Winter nights always come early.

As the sun fell silent among the mountains, a great shadow quickly swallowed every inch of the valley.

The sky darkened, and the stars gradually set in the night sky.

Dinner was actually fried fish, and Surdak felt that there were very few opportunities to eat fish in the city of Highlandza, there were no lakes here, so it was rare to see fish in normal times.

In winter, these fish are transported from the coastal fishing boats to the port, each of which is frozen and then transported to the inland provinces of the Grimm Empire by four-wheeled wagon or magic airship, so that the fish can only be eaten during this season.

In previous years, the caravans would never bring fish to the barren land, because the merchants knew that the poor people of the village of Wall could never afford to buy fish to eat, but this year, unlike in previous years, whether it was ale, butter, or cheese, the villagers of Wall would buy a little from the merchants to taste it.

This time, Natasha and Rita decided to buy some frozen fish and try them.

The fish is fried with only peppercorns and salt, and the fish has a faint fishy smell, but it is Peter Peter's favorite.

The wheat cakes were also charred and crispy, and with the sour plum sauce, it was so delicious that little Peter almost bit his tongue.

Old Sheila looked at Surdak, who was picking fish bones for little Peter, and the mustard in her heart had begun to slowly disappear...... He traveled thousands of miles to the village of Wall, just for a promise on the battlefield.

Every year, some young people in Vol Village go to the battlefield because of military service, and at least half of them will become cannon fodder on the battlefield and never return to their hometowns, and these young infantry soldiers fully explain the meaning of cannon fodder. Therefore, it is normal for the villagers in the barren land to die on the battlefield of the plane, and the old Sheila will just pray earnestly every day, hoping that her son will return safely......

Sheila Sr. even felt that she must have prayed not pious enough to become like this......

……

After dinner, Surdak took a cup of lemon tea, spread a map of the barren land on the coffee table, and considered which village the paving team would build the cement road to first, he first connected the charcoal between the village of Vol and Pusbag Mountain, and then connected the edge of Pubao Mountain and the southern foothills of Paglos Mountain, these cement roads have been opened up by the kobold slaves, and then Surdak intends to extend the road to the northwest of the barren land......

He drew a large cross on the edge of the desert with charcoal, and as the sheriff of the Badlands, he had to deal with the robbers in the desert before he could follow the Marquis of Luthor to the plane to change his guards.

He sat on the chaise longue by the glass window of his bedroom, looking at the starry sky above him, wondering if he would go to the city of Highlandsa tomorrow and come back with a common mercenary group.

The fireplace was in the living room downstairs, but there was a flue passing through the bedroom, so the room was also warm, and Surdak, dressed only in a cotton shirt, pondered some of the words that the old village chief had said before leaving.

The old village chief heard that Surdak was preparing to build a cavalry battalion, and in the spring, he would follow the army of the Marquis of Luthor to garrison the White Forest plane.

Being able to ride the chariot of the Marquis of Luthor is naturally that Surdak has a marriage contract, mainly because the Marquis of Luthor wants Surdak to take this opportunity to earn some merits, and nobles can only earn merit when they go to the battlefield and promote their titles, after all, a small baron marries the daughter of the marquis, and the identity gap is slightly large.

Cavalry battalions with official Imperial designations are eligible to recruit recruits who can register at the Hirlanza Logistics Quartermaster and then serve four years of military service in the Surdak Cavalry Battalion.

The old village chief first thought of the young people in the village who were of the right age but had not yet served in the military, and he hoped that Surdak would be able to pick some of these young people, although they were young and had no combat experience, but they were worth cultivating well, and after retiring in the future, they could become the backbone of the barren land.

It turned out to be a change of defense in the Bailin plane, this errand is obviously some kind of disguised reward, there is no danger in itself, and those who have the ability can earn some merits......

