This chapter has some introductions to the noble private army, which can be skipped if you don't like it. Basically, it does not affect the reading of subsequent chapters. This is what I made up to improve this world, and it can't be compared with reality, there must be a gap.

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Not long after, Bridget and Thomas left with a part of the soldiers of the Second Legion.

With the soldiers of the Second Legion scattered across the Tirisfarh Glades to seal off the ruins of Lordaeron, it would be difficult to gather them all in a short period of time. They could only wait for the Sixth Legion to take over their defenses before they could withdraw from the Tirisfar.

In fact, this is just a microcosm of the crusaders under Locke's control.

Over the next few days, many of the Crusader armies in the Tirisfard Glades, including the Reserve Army, were disrupted and relocated to the Silverpine Forest. The only thing that has not changed is Duland's Fourth Legion, which has been stationed in Gallen for a long time and is well aware of the Scourge undead entrenched in the territory of the Agamande family, and for various reasons Locke has not made any moves against this legion.

The commander of the Fourth Legion, Duland, also went to the monastery to meet Locke at the right time, and this pure soldier also expressed some of his thoughts to Locke, and when he walked out of the gate of the monastery, the guards along the way could see him happily humming a little song and leaving the monastery.

The monastery was busy during this time, which made the guards who were tasked with guarding them feel unusually tired. After all, let them keep their majestic posture for hours all the time, and everyone will be tired. But they felt a sense of satisfaction that they had never felt before.

The town of Gadar beneath the Abbey Hill is now populated with nobles from the Tirisfara and Silver Pines forests. The nobles with their nostrils turned to the sky became polite one by one after entering the monastery. The nobles, who had always looked at the soldiers standing guard, seemed to have a conscience, and when they passed in front of them, they would nod and smile slightly.

More often than not, they will politely say a few words to you, and then ask Lord Harvey about some of his hobbies or something.

This has been the case since the decision of the Council of Nobles spread in the Tirisfal Glade.

The significance of this resolution is so great that no one dares to ignore it. And with the exception of the second one, which is aimed at the Crusaders, the first and third of this resolution are aimed at a large group of nobles!

In this day and age, the noble family has been passed down for many years. Although with the passage of time, the titles of many great nobles also became lower and lower. But it is undeniable that every nobleman who owns a territory has a group of private armies of different sizes.

Private armies, as the name suggests, are not directly allocated by the state. But this does not mean that as a nobleman you can endlessly feed your troops, and of course many nobles can't afford to do so.

In Lordaeron's past history, there were many nobles who owned territory. With the exception of some of the larger nobles, the smallest of the smaller nobles may be the size of a village, while the largest may be the size of a large town.

The size of the fief determines how many soldiers you can support, and obviously a nobleman with a small fief will not be able to support many soldiers.

But what about some of the great nobles? They often control hundreds or thousands of kilometers of land, and can develop their towns into large cities.

These nobles will be able to support more soldiers, but that doesn't mean you can recruit your own private army without limits.

Even if you can raise it, it's not going to work.

The laws of Lordaeron clearly defined the size of each nobleman's private army, which was punishable by treason.

According to Lordaeron's law, a baron could have 100-200 guards, 200-300 viscounts, 300-500 counts, 400-600 marquises, 500-700 dukes, and 1000 archdukes.

With the exception of the Grand Duke, all other titles of nobility have a highest peak. As long as you have the money and you have enough supplies, the baron can also raise enough for 200 guards.

It should be noted that the number of guards of these nobles was recorded and recognized by the kingdom. The private army of the nobles was not normally subject to the dispatch of the king and the council, but when the kingdom was invaded by foreign enemies, all the nobles needed to hand over their armies to the kingdom for unified arrangement, and the food and grass of the private army also needed to be provided by the nobles themselves.

However, for well-known reasons, no matter how big a country is, no matter how noble the nobles, the size of their private army cannot exceed 1,000 people.

This law, which was strangled around the necks of the aristocracy, was initially well enforced. But over time, this law was also torn out by the aristocracy.

Lordaeron's laws limit the number of guards per nobleman, but in order to make them serve their nobles to the death, they are given a special honor.

Knight!

This is a title that is extremely close to nobility!

However, the status of nobility is innate, and the status of knighthood is acquired by training.

In fact, most of the paladins in the hands of the silver are selected from among the knights. They may have been loyal to the king or other nobles.

In the early days, noble families would place children below the eldest son in the family of a lord or another nobleman. From about 8 years old, they were sent from their parents to other nobles to learn knightly education. And these people who are responsible for teaching these are often hostesses. At this time, the identity of the child is a waiter. He learned how to be a polite and cultured gentleman.

Etiquette, appearance, conversation, attitude and many other social rules need to be learned by him, and sometimes they have to act as the attendants of the lord and nobles.

When he was fourteen or fifteen years old, the boy would further learn how to be a soldier for the squire, followed by the male nobles. Horseback riding, the use of various weapons, and the art of warfare are the key points of training. When the lord fights or competes, it is a good opportunity for him to intern.

But that's not all he has to offer.

He shall also perform the duties of his attendants; The lord eats, and he waits on the side; The lord hunts, and he will follow him to the right and to the left; The lord marches, and he keeps and cleans all kinds of weapons and mounts; The lord was unfortunately wounded, and he had to go to the rescue, but he did not have to participate in the actual battle. In short, from the lord's usual guidance and actual observation in wartime, this squire learned the way of knighthood - to be a good knight.

