I'm not a lord

Chapter 101 He Can Only Die in Battle

The next morning, Lin En brought the third child to the blacksmith workshop which was being expanded.

Before entering the door, I heard the angry curse of Eric, the head blacksmith:
"Idiot! How many times have I taught you? You still can't control the strength of this blow!"

When I walked in, I saw Eric scolding his two sons.

Lin En took a quick look and found that the two young blacksmiths had perfectly inherited their father's genes. They were both tall and strong with strong arms.

They all received one-star reviews, far surpassing Qi He, the local blacksmith in White Bear Territory.

As long as they work hard, they will probably grow to the height of their father in time.

Of course, they are indeed hardworking. They just got off the boat yesterday evening and were already being scolded this morning.

Eric was not only an excellent master blacksmith, but also the most demanding teacher.

The dozen or so smart apprentices around him were scolded every day.

But his teaching results are undoubtedly gratifying.

These apprentices are making visible progress every week.

They started out as being useless, but eventually became proficient in controlling furnace temperature, operating forging hammers, and polishing plate armor, and finally had a place in the blacksmith shop.

However, the most important work of forging iron sheets and shaping plate armor still had to be done by Eric himself.

After the apprentice announced, Eric left his two sons and came forward: "Master, what are your instructions?"

Lin En pulled the third brother in front of him and said, "This is my best brother. Make him a set of plate armor using the best quality iron ingots."

"I understand, sir." Eric just looked up and down at the third brother and determined the approximate size of the plate armor. He was not surprised by the title of "brother".

In fact, "brother" is a common term in the continent of Diewas, not just limited to blood brothers.

Merchants and craftsmen's guilds in large cities usually have the suffix "Brotherhood" added to their names.

For example, the Blacksmith Guild of Sanhe City, its full name is "Sanhe City Blacksmith Brotherhood".

Members of the guild also call each other brothers.

This is a variant of personal dependency, where craftsmen of higher seniority will call those of lower seniority "little brother".

When Eric was making a living in the southern border, his seniors called him "little brother" and he was used to it.

The third brother glanced around habitually and soon noticed a piece of unfinished plate armor on the wooden table. He reached out and picked it up, weighing it.
"Is this plate armor? It's a bit heavy."

The third brother is used to wearing chain mail, and a full set of chain mail usually does not exceed twelve kilograms.

And what he held in his hand was only a piece of plate armor chest, which weighed more than five kilograms.

If plate armor were to cover the entire body, the total weight would likely be twice that of chain mail, nearly 25 kilograms.

"This is the result of trying to make it as thin as possible. The first one I made weighed eight kilograms in the chest alone." A hint of obvious pride appeared on Eric's face.

The core difficulty of plate armor is actually to ensure its superb defensive performance while controlling its thickness and weight.

In other words, the difficulty of all armor lies in the choice between thickness, weight and defensive performance.

The armor is thick and heavy, so the defense is naturally high.

Wearing a one-centimeter-thick layer of armor can make you completely invulnerable to swords and guns in this era.

But in the end, this thing still has to be worn by people.

It was too heavy, not only for people to bear, but even the horses carrying the cavalry could not bear it.

Of course, Lin En had considered making plate armor or laced armor.

Both types of armor are made of small pieces of armor. They are flexible to use, easy to maintain, and easier to make than plate armor.

But the problem is that the defensive performance of these two types of armor is weaker than plate armor, but they are heavier and thicker than plate armor.

The serf soldiers who had just trained for a few months were still relatively thin and could not even bear half-body plate armor, let alone wearing plate armor and lacquer.

As far as the current situation is concerned, the best equipment configuration for the White Bear Territory soldiers is chain mail and iron pot helmet, equipped with an axe, halberd or spear, and the total weight of the equipment is controlled within 18 kilograms.

In this way, they can maintain a certain degree of flexibility and maneuverability on the battlefield, and avoid being stuck in place and being whipped around by the knights like spinning tops.

In the near future, Lynn will select a group of strong soldiers and equip them with plate armor similar to cloth armor on a large scale.

Not only does this thing have better defensive performance than chain mail, but the outer layer is also covered with leather and multiple layers of linen, which is very warm and very suitable for the climate environment in the north.

By then, Lynn's army will be composed of three levels of soldiers.

Officers or cavalry equipped with custom plate armor; good heavy infantry wearing cloth clothing; and ordinary infantry wearing chain mail or armor.

As for now, only a small number of elite soldiers can bear the weight of plate armor.

For example, the second and third brothers, as well as the bandits who were promoted to team leaders.

They are equipped with high-quality war horses, which can charge at high speed while fully armed, and can maintain mobility if accidentally pulled off the horse.

These people are Lin En's old team who have been trained for many years, so naturally he has to give them the best protective gear.

Soon an apprentice used a tape measure to measure the dimensions of each part for the third brother.

A week later, he will have a plate armor jersey that fits his body and a steel helmet with a visor.

As for the arm armor, leg armor and other parts, Lin En plans to slowly build them and make the two most important parts first.

After leaving the blacksmith shop, Lin En took the third brother to Manor No. 1, mainly to check whether the steward and the head of the manor treated the refugees well, and by the way, to see the quality of these refugees.

It was mid-afternoon when Lucas brought his mother to the porridge stall where lunch was distributed.

Two rows of soldiers stood outside the porridge stall, wearing chain mail and holding long sticks, looking majestic.

"Everyone, line up! The lord took pity on you and kindly took you in. He even provided you with free food. Anyone who dares to break the rules set by the lord will bear the consequences!"

