Fleet Arrives

This morning, on the training grounds of the camp, Victor was organizing the morning drills for the Royal Guard. He felt the urge to spar and personally entered the field to spar with 10 of the guards. This time, he didn't activate his auxiliary combat system. Relying on his own combat experience and skills, he was able to hold his own against the guards.

In the eyes of onlookers, Victor's movements were agile, his reactions extremely fast, and his combat predictions incredibly accurate. In the midst of being surrounded by ten men, he calmly parried, constantly shifting his position to avoid being trapped by three or more attackers. Whenever a soldier tried to close in as a group, he would use the arm shield on his left hand to deliver a heavy shield bash. With his monstrous strength, he would directly push the leading soldier to the ground.

Victor was using an iron rod in his right hand. Although it was meant to simulate a one-handed sword, who ever heard of a one-handed sword heavier than a two-handed sword? Relying on the weight advantage of the iron rod, Victor's attacks were incredibly powerful. The other soldiers found it extremely difficult to block Victor's attacks. Without the help of their teammates, they would be hit within a few moves. Two soldiers even had their wooden swords broken.

Compared to the clumsy performance of the guards, Victor's movements were a blend of strength and grace. The surrounding soldiers continuously cheered for Victor. At this moment, Victor felt a slight fatigue. Physically, he was fine, but he had been concentrating intensely, observing his opponents' actions, analyzing their next moves to predict them. Without the help of the auxiliary combat system, relying on himself was truly exhausting.

Victor directly retreated, throwing the iron rod to the ground and signaling a stop to the spar. The 10 Royal Guard soldiers also dropped their weapons one after another. A few of them even collapsed onto the ground, indicating the immense pressure they had endured.

The watching soldiers erupted in cheers once more. A general who was skilled in combat and could charge into battle, while also being caring towards his soldiers, approachable, and fair in his rewards and punishments, would easily win the soldiers' approval and loyalty.

Victor quickly waved his hands, signaling everyone not to get too excited. Afterward, Victor provided a combat debriefing for the 10 soldiers, pointing out some of their issues, helping them analyze their movements, and affirming their performance. Finally, he arranged for the logistics officer to give them an extra meal at noon and let them have the afternoon off to rest.

After finishing these tasks, Victor left the military camp. Today, he chose to go to Sea Song Town. Firstly, he hadn't visited Sea Song Town for several days and wanted to check on the situation there. Currently, only Engineering Team Two, half a squad of infantry, and over 200 herdsman slaves were stationed in Sea Song Town. The engineering team had been continuously working on improving facilities like the dock and storage yard in Sea Song Town. Secondly, it was time to calculate. It had been 19 days since the fleet returned to Bole County, and they should be back soon. Victor planned to personally go to Sea Song Town to await the fleet's return.

Before leaving, he briefly met with Powell and other stewards to urge them on some key tasks. It was already October 3rd, and the first snow of winter in the Northern Frontier usually arrived by the end of October. Victor demanded that the construction of winter housing be expedited and that houses capable of accommodating people through the winter must be completed by the end of October.

Victor knew that even though the difficulty of house construction had been reduced to the lowest possible level, the shortage of manpower had always been a constraint on all construction progress. However, Victor did not want to see a situation where thousands of people died during the winter, so he could only let Powell and the others use their initiative to solve the difficulties.

Fortunately, the return of the fleet this time would solve many problems. Besides bringing back 1,000 serfs, it would also bring a large number of tools, and most importantly, craftsmen and equipment from the armory. The lack of sufficient production tools was also a significant reason hindering the progress of the territory's construction. Coupled with the limited number and skill of craftsmen, Victor's designed tools, which he had designed through the calculation module, could not be manufactured. The relocation of the armory this time would help him complete the manufacturing of these tools as quickly as possible.

Victor took some of the Royal Guard and rode directly to Sea Song Town, choosing not to take a troop transport ship. This allowed him to inspect the brick factory, charcoal factory, and logging camp along the way.

Currently, the troop transport ships were mainly used for personnel and supplies on the north and south banks of the Great Fish River. Ten watchtowers had been established on the north bank, with 10 soldiers stationed in each watchtower, primarily crossbowmen. They rotated every 10 days. These ten watchtowers alone required one infantry squad and half of the crossbowmen force for Victor.

Fortunately, Victor had asked Knight Jack to organize scouting parties to patrol the area within about a hundred kilometers of the north bank. So far, no signs of new Barbarian tribal activities had been discovered. No new tribes would migrate in after winter, so they could probably have a relatively peaceful winter.

Victor walked along the river towards the brick factory. He could occasionally see rafts loaded with bricks being pulled upstream by oxen and horses along the riverbank. After communicating with Black Pine Territory, they increased their procurement of Black Oil Pine lumber. Every two days, 4,000 pieces of light yew wood would be accompanied by a batch of Black Oil Pine lumber. This was now sufficient to meet the brick factory's needs, and the trade volume between Two Rivers Territory and Black Pine Territory had reached over 700 gold coins. Now, if Victor were to visit Black Pine Territory, he would surely be a welcomed guest, and even the Viscount of Black Pine Territory, Markut's father, would personally greet him.

Victor soon arrived at the brick factory. Seeing the orderly operation of the factory, Victor did not stay long. After offering a few words of encouragement to Jimmy, he left directly. The brick factory's monthly output could now reach 1.2 million bricks, which was sufficient for the territory's construction. The newly built civilian houses in the territory had already been replaced with the characteristic brick and wood structures designed by Victor.

Afterward, Victor arrived at the charcoal factory. Previously, due to the arrival of Black Oil Pine lumber, the charcoal factory's work had almost come to a standstill. This Black Oil Pine burned even better than ordinary charcoal as fuel, and the brick factory no longer needed charcoal produced by the charcoal factory. Later, Victor guided the charcoal factory to produce charcoal from Black Oil Pine. Through experimentation, they produced a type of charcoal with very strange properties. Except for its lower hardness, it was otherwise the best coke. The calculation module's analysis indicated that this charcoal was very suitable for iron and steel smelting.

Victor then ordered the charcoal factory to focus on producing this type of charcoal and storing it for later use in building small blast furnaces as smelting raw materials.

This time, Victor did not linger. After reminding the steward to pay attention to fire prevention and safe production, he left directly.

The logging camp was operating normally. Although light yew wood was very suitable for building materials, many places required various types of lumber with different properties, so the logging camp's work had been stable. Victor only made a brief round before continuing his journey to Sea Song Town.

Around 4 PM, Victor finally arrived at the outskirts of Sea Song Town. After he and his men crossed a gentle slope, they saw the dock of Sea Song Town in the distance. A fleet of over twenty ships was docking around the pier. It was the fleet returning from Bole County, and it seemed they had just arrived at Sea Song Town.