Since Yate brought back a large amount of grain, the hearts of the people in the valley wooden castle have become much more steady.

Half of the land reclamation between the valleys had just been completed, and the work was stopped as the land was completely frozen into iron plates and could not be hoeed. In order to shorten the construction period and reduce the amount of work, Cooper and Bud set out from the wooden fort to draw the shortest and smoothest route to the edge of the northern jungle.

So on the seventh day of the return of the Wooden Fort with the grain of the Arts, the huge road repair project officially began, and most of the farmers and peasant women in the Wooden Fort who were idle due to the freezing of the land were engaged in the work of opening up the horse lane, and they were divided into three batches, one group of people cut down the trees and weeds along the route marked by Cooper, the second group was responsible for clearing the roots of the trees and weeds and digging up the ground bulges to fill the depressions, and finally the third group of people pounded the ground with heavy wooden stakes to tamp the ground. According to Cooper, this road construction method is the fastest and easiest one, if you pay a little attention to it, the horse road must also be laid with rough stones, gravel leveling, and drainage ditches are excavated on both sides of the road, but considering the lack of manpower, the difficulty of taking stones and the high cost, Yate adopted the most simple and direct way of road construction, that is, this simplest way of progress is also very slow.

At the same time as the carriageway was opened, the construction work of the wooden fort did not stop. In order to hull the wheat, the farmers worked together to make a simple stone mill and set up a small mill and bread oven next to the house. In the courtyard of Art, a sturdy log thatched-roof barn was built out of timber cut from road construction. Bard, an old carpenter who had helped Cooper direct the construction of the horse road, was called back to the wooden fort by Art, and was responsible for making several simple and thick wooden round shields and ten iron-tipped short spears from the high-quality wood such as oak and ash trees cut down from the road. The peasant women in the fort, who knew how to sew simply, also rushed to make a batch of black burqas and capes under the leadership of Emma.

Almost everyone at the Wooden Castle joined in the construction work that was in full swing, with the exception of the four Odoroen.

In order to improve the actual combat ability of the four people, Art will take the four people to practice basic riding skills and combat and shield short spear formation in front of the open space of the wooden castle every day, in addition, Art fully absorbed the formation of Otto and Baskazak when the three men fought in a group, and improved it as one of the daily training items of several people.

This improved three-man battle formation consists of a bold main attacker with a contradictory sword or axe hammer in front, and two assisters with a contradictory sword in the back. When the three-person battle formation attacked, one person took the lead, and the two cooperated with the cover to rush and kill the enemy formation, and when encountering a strong enemy, they contracted their backs to defend themselves, and the weapons in their hands matched with the round shield, and their performance in actual combat was very good. This three-person formation does not require much personal force, but it requires a high level of coordination between the three.

Every morning, Art led four people to practice personal combat skills with long and short wooden sticks, and in the afternoon trained three people to fight and defend with short spears and round shields, and in the evening, Art tried to continue to teach a few people to read common texts and some simple military strategies......

In this way, they have been repeating training every day for more than a month, and the Ao Duo people have made great progress in both their personal combat skills and formation coordination, at least they are no longer the barbarian laborers who rely on a stream of blood to rush to kill. In Bass's words, if they were to fight the guild hooligans now, the three of them could easily take down seven or eight......

…………

That night, in Arte's wooden house, the people of Odo sitting around the wooden table yawned and listened to Art's boring lecture, "Last night I talked about the training of individual combat skills, and today I will tell you about battle formation coordination and military discipline. I think you all have experienced, during this period of training, if you fight against me alone, I can almost defeat all of you alone, it is because I have been training in personal combat skills since I was a child, and I know how to kill the opponent in the easiest way, and you were still a laborer and a farmer not long ago, and your personal combat skills cannot be improved in a short period of time. And before, the three of you were very strong in Lucein's strength because your opponent was also a force that had never been trained, and everyone didn't know how to fight, and there was room for attack, so those with more strength and courage to work hard could always take advantage. ”

"But once you really fight against the bandits, rogues and bandits, your strength and blood courage will not become an absolute advantage, because your opponents are all outlaws who have been fighting all year round, and some have even escaped from the army, they are more bloody than you, and they often know how to kill you with one move. Therefore, when facing opponents who are stronger than you, it is especially important to cooperate in battle. Think about it carefully, did the few times you won against me during this period of time rely on close and tacit battle formations? Especially Odomas and Kazak, your three-man battle formation, Odo rushes in front, Kazak and Bas cover in the rear, when they are snobbish, they attack in one direction, and when they are weak, they shrink to defend, and if I attack any of you, I will face the attack of the other two's swords, axes, spears, and hammers......"

"In addition, in the face of the enemy's overwhelming position, we must also skillfully use the spear (sword) shield line formation, this formation can resist the enemy's first wave of desperate charge, and then disperse into a three-person battle formation to counterattack after the enemy's momentum is blocked......"

Bath, Kazak and Ron, who were sitting around the table, listened to it in a fog, they knew that the actual combat of the battle formation of daily training was very effective, but they could not understand the formation coordination theory that Art said, but Odo began to understand the difference between group fighting and military battle, he listened to Yat's lecture and realized that he was able to defeat a large number of opponents with Bas and Kazak in the past, not all because they dared to fight, but because compared with the opponents who rushed up, they still had some battle formations.

Art's voice continued to sound, and Otto came back to his senses from his thoughts.

