Chapter 155 The Dilemma of the Night Watch

"I also know nothing about Asshai. You can only find out the information about it yourself." Maester Aemon could only shake his head when faced with the question about Asshai, and then asked Linde the next question. What's the matter.

"The Horn of Winter," Linde said very directly: "The purpose of my trip to the land of eternal winter this time is to find the Horn of Winter and bring it to the south of the Great Wall. If the Horn of Winter is really as powerful as the legend says, If the Great Wall collapses, then it should not stay too close to the Great Wall. The south should be its final destination. "

Maester Aemon was stunned for a long time and said: "Lord Linde, your question makes me feel like I have gone back thousands of years ago. Why do you think there is such a thing as the Horn of Winter?"

"Because the Great Wall of Despair really exists." Linde said solemnly: "Do you think it is possible to build a building like the Great Wall of Despair with human power? Not to mention the barbaric era of the Ancestors, even now, if all the seven kingdoms have been gathered together, It is absolutely impossible for people to build such a magnificent building. Since the Great Wall of Despair exists that humans cannot build, why can’t the Horn of Winter exist?”

Maester Aemon was silent for a moment and asked: "So you also think that those legendary stories are true, such as the White Walkers."

"Yes." Linde admitted truthfully: "People in the south think that the Great Wall is used to defend against the savages outside the Great Wall. That's because they have never seen the Great Wall. If they had seen the Great Wall, they should be very clear. This is definitely not used to defend against humans. Only non-humans need to use such a huge and magnificent defensive offensive, so the legendary White Walkers should be the targets of the Great Wall. "

"That's why Lord Willas keeps sending prisoners to fill the vacancies in the Night Watch." Maester Aemon said solemnly.

Lind said: "Lord Willas personally saw the White Walkers gathering in the frozen land of the far north, and the leader of the White Walkers is a woman. I guess this woman should be the wife of the legendary Night King."

"Did he see it with his own eyes?" Maester Aemon was a little confused.

Linde explained: "There was a being who took him across the Great Wall to the frozen land of the far north."

"Is it the Green Seer?" Although Lind said very vaguely, Maester Aemon quickly made a guess, and then he fell into deep thought. After a while, he slowly said: "I remember one time The Horn of Winter is mentioned in this book.”

As he spoke, he reached out and groped around, grabbed a rope, and pulled it.

After a while, I saw a night watchman knocking on the door and coming in, saying, "Bachelor, what are your orders?"

"Go to the library to find a book titled "Ranger Rorschach's Parade Diary" and bring it over," Maester Aemon ordered.

The night watchman turned and left.

"What happened today is really incredible? I didn't expect that one day it would be related to myths and legends." Maester Aemon muttered with a smile, then took out a bottle of wine from under the desk and groped for the wine glass. .

Lind walked over, placed the wine glass on the table in Maester Aemon's hand, and poured him a glass of wine.

Maester Aemon raised his head and drank the glass of wine as if it were water. Then he asked Lind: "Won't you have a drink? Lord Lind."

"No, I never drink." Lind rejected Maester Aemon's kindness.

"This is a good habit." Bachelor Aemon nodded, and after a moment of silence, he said, "Lord Linde, before the book is found, can you tell me about the experience of Summer Hall?"

"Yes, but can you bear it?" Lind asked.

"Don't worry, I've lived long enough. I've seen too many people and things. There's no need to worry that I can't bear it." Maester Aemon said with a smile.

Seeing what Maester Aemon said, Lynd stopped trying to persuade him and retold the vision that happened that day in the ruins of Summer Hall in a somewhat edited version. When Lynd mentioned that Aegon V and Ser Duncan the Tall were left behind, A huge stone smashed him to death, and Maester Aemon couldn't help showing a sad look. He then picked up the wine bottle and wanted to pour himself a glass of wine, but put it back again and sighed deeply.

"Ego has liked to hear the story of Queen Alysanne since she was a child, traveling around the Seven Kingdoms on silver wings and upholding justice. He once said that he would also ride a dragon and travel around the Seven Kingdoms." Maester Aemon sighed: "He never gave up his past ideals until his death."

