Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 357 Announcement of the Expedition and the Benevolent Father, Nurgle
While the elite knights are neither the empire's strongest fighting force nor its most numerous, their numbers are vast compared to the powerful champions and chosen ones. And compared to the more numerous apprentice knights, their fighting prowess and resilience are exceptionally strong.

It can be said without a doubt that the large number of elite knights with considerable combat power constitute the solid foundation of the empire and are the absolute mainstay of the empire's military strength.

Even in a powerful region like Black Forest, champion knights are extremely rare. In the army, apart from serving as knight commanders, they can only be found in powerful knightly orders.

Therefore, the perfect conclusion of the elite group at the Glory Arena in Blackforest Territory, which boasted the largest number of participants, the most matches, and the most intense battles, signifies the great success of the Glory Arena. After all, in future publicity, champion-level knights are figures that the general public cannot access.

Even more coincidentally, Su Li was also the champion of the elite group, and won a new title: Radiant Sun.

In the future, when others introduce him, he will have a series of famous titles, such as Lord of Xinheisen Territory, Omniscient Informationist, Star of Light, Radiance of the Sun, Iron Father, Bauhinia Knight, and Su Li.

Although the title "Radiance of the Sun" is insignificant compared to other titles, it is the first title that Su Li has earned through his own strength, and he is still very excited.

At the awards ceremony, he personally presented awards to the other two knights. The perfect conclusion of the elite group was also reflected at this moment. All the participants stood on the podium in good condition, and no accidents occurred.

After Su Li presented the awards to them with great enthusiasm, he excitedly gave his acceptance speech, as well as a summary and praise of the Glorious Sports Festival.

Facing tens of thousands of cheering spectators and a large number of eager citizens and knights, Su Li took a deep breath and then delivered a rousing speech. He wore a battle robe embroidered with bauhinia flowers and the emblem of the blazing sun, his eyes burning brightly, and his voice resounding throughout the arena.

"Fellow countrymen of Blackforest, knights who have come from afar, and friends! Today, we gather under the gaze of the Goddess of the Sun! She is the embodiment of war, the beacon of wisdom, and the inextinguishable flame in iron and blood!"

Just as the goddess Violet purified chaos with golden flames, our glory today also comes from her gift—her sword cleaves through the mist, and her shield protects our beliefs!
On the battlefield, we are not fighting alone! The goddess's blazing sun-like gaze pierces through the gloom, guiding us to tear apart cowardice with courage and crush chaos with discipline!

As he praised them, the knights below raised their arms and cheered, each one seemingly bathed in divine grace and glory.

“Today, I am honored to be awarded the title of ‘Radiant Sun’.” He removed his helmet, smiled, and raised the golden sun medal symbolizing the title.

"But this medal doesn't just belong to me personally! It's also an ode to all those who wield the sword for Blacksend! The goddess never demanded that we be perfect chosen champions; she only expects us to—ignite the flame in the darkness and raise the banner high in dire straits!"

Then, pressing the medal close to his chest, his voice suddenly became impassioned: "I have had many titles, I was once the 'Omniscient One,' the 'Iron Father,' but today, I swear in the name of the 'Radiance of the Sun': Every inch of Blackforest will be imbued with the will of the goddess; every knight's sword will transform into a patch of sunlight!"

"The end of the Glorious Competition is not the end, but the clarion call for a new expedition!"
When the shadow of chaos spreads again, when the enemy's iron hooves trample the borders—will we retreat?

A deafening roar erupted from the audience: "No!!!"

"When the expedition arrives, and the goddess's will guides us to sweep through the acupoints of Pear Court, will we be filled with fear?"

"No!!!" The shouts were deafening and could be heard for miles.

Su Li raised the warhammer with satisfaction, its shaft reflecting the golden light of the blazing sun: "The Goddess of the Sun has already etched the answer into our souls: true victory is when mortals, knowing their fear, still choose to move forward!"

