When Dany arrived, she found that Winterfell had become a massive construction site. From the city walls outward for half a kilometer, the accumulated snow had all been cleared away, exposing black earth that had not seen daylight for years.
Tens of thousands of soldiers surrounded the castle, digging a moat four meters wide and three meters deep in the black soil beneath the walls.
However, the moat was not being filled with water diverted from the White Knife River.
Outside Winterfell was a market town called "Winter Town." At this moment, all the buildings in the market had been dismantled. Wooden walls, wooden furniture, wooden roofs, everything that could burn was carried into the newly dug moat.
The moat would become a river of fire to block the wights.
"Screech—"
"Ah, dragons! Dragons are here! The Dragon Queen is here!"
"Wow, three dragons, they're huge!"
"Long live the dragons! Long live the Dragon Queen!"
"With the Dragon Queen's help, we can definitely hold Winterfell!"
Dany rode her dragon in a low circle around the vast construction site of Winterfell, igniting an unimaginable frenzy of cheers.
Although she had never truly been to Winterfell before, passing by did not count, many of the people inside the castle had come from the Wall or the Wolfswood. They had seen the Dragon Queen and her dragons before, but they had never been this excited.
Well, the first time they saw dragons, they were excited too, but that excitement was merely curiosity at something rare, not the fervent anticipation they now felt toward the Dragon Queen and her dragons.
"Screech—"
Only after a small squad of Unsullied in silver armor jogged out from the keep and formed a semicircle in the courtyard did Dany allow Drogon to land.
Yes, when the Dragon Queen's winged dragon rider corps came from Dragonstone, they also brought with them a forty-man squad equipped with Valyrian steel.
They were not here to protect Winterfell. Their main purpose was to ensure the Dragon Queen's personal safety while she was in Winterfell.
To put it plainly, in Winterfell, Dany had to have guards who were absolutely loyal to her.
And not only in Winterfell. From now on, whenever she visited any major lord of the Seven Kingdoms, she would bring a team of bodyguards with her.
Jon led Manderly, Mormont, Cerwyn, Glover, and other northern nobles out of the keep and into the courtyard to welcome the Dragon Queen.
After exchanging greetings, they entered the keep, where the hearths burned fiercely.
The Dragon Queen and Jon sat side by side. The Dragon Queen sat in the center, the King in the North slightly to her left, with dozens of northern nobles seated below.
Not only the great lords were present, but even landed knights and minor lords had come.
"Have you decided to hold Winterfell?" Dany asked with a frown.
"The North is our home. Defending our home is our unshirkable duty," Jon said in a deep voice.
"To defend the North, we will die a thousand deaths without regret!"
"That's right. We are Northerners. Are we supposed to flee without even fighting a single battle?"
Jon's words were cleverly phrased. He did not say Winterfell is my home. Though he spoke of defending Winterfell, he defined it as a vow to defend the North to the death.
The Northerners below were stirred into a frenzy, shouting one after another.
"Last Hearth has fallen. Do you know that?" Dany asked.
"So fast? We just received a plea for help from Last Hearth," Jon exclaimed.
Dany sighed. "It actually fell yesterday. Less than half an hour after the raven left, House Umber's ancestral castle was breached.
The entire castle, along with the town outside, more than fifteen thousand people, was reduced within an hour to just over fifty guards and four hundred elderly, women, and children."
Jon sucked in a sharp breath. The face beneath his thick beard turned deathly pale in an instant.
The northern nobles who had been fired up moments ago felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over their heads. One by one, they fell silent, staring at each other in shock and confusion.
"House Umber was wiped out?" Jon's voice was as light as a feather.
Greatjon Umber was not here. He was one of the commanders of the southern campaign and had led two thousand northern cavalry to the Vale with the Stag King months ago.
"If I had not crossed their path. Unfortunately, I still could not save everyone," Dany said with a heavy expression.
"Alas, Last Hearth fell too quickly. For Your Grace to happen upon the scene and save the survivors is already a blessing from the gods."
Jon ultimately failed to grasp the regret in Dany's words.
After a long pause, he said solemnly, "Your Grace, we hope you can provide us with a batch of dragonglass weapons."
"You reacted quickly. You understand that a large part of why Last Hearth fell so fast was because of weapons."
Dany cast a strange glance at Jon. After more than half a year as King in the North, he really had begun to acquire the steady bearing of a ruler.
"Do you know how many wights attacked Last Hearth? And how many White Walkers led them?
About two White Walkers led forty thousand wights. On the same day, the Night's Watch at Eastwatch saw several hundred White Walkers. Think about it yourself. How many wights is that in total?"
"What? That's more than a million wights, a wight army of several million?" Lord Manderly stared in horror, unable to believe it.
"Gods, how is that possible? How could we ever fight that?"
"That's not right. Do the lands beyond the Wall and the North even add up to a million people?"
Among the northern nobles, there was terror as well as doubt.
Jon said gravely, "It should be no fewer than a million. The White Walkers do not only reanimate recently dead humans. The corpses of beasts and the remains in graves are also sources of wights."
Here is the English translation, faithful to the original meaning, flow, and intent, with proper grammar and no em dashes:
However, no one needs to be afraid. As long as we are equipped with the right weapons, wights are easier to deal with than farmers.
At least a farmer has a sickle or a hoe in hand, or at the very least a wooden club.
But ninety-nine percent of wights are empty-handed and unarmored.
Some of the dead that crawl out of their graves do not even have fingernails or teeth. Even if an armored knight stood still and let them attack, they still could not do much.
At this point, Jon burst into laughter. "Maybe they would all rush forward at once and pile on our knight until they crush or suffocate him."
