I'm not a lord

Chapter 124 A New War is Calling

The one hundred refugee soldiers under Lao Wu had only been trained for more than a month, so Lin En did not let them take on heavy combat tasks.

In this special military operation in Shallow Beach Territory, the refugee army was only responsible for surrounding the castle and waving flags and shouting slogans. They were the group with the least military achievements and simply went to Shallow Beach Territory to organize an armed parade.

After the war, Lin En immediately ordered the army to return to White Bear Territory and let them continue to train hard in the northern military camp.

Even so, Lin En still gave them a cash reward equivalent to one month's salary, which was considered an early year-end bonus.

Who told him to be well-off now?

The wealth accumulated by the Shallow Beach Territory over a century fell into his hands, which was roughly equal to the profit from the White Bear Territory's selling of private salt in a whole year.

It’s a wave of sudden wealth.

With the resources at hand, Lin En has enough to arm a professional army of 800 people mainly composed of infantry, and even ensure that everyone is armored.

In fact, a barony with a population of 5,000 can easily raise 200 armored infantrymen after accumulating for one or two generations, as long as it does not raise cavalry.

If chain mail is carefully maintained and oiled every year, it can be used for thirty or forty years without any problems.

War horses are completely different. They are expensive and extremely delicate. Not only are they easily injured or killed on the battlefield, but their service life generally does not exceed ten years.

The cheapest warhorse starts at sixty Northern Gold Shields, which is enough to fully arm five infantrymen, not to mention high-quality warhorses worth hundreds or even tens of thousands of gold shields.

The main reason why the feudal territories of the Northern Kingdom do not maintain infantry is the lack of labor.

Infantry will take up a large amount of labor. If there are too many soldiers, there will be fewer people to farm. At the same time, a large number of infantry will be difficult to manage and may easily lead to mutiny.

In comparison, how much easier is it to raise a few knights?
As long as you pile money on a few knights, you can have a pretty good fighting force.

The sound of galloping war horses alone was enough to intimidate the serfs into working obediently.

Moreover, the knights themselves were the ruling class, and they were not afraid of threatening the foundation of their territory's rule.

Lynn had no such concerns at all.

White Bear Territory has completed preliminary agricultural reforms, and the yield per mu has basically doubled. By the year after next, after all the land has completed two rounds of deep plowing and fertilization, the yield will be significantly improved.

Agricultural reforms in the Shoal Territory are gaining momentum, and results will be seen by next autumn.

In fact, the grain output of White Bear Territory this year alone can barely feed all the people under Lin En's rule, including 4,000 people in White Bear Territory, more than 5,000 people in Shallow Beach Territory, and more than 3,000 barbarians in the salt mine.

With a population of nearly 13,000, and this is on the premise of agricultural reform, is it too much to support 800 infantrymen?

Not too much at all!
Lin En even felt that the two hundred serfs led by Bai Xiong were not enough, and planned to recruit another hundred people in the winter.

It’s winter and you’re stuck at home anyway, so why not come to the barracks and get some military training? It’s free food and lodging, isn’t that nice?

As for mutiny or something, Lin En had no such concerns at all.

The soldiers have good food and drink in the barracks, receive a stable salary every month, and receive high bonuses when war breaks out.

They would rebel only if they were crazy.

The management systems of the two territories under his command are very transparent and efficient. The steward collects taxes and directly puts them into Lin En's warehouse. There is no "middleman" to make a profit from the price difference.

Therefore, Lynn had sufficient food and funds to feed the soldiers.

The only problem he couldn't solve at the moment was that the blacksmith workshop's production capacity was too low.

Even with the help of hydraulic forging hammers, the blacksmith workshop was completely unable to produce enough plate armor and plate armor.

According to Lin En's plan, the blacksmiths and carpenters from Shoal Territory will soon come to White Bear Territory for further training.

Once they learn to use water power and produce water wheels, and build several large water power workshops in the shallows, perhaps the problem of insufficient armor production capacity can be slightly alleviated.

Of course, this is still a drop in the bucket. After all, there are no excellent blacksmiths in the Shallows Territory. At most, they can forge farm tools and simple weapons.

Lynn talked with the head blacksmith Eric about how to train more outstanding blacksmiths.

Eric said that he could only take ten apprentices at most at a time, and that it would take at least five or six years of training before these apprentices would have the possibility of forging armor plates.

Yes, it is just the armor plates used to forge plate armor, not the entire iron plate required for plate armor.

If Lin En wanted to equip his army with advanced armor on a large scale, the quickest way would be to capture Sanhe City.

Sanhe City is one of the hub cities in the middle reaches of Jinghe River. The blacksmith guild in the city is full of masters, and there are no less than five blacksmiths of the same level as Eric.

Qi He, the former chief blacksmith of Bai Xiong Territory, was only at the level of an intermediate apprentice when he went to Sanhe City.

Moreover, Sanhe City is not just a city, nor does it have only seven or eight thousand urban residents.

According to the contract signed between Three Rivers City and the Duke of Swamp, the vast tracts of fertile farmland around Three Rivers City belong to the city.

The total number of serfs, tenant farmers and free farmers working on these farmlands was no less than 30,000.

Such a large agricultural population is also necessary to support the second largest city in the Dukedom of the Swamp.

According to the information provided by Leon, the militia of Sanhe City always maintains a size of 300 people. Everyone is armored and equipped with a large number of war horses and bows and crossbows. The city is also equipped with heavy city defense equipment such as catapults and crossbows.

