Daily Rubs of the Wooden Spears

"This quarry is of little value to me at the moment!"

After returning to the quarry, Zhang Yang was at a loss for words because the quarry was too far from his village, at a distance of almost 8 km or so. If he were to mine daily, he would have to send at least 40 captains over; otherwise, he couldn't guarantee his men's safety.

"Wu Yuan, have your men each carry a stone cube. We'll head back for now and leave this place for later."

Finally, Zhang Yang made a decision.

Right now, there were several things in his village that had to be resolved immediately, and this quarry wasn't his priority.

Nothing happened along the way back to the village. After all, this regional hegemon was no joke.

As soon as Zhang Yang returned to the village, he first checked out the construction of the new residential houses. He was concerned that the training ground instructor, Qin Ge, would screw things up.

If that guy dares to cheat my energy points, it looks like there is no other way but to kill him. After all, this guy comes attached with the building, unlike soldiers recruited directly from the Village Building Order and are 100 percent loyal. Even if I ask them to commit suicide, they won't hesitate for a second.

But if I really kill that man, my training ground may also be completely ruined.

"Hmm? Not bad!"

When Zhang Yang arrived at the construction site of the new residential houses, he was stunned. The place was well organized and be it the craftsmen or soldiers who were responsible for doing the hard work, they were all doing their best. As for Qin Ge, he was instructing Zhao Tiezhu and nine other craftsmen in cutting all kinds of wood—in a decent manner.

Zhang Yang turned around, went to the level 5 residential houses at the side, and recruited 10 more craftsmen from the third generation residents before immediately sending them over. Why waste an opportunity to learn some skills?

Later, Zhang Yang hesitated for a long time, and again recruited 10 farmers from the third generation residents. All of them were male. In fact, they could be recruited as new soldiers as long as they weren't married, and this would not affect their loyalty toward him.

But after they became soldiers, they couldn't get married; at least for now.

So for the sake of the future population and the quality of individuals, Zhang Yang had to be firm.

I must go down the route of owning more powerful soldiers. Each of them must be brave and able to take on 10 enemies at once!

The construction time of the new residential houses is at most 5 days. Then, we can start to build the ancestral shrine. With the ancestral shrine, I can purchase talismans of Level 3 Protection, Level 3 Concealment, and Level 3 Vision and equip the patrol team. Plus, with the two ghost eyes generated by the ghost priest every day, the village's perimeter patrol network will also be established. At least there won't be another situation where an enemy's imp comes so close and I have no idea.

Then, there is the reclamation of farmlands. How many people can I even feed with 10 acres of wheat? I have to continue reclaiming farmlands until they cover at least 200 acres. The soldiers will have to work hard, so one farmer can probably handle five acres. 200 acres require 40 farmers. It seems necessary to put all the third generation residents to work.

Finally, the strengthening of the soldiers. Except for the captain bowmen, the rest of the spearmen and shield soldiers must master the skill of wooden spear throwing. I can make Spears of Imprisonment for them. From now on, each captain infantry must be equipped with 3, no, at least 5 Spears of Imprisonment.

Although it will be a little wasteful, I'm not afraid. They will be like Wu Yuan, who only used five Spears of Imprisonment to kill a hero by force, which is too adequate for the price.

It is foreseeable that if all of these 40 or so captains are equipped with 5 Spears of Imprisonment and when their throwing skills reach Wu Yuan's level, their combat power would allow them to completely annihilate more than three times the number of enemies of the same rank—that is, at least 120 captains! Dharma powers can change the future!

It's just that I might be as tired as a dog. 42 captains and 5 Spears of Imprisonment each. I still have to find time to study the iron wall battle mark. Dang it! This is brutal!

After sorting out the matters to be done in the coming period according to their importance, Zhang Yang gave his orders. Wu Yuan, the quasi-hero, was very capable, so there was no problem leaving these things to him.

Next, Zhang Yang began to painstakingly rub wooden spears all day and night.

First, the selected trees were cultivated into iron wood and chopped down by Wu Yuan. One by one, Zhang Yang reinforced them. But no matter how busy he was, he could only produce 10 spears each day, which was too far from his goal.

