Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 65 Love for Talent
The barbarians were blocked in a canyon between two mountains by the army of Limburg Farm and Hesse. They were bloated like fat on a chopping board. They were already terrified by the situation, and now their leader was beheaded. The remaining monsters completely lost their morale, dared not resist anymore, and fled desperately.

However, Su Li had already ordered the extermination of the evil monsters, leaving no one alive. So, three teams of shock knights, mounted on their warhorses, pursued all the fleeing monsters with all their might. The corpses of the monsters lay strewn across the valley, and countless weapons and armor were lost.

As the knights were chasing with all their might, everyone could faintly hear bursts of excited screams and applause coming from the canyon.

Su Li rode up the hillside on horseback and could hear the sound very clearly. It was not like a human voice, nor was it the roar of a monster. It sounded like the whispers of goblins in the night, or the cunning laughter of ghosts in the dense forest. It was sharp and mysterious.

Hildreth wiped the blood from his sword, sheathed it, and followed Su Li. He observed his surroundings, then quickly pointed at the burning farmland in the distance and asked, "Lord, do you see that? There seems to be a black shadow in the sea of ​​fire."

Su Li immediately turned his gaze in the direction of her finger and vaguely saw a black shadow, but it also seemed to be the afterimage of trees reflected by the jumping flames in the dark night. It was soon swallowed up by the scorching fire and nothing could be seen.

But Su Li was basically certain that there was a nature spirit around this battlefield, so he immediately ordered: "The knights enter the farm and count the spoils, and the other servants immediately put out the fire. Tell them that if they can't put out the fire in the farmland, they won't get a single cent of the spoils from this battle. But if they can put it out successfully, I will give them half of the spoils!"

Hearing Su Li's generous promise, the servants cheered immediately!
The empire's 19th tax was reflected in all aspects of life. Although retainers contributed the most on the battlefield, bearing the most direct and fierce enemy attacks, and also did the most hard labor after the battle, maintaining armor, sharpening weapons, and collecting spoils, they received the least share of the wealth. Their lords were considered kind and generous if they could give them 10% of the spoils.

Now, in addition to the spoils their lord had rewarded them with, the lord would also give them 20% of the spoils. Their gains were bound to be substantial! So, they cheered and enthusiastically threw themselves into the firefighting task.

In less than two hours, they successfully controlled the fire.

The knights also used this time to successfully capture the Limburg Farm. The beastmen's sudden attack successfully broke through their stone walls, forcing the guards inside to open the gates and send out the Badlands Rangers to challenge the beast leaders. As a result, their defenses were breached and they had no ability to resist. Therefore, everyone inside became Su Li's prisoners of war and slaves.

As the military commander, Orstein proudly reported to Su Li, "My Lord, we have reaped a rich harvest from this battle. We have slain at least a hundred barbarian monsters and obtained over 200 pieces of battle axes, spears, horned helmets, and armor!"

The beastmen also have armor, and there are quite a few of them. There are thick armor plates on their sheep noses and shoulder guards. There are even black plate armor with extremely impressive defense on the chest of the giant horned beast, which is one or two centimeters thick!
If it were a barbarian tribe led by a Beastlord, a formidable herd capable of engaging the armies of a human empire's provinces, the Greathorns on the battlefield would form an impenetrable wall of armor and muscle, charging forward with overwhelming force. They would seek out the enemy's elite troops (who undoubtedly challenged their dominance), then swing their great axes like executioners, severing their limbs and trampling the broken remains under their mighty hooves.

Therefore, if you can defeat a herd of beasts, the benefits are bound to be considerable. Not only the treasures and gold coins they carry, but also their weapons and armor are also a considerable profit.

With so much iron brought back to the territory, the territory's dwarven forgemaster, Boros Dragonhammer, could forge a large number of agricultural tools, greatly alleviating the territory's farming needs. Su Li could already imagine the dwarven master's angry complaints. Compared to agricultural tools, he would certainly prefer to forge powerful fine steel battle axes and dwarven heavy armor.

Su Li had no choice but to look at Knight Orstein and asked, "How is the harvest at the farm?"

Knight Orstein was delighted with the spoils and immediately gave a detailed introduction. "This farm has clearly been hidden here for some time. We've captured 64 slaves inside. Besides the sizable farmyard, there's a series of buildings: a cowshed with a milking parlor, a stable, and a shed for hired laborers. Notably, Limburg Farm even has its own blacksmith shop. It's run by Harry, the eldest son of the Limburg family. He's responsible for shoeing horses, making farm tools, and repairing damaged ironwork. He's also the fierce ranger who battled monsters with a battle axe."

As he spoke, Knight Orstein waved his hand, and his war mastiff bit a young man's right leg and dragged him in front of Su Li.

After this battle, Su Li's liking for the golden lion mastiff increased greatly. It loyally guarded Knight Orstein, and any beastman who wanted to get close would be bitten madly by it. It bit three inferior horned beasts to death by itself, and took advantage of a horned beast's inattention to bite the exposed muscle on the edge of its shin armor, biting the entire horned beast to the ground.

Even if this young man was not tied up, he might not be a match for the lion mastiff with his bare hands.

Su Li lowered his head and looked at the young man with red hair and fierce eyes. He obviously did not have the ability to awaken his bloodline, which meant that he was at most at the level of the strongest in some famous armed attendant warbands, similar to those famous beast killer warbands. He relied solely on his innate divine power and held a fine iron battle axe to fight against a big horned beast for a period of time.

Is this the only way for the profession of blacksmith to train arm strength and hone talent?
Su Li couldn't help but feel a sense of sympathy for his talent, so he showed him extra mercy and gave him one more choice than the other slaves: "You should know that every vagrant in the badlands is guilty of heinous crimes. They stole land from the nobles' territories, evaded taxes, and committed unforgivable crimes. According to the tradition of the nobles, I should punish you cruelly and make you atone for your past crimes for the rest of your lives!"

"But I saw your unyielding performance in the battle against the beastmen. When we attacked the beastmen, you didn't flee like a coward. You continued to fight them desperately, which can be considered a small contribution to our victory."

"So I give you two options. Choose your own. One is to become my slave like the others, driven by the whip, working day and night to atone for your shameful acts of stealing and tax evasion."

"The second option is to become my squire. Donning armor, you will serve me with your respectable martial prowess, washing away your past sins through military exploits. I will treat you like a squire, and train with the other squires. If you prove your loyalty, I will assign you a knight to teach you the ways of chivalry as my noble squire."

(End of this chapter)