The Glory of the Seven Gods of Ice and Fire

Chapter 232 Making a feint to the east and attacking in the west
The Night's Watch's Eastwatch Fleet has been operating in the Shivering Sea for a long time. With the arrival of the long winter, their activities have increased. The reason is simple: they have to continue breaking the ice on the Shivering Sea to prevent the ocean from becoming a path for the White Walkers to advance.

Now, above the Shivering Sea, a fleet of Night's Watchmen went about their work.

On the side of each black sailing ship were night watchmen holding wooden sticks. When the ship broke through the ice, they would use the iron-headed side of the stick to break the nearby ice.

Not far from them, there were brothers in black standing on the ice with hoes, hammers and other things to break the ice. After all, compared with the number of people a ship can carry, the side of the ship is still too short, so the brothers in black would get off the ship to break the ice.

During this period, the icebreaking work has become increasingly difficult, because the sea surface is freezing faster and faster, the ice is getting thicker and thicker, and it is becoming more and more difficult to break. Even with the support of many ships from the south, the night watchmen soon entered a state of working day and night, which greatly increased their workload. Everyone was as tired as a dead dog every day, and had to continue working the next day.

"What a fucking s--t, we have such a heavy workload and they're taking people away from us."

On the largest Night Watch sailing ship, the first mate complained, and his words aroused empathy from everyone present. Their workload during this period was really too heavy, and as a result, many people were withdrawn, which undoubtedly made the workload even heavier.

The reason for the withdrawal was because of the crack that appeared on the Great Wall. This huge crack scared the Night's Watch and concentrated a large number of troops there, because it seemed that the collapse of this section of the Wall was only a matter of time, so they had to deal with the White Walkers who were about to break through.

Not to mention Eastwatch, even the Shadow Tower had been mobilized to send a lot of personnel. The entire Night's Watch and Southern Volunteers were concentrating their efforts there.

Therefore, although the sailors complained constantly, they were still quite fortunate in their hearts, because although the work of breaking the ice was heavy, at least they did not have to face the White Walkers and did not have to use human lives to plug the hole.

"Stop talking and keep working. You are lucky to be able to work here now. I don't want to see anyone slacking off, nor do I want to send my brothers to plug the holes."

The captain glared at them and spoke in the common language with a slight oriental accent. Under the captain's gaze, everyone hurriedly continued to work and no one wanted to block the hole.

Watching this scene, the captain continued to look into the distance. Now a strange scene was emerging in the sky. Colorful twisted ribbons were hovering in the sky, and at the same time they also brought light to the ground.

No matter how many times he saw it, he was still amazed by the view. The captain thought that if there were no White Walkers, it would be nice to stay in this place for the rest of his life...

Before coming to the Wall, the captain was a Lys noble. During King Robert's conquest, his family resisted fiercely, so all the male members of the family were sent to the Wall, and he was one of them.

Although he left his warm hometown to serve at the Wall of Westeros, the captain quickly adapted to life in the North and was able to give full play to his strengths, earning a place in the Night's Watch fleet.

Of course he had thought about escaping back then, but as the heads of the first batch of fugitives were sent over, the rest of them were forced to give up the idea. In the cold north, foreigners like them who didn't speak the local language would only die if they escaped - but later it was proved that even if they knew the local language, they would still die if they escaped.

Since he couldn't resist, all he could do was to accept reality. He was one of the better ones, so he soon had his own ship. Because of this, many of his fellow Easterners rallied around him - of course, most of the people on his ship were still Westeros.

Just when the captain thought he would live out his life in a foreign land, the wildlings invaded, followed by the White Walkers.

At first, the captain did not take the so-called invasion of the White Walkers seriously at all, thinking it was just a boring superstition of Westerners. However, as more and more evidence appeared before his eyes, he found that he had to believe it even if he didn't want to.

In this way, the captain entered the war. Of course, he thought about running away, but the Night's Watch had always been wary of these Easterners. Apart from anything else, the fact that most of the people on the ship were from Westeros meant that he couldn't just drive the ship away.

I hope I don't become one of those damned zombies in the future, the captain thought silently.

Just as the Night's Watch fleet was carrying out the icebreaking work in full swing, a strong air current visible to the naked eye suddenly swept in from the north. Then, the captain only felt a flash before his eyes, and then he experienced a feeling as if a mountain was collapsing and the earth was splitting.

"Damn, what the hell is going on?"

