"Sir Earl, Chief Ron and the others are back~" A excited guard ran to the camp outside the Yat camp tent and shouted loudly. After hearing the news, the soldiers in the surrounding camp tent also opened the gates and walked out.

Att heard the sound and opened the curtain and walked out.

"Master Earl~" the guard said to Yat while panting, "Sir Ron and the others are back~"

"How is the situation?" Yat asked with concern.

"Apart from one prisoner, the Lombards were completely wiped out!" said the soldier excitedly.

"Where are they?"

“Arriving at the camp soon.”

"Hurry, take me to see!" Yat couldn't wait.

"yes!"

As soon as Yat and others arrived at the entrance of the valley, Ron had already appeared in front of everyone with an ambush.

"Master!" When Ron saw Yat hurriedly walked forward, he didn't care to wipe the blood off his face.

"How is the situation?" Yat asked.

"Master~" Ron then made aside and signaled Yat to look behind him.

The soldiers walking in the front held their heads high, shouting slogans such as "victory".

Yat nodded with satisfaction.

"Master, we also caught a prisoner. We wanted to kill him, but I thought it would be too late to bring him back for interrogation and then chop him up. Maybe some useful news would be revealed from his mouth."

Yat turned his head and looked at Ron and said, "You boy, your mind is turning faster and faster. Where are people?"

“Bring it up!”

With Ron's order, two soldiers escorted the Lombardy prisoner from behind and walked out.

"Master, it's him. This guy is very fast. If we hadn't sent someone to intercept him from behind, we would definitely not be able to catch up with him."

"Bah! You shameless Burgundians are what you can only attack from behind, you are not real warriors!" The Lombardian soldiers struggled while insulting loudly in Lombardy.

"Can you say that you sneak in from the south and you are a real warrior?"

"I~" the Lombard soldier was speechless, but his eyes were staring at the earl of Wells, who spoke fluently Lombardy in front of him.

"Ron, take him down first and take good care of his life."

"Yes, Master."

"The rest of you go down and have a good rest. Thank you for your hard work." Yat turned around and said to the other soldiers standing beside him.

"Earl Xie."

…………

On the second day, the baggage team led by Spencer finally arrived at the garrison camp on the edge of the basin after a difficult journey. In addition to the food and supplies of 200 people in the garrison, they also came to the recruitment of valley craftsmen and equipment needed to build camp forts.

According to the current situation, the Duke of Lombardy will not give up. Att must take the opportunity to gain a foothold in the south of the valley to have the foundation for confrontation with the Lombards. If you want to garrison here for a long time, you must build permanent camps and fortresses to defend against the enemy. This is one of the important reasons why the baggage team rushed to the south of the valley.

According to Yat's idea, most of the baggage team arrived here first, relying on the terrain of the valley, building a fortress camp against the Lombards. Once the Lombards invade the border, this place will become the focus of confrontation between the two sides. The area south of the basin serves as a buffer zone between the valley and Lombards. However, in order to prevent the Lombards from completely blocking the exit from the valley to the south, one hundred warriors and fifty crossbowmen followed Yat and one hundred warriors and fifty crossbowmen to exit the south of the checkpoint and reach the Lombardy border half a day. Most of the baggage team followed, relying on a narrow exit to the south, and then built a solid fortress.

The fortress will serve as a nail in the northern border of Lombardy, as the outpost of the province of Wells in the southernmost part of the valley.

A few days later, Yat handed over all the affairs in the south of the valley to Colin, Hans and others, and he led the guards and most of the young and strong mountain people back to the valley to prepare for the later development of the southern part of the valley.

…………

“…Scott, how is the reclamation going?”

"Sir, everything is on track at present. We have reclaimed a lot of land along both sides of the trade road. However, as spring plowing has passed, a lot of land is idle there. Although we have not had time to plant grain, other seasonal crops have not fallen." Scott said while flipping the birch bark, and looked at the place where Att sat from time to time.

On the first floor of the Lord's Hall of the Valley Wood Fort, Yat is discussing with important officials of the government on the matters of reclamation and construction.

"You have done a good job, and the land you reclaimed should be flexibly applied. Don't always think about planting grain. Other crops can be sown first according to the principle of division and division. This will not only effectively utilize the land, but also improve soil fertility."

Everyone nodded repeatedly to show their agreement.

"Next, I'll talk about the construction of the business road." Yat suddenly changed the topic. The important members immediately sat upright and listened with their ears.

"When I came back from the south of the valley, I checked the construction of the business road. The roadbed was well built, and the road was completely built according to the initial requirements, and could accommodate three carriages in parallel. However, according to the current progress, it would take at least one year for us to fully open the road. This is a test for everyone." Yat looked around at everyone and continued, "Even so, the Construction Department still needs to hurry up. Because the Lombards did not leave us much time."

As soon as Yat finished speaking, Cooper and others looked at each other, their expressions dimly.

"Master, what do you mean~" Cooper asked after a moment.

"I'll tell you this. The Lombards have set their sights on the fat piece of the valley and are plotting to seize the valley."

"What?"

"How is this possible?"

"What should I do?"

For a moment, the two sides of the meeting table exploded. Everyone was shocked by the sudden news.

