Lord Highlander

The old village head, Brett, was sitting in the living room. He was resisted by the northern rebels in the summer. He suffered some injuries. Although his leg injury has healed now, once he gets old, it is difficult to leave when he picks up a walking stick. opened.

He was stroking the yew-wood cane in his hand, chatting with old Sheila about trivial matters in the village.

This winter, the head of Bright Village no longer has to worry about the villagers not having enough to eat and the roof of the house they live in was blown off by the snowstorm, but there are still many trivial matters. It is probably because there is some spare money in hand, the house can withstand the wind and snow, and the granary at home is full of wheat. Population boom.

Many villagers used to have insufficient food and clothing. At that time, they had to worry about getting enough food every day. Instead, everyone would be polite to each other. At that time, no matter who was in trouble, they could extend a hand to help.

But now everyone is free at once, and they all escape the cold winter by the fireplace in the house. Except for two meals a day, there is only something to do in bed after nightfall. Life becomes boring and there will inevitably be some grievances and conflicts. Every day The noisy ones were either family disputes or conflicts among neighbors, which made the old village head Brett a little tired of coping.

At this time in previous years, the men in the village didn't know which forest farm they were transporting wood in!

'A group of idlers who are bored, we must find something to do for them. ’ That’s how the old village chief Brett thought.

It's just that with the arrival of winter, the earth is blocked by ice and snow, and there are not many things that can be done in winter.

This is also the reason why Village Chief Bright couldn't wait to find Suldak.

Seeing Suldak coming down from the second floor wearing a set of clean leather armor, old Sheila raised her head, looked at Suldak with her cloudy eyes, and looked at Suldak calmly: "Oh ,You're back!"

"I saw you sleeping just now, so I didn't wake you up!" Suldak walked down the stairs, stood beside old Sheila, and hugged her.

"I'm going to see little Peter, you can talk here!" Seeing Suldak rushing over, old Sheila stood up tremblingly and walked slowly towards her room.

Suldak sat opposite the village chief Brett, and asked the old village chief, "Uncle Brett, is everything okay in the village recently?"

"Fortunately, once everyone is free, there will always be someone who seems restless." After the old village chief said this, the quarrels among the boring villagers emerged in his mind, and he smiled indifferently , those boring quarrels have been resolved under my own suppression.

Village Chief Brett asked casually, "Did you go out this time and everything went well?"

Suldak glanced at Andrew and Samira who were waiting on the side, and said casually: "I have gained a lot from going out this time, that is, the establishment of the militia battalion and cavalry battalion needs to be completed as soon as possible. The news is that there may be some actions on the Bena Province tomorrow spring, and some frequent mobilization of barracks in various places. The law and order in the barren land is already very bad. The line of defense is even more fragile. I want to arm the militia in the barren land as soon as possible. This part of the ordnance will come from the city of Hailansa. The soldiers may have very strict requirements on the physical strength, skills and tactics of the villagers. The militia battalion has developed a group of archers, as long as they can hold a bow and crossbow, they can build an effective defense system in each village."

He paused, and then said: "According to the order of the upper echelons of Bena Province, I have to prepare a cavalry battalion in a short time. As for the cavalry, I want to go to the villages to recruit. The biggest difference between the cavalry battalion and the militia battalion That is, I need some veterans with rich combat experience, whether they can ride horses or not is secondary, but they must have rich combat experience, Uncle Brett, do you think I can recruit enough men in the barren land?"

"Ah, is there going to be a war?" Hearing what Suerdak said, the old village head asked in surprise.

Suldak shook his head slightly, and said, "That's not true, but the plane wars have never stopped. I will be stationed on the plane with the army next year, and I'm afraid I will stay there for a while."

"You want to recruit some cavalry. There should be some people in our village who are capable, but definitely not too many."

