"It's only temporary, but it's a good feeling to be a lord for a while."

In the stone tower in the center of Serindil, Byron leaned back in his chair and flipped through the papers in front of him.

Baron Zico and Baron Phyllis had returned to their territory, and Baron Edmund had led his troops back to Fort Gruenward after confirming that they were safe. Byron suffered heavy losses in this battle, with the number of troops reduced from the early 500s to 320, and a dozen more men were too wounded to continue fighting.

The horses also lost a dozen horses, which came from a rocket that set the stables on fire during a Rhodoc attack, burning the good horses.

As for weapons and armor, Byron has accumulated a lot. Every time the Rhodoks attacked, they would leave behind some corpses that they didn't have time to take with them, and although the two sides would exchange these corpses for each other to bury the next day, the armor and weapon Byron had no intention of returning it. After a great battle, the remaining equipment and captured weapons and armor in the town were enough for Byron to arm another 500 soldiers with equipment no worse than that of the Svadian light infantry.

The Rhodoks suffered a great loss of the plague at Fort Gruenwald, and they would not attack again in a short time, and Serindil was safe for the time being.

Byron needed to find a way to expand his army and maintain the strength of his army. Plus, as a temporary lord, he still has a lot of things to deal with, even though it may not be of his interest in the end.

In the first few days, Byron's focus had been on replenishing the troops, and he had long talks with James to send people to the north to procure all kinds of expensive medicines, so that the wounded soldiers could get better as soon as possible, and preferably recover their full combat effectiveness within a month.

There is also the upgrade of soldiers, because of the existence of the town of Serindil, the system determines that Byron can upgrade some level 3 soldiers, such as upgrading Swadia light infantry to Swadian infantry, mercenary swordsman to mercenary infantry, and guerrilla shooter to crossbowman.

However, the heavy cavalry was locked, and Thrindil could not mass-produce suitable cavalry cuirasses, nor could he find good horses outside of Byron's army, so he could not meet the equipment needs of the heavy cavalry. Moreover, most of the light infantry only had one or two levels of horsemanship, which also did not meet the standards of heavy cavalry.

However, it is always good to be able to upgrade soldiers, and after some upgrades, Byron spent 3,000 dinars and a large amount of equipment on hand to upgrade 140 soldiers. Therefore, although there were many losses among the soldiers, the decline in the combat effectiveness of the Byron troops was not obvious because of the general increase in the rank of the soldiers.

In addition, Byron's level was also increased by one level after the battle, and Byron was very happy to increase his charm to 12.

Similarly, the victory in the battle and the appointment of the temporary lord increased Byron's reputation by 30 and his influence by 10 points. I don't know what these things are used for in reality, but it doesn't hurt to have more.

The payment of pensions and war rewards is not a small amount of money, and the reason why the Peony mercenaries can be stronger than the same number of kingdom lord troops is because of the Dinar in Byron's hands. High wages lead to high morale, allowing them to bear higher war losses. Moreover, the cheating general system upgrade mechanism, combined with the independent provision of equipment, allows Byron to train troops in only half the normal time, and quickly allows soldiers to accumulate experience.

As long as Byron invests enough, can maintain this force that consumes more than twice as much as the same number of regular aristocratic troops, and ensure the normal supply of supplies, the number of bonuses and pensions after the war, the strong combat effectiveness of the Peony mercenaries can continue. Even if this expense is always a headache for Byron.

Before and after, Byron spent far more than 10,000 dinars, and because this battle was mainly defensive, there were not many opportunities for looting and capture for ransom, except for a small number of prisoners who could ask for a ransom of one or two thousand, and some captured equipment, Byron had no other direct entry in the battlefield battle.

But even so, Byron still had to replenish his own troops, and even more so, he had to form a guard force to protect his fiefdom. And since many of the caravan guards and hired riders were eligible for upgrades, Byron had to buy a batch of horses that could fight.

At this juncture, it is difficult to supplement these two things, or it costs a lot of money to supplement.

Because of the enemy on all sides, the lords of Swadia needed troops, and Haraus needed more troops to help him defeat the Nord army.

Mercenaries suddenly became a sought-after commodity, and during the time that Byron was guarding Serindil, all the mercenary units in Swadia that were somewhat famous were hired. Those scattered mercenaries were also hired by the petty nobles and the rich merchants, and Byron now traveled all over Svadia to estimate that he could not recruit enough mercenaries, and the price had increased several times.

Veterans with combat experience were also semi-forcibly drafted, forced to leave their wives and children to take up arms and go to war, as were citizens in cities who could bring their own weapons. For a short time, there were no ready-made soldiers in Swadia that could be recruited by Byron, a minor nobleman who had been sealed in the south.

And then there are horses, also because of the war, the price of horses has risen dramatically, and often there is no market. As a large cavalry country, Svadia had horse farms of various sizes throughout the country, and there were also barons and nobles who were responsible for managing the breeding and trading of horses. In the myths and stories of his hometown, the unpopular "Bimawen" in the heavenly palace is a rare fat difference in Swadia.

But even so, Swadia did not produce much military horses. Coupled with this war, King Harlaus recruited war horses all over the country, making it very difficult for even nobles to buy good horses.

As a result, many children of the nobility were unable to participate in this year's knightly competition and win the knighthood because they could not afford such an expensive war horse.

Byron had money, but he didn't want to spend it in vain. The old road doesn't work, so he tries to find a new way.

He summoned Fatis and Aren and asked them to do the work of the villagers in his domain. Don't look at these two villages, the population is not large, but there are many people who have nothing to do or want to make quick money. In addition, in the previous battle, although the Rhodok army did not persecute its own compatriots, it also forcibly collected all the supplies in the nearby area. In this case, there should be many people who can't find another way out.

These peasants can only start with new recruits, and the weapons and armor have to be provided to them by Byron, but they are also potential combat effectiveness, and they are judged to belong to the Rhodok Species Tree according to the system, and they can be upgraded to Rhodok's spearmen and crossbowmen, and Byron has also captured a lot of equipment, which is easy to solve.

Those people in the town may also be able to arm some people as town militia, responsible for patrolling and maintaining law and order, and giving them a certain amount of subsidies should also reduce some of the pressure on law and order in the city.

The horses were a little troublesome, but Byron knew that there were two stables and there should be quite a few horses. King Harlaus couldn't requisition horses for a few sons, and the bosses were probably selling good horses now, and the price was a little higher, and Byron could still get these horses before the other nobles.

And by the way, Byron can also choose a suitable good horse for himself, a good horse that is docile and strong, can both fight and give himself a long face.