Chapter 301

Chapter 301

2021-01-06

Chapter 301 Changes in Land Grant (Part 1)

At this moment, a dozen or more li In Castle Black, three of the Night's Watch executives with chief titles are waiting for Robb Stark's reaction and opinion on James' actions this morning. And Cotter Pyke, who had already packed up with all his subordinates, just waited for the next day to return to Eastwatch.

They absolutely did not expect: the defendants have already started planning an even more amazing and crazy event before the report of today's incident has been reported to the North Guardian... so bold that no one even said it. plan to believe.

…

Igor left the office with Kent.

Formally, what oneself is planning is a typical mutiny. If there is no prelude to do this rashly - sending troops to surround Castle Black and forbid anyone to leave, it will inevitably anger a large number of Night's Watch soldiers, who are considered to be planning to seize power with martial power, but this time, the scene that happened in the morning Conflict, instead, became a key factor in Igor's final decision.

With Cotter Pyke and James Lannister's armed conflict first, Night's Watch will see his massive operation tomorrow as a demonstration and revenge against Eastwatch commanders, not against Offensive and disrespectful to all Night's Watch...while the essence of the matter remains the same, the emotional backlash will be much less.

It is true that even the smallest resistance and disgust will lead to a drop in the number of votes already in hand, but Igor still decided to do it: the less votes, the less, oneself can use the third and fourth batches... … an endless stream of new recruits to slowly cover losses, forcing it to 2/3/2022. But once there is a problem with the food from the iron treasury, no amount of tickets can be used to feed tens of thousands of new land givers.

An under-fed man is the most dangerous creature in the world.

……

It was completely dark outside the house, and fine snowflakes were floating in the sky, and they fell on the hard-frozen ground and accumulated a thin layer... It was still noon The result that someone has just swept, can be imagined: what kind of scene should be at the moment in the vast wilderness outside the fence that no one takes care of.

The cold wind and the ankle-deep snow driving the night road, just thinking about it makes the scalp tingling... But be optimistic and consider the good side, in the cold climate of the North, the ground is full of In the case of permafrost, the snow cover will not cause muddy at least, and the white reflective snow field also provides enough vision to see the environment ahead in the dark night without moonlight.

After several inquiries, they found Flint patriarch who was brow beaded with sweat. After a brief negotiation, they solved the problem of the escort team. Flint is the mountain clan with the largest number of people stationed in the Wall. If they can be mobilized to participate, there will be a lot less difficulty in the force. However, at this moment, when Nightfort is full of North nobles and soldiers, I want to quietly transfer one. Two hundred people are simply impossible characters.

The visit of the emperor made Nightfort more lively than any festival. There were torches burning everywhere, under the eaves, between the houses, on the walls, and the flames were flying in the wind, but they were powerless after all. Light up every corner of the largest fortress along the Wall. When the dinner time came, all the guests from North were invited into the hall. In the central courtyard of the old castle, only the cold wind and flying snow were left in an instant.

In this darkness, the well-fed messenger Squad walked out of the kitchen, lined up very quietly under the cover of the noise of the welcome dinner, and walked to the east gate, where the guards lightly opened the gap. Filed out and disappeared into the dark night.

In Nightfort, the crowd was staggered and the guests cheered. Outside Nightfort, the cold wind slapped the task force with snowflakes in the face... one foot deep and one foot shallow, and they began to follow a path that was barely visible, towards Castle Black and Queenscrown.

＊＊＊

There is a joke in the modern world: Why are there so many children in ancient times? Because there is nothing to do after dark, so when you go to bed, you can't sleep, you can only make people .

The joke is vulgar, but it vividly depicts the lack of activities and boredom at night in the world before the invention of electricity. And in the land grant, especially in Queenscrown, the situation is worse than the joke: it's not just the power outage. Most of the employees and armed forces of the Night's Watch industry are young men who are pursuing their dreams, eager to make a lot of money or make a career with Igor... Most of them don't even have wives.

