Chapter 406 Gathering and Preparing

After the battle with the ice dragon in the waters near the frozen coast, the White Walkers seemed to have become timid. Not only did the army of zombies in the Haunted Forest retreat, and they no longer attacked the Great Wall as desperately as before, even the ones they originally planned to do as Xi Qiao looked at the breakthrough point and gave up. All the corpses and ghosts all over the mountains and plains disappeared overnight.

Through the reconnaissance of the shapechangers, it was discovered that all the White Walkers east of the Fangs of Frost and Snow have retreated to the vicinity of the Fist of the First Men, while the White Walkers on the west coast have retreated to the south of the Frozen River, and they seem to have turned into statues. Staying in place motionless, and there are constant gatherings of white ghosts carrying corpses, and among these white ghosts and corpses, we also saw no less than a thousand giant white ghosts and more weird-shaped monsters. Ghost, it looks like they are gathering all their forces to prepare for a fierce attack.

Linde did not conceal the investigation information, but made it public after receiving the information.

Everyone who heard the news, no matter how dull they were, could feel that a more severe war was about to happen, which made them spontaneously and strictly carry out every task assigned by the above, and constantly strengthen various defense devices and facilities. The morale of the entire Great Wall of Despair is tense and orderly.

Compared to others, Linde knew better what the White Walkers were going to do next, because he could feel the changes in the magic power in the north, and felt that an extremely cold magic power was gathering in the north. This magic power was even as strong as He also sensed danger.

In addition to magic power, the climate of the entire Great Wall, or the entire northern territory, has also become colder. The Long Lake and Mo River near Wolf Forest in the northern territory have been completely frozen, and the cold climate is still moving southward. On the Green Fork River Ice edges were formed. It seemed that the cold climate that swept across the entire Westeros continent was forming rapidly, and it was more intense and lasting than before.

Under the influence of this extremely cold climate, the rivers north of the Great Wall also began to freeze, and the freezing of these rivers directly led to the depletion of water in the downstream rivers. The most serious one was the lower reaches of the Ruhe River, which was originally in the Grand Canyon. The turbulent water flow is slowing down rapidly, and the height of the river is dropping at a speed visible to the naked eye every day. Some river sections have even exposed the rocks at the bottom of the river. This is undoubtedly a loophole in the entire Great Wall's defense line. Once the White Walkers launch an attack, they will It is very possible to break through the Great Wall of Despair from here.

This is not the worst place. The worst thing is that the ice surface at the southernmost point of the frozen coast is rapidly expanding under the influence of this extremely cold weather. In less than ten days, it has expanded to the waters of Ice Bay. Nearby, there are only twenty leagues away from Bear Island. According to this expansion rate, it will only take ten days at most to expand to the mouth of the Ruhe River, and even to the end of the coast of the Langlin Mountains in the north, and even the ice surface will Wrapping Bear Island.

For this reason, Lind ordered everyone on Bear Island to start moving south, temporarily moving to the rocky coast, waiting for further news. He also notified Sansa of Winterfell and all the lords to be ready for battle at any time, once the wights If the ice really bypasses the defense of the Great Wall, then the entire northern border will be attacked by the ghoul army.

In addition to ordering the Northern Territory to prepare, Linde also ordered other parts of the Seven Kingdoms to recruit troops, receive temporary training, and set up defenses near Greywater Watch. Once the Great Wall and the Northern Territory are lost, a second line of defense will be built here to provide There was enough time left for the people of the Seven Kingdoms to evacuate.

In order to let the people of the Seven Kingdoms understand the current situation in the north, Linde did not hide all kinds of information and directly passed on the intelligence information about the arrival of extremely cold weather, the expansion of sea ice, the possibility of White Walkers bypassing the Great Wall defense line, etc. King's Landing City, and then passed from King's Landing City to the hands of various great lords.

After receiving Linde's instructions and related news from the North, all the lords were confused, because they had just received the news not long ago that the Great Wall had suppressed the White Walkers and the zombie army, but in just a few days, Things have taken such a big turn that the Seven Kingdoms need to prepare to evacuate.

However, after they carefully read the relevant information, they all understood that the reason why Lind issued this order was not because there was a problem with the defense of the Great Wall, but because the extremely cold climate from the land of eternal winter gave the White Walkers The greatest help is to give them a chance to bypass the defense of the Great Wall of Despair.

