The "inner eight" are: butlers, staff, knights, mages, maids, assistants, and the "outer two" are family mercenary groups and family merchants.

Of course, in fact, only the count's or even more powerful families could provide for the "ten" in their entirety, and the viscount and baron barely managed to make up the "ten" which was already considered a prominent family, while the lord could not have the "ten", because it was only from the baron onwards that the private soldiers could be legally raised.

The knight is the most powerful protector of the nobility, and the family knight is a general term, in addition to the hidden knight, the seed knight, the sword washing knight, and many other categories.

Nobles are not allowed to divulge the inheritance of the Douqi document to the outside world, but they can teach the family knight document inheritance, and this kind of knight is the "inheritance knight". If the noble master does not let go, they must serve the master for the rest of their lives, and it can be said that they are high-ranking slaves with great power and good treatment.

The nobles and the Inheritance Knights coexist in mutual benefit, and the nobles will treat the Inheritance Knights well, and the Inheritance Knights are equivalent to finding a high-paying lifelong job and rarely betraying their masters.

After all, the empire is dominated by aristocrats, so the law treats the inheritance knights very harshly. The empire has laws to limit the number of Inheritance Knights, and in order to protect the nobility, all Inheritance Knights who betray their masters are considered traitors, and those who take them in are guilty of treason.

If a noble lord dies under the protection of the Inheritance Knight, then the noble family has the right to demand that the Inheritance Knight be buried - no one knows if the Inheritance Knight betrayed or abandoned the protection of the master.

If the Legacy Knight chooses to be buried, the nobleman must give the Legacy Knight's family a subsistence inheritance, and if the Legacy Knight refuses to be buried, he will be given a twenty-year soldier, and the nobleman's family will have the right to revoke all previous rewards given to the Legacy Knight.

Many high-ranking warriors among the mercenaries wanted to be a Legacy Knight, and many nobles valued Catherine's beauty and strength and wanted to recruit her as a Legacy Knight, but Catherine refused without hesitation.

It is true that nobles treat inheritance knights well, but if it is a beautiful female knight or a handsome male knight, it is easy to be forced by the lustful nobles to sacrifice their bodies in various ways.

Catherine would rather live hard and free than become the plaything of the aristocracy.

Now that she was hired, she should fulfill her contract even if she could face annihilation, and Catherine meticulously commanded the Firelight Mercenary Regiment to participate in the defense.

With the help of two magicians, the camp was quickly set up and a line of defense was established.

A middle-aged magician in a black robe took out a small bag of yellow powder and chanted a spell, and then a yellow light wrapped in the spellcasting materials and flew out. After the yellow light fell to the ground, the ground in front of it quickly gathered to form a chest-high wall of earth. The earthen walls widened and grew rapidly, eventually reaching a thickness of one meter and a length of thirty meters.

Because the earth gathered into a wall, a pit appeared in front of the earthen wall.

Another, younger magician took out a small bottle, and after casting the spell, the liquid in the bottle flew out and landed in the pit.

The pit immediately changed and eventually formed a swamp that was the same length as the earthen wall, four meters wide and three meters deep.

The two magicians continued to cast spells, eventually allowing the earthen walls and swamps to surround the camp.

Magical magic conquered most of the mercenaries, and the mercenaries felt strongly protected and no longer fearful.

A mage has the same strength as a swordsman, while a warrior has only the strength of a magic apprentice.

After a short time, the dark sentry in front returned, and then a motley joint thief group composed of more than a dozen small thieves appeared.

There were more than 500 people in the joint bandits, and the most powerful bandits were all on horseback, while the worst bandits didn't even have a decent standard sword, and they even had a farmer's pitchfork in their hands.

Seeing the neat camp ahead, the mercenaries waiting for battle, and the line of defense established with magic, the leader of the Graybeard Bandits, Graybeard Hank, complained: "Stop! What fool said that this is a noble lady's party, and his head has been kissed by the horse's hooves? There are at least eight swordsmen and two magicians in it, find me the person who provided the information!"

The leader of the Demon Cat Thieves Group squeezed out a smile and leaned over and said, "Graybeard Leader, my information is wrong, I admit punishment, and our Demon Cat will give up the reward and loot this time." There are only about two hundred of them, and we have more than five hundred and six swordsmen, who should be able to eat this camp. Look at that tent, inside is a beautiful aristocratic chick with precious jewels, are we going to leave like this?"

