The bright sunlight left dappled spots of light on the ground through the dense treetops, and a few cute chicks frolicked around the pillars of light in the forest. These round furballs are huddled together and look so cute. Two young males fight each other over a branch, but the few female birds watching the battle can tell that they are showing their strength to the sisters. When the male leader paced in majesty, the two little male birds immediately became honest.

Several alchemy militiamen pushed the cart to the vicinity of the birds, and the large and small swift birds immediately surrounded them. The purple cane leaves in the cart were dumped to the ground, but the swift birds were indifferent, especially the strong leader of the swift birds, who also let out a dissatisfied hiss, as if urging something. The militia opened a wooden box, and dozens of fat ground lizards were shaken out, and the birds suddenly became excited, and they chased the short-legged ground lizards and crawled all over the ground. The male leader held down one of the ground lizards with his strong paws, and drove the two reckless young swift birds away, and the three adult females tore the ground lizard into the mouths of the young birds that were waiting to be fed.

On the high post, Victor was watching the scene of the 14 swift birds eating below, and he asked Busso beside him, "How many swift birds do I have now?"

"My lord, there are 37 in total. Bousso replied.

After sending Sylvia away, Victor did not return to the manor in the village of Kawague, but went directly to the mountain fortress. Compared to a few months ago, Victor's mountain fortress is thriving.

The mountain land reclaimed by the alchemy militia has increased from more than 800 acres to more than 2,000 acres. These mountain fields were scattered around the fort and were mainly grown with vegetables and sweet potatoes, but also small quantities of herbs and berries, and the output of these fields was not only for the consumption of more than 500 alchemists, but also for the village of Kawaguchi. Since it was quiet and secluded, undisturbed by the outside world, Victor also ordered Busso to breed spelt wheat, sweet potatoes and wild herbs in the hope of obtaining better seeds. In addition to this, the Alchemy militia also cut down large areas of shrubs to expand the planting area of oil wood and black fruit trees, and it is believed that the number of these precious trees will increase greatly in a few years.

The Alchemy militia breeds more than 3,000 ground lizards, and lays an average of more than 700 eggs per day. The eggs of the ground lizard are used for alchemist humans, while the ground lizard side is used to replenish the nutrition of war mastiffs and swift birds. To Victor's surprise, the first chicks had already hatched, bringing the number of birds to 37 in four groups. According to Busso, the female breeds once a year, 1-2 eggs each time, it takes three years from the chick to the adult, and then in a year, the young birds will form a new group, and the number of birds will increase geometrically, but their numbers will still be restricted by the purple cane population, and Busso estimates that the existing purple cane forest can support up to 800 birds.

"Let's go, go to the Armory. ”

The blacksmith shop on the south side of the mountain fortress has been transformed from a simple wooden canopy into a brick armory workshop, and there is still no fence, the iron oak beams are supported by rock brick pillars, and the artemisia grass on the roof has been turned into tiles. A mountain stream runs through the outside of the Armory Workshop, and the waste water from the Workshop flows to the cliff to the west, forming a small waterfall that falls into the Swamp. Dozens of alchemy auxiliaries loaded with forging skills were busy in the arsenal, the clanging of hammers hitting anvils, and the sound of red iron tools stuffed into cold water.

Victor nodded with satisfaction, he had two iron workshops, one bright and one dark. In the hill camp, Ming was responsible for crafting wooden poles, spears, arrowheads, crossbows, leather armor and round shields, as well as agricultural tools, stirrups, carriage parts and other civilian equipment. This is where the dark ones are responsible for crafting iron chain mail, iron short spears, iron swords, silver crossbows, silver crossbows, and detachable small trebuchets. With the materials, these two workshops can continue to produce a steady stream of sophisticated equipment to arm Victor's army. So far, the treasury of the fortress has 200 silver crossbows, 3,000 silver crossbows, 500 ordinary silver crossbows, 200 hard bows, 50 longbows, 200 pairs of iron chain mail, 600 iron one-handed spears, and 300 iron swords. But Victor wasn't here to see the top-of-the-line gear today.

