Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 279: The Knights of Oz's Headquarters and the New Female Courtier

In this dark and hopeless world, it is impossible to live in peace and tranquility all the time.

If nothing happens for a year, something big might happen.

For example, if a village suddenly becomes harmonious and friendly, united and helpful, enthusiasm for farming is high, and taxes are paid actively, then there is no doubt that there is probably a sexual harassment going on.

In this world, life is so peaceful and beautiful that it makes people feel anxious.

There are some threats in the forest, and crises are everywhere, but the situation is not that bad. At most, we can just fight against the enemy with our soldiers and block the water with earth.

There are now two God-chosen knights in the territory. Even if there are some powerful and terrifying monsters in the roaring beast group, we can still deal with them.

As long as those legendary lords who are famous among the entire beastman tribe do not appear, the Hessen Territory will most likely be able to resist.

As for the truly legendary Beastman Lords, they probably wouldn't bother to raid a small frontier settlement. Their targets were duchies and electoral territories, or at least earls.

So Su Li continued to say to Hildur, "The hidden dangers in the forest cannot be eliminated overnight, so let's clear them out bit by bit. The arrival of the Green Knights may be able to provide us with some help."

Hildur nodded. This was life in the Border Princedom. While this vast, fertile land provided fertile fields, it also bred a multitude of monsters and dangers. Farming and fighting were the norm for every frontier territory.

"Then I will arrange for you to meet with them."

"Go ahead. Arrange for Oliver to come see me before you meet the Knights of Oz."

When it comes to choosing a base for the Knights of Green and negotiating with them, we still need to listen to Oliver's opinion.

Hild was extremely efficient and arranged everything quickly.

The Iron-blooded Chancellor of the Hessen Territory arrived in front of Su Li in just over ten minutes. He saluted and said, "Greetings, Lord. May the glory of the goddess be with you."

Su Li waved his hand and said, "No need to be so polite. Please take a seat, my minister. I asked you to come here to inquire about the development of the western part of the Blood Pine Forest."

The territory had invested heavily in developing this area. Citizens who volunteered to travel west of the Blood Pine Forest would receive three bags of winter wheat and two draft horses per household.

So far, the number of horses invested in the territory has exceeded 600, and thousands of grains have been distributed.

Su Li has to pay attention to this both emotionally and logically.

Oliver was well aware of the situation and immediately replied, "My Lord, we have established a fortress, four settlements, and six small villages and farms in the western part of the Bloodpine Forest."

"Besides military considerations, a key reason we've invested heavily in developing this area is that its fertility rivals that of Bjorn's Fjord. This is especially true near Lake Essonide, the prosperous heart of western Bloodpine Forest. We've built three villages and two outposts there. Last winter, the average winter wheat yield was around 3 kilograms, second only to Bjorn's Fjord in our territory. This has greatly satisfied the needs of the Stormshadow Fortress garrison, saving us the trouble of transporting food across hundreds of miles."

The area around Lake Essonide is truly a treasure land. Not only is the land fertile, but there are also a large number of mines, resources, and gemstones.

If it weren't for this place, Green Dragon wouldn't be so rich.

Su Li said, "The Knights of Green have arrived at Silver Spring Valley and will likely arrive at Bauhinia Palace soon with Grand Master Constantine. We must provide some support and sponsorship in exchange for the Knights of Green being stationed in our territory."

"My Minister, what conditions do you think we should offer?"

Although Oliver is not a believer of the Sun Goddess, he is knowledgeable and knows something about the Knights of Oz.

He pondered for a moment and said, "From what I understand, the Knights of Green have a close relationship with the Knights of the Flaming Sun. Although this order is different from ordinary knights and is even considered an outlier by many Imperial knights, they often conduct tactical drills with the Knights of the Flaming Sun."

"The Knights of the Corona are a branch of the Knights of the Flaming Sun. I suspect the Knights of the Green Field will also send a branch to be stationed in our territory. As a secular lord, your support doesn't need to be excessive. Just an open attitude and a piece of land allocated to them as a base will be enough."

"I think areas like Silver Valley and Flower Language Spring are good. You can choose one and give it to them."

This iron-blooded chancellor treats everyone equally and has a strong hand.

Silver Valley and Flower Spring are one of the three eastern areas overlooked by Stormshadow Fortress, and together with Lake Essonide, they constitute the heart of the Bloodpine Forest.

However, the pioneering efforts of the Hesse Territory were basically used around Lake Essonide. After all, it was close to water sources, had flat terrain and fertile land.

Although the other two areas are also good, their terrain is relatively dangerous and narrow, and they have not been developed yet.

