Chương 390: 385. Strength - I

Hudan replied, "We had 40 swordsmen before the latest round of recruitment, but including those 10 recruits, we have 50 men in total. Although those 10 aren't any good in a sword fight right now. I have also started looking for 10 more men like you wanted, and have recruited three of them by now. In a few more days, we will have 60 swordsmen in total, including the 20 newbies.

As for the women, with the current round of recruitment, we have 22 female guards—including that former slave from the encampment, Widel —and I'm already looking for more volunteers to reach your target of 24 female guards." Kivamus nodded, crunching through the numbers in his mind.

"No, target to reach 40 female guards for now. We need to put two people on each watchtower, which means 36 people are needed in total to cover all three shifts for each of the six towers. That means we can use six older people during the day shift along with a woman, with two women on duty in both of the night shifts. That means 30 female guards will be needed to cover all the shifts, which will leave 10 other female guards free.

In the beginning, we need to keep these patrolling squads stronger, so let's add five swordsmen to their group to get 15 guards in total." Hudan seemed to be thinking about it.

"I see what you mean. Two women and a man in each squad, and five such squads in total for now. It will be a fairly balanced group after that." Kivamus nodded.

"Yeah. Once you have finished the latest rounds of recruitment, create these patrolling squads of three guards, and start sending them for duty to patrol around the fields, during the day and night. One squad will cover the east of the fields, with the others covering the south and the west. The village is located in the north of the farms, so that side is safe already. Although I know it's still not enough people to cover all three shifts... Perhaps we can extend the working hours for each shift..."

"Don't worry about it, milord," Hudan interrupted with a smile.

"After this recruitment, we will have a hundred guards in total, including both men and women. That is a huge number, and I couldn't even have imagined having to lead that many people just six months ago. That will already take some adjusting, even though more than a dozen will be out escorting the caravans of Pydaso and Trevalo, as well as the hunters who are out.

But either way, the field patrolling assignment is a very easy one, since they will basically just be sitting or walking near the fields, and will only have to work if an animal or saboteur is seen. So we can just use off-duty guards for this, especially in the daytime. Everyone knows how important this first crop is going to be for the village, so no one wants to be sitting idle when they are off duty.

I have no doubt that instead of just those 15 people which you wanted, I will easily get double of that number volunteering for this, once I announce what these patrolling squads will do. That will allow us to cover all the sides of the farms easily. In fact, the guards are so loyal to you that if you ask for it yourself, they will skip sleeping completely to pull any duty which is needed." Kivamus smiled on hearing that.

He knew that it would take a long time before the village could hold a candle to the strength of the Girnalican mercenaries, but he had vowed to make his village as strong as he could. That's why he had made a mental target to reach a strength of 100 guards as soon as possible.

Once they had all been trained properly, as well as armed with crossbows and better swords, Tiranat's strength would already be far, far superior compared to the time when he had arrived here, when there were just a dozen guards to protect the whole village. He began, "I'm glad to hear their dedication to their duties, but we need to do everything sustainably. We don't want them to pull a few sleepless nights for duty, and then fall asleep the whole day after that right when we might need them.

That's why we are even hiring so many guards. For the village's population of just above 600, having a 100 people working as guards is already a very high percentage. But we are not exactly living in peaceful times, with so many threats lurking around us, so doing that is a basic requirement for our survival. It is doable enough since the refugees are arriving regularly now, and they will make up for any lack of laborers and miners.

We will also freeze the recruitment for a few months once we reach hundred guards, then we will focus on training them properly." Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"I'll bring them all up to speed as soon as possible," Hudan said.

"Before long, every single male guard will be able to hold his own in a sword fight, while Isomi and Savomi will lead the female guards and train them in general fitness workouts and the usage of crossbows, with Hyola out with Feroy these days. Although it only makes me think that we really need a dedicated barracks for them soon." Kivamus nodded.

"I know, and that day is not far now with the sawmills ready. But coming back to the previous topic, we can ask off-duty guards to patrol the periphery of the fields during each of the two day-shifts, while we will have a dedicated squad for the night shifts, since we can't send guards to pull a night shift at the farms right after they worked during the day. But this will still allow us to use the guards effectively and cover the whole area of the fields.

So, after you have recruited all the guards, start sending patrolling squads to the farms, and after the Torhan plan is completed, we will start sending out more hunting groups too. A lot more."

"I will finish the recruitment within the week," Hudan pledged, "and will start sending out patrols to the farms after that. But what about that Torhan plan? Do you think the time is right for that?" Kivamus looked around. There was no one else on the roof, but down below, servants and maids were working here and there, walking to their next tasks in the courtyard. Sound carried far in the open, and he didn't want to risk anyone overhearing it.

"Let's move to the manor hall first."

Kivamus, Duvas, and Hudan were sitting on chairs, while Tesyb and Kerel had remained standing, despite Kivamus' insistence that they could sit. He looked at the majordomo, who was the only one here who didn't know the plan in detail, and grinned.

"The secret plan which we have been planning for so long is to liberate Torhan's clay mine. It's time for revenge!"

"To liberate his clay mine?" Duvas repeated with raised eyebrows.

"How the heck will you even manage that? He had more than 50 slaves there working for him at that compound, the last we knew, all of whom he could arm against us. We also know that he has at least one other compound for sure, which means he has a lot more bandits working for him. How can we possibly liberate and capture that place? I don't even want to think about the legal ramifications of that. Torhan may be working as a bandit chief, but we know that he actually owns that land.

He may be using slave labor for everything, but he is still the legal landowner of those clay mines." Kivamus shrugged.

"I know, and as much as I would like to, we can't hold on to that mine with our current strength anyway. So that is not our objective here. But we will free up all his slaves in that clay mine, and bring them here. Any of his bandits who are there at the time will be sent to the goddess.

If our guards find Torhan present at the compound, he will get the retribution he deserves, but even if he's not there, doing this will take away at least half of his revenue source and a lot of his workforce, as well as the huge loss he will take for losing that many slaves he had bought with cold, hard coins. This will nearly cripple him, and will prevent him from attacking us again in a few months, when the mercenaries are expected to arrive.

Of course, unless we manage to kill that bastard, he will likely try revenge again in the future, but we will deal with it at that time." Duvas hesitated.

"But..."

"Don't worry," Kivamus said.

"We have talked about it in detail, and I have full confidence that the plan will work."

"What is that plan anyway?" Duvas asked.

"You can't be thinking of relying on the latest recruits to fight against someone like Torhan! He won't be overconfident this time, and will know exactly what he's dealing with after we killed nearly all his bandits in his raid last time."

"I realize that." Kivamus began, "But Trevalo has just left today, and he will only return here after his trip to Ulriga—after at least three weeks. That's how long we have to raid Torhan and get the guards back here—because that's the duration when the eight experienced caravan guards we had sent with him are going to be available in the village. We will also hold back all the hunting groups when they return to the village this time.

That means within a few days, we will have nearly every trained guard available here, except for Calubo and the other guard escorting Pydaso, as well as Feroy and Hyola. But the former mercenary will be returning here within a week, as per the plan, so he will also be available for this counter-raid." Hudan explained, "Our plan is to use nearly all of our best guards to hit that bastard's compound, while keeping the newest recruits here to defend the village until they return." Duvas frowned, looking at Kivamus.

"Are you really thinking of trusting the whole village's security to those new recruits? They were coal miners and laborers just a few weeks ago!"