Mount and Blade System: Start from Pioneer Lords

“So you think you have numbers, huh? Why don't you come on up here and let Grandpa see if you're all softies!”

Several orc gatekeepers laughed boisterously.

More and more people from Highcliff Hold were drawn over by the commotion. Those on the periphery even had their thumbs on their arrow nocks, watching coldly. If the other side made the slightest move, an arrow would pierce their heads within a hundred paces.

The soldiers' faces flickered, their Adam's apples bobbing frantically. At that moment, they felt like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. But if they dropped their weapons, they would appear weak. An unspeakable tension grew more and more intense.

“What are you doing? What the hell are you all doing? Trying to rebel?”

Before the person arrived, a loud voice roared out, just as the atmosphere reached a critical point.

A young man in well-made plate armor strode forward, pushing aside several orcs with a dragon-like gait, appearing before everyone.

He glanced around and instantly understood everything. He kicked the butt of an orc beside him, who looked like he was thinking, 'Old Man's here, you're all gonna get it now': “Put your damn weapons away! They're for fighting enemies, not for fighting our own people.”

At his command,

Swish, swish, swish – a uniform sound rang out.

The orcs, still fuming, put away their weapons and marched away in neat steps, in teams of ten, their movements almost identical. The people on the periphery calmed down and continued to patrol the town, preventing any soldiers from hiding in corners and preparing to cause trouble.

Earl An do, who happened to walk out at that moment, was inevitably deeply shocked. He knew that this kind of discipline and formation was often so strict that only the best honor guards of each country could master it.

But that was the result of specialized training, and now it was easily mastered by a wilderness unit from what was known as a cultural desert.

Moreover, this kind of cohesion…

Earl An do thought of something. Even elite legions like the Deberre would collapse under pressure once their commander was killed, no matter how elite the soldiers were.

But he seriously suspected that if the Lion Hunter Knight, the main general of this unit from Highcliff Hold, fell, then the enemy would probably face an even more violent counterattack from this unit.

He himself had a very high reputation in his own army, but he was probably far from being able to achieve this level.

Those soldiers who had been trying to grab a quick profit breathed a sigh of relief. If they hadn't been put on the rack, they really wouldn't have wanted to start a bloody conflict with this so-called "backwoods militia."

Fortunately, the Lion Hunter Knight was quite reasonable.

“Lord, your subordinates…” They sheathed their swords, and a one-eyed swordsman, apparently an officer of this troop and wearing leather armor, stepped forward.

“Get out!”

“Hahaha.”

The orc guards, who had been feeling aggrieved after being kicked, immediately laughed boisterously.

The one-eyed swordsman was stunned, but looking at the Lion Hunter Knight who was sneering at him, he didn't dare to say a word. After a long time, he finally squeezed out a “Fine.”

Then he led his soldiers away in a dispirited manner.

Probably after this incident, these soldiers would know that this barony was already owned by someone else.

“Old An, these are all your soldiers, right?”

The lord had already seen An do hiding in the dark and walked over with a smile, putting his arm around the other's shoulders.

“Are you angry that I did this?”

“You are now famous for breaking through Kalia Town, killing three powerful summoned Stone Golems, and capturing a baron. Your reputation is so loud that no one dares to be angry with you,” Earl An do glanced at him, saying it with a rather sarcastic tone.

“Actually, it's just a matter of timing and opportunity making a hero,” the Lord of Highcliff Hold said, with a thick face, trying to wave his hand as if it were nothing.

Earl An do looked at him again, not expecting that this rough man, who had always had a boorish image and no aristocratic demeanor, could say something that made people couldn't help but think deeply.

“In fact, these guys are a little too arrogant. I was just worried that no one could suppress them, and you saved me some effort,” An do peeled off the lord's arm and said as he walked outside.

“No matter what, this town was taken down by you, your contribution is the highest, so this barony naturally belongs to you. I will go and warn them.”

He waved his hand and left without looking back.

Obviously, he knew that the next step was the more realistic part of looting the house, so it was inconvenient to stay here.

“Brother-in-law, I didn't expect this earl to be quite worldly.”

