The mighty lord of online games

Chapter 195 The Earl's Trouble

Fort Rundia is far away from Fort Malag in the Kingdom of Kugit, and looks up to Fort Arhun, the military fortress of the Kingdom of Kugit on the hills in the northwest. These three military forts form a triangle. Mutual restriction and mutual supervision.

But in general, Fort Lundia is at a disadvantage of one against two.

Fort Rendia, which is hundreds of kilometers away from Fort Rendi in the Kingdom of Swadia, shoulders the burden of defending against the invasion of the Kingdom of Kujit, and is also the border fortress between the two countries where wars are most frequent.

At the same time, they are also in charge of the most prosperous border town of the Kingdom of Swadia, as well as the fourth largest trading city of the Kingdom of Swadia, the outer line defense task of Dherim City.

The city of Deherim is actually the most prosperous city on the Calradia continent. It is located in the center of the entire Calradia continent. Its strategic position is very important. It can be said that whoever controls the city of Deherim will rely on it. With the convenient conditions, attacking other countries everywhere.

But this is also a strategic highland that other kingdoms are bound to gain. Therefore, Dherim is the city with the most prosperous trade and richest resources in the Kingdom of Swadia, and it is also the city with the most troubles.

Drenched in the blood of war for many years, every piece of goods transported by those merchants from Dherim has a layer of light blood stains on it. This is the sad place and paradise for merchants. A paradise for the ambitious, a stage for the ambitious to show off their strength.

Fort Lundia is one of the key chess positions. If you occupy this place, you can curb the import and export of Kujit’s spices and wool. The connection between the lowland peoples and the highland peoples of the Special Kingdom was cut off from it, and the northwest attacked the Sarande Kingdom, and the southwest could attack the city of Uxhall, or enter the Rhodok Mountains to attack Veruga.

Earl Plais was a civilian warrior born in Windcoburg on the other side of the river tens of kilometers away from Uxhall. With his bravery and wisdom, he won the honor of King Harlaus at the age of 25. Appreciation, promoted to Earl, if the Harlengos family of Harlengosburg was not afraid of his bravery and took away his Wind Coburg, he would not lead people to capture the kingdom of Kujit in a fit of anger. Captured Fort Lundia.

And forced King Halaus to make him the earl of Lundia Castle, and gave him Lundia Castle as his new territory.

But his deeds also made him feel a bit of resentment towards him in the mind of King Harolds, but Earl Plais didn't seem to feel this bit of resentment. The new heroes and new generals of Wadia Kingdom.

Zhang Qiang reined in his horse and stopped, daydreaming outside the black and purple city walls of Fort Lundia.

Earl Reyes is not good at fighting, but he speculates on Harolds' thoughts, collects rumors and gossips among the various nobles in the Kingdom of Swadia, and has the ability to analyze the situation. Among the lords of the kingdom of Wadia, there is no one comparable.

Rolf put on his tough clothes, reined in his horse, and watched the newly promoted knight of the Kingdom of Swadia with cold eyes. A long time ago, his Rolf family has been famous on the mainland since the ancient Karad Empire.

It's just that in his generation, what he can inherit is nothing more than a false name. The Rolf family has become weak with the dust of history, and is almost submerged in the long river of history.

He is a knight of the Nord Kingdom, a warrior knight who does not ride a horse. In terms of foot combat, he feels that he can outshine this guy eighteenth street.

If it wasn't for his cousin Ragnar who drove him out of the Nord Kingdom, he might be an Earl of Nord, or even a prince with a different surname. At this time, he can only follow this guy, recognize this guy as his boss, and work for him .

It was all because I betrayed the Rolf family and my cousin Ragnar because of a little greed and selfishness in the battle with other tribes in the Nord Kingdom. His unruly behavior caused everyone a headache. All the Nord nobles unanimously demanded that he be expelled. In Calradia, he was exiled by those damned, dirty nobles, and his heroic cousin King Ragnar.

