Cornflower Witch

Chapter 194 The Young Cavalry

The melodious bagpipes played across the grassland, and the riders galloped forward, singing and laughing. They held light ash wood lances and moved up and down on their backs, their brightly colored smocks forming rough lines across the grass.

【The Young Cavalry of Tirayan】(Tier 1, Castle)
"These young men chase each other in the wind; it's their game, and also their training to become qualified knights."

Inside the library, Hilti opened the book in her hands, which contained exquisite card illustrations and poetic captions.

“The young cavalry of Tirayan…” she murmured the words to herself, then looked at the detailed description below.

Tirayang is a plain in the northern part of the Fourth Continent. There is a custom there that when a boy comes of age, the village will prepare a horse and a simple lance made of ash wood for him to use.

Young people would travel far and wide with their childhood friends, herding cattle and sheep, driving away wolves, fighting bandits, making friends, and going on adventures. In this process, they would gradually grow up, build friendships and tacit understanding with their companions, and mature.

Once their country is invaded, these young cavalrymen who roam the lands will quickly gather together to form a powerful cavalry formation and charge the enemy. They are skilled horsemen and have excellent teamwork, often making the enemy tremble with fear. Even though the Tirayang Grassland is just a small country with a loose alliance, it has always survived among the great powers thanks to its large number of young cavalrymen.

This system of recruiting young cavalry was later adopted by other countries and promoted in various regions, greatly enriching the fighting capacity of the civilian population and enabling countries to recruit a large number of skilled cavalrymen when facing war.

Alongside this system were "horse-raising subsidies," "knight selection competitions," and "sword-forging tournaments," among others. Even ordinary civilians could be knighted and officially recognized as knights if they achieved a ranking in the knight selection competitions. This greatly motivated the public to learn swordsmanship and horsemanship.

King of Knights Regard Bouvier was born in the Gurenga Mountains in the center of the continent. In his youth, he was a beneficiary of this system. The knights who first followed him south to explore were all childhood companions who trusted each other.

However, this system ultimately failed to last. First, after the establishment of the state, there was no longer a need for young cavalry to maintain order and drive away bandits. With no place to use their talents, the young people gathered together, their energy having nowhere to go, which instead became a source of instability. Second, this system always required financial subsidies, and many nobles were unwilling to pay extra. Third, after the fiefdoms stabilized, land was limited, and lords could not afford to support too many knights, and could not offer any incentives to make the young cavalry serve.

Due to various factors, the system that lost the geographical and social environment of the Tirajan Plains was gradually abolished, and the Kingdom of Regas, which was once founded on the 'knights', gradually became mediocre and lacked any distinctive features.

……

White Stone Fortress, Tower Conference Hall.

"The transfer order has come down," said Cassius, the knight commander sitting at the head of the table.

"Oh, is it about the Dark Mist Mountains?"

"Yes, the association headquarters is preparing to redevelop the Dark Mist Mountains and establish 14 new outposts there, and later expand to 23 outposts and 47 resource supply points."

"During this large-scale development, many garrisons will need to draw personnel. Our Huijin Plain is located in the rear and has sufficient manpower, so it is inevitable that we will need to draw personnel."

"Who will lead the team?" As the giants of the Radiant Plains, they wouldn't be easily mobilized. The most likely candidate would be someone at the middle level, 3rd or 4th rank.

"The association's notification said that they are preparing to have Siltia lead the team."

"Wait a minute, she's only at level two, and she's also a gardener, so her combat strength isn't very high." Generally, the leader of a team must have sufficient combat strength in order to deal with the complex situations in the Shadow World.

“It’s true that she’s only at the second tier, but the letter from the association headquarters says that Hiltiya can currently defeat third-tier monsters without much trouble, so we don’t need to worry.” The Knight Commander tapped his fingers on the table.

"Tia looks cute, but she's actually quite strong in combat," he said with interest from under his helmet.

"You just don't know about her adventure six months ago. It was a tough third-tier petrified lizard, and she took care of it all by herself."

"I always said that true geniuses are not limited to a single field."

"Giving talented young people a certain degree of autonomy and some freely available resources can maximize their initiative and spontaneously improve their abilities in various aspects during the process."

“If we send a seasoned Level 4 personnel to lead the team, either she will lack a sense of crisis and simply follow her habits and rely on others, or she will be very thoughtful but constrained by orders and her status, and will have to act under the constraints of her superiors. Neither of these outcomes will be good.”

