Before they knew it, summer had arrived. The scorching sun was high in the sky, baking the three thousand soldiers standing on the training ground. Beads of sweat the size of beans kept flowing down from their foreheads and seeping into their collars. Their whole bodies were wet and uncomfortable, but no one dared to move.

Old York had been standing on the training ground for two full hours. Every part of his body was sore, but he still gritted his teeth and persevered. He only breathed a sigh of relief when the whistle for the break sounded at noon.

However, he had no time to rest, but hurriedly ran and lined up in a long queue to receive today's lunch - two pieces of white bread, a small bowl of vegetable soup, plus a palm-sized grilled fish, or an equal amount of camel meat.

For Old York, this was a happy luxury. Although the monthly salary for joining the Musketeers was twenty silver coins, they could not afford to eat such luxurious food on weekdays.

Only here are there three meals a day with meat available for every meal. They usually eat two meals or even one meal.

"Old York, you said that the city lord suddenly gathered so many people for training. Is he going to go to war?" During the break, a tall and strong man patted him on the shoulder and couldn't help but ask.

This is the rumor that has been circulating wildly throughout the Yieta Harbor recently. Almost everyone with a little bit of intelligence can see that a war is approaching.

After all, Yieta used to only have some security teams in charge of its management, but now they have suddenly recruited 3,000 people to form some kind of musket team. The meaning is already very clear.

"I guess so." Old York muttered while biting the white bread in his mouth, feeling a little uneasy.

They had not experienced the so-called war in the wizard land, but every Sunday, the boatmen who arrived in Yieta from the outside world would always squander copper coins in the tavern and complain to them about their misery in the outside world.

In the Sekas Empire, whether one is farming or working as a laborer, a portion of the meager remuneration earned must be handed over to the local church as a token of repentance for the mistakes one has made in the past year, and then taxes must be paid to the so-called nobles. In the end, only two or three tenths of the remuneration truly belongs to one.

This made the residents of Harbor Town even more convinced that the outside world was a barbaric hell. If they lost the war, their families would be brutally killed by the enemy, their land would be taken away, and their property would be looted.

Old York, who had just seen some hope in life, naturally did not want everything he had worked hard to get to be taken away, so he was particularly serious in his daily training.

But what confused him was that these training programs were so strange.

All they have to do every day is run around the city a few times, shout slogans, or stand in the sun for a few hours, or hold a mallet with a long knife embedded on the top and stab a dummy for more than an hour.

The strangest thing is that they are required to make their sleeping beds neatly, get up immediately when they hear the whistle, and gather at the training ground within the specified time. The queue cannot be disordered at all, otherwise the whole team will be punished.

These strange rules made Old York and others complain bitterly. In their opinion, these trainings were of no use at all and were just tormenting themselves.

I heard that after a while, those wizards are going to capture a few earth giants and let them deal with them in the form of eight-man teams to hone their courage and abilities.

"Isn't this making things difficult for me?" Old York took a bite of white bread and complained in his heart.

After about an hour's rest, the shrill whistle sounded again. Old York immediately got up from the ground and found his position in the queue in less than half a minute.

Generally speaking, the afternoon is the time to practice stabbing, but this time it was different. Their city lord, Lin En, the actual controller of Yieta, also arrived at the training ground.

All of a sudden, Old York and the others felt that their waists and legs were no longer sore, and they stood straighter than each other.

Their instructor Luo Wen did not give them those things that looked like hammers, but a strange long stick with exquisite workmanship and a shining bayonet hanging on the top.

Is this a spear?

Old York was confused. The wooden target in front of him was also covered with a layer of armor, probably to simulate fully armed enemies.

Soon the city lord told them that this thing was called a musket, a creation of the alchemy workshop, a second-generation product that had been improved, and he personally taught them how to use this new flintlock.

The hands of the Musketeer guards were shaking with excitement, but they still mastered the use of this thing within half an hour.

"The first three hundred people step out, place ammunition, aim at the target in front, pay attention to maintain your body balance, and pull the trigger!" Luo Wen shouted loudly.

Old York immediately took two steps forward and awkwardly stuffed the round lead bullet into the barrel of the gun. Then he aimed at the target about ten meters away and pulled the trigger as Rowan instructed.

Immediately afterwards, a sound like thunder rang in his ears. Old York, who was unprepared, only felt his ears buzzing, and then he fell to the ground with a thump under the strong recoil.

"Thunder blast...thunder blast!"

Along with a series of thunderous gunshots, the 300 people standing neatly in the front row on the training ground suddenly became scattered. About a quarter of them were knocked to the ground by the recoil because they were caught off guard. Several people were shocked by the sudden explosion and felt dizzy. They kept shouting "Thunder!"

Luo Wen's face looked very ugly, and he blew the whistle immediately. The originally chaotic team immediately quieted down as if by reflex. Old York and others even jumped up subconsciously and stood back in their original positions.

Only then did Old York notice that a piece of the target in front of them had been broken into pieces, and even the sturdy armor had been directly pierced through. The powerful force made everyone astonished.

Many people just remembered that Lin En had just told them that this thing was created by the alchemy workshop, which means that it may contain the magic of the wizards. For example, the power of thunder and fire is gathered in this musket, which makes it so powerful! (End of this chapter)