"Busso, how is the Swiftbird hussar equipment I want you to make?"

Busso said, "My lord, we've built one. With that, Busso opened a cabinet and placed the equipment inside on the long table.

"Your Excellency, according to your request, the light cavalry equipment includes a one-handed spear, a short sword, three spears, a hard bow, a silver crossbow, two quivers, a shovel, iron chain mail, an iron oak round shield, cowhide inner armor, leather gloves and leather boots. There were also glove bags, which contained flint extractors, hemostatic medicines, antidotes, paralyzing potions, lumps of sugar, silver needles to suture wounds, and fine linen thread. ”

Victor looked at the light riders and asked, "Have you tested it?"

"After testing, the total weight of these equipment is 140 pounds, and after the alchemy militia rides on the swift bird, the speed of the swift bird is reduced by 3 percent, the jumping ability is reduced by 4 percent, and the running distance is reduced by 5 percent. In addition, the hard bow can shoot through leather armor within 50 meters and chain mail within 60 meters, which cannot meet the requirements of killing and injuring elite soldiers within 80 meters. ”

Victor's territory is vast, with many hills, and 400 hundred kilometers of mountainous areas. To control such a large territory, the power in Victor's hands is enough, but the territory in the north hangs alone, 1,000 kilometers away from here, and Victor has a feeling that he can't reach it. The worst thing is that there is also Sauron, a neighbor with bad intentions, and Victor is very worried that Sauron's forces will attack the Free Folk Merchant Group heading north. To cope with this, he needed a fast assault force capable of adapting to mountainous terrain.

The mastiff is extremely mobile, but there is nothing good to do against the knights in armor, so the Swiftbird Light Cavalry is the best choice. Victor's Swiftbird Hussars are designed to intercept squads of knights, and to be able to use the terrain to escape the pursuit of the Silver Knights. However, the Swiftbird's load-bearing capacity is not enough to withstand these equipment, and if the defensive equipment is reduced, I am afraid that there will be heavy casualties, which may lead to the failure of the operation. Victor frowned and asked, "What's the solution?"

Busso said: "Replace the fine iron one-handed spear with a silver one-handed spear made of paulownia wood, remove the throwing spear, replace the fine iron chain mail and cowhide inner armor with the silver leather armor, and replace the hard bow with the silver short bow, you can solve the problem of insufficient weight and hard bow lethality." ”

The Thorsilver leather armor in Busso's mouth is not cowhide armor, but a 4-centimeter-thick giant rhino leather armor, which is made of giant rhino skin, which is as flexible as leather armor, lighter than chain mail, and more defensive than plate armor, enough to resist the crossbow fire. But Victor doesn't even have many cowhides now, so there are giant rhinoceros skins?

"Isn't it okay to use cowhide? can the three-layer cowhide and silver leather armor meet the requirements for defending against crossbows?" asked Victor helplessly.

"With a little more silver, the cowhide armor will do what you want, but it will weigh more than the iron chain mail. Busso said with a blank look.

"Forget it, I'll figure it out later. You arrange for me 10 auxiliaries, 10 barberry militia, 30 spirit monkey militia, 5 war mastiffs, and 15 alchemy crows to establish a stronghold in the northernmost mountainous area of the Centaur Hill. "Victor decisively gave up the idea of making leather leather into Thorsilver leather armor.

"Yes, sir. Busso nodded and asked, "What is their mission?"

"Build a mountain camp, explore the surrounding resources, lurk, and wait for my orders. As soon as Victor finished speaking, a militiaman came over and said, "My lord, the alchemy crow has brought news of the Warhammer mercenary group. ”

Victor took the letterhead, read it and smiled, "Hammer still has an idea." ”

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"Crazy! Captain Hammer, you must be crazy! We're all going to die!"

"Shut up!"

