Berserk, Total War: Second Son of Nobles

"Appoint Governor John as the acting leader of the new knightly order and provide the new knightly order with accommodation and training grounds. The food and funds needed for training will all be provided by the royal family. King Midland wrote this in the spring of 1446."

After seeing off the royal envoy, John and Laban began to discuss the establishment of a new order of knights. Both of them were shocked by the royal practice because in the history of Midlan, a new order of knights was created because of the promotion of an outstanding general, and then his cavalry unit would become a order of knights. There has never been such a saying of establishing a order of knights first and then selecting generals.

"Do you think the newly established knights can carry out your plan?" John asked Laban.

Laban had figured things out by now, so he responded, "It's too early to discuss this now. My first two steps of the plan will take at least until next year to complete. Don't be so anxious. I hope you can train the new Knights to be as good as the White Wolf Knights."

After seeing Laban off, John began to think about the problems currently facing his order.

Although the White Wolf Knights are now invincible on the battlefield, their numbers are still too small.

The normal organization of the Knights Templar is 5000 people, and John has only gathered two thousand-man teams. Although they have been invincible in previous battles, they will definitely suffer if they are surrounded or in a battle between multiple Knights Templar.

Therefore, the top priority is to add fresh blood to the Knights Templar to cope with the Knights Templar War that may break out at any time in the future.

So John called up the long-missed system again to see if he could recruit some knight troops through hiring or other means.

The first thing that caught his eye was the Frankish mercenary knights and the German mercenary knights worth 1400 gold coins. These knights were the main force of the Knights Templar formed by John, but they felt a headache when they saw that they only had 20 gold coins left.

It is true that in the fighting of the past two years, John made a fortune from the war, but he soon spent all the money on the construction of various large fortresses, education and medical care, purchase of food and other projects. Although these gaps were filled with various plundered wealth, he entered a new round of expansion after gaining new territories.

At this time, the territory had indeed become a fortress country as John had imagined. Whether on the mountains, in the dense forests, or on the vast grasslands, fortresses with white flags and black eagles could be seen. Even the villages were armed to the teeth, which was out of tune with the surrounding pastoral landscape. If it were an ordinary lord, he would have been bankrupted by these construction projects long ago.

However, there is good news for John. After Simon took charge of the slave trade, he quickly set a suitable price with the merchants in Isul based on his own experience, and obtained more than 20,000 gold coins after the transaction. This money alleviated John's financial problems and also gave John a new idea.

Since capturing slaves is so profitable, why not make the slave trade the pillar industry of the territory?

Of course, he certainly could not capture people within his own territory. Not to mention other people, John would feel guilty about it. Even the most loyal people could not tolerate a lord who would capture them as slaves at any time.

So now the Yoda people on the southern battlefield are like a large gold mine to John. The price of these soldiers is much higher than that of ordinary male slaves, not to mention their large numbers.

But John does not have the ability to do these things at the moment, so it is more important to replenish the Knights first.

Since hiring was too expensive, John began to look for alternatives in recruitment, and sure enough, he saw a type of soldier that could replace the hired knights in the panel.

Feudal knights, as the benchmark of ordinary soldiers and the mainstay of heavy cavalry, are better than the worst and cheaper than mercenary knights. The price is only 700 gold coins for 80 people. In other words, if feudal knights are used to fill the remaining gaps in the Knights Templar, only 40 teams need to be recruited, which costs much less than mercenary knights.

However, this type of soldiers can only be recruited in large castles, and only one team can be produced per week. Currently, there are three castles in John's territory that meet the requirements, namely Fort John, Fort Count Franche-Comté, and the newly conquered Chiusta. This was a surprise beyond John's expectation.

In this case, John cannot force it. He can use the system to recruit first. According to the battle situation, John can probably survive until next spring without any problem.

While John was recruiting knights, the recruiting office far away in Windham was also overcrowded. Of course, this was not an ordinary recruitment of soldiers, but a recruitment for the king's newly formed knight order.

