Iger had proposed to Mormont a month earlier that Samwell Tully be sent to Houguan Town to raise letter crows, but training birds to travel to and from several places was not something that could be done overnight, and the lack of efficient communication was immediately exposed: if you wanted to know something, you had to rely on people running around...... Afraid that the relays would not be clear, he simply went there again.

......

"The Lord of Winterfell has called on the princes of the North to use a quarter of the harvest as a stockpile, and sell the rest to the Great Wall at a flat price to support it. The reactions of the various families were relatively cooperative, except for Fort Terror and Horwood City, which were slow to respond due to the lack of an agent, and basically agreed to the deal. However, due to the long distance, only the Amber family in the last Fireplace City has delivered the first batch of grain and grass for the time being, and the rest of the places ......," Yam said, "I have learned that the main grain producing areas in the north are the plains east of the ancestors' barren mounds and the fertile soil in the north and south of Mingyan Bay, and these areas are all in the south and west of the north. ”

"Damn Iron People...... calculated the time, and Euron was about to return to assassinate Baron to ascend to the throne, and for the first time in his life, Egger hoped that a villain would appear sooner rather than later—at least, the madman knew how to go south to plunder the rich West and the riverbend, instead of being a fool with only hatred in his eyes, and had to fight to the death with the poor and hard north. "How much food did Amber's family deliver?"

Yamm took out the grain storage records, and after calculation, it was enough for a thousand people to eat for a month.

"There will definitely be follow-ups, but as the area of activity of the Iron Folk penetrates eastward towards the King's Road, we will soon have to send troops to escort the food convoy. ”

At present, there are more than 7,000 people in the ten fortresses along the Great Wall, and the clansmen are brave and good at fighting, both men and women, but there are nearly 1,000 night watchmen...... There are only 3,000 combatants when the battle is full. Defending a hundred-league-long front against tens of thousands of savages who sharpened their heads and drilled south of the Great Wall can only be said to be just enough, and even the enemy who has entered the land grant is slightly insufficient, where can there be manpower to be sent out to protect the grain transport team?

If you want to send people to protect the grain transport team, the best way is to pull a few more clans out of the mountains to make up people, but the clans that are pulled out also need to be fed, and more food is needed to feed more people, and more food needs to be purchased from more places, which in turn requires more escorts......

It's an endless loop, you can't get out if you jump in, it's a bad idea.

"Can you get food by sea, buy it from the river, and send it to the East China Sea by boat?"

"Theoretically, it can, but the riverland is blocked by the ironmen on the west coast, and there is no port on the east coast, so the ships that can be used can only enter and exit from White Harbor, and White Harbor is ......."

Iger looked at White Harbor on the map, a few dozen miles to the west of it was Carlin Bay, which had been occupied by the Iron People, and the grain from the Riverlands had to pass through the Neck blocked by the Iron People if they wanted to be transported to White Harbor for loading. What's more, in order to prevent a sneak attack by savages, White Harbor will most likely control or block the port......

Egger was furious: "The only way now is to ask the king for help, transport the grain from the Riverlands to King's Landing, load it in the port of Blackwater, and then go north to the East China Sea." ”

"But there are too many people and procedures involved, we don't have so much power, and we can let the nobles of the two places link up with one order. Yam frowned: "What's more, the Riverlands have been constantly sending food to King's Landing, and with the war between the Riverbend and the Iron Throne, the price of grain in the King's Territory has skyrocketed, and the people of the Riverland have finally transported the grain to King's Landing, who dares to be the master of this without authorization: let the people of the capital of the Seven Kingdoms go hungry, but sell the grain to the Night's Watch at a loss?"

It's a grim situation, but how can that be good? It's not good to run a non-self-sufficient territory - you have to walk on thin ice to do anything, and Iger is now unlucky enough to step into the ice hole. If he hadn't wanted to keep his composure in front of his subordinates, he almost wanted to scratch his head: in order to prevent the current unexpected situation, he had already been very conservative and only pulled a few thousand clansmen out of the mountain, leaving enough funds for the night watchman industry, but he didn't expect that it would not be easy to feed only these thousands of people.

......

