Fleet Arrival

This morning, at the camp's Drill Ground, Victor was organizing the guards' morning training. Feeling the itch to fight, he personally stepped in to spar with ten guards. This time, he had not activated the auxiliary combat system, yet relying on his own combat experience and skill, he still traded blows evenly with the men.

To the onlookers, Victor was agile, incredibly quick to react, and exceptionally precise in predicting combat movements. Surrounded by ten attackers, he parried calmly and constantly shifted position, avoiding being caught in the pincer attack of more than three opponents. Whenever soldiers tried to close in as a group, he used the shield strapped to his left arm to deliver a heavy shield bash. With his monstrous strength, he sent the foremost soldier sprawling.

Victor wielded an iron rod in his right hand. Though it was meant to simulate a one-handed sword, what kind of one-handed sword was heavier than a two-handed sword? Taking advantage of the rod's weight, Victor's strikes carried enormous force. The other soldiers found it extremely difficult to block his attacks on their own; without their teammates' help, they would be struck within a few exchanges. Two soldiers even had their wooden practice swords smashed apart.

Compared to the guards' clumsy performance, Victor's display combined power with grace. The surrounding soldiers continuously cheered for him. Victor, however, was beginning to feel a hint of exhaustion. Physically, he was fine, but maintaining constant focus—observing his opponents' movements, analyzing their next actions, and making predictions—was truly tiring without the auxiliary combat system's help.

Victor immediately pulled back, tossed the iron rod to the ground, and signaled for the fight to stop. The ten guards also threw down their weapons, and several simply collapsed onto the ground. It was clear that they had been under tremendous pressure as well.

The watching soldiers erupted into cheers again. A commander with formidable martial skill, one who could charge into battle while also caring deeply for his soldiers, treating them with approachability and fairness in both rewards and punishments, could easily earn their recognition and loyalty.

Victor quickly waved his hands, signaling for everyone not to get too excited. He then gave the ten men a brief breakdown of the fight, pointing out some of their issues and analyzing their movements. He also praised their performance. Finally, he instructed the quartermaster to give them an extra meal at noon and let them take the afternoon off to rest.

After finishing all that, Victor left the military camp. Today, he chose to go to Sea Song Town. First, he had not visited Sea Song Town for several days and wanted to see how things were going there. At present, Sea Song Town only had Engineering Team Two, half a squad of infantry, and more than two hundred herding slaves. The engineering team had been continuously constructing and improving the town's docks, storage yards, and other facilities. Second, it had been nineteen days since the fleet departed for its return to Bole County. By his calculations, it should be back soon, so Victor planned to personally wait for the fleet's return at Sea Song Town.

Before leaving, he briefly met with Powell and the other stewards, urging them on regarding several key tasks. It was already October 3. In previous years, the North's first snowfall usually arrived near the end of October. Victor demanded that construction of winter housing be accelerated and that enough houses to shelter everyone through the winter be completed by the end of October.

Victor knew that even though he had reduced the difficulty of house construction to the lowest possible level, the shortage of manpower still constrained every project's progress. But he did not want to see a winter in which eight hundred or a thousand people died, so he could only make Powell and the others use their own initiative to solve the problems.

Fortunately, the returning fleet would resolve quite a few issues. Besides bringing a thousand serfs, it would also bring a large quantity of tools, as well as the most important things: the craftsmen and equipment from the Weaponry Workshop. The lack of sufficient production tools was another major factor hindering the territory's development. Furthermore, because the number and skill level of craftsmen were limited, many tools Victor had designed through the Calculation Module could not be manufactured. The Weaponry Workshop's relocation would help him produce those tools as quickly as possible.

Victor took some guards and rode directly toward Sea Song Town rather than taking a troop transport ship. This also gave him a chance to inspect the brickworks, charcoal plant, and logging camp along the way.

At present, troop transports were mainly used to move personnel and supplies between the north and south banks of the Great Fish River. Ten watchtowers had been established on the north bank, with ten soldiers stationed in each, primarily archers and crossbowmen. They rotated every ten days. The ten watchtowers alone tied down one of Victor's infantry squads and half of his archer and crossbowman force.

Fortunately, Victor had Knight Jack organize scouting teams to patrol an area roughly a hundred kilometers across on the north bank. So far, they had found no signs of activity from new barbarian tribes. Once winter came, no new tribes would migrate here either. They would probably have a relatively peaceful winter.

Victor followed the river toward the brickworks. From time to time, he saw rafts loaded with bricks being hauled upstream by oxen and horses along the riverbank. After communicating with Black Pine Territory, they had increased their purchases of Black Oil Pine lumber. Every two days, a batch of four thousand logs of light teak arrived, mixed with a shipment of Black Oil Pine timber. This had now basically met the brickworks' needs and raised the scale of trade between Two Rivers Territory and Black Pine Territory to more than seven hundred gold coins. If Victor went to Black Pine Territory now, he would certainly be treated as an honored guest. Even Markut's father, the Viscount of Black Pine Territory, would probably personally receive him.

Victor soon arrived at the brickworks. Seeing the orderly operation there, he did not stay long. After offering Jimmy a few words of encouragement, he left directly. The brickworks' monthly output could now reach 1.2 million bricks, enough to meet the territory's construction needs. All newly built homes in the territory had already adopted the distinctive brick-and-timber housing design Victor had created earlier.

Victor then arrived at the charcoal plant. Earlier, after the Black Oil Pine timber began arriving, work at the charcoal plant had nearly come to a halt. This was because Black Oil Pine burned even better directly as fuel than ordinary charcoal, and the brickworks no longer wanted the charcoal produced by the plant. Later, Victor instructed the charcoal plant to make charcoal from Black Oil Pine. Through experimentation, they produced a charcoal with very peculiar properties. Aside from its relatively low hardness, it was practically the finest coke in every other regard. The Calculation Module's results indicated that this charcoal was highly suitable for iron and steel smelting.

Victor simply ordered the charcoal plant to focus on producing this type of charcoal and store it away for use as smelting material when they built small blast furnaces later.

This time, Victor did not disturb them much either. After reminding the steward to pay attention to fire prevention and workplace safety, he left directly.

The logging camp was much more normal. Though light teak was highly suitable as construction material, many places needed all kinds of timber with different properties. Therefore, the logging camp had been operating steadily all along. Victor merely made a quick round before continuing toward Sea Song Town.

At around four in the afternoon, Victor finally reached the outskirts of Sea Song Town. After leading his men over a gentle slope, he spotted the town's docks from afar. A fleet of more than twenty ships was docking beside the pier—the very fleet returning from Bole County. It appeared that they had just arrived at Sea Song Town as well.