At this time, footsteps were heard outside the door. The night watchman came in holding a book and placed the book on Maester Aemon's table.

"Jo, you can go," Maester Aemon picked up the unfinished wine on the table, handed it to the night watchman, and said, "Take this bottle of wine and drink it! I don't need it anymore."

The night watchman happily took the bottle and walked out of the room, closing the door gently.

Maester Aemon turned the light on the table to its maximum brightness, then opened the book and read the contents with his whole body almost pressed against the pages.

He read very quickly, almost only reading a line or two before he knew that the page did not contain what he was looking for, and then he turned to the next page.

After flipping through about dozens of pages, he slowed down and read more carefully. After reading a few pages, he turned back a few pages and read a few lines, with a look on his face. Smiling, he said: "I remember, I remember."

"Have you found it yet?" Linde asked.

"Yes." Maester Aemon turned the book on the table and pointed at the open page for Lind to read.

In the past two years, Linde has been learning languages ​​and writing, because he found that his ability to learn languages ​​is very good, at least many times better than himself in the previous life, so various variations of Common Language, Dothraki, High Valiant Rhylian, Low Valyrian, etc., he would learn from Moloa whenever he felt that they might be useful in the future.

And Mo Luoya also likes to teach Linde to learn languages ​​because she found that Linde learns languages ​​very quickly. He can usually master the reading, writing and speaking of a language in one or two months. She really wants to try Linde to learn languages. Where is the limit.

The author of this book currently uses a variant of common language used by northerners, and adds some unique prepositions in the middle of each sentence. If someone is not familiar with this variant, it will be very difficult to read. However, people who are familiar with it can clearly distinguish the key points of the entire text through these specific prepositions, thus speeding up reading.

There are only two things in the whole page. One is that the ranger named Rorschach and his companions discovered the real tomb of Qiaoman, the king beyond the wall in the mythical era, and found the Horn of Winter from the tomb.

Another thing is that when they returned to the Great Wall, they were attacked by the White Walkers. They fought and retreated, and finally set up an ambush at the Fist of the First Men, and then killed the White Walkers who were chasing them all the way.

However, they all died in the battle in the end. Rorschach buried his companions at the corner of his index finger at the Fist of the First Men, and buried the Horn of Winter there as well.

After reading this page, Linde had a confused expression on his face.

In terms of content, the above description should be true, because it mentions the Fist of the First People, which is consistent with Linde’s memory, and it also clarifies that the burial location is at the corner of the index finger, which saves Linde the need to search everywhere. time.

But the problem is that the content of this page, or this book, is very contradictory.

Maester Aemon seemed to sense the confusion in Lind's heart, so he asked: "Is there something you don't understand? Do you need me to explain it?"

"Bachelor, who wrote this book?" Lind asked.

Maester Aemon explained: "Don't you understand the title of the book? The original author of this book was Ranger Rorschach, and now this book was rewritten by a later maester based on Ranger Rorschach's diary."

Linde asked: "The content mentioned here clearly mentioned that the rangers were all killed in the Fist of the First Men, and Rorschach should also be among those killed in the battle. How could he bury his comrades first?" Minquanfeng, why did you leave this book behind?”

Maester Aemon was silent for a moment and said: "It may be that someone later made a mistake in writing. In fact, Rorschach did not die in the battle."

"That's even more wrong." Linde shook his head and said: "If Rorschach did not die in the battle, why would he bury the Horn of Winter in the Fist of the First Men? Why not bring it back?"

Maester Aemon was completely stunned. When he read this book, he did not think about it so deeply and carefully. Now that he heard Linde say this, he found that there was indeed a contradiction here, and he carefully read it. After recalling the content of the entire book, he found that the first half of the book was quite good, but starting from the Fist of the First People, the content of the book began to become confusing. He had always thought that it was a problem with the later editors, but now it seems Perhaps there is something inherently wrong with the book.

"Maester Aemon, do you have the original original copy of this book?" Lind asked again.

Maester Aemon thought for a moment and said, "There may be, but we have to go to the library to look for it."

Lin De smiled and said: "I will stay here for seven days. During this time, I can use it to read books. The night watchman should have many ancient books that cannot be found elsewhere!"

