Chapter 129

? Plus one thousand of the regicide, making a total of five thousand; according to this battle record, if I were in command, six thousand troops would be enough to sweep the North.

? Plus one thousand of the regicide, making a total of five thousand; according to this battle record, if I were in command, six thousand troops would be enough to sweep the North.

Interpretation: The speaker says: "? Plus one thousand of the regicide, total five thousand. According to this military record, if I were to command troops, six thousand troops would be enough to run rampant in the North."

But we need to translate exactly.

Let's break:

「？」 maybe a question mark? Actually the line starts with a question mark inside quotes? It's 「？」 maybe indicating a questioning tone. We'll keep as "?"? The Chinese line includes a question mark inside the quotes. We should translate the punctuation? Usually we keep punctuation as is. The line begins with a Chinese full-width question mark? Actually it's 「？」 which is a quoted question mark. We'll translate as "?"? Probably we should keep the question mark as part of the translation. The instruction: Render onomatopoeia / sound effects as English sound words, never delete them. For punctuation, we just keep as is? We'll just translate the Chinese characters, leaving punctuation as they appear? The Chinese line includes a question mark inside the quotes; we can keep it as "?" in English. We'll output: "? Plus one thousand of the regicide, total five thousand. According to this military record, if I were to command troops, six thousand troops would be enough to run rampant in the North."

? Plus one thousand of the regicide, totaling five thousand; according to this military record, if I were to command troops, six thousand soldiers would be enough to run rampant in the North.

We'll produce: "? Plus one thousand of the regicide, total five thousand. According to this military record, if I were to command troops, six thousand troops would be enough to run rampant in the North."

? In addition, one thousand of the regicide, making a total of five thousand; according to this battle record, if I were in command, six thousand troops would be enough to sweep the North.

Now line 2:

Your Highness, I'm glad you're confident, but if our intelligence is correct, Bolton himself will land with nearly ten thousand troops. Right now, Rick Bolton has already issued a conscription order, and even before that they already had at least fifteen hundred cavalry and twenty-five hundred infantry deployed in key areas. If conscription is enforced, they could perhaps raise another fifteen hundred cavalry and close to three thousand infantry, bringing the Bolton family's total forces to between twelve and thirteen thousand—still not their limit, after all Bolton is one of the two greatest nobles in the North, possessing not only the iron mine of Lonely Mountain—I actually suspect there are also copper and silver mines—but also vast wheat fields and pastures, and he has always been frugal; you must never underestimate him. Lord Rodrick shook his white beard, just as he did when he was younger training Sean, Robb, and Jon on the drill ground.

Let's break:

Your Highness, I'm glad you're confident, but if our intelligence is correct, Bolton himself will land with nearly ten thousand troops. Right now, Rick Bolton has already issued a conscription order, and even before that they already had at least fifteen hundred cavalry and twenty-five hundred infantry deployed in key areas. If conscription is enforced, they could perhaps raise another fifteen hundred cavalry and close to three thousand infantry, bringing the Bolton family's total forces to between twelve and thirteen thousand—still not their limit, after all Bolton is one of the two greatest nobles in the North, possessing not only the iron mine of Lonely Mountain—I actually suspect there are also copper and silver mines—but also vast wheat fields and pastures, and he has always been frugal; you must never underestimate him. Lord Rodrick shook his white beard, just as he did when he was younger training Sean, Robb, and Jon on the drill ground.

We'll translate:

"Your Highness, I'm very pleased that you have confidence, but if our intelligence is correct, Bolton himself will lead nearly ten thousand troops to land. At this very moment, Rick Bolton has already issued a conscription order, and before that, they already had at least fifteen hundred cavalry and two thousand five hundred infantry deployed in key areas. If conscription is enforced, perhaps they could still conscript another fifteen hundred cavalry and approaching three thousand infantry. The total strength of the Bolton family alone would reach twelve thousand to thirteen thousand, and this is not their limit, after all Bolton is one of the two greatest nobles in the North, not only possessing the iron mine of Lonely Mountain — actually I suspect there are also copper and silver mines — but also vast wheat fields and pastures, and he has always been frugal; you must never underestimate him." Lord Rodrick shook his white beard, just as he did when he was younger training Sean, Robb, and Jon on the drill ground.

We need to keep the quotes and punctuation. The Chinese line includes Chinese quotation marks 「」. We'll replace with English quotes? Usually we keep the content and drop the Chinese quotes, but we need to output English translation; we can use English quotation marks. The instruction didn't specify to keep Chinese quotes; we just translate the content. So we will output English sentences with appropriate punctuation.

We must ensure we include all information.

Let's produce a single line.

We'll need to be careful not to add extra words.