Surdak's original idea was to recruit some veterans with rich combat experience and return to the battlefield in a hired situation, and he was not short of the mercenary salary, so that a cavalry battalion would have combat effectiveness, but the proposal of the village chief of Bright made him change his mind somewhat, he thought that if he didn't recruit this group of young people in the village and let them obey the dispatch of the Quartermaster Logistics Department of Highlandsa City, then he was destined to be stuffed into a certain heavy infantry regiment as cannon fodder, This infantry regiment has the highest battle loss rate among all branches of the military.

There were already very few men in the village, and he scratched his hair a little distressed.

Natasha walked to Surdak's feet with a silver plate filled with warm water, placed the silver basin on the floor, and gently squatted down to help Surdak take off the long military boots on his feet, then pulled up his trousers and let his feet soak in warm water, and plucked the water to pour on his calves.

Surdak took the opportunity to sit up, cooked Natasha's pretty face with both hands, and kissed her on the soft lips.

Natasha's face turned red instantly, and she whispered while resisting, "The door hasn't been closed yet......"

She was athletic and nimble, dodging Surdak's hands, turned and walked quickly to the door to close the door, and then walked back to the chaise longue with a red face, crouched down and put her hand into the warm basin of water, and grabbed Surdak's calloused feet, which were slightly deformed by the compression of the toes because of the long wear of such hard military boots, and she rubbed those feet with her hands without saying a word.

Surdak stretched out his hand, his fingers running along the side of her face to her chin, lifted her chin with his fingers, looked earnestly at Natasha's blue eyes, and pressed his forehead lightly against hers.

Drying her feet with linen, Natasha took the basin of water before huddled together with Surdak on the slightly narrow chaise longue, she was wearing a long dress with a low-cut neckline, and after lying down, a large area of snow-white skin was exposed to Surdak's sight, and she was a little shy to stretch out an arm to cover her eyes, not daring to meet Surdak's fiery eyes.

A kiss is like a small flame that ignites from the bottom of my heart, and it can silently pour out my heart's thoughts and love......

"You're not going to leave us, are you?" Natasha's eyes lit up and she whispered to Surdak.

Surdak stroked Natasha's brocade-smooth back with his hand, and said to her: "Of course, I came here to continue his life and the original promise, I will always take good care of you, I also want to protect this village well, now I have become the magistrate of the barren land, maybe I have a heavier responsibility on my shoulders, I also have to protect every inch of land in the barren land, this is my responsibility." ”

Natasha's lips curled upward, and her hands wrapped around Surdak's neck......

……

The old village chief acted very quickly, probably last night mobilized the villagers of the right age, and gave everyone a very attractive salary, one silver coin per person a day and three meals a day, in the past, the villagers of Wall Village followed the old village chief to cut wood in a certain forest farm to earn some money to subsidize the family, so for the old village chief's proposal, the villagers still responded positively.

And there are so many four-wheeled carriages in the village, which can be used to transport volcanic ash, and most of the people in the village will catch the carriages, which is not tiring, and can also make a lot of money in this cold winter, the next morning, a large number of villagers gathered in the village square, some villagers in order to be able to receive double salaries, and even pull in the teenagers who had just participated in the coming-of-age ceremony this autumn.

According to the laws of the Green Empire, as long as you participate in the coming-of-age ceremony, you can no longer be considered a teenager, and you should be a new batch of young people.

However, this time the old village chief made another decision, which made some villagers unhappy, that is, all the young people in the village who did not serve in the military were not eligible to participate in the village road construction team.

He planned that after a short period of special training, the young people in the village could join the cavalry battalion prepared by Surdak, and even if the young people who failed to join the cavalry battalion, they should at least have some combat skills, so as not to throw them into the cannon fodder regiment without even thinking about it when they were in military service.

The old village chief's idea was very simple, he felt that no matter what, since it was a cavalry battalion prepared by Surdak, if the young people in the village could pass Surdak's approval and not ask for special attention, they could at least be treated equally, and ...... Cavalry battalion, this is cavalry, not the cannon fodder regiment of a hoplite regiment!

