Chapter 349 Preparations before the Southern Expedition
Time flies, and in a blink of an eye it has been more than ten days, and there is only one day left before Gervase sets off for Winterfell to reunite with Alice.
At this moment, Gervis had just come out of the training space, with an unstoppable smile of joy on his face.
After Gervis's hard training these days, with the help of the tenfold bonus from the red kiwi fruit, he finally broke through and became a high-level bronze knight.
"Finally, I have some power to protect myself! I have broken through three realms in a few months. If I tell others about it, they will probably scare people to death! Haha! I am really a genius!"
Gervis was very pleased with himself, and at the same time he felt a little relieved.
Although all the nobles of the Duchy of Jean hoped to gain merit and benefits in the southern expedition, the Duchy of Alban was not a lamb to be slaughtered without any resistance. Every year during the southern expedition, a large number of nobles of the Duchy were killed in the Duchy of Alban.
After Gervis broke through to become a high-level bronze knight, he had fought head-on against a low-level silver knight with a critical hit from a single sword strike, so he felt much more confident at this time.
"grown ups!"
When Gervis came to the vestibule, Thomas was directing a group of slaves to load goods onto the carriage. Seeing Gervis's happy face, he immediately stepped forward respectfully and greeted him.
"Well, Thomas, how are the supplies prepared?"
"Sir, the supplies have been counted and are being loaded onto the truck now. You can set off directly tomorrow when you leave!"
"Well done, Thomas!"
Gervis looked at the 15 carriages in front of him that were slowly being filled and praised Thomas with satisfaction.
It is estimated that the number of people that Gervis led in this southern expedition was the largest among the minor nobles, with a total of 293 people. It should be noted that the minimum number requirement for viscounts in the conscription order is 150 people, which means that Gervis's number is already twice the minimum requirement.
This is very rare among the nobles. Even if other small nobles have sufficient soldiers, most people will only bring the required number of people and not violate the minimum requirements. After all, the expenses of food and drink for two months of expedition will be borne by themselves. No noble will be so generous.
Of course, most of the 293 people in Gervis were non-combatants.
Among them, there were 11 personal guards, 14 members of Laurie's guard squad, a total of 98 slave soldiers, the rest were 130 battlefield rescue teams, 30 slaves responsible for baggage and supplies, and finally 10 serfs selected from Storm Territory to cook for the soldiers.
"Sir, Bernard the blacksmith has just come to the castle. He said that the weapons and equipment you ordered from him have been forged. I have just asked the servant to go and get them in a carriage!"
After being praised by Gervis, Thomas' smile became even brighter and his posture became even more humble.
"Oh! After this batch of weapons and equipment is shipped back, you can ask Ike to distribute them to the soldiers."
"As for the forging wages, you can just pay Bernard directly after verifying that everything is correct!"
"Yes! Sir!"
"By the way, Thomas, did Bernard tell me whether the little steel cannon I asked him to work on a few days ago is finished?"
Gervis suddenly remembered something about artillery. This small steel cannon was the muzzle-loading artillery in his previous life.
Originally, Gervis had no idea of forging cannons. After all, this thing consumed too much gunpowder, and Gervis's limited inventory could not support the large consumption of cannons.
However, since they captured Wright's ships some time ago and occupied the Golden Island, Gerves had the idea of building cannons.
Of course, he didn't plan to build too many, just four or five small cannons. These small-caliber cannons were prepared for the defense of the Golden Island.
After all, the Golden Island is isolated overseas. If the enemy attacks by ship, the troops on land in the Storm Territory may not be able to provide support so quickly. At this time, artillery becomes a vital matter to protect the safety of the Golden Island.
Artillery can bombard enemy ships from hundreds of meters away, effectively preventing enemy ships from approaching landing.
In order to verify the practicality of the artillery, Gervis found Bernard again a few days ago and gave him the paper he had drawn of a six-pound muzzle-loading cannon, hoping that he could complete forging one before he set off.
Cannons are actually no different from muskets. The only difficulty lies in the materials. If the materials are not up to standard, the cannon will explode and no one will be willing to try. However, Gervis has something as incredible as mithril, so this only difficulty can be ignored. What limits the development of Gervis's cannons is the scale of the saltpeter mines.
"Sir, it has been forged! Just now, Bernard the blacksmith asked me to send a few more people because your small steel cannon weighs several hundred pounds! He said that not enough people can lift it."
