Unknown Knight

The next morning, all the caravan members and their families gathered in the backyard of the warehouse. Old John and X mobilized everyone to migrate, saying that they had found a better livelihood in the city of Sagos, which was better than here. They would be given houses and jobs when they got there. The reason why they called it Sagos was that X and Old John had agreed on it before. It was a smokescreen deliberately spread to confuse outsiders and hide the location of the valley.

Fortunately, as expected, the families all agreed to migrate, mainly because this trip paid several times the original wages, which was the best persuasive force. In addition, Aix's promises were very successful and persuasive. After all, he had eaten a lot of this kind of things in his original world and had experience with it.

Everyone packed up in just one morning. The lower class people of that era were almost destitute. They took away all the bottles and cans and barely filled up three trucks. The empty truck was loaded with the olive oil that Aix had just bought. The Grans caravan lost money selling olive oil in Tiha, and the price of olive oil in Suno City had lost confidence and fell sharply. No one stopped the caravan from purchasing olive oil. Aix believed that when the stock of olive oil in the Nord Kingdom was tight, the price would definitely soar, so he simply stocked up some now that he had sufficient funds.

At noon, more than 40 people ate porridge at the warehouse. After the meal, they did not stop and left Sunuo City with their families.

At the same time, after discussing with Old John, Aix decided that Old John, Manide and the other three old men would stay in the warehouse in Suno City. First, because Old John's leg had not yet fully recovered, he should not move around and needed to continue to recover. Second, in order to sell the goods that the caravan had brought from the Kingdom of Nord, the warehouse still had some inventory that needed to be processed. So Old John stayed to preside over the business and could use his old relationship in Suno City to smoothly achieve this goal. Manide, who had business experience, was also left to assist him. Before leaving, Aix also told Manide to take advantage of the low price of olive oil and quietly buy some and stockpile it.

Before leaving the city, suspicious people took advantage of their acquaintance to come over and talk to the caravan members. Fortunately, they were well prepared. After getting the information they wanted, these people secretly blended into the crowd to report it. There was no obstruction, and the group left the city smoothly.

These free people in towns were almost the same as refugees, almost destitute, without roots or affiliations. No one regarded them as subjects of the territory. Even if the lords wanted to collect taxes from them, they could not collect a few copper coins because they simply did not have any. Instead, they considered them a burden on the territory, wasting the food produced by the territory, and they wished they would migrate elsewhere.

But Aix knew that the olive oil business was involved, so he didn't dare to be careless. He always had a bad feeling in his heart. He kept urging everyone to hurry up. When they were camping at night, the four trucks couldn't form a car array to accommodate everyone. Aix had people cut sharpened wooden stakes to block the gaps in the car array, and everyone rested in the car array. The night watchmen were also doubled, and they all held crossbows with strings, which could be said to be on high alert.

Fortunately, nothing happened. Everyone arrived at the entrance of the valley on the road the next afternoon, cleared the traces of the road, and waited for everyone to enter the Black Forest. Aix was still worried, so he asked Desevi, who came to meet them, to lead two people to lurk on the road to warn. It was not until everyone walked for another hour and entered the valley that Aix's heart was at peace.

That night, more than fifty people, young and old, held a grand bonfire party in front of the cave. Three newly bought large iron pots were cooking full of Northeastern stew. A whole wild boar that Desevi had just shot in the morning was roasting on the bonfire. Various seasonal vegetables and fruits were piled on the table. The whole valley was filled with the tempting aroma of food. Everyone drank beer and laughed at each other. Young men and women danced and sang around the bonfire, and children ran back and forth in the arms of their relatives, as if this place had become a carefree utopia for everyone.

Axe was drinking beer with Yamila beside him, when suddenly a figure hurriedly came and broke the sea of ​​joy in front of the bonfire. The whole valley suddenly became quiet. The person was Desevi who was on duty. She brought Axe a piece of news that made everyone's backs chill: a team of fully armed cavalry passed by the secret sentry post and went towards the direction of Tiha city. There were about 20 riders.

Everyone then realized Mr. Axe's foresight. If it weren't for his repeated urging, which sped up the convoy's journey, everyone might have died in the camping area tonight.

Aix also understood that the reason why he had not encountered the ambush cavalry before was that the other party wanted to be safe and protect their reputation. They wanted to kill people in a place far away from Suno City at night to silence them. He couldn't help but secretly thanked his luck.