We'll produce:

"Your Highness, I'm very pleased that you have confidence, but if our intelligence is correct, Bolton himself will lead nearly ten thousand troops to land. At this very moment, Rick Bolton has already issued a conscription order, and before that, they already had at least fifteen hundred cavalry and two thousand five hundred infantry deployed in key areas. If conscription is enforced, perhaps they could still conscript another fifteen hundred cavalry and approaching three thousand infantry. The total strength of the Bolton family alone would reach twelve thousand to thirteen thousand, and this is not their limit, after all Bolton is one of the two greatest nobles in the North, not only possessing the iron mine of Lonely Mountain — actually I suspect there are also copper and silver mines — but also vast wheat fields and pastures, and he has always been frugal; you must never underestimate him." Lord Rodrick shook his white beard, just as he did when he was younger training Sean, Robb, and Jon on the drill ground.

iron mine of Lonely Mountain

actually I suspect there are also copper and silver mines

vast wheat fields and pastures

he has always been frugal

you must never underestimate him

Lord Rodrick shook his white beard, just as he did when he was younger training Sean, Robb, and Jon on the drill ground.

white beard

drill ground

Now line 3:

Mei Yi actually felt a bit nostalgic.

Mei Yi actually felt a bit nostalgic.

Line 4:

"Your Highness, while your past achievements are certainly commendable, commanding a thousand-strong cavalry unit is entirely different from leading a large army composed of mixed cavalry and infantry from multiple noble houses." Mason Sir spoke solemnly and earnestly, "Everyone hopes you will prevail, but in military matters, not the slightest detail can be overlooked."

Translation: "Your Highness, your past achievements are certainly commendable, but commanding a thousand-strong cavalry unit is completely different from commanding a large army composed of mixed cavalry and infantry from multiple noble houses." Mason Sir spoke solemnly and seriously, "Everyone hopes you will win, but in military matters, not the slightest detail can be overlooked."

We need to keep quotes.

Let's produce: "Your Highness, your past achievements are certainly commendable, but commanding a thousand-strong cavalry unit is completely different from commanding a large army composed of mixed cavalry and infantry from multiple noble houses." Mason Sir spoke solemnly and seriously, "Everyone hopes you will win, but in military matters, not the slightest detail can be overlooked."

Mason Sir spoke solemnly and seriously.

Line 5:

War is a matter of vital importance to the state; it is the arena of life and death, the path to survival or ruin, and must not be neglected.

Translation: "War is a major affair of the state, the place of life and death, the way of survival and extinction, and must not be neglected."

We'll output: "War is a major affair of the state, the place of life and death, the way of survival and extinction, and must not be neglected."

Line 6:

The sages' wisdom lies here; she cannot help but believe it.

Translation: "The ancients' supreme truth lies here; she cannot help but believe it."

We'll output: "The ancients' supreme truth lies here; she cannot help but believe it."

Line 7:

I understand this. Mei Yi nodded at Mason Sir, who dared to speak his concerns frankly; at least he regarded her as someone who could accept advice, which is a good thing.

Translation: "I understand this reasoning." Mei Yi nodded to Mason Sir; he dared to speak his concerns directly, at least considering her someone who could accept advice, which is good.

We'll output: "I understand this reasoning." Mei Yi nodded to Mason Sir; he dared to speak his concerns directly, at least considering her someone who could accept advice, which is good.

Line 8:

"Chai'er monk, regarding the enemy's troop strength, do you have anything else you can tell us?"

Everyone in the library turned their gaze to him; although he was a monk, after Scholar Luwen's death he in fact also served as Mei Yi's intelligence chief for Winter City.

"Your Highness, you must not regard Bolton as an ordinary lord. I have calculated Bolton's territory size; it may not match Graves' Tomb, but if we exclude the Stark family's holdings elsewhere, Bolton actually controls far more land than the Starks, so the three thousand cavalry and nine thousand infantry Sir Luodelike mentioned are merely the general outcome after mobilization. I believe that, if he has sufficient funds and grain, he could perhaps muster an equal number of additional soldiers."

"If conscription is forced, the Starks wouldn't be lacking either, but battle isn't about having more people being better; I believe Bolton understands this as well." Mei Yi pursed her lips, "If he conscripts like that, I'll have to laugh."

Mei Yi poured herself a cup of hot wine, gulped it down, and the sour, astringent taste almost made her spit it out.

"Your Highness, you cannot look at it that way." Sir Meisen Saiwen, seeing her distressed expression, tried not to laugh and said, "In battle, different soldiers bear different responsibilities; if it's garrisoning a fortress or transporting supplies, ordinary soldiers can handle it, no need for training or for veterans who have fought on the battlefield to participate. Therefore, as long as food, weapons, and gold are sufficient, we need not insist on whether the soldiers are elite or even whether they volunteer to fight; thus, whatever orders you issue depend solely on your war strategy—if needed, you can simply abandon the recruitment order and directly issue a compulsory conscription edict to the lands and vassals."

