The weather is getting warmer, and the flowers are blooming beside the stream in front of the wooden castle in the valley, making the valley full of life.
With the exception of the Scott family, who had a wooden house in the fort, all the farmers had moved to the valley. The farmers had built four or five shacks on the gentle slopes of the valley. A simple fence was built around the gentle slope with thorns and branches to prevent wild beasts from attacking.
The wooden castle has become the exclusive garrison of the patrol. Now it is stationed here with soldiers returning from Andermatt and newly recruited laborers and miners from Lucesien. The patrol soldiers who had returned early had begun training after a few days of repair under the leadership of Odo and Bass. The fifteen prisoners of war were detained by Otto in a small temporary shack built with dead branches next to the wooden castle, and were guarded by soldiers from the patrol team in turns.
Three soldiers were killed in the Battle of Alsburg a month ago. One soldier suffered a facial wound that could not be treated due to ulceration, and the injury spread to his left eye. Although he survived in the end, he was completely blind in his left eye.
At present, there are only sixteen people left in the patrol team, four officers and twelve soldiers, except Ater, who can continue to fight.
On the third day after the team from Lucesien returned to the wooden castle in the valley, the sun had just risen. Ron, who was feeding a few horses and brushing and trimming their hooves in the stables of the wooden castle, heard Art's call. He hurriedly shook all the black beans and wheat bran in the bag into the long trough, and loudly agreed and ran to Art's wooden house.
"Ron, the old butler and your father sent the new farmers to the valley yesterday. I originally said I would not come back today, but I plan to go out tomorrow to recruit refugees and soldiers for Baron Antayas, so I have to arrange some things today. You will go to the valley soon to call the three old stewards back to the wooden castle to discuss the matter. By the way, call Simon back and tell me that I have other arrangements."
Hence Ron came out of Art's wooden house, took off a pair of saddles from the stable, passed through the small courtyard, passed through the wooden door, ran to the kitchen in the wooden castle and said to his mother who was making breakfast for Art alone: "Mom, the master has already gotten up, you will send the food over in a moment." After that, he was ready to leave.
Ron's mother walked around the stove and grabbed him, saying, "Ron, I've already prepared Master's meal. You should go home and eat quickly. Camille is waiting for you. I left you a piece of delicious honey bread."
Ron brought some spices, salt and some fermented honey-smeared bread to his family when he came back from Lucese. Emma was very reluctant to eat them.
"Mother, I brought that bread to you. Don't leave it for me. I've eaten it long ago. The master ordered me to rush to the valley to call the old housekeeper and father back to the castle for discussion. I have to set off immediately." Ron held the saddle and walked towards the newly built stable.
Emma turned around and picked up a piece of rye bread from the stove, broke off a piece, walked to the barn and stuffed it into Ron's arms, "Go and do what I asked you to do quickly. Take the bread and eat it on the way."
Ron took the bread and put it in his arms, took out a green mule, put on the saddle, got on the mule's back and ran out of the wooden castle gate.
In a large open space less than half a mile south of the creek along the creek outside the wooden castle, Odo is conducting the most basic training for the laborers and miners who have just been recruited from Lucese. It is the first time for the new recruits to come into contact with this area. After such training, they have not yet adapted to orders such as formation and advance. They are slow to respond to Otto's orders, and the formation is always crooked. Otto is not in a hurry. Compared with those farmers, these miners and labor brothers are already good at executing orders.
Odo stopped the new recruits in front of him, turned around and shouted to Kazak who was training veterans on the other side of the clearing: "Kazak, bring your team over and give them a demonstration."
Kazak obeyed the order and stopped the soldiers who were practicing fighting with long wooden sticks. Several soldiers stopped fighting and followed Kazak to the new recruits.
"Contradictory Line Formation, prepare!" Kazak led several soldiers to stand in a neat row.
"Defensive formation!"
"Roar!" Following Kazak's order, several soldiers shouted, holding their shields up to their chests, holding up their long sticks, looking straight ahead, bending their left legs, kicking their right legs back half a step, and leaning slightly forward.
The twelve recruits had just arrived in the valley and had never seen patrol soldiers training before. The soldiers in front of them were different from ordinary sergeants and guards. They were shocked and a little strange. They had seen lords training soldiers, but they had never seen an army that trained soldiers every day. In their understanding, soldiers who could train two or three days a week were elite.
The "Forward" order continued to sound.
"Ho! Roar! Roar!" The soldier kept raising his shield and stick, shouted three times and took three steps toward the new recruit.
One of the recruits was frightened by the sudden shouts and took a few steps back.
"Coward! If you dare to take another step back, I will break your legs." Odo angrily kicked the miner who retreated to the ground...
On the other side of the open space, Bass's team also stopped training and sat on the ground watching the demonstration training over there.
Tuba, the leader of the second combat group of the first team, stared there for a while, then turned his hand and slapped a soldier next to him on the head: "It's all your fault, you idiot. If it hadn't been for the short guy, we would have lost a member of the team. Even if you were to kill me, I wouldn't have let you join my combat group."
After returning from Alsburg, Jason, who had recovered from his injury, was temporarily assigned to Tuba's combat team to participate in training. However, due to the addition of this idiot soldier, the second combat team, which had always been the best, suddenly became a laggard.
Jason touched his head and said with an apologetic smile: "Brother Tuba, I don't know what's going on. Once I entered the battle formation, I didn't know how to move."
Colin on the other side also cursed angrily: " Jason, I'll kill you. Tell me, how many times have we been scolded by Commander Odo in the past few days since you joined the first team? You are pretty good at archery and horse riding, but why can't you practice the battle formation? Now that Commander Ron is back, you should go back to Commander Ron."
