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My school: long sword in one hand, short sword in the other. Most swordsmen use two hands on one blade. I use one hand on each. The long sword attacks, the short sword defends and creates openings. It requires years. We start today. Tip: Do not grip the sword tightly. Hold it like a bird -- firm enough it cannot escape, gentle enough you do not crush it.

Miyamoto Musashi

🇯🇵

Group training (8-16). The Viking shield wall: overlapping shields, spears over the top, axes hooking from the sides. When the wall holds, nothing breaks through. When it breaks, everyone dies. Tip: The man who steps back first kills the man beside him. Hold the wall.

Ragnar Lothbrok

🇸🇪 🇬🇧

Replicas of my two legendary swords. Tizona -- the firebrand, taken from King Bucar of Morocco. Colada -- won in single combat. Both are straight double-edged blades, 36 inches, designed for mounted and foot combat. A knight carries two swords because battles are long and edges dull.

El Cid

🇪🇸 🇦🇪 🌐

I crossed the Syrian Desert in 6 days -- 500 miles through waterless waste with an army. Water caching, camel logistics, march discipline, heat management. The Byzantines thought the desert protected their flank. They were wrong. Tip: The impossible route is undefended because the enemy thinks no one can take it.

Khalid ibn al-Walid

🇦🇪

Single-edged dao, 32-inch blade, ring pommel. The standard infantry sword of the Northern Wei period. Optimized for cutting from horseback -- the slight curve pulls the blade through the target. I carried one for twelve years and it never failed me.

Hua Mulan

🇨🇳

How to choose, care for, and bond with a war horse. Hoof inspection, feeding on campaign, recognizing lameness, field veterinary basics. My horse carried me through twelve years of war. Your horse is your life. Treat it better than you treat yourself.

Hua Mulan

🇨🇳

Concentric baileys, stone walls, murder holes, and the famous curved walls that prevent climbing and deflect cannonballs. Edo Castle was my masterwork. This seminar covers Japanese castle design from the Sengoku period through the Edo period. Tip: A castle should make the attacker solve ten problems to reach you. Each problem costs him men.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

🇯🇵

A detailed analysis of the Battle of Sekigahara, 1600. How I spent months before the battle buying defections, planting doubts, and ensuring that half the enemy army would betray their commander on the field. When the fight started, the outcome was already decided. Tip: The battle is the last resort of the strategist. If you must fight, you have already failed at something.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

🇯🇵

The Pelian ash spear -- cut from a tree on Mount Pelion by the centaur Chiron. No other Greek at Troy could wield it. This replica is 9 feet of ash with a bronze head. Heavy, meant for a warrior who fights from the front. I killed Hector with a spear like this, through the gap in his throat armor.

Achilles

🇬🇷

In 1462, I attacked the Ottoman camp at night with 7,000 men against 90,000. We rode through the camp killing anyone we could reach, aiming for Mehmed's tent. We did not get Mehmed, but the terror was devastating. Night raids require total discipline and intimate knowledge of the terrain. Tip: In darkness, confusion is your weapon. The enemy fights his own shadows.

Vlad III Dracula

🇷🇴 🇹🇷 🌐

How to make yourself too dangerous to attack. Reputation building, calculated displays of power, escalation control. I kept Wallachia independent between two empires through pure deterrence. The Ottomans had ten times my numbers but feared my land. Tip: You do not need to be the strongest. You need to be the most expensive to defeat.

Vlad III Dracula

🇷🇴 🇹🇷 🌐

## Red KitchenAid Artisan. **Perfect for bread dough, cake batter, whipped cream.** Includes dough hook, __flat beater__, and wire whip. Heavy beast but does the job.

Sally Thompson

🇬🇧 🇮🇹