With Morse taking the lead, other Free Folk also stepped forward, expressing willingness to follow Aldric and join the Silver Hand.
In the bitter cold lands beyond the Wall, changing leaders was common.
The "freedom" of the Free Folk mainly manifested in their ability to choose leaders according to their will, unlike commoners south of the Wall who had to pledge loyalty to local lords from birth, unchangeable for life.
However, precisely because of this, Free Folk were hard to organize into a powerful force, failing to breach the Wall and graze in the South for thousands of years.
But this also meant Free Folk suffered far less class oppression than Southern commoners.
Most importantly, Aldric didn't demand they kneel and pledge loyalty like legendary Southern lords, nor did he make them swear to the Old Gods or Sun God. He simply wrote a contract on parchment and used Ashley's neck blood to stamp a bloody fingerprint as a seal.
Thus, their lives weren't much different from when they were beyond the Wall.
So when the Silver Hand formally left Purple Wisteria Village, the team had added twenty-three new members.
For the Free Folk, they only lost three years of freedom. But for Aldric, many more issues needed consideration.
The Silver Hand was established less than two months ago, with only twenty-four members total.
This expansion doubled the numbers instantly.
If the relationship between old and new members wasn't handled properly, the team could fall apart.
Grouping Free Folk separately and letting them self-manage would reduce management difficulty, but Aldric didn't want that.
Aldric genuinely hoped to absorb these Free Folk as part of the Silver Hand, not just formally join his mercenary band.
Because if they couldn't truly integrate, Aldric couldn't rest easy letting them wield weapons for him.
Ultimately, they would only be used as disposable cannon fodder in some battle, failing to strengthen the Silver Hand's combat power.
To thoroughly digest these new members, Aldric convened a plenary meeting on the night the Free Folk formally joined, inviting all officers, Mountain Clan warriors, and Free Folk members.
At this meeting, Aldric readjusted the mercenary group's personnel arrangement.
Conrad stepped down as Squad 1 Captain to become full-time Vice-Commander, continuing to be responsible for training and acting commander when Aldric couldn't fulfill command duties.
Squad 1 Vice-Captain Vitaly was promoted to Captain; the new Vice-Captain was taken by Squad 1 soldier Kili.
Squad 2 Captain Phibot remained, but Vice-Captain Kevin stepped down, replaced by Jon Snow.
Additionally, Aldric decided to form Combat Squad 3, with Kevin as Captain and soldier Cain as Vice-Captain.
To balance combat power, Aldric picked some warriors from Squads 1 and 2 to join Squad 3, filling vacancies with new Free Folk.
Combat power could be improved by strengthening training and issuing equipment, but a united atmosphere and deep friendship between warriors required time to accumulate. Although this approach reduced the combat power of Squads 1 and 2 to some extent, it successfully mixed Free Folk and Mountain Clansmen, aiding their fusion.
To prevent tragedies like soldier Torn being injured while collecting loot, Aldric added a "Logistics/Cook" post in each combat squad, specifically responsible for loot collection and other service work.
After this reorganization, the three "Swan Formation" squads each had an establishment of eleven men, totaling thirty-three people.
At this time, the Silver Hand totaled forty-seven people. Besides three combat squads, fourteen people remained.
After completing the main infantry reorganization, Aldric formally established a Scout Squad led by Eddie, with five members.
Eddie selected five warriors from the remaining men who were skilled in riding, archery, and quick-witted to join the Scout Squad.
Conrad's brother-in-law, Juan, hadn't shown special talent in combat since joining, so despite being an old subordinate, he hadn't held an officer position.
However, before turning mercenary, he had apprenticed with a village carpenter for a few years. Though he didn't complete his apprenticeship, he mastered most skills.
Therefore, Aldric transferred him out of the combat sequence, established a separate Engineer Squad, and appointed him Captain, responsible for repairing and replenishing various equipment in the Silver Hand.
Juan selected two dexterous warriors to join his Engineer Squad.
Finally, Aldric picked a soldier with good memory and clear speech to replace Jon as Messenger.
However, after assigning these posts, six people remained unassigned.
Not that Aldric didn't want to assign them, but he really couldn't find suitable posts.
The remaining six were Spearwives from beyond the Wall.
"Spearwife" referred to women among Wildlings who were warriors, choosing to dedicate their lives to the spear, rejecting the traditional fate of depending on men, winning survival resources with their spears.
Women who could occupy a place as Spearwives in a raiding party undoubtedly possessed excellent combat abilities. Surviving the battle against the Silver Hand also showed they had enough intelligence.