While everyone was here, Aix decided to make good use of the educational significance of this incident. He stood on a large rock in the middle of the cave, glanced at everyone, and shouted angrily:

"My fellow villagers have seen that we are merchants who live in the open air, exposed to the sun and rain, just to have enough food to eat and to keep our elderly and children from starving to death. But now they are trying to deny us even this request. They are refusing to give us a way out!"

"Yes, yes!" "Fight them!" "Kill them!" "Fight them, the worst that can happen is that I die!"...

The crowd of men, women, young and old was in an uproar, all filled with indignation. When the atmosphere had almost reached its climax, Aix laid his hands on everyone to quiet them down, then said loudly:

"Since they won't let us live, we have nothing to fear. Although we are not as strong as them now, we are not afraid. When we make money from business and buy good weapons and armor, we will fight them! So before we become strong, we must keep the secret of the valley, secretly make money and grow stronger, and we must not attract the enemy. Young people should not slack off in daily training, otherwise you will not be able to use weapons well in the future. In addition, do not fall behind in sentry duty day and night, understand?"

Everyone responded in unison, "I understand." Axe explained some more details and then asked everyone to go back and rest early. What should have been a joyful banquet ended in such a hasty and disappointing way.

Aix called Fatis, Catherine and other core personnel to a meeting to discuss the specific division of labor. The meeting decided that Fatis would be responsible for the training of combatants, Desevi would be responsible for sentry and early warning, Catherine and Yamila would be responsible for logistics support and snow salt processing, and the leader Aix would be in charge of coordination and support.

Cress, who was listening to the meeting, saw that everyone had a division of labor, except for himself, so he said to Axe angrily:

"Then what do I do?"

Axel looked at the bandages she was wearing and said with a gruff smile:

"You are responsible for protecting me."

Everyone burst into laughter and then went to find a place to rest.

However, Cress did not take what Axe said as a joke. When he saw him go to Robin's former room to rest, he followed him and spread a blanket on a long stone at the entrance of the cave and slept on the floor.

In the middle of the night, Desevi, who had given the warning, came to report that Grans' cavalry had returned to Suno. Only then did Aix feel relieved and slept peacefully.

The next morning, Axe was awakened by a scream. Yamila, who came to wake him up for dinner, saw a scene that made her angry. Axe was sleeping in bed with Kress in her arms. Kress, who was sleeping on the feldspar, was too cold to sleep at night. Seeing that Axe's bed was warm, she crawled in. She didn't care and slept like that. Axe was also very tired and didn't notice it.

Yamila covered her face and cried. No matter how Axe explained, she wouldn't listen. The quarrel was heard clearly by everyone who were eating in the outer cave that served as a temporary restaurant. Now everyone knew that Axe had done a good deed. When they saw him come out, the men gave him a smirk, while the women frowned and avoided him. He was left with a bowl of porridge, not knowing whether to eat it or not. He was very embarrassed.

But it was the girl Kress who taught him a lesson. The girl dressed herself and walked out carelessly, then served herself a bowl of porridge and squatted beside him to eat it as if nothing had happened. She ate with relish, like a puppy who didn't understand the world. Axe was so embarrassed that he wanted to bury his face in the small wooden bowl.

After dinner, Aix served a bowl of porridge to Yamila who was still crying on the bed. But how could a bowl of porridge soothe the girl's sadness? At this time, his usual wit and humor were gone, and his smooth talk was gone. He just stood there stupidly with a bowl of porridge in his hand, repeating, "Eat some, eat some, the porridge is cold," and other meaningless words.

Fortunately, everyone had just arrived in the valley, and things were very complicated. There were many things that needed his confirmation, so he was soon called out.

The valley was bustling with activity and everyone was very motivated. In this era, they had already achieved two of the three basic conditions for happiness: eating well, dressing well and living well. As soon as they entered the valley yesterday, the caravan gave an old fur coat to everyone who was in need of clothes. Although it was a bit old, for them, whose living standards had been fluctuating around the poverty line for a long time, they had no sense of the new or the old. As long as they were warm, they were fine. So in their eyes, the only way to happiness now was to live well. Building a house for themselves was incomparable to doing anything else. Everyone worked hard without any slackness or selfishness.

