Chapter 14: Marching Out

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Kobolds can barely be considered intelligent creatures, and their intelligence is rather low.

They have a little, but not much.

The beastly instincts of this kind of creature are stronger than their human-like traits. The survival instinct of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, which is inherited in their blood, makes it impossible for them to fight their enemies to the death.

Without the suppression of a powerful leader, once the short-lived animalistic frenzy subsides, all that remains is the survival instinct to save their own lives.

Just like a wolf pack without an alpha wolf, or even more easily dispersed than a wolf pack.

This is also the reason why small intelligent races such as kobolds, goblins, and murlocs are easily enslaved by other races.

"What's wrong with these kobolds? With such little strength, they still dare to charge over?" Looking at the kobold group disappearing into the dense forest and the more than twenty kobold corpses outside the settlement camp, Ulyan walked up to Leo's side and muttered to himself, puzzled.

Leo explained, "Is it really that surprising? They've come out in full force, big and small. This just shows that we've blocked their doorstep and they're getting anxious."

He accompanied Ulyan and watched the kobolds until they disappeared. Then, he suddenly came to a decision.

"Eat quickly! After eating, catch up with them. Seize the opportunity to pursue victory and wipe them out in one go!"

Ulyan sized up Leo in surprise. "So hasty? Are your injuries healed?"

Leo pressed on his faintly aching chest and then lifted his still somewhat stiff arm. He said helplessly, "I can't afford not to be hasty. It's not just kobolds that can attack us. This time it was kobolds, but what about next time?"

"These kobolds have been launching frequent sneak attacks and exhausted their combat capabilities, while the other alien tribes haven't shown any signs of activity at all."

Ulyan sighed and showed a hint of exhaustion. "Yeah, there are so many things we need to do, and we can't overlook any of them. Starting today, I'll send half of the people to cut down trees. We need to build houses and put up fences quickly. Who knows what will come next time."

"If we can't reclaim 300 mu of land (about 20 hectares), then reclaim half of it first. We have to survive first."

Looking at the silent Leo, Ulyan felt relieved. In the past, these were things this kid would never have considered.

Fight when there's a battle, eat when there's food, and sleep when there's an opportunity.

"You've finally grown up. At least you've got some sense now. Not bad. When I'm knighted as a colonization knight, you'll be my first squire!"

Leo immediately showed his dissatisfaction. "After all I've done, you're just going to brush me off with just being a squire?"

Ulyan stared wide-eyed, and the kind face of an old father vanished instantly. "What? You want to be a knight and I'll be your squire?"

The villagers in the settlement camp were not as uneasy as expected. They seemed to be accustomed to the kobold attacks. After seeing the kobolds disappear, the villagers immediately came out in groups and started another day's routine.

This kobold attack not only didn't cause panic, but for some reason, it actually increased the confidence of the settlement camp villagers a lot.

At least no one died this time, right? That's already a great improvement.

Suddenly, the wilderness seemed less dangerous.

In the center of the settlement camp, a large pot had already been set up. On the chopping board beside it, fish of various sizes had their scales and innards removed and were thrown into the pot.

Just as Leo was about to pick a live fish suitable for grilling from the wooden barrel, he got slapped on the back of his hand by Olivia.

Olivia plopped down on the wooden barrel, not caring about her image. She spread her dress out wide, covering the other wooden barrel, just like an old hen protecting her chicks. She stared at Leo and said, "What are you doing?"

Leo was furious. "I caught these fish!"

"Even if you caught them, you still have to share them with everyone. We're only having fish soup for breakfast!"

"I just want one!"

"Not even one."

Seeing that being tough wouldn't work, Leo immediately changed his tactics. Looking downcast, he said, "I'm going to wipe out the kobolds after breakfast. I might not come back, so this could be my last meal."

Olivia was stunned on the spot. Just as she was at a loss what to do, Leo had already spotted the opportunity. He quickly reached into Olivia's dress and took out a live fish from the wooden barrel under her.

Unfortunately, this hasty grab only got him a small fish the size of a palm.

