King of The Wall

2021-01-06

Chapter 346 Preparations and Important Signals

Before heading south to King's Landing with Tyrion, Igor was a serious child Night's Watch Soldiers - Wall tops the night, patrols the Haunted Forest, and slashes the Others kind.

He thought that oneself knew what cold was, but the reality gave him a fiercely slap in the flace and let him experience it personally: why there are winter and summer in the concept of North people.

The land grants have maintained good weather for a long time after the big storm that Robb Stark encountered while patrolling the Wall passed. But the so-called "good" actually means that there is no snow in the sky, no wind blows people down, and Sun can still be seen occasionally.

The temperature, but after a small rise, continued to drop without hesitation.

Although Castle Black was cold when I just crossed over, it only floated around zero... In the wilderness far away from the ice wall, in the daytime good luck bathed in the sun and felt a little warm meaning. Even when it was the coldest night, it was only minus five, six, seven or eight degrees below zero. Even if the wind was blowing, the sentinel on duty at night could freeze to the point where his teeth chattered, but wrapping an extra blanket would not be terrifying.

It was a mild to some sweet memory. Now, the real winter in the concept of North people has come, and Igor, who was born and grew up in a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, finally realized what it means to be maddeningly cold.

A pot of hot water can freeze when it is thrown upwards and falls to the ground. It has become a luxury to maintain a normal bonfire in the open air. Either build a bunker to retain heat before lighting, or increase the size of the bonfire or mix it with Tar; as soon as people leave the room, the chill will madly drill into the fiber holes of fur and clothing like life, no matter how thick they wear it, they can't stay outdoors for a long time; a group of people working at night has become an impossible arrangement—— To ensure that no one will freeze to death, the commander must arrange at least three shifts to rotate... And along with the "cold" comes the Milkwater, which gradually loses its isolation function due to the ice, and the increasingly difficult, The antifreeze work quickly became so urgent that one had to be vigilant day and night.

Igor is ashamed to find out: as the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the supreme commander of the front line of human beings against the dead, oneself was frozen to the door without even seeing the enemy's silhouette. Neither want to come out.

Of course—not wanting to come out and not coming out are two concepts. With great power comes great responsibility, and despite being frozen like a dog, he absolutely cannot show slack. Gritting his teeth, Igor insists on regular inspections and guidance to ensure that oneself's strategic arrangements are implemented correctly, and immediately handles every governmental affair that occurs in the land grant and Wall so as not to misunderstand... Lead by example and play a good role in leading by example.

In stark contrast to the bone-chilling cold, there was a fiery atmosphere of production and preparation throughout the land grant and along the Wall.

＊＊＊

The construction is in full swing. The patrol transit station "Canyon View" on the south bank of Gorge and the "Bingxia Port" at the mouth of the sea have been built and put into use one after another. Recruited from North, Riverlands and even Crownlands, craftsmen from various industries... and youngsters who have followed Igor's instructions and are ready to learn techniques have gathered together, and have begun to search for high-quality wood, discuss tonnage levels and structures, and officially start building the North West Coast Fleet.

In terms of military preparations, Igor has a good card in hand: Night's Watch itself is a standing army with a good level of training. After Denys Mallister surrendered and Cotter Pyke also surrendered, the new Lord Commander has achieved a high level of performance for the entire Legion. control. Although the number of armed forces directly under the logistics department is slightly smaller, they are of better quality and higher loyalty, with only a little less actual combat experience.

Other than that, the large rotation training for all land-grant residents was carried out as planned: whether it was the old land-granters originally distributed along the Wall, mountain clans or beyond the wall visitors. cold climate. Accustomed to surviving in harsh environments, their folk customs are sturdy, and they are much stronger than they look. With Igor, the chief logistics officer, in power, better food and proper exercise soon turned them from sallow and lean to healthy and full—a better source of troops than any peasant in the Seven Kingdoms. Only after completing basic discipline training and drills, and filling in the logistics department's guards' complete officer system with advanced concepts, a strong army can be quickly formed.

…

The progress of militarization has not been smooth sailing: rotational training is compulsory and everyone who is eligible must participate. This means that - unlike recruiting temporary workers or soldiers, not all participants voluntarily assembled for training, and many of them have never contacted the Night's Watch logistics department. While the residents are aggressive and wolf-like, they are naturally more rebellious than the peasants up and down the Seven Kingdoms. Among them, those who have already surrendered to the North Mountain clan are considered to be easy to manage, while those who call themselves "free people" from beyond the wall can think of "unfreedom" and "kneeling" when they hear things such as discipline and obedience. "There is a natural resistance to things, and although they dare not openly cause trouble, a considerable number of them have a negative attitude of non-violence and non-cooperation during training.

These thorns are stubborn and hard-boned at the same time, and often come from larger tribes, whether they are persuading, beating and corporal punishment, or shutting down a small dark room (in this ghost weather, confinement There is really no deterrence), and the deterrence is quite insufficient. Igor was too cautious to give orders rashly in training, which caused the military training to go poorly at first - until a logistics officer from King's Landing came later. A new solution was proposed: divide each batch of militias trained in rotation into several groups, and add the "deduction of the entire group's salary" to the punishment measures for those who passively resist disciplined training, and use the confiscated part as a reward Rewarded to other groups with faster training progress.

