From Wenden Harbour all the way to the Wood family's territory, if the weather is good, it only takes six or seven days to ride a horse.

However, there is always a bit of a deviation between the actual situation and the theory, and it is obviously not only unpleasant to spend the night in the wild, but also not very safe. That's why both chose to leave in the morning, both to have more time to spend the night in as far away villages and towns as possible, and then set off the next morning.

After the snow melted, some sections of the road were still a little muddy, and it took two days after the two of them set off to re-embark on the relatively solid road, and a thin layer of mud shells formed on the outside of the cloak. It took another six days of walking between villages and towns along the way before returning to Wood Town in the evening of the ninth day.

Like most settlements, Wood Town was located close to a water source, in a valley surrounded by low hills. The width of the river is about ten meters, and it is not wide to say wide, but it is not easy to pass.

When Old Wood was young, the town developed on one side of the river alone, and to cross the river had to go around a large circle from the shallow water upstream, or choose between swimming and boating.

In order to make full use of the land on the other side of the river, Old Wood, who hated this, took the remaining stones to build a stone bridge over the river in addition to building the castle, which was really a convenient project for the people.

Now Ryan and Kraft were crossing the stone bridge, and they were going through the town to the castle on the hill behind.

The location of the castle is very comfortable. The low hill behind the town has a gentle slope on the side facing Wood Town and the river, and a steep cliff on the back, which greatly reduces the amount of work behind it when defending against frontal enemies who climb from an upward angle.

At the same time, this small slope will bring a very uncomfortable experience when someone is attacking, and it will consume physical strength and eliminate the possibility of charging upward, but the defender can go down when the form is reversed, and accumulate momentum that can pick people away in a short distance.

Over the course of thirty years, Old Wood cleared the trees from the top of the slope, enclosed a wooden wall with timber as a transition, built a stout tower against the cliff as the main body of the castle, and built demolible wooden buildings such as stables, workshops, and kitchens around the tower.

This phase lasted more than a decade and accounted for half of the entire project, which was until around the time of Kraft's birth, when the Wood family's castle was surrounded by wooden walls.

The long construction period was mainly due to economic conditions and practical considerations. Although the territory theoretically included Wood Town and several small villages around it, and the economy was decent among the minor nobles, a newly established family was not the only expense, and Old Wood also had to buy some property for the old men who came back with him, and the descendants of these people would also serve the Wood family.

Woodtown is not a military stronghold, and a family castle can effectively protect against various risks, but it must have this risk to play its role. Even if there is a war one day, no one will bother to divide an army to attack here, and it is almost enough to send an emissary to symbolically receive the surrender of the lord.

It wasn't until the time came, or when Old Wood felt that the family's financial situation had improved, that the Wood family began to dismantle the wooden fence and replace it with a real stone curtain wall.

The small amount of work allowed Old Wood to stubbornly increase the height of the curtain wall to more than three meters, which, combined with the concave and convex battlements in the wall, would be useful when the Krafts could save enough crossbows and bows.

The outbuildings, which had been repaired over a period of more than a decade, were replaced by expanded towers, and gradually merged into a solid fortress with a section of towers. At this point, the entire castle has completely matured, and it has become a disgusting thing that is not easy to fight and does not need to fight, which is very suitable as a family inheritance to rely on.

As Kraft grew older, the castle had paved the road from the gate to the town with gravel in recent years, thus saving many horses and vehicles from skidding.

Kraft and Ryan followed the zigzag path upward, the setting sun slowly sinking behind the castle, casting the elongated shadows of the buildings onto the gently sparsely wooded slopes. Its future enemies will be covered in its shadow every evening, preparing their hard-to-push siege gear on the ramps, guarding against the heavy rolling stones that fall on them.

Rao is the soul of the other world also sighed that this thing was powerful in the era of cold weapons, and when the water and food reserves were sufficient, it would take several times as many manpower to besiege such a stone complex.

Don't even think of moving large siege engines here, the stone bridge over the river below will be destroyed during the war, and it will be troublesome for people to come over. The equipment made by logging on the spot will also be difficult to push against the ramp. Then go to the front of the castle to face a militia led by professional armed forces, which is the ultimate torture.

That's right, in times of peace, the Wood family still has an armed force out of production. Although it is true that there are not many, there are only a dozen or twenty people, mainly from old comrades-in-arms and old fellows who retired with Old Wood.

When Old Wood developed, they also shared the surrounding industries, and they were also people who liked to train their juniors from an early age, and formed professional soldiers with family traditions.

The people that Kraft's father brought to the battlefield were such a group of "personal soldiers" as his entourage, and then some improvised militia were brought in to fill the number, and a small army came out. In the end, it was pure bad luck to suffer, not the poor level of these people who had been trained since childhood.

In Kraft's generation, there were also young people of the same generation who were trained in the castle, but most of these people had to defend the castle for the rest of their lives and had no chance to make a fortune on the battlefield.

In the dim sky, you can see a fire flickering at the entrance of the castle, which is the torch held by the guard in charge of the night's watch. You can faintly hear the clanging of metals.

"John? Or George? Don't close the door yet! "No, I don't want to wait outside for you to fiddle with that damn winch." ”

"Aha, it's our little baron back!" There was laughter from the other side of the door, and the metal clashing stopped, and a young face poked out of the wall with a torch, "Come in." ”

"I'll warn you one last time, George, there's only one baron here!" Kraft had a good relationship with these young men, after all, they had been trained by Old Wood together, and the country nobles did not have so much etiquette to speak of, "Am I without a name?" ”

Ryan and Kraft took the horses to the stables, and found Old Wood and Anderson enjoying dinner in the dining room. Under the candlelight, the long table is lined with bread, soup, and homemade sausages from the castle, and the gray-haired old man and the somewhat balding middle-aged man sit at the table, and the atmosphere is like a public service announcement on TV caring for empty nesters.

"My dear Craft, you're back, and Anderson and I are talking about you." The burly old man put down the bread in his hand and welcomed his grandson warmly, "And Ryan, come and sit down, you must be hungry." ”

……

……

"So you still didn't see that person in the end?" When the two of them had eaten and drunk enough, and Ryan remembered to take out the stone hand, Old Wood suddenly remembered what was going on with Kraft going out.

It's been almost a month since this trip, and from the snow to the snow, it feels like half of the winter has passed, and if it weren't for Ryan bringing back the gifts, maybe everyone would have forgotten about it.

"Indeed, he was just an unskilled liar who burned his hands and died before we could reach the port of Wenden." Kraft clasped his hands around and expressed his helplessness, "It's not as interesting as what Cousin Ryan bought, at least this hand won't burn itself." ”

"Haha, indeed." Anderson took the hand from Old Wood's hand, and looked through it but didn't see a reason, "But this looks really interesting, did the seller say where it came from?" ”

"I didn't say it, but I don't think it looks like something in North." Ryan's face didn't change, "If you want to say something interesting, it's up to Kraft, you guys can't think of what happened." He sold it, but the smile on his face couldn't be hidden.

"It can't be that Kraft was accepted into Wendenport College, right?" Old Wood guessed in the most unlikely direction, as usual, and this outrageous guess made Anderson laugh.

“……”

“……”

"What's the matter, why don't you speak? What is so interesting about it that is so mysterious? The sudden silence caused Anderson to stop laughing, thinking that he was laughing out of place.