The meal was not over yet, and messengers were already returning one after another.

There were four knights in the Barony of Miana, and in addition to this, two of the Baron's cronies also received knighthoods.

The knighthood and the fief itself cannot be hereditary, but the taxes collected from the temporary fief can be saved, and the house will not be recovered.

The descendants of these two families will continue to assist the baron until one of the descendants has made meritorious service, and then he will be knighted again.

Needless to say, Sir Severn was the baron's butler and was deeply trusted. It stands to reason that he had received enough to make him disobey the will of the baron who had served him all his life.

Among the four knights, except for one who is young, the remaining three are all adults, each with their own position and judgment, which needs to be carefully distinguished.

Fortunately, Sir Severn was very concerned about this matter, and seeing that Sherlock's unsuccessful cousins were fooling, he came out to reprimand him, and on the other hand, he secretly communicated with the other vassals, and knew about the thoughts of each of them.

The messengers brought back basically good news.

One knight supported Sherlock almost unconditionally, while the other knight didn't seem to want to support the unsuccessful guys, just unwilling to get involved in this inheritance battle, and verbally expressed his support.

The young knight who had inherited his father's title was not yet in charge of the council himself, and his mother, who was temporarily in charge of the family, was willing to support Sherlock.

Although it is not possible to provide a qualified knight, horseback servants and ordinary soldiers and peasants can still provide some.

The baron had Sherlock go to the young knight's house for a few days, and told him to set an example for the boy as an older brother, and the two of them played together. The child's mother was also full of praise for the sensible Sherlock.

Sherlock originally thought it was a relaxation after schoolwork, but now he understands the meaning of making friends with this family.

However, the distant water could not save the fire, and the old knight himself had gone to the town under his jurisdiction to gather men, and his son went to the nearby farmer's house to recruit people.

In times of war, serfs were of course unconditionally on call (if the master needed them), and tenant farmers and even freedmen were obliged to carry a fork, a rake, or a spear from the lord to fight for the lord for a certain time.

The same is true for knights, barons, and other lower and higher nobles.

Of course, many ancient traditions have been adapted to this day.

Nowadays, this obligation has been transformed into a fixed tax in some areas, and with the exception of a few serfs who have no personal freedom at all, tenant farmers and freedmen have to pay a little more money to their lords every year.

In times of war, the lord would use the tax to recruit troops from outside, or hire tenant farmers and freedmen in the territory, and use the remaining money to buy more weapons.

Of course, this kind of employment is still a forced conscription in nature, and it is impossible for a healthy adult male to refuse such a conscription unless he gives up everything he has to flee the territory.

It may sound cruel, but this system is still widespread in dozens of countries on the planet in the 21st century.

What's more, these people have nothing to do with Luo Ming.

Rather than putting yourself and your friends and acquaintances in danger, let these people who have nothing to do with you go first. It's just ordinary human nature.

It was not long before Sir Severn's son, Lake Severn, the young man who had forgotten to saddle his horse when he had ridden his horse, returned, followed by nearly twenty men.

All of them were young men, with rudimentary weapons such as pitchforks, hatchets, and sticks, and some wheels and door panels, as if intended to be used as shields.

Although the spirit is okay, there are no sick seedlings or disabled people, but this equipment looks like a group of rabble.

Even the poorest Black Iron mercenary should at least have a weapon that looks like that.

Looking at these people, Luo Ming muttered a little in his heart. Even if such a formation is used to strengthen the momentum, it is only enough to frighten ordinary civilians.

Such a team will never be intimidating to those who dare to defy the condemnation of the world and assassinate or even openly attack their relatives to fight for inheritance.

As if sensing Luo Ming's concerns, Lake instructed the servants to enter the villa and castle, and then said to everyone: "Armor or long swords are not cheap, and there will not be many in the entire territory. But simple spears and wooden shields are not difficult to make.

My family alone has eighteen spears and ten small round shields...... But that's also due to the fact that my old man is a sheriff. ”

The servants quickly took out their weapons, and then began to set up tents under Lake's command, and distributed food to some of the militia who had not yet eaten dinner.

It was already dark, and these things were almost done, Lake muttered.

"Why is the old man so abrasive......"

The speaker was unintentional, the listener was intentional, and Sherlock frowned sharply, standing on tiptoe and looking into the distance for a moment. But the knoll hundreds of meters away blocked his desire to look further into the distance, and he found nothing.

"It's not more than an hour to walk from here to town. “

As he spoke, he pulled out his pocket watch.

Before that, Aya had accurately reported the time of the old knight's departure until now: "It has been an hour and forty-eight minutes and thirty-two seconds.

Maybe something really bad is happening?"

"I can't rule out the possibility that it will take a lot of time to find someone, but it's best to be prepared. “

As he spoke, Luo Ming had already drawn his sword in his hand.

"Mr. Sherlock, grab a crossbow and go back to the castle.

Miss Granty, please come close and protect him, and Mr. Lake, find a few people you can trust to keep outside with weapons......"

After a few words of explanation, Luo Ming turned over and rode on the captured war horse.

Although he had never practiced riding, Aya immediately taught him the basics, which were easy to do with strong body control.

And he also deliberately exuded a trace of the apostle's aura, and the originally somewhat irritable war horse quickly became docile.

Riding a war horse around for half a circle, Luo Ming had already mastered the most basic skills with its cooperation.

With a shout, he rode out and quickened up.

In an arc, one man and one rider climbed the hill from the side.

Luo Ming immediately jumped off his horse, and it was too conspicuous to ride alone on the horse on a high place. He used the body of his horse to cover his left side as he glanced into the distance.

Although most of the sun had sunk below the horizon, the remaining light still allowed him to barely see the moving group of centaurs hundreds of meters away.