Ice and Fire: Conquering the World Starting from the Wall

Canyons and Passages

Colin's words made the savage leaders feel uneasy, as they all knew what the Skull Bridge was.

Originally, it had no name; it was just a rope bridge made of iron chains and planks. But the battles between the wildlings and the Night's Watch over the years left the area beneath the bridge littered with bones, hence the name Skull Bridge.

At the same time, they roughly understood why he brought this up.

"But the dead can ignore arrows, spears, and stones, and force their way through the canyon despite these attacks. This is a problem we must find a way to solve."

Three hundred men on the Night's Watch alone are unlikely to withstand the army of the dead.

Lynn had never seen the Grand Canyon or the Skull Bridge before. It was only through Colin and Mans's combined descriptions that he understood the condition of that treacherous canyon.

To put it simply, as long as someone is guarding the area, it will be very difficult for the living to pass through, but the dead will be less affected because they have long since lost the fear of death.

An attack that would be fatal to a living person is hardly effective against a corpse demon.

"Do the Night's Watch have any ideas? How did they handle it during the Age of Heroes?"

Lynn's question hit the nail on the head.

Colin shook his head: "From what I saw when I left, they were helpless about it."

"I consulted with Maester Imon about this matter a couple of days ago. He said that he had seen relevant records in the basement of Castle Black when he was young. Thousands of years ago, the Grand Canyon was filled with rivers from beyond the Great Wall. The water flowed very violently and flowed directly into Ice Bay. Even a mammoth that fell in would be swallowed up and swept away in an instant."

"But now only the calm Milk River flows through the Grand Canyon, and the flow is so small that even a child can't stop it."

Lynn habitually stroked his chin in thought.

"What do you think about building a dam to store the water?"

He tried to make a suggestion.

Colin said in a deep voice, "We can't gamble that ghouls can't swim."

"Furthermore, as the weather gets colder, stagnant water will only freeze faster, which might backfire."

At this point, Jarl interjected, "Maybe the magic in the Wall includes the Grand Canyon as well, so the dead can't get through?"

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Didn't anyone tell this idiot that ghouls can cross the Wall?"

Tormund asked in shock, forgetting even his usual catchphrase.

In fact, they had just been discussing bringing the wights south to prove that the White Walkers had resurrected, so as to persuade the southerners to join Lynn's side.

This kid clearly wasn't paying attention, or rather, he wasn't thinking.

Mans had no interest in educating his foolish brother-in-law.

He was just as familiar with the terrain around Shadow Tower as Colin was, and therefore knew how tricky this matter was.

So he frowned and said the only option at the moment: "In that case, we have to build a high wall in the Grand Canyon, and leave a gap at the bottom of the wall so that the Milk River can flow through."

Colin followed up, saying, "But the canyon is very wide, and the amount of work will be staggering. To build a wall high enough, it would take at least tens of thousands of strong laborers working continuously for more than a year."

This will require a huge amount of food, and the corresponding consumption of tools and supplies will be unimaginable to ordinary people.

O

It's another huge hole.

At this moment, Lynn only felt mentally exhausted.

Therefore, even if Davos manages to recover all the ransom and then immediately and meticulously transport the necessary supplies back, it will likely be difficult to fill this hole.

But now that things have come to this, all the previous efforts have become sunk costs, so Lynn has no reason to give up.

He rubbed his face, forcing himself to cheer up.

"Gentlemen!"

Lynn raised his voice: "There is no turning back when facing the White Walkers. The Children of the Forest no longer weave magic for humanity..."

Speaking of magic, Lynn suddenly thought of Melisandre.

He shook his head, dismissing the somewhat absurd thought, and continued:

...The giants who once carried enormous blocks of ice for our ancestors still exist, but their race has dwindled, so now humanity must rely on itself.

"In any case, we need to plan this project first. Mans, I'll leave this to you. The expeditionary force will take care of the food and other supplies."

Lynn nodded to his Freeman governor as he spoke, then turned his gaze to the generals who were about to go on the campaign with him, and to Jon, who was about to set off to gather his vassals.

Everyone could feel the pressure emanating from Lynn's eyes.

"We must make it clear to all of Westeros that defending against and fighting the White Walkers is not just a matter for the Free People or the North alone."

Lynn's voice gradually rose: "I will first try to persuade them with kind words, and if they still won't listen to reason, then swords will speak for us."

He used a title rarely seen in the border regions: "Gentlemen, and ladies,"

"Time is of the essence. Once you get back, immediately gather the troops and tell them the truth in the way you all know best. I need every soldier to know why they are fighting!"

The people whose eyes were pointed at immediately responded loudly.

As the workload increased, Lynn suddenly developed a sense of complacency, like someone who wasn't afraid of being bitten by lice or burdened with debts.

He decided to give Mansgaard more responsibility, so he voiced the idea that had been lingering in his mind: "You mentioned to me before the story of the brothers Jandal and Gorn, saying that they led the Free People into the ancient underground caves, successfully crossed the Wall, and entered the North."

Mans nodded seriously: "Gony Passage."

He uttered a word in a low voice.

Legend has it that in ancient times, a tribe of children of the forest and a family of giants fought over a cave. It was Jandal and Gonni who used trickery to resolve the dispute and persuade both sides to give up the cave.

Later, Jandell and Gorn took possession of it and discovered that the cave led to a series of more caves, with countless passages crisscrossing in a dense network, making it easy to get lost if one entered without authorization.

But eventually they found one of the passages that could take them underground through the Wall and into the North unnoticed—this was the Gornis Passage.

Around three thousand years before Aegon's Conquest, Jandal and Gorn led their Wildling army across the Wall through this passage, but for some reason, they were ambushed at the end of the passage by the Northern army.

In the end, Goni was killed in battle, while Jandel broke through the encirclement and attempted to return by the same route to escape back to the border.

But unlike his brother, he was familiar with the passageways and thus became lost forever in the cave.

"If the legend is true, the cave is near Shimen Village, but the southern exit of the Great Wall is said to have been blocked by the northern army."

That being said, Lynn didn't see it that way.

If there is even the slightest possibility, all hidden dangers must be found and eliminated.

Otherwise, if you spend a huge amount of resources building a wall in the Grand Canyon, only to have an army of the dead emerge from some hidden cave, wouldn't that be a joke?

He doesn't want to build a Westeros version of the Maginot Line.

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