That's very badass

Chapter 144 The Outlet of the Southern Nobles

There were 3000 soldiers who followed Roland to the battle, but less than [-] soldiers returned after the war.

Although they were all promoted to top soldiers, the loss still made Roland feel annoyed.

Because he was still stuck in his previous thoughts, he didn't realize it until Fox reported to him the number of soldiers and civilians in the territory.

With the continuous improvement of the family level, the number of soldiers and civilians recruited has changed greatly. They now have more than 2 soldiers.

There are already garrison troops of [-] people in the Carni and Calradia territories, which are more than enough for defense and management.

Of course, facing a large number of strongholds that need to be garrisoned, there is still a shortage of soldiers in Roland's territory, at least in Roland's view.

This is why Fox disbanded all the soldiers of the original Carney family and used all the imperial soldiers, otherwise their number of soldiers would only become larger.

Roland agreed to this method as a matter of course. When he was still weak, stability was always above everything else.

What's more, they don't have much need for a large number of soldiers now.

When he was unable to challenge the order, he did not intend to expand his arms.

There is nothing more reassuring than the imperial soldiers. This not only ensures the safety of Aviline, but also takes into account the stability of the territory.

The number of civilians in the territory has directly reached 5, and more than 20 villages have even been established outside the city.

There are hundreds of households in each village, and 40 third-tier soldiers are stationed in the village. They are usually responsible for investigation, taxation, and maintenance of law and order.

Of course, a certain amount of time will be set aside every day for sergeant training. They are under the jurisdiction of the local village head, and the village head is voted by the common people, and the final candidate is still decided by the lord's mansion.

This piece of land is no longer empty. If it weren't for the heavy snow, Roland would definitely be able to see this lush scene, which made him a little regretful.

Calculating the time, it has been more than five months since Roland set off in mid-July today and returned to the territory at the end of December, and it will be half a year in just over ten days.

Even after more than two months, it will be the spring plowing of the new year again, and the time has come to the third year unconsciously.

This made Roland feel a little emotional. If it weren't for the systematic help, such a quick recruitment of soldiers and civilians would inevitably bury huge hidden dangers for the territory.

You don't even know how many gangs and factions there are, and they will inevitably rely on force to restrict or even reverse the rights of the lords, and make profits from it.

The interests of the territory will never be in their consideration. Although they will scruple the kingdom's laws, it will seriously slow down the development of the territory.

After acquiring the Carney collar, Fox thought he would get a lot of money.

But in fact, what they got was not as much as they had imagined. Part of the funds in Carney's territory flowed into the hands of the family members who managed it.

Most of it has been invested in the development of the territory, as well as the salaries of soldiers and even expenses such as intelligence networks. The Carney family is not as rich as they imagined.

Fox has placed those family members under house arrest and is seeking restitution on their property.

They have always had a stable source of wealth, and for the extravagant life and the so-called ostentation, they squandered wantonly, so they also don't have much money left.

This allowed Fox to obtain only [-] gold coins in the end. Now that the road is blocked by heavy snow, the iron ore cannot be realized.

Although sleds can operate on ice and snow, the weather like this winter with goose feathers and heavy snow every day is obviously not conducive to sled operations.

Too many people are needed for maintenance, and it is useless to put the civilians under the ice and snow. Regardless of the expenses that need to be spent, they can only open the road between the two territories.

The nobles in the northern border did not have this idea, because they had long been accustomed to the method of storing supplies before winter.

It is also impossible for Roland and the others to rely on their own people to open up the various territories, so that would be a bit magical.

Most of the soldiers have already married, so the salaries that have been promised for a long time have been paid in one go, so that they can improve the living conditions of their families.

Sea salt was also unable to be sun-dried because of the snow, which made their funds tight again.

Fortunately, they do not lack iron ore, so the construction of equipment has been going on.

For the blacksmiths in Carney, Roland has no idea of ​​recruiting or training them, but let them continue to make the equipment that Roland thinks is inferior, and prepare to sell it to others.

Even in order to earn more money, after meeting their own needs, they would arrange for imperial blacksmiths to build some weapons for sale.

But this will not work in a short time, because they still need to expand more troops.

As for the issue of enemy resources, in Roland's opinion, if the enemy can't be built, or even can't be obtained, it can really be called that.

Otherwise, it's just some normal business activities, and you can get money to strengthen yourself if you sell it to them.

Those family members who lost their land will inevitably re-form an army. Whether they want to regain the land or find another way out, they need to have enough force in their hands.

At that time, not only the price of iron ore will even rise, but the armor will not necessarily be there. They may choose to put cotton and leather armor on those recruits.

Because they will definitely not be unified under one person, as members who control the family business, they will definitely force the division of the family property.

This is what the tree fell and the hozen san said.

Those minor nobles might be better off, because their family properties are all in the hands of the immediate family, and their second sons will leave the territory as soon as they grow up, and there will be no side branches.

This is because they simply can't afford to support so many people, not because they don't want to grow their family.

This is destined that they will become a piece of scattered sand and fight on their own, or even become a swarm of locusts, harassing and even plundering the wealth of each territory.

The Kingdom of Rhodes seems to be terminally ill, and all this is only after a defeat.

Whether it is because of the threat of landless nobles, enemy countries, or even orcs, nobles everywhere will inevitably choose to expand their armaments, and their armor will certainly not be short of sales.

Whether it is the number of troops, the daily needs of civilians, or the industries invested in the territory, all of these put tremendous pressure on their economy.

With only iron ore and sea salt, it is really difficult to feed so many troops and develop territories.

After training 7000 soldiers from civilians, their number of soldiers has reached 3, and it may come from the conspiracy of the Rhodes family, and the soldiers who promised to assist the North Wind Fortress.

