Leo left the settlement camp with the big marmot and walked all the way to the foot of the earthen slope on the northwest side of the river - bend peninsula.
This was the starting point of the canal. Just five or six meters on the other side of the earthen slope was the upper reaches of the Anzerno River. When the canal was completed, as long as this section of the earthen slope was dug through, the river water would flow downstream, running across the peninsula and irrigating thousands of acres of land on it.
At this time, a canal over five hundred meters long had already appeared at the foot of the earthen slope.
It was an inverted trapezoidal canal, approximately two meters wide at the top, one meter wide at the bottom, and about two meters deep.
The terrain of the river - bend peninsula had little elevation change, so the construction of the canal was relatively convenient. In the higher parts, only three meters needed to be dug, and in the lower parts, about one meter. Then, the excavated soil was used to raise the canal banks.
If the canal planned by Ulyan was completed, it would connect the upper and lower reaches of the river - bend, cut the river - bend peninsula in two with one cut and turn it into an island.
If the canal was deepened and the dikes were raised day after day, and even a wall was built along the canal, the entire river - bend peninsula would become a safe large farm.
By sending a few people to patrol regularly, the villagers would no longer have to worry about wild beasts in the forest attacking the village or the planted crops being damaged.
However, this project was still a bit unrealistic for the current population. This was the plan Ulyan made before leaving, based on a population of one thousand.
Therefore, in the first stage, Ulyan only needed to dig a two - kilometer - long canal to connect several small lakes in the middle of the peninsula and drain the excess water in the swamps of the reclamation area in the north.
The geology on the peninsula was relatively soft. Although most of the canal could be compacted with yellow mud, there were still some sections where the sediment was loose and would collapse when washed by water. These sections needed to be repaired with gravel and branches.
So the construction speed of the canal was not ideal. A full fifty - person construction team had worked extremely hard for a week but only dug five hundred meters.
If this were a large - scale town and Leo were a lord or noble with some spare money, he could already start researching the cement formula. But in River Bend, there wasn't even a decent craftsman in the whole village. They were penniless and lacking resources, and had to make do with everything.
"See? Can you keep digging from here all the way to the foot of that mountain over there?" Leo brought Freya to the end of the canal and pointed to the distant mountain foot.
"Digging holes? I'm the best at this!"
Freya dug tentatively a few times, then looked up at Leo to make sure she wouldn't be scolded.
"Keep going! Keep going!" Leo encouraged.
Only then did Freya feel at ease. She pounced directly on the ground and her two front paws quickly scooped the soil in front of her.
Whether it was dry and hard clay or soft sandy soil, under her sharp claws, it was like a layer of plastic foam, easily dug off by her and then kicked behind her by her hind paws.
The canal extended forward at a visible speed.
Leo watched on the bank, beaming with joy. This wasn't a harmful beast; it was simply an excavator!
This is the proper way to use a marmot!
I have an excavator in the Middle Ages!
Rather than an excavator, Freya was more like a harvester. Her four paws moved so fast that they left afterimages. The hard soil and sedimentary rocks quickly disappeared in front of her and then flew out as debris behind her.
Dig! Dig! Dig!
So much fun!
Freya was digging with her tongue flailing and her facial features all distorted, just like a husky that had let itself go wild.
By the time the villagers who were building the canal arrived, Freya had already dug dozens of meters ahead.
A group of people stared in dumbfounded silence at the huge bear - like beast in the canal, with only a thin line of black fur on its back showing. They were getting pelted in the face by the mud that was splashed ten meters away.
Fifty of them, even working together with a reasonable division of labor, digging and chiseling, still couldn't match the progress of this marmot!
Ulyan, who had followed along, was the first to snap out of it and shouted, "What are you all standing around for? Get moving!" He immediately scolded the young and strong villagers, telling them to quickly follow behind the marmot to carry away the excess mud and build the canal walls, so as to preserve the marmot's labor achievements before the cold groundwater seeped out.
Last night, he was still thinking about how to send away this gluttonous druid, but today, he just wanted to give her extra rations!
Looking at the bustling labor scene with satisfaction, Ulyan walked up to Leo with his hands behind his back and asked with a smile, "Kid, where did you find this groundhog? It's quite capable!"
"It's a giant bear, a druid in giant bear form!" Leo corrected him seriously.
"Yes, yes, it's a giant bear!" Ulyan quickly agreed.
As long as it can work, if you say you're a chinchilla, that's fine too!
Leo told the story of how he met Freya and described in great detail the size, decorations, weapons, and equipment of the Wild Boar Men.
Don't be deceived by Ulyan's usual appearance of a rural old man. He was an elite scout who had been stationed at the wilderness watchtower for five years and knew well the ethnic cultures and living habits of many alien tribes.
Just from Leo's description alone, Ulyan could roughly estimate the combat power and civilization level of this Wild Boar Man tribe.
So the more details Leo provided, the more accurate the information Ulyan obtained.
After listening to Leo's report, Ulyan first subconsciously put on an air of 'everything is under control'. When he found that no one was paying attention, he let out a slight sigh, showing a bit of solemnity.
"This is a bit of a problem. These aren't kobolds!"
Leo asked grudgingly, "How much of a problem could it be?"
"Just by ourselves, we can't handle it."
Looking at the approaching villagers, the two simultaneously stopped talking and just looked at the big waterfall in the distance.
With an extra "excavator", the progress of the canal became extremely fast. Even the fifty people responsible for carrying the mud and building the canal walls could barely keep up with Freya's pace.
However, this "excavator" was incredibly capricious. Whenever she dug out a tree root, she would gnaw on it to see how it tasted. Whenever she dug out a nice-looking stone, she would hold it and play with it.
Once, she even stopped working right in the middle of digging. Leo went up to take a look and found that she had buried herself in the mud and was snoring.
What could he do? He could only keep promising her delicious food.
In just one morning, Leo had already promised all the settlement camp's stored food to Freya.
They dug all the way to the foot of the mountain, and here, a ridge extended from a small rocky mountain. It protruded hundreds of meters into the peninsula, blocking the path of the canal.
Leo was about to step forward to explain the next task to Freya. According to Ulyan's plan, when the canal was already built here, it would change direction along the rocky ridge, turn east along the foot of the mountain, make a big detour, and then flow into the small lake south of the ridge.
This would, of course, significantly increase the length of the canal. However, the current exploration team doesn't have the ability to cut through a rocky mountain yet. Obviously, trying to dig through this ridge and build a stone tunnel isn't a sensible thing to do.
Unexpectedly, the enthusiastic digging marmot Freya showed no sign of stopping when she reached the rock face at the base of the mountain. She lay on the rock face, clumsily stretched out one paw, and traced a circle on the rock face. Then, with both paws, she gently pushed along the crack around the circle.
Under her paws, the hard rock face was as brittle as a wafer. The rock in the middle of the circle cracked under the great force, and large chunks of stone chips tumbled down one after another. In the blink of an eye, a round hole as big as a washbasin emerged.
Starting from this round hole, Freya continuously widened its area and increased its depth. In less than five minutes, her head had already burrowed into the rock face.
What an unbeatable tunnel excavator!
Leo was super envious.