Black Iron Crown

Winter in the northern region came very early, and the weather in other regions gradually became colder.

However, Fort Creek is located in the south, and the footsteps of winter have not yet reached here.

Sir Frante still wore his helmet, even if he was not good at it, the helmet never left his body. Many people discussed in private whether Sir Frante had leprosy.

At this time, he was leading the war horse, wearing leather armor, and walking on the small road in the country, accompanied by two attendants behind him. These two were playmates who grew up with him, and now they are also attendants.

On both sides of the road are endless wheat fields, and the amount of arable land is double that of last year. From the dense golden fields, it can be seen that this year is definitely a bumper year.

After he left the Basin Fortress with his army, he persuaded Earl Creek to carry out large-scale reclamation and cultivation in the territory.

Their rebellion turned a large area of ​​the royal family into scorched earth, and many of the residents there were plundered by him to Fort Creek as slaves.

Fort Creek's commerce was already developed, and it had a very good economic income. In the past, when there was no rebellion, the arable land here was planted with flax and sisal, or various cash crops such as sugar beets.

Wheat and soybeans, food crops with low economic value, will not be grown, because the income is not high.

But Sir Farrant is a farsighted person. He knows that after the war really starts, no matter what kind of economy is useless, the only hard currency is food that can fill the stomach.

Therefore, when he was still under the Basin Fortress, he wrote to persuade his father and many brothers to cultivate and grow food crops on a large scale in his own territory.

Moreover, winter was about to fall at this time, and Frant could not see any possibility of breaking through the Basin Fortress in a short period of time, so he simply said hello and returned to Fort Creek with the army.

Anyway, the other lords were greedy for the royal family's territory and wealth, and couldn't wait to overthrow the royal family. They were still besieging the fortress of Bassin, so they were not afraid that his departure would drive other people to make the fortress replenish.

Feeling confident, he simply withdrew his army back, and the siege of the city has not improved for three months.

Moreover, the person defending the fortress is the Grand Duke Mabra, who has made great achievements in battle. He feels that there is absolutely no hope of conquering the fortress even in winter when the battle is more difficult.

Returning to Fort Creek, he immediately began to dispose of his spoils at the front.

After burning, killing and looting the royal family's territory for several months, Sir Farrant focused all his main targets on those iron products.

After the lords who hadn't had time to escape were wiped out, the remaining armor, long swords, long spears, and even iron such as iron pans and kitchen knives were collected by him along the way.

The Southern Territory does not produce steel, there are only a few small-scale iron mines producing some low-quality steel, and most of the steel you want to use must be imported from the north.

The steel trade allowed the Ridka Kingdom, which had dozens of large and small iron mines in the north, to accumulate huge wealth. At the same time, it turned its soldiers into fully armed armored warriors.

One side is armed to the teeth, while the other side can barely get together iron weapons and some armor. It is conceivable that this is an unequal war.

It is not unreasonable for the Kingdom of Ridka to swallow up and unify the entire pan-Redcar nation by relying on the northern border and some territories south of the northern border.

With such a strong economy and military power, these southern earls, dukes or barons who were originally local emperors could only become conquered honestly.

Sir Farrant had read books about the unification of the Ridkar Empire, and after understanding this, he decided to follow the old path of the Ridkar Kingdom.

Although there is no iron ore, at least there must be substitutes, so the Creek Army, which does not like gold but steel, appeared on the front line.

The steel they looted from the front line was enough to equip a team of 3,000 people according to the standard of a full-body chain armor.

Crossing this path, one could faintly hear Ti's shouts.

That was the barracks at Fort Creek.

After Sir Frant led the army of Fort Creek to fight a few battles, he finally successfully transformed this group of people into qualified fighters.

Although discipline is still not very strong, but in this era, combat often does not completely depend on discipline.

The lords are more concerned about whether they are strong and capable of fighting, rather than just a well-organized army.

Reiner is the only one who has such a request...

Walking slowly to the vicinity of the barracks, I saw that these soldiers were exercising each other in groups of three or four. Their mouths were full of insults and obscenities, but in this era, this is often a symbol of a strong army.

Only more than 500 soldiers that Frant brought back to fight in the north came back. At the beginning, there were more than 1,200 people including the regular army and serfs, and the army of vassals was nearly 3,000.

The more than 1,200 people were all lost on the northern battlefield, but they were not without gains. At least the remaining 500 people became veterans with great combat effectiveness, and they were all incorporated into the regular army.

The financial composition and army composition of the lords in the north and south are different.

The northern lord's economy can only be said to be ordinary, and the income mainly comes from farming and a small amount of commerce, so a lord of the earl level generally cannot afford to support four to five hundred people.

However, the southern lords are financially rich, and their income mainly comes from frequent trade. In addition, the prices of food and meat are relatively low, so it is even easy to raise a regular army of 500 people.

But if they were to equip a large number of armies under their command with iron armor like the lords in the north, it would be completely impossible. Even if they were rich in business, as long as they dared to arm fifty or sixty people, they would go bankrupt!

The price of steel in the north began to fall because of Leiner's aid, and one copper can buy one kilogram. Of course, civilians and businessmen cannot buy it.

In the south, one kilogram of steel is generally about three silver coins, which is thirty times as high.

Frante felt more and more wise that his crazy plundering of steel on the front line was extremely wise. Hearing the sound of clanging iron not far from the barracks, he felt relieved for a while.

Those lords in the north were wearing armor, which caused too much damage to their soldiers. If the enemy didn't have so many armors and sophisticated equipment, their soldiers would definitely not be killed or injured so much!

Naturally, there are not only 500 people in the barracks. This is a large barracks that accommodates 2,000 people. After returning to the territory, he asked his father for orders, hoping to reduce his father's expenses on eating, drinking, and banquets, and spend all the money. spent on soldiers.

The southern territories are rich, so the lords also want extravagance.

It costs more than 1,500 gold coins a year just to eat, drink, and banquet at the earl's house, which is half of the earl's fiscal revenue.

The remaining 1,500 gold coins have to be paid for military pay, officials’ salaries, soldiers’ meals, and repairs to towns and castles. That’s it, a surplus of 500 gold coins is stored in warehouses every year.

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