In early spring March, the weather has begun to warm up.

By the stream in front of the wooden fort in the valley, Tuba came here with two soldiers dragging heavy steps, he bent down and buried his head in the stream, desperately pumping the cool stream water into the mouth of the fast fire, until his stomach was filled with water, he slowly raised his head and turned over and collapsed on the lawn next to the stream, and the two soldiers beside Tuba no longer even had the strength to climb to the stream to drink water.

It didn't take long for several more figures to run along the bank of the stream towards the Tuba and the others.

"Tu~Ba~, you say~Why do you want~ torture us so much, I~ran~ vomited blood~ I knew it earlier~ and went to Ron's little chief to be a cavalryman......" The red-faced man who had been drinking fruit wine at the Tignets Free Market spat out a mouthful of bloodshot phlegm and tried to crawl to the stream.

Tuba gasped and said: "Colin~~You~TM didn't listen~ Lord Odo, last year~ they were chased and killed by a gang of robbers ~ in the mountains and forests for an afternoon~ we~ run more now, we can't beat in the future~ at least we can run away." Besides, you didn't see how hard Jason was trained by Chief Ron. ”

"Yes~Little Chief Ron~Be more ruthless to yourself~"

Art and Odoa followed behind the fleeing party, each of them carrying a large wooden stick, but any soldier they caught was immediately hit with a stick.

Otto had already run along, and from after lunch today, to the westward setting of the sun, they had chased the soldiers back and forth between the wooden fort and the edge of the northern jungle, and several weaker soldiers were already paralyzed on the way, and what awaited them would be a hungry night without food.

Otto slowed down the pace of chasing the soldiers, came to Art's side and gasped, "My lord, I'm afraid we can't afford to train soldiers like this?" Besides, will we still be chased for an afternoon? ”

Since the last encounter at Winchester Manor, the soldiers were seriously damaged, Art has been exploring a better battle formation, and in the end, Art did not expect to be suitable for the current patrol team, but Art can be sure that this is an era of combat and physical strength, and last time he was able to finally win in battle, a big reason is that his soldiers are all hard-working men who have always endured hardships and stand hard work, and their combat skills are not good but their physical strength is far higher than that of their opponents.

However, Art also knew that this kind of persuasion training method was too extreme, and he also wanted to improve it and carry out gradient intensive training.

"Otto, did you really think I was trying to train soldiers to escape? This is how I train the physical strength and endurance of the soldiers, and we can only use stronger physical strength to compensate for the shortcomings of the soldiers' individual combat skills. Besides, we only train once every three days, and I've already told Emma to add more meat to dinner so that everyone can eat better. ”

Art looked back at the guys who had collapsed to the ground, and sighed, "Your worries are not unreasonable, let's reduce the intensity first, and then slowly increase it." ”

............

On the clearings of the wooden castle were neatly stacked with seven or eight black-painted oak shields waiting to dry, and the old carpenter Bard was making them with his butler Cooper. They used tools such as hand axes, saws, chisels, and planers to make boards of about an inch and a half thick and of various lengths, which were spliced to two beams with a few rivets, then cut and polished the edges into a two-foot-diameter circle, painted with black dye, and finally added wooden grips and adjustable belts between the two beams.

This batch of newly made wooden round shields is stronger and more durable than the last round shield, but because there are too few people who can do carpentry, the two old guys can make at most one of these wooden round shields a day, and this speed is still because there is a lot of wood left behind when building roads before, saving the link of collecting wood.

While using a chisel to drill holes in the beam, Bard asked Cooper, who was trimming the round shield beside him, "Old butler, why don't you make a square shield, that kind of shield is much faster to make, and it can cover all the body." ”

Cooper put down the planer in his hand, picked up a half-made wooden shield, touched the burrs on the edges, looked up and replied, "The master said, the square shield is too bulky, and the four corners of the square shield will hinder the wielding of the stabbing weapon. There is no such problem when using this kind of round shield, if this kind of round shield is firmly fixed together with rivets, and then inlaid with iron cabochon in the center, the edge is wrapped with iron strips, and the surface is covered with leather, it will be even stronger. However, we don't have this ability now, so we can only use rivets and wooden beams to splice together. ”

Wooden Fort detached courtyard in Cooper's cabin.