Graybeard, who was the commander of the joint bandits, scolded loudly: "Do you want to exchange the lives of my brothers for those jewels?

Hundreds of bandits shouted together: "Never agree!"

The head of the demon cat had to stretch out two fingers: "I will add another two thousand gold carats for my employer, and I can't add any more." ”

"Four thousand!"

"No way!"

"Three thousand! No, I'll leave immediately, I don't want to die. ”

"Deal, great Greybeard!"

Although there are only more than forty members of the Graybeard Bandits, the worst members are all mid-level warriors, and there is even one mid-level swordsman and two junior swordsmen, all of whom are on horseback, and they are one of the three most famous bandits in the Principality of Barlow. Graybeard himself was a powerful mid-level swordsman, having once been the leader of a small mercenary group, and he would not have fled to the south to form a bandit if he hadn't killed a lord in northern Yorkshire and became a wanted criminal.

Graybeard stroked his broadsword and looked at the camp carefully, but he was calculating the gains and losses in his heart. He became a mid-level swordsman not by his muscles, but by his mind, and his rough appearance was a kind of disguise for him.

He wasn't afraid of magicians, as he had a precious piece of magic leather armor that activated a magic shield, and he was a mid-level swordsman himself, capable of creating fighting energy protection on the surface of his body.

The standard for a junior swordsman is to be able to freely manipulate the fighting qi in his body and attach it to the weapon. The standard for an intermediate swordsman is to form a fighting aura around the body. If you can put your fighting energy out of one meter, you will become a high-level swordsman.

What he hesitated was that unless he fought with a swordsman, he couldn't tell whether the swordsman was a beginner, intermediate or advanced, and he didn't know the specific strength of the other party.

Graybeard said to a man behind him with a pale face and dark circles, "Dogtooth, you pick forty fools to test it." ”

Dogtooth immediately picked two unlucky bandits, gathered forty men and ten archers, and walked towards the camp. Dogtooth is a junior swordsman, and is called Dogtooth by Graybeard because he has bitten the throat of his enemies many times in combat.

Except for the garrison, the regular army, and the private army of the great nobles, the Homan Empire forbade anyone else to use bows and crossbows, but the bandits' regiments were criminals, so most of them prepared some bows and crossbows, but the quality was very poor.

Even the thieves have taken out such forbidden weapons, and it is impossible for the mercenary group to have no countermeasures.

Originally, the three mercenary groups did not have bows and crossbows, but Lord Pine took out twenty bows and ten small crossbows and bows and arrows and crossbows, and distributed them to the people of the Mountain Rock Mercenary Group.

"Is that the legendary military crossbow?" asked a small mercenary group.

"Fool, the aristocratic private army can only use small crossbows, and the military and crossbows are medium-sized crossbows, unless it is a fiefdom, otherwise even if it is used by the marquis's private army, it is a big crime to rebel. Two armies and crossbows can easily kill a high-level warrior, and ten-card armies and crossbows can even threaten junior swordsmen head-on, and it is impossible for the empire to let the nobles' private armies use it. Another middle-aged mercenary explained.

Dogtooth quickly led the people to the front of the camp, and the bandits in the front row held wooden shields and moved forward step by step in fear.

Enge, the deputy leader of the Shanyan Mercenary Regiment, grabbed a longbow, poured a little fighting energy into his arms, and shot at the wooden shield at the front after drawing the bow.

With a "bang", the long arrow was firmly nailed to the inch-thick wooden shield, and most of the arrow passed through the wooden shield, frightening the legs of the bandit holding the shield.

Enge blushed and said, "It's been a long time since I've shot an arrow, and it's so far away...... he thought that his arrow would be able to blow up the entire wooden shield, and at worst it should be able to pierce the wooden shield and kill a bandit.

Seeing that the wooden shield provided by the mysterious employer was so strong, Dogtooth immediately shouted, "Rush forward!"

Among the mercenaries, the commander of the battle was Yarman, another deputy commander of the Shanyan Mercenary Regiment, who shouted: "Don't let go of the arrows yet, wait until they are fifty meters away before attacking, and the people behind the earthen wall are ready." ”

Catherine, as before, stood in front of her, while Lear watched the archers behind her with a wooden shield, alerting her once they were aiming for the area. His practice sword had been replaced, and he had a very fine standard longsword—a gift from Lord Pyne to him as Miss Audreyna's congratulations on his victory.