If the weather is good, it only takes six or seven days to ride from Wenden Port to the Wood family's territory.
However, the actual situation is always slightly different from the theory. Spending the night in the wild is obviously not only unpleasant, but also unsafe. This is why both of them choose to set off in the morning, both to have more time to get as far as possible
Stay overnight in a village and town, and then set off the next morning.
After the snow melted, some sections of the road were still a bit muddy. It took two days after the two set out to set foot on a relatively solid road again, and a thin crust of mud formed on the outside of their cloaks. They spent another six days walking among the villages and towns along the way.
After stopping and stopping, we returned to Wood Town in the evening of the ninth day.
Like most settlements, Wood Town was chosen in a place relatively close to the water source. It was built in a valley surrounded by low mountains. With mountains on its back and water on its side, the shape of the land is relatively long and narrow. The river is approximately ten dozen wide.
Meters, it's not too wide in terms of width, but it's just not easy to get through.
When Old Wood was young, the town developed on only one side of the river. To cross the river, you had to make a long circle around the shallow water upstream, or choose between swimming or taking a boat.
Old Wood, who hated this deeply, wanted to make full use of the land on the other side of the river. After building the castle, he used the remaining stones to build a stone bridge across the river. It was really a convenience project.
Now Lane and Kraft are crossing this stone bridge. They want to pass through the town and go to the castle on the hill behind.
The location of the castle is very comfortable. The low hill behind the town is a gentle slope with a small slope on the side facing Wood Town and the river, while the back side is a steep cliff. When defending, you only need to climb up the slope at an upward angle.
The frontal enemy greatly reduces the amount of engineering work behind it.
At the same time, this small slope will bring an extremely uncomfortable experience when someone attacks. It consumes physical strength and also eliminates the possibility of charging upward. On the contrary, the defender can go down when the situation is reversed, accumulating energy in a short distance.
Momentum that can send people flying.
In the past thirty years, Old Wood first cleared the trees on the top of the slope, used wood to circle a wooden wall as a transition, built a sturdy tower as the main body of the castle against the cliff, and built stables, workshops and kitchens around the tower.
Etc. Demountable wooden buildings.
This stage lasted for more than ten years and accounted for half of the entire project. That is, until around the time of Kraft's birth, wooden walls were used around the Wood family's castle.
The long construction period is mainly due to economic conditions and practical considerations. Although the site theoretically includes Wood Town and several surrounding small villages, the economy is considered good among the small nobles, but a newly established family
Not only is this an expense, Old Wood also has to buy some properties for the old guys who came back with him, and the descendants of these people will also serve the Wood family.
Wood Town is not a military location. Although a family castle can effectively prevent various risks, it must have this risk to play its role. Even if a war does occur one day, no one will bother to divide an army.
To attack here, it would be enough to send an envoy to symbolically accept the lord's surrender.
It wasn't until the time was right, or when Old Wood felt that the family's financial situation had improved, that the Wood family began to remove the wooden board walls and replace them with real stone curtain walls.
The smaller amount of work allowed Old Wood to stubbornly increase the height of the curtain wall to more than three meters, and to match the concave and convex crenellations on the wall, it would be very useful when the Kraft family could save enough crossbows and bows.
The auxiliary buildings that had been repaired for more than ten years were replaced by expanded towers, and gradually merged into a sturdy fortress with a tower. At this point, the entire castle has completely matured, becoming a difficult and unnecessary fortress.
It's a disgusting thing to fight, and it's very suitable for a family to rely on for inheritance.
Time passed and Kraft grew up. In recent years, the road from the castle gate to the town was paved with gravel, which avoided many problems of horses and vehicles slipping.
Kraft and Lane followed this zigzag road all the way up. The setting sun slowly sank behind the castle, casting the elongated shadow of the building onto the gentle slope with sparse trees. Its future enemies would be attacked by it every evening.
Covered by the shadow, they prepared their siege equipment that was difficult to push on the slope, guarding against the heavy rolling stones falling down.
Even a soul from another world would have to lament how powerful this thing was in the cold weapon age. When water and food reserves were sufficient, it would take several times more manpower to besiege such a stone building complex.
Don't even think about moving large siege engines here. Once the stone bridge over the river below was destroyed during the war, it would be troublesome for people to come over. Equipment made by logging on the spot would be extremely difficult to push up against the slope. Then
Going through all the trouble to get to the castle and face a group of militiamen led by professional armed forces is the ultimate torture.
Yes, to be prepared for danger in times of peace, the Wood family still has an independent armed force. Although it is true that there are not many, only a dozen or twenty people, mainly from old comrades who retired with Old Wood.
As Old Wood developed, they were also assigned to surrounding industries, and like Old Wood, they also liked to train their younger generations from childhood, forming professional soldiers with a family tradition.
The people Kraft and his father brought to the battlefield were just such a group of "private soldiers" as followers, and then some improvised militiamen were added to the number, and a small army came out. The final misfortune was purely due to bad luck.
It's not that these people who have been trained since childhood are not good enough.
In Kraft's generation, there are also young people of the same generation receiving training in the castle, but most of these people have to guard the castle for the rest of their lives and have no chance to make a fortune on the battlefield.
In the dim sky, you can see the flickering light of fire at the entrance of the castle. It is the torch held by the guard responsible for keeping watch. The faint sound of metal collision can also be heard.
"John? Or George? Don't close the door yet!" Kraft yelled, "No, I don't want to wait outside for you to play with that damn winch."
"Aha, it's our little baron who's back!" Laughter came from the other side of the door, and the metal collision stopped. A young face poked out from the wall holding a torch, "Come in."
"I'm warning you one last time, George, there's only one person here who can be called Baron!" Kraft has a good relationship with these young people. After all, they were trained by Old Wood together, and the country nobles don't have that much etiquette to speak of. "I am
Don’t you have a name?”
Lane and Kraft took the horses to the stables, and then found Old Wood and Anderson enjoying dinner in the restaurant. Under the candlelight, bread, soup, and homemade sausages in the castle were placed on the long dining table.
, the gray-haired old man and the somewhat bald middle-aged man are sitting at the table, the atmosphere is like a public service advertisement for the empty nesters on TV.
"My dear Kraft, you are finally back. Anderson and I were talking about you." The burly old man put down the bread in his hand and warmly welcomed his grandson, "And Ryan, come and sit down quickly.
Well, you must be hungry already."
…
…
"So you didn't see that person in the end?" After the two of them had eaten and drank enough, and when Ryan thought about taking out the stone hand, Old Wood suddenly remembered what else happened when Craft was out.
It's been almost a month since I went back. From the time it snowed to the time it melted, it felt like half of the winter had passed. If Ryan hadn't brought back a gift, everyone might have forgotten about it.
"Indeed, he was just an unskilled liar. He burned his hands and died before we reached Wenden Port." Kraft crossed his arms and expressed helplessness, "It's not as interesting as what Cousin Ryan bought.
, at least this hand won’t burn itself.”
"Haha, indeed." Anderson took the hand from Old Wood and looked through it but couldn't find anything. "But this one does look interesting. The seller said where it came from.
."
"I haven't said it, but I don't think it's like something from North." Ryan said without changing his expression, "If you want to say something interesting, you have to look at Kraft. You will never guess what happened." He gave up.
, but the smile on his face cannot be hidden.
"It can't be that Kraft was admitted to Wenden Port College, right?" Old Wood guessed in the most unlikely direction as usual. This outrageous guess made Anderson laugh.
"..."
"..."
"What's wrong, why aren't you talking? What interesting thing is so mysterious?" The sudden silence made Anderson stop laughing, thinking that he was laughing inappropriately.