southern side of the canyon, and the enemy eventually crossed the canyon to attack.

Since the establishment of the Great Wall defenders, they have not built walls in any of the fortresses in order to show that they have no ambition for the Seven Kingdoms, but Iger has to break with tradition and order each fortress to be prepared to defend itself without relying on the Great Wall, and now the strange spirits are indeed attacking the wall.

Almost half of the Legion was opposed to accepting the Wildlings a year earlier, but Egger took office and preferred to hide in Houguan Town to continue the policy than admit it, and it turned out that he could indeed feed the newly gifted landers and make them useful in the war......

Although he thought so, Dennis's reason told him that Iger did not anticipate every move of the enemy, but took into account all the possible strategies of the enemy, and then arranged and informed everyone of the response.

He now had to admit that even with his own prudence, he could not have done a better job than Egger - he was so convinced that he could serve such a powerful and clever commander-in-chief on the last leg of his life's journey, and even rejoiced in his choice.

＊＊＊

Everything is written in the defense plan, and what Dennis has to do now is to execute it faithfully: the Shadow Tower needs to be responsible for the defenders of the easternmost quarter of the Grand Canyon first - the first moment the beacon fire is lit in the canyon, the gates of the fortress are immediately opened: with the soldiers maintaining order, the eastern half of the passage is for the land-donors living outside the fortress wall to enter the wall for refuge, and the western half is used for the reserves inside the fortress to go to the front line of the canyon with supplies and men to support.

The reserve team of more than 400 people set out from the Shadow Tower and marched towards the canyon until they met the reserve team that also set out from the canyon. Since the Grand Canyon defense line was attacked on all fronts, they had to support the entire defensive section they were responsible for, rather than a specific point - each time they reached an engaged defensive section along the way, the reserve team left behind half a squad of soldiers, a box of wildfire, and a few arrows, which was not a large support, but its tactical significance and psychological comfort to the defenders were extremely striking.

The defenders of the eastern section of the gorge were neither more numerous nor braver or better trained than those in the western section...... But it was precisely because they knew that there were people behind them, and that they would not be abandoned, that they held out longer overall, and on average cost the army of ghouls.

It was not until the news that the western sector had been lost, and the front-line commanders contacted each other and agreed that there was no longer any point in continuing to hold out, that the reserves began to use the midpoint as the demarcation line, orderly withdrew the line to both ends, and finally succeeded in safely withdrawing most of the defenders into the fortress after several frightening skirmishes.

The West Bridge, with only one tower, was abandoned, while the Shadow Tower, which had completed all preparations, closed its gates after the last civilian had fled in, waiting for the enemy's next move.

The defenders who retreated into the gorge did not escape in the end, and the flames of their battle were clearly visible from the top of the Great Wall across half of the canyon, but their bloody sacrifice provided the final warning and precious preparation time for the entire land grant, and the entire Great Wall had completed the evacuation and final preparations. Dennis panted around the walls of the fort he had presided over for decades, inspecting preparations, calming recruits and instructing them on defense tips...... But the sentinels looked west for hours, and saw that the entire line of the gorge that had been blazing with fire gradually darkened, and there was not a half of a ghoul to be seen, until after midnight, when the defenders had even eaten a steaming supper, and everyone began to wonder if the enemy had bypassed the Shadow Tower to attack the other fortresses directly, or even directly south, that they finally appeared in view.

......

Without the barrier of the terrain and the shelter of the forest, the arrival of the corpse tide is particularly conspicuous, even the sound-absorbing effect of the thick snow cannot suppress the vibration caused by tens of thousands of undead puppets stepping on the ground, the first thing that came was the sound of thunderous footsteps, and the sea of corpses soon poured out from the mountains to the west like ink that overturned the white paper on the table against the backdrop of the snowy wilderness, and spread towards the shadow tower.

How many ghouls were in that black mass of ghouls? 10,000, 50,000, or more? No one could tell, and it was impossible to see individual individuals in the crowd of corpses, and when the number reached a certain point, the human brain would completely lose its judgment on numbers. In the darkness of the night, the defenders could not even estimate the number of enemies, and they could only describe what they saw: the sea of corpses stretched from the visible edge to the dim background of mountains and forests in the distance, with no end in sight.

Instead of attacking the Shadow Tower directly from the west, the "ink" continued to seep through the south side, a little further away from the Great Wall, until the Shadow Tower's visible wilderness on three sides, except for the Great Wall, was painted black and completely surrounded into an isolated island, and then it began to attack.

If the Canyon Defenders are like a dam against the tide when facing an army of ghouls, the Shadow Tower is like a reef on the beach - although everyone faces the same number of enemies, the Canyon Defenders only need to face the enemies that slap in the shape of a strip from one direction, but the Night Watch inside the Shadow Tower needs to face the dead people pouring in from each direction at more than 270°!

