King of The Wall

2021-01-06

Chapter 314 Three Fires (Part 1)
The cremation is over.

Igor's original plan was to wait until Maester Aemon's ashes were collected before proceeding to the next step, but it would take more than ten minutes before the ashes had cooled enough to touch. It seemed unnecessary to continue the silence during this time, but it was too embarrassing to be in a daze. With a move in his heart, he decided to make a small change to the arrangement on the spot to take advantage of this gap.

...

"Never Night's Watch has ever faced the crisis we are facing today!" Igor's loud opening remarks quickly made Castle Black's courtyard quiet, he paused After a while, he re-emphasized: "Never!"

Everyone quickly understood that this was Igor's inaugural speech, and they lifted the head and looked up at the new Lord Commander, wanting to see what flowers he could say. .

"Night's Watch Legion was established after the Battle of Dawn, and the purpose of our existence is to be able to appear immediately when the enemy reappears and stop their attempts to destroy humanity. Who didn't expect — - This wait is actually thousands of years. Until we have declined and almost disappeared today, those of us who were about to witness the black clothed Legion become history, encountered this damn, the second attack of Others!"

Countless Night's Watch soldiers have made this complaint in their hearts, and now Lord Commander has spoken it out in public, which has brought him closer to many soldiers.

"This time, we don't have Children of the Forest who can cast Magic as an ally, nor do we have Legendary heroes like Azor Ahai to lead a head-to-head battle with the demons and ghosts." He raised a high hand and pointed behind him of The Wall: "But unlike the Forerunners who fought against the Others in the Battle of Dawn - today, you have this seven hundred-foot wall of ice; and me, a new Lord Commander of the Night's Watch! "

"Beyond the walls, Haunted Forest, Frost Snow Mountain, Frozen Shore, and Lands of Always Winter have fallen completely and are under the control of ghosts. Infinite, uncountable dead are under the leadership of Others against Seven Kingdoms glare like a tiger watching his prey. And inside the wall, the kings and nobles of the south are still fighting over an iron chair, and they have no time to care. And at this juncture, the Wall guard also lost Benjen Stark one after another , Jeor Mormont, Maester Aemon, all excellent and respectable brothers... It even took us months to grudgingly settle our differences, end the campaign and single out the Lord Commander who will command the next war."

"Next, we have to face a dozen or so ancient fortresses that are still waiting to be rebuilt, large sections of ice walls that have not been properly repaired and cleaned for decades, and tens of thousands of new items that are difficult to feed. Land-goverers... If Commander Mormont was still alive, he would probably frown and announce: 'The situation is not optimistic'. But I will not use the nobleman's rhetoric to whitewash peace and cover up the truth, I must tell you honestly: the darkest The time has come!"

Igor raised his voice abruptly, and there were a lot of dejected words on it, just for this final twist: "But we won't admit it, we will fight to the end! We will be on Gorge's side To fight the enemy, we will fight the enemy in the Ice and the Bay of Seals, we will fight the enemy on the ice wall, in the fortress, at all costs, to prevent them from stepping through the Wall!"

"Even if this strongest defense is broken, we will continue to fight the enemy in the land grant, the North and even the mountains and rivers and marsh fields of the Riverlands and Crownlands. As long as we have faith , united as one, we will build another wall of flesh and blood - until the last person is fought, or the gang of damned bastards are driven back home! ”

Before crossing, he hated the kind of bureaucratic long reports and speeches, and in this oneself ceremony, he had already planned to control the time of empty talk. Coupled with Maester Aemon's The ashes are still open in the open, and there is a lot of snow, let alone delay... After a slight pause, he quickly wrapped up oneself's inaugural speech.

"We are alone, and even if we estimate optimistically, most of them will be able to survive.

