Chapter 242: Inform

Although Jon's brothers in the Night's Watch at Castle Black all looked at him coldly when he set out, he felt more at ease with Stannis' words.

Following the familiar path that the army from Eastwatch had trampled out last night, Jon rode on the road to Eastwatch.

The plan was simple: go to Eastwatch, go north from Eastwatch, look for the fleeing wildling troops, find the wildling king Mance or some leader, and persuade them to stick to the Wall, travel back and forth to the west, and return to Castle Black.

Although the wights were now driving and chasing the wildlings from west to east, Jon had to persuade the wildlings to go west back to Castle Black, because only Stannis was willing to provide a way out for the wildlings.

The wights were chasing under strange dark clouds and snow, and the dark clouds seemed to be reduced when they approached the Wall.

Melisandre's advisor said that it was the magic of the White Walkers, and they could not affect the Wall because the Wall was also protected by ancient magic.

That is why Stannis judged that sticking to the Wall would allow the wildlings to temporarily escape the pursuit of the wights, and then march to Castle Black as soon as possible during the day.

But Jon was not considering magic, but for the current situation, although going back to Castle Black meant risks for the wildlings, Jon knew clearly that this was indeed the only choice for the wildlings. Under the night attack of the wights, the wildlings assembled by Mance had actually collapsed, and their escape was doomed to be blind. The wildlings were fleeing eastward, and Jon judged that their destination might be Hardhome in the north of the Bay of Seals. But even if they fled there, they were doomed to not survive the winter.

Jon had something on his mind, so he rode his horse in a hurry.

But his injured leg still held him back, and the bumpy road, the wound that had just been bandaged in the morning seemed to have split, and Jon grimaced in pain.

It was an arrow wound, not big, but it happened to be on the calf. It was indeed a bit arrogant to ride a horse in this situation, but Jon gritted his teeth and insisted. He believed that he was doing the right thing and was full of strength in his heart.

Traveling alone all the way, he could only hurry on.

It was about noon. When Jon passed by Icescar, he saw the smoke. It was made by the patrol sent by Stannis. They also found Jon. The patrol blew a horn, and someone came out of the tower to greet Jon to have lunch. Jon was anxious to get on the road and refused.

Icescar is a night watch castle that has been abandoned for nearly a hundred years. It consists of three towers and is very dilapidated. Considering the crisis of the Great Wall today, the wildlings and the wights are fighting outside the city. Stannis had to send people to station here and strengthen patrols. They needed to re-activate the beacon tower of this fortress, open up the dilapidated stairs, and arrange sentries on the city wall to pay attention to the movements outside the city.

In fact, in the next period of time, not only Icescar, but also more abandoned castles on the Great Wall will have to be re-staffed.

Although the passages of the gates of these abandoned fortresses are blocked by rocks, it is necessary to prevent the possibility of wildlings and wights digging through the old gates or climbing the Great Wall from places that the Night's Watch cannot see.

This will of course disperse the already small number of Great Wall garrisons, but now even with Stannis's more than 300 people to supplement, the Night's Watch army, which is still less than a thousand people, has to guard a hundred leagues of the Great Wall. This arrangement must be made to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

After the fall, the sky at the Great Wall gets dark very quickly. Jon's leg injury still affected his journey after all. He originally thought that he would stop at Deep Lake House or Queen's Gate, and then reach Eastwatch by the Sea on the second night, but relying on his ruthlessness, Jon still arrived at the Nightfort at nightfall, which means that he can reach his destination earlier.

Jon was exhausted and wanted to move forward, but the horse's snorting was protesting in the cold wind. Jon had to stay here temporarily.

But for some reason, Jon did not see the remaining Night's Watch brothers here.

He called out several times, but no one responded.

Jon found someone in the abandoned stable of the fortress. There were traces of at least a dozen rangers' hooves and human feet in the yard. Jon even found hay and food left in the kitchen by the patrol team, but no one was found.