Where there is a need, there are people who make a living by meeting it. While Queenscrown is known as the land-grant capital, it is also the area with the highest frequency and densest occurrence of "skin and meat business" in the entire north of The Neck except for White Harbor. The trading place is generally in the small wood house or cellar behind the core trading street of Queenscrown. Most of the women who provide services are women who have come from beyond the wall and have lost most of their belongings and even the middle-aged male members of the family, and the customer group is mainly Night's Watch. Industrial employees, soldiers, and some of the more well-off mountain clans.

Jon Snow once reacted to Igor, believing that this kind of chaos is indecent, making the land-grant capital smoky, and also damaging the image of Night's Watch Legion, asking Igor to order a ban on this kind of carnal trading .

It wasn't a rude request, but Igor shook his head and rejected it for one simple reason: priorities.

In this small society that has not yet fully formed, it is impossible for oneself with limited resources to engage in a welfare system and provide free food to feed everyone. The new land-givers had to serve and labor in exchange for food to feed oneself.

Igor and his trusted subordinates have done everything they can: let men build houses and roads, enlist in the army for drills, let women clean, do laundry and cook... But after racking their brains, the logistics department can only create Create jobs and job opportunities equivalent to the number of new land grantors 1/4/2022.

This means that on 1/4/2022, new land grantees who were lucky enough to get a job will have to support the remaining three-quarters of their countrymen and families. In this case, to follow the example of Stannis Baratheon's strict prohibition of flesh and blood business is tantamount to driving those orphans and widows who have lost their family's pillars in the battle with Others or the Wall offense and defense, and have no competitiveness on their own.

even more how, the ban has been issued, and someone has to implement it... and Igor really doesn't have the extra resources, energy and manpower right now to devote himself to solving such a small problem that is not fatal .

Something that sounds reasonable doesn't apply anytime, anywhere. At least, at the moment when the land was donated, Igor was officially elected as Lord Commander, and he was firmly seated as the actual top leader of the land, and he couldn't find a way to provide everyone with the opportunity to support oneself, he rashly did something to sweep H... It's putting the cart before the horse, regardless of the severity.

However, not prohibition does not mean total laissez-faire. Igor still made several binding regulations: the flesh business is not allowed to be done on the table, it is strictly forbidden to enter the walls of Queenscrown, and systematic organizations and roles such as brothels and professional pimps are never allowed to appear, and the middlemen earn the difference. , become a parasite of this nascent society.

＊＊＊

Of course, the above has nothing to do with the variables that are going to happen in the land grant right now.

No matter how energetic you are, you won't be able to get late at night, not to mention Queenscrown's closed door curfew at night, and it is strictly forbidden to enter and exit the fence.

So, by the time Nightfort's welcome dinner was at its climax, the lively and busy land-grant capital during the day was already dark and utterly dormant, with only the sentinels on duty on top of the fence still awake. .

Cold.

It's so cold.

It's so cold.

Sticking on the top of the city wall in this weather, my brain seems to be frozen, there is no extra space to think about other than this idea. Teeth chattering, Hatch tightened his cloak and shrank into a corner sheltered from the wind.

He is the squad leader of this squad of sentries and is responsible for ensuring that this squad of sentries are doing their best. If he, the supervisor, was caught slouching during his duty, he would not lose his head, but he would be fired and sent home.

Theoretically, no one supervises him, but he doesn't dare desert.

The Armed Forces of the Night's Watch industry, though not a formal military organization, have stricter rules than any military in the world, and the officers call it discipline. This kind of "discipline" is so strict... Even as one of them, he often has to enforce discipline to criticize and punish the soldiers under his opponents. Hatch still occasionally feels that this is a bit of a fuss.

But no one complained... at least no one dared to complain publicly.

The salary determines the employee's attitude towards the boss.

On the Silver Stag of every month, tomorrow all the industrial employees in Queenscrown will run clean.

On the tenth Silver Stag every month, at least half of the people will be chanting "Boss, I'm your father" while coping with the mess.

But if you have 100 Silver Stags per month, that's enough to force everyone to hold back their complaints and work hard.

The total income of the soldiers of the "Night's Watch Industrial Security Team" is close to one Golden Dragon per month.

What is the concept of a Golden Dragon?
In a poorer place and a village with fewer people, the monthly tax that a Knight-level lord can collect is this order of magnitude.

