The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

At the firing range, as the distant target was burned through, Laurie muttered, flicked the ray gun in his hand, and said, "It's no good. Although it increases the rate of fire, the overheating problem is too big. In comparison, it's a bit of a loss."

White, the instructor at Winterhold, swallowed hard as he looked at the ray gun in Laurie's hand.

"Want it?"

Laurie looked at White with a mischievous grin.

"Call me 'good brother,' and I'll give you my ray gun."

White paused, the word "good brother" almost escaping his lips, but he immediately gritted his teeth and lowered his head, as if admonishing himself, "White, how could you be so depraved? You are carrying the burden of Lars's remaining army on your shoulders."

But after glancing at the burnt-through target in the distance, White couldn't help but reach out his hand again.

Yulanda, who was standing to the side, couldn't stand it anymore. She wondered what the two bearded men were arguing about, so she simply said, "If you want the ray gun, just tell the lord directly. I heard that the Gray Collar is already researching new ray guns. There will always be an old one that works."

"Now you are the Governor."

Laurie corrected.

"And you don't understand, this isn't just about a ray gun, it's about Lars's army."

Yolanda shook her head, somewhat confused. In her view, since the lord—no, the governor—was the head of the Lars family, shouldn't the army also serve the governor? What was wrong with that?

After all, Yolanda, who was born in Fasen Town, grew up in a very conservative knightly family. The knights of Fasen Town were mostly just there for show. So, after Jefferson joined Lind, it was no surprise that the knights of Fasen Town were incorporated into the army and received the same training as the Gray Collar First Army.

Although it was hard work, for the majority of the knights who were just carrying pitchforks and not true knights, the treatment was far better than before. Of course, some people who did not meet the standards left the knights, but their numbers were not large. These people could only be said to have returned to normal life and devoted themselves to the great construction.

But the remaining army of Lars in Winterhold is different. Winterhold was originally a place where soldiers and civilians were inseparable. Even now, with the help of Sean and the Grand Elder, who have screened out a large number of mediocre people, there are still several thousand soldiers left.

Its size has completely surpassed that of the gray-collar and white-collar army.

If not handled properly, it can easily lead the gray-collar army astray.

Not to mention that Lars's remaining army was entirely a feudal army.

Although Lars's army was relatively disciplined, and the remaining troops were from Winterhold and did not have their pay deducted, so they did not have the bad habit of looting, they were able to withstand the combined attack of Doug Lars at that time.

But they were only more human-like than the armies of the nobles.

The absence of a general habit of looting does not mean that individuals are free of it. The old officer class, with knights as the main force and squires as the secondary force, had virtually no power to restrain its soldiers. In this world, soldiers looting was practically an unwritten rule.

Now, the military discipline of the gray-collar workers not only requires daily drills, but also prohibits looting. If they steal a chicken from a villager, they have to compensate and apologize. Many Winterhold soldiers feel that they have served in vain.

Getting them to abide by the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention is even more difficult.

But the real problem lies with the knightly class within the army.

Laurie, being a former border veteran, led her team of veterans on a tour of the Winterhold army and discovered that the soldiers weren't unwilling to follow discipline. After all, the soldiers' benefits were quite high, making even the veterans with their bad habits feel somewhat embarrassed to go out and plunder again.

Moreover, the white-collar workers didn't treat the soldiers like peasants. The people there genuinely respected the soldiers who wore medals on their chests, which made the young soldiers very envious.

Even knights have never been treated with such respect, and those medals are not something that only knights and nobles can obtain.

That little brat named Darcy, who hadn't even grown any hair yet, was awarded a bronze-colored Sharpshooter's Medal for his excellent archery skills, and he walked around with his nostrils pointing to the sky.

Many young soldiers were unconvinced, feeling that if they had such equipment, they would kill more enemies than the enemy.

The real problem lies with the knightly class.

After all, the newly formed officers completely replaced the ecological position of the knight class. Lind's original plan was to disrupt all the soldiers of Winterhold and then have them led by officers from the gray and white collars. If that wasn't enough, he would promote soldiers from the First Army to become officers.

However, under the leadership and guidance of these knightly classes, officers of ordinary birth often find it difficult to truly control the army.

White didn't want the army that belonged to Lars to change its name to Roll, and even after seeing the Grey Collar's military equipment, he was still reluctant to accept it. Lind couldn't understand some of the feudal knights' ideas.

