In the single-yard cabin of the wooden castle, Art held a private letter in his hand and said to Cooper and Odo Angus, who were sitting around the room: "Baron Galvin said three things in the letter. One of them is that Sapp sent troops to the palace to assemble for battle in the east. The loss was heavy. One of the leading knights was seriously injured on the battlefield. Baron Galvin's territorial army was severely reduced. He led the castle guards to repel the bandits who tried to break through the wall, but those guys always appeared around Sapp, eyeing Sapp Castle. Baron Galvin sent people to clear it out once, but those guys hid and could never eliminate them. "Recently, several groups of bandits have gathered around Sapp, with the intention of uniting to attack Sapp Castle. Baron Galvin has sent an urgent message to Tyniec County for assistance, but there has been no response from the county, so he sent someone to ask me for help."
"The third thing is to send a war horse to congratulate me on my promotion to knight. In addition, Baron Galvin implicitly proposed in the letter that I go to Sapp to hold an engagement ceremony with Miss Lottie." I couldn't say anything about the suppression, but since Mr. Galvin wants to ask you to help with the suppression, it must be impossible for you to do it yourself. You are about to marry Miss Lottie, and Mr. Galvin will also become your father-in-law. I am afraid that you cannot refuse this request. Besides, you are also the patrol officer, and Sapp is also under your rule. It is reasonable for you to lead troops to help with the suppression. "
"As for the engagement with Miss Lottie, it is certainly a good thing. You also said that after returning from the expedition, you would go to Sapp to propose marriage to Mr. Galvin. Now that people have taken the initiative, it is time for you to take action."
Matt touched the aching arrow wound on his shoulder and replied: "I will definitely help with the suppression. After all, my caravan may need the care of Baron Galvin in the future, and this is indeed my duty. It's just about my engagement to Miss Lottie. , I have to make more preparations."
"Are you worried that there is no decent house in the castle as a wedding residence for you and Miss Lottie?"
"Well, I can't let her live in this thatched house with me, right?"
Cooper smiled and replied: "Master, you don't need to worry too much about the wedding house. Even if you get engaged to Miss Lottie now, it will take forty days to bring Miss Lottie to the valley to complete the wedding. During this time, let me build a military fort or The castle won't work, but it's not a big problem to let me take people to build a few new houses for you first. "
Matt had some doubts and asked, "Is forty or fifty days enough? The mansion where Miss Lottie lives in Sapp is very luxurious."
“Master, it is impossible for us to build a luxurious mansion for the time being, but there are craftsmen and laborers in the territory now. If other construction work can be postponed, we can pool all the craftsmen and laborers and build a double-story lord’s mansion with a mixed structure of wood and stone within fifty days. It is like some simple mansions in this single courtyard. , knock down this room and my cabin opposite, and expand it. The first floor is the lord's hall, office, kitchen, servants' room, and storage room; the entire second floor is the bedroom and resting place for you and Miss Lottie. We just happened to bring back a lot of exquisite appliances from Tarburg, and these things can be placed in the new lord's mansion..."
"No, no, no, if you push your house down to expand the lord's mansion, where will you live?"
"Master, I can live in the barn in the wooden castle for a while. After all the construction is completed, I will build a small house. Anyway, I am a single old man, so I can do anything."
h What? Well, when you build the mansion, you demolish the stable and build a wooden house on that place as your future mansion. "This single courtyard will be your own mansion in the future. How can I occupy your place?" Cooper rejected Art's proposal.
"Why not? You are my civil administrator and my housekeeper. What is wrong with you living with me?" Art insisted on being neighbors with Cooper.
Cooper thought for a while and nodded in agreement: "Okay, but I will build a small shack next to your mansion to live in. When your mansion is repaired, I will have someone build a wooden house for myself." The district school continues to be built, and I can't let Father Hamish and the orphans huddle with the soldiers every day. As for other construction matters, we can postpone it a little. If the labor is not enough, we can send soldiers from the new army to participate in the construction. In addition, those farmers who have not yet started the spring plowing can also send a group of people to build the wooden castle. "
Cooper nodded in agreement.
"Odo, time is running out. I'm worried that Fort Sarp is in danger. I plan to take the sergeant major and the sentries to Sarp tomorrow. If the army is needed to help suppress the attack, I will send people to mobilize the army. Now that our legionnaires are almost reorganized, the next step is the training of the soldiers. We are now mainly training the shield formation of the soldiers. The three-person battle formation will be used in sporadic battles in the future. It will still play a role in the battle, so the three-person battle formation cannot be given up. The legion training will be carried out according to the method we discussed before. The specific training will be carried out by you and several officers. I may be away for about ten days. I will see the results of your training when I come back..."
"Yes, sir." Odo responded.
….
On the morning of the second day, after breakfast, Art took Angus and the six cavalrymen of the Sentinel Cavalry and hurriedly left the valley and ran towards Sapp Castle in the west.
While passing by the edge of the dense forest in the northern part of the valley, Art stopped to check the location of the northern pass military camp. During the period after returning to the valley, Cooper brought the old carpenter Bud here to investigate. They chose the location of the Beiguan Military Village on the gentle slope on the right side of the carriageway exiting the dense forest. It is only fifty steps away from the carriageway and only ten steps away from the edge of the dense forest. It is a flat land on the gentle slope on the right.
"Sir, we have cut down all the nearby trees within a hundred steps of length and width, and piled the cut wood aside for later use. Now Geer and I are leading them to dig the footings here and mark out a rough area for the military stronghold. When we build the military stronghold later, we can build the stronghold wall first. , the army can be stationed in with military tents, and then slowly build barracks and towers..." The construction manager Lawrence is still recovering from his injuries, and the deputy manager Geer can manage the labor of prisoners of war, but he also knows nothing about craftsmanship, so the construction of the military camp is temporarily in charge of the construction of the military camp, and the deputy manager of the craftsman Bader is assisted by Geer in managing the labor.
