The next morning, we loaded up the wagon with the stuff the people wanted to take to their new home, and put those too old or too young to walk into the wagon. By cutting cross country, we were home within 3 hours with all of the goods the people had wanted to salvage, so they were ready to move right in. We introduced the new people to the "old timers," and I went over the rules about the water supply and the wardrobe. The first thing the new people wanted to see was the wardrobe, they had never heard of such a thing. They then picked out their new apartments and got settled in. We picked up two couples and one unmarried man who found a mate within 2 days. It was definitely a successful trip.
A few days later, we tried again to find some new people. We had to travel a little farther to find new people this time. This was just a small cave with 1 man and 2 women, but no children. I was a bit suspicious, but had only a feeling to go on. We showed off our usual stuff and prepared to spend the night. I made my pitch, and the women looked interested, but fearful. The man was very enthusiastic, too much so, I thought.
That night, I was awakened to the sound of a scuffle and a grunt of pain. Hannah had caught the man trying to kill me with one of the bronze swords. She had crushed his chest with one blow of her fist! Sharp Eye had slept through the whole thing and was disappointed when he finally woke up. The two women fell all over us with gratitude for rescuing them from the man. He had stolen them from another cave and was keeping them prisoner. He raped one or both of them several times a week, and one of the women was pregnant with his child. They begged us to let them join our community, and we couldn't refuse.
There was nothing of any importance in the cave worth saving, so they climbed into the wagon the next morning and headed for their former home. I figured it was too good an opportunity for more recruiting for us to miss. It took more than a day to get there, since we had to make some detours to get the wagon around some rugged country. The two women were welcomed home with laughter and tears, and we three were greeted as heroes. This was a very large group with 33 adults and 23 children. They were going to have to move pretty soon, since they had pretty well cleaned out the food sources for their area, so they were very receptive to moving in with us at Fabton. We spent the night and found that everybody was acceptable.
Hannah and I discussed the logistics and decided to move several people with the wagon the next morning. When we got back to Fabton, we would unload the people we had brought on that trip and send all of the wagons and carts back in a convoy to pick up everybody else and their goods. If necessary, we could make one more trip to pick up the last few items. I would stay in Fabton to get everything ready, and she would lead the convoy back to make the pickup.
This scheme worked out very well, and we had all those people settled in, in only a few days. We now had picked up all of the people I thought we could assimilate in one winter, so I called it quits on recruiting trips for this season.
It was a very busy winter, what with getting everybody organized with enough to do to keep from being bored. Of course, one of the things we did was contribute to a population explosion. I think that Hannah was the only one of the women who didn't get pregnant or deliver a baby that season. Hannah was really busy, and was going to need a midwifery assistant the way things were going. In fact, we were growing so fast that I asked Hannah to look into opening up another chamber for growth next spring.
Hannah followed the water upstream through its channel and found another chamber not quite as large as the one we were currently using, but quite usable. I asked her to cut the exterior windows/vent holes in preparation for opening it up, but not to cut any doorways, yet. I also asked her to put in a wardrobe if there was a good place for one. With all the children here and on the way, we would probably need the room by the end of the summer.
We were going to need a lot of salt when we started preserving food and for other uses, so I asked Hannah to print out a map for me of the various mineral sources that we could tap without undue work or travel. I was amazed at what was available for our use when we needed it. For one thing, I wanted to mount an expedition to the Ruhr to see if I could get an iron mill started. I wanted to keep the secret of steel to myself for a while, but I thought that iron was safe enough, since we could make all of the bronze we needed.
I also hoped to get a glass factory started pretty soon. All of the raw materials were near enough, and we had enough tin to make the pool needed for pouring plate glass. I knew it was just a personal quirk, but I was looking forward to regular windows so that I could see outside without having to stick my head out the door to do it.
I needed to find some diplomats. There was just too much to do for me to stick my personal nose into every facet of life. We still needed more people for Fabton, but I just didn't have the time to do the recruiting personally. I would like to find some people to go out into the world and recruit the people we needed. It dawned on me that I was ignoring a great resource when I failed to discuss this sort of problem with my wives. They knew everybody in Fabton, so they should be able to tell me who the likely candidates could be. I dropped the ball in their court and asked them to find me 3 families who could recruit for us. In less than a week, they had found the three couples that I needed, and only one had a child that had to be accommodated.
I started a training program for the would-be diplomats and a construction program to build 3 special wagons for them to use. I wanted these to be enclosed so that they could live in the wagon as they traveled. That way, they could be more comfortable in bad weather and have a better chance of defending themselves if they needed to. I planned to arm them with crossbows and swords; both the men and the women would know how to use the weapons. If everything went as planned, they would be ready to start out in the spring right after the worst of the rainy season had passed.