Thousands of people came to protect the tens of millions of people in Westeros and Seven Kingdoms after body protection... There has never been a war in the history of mankind. It is unfair to ask the participants to protect so many people of the same race with so few people! But we will still fight to the end without hesitation. why? Because we are Night's Watch! We - swords in the dark, guards on the Wall. We—the flame against the cold, the light of Morn’s hour, the horn that awakens the sleeper, the shield that guards the kingdom! ”

He ended with the second half of the Night's Watch oath, just to arouse everyone's sympathy and resonance. It's the supporters, and then the set up Sect... More and more Night's Watch joins in this collective recitation and oath that everyone is familiar with, and by the end of the sentence, everyone who wants to be within the wall is already spraying He roared loudly with spittle: "We dedicate our lives and glory to Night's Watch, tonight and every night! ”

＊＊＊

No one spoiled or interrupted the speech. But Igor always felt that the atmosphere was not up to expectations, and the dark spot in his field of vision, stimulated by the bright light, still remained. Dissipated, which made it impossible for him to see the expressions of the soldiers under the stage. Under the influence of psychology, he couldn't help but have an illusion: many of them did not listen to oneself carefully, but stared at the weapon on oneself waist, expecting oneself Pulling out and wielding that lightsaber again to strengthen his speech.

Although the performance was decent judging by the loudness of the Night's Watch roars present, he couldn't help it. More dissatisfaction with Melisandre's self-assertion has arisen.

But that doesn't matter anymore, an impassioned speech can temporarily stir people's blood, but the Others are not coming to attack the city tonight. Decide on a The outcome of a long-term war depends on the quality of troops, equipment and logistics operations.

Most of these depend on oneself, the command and decision maker.

After the speech, Igor ordered People went to collect Maester Aemon's ashes. After the venue was cleaned up, he began to publicly announce the changes he would make to the Night's Watch Legion immediately after taking office.

The first point is to greatly increase the allowances and subsidies of all Night's Watches. , the range of different positions and missions varies from double to five times.

Not the most important change, but Igor chose to announce it first because it is the most practical and the easiest to win people over.

The so-called allowance is actually pocket money. Night's Watch Legion does not need other expenses for soldiers to manage food and equipment, but people have needs other than survival after all, and the allowance is to meet these needs. This kind of demand.

Legion does not have a fixed source of income, so the so-called allowance is only equivalent to a few dollars a day, which is better than nothing. Generally, soldiers at the bottom need to save a few weeks before they can think about it. Things to do - you can go to the land-grant village for eggs, meat, cheese, etc. to make a small stove for oneself; you can also go to the hole in Mole's Town to find a woman to vent the biological instinct of reproduction; you can also hide , when you save enough, do a "big" vote: for example, get a new dress for oneself, buy a new pair of shoes, or even change a guy who is more convenient for money...

Igor used to use The piece of obsidian that made the dagger and finally did the magic was that he had to save three months' allowance to get enough money. And in order to let his friends at Eastwatch pay attention to whether the merchant ship had this kind of goods, he added spent two Zhou's allowance to invite him to dinner, can be considered to get this thing done.

Because of the extremely low base, although the increase to the original "2~5 times" sounds scary, the increased pressure on the Night's Watch industry is actually not huge.

Theoretically, once someone joins the Night's Watch Legion, it becomes his duty to guard the Wall, even if he doesn't pay a cent. But now Wall, who has implemented the land-grant resettlement plan, has a very strange problem gradually emerging: although the people of beyond the wall have turned in almost all their property in the process of changing from "wildling" to "new land-grantee", but If you are strong enough, smart enough, and with a little luck, you can continue to get job opportunities from Queenscrown... By receiving wages, these outsiders will immediately have more liquidity than ordinary Night's Watch. With proper money management, new land grantors will soon have a much better life than Night's Watch!
Igor is a Night's Watch after all. If this situation is allowed to develop, the hat with his elbows turned outward will soon be unable to be thrown off. Not suffering from widowhood but suffering from unevenness, the mentality of the subordinates is unbalanced, and sometimes it will cause serious consequences.

The second point is the change in organization.

