The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 952 The Four Great Knight Orders are Established!

"Alright!" Duke Joelster nodded. He had no objection to Roland's allocation. After all, with the king guarding the borders, it was necessary to strengthen the defenses. Defending the city didn't require many offensive units, but there had to be plenty of ranged units! Whether it was mages or archers, just stockpile them!

“The remaining main legion consists of the Dovenian heavy swordsmen…” Roland tapped the table, his eyes narrowing slightly.

“Swiftstream City doesn’t need those tin cans! There are better options in the North! They should come back to the capital!” Roland quickly figured it out.

The current defensive pressure on Swiftstream City is not high. Those slow-moving iron cans are practically doing nothing while squatting in Swiftstream City, after all, the dwarves to the north have more iron cans than they do! If the dwarves' iron cans are all breached, the kingdom's dragon rider commander will have been there long ago. Rather than letting these iron cans squat on the city walls and watch the scenery every day, it's better to take them to Lagrange City to put pressure on the Eastern Barbarians!

"You are right!" Duke Joelsteria nodded in agreement. He did not intend to interfere too much in military matters. After all, King Roland had centralized power quite well, and all the nobles were satisfied with the situation. If a hundred flowers could not bloom, then the only option was to let the royal family dominate for the time being. Otherwise, they would start fighting amongst themselves without waiting for Soren. In the future, when Soren held a banquet, no one would dare to touch their chopsticks if these nobles did not come!

“If the Royal Guard doesn’t move, they’ll definitely all be stationed at the palace!” Roland then led away another unit.

"Hmm!" Everyone nodded in unison. After all, the Royal Guard was something that had nothing to do with other people. In the end, they were the royal family's most loyal private army. No one cared how Roland disguised these people. Even if they were to divide the spoils in the future, these people were destined to have nothing to do with the nobles. You can't expect a marquis or earl to take away a squad of Royal Guards, can you? What are you up to? Are you planning a rebellion?

"As for the mages... the royal mages are stationed in Lagrange City, and the other mages should be distributed among different places! In the future, each city will need to build a magic hub, and it will be inconvenient without mages!" Roland continued to distribute the mages. Thanks to the powerful Yunfeng (ox and horse) sage, the kingdom is not inferior to others in the alchemy system! If everyone wants, a simple magic hub can still be built! Yunfeng will soon be working on this matter. It is not required that these magic hubs can activate city shields to protect the city from forbidden spells, but at least they can immediately issue warnings after being attacked by the enemy, instead of relying on cavalry, air knights, and magic carrier pigeons as carriers of information.

“Your Majesty…” Fenglin Youlan stepped forward. After all, he still had a group of mages under his command. Although they were just a bunch of weaklings who would be defeated after casting a forbidden spell, they were still a force to be reckoned with!

"The family's private army is yours, no one will take them away! But you have to be responsible for supporting them! You can arrange those people yourself!" Roland waved his hand at Maple Forest Orchid, not taking the mage group that could combine forbidden spells to heart at all. After all, even Maple Forest Orchid herself was loyal to him, so it was impossible for his private army to be so foolish as to rebel against the emperor, cast a forbidden spell on the palace, and then put Maple Forest Orchid on the throne, right? Putting aside whether it could succeed, the reputation of the McDougal family would be ruined from the Swift River to the Rune Sea! They were the kind of people who could sit at the same table as Brother Sima.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Fenglin Youlan frowned for a moment but quickly relaxed, then gave Roland a grateful look. He could feel Roland's trust! "Is it true that one who does not understand others will die for them?"

“Alright, now for the most important part! The division of the Knights…” Roland tapped the table, bringing the scattered crowd back to their attention.

“You mean Your Majesty!” Duke Giorstedia and a group of nobles looked at Roland with serious expressions.

"Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso, you can keep your family's knightly order as you see fit, wherever you want to put it! But like I said, you have to support it yourself!" Roland first nodded to Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso, after all, he was the only one who currently had a complete third-tier knightly order! It was also the kingdom's top-tier knightly order at present!

"Yes, sir!" Grand Duke Okrian Yaso nodded calmly. The matter of private soldiers was just a formality. Unless the state was truly in danger, an emperor directly seizing the soldiers of his vassals would be universally despised for generations, practically guaranteeing him a place in every comic book as a villain! "You too!" Roland glanced at Maple Forest Orchid. Although the Maple Forest Knights under this kid were half-crippled, they could still be used as cannon fodder for a few waves! However, Roland had no interest in the armies under his vassals. This wasn't a feudal dynasty, and Roland wasn't Qin Shi Huang or Emperor Wu of Han. There was no need for abstract unification or the "releasing military power over a cup of wine." Different times call for different methods; at least the Central Plains hadn't yet reached the "new version" where the emperor and the strongest army ruled.

"The rest..." Roland tapped the table in thought, while the others watched Roland's hands move up and down, their palms trembling with anxiety.

"??? Wait a minute! Why am I nervous? What does it have to do with me?" Marquis Al-Tegran Franz, who was watching Roland get so nervous that he started biting his nails, suddenly realized that he was more anxious than the emperor!

“Select one hundred third-tier knights from the Holy Light Knights Order and the Fourteenth Legion Knights Order to form a new Holy Light Knights Order!” Roland waved his hand. After all, the knights of the Fourteenth Legion were also Lagrange Vanguard Knights. Since they were of the same type, they naturally had a tacit understanding, and there was no generation gap from a forced merger!

"I will be the commander, and the vice commander... Renault!" Roland couldn't help but mourn for Renault in the distance.

"Wait! Never mind! Let Lord Omx take over as vice commander! Deploy him in the Lagrange City area!" Roland glanced at the system panel and came up with a plan.

"From the remaining knights, select one hundred to form the Fourteenth Knights of the Kingdom!" Roland declared without room for argument. The title of the Fourteenth Knights of the Empire represented the knights' faith, and Roland had no reason to shatter their beliefs. Retaining the original title was sufficient; reorganizing it would inevitably cause these knights grief. After all, who could bear to be disbanded so soon after their return? For knights whose honor was their life, it was worse than death. The only thing that needed changing was the prefix "Empire" to "Kingdom." There was no other way; the pot at home was only so big, and forcing a half-cooked meal would only bring humiliation.

"Commander Reno! This knightly order is to be deployed to the cities of Swiftstream and Lulong Fortress! The specific arrangements are up to Yunfeng and Reno!" Roland said, looking around.

"The Royal Knights of Rome remain unchanged in structure, with Maple Forest Ice Orchid appointed as their commander, and their base in the Lagrange City region!" Roland then finalized the destination of another knightly order. As the capital city, which faces the greatest pressure on the border, it naturally needs to concentrate its elite troops here. Roland did not repeat his past mistake of scattering his elite troops into a scattered mess.

Seeing that everyone had tacitly agreed, Roland glanced at Knight Commander Ravian, who was sitting silently in the corner with a blank stare, and quickly made up his mind.

"The remnants of the Holy Light Knights and the Fourteenth Knights will be incorporated into the Cross Bauhinia Knights! The commander will be Knight Commander Ravian, who will be under the command of Queen Nyx!" Roland said calmly.

"Boom!" Everyone looked up in surprise. Even Nyx, who was sitting on the side watching the show, looked at a loss. Not to mention Lavian, who was just trying to make up the numbers. The old man's dead face was now full of confusion and bewilderment. He looked at everyone in a daze, as if he didn't know what year it was.

"Hehe!" Roland smiled at Nyx. He had noticed this amazing number when he looked at the system panel. If all the knights directly under Lagrange were gathered together, there would be exactly four hundred! Roland decided to consolidate the knight order from three to four, and also give Nyx a little surprise.