"Hahaha." A knight patted his ancestral steel armor and laughed heartily.
The atmosphere in the hall relaxed considerably.
"How many soldiers capable of fighting does Winterfell have now?" Dany asked.
"After receiving news that the Wall had fallen, I immediately issued a call to the lords of the North. Soldiers have been arriving steadily over the past few days. Right now we have about thirteen thousand men. In a week, we may approach twenty thousand."
"I doubt you have even a week left," Dany sighed, agreeing to provide dragonglass weapons.
The queen's army stationed on Dragonstone had already been equipped with dragonglass weapons at the first opportunity, even with matching spare weapons. As a result, all current reserves could be given away.
In any case, she was not short on money. If she did not trade dragonglass weapons for gold, she could only give them away, and it made little difference who received them. At least Jon was genuinely fighting the Others, so giving the weapons to him counted as putting them to good use.
"I hope you manage to kill at least twenty thousand wights. Otherwise, it would be a huge loss."
"What do you mean?" Lord Flint asked, puzzled.
The Dragon Queen stared at him steadily. "If Winterfell cannot be held, all of you will join the army of the Others."
"I won't," the short, stocky, bearded lord flushed red. "Even if I die, I'll never surrender to those monsters."
"Then your manner of death will have to be quite special," Dany said, the corner of her mouth twitching.
"If we die, we will turn into wights, be controlled by the Others, and become part of their army," Jon said gravely.
"What? It works like that? Then won't the wights just keep increasing the more we fight?"
"If we kill enough of them, we should be able to break even," muttered Alysanne, known as "Mother Bear."
Jon turned to Dany, worry written all over his face. "In a short time, can you transport twenty thousand dragonglass weapons here?"
"Yes," Dany nodded. "You were once Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Have you forgotten the specifications of the weapons on Dragonstone?"
Jon looked as if he had just awakened from a dream and said joyfully, "I almost forgot. We can airlift a batch of dragonglass teeth first and forge them into spears. At the very least, everyone can be issued a spear. After that, we can assemble dragonglass knives from the surplus teeth."
The dragonglass knife, known as a "Maquahuitl," was a black obsidian serrated sword with sharp dragonglass "teeth" embedded along both sides of a wooden paddle, resembling a saw.
The dragonglass teeth embedded in the paddles could also be removed and used separately as spearheads or daggers.
At present, Dragonstone only forged sharp dragonglass teeth. The Night's Watch cut the wood themselves and crafted the wooden paddles and spear shafts used to mount the teeth.
In this way, the cost of forging dragonglass weapons on Dragonstone was reduced by several times, while efficiency increased by dozens of times.
Even a newly trained apprentice blacksmith could forge hundreds of dragonglass teeth in a single day.
Each tooth weighed only about two taels, roughly fifty grams. Even ten thousand of them amounted to just half a ton. A single wyvern could transport thirty to forty thousand dragonglass teeth.
Of course, dragonglass teeth were consumables, much like ammunition.
Dragonglass was hard but brittle and easily shattered during chopping or thrusting.
For example, if a spear thrust too forcefully and happened to strike a wight's spine, the wight would indeed die, but the dragonglass spearhead would likely be ruined as well.
At that point, the spear would have to be replaced.
After the battle ended, broken spearheads could then be replaced.
Compared to spears, dragonglass knives were not only more powerful but also far more durable, since each one had at least twenty dragonglass teeth embedded.
However, despite their power, dragonglass knives placed high demands on their users. Only strong, brawny men could wield them effectively.
They were simply too large and heavy, weighing no less than eight or nine pounds. How many swings could an ordinary person manage?
Only young knights who trained regularly and possessed strong physiques were ideal candidates to use dragonglass knives. Everyone else was better off using dragonglass spears.
After receiving the Dragon Queen's promise, the King in the North immediately issued an order: suspend construction of the moat outside the city, and have all soldiers focus entirely on crafting spear shafts and "paddles."
Jon had seen countless dragonglass daggers, spears, and blades while at the Wall and had personally guided the Night's Watch in producing hundreds of thousands of spears and tens of thousands of paddles.
He was so familiar with the work, so adept at it, that in just one afternoon, Winterfell produced another one hundred thousand spears without heads and five thousand paddles.
Though somewhat crudely made, the wood itself was of excellent quality and unquestionably durable.
That evening, before attending the banquet, Dany went to the warehouse to inspect the spears and paddles. After a moment of thought, she said, "This still isn't enough."
"I only have twenty thousand men," Jon frowned.
"When real fighting begins, you'll realize how fast weapons are consumed. Each soldier needs at least twenty spears and three dragonglass knives. For knights, triple that amount."
"Isn't that an exaggeration?"
"Wights aren't human. They don't feel fatigue, and their attacks never let up. Fighting continuously for ten days and ten nights is not impossible. Even twenty spears might not be enough. You'll need rotating shifts, taking turns on the battlefield," Dany said with a solemn expression.
"Does Dragonstone really have that much dragonglass?"
"I will recruit another batch of blacksmiths and miners and have them work day and night, ensuring at least two tons of dragonglass are mined per day."
"Two tons means forty thousand dragonglass teeth." Gratitude appeared on Jon's face as he said sincerely, "Thank you, Your Grace, Daenerys."
"No need to thank me. The more dragonglass weapons I provide, the longer you can resist, and the more wights you can kill.
To be honest, I would love nothing more than to keep transporting weapons to Winterfell.
You'd best hold out for a week, a month, or if you can last a year, that would truly be the blessing of the gods."
Dany's expression and tone were equally sincere.
Yet as he looked at the Dragon Queen's earnest face, Jon's expression twisted.
(End of Chapter)
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