"On this day, a day filled with the grace of the goddess, I solemnly announce the formation of the Bauhinia Expeditionary Legion to participate in the Empire's sacred Great Expedition, to sweep away the evil of Mount Oka, and to make every charge a prayer of the goddess; to let the blood of the enemy water the eternal sunflower of Black Forest Territory!"

Although news of the Great Expedition had been circulating among the people for some time, the knights in the arena still gasped in surprise when they heard Su Li announce it to them.

A thunderous and enthusiastic cheer erupted throughout the arena, with many knights even moved to tears. The sacred Great Crusade had finally begun!
Countless people raised their arms in cheers and shouted wildly, creating an atmosphere that was both frenzied and sacred.

Su Li's subsequent declaration pushed all of this to the extreme: "All knights who participate in the Bauhinia Expeditionary Legion can receive a free Fire Spike Crystal enhancement when purchasing weapons at the Black Forest Armory! They can also enjoy a 9% discount when purchasing Perfumer's Dew, Gems, and Witchcraft Items."

As he finished speaking, cheers rose higher and higher in the arena, and the excited knights all praised the radiance of the Sun Goddess and the lord's generosity.

That's a Fire Spinel! They've witnessed its power on the arena these past few days. When a knight launches a heavy attack, he doesn't even need to activate his bloodline ability; his weapon will be covered with a powerful flame. Upon impact, the flame enchantment will erupt, severely injuring his opponent.

It can be said that in the trainee knight group or even the official knight group, as long as such a heavy blow hits smoothly, it is often enough to directly determine the outcome of the battle.

With such powerful weapons, they could easily kill several monsters during the Holy Expedition, leaving a significant mark on their resumes.

For an ordinary knight, let alone a great battle, even slaying a few horned beasts or orc lads in his lifetime is a feat worth boasting about for an entire night in the tavern.

So how could they not cheer wildly?

Looking at the excited crowd, Su Li was also full of vigor. He unleashed his champion-level strength and his voice shook the entire arena: "Finally, please allow me to conclude today's declaration with the maxim of the 'Sun Codex'—May the blazing sun burn away cowardice, may light forever reside in people's hearts, and may we mortal bodies ultimately become the cornerstone of the divine kingdom!"

Amidst thunderous cheers, the banner bearing the sacred sun emblem, symbolizing the goddess, rose slowly, fluttering behind him along with the aura of the Bauhinia family.

"Glory to the Goddess of the Sun! Glory to the Black Forest Territory! Glory to every warrior who fights for their faith!"

"For glory!"

“God of people and women!”

"Glory! Glory!"

Amidst a deafening roar, the entire arena erupted in cheers and jubilation. Whether hysterical gamblers or fanatical knights, numb and ignorant commoners or passionate adventurers, everyone was now wildly raising their arms in celebration. The expedition and glory completely consumed their minds. In this sacred atmosphere, everyone felt personally involved in the war of the vast empire. Never before had they felt such a profound sense of belonging to the empire, such a deep connection between this colossal entity and every tiny human being.

Accompanied by frenzied shouts, the crowd had completely lost its rationality; the pursuit of the sacred expedition had filled everyone's emotions and thoughts.

Thousands of knights signed up on the spot to participate in the expedition to the Black Forest Territory!
These are over a thousand knights! And nearly half of them are knights from outside the Black Forest Territory, which greatly expands the size of the Bauhinia Expeditionary Force.

Su Li was unsure how many troops the families of Zijing Fortress would send to participate in the expeditionary force, but at least the Black Forest Territory would not send fewer troops than the families.

The family commander must be astonished by the size of the expeditionary force from the Black Forest Territory. After all, this is just a legion of a branch of the family, a trainee knight lord. They would never have imagined that last year he was just a down-on-his-luck member who was forced to leave the family, and this year he could single-handedly lead a legion that is no less powerful than the entire family.

Of course, Su Li didn't have any deep-seated hatred towards his family. His hatred lay with the province of Suland, and he needed to unite all forces to provide great support to Elector Phyllis, the Grand Prince of Suland.

Judging from the objectives of the Holy Crusade, the commander of this great expedition is most likely the Duke of the Surland Province. After all, last year, they truly defeated a Green Tide of hundreds of thousands in a real battle, thwarting a massive Greenskin attack on the Human Empire.