Without resting and eating, not reading a declaration of war, and not sending a loud order to surrender, the Night King did a more thorough job than Jaime in the item of "never beep if he can do it", and tens of thousands of ghouls did not waste a second under the command and control of a dozen strangers, and launched an all-out attack from all directions at the moment when the encirclement was formed, and had the momentum to take down the Shadow Tower at all costs.

The sound of trumpets continued one after another, and the signals of attack and calls for help were transmitted like telecommunications signals in the nerves to the other seventeen fortresses and Houguan towns close to the ice wall through various means, such as sounds, beacons, letter crows, and heralds galloping on horseback on the top of the Great Wall.

Sentinel Tower, Shimen Village, Long Night Fort and other nearby fortresses have long been prepared, and the redundant weapon resources and reserve troops have been sent to the top of the wall in advance to stand by - no one can guarantee that the enemy will not bypass the shadow tower to directly attack other fortresses, and the operation of "concentrating manpower and material resources on one point" cannot be predicted in advance, so it was not until the news of the large-scale attack of the shadow tower was confirmed at this moment that the mobile troops on the top of the wall, which had been blowing in the cold wind on the top of the wall for several hours, began to step on the flat and wide transportation avenue on the top of the Great Wall and advance towards the battlering fortress.

......

"Ignition!"

"Ignition!"

"Burn them!"

The fort that had been in operation for many years was much more sophisticated than the canyon defenses that had been hastily built over several months—a defensive belt with little snow had already been cleared from the tall and sturdy stone walls, wooden stakes and fences inlaid with dragon crystal thorns were densely arranged, and even a trench had been dug in the frozen ground in front of it, and the inside was poured with non-volatile asphalt.

Dennis Mellister, who is in his seventies, is far more poised than any other commander of the Night's Watch...... He strictly forbade any soldier to waste even the slightest bit of combat equipment before the tide of corpses entered the "clearance zone" – that is, approached thirty meters from the city walls. But the moment the ghoul stepped into this area, with the old man's order, countless rockets and wildfire canisters shot accurately and smashed into the clearing area, and the high temperature of the green flame quickly ignited the more non-flammable wood and asphalt, and in just a dozen seconds, a huge fire field several meters wide was formed outside the shadow tower, and the light of the fire was so bright that it could be seen from miles away.

Anyone who wants to get close to the Shadow Tower will have to be baptized in flames first!

But this fire only delayed the tide of corpses for a moment, this strong attack on the plain is no better than climbing the canyon cliff, just one or twenty meters away in a few seconds, no matter how fragile the ghouls can not be burned to death in an instant, the strangers did not bother to control the puppets one by one with magic to reduce casualties, but relied on the advantage of numbers, a wave of A went up, and chose to force the sea of fire!

The living dead rushed through the fire one after another, using a body to knock down the stakes, fill in and extinguish the fiery trench, and countless ghouls fell into one of them, and their bodies turned into fuel and turned into a part of the fire, but many more ghouls rushed through the fire with flames and came to the wall!

Ghouls are indeed afraid of fire, but the reason for their fear of fire is simply that "the corpse oil, which is the carrier of cold mana, will lose contact with the stranger when it is burned out". They themselves are not afraid of burns and pain, and the flammability of the corpse oil itself is only comparable to asphalt, which cannot be compared to gasoline or even wildfires, and the night watchman has been hoarding wildfires for years, and even obtained the complete inventory of the Mad King of the previous dynasty from the Alchemist Guild of King's Landing, which is indeed quite a lot, but it is by no means large enough to build a barrier around the fortress and fall to the ground...... In order to ignite the fire quickly, the defenders used a small number of wildfires as ignitions, but the main incendiary materials in the fire barrier were still wood and asphalt. It's easy to keep the fire going, but the temperature isn't too high, and it's impossible to kill a ghoul in an instant.

The ghouls are not afraid of death, they just want to rush under the walls and complete the offensive mission!

With a muffled thud, the ghouls slammed into the walls of the Shadow Tower, clinging to the walls and roaring upwards...... Of course, the stone wall was not as easy to climb as the slope of the canyon, not to mention the fact that the defenders had poured frozen ice on it in advance to make it smoother. The ghouls can't do the intricate manipulations of stepping on their knees and shoulders, stacking arhats on ladders, and they don't need to—what they really do is they use each other as stepping stones to shoot or cripple or crush each other underneath, and climb up in a heap of mountains of people!

One by one, one by one...... The tide of ghouls who crossed the sea of fire quickly crowded into piles under the wall, and the height quickly changed from one meter or two meters to three meters and four meters, rapidly approaching the top of the wall, and the soldiers at the top of the wall frantically released arrows, but soon found that this was just drinking to quench their thirst: the ghouls killed by the dragon crystal arrows would soon become a stepping stone for other ghouls if they fell, and the more they killed, the more stable the base of the "Dead Man's Mountain" became...... Without Dennis Mellister's orders, everyone knew what to do.

