Lord: Starting from the Pit-Dwelling Courtyard

Chapter 9: Testing the Waters

On the open ground above the pit dwelling, the villagers were filled with indignation, and their faces showed fear.

If it weren't for Fanta leading the guards to stand around the pit dwelling, these people probably wouldn't have been able to resist rushing out of the pit dwelling.

As Ron slowly emerged from the underground passageway of the pit house, the shouts of the people gradually subsided.

Ron quietly looked at the people around him. The sand beneath his feet slowly coalesced into a platform, and he stood on it, feeling the awe in the eyes of the people around him.

"Are you scared?" Ron asked with disdain.

"I was so scared by a group of tiny creatures that were only half a meter tall."

"My lord, goblins are known for their numbers. They may not be strong individually, but if thousands of them come, we simply cannot stop them."

One of the lords cried out in terror.

Ron pointed at the other person: "What's your name? Do you know goblins?"

"My lord, my name is Lance Griffin!" Lance hurriedly explained, "My village was destroyed by goblins. There were thousands, even tens of thousands of them that flooded into the village, and the village militia were all overwhelmed in one fell swoop."

Lance's body trembled slightly as he spoke, his eyes filled with terror. The memory of the goblins destroying the village seemed like only yesterday.

"Does your village have a stockade?" Ron asked coldly.

Lance shook his head, since their village was located within the kingdom's territory and naturally had no stockade walls.

How many militia members are there?

"Twenty! It's thirty!" Lance thought for a moment, then his voice trailed off.

"And what about us?" Ron pointed to the three walls that had already been built, and the foundation for the other wall that Old Hall had dug with his building magic, just waiting to bury the wood.

"Starting this afternoon, we can close the wall with all our might. This is our greatest confidence in fighting the goblins. I have thirty battle-hardened guards, all of whom are knights. My captain, Fanta, is a powerful Earth Knight, a third-tier knight. He alone is enough to kill hundreds of goblins."

Faced with Ron's deafening shout,

Many people subconsciously looked at Fanta with awe in their eyes, especially the criminals. When they looked at Fanta, they felt even more guilty and secretly resolved to work honestly in the future, so as not to be accidentally killed by Fanta one day.

Compared to the fear of the criminals, the displaced people of the tribe cheered with joy.

With such a powerful knight guarding the territory, the people felt extremely safe.

Fanta stood behind Ron, expressionless.

He mentally calculated that he could kill a hundred out of the hundreds of goblins, but he would be worn down by the time he reached two hundred.

However, Fanta remained calm on the surface, as if slaying hundreds of goblins was an easy task.

"But that's not enough. Fanta is only one person, and he can only guard one wall. But we still have three walls. We need more militiamen to protect our homeland."

"My lord, I want to be a militiaman! To defend our homeland!" Shanlier shouted.

Compared to defending territory, defending their homeland speaks directly to their hearts.

With Shanlier taking the lead, many young and middle-aged men immediately responded, including a number of criminals, who were willing to work high-intensity labor every day.

It's more worthwhile to join the army and risk your life. Even if you die in battle, it's better than to die from exhaustion. If you are lucky enough to win and survive, you might be able to get rid of your criminal status.

"Fanta!"

"yes!"

Ron immediately shouted, "Select fifty strong young men to join the militia. They will train during the lunch break, and after training, they will join the construction of the wooden stockade. The stockade must be built as quickly as possible; this is the foundation for our defense against the goblins."

"Yes, my lord!"

Fanta immediately turned around to select people, and Shanlier was naturally the first one chosen. Just because he responded to the lord's call on the first time on many occasions, he was worth cultivating.

The crowd gradually dispersed. After all, the weather was so hot, and with a weight lifted from their hearts, no one wanted to continue basking in the sun.

Ron glanced overhead; the sun was shining brightly. If a sunshade were built in the courtyard area, the militia's training wouldn't be too strenuous.

After all, the courtyard is at least 120 square meters, which is barely enough for practicing military posture and marching.

He had already planned how to quickly build up the militia's combat capabilities.

Old Hall asked, "Young master, we have militia, but we don't have enough weapons. We can't expect them to fight with wooden sticks!"

Ron smiled and nodded, then snapped his fingers, and the sawdust on the ground slowly coalesced into a two-meter-long stick.

Ron then jabbed the stick into the ground, and soon the spearhead was formed—a triangular spearhead made of flint.

Because this spear was formed by magic, it has sharp edges and perfect proportions, making it comparable to a work of art.

Old Hall took the spear and examined the tip.

"Triangular?"