Fat Wech shuddered in the improvised trench, the howls of the gnolls, and the screams of the goblins terrified him. The rest of the freedfolk merchants were no better, and were as frightened as quails. Those of them who had been in town had never seen what monsters looked like, but they had heard of the Jackals' reputation for being ferocious. When they get up close and personal with these man-eating monsters, they learn that the gnolls are far more terrifying than they imagined.

The leader of the mountain people, Wood, said cautiously: "Captain Hammer, shall we replace those brothers? They have been guarding for a long time, and I am afraid that they will be tired?"

"Can you shoot those goblins and coyotes at night? If you can't do that, lie down and sleep, rely on these brothers tonight, and rely on us tomorrow morning!" Hammer lay in the trench, not even opening his eyelids.

Through the campfire and the moonlight, Wood saw a mercenary raise his bow and shoot an arrow at the bottom of the slope, and a short scream came from the shadows, a goblin hiding in the shadows and secretly shooting stones. Such a terrifying archery technique made Wood swallow his saliva.

Three days ago, these homeless mountain people became a problem for the Warhammer Mercenaries. Hammer had planned to leave them behind and continue on his way, but Hammer and his two fellows decided to take Bull's suggestion when they offered to use the mountain people to build a supply base for the caravan. Because after asking the old mountain people, they learned that walking east along the mountain forest is the territory of a group of jackals, and there are no more mountain villages. If the gnolls are in the way, then they must be completely wiped out, and it is impossible for the next caravan to have such a strong lineup. Since you want to fight the gnolls, then bring these mountain people with you, on the one hand, you can strengthen your own strength, and after the gnolls are cleared, let these mountain people settle here, and become the first node of the trade route.

Hammer tells the mountain people to fight the gnolls when they join the mercenary group, and let them choose for themselves. The mountain people are tough and brave, and often deal with the gnolls, but it is definitely a foolish choice to fight the gnolls in the field without fortifications. There was a heated debate among the mountain people, and in the end, the old mountain people decided to join the Warhammer mercenary group. The reason is very simple, if you don't agree, you will be killed, either you will be killed by the lord's army, or you will have a fight with the mercenary group, and the gang of gnolls will come over sooner or later.

More than a hundred people walked along the periphery of the mountain forest for three days, and finally left the sphere of influence of the Buryat family and entered the territory of the gnolls. The Alchemy Crow investigated the situation within a radius of 50 miles very clearly, there were about 37 gnolls operating in this area, they enslaved a small number of goblins, domesticated a dozen coyotes, and their strength was extremely weak.

Although the strength of this group of jackals is weak, but the ability to escape is not small, once they encounter a strong enemy, they will scatter and flee, the hammer has time to fight guerrilla warfare with them, their supplies are running out, and now there are more than 100 people to eat, and the whole team urgently needs to collect resources and replenish food. After the three war bear veterans discussed, they decided to lure the jackals over and annihilate them again. So, they chose a relatively open place to camp and lit only a bonfire. That night, the gnolls came.

The tactics of this gang of gnolls are no different from their kind, driving goblin slaves to raid human camps, leaving prey without rest, and waiting for an opportunity to drag away the weakest targets. However, they were doomed to nothing tonight, twenty-five spirit monkey militia armed with hard bows around the camp, goblin stones hitting hard leather armor to no avail, and the dim night could not stop the keen perception of the spirit monkey militia, and each arrow they could take the life of a goblin. When the day dawned, the goblin slaves were gone, and the gnoll leader let out a long howl, and they retreated for the next night.

Hammer got up from the ditch and asked the monkey militia who were on vigil, "Jerry, would you like to rest for a while?

Jerry said, "Captain, we don't need to rest. Ready to fight. ”

"Where are the brutes now?" Hammer asked, turning to the bull.

The wild bull looked at the alchemy crow hovering in the sky and said, "To the northeast, in the woods 2 kilometers away. There were also 3 jackals nearby watching us. ”

"Kill the gnolls' scouts, and we'll get there!"