Chapter 227

The Flint Clan settled into Nightfort with over 1,100 members. Being close to the Wall, their migration was swift. Following them were 800 members of the Wull Clan, and then over 400 of the Norrey Clan. Hundreds and thousands of mountain clanspeople arrived as scheduled. Although the agreement was to count people individually, the clans were surprisingly cooperative, arriving in family units with a balanced ratio of men, women, elderly, and children, rather than sending only the weak and sick to be taken care of.

To ensure the Night’s Watch industries could afford it, Aegor abandoned his dream of fully staffing all nineteen castles. Instead, only seven were reopened and populated with clanspeople, in addition to the three already manned by the Night’s Watch, bringing the total to ten fortresses forming a complete defensive line.

Phase one of Aegor’s settlement plan attracted nearly 4,000 clanspeople to the Gift. Each received three copper pennies per day for subsistence—equivalent to less than six modern dollars a day, ensuring they barely had enough to eat. This frugality meant Aegor’s expenses for their upkeep amounted to only a few dozen gold dragons each month.

Supplementing this minimal subsistence allowance were low-cost goods and reasonable wages for labor. Repairs to their own fortresses yielded no pay, but work on Wall infrastructure—repairing elevators, wooden ladders, building defensive walls, clearing snow, and maintaining paths—earned ten copper pennies per shift. Sentinels and patrollers on the Wall’s top received thirty copper pennies, while those joining rangers on patrols in the Gift earned a silver stag. The most dangerous task—defending the Gorge against wall-scaling wildlings—paid double. For those who died in the wildling war, their families received one gold dragon as compensation.

A single gold dragon—a trivial amount for someone like Tyrion Lannister—was enough to inspire astonishing enthusiasm among the clanspeople. The promise of “dying for the Night’s Watch guarantees your family’s future” became a widely shared joke that concealed a grim reality.

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The frequency of wildling attacks intensified. Their rafts were no match for the ships supported by White Harbor and Stannis’s war fleet at the Bay of Seals, but along the Wall—especially near the Gorge—their relentless attempts to scale and breach the Wall created significant challenges.

The Wall’s immense height proved a formidable advantage. Even its lowest sections exceeded 100 meters—ascending with tools took at least ten minutes, and that was if no one noticed. Once spotted by sentinels, a few rocks or a hail of arrows could end any attempt. The Wall’s sheer scale prevented the wildlings from even providing cover fire for their climbers.

With craftsmen leading the clans and Gift settlers in clearing the Wall’s top paths, the rangers gradually restored patrols. The wildlings’ situation worsened. Several attempts to lower rope ladders for larger raiding parties were thwarted, and small groups climbing the Wall were dispatched without casualties. Realizing the futility of scaling the Wall, the wildlings abandoned the effort. Raiding parties that had already crossed the Wall attempted to harass the fortresses, but without siege tactics, they were powerless against the newly built walls.

As for tunneling under the Wall—though it seemed plausible, the constant patrols made it impossible. When giants and mammoths gathered at the Wall’s base, patrols would pour burning tar down upon them, scattering the “excavation teams” in moments.

With the defense system funded by Aegor’s efforts in place, the Gorge became the wildlings’ last hope. However, the terrain was treacherous, with few viable crossing points, most of which had been scouted and fortified by rangers. Despite their tens of thousands, the wildlings found themselves powerless against the Wall. The frustration must have been unbearable.

...

The funds spent on living allowances and wages were not lost. The money eventually returned to the logistics department through trade. By teaching the clanspeople to “use money,” Aegor created a self-sufficient, closed economic system within the Gift and the Wall. While he was indeed exploiting the clanspeople’s labor value, the truth was that, in past winters, their elderly and infirm would often enter the mountains to die voluntarily, conserving resources for their families. Now that someone was willing to support them, dissent was nearly nonexistent.

In this closed economy, Aegor’s system required only an initial infusion of funds. The continuous operation of this society, which could not produce its own food, depended on a steady supply of grain from the North and the Riverlands. If this critical supply chain failed, everything would collapse.

While the Night’s Watch and the settlers defended the Wall and began clearing out wildlings already within the Gift, troubling news arrived from the North: longships from the Iron Islands had appeared along the western coast. But instead of following Stannis’s orders to assist the Night’s Watch, they had launched a campaign of pillage, capturing Torrhen’s Square and Deepwood Motte. Half the western North had fallen into the hands of these raiders.

“Wasn’t Theon Greyjoy a hostage of the Starks?” Aegor asked upon hearing the news. “Did someone really release him?”

“Not as far as I know,” Mormont replied gravely. “It seems Balon Greyjoy has crowned himself King of the Iron Islands, willing to sacrifice his last son for this rebellion. But that’s not our immediate concern. What you should focus on is the supply chain. We’re using Castle Black’s winter stores to feed nearly 7,000 people. At this rate, we’ll last only another month. If your plan to secure supplies from the North is disrupted, all the wildlings need to do is wait for winter to starve us out. The Wall will be abandoned without a fight.”

Aegor nodded grimly. The Ironborn rebellion wasn’t a complete surprise—he remembered this storyline well. But why had it unfolded now, at such a critical juncture? Could Balon Greyjoy and his men, like Jojen under the Green Seer’s influence, have been subtly manipulated by the Others’ master, the Great Other, to ensure chaos at the Wall’s most vulnerable moment?

“Understood. I’ll head to New Crown's Rest immediately to confirm what supplies the North can still provide. We’ll regroup once I return.”