Mill, who had been acting as a personal attendant beside the lord, watched the other's back and said with emotion.

“Worldly? You still need to be strong to forge iron. If you change someone else, you'd probably have to argue for days over the distribution of this barony.”

Li Wei shook his head, pressed his sword, and turned to walk into the castle.

He forbade Highcliff Hold from looting and robbing, which meant looting those unarmed civilians.

But the wealth inside this castle was spoils of war, which they deserved. They were just here to collect it reasonably.

Kalia Town was a very ordinary agricultural town, and the barony there was naturally not very luxurious.

Apart from the outer walls, the buildings inside included the three- or four-story main castle building in the center, as well as stables, warehouses, and kitchens.

Naturally, there were also the chefs, maids, servants, and grooms who originally belonged to the castle.

These poor people only knew that something big had happened recently, otherwise their baron would not have transferred a large number of soldiers to garrison Kalia.

But they didn't expect that an army would attack. Therefore, until the castle was breached, they were still confused. Then they immediately knelt down tremblingly and surrendered, praying that this group of soldiers, who didn't know where they came from, would spare their lives.

Li Wei wasn't interested in bullying a few unarmed ordinary people. He gave them some rations and told them to leave the castle with their belongings and find a place to live.

Then the orcs began to search the castle for spoils of war with a fine-tooth comb.

Soon the orcs moved all the things they found to the castle hall.

Fine swords, paintings, and everything else were placed on the empty space in the hall.

An orc carried a beautiful wooden box the size of a head and placed it on the table.

In mid-air, a cold light flashed, and the iron lock cut neatly and fell on the table. Hogg's scimitar had already been sheathed.

“This swordsmanship is already three parts like mine!” Li Wei gave Hogg a thumbs up.

The lord opened the box, and the next moment couldn't help but exclaim loudly: “Damn it!”

The shiny gold coins and various jewelry in the box dazzled him.

The surrounding orcs, who were holding bowls and gobbling up food, thought that some treasure had been discovered and quickly wiped their mouths, stretching their necks to come over and broaden their horizons. As a result, they found that they were some useless trinkets, and they all said “Tch” and squatted on the ground to eat heartily.

For them, this thing was not as real as the fist-sized meat in their bowls.

After a battle, nothing made them happier than eating a delicious meal.

“You dumbasses don't know anything,” the lord happily put all these gold coins and jewelry into his inventory.

His system space was not infinitely large, but there were still a few slots left, which was more than enough to hold this money.

He didn't expect that this Baron Regulo was quite rich. There were about two thousand gold coins alone. If he replaced other antiques and valuable items, he could probably have about five thousand gold coins.

This made the lord, who was barely making a living, feel like he had become rich overnight, and he couldn't wait to run to Gonda's Canary Garden, a den of money, to experience the treatment of the nobility.

“Brother-in-law, look what this is?” Mill quickly ran over with a few books, shouting, “I found this in a bedroom, and it was hidden in the cracks of the cabinet. If I hadn't accidentally touched the switch, I wouldn't have been able to find it.”

“Bloodline Aura…” Li Wei took them over and looked at them one by one, but after flipping through a few pages, he quickly lost interest: “A low-level Aura secret book, it should be the Durant family's family heirloom, it's useless to you, but you can take it back to Highcliff Hold for others to practice.”

He casually threw it to Mill, and then looked at the next one: “A Bin…”

“Cough cough, this thing is too evil, it will definitely lead young people astray.”

“Brother-in-law, do we still want it?” Mill blinked, very curious.

Li Wei said with a compassionate expression: “The content of this book is like a flood, I will destroy it to avoid harming the kingdom's youth!”

Then he immediately rolled it up and stuffed it into his clothes.

This knight novel is divided into upper and lower volumes. After Li Wei finished reading the upper volume, he had been very interested in the follow-up plot with a learning attitude.

But he was already a lord, and he couldn't bring himself to ask Rolina to help him buy this kind of knight novel.

He didn't expect to see the lower volume here now. This Baron Regulo was really his blessing!