“Raising lions and raising warhorses are completely different strategies. The latter only requires maintaining discipline and obedience to rules, while the former requires strength in all aspects and the ability to stand on their own.” “If we always treat her like a child and take care of her in every way, over time she will really become a child without autonomy. If we treat her like a reliable adult, let her take power and bear responsibility, she will gradually grow into a reliable adult.”

"Furthermore, these students are already seventeen or eighteen years old. If they were ordinary people, they would have been married long ago. They are not children anymore, so there is no need to worry too much."

“Even so, the young Hiltiah will lack experience, and she will need some guidance,” the others worried.

"There's still a month before departure. If you're worried about her managing the team, then use this time to teach her well, haha." Cassius was quite optimistic.

For them, the path to transcendence has gradually reached its limit and bottleneck, making it difficult to achieve any major breakthroughs. Now, they are more focused on coordinating the organization and cultivating the next generation.

After some discussion, everyone finalized the arrangements for teaching Silti, and then the topic turned to the plans for this great expansion.

"This time we will probably select 30-40 second-tier knight squires as combat personnel, 20 gardening apprentices, and 12 craftsman apprentices as the first batch of pioneers."

"Considering that 'Golden Plains' is not a dedicated training ground for combat personnel, the new outposts we are dispatching will be the relatively safe third line within the Dark Mist Mountains, rather than the most dangerous and adverse first line of defense."

"In the first batch of outposts, the first six outposts are located in the six gorges of the Dark Mist Mountains, which are the gateways to the Twilight Sea Abyss and are most severely impacted by various monsters. Next are the five lookout outposts located on the mountains, responsible for monitoring the situation inside and outside the mountains to prevent unknown monsters from suddenly rushing out. Finally, there are the three outposts located in the rear, responsible for logistics and providing food and supplies."

"The Dark Mist Mountains are located in a part of the surface continent that has collapsed and been lost, so we cannot use the teleportation system to travel to and from the surface continent. We have to send supply teams from our rear base to transport supplies."

"But this method is very resource-intensive and not reliable, so we need to have emergency supply bases on the front lines as well."

“Our Huijin Plain is one of the top five areas in terms of the output of the Forestry Association. The headquarters believes that we have the experience and the ability to establish a supply point in that environment.”

"That's giving us too much credit." Kurandchu shook his head slightly.

"Establishing a supply point in the heavily polluted Dark Fog Mountains is no easy task."

"Therefore, the association has specially invited a group of scholars and craftsmen from the 'Castle' route. They will support us in building our base and constructing our defenses."

"Is it the 'Candleburg School' or the 'White Bird School'? They are the two most well-known schools in the southern part of the continent."

“We are supported by the ‘Candlecastle School’, while the ‘White Bird School’ is responsible for the construction of another base. In fact, the ‘Violet School’ is also involved. Although they mainly study ‘Secret Words’, many members of the ‘Castle’ also study it.”

"Isn't the Violet School always bound by the doctrine of seclusion? Why are they involved this time?" Kurandchu asked curiously.

"They must have been affected. The Violet School's headquarters is on the Misty Island in the center of Meteor Lake, and it has always had a close relationship with the Merchant Alliance of Meteor Lake. But now the Merchant Alliance is involved in the war between the southern countries. If the Merchant Alliance is no longer around in the future, then the Violet School will have to consider the issue of its future foothold."

"This time, I participated in the association's major expansion in the hope of gaining recognition. At least with the Woodland Association Alliance mediating, even if other countries later took control of Meteor Lake, they wouldn't dare to target the Violet School too much."

"No one can remain neutral forever. Now that the countries in the south of the continent have lifted restrictions and are preparing for war, everything has become unstable, and it is difficult for them to stay out of the world."

"However, even if the surface is in chaos, the shadow world controlled by the Forest Association will be very stable. We control nearly 90% of the supernatural power in the southern part of the continent. There is no organization more powerful than this."

"Hehe." Kurandchu shook his head and said nothing.

Yes, the largest military and economic alliance in the southern part of the mainland, the behind-the-scenes controller of all the southern countries, and the union of numerous extraordinary organizations—it does sound wonderful.

However, there is more than one such alliance on this continent. The 'Mage Alliance' that has risen in the center of the continent has put great pressure on the Woodland Association. Now, the expansion into the Dark Mist Mountains is also in the hope of finding the relics of the past era and the new resources for change in that sunken world.

Only in this way can we fight against the increasingly powerful 'Mage Alliance'.

(End of this chapter)