King of The Wall

2020-11-02

Chapter 2 Patrol

By law: Night's Watch deserters are public offenders, and all lords of the Seven Kingdoms are They are obliged to hunt down and execute them, especially North - House Stark, who has the closest relationship with Night's Watch, and the lords below will not be lenient towards deserters. Unless the north escape joins the wildling, it can be imagined what will happen to the direct escape. But Igor wants to get rid of the identity of Night's Watch because he wants to stay away from the natural enemies of human beings. How can he still run north?

And heading south...if you're serious about running away, you have to be prepared. First of all, you must have a good horse, bring dry food, change the black clothed, choose the right time to quickly escape from the sphere of influence of Night's Watch, and avoid all villages and inhabited areas along the way... As long as you can successfully pass through The Neck and run out of the North, the escape plan will be successful. half. The next step is to go straight to the warm and safe south. The further south you go, the less the lords and nobles care about the Night's Watch. They only need to go to the rich Riverlands and Reach to find someone who can accept and will not question the identity of oneself. place, you can start a new life in a different world.

The plan is very clear and simple, but the problem is: in this feudal era with inconvenient transportation and extremely low mobility, the oneself, who has an obvious foreign appearance and no legal identity, wants to complete the escape plan without any problems. Yes...

It's so hard.

Shaking his head, Igor threw his thoughts away from his mind. Now is not the time to think--as the horses' hoofs stomped on the snow and made a string of slight muffled noises, the tree trunks and branches quickly blocked the sun, and they really did. Entering this vast boreal forest in the north of the North.

"The fucking wildlings." Gary scolded. "It's getting colder and colder, but it doesn't stop."

"It's not called wildling anymore." Igor Shoot a few snowflakes that fell on the sleeves, and respond casually. Because of the shortage of manpower and materials, and to make it difficult for wildlings to find out the law of their own activities, Night's Watch has abandoned regular patrols and adopted a set of casual and more Targeted work and rest system. Brother, who was on guard on the Wall the night before, reported that there was a fire a few miles north of the wall, which was the direct reason for the Lord Commander and the Chief Ranger to arrange this patrol. After the morning exercise, I hid comfortably in the house to warm up by the fire.

"Don't gossip, spread out side by side, don't miss a suspicious trail." Without looking back, Waymar interrupted the chatter between the three Night's Watch soldiers that had not started, and issued orders in a cold tone .

Hearing the commander's request, both Will and Gary shrugged and made a silent grimace at the speaker's back - the four were Gary and Will in descending order of age. , Igor, and finally Waymar, but the youngest is the chief. It is obvious that the other three have no opinion at all. This young nobleman from Vale is the third child of Runestone count, because the probability of inheriting the title is not large. And choose to join Night's Watch, the father personally escorted people to Wall, and also carried a whole car of luggage. This is often ridiculed by other Night's Watches while drinking - the great Ser Waymar Royce, who is not on duty, but on vacation.

It is clearly stated that each Night's Watch is each other's brother, but it is the first time that a young recruit with no experience and prestige steps on his head. Waymar Royce even leads the team for the first time. patrol as a person. Honestly, how does this convince other Night's Watches to respect him?

Disobedient and disobedient, discipline is there, the three spread out as instructed, and began to patrol and investigate forward in a straight line.

Soon, they found signs of human activity near the area where the sentinels found the light: it didn't snow yesterday, the footprints formed by the wildlings walking around, the embers and ash piles left by the fire were all clearly visible. Save it.

"They're gone." Gary looked towards Waymar, hesitating.

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Night's Watch was born after Long Night, in that long winter that lasted for a generation, Others swept the First Men country southward, almost destroying mankind... Here After the disaster, the Wall and black clothed Legion were established to defend humanity against the Others. It is conceivable that joining this armed force that defends all mankind was once the highest honor on this continent. Even though the entry threshold is extremely high, volunteers are still overwhelmed. But as the Others retreated to the Lands of Always Winter in extreme north and gradually disappeared, after the generation that experienced Long Night died, the importance and treatment of this Legion was doomed to decline.

That's what it says, but Wall has actually kept the northern wildlings at bay for the Seven Kingdoms for a long time, so it still maintains a sense of presence. But an important historical event finally gave the Night's Watch a fatal blow - the landing of Aegon and the founding of the Targaryen Dynasty.

