It was already dark when they arrived at the boulder pile. The sentries stationed at the boulder pile spotted several dark figures approaching them. Since they had not received any news in advance that Art would come to inspect the station, the patrol team was a lot nervous. With their fighting strength, if a group of horse-riding bandits really came to attack, their fate could be imagined.
When Obote, the new captain of the patrol team, learned that a group of unidentified cavalry had arrived, he quickly left the camp, pulled out the fast horse assigned to the patrol team, and ordered a soldier who could ride a horse to get ready to rush to the valley to report the news. Then he put on his armor, picked up his weapon, and stood on the tallest and largest stone among the huge piles of rocks, preparing to meet the enemy.
Obote pulled out the broad sword at his waist and said to Benson who was standing next to him: "Benson, you came to the wrong place. You thought it was safe here, but the first enemy we encountered was a group of cavalry. If you can survive this time, you should go back to the army~"
Benson stopped trembling slightly when he heard this, and replied with force: "Okay, you are here, why are you talking about this, this is all from God. Arrangement, I will die that time in Sap..."
"Everyone, prepare to face the enemy! Your Excellency and the Legion will avenge us!"
Benson and another patrol soldier clenched the short spears and wooden shields in their hands, staring at the shadow of the cavalry getting closer...
"Obot, this is Ron! Master, come to inspect the patrol!"
More than a hundred steps away, Ron, who was leading the way, shouted a few words into the pile of boulders.
"It's not the enemy! It's the adults who are here!! We don't have to die!!" Benson said, his tone full of excitement about the aftermath...
The appearance of the boulder pile has undergone some changes. The boulder pile is not big. Two military tents are set up in the open space next to the central boulder. A deep copper pot is hung on a bonfire. A large number of small stones from the original boulder pile were cleared out by Obote and several others, and piled up around the camp to form a stone wall about two feet high. There were several large piles of wood piled inside the stone wall.
"Sir, we brought this wood from the valley. There are no woods nearby, so we can only rely on picking up dead branches and leaves washed down from the upstream from the small stream a mile to the east to make fires for cooking. The next time the caravan returns to the valley, they will help us transport another batch of wood. At that time, we will build fences and walls at the station and build a small sentry tower. Sir, in the future, the valley will not only transport food and supplies for us regularly, but also firewood must be supplied from the valley~"
Matt came to the campfire, picked up a wooden spoon, took a spoonful of the food in the copper pot, tasted it, and said: "It tastes pretty good. It's really hard for you guys to be stationed in this wilderness. I have already told Cooper that your supplies will be given priority. The caravan will also leave some supplies for you when it passes here to and from the valley. I have also considered it during this time. I only rely on you." It is really difficult for four people to garrison such a large area, so I will send you a few more soldiers after the training of the next batch of new troops is completed."
After returning to the Valley Knight Territory, Art is busy with two things every day - training the army and building the territory.
At present, the training of the army is mainly carried out by Odo and Angus with three squadron captains, but Art is also responsible for training several squadron leaders such as Odo and Ronbas. During this period, Art held several army meetings. After discussions, it was determined that the main training items of the army in the future are personal combat skills training, battle formation coordination training, and tactical training.
Personal combat skills training mainly follows the personal training programs of soldiers during the patrol period, including soldier physical training, sword, spear, knife, axe, shield and hammer training, as well as selective riding, archery and other training. Soldiers need to run five miles in the morning, noon and evening every day, lift weights 300 times, and wrestle once. These training contents are used to enhance the soldiers' personal physique. The training of swords, spears and axes is mainly under the guidance of several squadron leaders and several officers with outstanding skills in swords, spears, axes and shields such as Odo, Angus, Lusignan and Claus. Training is conducted under the guidance of the instructor. After the instructor's guidance, the soldiers fight in pairs. Not every soldier can learn the riding and archery training. Only those soldiers with certain talents can be selected for riding and archery training. Of course, these selected soldiers will also have priority in future promotions.
The battle formation coordination training has been slightly adjusted in the previous training. The three-person battle formation training will not play a big role in grand battles, but it has certain advantages when dealing with bandits and small-scale dispersed operations. Therefore, although the three-person battle formation is no longer the main item of military training, Art retains it as a part of the team training. At the same time, the training of shield formation has become the main content of military training. When the two armies confront each other, one can master the shield skillfully and cooperate with the infantry to form a strong shield formation to effectively resist the enemy's arrows and soldiers' charges. After actual combat exercises and military discussions, the defects of the original shield formation's single level of combat power have been improved in the army's battle formation cooperation training. The new shield formation has added heavy infantry to break the formation. The thick armor (iron armor, cotton armor or leather armor) of ordinary soldiers, and the weapons such as hammers, heavy axes, and chain hammers in their hands besides swords and spears are more capable of breaking armor and breaking formations than ordinary soldiers' weapons. During a confrontation, these heavy infantry will be the main force to break through the enemy's formation under the cover of the ordinary soldiers' shield formation. When the stalemate persists, they will work as dead soldiers to break through the enemy's formation and lead the ordinary soldiers around them to charge into the formation.