The only consolation was that his village seemed to have really become a regional hegemon. Within a five-kilometer radius, there wasn't even the trace of a demon. Occasionally, a few red eagle demons flew over the sky, but also didn't dare stay for long. They instantly fled after the guards shooed them off.

And one day, there was even a giant flying demon that they had never seen before. It had a vicious look and Zhang Yang estimated that it was at least level 25, comparable to the strength of a hero.

The demon circled in the sky for a while and eventually flew away in desperation without even landing.

Because at that time, on the ground were 24 captain bowmen and 42 captain infantrymen either stretching their bowstring or holding a Spear of Imprisonment, eyeing it covetously and waiting for it to descend.

This unexpected event certainly made Zhang Yang realize that the outside world was dangerous, but it also made him more profoundly sure that his strategy was right.

Five days later, the new residential houses were successfully built. Although it was only level 3, it was no less significant than a milestone for Zhang Yang.

That was why he deliberately stopped rubbing the wooden spear and went to congratulate the residents in person.

Compared to the level 5 residential houses, the level 3 residential houses were much simpler. They could accommodate 10 families and the contribution to the village prosperity level was 5 points.

But the greater invisible contribution was that the 19 junior craftsmen had each gained a varying amount of proficiency in these 5 days of construction.

Yes, that's right. The increase in level of proficiency was different from person to person, and so was their perception and potential. Among these craftsmen, only three stood out. The proficiency of their secondary skills in making/repairing shot up to 65, 60, and 55 points respectively from the initial 10 proficiency points when they were first recruited.

Amazing. With this level of proficiency, the three of them can independently build more level 3 residential houses.

The rest of the craftsmen basically only had an increase of 10 to 15 proficiency points.

After discovering this point, Zhang Yang waved his hand and decided to make the three craftsmen the head and let them supervise the construction of another level 3 residential house.

As for the other 16 craftsmen, Zhang Yang decided to let them make feather arrows and bows for five more days. From there, he would see who had the most potential in this field and order them to stay and continue to practice. Those who lacked potential would be sent to mine stones. Anyway, craftsmen had many secondary skills and there would always be a suitable job for them.

Zhang Yang didn't expect them to be all-round geniuses.

One must be content with one's life.

After dealing with the craftsmen, Zhang Yang personally presided over the housing ceremony and distributed the level 3 residential houses to 10 promising young people, i.e. third generation residents, including three young craftsmen.

That's right. The three outstanding craftsmen were all young and third generation residents, so it was probably not a coincidence that the second generation residents were slower in gaining knowledge and skills.

This was a lesson, but also not one well thought out by Zhang Yang. He should have recruited all the craftsmen in the third generation residents and recruited the second generation into other professions. The result was that now there were 8 second generation residents as craftsmen, who would most likely become less useful.

Unfortunately, the matter had come to this and he couldn't change anything. The Village Building Order also didn't provide the option to change professions.

From this matter, Zhang Yang saw the difference between 'initial recruitment' and 'normal recruitment' in the system.

The 500 people recruited through 'initial recruitment' would do whatever he instructed. For instance, he could command Wu Yuan and Song Dachui to fight, log, carry stones, plow, and mow, and they would do so with no second thoughts.

But the people recruited through 'normal recruitment' wouldn't act that way. If Zhang Yang were to make a craftsman do farmwork, the craftsman's loyalty would immediately drop and not even bribing him with energy points would not do the trick.

Qin Ge was considered an exception. At least he was able to be bribed.

So when Zhang Yang thought of those soldiers who died before, his heart ached so badly that he couldn't breathe well.

And at that moment, he came to a clear awareness of the hardship that was to come the next 300 years!

Yes. In the future, the soldiers he recruited from residential houses wouldn't be as obedient. They weren't even as good as the 50 recruits that came with the barracks. They would show all kinds of temper and be lazy, afraid, and desert.

I finally understand what a faith-based organization really has to offer. It's not as simple as buying concealment, protection, or vision talismans. Moreover, after 20 years, I have to pass on my skills as well.

Zhang Yang decided to think hard about which kind of faith organization to establish.