The "Night's Watch Defense Plan" is divided into three parts: the Great Gorge, the Wall, and the Gift. While not all-encompassing, it covers nearly all possible military scenarios within the Night's Watch's territory, such as external enemy attacks and internal unrest, and offers clear, specific response strategies.
The Great Gorge stretches over fifty miles. Even if the Night's Watch Command mobilized every available man, they could only manage to place a few dozen defenders per mile on average. That density is more than enough for surveillance, but far from sufficient for defense.
Most of the Great Gorge Defense Plan focuses on addressing this issue.
After establishing the defensive sections and surveillance arrangements, the plan centered on how best to deploy personnel and supplies in ideal circumstances—that is, when "the enemy attacks from one or several points"—to maximize the effectiveness of limited manpower, while ensuring the rest of the line did not become vulnerable to exploitation.
Half of the wildfire and dragonglass weapons were distributed to the frontline section teams, to prevent the White Walkers from launching a sudden strike in remote areas far from the fortresses, breaking through the line before reinforcements could react. The other half of the war supplies, stored in the three fortresses along the Gorge, were meant to be delivered by the reserve teams to the appropriate locations, providing powerful support at the point of attack.
Though the defenders were outnumbered twenty to one, if the battle occurred at only one or a few narrow fronts, humanity could completely wear down the wights' numerical advantage through precise coordination, proper use of terrain, and targeted weaponry. First build a road, then fight a war. The defensive mountain road, now wider and smoother after multiple improvements, offered a transport network as effective as the top of the Wall, allowing the defenders across the entire Gorge to function as one cohesive force, regardless of where the enemy struck.
...
The plan was well-conceived. Unfortunately, the enemy Commander is an intelligent magical being. The newly born Night King may not have much experience commanding large-scale warfare, but that did not stop him from making a sound judgment: launching a full-scale assault across the entire line would maximize his overwhelming numerical advantage and exploit the Night's Watch's greatest weakness—lack of manpower. This avoided the risk of protracted battles and fruitless losses.
Using strength to attack weakness is the best strategy.
In human warfare during the age of swords and shields, due to differences in individual commanders' capabilities, communication limitations, and battlefield chaos, a "true full-scale assault" across a long, over-the-horizon front was extremely rare. Even if the high command issued such an order, the troops would rarely be able to execute it properly.
But the army of the dead had no such problem. All wights were directly controlled by the White Walkers who raised them, and all White Walkers were connected to their leader—the Night King—through their minds. The entire army functioned less like a military force and more like a single organism of a hundred thousand cells. Any wight could coordinate tactically with another wight hundreds or thousands of yards away, even without line of sight. This was a perfect army with nearly flawless execution, capable of carrying out any tactical plan devised by its supreme Commander.
Did the Great Gorge Defense Plan account for this situation? Yes. But it occupied only a single page, and the contents could be summarized in two points: 1) Each defense section must hold the line, kill as many enemies as possible, and after using up its wildfire and dragonglass reserves, retreat to the nearest fortress. 2) The three fortresses along the Gorge would offer systematic support, aiming to ensure that the order of collapse followed a "from far to near" pattern, allowing as many defenders as possible to retreat into the strongholds and preserve their fighting strength.
This was the best overall solution Aegor could devise in the face of such overwhelming disparity.
But now, even the second of those two directives could no longer be implemented. Because something had gone wrong at Ice Canyon Port, the westernmost of the three fortresses along the Gorge.
According to the plan, once the entire line of the Gorge came under attack, Ice Canyon Port was to dispatch its reserve teams to reinforce the western quarter, stabilize the frontline, and once war supplies were exhausted, retreat east to west in good order. In the end, they would fall back within the walls of the port fortress, where the remaining forces could either hold or make a final stand. But now, the soldiers meant to carry out that task were instead busy dealing with attacks from within their own ranks.
---
The defense plan had accounted for the possibility of "Ice Canyon Port being attacked by Ironborn." However, the newly appointed commander of the harbor fortress was neither as experienced nor as shrewd as Cotter Pyke or Denys Mallister, and he had not yet fully integrated with his men. The troops panicked under pressure and forgot the directives laid out in the plan. Jaime Lannister was not adept at defending fortresses, and there were Northmen stationed within the port who did not fall under the command of the Night's Watch. All of this led to disorganized leadership. None of these issues were severe on their own, but when combined and exploited by a cunning and ruthless opponent like Euron Greyjoy, they became a major problem.