Tactical training is a recently established training content, which mainly includes three aspects:
Tactical training, military knowledge learning, and casualty treatment learning. Military law learning is to tell soldiers what they can and cannot do in the army. It has established more than ten things that will be severely punished, such as escaping from battle, disobeying military orders, escaping from battle, hiding war gains, causing trouble in the army, and bullying good people. It also promulgates the rules for killing enemy soldiers, breaking through enemy lines, capturing enemy soldiers, and turning them over. All the things that will be rewarded by the army, such as winning in battle and outstanding training, are all studied in military law. After discussion and agreement by several military commanders, these military laws were written in the military law book by Art himself, and literate officers preached them to the soldiers every day, so that every soldier could know the military law and fear the military discipline;
The learning of military knowledge for ordinary soldiers is very simple. It is mainly taught by Odo, Angus, Lusignan and Claus, who enable soldiers to master the meaning of some military orders, master the sound of military bugles, and master some simple tactics such as surprise attack, night attack, defense, march, flank cover, and frontal attack. Of course, it also includes learning some of the simplest common texts that are closely related to marching and fighting.
The military knowledge study for officers above the squad leader level is much more in-depth. The military knowledge study for officers is personally taught by Art and Angus. They must not only learn how to train soldiers and lead troops to charge into battle, but also must master how to march, camp, establish defensive lines, and place sentry posts. , analyzing the military situation, ensuring army supplies, and many other matters, these things were difficult for the officers to accept for a while. They did not think that commanding thirty soldiers in combat required learning so many complicated things, but Yate kept insisting, and everyone had no choice but to sit around Yate and listen and memorize;
Soldiers and officers are most actively learning about the treatment of injured patients, because their status determines that each of them may be injured in the next battle. How to save themselves or treat their companions and reducing casualties is what everyone is most concerned about. After all, everyone cherishes their lives. Valley doctor Thomas gave the officers and soldiers They taught how to identify healing herbs such as calendula, milk thistle, nettles, and mugwort, as well as poisonous and harmful grasses such as poppy, belladonna, and amanita. They taught soldiers and officers how to treat wounds with fresh honey, and how to bandage wounds with linen so that the injured could hold on until the medics or doctors arrived for treatment. Ordinary soldiers only need to learn the most basic medical skills, while the medical soldiers of each squadron, the medical doctors of the baggage team, and all the medical soldiers must follow Doctor Thomas to master the skills of treating the wounded.
Also worth mentioning is the parish school. Most of the orphans recruited by the Thirteen Caravans were trained in the parish school. Later, Linn and Lawrence also sent their sons to the school for training. The school was under the jurisdiction of the civil affairs officer, but it was mainly used as a reserve force for the army.
Like the wooden castle chapel, while Cooper was rushing to build the lord's mansion, the construction of churches and schools did not stop. Cooper dispatched almost all the idle farmers and prisoners of war in the valley to work on the wooden castle. The foundation of the lord's mansion had just been completed. When the church was founded, an exquisite chapel and a spacious school were basically completed. The chapel has three parts - the temple hall for mass and sermon prayers and other ceremonies, the inner sanctum and confessional for believers to confess, and the bedroom and official room for the priest's living. Since there is only one clergyman in the whole church, Hamish, the church is very small. Except for the slightly larger temple and more exquisite decoration, everything else is simple.
Compared with the church, the school is much spacious. The main body of the school is three parts. The front is the learning hall. There are more than a dozen long tables and wooden benches and a wooden board hanging in the front for writing. Each table has a few pieces of birch bark and a few charcoal sticks. The back of the school is the learning hall. The large bedroom where the apprentices sleep has about twenty beds covered with thick hay, animal skins and quilts, and several tables and chairs for eating. In order to keep the bedroom warm, a heating fireplace is built at the end. Next to the bedroom is a slightly smaller room for the use of school officials.
On the day when the school was officially established, Art brought the commanders of the army and civil affairs officials to the school to celebrate the dozen or so apprentices. Art told these orphan apprentices that from now on, this valley knight territory would be their new home, and encouraged the apprentices to study hard and become pillars of the army and civil affairs as soon as possible...
In addition to being busy with army training, Art would take time to visit the construction site of the lord's mansion every day.
Soon, Felix, the only son of Baron Sapp Galvin, rode a war horse with two selected personal followers and a dozen craftsmen recruited from various places to the Valley Knight Territory...