Chapter 233: The Night's Watch, Mance Rayder
At daybreak on the second day, the dragons roared and took flight, the Dragonrider and the Dragon Group reaching the summit of the Wall!
"The scent of magic?" The dragon hissed in the sky. As the cold wind danced, the ice wall brought a sharp, biting chill.
Upon contact, the dragons hissed and roared, but they still climbed up onto the blue Wall.
"Wildlings! White Walkers! And the legendary Night King! They are all beyond the Wall!"
Rhaegar saw the Brothers of the Night's Watch guarding the Wall, saw the iron cages and winches, and saw the catapults.
The top of the Wall was wide enough for twelve fully armored knights to ride abreast, and the base was likely even wider.
The Wall was naturally majestic, but having fallen to such a state that they could not muster enough men for the Night's Watch, this great fortress was also desolate, with perhaps only a few scattered flickers of life.
"This is the end of the world!" the Lord Commander, wrapped in a large black sable coat, explained to Rhaegar.
In the cold weather, with such bulky clothing, everyone looked a size larger.
"It is the known civilized world!" Rhaegar looked out at the vast, green, and dense Haunted Forest beyond the Wall.
The trees there were extraordinarily tall, as if they detested the living.
Beyond the Wall were the free folk who would not kneel, and those terrifying and eerie White Walkers.
Rhaegar stroked his black longsword, Orphan-Maker, tempted to carve "Rhaegar Targaryen was here!" into the ice wall, but after a moment's thought, he restrained the impulse.
Rhaegar, Barristan, and the others were all wrapped in fine bearskin cloaks, as if they had also become members of the Brothers of the Night's Watch.
The dragon began to roar, and Rhaegar faced the biting cold wind head-on.
The cold wind howled and surged, endless like galloping horses.
The Wall was even wider than the Kingsroad here, so there was no fear of falling off, only that the ground was rather slippery.
"Watch your step! The ground here is quite slippery!" the Lord Commander warned.
"Have wildling incursions increased in recent years?" Ser Barristan asked, looking out at the endless wilderness, feeling a sense of loneliness.
"They have! Especially in the last two years; they seem to be fleeing from something! Their raiding range used to be small, but now they have begun to reach the vicinity of Last Hearth."
The Lord Commander replied, his expression tense. "We only have three outposts near the Wall now; I fear it will be difficult to handle the current crisis."
"Nothing but vast desolation!" Rhaegar looked toward the vast north.
Large-scale wildling invasion was an unstoppable trend.
Everyone feared the White Walkers, and the wildlings also wanted to hide, to take refuge behind the Wall.
The Night's Watch was not a powerful military force, but if the wildlings were added, it would be different.
Although the wildlings had no armor, were always reckless in their charges, and had poor weaponry, they had the advantage of numbers.
If the White Walkers invaded on a large scale, the wildlings would be an essential group to recruit; it was impossible to kill them all.
"And who is this?" Rhaegar noticed a young member of the Night's Watch accompanying the Lord Commander, wearing a dagger at his waist and holding a spear, appearing full of energy.
He was of medium height, with long legs, a lean and strong build, and broad shoulders and chest.
He had long, brown hair.
"Mance Rayder, a fine man of our Night's Watch!" the Lord Commander introduced him to Rhaegar with pride.
"He is a good lad. When there is leisure time, Mance can sing some of our favorite songs for the Prince!"
"The Night's Watch needs brave men like you to serve the Seven Kingdoms!" Rhaegar said, patting Mance on the shoulder.
Mance was flattered.
Young people are always captivated by honor, drunk on its intoxicating allure.
This was praise from the most dashing and gallant Dragonrider in all the Seven Kingdoms.
"Mance was raised by us in the Night's Watch; this lad will surely become the best of the Night's Watch," the Lord Commander boasted.
Mance's mother was an ordinary woman among the free folk, and his father was a member of the Night's Watch.
When Mance was still a child, a group of raiders was executed, and subsequently, he was raised by the Night's Watch as one of their own.
"Don't jinx it, Lord Commander! The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment," Rhaegar thought.
Young people receive much praise, but they are also like wild horses.
The Lord Commander and others did indeed take good care of Mance; having grown up in the Night's Watch, such a young man was promoted quickly compared to the rapists and thieves sent from the black cells.
First, Mance truly had talent, and with the added filter of being raised among them, he stood out from the rapists and murderers.
If Mance hadn't run away, he might have become the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch later, instead of Jon Snow.
But the Night's Watch was, after all, an anti-human design; as long as one had personal desires, it would be impossible to endure.
In the end, it was no surprise that Mance ran off to become the King-Beyond-the-Wall.
Seeing Mance, Rhaegar felt calm, with no great ripples in his mood.
I am the mountain, and I am the Dragonrider.
When a person possesses power and keeps climbing, they will find everyone beneath them, the world beneath their feet.
Those future kings—Balon Greyjoy, Robert Baratheon, Doran Martell, Mance Rayder—now seemed insignificant.
Under the sun, they were, in the end, stars without light.
"The Wall is so majestic; it must be deadly for the wildlings to climb up!" Barristan looked at the terrifying height from the ground, mortals looking up as if at gods.