These are soldiers that Lin En transferred from the military camp, specifically to maintain order.

The tragic plight of the refugees is certainly worthy of sympathy.

But during the long period of exile, they will lose respect for order and law due to hunger and pain.

As expected, when the aroma of hot porridge wafted out from the porridge shed, many refugees could not control their bodies and rushed to the porridge shed.

Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, the soldiers showed no mercy and picked up long sticks and hit the enemy six times in one second.

The dozen or so refugees who were at the front were immediately beaten with bruises and bloody heads.

This was the first lesson Lynn taught the refugees.

When you arrive in White Bear Territory, you have to keep your head down and behave yourself!

Anyone who dared to disobey the lord would suffer the consequences. Lucas had to care for his frail mother, so he didn't join the crowd. When things got tough, he even protected a refugee in front of him.

Under the soldiers' beatings, the refugee group quickly restored order and lined up obediently to receive meals.

The injured refugees were dragged to the side of the road and tied up. They had no chance of eating hot porridge today.

They all have the energy to rush to the soup kitchen, and they will definitely not die if they starve for a day.

The line soon reached Lucas.

He let his mother take it first.

When it was his turn to go forward, he could see thick and fragrant hot porridge in the earthenware pot, and piles of wooden bowls and spoons next to the pot.

The person who made porridge for him was a strong middle-aged woman with great skill. She picked up the wooden spoon and scooped it up without any shaking of her hand, and a full bowl was made.

Another woman nearby added a small spoonful of pickled vegetables to the porridge and shouted, "Next!"

Lucas didn't leave in a hurry. He begged, "Can you give me another bowl, please? I have a sister."

The woman scooping the porridge asked, "Where is she?"

"She was lying in the house and couldn't move anymore."

Lucas didn't hold out much hope. He just wanted to give the bowl of porridge to his sister. It didn't matter if he went hungry, but he still wanted to give it a try.

The woman who scooped the porridge didn't ask any questions, but just served him another bowl of hot porridge in his surprised eyes.

Then he took his mother and two bowls of porridge and carefully returned to the farmhouse assigned to them.

There is no furniture in the farmhouse.

He first helped his sister who was sleeping on a pile of straw and fed her hot porridge with a spoon.

Just after taking a bite, the younger sister slowly opened her eyes and said in surprise: "Brother, the porridge is salty, and there seems to be meat in it!"

"I saw it, eat it quickly."

As early as when the middle-aged woman scooped porridge for him, Lucas saw the pieces of minced meat in the bowl.

He couldn't understand why the Baron of White Bear Territory was so kind to the refugees.

It's not like he hasn't eaten the porridge from the 'House of the Saint' before.

The priests looked kind and benevolent, muttering things like "gifts" and "blessings," but the oatmeal porridge they distributed was not much better than plain water.

Lucas was illiterate, but he understood one thing.

There will never be pie in the sky, only disasters will befall.

He originally had a happy family.

My father was a squire and was deeply trusted by the knight.

My mother and my brother and his wife are farmers at home. We have more than 200 acres of land. The annual harvest not only feeds the whole family, but also allows us to sell some money to support my father in purchasing and maintaining equipment.

During the busy farming season, Lucas would help his family with farm work.

In his spare time, he would play simulated battles with his playmates using branches and wooden swords in the open space, and his father would also teach him sword skills when he had time.

Gradually, he defeated all his friends and became the leader of his peers in the village.

But one day more than a month ago, his father and brother went to war with the knight. Before leaving, his father gave him a dagger and asked him to protect his mother and sister.

They never came back.

Not long after, the village was plundered by a large number of mercenaries, who were said to be a powerful mercenary group hired by the Duke of the Swamp.

My sister-in-law was kidnapped by mercenaries because she had difficulty walking due to pregnancy.

He, his sister and mother barely escaped the pursuers, fled into the forest, and followed the refugee group to the west.

On the way, refugees would occasionally try to attack his mother and sister, but he would kill them all with a dagger hidden in his pants.

Finally, they finished eating the little food they had left and arrived at Sanhe City on an empty stomach.

When he arrived in Sanhe City, his luck suddenly changed.

He was first taken in by a young man who called himself "Yang", and then boarded a ship, where he was given some food every day.

We headed north to White Bear Territory and were assigned a simple farmhouse as soon as we got off the boat.

By noon the next day, I actually had my first full meal since fleeing.

Lucas couldn't guess the purpose of the White Bear Baron.

But he also knew one thing.

There is no such thing as a free bowl of porridge in the world, and the better the ingredients, the more "expensive" it will be.

He would do anything if his mother and sister could eat this porridge every day.

The desire for revenge gnawed at his heart like ants.

"Duke of the Swamp, Power Mercenary Group."

After eating the hot porridge, he lay on the straw and muttered to himself over and over again.

He also knew that he had to survive first before he could have a chance of revenge.

The courage to protect his family and the belief in revenge have carried him all the way to where he is today.

He could not die on the way to escape, nor in Sanhe City, nor on the ship carrying refugees.

He could only die in battle, not die like a coward in an empty corner.

For this reason, he did not want to become a serf who could only make a living by farming.

He wanted to be a better and stronger warrior than his father.

But the prerequisite is that he must first become a "fighter" like his father.

Only then would he be qualified to bear arms.

The feudal manor had a strict hierarchy, and once you became a serf, it would be difficult for you to turn your life around.

"How wonderful it would be if Baron White Bear could recruit me as a soldier, even just a levy?"

Thinking of this, he fell into a deep sleep.

(End of this chapter)