The large number of solidified wildfires brought in by King's Landing can finally come in handy.

These wildfires, which were passivated into gelatinous form to facilitate long-distance transportation, were not comparable to asphalt burned on wood: they were highly stable after being passivated in the hands of the Night's Watch Industrial Technician, but they could not be reversely converted into liquid wildfires after they arrived at the land grant, and due to their high ignition point and non-explosiveness, they were not suitable for making incendiary bombs and other forms of weapons, so they were stored in the forts for a long time...... But their essence has not changed, as long as they are lit, the heat emitted by solidified wildfires is the same as or even higher than that of fresh wildfires.

Jars of old wildfires from the era of Elise Targaryen were smashed head-to-head on the heads of the climbing ghouls, and in the sound of ping-pong, streams of thick and viscous dark green liquid splashed on the besieging ghouls, and a torch went down, and the green flames that soared into the sky instantly rose and burned like a volcanic eruption!

There was no thick snow at the foot of the wall to affect the power of the wildfire, and there were piles of ghouls as ready-made firewood and burners, and the wildfire burned so vigorously that it instantly engulfed all the ghouls around the siege. The mountain of corpses, which had been piled up four or five meters high, was like a soft monster trying to climb the wall, quickly shrinking and getting shorter under the scorching flames, and finally moved away from the top of the wall.

The wildfire ignited the corpse oil, and the corpse oil ignited the skin, flesh and bones, and all the combustible organic matter that made up the ghouls turned into part of the flames, and in addition to the roars of the ghouls in the thick smoke and fire, there were also a few strange popping sounds from time to time, which should be the body cavities, organs and other things of the more intact ghouls that were roasted by the high temperature.

The smell was disgusting, but the situation was good, and everyone was rejoicing—looking at the stance, as long as the wildfires from the other fortresses were transported here from the top of the Wall, the dead would not be able to step beyond the walls until dawn.

Now the new problem is that the fire is so strong that the flames of the sky are so hot that even the people on the edge of the wall are afraid to approach it, and it is difficult to observe the situation below.

......

"Move all the flammable and explosive stuff to the back, don't get roasted, be careful of burns, and get some more water from the kitchen to the wall!"

Dennis ran around yelling, he couldn't accuse the soldiers of taking matters into their own hands, after all, this was the standard response in the defense plan. Even if a wildfire burned the fortress, it would be better than letting the ghouls get in, but now he had to consider the threat that wildfire could pose to the burning of the wall—not the flames that broke the stone and caused the wall to collapse, of course...... The gate is made of wood! Although it is thick and strong, it will never withstand the long-term scorching of wildfire!

"Move all the horse rejection piles in the direction of the door, go to the open space next to the school yard and move some useless stones, and if they are not enough, tear down the house!

Despite his old age and frailty, Dennis, the commander of the Shadow Tower, was still very energetic, and he stood in the open space directly opposite the gate of the fortress to command, and his voice was still loud enough to be heard by anyone on the wall. Tuo perfectly executed the plan to successfully provide refuge for the nearby residents, and covered the blessing of hundreds of canyon defenders to withdraw to the fortress, and now there are nearly 3,000 people in the shadow tower, even if the mobile troops on the top of the Great Wall have not yet arrived, and excluding the old and weak, excluding the savage spear women, there are still more than 1,000 male defenders...... Such a number of people are naturally stretched thin to guard a section of the Grand Canyon that is more than ten miles long, but if it is replaced by the three walls of the Shadow Tower, it is enough to arrange the top of each section of the wall, and there are many people left to act as logistics and reserves on the surface of the wall.

Dennis put the young boys, who were too young to have much strength, to carry water and take care of the fires, the women to carry war equipment and sundries in small carts, and the experienced ones to deal with the wounded...... A large amount of non-combustible debris was dumped and piled up behind the door to serve as a follow-up shelter after the wooden door was burned through the fire, and while everyone except the babies was busy doing their work in the entire fortress, the defenders on the top of the walls on both sides of the gate suddenly exclaimed in unison.

"Oh my God, mammoth!"

"Damn, and giants!"

"What are you doing standing stupidly, release the arrow!"

"Why is it useless to shoot it?"

"The skin is too thick...... With blasters, with blasters!"

"Don't use explosive bombs, it's for the strangers!" Dennis Mellister, annoyed by the screams of the fools, yelled angrily, but his voice was completely drowned out by the screams and shouts one after another, and just as he was about to tell a soldier to run up the wall to give him an order not to waste his precious weapon, a few meters away from the gate suddenly heard a loud impact sound as if it had been hit by the hammer of the gods, shaking the entire fortress and even the ground seemed to be shaking.

——

[There are more than 100 monthly passes left before the 90,000-word update in August←]