A man named Eagle had gravitated into being the chief wainwright. I asked him to build as many wagons as he could as soon as the three wagons for the diplomats were finished. Eagle was not all that great at working with his hands, but he was a wonder at finding people who were. He was also good with following up on details, so he was just the man I needed to manage the wagon building operation. I could tell him what I wanted and expect the job to be done in a reasonable length of time.
Making a fire was one of the greatest problems the people of this time had to deal with. Most of the time, they had to find an existing fire and steal an ember from it to start their own fire. Enter my cigarette lighter flints. I was able to make a small tinder box which used one of the lighter flints to serve as a fire starter. I got the idea to give away the tinder box to anyone who wanted one. When the flint gave out, we would sell a replacement flint. We had thousands of flints in storage and could make more at any time. One of the inducements to join us was that replacement flints were free to residents of Fabton!
The same was true for the crossbow and the sword. They and the necessary bolts were free to any resident of Fabton, but the crossbows were never sold or given to outsiders. Initially, I had thought to give away the crossbows and swords or to trade them, but I realized what an inducement they would be as recruitment bonuses, so I changed the rules on that. The few people I had given them to had become citizens of Fabton, so the question was now moot, anyway.
When the weather cleared, I sent out my diplomats with instructions to recruit as many good people as they could and send them to Fabton. They were to stay out for a month and then report back. I was using this first trip as an evaluation run to see how effective our diplomats could be. Later on, I hoped to turn them into traders, as well as recruiters.
The clear weather was also the signal to start farming. Hannah and I plowed and planted enough ground to make a respectable garden. Once that was done, I recruited some helpers and we plowed some land for a "wheat" field. I didn't know what kind of grain it was, and Hannah couldn't identify it, either, but it was all we had, so we gave it a try. Hopefully, it would make a palatable bread.
Lefty went a
fter more horses. This time, he had instructions to capture a stallion so that we could breed our own horses. We had been gelding any males that were born to our mares, so we needed a stallion to get started. I told him not to worry about making a riding or draft animal from the stallion, he was strictly for breeding purposes. We might even eat him if he didn't produce the kind of offspring I wanted.
Horse was sent after more copper and tin ore, and when Horse got back with the ore, I sent him after guano and sulfur. I was working on the principle that you could never have enough gunpowder. Since I was still pretty ignorant of the political layout of southern Europe during this era, I feared that we might be attacked again, and I wanted to be ready. I wanted to make a revolver similar to the Dragoon Colt used by the US Army around 1860. Proper training would call for a lot of gunpowder, and I wanted to be ready.
To do this, I would need machine tools, at least a lathe. Actually, the trickiest part of all this was going to be making the files and other cutting tools. I really needed steel! It would probably be next year before I could do it, but somebody was going to have to visit the Ruhr pretty damned soon. I was going to have to be patient, but it sure was hard!
The recruits began trickling in. I think it was the tinder box that was the biggest lure. It gave the impression that other wonders would be available to those people smart enough to get in on the ground floor. Plenty of food, safety, and company surely were other major attractions. At least, these were all things that were mentioned when I interviewed the newcomers. Anyway, nobody expressed disappointment when he saw what we actually had to offer.
One of my "prayers" was answered when the diplomats had returned from their first trip. One brought in a small dog. It was a bitch about to have puppies! They had found it in an abandoned cave. The dog had been injured, a serious cut in its side. It couldn't hunt, so it was grateful for the medical care and the food it received from its rescuers. I just hoped that this dog was going to turn out to be an adequate "mouser." I named her Mama. Mama soon became the darling of the cave and ate so much she became fat, but happy. Her 6 puppies were born one night, and Mama had them stashed in an alcove where she could keep a close eye on them. She must have thought that she was in dogie heaven! As soon as the puppies were weaned, Hannah gave them some concoction only she knew about to get rid of their worms and such. I've never seen such healthy dogs! The children adopted the dogs, or was it the other way around? Anyway, this was a wonderful event in all our lives!
We had now grown to nearly 250 men, women, children, and dogs. We were getting a little crowded, so I asked Hannah to open up the next chamber. I lit up a cigarette and told everyone that the gods were going to expand our living quarters, so they had to stay in their beds that night, since the gods didn't want mere humans to see them at work. Everybody agreed to cooperate, so Hannah had no trouble opening up two doors between the two chambers. The next day, I told the people that any who wanted to move into the other chamber could do so, just be sure to clean up behind themselves. Interestingly, nobody moved. One good thing, the older children now had a vast safe indoor play area, so all the adults were relieved.
It was about half way through the summer when I realized that the machine tools were not going to do me any good without a power source. We weren't ready for electricity, yet, so it looked like water power was going to be the way to go. Unfortunately, our original cave that was now being used as a factory was not suitable, since it had no moving water. Therefore, I asked Hannah to see what she could do to find us a suitable source of power within our new cave system. She followed the water upstream, again, and found a place where it fell about 10 feet from a high opening in the wall.