"I will definitely not disappoint you." Maester Aemon also nodded, then rang the bell again, called for his squire, and asked him to take Lind to the library.

In the next few days, Linde spent most of his time in the library looking through the various books that the night watchman had collected over the years. Seeing this, Mr. Xiong simply changed Linde's residence to the library.

Most of the books in the Night Watchman's collection are the Night Watchman's diaries. These diaries are the best information for Linde who is about to go to the land of eternal winter.

You must know that in these diaries, the farthest record of the land of eternal winter is in Thern, which is the northernmost tip of the Frostfang Mountains, the source of the Milk River, covering almost the entire area beyond the wall.

Because most of these diaries were the trivial personal affairs of the writers, and there was not much content that was really useful to Linde, Linde read them very quickly. In just two days, he had read all the diaries. In terms of written knowledge beyond the Great Wall, perhaps he is as good as any old ranger.

After that, he continued to look through those very ancient books, and there was even a rune book written by the ancestors in ancient languages. The entire book was made of metal similar to copper sheets, with ancient runes engraved on it. Although thousands of years have passed, the book is still as shiny as new. Linde has some doubts about whether there is magic in this book, but neither he nor Glory can see any magic in it.

Because this book is of extremely high value, and it seems that no one is reading this book here, and no one is studying the ancient language of the ancestors in it, so Lin De asked Mr. Xiong to buy this book and take it back. Moroya does some research.

At first, Mr. Xiong was reluctant to sell, but after hearing the price quoted by Linde, he relented because the Night Watchman was really short of money.

In the past, when there were few night watchmen, they didn't feel that they could live a good life with the various outputs of the land. However, as a large number of prisoners were sent here to serve as night watchmen, their funds were seriously insufficient. Now, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Night Watch has borrowed a sum of money from the Stark family, which is barely able to maintain the daily expenses of the Night Watch, but this cannot be sustained for a long time.

This time, another 700 people joined the ranks of the night watchmen, and the required expenses surged again. The existing finances were already in jeopardy, and a large sum of money was urgently needed to fill the hole, so when Linde offered a very high price In the end, Mr. Xiong couldn't resist at all. He was given too much.

Linde doesn't have any particularly good solutions to the financial difficulties the Night Watch is currently experiencing.

Although the Night Watch has many rare objects that are rarely seen in the south, as well as a lot of extremely high-quality wood, the Great Wall of Despair is too far away from Linde's territory.

It is true that it is possible to make money by opening a trade route with the Great Wall and bringing the special products here to the south for sale, but the time it takes for his fleet to go north is enough to make three or four trips to the other side of the Narrow Sea. There was much more money than that, so he had no choice but to help with the Night Watch's financial problems.

As for asking Villas to stop transporting prisoners to the Great Wall of Despair, not to mention whether Villas agrees with it, even the Night Watchmen will not agree, because they finally have so many people to dispatch, and they will not be stretched. On the Great Wall Due to the increase in the number of people, the patrols in the north encountered far fewer attacks and dangers than before. They would never want to return to the previous fearful patrol state.

Therefore, they only hope for more night watchmen, and definitely do not want fewer night watchmen.

As for the lords of the Seven Kingdoms, they will not allow the Night's Watch to stop accepting prisoners. On the one hand, tradition is, but more importantly, there is no one better suited than the Night's Watch to deal with those troublesome people who can neither be killed nor released. For this reason alone , they would never allow the night watchman to refuse to accept prisoners.

Therefore, the finances of the Night Watch are definitely in a dead end now. If it is not solved as soon as possible, it may cause civil strife in the Night Watch.

Mr. Xiong is also aware of this, but he has no way to solve it. The solution given by Linde is to expand the territory. Since we can't expand to the south, why can't we expand to the north? Build a fortress in the ghost forest closest to the Great Wall and occupy the land. The trees and other wild resources there are enough for the night watchman to consume for a long time.

Mr. Xiong didn't give any response to Linde's proposal. It was obvious that he didn't take it to heart. Perhaps he wouldn't think of Linde's proposal again until he was desperate.