"Thirty?"

Lothar looked at the unkempt sergeants with "black" muscles and thin faces, and frowned: "There are only thirty defenders in a castle? ”

The guard officer laughed with a smile on his face.

Such a powerful lord would surely have thunder and wrath if he found out that his fiefdom was so poor and white.

Then pour the anger on your head again.

Although he is nominally a guard officer and a retainer of His Majesty the King, he does not even have a title, and in fact he is a servant.

"Doesn't there even a church in the castle where the lords can worship?"

The guard officer forced a smile and said, "There is only one prayer room, located on the first floor of your inner fort. ”

Lothar smiled: "Good, good, it's really a poor place." ”

The guard's heart was in his throat.

Fringira looked at the castle with some dissatisfaction: "It's so dilapidated here, I suspect that rats don't want to visit such a dilapidated place." ”

"When I ran away from home, I lived in the worst place in the Moldavian countryside, and it was like a royal palace compared to this place."

"Sorry ma'am, it's too shabby."

The guard officer said cautiously.

This lady has such a big tone, can't it really be a noble princess?

Heavenly Father is above, she shouldn't push poor old Leonard out and hang him because of the ruin here, right?

"I think it's not bad, there's nothing, and it's convenient for us to tear down and rebuild, for example, this inner fort, I plan to directly tear down and rebuild it into the lord's hall."

The guard officer stubbornly said, "My lord, if you stay here for a while, you will realize that there is no need to build a large construction project here. Ten years of Yogrus's taxes may not be enough for you to renovate a lord's hall. ”

The lord's hall is actually the inner castle in the city, or castle, where the lord and his family and servants live, although nominally a "hall", there will be at least three floors.

"Marles, what do you think of the blacksmith here?"

Marles was silent for a moment, then replied, "Barely usable, but inefficient, and I need time and materials to improve and tinker with the workbench." ”

"No problem, I'll give you a budget of two hundred gold coins of the finest Souledus, and please forge me a solid and durable armor as soon as possible."

Marles nodded, "I promise, it's going to be a very strong piece of armor." ”

"Soldiers, since the Fort of Jogruss is already in my possession, from now on, your personal dependence has been transferred from the royal family to my hands."

"Now, in the name of Heavenly Father, swear allegiance to me!"

Lothar raised her armed sword.

The officer of the guard and thirty soldiers, after only a little hesitation, fell to their knees and noisily swore an oath to Lothar.

"Hans, you get down on your knees too!"

Hans was stunned, then got down on one knee without hesitation.

"Tell me, officer of the guard, what is the name of that village to the west?"

The guard officer knelt on the ground and said without thinking, "It's Sego." ”

"Then Hans, my faithful squire, in reward for your bravery and skill, I give you Sego as your fief and promote you to knight!"

"Thank you, sir!"

Hans was a little happy that he had finally become an official knight, but at the same time he was a little confused.

He didn't understand why Lothar had given him a fief, but when he saw Ryan and Moder's almost shining eyes, he seemed to understand.

"Get up."

"I, Lothar of the House of Habsburg, swear in the name of my Heavenly Father that I will elevate anyone, regardless of birth, to knighthood, provided that I have done enough credit!"

His gaze swept over the faces of the more than eighty people.

In their faces, Lothar saw longing and anticipation.

And that's exactly what he wants.

"Moder, from today onwards, you will re-train the thirty new sergeants, and Ryan, you are responsible for the daily drills of the fifty veterans."

"Hans, you will be the commander of the Jogrusburg cavalry, and you can select from among them those who are good at riding or talented to become cavalrymen in the next ten places."

Modell, Ryan, all of them, they are now full of energy, and they want to show Lothar their efforts immediately.

Hans had a headache, and if he wanted to tell who had cavalry talent or not, and which one was so easy, he could only look at his past experience.

"Guard, tell me your name!"

The guard officer smiled and said, "My lord, you can just give me Leonard." ”

"You're in charge of procuring war horses and pack horses during this time, and I need ten Arabian horses of the highest quality, and the price doesn't matter - but it's about how I recognize you."

Leonard hurriedly said, "I promise, my lord, I will definitely buy a good horse at a good price!" ”

"Alright, go do what you have to do, take a break from training today, and go clean up your accommodation."

Eighty armored sergeants, more than enough to defend, but not enough to attack.

This era is, after all, the age of cavalry.

In a wilderness like the Holy Land, if you encounter desert bandits, you can't expect the infantry to run on two legs over the light horsemen who come and go like the wind.

But it takes too much time and effort to train a cavalry.

Training cavalry from scratch, as it is now, is the most time-consuming and laborious thing to do.

And the recruitment of knights is limited by the size of the territory... If there is no miner, why gather a large number of knights to serve him?

From Leonard's mouth, Lothar learned that there were only six villages in Yogrusburg, with an average population of about 200 people, and they were dependent on the Jordan River.

Combined, the population under his rule is also in the thousands.

But these are the poor people who are struggling to get enough to eat.

According to the mobilization of 1 out of 10, he can pull up hundreds of levies, which is really weak and pitiful even in Western Europe, which is full of petty aristocracy.

If he was to divide all the villages as fiefdoms, he could muster six heavily armed knights.

But if you rely on collecting taxes and cultivating cavalry yourself, a village's tax revenue for a year will not buy the armor of a cavalryman.

This is the reason why the feudal system of fiefdom is so popular in the world.

The Ayyubids and the Eastern Empire were able to support a large standing cavalry army because their territory was large enough and they were located in a trade node to obtain a large amount of commercial taxes.

As a Chinese person, the desire for farming is engraved in the instinct.

But Lothar had to admit that Jörügrysburg was not at all suitable for farming, and it was far from having the necessary conditions to become a land of dragons.

No wonder Baldwin IV would let himself not focus too much on territory.

Fortunately, Lothar is an open hanger.

The system has been activated, and next, he can get a chance to draw cards once a week, and if he draws all of them, there will be more than fifty followers in a year.

These are all his best teams, and they can all be used as officers.

Moreover, he can accelerate the process by completing various milestones, and in a few years, he will have a significant force at his disposal.