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Back at the River Bend Settlement Camp, Leo reported the results of this trip to Ulyan.
"Not bad. At least we don't have to worry too much about these Wild folk taking advantage of the opportunity when we're away." Ulyan nodded. "During this period, train the militiamen first, get some equipment, and at the same time strengthen the vigilance on the other side of the river to prevent attacks from the Wild Boar Men. Well, you still have to keep an eye on the Wild folk."
"Okay." Leo had no objections.
Watching Leo's departing back, Ulyan sighed repeatedly. "Oh, he has really grown up."
The old man Rusev beside him knocked on his pipe and joked, "Then why don't you marry your daughter to him quickly? Have a grandson earlier!"
There was no tobacco left in his pipe. The tobacco of the Northern Region smokers all depends on their own cultivation. Rusev was no exception. The tobacco he brought from his hometown had already been smoked out on the way.
"Absolutely not! With what conditions does he want to marry my precious daughter?" Ulyan shook his head. Seeing Rusev smiling, he then asked, "If you had a daughter, would you dare to let her marry this brat?"
"No way! He's too muddled, too muddled." Rusev shook his head repeatedly as if avoiding a snake and scorpion.
But after a while, Rusev suddenly said again, "Olivia is really a good girl. It's a pity not to marry Leo."
Leaving aside the whispers of the old men in the camp, Leo also had a lot of things to do.
He had to continue to use food to lure and deceive the marmots to dig ditches, urge the militiamen to strengthen their training, and strictly deal with the problem of people defecating everywhere in the camp.
Especially the latter. For this reason, Leo also formed a Boy Scout team and ordered that if they saw anyone defecating randomly in or around the camp, they should secretly poke their butts with sticks.
Therefore, there were often angry yells from the men and boys and screams from the women in the camp.
When the militiamen were training, Leo would take out his yew longbow and practice archery under the envious gazes of the militiamen.
This two-meter-long yew longbow had a draw weight of nearly two hundred pounds. Even Leo, a young man with natural great strength, had to muster all his strength to draw the longbow, and he had to be careful not to sprain his tendons.
So at first, he only pulled the string to exercise his waist strength. It was not until his body got used to this kind of powerful bow that he tried to nock an arrow and shoot.
This kind of single-body longbow seemed simple, but in fact, it was difficult to make. To achieve such a high draw weight while ensuring practicality, the requirements for both material selection and craftsmanship increased exponentially.
Even among the yew trees that were abundant in the Wolf-Driving Plain, not every one of them could be made into a longbow of the quality in Leo's hand.
Moreover, its kinetic energy conversion was not excellent, almost at the bottom of all types of bows. It only emphasized pure brute force, so it was very demanding on the overall physical quality of the archer.
A strong young man like Leo, who was 1.8 meters tall, was more than qualified to be a third-level heavily - armored elite infantryman. However, to become a third-level imperial elite longbowman, he still needed to grow a bit more in height.
And when Ulyan saw Leo practicing archery, he would also give some guidance.
Although Ulyan was a sergeant of the heavily - armored infantry, there were also many imperial longbowmen in the Wind God Fort, and he often saw them training.
He also had a longbow himself, but the draw weight was far from being so high. Since his legs and feet became inconvenient, this longbow had already shot and killed many prey.
The shooting posture and force - exerting method of longbowmen were different from those of ordinary hunters. If no one taught them and they had to figure it out on their own, they would indeed have to take a lot of detours.
With Ulyan's guidance, Leo quickly became proficient in using the yew longbow. However, to reach the level of a Wilderness Hunter or an imperial longbowman, he still needed time to polish his skills.
The iron ore incessantly delivered by the kobolds were exchanged for food in Isonpol by using the small fishing boats provided by the Petukhov family, temporarily solving the food problem in the settlement camp.
And the appearance of Freya also freed up a large amount of labor.
She was not only good at digging canals. As long as it was heavy work that ordinary people couldn't handle, calling her would definitely do the trick.
She could slam into a rock weighing several tons with her forehead, shattering it into pieces, and then push the huge stones around as easily as rolling a snowball.
The stone foundation of the lord's mansion planned originally to be three - foot was also forcibly raised to two meters high.
But she was a bit of a rascal. Without someone watching and coaxing her, something could go wrong in no time.
Seizing this opportunity, Ulyan made a batch of shields and expanded the militia to fifty again.
Since there were no spare standard weapons, in addition to shields, the newly recruited militia still carried the single - handed axes and short spears they usually used.
Among the remaining able - bodied young men, another fifty were selected to serve as reserves and were told to participate in training with the militia.
As the food in the settlement camp was no longer in short supply, Olivia, under Ulyan's instructions, tried to give the villagers extra meals as much as possible. The villagers' complexions became rosy at a speed visible to the naked eye. At least they no longer looked like famished specters when they first arrived at the river bend.
Many able - bodied young villagers still had plenty of energy after a day's work. Instead of letting them fight or molest women, it was better to teach them how to fight properly.
Every evening, hundreds of militiamen and reserves would gather and conduct drills on the river beach. The grand scene provided people with a great sense of security.
When Leo was in the settlement camp, Little Mouse always liked to trail closely behind him, never leaving him for a moment.
If Leo wasn't around, Little Mouse would follow Olivia and work hard to help her out.
Influenced by Leo and Olivia, the other villagers' children were no longer so repelled by Little Mouse. At least when they were playing, if they noticed Little Mouse approaching quietly, they wouldn't scold, beat, or drive her away, but instead chose to ignore her.
But she was still the Little Mouse who was vigilant and afraid of any unfamiliar things. Most of the time, she liked to curl up in Leo's small tent and daydream, or go to the Small Fish Pond alone to catch fish.
Only when Leo teased her would she giggle ingratiatingly.
Now, although she still habitually hid the uneaten bread under the blanket, at least she no longer poured the unfinished porridge into her pocket.
When Freya came to the settlement camp, as the two silly ones under Leo, Little Mouse and Freya quickly became friends.
Freya was even willing to be a mount for Little Mouse and Olivia. She would take Olivia's twenty - six godchildren and carry them to explore the oak forest west of the settlement camp, driving out the evil kobolds there.
Wait! Why were there twenty - six?
Leo counted the kobold cubs in the house three times, picked out a few obviously malnourished ones, and then stared at Fisa and questioned, "Are you sure you didn't throw your sons in there?"
The Husky Kobold, who originally came to protest against the marmot's misbehavior, dodged his eyes and argued feebly, "They followed here by themselves!"
Then she summoned up her courage again and asked, "You said that adult kobolds can also come to the settlement?"
"Sure, just come on over. But only those who work get food!" Leo of course didn't care. Once they were in the camp, whether to kill, punish, or appease them, that was all up to Ulyan.
There were still too few laborers in the camp. With so much to do, there was a shortage of people everywhere.
Even if they were kobolds, if they could work, it wasn't a problem.
Fisa's eyes lit up as she started thinking about what kind of work her kobolds could do.