Soon everyone's work began to bear fruit. After a few days, the open space was filled with newly cut wood. The timber processing plant and snow salt workshop planned in advance had taken shape. However, Aix always felt that something was forgotten. The place for building the dam and storing water could not be finalized. There was no rule for preparing materials for construction. Many things were not prepared until they were needed. Aix was overwhelmed and could not help but think of Amanti who came back to Sagos to preside over the construction of the warehouse. There were priorities. Aix decided to put the Sagos project aside for the time being, leave professional matters to professionals, and let Amanti preside over the construction of the entire valley. On the third day, he sent someone on horseback to Sagos to call Amanti and Bandak over, and only one person was left in Sagos to watch over it.

Four days later, Amanti and Bandak arrived at the valley. They frowned when they saw the messy valley like a large construction site. Then he suggested to Aix that they stop working for half a day and wait until everyone had sorted out their ideas before continuing. The anxious Aix agreed without hesitation and notified everyone to have an extra meal at noon and take a half-day break in the afternoon.

After an afternoon of investigation and research, Amanti presented a rectification plan to Aix at the evening meeting.

First of all, the previous construction made a big mistake, that is, using newly felled wood as building materials. Although a carpenter suggested this to Aix, Aix thought it was not a big problem in order to rush the work. There is no problem in using fresh wood to build a wood processing plant and a simple shed, but for mills and other processing workshops, air-dried wood must be used, otherwise it will be easily damaged and the service life of the equipment will be reduced by more than half. In order not to affect the progress of the construction, Yamanti suggested demolishing the original several old houses in the valley. Anyway, those houses will be demolished and rebuilt. Residents can live in the caves outside first, and those who can't live there can live in tents first. Fortunately, it is Mid-Autumn Festival and the weather is not very cold. Use the demolished old wood and some air-dried wood stored in the original valley for construction, so that it can be used continuously for one month. When these woods are used up, the previously cut wood will be almost air-dried and can be used directly.

In addition, Yamanti also pointed out that building materials should be sourced locally as much as possible. Not only wood can be used in the valley, but also the broken stones that fill the valley can be used. Idle children can pick them up slowly and use them as building foundations. This is stronger and less prone to corrosion than a pure wooden foundation. Overall, one tenth of the wood can be saved, and the excess can be used for paving roads.

Another thing is that although the previous construction was planned, it was not specific enough, especially without construction drawings. All situations were done on site by hand gestures, which easily led to problems and wasted a lot of unnecessary time. Aix thought to himself that I can draw and it is easy, but I don’t know what to draw. Fortunately, Amanti knew his dilemma and took over the task.

In addition to these, there were also arrangements for personnel allocation, the amount of building materials, the specific construction plan for the dam, etc. Amanti made corresponding arrangements for all of them. In short, after Amanti made the overall arrangements, everyone had a clear idea of ​​the construction and the specific arrangements were clear. Everything became organized and orderly, which made Aix, a modern man in the 21st century, admire him very much.

After more than a month of construction, the entire valley has begun to take shape, especially the valley entrance. Following the suggestion of Yamanti, they used wooden frames to build a framework, tied up the branches left over from logging, and filled them with wet mud to make walls. They actually made a wall with good defensive capabilities. In addition, they built two watchtowers on the left and right, and a trench in front filled with sharp wooden stakes. Aix estimated that even if the city of Suno sent 100 elite soldiers, they might not be able to break through.

In addition, the preliminary buildings have also been completed. The wood processing plant, blacksmith shop, leather workshop, and the most important snow salt processing workshop have all been put into use. Yamanti is currently organizing people to build houses mainly for families, so that everyone can move into the new houses before winter.

Most of the coarse salt brought back last time has been processed into snow salt, filling up two large carts. Old John was also brought to the valley a few days ago, and brought news that the goods from Suno had been almost sold out. Manid also quietly stockpiled more than two carts of olive oil. Aix decided to sell these things to the Kingdom of Nord, and buy back some food for the winter. Now the population of the entire valley is close to sixty, and the consumption is still very high.

In addition, Aix's trip to Nord had another purpose. Desevi, who was in charge of vigilance during this period, reported that Grans' cavalry often appeared on this road, and it seemed that they would not stop until they wiped out the caravan. Through Desevi's reconnaissance of the surrounding environment and more than a month of preparation, a plan has taken shape in Aix's mind.