Chapter 741: Chapter 51 Beacon Fire_4 Chapter 741: Chapter 51 Beacon Fire_4 Winters picked out a male stud and a female broodmare from the herd of horses they had acquired to give as a gift, asking Lieutenant Washington to take them back to Mont Blanc County.
“Please convey a message to Colonel Gaisa for me,” Winters sincerely said to his senior Washington, “Just as Adam and Eve started with one man and one woman and ended up with so many people today. With patience, a pair of horses can also turn into a herd again.”
“You’d better tell the colonel yourself,” Lieutenant Washington said with a complex expression, “I’m afraid he’ll beat me up.”
After returning from the wilderness, Colonel Bod merely made a brief stop at Revodan before setting off on his arduous journey again.
Winters was busy with another matter—building a town.
To be precise, expanding Revodan.
Unlike ordinary farms, once the soldiers were conscripted, the military settlements had no means of defending themselves.
Winters simply issued the “scorched earth” order, relocating the families of the twelve military settlements to Revodan to allow the soldiers to fight with peace of mind.
Revodan was already quite small, and with the addition of military families and civilians seeking refuge, it became very crowded immediately.
Luckily, the weather was getting cooler, or else a major epidemic might have broken out.
Moreover, Winters and old Priskin agreed that more civilians would definitely flood into Revodan—the towns and villages of Iron Peak County had no walls, making them easy prey for the Herder Cavalry.
Winters decisively decided—to build a new town capable of accommodating all the refugees.
Old Priskin suggested expanding the city on the basis of the existing city walls, while Winters insisted on building the new town south of the St. George River.
Winters’ reason was “building against the riverbank can reduce the construction work as much as possible.”
This reason was sufficient, and Priskin did not object.
So, while the Terdon Tribe’s wildfire was about to scorch their hair, Winters was busy with civil engineering.
The new town located on the south bank of the St. George River, instead of being called a “town,” it was more apt to call it a “fortress.”
Because it was essentially a half-circle of city walls and moats backed by the riverbank, with no living facilities inside, though the defense works were very solidly built—after all, the barbarians were coming.
There was also something interesting: following Winters’ division method of upper, middle, and lower Iron Peak County, the old Revodan town area was entirely north of the St. George River, thus undoubtedly belonging to upper Iron Peak County.
However, the new town was built on the south bank of the St. George River, meaning that Revodan had one foot stepping back into middle Iron Peak County, like a child straddling a threshold.
In the morning, there was a meeting, at noon he saw off Colonel Bod and Lieutenant Washington, and in the afternoon, he went to supervise the construction, not until late at night did Winters drag his exhausted body back to his residence.
He fell asleep on the bed without even taking off his clothes.
Just as Winters lost consciousness, about forty kilometers downstream from Shovel Port—that is, at the junction of Vernge County and Iron Peak County, at the seam of the map, the Herders took advantage of the night to launch their sheepskin rafts.
Men on rafts, horses wading, they crossed over what Winters had said was “the easiest position to defend” under the cover of darkness.
For Winters, it seemed like less than a second from the moment he closed his eyes until he was awakened by Xial.
“Brother!” Xial shook Winters anxiously, “Wake up, hurry!”
Winters was in extreme pain, his head ached, and his breathing was not smooth, “What’s wrong? How long have I slept?”
“Shovel Port has lit the beacon fires!” Xial said compassionately as he poured water for Winters to drink, “You’ve slept for less than two hours.”
“Shovel Port?” Winters asked, supporting his forehead.
“Beacon fires?” ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel·fire.net
“Yes! It’s definitely beacon fires! I’ve confirmed it!”
“Never mind,” Winters took the cup of water and drained it, then flopped back onto the bed, “Sleep.”
Xial was stunned for a moment, but Winters was already asleep again.