Ice Canyon Port differed from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea in one critical aspect: its seaward side had no walls. The Ironborn elites who slipped into the harbor were already within the fortress as soon as they landed. They immediately split into three groups, storming the fortress center, the coastal watchtower, and the three ships anchored there, unleashing chaos.
The Ironborn were pirates, not soldiers, and had never been good at prolonged land battles against organized forces. To infiltrate undetected, they had brought only a small force. Their goal was not to capture Ice Canyon Port, but to destroy it—specifically the shipyard—to crush the North's attempt at establishing a navy before it could pose a threat to the Iron Islands.
Seeing the danger, the Northmen sailors aboard the ships, who had prepared for such sabotage, quickly removed the gangplanks, turning the only three Northern warships into floating fortresses just offshore. The defenders in the watchtower abandoned their long-range crossbows aimed at the Ironborn fleet and armed themselves to defend the stairs. A small group of North soldiers, seeing the enemy's fierce advance, retreated toward the shipyard, prioritizing the protection of their craftsmen and technical personnel.
The port was filled with shouting and chaos. Though the Ironborn had managed to deceive the defenders and rush ashore, they quickly discovered that their enemies were not panicked or surrendering. There were no unarmed civilians in Ice Canyon Port. The settlers from the New Gift were originally from Beyond the Wall, and after being trained into a militia, they had grown even tougher. Even the women were picking up weapons to fight. Soldiers atop the watchtower hurled wildfire down the stairwell to hold their ground, while sailors worked in the darkness to push the ships away from the dock to avoid capture. As the scuffle turned into aimless chaos, the Ironborn, frustrated, began setting buildings ablaze throughout the fortress, attempting to burn Ice Canyon Port to the ground.
...
"I'll take men to help at the port!" Jaime grabbed the commander, who was once again leading men toward the dock, and said coldly, "You shouldn't have taken all the reserve teams to the wall earlier without leaving anyone behind. Are you going to make the same mistake twice? Driving out the enemy already inside is important, yes, but if we all go and the enemy outside takes the opportunity to breach the gate, Ice Canyon Port is lost!"
"No, you stay and hold the wall. I'll take the main force..."
"What good is your pathetic skill going to do down there?" Jaime interrupted harshly, ignoring that the other man technically outranked him. "I said I'm going, so I'm going."
Without waiting for a reply, he loudly gathered the Westermen and scattered soldiers he had rallied. More than a hundred men followed him as he strode down the stairs from the wall. When he passed a crate, he stopped. "This... isn't this the Dragonglass Bomb from Crowntown? This isn't for fighting the living. Which idiot brought it up here and opened the lid?"
"It was me... the bomb can explode. I thought if we couldn't hold the gate, lighting a few might scare them off," the soldier nearby said nervously.
"Forget it. Take a few, and bring torches." The soldier's comment reminded Jaime of something—the signal fires across the Great Gorge to the east were already burning, like a red ribbon of flame. At this point, those Dragonglass Bombs couldn't be sent to the frontline. They might as well be used here.
Leading more than a hundred men, the Kingslayer charged toward the chaotic harbor, torches in hand. The sight of their approaching column, glowing like a fiery serpent in the night, quickly drew the attention of the invaders. Under the orders of two captains, the Ironborn gathered nearly two hundred fighters and formed a crude line to intercept them.
...
Jaime didn't fear the enemy. After comparing the equipment and morale of both sides, he concluded that under his command, even though they were outnumbered nearly two to one, they could still break the Ironborn's formation and secure victory with minimal losses.
But the port was in disarray. Over a thousand defenders were scattered throughout the fortress, their command disrupted by the surprise assault. For the moment, the enemy had the advantage in numbers on the main battlefield. Worse still, reinforcements could arrive at any moment. Jaime had to end this fight swiftly and decisively.
"With me. Throw them together!" Facing over two hundred enemies closing in, Jaime grabbed a bomb from a trusted soldier with his right hand, took a torch in his left, lit the fuse as the enemy approached within thirty yards, and hurled it with all his strength.
"Despicable!"
"Coward!"
"Have the guts to fight us without tricks!"
The Ironborn had long heard of the destructive power of wildfire bombs. Seeing several round objects, each about the size of a man's head, flying from the enemy ranks, they were shocked that the defenders would dare use such weapons in tight quarters with buildings on all sides, risking setting the port ablaze. Yet despite their curses and jeers, they all scrambled to dodge. Four or five bombs hit the ground with loud thuds and rolled. Just as they began to wonder why no green fire had ignited, the fuses burned down and triggered the explosion.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)