After understanding the situation in the north, each lord had to pay attention to this order and began to transfer some people in the territory to nearby islands, or directly to the Essos continent.

However, the transferred people are almost all family members of various lords, and the people at the bottom do not know the specific situation in the north for the time being. They also think that the war between the Great Wall and the White Walkers is far away from them.

However, religious organizations such as the Church of the Seven Gods have begun to secretly transfer devout believers and their families within the church, and the school city can start to transfer some relatively precious documents and materials.

At the same time, the continent of Essos also began to accept people transferred from the continent of Westeros according to Lind's instructions. Because Lind had been preparing for the migration after the appearance of Long Night and Everwinter in the future, he had been in the Free Trade City beforehand. A large number of migration points have been built in the area, so it is not very difficult to accept these transferred people, and everything is running in an orderly manner.

In the north, although the extreme cold weather began to appear and the sea ice began to expand, Linde did not just watch the ice expand and do nothing.

After he learned the relevant news, he immediately sent people to throw wildfires and other incendiary objects on the expanding ice in an attempt to melt and break up the ice. On the expanding ice near Eastwatch in the east, this deicing method worked fairly well. , can easily clear the expanding ice surface, but this method is much worse on the west coast.

Although the high temperature of wildfires can melt the ice surface, the expanding ice surface is too thick. No matter how high the temperature of the wildfires is, it is difficult to completely melt the ice surface. It can only melt holes in the ice filled with large amounts of melted water. Wildfires can only burn on the water surface, and the temperature cannot be transferred to the ice surface. Once the wildfire stops burning, all the melted water will quickly condense into solid ice.

Faced with the changes brought about by this extremely cold climate, Lind had no way to solve it, or even a way to deal with it. Not to mention that he was not a god, even a god like R'hllor, the Lord of Light, faced this kind of change. The situation would also be helpless, otherwise, he would have already killed the cold god, his sworn enemy in the land of eternal winter.

Now, Linde also gradually understands that the previous attack on the Great Wall by the White Walkers and the Ghouls was just for military training, in order to allow the White Walkers who had never participated in a war to quickly master the ability to command battles. At the same time, he can also know that the seven major forces now The Kingdom has all the means of war, and the real attack of the White Walkers should be to wait for the extreme cold weather to move south, and then use the power of this world of long nights and eternal winter to attack the Great Wall of Despair.

Amidst the ebb and flow of the situation, Lind is not very sure at this moment whether he can hold the Great Wall and keep the White Walkers out of the wall. The only thing he hopes is that the opportunity that Vilas mentioned really exists, and Useful, otherwise, you need to be prepared to miss a hit and escape thousands of miles away.

Therefore, Linde has sent a separate message to Summer Hall, the Stepstone Islands, the Free Trade City, the Kingdom of Lorne and Qarth. All ships have been temporarily requisitioned in preparation for the fall of the Great Wall at any time and the White Walkers moving south.

Linde did not hide his thoughts from the senior officials of the Great Wall, but in order to stabilize morale, Stannis and others did not spread Linde's pessimistic view of the situation. The soldiers guarding the entire Great Wall still believed that it was absolutely possible Only a few who defeated the White Walkers and corpses were able to sense that something might be wrong from the rapidly dropping temperature during these days and the scheduling and distribution of the defense forces in various castles.

Karna comes from Braavos. He is a devout believer in the Lord of Light and the captain of the Hands of Fire in the Red Temple of Braavos. Under the assignment of the high priest, he came to the Great Wall to become a Holy Fire Warrior.

Or maybe it was his luck. In less than a day after he left Braavos, Braavos was blocked by the Miracle Fleet.

Although they are both the hands of the Holy Fire of the Red Temple, Karna is not under the jurisdiction of the Red Temple of Volantis. When Lind made personnel arrangements, Karna and the Red Temple of Braavos were The Hand of the Holy Fire arranged for the sentry tower next to the Shadow Tower to keep them away from the eastern coastline to prevent them from causing any trouble due to the conquest of Braavos.

Fortunately, Braavos was quickly conquered, and Karna and the others gradually gained trust. Especially after the previous battle with the White Walkers, their bravery was praised by Lind, who was also dispatched from Braavos. He obtained a batch of Holy Fire Hands from the Red Temple and gave them to Karna to command.