Mei Yi laughed; it turned out Sir Meisen had been waiting for her here.

What she had sent out to the lands was merely a recruitment order, and Sir Meisen worried about how many soldiers this method could conscript.

"Your Highness, during your time in the south we have already built defensive fortifications in the key areas, and the most crucial is the route from Winter City to White Harbor; if we wish to remain undefeated under Bolton's offensive, the connection between Winter City and White Harbor must absolutely not be broken."

Sir Luodelike gestured for Luoe Jie to take the North Realm map from the bookshelf where books were placed. The others jointly moved the still-burning brazier and the wine pot on it to one side.

Luo e Jie laboriously placed the heavy map on the table, then slowly unfurled the rolled hide, revealing the Great Wall, Hearthfire City, Winter City all the way to White Harbor and Kalin Bay in turn; the major cities were each marked with a box containing the emblem of the principal family, some emblems looked aged but their outlines remained cute and playful.

For example, the giant of Amber was like a stout little dwarf, his thick hands holding chains, but with his mouth wide open and tongue sticking out, as if making a grimace; the Karstark's Winter Sun was painted with a cute smile.

Before the map was fully unfurled, Mei Yi couldn't help but laugh.

She looked to the west of the map, where the highland clans' territories lay; most of the emblems there she did not recognize, but clearly the symbols shown were not their true appearance. Further west, across the sea on Bear Island, a cute little black bear was depicted, sitting on a tree stump licking its paws, looking quite happy as it ate.

Setting aside the emblems representing the various great houses, the other elements on the map look extremely refined and vivid; the river bends, forests, marshes, and hills are all clearly delineated, and even each viscount's domain is marked in thorough detail.

It is worth noting that this map drawn on hide has a flowing, primitive composition, but fortunately the threshold is low enough, making it very suitable for a beginner like Mei Yi to learn and comprehend. At least, on this map the relative positions of the families' territories and the geography of the main regions are shown quite intuitively.

Had she discovered this map earlier, perhaps her understanding of the North Realm would have been deeper.

Such a map should certainly attract those interested in geography. She admitted she could not offer better advice for the map.

"This is the map used by scholars to educate the children of Winter City," said Chai'er monk with a smile.

She felt a strange suspicion; perhaps the ministers weren't bringing out this map to educate her?

"The emblems are drawn very cutely," Mei Yi found it novel, the boundary lines of each house happening to lie exactly at the seams where the hide pieces were joined; "This map must be quite old!" Don't we have any other maps?

"That's right, a map drawn on hide cannot be long preserved even after various chemical treatments; no matter what, their fate is ultimately to rot. Therefore, they need to be constantly recopied to renew them."

If recopied too many times, would the geography not become distorted?

While Chai'er monk admired the contents and laughed while introducing the map's history, Mei Yi sensed that what he wanted to say wasn't the literal meaning of his words; when she looked at him doubtfully, his expression made it seem he was just speaking casually.

"So these emblems were just drawn by some mischievous scholar, right?"

"The scholars of Winter City are never mischievous." He stroked the smooth leather back and forth, "Although the map looks worn, its history is only twenty-odd years."

The scholars are indeed not mischievous, but the monks are not so proper.

"So, which mischievous devil drew it?"

"Such an important map is not something just anyone can participate in drawing. Why don't you take a guess?" he said, smiling as he looked at everyone.

"It definitely isn't Lord Edd. When my father gets serious, his wrinkles could pinch a direwolf to death; if he had drawn it, it would look more normal."

"Heh, why go to such lengths?" the monk chuckled.

Originally, Chai'er monk was a knight serving Winter City; later, for unknown reasons, he chose to become a monk serving the Seven Gods in the North Realm, and was retained by Duke Ruikade. He initially served under the scholars, until Lord Edd built a small Seven Gods shrine for Lady Kaiselin, after which he obtained an official post.

"Lord Edd was sent to Eagle Nest City when he was very young; upon returning to Winter City he began rallying the vassals for war, so he had no time to draw on the map," Sir Luodelike added.

"Monk, you might as well just tell His Highness. The map is already unfolded, the campaign is about to start; whoever drew the emblems surely won't affect our military plan!" Lord Luobuge Luofu hammered the spot where Deep Forest Fort is located. "I also want to know who it is."

The crest of Deep Forest Fort is a red-backed silver steel gauntlet, but the emblem drawn on the map looks like a lady's clenched white tender fist, with randomly added cracks standing in for the steel plating—crude and haphazard.

Mei Yi felt she could already guess who had drawn it.