Little by little, the canopy was swallowed up by darkness.

Night falls, and the sky is full of stars.

The cold wind blew through the treetops, making a whistle-like 'whining' sound.

A splendid magic caravan with the coat of arms of the Luther family galloped through the street, the carriage slowed slightly at the entrance of the Marquis de Luther's palace, and the doorkeeper ran out quickly, pushing the iron gate open in both directions, the magic caravan did not stop for a moment, the coachman used the most skillful skill to stick to the quickly opened gate, drove into the marquis's palace and stopped in front of the steps of the main building of the manor.

The guards of the Marquis's Mansion quickly ran over and opened the door of the carriage, and the Marquis of Luther, dressed in a splendid aristocratic costume, bowed his head and walked out of the carriage, with a hint of fatigue under his cold appearance.

Ascending the steps and seeing Surdak and Hathaway standing in the crowd at the door, Marquis Luthor stopped and looked at Surdak for him to come up and speak.

Under the light of the doorway, Surdak stepped out of the crowd.

"Thought you'd be here in two days, are you all ready?" Marquis Luthor asked, placing his hand on Surdak's shoulder.

The hand was thick and powerful, and it warmed Surdak's heart.

The Marquis of Luthor was a very charismatic person, perhaps because he had been in the position for too long, and he had a kind of non-angry and self-authoritative aura all over his body, and when people approached him, even their breathing would slow down a little.

Surdak turned his head to look at Hathaway beside him, Hathaway naturally walked between the two of them, holding their arms with both hands, and Surdak suddenly felt that the pressure transmitted from Marquis Luthor was reduced a lot.

"In the morning, Hathaway and Hathaway went to the quartermaster logistics office, where they bought some standard weapons, which can be regarded as the armament of the cavalry battalion." Surdak said as he walked.

Marquis Luthor did not expect that he would not only form a cavalry battalion, but also prepare all the armaments of the cavalry battalion.

This matter is of course nothing to those young nobles with family backgrounds, but Surdak's family is poor, and he became a knight by relying on his military exploits (impostor) a little bit, and later with his outstanding performance in Warzhmara City, he was jointly recommended by the Marquis of Luthor and the noble lord of Bena City to become a noble baron.

But now the real money has taken out tens of thousands of gold coins to form a cavalry battalion, which makes the Marquis of Luthor a little surprised.

However, the Marquis of Luthor did not know anything, he was slightly stunned, and said: "I heard that you have gained a lot from clearing the sand thieves in the barren land, I think it is a lot of gains, at least to help you solve the problem of war horses, but before you accumulate the formation of the knights, do not go deep into the heart of the desert to clear those sand bandits, as far as I know, those sand thieves have a very complex network of interests behind them, and they will not let you run rampant in the desert wantonly." ”

The Marquis of Luthor, fearing that Surdak did not know the details of the sand thieves, admonished him:

"Salta Province borders the northwest corner of Salta Province, the barren land belongs to Beda Province, this desert is a buffer zone between the two provinces, and the interests here involve some lords of Salta Province, so it is not appropriate to go too deep into the desert at present, at the beginning, Duke Newman led the Bednar Legion to try to open up the trade route between Bednar Province and Salta Province, but unfortunately it was blocked by some forces hidden in the desert, and the plan was finally forced to run aground."

Surdak didn't expect that there would be the shadows of other noble lords in this, and a cold sweat broke out on his back, and he said to Marquis Luthor:

"The barren land has been attacked by sand pirates in recent years, and this time I have cleared the oases on the edge of the desert, so that they have no shelter on the edge of the desert, and if they want to come to the barren land to plunder, they must at least pass through a dead land where there is no grass."

Marquis Luthor couldn't help but glance at Surdak again, and said: "Young people always have a rush to do things, you have to beware of those desert bandits who were driven away by you to fight back, they may not dare to trouble you, but you can't stop them from attacking and harassing other civilians in the barren land." ”

Hathaway saw that Marquis Luthor and Surdak were chatting very well, and the rest of them could barely interject, so she put their arms around them tighter.