“…” Looking at his brother-in-law's hypocritical appearance, Mill was speechless.

“Have those prisoners been handed over to Earl An do?”

After completing something he had been thinking about, the lord's good mood was beyond words, and he asked about some trivial matters.

Highcliff Hold was not interested in these soldiers at all, but wasted food, so they simply did a favor and handed them over to An do.

“Yes, all the prisoners have been handed over to them.” Layton nodded. The earth goblin was lying on the table, writing and drawing with a quill. As Highcliff Hold's military officer, he also worked as a civil affairs officer, and was currently recording the spoils of war and the consumption of logistics materials.

“Lord, the food we seized here is enough to support all our military activities in the Southern Border, and there is even a surplus.”

He even exclaimed: “There is so much food, it is completely unimaginable that it is something that this town can have.”

“Normally, there are at least hundreds of thousands of civilians under this baron's fiefdom. As long as the taxes collected are 10% higher, it is an unimaginable wealth,” Li Wei was not surprised. He picked up the document and glanced at it, and was also a little surprised: “So much? It seems that this baron is purely treating the civilians under him as livestock.”

In fact, the output and income of a territory are not difficult to estimate.

Especially a small barony. When he saw the data on paper, Li Wei almost thought that this Baron Regulo was an earl.

The taxes he collected were probably so high that it was unimaginable. The farmers of Kalia probably had to owe this guy money after paying taxes.

Even hanging him on a lamppost would not be enough to eliminate his sins.

But this seems to be the status quo of this world. The so-called civilians are actually slaves of the nobility.

Although Deberre's laws strictly prohibit nobles from killing civilians, how many people actually abide by them?

Even knights who take the Eight Virtues as their creed still have their own manors and servants.

It can only be said that in this world, not becoming a noble is worse than being a cow or a horse.

When the sun set, the horizon was like fire. The Northern Border army in Kalia Town had divided their respective garrisons and started to make fires and cook, with smoke curling up.

Due to King Deberre's ban on the war affecting civilians, coupled with Earl An do's intervention, the soldiers ultimately did not rush into the civilian area and directly start a series of horrific atrocities.

However, the chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep in the livestock sheds suffered, and were driven by the soldiers to the open space to be slaughtered.

If they couldn't satisfy other desires, they would satisfy their appetite. Most of the time on long marches, they were gnawing on dry food, which had long made their mouths taste bland. Now, being able to drink a mouthful of fresh meat soup for free in the cold season was definitely an unspeakable comfort, enough to soothe their empty hearts.

In the civilian area of Kalia Town, Fatir was wearing a simple robe and providing treatment here.

But the people she was treating were not injured soldiers, but civilians.

“I can't believe you're so kind-hearted.” The lord walked out of the darkness with his hands in his pockets.

A group of civilians with pale faces and thin bodies immediately looked at the young man with fear, who was obviously on the same side as those soldiers.

Li Wei looked at these civilians. Most of them were thin and their cheeks were sunken, obviously struggling to make ends meet. The cotton clothes on their bodies had been patched countless times.

Among them, there were many unlucky people who were unfortunately injured in this war. If they did not receive effective treatment, they would soon die in some unknown corner.

Some children had red cheeks and frostbite all over their hands.

“Li Wei, I also came from a farmer's family. If the bishop hadn't brought me back to the Holy See, my situation would have been the same as theirs.” Fatir touched the dirty head of a little girl. Under the surge of magic, the girl's frostbitten little hands quickly recovered.

Li Wei also wanted to touch the girl's head, but the little girl immediately hid behind the saint Fatir with a look of fear, so he had to give up.

He sighed in his heart that the little thing Buji was still likable, but fighting was really a hard job. The lord couldn't bear to bring this little thing to suffer, so he coaxed it for a long time and left it in Highcliff Hold for Tina to take care of.

“How many people can you save by doing this?” Li Wei was not like those nobles, completely regarding these civilians as livestock, but was just stating a fact.

“I don't know how many people I can save, I only know that if I don't do it, I won't be able to save anyone.”

Fatir chanted for a moment, and a sacred light enveloped these civilians.