The captain got up with a confused look on his face and looked around. Only then did he realize that his ship had been thrown far away and was lying on the sea - or rather on the ice - with wailing night watchmen everywhere. Some people were unlucky and had fallen to the ground, unable to shout.

The captain was lucky. Although his whole body was in pain, it did not affect his movements. When he saw the scene in front of him, he immediately understood what was going on - the sea surface had turned into ice, which was undoubtedly something only the White Walkers could do.

"Those who are still alive, help the wounded up, and then run!" The captain shouted to the crew members who were knocked unconscious. Although many crew members were still immersed in the earth-shaking scene just now, their long-term training made them subconsciously obey the orders of their superiors. They immediately began to look for the wounded and used all the useful items around them to make stretchers.

Fortunately, their ship did not capsize. If that had happened, they would probably have had to abandon their comrades.

While calling on the still confused crew to take action, the captain looked nervously towards the north from time to time. Fortunately, the White Walkers did not appear there, but even so, the captain became more and more anxious. The reason for his anxiety was very simple. From a geographical point of view, they were now outside the Wall! The White Walkers could appear at any time.

As the saying goes, what you fear is bound to come true. Just when the captain had finally reorganized the team and was leading them to escape, the figure of the White Walker appeared at the end of the horizon.

What’s even more despairing is that these White Walkers are riding on all kinds of animals - of course, all dead: horses, wolves, bears... and the iconic ice spider.

This scene made everyone's heart feel like it had fallen into an ice cellar.

.

For the Night's Watch, this attack by the White Walkers caught them off guard.

From the perspective of the Night's Watch, the direction of the White Walkers' invasion must be the section of the city where huge cracks appeared under the White Walkers' magic. However, what they did not expect was that the White Walkers chose to launch the attack from Eastwatch and the Shadow Tower.

In Eastwatch, the sea was frozen in an instant by the magic of the White Walkers, opening up a smooth path for the White Walker army. In the Shadow Tower, the wights poured out from the maze-like underground tunnels.

This was something the Night's Watch had never expected. Neither Eastwatch nor the Shadow Tower seemed to be the direction of the White Walkers' attack. Before this, the White Walkers' activities in these two directions were simply harassment and terrorizing. This was why Old Bear decided to withdraw his troops so decisively.

Under such circumstances, the two major strongholds of Night Watch, one in the east and one in the west, fell almost immediately. The army of zombies emerging from behind was something Shadow Tower and Eastwatch had never expected. Although the local defenders held on until the last moment, it still could not change the fact that they were overwhelmed by the zombies.

In these battles, the White Walkers played a key role. The Pale Knights used ice spears and ice spiders to easily destroy the newly built walls of the Night's Watch.

When facing the wights, the Night's Watch can still fight with swords and fire, but when facing the White Walkers and their magic, the Night's Watch is simply powerless to resist.

Although the Night's Watch had a large number of dragonglass weapons, the White Walkers were very cunning. They either hid in the pile of wights or retreated after one strike, and there was no chance to attack the White Walkers at all.

As two of the three major strongholds of the Night's Watch back then, the defenders of Eastwatch and Shadow Tower were naturally among the best in the Night's Watch. This was true even when a large number of elite forces were drawn away. So, when the few survivors who escaped from these two strongholds brought the news of their fall, chaos broke out almost immediately in the nearby Night's Watch fortress.

Even Eastwatch and Shadow Tower had a large number of forces drawn out, needless to say the nearby strongholds, and the quality of their soldiers was much worse than those of these two strongholds. There were even many rookies who were considered unfit to go to the battlefield, so the rout happened almost immediately, and the leaders of the Night's Watch in the nearby strongholds, either voluntarily or involuntarily, also joined the ranks of collapse.

Even though the wights had not arrived yet, many strongholds collapsed directly, and their collapse speed directly exceeded the marching speed of the White Walkers.

This collapse did not stop until they approached the Nightfort, at which point the Night's Watch realized what was happening.

After executing many deserters, Old Bear was able to stop the tide of collapse, reorganized the defense, and eliminated some White Walkers who ran too fast. But even so, facing the White Walkers' offensive, he could not think of a way to turn the situation around.

Now the Night's Watch's battle line has completely collapsed. The defense line that was originally built has failed to play any role and has almost completely collapsed. According to the information they received, the army of the White Walkers has begun to move southward the moment they broke through the pass.

Therefore, faced with such a dire situation, if he stayed in the Nightfort, he would only end up turning into a wight. As the commander of the Night's Watch, Old Bear made a difficult choice.

That is a full retreat.

(End of this chapter)