Come to another world and become a lord

When the battle was over, Jim and several guards began to walk down the wall, leading the frightened villagers out of the city, while the remaining guards began to clean up the battlefield. The equipment of the 70-man scout team was very luxurious, all wearing hardened leather armor. This kind of leather armor was hardened and its defense was not bad. At the same time, it was lighter and more flexible than the heavy iron armor, and much better than most of the existing armor in Rickburg. In this world, due to low productivity and scarcity of craftsmen, equipment is often more valuable than people. Now that there are more than 70 complete armors, it means that as long as there are enough people, he can raise another combat-capable team. In addition, there are 70 scimitars, 30 bows, and 50 arrows. There are small round shields, and nearly horses survived. It is a great harvest for him now.

Looking at the spoils in front of him, a smile appeared on his face unconsciously, and Alia beside him seemed to notice the change in his expression and showed disdain again:

"You are the lord of a city, but this is all you can do."

"Even from the perspective of a baron, no one has so many armors and weapons." Carl refuted bluntly. That's right, in this world, which is basically similar to the European Middle Ages on Earth, under the feudal system, the weapons that a nobleman actually possesses are not as many as imagined. Although a baron may be able to mobilize an army of about a hundred people in battle, the private guards he actually controls may only have a dozen people, and the number of horses he owns may only be in the single digits. The rest are from the knights he has enfeoffed. It is precisely because of this that if a private guard of about 70 people can be formed, it is already very terrifying. As for whether it can afford to pay the wages of so many people, that is another question.

While Carl was still feeling proud of this small victory, Jim had already returned to the city wall. He looked at Alia with some restraint at first, and then said to Carl:

"The villagers have all been settled down. Also, several village leaders want to see... the Lord."

Hearing his words, Carl nodded happily:

"Well, that's perfect. I need to talk to them about something as well."

The "Red Lady" tavern is located in the central square of the outer city of Rickburg. It is the only entertainment venue in the area. The towering roof is supported by rough beams, which is solid and heavy. The oak tables and chairs exude a deep wood aroma, accompanied by a hint of beer aroma, which makes people drunk before drinking. There is a huge stone fireplace on one side of the tavern. The burning firewood emits a warm light. A huge deer head specimen hangs above the fireplace. Candlesticks are placed along the walls on both sides. The burning candles cast a faint light, giving the whole tavern a hint of ambiguity.

If it were a normal day, there would be quite a few guests here, but at this moment, this place had become Carl's temporary command post. At a round wooden table near the bar, three elderly men had been sitting there waiting for a long time.

When Carl, Jim, and Alia appeared in everyone's sight, the three of them were stunned for a moment, then stood up and saluted, with sincere gratitude on everyone's face:

"Thank you, Lord. I never thought that the Lord of Rickburg would be such a young and beautiful woman."

"Ah?" Carl was stunned.

"Huh?" Alia was also stunned because the three old men were obviously saluting her.

After being stunned for a while, she immediately understood and said with some amusement:

"I say, you guys, you got the wrong person, the lord is this one."

She said as she pointed to Carl in the middle.

Several old men were horrified. They looked at Carl, who was dressed in tattered peasant clothes. No one would think that he was a lord. At most, he was just an insignificant servant.

They were surprised and even more terrified. They knelt down to apologize and only stood up after a lot of persuasion.

When Carl and his party sat down, the servants also brought beer. Carl took the cup and took a big gulp. The bitter taste spread in his mouth, but it was just bitter, without any aroma of beer. Carl was familiar with this taste. This was a kind of wine brewed by local farmers through simple fermentation of barley. Although it was called beer, no hops were added during the brewing process. The taste of the brewed beer was naturally... It would be an understatement to say that it was ordinary. It was completely different from the taste of modern beer. But at this time, he didn't mind so much. After the fierce battle just now, anything that could quench his thirst was good for him. After drinking almost half a cup, he finally put down the glass and said:

"Well, let's get down to business~"

"Please give me your orders, Lord." The white-bearded old man who was leading the group said modestly.

Carl replied:

"It's nothing. I let you enter the city, but as you can see, my troops are limited. If I want to defend the outer city, I need your help."

Hearing Karl's words, one of the old men trembled:

"You want us to... fight the northern barbarians?"

Carl replied.

"Yes, gather the young men among you who can fight."