The combined size of the two expeditionary legions of the Bauhinia family is approaching 10,000 infantry and cavalry. After unanimously expressing their support for Grand Prince Phyllis, it will undoubtedly greatly enhance Grand Prince Phyllis's prestige and influence.

This would let everyone know that the princess was supported by her husband's family. This would prevent her from being completely exploited by other territories and dukes, and would certainly make those nobles who coveted the princess's lands much more restrained.

Moreover, Princess Phyllis is not a lone commander; she has considerable power. First, she has the allegiance of the Knights of Eternal Light, a knightly order with over a thousand knights at its headquarters, plus the total number of knights in its fortresses, garrisons, and castles throughout the land, which is no less than 3000, and that is after the reductions caused by the war.

As the legitimate heir of the Libovitz family, she also has nearly 3 high-ranking personal servants under her command. Since the family bloodline is almost completely cut off, as long as she can reasonably divide and win them over, she can gradually gain the loyalty of these 3 high-ranking servants by placing confidants and supporting loyal generals.

In fact, as the Elector of the Surand Province, even if she were weak, she would still have nearly 4 troops loyal to her.

The only problem limiting her now might be finances. After all, no matter how skillful her political maneuvering, how adept she is at navigating social situations, or even how incredibly she managed to win the unwavering support of 40,000 troops in just over six months, she still has to pay their salaries. She can't expect these knights to work for her, can she? Even if all 40,000 knights are completely devoted, their families still need income to survive.

Moreover, Su Li genuinely felt that Phyllis didn't have that much charm. She wasn't an Eastern succubus; her charm lay entirely in her beauty. Perhaps at one point her all-or-nothing performance was stunning, but ultimately, the tactics and plans she devised to take over the Avilan Palace were all pre-planned by Su Li.

In terms of strategy and wisdom, she was only average. How could a young girl possibly manipulate a group of old foxes? To truly improve the situation, they needed to rely on strong power to move forward. At the very least, they couldn't let the finances hold them back. Therefore, Su Li seriously considered how much help he could provide her during this expedition.

After the ceremony concluded, he summoned all the ministers to the conference room and asked them with great interest, "This Glorious Arena Festival was a grand and successful event. Although there were a few minor setbacks along the way, thanks to the concerted efforts of everyone, we managed to turn misfortune into fortune, bringing our territory greater prestige and profits. Today, let's take stock of how much we gained from this Glorious Arena Festival!"

Now comes the exciting moment of settlement; no one can resist the excitement and joy of this stage.

Even the rigid Fandral, the iron-fisted Oliver, and the dashing Hilde all had smiles on their faces.

The joy of this harvest is no less than the delight of a bountiful harvest after a season of farming.

Fandral was the first to report: "My lord, during this recent festival, industry and commerce within our territory have flourished. Grain has sold extremely well, and almost all of our territory's specialties have fetched good prices. In terms of food and wine alone, our harvest has reached over 5800 gold crowns."

This reward immediately caused a gasp from everyone. 5800 gold crowns! That's all the grain harvest from Bjorn Bay in one quarter last year.

This certainly doesn't mean that the knights consumed three months' worth of food from the entire territory in just one cycle. While the knights and their voracious squires could eat a lot, it wasn't that extreme. You have to understand that the territory's food not only supplies the territory but can also be sold in large quantities, earning the territory the reputation of being the granary of the border.

Instead, the knights consumed large amounts of meat and wine, to the point that Su Li had to dilute a large quantity of Bergman's Generous Flame with water and sell it to them.

It wasn't that Su Li was heartless; it was simply that dwarven beer was far too strong for humans. As the dwarves said, human beer was as bland and tasteless as goblin urine. If Bergman's generous, fiery beer were given to humans directly, the entire territory would be drunk.

This diluted beer tastes mediocre, but since it's a celebration, everyone's drinking freely. The atmosphere is more important than the taste of the beer.

Moreover, if they were truly wealthy, their territory would certainly have a supply of high-end wines.

