Lords of the Heavens

Chapter 326 Academy Mercenaries (Bonus Chapter 810 for Alliance Mainstream Starry Night)

The third faction is Grant, who belongs to the Small Town faction. Although he has only been there for a short time, his outstanding abilities allowed him to establish himself in just a few months. He also used his Small Town background to win over Mark and managed to build Small Town territory outside of the two major factions, Nelson and Lennox. Of course, part of the reason for this was that Javier's faction was removed.

In short, this kind of thing is impossible to stop. Territories are made up of people. Where there are people, there are homes; where there are homes, there are families; and where there are families, there are factions with vested interests.

We should not view it as a monstrous threat, but rather strive for an effective balance, grounded in the most basic humanistic care, to avoid triggering endless evil.

Once a person decides to be bad, they can be truly wicked without limit.

But with this most basic humanistic concern holding things together, the situation won't collapse.

Finally, that very evening, the three giants, Nelson, Lenos, and Grant, acted swiftly and presented Li Wei with a plan to build a two-star temple. Ah, that's more like it, that's the right attitude to get things done.

Li Wei offered a few subtle praises and then immediately announced the appointment of Santiago, son of Nelson, Benjamin, son of Lenos, and Grant, son of Adams, as Knights of the River!
With this, the Riverside Knights' ranks were complete, and their territory was slightly strengthened.

Of course, this process must be witnessed by all the free people, and with the blessing of the gods, Lord Li Wei of the Flame read the Knight's Creed to the three of them, and a sword is placed upon them. Only then can it be considered a sacred and legitimate investiture.

Anyway, this wave of efforts has been quite effective, significantly boosting morale both among the military and the people.

"Xiao Wei, you've got some good tricks up your sleeve. Nelson, Lenos, and Grant—none of them are easy to deal with, but you've managed to train them all to be well-behaved and obedient. You truly are my precious nephew!"

During dinner, Liang Yuzhi praised him happily, but Li Wei didn't have time to reply. He just stared at the food on the table and stuffed it into his mouth.

Three-star pickled fish, three-star boiled fish, two-star white rice—ah, the familiar taste, the taste of home. My aunt's cooking skills are truly unparalleled.

"Eat slowly, don't choke. I've also prepared some chilled malt beer for you, would you like some?"

"Mmm! Second Aunt, you should eat some too."

Li Wei said this, but in reality he ate everything by himself. Ah Dai didn't even get any. Liang Yuzhi sat next to him and watched him with a smile. As for Zhao Xuanxuan, Lyon, Zhao Guozhu and the others, they were not worthy of enjoying the food and could only go to another table to eat the food prepared by the chef.

Finally, after Li Wei finished eating and started humming, Liang Yuzhi dragged him to the tavern. They needed to recruit mercenaries, preferably some with expertise in internal affairs. She really didn't want to deal with this mess anymore; she needed to reinvent herself. She was just too annoyed.

"Second Aunt, is there any procedure for recruiting mercenaries?"

"What can you say? Just hire them with gold coins. But speaking of which, did you pay taxes?" Liang Yuzhi reminded her again.

"No rush, Second Aunt. It's not too late to hand it in after the city-building task is completed. I think that great king and wise duke are both very easy to talk to."

Li Wei said dismissively, of course he knew that paying taxes was important, there was a special tax department, but obviously his upcoming task of developing and building the city had certain priority, so he could ignore paying taxes and pay them when he became a viscount.

It can save a lot of money.

Doesn't this smell delicious?
As for this second aunt, she must have been traumatized by the tax authorities' pursuit of unpaid taxes. Sigh, it's hard to bear.

The Samsung Tavern is located in the original No. 4 field, facing south, covering an area of ​​1.8 acres. Its layout is similar to a three-courtyard house, but not quite.

The door opens to the south, leading to a two-story building. The first floor is spacious and serves as the lobby of a tavern, while the upper floor is a large dormitory-style dormitory with simple guest rooms, the kind that can squeeze in forty people.

Continuing further in, there's a fairly spacious courtyard, suitable for drying bedding or taking a stroll. Then you enter the tavern's second building, a three-story main building, which is filled with guest rooms—single rooms, double rooms, etc.—with slightly upscale amenities.

Once you pass the main building, you'll find the tavern's work area and storage area, where they offer customized meals three times a day.

The tavern was brightly lit by now, as it had been open for almost half a month.

Yes, Li Wei applied for the qualification of Samsung Tavern before.

But Liang Yuzhi had been bored, so she ordered the business to open. The free people in the territory would come and spend a little money to buy some wine when they had nothing to do, which was perfectly acceptable.

As for the recruited mercenaries, they naturally have a different pricing system. All their expenses are recorded on a billing basis, rather than being settled with the tavern manager.

Now, the tavern employs a total of six waiters, two cooks, and two bartenders!
To ensure absolute safety.

At this moment, after Li Wei and Liang Yuzhi entered the lobby of the tavern, the noisy sounds here quieted down a bit.

"Please don't stand on ceremony, everyone. Your great lord will pay for tonight's drinks!"

Li Wei laughed heartily, instantly livening up the atmosphere with a single sentence: no need to spend money to buy alcohol, that's truly great news.