"Don't push, don't push, dear noble gentlemen, please show your documents proving your noble family identities and line up to wait for the physical examination."

The officials in charge of recruiting soldiers were also frightened by these young nobles from all over the place. When they usually recruited ordinary soldiers, the recruiting officers could beat, scold, insult and take bribes from the peasants at will. But now the peasants were replaced by young masters from noble families, which made the recruiting officers who usually acted recklessly become cautious.

Unfortunately, these young nobles were either spoiled by their families since childhood, or were just like that from the beginning, and they did not treat these recruiting officers without noble titles very well, and some of them even started to make trouble.

"Hey, why are you so slow?"

"Are all of you officials useless? Why is it not my turn yet?"

"Are you untouchables responsible for delaying my becoming a knight?"

In another cubicle handled by these officials, there were other people gathered, followed by their parents, and the recruiting officer sat high up in a chair.

"Listen carefully, 50 gold coins to pass the identity test, and you need to meet the requirements for the subsequent physical examination. If you don't meet the requirements, you can leave immediately." The fat-faced conscription officer said as he lay on the table. His layers of fat were like a mountain of meat piled on the table. Opposite him was a row of parents with children. Although these parents were well-dressed, they were much more reserved in front of the conscription officer than those noble young masters. Obviously, the people in this team were not nobles, and most of them were children of merchants.

As bags of money were placed on the table, the fat and big-eared recruiting officer smiled. He was not afraid of being caught because basically all officials were like this.

As early as the Hundred Years' War began, this business of paying to go to the battlefield as a knight began to spread to countries such as Midlan and Juda. Due to financial problems, the king at the time acquiesced to this gray industry.

When a person pays enough money and successfully survives on the battlefield, he will be granted the title of knight, but without territory and it is not hereditary. However, even so, there are still many people willing to buy a noble birth.

Of course, true nobles would not acknowledge this kind of origin, so these knights who had not been canonized by a feudal lord were also called honorary knights, which was enough to scare the common people. If they met true nobles, they would inevitably be ridiculed.

It is very easy to identify these people. All you have to do is ask them to show their noble documents, which will state that someone was conferred the title of honorary knight in a certain year.

However, in the highest-level office of the Recruiting Department, the Director General of the Recruiting Department was being attracted by letters one after another.

"The Count of Poitou, the Count of Charente, the Count of Brittany, the Count of Loire... These counts have really spent a lot of money to help their children achieve success." The general manager was very moved when he read the letters of request and the promised rewards.

At this time, the secretary beside him said worriedly: "General, this conscription is not for ordinary standing troops, but for the Knights, and their requirements are too outrageous. There are 5000 places, and the Count of Poitou bought 100 places for the children of various nobles in his territory. Almost half of the others have been reserved in advance."

The chief knew that his actions were unfair, but in order to maintain his dignity, he still said, "This is what the higher-ups said. As people working under them, I'm afraid it's not easy for us to disobey them."

Seeing that his boss was still obsessed with money, the secretary quickly said:

"Sir, let's not talk about anything else. The Count of Brittany wants to give his second son a position as a thousand-man commander of the Knights. Can we appoint him? Even if we do, and send this group of people to Count John, he will know at a glance that most of them do not meet the requirements. If he tells His Majesty the King about this, we will definitely be punished."

After hearing what the secretary said, the general manager immediately came to his senses and said to the secretary: "What should we do?"

The secretary pondered for a moment and said, "The best way is to reject them all, but that would make you too many enemies. My suggestion is to reject the requests of the minor nobles, then recruit some of the children of the great nobles and arrange temporary positions according to their requirements. Tell the outside world that it is convenient for management, and then replace them if Earl John feels that they are not suitable. This way, we can satisfy some of the needs of the great nobles, and Earl John will not be able to see too much trickery."

"Hahaha, you really understand me. When the money is allocated, I will give you a part of it." The general manager patted the secretary on the shoulder and said.