After all, he was going to take away someone's daughter, Surdak glanced at Marquis Luthor with some concern, and saw that he was not annoyed by this, so he said cautiously: "I have asked all the villagers near the edge of the desert to move south, give up all the areas north of the Great Rift Valley in the barren land, and form militia battalions in the villages south of the Great Rift Valley, lay road networks, and build sentry posts, and strive to connect the southern area of the barren land into a whole." ”

Marquis Luthor's eyes lit up, he didn't expect Surdak to do so many things in the past two months after returning to the Barren Lands, and immediately said with great interest: "Have you brought the map of the Barren Lands here?" ”

He did not go to the hall on the first floor, but turned and pushed the door and entered a combat council chamber, followed by his retinue and several wives and daughters, all of whom remained outside the door, and did not enter with the Marquis of Luthor.

Surdak pulled out the map of the Badlands with countless lines drawn from his magic belt.

Although the rubbing plate has been simplified a lot, it still looks cluttered at first glance, but the Marquis of Luthor laid the map flat on the table, and Hathaway helped to flatten the two corners of the parchment map with a paperweight, and leaned next to the Marquis Luthor, staring at the map with a confused expression.

Marquis Luthor glanced at his daughter lovingly, and said gently: "Usually let you minor in war strategy and war art at the Swordsman Academy, you always have many excuses to shirk, now you can't even understand a delicate-level map, right?" ”

Hathaway glared at Marquis Luthor with some shame and said nothing.

Marquis Luthor looked carefully at the annotations on the map and said, "This map is very well drawn, not only fine, but also extremely clearly marked, and these suggested symbols are also very clever, at least so that people can know the general outline of the whole area at a glance, and the knights' guild and the town hall of the city of Highlanza do not have such a clear map of the area." ”

"This is what we drew little by little while patrolling the barren land." Surdak pointed to the line at the edge of the desert and said, "The map of the desert area has been depicted little by little in the last month, but we have destroyed all the desert oases, and there is really nothing to mark here. ”

Marquis Luthor looked up and motioned for Surdak to sit down in a chair beside him, the walls of the room were covered with maps, and if you didn't look closely, you would think they were covered with wallpaper.

Hathaway poured two cups of black tea for the two of them, and stood obediently behind the Marquis of Luther.

Marquis Luthor said to Surdak: "Next week, the legion will make the final assembly, this time the situation in the province of Bena is more complicated, and until the situation in the Tarapakant area is clear, I am afraid that the legion of the Constructed Swordsmen will not be able to rush to the Bailin plane to carry out the garrison mission." ”

The most elite troops under the command of Marquis Luthor are these two armored swordsmen, but they did not expect that because of the situation in the Talapakant region, they all had to stay in Bena City.

In the face of Lord MacDonnell's frequent movements, Surdak thought that Bena Province was a little slow to react, but he didn't expect that Bena City was secretly dispatching elite troops.

"Not only that, the Knights of the Langdon Family Construct stationed in the White Forest Plane have now withdrawn from the Berlin Plane, and the other cavalry and infantry regiments of the Langdon Family are also waiting for my legion to arrive at the station, and after completing the handover ceremony, they will return to the province of Bena." Marquis Luthor continued.

Only then did Surdak know what Marquis Luthor meant when he said this—the Bailin plane was empty.

Marquis Luthor said again: "This time I can't rush to stay in the White Forest Plane for a long time, the deputy legion commander Chester Archswordsman will be the supreme commander of the Luther family's garrison army in the White Forest Plane, tomorrow morning, you and I will meet with the Chester Archswordsman." ”

Surdak asked with some concern, "Well, what is the personality of that Lord Chester?" ”

However, he thought about it again, this Lord Chester should be a close confidant of the Marquis of Luther, and there should be nothing to worry about.

"Well, his personality is the same as his sword, a little too sharp...... Others are fine. Marquis Luthor smiled, but there was something intriguing in his smile.

Marquis Luthor brought Surdak to a wall, pointed to a map that looked like an eggplant on it, and said: "This is a map of the occupation zone of the Bellin plane, our Bena Province is located in Wilkes City, the central city of the Bellin plane, there are forty-three satellite towns radiating around this city, our Luthor Legion will be stationed in the eastern war zone of Wilkes City, you can choose a station among these twenty satellite towns." ”

Unlike other planes, after the Imperial army occupies the plane, it will vigorously develop several cities to watch each other, and the lords of the province of Bena occupy the White Forest plane, and only develop a central city with a portal, and the others are some satellite towns around the central town.