"The damn weather is getting colder day by day, when will it end!" Karna huddled up behind an ice wall at the top of the Great Wall, wrapping himself with a piece of shadow lynx skin bought from the night watchman, trying his best to Get closer to the bonfire in front of you.

A Holy Fire Hand warrior also murmured: "I really hope that the White Walkers will attack. At least we still have a chance to sacrifice ourselves to our Lord. If we freeze to death here, we will be dragged into the Great Wall by the evil spirits of the Great Wall and become sacrifices." ”

It's no wonder they said this, because just a few days ago, several soldiers of the Hand of the Holy Fire were frozen to death while standing guard, and the brazier that could be used to warm the fire was only a few meters away from the soldiers who froze to death. It's just a pile of supplies separated.

Braavos is located on the north side of the Essos continent. As Braavos, their cold tolerance is naturally not very weak, at least much higher than that of Volantis from the south. When it comes to the extremely cold climate from the north, their cold resistance in both the north and the south is actually very average.

Without exception, those who were frozen to death felt very hot before death. They even took off all their clothes and stood naked in the cold wind, completely freezing to death. Therefore, when a person is frozen like this, When the dead body appeared, many people spread rumors that it was the ghost of the Great Wall.

However, Linde knew very well why people who were frozen to death felt very hot before they died, so in order to avoid affecting morale, he also took the initiative to tell everyone the answer, and it quickly spread around the Great Wall of Despair.

Although many people believe Linde's statement, many people still think it is related to ghosts, and believe that people who die on the Great Wall will be absorbed by the Great Wall and become part of the Great Wall. Karna is one of them. .

So when he heard the mutterings of his men, his face became extremely ugly.

"Be careful! Lord Karna!" Just when Karna was muttering in his mind why the White Walkers didn't come to attack, he was suddenly pushed away by one of his men, and then he saw a trebuchet not far away. It collapsed quickly and smashed several pieces of the ice wall at the top of the city wall.

Afterwards, not only the trebuchet that Karna was responsible for, but also some trebuchets in the distance collapsed inexplicably.

"Have you been attacked?" Karna looked at the trebuchet in front of him, pushed away the men pressing him, stood up, and shouted loudly: "Assemble, prepare for war! Assemble, prepare for war! Blow the horn, blow the horn!"

"Wait! Wait! We are not being attacked, we are not being attacked!" Not far away, someone hurriedly walked over despite the wind and snow, shouting loudly towards Karna.

Karna hesitated for a moment and saw clearly that the person walking towards the strong snowstorm was his adjutant. He immediately asked the adjutant: "What's going on? Are there no enemies?"

"No! There are no enemies!" The adjutant entered behind the defensive ice wall where Karna was, leaned against the wall, panting, and said.

Karna asked in confusion: "How did the trebuchet collapse without enemy attack?"

"It collapsed due to freezing." The adjutant explained, but he was worried that the explanation was too simple. Karna did not believe it, so he explained carefully: "The weather is still cold, and the wrought iron nails on the trebuchet are all If it is cracked by freezing, the reason may not be visible at ordinary times, but if it is shaken for a moment, it will completely shatter.”

After saying that, still worried that Karna would not believe it, the adjutant casually broke off a top of the head from the collapsed trebuchet, rubbed it hard in his hands, and turned it into several smaller pieces.

"Oops!" Seeing this situation, Karna couldn't help but start to worry about the next battle.

The biggest reason why the war against the White Walkers has been able to suppress the White Walkers until now is because of wildfire and trebuchets. Wildfire completely restrains the White Walkers and wights, and the trebuchet can accurately throw these wildfires to the rear. On the battlefield, give the opponent a devastating blow.

However, the trebuchet is now frozen. In this extremely cold climate, even if it is repaired, it may not last long. In this way, an important weapon to deal with ghosts and zombies will no longer exist. Once a war begins , then they, the warriors guarding the Great Wall, will directly face the attacks of ghouls and other ghosts, just like the attacks of ghouls and other ghosts that night.

Thinking of this, Karna's face couldn't help but turn a little pale. At this time, he also saw that his adjutant had a similar expression. Apparently, the other party also thought of this, and the expressions of other Hand of Holy Fire warriors also tended to be similar. A touch of uneasiness began to spread among the garrison soldiers.