The city was in chaos. Countless people from the nearby villages poured into the city, making it seem very crowded. If they were farmers, small landowners, and merchants with some savings, they might be able to find a place to stay, but the poor tenants and serfs were not so lucky. They could only rest on the street corners and roadsides, shivering in the cold wind.
On the other hand, Count Albert's messengers were constantly shuttling back and forth in the city.
"All males above the age of 16 and below the age of 45, go to the armory to receive your weapons!"
"Count Albert has issued a general conscription order! All males must accept the conscription order! Please go to the barracks immediately to receive training! "
"Those who do not accept the conscription will be punished for treason!"
At the same time, soldiers were constantly gathering in various parts of the city and reporting to the barracks.
Carriages of food were being transported out from the Church of Justice and the Church of Life. Both churches had opened relief points to provide for the refugees. The priests and paladins of the churches were trying their best to maintain order. The priests and priests were constantly comforting and persuading the refugees to remain calm and restrained.
Of course, the two churches did not hold back on spreading their doctrines.
At the same time, many soldiers walked among the refugees, looking for males who met the requirements. Every time a man was taken away from the crowd, many families would cry.
At this time, an uninvited guest came to the Church of Justice.
Teresa, who was wearing a black dress with silver rivets and black rhino leather high-heeled boots, walked into the crowd with a staff in her hand. Her enchanting figure was wrapped in a brown camel fur coat. The sorceress' face was as cold as ice, emitting an aura that kept people away. Seeing this, the refugees all made way for her.
Only a cart was left in the way of Teresa. On the cart, a boy and a girl were gnawing on black bread. From their greedy looks, one could tell that they were starving.
The sorceress noticed that the black bread in the refugees' hands was of the worst quality. These hard things mixed with wood shavings and mud formed their food. However, many of the refugees were crying. They repeatedly thanked the Church of Justice for their help. Many of the serfs had already run out of food after just two or three days of fleeing.
The fragility of the small farming economy in Nord was evident.
The words Laing told her, "I hope you can treat everyone fairly," lingered in Teresa's ears. The sorceress took a deep breath and said with a pleasant expression, "Get out of my way."
"Ah! What a beautiful big sister! " The little boy raised his head and saw a beautiful big sister standing in front of him, so he said with shining eyes.
"Oh! Lucas!!! " The child's mother was shocked when she saw this scene. She quickly rushed over from the side and shielded her child behind her. "Your Excellency, I'm very sorry. We didn't mean to offend you! We'll make way, make way! "
The Sorceress didn't say anything and walked straight into the Church of Justice.
Paladin Al- Frey was eating his lunch with a bowl of meat soup and a large loaf of white bread. He was eating with relish when he saw Teresa enter the Church of Justice. He almost spat it out. "Madam Trovic?! You … What are you doing here? "
"You're giving the refugees outside black bread while you're here drinking meat soup and eating white bread?" Teresa didn't answer him. Instead, she mocked him.
"Justice comes with a price. If we give them white bread and meat soup, it won't only harm them, it'll harm everyone." Frey wiped his mouth. "Alright, what's the matter?"
"I would like to ask you about some things regarding Ryan …"
Mjörden Haven, Barracks.
People came and went in the barracks.
"Sir, this is yours!" A breastplate and a military uniform were thrown in front of the half-grown boy, followed by a battle axe that was almost as tall as him.
The boy took the weapon and stared blankly at the battle axe that was as tall as him. He simply didn't know what to do.
An old farmer took a spear from the soldier. His hair was already grey and his body was hunched over. He sighed softly.
Laing stood to the side and watched the conscripted militia and conscripts receive their weapons. Carts of coins belonging to Count Albert were transported out of the lord's warehouse. Each conscripted soldier was given a few silvers and a few days' worth of rations.
However, the price they had to pay was their lives.
