The nonsense that Baron Keen had caused due to the bumper harvest came to an end.
About a month later, another envoy from Archduke Thunder came to Keen City from the capital. The strength of this high-level knight was naturally beyond the ability of Creek's men to defeat Sap, not to mention that he also brought a high-level knight with him. mage. However, no matter how strong they are, Creek always said, "In return for accepting asylum, I taught the Church of the Mask of the Void how to handle food."
The envoys did not believe this answer at first. However, they searched and searched but could not find the large amount of food that was supposed to be piled up like mountains in the legend. Moreover, the results of using the lie detection spell also proved that the food was indeed no longer in Keen Territory.
So they had to give up and left in despair.
As for options such as "stealing food from Masked Void Church", people who would do such things are basically unlikely to live long enough to become a high-level powerhouse. It’s like someone on earth asking, “Why don’t middle-class Americans get killed for fighting with the police?” The reason is very simple. People with this kind of IQ are either at the bottom or the second generation of rich people there. In short, they are unlikely to make it into the middle class...
Before leaving, the knight from the capital gave Creek a serious warning, mainly talking about the knightly virtues of loyalty to the king, patriotism, dedication to duty, diligence, and selfless dedication. Crick seemed to have listened to his speech attentively, nodding his head again and again, but still refused to promise anything.
Seeing that he was so unwilling to go on the road, the knight who was probably of high status was a little annoyed and shouted sternly: "Baron Keen, you are also a knight under the Grand Duke, don't forget the knight's rules!"
"Knight?" Creek asked with a smile, "When I followed the pioneer knight (the god of knights) and fought bloody battles on the battlefield when the sun went out, I don't remember seeing you. I don't know where you were. Fight? What are the gains?"
The knight's face suddenly turned dark and he couldn't say a word.
Only then did he suddenly realize that the sickly former baron in front of him was a fierce man who survived the bloody war in which even the legendary strongman could only be a soldier, or a hero who once fought with the God of Knights. . In terms of "knight virtues" and "knight norms", it can be called an industry pacesetter.
Telling this to the other person is simply humiliating yourself!
He frowned for a long time before adding: "Even if you don't think about the problem from the perspective of a knight, you should think about the problem from the perspective of a lord."
This was an implicit threat, but it still didn't move Crick.
"What do you think of my territory?" Creek asked with a smile.
The knight was silent for a while and said: "Very good. Although the place is not big, it is managed very well. The people in the territory live a stable life and the army is well-trained. Looking at the appearance of the territory, it is really hard to imagine just over two years ago. , this is the only place that sent troops to participate in that battle... In the past two years, I have seen several territories that sent troops to participate in the original battle, but they have not yet recovered from the heavy losses. Some of them are focused on people's livelihood. , the army is full of rookies and hooligans, a complete mob; some focus on military affairs and levy too many taxes, making the lives of the people in the territory miserable. But these two problems did not appear in Keen Territory, and that war seemed It has no impact at all here, which is incredible!”
"Actually, we also suffered heavy losses at the beginning." Creek sighed. "Even me, the lord, was seriously injured. My best friend Spencer died in the battle. You can imagine the situation."
The knight nodded solemnly.
"However, I still led my subordinates and people to quickly get out of the trough and develop again." Creek said with a smile, "I think I am a pretty good lord. Right?"
The knight nodded.
"So, do you think I look like a person who doesn't know the importance of things and is looking for death?"
The knight was silent for a moment and smiled.
"You're right, I worry too much."
Creek sighed and added: "But there is one thing that I am very confused about. What is our Grand Duke... thinking about?"
The knight was stunned, and then Creek added: "I think I am loyal to His Majesty. He wanted to support the Eagle Kingdom. I brought all the family members in the territory to fight, and even I almost died there. As a result, I brought When he came back from injury, almost all of his subordinates died. Not only did he not offer any sympathy or compensation, but he turned around and asked me to support others?!"
He sighed deeply, with a look of resentment on his face: "Your Excellency, do you think this approach is a bit inappropriate? Is there some bad person around His Majesty who is encouraging him to make mistakes?"
The knight was silent for a long time, and finally sighed deeply.
He patted Creek on the shoulder, said nothing, shook his head, got on his horse, and walked away with the mage who had already mounted his horse and was waiting.
Unlike the taciturn and cold-faced mage, this high-level knight looked a little desolate when he left.
Watching them go away, Creek frowned and had a bad guess in his heart.
It seems... there seems to be something wrong with the senior officials of the Thunder Principality, especially those around the Thunder Duke!
But these are far different from just a baron. He just wrote it down and let Raphael have time to inquire about it a little bit, and forget it.
Most matters involving a principality or a duke are earth-shattering events. Crick doesn't expect to profit from such a big thing. He just needs to find out before the danger comes and escape in time.
This requirement couldn't be lower. I think Lafleur and the others should still be able to do it.
So far, no one has come from the capital. As for what His Majesty the Grand Duke thought of this matter, and whether anyone would speak ill of him behind his back, Crick couldn't care less.
Winter was not far away, so he had to seize the time to tidy up the farmland, plant some fruit trees and herbs that he had time to plant at the last moment, and start what he had already prepared.
Militia training.
Baron Keen currently has food and money, and there is quite a lot of money. That batch of grains sold for a good price, so much so that when Priest Milomon sent him the money, Creek thought that the Priest had made a miscalculation.
With this money, Creek felt confident, and the territory already had enough food reserves. He decided to take advantage of the relatively slack farming period in winter to gather the young people of the territory for some basic military training. .
Of course, the training time cannot be too long and the intensity cannot be too high. On the one hand, ordinary civilians do not need to be very advanced, as long as they can make do with the regular army; on the other hand, there is still work to be done in the winter, and it cannot be delayed too much.
The training content is divided into several parts. The first is queue training. The training content generally includes standing in line, queuing, passwords and simple military regulations.
Asking a group of peasants to enforce orders and prohibitions is a mistake, but if they just learn some basic military knowledge and cultivate some basic military qualities, they should still be able to do it.
Even if I can't do it this year, I'll just train again next winter. There's no rush anyway.
The second part of the training is the use of the spear.
The spear is the simplest and most practical of all cold weapons. Regardless of the various variations of other weapons, if it is to train recruits without any foundation, the spear is the easiest to train.
Unlike the regular army, which has mastered various advanced skills and generally has three to four soldier levels, the militiamen only need to learn two spear moves.
The first move is to accumulate thorns.
The second move is splitting.
The former move is for killing, and the latter move is for fighting. In civilian-level battles, it is enough.
Of course, specifically speaking, thorn stabbing is also divided into upper, middle and lower thorns, and several people join forces to attack; splitting also has several technical classifications, which is not that simple. But after all, it was just two moves, and there was enough time for them to practice.
This winter, the militia military training was held three times, once a month for five days each time. After three military trainings, although the farmers' combat effectiveness has not improved much, at least they have a certain appearance when standing in line. When everyone holds wooden spears to practice assassination and chopping, the power of shouting in unison can also intimidate. people.
Although it was actually just a flower display, it could be done in just one winter, and Crick was satisfied.
There is plenty of time, so let’s continue practicing next year.