However, regrettably, Aldric's officers were commoners from south of the Wall. They couldn't understand the value of women "fighting with spears."
So during selection, no Spearwife was picked. When Aldric finished all adjustments, these six women found themselves with nowhere to go and began discussing dissatisfiedly in private.
As new members, they weren't familiar with the new officers and couldn't communicate directly; familiar Free Folk warriors were just ordinary soldiers now, unable to speak up for them.
Among these girls, only Martha, the girl who stopped Aldric to beg for her brother, had met the Grand Commander once.
So after the meeting, the Spearwives elected Martha as representative to visit Aldric's tent, requesting to join the combat sequence or at least be allowed to form a separate combat squad.
Looking at this timid yet very stubborn girl, Aldric felt a bit troubled.
Aldric held no sexist views. He knew well that in his hometown's history, women could also be outstanding leaders, and Spearwives were indeed excellent warriors.
But practically speaking, his troop style emphasized collective strength, weakening the impact of individual combat ability.
Future equipment and tactical designs would be based on male physique and strength.
Therefore, no matter how strong these six girls were as Spearwives, it was hard to integrate them into the existing troop system.
Moreover, mixed living could bring conduct issues that would greatly affect combat effectiveness.
Aldric tried to explain these difficulties to Martha, but Martha didn't understand and didn't care.
She stated firmly: "Commander, we can make equipment ourselves. We can study the tactics you mentioned ourselves. But you cannot keep us off the battlefield!"
"Since you agreed to let us join the Silver Hand, we are warriors, not dolls protected by you! We want to fight!"
Aldric scratched his head, thought for a while, and asked: "Since you claim to be skilled in combat, does that mean you have great strength?"
"Of course! At least stronger than ordinary women!" Martha answered confidently.
Aldric clapped his hands, happily saying, "That's great! If you want to fight, I'll give you a chance to fight. However, not all battles happen at the moment blades clash."
He proposed, "I will establish a new unit for you called the Battlefield Rescue Team."
Martha's eyes were full of doubt. "Battlefield rescue, what does that mean?"
Aldric explained, "Battlefield rescue means saving wounded warriors from the battlefield, letting them live."
"Although no soldier died in the Purple Wisteria Village battle, this situation cannot last forever."
"In the future, the Silver Hand will inevitably be involved in more complex, larger battles. Casualties are unavoidable."
"Even if I have the ability to summon Sun God's grace, I must wait until the battle ends and the surroundings are stable before treating wounded warriors."
"Therefore, I need a group of careful and brave people to perform emergency treatment on warriors' wounds on the bloody, cruel battlefield, and transport wounded warriors out of the front line, at least ensuring their lives until I have time."
"Members of this Battlefield Rescue Team must have certain self-protection abilities on the battlefield, so my warriors don't have to be distracted protecting them while fighting."
Now it was Martha's turn to be confused. She scratched her head. "Taking care of the wounded? We do that often too, but how does this count as fighting?"
Aldric answered in surprise: "How is this not fighting?"
"Your brother Morse and other warriors fight mortal men who can die. But the Battlefield Rescue Team has to fight the eternal Death God. This is a greater and harder battle."
"In my hometown, those female soldiers who ran through cruel battlefields seeking the wounded, bringing them hope of life, were called Valkyries, 'An'she's Battle Maidens'."
Hearing the title "An'she's Battle Maiden," Martha remembered the golden light enveloping her brother that day.
She felt Aldric's words made sense. After all, Aldric was the Great Wizard who saved two dying men with Light magic.
If he said Valkyries, then they must be Valkyries.
So Martha said, "I'll go back and discuss with everyone. So, what exactly does the Battlefield Rescue Team do?"
This question really hit Aldric's knowledge blind spot.
On Earth, medical technology was a complex discipline involving many fields, not something mastered by reading a few novels.
Aldric had never read any medical books because he couldn't understand them and felt it unnecessary to waste time.
If there was any reference experience, it was only the American movie Hacksaw Ridge he had seen.
In that movie, the only impression battlefield rescue left on him was: find the wounded, then inject them with a shot of Morphine.
But in this world, where to find Morphine?
Aldric pondered secretly but didn't say it directly.
He turned to Martha: "Hmm... battlefield rescue is probably finding wounded warriors, helping stop bleeding, cleaning wounds, and such."
"I'm not very clear on specifics either. I'll leave this as a topic for you. Before we return to Winter Town, organize a procedure and tell me then. If you don't explain well, you can only be full-time washerwomen and cooks for other squads later."