Only then did the old village head know that after becoming a nobleman, he still has the responsibility to defend the territory of the empire. In fact, everything has two sides. Being able to participate in the war of the plane is also an excellent opportunity to earn military merits, and it seems that this mission It's not difficult, it's just a plane garrison.

Suldak continued: "So... Uncle Brett still needs you to manage this side of the village. I can't take care of this side. Not only that, we also need to build a team that is strong enough to guard the barren land after I leave the barren land. The militia battalion in the land can at least resist the bandit group coming from the desert, and Bena Province may not be too peaceful recently, I just hope that the chaos will not spread here."

After hearing what Suldak said, the old village head Brett asked, "What's the plan for next spring? The reservoir has been built, so don't worry about not being able to grow crops during the dry season in spring and summer. Will we continue to develop the tidal flats?" ?”

At this time, Rita came out from the kitchen with a pot of lemon tea, made steaming hot tea for everyone, and brought some pastries before sitting down. She also wanted to hear about the plans for Wall Village next year.

Suldak said: "Of course, but while developing tidal flats, it is actually reducing the area of ​​swampy depressions. In this way, when the rainy season comes, without well-developed drainage channels, those tidal flats will be washed away by floods. Therefore, drainage He has to dig wide enough."

"With this year's experience, it is actually not a problem to develop some tidal flats." said the old village chief Brett. "There's something I've been wanting to discuss with you!"

"...You said." Suerdak knew that this was the purpose of the old village chief's coming here.

The old village chief rubbed his wrinkled forehead with his hands, pondered for a while before saying: "Recently, everyone in the village may have lost the pressure of life and can't find a place to vent their excess energy, so I thought I should find them Something to do, recently those kobold slaves in the village were taken by Luke to build roads, I wondered if I could organize a road repair team in the village, so that everyone could be busy..."

"Are you planning to form a road construction team composed of villagers?" Surdak asked in surprise.

In fact, even if the old village chief didn't say anything about it, he still planned to do it.

"That's what happened." The old village chief nodded and admitted, "I plan to let them take a rest on the mountain road from Wall Village to Hailansa."

In the opinion of the old village chief Brett, the Oak Ridge is separated from High Lansa City and the barren land. Nesting in the village, it is better to find something for the villagers to do.

But in this way, the village will have to bear the cost of road construction, and provide free three meals a day and salary to the villagers. This part is not so much borne by Wall Village, but rather Suldak pays for it himself. Sulfur mines that can be exchanged for gold coins in the warehouse in Wall Village are strictly speaking Suldak's private property.

"Would it be too hard to build a road in such a cold day? It's freezing to go to Oak Ridge to dig stones..." Suldak didn't continue.

In fact, what he wanted to say was: 'Kobold slaves don't do such hard work...'

"It's okay. At this time of the year, I would take everyone to the icy and snowy ravines to cut logs, and then transport those giant logs out to get a little wages. Road construction is easier than transporting logs anyway. Some." The old village chief Brett smiled freely.

He has lived in the barren land for so many years, what kind of hardship has he never suffered...

Speaking of this matter, I can only blame Suldak for treating the kobold slaves too well.

The old village chief said with emotion: "I'm thinking that the barren land is located in the remote northwest area of ​​Hailansa City. Because the road leading to Hailansa City is not smooth, every year there are school-age children who miss a year." It was an awakening ceremony. For so many years, no child in the barren land has awakened the magic pool and became a magician noble. If this road can be repaired, and there are so many carriages in the village, maybe there will be no more children. Missed the awakening ceremony."

Now that there have been three heavy snowfalls, the conditions on the side of Oak Ridge have become extremely harsh. Suldak thought that if there were any accidents during the road construction, it would not be worth the loss.

He thought for a while and said to the old village head Brett: "Otherwise, we will change the goal and let the road construction team in the village build roads in the barren land. I want to connect all the natural villages in the barren land with cement roads." Together, so that once a village is attacked by desert bandits, it will be convenient for us to rush to rescue."

