Since Ate brought back a large amount of food, the people in the wooden castle in the valley have become much more at ease.
The half-completed task of reclaiming the valley land came to a halt when the land was completely frozen into an iron plate and could not be hoeed. According to Art's previous plan, Cooper began to open the carriage path between the wooden castle and the northern edge of the dense forest. In order to shorten the construction period and reduce the workload, Cooper and Bud set out from the wooden castle to draw the shortest and smoothest route to the northern edge of the dense forest.
So on the seventh day after the Ates people returned to the wooden castle with food, the massive road construction project officially started. Most of the farmers and women in the wooden castle who had been idle due to the frozen land devoted themselves to the work of opening the carriageway. They were divided into three groups. In each batch, one group of people followed the route marked by Cooper and cut down the trees and weeds along the way. The second group of people was responsible for cleaning the roots of the trees and weeds and digging out the ridges on the ground to fill the depressions. Finally, the third group of people beat the ground with heavy wooden piles to compact the ground tightly. According to Cooper, this method of road construction is the fastest and easiest way. If you are a little more particular, the carriageway must be laid with rough stones, the gravel must be leveled, and drainage ditches must be dug on both sides of the road. However, considering the lack of manpower, the difficulty of removing stones, and the high cost, Art adopted the simplest and most direct method of road construction. Even with this simplest method, progress was very slow.
While the carriage path was being opened, the construction of the wooden castle continued. In order to shell the wheat, the farmers worked together to make a simple stone mill, and built a small mill and bread oven next to the kitchen; in Ater's private courtyard, they built a strong log barn with a thatched roof using wood cut for road construction. Bud, the old carpenter who helped Cooper direct the construction of the carriage road, was called back to the wooden castle by Art. He was responsible for making several simple and thick wooden bucklers and ten iron-headed short spears using the oak, ash and other high-quality wood cut down for road construction. The peasant women in the castle who knew simple sewing also rushed to make a batch of black robes and cloaks under the leadership of Emma.
Almost everyone in the wooden castle has participated in the construction work in full swing, with the exception of the four Odoron people.
In order to improve the actual combat capabilities of the four of them, Art took the four of them every day to practice basic riding skills, battle fighting, and shield and spear formations in front of the wooden castle open space. In addition, Art fully absorbed the formations of Odo and Baskarzak during the artificial group fights, and improved them as one of the daily training items for several people.
This improved three-person battle formation consists of a courageous main attacker holding a contradiction or a sword, an ax and a hammer in front, and two assists holding a contradiction sword behind. When the three-person battle formation is attacking, one person takes the lead, and the two cooperate to cover the enemy formation. When encountering a strong enemy, they shrink back to defend. Together with the weapons in their hands and the buckler, their performance in actual combat is very good. This three-person formation does not require high personal force, but requires high coordination ability between the three.
Every morning, Art would lead four people to fight with each other with long and short wooden sticks to practice personal combat skills. In the afternoon, he would train three-person combat formations and short spear and round shield offensive and defensive formations. In the evening, Art would try to continue teaching a few people how to read common Chinese and some simple military strategies...< br/>
Just like this, they have been training repeatedly every day for more than a month. The Odo people have made great progress in both personal combat skills and formation coordination. At least they are no longer just brute laborers who rush to fight with their blood and courage. In Bass's words, if they were to fight with those guild gangsters now, the three of them could easily knock down seven or eight...
...
That night, in Art's wooden house, everyone in Odo who was sitting around the wooden table yawned and listened to Art's boring lecture, "Last night I talked about the training of personal combat skills, and today I will talk to you about battle formation coordination and military discipline. I believe you all have experienced that during this period of training, if you fight me alone, I can almost defeat all of you. That's because I have been training personal combat skills since I was a child. Practice, I know how to kill opponents in the simplest way, but you were just laborers and farmers not long ago, and your personal combat skills cannot be improved in a short period of time. The reason why Odo and the three of you were so strong among Lucese's laborers was because your opponents were also warriors who had never been trained. Everyone didn't know combat skills, and they all had room for attack, so those with greater strength and courage could always take advantage."
“But once you actually face off against bandits, bandits, and bandits, your strength and bravery will not be your absolute advantage, because your opponents are all desperadoes who have been fighting for years, and some are even guys who escaped from the army. They are braver than you, and they often know how to kill you with one move. So when facing opponents with more powerful combat skills than you, fight in formation. Cooperation is particularly important. Think carefully about the times you defeated me during this period, were they all achieved through close and tacit cooperation in battle formations? Especially Odobas and Kazak's three-person battle formation. Odo charged forward, and Kazak and Basz took cover. When you are strong, you attack, and when you are weak, you retreat and defend. If I attack any one of you, you will face the attacks of the swords, axes, spears and hammers of the other two..."
"In addition, when facing a large enemy force, we must be proficient in using a spear (sword) and shield first-line formation. This formation can withstand the enemy's first wave of desperate charges. After the enemy's charge is blocked, we can disperse into a three-person battle formation to counterattack..."
The three people sitting around the table, Bass, Kazak and Ron, were confused. They knew the actual battle formations of daily training. It was very useful, but they couldn't understand the theory of formation coordination that Art said. On the contrary, Odo began to understand the difference between group fighting and military formation battle. After listening to Art's teaching, he discovered that he had been able to defeat a large number of opponents with Bass and Kazak not only because they were strong and dared to fight, but because they still had some coordination in battle formations compared to the opponents who rushed forward in a rush.
Att's voice continued to sound, and Odo came back from his thoughts.