The lower valley of Silver Valley is relatively flat, with dense coniferous forests and shrubs covering the valley floor. Mountain streams crisscross the valley, forming small waterfalls and pools. The peaks on both sides of the valley tower into the clouds, with exposed rocks and rich mineral resources on the surface.

Although currently underdeveloped, Silver Valley is rich in mineral resources, particularly iron and copper, which could allow for the development of a mining industry and the crafting of weapons. Furthermore, the soil at the bottom of the valley is fertile, making it suitable for self-sufficient agricultural production once they acquire assets and slaves.

Flower Language Spring is located near the center of the Blood Pine Forest, about 50 kilometers from Lake Essonide. Unlike Silver Valley, Flower Language Spring is a relatively closed basin.

The basin is low-lying and surrounded by low mountains and forests. It has numerous lakes and springs with crystal-clear water, and a variety of rare flowers and herbs grow around it.

It is home to many rare plants and animals, especially those that rely on humid environments for survival. The abundant water resources and excellent water quality here make it of great ecological value. It is a sacred hunting ground for territories and monsters.

Su Li thought about it and felt that he still had to make use of the military corps of the Knights of Green. The Flower Language Spring was not suitable for defense, so he decided to give the Silver Valley to them.

It is also relatively easy to remember. The Knights of the Corona are stationed in Silver Spring Valley, and the Knights of Green are stationed in Silver Valley.

But it is up to Oliver to arrange how to accommodate them.

Su Li didn't need to worry about his talent. After the two talked for a while, Hildre walked in and said to Su Li, "My Lord, Captain Constantine and the Knights of the Green Knights have arrived."

Su Li replied decisively: "Please ask them to come in."

Soon, Constantine, wearing vibranium rune armor, walked into the room with three knights of the Knights of Oz.

There is a huge gap between their armor and clothing styles. If the Knights of Flame Sun are luxurious gilded aristocrats, then the armor of the Knights of Green is that of a ranger full of forest wildness.

Their armor is generally composed of chain mail, made of refined metal, and covered with a dark green coating on the surface, as if blending into the color of the forest.

Beneath their mail, the knights wore a short leather jacket made of specially tanned animal hides in a dark green color, with vines and leaves entwined around it, allowing them to hide in the forest.

Unlike the steel greaves of other knights, his boots were high leather boots made of tough leather with deep grooves on the soles to facilitate walking on muddy or slippery ground.

It can be said that they embody a close integration with the forest in all aspects.

As soon as Constantine entered the room, he introduced to Su Li: "My Lord, please allow me to introduce to you my old comrade, Beast Hunter, Eagle Eye, and Leader of the Knights of the Arrow of Light, Alfred Hendal."

Su Li immediately looked at the Knight Leader. Without a doubt, he also had the strength of a champion. The leaders of the major knight orders, including the Corona Knights and the Scarlet Night Knights, were all at least champion knights.

Although he was regarded as an alien by other knights because of his use of bows and arrows, he undoubtedly had the common characteristics of knights. He was tall and burly, with well-defined muscles and broad shoulders, giving people an unshakable sense of majesty.

A thick beard covered most of his face, a slightly messy, yet wild look. His eyes were deep and determined, as if they could see through people's hearts. His nose was high and his lips were slightly pursed, revealing a calm and resolute attitude.

His hair is thick and coarse, draped slightly messily behind his head. It is brown in color with a few traces of gray, making him look weathered and experienced.

Su Li immediately smiled and said to him, "Welcome to our territory, Captain Alfred. Our territory will definitely provide you with more opportunities to bring glory to the goddess and win honor."

Alfred is very generous. He is not as unruly as Grand Commander Constantine was when he first came. Of course, the main reason may be that the strength of the Hesse Territory is no longer comparable to what it was before. The God-chosen knight Hildreth is guarding Su Li behind him with a sword. How dare Alfred be so presumptuous?
He laughed heartily and said, "Respected Lord Bauhinia, this is exactly what we seek in your territory. We are willing to serve you under the guidance of the goddess and fight bravely in pursuit of greater glory."

This contact was undoubtedly very pleasant and everything went smoothly.

Both parties need each other's support, so cooperation is a perfect match.

Knight Alfred then personally introduced the two people behind him to Su Li and said, "These two are our Knights' Vice Captains, Sylvana Windwhisper and Victor Hendal."

Victor Hendal was a muscular knight with well-defined features that showed his swift movements.

He has a unique short hair, which is dark brown in color and slightly messy and sticks to the back of his head, making him look a little unruly.

He also has a scar on his face, which adds to his tough-guy demeanor. Even judging by his appearance, he is a knight who is very popular with women.