"The construction of the military stronghold cannot be rushed. This is the northern pass of the entire valley and the main location of the army in the future. Our military stronghold would rather be built more slowly, but also more firmly. Especially the stronghold wall, it would be better if it could be built with stone."
Bad nodded repeatedly, and then raised an objection: "Sir, it is okay to build the general's stronghold more firmly, but it is impossible to build the entire military stronghold with stone walls, because the surrounding area is mostly dense forest and wasteland, and stones are difficult to find. Moreover, polishing the stones is time-consuming and labor-intensive, I'm afraid~"
"Since stone masonry is not possible, we should use earth and wood. The space between the two wooden walls should be filled with clay mixed with wheat straw and gravel. I have told Cooper about this method of building a civil structure before. He has seen such a construction method. You can ask Cooper for more details."
Bard is an old carpenter who only specializes in craftsmanship. Although he knows a little about construction, he has not seen much after all. He is not clear about the mixed construction method of civil engineering proposed by Art, but he still replied: "Since the Lord and the old housekeeper have already figured out the construction method, I will ask the old housekeeper more, but I guess the construction period will be longer according to your construction method."
Yat stood on the gentle slope, looked over the treetops at the bottom of the gentle slope at the wilderness outside the dense forest, and said: "This is no problem. The army can be temporarily stationed in the wilderness outside the dense forest before the military stronghold is built..."
The group of people left the edge of the dense forest and continued westward, camping in the wilderness for a night. At noon on the second day, they passed through the narrow and rugged mountain trails with overlapping peaks and reached Sap Castle in the valley.
Because bandits stormed the Sapu Village some time ago, the farmhouses around the Sapu Village were looted by the bandits. Therefore, the gate of the Sapu Village was tightly closed at this time, and there was no one on the fields and roads everywhere. The shacks and stone houses outside the village were all burned and looted by the bandits.
PHYT and his group of eight cavalry were still one mile away from the Sap Fort, when the enemy's horn sounded in the Sap Fort, and more than twenty castle guards armed with spears and weapons rushed to the head of the wall.
At the lead, Art entered the land of two arrows and ordered to stop the advance, asking Ron to hold his heraldic flag and report in front of the village gate.
Ron rode his horse to the foot of the city wall with a flag, and reported Art's identity to the head of the guard on the city wall. The leader of the guard on the city wall heard that he was a knight who came to help suppress the attack, so he was not in a hurry to open the city gate. He left the wall and returned to the village to seek confirmation from Baron Galvin.
After a while, Baron Galvin led a few followers to the top of the city. He saw that the messenger below the city was none other than Art's bodyguard, and he quickly asked someone to open the gate of the village and come down to greet him in person.
After seeing him for more than half a year, Mr. Galvin has become even more prosperous, but his face that was always smiling in the past cannot conceal a hint of worry.
"Art, I knew you would definitely come." Galvin hugged Art warmly, then saw the six or seven cavalry behind Art, and asked, "You didn't bring an army?"
"Lord Galvin, after receiving your private message, I was worried that Fort Sapp was in danger, so I immediately brought people over. Now my army has just returned from the Northland campaign and is reorganizing and strengthening training. I will come over first to find out the enemy's situation. If a large number of troops are really needed to suppress the army, the army can arrive at Fort Sap within three days." Art explained.
After hearing this, Galvin felt a lot more relieved and quickly moved out of the way to let Ater and the others enter the castle.
Ron and Galvin were already familiar with each other, and Art introduced Angus and Lusignan to Galvin. Galvin became more intimate after learning their identities.
After entering the castle, there were several castle guards and twenty-odd temporarily recruited peasant soldiers standing on the wall. They had won the battle against bandits some time ago, so they were very powerful. Moreover, Baron Galvin was quite generous at critical moments. He not only provided sufficient food and wine every day, but also distributed rewards to the peasant soldiers who were recruited. In addition, they were defending their homeland. Therefore, these twenty peasant soldiers did have a fearless attitude of not fearing death.
"Lord Galvin, are these your newly recruited castle guards?" Ron asked Galvin who was walking in front of the team.
Galvin turned around and smiled, and replied: "Some time ago, Sapp was besieged by bandits. All my guards stayed in the village to defend against the bandits. These days it has become a little calmer. Most of the guards were sent to escort my caravan. Now the people stationed in the castle are mostly young farmers from my territory."
"Lord Galvin is a good herder. Even the common people under your rule are all young and strong men. I have lived in many places and seen many castles. There are not many places as rich as Sapp." Walking on the neat road in the castle, looking at the wooden houses and houses on both sides, Angus couldn't help but praise the wealth of Sapp Castle.
Galvin smiled and replied: "Thank you, everyone. I have been doing business and trading these years, and I have also made some money, so I don't need to extend my hands to the people in the territory too much. Moreover, some of the people in the territory also follow me in doing business, and there are also some squires who have made money before, so my hands are a little richer."
While chatting, the group of people had arrived at Lord Galvin's lord's mansion. The people behind Art praised the luxury and elegance of Galvin's mansion, which made Baron Galvin smile and groan.
"Everyone, please go into the hall and take a rest. I will ask the servants to prepare some simple food for you to fill your stomachs. I will hold a simple banquet for you in the evening." I have something to discuss with you~"
At turned his head and glanced at Angus and Ron. Angus made a smile, and then led the others into the Lord's Hall...
At had no choice but to follow Mr. Galvin into the inner chamber of the mansion...