In the event of war, Sanhe City can instantly mobilize five to six hundred citizens to form an armed force.

Most of these citizens are strong craftsmen and apprentices from various guilds, and they also maintain a very high armor rate.

Moreover, these people also like to compete in swordsmanship and archery in their spare time. They are full of martial virtues and can be transformed into excellent infantry at any time. With Lin En's current strength, it would be difficult to capture Sanhe City, so he tried to encourage Leon.

He provided military support, Leon acted as an insider and tried to bribe the militia. Only by close cooperation between the two sides could it be possible to capture Sanhe City.

This will undoubtedly be a long-term plan, and Lynn needs to wait patiently for the right time to act.

However, some people in the army can't wait for a new war.

Lin En had just finished awarding rewards to the refugee army and was discussing the subsequent training plan with Lao Wu when Lucas knocked on the door of the barracks.

As soon as the refugee boy entered the door, he knelt on one knee with an extremely earnest attitude:

"Sir, if there is still war, please allow me to lead my soldiers as the vanguard! If you grant me permission, I will definitely cut down the enemy's flag for you!"

Lao Wu praised his best soldier generously: "Don't be fooled by his short stature, he's a natural-born fighter. No one in the entire army can match him. He didn't get any military credit this time, and he's really fuming."

In the army, all matters depend on one's ability. Lucas has been taught by his father since he was a servant. In addition, he is very talented. Although he is only fifteen years old this year, he can already defeat all the refugee soldiers.

Under Lao Wu's education with both sticks and verbal attacks, Lucas gradually got rid of the poison of knight education. Now he has been promoted to squadron leader, in charge of five ten-man teams, and is considered a middle-level officer in the White Bear Territory.

With Lucas's current salary level, it is enough for his sister and mother to live a relatively comfortable life.

He always wanted to repay his master's kindness, but he never found the opportunity and always felt guilty.

Lin En glanced at Xiao Lu, then turned to look at Lao Wu beside him with a knowing smile: "Andre, I think it's not just him who's holding back. You must be holding back too, right?"

Seeing that his little trick was exposed by his eldest brother, the fifth brother had no choice but to take action himself:

"My Lord, you know me well. Joseph and I have always been at odds. How can I accept that even he can gain military merit this time?"

Joseph is the fourth brother, and the fifth brother and he have always been enemies.

The two were recruited by Lin En together. They were of similar age and martial arts skills, and both had hot tempers, so they always wanted to see who was better.

The fourth child has the advantage of being a few months older, so he can naturally have the upper hand over the fifth child.

In this Shallow Territory War, the fourth brother led his troops to capture two manors, but the fifth brother gained nothing, which made him feel even more unwilling.

They all command the army for the eldest brother, so why do you alone have the opportunity to make a contribution?

"Okay, next time there is a war, I will let you be the vanguard." Lin En decided to give Lao Wu and Lucas a chance.

"Okay! But when will the next war be?" Lao Wu was excited, but he did not forget to ask for a specific time.

After a brief thought, Lin En gave an approximate time:

"Maybe in the early spring of next year, around mid-November, I'll have Albert recruit another hundred soldiers from the White Bear Territory, and at least another fifty archers from the barren people. You train these three hundred men diligently, and then you'll have your chance to show your abilities."

It is now early November and winter is approaching, so it is not appropriate to resort to violence.

Besides, it is impossible for Lin En to go south to attack Green Lake Territory now.

The main reason is that he has no legitimate reason.

With the military strength at Lin En's disposal, he had to be extremely cautious. He took over the Shoal Territory because he could use the name of Yagna to avoid attracting the Duke of Swamp's army.

However, if we rashly go south to capture Green Lake Territory, and anger the Duke of Swampland, there is no guarantee that he will not return to attack.

Lynn now has a better whetstone, one that is safe and harmless.

After calming down the restless Old Five, Lin En called little Thorward over.

"From today on, your squadron will be temporarily under the command of Andre. You must accept Andre's command and try to teach him some of the Savage language."

Lin En waved his hand and directly assigned little Soward and the fifty barbarian archers under his command to Lao Wu.

"Yes, sir!" Little Soward said without any hesitation.

After knowing that the black horse was worth 90,000 kilograms of rye, he was now truly devoted to Lin En. If he was asked to go east, he would never go west.

"Wait, teach me the language of the barbarians? Sir, how can I learn this?" Lao Wu was a little confused. What the hell is the point of learning the language of the barbarians?

He had been struggling to learn to read with Lao Liu, so it would be better to just let him learn a language.

Lin En asked in return, "If you don't learn the language of the barbarians, how can I trust you to lead the troops into battle?"

"But what does learning the language of the barbarians have to do with leading troops to war?" Lao Wu was still puzzled. He could not see any connection between the two.

"It's simple, because your next opponent is the deserted people."

Lin En’s next target was not the Green Lake Territory, but the people in the northern wilderness.

In addition to the lowland tribes, there are eight other tribes of the wasteland people, and their populations are larger than those of the lowland tribes.

These barbarians are good at mining and serving in the military.

How could such high-quality cattle and horses be left to suffer cold and hunger in the wilderness?
Lin En is kind-hearted and cannot bear to see the people in the wilderness suffer.

They must all be brought to the White Bear Territory so that they can enjoy the Lord's kindness.

(End of this chapter)