Another captured wildling next to Mance Rayder made a mistake when answering a question.
This made the thoughtful Stannis keenly aware of the other party's true identity.
Only then did he confirm that the tribal leader who just seemed honest and honest, kowtowed and begged for mercy, and expressed his willingness to lead the regular army to destroy the savages, was the King Beyond the Wall, Mance Rayder.
Stannis then gave Mance Rayder no chance to continue his quibbles.
He led the remaining dozen soldiers to escort the King Beyond the Wall and rushed to Winterfell to join his eldest brother.
…
Stannis' return to Winterfell naturally caused a stir.
His eldest brother Robert personally went out of the city to greet him, and they hugged each other tightly with tears in their eyes.
Although the two brothers are not on good terms and often bicker and quarrel, they are still biological brothers born from the same parents.
And Stannis, who was as smelly and hard as the stones in the toilet, also had slightly red eyes.
Everyone in Winterfell thought Stannis was dead long ago.
And then.
Stannis then pulled out Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall, and told everyone his identity.
At first, Eddard Stark and his eldest brother Robert couldn't believe that the person in front of them was the King Beyond the Wall.
However, after repeated confirmations, the identity of the other party was finally determined.
Mance Rayder was once a wildling orphan raised by the Night's Watch. He grew up and served in the Night's Watch for many years.
Later, he defected from the Night's Watch and returned to the wildlings. He finally united all the wildlings, quelled their disputes, and was elected as the King Beyond the Wall.
Therefore, some veterans of the Night's Watch can still recognize him, such as Maester Aemon, the living fossil of the Night's Watch.
The old maester was not killed when the city wall collapsed. He had a high prestige among the Night's Watch, so he was protected by many soldiers to the death.
In the end, the escort escaped to Winterfell, as did Jeor Mormont, the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.
Robert finally confirmed that the other party was indeed the legendary Queen Beyond the Wall, and he was overjoyed.
You must know that the current corrupt chaos in the Northern Territory is all because of this man. If he hadn't blown the Horn of Winter, the Great Wall of Despair would not have collapsed, and the savages would not have poured into the Northern Territory.
However, at this time, including Robert, Eddard Stark, Stannis, Yohn Royce of the Vale, and other self-proclaimed righteous people, they selectively forgot that the wildlings had actively negotiated several times.
The wild people kept lowering their conditions and lowering their stature, begging the kings of the Seven Kingdoms to open the city gates and let the wild people come to the Great Wall to avoid the pursuit of the White Walkers.
However, they were all rejected arrogantly by Robert.
Robert didn't believe that the wildlings had weapons that could destroy the city wall, so he took the wildling messenger's words as fart.
This eventually led to the current situation.
The savages had no choice but to blow the Horn of Winter and collapse the Great Wall in order to survive.
Then they fled into the north and wreaked havoc everywhere. They believed that these were the results of the arrogance of the people behind the Great Wall, so they wanted to retaliate several times.
And now the real King Beyond the Wall has been kidnapped by Five Flowers and brought to Winterfell.
Robert was naturally overjoyed when he saw the captured King Beyond the Wall, and immediately asked Mance Rayder to order all the kneeling wildlings to surrender, otherwise he would be burned alive.
Robert was now angered by the wildlings. He had never been so wronged in all his years as king, and his character had completely changed from the black-haired young man he once was.
Eddard Stark wanted to dissuade Robert. He believed that the King Beyond the Wall was a decent person after all, and that no one should be punished with cruel punishments that mainly include torture.
The King Beyond the Wall can be sent to the gallows or beheaded if he commits a capital crime, and burning the opponent alive is undoubtedly a replica of the behavior of the tyrant Mad King Aerys II.
However, at this moment, Mance Rayder, who had been silent since his identity was revealed, suddenly opened his mouth to ridicule Robert.
He mocks that they will all die at the hands of the White Walkers, and that the Iron Throne will eventually be claimed by the Targaryen king across the Narrow Sea.
Although Mance Rayder has been living outside the Wall, he surprisingly knows the situation in the Seven Kingdoms very well.
And Mance Rayder also told Robert that he would not order the wildlings to surrender.
Because he had told all the savages a long time ago that he was not the 'King Beyond the Wall', nor did he want to be a king. He just brought everyone together to overcome difficulties.
"They are all free men!"
"No one can make them kneel down!"
Mance Rayder even spat into Robert's face, with a death-seeking expression written all over his face.
As expected, Robert was angered by Mance Rayder's attitude and even wanted to burn him alive.
Eddard Stark and Stannis both saw that Mance Rayder wanted to deliberately anger Robert and seek a quick death.
So they hurriedly tried to stop the king, but it was impossible to stop him.
The furious Robert immediately asked the soldiers to build a scaffold with dead grass piled under it, and then tied Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall, to the pillar.
Holding a blazing torch in his hand, he asked the other party one last time if he was willing to surrender.
However, he was still ridiculed by Mance Rayder.
Finally, in anger, Robert threw the torch into the withered grass, and a fire broke out in an instant.
Mance Rayder, on the other hand, remained calm in the flames, glaring at everyone around him with a pair of cannibalistic eyes. For the sake of his people, he was willing to die calmly.
Because Mance Rayder knew very well that he had fallen into the hands of the king of the Seven Kingdoms, and the other party would definitely use him to make a fuss about him, to trick other free people into laying down their weapons, or to surround him for reinforcements.
He didn't want more free people to die because of his own fault, so Mance Rayder deliberately wanted to anger Robert and seek a quick death.
His plan succeeded.
Robert Baratheon was indeed an angry man. He hated the King Beyond the Wall so much that it would be a great kindness to give him a chance to survive.
After being rudely rejected, he directly asked to be burned to death.
However, Mance Rayder underestimated the pain of being burned alive. Originally, this wild man remained calm and even glared angrily.
However, when the flames burned his skin, the water in his body quickly evaporated, and his skin slowly shrank and turned brown, revealing his flesh and blood.
His expression changed.
The expression on Mance Rayder's face gradually became distorted, and a painful groan came from the gap between his teeth.
In the end, the pain continued to amplify, and he couldn't bear it any longer, and he let out a shrill scream.
His whole body was wrapped in flames, his mouth was wide open, flames were constantly coming out of his eyes and mouth, and twisted and shrill screams continued to echo in the sky above Winterfell.
The three little ones of the Stark family stood in the corridor on the second floor of the castle, looking at the blazing fire below.
Robb Stark's face was serious and meticulous, while Jon Snow's face showed a look of unbearability.
The red-haired beauty Sansa was so frightened that she cried. She had never seen such a terrifying sight.
The father who was fair and just in the past just stood behind Uncle Robert, watching a man being burned alive without saying a word.