Money is a powerful tool. The development of the territory, the formation of private armies, and the maintenance of armaments all cost a lot of shiny gold coins.

As mentioned earlier, although the four major city-states and kingdoms of mankind are a whole on the surface, they are actually full of princes on the inside. The king's authority was largely limited to the capital and the direct territories of the royal family, and the nobles who were divided were somewhat beyond his reach.

If a nobleman's castle and territory were taken away by his neighbors, then he had better not expect to get the territory back as long as he went to the palace to fight the royal lawsuit...... Unless you have a strong friendship with the king enough to have him send troops to war for you, it would be nice to be able to give you a position in the court. Therefore, every noble lord will firmly guard his castle and territory most of the time, and dare not leave for a long time.

It is precisely because of this that the place where the noble lords spend the most money every year is the construction of castles and the development of armaments in the territory. In fact, it is very difficult for a miser who is really so unproductive that he is reluctant to pay a copper for the armed promotion of his territory is difficult to survive in this world, after all, hostile forces and thieves who wander and hide in the countryside are not good characters. Excessive stinginess with money often ends up being broken because of weakness, and ending up with both people and money.

And Kasha, as a wise and far-sighted lord, naturally did not skimp on the development of his armaments.

Due to the kingdom's decree that non-warriors, nobles, and knights were not allowed to be armed with metal armor and enchanted weapons, Kasha did his best to equip his army with the best quality hard leather armor and steel weapons mixed with a small amount of rare metals—the best that a non-commissioned officer of the kingdom's army could obtain without violating the law.

In addition, according to the kingdom's decree, lower-class nobles who own a territory (whether it is a direct canonization of the kingdom or a canonization of an upper-class nobleman) are allowed to form a guard of no more than 100 people. Counts belonging to the upper aristocracy were allowed to form a knightly order of no more than a thousand men as a private army, with the order of the marquis consisting of three thousand men and the duke of ten thousand. These guards and knights were used exclusively to defend the nobles' own domains or to the call of the corresponding kingdom to go on foreign campaigns. Once the number of armed forces owned by the nobles exceeds the number of establishments, they will be punished by the royal family on suspicion of 'rebellion' after being reported and exposed by others, with the title cut off and the death penalty at the worst.

It's just that as the saying goes, 'there are policies at the top, and countermeasures at the bottom'. While vigorously forming and maintaining private armies under their command, the nobles in various places also used to co-opt, control, or simply secretly formed a large number of mercenary teams as vassal armies of their own forces. At the same time, he also recruited farmers from among the people of his territory and used them as militias with short and simple training. Therefore, although on the surface, the private army strength of each noble leader is within the allowable range of the kingdom's decree, but in fact it is greatly exceeded.

For example, the Rog Knights of Kasha are currently in the establishment of 56 knights (including formal and probationary), and 973 sergeants belonging to the Knights. There were twenty-three knights under the five lords, and four hundred and seventy-six guards under the guard. The total number of armed forces in the entire Prairly territory is 79 high-end combat forces (knights) and 1,449 sergeants. The ratio of soldiers to civilians is less than 1:30, which is considered a ratio of soldiers and civilians that does not violate the law and does not affect the development of the territory.

In addition, Kasha also secretly supported a mercenary group of about 200 people in the county as a secret help. At the same time, he also actively has a good friendship with some adventurer teams or idle and lonely warriors in and around the county - even the 'Xuanyuan Adventure Group' that crosses the crowd is also included.

As for the militia, the Kasha did not form a similar force - not because they could not afford the expenses or because they cared for the lives of their subordinates, but because the militia had almost no combat power in real combat, and could be described as cannon fodder among cannon fodder that had no advantage in anything but numbers. What's more, once there are more militias, it will inevitably affect the development of people's livelihood in the territory. So Kasha had no idea of forming a militia at all, and at best sent the Knights to the villages of the territory during the winter slack to train the peasants in order to select the peasants who were suitable to become new sergeants to join the Knights or the Lords' Guard. It was only after joining the Knights or Guards that these peasants were no longer required to engage in production, but only to be in charge of fighting as full-time soldiers.

Even so, the cost of maintaining an armed force of more than 1,500 men is a significant expense each year. Kasha's Prali used to make an annual profit of about 50,000 to 60,000 gold coins, but after deducting the funds for armaments, this income would be reduced to less than 10,000 gold coins. If you don't have enough funds, you naturally have to be careful about some of your expenses on weekdays.

However, after cooperating with the Traversal, Kasha's Praley Collar suddenly became more financially prosperous. The first sale of the two new wines alone allowed Kasha to earn a pure profit of 100,000 gold coins, almost double the revenue of previous years, which made Kasha almost ecstatic. With this money, the castle can be repaired and strengthened further, and it can add a new batch of weapons and armor to the army under its command, and it can also raise the salaries of the sergeants under its command to gather people's hearts, and it can also build new villages and towns to increase the population of the territory and further strengthen it......

"This year is the last year before the next 'Year of Shadows'." Kasha looked at the document listing the financial status of the territory, and thought to himself: "While there is still time and sufficient funds, the armed forces of the territory must be further strengthened." ”

"At the very least, when the kingdom conscription order is issued, you must have enough strength to protect yourself, and then try to obtain new meritorious ......"

－

On the other hand, the traversers who lived in Prailly's territory did not let go of their practice.

The crowd had a laissez-faire attitude towards the proceeds of the new liquor business that they had cooperated with the lord Kasha, and left it to their newly hired butler to take care of it. Only when you need to use the money will you go to the vault to withdraw money and spend it.

As to whether the stewards they hired would covet their wealth, they said they were not worried. Not to mention how the other party would face the anger of more than thirty people whose strength was comparable to that of a mid-level or above warrior if he really had bad intentions, just talking about the background of this butler doomed her to be impossible to betray.

That's right, it's 'she' and not 'he'. The butler hired by the traversers was a woman, or more precisely, a young girl.

The maiden's housekeeper's name is 'Alyssa', the daughter of a small vendor who runs a grocery store in Praile's territory, and although she is about the same age as the Travelers, she has been running the store for her father, the owner, for at least two years, and is comfortable with finances.

And the reason why she was willing to come to the manor of the traversers to apply for the position of steward was not so much because of the high salary offered by the traversers, but because of the gratitude.

This has to talk about Alyssa's family. She had an older brother who was a warrior in the Rogge Order.

And the name of this warrior is 'Allen'.