Ice and Fire: Conquering the World Starting from the Wall

As they walked through the tunnel, Lynn saw candles burning in niches in the walls, and their footsteps echoed through the low tunnel.

A Night's Watchman named Wick Whitstick was waiting at the crossroads of the four worm passages. He was one of the few prisoners who was willing to cooperate. He was tall and thin, like a spear. The others were locked in the Night's Watchman's own ice cell.

He took out a thick stack of documents and handed it to Eamon, who stroked it to feel its thickness before handing it to Lynn:

"These are statistics from three previous seasonal transitions, which can be compared with current stored goods. How about we start with the grain warehouses?"

Lynn nodded, and they continued through the gloomy, dark passageway.

Each storage room had a solid oak door, secured with an iron padlock the size of a dinner plate.

Wick had a ring of keys around his neck, and they all looked the same to Lynn, yet Wick always managed to match each key to the correct door.

Upon entering the room, he took out a piece of chalk the size of a fist from his pocket and marked each barrel, sack, and cylinder as the number he was counting, making it easier to compare with old records.

The savages simply couldn't do the task of knowing how to do statistics.

They opened each storage room, then closed and locked them one by one.

The granary was piled high with rye, oats, wheat, barley, and many barrels of coarsely ground flour.

In the cellar, strings of onions and garlic hung from the rafters, and bags of carrots, parsnip, white radishes, and white and yellow turnips filled the shelves.

A storage room contained a whole wheel of cheese, hundreds of them, so large that it would take two people to move them.

In the next room, barrels of salted pork, corned beef, salted mutton, and salted cod were piled up ten feet high, and three hundred hams and three thousand long black sausages hung from the ceiling beams below the smoking room.

In the spice box room, they found pepper, cloves, cinnamon, mustard seeds, coriander, sage, clary sage, parsley, and large chunks of salt.

The next item was barrels of apples, pears, dried beans, and dried figs; bags of walnuts, chestnuts, and almonds; slabs of dried smoked salmon; and jars of olive oil sealed with wax.

A storage room contained canned hare, honey-marinated venison, pickled cabbage, pickled beets, pickled onions, pickled eggs, and pickled herring.

They moved from one basement to another, and the worm tunnels seemed to grow colder and colder.

Soon after, in the lantern light, Lynn saw Whitstick's breath crystallize on his beard.

"We are below the long wall, and we are about to enter it."

Amon said, his voice trembling slightly:

"Meat doesn't spoil in cold weather, making it a better method of long-term storage than curing."

The next gate was a rusty iron gate, behind which was a set of wooden steps.

Nemo, the "Star Shield" leader, led another Theron carrying a lantern to the top, where they discovered a long tunnel, wider and higher than the worm tunnel.

The walls were made of solid ice and covered with iron hooks, each hook holding a carcass or half a carcass of an animal, so densely packed that you couldn't see the end of it.

Among them are spotted deer, red deer, and elk with their skins on; bison split in two; huge pigs hanging from the ceiling; headless sheep and goats moving up and down; and even horses and bears in the distance.

Everything was covered in white frost.

While the others were tallying the figures, Lynn took off his left glove and touched the nearest piece of deer leg.

He could feel his fingers gradually getting stuck. When he pulled his hand back, some of the skin was stuck off, and he lost feeling in his fingertips.

Even with an iceberg overhead, this place is abnormally cold.

He regretted not wearing a spacesuit when he came down, and was also worried that the elderly Imon might not be able to withstand it.

"The situation is worse than you feared, Lord Lynn."

"After the inventory is complete," Wick Whitstick said in a low voice.

Indeed, this place may seem to contain all the meat in the world, but it pales in comparison to the 100,000 free people.

Aemon said:

"It was a long summer, with abundant harvests, and the lords were generous."

We have enough savings to ensure we get through the three harsh winters, but only enough to supply the Night's Watch brothers.

If, as you say, 100,000 free men are marching towards the Great Wall, then even the most frugal diet would not last a month.

He paused for a moment, then continued:

"It is too late to plant crops now. Even if the most cold-resistant rye seeds are sown, the harvest will not be available until the spring and summer of next year."

Until the end of the year, we'll survive on turnip and pea oatmeal porridge; after that, we'll have to slaughter live horses and then eat tree bark and boil dirt to fill our stomachs.

"And disease,"

Before Lynn could respond, Maester Eamon continued:

"With winter approaching, many people suffer from bleeding gums and loose teeth, which can be remedied with lime juice and fresh meat. But limes have been gone for a year, and we don't have enough feed to maintain our livestock population to obtain fresh meat."

"Things are not what they used to be. In the past, food could be transported from the south along King's Road, but with the war... It's still autumn in the south now, but even so, I still recommend winter rationing."

Lynn stared at the pig on the ceiling for a moment, then said to the solemn-faced crowd:

"Sir, what you're describing is scurvy, caused by a deficiency of..."

Halfway through his speech, he suddenly realized that there was no word for vitamin in the common language of Westeros, making an accurate translation difficult.

"...It lacks a necessary nutrient! Besides limes, other vegetables and fruits can supplement it, and of course, fresh meat is no exception."

This is because some people have dietary preferences; if everyone doesn't eat fruits and vegetables for a long time, they will all get sick.

Imon exclaimed in surprise:

"So that's how it is? I've always been curious why the same group of people get this disease every year. I originally thought it was a family genetic issue, but a pair of twin brothers in Shadow Tower refuted my theory."

The older brother will get the disease, but the younger brother never will.

Are you sure, Lord Lynn? If so, this would be a great discovery.

"Now is certainly not the time to discuss medical science," Lynn interrupted the conversation, saying instead:

"The free people are not without possessions; their accumulated wealth and savings are enough to last for a while, and we will have to figure out what to do with the rest."

"us......"

When Eamon didn’t get a positive answer about scurvy, he repeated it with a bitter expression.

He said:

"War raged across the seven kingdoms. I released ravens in droves, but received only a very few replies, none of which were of any help."

The kings and dukes believed that the land beyond the Great Wall could only support a limited population, and with war raging everywhere, they could not spare any manpower. Therefore, they told us to take action to maintain the kingdom ourselves…”

"The North was originally the Night's Watch's strongest ally and support, but now that King Robb is away with his army and the Ironborn have taken the opportunity to launch a surprise attack, the Wall has not received any food or other urgently needed supplies for half a year."

"And now, the Great Wall is occupied by your free people. If I may be so bold, even if the lords were to spare the trouble, they would probably send spears and swords, not food."