The old man thought about it hesitantly, then said:

"Excuse me for being blunt, but the militias from several of our villages were defeated when those barbarians arrived, and the remaining people don't have much combat experience..."

Facing the old man's frankness, Karl just sighed helplessly. He sorted out his emotions and continued:

"I know this is difficult, but this is your only chance to survive. As a lord, I will make a promise: the elderly and children can stay in the city temporarily and use the empty houses. But young people who can fight must go up to the city walls. This is not only for me, but also for yourselves. Once the city is breached, no one will escape death."

When they heard the word death, the three old men trembled again.

"That being said, can we really hold on?"

At this time, the white-bearded old man in the lead took a sip of the wine in his hand, then slammed the glass on the table and said:

"Don't talk about these nonsense. The Lord is right. Whether we can survive now depends entirely on ourselves. There are a few people in our village who followed the Lord to fight in the war. I believe it is the same in your place... In any case, Lord, we are willing to obey your orders."

"Very good~" Carl nodded with satisfaction.

After discussing a series of related matters, Carl escorted the three village chiefs out of the tavern and drank the half cup of beer. Not long after that, he received another report from Jim. In just a few hours, the big boy who came with him from Porter Village had completed a rough statistics of the villagers:

"There are three villages in total, with more than 400 people successfully escaping into the city, including 121 young men and 142 women, including 56 pregnant women, 50 people over 40 years old, and people under 14 years old..."

Karl looked at him reporting seriously and couldn't help laughing:

"I'm telling you, can't I see that you're quite good at this?"

Hearing Carl's praise, Jim also showed a proud look:

"Hey, that's nothing, it's just like counting sheep, I'm good at that."

Well, there are 263 young men and women, excluding pregnant women, which makes a total of 207 people. This is all the defense force available, Carl thought to himself.

"I have to remind you that we don't have so many weapons," Alia added.

"Don't we still have the batch we just seized?" Carl replied.

"Do you really want to distribute these weapons to those untouchables?" Alia looked surprised.

"Is there anything to be confused about?"

"Don't you think it's a pity?"

Unfortunately, it is a bit. These things are worth a lot of money, and if they are really given to these villagers, they will probably not come back. He never thought that the outer city could really be defended. Everything was just to buy time. However, at the moment of life and death, he couldn't care so much, and he had to give these villagers some confidence and let them see hope. Of course, the good armor was naturally allocated to his own defenders first.

"The weapons in the warehouse cannot be moved for the time being. They are used as backup. The captured weapons can be distributed first. Let them each choose some strong and capable people in the village as the first row, and give priority to armor. Other than that, use everything that can be used. Pitchforks can be used as spears, pot lids can be used as wooden shields, and there are also hoes and sickles..."

He paused and continued:

"The three walls will be guarded by three villages each. By the way, I want the three village chiefs to select hunters who are good at archery and people with military experience from their respective villages. I want to form an elite team to defend the key points..."

Then he seemed to have thought of something and turned to look at Alia:

"I think it will take some time for the Great Khan to build engineering weapons. Alia, during this time, you can train them a little bit, at least let them know some basic combat methods and how to use weapons."

Hearing Karl's words, the girl sighed slightly and said:

"Yes, you can, but the effect won't be that great."

"It's as long as you can hold out."

"Yeah, if they all die, there won't be any waste of food." She continued lazily.

Her words made Jim next to her feel dissatisfied, and the latter just turned his head away with some disdain but said nothing more.

"Okay, now that the division of labor is clear, let's get started."

"What about me? What should I do after that?"

"After that, you will guard the inner city with Alia." Carl said.

"how about you?"

"I am stationed in the outer city with the villagers."

"What?" Not only Jim, but also Alia was shocked after hearing Carl's words, "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm not kidding. If the lords were present, I think they would be more confident. Don't worry, if the situation is not right, we can quickly retreat to the inner city through the city wall."

"What a joke! What if something unexpected happens? What if..."

Alia was interrupted by Carl halfway through her words:

"If I die, the city defense will be handed over to you."

"What will the soldiers think once their lord dies? Their morale will surely collapse." Alia's expression was serious.

And Carl just chuckled:

"To be honest, morale has been bad since the moment His Majesty left. You also know how I came to be the lord. They know it too, and the whole city knows what happened. Only the villagers who escaped here don't know, so I am not important to Rickburg."