Su Li felt that he and Fastrick would make a good pair of buddies. After greeting Su Li, he was also very unrestrained and said directly, "I heard that the brothel in your territory is unique and famous. It is a specialty of the territory. I came here because of its reputation."

Perhaps discussing prostitutes in this world is like Su Li talking about local delicacies when guests visited in his previous life.

Su Li didn't know either, after all, no one had discussed this matter with him.

But the brothels in the territory were indeed flourishing. The prostitutes who served there, and the unique experience they offered, truly captivated many outsiders, making them reluctant to leave and unable to extricate themselves.

Where else could a group of rough old men experience such tenderness?

The beauties' true feelings were so expressed that they almost drained their money - both physically and financially.

Last year, the brothel alone provided Su Li with a net profit of 1980 gold crowns!

This number simply shocked the ministers and knights of the territory.

So much so that after the year-end meeting, some knights rushed to various places to buy prostitutes.

1980 gold crowns, which is equal to the income of a knight in a kingdom!

If it were just relying on farming, it would take thousands of people to create so much wealth for a knight, but there were only dozens of prostitutes, no more than a hundred at most, who could just lie there and make a living.

It wasn't that the knights hadn't visited the brothels in various towns and villages; on the contrary, they were regular customers, visiting them as frequently as they would taverns.

As one of the three major buildings in every village in the empire, prostitution is one of the most common female occupations in the empire.

The price of their service is not much higher than the price of a dinner in a tavern, just a few dozen copper coins. Even for high-end prostitutes, it is only one or two silver coins.

The knights couldn't understand why even if these prostitutes received hundreds of customers a day, they couldn't generate enough revenue to buy a gold crown.

How did the Lord obtain 1980 gold crowns?
In fact, these brothels have such good profits, and their main service objects are not the civilians of the territory. From the beginning, they have taken the high-end route, targeting the chambers of commerce, slave-hunting groups and adventurers.

These people are migrant workers, and they are really willing to spend money. Many people are on the brink of death, and the profit from a trip to Heisenling is likely to be spent in Heisenling before leaving.

In this dark and hopeless world, many people agree that living for today is the best they can be. As for planning too far ahead, thinking about things decades from now, that's too vague.

Who knows if they will still be alive next month? So when they meet a woman who truly has feelings for them (at least before they leave), they are willing to spend a fortune to make her happy.

That's why the four brothels under Su Li's name were able to generate such high profits. Their reputation even spread to other cities through the Chamber of Commerce.

Many knights-errant, rogue knights and troubadours, without any special business, come to the Hesse Territory on purpose, just to experience the charming customs of the territory.

After these people spent all their money, many of them simply joined the provincial legions or free militia of Hesse.

For example, the Blue Heron Mercenary Group set up a mercenary base and recruited a large number of candidates from it.

The Blue Heron Mercenary Group's base is located beneath the Rainbow Terraces in Hessen Territory.

The Rainbow Terraces is a landmark building constructed when the territory was fully developed after defeating the green dragon Alyria. It is basically a product of the same period as the Frost Whistle in the Blood Pine Forest.

This building is located southwest of Green Leaf Hill Farm, about 5 miles away from Rainbow Falls. Through its circular structure, the wheat fields can be bathed in sunlight shining through the rainbow throughout the day.

On the terraces, you can also see the huge stone spire next to the Rainbow Waterfall and the floating water mist.

The Blue Heron Mercenary Group originally wanted to set up their base near Rainbow Falls. After all, mercenaries are quite superstitious and believe that rainbows bring good luck. They hope that before they go out on missions, they can rely on the rainbow and good luck to ensure their safe return.

But unfortunately, they met the iron-blooded prime minister of the territory, Oliver, and the negotiations were not smooth. They could not change Oliver's tough attitude, so they could only settle for the second best and continue to look for a location outside.

After a series of negotiations, they finally chose to base their base below the Rainbow Rice Terraces.

在经过一系列的建设、扩张和人员的招募后，他们这个大型佣兵集团在黑森领的分基地已经拥有了300多人，包括120名长戟兵、80名弩手、40名矮人游侠、30名步行骑士和他们著名的75重甲骑兵联队（60人）。

If we add in clerical staff, office staff, warehouse management, chefs, financial cashiers, etc., the size of their branch base has exceeded 500 people.

The three villages and farms near the territory all serve these powerful mercenaries. A large number of vendors, workers, apprentices and prostitutes travel around the base, providing them with various furniture, daily utensils, food materials and other services.

In terms of combat effectiveness, their strength is not even weaker than that of the Knights of Oz.

Perhaps we could wait until the harvest season competition to invite them to participate together with the Knights of Green and the Knights of the Fallen Wolf Mercenaries.