"Remember, I won't let you go, nor will I feed you for free."
Martha bit her lip, agreeing: "I will convince the sisters to accept your request after I go back."
With that, she exited the tent.
Sending away the Spearwife, Aldric finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The current Silver Hand had the skeleton of a true legion.
When more personnel were added later, simply promoting outstanding soldiers from existing personnel to officers would quickly expand the troop size.
However, more officers meant more salary Aldric had to pay.
Since establishing the Silver Hand, he had spent nearly thirty Gold Dragons, while earnings were only fifteen Gold Dragons. The loss reached fifty percent.
Luckily he had some savings, but he couldn't relax vigilance. Aldric prepared to see if he could take some big jobs after returning to make up for the loss.
More importantly, now with these direct line troops as backing, he could implement some more profitable ideas without worrying about being easily robbed.
These troops would also become the solid foundation for realizing his greater ambitions.
Swallowing over twenty Free Folk in one bite, Aldric was somewhat worried about indigestion.
To avoid incidents caused by new members not adapting to the environment and teammates after returning to Winter Town, Aldric deliberately slowed the march speed on the return trip.
Basically marching from sunrise to noon, then stopping for integration training.
To guard against veteran bullying recruits or Mountain Clans ganging up on Free Folk, Aldric randomly picked a squad to eat with at every meal to suppress bad atmospheres.
However, he soon found the fusion speed of new and old people was much faster than he imagined.
After careful consideration and summoning officers like Vitaly and Phibot for talks, Aldric finally found the reason.
It turned out the recruits Eddie gathered for Aldric were Mountain Clansmen from the Wolfswood, while those Aldric recruited himself were Free Folk from beyond the Wall.
Although these two groups lived in different regions, they actually had many similarities:
First, they both lived in areas with extremely scarce survival resources.
Second, they both wandered on the edge of the King in the North's ruling order, or at least were groups not fully incorporated into the ruling system.
Third, they were all descendants of the First Men, possessing the same faith and extremely similar languages.
If forced to distinguish, the difference between them was probably as subtle as between people from Sichuan and Chongqing.
After joining the Silver Hand, eating a small piece of meat daily, drinking hot soup, and having hard bread to fill their stomachs... such a life was far better than the precariousness in their respective hometowns, making them very satisfied.
As a warrior, joining the Silver Hand and enjoying the treatment of Commander Aldric healing wounds with magical spells meant basically surviving as long as not instantly killed by enemies on the battlefield.
Was there a better place than this? Thus, everyone cherished this opportunity.
In this process, Aldric discovered an interesting phenomenon:
His chief disciple Kevin had unknowingly replaced Rennel as the most popular person during the leisure time after dinner and before sleep.
Since being appointed Squad 3 Captain, Kevin could finally train the team according to his will, so he took time to relay the "An'she Faith Doctrines" learned from Aldric to squad members.
Hearing this, other squads became interested in An'she doctrines and came to listen.
Northerners worshiped the Old Gods, but the Old Gods were not the true ethnic faith of the First Men.
All descendants of the First Men knew the Old Gods were originally gods of the Children of the Forest, adopted by the whole race after the Pact between First Men and Children.
The Old Gods had no clergy, no systematic doctrines, no strict rituals. It was a very primitive faith, barely a religion.
The reason Old Gods faith persisted in the North for so many years was entirely the result of political rejection of the Andal Seven Gods by Northern nobles, including the King in the North, to maintain ethnic self-identity and control over the populace.
When An'she faith, advocating freedom, equality, and fraternity, appeared with miracles witnessed firsthand, the faith in Old Gods among Mountain Clans and Free Folk began to waver.
Promoting An'she faith within the Silver Hand had always been one of Aldric's goals.
However, fearing his personal preaching would involve too much content hard for ordinary soldiers to understand, he didn't take this task from Kevin to appear personally.
Every night after Kevin finished preaching to soldiers, Aldric would review the gains and losses of each session with him and answer questions raised by soldiers that Kevin couldn't answer.
To attract more soldiers to participate, Aldric even spent his own money to tilt resource distribution:
Every soldier participating in Kevin's sermon would receive extra food, like an extra piece of jerky or mouthful of ale.
In this process, whether Mountain Clan veterans or new Free Folk recruits, they accepted their new identity in the subtle influence day after day—they were not only Silver Hand warriors but also Sun God's warriors.
This identity recognition not only enhanced team cohesion but also laid a solid foundation for promoting An'she faith in the Silver Hand.