Twenty – Mutiny Part Four

Raidon decides to go to the village together with Morris, two instructors and a squad of first platoon. Here they can gather information and perhaps also find tools to improve the fort. In the best case, they also find a number of recruits for the harnesses they found.

It is mid-morning on the eighth day that Raidon and his men enter the village with a wagon. It seems that this village is fairly prosperous. There are an inn, a shop and even a sawmill.

Raidon decides to first visit the general store. Here he finds out that the village is called Nicaea. He has taken quite a bit of money from the training camp and for one gold piece he manages to buy a number of tools, rope and a few barrels of grain. This is loaded directly onto the wagon by the soldiers.

For Raidon, this is a bit of a calculation, because this is the first time that he spends an entire gold piece. Before he never even touched a gold piece. After a little calculation, he arrives at the conclusion that a gold piece is worth as much as twenty pieces of silver, each of which is worth fifty pieces of copper. When you consider that he used to only earn one piece of copper a day in the city, this is a fortune.

After the purchases are loaded onto the cart, Raidon visits the blacksmith. It is located in the middle of the village, right in front of the inn. Raidon has to make some effort to explain what he needs. It is not every day that the local blacksmith makes hinges. Certainly not hinges large enough for a real gate. However, the blacksmith does have ears for the assignment, especially when he hears that Raidon really has gold pieces. They quickly agree and the blacksmith promises to go to the fort the same day to measure the gate. The blacksmith is also a good acquaintance of the owner of the sawmill and decides to put in a good word for Raidon.

At the sawmill, negotiations have are resumed. Thanks to the blacksmith, this is quite easy. It will cost Raidon a third of the wood he brings, but then the trees he brings will be sawn into planks. The sawyer also wants to help with making a new gate. This must meet the requirements they have found in Duncan's engineering-manual. For this reason the sawyer also goes to the fort. He takes a cart that is specially made to transport tree trunks.

They decide to immediately go back to the fort and early in the afternoon they arrive. Duncan immediately consults with the blacksmith and the sawyer. It takes an hour to get to an agreement. The blacksmith and the sawyer make a few more notes and then leave. Duncan visits Raidon to tell him what he has agreed upon.

Duncan says the blacksmith will return in two days to put the hinges into the gatehouse. He also says that the blacksmith knows how to make concrete. Unfortunately, the blacksmith does not have the necessary raw materials to make much, as some of these raw materials must come from the city. Using Duncan's handbook and what the blacksmith explained, it should be possible to make the concrete to repair the walls and buildings. Unfortunately, they do have to make sure that they get hold of the raw materials.

According to Duncan, the sawyer will need five days to make the gate. He has to enlist the help of a cousin of his who is a carpenter. Together they should be able to be ready within the five days. Unfortunately, it will cost a few gold coins.

In order not to have to take an extra ride, the sawyer leaves his cart behind and the soldiers can now load the large logs to bring to the sawmill. This quite a feat, because most trees are quite heavy.

The next day Raidon immediately has the cart loaded by a squad of soldiers. He sends it off, together with two of the other carts to the sawmill. The two normal carts are driven by two instructors and the tree-bearing cart by Morris. There is also a squad of second platoon as guards. The end of the convoy consists of two more instructors on horseback.

After delivering the trees, Morris and the four instructors continue towards the city. They are going to get a cart of gravel and a cart of lime for making the concrete. Meanwhile, the squad of soldiers takes the other cart back to the fort to load up with trees again.

That same day Raidon has a squad work on expanding the game trail that leads to the village. The game trail is only passable for the carts with a lot of trouble and winds in all directions. The squad starts by removing the vegetation so that a straight path to the village is created. Eventually Raidon wants a road here on which two carts can pass each other. Of course, this will take a long time, but a start can already be made. For safety, Raidon also doubles the number of patrols.

With all the extra tasks such as standing guard and patrolling, there are only three squads that are cleaning up the fort and felling trees. Duncan has one squad of soldiers and his clerks to check out the different buildings. They need to figure out which buildings are easy to repair and which are not. If possible, they can also start cleaning a building. The other two squads are felling trees on the western side of the fort. This is where the weak spot in the walls is and it is extra important that there is an open view for the guards.