This waterfall was adequate for a waterwheel, so she chipped out the doorways so that we could conveniently get to the chamber where it was located. This location was four chambers over from our current expanded living quarters, so noise would not be a problem. While Hannah had been about it, she had cut enough openings for light, so it was possible to see what we were doing. Hannah came up with a waterwheel design and I diverted resources from the wagon construction to build the waterwheel she had designed. Meanwhile, other people were working on the leather belts we would use to transfer power from the waterwheel to the tools. We were on our way!
Chapter Twelve
Whatever that grain was, it made a tasty bread! It tasted a bit like rye, but not completely. I guess it was something that went extinct, a real shame. Oh, well, we can enjoy it now. The women were all after me to grow a hell of a lot more next season; I hoped they realized that they were the ones who were going to have to reap it.
The whole garden was a hit: the women liked the convenience and the men liked the produce. It looked like agriculture was a winner all around. We will need a lot more acreage next season. Hopefully, there will be enough rain so that we don't have to irrigate. I think I'll put my wives to finding some people to put in charge of the farming ventures, they did such a good job with finding the diplomats/traders. Fabton now has over 500 people and 40 dogs. We must be the largest community in all of Europe in this era.
Animal husbandry will be another story. We are doing fine with rabbits, in fact, we are already running a surplus. However, we will have to import sheep and goats from a great distance. On the other hand, I plan to start domesticating aurochs, an ancestor of the cattle I knew at home. The current aurochs are too big and ornery to be easily handled, but I hope to breed for a smaller size and a gentler disposition. This will be another project which must run for years before it will be completed.
Next season, I plan to send my diplomats into the Ruhr to look for people making iron. I don't expect them to find any, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel! If there is already a source of iron, I had rather trade for it than try to make my own. I know that iron smelting originated in the Middle East and east of there in my original time line, but I may be lucky here. The ETs did say that this was a different time line from mine, so history could run in my favor; it's certainly possible. If history doesn't run in my favor, Hannah and I will just have to make a trip to Germany to see what we can stir up.
Horse just got back with another load of copper ore. He ran into trouble on the way out. It was a good thing he took along so many men this time, with what we thought was an ample supply of crossbows and bolts. Just one day this side of the copper mine, his convoy of 8 wagons and 24 men ran into a large body of the invaders we had trouble with over a year before. Horse never knew how many invaders he faced, because the battle took place in dense woods, but he had a chance to count the live ones once the battle was over.
The only path through the woods was the one he had cut as a shortcut between the mine and Fabton. The encounter resulted when he, in the lead wagon, met the vanguard of the invaders marching toward him. Horse immediately recognized the bows used by the other side and knew that he was in for a fight. The path was only wide enough for a single wagon, so he had no way he could bunch his wagons for defense, nor was there room to turn around. Horse had a simple decision to make: fight or run?
Horse was no coward, but he was not stupid, either. He shouted for his men to abandon the wagons and take their weapons into the woods. They should prepare to fight in small groups, since there was no place to form a battle line. Luckily, they split more or less evenly into the two groups on either side of the road. They melted into the forest and prepared to fight.
The invaders had shot arrows at Horse as soon as they had seen him, so there was no question of whether or not there would be a fight. Horse was still sitting in his driver's seat when he fired his first shot at the enemy. His was, admittedly, a lucky shot, because it killed one of the enemy officers. He was able to get off one more shot before he had to run for the trees, but he couldn't tell if he had hit anyone with that one.
By this time, the enemy soldiers were shooting at random into the woods. A few bolts had found their mark, and the archers had panicked. There was so much yelling that the few officers who had
kept their heads couldn't be heard over the general din, so they had no control over their men.
Contrary to their opponents, Horse's men were keeping themselves under control and sniping at the archers on the road only when they had a clear shot. The trees provided good cover for Horse's men, but the men on the road had no cover at all. It was a shooting gallery for the men with the crossbows, a totally "unfair" fight. In other words, it was exactly what you want for your side!
The enemy were so tightly packed together that there was no retreat back down the road; Horse estimated that it was blocked for at least a mile by men who were sure that they were doomed, but didn't know which way to run. They couldn't run toward the wagons without getting a shower of bolts fired at them, and they couldn't run the other way because of the number of men packed on the road. (I can't help wondering how the enemy could have been so stupid as to try to march their whole army down the narrow road without sending out adequate scouting parties ahead of the main group. Maybe they were too arrogant for their own good!)
Once it was clear to Horse that he was going to win, but that he could wind up killing a lot of men to no good purpose, he shouted to the enemy to surrender. He said that they would not be killed if they threw down their weapons and gave up. A few of the men did as Horse said, and they were struck down by officers. These officers didn't last much longer—they were filled with arrows. Shortly after that, the battle was over and Horse had about 250 prisoners that he really wasn't equipped to handle.
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