The half-elf stood beside Laing. As the main fighting force of the city, he, Focker, Rost and the rest were all conscripted by the lord. Astaire stood beside Laing and shook his head. "I don't see the need to conscript them. Sending them to the battlefield is just sending them to their deaths."
"Coachmen, tenants, workers, cooks, they are not soldiers." Laing shook his head, but he continued, "But we still need them. Our opponents are more than four thousand barbarians. We only have three hundred regular soldiers and a few hundred conscripts. These people are no match for the barbarians. Besides, unlike you elves, our population is a resource that can be sacrificed."
Astaire was speechless. It wasn't that the half-elves had never faced barbarians before. Under the protection of chaos, the barbarians were far more powerful than ordinary people.
Relying on the compulsory conscription, Mjoden Haven had raised an army of more than two thousand people. However, it was still unknown how useful the militia could be. Ryan knew that the ones he could really rely on were the three hundred regular soldiers under Albert's command, the six hundred conscripts, and the Church's Saint Samurai.
However, in reality, those Saint Samurai couldn't be counted on either. Ryan watched as all the recruits began to gradually get into formation under the command of the officers and thought to himself.
The captain of the guards divided the conscripted soldiers into three groups.
The civilians who had not succeeded in changing professions were part of the first group, the ordinary professionals were part of the second group, and the elite soldiers were selected separately.
For the civilians who had not succeeded in changing professions, they did not receive any enhancement in their professions. As long as they could change professions, any human would receive a normal enhancement in their physique. Their arms would be stronger, their physique would be better, and they would have more stamina. Then, different professions would give the professions specific enhancements. For example, humans who chose to change professions to warriors would get a physique enhancement, and humans who chose to become rangers would get a dexterity enhancement.
But what about the civilians? They had nothing.
Therefore, a normal professional could deal with five or six civilians who had not succeeded in changing professions. If there were no special circumstances, there would not be civilians among the soldiers.
So, this group of militia was only given one spear each. The only thing they had to learn was to use the spear to stab and charge with it. As for the effect … it was as good as it could be.
Laing had once received a military book on how to command this kind of militia. It was written very simply: "Only two orders to charge and advance are needed. It is not recommended to give complicated instructions other than these two orders."
He remembered that after reading this military book, he hid alone in his room and laughed for a long time.
The ordinary professions were not described in detail.
The elite professions were completely different.
Every powerhouse who advanced to the elite level would learn a unique talent. After further strengthening of their physique and abilities, these powerhouses were already able to stand on their own. Their bodies were already capable of learning and using unique combat skills. So, everywhere, an army composed of elite professions was the elite that the nobles needed to rely on. Three elite powerhouses working together to deal with a platoon of ordinary soldiers (generally 32 to 48 people) was no problem.
Not to mention anything else, when Laing was young and was an elite knight, he and a fellow knight beat away dozens of ordinary bandits with a hammer each.
This was the gap in combat strength.
So, how did the professions advance?
There were three ways, namely by fighting (killing), by training, and by God's grace.
Why did Laing think that the Sacred Samurai were unreliable? It was precisely because the Sacred Samurai lacked a very important way to advance through combat. Ordinary Sacred Samurai relied on either practice or devout prayer to advance with the help of the divine power of the gods to advance.
The gods were very happy to give their devout believers divine grace, so on the continent, the number of legendary powerhouses among the Sacred Samurai was the largest, but this did not mean that they were the strongest.
Because this kind of advancement was very weak. Take Laing for example. As a warrior at the beginning of the legendary level, he had relied on the baptism of blood and fire for many years. He relied on actual combat over and over again. His strength was far stronger than the ordinary legendary powerhouses at the beginning of the legendary level. Laing alone had no problem dealing with five or six Sacred Samurai at the beginning of the legendary level. He could use his warhammer to smash these tin cans one by one.
Yes, the combat strength of the Sacred Samurai was so weak. Someone once sneered at them: "Wear the thickest armor and take the most vicious beating."