The internal contradictions of Night's Watch Legion have reached an unprecedented degree of fierceness due to the emergence of the dark horse of oneself and forcibly taking the position of Lord Commander. Although the comprehensive strength of Queenscrown is now greater than the sum of Castle Black, Shadow Tower and Eastwatch, but in this dangerous moment that Others may strike in the next second - Night's Watch Legion is like a dying and seriously ill patient, unable to withstand intense heat of treatment.

Igor really doesn't dare to take the risk of consolidating oneself's rule through a lot of personnel changes and purges.

Since it has been agreed that the Shadow Tower and Eastwatch commanders will not be changed, Igor simply goes a step further: in the entire Night's Watch Legion, he does not change any middle and high-level positions, but in another way, Gentle application, a little diluting the power of the old-school Night's Watches:
Plenty of new jobs added!

Igor announced in public that the newly opened sixteen fortresses will be officially upgraded to the level of Shadow Tower and Eastwatch, and the fortress commander, chief ranger, affairs officer, craftsman and logistics officer will be established. ——And announced the list of candidates for these positions on the spot.

There is no doubt that these newly elected officers of Igor, his supporters and cronies, are still all general without an army. But Igor plans to slowly increase the strength of the Night's Watch Legion to around 2,000. Those recruits who joined later will be filled in the newly activated fortresses one after another, and finally each newly activated fortress will be equipped with 50~100 Night's Watch soldiers, and then count the mountain people and new land grantors living in them. Oneself is right. Legion's control will be firm enough to be completely impossible to shake.

It doesn't move the old people's positions, and they don't smoke the soldiers under you. This move absolutely leaves no one objectionable. Even if the old people see that Igor intends to reduce their status and influence in the Night's Watch Legion, there is nothing they can do. This can't be more typical - conspiracy!
The third point is the relocation of the headquarters.

Igor has officially announced that from now on, Queenscrown will be the headquarters and land grant center of the Night's Watch, the office and residence of the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

This change naturally led to another complementary change: Castle Black was downgraded to 16 fortresses with upgrades, plus Shadow Tower and Eastwatch leveled "normal fortresses"... So, Another Fort Commander position was vacated, and Igor put Jon Snow in his place as Castle Black Commander.

After this arrangement, Igor's "nepotism" evaluation is probably not going to get rid of - this may not sound like a good word, but the logic is very simple: in this troubled world, there is no need to promote people. Confidant, do you use passers-by or enemies? Risking a lack of control over the power of oneself in order to gain a fair and good reputation is what a ghost would do.

A voice of doubt immediately appeared: "Lord Commander of the Night's Watch does not sit in Castle Black, but hides from Queenscrown? How can you lead us to guard the Wall when no one is in the Wall?"

This As Igor expected, he was ready to fight back: "According to this statement, we are fighting against the Others, not going up the wall to fight them face-to-face, but hiding behind the Wall, isn't it also a sign of cowardice? I am a logistics officer. , I believe that only a powerful land grant can support this war to defend human beings. This time I sit in Queenscrown to build this solid backing. Jon Snow has both courage and wisdom, perhaps experience There is a slight deficiency, but with the help of three experienced chiefs, I am very confident to hand Castle Black to him!"

Queenscrown is not King's Landing after all, it is only a day's journey from the Wall, and it is not a hiding from the front line. far. Although many soldiers are not used to this change, they are not strongly opposed. even more how...According to Night's Watch law, the Lord Commander does not need to worry about the reaction of his subordinates when issuing orders.

Without talking to the skeptics, Igor continued the oneself rhythm: "The changes related to everyone, for now, these three points. The future of all mankind depends on us, no matter what the road ahead is. , I am very honored to fight side by side with all of you, and walk this journey together. Disband!"

The black clothed persons with various expressions of satisfaction, excitement or doubt slowly After leaving, Igor turned his head and took a breath: "Go, call Cotter Pyke and Yohn Royce."

——

(End of this chapter)

p>