OBS Chapter 245: Arrangements before entering
Chapter 245: Arrangements before entering
A few hours later, John, led by Conseil, arrived at a hill outside the fortress of the Midland Southern Battlefield Headquarters. Looking at the dense crowd at the foot of the hill, Conseil said to John:
"Now these people are under your charge. I wish you good luck in your future work. I will live there after I retire." After patting John on the shoulder, Conseil rode towards the fortress, where a lot of things were waiting for him.
"He's over fifty and still so agile on a horse. He's still in good shape." John couldn't help but sigh as he looked at Conseil's back. After Conseil's figure disappeared from his sight, John turned his gaze to the crowd at the foot of the hill.
Based on his many years of experience in leading troops, John estimated that the crowd in front of him was between 5,000 and 10,000 people. Surrounding them were soldiers holding weapons and wearing armor, and knights on horseback patrolling the periphery. Corresponding to them were retired soldiers wearing a variety of clothes. John guessed that these clothes might be what they brought when they joined the army, and John also roughly saw that most of these people were from peasant families.
After getting a general understanding of the specific situation of these people, John walked down the hillside under the escort of the White Wolf Knights and walked towards his future subjects.
"Hey, look, that noble master is coming."
"Isn't it possible that they want us to stay here again? I've been a soldier for nine years. They said they would leave in the third year, but three years later, another three years."
"No, I'd rather go home and farm than stay here any longer."
When the people at the foot of the hill saw John walking towards them, they couldn't help but whisper and began to worry about their future.
But these complaints soon stopped as John got closer to them. After all, they were no longer the soldiers who had fought with the Yoda people on the battlefield before. Without self-defense armor and weapons that could give them a sense of security, these people could only beg this noble lord to give them a way to survive when surrounded by soldiers.
John didn't rush to speak after approaching, but kept a safe distance from the veterans and began to observe them. However, most of the soldiers immediately lowered their heads timidly after looking at John. Some eyes in the crowd secretly observed John with numb and fearful eyes. Some of them were bandaged, and the complexion of these wounded soldiers was much worse than that of other veterans.
"It doesn't look very friendly." John calmed down and raised the microphone to say to them:
"Everyone, let me introduce myself. I am John Hohenzollern, Count of Franche-Comté, and now appointed by the King as Governor of the Southwest."
"From now on, you will officially become my subjects. In the next few years, I will govern you and the land you live in as the representative of His Majesty the King."
John then changed the subject and continued:
"Although I was born in the north and know very little about the southwest of the country, I do know one thing: those who have made contributions to the country should be rewarded accordingly."
Having said this, John waved to the soldiers beside him, and immediately twenty soldiers came up carrying ten large boxes and moved the boxes in front of the old soldier.
"Although I don't know what you need, as a token of my gratitude, I have decided to give each of you a gold coin as your retirement settlement fee. You can use it to buy what you need."
When the listless veterans heard that John was going to give them money, they immediately became energetic. For nobles and merchants, a gold coin might not mean much, but for common people, this thing might not be seen once a year.
As the box was opened, the gold coins inside emitted a light symbolizing wealth under the sunlight, attracting the veterans to take a closer look. However, they were afraid of the soldiers on the opposite side, so they could only stand still and stick their heads out to get a glimpse of the charm of wealth.
"Don't worry, everyone has a share, please follow the instructions and queue up in an orderly manner."
Seeing such a strong reaction from the crowd on the opposite side, John ordered the soldiers with satisfaction to direct the retired veterans to line up into ten teams to receive gold coins, and divided them into groups of 100 people each to make it easier for John to count the number of people.
Amid the shouts of the soldiers, the veterans quickly lined up into ten teams, and after receiving the gold coins, they were divided into teams of 100 men. During this time, no one made trouble, and no one made loud noises. Although they had left the army, the remaining discipline still reminded them not to do anything out of line.
About an hour later, the officer in charge of arranging the veterans came to report to John:
"According to statistics, there are a total of 8374 retired soldiers accompanying you to the Southwest Governor's Territory, of which 1249 are wounded."
After obtaining the exact number of people, John ordered the entire army to begin moving westward. The retired veterans were placed in the middle and rear of the team, and a small number of wounded soldiers who were unable to move were placed on carriages.
Along the way, the retired veterans talked about John's army. In terms of equipment and quality, John's army was even better than the Midland regular army they were in before. Some veterans even asked John's soldiers whether Earl John needed soldiers and how they were treated, but the soldiers only said "no comment".
After another week of long journey, John's army entered the Southwest Governor's Territory. John also dismissed the retired veterans here. After thanking John, the veterans parted ways with John's army and continued to move towards their respective homes.
"Well, let's see where to go next." John opened the map and planned his next marching route in his mind.
The Kingdom of Midland did not have the position of Southwest Governor before, so there was no Southwest Governor Territory. Today's Southwest Governor Territory is simply a piece of land that the king has allocated to the southwest of Midland, and various noble territories, royal territories, and free cities are interspersed on it.
But the king did not have the time and energy to manage this important border area where the royal influence was small, so he handed the land over to John, who had many years of experience in managing governors.
Because of this, this administrative region does not have an official capital, but on the map, there is a large city called Mont-de-Marsan in this area. It is located in the middle of the entire territory and can barely be used as a temporary capital.
But John quickly rejected this idea. Regardless of where the Lana Kingdom has reached now, although Mondemasan is rich, it also means that it has the largest local force in the entire territory. It might not be appropriate to rush in now.
Seeing this, John opened the system map and looked at the Southwest Governorate where the fog of war had dissipated. John suddenly discovered that the city of Kas, which was originally the site of the Crusaders, also belonged to the Southwest Governorate.
So John pondered for a moment, and then ordered someone to go and issue the next order to the vanguard:
"Head north to Kashi City."