At the beginning, he still had some complaints and obsessions. He felt that those people were sorry for him and deserved to die. As the wandering time prolongs, he doesn't care anymore. Now he prefers this kind of free life, with wine, meat, and women. The gold coins earned by one's own force can be used for unscrupulous squandering and drunkenness.

Zhang Qiang didn't pay attention to Rolf's emotional changes. Zhang Qiang would not pay too much attention to the hero Manid saved. Rolf is now a mercenary hired by the manager outside the manor.

There is no doubt about the loyalty of mercenaries, and there must be no loyalty to you at all. What they are loyal to is the high weekly wages. The salary of a mercenary can top the salary of 10 ordinary soldiers of the first rank. 50 salaries for militiamen, 100 to 300 employment costs for manor farmers.

A manor farmer can give him a spear, a sword, or a short bow during a battle. Even if 20 people kill an enemy, it is still cost-effective. With the protection of the village wall, the killing rate can be improved The value of mercenaries is to act as the mainstay, to improve morale and rescue in times of crisis. The biggest role is to consume in the field.

From the employer's point of view, what is consumed is money, not the lives of the mercenaries, and the combat power of the manor, not the interests of the mercenaries. The mercenaries also know this, so sometimes they can only fight with the wind. Unfavorable, they will flee first, which will cause the army to collapse. This is why many lords only use mercenaries as auxiliary combat forces, not the main force.

What they value most is the loyal soldiers they have cultivated. As long as the lord does not abandon them, they will have enough food and grass, they will become more courageous in the battle, and they will persist longer on the battlefield. Sometimes, it only takes a little time on the battlefield. It will turn defeat into victory in one click, collapse 1 minute earlier, and the victory will change hands.

After notifying his name and identity, Zhang Qiang led the guards, no, it should be his knight entourage, and patted his horse into Fort Lundia.

The military fortress is worthy of its name. The city wall is wide and thick, and two horse-drawn carriages can walk side by side. There is an extended city wall sidewalk built with wooden boards on the edge of the city wall. Standing tall, each city wall has four to five watchtowers that are taller than the archery tower.

The nearby three-story buildings have wooden pedals connected to the city wall, or go directly to the watchtower. Catapults are placed along the inner parade of the city wall, and there are rolling wood and thunder stones in the middle of the building gaps.

The streets are full of soldiers in solid clothes patrolling, there are many open spaces waiting inside, and there are various training equipment on it, many soldiers are training, and there is a lot of people, so it is very lively.

There were no merchants or civilians, only some merchants and slaves accompanying the army. These people were either expressionless, in a daze, or in a hurry. In short, this was a huge military camp, and there were no other civilians.

The lord's hall is much taller than Zhang Qiang's town hall, and it has a stronger military meaning. There are lookout holes and shooting holes everywhere, stone steps circling up, trebuchet platforms in mid-air, and soldiers with expressionless faces. Walking through, without a trace of expression.

In this era of cold weapons, the nobles are the elite medieval style game world. To put it bluntly, knights are senior soldiers and senior officers of lords with certain status. Zhang Qiang weighed his own weight, which is almost equivalent to Plais The count's senior soldier.

Just like the servants of the generals of the Ming Dynasty, they belonged to the backbone of the lord on the battlefield. They would not attack at ordinary times.

Of course, some generals will use such a force as an assault force to attack the enemy's formation in advance and open a breakthrough. Thinking of this, Zhang Qiang is a little worried about his own fate. Assault force, people like Earl Plais, Judging from his early losses, it is likely that the knights around him were used as an assault force.

Otherwise, I wouldn't be looking for new knights and heroes everywhere in the past few months.

Earl Plais sat in the lord's hall, looking sideways at his new knight. As a new knight, he should follow his footsteps. He ordered him to follow, but he didn't come to see him for several months. Is there anything that needs to be dealt with by a knight like a country bumpkin?
Although he knew that Zhang Qiang was very busy building the manor recently, this was not the reason why he didn't come to see him.

