"Two nights ago, I was having a pleasant dream when suddenly there was a commotion outside. Maeve and I went out to look and saw the Beacon Towers on the four outer walls were lit. Soldiers were running around in panic, yelling everywhere... Ah, in short, it was like the end of the world," Arya muttered, complaining. "Later, someone chased us back to our room, but we could not sleep all night. Then the next morning, we heard someone rode from the Wall to say it was a false alarm. How annoying!"
This girl's habit of interrupting had not changed at all. Aegor glanced at her helplessly. "I was not asking you. Do not interrupt the lord."
Yam smiled and replied as he led Aegor toward the core area, "As Lady Stark said, this incident caused a big stir, but keeping everyone in the Gift awake all night is secondary. The trouble is the significant manpower and resources required to reset the Beacon Towers after they are lit, and our inventory absolutely cannot withstand a second false alarm. Ser Denys Mallister, Commander of Shadow Tower, personally went to the Great Gorge the day after the false alarm to investigate the matter and sent the results back to Crowntown. I have been busy dealing with internal affairs in Crowntown these past few days and have not had time to look closely. For details about this false alarm, my lord can ask Ser Jarman Buckwell. I have already sent someone to notify all senior officials in Crowntown to wait for you in the conference room."
"Okay, let's go," Aegor nodded, glancing at Arya. "You follow along and do not run around. We will talk about your problem after I finish the meeting."
A moment later, in the familiar conference room, Aegor met with several of his most trusted subordinates again and began to formally receive a comprehensive report on the recent situation in the Gift.
"It was not exactly a false alarm," Ser Jarman Buckwell explained to him. "This matter starts with the wights destroying the Haunted Forest on both sides of the Great Gorge. About three days after you departed for King's Landing, the Haunted Forest on the north side of the Great Gorge was basically destroyed. The dead then began to destroy the remaining small portion within the Great Gorge. The first to be affected was the north wall. You personally went to inspect it, so you should understand what this means. From this point on, the actions of the wights could be seen by the patrolling soldiers running back and forth on the south side of the Great Gorge."
The wights were actually destroying the weirwood on the north slope of the Great Gorge within the Night's Watch's sight? Was the White Walkers' fear of this tree really so great that they would not leave a single one? Aegor rolled his eyes in confusion, recalling the general terrain of the Great Gorge. Even at its narrowest point, it is over a mile wide, beyond the range of all weapons held by the Night's Watch. This meant that when the wights did this, the Night's Watch on the south side of the Great Gorge could only watch the dead busily working on the opposite cliff and could not do anything.
"What is more troublesome is that this situation is not happening in just one place, but has appeared everywhere along the Great Gorge where weirwood exists," Humfrey Hissan, Chief Logistics Officer of Crowntown, chimed in. "Can you imagine this awkwardness? The task of the patrolling soldiers is to detect where the enemy appears and then issue a warning. But the current situation is: Along the eastern two-thirds of the entire Great Gorge, a defense line spanning dozens of miles, looking north from anywhere, as long as one's eyesight is good enough, one can see wights, like scattered ants clinging to the cliff face, destroying the weirwood by any means. They are not afraid of heights or fatigue. If they occasionally fall and their bones are not all broken, they can climb back up and continue working. Just watching is enough to make one feel despair."
"In this situation, patrolling is completely meaningless. The Great Gorge area has actually entered a state of combat early. The main forces of the Night's Watch from Shadow Tower, Westwatch-by-the-Bridge, and Ice Canyon Port have all left their fortresses. They are spread out to every place where the dead might cross the Great Gorge. They have set up tents near the locations where Wildfire and weapons are stored along the patrol routes and are keeping watch around the clock," Jarman said with a bitter smile. "The enemy outnumbers us by dozens of times, and they do not need to eat or sleep. They are working along the entire line, around the clock, regardless of manpower. As for us, even counting the older children and women, we can barely ensure that every part of the Great Gorge is guarded. But people need rest and rotation. Ser Mallister has sent everyone he could arrange to the Great Gorge and immediately reported the situation to Crowntown, requesting reinforcements. We made the maximum deployment within the authority you gave us. We allocated half of the mobile forces to the Great Gorge. This has temporarily eased the shortage of personnel there. But even so, Ser Mallister is still constantly sending ravens requesting more people."
"Watching thousands of wights cutting down trees right under your nose every day, I would also be so nervous that I would want to summon every living person in the world." Yam shrugged and coughed. "Wait, let us not get sidetracked. We are talking about the false alarm. Complaints or detailed situation reports can be done later."