In the face of the dissatisfaction of some villagers, the old village chief quickly set up a road repair team in Vol Village, and on the same day, he drove more than 30 four-wheeled carriages along the first cement road in the barren land, deep into the area covered by the volcanic ash of Pubao Mountain, and continuously transported truckloads of volcanic ash to the planned new road.

As soon as the construction of Vol Village began, the villagers in the neighboring village ran to the old village chief and applied to join the road construction team.

In this regard, the old village chief refused with an iron heart, he braved the north wind and snow to transport volcanic ash to repair the road in the winter, the main reason is to find something to do for the people in the village, so as not to make the village noisy under their high energy, as for the chaos in other villages, he does not have the ability...... It's not his turn.

After thinking about it, the old village chief felt that it was those silver glitters that made these simple villagers change their faces.

The old village chief gathered some young people of school age in the village who did not serve in the military, and finally set up a temporary winter training team under the active call of the old village chief, in order to be able to actively participate, Surdak promised that the training team would provide free breakfast and lunch every day, and the recruitment of the training team was not limited to Wall Village, as long as the villagers who had not served in the military in the barren land could join.

Andrew and Samira were temporarily the instructors of the training team, they were not like Surdak who let those people in the militia camp go, they pulled the team of less than ten people into the freezing snow on the first day, let them run for their lives, until they vomited all the food in their stomachs, and finally collapsed in the snow from exhaustion.

The old village chief sighed slightly, and did not stop him, but just stood on the steps, turned his head and asked the other young people, "Which of you still wants to quit?" No matter who it is...... You can leave at any time. ”

The other seven young people were a little stronger-willed and gritted their teeth and did not choose to quit.

When the young people in the surrounding villages heard that a winter training team had been formed in the village of Wall, and that all members of the camp were provided with two free breakfasts and lunches, they asked the conditions for joining: 'As long as it is a barren land and young people who have not served in the military, they can participate without examination.' ’

So the next day, there were suddenly more than 50 young people who had not served in the military in the village of Wall, and Andrew led the team that day, this guy led the team to practice in the field, and the only goal was to make everyone run until they were exhausted and couldn't stand it, and no one would stop them from quitting directly.

It wasn't until the seventh day that no young people joined the training team, and these days, Andrew led this group of young people to run wild in the field almost every day......

It is said that the young man who can persevere in this kind of intense training will be able to receive Andrew's next teaching on several fighting postures.

In seven days, there were more than 150 young people gathered in the training team, and there was a chance to recruit so many young people at once, Surdak also did not expect that in the seemingly difficult environment, these young people's physical fitness was not bad, and their psychological quality was also very good, at least they were resolute enough.

……

While Andrew and Samira were busy training the young men in the village of Wall, Surdak made a special trip to the city of Highlandza.

Aphrodite returned to Highlandsa City with the carriage company's convoy, as well as the war horses brought from Bednar City, although there were only more than thirty horses, and Surdak also needed to make a special trip to Highlandsa City to pick them up, and Surdak was also ready to recruit a mercenary group in Highlandsa City, and those who had the courage to go into the desert with them to hunt down the bandits, and it was best to have an eagle eye who could deal with the complex terrain of the desert......

He didn't ride through the rugged oak forests of the mountain road, but Aphrodite happened to come to the city of Highlandsa and asked her to summon herself......

Lately, he seems to have gotten used to this convenient way of parachuting.

The top of the hill is already covered with snow, and the city of Hylanza, which sits on the mountainside, is also hidden in this mountain landscape.

When he walked out of the Void Gate, he gave Aphrodite a big hug, and said again and again: "All the way, all the way!" ”

Looking at Surdak who came out of the magic array, Aphrodite couldn't help but roll her eyes, and was not moved by Surdak's gratitude in the slightest......