“I still want to go back~ We agreed to train me as an archer, but I ended up coming back with you~” Jason muttered and turned to look at Odo, who was carrying a shield and a stick to demonstrate to the new recruits.
.........
At the wooden castle, Art was giving instructions to Emma, who had brought food, about the banquet in the evening.
"After a while, you will prepare breakfast for the soldiers and then prepare dinner. If you are too busy, call the carpenter Bud's old lady to help. In addition, although the new arrivals will not attend the dinner tonight, they will also add bacon soup to their dinner."
"Okay, sir, I'll prepare it right away." After speaking, Emma closed the door and left.
Att drank the bread crumbs soaked in the broth in the wooden bowl on the table in several mouthfuls. He stood up and took off the leather knight's sword sheath hanging on the wall. He opened the wooden door and walked out of the small courtyard to the gate of the wooden castle. Camille and Bud's little granddaughter, who were playing in the wooden castle, saw Art come out and quickly curtsied and saluted, calling him "Master".
Att walked to a twenty-foot-square room next to the big wooden castle house. This has become the carpentry workshop in the castle, where the old carpenter Bud kept making shields, long sticks and short spears for Att. Since Art contracted the Bard family's board and lodging and paid their wages on time every week, the old carpenter became more and more motivated. In addition to being responsible for making and repairing shields and spear shafts for Art, he also undertook some house construction and wooden utensils manufacturing and repair work.
Seeing Master Art appear at the door, Bud hurriedly greeted him, "Good morning, Master."
"Good morning, Bud."
Matt picked up a newly made spear shaft from the carpentry table and said to Bud: "The old butler told me what you have done for the wooden castle during this time. Thank you for your hard work."
Bard was frightened and replied: "It was the master who brought our family here from outside to provide us with food, accommodation and salary. God can't support laziness. "People, so these are what I should do."
Bard pointed to a pile of semi-finished wood for making wooden shields in the corner of the wooden house, "Master, now you have more and more soldiers, I can't do it alone. It would be great if you could send me an assistant, even an apprentice, at least he can do some rough work for me. I am old, and I need help with chopping and chopping~"
At agreed to the old carpenter's request and promised to arrange a helper for him as soon as possible.
Att simply walked around the wooden fort, inspected the barn, the barn and the surrounding fences, and then walked out of the gate to the training ground outside the fort.
"Everyone gather!" Seeing Art coming to the training ground, Odo loudly ordered the soldiers to stop training and gather into two rows, with the veterans in front and the new recruits behind.
Matt came to Odo and the others who were standing at the head of the team and said: "Odo, I won't care about the training of new recruits. Later you will take the veterans to train the contradictory line formation. We have seen the power of the tight contradictory line formation in Alsburg, but this is not enough, soldier. We still lack coordination, and the shield formation is not as strong as we imagined when the enemy is concentrated in one place. In addition, we must also train our personal combat skills. Remember, don't worry about injuries during training. The purpose of bleeding and sweating now is to save a life in the battle."
Odo nodded in agreement.
Matt suddenly remembered something again and said: "By the way, in the last battle in Alsberg, I saw that the chain hammer (iron flail) used by Bass was very fierce. Moreover, the chain hammer is not as rare as the armed sword, but it is no less powerful than the broadsword knight's sword, especially when dealing with the enemy's shield and armor, it can exert greater combat power. , Now we have also captured a lot of chain hammers. You can also add chain hammer training to the personal combat skills training of soldiers. I think Bass is very good at using chain hammers. Let him be the chain hammer training officer~"
"It's your lord! I will arrange it."
"Okay, Odo will take the new soldiers to train there."
"Defense!"
"Roar"
………
The training ground was filled with the roars of Art and Baskarzak. The recruits who were training alone looked at the veterans howling among the sticks, and their steps couldn't help but become more messy.
After training for more than two hours, until everyone's clothes were soaked with sweat, Art ordered the soldiers to stop training and return to the wooden fort for breakfast.
On the way back to the wooden castle, Art told the Odo people who were following him about the matters that should be paid attention to in training soldiers, "The personal combat skills training of soldiers should be based on the most practical ones from the two battles we have experienced. Our soldiers are not knights who have been trained in swordsmanship since childhood. They are more concerned about how to kill the enemy quickly while protecting themselves. The most important thing is to master the basic movements of blocking, chopping, and thrusting. In addition, you can use the moves you used when fighting with guild gangsters. It's a little ugly, but the enemy will not let you live just because your moves are good. In addition, the soldiers who are really not suitable for training in swordsmanship should focus on training heavy weapons such as broadaxes and heavy hammers. Last time in Alsburg, if there were more soldiers holding heavy hammers, one person would be able to hammer them down, and no matter how thick the chain armor was, they would not be able to save their lives."
“Soldiers must continue to strengthen their arm strength and physical strength. They must lift stones and heavy wood 300 times every morning, noon and evening, and run long distances every three days. Those who run first will eat meat, and those who fall behind will eat shit.”
"As for riding skills, commanders above the squad leader must learn it, and those who have this talent among soldiers must also learn it. Others only need to be able to barely sit on a horse."
"The other is the military. Ji." Art stopped and turned to stare at Odo, "There are a lot of soldiers fighting and making trouble during this time, right? Also, I heard that a soldier entered the kitchen and stole bread last night?"
"Sir, that's it~"
Odo was about to explain, but Art interrupted him, "You don't have to explain to me. You are responsible for enforcing military discipline. If you find this person, I will not punish him severely this time. Just starve him for a day. But you must think about how to restrain the discipline of the soldiers as soon as possible. There are more and more of us now. If there is no military discipline to restrain us, we will become a pile of mud."
Odo nodded shamefully and agreed...