The military fortress does not have much function of making money. The reason why he cares so much about Zhang Qiang's manor and sent some elite soldiers to Fort Lundia to help Zhang Qiang guard the manor is because a knight has to pay part of the tax to his lord Compared with the embarrassment of those knights who only have a residence in Fort Lundia, rich knights who own their own manors will be valued by the lords, especially those who are purely military fortress lords.

Part of the operation of the military fortress depends on the king's appropriation and military expenses, and part of it depends on the taxes paid by the knights owned by the lord. Tax support around estates and village estates.

These are enough for a lord who guards the city, but for the lords in the military fortress on the border, these are far from enough. The wages of the soldiers under him are a bottomless pit. More soldiers, more elite soldiers, if there is no additional income, the soldiers have to be cut down until the number of soldiers can be supported by the money earned from all the above means of revenue.

The power of the lord is divided into the territorial army, which is the army that is usually in charge of guarding the territory, and the troops led by the knights under his command. If the lord is an earl, his power also includes the army of barons and viscounts of varying numbers, but these barons The viscount and the viscount do not pay taxes to him, they pay taxes to the king and are loyal to the king, because the lowest baron can only be granted with the consent of the king and the church, so these noble titles are loyal to the king.

They only obey the orders of the earl of the territory when fighting, and follow the earl to participate in the war. Of course, there are also barons or viscounts who are not under the jurisdiction of any earl or higher title lord. After they are bestowed by the king, they are equivalent to an independent territory. The emperor of the land, whose status is almost equal to the earl, only listens to the call of the marshal and the king.

Whether to go or not is their own business, and the king and marshal have nothing to do, because they have many excuses, and they have nothing to do with you. Of course, these nobles with small territories may also welcome earls of large territories or other nobles. Covet their lands, wage war on them.

Therefore, there are still very few of these minor nobles.

There are more nobles who have no territory, because there are many nobles and limited territories, not the nobles who want to have territories.

Those big earls, big nobles, want more territory, bigger sites, that means the increase of taxation and military strength, can support more troops, occupy a bigger site, where is the king? right to speak.

At present, Earl Plais is thinking about such a thing. He thinks that it would be great if he can annex the village of Uludana, the old fellow of Earl Ruis.

Uludana Village is within the scope of its own territory, but it did not bring taxes to itself. Instead, it made itself stretched. Every time Uludana Village was attacked and looted by the lord of the Kujit Kingdom, he had to bear the king's burden. anger.

Because that territory was within his own territory, the king granted it to Earl Reyes.

This made him very annoyed, and his relationship with Earl Reyes had always been bad. If Earl Reyes could be driven away, he would be able to get the taxes from Uludana Village.

There are two earls in a territory. When Fort Lundia is attacked, Uludana Village does not need to send troops to support it. When Uludana Village is looted, it has to send troops to support it for free. What is this?
But the old guy Harlaus just wanted to do this, and he has always done it. Many earls have other earls occupying one or two villages, at least one manor, and the manor is also Forget it, the manor has to pay taxes to the local village or town.

Therefore, the village or town that the earl does not want to see being occupied by other earls, or does not want the king to arrange for an earl to come over within his own territory, is not an appreciation, not a reward, but a hindrance, a realization of trouble.

The king didn't want to see the earls build an iron-clad earldom in the kingdom and become a small kingdom.

Similarly, the earls do not want another earl to have a fief in their own territory. They generally do not get along well with another earl. Of course, they also know that this is the king's imperial balance technique.

But some people are willing, that is, those hereditary and powerful families, like the Harlengoth brothers, their territories are generally very close, or mixed with each other. Because of the blood relationship, their relationship Generally relatively stable, and even formed a certain degree of cohesion.

The king was afraid of them, but there was nothing he could do. If the king sent another earl to their territory, it would not take long for this earl to have problems, and he would be driven out in despair, and the territory would be handed back to Great Britain. hands of the family.

(End of this chapter)