The half-bad news in the reply was that although Jeor Mormont agreed with his idea of recruiting temporary soldiers for The The Wall, he did not fully accept his plan, which contained several hidden calculations. This leader of the Night's Watch made some restrictive demands on Aegon's proposal: those temporary helpers he found, who would leave The The Wall and return to normal life after a few years, could not be called Night's Watch since they didn't take the oath. Not only that, they also couldn't receive centralized training at Castle Black like ordinary recruits—they had to arrive at The The Wall as mercenaries rather than members of the legion and start assisting in defense immediately.
To sum it up: The recruits Aegon enlisted were not allowed to integrate into the Night's Watch indiscriminately, and they had to be able to participate in various military tasks immediately upon arriving at The The Wall.
Under these two restrictions, Aegon either had to actually find mercenaries, or train them himself.
***
The former plan was good; in this era, mercenaries, as professional soldiers, clearly had guaranteed combat effectiveness... However, although this kind of thing was useful, it could only be made to work if one had sufficient funds like the Lannister, or if the benefits gained after defeating the enemy were enough to pay wages and pensions. Aegon was bringing people to The The Wall to deal with the Free Folk Beyond the Wall and the White Walkers, and these two types of guys were both troublesome enemies who "would die without a burial place if they lost, and wouldn't gain a single drop of profit if they won." Defeating the Wildlings could at least yield some broken spoils of war, but killing White Walkers wouldn't even yield a speck—since there was no way to sustain war with war, these mercenaries, who were all shrewd individuals, wouldn't be easy to fool; they would definitely demand high advance commissions.
Several thousand golden dragons was a more than ample sum for starting a business, but thrown into the pit of mercenaries, it probably wouldn't even cause a ripple.
Aegon couldn't afford this luxury for the time being, so he could only choose the latter plan: training them himself.
Tsk, how troublesome. Aegon frowned: Had Jeor Mormont seen through his plan to slowly change the nature of the Night's Watch and thus gain influence; or was he simply considering maintaining the "purity" of the Night's Watch's own ideology... or was it not that complicated, merely wanting to add another task to continue exploiting the subjective initiative of him, who was "enjoying blessings" in King's Landing?
The answer wasn't important; how to respond was the key. Aegon didn't panic; he had considered this situation before—if the Night's Watch treated "their own people" and "external aid" separately, his plan to gain overall influence and a voice would be difficult to advance. But conversely, training recruits in King's Landing would strengthen his direct control and the solidity of his relationship with the "external aid" he hired. Although the latter situation required more expenditure and effort, it was hard to say for a while which was better or worse.
***
A small note was attached to the back of the letter. He pulled it up, looked at it, and handed it to Arya—it was a greeting from Jon to her. The girl was so happy to see the words that she almost screamed, completely ignoring Aegon's expression of shaking his head and sighing: Staying in that cursed place, Castle Black, yet having to write a letter telling his dear little sister that he was "doing very well and fully occupied," just thinking about it was damn miserable.
Taking Nina into the inner room, Aegon, who was well-prepared, quickly signed the world's first "Night's Watch Asset Investment Voucher" with Tyrion's cooperation. After personally handing it to Nina, giving her some encouragement and praise, and telling her she could come directly to him here if she had trouble, the matter of papermaking was considered concluded.
According to the routine, now he should send Arya back to the Red Keep, Tyrion back to the inn, and then escort Nina home himself. With sending and returning, they would quickly become familiar with each other, and he could soon win the girl over. But after much thought, Aegon finally called someone else to do it: "Aqun, please take Miss Nina home. After you're done, go straight back to the inn to rest. I'll close up here!"
...
Now he had too many things to do. At this time, pursuing romance and women, especially a young girl who hadn't experienced much of the world, would be irresponsible to both himself and Nina.
Controlling oneself was particularly important in the world of A Song of Killing and Fucking.
Pulling his thoughts together and suppressing the stirring male hormones, Aegon had two more things to consider: one, training soldiers in King's Landing; two, thinking about how to find another way to increase his influence and voice within the Night's Watch as the "Chief Logistics Officer" who was often away, especially when his "external aid" was being ostracized and potentially deprived of voting and decision-making rights.
King's Landing was, after all, the Seven Kingdoms. Training soldiers here was as sensitive as wanting to open a "Blackwater" security company next door to Zhongnanhai before crossing over; there could be many troubles, and even with the Hand of the King Eddard's nod, it might not go smoothly. He needed a pretext.
...
Aegon quickly thought of a solution for the first matter: Since he was going to open a factory, he would inevitably need employees, and some of the employees would naturally be responsible for guarding and security. He would first recruit people under the guise that the factory needed security guards, train them uniformly, and when necessary, use double wages as bait to select courageous and hardworking people to go North to the The Wall.
The second problem... After pondering for a while, he suddenly realized he had fallen into the trap of inertial thinking: "Deception" and "scheming" were simply too useful; after getting a taste of success a few times, he now almost subconsciously thought in this direction. But in this matter, the situation was different:
He was a legitimate Black Brother who had taken the oath, and now he was officially recognized as the Chief Logistics Officer of the legion. Although for the time being he was almost a Commander without soldiers, and one of his only two subordinates was Jaqen, who had ulterior motives and he didn't know what he wanted to do, with the two identities of "Sworn Brother" and "Night's Watch Officer," he naturally possessed influence and a voice within his organization. This was real power, not an empty flourish at all!
Undoubtedly, his so-called voice and influence were currently almost non-existent, but as long as he played the role of Quartermaster well, ensured that all the Night's Watch were well-fed and clothed, and didn't have to constantly worry about insufficient military supplies when fighting, and then used a little thought to let the Black Brothers know that these were the results of his efforts, so that other Night's Watch high-ups wouldn't steal the credit...
Under tangible and real changes, his status in the hearts of the Night's Watch, as someone "faithfully" performing his duties, would naturally rise. Since things could be accomplished through open strategy, why resort to sneaky and underhanded ideas?
A problem that could be solved with money was not a problem.
Finally, he could let his mind rest. Aegon sighed with relief. The next thing was to select a site for the factory and begin preparations to establish the "Night's Watch Logistics Security Department."
——