The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 688 Goblin Mercenaries
“You don’t need to pledge allegiance to me. I’m just a general of the kingdom. You’ll need to pledge allegiance to the king when he returns!” Renault shook his head and said to Alistar.

“Where will we be stationed before that?” Alistar looked at Renault, wondering where he would place them.

“Let’s cross the river first! This isn’t within the kingdom’s controlled territory. Windhelm is just a frontier territory. You can’t stay here!” Renault shook his head at Alistar. Windhelm is too small to withstand the destruction caused by these goblins. They could eat Windhelm out of house and home in one meal.

"Yes, General!" Alistar nodded happily. The barbaric goblins lived a life of hardship, exposed to the elements, and no one in the Dark Forest hired them. This resulted in a miserable existence for the goblin tribe, often going hungry. The need to tame these boars made their lives even more difficult. These boars were their friends and companions; the barbaric goblins would bury the dead boars and offer sacrifices and prayers. Although these boars were not large, they had a big appetite... Therefore, the barbaric goblins had long wanted to find a long-term source of food.

"Tell them to bring the ferry over!" Renault said to the griffin rider in the sky. Upon hearing Renault's order, the griffin rider immediately disappeared into the horizon.

"General Reno?" Ismir whispered quietly beside Reno.

"What's wrong?" Renault raised his eyelids.

"Do you think I can hire some goblin knights?" Ismir asked somewhat embarrassedly, after all, this was intercepting the king's offer.

“Of course! You can talk to them yourself. The kingdom is recruiting them just in case, and it doesn’t conflict with you hiring them!” Renault nodded. After all, how many goblin knights could Ismir recruit with his limited resources? The lion’s share would still go to Roland.

Recruiting these barbaric goblins was also a spur-of-the-moment decision for Renault. After all, he knew from Roland's plans that the kingdom's military strength was still lacking, and these goblin knights could complement the kingdom's soldiers as low-end combat power. Even if thousands of boar riders couldn't break through the human Fangbiao Knights, they could at least break through those Eastern Yi chariots and infantry, right? After all, as one of the three knights, the boar riders' combat strength was guaranteed.

"Thank you!" Ismir said, patting his chest. It was as if Renault had done him a favor in advance, and Ismir would remember it.

……

"Lord Alistair?" Ismir and Ymir found the goblin chieftain who was gathering his people. This goblin was noticeably taller than the other wild goblins, and with his brightly colored feathered headdress, he was easy to spot.

"Huh? Is there something you need?" Alistar grabbed one pig's ear in each hand and shooed away their tug-tug pigs. The tug-tug pigs didn't get annoyed and obediently huddled together in the direction Alistar was leading them.

“I’d like to recruit some goblin knights!” Ismir nodded and succinctly explained his purpose.

"Huh?" Alistar was stunned for a moment, not quite able to react.

"I'm afraid this isn't a good idea. I've already promised General Renault that our tribe will fight for the kingdom!" Alistar said hesitantly, after all, finding a meal ticket wasn't easy.

“General Reno agreed; he allows me to recruit a group of goblin knights to protect my territory!” Ismir explained, shaking his head.

"This is your territory, no wonder it's so desolate," Alistar muttered. Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought his people to graze their livestock right at the gates of a town if the territory was so barren. But it was fortunate that he came, otherwise where would he have found a long-term source of food?

“Alright, how many people are you planning to recruit? Long-term or short-term hires? I’m not bragging, but our Savage Goblin Mercenaries are absolutely worth every penny!” Alistar said proudly.

Indeed, as he said, the Wild Goblin mercenaries were incredibly good value for money! These goblins were truly willing to fight to the last man for their employers! For them, as long as the gold was right, the Ringwraiths were useless! As long as they were paid enough, they would fight with boundless energy for their employers! Plus, Wild Goblins were prolific and grew quickly, making them top-quality cannon fodder! "How much do you charge for long-term and short-term contracts?" Ismir asked curiously. These goblins seemed quite professional, even offering long-term and short-term contracts!
"Long-term: 10 gold coins per person. The contract ends when the person is too old to fight. No compensation is required for death in battle! Short-term: 1-5 gold coins per battle depending on the difficulty. 5 gold coins are required for death in battle!" Alistar pulled out an ancient parchment from his waist and read.

"Honest and fair! This price has remained the same for several epochs." Alistair added, fearing Ismir might be intimidated by the price.

"Well, let's hire 10 goblin knights then!" Ismir pulled out his still-warm money pouch from his pocket, which contained his last 100 gold coins as a reserve.

"Alright!" Alistar pulled out a few gold coins and bit them with his teeth.

“…Ismir.”

“…” Ymir.

"It's a habit, a habit!" Alistar laughed and scratched his head, also feeling a little embarrassed just now.

“Please wait a moment, gentlemen, while I gather the soldiers!” Alistar hung the money pouch on his tuk-tuk saddle and nodded to Ismir and the others.

……

"Come here!" Alistar stopped a group of goblin knights who were carrying their belongings.

Upon hearing this, the knights immediately put down what they were doing and gathered around Alistar, clearly showing that Alistar still held a high position of prestige within the tribe!
“This… uh? When is your name?” Alistar asked the knights, pointing at Ismir. He only realized halfway through his sentence that he didn’t know Ismir’s name.

"Lord Ismir of Windhelm!" Ismir nodded, acknowledging his future subordinate.

“Yes, yes, yes! Lord Ismir has been employing you for a long time, so you can stay here for a while and don’t need to migrate with the tribe!” As he spoke, Alistar took out a handful of gold coins from his money bag and gave five to each goblin knight.

“Go back and see your family, and get everything arranged!” Alistar said calmly.

"Yes!" The goblin knights showed no sorrow at parting from their families. They turned and left calmly one by one. Clearly, for goblin mercenaries like the Savage Goblins, being away from home all year round was the norm, and it was not surprising that they would never see their families again.

……

"Huh? What are they doing?" Ymir watched the goblin knights return to the crowd and noticed that not only were they giving all the money to their families, but they were also starting to take off their clothes and leaving behind their scattered weapons and ornaments. When they regrouped, Ismir and Ymir were shocked to see goblins riding boars, bare-handed and naked... These goblins left everything except their leather underwear to the tribe.

"Sorry, I forgot to mention, long-term employment does not include equipment..." Alistar said, blushing slightly. Luckily, the skin of the Savage Goblin was light green, otherwise it would have been difficult to hide.

"Never mind..." Ismir waved his hand, somewhat annoyed. Although he looked down on the primitive equipment of these goblin knights, he couldn't have ten naked men!