Iger stared at the map, pondering a solution. There is not only grain in the river, and perhaps they should go to the riverbend and ask the Tyrells for help? But they are afraid that there will be some chaos in the north, so that Stannis will lose a strong reinforcement! He can even imagine the attitude of the princes of the riverlands—the letter received should not exist, and if he himself went to negotiate, Margaery, an old acquaintance, would have received him politely and settled himself comfortably, but when it came to business, it must have been difficult for this and troublesome for that, and in short, it would not be of any help.

In distress, a guard knocked on the door and reported, "Two lords, a large contingent has arrived from the King's Road, claiming to be reinforcements sent by King Stannis to help the Night's Watch...... There are too many of them, and they don't dare to let them in. ”

"King Stannis sent to help the Night's Watch?" Iger looked at the messenger suspiciously, which should have been good news, but he was now worried about the fact that there were too many people to feed him, "Can you bring food?"

"Like...... Not really. The guard blinked, "There are two carriages, but they are all sitting, and they don't look like they can hold much food." ”

A few more mouths came, but the debt was not worried, and Egger thought about it: since it was Stannis sending reinforcements, it would be much easier to explain to them the food and grass plight that the Night's Watch was encountering, and let them ask Stannis for help directly.

"Let's go, go out and get a reception. ”

Egger left the Houguan Town Administration Building with a few subordinates, came to the gate, and saw the team that was stopped at the door.

From a distance, Egger saw the fiery figure mixed in with hundreds of people, and was taken aback: How did this witch come here!

"Your Excellency the Chief Logistics Officer, we meet again. Melisandre couldn't guess Egger's belly, and said with a light smile: "This town you built is not bad, but it's a pity that the gatekeeper is too big...... Why, why don't you invite us in first?"

"Ah, please come in. Egger did not dare to offend the priestess, and hastened to open the gates of the city to invite them in, but as soon as he turned his head, a small figure rushed out of Melisandre and threw herself into his arms.

"Master—"

"Arya!" Egg startled. I haven't seen her for more than a month, the girl's hair hasn't grown back to a long enough length, and she is wearing inconspicuous gray cloth clothes, standing behind the red-robed woman inconspicuously, and she didn't see her: "Why are you with ......" He wanted to say how he got mixed with the red-robed woman, but his words changed a little, "Why did you come here, do your family know?"

"I'm afraid I don't know. The reinforcements brought by Melisandre entered Houguan Town through the gate with the flaming Red Heart Banner, and the red-robed woman herself approached with a smile: "She ran away from home, and caught up with us the day before yesterday, so I took her with me to look for you." ”

Running away from home? This bear child is dying again!

Winterfell is hundreds of miles away from Houguan Town, and along the way, there are both wild people and the threat of the Iron People, if it is not for the companionship, it is simply the most dangerous road in the Seven Kingdoms right now...... Iger really wanted to open Arya's head to see what was going on in this girl's head.

He looked at the girl seriously: "Explain?"

Arya sobbed aggrievedly, her head buried in his arms swaying, and she refused to speak for a moment.

"Alright, I'll talk to you about that later. Egg wanted to reprimand her, but seeing her weeping, he couldn't say anything serious for a while, so he just dealt with another trouble first...... He noticed that the woman in the red robe was still only wearing the loose red robe that the two of them had when they first met, without any warmth on the outside, and there was still a vacuum on the inside. "Thank you, Lady Melisandre, for taking time out of your busy schedule to travel north to support the Night's Watch...... On behalf of the Legion, please allow me to extend a welcome. ”

"You're welcome, Lord Egger. Melisandre's expression was indifferent, "The long night is coming, the ancient alien god of mortals, the old enemy of the Lord of Light, the target is all the living, and everyone should contribute all their strength to this confrontation." ”

"Well said, ma'am, but we're in huge trouble right now. Iger sighed, determined to complain as soon as we met: "You have come from afar, please let us prepare your room and dinner for you first, and we will eat and talk while we are there." ”

Melisandre nodded in agreement and followed Egg into Crown Town. The night watchman motioned for Yam to arrange for the visitors to be entertained, and then took Arya back to the office and sat down face to face with his apprentice: "There's no one here, let's say, why did you come all the way here?

——