Holding the small fish, Leo was like a victorious general returning in triumph. He took Little Mouse, who looked at him with admiration, to roast the fish.

After breakfast, Leo, with Ulyan's cooperation, immediately organized a militia of twenty-five people, along with twenty-five young men in reserve. A total of fifty people set off.

Led by two scouts, they followed the trail left by the kobolds back and forth and headed straight to the kobold lair.

Ulyan led the remaining young men to guard the settlement camp to prevent their base from getting raided.

Leo had taken away the most core combat power of the settlement camp. Someone had to guard the remaining old and weak. There were more than just the kobold lair among the alien tribes in the vicinity.

When Ulyan was on border duty at the Western Watchtower, he often went upstream along the Anzerno River and penetrated deep into the river bend wilderness to conduct reconnaissance and patrols. Occasionally, he would also lead the knights of the Frolov family to wipe out and drive away the alien races and wild beasts that got close to human territory.

But that was all five years ago. Five years was enough to change the power distribution in the wilderness.

The current situation of the river bend settlement needed to be re-reconnoitered to be clear.

According to the initial plan, the biggest difficulty for the exploration team was a migration route of over a thousand li (about 500 kilometers). Although the alien tribes around the river bend had multiplied and grown in the past five years, they were no match for more than a hundred trained militiamen.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The scale of the exploration team had shrunk significantly, and it had already become a vulnerable bunch.

At present, there were fewer than thirty people in the militia of the exploration camp. Fortunately, after such a long time of training and actual combat, almost all of them had the strength of conscripted infantry.

Seven or eight of them, who had always been used as personal guards by Ulyan, performed particularly outstandingly. As long as they got equipped, they would be qualified regular infantry of the empire.

The Atlantis Empire once had a complete standing army system. Although with the separatist rule of the vassal states, the imperial standing army had been severely cut, top soldiers like Ulyan could only retire and go home. However, the military system was still popular everywhere and was even adopted by the lord's army.

The imperial military system divided civilian infantry into four levels. The first level of conscripted infantry was recruited from the elite. These included the lord's army, militia, and forest rangers in each territory. They were equipped with iron-plated leather armor, wooden shields, and iron swords.

Those who had served for over three years and were of excellent strength would be transferred to the imperial regular infantry, that is, the so-called professional soldiers. They were equipped with iron helmets, chain mail with a leather lining, iron-covered wooden shields, and single-handed swords.

Even higher up are the heavily - armored elite infantry, which are the core combat power among the Imperial infantry. In addition to the equipment of regular infantry, they are additionally equipped with steel armor components such as breastplates, vambraces, spaulders, and greaves.

Just a set of this equipment weighs about a hundred pounds. Without being an elite among the elites, it would be extremely difficult to even move while donning such heavy armor, let alone participate in battles.

Hundreds of years ago, the Imperial Heavy Infantry Regiment composed of heavily - armored elite infantry was a force that could intercept steppe cavalry and directly engage the infantry of the Beast Race head - on.

And the fourth - rank Imperial Sergeant is the top military rank for civilian soldiers, that is, a civilian officer, second only to noble knights in status.

So the composition of their unit can be described like this: One third - rank soldier, leading five second - rank soldiers, twenty first - rank soldiers, as well as twenty - five conscripted farmers.

The only flaw is that all of their equipment fails to meet the standard, reducing their combat effectiveness by half directly.

The vegetation on both sides of the Anzerno River shows obvious differences. The Wolf - Driving Plain on the north bank is filled with nothing but coniferous giants, and the tree crowns are covered with thick snow.

Near the river bend on the south bank, there are all kinds of deciduous trees. The gnarled dead branches seem to rend the sky asunder, emanating a somewhat gloomy and eerie atmosphere in winter.

The decomposed leaves on the ground are about a foot thick, covered with fallen broken dead branches. Therefore, the paths where the kobolds moved can be clearly seen.

Although Leo doesn't believe at all that the kobolds still have the organizational ability to lure the enemy in deep and ambush on the way, just in case, he still has several experienced and capable soldiers walk in front of the main force and advance cautiously.