Krafft's Anomaly Notes

Chapter 21 The Castle of the Wood Family

From Wendeng Port all the way to the Wood family's site, if the weather is good, it only takes six or seven days to ride a horse.

However, there is always a discrepancy between the actual situation and the theory. It is obviously not only unpleasant to spend the night in the wild, but also unsafe.That's why both of them chose to set off in the morning, both in order to have more time to rush to the farthest village and town for the night, and then set off the next morning.

After the snow melted, some sections of the road were still a little muddy. It took two days for the two of them to set foot on the relatively solid road again, and a thin layer of mud had formed on the outside of the cloak.It took another six days to stop and go among the villages and towns along the way before returning to Wood Town on the evening of the ninth day.

Like most settlements, Wood Town was also chosen to be in a place relatively close to the water source. It was built in a river valley surrounded by low mountains, with mountains behind and water in front, and the shape of the land was relatively long and narrow.The width of the river is about ten meters, which is not too wide, but it is not easy to pass.

When Old Wood was young, the town developed on one side of the river alone. To cross the river, one had to make a long detour from the upper reaches of the shallow water, or choose between swimming and boating.

Old Wood, who hated this deeply, built a stone bridge on the river with the remaining stone materials in order to make full use of the land on the other side of the river after repairing the castle. It is indeed a convenient project.

Lane and Kraft were now crossing the stone bridge, and they were going through the town to the castle on the hill behind.

The siting of the castle is very comfortable.The short hill behind this town is a gentle slope on the side facing Wood Town and the river, while the back is a steep cliff. When defending, as long as you face the frontal enemy climbing the slope from an upward angle, you will be greatly reduced. The amount of engineering behind it.

At the same time, this small slope will bring an extremely uncomfortable experience when someone is attacking. While consuming energy, it also prevents the possibility of charging upward. Momentum that can send people flying.

In 30 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 thick tower as the main body of the castle against the cliff, and built stables, workshops and kitchens around the tower. Demountable wooden construction.

This stage lasted for more than ten years, accounting for half of the entire project, that is, until around Kraft's birth, the Wood family's castle was surrounded by wooden walls.

The long construction period is mainly due to economic conditions and practical considerations.Although the site theoretically includes Wood Town and several small villages around it, the economy is considered good among the small nobles, but a newly established family is not the only expense, and Old Wood also has to pay for it. The old folks who came back with him set up estates, and the descendants of these people will also serve the Wood family.

Wood Town is not an important military location. Although a family castle can effectively prevent various risks, it must have this risk to play its role.Even if there was a war one day, no one would bother to send an army to attack here. It would be enough to send an envoy to symbolically accept the surrender of the lord.

It wasn't until the time was right, or Old Wood felt that the family's financial situation had improved, that the Wood family began to remove the wooden fence and replace it with a real stone curtain wall.

The small amount of work allowed Old Wood to stubbornly increase the height of the curtain wall to more than three meters, matching the concave and convex crenels on the wall. It will be very useful when the Kraft family can save enough crossbows and bows.

The ancillary buildings that have been repaired for more than ten years have also been replaced by expanded towers, and gradually merged into a solid fortress with a tower.At this point, the entire castle has fully matured, and it has become a disgusting thing that is not easy to fight and unnecessary to fight. It is very suitable as a family inheritance.

Time passed and Kraft grew up. In recent years, the castle has paved the road from the gate to the town with gravel, which has prevented many horses and vehicles from slipping.

Kraft and Ryan followed this zigzag road all the way up, and the setting sun sank slowly behind the castle, casting the elongated shadow of the building on the gentle slope with sparse trees.Its future enemies will be cast in its shadow every evening, preparing their impenetrable siege engines on the ramps, and guarding against the heavy rolling stones that fall with them.

Even souls from other worlds would be amazed at how powerful this thing was in the age of cold weapons. When water and food reserves were sufficient, it would take several times as many people to besiege such a stone building complex.

Don't even think about moving large siege machines here. Once the stone bridge on the river below was destroyed during the war, it would be troublesome for people to come here.The equipment made by logging on the spot will be extremely difficult to push against the slope.Then go to the front of the castle to face a group of militiamen led by professional armed forces, which can be called the ultimate torture.

That's right, being prepared for danger in times of trouble, the Wood family still has full-time armed forces.Although it is true that there are not many, there are only a dozen or twenty people, mainly from old comrades and old buddies who retired with Old Wood.

When Old Wood developed, they were also assigned to the surrounding industries, and they were also people who, like Old Wood, liked to train their juniors from an early age, forming professional soldiers with a family tradition.

Kraft's father took such a group of "soldiers" as followers when he went to the battlefield, and then added some temporarily armed militiamen to make up the number, and a small army came out.In the end, the misfortune was purely bad luck, not that these people who had been trained since childhood were 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 will guard the castle for a lifetime, and have no chance to make a fortune on the battlefield.

In the dark sky, one could see the flickering flames at the gate of the castle, which were the torches held by the guards in charge of the night.The clang of metal clashing could be heard vaguely.

"John? Or George? Don't close the door just yet!" Kraft yelled. "No, I don't want to be outside waiting for you to fiddle with that goddamn winch."

"Aha, our little baron is back!" Laughter came from the door, and the metal collision stopped, and a young face poked out from the wall holding a torch, "Come in."

"Let me warn you one last time, George, there is only one baron here!" 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 so much etiquette. Don't have a name?"

Ryan and Kraft took the horse to the stables, and then found Old Wood and Anderson who were having dinner in the dining room.By candlelight, bread, thick soup, and homemade sausages in the castle are placed on the long dining table. Old people with gray hair and some bald middle-aged people sit in front of the table. The atmosphere is like the caring for empty nesters on TV. advertise.

"My dear Kraft, you are back. Anderson and I are 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 Well, you must be hungry."

……

……

"So you still didn't see that person in the end?" When the two of them were full and Ryan remembered to take out the stone hand, Old Wood suddenly remembered what else Kraft had to do when he went out.

It's been almost a month since I went back and forth. From the time it snowed to the time when the snow melted, it felt like half of the winter had passed. If Ryan hadn't brought back a gift, everyone might have forgotten it.

"Indeed, he was just an incompetent liar. He burned his own hands and died before we reached Wendeng Port." Kraft folded his hands 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, flipped through it and didn't see why, "But this is really interesting to look at, the seller said where it came from ."

"I didn't say it, but I don't think it looks like something in Northland." Ryan didn't change his face. "If you want to talk about interesting things, it depends on Kraft. You will never imagine what happened." He made a fool of himself , but the smile on his face couldn't be hidden.

"Isn't it possible that Kraft was admitted to Port Wendeng College?" Old Wood guessed in the most unlikely direction as usual. This outrageous guess made Anderson laugh.

"..."

"..."

"What's the matter, why don't you talk? What's so mysterious about something interesting?" The sudden silence made Anderson stop laughing, thinking that he was laughing inappropriately.

(End of this chapter)