"Right, there is too much to report. Once I start, I cannot stop." Jarman slapped his head and pulled the topic back to the false alarm. "After all, it is not flat ground. Although there are few weirwood trees on the steep cliffs of the Great Gorge, the wight army worked day and night for nearly a week to uproot and clear all of them from the north slope. We discussed this issue at that time. If they wanted to destroy the weirwood on the slope on the south side of the Milkwater River next, they would be exposed to the defenders' elevated ranged weapon attacks. After some discussion, everyone agreed, the other side would quiet down for a bit, or launch a full-scale assault. So we were on edge, preparing for battle. As expected, they only quieted down for one day. That is, one night four days ago, a new recruit on night duty heard strange noises coming from the bottom of the Great Gorge. After reporting to the squad leader and throwing down a torch, they saw at least dozens of dense dark figures crossing the Great Gorge by stepping on the frozen Milkwater River."
"Then they lit the Beacon Towers and sent out the signal that the enemy was attacking?" The room was silent for a few seconds. Aegor understood that this first report was finished. After a moment of silence, he spoke with a serious expression, "This was not a false alarm at all. Even if I personally went to the front line for the Night's Watch and threw down a torch to see wights crossing the river, I would also light the Beacon Towers to raise the alarm."
"Exactly. Then came the chaos of that night. The Beacon Towers were lit, three horn blasts sounded. The troops rotated off duty and resting in tents were woken up to join the defense. Soon, the phenomenon of the dead crossing the frozen Milkwater River was also discovered in other places along the Great Gorge. Since it was dark and the situation was unclear, the defenders could only first throw down large numbers of Wildfire incendiary bombs. Using the light from the fires, they continued to defend with Dragonglass arrows and falling rocks. Originally, we all thought this was the final battle. But after frantically holding on for most of the night, we found that the wights did not attack at all. The front-line commanders who realized this forcibly halted the defenders' firepower. They waited through the rest of the night until dawn, only to find that only a small number of wights had crossed the Milkwater River to the south side during the night. And what they did was merely destroy the weirwood trees on both banks of the Milkwater River at the bottom of the Great Gorge. They did not climb up to attack even a single step. The defenders along the entire line were busy for half the night. They shot tens of thousands of arrows and threw down hundreds of jars of Wildfire, only killing a three-digit number of wights. They even ended up burning many weirwood trees, helping the other side. And as soon as it was daytime, the enemy all retreated back north and disappeared."
Aegor's brow furrowed even tighter. The Gift had stockpiled supplies for a full year. Now there were hundreds of thousands of Dragonglass arrows, more than enough Dragonglass melee weapons for everyone, and several thousand jars of various liquid and solid Wildfire-type weapons. If they were to fight a pitched battle, without White Walkers interfering, they could handle even a million wights. He had always felt it was more than enough. But now, the enemy used a small tactic to probe and consumed a tenth of the supplies in one go. And nothing was accomplished. How could this be enough if it continued like this?
"Let me guess. The second night, the other side continued to send small groups of wights to destroy the weirwood?"
"Exactly. The next day, Ser Mallister ordered that the squad leaders of the defenders at each location must carefully distinguish whether the attack is a feint or a full assault, and only report after confirming the situation. But you should understand, the Great Gorge is not the Wall. The steep slopes of the cliffs are not as smooth and reflective as the ice wall. In the pitch-black night, judging by feel whether it is a feint or a full assault is very difficult to do. It can even be said to be impossible. It is better on a clear night with a bright moon and few stars. But if there are some clouds in the sky, the defenders would have to throw down a jar of Wildfire just by hearing a sound to check the situation. Although the reserves are sufficient, we cannot just consume them like this for fun."
"This was the situation the night before last and last night. Today will likely be no exception. The White Walkers probably also know that sending wights during the day would expose them to the defenders' firepower. We can have skilled archers pick them off to save arrows. So they only come after dark to slowly destroy the forest. And the number of wights that come is definitely not large, the density is very low. Guard? Attacking in the dark often requires dozens of arrows to get lucky and kill one. A jar of Wildfire might not even hit a single wight. It is not worth the loss. Do not guard? A group of the living dead are crunching and cracking the weirwood right under your feet. It makes anyone's hair stand on end and scalp tingle. You cannot eat or sleep well. It is truly a dilemma."
(To be continued.)