The hooves were in chaos, as if something had happened before Jon arrived, and the horses and men went east.

Jon became alert, tied his horse to the stable, took off his long sword, and began to grope for the stairs to the city wall.

In any case, at least the rangers sent here should have left their hands on the city wall, and Jon hoped to meet the Night's Watch brothers there.

But there seemed to be no one on the city wall, and Jon carefully groped for the stairs to the city.

The Nightfort is the first castle of the Night's Watch on the Great Wall. It is the only castle with stairs carved out of the ice wall of the Great Wall itself. There are no iron cages or internal passages. The stairs on the ice wall are the only way to the sentry posts and beacons on the top of the wall.

Soon, Jon knew why there was no one in the Nightfort.

It turned out that at some point, the stairway on the top of the wall collapsed seriously, and a huge hole was formed in the passage carved out on it. Looking at the traces, the group of Night's Watch brothers who came before tried to build wooden boards to pass through this collapse, but failed - the wooden boards hanging on the ice wall under the hole are proof of this.

Ice is too elusive. Jon remembered what he had heard from the Night's Watch brothers. Although the core of the Great Wall is frozen as hard as stone, the surface sometimes melts and flows down cold streams, like crying. Since the last group of black brothers left the Nightfort, this staircase must have melted and frozen thousands of times, and each time it would shrink a little, become flatter, smoother, more dangerous, and even collapse, making it impassable.

It seems that the Night Watch brothers saw that they could not climb the city wall, so they went to the nearby Deep Lake House or the farther Eastwatch to find craftsmen.

After roughly guessing the situation, Jon felt at ease and carefully followed the passage on the wall back to the city. He fed the horse fodder, got some food in the kitchen, and messed around on the stove by the warm fire in the kitchen. Find a clean place and lie down to sleep.

Despite the unsettling howl of the Nightfort's winds through its ruined towers and the creaking of the fortress, it's easy to think of the Nightfort's haunting rumors when alone.

The Nightfort always appears in Old Nan's most frightening stories, where the Night King once ruled, where the Rat Cook served "Prince's Bacon and Human Pies" to the King of the Andals, and where the brave young Dany... Flint was raped and murdered here, and King Sheret issued a curse on the ancient Andals.

Despite this, Jon had experienced a lot these days and felt that he was past the age where he would be frightened by horror stories. He was really tired, so he fell asleep next to the kitchen fire with the warmth of the remaining heat from the kitchen stove. .

At night, for some reason, Jon dreamed of direwolves.

Not Ghost, who has not been heard from since being separated outside the Great Wall, but Summer, his younger brother Bran. He saw Summer lying next to him, in the kitchen of the Nightfort, curled up against him, keeping him warm on the cold, windy autumn nights.

And there were more people in the kitchen.

Even brother Bran is there. Bran was looking at him, his eyes shining brightly in the dark room.

"Oh, Jon."

Jon seemed to hear Bran's call and woke up.

But there was nothing in the kitchen, just himself and the dying fire.

Vaguely, he heard something.

It was rats, crawling in the corners of the kitchen and in the passage that led to the cellar.

It was still long before dawn, and Jon put a few more firewood on the stove and was about to go back to sleep.

Suddenly, Jon seemed to catch some other sounds mixed in with the sound of wind coming in from the broken vault in the kitchen.

He was unsure, but still cautiously took out the sword.

Go to the kitchen door and watch carefully.

The kitchen was an octagonal stone house, with a thin, sinuous weirwood tree protruding from the stone floor beside a large well in the center.

Strange sounds were coming from the well.

Jon looked at the well. He had examined it before entering the house. The well was twelve feet wide and made entirely of stone. There were steps on the side that spiraled down into the darkness. The walls of the well were wet, covered with scale, and bottomless.

He threw a stone into the well and knew there was no water down there.