Igor never imagined that such a low-level way of dealing with problems as a fine would be surprisingly effective: those who ignored the reprimands and responded with anger to the whipping would soon be in other non-existent situations. I hope that the members of the same group who can't get along with Qian will become as good as puppies under the lesson. The instructors in the logistics department don't have to play blackface, and the problem will be solved by internal digestion. It really makes people didn't know whether to cry or laugh.

……

While the rotation training was gradually promoted smoothly, Nina, who came to the north to ask for the strategy not long ago, also sent a letter to report the progress of her return to the south: she succeeded in Lanisport I met Tyrion Lannister and successfully applied for a loan of 40,000 Golden Dragon without contacting Duke Tywin at all - although there is interest, considering that the Westerlands is still in the post-war reconstruction, and this Forty thousand is in cash again, which is already priceless.

This is great news. Climbing technology is actually like building a high-rise building. The existing technology in Ice and Fire World is like a big bungalow. Although it is decent compared to the open floor and thatched shack, it is a pity that the "practical artillery" is at the height of the three-layer building.

If you want to put a hot weapon into the battlefield, a castle in the air is not enough. Igor must first spend money to reinforce the "first floor", and then build a "second floor" at his own expense, and then he can reach out to the end. Target. And doing it independently without the support of the state is much more difficult than imagined: the money donated by the North nobles was quickly spent in bits and pieces, and the rest were all occupied by various budgets , Without the capital injection of Lannister Bank, Igor may have to give up the idea of monopolizing the heat weapon, and invite Robb to visit the Firearms Arsenal, and invite him to officially join the team.

After all, although the temptation to be the first to own a great killing tool is strong, if the birth of this excellent weapon is delayed due to personal desires, and then human beings fail or even fail miserably in the Life and Death Battle, then Great sin.

Now, with a new fund to back it up, Igor can go ahead and build his "second floor" that's already started.

The large-scale production of gunpowder is one of the important technologies on the second floor, and as an important source of nitrate, Nina also took some actions in the south according to Igor's instructions: first spend a lot of money on Crownlands and Riverlands After collecting a few cans and transporting them back to the Wall, temporarily relieved the urgent need for the shortage of experimental gunpowder, and then invested in an exploration team to find the saltpeter mine controlled by King Stannis. At the same time, a new experimental base was opened in the King's Landing Industrial Park. The inventors who cooperated with the industry began to study the way of producing nitrate.

Very good, a good helper is a good helper, Igor issued an order in the reply letter: From now on, the Night's Watch industry will no longer need to send profits to land donations, and instead invest all in the mining or production of nitrate. On the two-pronged approach, this key technology will be conquered as soon as possible. He had a hunch that she would always do well with Nina's tasks... I hope it wasn't an illusion.

A little girl is so reliable in her work, and Igor oneself can't lose the chain: also on the "second floor", there is also the pre-production technology of the gun: casting "strength meets the requirements" non-solid objects" ability.

……

Following the discovery of copper and tin, iron ore was finally dug up in the hills of the land grant: after all, it is the second most abundant in the earth’s crust. With many metal elements, the exploration of iron ore should not be too difficult. But unfortunately, the quality of the first iron ore found in the land grant was really unbelievable. It was so bad that the master who continuously cast and forged cold weapons shook his head when he saw it. The team's workers still have to donate and buy swords for the time being. As for guns that require more materials, most of them still have to rely on bronze.

Self-casting Copper Coin is to lay the foundation for smelting. This is a "one-story" technology. It is no problem to simply move from the south to the land grant. However, the hollow spherical tank used for casting bombs will greatly test the casting level of the land-giving craftsmen and their ability to solve problems with their brains: the bombs are not considered to withstand the overload of artillery firing for the time being, so the performance requirements are low, and theoretically it is a Metal cans - but after all, they are not the same as simple containers: the wall thickness is required to be moderate and completely uniform to maximize the formidable power of the explosion, and the body strength must ensure that the projectile and landing are not damaged during the whole process. Igor also frequently visited the workshop to give constructive comments. After tens of days of failures and restarts, the mold accuracy was finally improved to the required standard, and the process was finally matured and fixed, and mass production began.

The technology of casting metal containers precisely on demand will be a valuable foundation for the casting of guns in the future. One step at a time, the development progress bar of the launch-type thermal weapon technology has slowly climbed from 1% to 10%. Although it is still far from realization, it is still hopeful.

It has now become a habit for Igor to visit the industrial area outside the inner city every day. After lunch, he put on his coat and planned to go out as usual to breathe the cold air and push it away. The door, oncoming is the Queenscrown's Crow's Nest keeper.

"Your Excellency, Nightfort has a letter."

Igor nodded solemnly, took the letter, and glanced at it, suddenly.

An important juncture in the battle of Ice and Fire, the ultimate warning signal he's been waiting for... finally here: Brandon Stark, who has been missing for months, reappears in the well that hides the Black Gate under Nightfort .

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(end of this chapter)