Of course, there were also Sacred Samurai who were very good at fighting, but it was a fact that most Sacred Samurai lacked actual combat experience. So, Laing knew that he and Teresa could deal with the manticore, but he still called on Al Frey. He hoped that his good friend could accumulate more actual combat experience, which might save his life at a critical time.
The divine spell, Divine Shield, seemed very powerful, but in fact, it was not very reliable. Not all beasts knew how to be reckless like the manticore. For example, Laing's way of dealing with Divine Shield was to kite them. These tin cans moved slowly and lacked long-range attack ability. As soon as they used Divine Shield, Laing would fight and dodge. Ordinary Divine Shield lasted at most six seconds. Even the legendary Sacred Samurai's Divine Shield lasted at most twelve seconds. It was very easy to survive this time.
Moreover, Divine Shield was not invincible in a complete sense. The essence of Divine Shield was a bit like a 360-degree iron box made by the divine power of the gods to wrap the Sacred Samurai in it. Under the protection of the divine power of the gods, those without the strength of the sacred realm could not hurt the people inside. However, this did not mean that the iron box could not be moved. Laing had tried it before. With his wrist strength, he could directly smash the iron box with the people inside.
Laing forced himself to focus on the matter at hand.
There was a problem now. Even if it was the regular army of Nord, there was still a gap between their combat power and that of the barbarians.
The strength of the barbarians lay in the repeated and bloody wars, the selection of the survival of the fittest, and the blessing of the Evil God of Chaos. In this case, human soldiers of the same number and quality would not be a match for the barbarian raiders.
"Even with the addition of these militias, the number of defenders barely reached two thousand. My opinion is that we should rely on the city for defense." The half-elf gave his opinion. "The city wall can help to improve morale and reduce casualties."
"No, Alistair." Laing shook his head. "Defending the city is the worst of the worst. In fact, in the many wars I have participated in against the barbarians, the number of times I have defended the city is not many."
"Why?" The half-elf felt strange.
"Being trapped in the city means that morale is low. It means that the barbarians can easily obtain supplies from the nearby villages. You must know that the barbarians came very suddenly. Many noble families only had time to take away a portion of their property, and many commoners have not had time to retreat to the city. Are we going to close the city gates and watch the barbarians slaughter them all?" Laing said hatefully.
For the barbarians, they never had to consider the consequences of their actions, nor did they have to worry about their reputation or morals. What they wanted to do was to bring destruction to the southerners and wealth to the north.
"If we decide to defend the city without doing anything, the morale will collapse very quickly." Laing gestured for Alistair to look at the militias. "When the time comes, the militias will collapse without the barbarians attacking the city."
Just as he said, the militias' faces were filled with numbness, panic, and uneasiness.
"Humans are so weak," Alistair said disdainfully. "We are willing to shed our last drop of blood for the forest."
"We are also willing to shed our blood to protect our country! Alistair, please do not compare elves to us humans. " Laing suddenly shook his head. "All of you will be able to awaken your talents as soon as you reach the age of 35, but what about us humans? Less than 40% of the human population can awaken talents! "
Yes, the elves' racial advantage was so great.
"Mr. Laing, Sir Albert wishes for you to immediately head to the Earl's castle. There is an important military matter!" A messenger came to Laing's side and saluted him.
"What is it? What happened? " Laing could only immediately bid farewell to Alistair and ride on Pinecone, immediately rushing to Count Albert's castle.
Earl Albert's castle was located in a small hill within the city of Mjörden Haven. It was equipped with a complete defense system and a moat. There were also two cannons on the city walls. During the war preparation period, there were far more soldiers here than at any other time. When they saw Leon arrive, the guards lowered the drawbridge.
Albert and his two knights were discussing the current military situation in the meeting room. Walnut Knight Nicolay's face was both happy and worried.
"Mr. Laing, there is good news … and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"
"The bad news first."
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