Chapter 141 Shadow in the Flames
Those who charged into the savage army were clearly seasoned warriors. Caught completely off guard, the savages had little chance of resistance when the cavalry charged in.
The siege didn't last long before both armies stopped fighting. Just as Jon was wondering why the battle had ended so quickly, he saw several horses slowly emerge from the ranks, one of which had a person tied to its back.
Several horses came to a stop at the foot of the Wall, and one of the knights, whose hair was somewhat gray, shouted loudly towards the Wall: "Listen, you who stand before you is Stannis Baratheon, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm."
"We have captured the Savage King Mans. Now open the city gates and let us in!"
Upon hearing that the other party was Stannis of House Baratheon, Jon took a closer look at their banner and vaguely saw the shadow of a stag within the red heart.
He hadn't expected that Stannis wouldn't use the clan flag, but instead placed the stag in the fiery red heart, creating a new flag.
After Stannis embraced R'hllor, the Lord of Light, he adopted the banner of the red heart to express his devotion to the Lord of Light, which explains why Jon didn't recognize him at first.
Having confirmed their identities, Jon had no reason to keep them outside the Wall, especially since his original plan was to let the Wildlings into the Wall; now it was just Stannis's army.
The Night's Watch's duty is to guard the Wall and prevent wildlings and White Walkers from entering south of it.
Whether Stannis is the true ruler of the Seven Kingdoms or not makes no difference to the almost entirely neutral Night's Watch.
Stannis's army slowly made its way through the tunnels of the Wall, accompanied by wildling leaders such as Mance, while the other wildlings were left outside the Wall for the time being.
After Stannis entered the Wall, he ordered his men to guard key parts of Castle Black and took over the defense of the Wall in the Castle Black area.
Seated in the main chair in the hall, Stannis ordered his men to bring in Mance, the leader of the wildlings.
Nearly sixty years old, Mans was tall and imposing. Even with his hands tied by soldiers, he showed no sign of yielding.
"Kneel down and acknowledge me as the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, and let all the wildlings who can fight join my army, and I will spare your life," Stannis said expressionlessly, looking at Mance.
"Free men will not kneel before anyone!" Mans declared loudly, puffing out his chest.
"I'll ask you one more time, will you kneel or not?" Stannis repeated.
"Impossible!" Mans said firmly.
"Take him out and tie him to a cross. I want to burn him alive with my own hands!"
Stannis finally felt a surge of anger at Mance's stubbornness and said to the soldier.
Jon Snow, who was standing not far from Stannis, saw Mance being dragged away. He opened his mouth but said nothing.
He learned that Stannis had painstakingly led his fleet on a long voyage to Eastwatch, and his purpose in circling behind the Wildlings was likely to recruit them. If Mance, their leader, was unwilling to submit to him, he would have no chance of survival, and no amount of pleading would be of any use.
His position as Commander of the Night's Watch carried little weight in the face of Stannis's massive army.
Inside Castle Black, Melisandre, the Red Woman, stood before Mance, intending to use him, the wildling leader, to gain enlightenment from the flames.
Looking at Mans, Stannis, holding a torch, said coldly to the other wildling leaders, "Mans refused to submit to me, and this is his fate!"
"Every day I will pick a wildling leader, and if he does not submit, he will suffer the same fate as Mans. If you do not submit, the wildlings will stay outside the Wall for one more day."
After speaking to Tormund and the other wildling leaders, Stannis approached Mance and lit the pyre.
The fire quickly spread to Mans' feet, and he could only grit his teeth and endure the burning pain. But the feeling of being burned by the fire was not so easy to bear. When the flames reached his chest, he could no longer bear the pain of his skin tearing open and screamed loudly.
The surrounding savage leaders all showed expressions of pity, but Stannis remained unmoved, watching as Mance was slowly burned.
The woman in the red robe stared intently at Mans in the flames, muttering incantations. A shadow slowly emerged from the fire, gradually becoming clearer.
puff!
Mans's screams abruptly ceased. He struggled to lift his head, which was burned beyond recognition, and looked at the two-story wooden house. Jon was standing there, putting away his longbow.
A look of relief crossed Mans' face. His head lolled to the side, and he breathed his last.
Stannis glanced up at Jon Snow and frowned slightly, while Tormund, the wildling leader, looked at Jon Snow with gratitude.
Melisandre felt somewhat resentful that the sacrifice had been interrupted, but she was helpless. When she saw Jon Snow, the two figures in her eyes slowly merged together.
Having witnessed their former leader being burned to death, Tormund and the others also saw Stannis's cold-blooded ruthlessness and Melisandre's disregard for life.
The next day, Tormund, on behalf of the wildling chieftain, submitted to Stannis and begged him to let the wildlings into the Wall.
Although the savages were not as strong as Stannis's soldiers, they were all in excellent physical condition, and Stannis was confident that he could train them into regular soldiers.
When the White Walkers are defeated, they should be no less powerful than his own troops. That will be the time for him to march south and seize the Iron Throne.
Watching the wildlings, who had fought the Night's Watch for thousands of years, intermittently enter the Wall.
Allisa and the other Night's Watch members were filled with resentment after losing the competition for Commander of the Night's Watch, and some even began to resent Jon Snow, the Night's Watch commander who had let Stannis into the Wall.
Moreover, they heard about Jon Snow's arrangements for the wildlings' elderly, weak, women, and children before the wildlings entered the Wall.
He may have already planned to let the wildlings into the Wall, which made them even more resentful of Jon Snow, the newly appointed Commander of the Night's Watch.
All the able-bodied Wildlings were left at the Wall, scattered and incorporated into Stannis's army as guards.
The elderly, women, and children were placed around the last hearth city to cultivate the land there.
The North is sparsely populated; it could easily accommodate not just 100,000 savages, but even 200,000.
Although the sacrifice was interrupted, Melisandre did not gain nothing; she saw Jon's shadow in the flames.
But she couldn't understand the meaning behind the shadow alone. She thought it was nothing more than Jon's extraordinary physique, and that she could borrow even greater power from him.
She never imagined that the Lord of Light would ask her to change her chosen one, and she had no doubt about Stannis's identity as the chosen one.
When Melisandre tells Stannis about the shadow she saw in the flames, Stannis is very uncomfortable knowing that she is about to do what she did when she borrowed the power of her brother King Robert's bastard son Gendry.
But for the sake of the Iron Throne, he could only pretend not to see it and let Melisandre go to Jon Snow.