This kind of salary, in such a world, can definitely allow 99% of people to calmly accept thousands of miles away from home, World of Ice and Snow... and a lot of myriad's execution is still very strict. It's the rules.

even more how, in the establishment of the Night's Watch industry they are soldiers, but in the land grant - dozens of them are actually officers. They have all received system training in the industrial park of King's Landing, and they can only be selected to be sent to Queenscrown if they perform well. When a situation arises, a large number of troops must be summoned, and this number can be changed to fifty or one hundred at any time.

They are the qualified products of the military part of Igor's grand blueprint. When needed, with the soldiers of the Night's Watch security team as the skeleton, the basic training of clans or land-grant people is gathered, and an army can be used overnight. Formed - and this, has been proven in the operation to help North drive out the Ironmen, and it is feasible.

A commoner with no family background or special ability, in the face of such treatment, would not dare to say arrogant words like "there is no place to leave a father here, but a place to leave him". After losing this job, which is a little hard, but decent, well-paid and looks promising, back in the South, there will be no great character like the Night's Watch industry: only focus on ability and attitude, not surname and origin.

Going home to farm or living in Flea Bottom to make a living by doing odd jobs, then you will have to live a hard life without any future.

......

Hold on, hold on for another hour, and he will be able to return to the warm room with peace of mind and sleep until noon tomorrow.

As Hatch trembled and counted silently, waiting for the next sentinel to replace oneself, something happened outside the wall.

A row of several light spots appeared at the end of the northern view, approaching along Kingsroad, crossing the opposite Queenscrown street with houses on both sides under the fierce wind and snow, and came to the bottom of the north gate.

It's not the enemy, it's obvious: the comer has absolutely no intention of concealing oneself's deeds: the dozen or so people are all heavy on their feet, panting like a cow, and they all look exhausted. Less than half of them held torches, and all were covered in snowflakes and finely shards of ice on their clothes, hats, and eyebrows and beards. They laboriously "waded" the snow from Kingsroad to the south, trudging all the way to the bottom of the city gate before stopping.

"Open the door!"

After countless night shifts, it was the first time Hatch encountered such a swaggering doorman in the middle of the night: "Who? Yes, let's wait till dawn tomorrow!"

"I'm Kent! Lord Yam ordered me to report to Nightfort as soon as possible in the afternoon, and now I have brought back the urgent instructions from Lord Chief Logistics Officer!"

p>

"Kent?" Hatch frowned, the Night's Watch industry has more than 100 regular employees in Queenscrown, of course he knows each other. But knowing does not mean breaking the rules: "Emergency order? Queenscrown is now sleeping except for the guards on the night shift. Even if it is true, who will accept the execution order? I advise you, or go find it. We'll make do with one night at the hotel. Let's talk about it tomorrow morning."

"Can you understand the common language? Urgent orders are urgent orders, and they need to be executed before dawn. Major event, you can't afford it!"

"Rule is a rule." Hatch wasn't frightened at all, but he didn't dare to take it seriously: "Well, I'll put a hanging basket down. , hang up the military order document, and I will hand it over to the commander for you."

"The time is urgent, there is no complete document, and the details need to be conveyed orally! You pull me up, and I will go to Lord Yam in person. Explanation!"

"Well...that's fine."

Hatch wasn't worried about what would happen to his knowledgeable colleagues. He was suspicious of the dozen or so men who followed Kent. The name brawny man. If they were wandering wildling robbers holding industrial employees hostage trying to infiltrate Queenscrown and wreak havoc, that would be bad.

Worried that it would soon prove to be superfluous, he called several sentinels from his class. After the rope was lowered, Kent climbed on the rope and was pulled up to the wall. There were more than ten people who accompanied him. Intentions and actions of the slightest obstruction.

After brushing off the snow on his body, Kent greeted several sentries, hurriedly descended the city wall, and hurried to the accommodation area in Queenscrown.

Ten minutes later, Igor's order was sent to Night's Watch's Queenscrown logistics officer, Humfrey Hisham, and Mayor Yam.

Half an hour later, when the Nightfort dinner, which was more than 20 miles away, came to an end, the participants gradually dispersed, but Queenscrown, who had already entered a dormant state, gradually woke up and became lively.

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(end of this chapter)