For a moment, Jon thought of the many ghost stories circulating in the Nightfort, and wondered in his heart, could he have encountered a ghost living in the well?

Jon heard his own heart beating like a drum.

Something was coming up from the ground, he suddenly realized. Footsteps, heavy footsteps, getting louder each time, the thick sound echoing in the well, as well as heavy breathing, and high-pitched whimpering. Is that thing crying?

Whatever it was, Jon drew his sword without a word.

Wait, is that?

Suddenly, a snow-white shadow sprang out from the mouth of the well and rushed towards Jon's direction excitedly. It has strong movements, its fur is as white as snow, and its pupils are as red as blood.

Jon was in disbelief: "Ghost, is it you!?"

Jon put away his sword and pushed open the door, almost jumping with excitement.

"Ghost!" Jon shouted his name, and the direwolf took off running.

Ghost jumped up to Jon in two or two steps, threw him to the ground, sniffed here, sniffed there, and gently bit his arm with his mouth.

"Oh my God, Ghost, is it really you? Am I dreaming?" Jon stroked the little wolf's hair with his hand. Ghost became thinner but taller. Jon almost shed tears, "I thought You're dead. Ever since I climbed the Great Wall, I can't feel you, not even in my dreams."

Ghost didn't answer, just licked Jon's face happily.

It smelled of blood, but Jon didn't care.

"Wow!" Suddenly a cry came from the well, the cry was breathless and heavy breathing, "Jon, is it you, Jon?"

The wails came from the well, getting louder and louder.

Jon asked in disbelief: "Sam? Is that you?"

He almost thought he was still in a dream and couldn't help pinching his wound. It wasn't until he grimaced in pain that he quickly got up and went to the edge of the well.

The night was dark, with only a few glimmers of light reflected by the snow. But Jon saw the thick figure, and he fell down there, crying: "Great, great!"

Jon hurriedly went to pull him, but only then did he realize that Sam was carrying a huge figure on his back, and behind him was a girl with a thin face, wrapped in a big black cloak, and holding a baby in her arms. It looked familiar, but Jon couldn't remember it at the moment.

"Jon, please give me a lift." Sam sobbed, with snot bubbles coming out of his nose. "The Commander-in-Chief is so heavy. I can't carry him anymore and I'm going to fall."

"Commander-in-Chief?"

With no time to think, Jon hurriedly stretched out his hand and pulled Sam up from the narrow spiral staircase.

As soon as Sam came up, he lay on his side in the yard, breathing heavily. Only then did Jon notice that Fat Sam had lost a lot of weight. He was only wearing a black woolen sweater, and one rattan was wrapped around his body, tying the unconscious Commander-in-Chief to his body and carrying him.

Jon had many things to ask, but when Sam got excited, he started whimpering and howling again after breathing for a long time.

Jon had to help him up first: "Hurry, it's cold outside, go inside first!"

Sam sobbed and struggled to get up with Jon's help, and staggered into the house.

Hiss——

Until he put Sam down, Jon realized that the wound hurt badly.

The white ghost ran around Jon's feet.

The girl followed the child into the house: "Sam and the commander's mail and weapons are still at the bottom of the well."

"You are." Jon finally remembered who this was, "Craster's."

"I'm Gilly." The girl answered him.

Jon looked at Sam and saw that he was still gasping for breath, his face red like firewood in the firelight.

"Help me put the commander down first." Sam said, and then said to the girl, "Don't worry about the things at the bottom of the well, come and warm yourself by the fire."

Jon had long discovered that the commander on Sam's back was still alive, but unconscious.

"How did you appear from the bottom of the well here? What happened to the commander?"

It's a long story.

After spending a long time, Jon finally understood their experience from Sam.

