Ice and Fire: Conquering the World Starting from the Wall

For the first time in thousands of years, a large army has entered this tunnel as attackers.

As Lynn walked, he inquired about the casualties of Casa, who shrugged.

"They're not crows, just a bunch of clucking chicks. Maybe one or two are a bit fierce, but they're still chickens after all."

This answer was brilliant, carrying the arrogance typical of the Theon people.

The Thane have long lived in the valleys of the far north and rarely interact with the Night's Watch; there is no blood feud between them.

Therefore, after the Night's Watch surrendered, they did not cause any more bloodshed. After all, they had no grudges against each other, and keeping them alive would earn them double the military merit.

Lynn nodded, planning the next steps. The first step was to build defensive fortifications facing south to prevent attacks from the northern garrison.

When Lynn consulted Maester Eamon about this issue, he unexpectedly received a lot of surprising information from him.

Baron Greyjoy from the Iron Islands unexpectedly sent longships to attack the North instead of Lannisport, causing widespread war in the North.

The Night's Watch sent out appeals to the various lords, but none came; their armies were busy fighting amongst themselves.

Theon Greyjoy seized Winterfell in his father's name, executed the two youngest Stark sons who remained there, and then proclaimed himself Prince of Winterfell.

When Stark's vassals prepared to retake the castle, he burned it to the ground.

Ramsay Snow, the bastard son of Roose Bolton, killed all the Ironborn after the fall of Winterfell, and it is said that he skinned Theon Greyjoy inch by inch as punishment for his evil deeds.

After they emerged from the tunnel, Lynn roughly understood the current situation.

Several Stark vassals assembled an army of two thousand to retake Winterfell, but were wiped out in battle against the Ironborn (in fact, they were ambushed by the Dreadfort army).

The Ironborn have taken over Grover's Deepwood Keep and Tauhar's Torun Square, as well as Carin Bay, a vital passage connecting the north and south.

This meant that the northern armies marching south could not return home, because Carlin Bay had never been conquered by armies from the south in thousands of years.

Winterfell, the capital of House Stark, was destroyed by fire, while the main armies of Last Hearth and Karhol, the cities closest to the Wall, were engaged in the southern campaign.

As a result, the situation is much better than expected, and the military pressure faced by the free people has been reduced by at least two-thirds.

After daybreak, the Thane had completely taken control of Black Castle, and the first thing they did was to loot the armory.

There were five or six hundred high-quality steel swords and two hundred sets of chainmail of varying ages, as well as some rusted and damaged helmets and plate armor—all abandoned by knights dressed in black.

Plate armor was useless both inside and outside the Great Wall; chainmail was more than enough to deal with barbarians.

In addition, there were some steel axes and countless spears, hundreds of finely crafted yew longbows and more than twenty crossbows, all of which the Thern people used to arm themselves.

This was agreed upon beforehand; they could have priority in choosing the spoils, and the specific distribution would be arranged by Kasa based on their military achievements.

The clan soldiers transported a large number of logs from the north side of the Great Wall to build defensive fortresses.

Although the North was more vulnerable than Mans had anticipated after being attacked by the Ironborn, it was still necessary to be on guard.

Using the existing wooden towers and stone pylons of Castle Black, they quickly enclosed a large area of ​​land, dug pits and buried stakes to build a double-layered wooden wall. Then they filled the space between the wooden walls with soil and finally poured melted snow water to freeze the soil and the wooden stakes, thus creating a usable "wall".

The giants came to help through the tunnel, but the mammoths were too big to fit in. Unless they worked hard to widen the tunnel, they had no choice but to try to travel by boat to Donghaiwang.

Mans dispatched Hammam's cavalry to spread out along the line, notifying the raiders who were carrying out the feint attack to assemble at Black Castle.

At first, the messenger cavalryman didn't encounter anyone until he met the seriously wounded Morona and several of her raider squad members, and then he realized what had happened.

The surviving raiders confessed that it was the Weeping One who, after harassing the Queen's Gate, led his men along the Wall all the way to the Shadow Tower. Along the way, he incited the Bone King, Solon, Morona, and others to launch a strong attack.

The Crying Ones were very unhappy with Mans's decision to send Jarl and the Thane to attack Castle Black, and they tried to take down the Shadow Tower to prove themselves.

He believed that the Shadow Tower was much weaker after losing "Severed Hand" and hundreds of Rangers, and could be easily captured.

Unfortunately, he was unlucky and encountered Bowen Marsh (the logistics officer of Castle Black and the acting commander-in-chief) who led troops to support him.

Both sides gathered about 300 men each and engaged in a bloody battle at Skullbridge. In the end, the Night's Watch defeated the raiders at the cost of nearly 100 dead, achieving a devastating victory. Several wildling leaders fled with their remaining troops.

(This part is from the original work: the Shadow Tower—the Battle of the Skull Bridge.)

When Mans found out, he was furious. What could have been a perfect victory had been ruined by the undisciplined raiders, resulting in the loss of his elite warriors.

They could have won without a fight simply by sending their army through the tunnels and besieging Shadow Tower from the south.

Of course, an envoy needs to be sent before the siege, and the one-handed Colin was preparing for this moment.

He insisted on going alone, without even bringing his sword.

The freemen did not believe he could persuade hundreds of crows to surrender; instead, they were certain he would be cleaved in two the moment he opened his mouth to persuade them.

Lynn also had this concern. Originally, Colin only needed to persuade the hundred or so people who stayed behind at the Shadow Tower, which was relatively easy.

Now, with an additional two hundred or so remnants from Black Castle, who have just fought a bloody battle with the raiders, the difficulty of persuading them to surrender has increased several levels.

But he knew that Colin had no choice but to go, which was the meaning of his surrender, so he did not stop him.

After Colin rode away into the distance, Kuna and Lyanna got ready.

A squad of Thernians, equipped with brand-new chainmail, steel swords, and crossbows, will act as their escorts, ensuring their safe arrival at the Last Hearth. As for the outcome, that's up to fate.

Lynn needs food now, lots of food.

But he also knew that the closer to the north the land was to produce less, so in the end, Hearth City could hardly provide much substantial help, although its symbolic significance was still very important.

If he could persuade House Amber to pay the "Guardian Tax" to the Wall, he would have a bit more legal authority, creating a loophole to pry open the mouths of the Westeros nobles later on, which was better than him making empty promises.

Before the freemen, Kuna knelt and swore to Lynn that even if his father refused to pay taxes to the Wall, she would bring Lyanna back to the Wall and would never covet the comfortable life in the castle.

Lynn saw them off to the south, and then he eagerly checked the food storage room at Black Castle.

A labyrinth of tunnels connects the various parts of Castle Black underground, which the Night Watchmen call the Worm Passage.

It is hidden underground, dark and depressing, so it is rarely used in the summer.

But when winter comes and snow covers everything and there aren’t enough people to clear the snow, tunnels become the fastest route to move around the castle.

Maester Aemon insisted on leading the way himself, and with General Manager Bowen Marsh absent, he was the only one who could figure out the contents of the vault.