Chapter 464: Chapter 355: Please Don’t Die, My Supreme Commander

"A barracks is the base of an army, and its importance is beyond question. However, many people tend to overlook the temporary camps set up while on the march. This often leads to situations in war where the enemy launches surprise attacks at night."

Shire looked at the book on the table, then glanced up at the map hanging on the wall. "That’s true. Goblins are masters of night raids. The last few operations I ran were all conducted at night."

This was a book on military command that Uncle Musa had chosen for Shire. Its title was *The Art of War Commander*, and the author was Alexander I, who was also the first King of the Sword and Rose Kingdom.

He was said to be a brilliant Supreme Commander who once led a force of three thousand Cavalry to punch right through the territories of two separate enemies.

Moreover, his army at the time had very few Mages, let alone any White Dragon Phoenixes.

It was all accomplished purely through his personal command and his ability to predict the enemy’s movements.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they moved like the wind.

That was why Shire had long admired the military artistry of this legendary monarch. Previously, he had only helped his father govern the territory on civil matters and hadn’t delved much into military affairs. Now was the perfect opportunity to focus on studying it.

With the help of the Elephant Lord, the entire South District of the Forest City was now mostly level. This area was designated as a training and activity ground, so it didn’t require many buildings. In the future, they could just mark out zones and put up fences to use it directly.

’This is a perfect chance to try out what Alexander I wrote.’ Shire continued to scan the words in the book, his mind already calculating how to implement systematic training.

Training an army was never child’s play. His previous idea—’First, make them stand at attention, then practice marching in formation, then take them out for runs, throw in a few kilometers of cross-country trekking, and finally, conduct jungle survival drills’—seemed completely unfeasible now that he thought about it carefully.

First of all, his subjects were a group of goblins who had only just started getting full meals. They had no discipline, and they were illiterate. If you told a goblin to turn left, he would most likely just run off because you were shouting too loud.

Drawing on his experience from training the first dozen or so goblins to hunt wild boars, Shire felt he had to come up with a better plan.

A dozen goblins had been enough to cause utter chaos. Now there were several thousand. It felt as if Shire were standing at the foot of a mountain, banging on an iron basin—CLANG, CLANG—only to have a whole flock of chickens come flying down in a chaotic swarm.

’To train this group of undisciplined goblins, I’ll probably have to die from frustration, be revived, and then die from frustration again several times over.’ At this thought, Shire shook his head and sighed.

Along with the books, Uncle Musa had sent an intelligence report. It detailed his observations at the Giant Dragon’s Horn Magic Items Trade Association, including the incident where Adventurers were "looting" right outside the door.

This gave Shire a bad feeling. The report also mentioned that after spring arrived, these "Ear Cleaners" who hadn’t made much money during the winter would most likely return to the Nightmare Forest. They would probably be red-eyed and desperate to make money.

Herbs, beast pelts, goblin ears, some rare and exotic special Races, and even Magical Beasts—all of these were their targets.

However, the herbs were now being gathered by Shire’s own subordinates. His Hunting Teams were also sent out to find and hunt beasts. As for goblin ears, Adventurers would probably only be able to find a few stragglers at the edge of the forest.

The exotic Races were absolutely not to be handed over; the little goblins and Centaurs were the treasures of his tribe now. As for Magical Beasts, they had been completely wiped out over the winter by Shire’s people and the goblins from the Feathered Serpent God Kingdom. You couldn’t find one to hunt even if you wanted to.

Unfortunately, the Adventurers wouldn’t care about any of that. They would just charge forward, brandishing their weapons and yelling, "Silver Coins! Money!" and "Kill ’em! Kill ’em!"

"This is giving me a headache." Shire rubbed his temples. These guys were easy enough to deal with. Any small party of Adventurers that showed up before his tribe would be easily eliminated.

But there were just too many Adventurers. After killing a few dozen of them, someone was bound to notice something was wrong. This could very well attract the attention of human armies, leading to a full-scale sweep.

What the tribe needed most right now was time—time to develop to the point where they could contend with human armies and their Mages.

’No, the construction plans for the forest have to change.’ Shire put down the book and stared intently at the wooden map again. ’Those watchtowers I’ve been wanting to build—construction must begin immediately.’

He planned to set up several watchtowers throughout the area. There was no need to construct special buildings; he just had to find some tall, thick-trunked trees, hollow out their centers, and build a tunnel underneath them fitted with a Rune Language: Door.

He would assign personnel who could use the Teleportation Gate to reach the underground tunnel each time, climb up through the hollowed-out trunk to the treetop, and hide among the dense leaves. Using a telescope to survey the surroundings, the green-skinned goblins would have perfect natural camouflage.

Moreover, Shire also planned to place animal skull markers around the watchtowers again.

After he took Control of the entire South District, he hadn’t touched those markers. Even though there were no longer any goblins active in the marked "Hunting Grounds," Adventurers still wandered through them.

Now, Shire decided to manually alter the "Hunting Grounds." ’The Adventurer Association’s maps are outdated. From now on, they’ll have to use the goblin map published by Shire.’

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