They keep up this schedule for five days. During these five days, the soldiers manage to clear the trees on the western side across the weak spot.

Duncan and his group also manage to clean up one of the barracks. This building is pretty well preserved and offers space for a whole platoon. Unfortunately, the roof has been lost, but Duncan knows how to repair it. His estimate is that the roof will take another five days. The other four barracks in the fort have unfortunately been damaged to such an extent that they have to be demolished.

In the evening of the fifth day, Morris returns with the carts. They have had to pay a lot, but they have two carts full of building materials.

"I have your change here, Raidon. It took us almost two and a half gold pieces to get the materials. I have ten pieces of silver left. I used the last piece of silver to pay for the inn where we had to spend the night."

What no one knows is that during their visit to the city of Alan, one of the instructors visited the garrison. Secretly he left his mates behind and went to the commander of the garrison. He told him exactly where the new legion is camped and also indicated the weak spots of the fort. The commander has promised to forward this information to the generals. What the commander has not said is that he himself will also take action against the New Legion.

The day after they return, mid-morning, the sawyer and the blacksmith arrive. However, they did not come alone. On the back of the sawyer's cart are three young men.

"These three boys want to join you if you pay well," says the sawyer.

"You mean they're rascals who'd better do their mischief somewhere else?"

The blacksmith clearly does not have a very positive image of the boys.

"Ah, Rob, it's not that bad. They are a bit adventurous, but that is a good thing in this case."

"Puh, adventurous you say? I remember that these three managed to put a water barrel on top of the roof of a shed. That was useful to have water all the time or something like that."

"You have to admit that they did succeed."

"Ha! Yes, until that barrel crashed through the roof and they got so wet that they caught a huge cold."

Raidon lets the two men squabble while they park the cart.

"Morris, would you mind looking after our new recruits? Just start with some exercises to test their condition. Once we have the rest of the recruits, we can find a priest to swear them in."

"That's good. I think we can keep them busy until then. And while we're on the subject, I think you have to make sure that you and the others have the time to practice as well."

"Why? We're soldiers now, aren't we? At least that's what our armor says." As he says this, Raidon can't resist standing a bit straighter.

"You should not think that you know everything now that you have been promoted by the harnesses. Even if you did, you should know that you have to maintain those skills. Or did you not come across anything like that in that book of yours?"

Blushing, Raidon has to agree.

"I will make sure that there can be practiced one squad at a time. But I can't give you more than an hour a day for each squad."

"That has to be enough for now. Now I'm going to start with those new recruits. They look so lost right now. You're going to check in with the gate, I suppose?"

Indeed, a little later Raidon walks in the direction of the gate, where the blacksmith is already busy securing the hinges. In the meantime, the sawyer is putting the finishing touches on the gate.

The sawyer had some delay in making the gate, so he now has to make the final adjustments on the spot. That is precisely why he asked the blacksmith to go with him to the fort. This allows him to adjust the gate to the hinges of the blacksmith. It takes the men all day, but eventually there is a gate in the fort.

Meanwhile, Duncan is busy making concrete for the wall. By the time the gate hangs on its hinges, he and his squad of soldiers are also finished for the day. They managed to get the wall at the weak the western side a meter high everywhere. A few more days and the weak spot will no longer exist.

The next morning, John's squad is on patrol near the nearby village of Nicaea. When they come within sight of the village halfway through their patrol, one of the men suddenly notices that the village is much busier than usual. When they approach carefully, it turns out that there are about a hundred warriors of the regular army in the village.

"Come on, guys, let's quickly notify the sergeant. This does not bode well," John says to the others.

Raidon is in consultation with Morris about the training schedule when the patrol returns.

"Sergeant! We saw a company of the army in Nicaea. They were asking around about our camp."

"What! How do they even know we're here? No matter, you are all going out to gather the others. We have to make sure that everyone is back in the fort before that company arrives."

The patrol immediately rushes away to find the others.

"Morris, could any of your men have something to do with this? You are the only ones who have been to Aran. No one else could have had contact with the army."

"I'll see what I can find out. As far as I know, no one has been alone during our visit to Aran, but you never know. I'll let you know if I find something."