The old village chief couldn't turn his head around a bit. He stared at Suldak and said, "Building roads in the barren land... The flat land here is all barren land. Where is the need to build a special road?"

In fact, as the old village chief said, the barren land is adjacent to Oak Ridge in the south and the Pagros Mountains in the north. Large sand dunes are gradually spreading from the northwest corner to the barren land, but there are no mountains in the barren land. , and even the hills are huge and extremely gentle slopes, only in the center of the barren land is a large rift valley running from east to west.

The old village chief couldn't figure out why Suerdak wanted to build a road on the flat wasteland. Couldn't he go without a road?

Suldak leaned over and pushed away the tea tray on the tea table in front of him, then dipped his finger in the teacup for a little water, drew a simple outline of the barren land on the table, and then drew a few simple lines with water. A few small biscuits and teacups were placed on the waterline, and he pointed to the teacup and said, "This cup represents the outpost, and this biscuit represents the bridge..."

The old village chief Brett looked at the table with a confused expression.

Suldak continued to explain: "The road network I am talking about is not a pure concrete road, but also includes a series of additional facilities such as lookout posts, checkpoints and bridges, at least to allow cavalry to cross the Great Rift Valley The camels of the desert bandits are more suitable for the Gobi desert in the barren land, and if we want the militia battalion to have enough mobility, we must have enough four-wheeled carriages to pull them. I hope that no matter which natural village in the barren land is destroyed by the desert bandits Attacking the village, the militia battalion can arrive at the scene within half a day..."

The old village head did not expect that Suerdak would have such a huge road construction plan.

"In fact, building roads in the barren land is not as difficult as imagined. Just spread volcanic ash, sprinkle water, and compact it with stones, and it will become a smooth concrete road..." Surdak continued to tell the old village chief Talk about your initial thoughts.

"So you already have these plans!" Andrew, who had been sitting quietly listening to the two talking, couldn't help interjecting: "Recently, desert bandits are harassing villages on the edge of the desert again, although Gulitum and I went there We blocked the desert bandits a few times, but as soon as they saw us, they ran away from a distance, and they didn't dare to contact us at all. Our horsemanship is not as good as them, as long as we let them enter the desert, it will be even more difficult to catch up..."

Andrew glanced at the half-elf archer beside him: "Recently, we are worrying about these desert bandits, so you have already thought of a series of methods against them!"

"Expand the militia battalion, train the archer regiment, recruit veterans to form a cavalry battalion, build roads throughout the barren land, use the convenience of a four-wheeled carriage to transport the combat power of the militia battalion, and set up checkpoints in the barren land. It's all about those desert robbers!" Andrew said excitedly.

After hearing what Andrew said, the village head of Brett realized that building roads in the barren land would bring many benefits, so he didn't say anything more.

He just wanted some energetic villagers to have something to do, and it was relatively easier to build roads in the barren land.

"What? Those desert robbers are making trouble again?" Suldak raised his eyebrows and asked.

Andrew looked a little depressed and said: "Yeah, at the beginning, Gulitum and I were able to stop one or two unlucky desert bandits, but later they became alert and couldn't catch them no matter what. Besides a group of camels, we can only hang a few fresh heads on the cross at the mountain pass, and let the desert robbers escape into the depths of the desert again.”

Tomorrow spring, Suldak will leave the barren land with the cavalry battalion. If these desert robbers cannot be properly dealt with, I am afraid it will be a real problem. Even if a militia battalion with archers is formed, it may not be able to survive these robbers.

Suldak rubbed his temples in distress, and said: "It seems...we must find a way to deal with these desert bandits. Let me think about it. The best scouts in the desert should be eagle-eyed archers. I will go to Hailan Go around Shacheng to see if you can hire a mercenary group with eagle eyes. If not, you should hire a magician. In any case, we have to sweep these oases on the edge of the desert. !"

"It should have been like this a long time ago! I can bear this tone for a long time..." Andrew waved his fist excitedly, and said to Samira beside him.