"After talking about battle formation coordination, let's talk about the discipline of the army. Strictly speaking, we are not an army. The patrol team we are about to form is just a militia security team to arrest thieves and resist the barbarians, but we still have to have the discipline of an army. I think you will never forget the time when you were captured in the woods. The experience of chasing that gang of robbers! I always felt that those gangsters must have escaped from the army, and they were at least elite soldiers. They chased us for a whole afternoon! Think about it, if there is no absolute discipline, how hard can those bastards chase?"
"You may ask me what military discipline is? For those bandits, military discipline means that once the leader gives an order, you must continue to pursue it even if you run to death. After we formally form a patrol team in the future, everyone must also abide by military discipline - if you are asked to charge, you must go up even if there is a forest of arrows and spears; if you are asked to retreat, you must retreat even if there are mountains of gold and silver. I ask you this, and you will also in the future You ask your soldiers like this... You must know that I not only have attractive food and military pay, but also sharp steel knives used for execution..."
Everyone may not have a thorough understanding of military discipline, but they will never forget the incident of being chased by bandits for an afternoon that day. Moreover, they are simple and believe that eating people's food and getting people's wages should obey orders.
Otto said loudly: "Your Majesty, what you said makes sense, just like when we fought in groups before, if you guys didn't obey me, and didn't go up when you should, and didn't run away when you should run, then we would have been driven out of the city by the guild gangsters in Lucesien, so now We will definitely obey your orders! ”
“Yes, although I don’t know what this military discipline is, but if you tell me to rush, I will rush, and if you tell me to retreat, I will retreat.” Bass responded positively, and Ron and Kazak also expressed their opinions.
The frozen soil in the intervalley began to soften, and Cooper stopped building the carriageway and turned his focus back to plowing the newly reclaimed wasteland.
As the weather began to get warmer, Art, who had been nesting in the wooden castle in the valley for half the winter, also decided to go out and form a patrol team.
One evening in late winter, Art called Cooper, Odoron, Lawrence and Scott to a single-yard wooden house to hold a simple banquet.
At the end of the banquet, Art said to everyone: "Everyone, two years ago today, this place could not be called a wooden castle, because there was only a broken wooden house and a living forest hunter. A year ago today, the old butler Cooper came, and with his hard work, the broken wooden house became the current wooden castle courtyard. There are two wooden houses, a stable and a full pen of pigs and sheep. Today, there are five or six people here. There is a wooden house, more than forty people, and a large area of fertile land... The most important thing is that there is hope in the wooden castle, and everyone can see that peaceful and prosperous days are beckoning. And all this is the result of the hard work of everyone sitting here." Everyone listened quietly, especially Cooper, who was one of the witnesses of this wooden castle in the valley, and he shared the glory of this wooden castle.
Matt continued: "You are all my most trusted people, and Valley Wooden Castle needs your continued efforts."
"Scott and Lawrence, you will be mainly responsible for assisting the old steward to get things done in the valley from now on, especially the plowing and sowing of the newly cultivated land. You need to take the lead."
"Lawrence, in addition to taking the lead in doing things in the farmland, you must also be responsible for the safety of everyone in the wooden castle. This time the old carpenter rushed to make a batch of short spears and wooden shields. I will keep some, and tomorrow I will select a few brave people from the fort residents. We will form a team of strong men to protect the fort. You will be the captain of the team. You will lead the team to patrol the surrounding areas in their spare time. I will allow the other team members to go into the mountains and hunt wild animals. You, as the team leader, will receive fifteen pounds of food per month as compensation. Scott will also join the team, and the other team members will choose three from the people who participated in the refugee protection."
After arranging the arrangements for Lawrence and Scott, Art turned his attention to Old Cooper and said: "Cooper, just like last time, you will be responsible for all the matters in the wooden castle while I am out. In addition, after the plowing of the new land is completed, you We must immediately organize people to buy wheat seeds in various villages and settlements south of Tyniec. We still have 2,500 pfennigs. This time I will leave you 1,500 pfennigs. You must buy a batch of wheat seeds before spring planting, otherwise you will be homeless when spring comes. After the bandits come out and move around, food is not so easy to buy. As for the remaining wheat seeds, I will think of something else. "
"I don't want to go to Lane Manor. I have been to other villages and settlements in the area. We have talked with the lords and squires. When the time comes, you will tell them that they are the people sent by the southern border patrol officer Art to buy grain. They will help transport the wheat seeds to the edge of the northern jungle. When the time comes, you will take the fort guard team with the old steward."
After giving instructions on everything in the valley, Art turned the topic to the formation of the patrol team.
"Odo, this time we are going to the northern border area of Provence to recruit patrol soldiers. You will also go to the warehouse to prepare weapons and equipment for ten people and food supplies for fifteen people for a month. We will set off tomorrow afternoon."
Everyone promised to prepare separately, and there was no talking all night.
At noon the next day, Cooper, Lawrence, and Scott who stayed behind in the fort helped Art and his party carry weapons and food to the edge of the northern dense forest. This time, Art took away green mules and bay horses, and the carriage parked at the edge of the dense forest also contained five hundred pounds of shelled barley, ten iron spears, fifteen homemade simple wooden black bucklers, ten sets of black robes and cloaks, as well as some swords, axes, hammers, felt blankets, cooking utensils and other items. Art and Odo were also fully armed and wore black robes and cloaks.
The group of people rode horses and vehicles and headed towards the boulders in the north. They arrived at the boulders in the evening, camped for a night and then turned southwest towards the northern border of Provence...