Warlord: King of All Clans

Hans, the captain of the city guard at the port gate, is a sturdy man and also a family knight raised by Tariq.

After the young men of the empire have acquired superb riding skills, armor, and the spirit of chivalry (crossed out), they can take knight assessments in professional institutions in major towns.

A rider who completes the assessment can become a knight recognized by the nobles.

But such knights are at the lowest level of knighthood, the so-called proletarian knights.

The proletarian knight was not considered a noble, at most he was a high-ranking soldier.

Because they had no one to pledge allegiance to to provide them with money for support and no fiefdom to earn a living, the lives of proletarian knights were no better than those of ordinary civilians.

On the contrary, the expensive maintenance costs of war horses and equipment were enough to make proletarian knights without savings and family support quickly become impoverished and truly "proletarians."

Therefore, many proletarian knights would become wandering knights, that is, high-level mercenaries, doing jobs such as protecting caravans, participating in competitions, and serving on behalf of others, in order to earn money to support themselves.

There are also some slightly outstanding or famous proletarian knights who will be appreciated by noble lords and kept in their own territories to become so-called family knights.

Most of the formal knight territories have not only one core village, but also many small natural villages and small manors developed by the lords.

These small natural villages and small manors allow the noble lords to support their own vassals. In theory, even the lowest-level small lords, the Corner Flag Knights, can have their own family knights.

But proletarian knights, wandering knights, and family knights cannot be called proper aristocrats.

Only those who have pledged allegiance to the nobles and been granted the official knighthood of the Corner Banner Knights can serve as Corner Banner Knights on the battlefield and become the captain of the legion - that is, the centurion, and be considered as noble lords.

Captain Hans of the city guard is a family knight of Sir Tariq and one of the diehards of Lord Isenpol's mansion, but he has yet to become a corner flag and have his own knighthood.

Now nearly forty years old, he was no longer as brave as he had been in the past and no longer worked hard to become a lord, so he was assigned to the southeast gate and became the captain of the city guard.

This is a lucrative and comfortable position. Although the income is not as stable as that of a formal knight, it is at least stable.

Compared to charging into battle in the wild, even if a large army besieges a city, the damage to the knights defending the city is limited.

On this day, as usual, he was supervising the inspection at the city gate, and he saw the flag of the Isenkulov family disembarking from the ship. A large number of wooden boxes were unloaded and loaded onto trucks, approaching the Isenpol city gate.

The Isenkulov family is the largest indigenous family in Isenpor. Not only does it have four official knight territories with fertile properties outside the city, it also owns an iron mine and two blacksmith shops, but it also has many family businesses in the city.

In the market of Isenpol, in addition to the high-end goods shipped from the southern border, half of the local armor comes from the Isenkulov family.

Hans did not dare to delay and hurried forward.

The manager of the caravan was an acquaintance of Hans. After exchanging some pleasantries with Hans, he took him to inspect the goods.

This was a batch of conventional armor and weapons, but Hans still felt troubled.

After the "rebellion" of the Petukhov family, Isenpol entered a state of war, and the Lord's Palace had banned military weapons and armor from entering the city.

However, the Isenkulov family was the one that Lord Tariq was trying to win over, and it would be a bit bad to prevent them from maintaining their own industry at this time.

The manager of Isenkulov's caravan was very reasonable. He explained with a smile, "We intend to sell this batch of armor directly to the Lord's Mansion. If you are worried, you can deposit it directly in the armory of the city guards. After the Lord's Mansion issues an order, we can settle the balance."

Hans was relieved then, and without further ado, he ordered a team of his soldiers to escort the armor to the armory to prevent any accidents.

At this time, he saw a sturdy young man in the caravan. He felt that he looked familiar and his temperament was out of tune with the other members of the caravan. He couldn't help but ask, "Who is this?"

Without waiting for the caravan manager to answer, the young man said with a smile: "I am the armor blacksmith of the Isenkulov family. Although I am only eighteen years old, I have been forging iron for nineteen years. Now is a critical moment. Isenbol needs me!"

Hans was somewhat displeased with this playful young man, but as the battle intensified, Isenpol was in urgent need of a blacksmith who could repair armor.

Armor masters are treasures in the hands of every lord, and they are not ordinary craftsmen who can be found with money.

Out of instinct, Hans still expressed doubts.

"You're an armorer at your age? I think you're more of a warrior."

The blond young man said loudly: "There is no conflict. I am the blacksmith of Isenkulov and also a warrior of Isenkulov."

It makes sense that the son of a blacksmith family would live in superior conditions and become a strong civilian warrior.

As he said this, he took a look at the plate armor on Hans's body, leaned closer and whispered: "Sir, have you repaired your armor? The iron patch on the left chest is too thin, I'm afraid it can be pierced through by a sword. Do you want me to repair it for you? It can save your life."

Hans was immediately tempted. As a knight of Tariq's family, the output of his small estate was barely enough to cover the maintenance costs of his war horses and armor. If he lived a slightly extravagant life, he would go bankrupt.

His family was not well off enough to buy a new set of high-quality knight's plate armor. The plate and chain mail he was wearing had been worn for nearly ten years and had been damaged in many places during years of battle.

Good knight plate armor and bad knight plate armor are completely different things. Good knight plate armor is tailor-made by senior blacksmiths and the materials are all high-quality steel plates.

Poor knight's plate armor is just a layer of wrought iron, which can only withstand the slashing of swords and knives, but cannot withstand the thrust of lances.

The armorer who repaired his armor was not a great master and could only do some patching.

Hans's plate breastplate was not bad, but the left chest area had been hit once by an armor-piercing hammer and had obvious damage.

After being repaired, only a thin layer remains. On the surface, nothing can be seen, but in fact, the defense it can provide is not as high as that of a heavy chain mail.

It didn't matter before, but the situation is tense now and there is a possibility of being called to war at any time. Hans doesn't want to be shot to death.

Being stabbed to death is considered good. However, if you launch a group charge facing a rain of arrows, and your companions are all fine, but you are shot like a hedgehog and die tragically on the way, you will be laughed at by others.

At this time, Hans was finally convinced that the other party was an experienced and sharp-eyed armorer who could see what he looked like at a glance.

Such people are worth making friends with, so Hans immediately became more enthusiastic and said to the young man, "Okay, okay, you finally came to Isenbor, have fun in the city, and help me check the armor when you have time."

The blond young man nodded repeatedly and patted his chest to assure, "This is a must. Even the extraordinary knights can't pierce the armor I repaired!"

As the captain of the city guard, Hans has extensive experience in gatekeeping, is very rigorous in handling matters, and can keenly detect abnormalities.

However, the devil is always stronger than the good, and Leo easily sneaked into the city.