After more than a decade of training, at the age of about twenty or twenty-one, after a ceremony, he would officially become a knight from squire. The ritual was as simple as a dignitary, usually a lord who trained him, to tap the back of the recipient's neck with the face of his sword.

Becoming a knight means that you will be treated like a nobleman, you can go in and out of high society at will, you can wear gold and silver, and you can wear velvet fur clothes. You can attend banquets held by various nobles, and if you make a name for yourself in defending the kingdom against foreign invasions, you can easily be promoted to a nobleman with a real title.

Just like all new things, it always gives people a good feeling when it is most open, and people will subconsciously take care of it.

However, after a long period of time, when people get tired of it, they will slowly forget about it. But if one day it is discovered that this thing has a greater use, the nobles will hold it tightly again.

The same is true for knights, who have been trained hard at the beginning is undoubtedly worthy of recognition. Each of them is synonymous with the elite.

However, as the peace of the country continued, the children of the nobility gradually became reluctant to accept this harsh training. They were reluctant to spend a lot of their time on it, enjoying the benefits of peace and leaving the knights behind.

Out of concern for their own safety and the safety of their families, the nobles began to accept the children of commoners into their families and receive knightly education. But the wait to do so was too long, and the nobles did not want to see such an outcome. So they chose a different method, one that kept them safe and increased their loyalty.

So, they directly selected powerful people from among the commoners and appointed them as their knights. This seemingly casual act surprised the civilians!

Compared to the unattainable class of nobility, the knight class was much easier for commoners. This kind of detachment from the commoner background changed the fate of his family and squeezed into the upper class was soon welcomed by the commoners.

So many knights from civilian backgrounds squeezed into the upper echelons of the kingdom until the orc-orc and natural disasters came!

Due to the long period of peace, the nobles did not fill their guards. After all, these knights need them to be fed.

However, during the orc war, the nobles were shocked to find that their knights resisted many scattered orcs who invaded their territory, although the knights suffered heavy casualties, but this was better than the loss of their own territory. Moreover, when the knights swore allegiance to themselves, they had already taken these things into account.

As a result, the nobles began to appoint commoner knights on a large scale. But soon they discovered a new problem, even if they recruited their knights, they still couldn't protect their territory well in the face of the invasion of the orcs.

Faced with this situation, how to bypass Lordaeron's laws and allow himself to recruit more soldiers has become the focus of the nobles' considerations!

Soon the nobles figured it out.

Knights charge into battle and need someone to cover their flanks, right? They need someone to keep and clean up their weapons after the war, right? Their horses need to be fed and cared for, right? If they're wounded, someone needs to get them out of the enemy line, right?

In this way, the knight needs a squire, a large number of squires. You need to be able to raise horses, cover the flanks, keep and clean up weapons, and more!

This is not against the laws of Lordaeron, they do not occupy the place of guards, they are just the attendants of the knights! They came to take care of the knights' daily life! Moreover, it doesn't cost a few bucks!

But what about the facts? The nobles took advantage of this excuse to stuff in a bunch of soldiers and took the opportunity to expand their private army!

In this way, the nobles survived the orc war. Due to the great contribution of the nobles to the country during the war, King Terenus acquiesced to the nobles' actions.

His actions undoubtedly fueled the hearts of the nobles, so that many nobles' private armies were expanded in this way.

Soon, the plague of natural disasters broke out again.

Those nobles who did not do so were destroyed by the onslaught of the natural disaster.

These lessons from the past undoubtedly aggravated the sense of crisis of the aristocracy.

Therefore, in this dark age, all the nobles with some strength are recruiting displaced people to form a militia guard. Expand the size of your private army to resist the invading natural disasters and hungry outcasts, or bandits and gnolls or something?

At this time, the nobles only had to open their granaries and take out the old and somewhat moldy grain. There were many outcasts with scythes and other things, who joined his private army and became the private army defending his estate.

Originally, this was nothing, even the royal family was wiped out by natural disasters, and the country fell. They won't be cared for when they do. Even if the state wants to take care of it, it has no energy.

But as soon as this resolution of the noble council came out, they were put on fire. They knew what kind of person Lord Harvey, the supreme commander of Lordaeron's army, was, and what kind of fighting power the crusaders under him had.

If the nobles don't go to him to report their private army, once they are convinced, it will not be too easy for Locke to rectify them.

But which of the nobles dared to tell the truth to Locke?

The Scourge War has been going on for several years now, and which of the surviving nobles does not have an army of more than 500 men in their hands?

How can they protect their territory without an army?

Besides, the family of the former king Terenus was a large family of inheritance, and he would acquiesce in the little tricks of the nobles. But will Locke do? He's a paladin! If he doesn't agree and asks you to disband the surplus army on the spot, will you be willing to do it?

Good! Even if they acquiesce in the trick of the squire, they will not let the nobles disband the redundant army! But for the sake of Lordaeron's future, you need to surrender command of the army. When the war is won, I will give you back the army. During this period, you need to bring all the logistics food and grass of the private army....

Just ask, unless the nobles are crazy, which one will accept this practice? Don't want the territory? Counting on Lordaeron's army? By the time they arrived, the robbers had already robbed the territory!!