While other aspects of the Black Forest are debatable, its high-quality food and wine truly satisfy all kinds of extravagant desires. As long as the knights are willing to spend lavishly, taverns can obtain even things like Firefly Rabbit meat, Lightscale Fish meat, Extraordinary Spikes, high-grade bread, and even Desire Rose wine that can help one break through to higher levels.

It was thanks to these high-quality goods and the vast supply of meat and wine that the Glorious Games were able to reap such great wealth in terms of food.

Clearly, the gains in agriculture and animal husbandry go far beyond that. Fandall continued, "In addition, the territory has sold mounts worth a whopping 3300 gold crowns. However, unlike the consumption of wine and meat which has reached its limit, the revenue from the sale of these mounts is still in a period of explosive growth. At least for the next period, until our expeditionary legion sets off, the revenue from this aspect will be continuous. According to the estimates of the Pasture Manager, there will be at least 5000 to 6000 gold crowns in revenue."

Sure enough, with the arrival of a large number of people, industry and commerce become extremely prosperous.

Fandral's next words corroborated all of this: "In addition, the various items sold in our territory have brought in more than 2000 gold crowns in revenue."

Su Li asked with great curiosity, "So many? What did they all buy?"

More than 2000 gold crowns! That's equivalent to the annual income of more than 2000 farmers. Even for these knights and armed servants, it's equivalent to each person spending more than ten silver coins in the territory.

Fandall immediately replied with a beaming smile, "That's a very broad range. They need a lot of things from our territory. For example, blood salt; basically every knight and armed squire will buy some."

Su Li remembered that Blood Salt was a specialty of the Gray Mist Coast. It was a mixed salt block formed by distilling sea dragon blood and seawater, which could enhance the physical strength of knights and warhorses.

Basically, if a warhorse ingests a certain amount of blood salts before a battle or during a long march, it can ensure that it has enough energy and can even gallop continuously for more than 3 hours.

This can be seen as a cheaper alternative to the Extraordinary, brought from the Grey Mist Coast by a smuggling team.

"Besides blood salt, they also buy herbs, honey, perfumer's incense burner ash, religious icons, and some witchcraft props, pendants, handicrafts, and the like. After all, our territory sells quite a lot of pottery, tools, and spoils of war."

Many of the things Fandral mentioned were produced in the various manors and farms of the territory. Basically, each manor had several handicraft workshops. In addition to agriculture, the knights of the Empire also attached great importance to industry. Pottery kilns, blacksmith shops, carpentry workshops, and even wool workshops and spear weaving workshops were very common.

The manor under Su Li's control alone has no fewer than dozens of workshops, which produce all sorts of things, including clothing, fabrics, tools, and even witchcraft props.

Each territory can be considered a small kingdom, which is why the nobles of the empire were collectively referred to as Kingdom Knights.

The knights' visits brought a wide variety of needs; they always had something to buy, and even souvenirs from the territory were often snapped up.

This is also the significance of huge customer traffic, which helps the territory clear out a large amount of inventory.

Su Li then asked, "Are our potions sold to the public?"

"We sell relatively few of these, mainly because our territory's potion production scale is still relatively small, with only about 2600 vials at present. Even though the knights are in urgent need, we have only sold more than 500 vials, with a profit of about 1100 gold crowns."

If it were a regular potion, the returns wouldn't be this high, since a regular potion only yields 50 silver coins, or at most 250 gold crowns.

Fortunately, the territory has a very large elite force. Su Li remembers that there are nearly 100 high-level potions in the territory's treasury, such as [Tears of Compassion] and [Blood of the Earth].

It was only because the knights offered high prices that the territory sold a handful of high-level potions.

Su Li sighed, "The scale of our territory's herb production is significantly higher than the output of our potions. We need to focus all our efforts on developing our pharmaceutical industry."

In fact, the pharmaceutical industry in the territory had already made great strides. Back when Dietrich came to the territory and established St. John's Hospital, the hospital's pharmaceutical production scale reached 40 doses per month.