Simon, who was lying on the wooden bed, was woken up by the churning saw, who struggled to sit up and leaned against the wooden wall, his right hand pinching his empty left sleeve. Simon, who has been lying in this bed for more than 20 days, has been disheartened, all these years he has been able to survive all these years by relying on his strength and courage to fight and kill without fear of death, he followed this patrol officer to the north first, firstly, to escape the disaster, and secondly, he hoped to follow this patrolman to fight for a future. But now that it's all gone, Simon feels like a waste without his arms, he doesn't plow the land or sell goods, he feels that what awaits him is expulsion and wandering......

Ron's sister Camille ran from the wooden castle courtyard to the open space in front of the big wooden house with a handful of grass to feed the goats, "Grandpa butler, Uncle Simon has gone down to the field again. ”

"This unconscious fellow!" Cooper threw down the work in his hand and ran into the small courtyard with Camille, and saw Simon, who had just recovered from his injury, come out to die again, and hurriedly went up to support the man who was missing an arm, "Simon, why did you get out of bed again?" Your wound has finally scabbed over, and you have to crack it again with this movement. ”

"Old butler, I really can't stand such days, what's the difference between lying in bed every day and being dead."

"Old butler, just let me go, instead of staying here like a beggar waiting for others to give alms, it is better to go out and be eaten by wild wolves." Simon cried and begged Cooper to let him go.

Cooper's face became darker and darker, and he scolded loudly, "Are you still a man? Acting like a bitch all day long, what's wrong with no arms? Without arms, are you starving or freezing to death? It's not easy to die, it's hard to live. You coward, my lord plans to reuse you! ”

"Use me?" Simon, who bowed his head and was taught, thought he had misheard.

…………

"Yes, use you." Art sat on a wooden stool in front of the bed and said to Simon lying on the bed.

"I think the old butler has already told you that I intend to station a few soldiers in the border area from Tignets to Provence and set up a checkpoint, so that we can control the security of the border area. The second is also to collect some entry taxes from passing caravan vendors and to obtain cheap goods from them. In addition, the business travelers who come and go are the most well-informed, and we can collect information from all over the north and south through this checkpoint. But this matter is not urgent, now that the south is in turmoil, and bandits are rampant in the north, there are no caravan vendors willing to come to the north to trade, plus your injuries have not healed, and my team is also short of soldiers, so we have to wait for a while. ”

"During this time, you can recuperate in the wooden castle with peace of mind, and when you are well, you will help the old housekeeper do something, and I will arrange this matter when the time is ripe."

"In addition, I keep the salary of your battle team leader......"

The sorrow on Simon's face finally relaxed, and he choked and struggled out of bed, "Adult~"

Art stopped Simon, who was about to kneel on the ground, and said, "Simon, I said I would not treat anyone who has shed blood for me......"

While the two were talking, in the large open space outside the wooden fort, Odo was carrying a wooden stick to supervise the patrol soldiers in their improved battle formation training. I saw him step in a few steps in front of a guy who was in front of the line, and he smashed his head and covered his face with a stick.

"Cooperate with each other! You're in the battle formation, who TM made you run so fast? Are you in a hurry to send you to your death? Go back and do it all over again! ”

The beaten soldier quickly got up and felt the place where he had been beaten and returned to the shield array.

"Closing"

"Roar!"

All the soldiers lowered their round shields, and their short spears stood in front of them, gathered in a line.

"Turn"

"Roar! Roar! ”

Qi Qi turned back.

"Array"

"Roar"

"Forward"

"Roar, roar, roar!"

This time, the contradictory line formation finally had to be neat and tighter, and Otto corrected several obvious wrong movements in the contradictory line array, explained the key points of the action, and let each squad train alone, "Okay, each squad is scattered to train the contradictory line array and individual combat skills. ”

"Team 1 (2) come with me." Bas and Kazak walked out of the queue and walked to the left and right of the clearing, each with their own soldiers.

