Chapter 8 Gathering

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When he woke up the next day, Little Mouse was already gone.

Leo searched around the settlement camp but didn't see her. Whenever he met someone, he would ask, "Where's Little Mouse gone?"

A kid pointed at the big river outside the camp and said nervously, "She seems to have gone to the riverbank."

Leo searched along the river for a while before he found her on a gravel shoal.

At this moment, Little Mouse's small body was squatting on the river beach, shivering and curled up into a ball. At the same time, she was rummaging around in the shallow water with her hands.

Because she didn't want her clothes to get wet, she flipped the overly long hem of her clothes to her waist and tied it, revealing her bare bottom half.

From her thighs to her feet, her snow-white skin was covered with horrifying frostbite.

Olivia had more than one child to take care of, and she didn't have any extra pants to lend to Little Mouse.

Finally, she cupped her hands and grabbed a finger-sized fish. She squinted her big eyes into cute little arcs, looking extremely happy.

Afraid that the fish would break free, Little Mouse stuffed it into her mouth without even having time to wash the mud off the fish.

The young children in the exploration team could only receive food once a day. For breakfast, they could only take a few bites from their parents' bowls or each person would be given a few cooked peas. But obviously, no one would call Little Mouse.

So she could only secretly save a few bites of bread for herself or look for food in the wild like this.

The good thing was that she didn't have to participate in labor with her family like other kids her age, and she had a whole day to look for food.

The bad thing was that it was really difficult to find food in winter in the Northern Region.

Leo stepped forward, pinched her cheeks, and stuck two fingers in to try to take out the fish.

Little Mouse quickly sucked it in and swallowed the half - chewed fish with difficulty. Then she hugged her head to fend off the attack before realizing that it was Leo.

She was like a kid who had been caught red-handed for doing something wrong, with her head down uneasily.

I'm wrong. I should've given the fish to Dad first when I caught it.

Leo didn't even have the heart to lecture her and just said, "You're too slow at catching fish. Watch me."

With that, he moved the stones and quickly cleared a small pond and built a small dam.

Left a gap in the small pond leading to the river channel, Leo clapped his hands and greeted Little Mouse, "Let's go. Don't play by the river alone. Watch out or Olivia won't give you anything to eat."

"What about the fish?"

"You'll have it when you come back tonight."

"What about the bread?"

"What bread?"

"What you promised yesterday..."

After Leo pestered her shamelessly for a long time, Olivia finally bent the rules and secretly gave him a soft piece of bread.

With Little Mouse looking at him admiringly and calling out "Dad" non - stop, Leo rewarded her with the bread.

Breakfast was still the tough, crusty bread, and it was only half the weight of dinner, accompanied by a large pot of boiling hot water.

In addition, there was a section of plant root that resembled a sweet potato but was more like a Chinese yam.

This was the cassava from antler trees unique to the Northern Region. It could survive in the frozen ground and was more filling than bread. The only drawback was that it was poisonous and could easily kill people if eaten too much.

After struggling through breakfast, Leo waved his big hand and said to the young man beside him, "Ivan, go and inform the militia to gather for training."

In just a moment, the members of the militia had all arrived.

Only twenty people turned up, and several of them were still wearing bandages.

There was already a serious shortage of young and strong labor in the exploration team, and the members of the militia were the main force among them. They all had work to do during the day.

When they were recruited by Ulyan in the village before, they could only spare some time to participate in training before breakfast and after dinner.

Speaking of the truly full-time soldiers in the whole team, there was only Leo, who didn't need to farm.

The reason why the other militiamen initially joined was simply that Ulyan could provide a pound of bread every day as an extra food for the militia.

This was no trivial matter. Many poor farmers might not even have a pound of food rations per day in winter.

However, after the baptism of this migration, the surviving militiamen deeply realized the importance of armed forces, especially in this uncharted wilderness.

Therefore, at the call, except for seven or eight veteran soldiers who were deployed by Ulyan around the settlement camp for patrol and vigilance, the remaining militiamen quickly gathered, and even the injured ones didn't miss it.

After more than a year of extra food and training by Ulyan, these militiamen were significantly sturdier than ordinary villagers, and their clothes were relatively thicker.

Half of the militiamen were clad in simple protective gear stitched together from various furs, looking like a group of Russian hunters from the Tsarist era.

Due to the lack of sufficient food supply, the militia basically didn't conduct any high-intensity physical training. Most of the time, Ulyan or other retired veteran soldiers taught the militiamen basic weapon handling skills, offensive and defensive techniques, and battle formations.

Many combat skills might seem simple, but they could greatly improve the combat effectiveness and survival rate of the militia.

Fighting and killing enemies were not as simple as one might think. If only two villagers were armed, perhaps they could hack at each other more than ten times, covered in gore, but no one would be seriously injured or killed.

However, soldiers who had received training and seen actual combat were different. Opportunities to attack on the battlefield often only came once or twice, and these one or two times were the key to victory.

This was also the reason why disabled retired veterans could still easily handle three or five village hooligans. Besides having a stronger physical constitution, it was more because their attacks were faster and more lethal.

Since the previous militia captain left the team halfway through the migration because his wife and children fell ill, Leo, who had the biggest improvement in combat effectiveness, was promoted and became the new militia captain.

However, due to the hardships of the migration, Leo had never summoned the militiamen for intensive training like Ulyan and the previous militia captain did.

With the mentality of a transmigrator, he had a slightly different view on the way of fighting.

Close combat was just too brutal and not elegant enough. Long-range attacks were the way to go, man!

Leo, who had been bitten to death by a kobold before, didn't want to experience it again.

Although the original owner's hot-tempered and belligerent nature constantly influenced him, the elegant soul of the transmigrator still held sway, and he had a strong aversion to close combat with cold weapons.

Unfortunately, the village where Leo was born was not a village famous for archery. The villagers were all honest farmers.

If it were a village that made a living by fishing and hunting, just gathering the men in the village could form a bowman squad with decent combat power.

But it didn't matter. They had tough hides, strong muscles, and great strength. He could teach them something else first.

Leo first got the militiamen to line up neatly and then announced loudly, "Starting today, we're going to practice javelin throwing. My requirements are simple. The javelin should not hit the ground within 50 yards, and you need to hit the target five out of ten times within 20 yards. Those who don't meet the standard will have their dinner rations halved."

The militiamen looked at each other in dismay. A brown-haired young man named Vicki, who was only two years older than Leo, hesitated and said, "But we still have to reclaim the land, right? Uncle Ulyan said that within these three months, we have to reclaim at least 300 mu of wasteland. Otherwise, we won't be able to catch up with the spring sowing in April."

Leo was slightly stunned and asked, "How big is one mu of land?"

All the militiamen wore expressions of utter disbelief, which were quickly replaced by intense disdain.

The captain's ignorance even shocked those who were illiterate.

As a native rural person, don't you have any idea how big one mu of land is?

Leo looked at everyone's expressions and felt rather speechless.

How would I know your mu measurement system? Who knows if it's acres, ares, Chinese mu, or some other strange mu-like unit. Furthermore, the original owner never farmed the land and didn't even have a basic concept of the mu measurement system.