True Dragon Dynasty didn't bother Night's Watch, but its creator brought dragons from Valyria. In a large-scale wildling attack after this, the ruler of the kingdom bravely rode the dragon north to barbecue wildling. This quickly drove away the attackers, but objectively it greatly accelerated the decline of Night's Watch - the cunning rabbit died and the running dog cooked, when one's own side had weapons that could sweep the enemy, the role and influence of Night's Watch plummeted. , Anyway, if those vulgar wildlings come again, wouldn't it be better to inform King Dragonrider directly?

The nobles and Knights are unwilling to dedicate their lives to a meaningless watch. Night's Watch gradually loses the source of soldiers, and has to lower the entry threshold again and again... After a hundred years of evolution, Night's Watch finally It has become the virtue it is now.

"Long Night nears, I will watch from now on until I die. I will not marry, nor Fiefdom, nor bear children. I will not wear a crown, nor compete for favor. I will do my duty faithfully, Live and die. I am the sword in the dark, the guard on the Wall. I am the flame against the cold, the light in Morn's hour, the horn that wakes the sleeper, the strong shield that guards the kingdom. I dedicate my life and glory to Night's Watch , tonight, night and night."

When people's blood boils over this Night's Watch vow, which at first glance is domineering and sidelined, made up of so many promises and titles, how many people can Guess it's not at first and that's what it is? And behind the revisions again and again, how much bitterness and helplessness are there?

The dragons and Dragonriders of the Targaryen Dynasty have all gone with the wind, but the decline of Night's Watch has been irreversible. To this day, the black shirt Legion is not so much the first line of defense against wildling. It is better to say that they are the security guards who guard and maintain the Wall. The members who have less than 1,000 members can be roughly divided into the following three types:

The first category is the prisoners belonging to Igor who choose to serve in the Wall to avoid punishment. Thieves, poachers, rapists, etc... These guys who were not even worthy to carry shoes for "Night's Watch" are now the main force of black clothed persons, and will be doomed to life and death in Sri Lanka. There is no other way out except as deserters ;

The second category is those who are forced to join in for life: run-down officials and nobles who have failed in political battles, been demoted or fallen out of favor, peasants who have lost their fields, bankrupt businessmen, and illegal children... These kinds of people are nominally They were encouraged to join Night's Watch. In theory, they could choose to leave at any time before taking the oath, but in reality they had nowhere to go. Most of the "craftsmen" and "office officers" of Night's Watch were composed of such people.

The third and last and least category, Ser Waymar Royce like this - volunteered to join out of so-called honor and responsibility, or self-exile to make way for his brother's son to avoid power struggles within the family By. They had other options, but walked off the stage of Seven Kingdoms power and came to the Wall, which has become less and less over time, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, Chief Ranger Benjen Stark, and even give up Seven Kingdoms rule. The blind Maester Aemon Targaryen falls into this category. They are usually appointed directly as officers and leaders. This seemingly unfair rule is actually easy to understand - in the northernmost part of the kingdom's far-flung emperor, if a group of scum, criminals or peasants are commanded not directly under any The lord's Night's Watch Legion, so I don't know what the gang that guards the Wall will turn into.

There are no dutiful sons before the bed for a long time, no heroes in the long-frozen Wall, no matter what lofty sentiments and high aspirations the young nobles who volunteered to join the Night's Watch come with, wait until they discover The Wall and the legendary Night's Watch Legion is completely different from what I imagined, and the environment is so difficult, the warm blood will quickly turn into cold water.

Waymar Royce is no exception, he's remorseful at the moment - no one forced him to come to the Wall, but he was inspired by the Night's Watch oath, plus to show him to his beloved brother With no intention of competing for family property, he resolutely chose to come here. Now that the words have been released and the oath has been made, even if he dares to go home shamelessly, his family will never welcome him publicly.

The only way to do it now is to quickly make a contribution, and when the time comes, apply for returning home to visit relatives, and you won't be questioned that you can't endure hardship and run away.

Small Captain, a young Ranger, rode around the place that had once been a wildling camp, thought for a moment, and quickly made a decision: "They're not many, follow the footprints, and chase."

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(end of this chapter)