After significant development, the scale of the entire Territory Pharmaceutical Industry has more than tripled, and it can now reach 130 doses per month.

However, this was clearly insufficient compared to the expansion of the army. Basically, the annual production was just enough to meet the army's needs for World War I.

Fandall calmly replied, “My lord, I believe our current ecosystem is relatively healthy. Herb production must exceed the needs of the pharmaceutical industry, considering we also need to cater to the lower classes and wandering knights. With their incomes, even the most frugal person cannot afford expensive potions. Therefore, we need sufficient herbs to sell cheaply to these lower classes. If our pharmaceutical industry were to explode and demand exceeded supply, the lower classes would be left to fend for themselves.”

"In pursuit of profit, pharmaceutical industry personnel will control all herbs, preventing any from reaching the general public. It's hard to predict what ordinary people suffering from disease and with nowhere else to turn will do next."

That is indeed a problem. After all, there is an evil god in this world named Nurgle, the Plague Father born from a desperate will and the concept of destruction. His specialty is not cunning witchcraft or savage power, but rather invisible viruses. All the plagues in the world are created under Nurgle's careful manipulation. Yet, in the mouths of his followers, Nurgle is a god with a grandfatherly, benevolent nature. Khorne's cruel rituals eliminate the weak, and Tzeentch sees everyone as pawns, but only Nurgle accepts all his followers, regardless of age, appearance, or morality. He is tolerant and embracing of all people, like a loving father guiding his beloved son.

Its church motto is "Come and feel the love of a loving father!" This loving father is similar to the "Iron Father," and can hardly be considered very loving.

Disease is a common occurrence in Imperial life. Many suffer from one or more illnesses throughout their lives, and almost every household has at least one immediate family member die from a terrible plague. (Skaven: I'm not entirely to blame!) Those who succumb to grief and despair worship Nurgle because of the tyranny of disease and their own survival, becoming maddened and convinced that Nurgle's granting of some form of salvation or plague is the true understanding of the world. Few realize that their misguided beliefs only fuel Nurgle's power, creating an endless cycle of despair and disease.

From among those tormented by suffering, nihilists, and those driven mad by disease or despair, a cult of Nurgle will emerge. Driven by the Lord of Disease, they will roam the Old World, spreading plagues. While most will ultimately die from the many diseases they carry, a few will be empowered by their suffering, transforming into repulsive, twisted beings.

The followers were overjoyed by this change, believing it to be an acceptance of the afflictions that tormented their bodies by gaining Nurgle's approval, and that the mutation was a blessing, thus identifying Nurgle as a "merciful" god. Given the sheer number of afflicted individuals within the Empire, locating them was incredibly difficult, as they remained discreet and continued their travels, blending into the local population. These followers chanted in secret in the most vile and filthy places, places so repulsive that even the most ardent witch hunters would halt before venturing into them. Once the Nurgle cult was discovered, entire towns were burned to the ground; fire purification was often the only way to stop the spread of their disease.

The Decaying Father, Nurgle, is generous in blessing his followers. His chosen ones are covered in pustules whose skin melts at the slightest touch. Their bodies are swollen from unimaginable viruses, and to support their broken flesh, they always wear heavy armor to prevent their internal organs from spilling out, making them appear even larger than ordinary chosen ones. Although these people are ravaged by the viruses, they have essentially lost the ability to feel pain. Some of Nurgle's viruses have the effect of numbness and longevity, and these special varieties allow the chosen ones to endure agonizing pain to act for their benevolent grandfather.

No enemy is more terrifying than the Chosen Ones of Nurgle. Though their skin is as soft as cotton, hidden beneath their fragile exteriors are deadly viruses. These biological bombs, bursting open after death, are far more frightening than the Chosen Ones themselves.

With such a terrifying evil god looming overhead, even the most tyrannical nobles would leave some space for the lower classes to survive; otherwise, who knows what terrible things these crazy lower-class people might attract.

Fandall continued, "But our medical industry has also seen some development during this Brilliant Games. As you know, a large number of medical knights have come to our territory."

(End of this chapter)