Because of the displacement, it was not until the afternoon of the fourth day that Art's party reached the northern edge of the valley's forest, while Ron and Jason, who had rushed back to report the news, were waiting quietly in the clearing at the edge of the forest, leading Otto and Cooper, as well as Bass, Kazak, Scott, and Lawrence.

"My lord, this is your miner?" Angus is full of expectations for the upcoming valley, and in the past six months with Arte, he has heard Ron Odo and them talk about the words valley wooden castle and valley land more than once, and from everyone's conversation, he can see that this valley is important in everyone's hearts, and this land will also be the place where he will live in the future, so Angus also has a trace of expectation in his heart.

Like the exiles who were recruited, Angus felt a sense of loss when he saw a dense forest between two mountains at the end of the wasteland, and he did not expect that the valley in Art's mouth was this dense mountain forest.

"Can crops grow in this dense forest? Do you still need to recruit displaced people to farm in this place? ”

That's the first question that comes out of the mind of everyone who arrives here for the first time.

"Angus, this is just the entrance, the real valley still has to walk in for half a day, but now the carriageway leading to the valley wooden fort is basically completed, so the time to the valley wooden fort has also been shortened by more than half." Cooper saw the doubts in Angus's mind and quickly explained to Angus, who followed the team into the dense forest.

Sure enough, after walking less than twenty steps into the dense forest, a ten-foot-wide carriage lane that stopped at the edge of the dense forest appeared in the eyes of everyone, and there were many neatly stacked timbers on both sides of the carriageway.

"Master, during the more than half a year of your expedition, Scott and the others organized people to repair the carriageway, filled in some stones on the loose section of the ground, and strengthened the wooden bridge in several sections across the stream, and those carriages that were not taken away by the caravan to pull goods were also dismantled, carried in, and then pulled back to the wooden fort for preservation, and the remaining twenty or so steps can be opened in only two or three days." Cooper, the old butler who accompanied him at the head of the team, briefed Art on the construction of the horse track.

Art jumped off his horse and stood on the carriageway and kicked the road with the spur of his heel, the hard road was completely safe for the load-loaded carriage to pass, and he turned to Scott who was following Cooper with satisfaction, and said, "Well, this road is very well repaired. Scott, you've all worked hard, I'll give you credit in two days. Now that the army is back, you can take people to open up the rest of the road from tomorrow, and the next time the caravan comes back, you can drive the carriage directly back to the wooden fort through this road. ”

Scott was quite proud in his heart, although this carriageway was mainly completed under the command of Cooper and Lawrence, but the subsequent repair and reinforcement was completed under the personal command of Scott, but this honest farmer still maintained his usual modesty, and said: "My lord, this carriageway was completed under the command of the old butler and Lawrence, and I just did some tinkering things. ”

"I won't forget the credit of Cooper and Lawrence, but you also made a lot of efforts, and I won't forget what should be remembered."

Art glanced around the road a few more times, and instructed Cooper: "Cooper, after a while, you will send someone to open a clearing suitable for camping at the edge of the dense forest near the junction to build a garrison camp, and in the future, most of our army will be stationed here, first, to guard the north entrance of the valley through this camp, and second, to control the entire northern wasteland." Build a camp the size of an outpost first, and then expand it one after another. There were enough tools in the wooden fort, and the materials used to build the camp were the timber cut down from the roads. ”

"Okay master, I'll send people here tomorrow to build the road, and after the road is opened, they will stay and build the camp." Cooper made a note of Art's arrangement.

…………

Walking on the convenient carriageway, it took only an hour for the group to complete the distance that had been completed in the previous morning, and soon the team approached the wooden fort in the valley.

Angus followed the party around a low hill, and a flat open field appeared in his astonished eyes, with seven or eight thatched wooden houses scattered together, surrounded by a large circle of spired-birch fences more than a man high, and a walled cottage with stables and barn workshops, and a single courtyard with three wooden houses and a small stable enclosed in the fence. The trees within a radius of more than ten paces of the outer fence were cut down, the gentle slope in front of the fence gate and the open space around the fence was the trimmed land, along the wooden fort gate down the gentle slope and the wooden bridge over the creek in front of the gate to the south, less than half a mile to the south, there was a flat training ground, Tuba was leading dozens of soldiers to fight and train in the field, and the training ground continued a little further south There was a wheat field covered with a thin layer of snow.