Thomas answered swiftly.
"Very good, Thomas. Send someone to the Tiangong Stone House later and ask them to deliver the gun carriage I arranged to be made a few days ago!"
Hearing that his small cannon was completed, Gervis was eager to try it out, but gunpowder was too precious, so he gave up the idea of testing the cannon. He still trusted Bernard's craftsmanship.
"Yes, sir! I will send someone to the Tiangong Stone House in a moment!"
Thomas responded respectfully.
"Well! Then you go ahead and get busy!"
After confirming everything, Gervis returned to the inner castle, took a comfortable bath, and then walked to the study and sat at the desk.
"The woods between the beach and the small lake on Golden Island have been cleared, and camp construction is already underway!"
"The docks for Storm Territory and Golden Island are already under construction and will be completed in a while!"
Gervis held a notebook in his hand, which was filled with various items that needed to be arranged or had already been arranged.
These projects were summarized and planned by Gervis during this period, in order to prevent the development of the territory from stagnation after he sets out.
For projects that are already in progress or completed, Gervis will put a check mark behind them to ensure that he can clearly see what things have not yet been arranged.
"Recruit 14 guards. Audrey will have to do this later. It's a good opportunity to let them train at the bottom of the gentle slope!"
Gervais set his sights on the last project to be scheduled, a Guards recruitment program.
In the last battle with the pirates, two of Audry's men were killed, and the number of men was reduced from 14 to 12. This time, Gervis planned to recruit 14 soldiers again, and then expand the number of Laurie's and Audry's teams to 20 people each.
"Build a dirt wall at the edge of Mirkwood!"
"Should we cross this out? After all, we now know that the appearance of orcs is a conspiracy of the church, and I am not prepared to resist the invasion of orcs in Storm Territory."
Turning the page forward in his notebook, Gervis became a little hesitant when he saw the to-do list he had written down some time ago.
This plan was written by Gervis before Wright's attack, and at that time he did not know the real reason for the orcs' appearance.
So after the construction of the stone houses in the town was completed, they planned to send the idle subjects and slaves to the edge of the Dark Forest to build a four-meter-high earth wall there.
At that time, Gervis can use the earth wall to tentatively resist the invasion of orcs and refresh some energy points at the same time.
Gervis's territory is on the edge of the Dark Forest, but because of the mountains, the area bordering Gervis's territory and the Dark Forest is less than ten kilometers.
Gervis had only one requirement for this earth wall, and that was its height. As for its sturdiness, Gervis had no requirements, as long as it would not collapse when people stepped on it.
Because if they wanted to build a wall as solid as a castle, it would take not only one or two months, but even half a year to build this section of earth wall, which would be difficult with only the two thousand people in the territory.
Is it useful to build such a flimsy earth wall?
Of course it is useful. Gervis's earth wall is specially prepared for orcs, and orcs appear in the winter every year.
The reason why winter in this world is called the bitter winter is that once winter comes, the temperature will become extremely low, and the most extreme temperature can sometimes drop to minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius.
With such low temperatures, it is no exaggeration to say that there is no problem with water turning into ice and urine forming columns.
Therefore, as long as the temperature drops, Gervis will have people pour water on the earth wall. As long as they continue to pour water for half a month, the originally soft earth wall will definitely not be weaker than a copper wall or iron wall.
Moreover, the wall was frozen and the surface was extremely smooth, which greatly improved the defense.
"Let's just build it! These people are idle anyway, so why not give them something to do?"
"Although I may not be able to resist the invasion of the orcs, but having an earth wall can make the invasion more difficult. Maybe the orcs will go along the earth wall to Lanny's territory!"
After considering for a moment, Gervis decided to build this earth wall as a way to provide some welfare to the serfs so that they would have work to do and get paid in the autumn.
There is a place to expend the energy of these serfs and slaves, and it also prevents them from becoming restless and causing instability.
After Gervis led his team to the south, the territory was defended by only Audrey's 12-man guard team during this period, and they also had to assign personnel to patrol the island, which meant that the defense was absolutely empty.
Although there is Bernard, a master with a hidden identity, in charge, it is best to avoid trouble if possible. After all, Bernard is active all day long, and there is a risk of being exposed.
I got home a little late today! Sorry, everyone!
(End of this chapter)
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