After completing the basic training, Lawrence had to rush back to the valley to continue organizing the farmers to plough the land, and Ron also left the only soldier under his command to train alone.

Seeing that the training ground for the third squad was vacated, Odo took off the round shield hanging on his back and walked into the queue to come to the two soldiers.

"Contradiction line array, array array".

"Roar!" Six soldiers from two combat groups of the third squad stood in a line, separated by two fists between them.

"Defend the charge!"

"Roar!" The six soldiers raised the shield to their chests, leaned forward, their right leg half a step back against the ground, and the short spear in their hands rested on the upper right edge of the shield.

"Attack!"

"Roar! Roar! Roar! The six soldiers kept thrusting their short spears forward.

"Closing"

"Roar!" Six soldiers put away their spears and shields and returned to their standing positions.

"Defend against arrows!"

"Roar!" The six soldiers were divided into two battle groups in close proximity. The leader of the battle group squatted halfway to protect his chest, and the other two stood and squatted to protect the front up and down. From the front, such a formation looks like two rows of shields with three shields in each column.

"End the defense and prepare to meet the enemy!"

"Roar!" The two battle groups in a defensive posture reverted to a line formation and turned into a defensive charging formation.

"Fill the gap!" Otto withdrew from the formation, and Kwon was already dead and left a gap in the tight battle formation.

"Roar~" Otto had just withdrawn, and the soldiers on the left and right sides leaned towards the vacant seats to fill the gap.

Otto walked the team, came to the opposite side of the crowd and nodded with satisfaction, and said, "After more than 20 days of training, you bastards finally have some appearance." Okay, let's do personal combat skills training, and today I'll teach you how to use a tomahawk to cut the enemy in half~"

The sound of the first and second squads training in battle formations was also heard on both sides of the open space......

............

Half a mile north of the wooden castle, on the unfinished horse track, Ron was roasting his horn bow with dry horse manure under Jason's direction.

Ron couldn't open his eyes from the smoke of horse manure, "Ahem, Jason, is this going to work?" ”

"Sir Ron, these two captured bow bows have not been used for I don't know how many years, the bowstring and bow bones are already a little soft, and they must be smoked with horse manure to return the bow." Jason flipped the unstringed bow bone in his hand to make sure it was evenly smoked.

"I didn't expect you to be very poor at riding horses, but you are very familiar with bows and arrows, the lord said, you will be our archers in the future, and the lord will also take the time to personally train you and me."

Jason was the soldier who was kicked out by the three squads, and he narrowly stabbed an enemy at Wincheston Manor, but in the later matchup, he panicked and forgot to cooperate in battle training. As he failed to keep up in time to cover the main attacker, the main attacker's right leg was poked in a hole by a serf armed with a wooden fork. Afterwards, at Bass's strong request, Jason was replaced in a new round of soldier allocation, and several other officers who had seen Jason's poor performance in training and combat were reluctant to accept this "bad spirit", but Art remembered that this young man was the son of a hunter and should have some foundation in archery, so after a big turn, Jason returned to Ron's side to become Art's bodyguard, and also trained archers.

Ever since missing out on the leader of the third squad, Ron has been competing with himself. He worked hard every day to train his personal combat skills and equestrianism, because he was Art's direct bodyguard, and Art not only had to supervise and guide the soldiers' training but also had to deal with the affairs in the wooden fort, so he could only find time to ask Art to teach archery, horses, swords, and shields in addition to intensive training, and then go down to practice hard by himself. The horses in the wooden fort were to be used to train the soldiers in basic horsemanship, and the horses and mules were taken away from plowing the land, so Ron had to use a large donkey that he had begged for a separate riding training.

As a result, everyone could see Ron and Jason, who had completed their basic training, riding donkeys on this horse track, wielding long swords and short spears, slashing and stabbing the thatched men on both sides of the road. And Jason, who was unresponsive, fell off the donkey's back again and again, and climbed onto the donkey's back again and again amid Ron's cursing......

The warm spring of the valley has quietly come with the hard work and hard training of the people in Mubao.