"After talking about the cooperation of battle formations, let's talk about the discipline of the army. Strictly speaking, we are not an army, and the patrol team we are about to form is only a vigilante group to hunt down thieves and defend against the barbarians, but we still have to have the discipline of an army. I don't think you'll ever forget being hunted by those robbers in the woods! I always felt that those bandits were not ordinary people, they must have escaped from the army, at least there were soldiers in the army as the elite backbone. Stuck to us for a whole afternoon!! Do you think that if there was no absolute discipline, those bastards could chase so desperately? ”

"You may ask me what military discipline is? For that group of robbers, military discipline is that once the leader gives the order, even if they run to death, they must continue to chase them. In the future, after we formally set up a patrol team, everyone must also abide by military discipline - let you charge, even the rain of arrows and spears will have to go to the forest; If you are allowed to withdraw, even the mountains of gold and silver will have to be retreated. This is what I ask of you, and so will be of your soldiers...... You must know that I have not only attractive food and military salaries here, but also sharp-edged steel knives for execution......"

The people's understanding of military discipline may not be thorough, but they will never forget the incident of being chased and killed by robbers for an afternoon, and they are simple enough to believe that they should obey people's orders if they eat people's food and get people's salaries.

Otto said loudly: "Your Excellency is right, just like we used to fight in groups, if you don't obey me, don't go when you should go, don't run when you should run, then we have already been driven out of the city by Lucesen's guild hooligans, so now we will definitely listen to your orders!" ”

"Yes, although I don't know what this ~ military discipline is, but the adults will rush me if I ask me, and I will withdraw if I am asked to withdraw." Bass responded positively, and Ron and Kazak also took a stand.

…………

The ice on the water in front of the Mubao Creek is starting to thin, and the coldest of the deep winter seasons has passed.

As the frozen ground in the valley began to soften, Cooper halted the construction of the horse trail and turned his focus back to ploughing the newly cultivated wasteland.

As the weather began to get warmer, Art, who had been nesting in the valley wooden castle for half the winter, decided to go out and form a patrol team.

One evening in late winter, Art summoned Cooper, the four of Odoror, Lawrence and Scott to a simple banquet in the cabin.

At the end of the feast, Art said to the crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, two years ago this place could not be called a wooden castle, because there was only a broken log house and a forest hunter who was still alive; A year ago the old butler Cooper came, and under his hard work, the broken wooden house became the current wooden castle courtyard, where there were two wooden houses, a stable, and a pen full of pigs and sheep; Today, there are five or six wooden houses, forty or so people, and large tracts of fertile land...... The main thing is that there is hope in the wooden fort, and everyone can see that peaceful and prosperous days beckon. And all of this is the result of the efforts of all of you here to take the lead. ”

Everyone listened silently, especially Cooper, who was one of the witnesses of the wooden fort of the valley, and he was as proud as it was.

Art continued, "You are all the people I trust the most, and Valley Wood Castle needs your continued hard work. ”

"Scott and Lawrence, you will be mainly responsible for assisting the old butler in getting things done well in the valley in the future, especially the ploughing and sowing of the newly cultivated land, which needs you to take the lead."

"Lawrence, in addition to taking the lead in doing a good job in the farmland, you also have to be responsible for the safety of the people in the wooden fort at ordinary times, this time the old carpenter rushed to make a batch of short spears and wooden shields, I will leave some, tomorrow I will select a few brave strong men from the people of the fort to form a fort protection team, the fort team is captained by you, the team members usually plow the fields and farm, and you lead everyone to patrol the surrounding area in your spare time, I allow the fort guard team to go into the mountains to hunt wild animals. The other members of the Fort Guard receive fifteen pounds of food from the wooden fort each month, and you, as the captain, receive twenty pounds of food each month. Scott also joined the Guardians, and the rest of the team chose three of the guys who participated in the Guardianship of the Wanderers. ”

After arranging Lawrence and Scott, Art turned his gaze to old Cooper and said, "Cooper, just like last time, you will be responsible for all the matters in the wooden castle during my absence. In addition, as soon as the ploughing of the newly cultivated land is completed, you have to organize people to go to the villages and forts south of Tinetz to buy wheat seeds. We still have 2,500 pfennigs, and this time I will leave you 1,500 pfennigs, and you have to buy a batch of wheat seeds before the spring planting, otherwise the food will not be so easy to buy when the spring comes, and the food will not be so easy to buy after the homeless bandits come out to move around. ”

"Don't go to Ryan Manor, I've been to the other villages and settlements and talked to the local lords and squires, and then you'll say that the Southern Frontier Inspector Yat has sent someone to buy grain, and they will help transport the wheat seeds to the edge of the northern jungle. Lawrence, you're going to take the Bunker with the old butler when the time comes. ”

After giving instructions on the affairs of the valley, Art shifted the conversation to the formation of the patrol team.

"Odo, this time we are going to the northern border area of Provence to recruit patrol soldiers, and you will go to the warehouse to prepare the weapons and equipment of ten people and the food and supplies of fifteen people for a month, and we will set off tomorrow afternoon."

Everyone promised to go and prepare, and they did not say anything all night.

At noon the next day, Cooper, Lawrence and Scott, who were left behind in the fort, helped Art and his party carry weapons and food to the edge of the northern jungle. This time, Art took with him the green mules and the red horses, and even the carriage parked at the edge of the jungle contained five hundred pounds of hulled barley, ten iron spears, fifteen simple wooden black round shields, ten sets of black robes, cloaks, and some swords, axes, hammers, felt carpets, cooking utensils, and other items. And Art and Odoji are also fully armed, wearing black robes and capes.

The group rode on horseback and rode towards the boulder mound in the north, arriving at it in the evening, camping for the night before turning southwest towards the northern border of Provence......