When retreating from the Fist of the First Men, Sam had retreated to Craster's Keep, but without the suppression of the commander-in-chief, the mutiny still occurred. Sam and Gilly got lost while escaping, and later met "Coldhands" by accident. According to Sam, he was a man dressed in black, like a brother of the Night's Watch, with skin as pale as a wight, and hands as cold as ice, but unlike a wight, he had blue eyes, could not speak, and perhaps had forgotten how to speak. He rode a roe deer and had a group of crows that obeyed his command.

After Sam and his friends were rescued, they were placed in a bear cave by Coldhands, where they saw the commander-in-chief, Old Bear, who was seriously injured and dying. According to Old Bear, he was also rescued by Coldhands.

At first, when talking about Coldhands, Jon had some expectations, thinking that maybe he was his long-missing uncle Benjen Stark. However, when he heard that Old Bear not only saw him when he was still conscious, but was also very wary, he gave up the idea.

Although Sam, Gilly, and Old Bear were saved, Old Bear's injuries deteriorated rapidly, and they had to take care of Old Bear temporarily. Old Bear's injuries were very serious, and he had a fever and even talked nonsense.

Sam thought that Old Bear was already beyond saving, but Coldhands communicated with them using his fingers and branches, telling them that there was a way to save Old Bear, but they needed Sam and the others to wait for him to find medicine.

So Sam and Gilly took care of Old Bear in the bear cave while waiting for Coldhands to find medicine.

Finally, Old Bear was saved from near death. When Old Bear got a little better, they found the magic black gate under the Great Wall under the leadership of Coldhands.

They crossed the black gate and came to the Nightfort, where they met Jon.

After listening to the conversation, Jon could clearly realize that Sam had a lot to say. Because he heard from the survivors such as Eddie and Grenn that the mutiny at Craster's Keep happened more than two months ago, which means that Sam and his men had been in the so-called "Bear Cave" for at least two months. In fact, many brothers, including Jon, thought that Sam was dead.

But Jon had experienced some things and matured a lot. Sam was accompanied by Bai Ling and the commander-in-chief, which was enough to dispel any concerns of Jon.

"Black Gate, you say." Besides, the news brought by Sam made Jon overwhelmed with ecstasy, "Sam, tell me, when you came back from outside the city, did you encounter the fleeing wildlings?"

"What?"

Jon realized that he was riding on the smooth and convenient road south of the Wall, and he might have walked in front of the fleeing wildlings in the haunted forest with his family. The large wildling army and the pursuing wights were all on foot. This means that if Jon took Sam's original route, he might be able to block the wildlings directly outside the city.

But.

The well could not allow horses to cross.

But

"Is Coldhands still there?"

Sam asked in shock: "Jon, what do you want to do?" He was originally a little heartbroken and uneasy because he had concealed something from Jon. He promised Bran Stark not to tell anyone that he had passed the Wall from this road and went to the deep forest north of the Wall to find the whereabouts of the Three-Eyed Raven.

In fact, Sam walked this road twice. Once he traded with Coldhands and led the way for Bran and his party who appeared here in exchange for Coldhands to go deep into the forest to pray for magical healing medicine from the Children of the Forest for the commander-in-chief. The second time was when he brought Gilly and the commander-in-chief who was completely unconscious after taking the medicine but obviously improved back here to meet Jon. Even Bai Ling, who somehow found Sam's place about ten days ago.

This experience is like a dream. Sometimes Sam Tarly feels that everything is his imagination and he has had a very long dream.

Yet despite this, he swore to keep the secret, swore to Bran, to the strange boy Jojen Reed in front of the black door under the castle, and swore to Coldhands when he rode on the elk: he swore not to tell anyone about Brandon Stark, and not to let anyone know his whereabouts.

On this side, hearing Jon's evasive words, Sam also pieced together Jon's horrifying plan, and he shook his head repeatedly: "No, Jon, Coldhands has left. God knows how dangerous it is outside the city now. Stepping into the haunted forest with just a pair of legs is no less than committing suicide."