"Everyone is quiet!" Yat said with his hands raised. "Don't panic, everyone, this is just my current speculation."

The crowd breathed a sigh of relief.

"But this does not mean that the Lombards will not come to us. In view of this, we must take precautions early."

"Sir, just say what our construction department can do." Lawrence stood up from his seat and raised his voice.

"Lorence, sit down first." Yat turned his head and looked at Luorens and continued, "I have sent the baggage team to the valley entrance near the southernmost part of the valley, which is close to the half-day journey of Lombardy, and ordered them to build a fortress based on the valley entrance as the southernmost part of the valley. However, time is tight, the baggage team can only temporarily build a temporary fortress. Once the Lombardy army invades, the fortress will definitely not be able to hold on for a long time. Therefore, while the Construction Department continued to build the business road, it sent a team of 500 people, plus several craftsmen who were good at building houses, and brought tools and corresponding supplies to the south valley entrance to assist the baggage team in a few days to build a solid fortress. Remember, it must be completed in the shortest time, and I will only give you half a month."

Luo Luns, who was sitting beside him, felt a little embarrassed and frowned. "Sir, it may be difficult to build a fortress in half a month~"

Yat suddenly looked grim and looked down on Lawrence.

"This is related to the future of the valley and cannot be despised. In my opinion, half a month is enough. There are cliffs on both sides of the exit. You only need to build a slightly simpler camp first based on the advantages of the terrain, and solve the urgent problem first. Then further expand and reinforce it based on this. The personnel of the baggage team have begun to build. The task of your five hundred people is mainly to strengthen the fortress in the later stage, and the task is not heavy."

"Sir, since that's the case, I will return to the southern construction site tomorrow and gather a team of five hundred people to advance south."

"Okay. Tell them that once this task is completed, I will give them twice the wages compared to the previous one. In addition, the cultivated land will be allocated to them first."

"Yes, sir."

The day after the meeting, Yat hurriedly rode to Beiguan Military Fort. First, to check the training situation of the preparatory regiment, and second, to discuss the defense situation at the valley entrance in the south with senior officers such as Angus. Once the Duke of Lombardy learned about Yat's plan, he would inevitably send a large army to the valley north to interfere with Yat's plan. If it were someone else, he would definitely not allow anyone to insert a knife at his doorstep.

…………

"Sir, I'll go!"

"I'll go!"

"I'll go too!"

In the hall of the lords of the Beiguan Army Fort, a group of high-ranking officers rushed to the south of the valley to guard against possible attacks by the Lombards.

This time, these guys are no longer taciturn after hearing the news of the Lombards' invasion as before.

Yat knew the little thoughts of these guys very well. First, because a reserve regiment of nearly 1,000 people has been added recently, they are full of confidence. Moreover, everyone wants to take this opportunity to accumulate military merits and strive for promotion in their positions after the training of the reserve regiment.

After a moment, Yat spoke, "You all want to go, so who should I send?" Yat pretended to be meditating.

"Sergeant, who do you think you're going to send to bring people?"

"This~" Angus felt at a loss. The Count was obviously throwing the ball, wanting to throw this offensive thing into his hands. Looking at the expectant eyes of the officers, Angus was wise in a hurry and said, "Sir, you have always assigned them tasks, I don't have the power to do this. I think you'd better decide~" Angus then pressed his head down and deliberately avoided Att's eyes.

"You~"

When the military controversy was about to end, Yat finally decided to send the company's deputy commander Bengeda to lead a hundred people to the southern valley to meet with Vez and others, and jointly stationed at the valley entrance.

After everyone dispersed, Yat and Angus came to the camp of the preparatory regiment to inspect the training of the recruits.

The two walked in the aisle in the middle of the training ground, followed by Ron and several guards.

Looking at the neat queue of recruits, Yat nodded with satisfaction. When he was training Odo, Kazak and others, one move had to be repeated for more than ten days before he could barely satisfy himself. But now these recruits have already done very skillfully in just a few days, which is not easy. This is mainly due to the current legion system and efficient training methods.

Previously, Yat made a special trip to order some instructors from the Officers Academy to compile the training outlines for recruits so that they can be trained in the future. The training outline is based on military books and is compiled based on the daily training of officers and the actual situation on the battlefield.

With a standard training outline, the officers not only relaxed a lot, but also improved the training effect and progress.

"Raising the shield~"

"Stub~"

...

On the training ground, the shouts of officers and soldiers came from time to time~

"Sergeant Chief, this group of soldiers needs to step up training. Once the Lombards really come, these people will be the only backup we can rely on."

"Sir, will the Lombards really attack the valley?" Angus was extremely worried about this.

Yat turned his head and looked at Angus, then continued. "To be honest, I'm not sure if they will attack the valley. But it's always right to make a plan one step ahead."

Angus nodded, then quickly followed Yat's pace.

"By the way, I brought back many mountain people from hunters from the south of the valley this time. You will form them into an independent team at that time. These people are good at hunting and searching for prey in the mountains. You can train based on this. I will use it elsewhere."

"Hunter's origin?" Angus was puzzled.

"Yes, these guys are very skilled, and they are all Lombards. Just train well, and I will use it in another way."
To be continued...