Fortunately, the five hundred refugees in Knight Solovy's hands had become quite content with the abundant food he provided them with during this period, and they were not affected by the refugees from outside. When the tide of refugees approaches, they will raise the tools in their hands, join in the defense, and protect their hard-earned stable life. The refugees driven by Rigolav to the outside of the western watchtower were relatively docile and still had hope for the future. They did not rashly attack the Solovyvi Knight Territory in the short term. But no matter what, by the time they come to their senses and their food runs out, they will sooner or later turn into beasts due to hunger. The situation on the river bend is more stable, as if it is at peace with the world. The person who sneaked into the refugee camp to plan a riot was brought to Ulian by the refugees on the same day, and then hanged in public outside the gate of the refugee camp. After such a long period of training and screening, the refugee leaders who were still harboring evil ideas in the refugee camp had already been cleared out. The rest are either clan leaders who sincerely seek stability with their people, or smart people who face reality. These truly smart people are all working hard to integrate into Hewan and gain a legitimate status. The outside instigators simply gave themselves credit.
However, in the face of this social turmoil, Hewan Leader could hide for a while but not forever. Hewan Territory is only thirty miles away from the western sentry tower. It is neither close nor far, and it will be discovered by the refugees sooner or later. It will be even faster if you are guided by someone who cares about you. The extremely hungry refugees rushing over have no rational thoughts at all and will seriously affect the order of the river bend. During this period, Leo recalled all the soldiers in the Wolf-Driving Plain, set up outposts between the river bend and the western watchtower, and patrolled and guarded to prevent large groups of refugees from attacking the river bend. As the population of Riverbend grows, the armed forces of Riverbend are also constantly improving. There are currently one hundred Riverbend infantry, one hundred wild folk longbowmen and one hundred crossbowmen. These are all regular troops that have participated in long-term training and actual combat, all equipped with qualified weapons and equipment, and are field troops that Hewan Territory can pull out to fight. After a battle with the alien coalition, Uliyan equipped the River Bend crossbowmen with huge tower shields and one-handed swords, imitating the equipment of the Imperial Crossbow Corps. Compared to longbowmen who need training from childhood and abundant meat supply to cultivate, crossbowmen are undoubtedly easier to mass produce. Theoretically, anyone who can string a military crossbow can be trained to become a crossbowman in a short period of time. Seven hundred years ago, before the North joined the Orlantis Empire, the South did not even have a well-organized longbow corps, but had a crossbow corps whose number exceeded the total strength of the North. Whenever there was a major battle, the long-range firepower unleashed by the massive crossbow corps was no less than that of the longbow corps in the north. Over the past few hundred years, the simple and practical Imperial crossbow has also been accepted by the people of the North, and many permanent troops and lord armies have crossbowmen. The two biggest features of the Imperial Crossbowman are the crossbow and tower shield. The rectangular tower shield is four feet high, two feet wide, and between half an inch and an inch thick. It is basically a door panel. Good quality ones will be wrapped with a layer of iron or animal skin, or painted with bright colors. There is a sturdy bracket and straps on the back of it, and crossbowmen usually carry a 15-kilogram tower shield during training. When fighting, lower the tower shield's support, stand it upright in front of you, form a shield wall with your companions, and place the crossbow on the tower shield to shoot. The elite Imperial crossbowmen can also lift tower shields to engage in hand-to-hand combat, and their combat effectiveness is not inferior to that of Imperial infantry.
Of course, the refugee crossbowmen in the river bend could not do this. In order to reduce the load, the thickness and weight of the tower shields were also reduced a lot. However, there is a huge shield in front of them to block the damage from stray arrows, which also provides a great sense of security for the crossbowmen, allowing them to shoot more calmly. Ulian and Leo certainly hoped that all the men, women and children in River Bay could be trained to be as powerful warriors as the wild hunters, but this was obviously impossible. Rather than expecting the villagers to draw their heavy yew longbows or charge with swords, it would be more reasonable to expect them to hold crossbows and hide behind cover to provide suppressive fire. In addition, the River Bay Territory also has an equal number of militia groups as the Lord's Army. These soldiers also participate in regular training and patrols, and are reserve soldiers who can be added to the Lord's Army at any time. It's just that they lack actual combat experience, so while it's no problem for them to defend their homes, there are risks in sending them out to fight in the field. The Lord's army of the River Bend was divided into two by Leo, with Leo and Vicchi each leading half, patrolling the perimeter of the River Bend and keeping in touch. More and more refugee groups were gathered by Rigolav and driven out of the western watchtower. Many refugee groups set up camp on both sides of the World Tree Avenue outside the western watchtower, forming temporary villages. It is human nature to admire the strong and to stick together, and this is especially true for the weak. Among the refugee group, anyone with the slightest ability - even the ability to brag - will gradually gain supporters and form a group around them. Some clan leaders like Wuliyang already had dozens of young and strong people under their command, and with the help of new refugees along the way, they gradually became leaders of hundreds of people. Or some gang leaders would take the opportunity to expand rapidly, and with a few sweet words, they could trick honest farmers into following them. Regardless of whether these people were seeking personal gain or truly wanted to feed their tribesmen, they inevitably ended up on the path of banditry. Faced with Hewan's fully-armed elite troops, most of the refugee groups appeared to be honest and obedient, but there were also some short-sighted guys who coveted the equipment of Hewan's leading army. Leo felt a little uncomfortable when he saw those skinny young refugees being forced by the vicious bandits, charging towards him with hoes and hayforks in hand. Among the members of those bandit gangs, there were also many new members who followed their companions' example and smeared colored mud or blood on their faces, or wore fresh sheep bone masks, while brandishing weapons and howling in terror. In order to conceal his own fear, he also hoped to intimidate the River Bend army. It's a pity that this kind of intimidation can only work on ordinary villagers. The old soldiers of Hewan hid comfortably behind their shields, with blank expressions on their faces, and even made people want to laugh. These young and strong refugees and new bandits were honest farmers a few months ago, but a few months later, they became consumables in battle or degenerated into bestial plunderers. Leo, with compassion, gave the command, "Shoot!" The bandit group, lacking armor and shields, was shot and killed by the powerful long-range firepower of longbowmen and crossbowmen before they could even touch the shields of the River Bend infantry. They turned around and fled into the wilderness. After experiencing two battles without any suspense, unlike the River Bend army that was unscathed and in high morale, Leo felt a little depressed. He led his troops back to the river bend and said to Ulyaan, "I don't want to kill anyone anymore." "What are you doing? If you don't want to kill anyone, then why don't you let the other side kill you?" Wuliyang was too lazy to pay attention to him. As the leader of the soldiers in this dimension, he simply couldn't understand the compassion of the alien. Leo changed his mind and said, "This is a human being. Aren't humans the most in need in the North? If you kill one person, you will have to wait eighteen years for him to grow another one!" “So, I want to save people!”