The barony that Chen Mo took over was less than ten thousand acres, with a radius of six to seven kilometers. The population of the barony was about three to four thousand people, and under the condition that it did not affect the normal operation of the territory, it could only support a few hundred soldiers at most.
During the Middle Ages in Europe, the people's livelihood was poor, and the resources were scarce. The burden of supporting the army was very heavy, and the nobles usually only kept a small number of standing troops, waiting for the time of war to call on the civilians temporarily.
Knights were the main fighting force in the wars of this era, and the number of Knights in the hands of the nobles determined their military strength.
Knights equipped with war horses, heavy armor, and long swords had an overwhelming advantage in battle against infantry.
But at the same time, well-equipped Knights also required a lot of money from the nobles to support them. Although the knight's equipment was all provided by the nobles themselves, the daily expenses of maintaining a Knight were also extremely high. Even the nobles who owned large areas of land and serfs could not support too many Knights.
The well-equipped and powerful Knights were the strongest fighting force in the Middle Ages, and were also the nobles' most precious wealth.
The richer the nobles, the more Knights they could support, and the more powerful they were.
Many small nobles had limited financial resources, and could not afford the huge cost of supporting Knights, so they could only rely on infantry to fight. Once they were attacked by the nobles with Knights, they could only retreat and defend. When pure infantry and Knight troops fought face to face, the end result was usually a crushing defeat.
For example, the barony that Chen Mo occupied originally had eight Knights, which were considered the strongest among the nearby nobles, but they all died in the battle against the invading werewolves.
The strongest person in this area, Earl Warren, had as many as fifty Knights under his command, plus nearly a hundred squire Knights and thousands of elite infantry, which was enough to deal with an ordinary werewolf invasion.
Knight's status was second only to nobles, and to some extent, they could be considered the lowest level of nobles. As full-time soldiers, they fought for the nobles they were loyal to.
Some outstanding Knights would be granted land by their nobles, and become nobles with their own land.
This was the only way for a commoner to become a noble.
However, becoming a Knight was not an easy task. A Knight's equipment, including a horse, armor, a sword, a shield, and a spear, had to be equipped by themselves. In Europe during the Middle Ages, where productivity was extremely low, these equipment were extremely expensive. The price of a horse alone was as high as 12 gold coins, which was equivalent to the price of six healthy bulls.
The price of ironware was also very high. A longsword was worth seven gold coins, and a full set of armor, including the helmet, breastplate, and greaves, was worth twenty-four gold coins, which was equivalent to two warhorses.
In addition to some other equipment, the cost of equipping a Knight was close to 50 gold coins, which was enough to buy over 20 bulls.
For ordinary European families, this was an astronomical figure. Many farmers couldn't even afford a cow. This amount of money was equivalent to decades of their income.
Not to mention the commoners, even many small nobles couldn't afford such a huge expense.
Therefore, there weren't many Knights. It was very difficult for ordinary commoners to have the opportunity to become a Knight. Most Knights were born into knight families or nobles without inheritance. They received Knight training from a young age, and when they became adults, their families would provide them with all the equipment.
Wealthy noble families were still okay, but ordinary Knight families usually only had one set of equipment, which was passed down from father to son. If the family had two sons, and the family didn't have enough money to buy another set of equipment, then the younger son wouldn't be able to become a Knight.
Andrew, whom Chen Mo rescued, was born into such an ordinary Knight family.
As the youngest son, even though he had received his father's knight training since he was young, the family could not afford to buy him a set of knight equipment that cost an astronomical amount of money. Thus, Andrew could only be an ordinary soldier and join the Lord's army. He hoped that he could achieve military merits through battle and receive rewards from the Lord, so that he could one day become a true knight.
Unfortunately, more than ten years had passed. Although he had killed countless enemies on the battlefield, and even killed more than one werewolf, he was still an ordinary soldier. Nothing had changed except for the countless scars on his body and the gradually increasing number of wrinkles on his face.
The powerful Knight, the magnificent life, and the beautiful noble lady were all so far away from him.
Disheartened, Andrew left his hometown and the army, which he had fought for for many years, and came to this village.
He planned to surrender to fate and give up on his dreams. He wanted to be an honest commoner and live out the rest of his life peacefully.
And now, he, who had given up, seemed to see the hope of realizing his dream in Chen Mo.
He had seen Chen Mo's power with his own eyes. Now that Chen Mo had become their new Lord and had entrusted him with an important task, he was extremely excited. He secretly swore that he would pledge his loyalty to Chen Mo, not only to repay Chen Mo for saving his life, but also to realize his dream of becoming a powerful Knight.
And soon, half of his dream had been realized.
The original eight Knights in the territory had all died in the werewolf invasion. Including the Baron, who had also died, there were a total of nine sets of Knight armor and weapons that were somewhat damaged.
Chen Mo didn't care about these expensive Knight equipment at all, and directly gave them to Andrew and the other nine people he had saved.
They had been saved by Chen Mo from the wolves in a desperate situation. As their savior and their new Lord, their loyalty to Chen Mo was without question.
Of course, they were not Knights yet. Except for Andrew who had the powerful force necessary for a Knight, the others didn't lack the courage to fight the werewolves, but their strength was still far from it.
It should be known that a real Knight had received systematic Knight training from a young age, including physical fitness, horsemanship, swordsmanship, and combat. A qualified Knight could kill a wild boar with his bare hands without any armor. Not everyone could be called a Knight just because they were wearing Knight equipment.
Of course, except for Andrew, the other eight people were not useless. When the werewolves invaded the village, most of them were panicking, and even cried in despair. They didn't have the slightest intention to resist.
But they dared to face the werewolves and fought back bravely. Under Andrew's command, they relied on their simple weapons and geographical advantage to block the werewolves' attack. From this point of view, they still had the potential to become Knights, and this was what Chen Mo valued.
According to Chen Mo's observation, these people were very loyal to him and had a certain talent for fighting. For Chen Mo, this was enough. As for their strength, it could be slowly cultivated.
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