I Was Reincarnated as a Baron in Another World

26 – The road to a rich country and a strong army (2)

As a result of rolling and conscripting soldiers who were mercenaries in all directions, I was able to gather about 2000 serfs as a standing army.

The population of our baronial territory is about 100,000 people, excluding slaves, so if you include the soldiers and knights I hire for maintaining peace and defending the territory…

Roughly 3% of the population is a soldier, which exceeds the number of soldiers that can be supported in any country.

Of course, since I’m copying food and money with sugar and privately owned farming, I can handle this much.

In particular, no matter how much food was consumed and sold internally until this year, now all surplus food has to be sold to Hamburg.

By giving them enough food and a salary, they should turn the domestic economy into soldiers, and then develop the village under the castle of Creutel into a ‘city’ level.

While I was in the office watching my work and making various plans, Balt slammed the door open and came in.

“Your Excellency, we have gathered all the soldiers in the training ground outside the castle.”

“Balt, be quiet. I mean, act a little more appropriate to your position. What will Helmut say when he sees it?”

Balt said with a serious expression, as if he remembered what Helmut was saying to him.

“Please don’t tell that guy. How worried would the boy be if a nobleman who caught me and received a ‘knight’ lived like that? I mean, they made a fuss while doing it…”

“I will consider it. let’s go.”

**

When we went to the training ground outside the castle, there was an enormous amount of weapons and armor piled up, and many trainees were lined up in front of it.

“Hey, look at that weapon.”

“… are you going to give it to me when you get trained and become a soldier?”

“You idiot, you mean putting it in the military. Can’t you hear me?”

“You may not understand. Zach, why are you talking so much?”

When Helmut, the head of the training center, and Weiss, who was the manager of the training center, stood in front of them, all the trainees became quiet.

As Weiss stood behind Helmut, Helmut said with an evil smile.

“Welcome to taking the first step towards becoming a soldier! I am Helmut, the head of this training camp and a knight of His Excellency Baron Kreutel! From today, to make you who can’t even step properly into a soldier who has learned how to walk and spear! I myself have borne this heavy burden!”

Hearing this, the serfs who enlisted as soldiers laughed and chatted in small voices.

“No… No matter how much I can’t even match my feet?”

“No matter how dark-eyed I am, I know how to stick out my left foot when I step left, and I know how to stick out my right foot when I step right… hehehehe.”

“Could there be such an idiot?”

Leaving the babbling soldiers alone for a moment, Helmut lowered the halberd he was holding into the ground.

A ‘bang’ was heard, and the noisy serfs fell silent.

Confirming that, Helmut smiled and spoke.

“I understand that you think so. When I was a recruit, I didn’t know why it was so difficult to keep pace! Okay, if you just walk in line with your first attempt in the ritual training conducted by the instructors, I will exempt you from training for one week from tomorrow by the authority of the Headmaster! And on my honor, I guarantee meat every day.”

Upon hearing this, the faces of the serfs lifted, and the noncommissioned officers who were mercenaries who had at least once experienced the notoriety of ceremonial training sympathized with the soldiers.

“Then, from now on, we will organize a ‘platoon’ to train together. And I will set up camps for you guys to use! It’s summer, so I won’t die even if I sleep outside for a few months! practice!!”

Although it’s the first day, you’ll be able to train your soldiers well by watching what Helmut is doing.

It is relieved to see the serfs who have not yet been trained as soldiers, hesitantly, following Helmut’s words and moving well.

In this situation, I stayed there for no reason and said, ‘Put down the persimmons, put down the cabbage.’ It’s because it’s only the advice of a room expert.

“Bald, let’s go in. Now we have to make an agreement with the nobles. Even though I’ve kept my mouth shut with money, it’s still not enough.”

“Yes, Bocchan.”

**

After watching the training, we moved to the conference room located inside the baron’s mansion.

When I opened the door and entered, I saw a room with a structure in which the knights who control this manor sat on the left and right along the corridor with the lord sitting in the center.

Before I arrived, all the nobles of the territory who could attend this meeting had already gathered, and they did not get up from their chairs even after seeing me come to deliberately reveal their dissatisfaction with me for rapidly increasing the number of soldiers in the territory.

The reason I can’t openly express my dissatisfaction is probably because I haven’t borrowed a penny from their taxes or income.

Also, no matter how much they come out with a system that makes no sense at all, they won’t know how to refute it.

I didn’t care about their protests, and sat down in a chair with a face that didn’t matter.

“Thank you for coming. First of all, let’s start the meeting. Yes Knight Jack Frost. If you have something to say, you can do it.”

Upon hearing those words, the gray-haired old knight, Jack Frost, bowed to me and went on.

“First of all, thank you for allowing me to speak for the first time at this first meeting of the Baron Kreutel. First of all, there are a lot of things I want to ask about other policies, but why… why did you introduce ranks between soldiers, sergeants, second lieutenant, lieutenant, and captain?”

“Because it is more efficient. First of all, I’ll tell you about the ranks among soldiers and the reason why we created ranks for miscellaneous soldiers such as sergeant, sergeant, and sergeant.”

“good.”

And after a while, I pointed to the young knight, Sylph Hillenal, in the far corner of them and asked.

“Knight Hillenal, do you know the difference between the salary of a soldier who has worked for one year and a soldier who has served for 10 years?”

Hillenal said scratching her head.

“I know it’s pretty much the same thing. Instead, a soldier who has worked for 10 years is given a position like 10 seals, so I know it makes a difference by that much…”

“right. But the difference in salaries between the two of them is only one or two silver coins a month. Actually, the ability and necessity of those two are incomparably greater than those of him. Maybe that’s why the 10th year soldiers’ motivation was low. Not willing to take responsibility… This is a huge loss.”

