Baron Keane's territory, which had been stirred up because of the harvest, came to an end.
About a month later, another messenger of the Duke of Thunder came to Keane City from the capital. The strength of this high-grade knight was naturally not something that Crick's subordinates could defeat, not to mention that he had a high-grade mage with him. However, no matter how strong they were, Crick said, "In return for accepting protection, I gave the food to the Church of the Void Mask."
For this answer, the messengers did not believe it at first. However, they looked around and did not find the large amount of food that should have been piled up like a mountain. And the result of the lie detection spell also proved that the food was indeed no longer in the territory of Keane.
So they had to give up and leave dejectedly.
As for the choice of "robbing the food from the Church of the Void Mask," people who would do such a thing were basically unlikely to live to become high-grade masters. This was like someone on Earth questioning, "Why can't the middle class in the United States be killed for fighting with the police?" The reason was very simple. People with this kind of IQ were either at the bottom or the second generation of a rich family. In short, it was unlikely for them to be in the middle class …
Before leaving, the knight from the capital gave Crick a very serious warning, mainly about the knightly virtues of loyalty, patriotism, devotion to duty, diligence, and selfless dedication. Crick seemed to listen to his speech carefully, nodding again and again, but he still refused to promise anything.
Seeing that he was so stubborn, the knight, who seemed to have a high status, was a little annoyed and shouted sternly, "Baron Keane, you are also a knight under the Grand Duke. Don't forget the rules of the knights!"
"Knight?" Crick asked with a smile. "When I was fighting with the founding knights (God of Knights) on the battlefield of Sun's Dying Day, I don't remember seeing you. Where did you fight at that time? What did you get? "
The knight's face suddenly darkened, and he could not say a word.
He suddenly realized that the sickly former baron in front of him was a fierce man who survived the bloody war that even legendary masters could only be small soldiers. He was also a hero who had fought with the God of Knights. In terms of "knightly virtues" and "knightly standards," he could be called an industry model.
Saying this to the other party was simply asking to be humiliated!
He frowned for a long time before saying, "Even if you don't consider the problem from the perspective of a knight, you should consider the problem from the perspective of a lord."
This was a hidden threat, but it still didn't move Crick.
"What do you think of my territory?" Crick asked with a smile.
The knight was silent for a moment. "Very well. Although the place was not big, it was managed very well. The people lived a peaceful life, and the army was also well-trained. Looking at the current state of the territory, it was hard to imagine that a short two years ago, this place had only sent troops to participate in that great battle … In the past two years, I had seen many territories that had sent troops to participate in that battle, but none of them had been able to recover from the heavy losses. Some of them focused on the people's livelihood, and the army was filled with rookies and local ruffians, completely a motley crew. Some of them focused on military affairs, and collected too many taxes, causing the lives of their subjects to be unbearably poor. But these two problems didn't appear in Keane. That battle didn't seem to affect this place at all. It's really inconceivable! "
"Actually, we also suffered heavy losses back then." Crick sighed. "Even I, the lord, was seriously injured. My close friend, Spencer, died on the battlefield. The situation can be imagined."
The knight nodded solemnly.
"However, I still led my subordinates and subjects to quickly walk out of the valley and develop again." Crick said with a smile, "I think I'm a good lord. Right? "
The knight nodded.
"So, do you think I look like a person who doesn't know the severity of the situation and is courting death?"
The knight was silent for a moment, and then smiled.
"You're right. I'm worried too much."
Crick sighed and said, "But there's one thing I'm very puzzled about. His Majesty the Grand Duke, he … what is he thinking?"
The knight was stunned. Crick said again, "I think I'm loyal to His Majesty. He wanted to support the Kingdom of Eagle, and I brought all the property of the territory to fight. I almost died there myself. In the end, I came back with injuries, and almost all of my subordinates died. Not only did he not give me any condolences, but he also did not give me any compensation. Instead, he turned around and asked me to support others?! "
He sighed deeply and looked resentful. "Sir, don't you think this is a little inappropriate? Could it be that there's some terrible person around His Majesty who's instigating him to make mistakes? "
The knight was silent for a long time, and finally, he sighed deeply.
He patted Crick's shoulder and did not say anything. Shaking his head, he mounted his horse and left with the mage who had already mounted his horse and was waiting.
Unlike the silent and indifferent mage, when this high-grade knight left, his figure seemed a little desolate.
Watching them go away, Crick frowned, and a bad guess arose in his heart.
It seemed that … there really seemed to be a problem with the higher-ups of the Duchy of Thunder, especially around the Grand Duke of Thunder!
But these were far from the concern of a mere baron. He just noted down this matter and let Lafleur inquire about it in a roundabout way when he had the time, and that was it.
Matters that involved a duchy and a duke were mostly earth-shattering events. Crick did not expect to be able to profit from such a major event. He only wanted to discover the danger before it came and escape in time.
This request could not be any lower. He thought that Lafleur and the others should still be able to do it.
This matter ended here, and no one else came from the capital. As for what His Majesty the Grand Duke thought of this matter, and whether someone would speak ill of him behind his back, Crick did not care.
It was not far from winter. He had to seize the time to tidy up the farmland, plant some fruit trees and herbs that could not be planted in time, and start the things he had been preparing for a long time.
Militia training.
Baron Keane's territory currently had food and money, and a lot of money. That batch of grain was sold at a good price, so much so that when Archbishop Miloman sent him the money, Crick thought that the Archbishop had calculated the accounts wrongly.
With this money, Crick's heart was filled with confidence. In addition, the territory already had enough food in storage. He decided to take advantage of the relatively slack winter to gather the young and strong people of his territory for some basic military training.
Of course, the training time could not be too long, and the intensity could not be too high. First, ordinary civilians did not need to be too skilled. They just needed to be able to make do with the regular army. Second, after all, there was still work to be done in the winter, and it could not be delayed too much.
The content of the training was divided into several parts. The first was formation training. The content of the training generally included standing in line, lining up, commands, and simple military rules.
It would be crazy to ask a group of farmers to be able to follow orders and prohibitions, but it should be possible to just learn some basic military knowledge and develop some basic military literacy.
Even if they could not do it this year, they could train again next winter. There was no hurry anyway.
The second part of the training was the use of the spear.
The spear was the simplest and most practical of all cold weapons. Although other weapons had all kinds of clever changes, for new recruits without any basic training, the spear was the easiest to train.
Unlike the regular army, which had mastered all kinds of high-level skills and generally had a soldier level of three or four, the militia only needed to learn two moves of the spear.
The first move, stab.
The second move, chop.
The first move was used for killing, and the second move was used for fighting. In the battle of the civilian level, it was already very enough.
Of course, to be specific, stab was also divided into upper, middle, and lower stabs, as well as a few people joining forces to besiege; chop also had a number of technical categories, and it was not that simple. But in any case, it was only two moves, and there was enough time for them to practice.
This winter, the militia had a total of three military training sessions, once a month, and each session lasted five days. After the three military training sessions, although the farmers' combat strength did not improve much, at least when they stood in line, they had a little bit of an appearance. When everyone held a wooden spear together to practice stabbing and chop, the power of shouting in unison could scare people.
Although it was actually just for show, Crick was satisfied that they could reach this level in a mere winter.
They had plenty of time, and the rest could be continued next year.
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