Just as Su Li was thinking, the female knight's voice could be heard from the side, suppressed in anger. Her fists were clenched so tightly that they made a creaking sound. "Victor! You're a fool whose mind is dominated by his lower body. You've completely ruined the reputation of our Knights of Green! Who would discuss those lowly professions on their first meeting?"

Huh? This seems to be true?
Su Li remembered, not knowing whether it was historical truth or literary flavor, that every time Cao Cao conquered a city, the first thing he did after entering the city was to ask if there were any prostitutes there.
So, Victor is a hero like Cao Cao.

Victor didn't care. He spread his hands and said, "How can prostitutes be considered lowly? In my heart, they are all miserable people with various difficulties. My comforting them is in line with the goddess's teaching of caring for the world. You can't care for everyone and only be prejudiced against me caring for prostitutes, right?"

Su Li turned to look at the third female leader. This one must be Sylvanas Windwhisper. She was tall and slender, with a flexible waist and flowing abs, like a wild little leopard. Although she was young, her every move exuded an innate elegance and strength.

What caught Su Li's eye even more was her delicate, three-dimensional features, her eyebrows and eyes painted in a picturesque way, her nose high and straight, a distinctly exotic look. Her long, silver-white hair cascaded down to her waist, as if condensed from forest moonlight. Her ears were slightly pointed, a distinct sign of her elven ancestry.

So Su Li asked in surprise: "Captain Sylvanas is an elf?"

Alfred nodded and said to Su Li, "Sylvana is the vice-captain of our Knights Order and also my adopted daughter. I found her in the forest of Tarabeheim and have kept her in the Order ever since. Don't be fooled by her young age, but her archery skills surpass most of our knights, and she currently serves as the archery instructor for the entire Order."

Sylvanas currently only has elite-level strength. Her style is completely different from all of Su Li's female courtiers. She is more wild and makes men more eager to conquer her.

Since she was mentioned, Sylvanas could only temporarily suppress the urge to teach Victor a lesson. She turned around and bowed to Su Li, then said, "My Lord, do you look down on the fighting ability of us elves? Perhaps you can send a knight to fight me, and I will shoot off his beard with an arrow!"

Su Li smiled and said, "I don't think you really want to try it."

Although Sylvanas was the vice-captain of the Knights of Green, and she was the strongest among all the knights in her order, she had just arrived in the Black Forest Territory, and if she really competed with the knights of other orders, she would definitely suffer a lot.

Not only were those knights battle-hardened, having fought their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, but crucially, they possessed a vast array of items! The various specialties of the Hessen Territory had elevated their strength to an extremely high level. In battles of the same rank, they could practically overpower other knightly factions.

But Sylvanas was still young and energetic, and she immediately understood the implication of Su Li's words, which was that she was bound to fail and was asking for trouble.

So she immediately snorted and said, "My Lord, you are not afraid that your subordinates will lose the battle and lose face, so you dare not send anyone to try?"

If an adult said this, it would undoubtedly be seen as a provocation.

But when the little girl Sylvanas said this, everyone just smiled. After all, she looked like a human girl of about 17 or 18 years old.

Standing behind Su Li, Hildur's mouth curled up slightly. When the strength was similar, such words would be considered an offense. But when one's own strength was overwhelming, even the opponent's challenge seemed a little cute.

Hirud replied on Su Li's behalf: "My Lord, since Vice Captain Sylvanas wishes to give it a try, I will arrange for a knight to spar with her."

Sylvanas immediately straightened her chest and said, "Send your elite troops to fight. Don't just send one person to deal with it casually. Otherwise, I'm afraid you won't accept the defeat sincerely."

Su Li looked at the little girl with a smile. She was so wild and simple. Perhaps she would be a good candidate for a female court official.

At least she is simple-minded, so there is no need to worry about her making the Bauhinia Palace a mess.

Hildre nodded with a smile and asked patiently, "Since Vice-Captain Sylvanas has requested this, as a sign of respect, we should also send a Vice-Captain. We have the Vice-Chancellor of the High-ranking Direct Aides, the Vice-Captain of the Knights of the Vengeful Sun, the Vice-Captain of the Knights of the Black Forest Guard, the Vice-Captain of the Knights of the Flaming Sun, and the Vice-Captain of the Knights of the Red Night. Please choose one."

A sly glint flashed in Sylvana's eyes, and she immediately said, "I choose the High-ranking Deputy Steward, Knight Tiberus."

Huh?
Everyone in the Bauhinia Palace looked at the girl in surprise. Her choice was beyond everyone's expectations.

Perhaps everyone on her side had misjudged her. She had clearly come prepared! She had actually chosen one of the most formidable knights in the territory, the Scoundrel Tiberus.

(End of this chapter)