But Jon insisted: "I rode with 'Halfhand' Qhorin before. You know, he asked me by name. I crossed the snowfield with the most elite rangers to find out the whereabouts of the wildlings." Although the result was not a good one, Jon firmly believed that he could do it. "You bring back Bai Ling for me. This must be the will of the new and old gods!"

He remembered what the red-robed woman beside Stannis said.

Speaking of which, seeing the commander-in-chief also stimulated Jon.

The commander-in-chief is still alive, which is of course a great thing, but when the commander-in-chief wakes up, Lord Stannis's treatment of the wildlings is very likely to be repeated. Jon does not distrust the commander-in-chief's foresight, but. Many things, if not done now, may not have the opportunity to do in this life.

"Jon."

"I've made up my mind, Sam. Please, take me to the Black Gate and let me carry out my mission!" he said. "This is about the survival of the Wall. I will be back as soon as possible."

When Sam heard this, he knew in his heart that he couldn't refuse. He couldn't help but doubt what he was doing, but he still agreed: "Okay, Jon, I'll lead the way for you."

So, they laid the commander in Jon's warm nest before, and asked Gilly to stay to guard it. Then they called Ghost and ran to the well without hesitation.

Sam was in front, he sighed: "Be careful, there are many stairs, it's not good to fall down." Then he started to walk down.

Jon tried to control his injured leg and followed behind, and Ghost followed behind Jon.

It was a long way.

The bottom of the well was narrow and dim. Jon wanted to light a torch for illumination, but Sam stopped him: "No, your eyes will slowly adapt."

Finally, at a certain moment, Sam stopped: "There."

Jon looked up and saw the door, the "black door" Sam mentioned, but it was not black. It was white fish beam wood, with a faint white light on the wood, and there was a face on it.

Is it magic?

Jon inexplicably thought that he should be surprised by what he said to Stannis before leaving in the morning, but inexplicably felt that it did not seem worth being surprised.

Jon's calmness made Sam ashamed. When he first saw this door, he was so scared that he could not walk.

The door opened its eyes, white eyes, without pupils.

"Who are you?" the door asked, and the deep voice echoed in the bottom of the well.

"Say the oath." Sam turned back to Jon, "I told you so."

Jon nodded and came closer: "I am the sword in the dark, the guard on the wall. The flame against the cold, the light at dawn, the horn to wake the sleepers, the shield to protect the kingdom."

Then, under Jon's gaze, the mouth of the door opened and opened wider and wider. "Go."

A gust of cold wind blew from the other side of the door.

Jon took a deep breath: "Then, Sam, I'm off."

Sam's nose was inexplicably sour, and he only replied: "Yeah."

Jon greeted Bai Ling, took a big step resolutely, and walked into the deep dark passage.

Jon staggered for an unknown period of time before he finally felt the uphill road. After he left Sam, his pretended strong appearance quickly relaxed. His steps became lame, and he had to use the sword as a crutch to steady himself.

Finally, the long tunnel came to the end, and a ray of light appeared in front.

He walked out and found that this was a tree hole under a huge oak, in an ancient oak forest, surrounded by straight gray-green sentinel trees, gloomy pine trees and bare brown chestnut trees.

Haunted Forest. There is no doubt that this is already north of the Great Wall.

Jon stood in the woods and looked to the south. His sight was blocked by layers of dense forests, and he found that he could not see the Great Wall.

This forest was unimaginably dense. Jon was not sure if he could find the right way back here after leaving.

He lowered his head to look for footprints. Sam said that "Cold Hands" asked them to ride elk here.

Sure enough, Jon soon found the huge footprints of the elk. He looked at Bai Ling and signaled the direwolf to track the smell of the elk.

Jon hoped that he could find "Cold Hands" and ask for his help. However, he walked until dawn with Bai Ling leading the way, but still could not find the trace of Cold Hands.

Suddenly, when Jon was tired and wanted to stop to rest, a strange cry of crows came from the forest. Bai Ling ran back to his side without knowing when, and let out a silent low roar in that direction.