Considering the increasingly chaotic situation and various threats, they raised the security level.

After discussion, they decided to increase the number of soldiers in both territories to 2, and at the same time reserve 1 troops to assist the North Wind Fortress.

After that, except for noble soldiers, new soldiers will stop being recruited.

Because no matter it is the two pillar industries of iron ore and sea salt, they are their pillar industries, and there is no room for loss.

As for civilians, the recruitment will continue until this year's spring plowing is over, and then it will stop. Even so, the number of civilians will be 5 by then.

Don't think that this is a long-term plan. After the family level reaches the fourth level, their monthly recruitment of soldiers has reached an astonishing 2400 people.

It only takes less than eight months to add 5 people.

In fact, Earl Roland controlled the two counties, and such a move would attract the fear of other nobles.

If the military power is expanded without limit, it will only arouse the fear of other nobles, which will make them fall into the siege of the nobles.

Not to mention, they also need supplies from other territories to support their soldiers and citizens.

Now that the situation has become complicated, Roland thinks that their military expansion should be reasonable. '

In fact, the aristocrats around their military expansion meeting thought that they were militaristic, and sent countless spies to monitor their every move, trying to figure out why they did so.

Even with the addition of the civilians in Carniland, their military-to-civilian ratio will reach 1:4 by then.

This is outrageous. As Roland thought, such an expansion of the army is not reasonable at all.

If it wasn't for the fact that the Osborne family suppressed the order in the northern border, they would have regarded Roland as a new challenger and hadn't taken any action against him.

Because they are also happy to see such things.

When His Majesty Quesnel knew about this, he put them on the list of dangerous people.

Of course, he blamed all of this on the Osborne family, because that's what he was told by the 'information'.

In his view, this is a challenge from the Osborne family, who have begun to reveal their hidden strength for so many years.

His Majesty Quesnel cautiously did not contact the nobles of the northern border, and secretly wooed the nobles of the east and west, and united them after promising the land in the north.

But they didn't intend to take the initiative to send troops, because the northern nobles also responded to the kingdom's call at that time, and he had no reason to go to war.

He is waiting for the actions of the northern border, and will not leave an excuse for other countries to annex them in the name of interference, because they signed the peace agreement.

Roland considered that the number of cavalry in the territory had reached 820, and their horses were no longer enough. It would cost a lot of money to buy new horses.

Although there are quite a few horses in the Earl of Carney, most of them are pack horses used to transport iron ore. As for war horses, there are only a few hundred.

In view of the number of cavalry and their superb skills, the empire's elite cavalry has reached a height of 200 points in one hand and riding, and the pole weapon has reached a terrifying value of 260.

They have enough strength to obtain the title of knight, and Roland believes that the time has come to establish a knight order.

With their superb skills, they will definitely shine on the battlefield.

When Roland got married, that is, on February 2st, the beginning of spring, he announced the establishment of the Daybreak Knights.

For this reason, Roland prepared a lot of invitation letters, and sent them to the homes of the nobles in the northern border with the ravens of the Earl of Carney.

They have brought some ravens from there to this side for training. As long as they are familiar with the environment here, they will return here in the future, but those have been handed over to professionals.

This territory will eventually become their center, at least for now if there are no major changes in several years.

During this period, many things happened. For example, His Majesty Quesnel was annoyed by the nobles of the southern family, but he couldn't control them.

In the end, he remembered that there was a passage leading directly to the orc prairie in Roland's territory, so he encouraged the nobles to explore there.

But how could they agree to such a stupid thing? In their view, such behavior is tantamount to courting death, after all, the orcs have already rioted.

But His Majesty Quesnel directly said that the orcs had changed, but not the whole family, because until now no orcs have attacked the North Wind Fortress.

He also said that the sea salt that is well-known in the kingdom comes from the territory of the Earl of Roland, and it is made by the sea from the orc prairie.

He also bluntly stated that Earl Roland can safely dry sea salt there, and the environment there must be relatively stable.

With such a long coastline, it is impossible for Earl Roland to occupy all of it.

It's not like they can make a lot of money by just occupying any land. Even if Earl Roland collects taxes, they can still make some money. This is almost a no-cost business.

But they still have a question, that is what they use to feed their people in the desert over there.

It's just that His Majesty has already considered this. After he took out the seeds of a desert crop, the nobles completely let go of their hearts.

There are bound to be risks in this, and it is not as simple as what His Majesty said, but there is no risk in doing anything, let alone there are huge benefits in it.

Under the temptation of His Majesty Quesnell's facts and interests, they accepted this proposal, and the hopeless days finally had some hope.

Wielding the sharp weapon of money, they recruited a lot of strong people from those refugees, conducted some of them military training, and armed them as a guarantee of force.

The rest of them, as auxiliary soldiers, helped them carry all kinds of logistics materials, and after they found a foothold, they could be turned into leaders for farming.

Of course, there are men and women among them, and if they want to continue to develop, they must be brought along, although this will reduce the labor value of civilians.

But this is also an acceptable thing. After all, everyone has done this, and they will not be much slower than others.

They were all waiting for the snow to melt, and hurried on the road together.

In the first ten days of January, the snow in the middle of the kingdom had already begun to melt, so they marched towards the Earl of Roland in a mighty way.

They also formed an alliance with a popular name called 'Pioneer Alliance', not just to fight the orcs.

There is also the meaning of fighting against Earl Roland. They are afraid that Earl Roland will not let them pass, or charge them high tariffs later, so they made a decision.

Because they added auxiliary soldiers, enough to make up 10 people.

It can be said that this is the largest pioneering operation in the human world since the collapse of the First Empire.

(End of this chapter)