"It bleeds quickly, and the triangular shape greatly increases the durability of the spearhead," Ron said, pointing to the grooves on it. "When you stab it in and pull it out, the wound won't close."

Old Hall tested the feel of the handle, and his gaze toward Ron changed again.

"I never imagined a spearhead made of stone could be so powerful." Old Hall took the spear, swung it around casually a couple of times, then suddenly grabbed it with both hands and thrust it towards the wall.

The spearhead shattered after penetrating only a third of the way, but it still amazed Old Hall.

Old Hall was quite certain: "This gun isn't enough to kill fully armed soldiers, but it's quite effective against goblins."

Ron smiled and said, "Then I'll leave the spear to you."

Old Hall paused for a moment, then nodded somewhat helplessly.

Ron went back to meditation and cultivation. Once his magic was fully restored, he planned to build four arrow towers around the stockade walls, mainly for lookout and surveillance.

But when he arrived at the eastern wall of the stockade, he fell into deep thought, because the eastern wall was still far from being connected.

After thinking for a moment, Ron decided to put his idea to the test.

The first building will automatically generate a building template, and the building template may consume less magic than the first building.

The pit-house courtyard and the adobe house are the best contrasts. The adobe house is an architectural template he designed using his knowledge, while the pit-house courtyard is something he built bit by bit.

The wasteland had nothing but sand. He compacted the surface according to the standards of adobe houses, and then built a rammed earth wall three meters wide, twenty meters long, and six meters high in a trapezoidal shape.

The civil engineering work involves spreading the sand layer by layer, with each layer being a palm's width thick, and then pressing it down once.

The walls are compacted layer by layer, resulting in a density far exceeding that of ordinary adobe bricks.

Four hours later, a trapezoidal section of the city wall stood at the gap in the stockade wall, five meters wide at the bottom, three and a half meters wide at the top, and six meters high.

The wall was so dense that you could hardly see any trace of sand.

Old Hall himself came over, looked at the city wall in front of him, his mouth agape, and remained open for a long time.

"This is a city wall made of mud." Fanta reached out and touched the city wall, looking incredulous.

He never imagined that mud could be used to build such a high city wall.

Old Hall used his magic to sense the walls carefully and quickly made a judgment: the walls were not strong enough to withstand catapults and magical attacks, but they were still much stronger than the wooden fortress walls.

Old Hall said excitedly, "Young master, if all the walls of the territory are replaced with these earthen walls, there will be no need to worry about the goblin attacks at all."

Ron nodded. "I also had a sudden inspiration to build the city wall using the method of building mud houses, and I didn't expect it to actually work."

"This kind of city wall consumes a lot of magic. If I were to build the eastern city wall by myself, it would take at least ten days, which is too risky. I wonder if this time can be shortened after I complete the building template."

Old Hall nodded expectantly.

What they lack most now is time; they must build the stockade walls as soon as possible.

The enclosed area of ​​the territory was not small. The initial plan was simple: to include farmland within the walled area to prevent damage.

Ron glanced at the section of rammed earth wall, which was 250 meters long.

Fifty militiamen were deployed, but they couldn't even fill all the positions, let alone cover the four sides of the city wall.

We need to find a way to shrink the defensive line, or add another moat outside the stockade wall.

But not now; we'll decide after we deal with the goblin tribe.

Fortunately, the surrounding area is flat, so once the watchtowers are built, manpower can be dispatched to defend the city immediately if an enemy attack is detected.

Late at night, Ron meditated for a while and was about to go to sleep when shouts suddenly rang out outside.

He jumped out of bed and rushed out of the cave dwelling. Next door lived Old Hall, who looked solemn and was carrying a cross-shaped sword.

"Young master, you stay behind me."

Ron was accompanied by ten guards, who were divided into two shifts. When Ron arrived at the area where the shouts came from, Fanta was already standing fully armed at the breach in the wall, surrounded by dozens of goblin corpses.

"Fanta, are you alright?" Ron asked anxiously.

Upon hearing that the lord had shown concern for him immediately, Fanta's stern face instantly broke into a憨厚 smile.

"My lord, a mere few dozen goblins pose no threat to me whatsoever."

Old Hall, meanwhile, bent down to examine the goblin corpses and quickly came to a conclusion.

"Young master, most of these goblins are elderly, and their weapons are mainly wooden sticks tied with stones. This is probably a probing operation by the goblin camp."

"A test." Ron looked at the corpse on the ground. "They've figured it out; this place won't be easy to tackle."

He raised his head and looked into the darkness to the north.

"The next one to come won't be the old guy."