After the negotiations failed, White followed Laurie to the latest equipment testing ground. In the field, a knight wearing full plate armor carried a backpack with a ray gun and a firing gun on his back, and a sharp blade was fixed to each of his arm armors.

The soldiers in the field were firing molten fire rays at the tempered target with ray guns. After the rapid firing ended and the gun barrels began to smoke, the soldiers inserted the molten fire rays back into the slots on the side of their backpacks. The cooling arcane array on the slots was activated and began to cool down.

The soldier then took advantage of the opening to fire his rifle in rapid succession. Although the rate of fire was not as fast as the molten ray, the power was no less, and it was even more effective when the target did not have any enhancement runes, as it could directly break through the magic barrier.

Finally, the soldier demonstrated the hand blades on his arm armor.

As the soldier clenched his fist, the retracted blades on his arm armor sprang out, and the edges of the blades began to turn a burnt red.

Meanwhile, the arm guards and blades on the other side emitted the roar of chainsaws.

Both blades looked incredibly sharp, capable of cutting through iron like mud, which White greatly envied.

Laurie was just about to take this opportunity to brag to the knight from before when he suddenly heard a sound that made Laurie's hair stand on end.

"Lori!"

This sound is like going back to when you were a child and missed dinner because you were playing, and your mom called you by your full name when you got home.

A woman who looked like the head maid walked over quickly.

"You're using the lord's... the governor's budget for this? Didn't I already warn you not to make it into your so-called hand blade? It's troublesome to replace and even more troublesome to repair. The governor clearly said that it should be made into a regular sword style."

Upon hearing this voice, Laurie immediately shrank back and rushed forward to flatter him, saying, "Lady Lila, isn't this a case of 'practice makes perfect'? I just wanted to try it out to see if this arm-armored hand blade was any good. These are all normal adjustments, normal adjustments."

"You really didn't just want to make a toy to play with?"

Lila held the report in her hand and glanced sideways at Laurie.

"That's not true!"

Laurie immediately stood at attention.

"Then tell me, what have you figured out from all that testing?"

Lila lowered her eyes, no longer looking at Laurie, and instead began to look through the experimental report in her hand.

"At least the chainsaw sword won't work. Let alone mounting it on an arm guard, even using it as a sidearm would be extremely troublesome to maintain. The cost and damage rate are frighteningly high. To increase stability, you would have to increase its size, unlike the melting and cutting sword, which is efficient and easy to use, and the blade modules can be replaced at any time, perfectly meeting the lord's modular requirements, but..."

"only?"

Lila's report was almost at the end.

"It's just that if you want to reuse it, it will be a little difficult, and the cost of materials will be a little higher."

Laurie made a tiny gesture, but Lila sighed deeply after reading the report.

"Forget about reusing them. Let's use disposable materials. The territory can't afford alchemical materials that can withstand repeated melting and cutting arrays for the time being."

Laurie nodded and continued, "Although the chainsaw sword is more troublesome to maintain, the nuns seem to like it very much, and in some situations it is more advantageous than the melt-cutting sword. Could we produce some more specifically for the nuns to use?"

While marking up the report, Lila said, "The nun's unit is funded by the governor himself, so you don't need to worry about it."

"Okay, okay, then the matter of military equipment is settled?"

"I'll go and finalize it with the Governor. At least it's still within the budget, so there shouldn't be any problems."

After she finished speaking, Lila looked up at White.

White found it strange. Although Laurie was a bit slick, she was currently the de facto leader of the Gray Collar Army. Why was she bowing and scraping to someone who looked like a head maid?

Lars's men don't fawn over women. Thinking of this, White took a step forward, meeting Lila's gaze head-on, ready to demonstrate to Laurie what a real man is, exuding an air of "What are you going to do about it?"

Seeing this, Laurie immediately tugged at White and whispered in White's ear, "She's in charge of military spending."

"Hmph, so what if they're in charge of military spending? We knights of Lars don't fight for money."

But before White and Laurie could finish their whispered conversation, Lila said directly, "Report your Winterhold army's military expenditures and weaponry. The governor says your equipment and weapons need to be updated."

Upon hearing this, White's momentum, which was halfway up his head, immediately deflated, and his height shrunk to the same level as Laurie's.

"Okay, sister."