Jon thought he had found "Cold Hands" and hurriedly quickened his pace. Unexpectedly, he ran into several riders just after crossing a riverbed with frozen rocks and jagged rocks. Seeing that they were dressed like wild men, Jon became nervous and shouted loudly: "Hey, I'm looking for Mance Rayder!"

He didn't know if there were any of Mance's men among these riders, but he was wearing this outfit. If he wanted to see the boss alive, he must not die at the hands of the riders who met him inexplicably.

As the riders got closer, Jon found that the first rider was thick and short, with a glittering golden hoop on his arm and a snow-white beard on his broad chest.

Jon recognized him as Tormund, the Giantsbane.

"Ha!" Tormund shouted after approaching, "Raven Jon Snow, are you a White Walker, or a wight to surround us?"

Jon shouted: "Tormund, I'm looking for Mance." Jon couldn't believe that things would go so smoothly that he suspected he was dreaming.

Tormund grinned: "I see you are wearing a raven cloak. If you are here to seek refuge, now is not a good time."

"I'm here to negotiate with Mance, Tormund. I believe you should know that the Night's Watch and you have a common enemy now."

"Negotiate?" Tormund asked, "Why are you here?"

"They sent me."

"How many of you are there?"

"Some kings have already set their sights on the Wall, Tormund. Just yesterday, every castle on the Wall had our brothers stationed there." Jon said loudly, "I came from the Nightfort, and was hung down from the seven hundred-foot-high wall in a cage. We all know what we are going to face next, the White Walkers and the Wights, they are impatient. We don't have much time to talk."

"You, came down in a cage? Why did the crows send a wounded man, why you?"

"I thought you would understand why I came when you saw me, Tormund."

"Let you betray us again and lead us to a dead end?" Jon saw that there was also Hammer in the team, "Let me kill him and hang his head on the banner. Chameleons are worse than dogs."

"Let me see Mance." Jon ignored him and continued to look at Tormund. Tormund laughed: "Can you still ride a horse?"

"If you are not in a hurry, I can walk over slowly."

Tormund disagreed: "You don't need to say these hurtful words to me, Jon Snow."

Soon, Tormund brought him to the edge of a pine forest. Jon looked around and found that there were quite a few people in this team, but they were all tired and blank-eyed, busy with their own things. Few people even paid attention to Jon in black clothes walking through the sparse temporary resting camp.

It can be seen that they are all very tired.

Jon keenly discovered that this team seemed to be intentionally marching in the dense forest not far from the Great Wall. I just don't know if they found that the magic of the White Walkers didn't seem to approach the Great Wall, or if they had other plans.

The terrain of this place is a leeward slope, and Mance's tent is at the highest point of the slope.

Jon found that many familiar faces were missing, such as the six-shaped man, the skeleton king, etc. He didn't know if they were dispersed yesterday, or if there was something else.

"Jon, should I say you are brave or stupid?" Mance Rayder said as soon as they met, "Why are you still here at this time?"

"Mance, I think we should be able to reach a consensus at this time." Jon said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Our real enemies are those things chasing you. You, the free people and the Night's Watch, killing each other will only make us powerless when facing those things."

They walked into the tent.

Mance Rayder asked: "Do you think you have won?"

"Win? How unwise would one be to say that he has won in the face of those things that appeared last night?"

"You are very smart, Jon. But since the Night's Watch sent a disabled patient like you to negotiate, I am afraid the conditions offered are not ordinary harsh, right? They think that we have been overwhelmed by the wights and can rest easy, right?"

"Mance, you were also a Night's Watch, you should know that the Great Wall guarded by two thousand horses is an existence that you cannot cross."

"But what if I blow down the wall?"

Jon gasped and saw Mance reaching for a huge warhorn in the tent.

"See," Mance stroked the runes engraved in gold, "This is the Horn of Winter. Joman blew it, awakened the giants from the ground, and destroyed the Wall."