The Marquis de Luthor continued:

"But I want to remind you that the closer the town is to the central city of Wilkes, the longer it will be ruled by the Grimm Empire, and the better the security and order of the town, the farther away from the satellite towns of the central city, the worse the order, especially the towns on the edge of these territories, which have recently had frequent conflicts with the local natives, and there are patrol missions every day, and the garrison is also responsible for hunting down those plane monsters that break into the territory, and the local garrison will often report the number of casualties."

"Of course, there is a bad side, and there is a good side." Marquis Luthor sighed.

"Those towns on the outskirts of Wilkes City are not easy to encounter Warcraft, and the army will have less extra income, and only the army stationed in the border towns will have the opportunity to contact the undeveloped areas of those planes, as long as these undeveloped areas are occupied, according to the laws of the Grimm Empire's four-three-three territory, you will have about forty percent of the ownership of the developed territory, and the territory is the foundation of the nobles. Those nobles who did not have land could only be down-and-out nobles, and those who had land would be called noble lords. ”

Surdak felt that the latter sentence was the subject of Marquis Luthor's words: he wanted to give himself a territory of his own in the White Forest Plane.

Being able to be favored by the Marquis of Luthor means that the land of this plane must be very rich.

Marquis Luthor ignored the fluctuations in Surdak's heart, and continued to him: "The first problem you have to face when you arrive at the Bailin Plane is how to deal with the contradictions between the imperial colonists and the local aborigines, while safeguarding the vital interests of the imperial colonists and ensuring the safety of their lives and property, you must also try to avoid unnecessary conflicts with the local aborigines, try not to suppress them by force as much as possible, and let them integrate into the imperial social system and maximize their own value. I think you might be better at that than I am. ”

He stared into Surdak's eyes and said, "You know, even I have the old ideas of the traditional aristocracy in my head, and sometimes I know that such ideas are not advisable, but I still can't avoid the deep-rooted class ideas. ”

The two men talked for a long time in the war room, until Lady Marianne pushed the door open from the outside and urged them, "How long are you two going to talk, everyone is waiting for you to have dinner." ”

Marquis Luthor laughed and pulled Surdak away from the map.

Hathaway was already leaning back on the most comfortable couch in the war room, dozing off with one hand on her chin.

Marquis Luthor said to Surdak, "Let's go and see what we have prepared for tonight." ”

After saying that, he patted Hathaway's face dotingly, woke her up, and said to Lady Marianne, who was smiling on the side, "It's just that Duck is willing to listen to my nagging, in the past, when Hathaway was called, she could fall asleep in her chair before I could say a word, like this...... It can make people so angry that they can't eat! ”

"I want to hear your nagging, there are a lot of people in the family, obviously you are too picky." Mrs. Marianne said disapprovingly.

Marquis Luthor shook his head, sighed, and said:

"Even if those fools want to listen to my nagging, they still need me to be in a good mood, they can't understand anything, what else do I have to say to them, that kind of fools think they command the most elite army, they will be invincible everywhere, but I don't know, which elite army is not created by themselves?"

Probably full of himself being woken up by the Marquis of Luther, Hathaway rushed from behind, grabbed the Marquis Luther's arm and said:

"Royal Knights of the Gripen!"

Probably in the entire Marquis of Luther's mansion, she is the only one who dares to act so boldly and recklessly.

The Marquis of Luthor gave her a tender look and said:

"Yes, there is only one exception, although the Royal Gripen is the most powerful Constructed Knights of the Grimm Empire, it is not a whole, it is a combination of the interests of the Grimm Empire, and it is a group representing the interests of the Dukes of the Empire, and each Constructed Knight in that group will be the future Duke of the Grimm Empire, and this cannot represent other Constructed War Groups."

When the four of them walked into the big restaurant, sure enough, the restaurant was already full of people.

In the past, only Hathaway and Lady Marianne sat next to the Marquis of Luther.

Now, Surdak had been seated next to Hathaway, and although the rest of the family didn't say anything, their eyes did exchange frequently......