"Sergeant Major, we call this settlement the Wooden Fort, and the small courtyard in the Wooden Fort is my house, and I have been living in that wooden house all these years, and the Wooden Fort was built one after another after the old Cooper came. The open space opposite the wooden fort was our training ground, and the wheat field on the south side was reclaimed by Cooper himself, and along the path beside the wheat field, he continued to walk south along this stream for half a day, and after passing through a canyon, there was a large flat and fertile land, in which we had reclaimed more than a hundred acres of the most fertile arable land by the river before the army set out. In the past six months, they have cultivated a lot of new farmland, and tomorrow I will go to the valley to inspect it, and you can go with me to see it. Art introduced the valley wooden fort to Angus, who was amazed and stunned beside him, and it took nearly two years to build.

Angus stared at the wooden castle that was rising smoke and the dozen or so castle citizens waiting at the gate of the wooden castle, and turned to Art and asked, "My lord, is this the hunter's hut you are talking about?"

Art nodded.

"No wonder you have to find a way to turn this place into your knight's domain, it turns out that there is such a paradise hidden in the barren valley and dense forest." Angus couldn't help but compliment.

"Okay, let's go, this will be your home in the future, let's go and see it." With that, Art led the team towards the wooden castle......

When Art rode into the wooden fort with his army on his warhorse, the people who greeted him at the gate bowed and saluted Lord Art Wood Wells, the first lord of this abandoned valley for hundreds of years.

Except for Arte himself, all the people in the valley have entered the valley in the past two years, some of them are displaced people who have lost their homes in Provence due to war, some are bankrupt peasants whose land has been drained by their lords, some are untouchable labor slaves who struggle to survive by brute force in the corners of cities and mines, some are bandits who are forced to live in the mountains and forests and make a living by plundering, and of course, there are prisoners of war who have been taken from the battlefield to the valley by the Yates army.

In any case, when Art was officially canonized as a knight and granted this knight fief, as the first batch of lords and soldiers under Art, this land should also become their land and home, as long as Art's position is stable, they can reasonably and legally cultivate and harvest and reproduce on this land, and from the contact in the past two years, they also believe that Art will be a good lord......

Arte's mood is also excited, from a hunter who makes a living by hunting in the dense forests of the valley to a knight with an army and a territorial people, he only took two years, although he is not a real commoner, but as a descendant of a declining nobleman who has lost his territory and lordship, this achievement can also be worthy of his father who died in a foreign country with a grudge, and the next thing is that he fought for himself and for the Wells family, and he firmly believes that he can go further......

Leaving the thoughts in his head, Art returned to the reality in front of him.

"Master, after leaving the caravan with the army and returning to the valley wooden fort, I led people to expand the wooden fort again, the original barn and arsenal were demolished by me and rebuilt two, and the houses in the wooden fort were also newly built two, and I built two carpentry workshops and blacksmith shops next to the house, and the stable livestock shed in the wooden fort is not easy to expand, so I rebuilt a large livestock shed on the south side of the wooden fort, and in the future, except for the military horses and mules, other animals can feed the cattle shed outside the wooden fort. At present, the houses in the wooden fort can meet the daily living needs of 50 people, but if we need to add permanent troops or citizens to the wooden fort, we need to tear down the outer fence and rebuild. Cooper briefed Art on the new layout in the wooden fort.

"In addition, the personnel brought back from Talburg and the homeless young men recruited by the caravan one after another, except for those who were selected by Otto to be recruited into the army as recruits, the rest were all transferred to the valley to reclaim the wasteland, those craftsmen were temporarily left in the wooden fort to work, and Scott specially sent the peasants of the fort team to take care of them, these people are not very suitable here, but there is no sign of escape for the time being."

Art has just returned from the expedition, and he doesn't have the energy to pay attention to these miscellaneous matters for the time being, "Cooper, you and Scott discuss the affairs of the valley first, I just returned from outside, I need to rest for a day or two, you can sort out the affairs of the valley, I will hold a meeting in two days, you will report together during the discussion, and we will discuss them one by one at that time." ”

"Good! Then you go back to the house to rest first, I will arrange the food and lodging of the others, today is a day worth celebrating, now that the grain and supplies in the valley wooden fort are a little abundant, in the evening the valley will send a few people back to the wooden fort to attend the dinner prepared for you and the triumphant return of the army. Cooper had always been very careful about these things, and Art was very relieved.

"Sergeant Major, this will be your home from now on, let Ron take you around in a while, Cooper will arrange for you, I will go back to my room to rest, if you feel bored, come to the small courtyard to find me." Hold Angus's shoulder, point to the small courtyard in the wooden fort, then hand the reins of the horse to Ron, and untie the belt around his waist as he walked straight to the cabin after a long absence......

At the gate of the wooden fort, Cooper and Scott led a few of the fort citizens to prepare food and temporary shelters for the last of the triumphant returning troops and the new homeless, and several officers of Otto also walked to the training ground opposite......