Jon held back his shock and asked, "If this is true, why didn't you use it last night? Going forward, why wasted time under the city?"

Mance asked in a bitter tone, "You know what we are facing. If I blow the Horn of Winter, the Wall will fall down, then where will we escape to?"

"Once the Wall falls down," said Mance's queen Dalla, "what can stop the White Walkers?"

Jon's face sank.

"No, Mance, the horn in your hand is fake." Jon said, "It can only be fake, and as long as you don't blow it, even if it is real, I will treat it as fake." Mance carefully observed Jon's face, and he sighed: "Do you really want to push me to that point? To tell you the truth, Jon, a long time ago, I sent Jarl to lead thousands of people and mammoths to dig up the abandoned fortress, and arranged for people to cut wood and build ships in the Bay of Seals. Ten thousand people may be crossing the Bay of Seals on rafts at this moment, and attacking Eastwatch from behind. You'd better Pray that their attack works, or I will blow the horn. "

"There is no point in bluffing me, Mance. Negotiation is just a nice way of saying it. In fact, many people think it is "notification". I will tell you the truth, Mance. Except for me, no brother is willing to take the risk to go outside the Wall to find wildlings. They would rather deal with tens of thousands of wights in the war with the White Walkers than come to the north to negotiate with the free people. Do you know why?"

Mance Rayder did not comment, but just touched the golden runes on the horn.

Jon replied: "There is a king, a real king, a Targaryen king with dragons, who has set his sights on the Wall, Mance. You don't know that now from Dragonstone, Braavos, the Stormlands, and major ports, there is a steady stream of supplies and troops coming to the Wall from the sea every day. Master Aemon, do you remember him? His Majesty sent 300 guards and more than 1,000 heavily armored mercenaries just to chat with him and protect his safety.

Not only that, he also sent Stannis Baratheon, a king who had been defeated by him, and his best soldiers to defend the Wall. I think if you had arranged for someone to pay attention to Castle Black yesterday, you would have seen them. They have magic. Your Majesty Mance, can you see the flaming swords they hold high in their hands?

Even if the horn in your hand is real, blowing down the Wall will only be the end of you, not the end of the Night's Watch or the Seven Kingdoms.

In fact, I'm not here to negotiate, Mance. I'm just a raven sent by Lord Stannis, the current commander of Castle Black, to take risks to provide you with a way out.

He asked me to tell you that he is willing to consider the future of mankind and reduce the unnecessary sacrifices you may cause after you become a ghoul in the future, so he can let you build an urn city under the black castle and lean on the city wall. When the cold wind blows, All people, whether freemen or people of the Seven Kingdoms, should live and die together and unite against the common enemy."

Jon didn't know where he got the confidence to say what Stannis said that morning. Yes, Jon knew that he was not honorable in selectively explaining some facts, but Jon knew that he had to make Mance Rayder and the free folk aware of the status quo.

He came here with the determination to die.

Before Mance could answer, Ha Ma started shouting outside the door: "Mance, let me kill him!"

Mance Rayder looked at Jon deeply and did not answer. He called to Tormund: "Tormund, you brought him here, take him down!"

Jon was taken out of the tent by Tormund.

In the dark, Jon suddenly realized that Mance Rayder might not be all bluffing, but actually had another plan, and his life was all tied to the success or failure of that plan.

Fortunately, Jon's fate seems to be just as Melisandre said, it does not end here.

Mance Rayder's team continued eastward after a short rest, and at about noon, Jon saw about a thousand people joining the team from the east. That was the Hardfooted Minjar that Mance mentioned earlier.

Only then did Jon realize that Mance had actually sent people to try to dig out the abandoned fortress of the Great Wall.

Now seeing Jarl coming back, Jon immediately felt relieved.

He knew that Mance Rayder and the wildlings might have other back-ups, but as time went by, they would eventually find that they had no choice.