Of course, he had already notified the bartenders and staff through the prestige card system that there would be only a limited supply tonight. He was joking; the lord's money was still money, after all. Well, brewing wine wasn't easy, so they should drink sparingly; they had to work tomorrow.

Next, Li Wei and Liang Yuzhi found an empty seat and sat down. Then, on a whim, they summoned their Expansion Card, which immediately displayed a list of recruitable mercenaries, totaling as many as five hundred.

Before Li Wei could even check, Liang Yuzhi had already started dialing rapidly, as if searching for a suitable candidate.

"Second Aunt, don't be fooled by what you see. Don't worry, you won't have to worry about domestic affairs anymore," Li Wei quickly reassured Liang Yuzhi, who then gave up.

However, there were indeed no outstanding mercenaries; they were all three-star mercenaries, with only twenty four-star mercenaries and one five-star mercenary at the very end.

Even so, two-thirds of them are labeled as graduates of the Lord's Academy, which means they are just greenhorns, the offspring of ordinary players.

"These academies produce useless greenhorns who are afraid of death and cause trouble. No normal person would choose them. Xiaowei, you're not going to choose them, are you?"

Liang Yuzhi looked puzzled, noticing that Li Wei seemed to be pondering something.

“But Second Aunt, don’t you think it’s interesting? Normally, you can only hire one five-star mercenary, who costs 1000 gold per month, and you can hire two four-star mercenaries, who cost 500 gold per month each.”

"You can hire 20 Samsung mercenaries, each paying 50 gold per month."

"However, you can hire 100 of these new mercenary recruits from the academy at once, each for only 10 gold per month. That's a great deal! And most importantly, these new mercenary recruits can become citizens, meaning they can be treated as free citizens. Don't you think that's a great deal?"

"What a load of rubbish! This is just the overpopulation of Ver City. They can't afford to support it. In the world of ordinary people, it's difficult for a city to function and for everyone to be fed and to develop. Let alone a supernatural city. I bet that Duke of Ver is in a real bind right now. And because of the enhancements from their class cards, players can live for one or two hundred years at a time. They can easily have a dozen or more children. It's fine when they're young, but what about when they grow up?"

"So the only option is to send them all to the tavern as cheap mercenaries. Don't hire them, they're a complete money pit. They may look like three-star soldiers with decent stats, but they're all fast-growing chickens with basic equipment. You have to equip them with weapons and armor, retrain them, and manage their little moods. It's so annoying!"

Liang Yuzhi seems to have suffered greatly from this, hence her strong denigration.

However, Li Wei had other ideas. Although the novice mercenaries from the academy had their flaws, they had two advantages: first, they could become free citizens; second, they had no background, while those with backgrounds wouldn't become mercenaries.

Even if they are of varying quality, who cares about whether they can have children?

Those who can give birth are excellent free citizens.

It's that simple. He doesn't expect the mercenaries he hires to make any significant contributions, to be able to fight for him, to be able to fight on the battlefield, or to be able to turn the tide of war. What a joke! If they had that kind of ability, why would they be mercenaries?

At the very least, you should start with lord-type players.

This is a very good way to expand the population.

That's it.

In the blink of an eye, Li Wei recruited fifty male mercenaries and fifty female mercenaries, and all of them were eligible for citizenship, according to their descriptions.

Therefore, after recruiting them, Li Wei immediately opened up the application process for citizenship.

Of course, these new mercenary academy members aren't stupid. They can be picky too. No problem, if you don't become a citizen within a month, you'll be fired next month. Get as far away as you can. Who's going to put up with you?
Within the next ten minutes, a hundred novice mercenaries appeared directly outside the tavern, shrouded in a cloud of gray mist, which startled the free people who were enjoying their drinks.

They now know that outsiders will continue to join, but it's truly rare to see so many coming at once.

Forget about drinking for a moment, and just secretly observed. The hundred new mercenaries were quite energetic, looking around curiously. Some pretended to be calm and collected, pretending that it was nothing special. After all, they were from Ver City and had seen the world. This kind of rural place, hehe!
Some people, with keen eyesight, tried to find out where the lord was, hoping to make a good impression.

Li Wei didn't move, while Liang Yuzhi looked disdainful. So Li Wei directly used his prestige card to order Nelson to come out and greet them. Linos was too rigid and not suitable.

At the same time, he also successfully connected with these novice mercenaries through the prestige card and issued his first order.

"Rest for three days, then depart for the riverside fortress to be stationed!"

Li Wei wouldn't leave these novice mercenaries here. The place was already overcrowded. There was enough food, but the living space was too small. However, Nelson and Lenos had already started preparing to build five three-story residential buildings next to the tavern and around the camp building. This would free up a hundred families from the communal sleeping arrangements.

Of course, since the development has shifted to city building, we must plan carefully and not follow the previous plan.

[The special building, the 3-star Tavern, has triggered a special effect: because you hired one hundred Academy mercenaries at once, you have obtained a textbook from the Lord's Academy—a treatise on combat and war.]

[Note: There is a certain chance of triggering a similar effect each time a large number of mercenaries are hired.]

(End of this chapter)