Upon hearing that, the other nobles began to ponder with a serious expression on their faces as to whether they had experienced ‘this type of soldiers’ at least once.

And then he started nodding his head in agreement.

As expected, in terms of the Korean military, it seems to have been effective to metaphorically express that ‘Jjam Sgt.

“That’s why I’m trying to give them a ‘class’ so that they have a sense of responsibility and to raise the level of treatment. Although they may not be treated as ‘nobles’ like knights, shouldn’t soldiers who have fought on the same battlefield for a long time be ignored by ‘free people’? Of course, since I treated you that much, I should roll more than that.”

“It makes sense.”

“First of all, I think it is worth introducing. Wouldn’t His Excellency pay all the salaries anyway?”

“That’s right. Sir Neet, if it’s helpful, I’ll introduce it to the soldiers in our territory. Aren’t there dozens of soldiers at most?”

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My opinion to establish ranks among the soldiers was easily passed.

“Then, Your Excellency, why do you have such ranks as second lieutenant, lieutenant, and captain? There are many things that His Excellency has given us anyway, so thanks to Your Excellency, there are no serfs starving to death in our territory, so it is very convenient.”

“Yes, thanks to your Excellency, praises for you and the lord, Beerhill, do not cease in our territory. Thanks to you, I can feed all of my vassals as well. thank you.”

Following that, all the nobles in this conference room bowed their heads toward me and expressed their gratitude.

After a while, Jack, the most powerful of the vassals, spoke with a serious expression.

“But why! Are you saying that you want to put those veteran mercenaries, the 30 or more people in our territory, and our bastards in the same position? No matter how young they are, they are all our children! Even if you’re half-noble, shouldn’t you be nobler than those commoners!”

All the nobles nodded in silent agreement.

I didn’t think I would be against it that much, so I was a little embarrassed.

But I calmed down and answered Jack’s words with a smile.

“Jack, no Sir Frost.”

“Yes, Your Excellency…”

“I ask you seriously, what do you bastards do for a living? If you’re such a good father, what did you do for the half children you raised?”

At that, Jack Frost was speechless.

That’s also true, no matter how powerful that nobleman is among the nobles here, he can’t even give one of the ‘bastards’ a job worthy of being a nobleman, a ‘knight’.

Being a scholar is noble, but even if it costs less than making a knight, to become a ‘scholar’ or ‘university education’ costs six gold coins a year, including living expenses in the city.

This money is almost a year’s worth of living for two serfs, and if this is 4 years… 24 sheets will come out.

Even if you enter university to become a scholar, only 10-20% graduate and come out?

Then, in the end, you have to do well, give them a small piece of land in the neighborhood so they can live as free people, or live in a corner of the house as a nerd.

You can’t say that’s a noble thing.

“I will tell you. Aren’t you able to do noble things? So what I thought was that, since they were born into a family of knights anyway, they would want to do ‘something worthy of nobility’, and I thought that if they were young, they would be able to give up their pride and lead the foot soldiers.”

“Well, then.”

I stood up, looked down at the nobles and said.

“So, I tried to entrust them with the role of developing and commanding the soldiers by entrusting them with a ‘second lieutenant’ in command of 30 troops. Even if you are a nobleman, you have to ride a horse and wear armor to penetrate the enemy lines. Isn’t another important role commanding soldiers to win the war? Even if you can’t do the former, I can accept the latter if you cooperate with my current policy. And I don’t think it would be bad for you to have those guys command the soldiers…”

At that, the nobles nodded as if they were okay.

If the bastards command 30 troops as ‘second lieutenants’, they may be mistaken that they will take the side of ‘theirself’ who raised them when the ‘what if’ happens.

Of course, if you’re a decent noble, you’d make that choice ‘of course’ in that situation…

If I were to fall into such a situation, I would be valued more for saving the bastard, who was like a rat in a gutter.

If you’re going to cheat, you have to cheat big, so I continued.

“And when I get promoted from second lieutenant to lieutenant and captain, I plan to lead the 100th. If they are more active there, they may be given a position commanding more than 100 people, and if that happens, they will be recognized for their achievements and given a ‘knight’.”

The nobles couldn’t open their mouths at my bombshell declaration.

“I pay for all the expenses and salaries that go into maintaining their dignity as knights. If I do more, I might be able to receive a territory like you. If so, aren’t you guys getting a ‘most reliable vassal’ instead of a ‘bastard’ without even touching it? Are you going to object to these conditions?”

Smiles bloomed on the faces of the aristocrats, as if they saw it as an opportunity to solve the troublesome job problems of bastards and strengthen their position according to the boy’s performance.

And soon after, the nobles got down on one knee and shouted.

“Sorry for doubting you, sir. Instead, I will be more loyal.”

Seeing them full of dark feelings, I said with a smile.

“Forgive me. No, it’s also my fault because I didn’t explain it properly. It’s okay, I’ll spend more of my heart when I do this. Aren’t all the taxes you receive piled up as grain in your storehouse?”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

I walked up to Jack, who was still on one knee in front of me, and said,

“All that tax goes to the warehouse, and then the grain merchants in our city buy it. Now I’ll buy them all too. Let’s enjoy even greater wealth at 1.2 times the price they buy now. Disband then.”

At those words, the nobles ran out with flushed faces, unable to hide their smiles.

It’s only natural that I’ve increased my family’s troubles and income right away.

But do these guys know that?

In a few years, the nobles who are obscurely loyal to me will regret today’s decision with tears in their eyes.

Because there is a trap hidden in this proposal.

Well then, now I’m going to have to do a bigger business with this.