"The Wall is a great fortress of the world, naturally difficult for wildlings to climb. But now, we Brothers of the Night's Watch are few, and there are always gaps!" Mance said.
"The Wall is so high; how do the wildlings climb up?" Myles asked.
"Where there is a will, there is a way. Wildlings start learning to climb the Wall when they are teenagers, or they use small boats to cross the Bay of Seals to bypass the Wall."
"It takes more than a day to climb the Wall, and rangers among the Brothers of the Night's Watch often find mangled corpses that fell to their deaths at the foot of the Wall," the Lord Commander explained, well-versed in these matters.
"Lord Commander, if the wildlings invade on a large scale! Thousands upon thousands! How would you respond?" Rhaegar asked the Lord Commander.
"The largest scale so far has been about a thousand people. The Wall is high and dangerous; there are rarely such large-scale incursions. As long as we guard the Wall well, they cannot enter."
"The last time Raymun Redbeard climbed the Wall, he brought over a thousand warriors!" the Lord Commander said. "Although it was a bit troublesome, we have no problem defeating these people!"
"It seems the Lord Commander's imagination is still limited, relying on the iron wall of the Wall to conduct physical annihilation," Rhaegar thought.
If tens of thousands of wildlings were to knock at the gate in the future, the Night's Watch would be like a small boat in the tide.
In order to deal with the White Walkers, the recruitment method used by Jon Snow was a desperate countermeasure, which already violated the tenets of the Night's Watch.
Before Rhaegar lay the winter wind and distant ice plains, and he thought of the crisis after the Long Night descended.
First, a large-scale wildling invasion, followed by the charge of the White Walkers. The wildlings were, after all, human; it was impossible to slaughter them all.
"The Northern Unlimited Climbing Championship!" Rhaegar looked at the vast wilderness. Seven hundred feet high, it was a great fortress of the world, not something human power could climb.
The wildlings were climbing with their lives on the line.
To climb the Wall, the wildlings would use giant ladders made of ropes with crossbars; peculiar soft deerskin boots with protruding spikes at the tips, some made of copper or iron, most made of bone; small stone hammers; iron nails, bone nails, and animal horn nails; and ice axes made by tying sharpened antlers to wooden handles with animal hide.
"It is merely a matter of blocking versus dredging! Once the White Walkers invade, the Night's Watch and the wildlings will be the first line of defense. But changing the mindset of some die-hard members of the Night's Watch will likely be difficult!" Rhaegar thought.
Yet, hearing Mance speak, Rhaegar felt a sense of absurdity.
"Order and chaos, rise and fall—these are the main themes in human history. The history of the Wall also reflects this," Rhaegar said to the others.
"The Prince is quite right! Order and chaos, rise and fall, moving in cycles," the Lord Commander agreed deeply.
There had been lazy Lord Commanders, Hightower Lord Commanders who let their sons succeed them, Lord Commanders killed by traitors, Lord Commanders who declared themselves kings, and Lord Commanders as unyielding as bedrock.
"After the Long Night, regardless of whether the Wall still stands or not, we must find a place for the wildlings!" Rhaegar had a more far-reaching plan.
The realm seemed to be in his palm. "If Lyanna and I have a son, he will not come here to suffer.
Reorganizing the wildlings is very easy for me. The affairs of this generation should be done by me.
Jon is too young, his family has fallen, the responsibility is too heavy, the changes are too great, and his ideas are too bold; it is normal that he caused the Night's Watch to kill each other."
"Lord Commander, when I return to King's Landing, I will provide some resource support for the Brothers of the Night's Watch. I will dispatch ships north to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea!" Rhaegar told the Lord Commander the good news.
There was no manpower, but in terms of supplies, some could be provided.
After all, he was now wealthy beyond measure, and supporting the cause of the Night's Watch was effortless.
"Then I thank Prince Rhaegar!" the Lord Commander was overjoyed.
"After we return, hand this task to Davos! This lad is perfect for it!" Rhaegar said to Barristan.
Davos was a genius at smuggling, and operating legitimate ships would be no problem.
"At your command, Prince!" Barristan committed this message to memory.
"Lord Commander, I want to fly north to take a look, to see the true end of the world!" Rhaegar smiled, causing the ice and snow to melt.
"The Seven Kingdoms are of paramount importance; the Prince must not put himself in danger. Even your ancestors, the Conciliator and Good Queen Alysanne, did not fly to such distant places!
If you wish to cross the Wall, I can send 100 guards to escort you to the nearby Haunted Forest, the place where Good Queen Alysanne once went!" The Lord Commander's expression changed instantly.
Going north was extremely dangerous, and he could not let the Prince put himself in danger.
"Indeed, Prince. Crossing the Wall is truly too dangerous," Ser Barristan also advised.
North of the Wall, it was vast and boundless, and there were many unknown dangers; one could not easily go there.
Rhaegar knew they also wanted to mention that Lord Brynden Rivers, called Bloodraven, who had disappeared into the distance.
This was the person he needed to find.
"Rest assured!" Rhaegar looked into the distance! "I will only fly for a short while and will never go too far. It is too cold here. The dragons are also feeling uncomfortable."
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