"General Abydis, Lord Tairossos. You are older than me, and you have witnessed what happened in that era. You can say that you are looking at how the kingdom worked at that time. As far as I know, in the initial stages of the war with the orcs, the lords of various places fought on their own. Led his peasant soldiers to fight the brutal orcs on this land, this heroic act once inspired us Lordaerons, and even the lords of the countries of the Alliance. But..."

"The result?" Locke stopped, he turned his head to look at the two of them, "The nobles and peasant soldiers who resisted were directly killed, large swaths of land were destroyed, castles were burned to charcoal, and the old, weak, women and children lost their traces..."

"In those days, such news abounded, even to the point of numbing everyone." Locke paused and continued, "Why did the nobles of Alterac surrender to the orcs, isn't it because the war was more tragic than they expected? Let them see no hope of victory. ”

"The seemingly heroic actions of the lords in various places, on the other hand, have also made our Lordaeron's overall strength continue to shrink, so that the orcs have attacked Lordaeron's walls."

Locke's words silenced General Abydis and Tyrossos, who, as the parties of the era, knew better than Locke what was going on.

It was those dark years that caused the noble lords who still had heroic qualities in their bones to die in the war with the orcs on a large scale. In that war, the noble and courageous qualities of the noble lords were broken. Since that successive tragedies, few nobles have dared to charge and attack their opponents with a miscellaneous army composed of their subordinates.

It wasn't until King Terenus, who was cornered, took away all the miscellaneous soldiers in the hands of the nobles and turned them into a unified army, and slowly began to get better through rigorous training. But because the training time was too short, the orcs once attacked the city wall, and if it wasn't for something wrong among the orcs, I'm afraid Lordaeron would have been destroyed at that time.

Since then, however, King Terenus has never disbanded the armies of the nobles... King Terenus broke the chain between vassals and vassals.

According to the agreement between the nobles in the past, each lord was obliged to summon his people to fight for the feudal lord only once a year. This is only a few months, and the harvest of crops cannot be delayed. And if the time is exceeded, the feudal lord will also need to pay the vassals the salary that has exceeded the time...

It is important to know that each lord gathers the young men of the right age in his own realm to fight for the king. As a result, the people were forced to stay in the royal domain, and they still had to pay for the salary and food beyond the battle time, which was unreasonable! You know, population is the most valuable resource for every lord!

But to the anger of the nobles, the powerful kingdom of Terenas did not mention it at all. Even, under the pretext of fleeing from their own territory during the war, many nobles who did do so were deprived of their territory...

This is the reason why many nobles are dissatisfied with King Terenus and this policy.

Now, if Locke were to replicate this model, Tairosus feared that doing so would surely make the noble lords unhappy again. Thinking from the perspective of the royal family, this is indeed a good thing. But thinking from the perspective of the aristocracy, this is against the rules of the game!

"The situation facing Lordaeron now has changed a lot compared to before, and at least the problem of the army has been solved by me." Locke smiled at them and said, "I didn't use any nobles' private armies, the Scarlet Crusade was built by us. In the future, the army belonging to the kingdom of Lordaeron will also be born from this army. ”

"It's not too hard for me to feed them with the land under my control. This includes the Crusaders of General Abydis, your Hand of Tyr, and your Silver Dawn, Lord Tairosus, and the part of the army that belongs to Tyran. ”

"Without the restraint of the army, I have a great grasp of the reform aristocracy." Locke smiled and looked down at Tyran, who was smiling at him, "I think you've all heard that I'm going to make a big deal to some of the rules related to the noble realm. ”

"Yes, I think you should be more cautious about this." Tairosos was still a little worried.

"But before I do that, let me tell you where my confidence is in doing this." Locke thought for a moment and continued, "In the territory under my control, why has food been continuously delivered to your lords, I think you must be curious too. ”

"Isn't there a gnoll druid ripening?" Old Abidis said lightly, "In this regard, Wadmar and I have also tried it in the Valley of the Hearth, and the results are really good. ”

"Not only that, but if you have time, I'd like you to visit me in the Silver Pines Forest or the western part of the Tirisfal Glades. There's a steady stream of my farmland," said Locke, a little smugly, "and most of the crops in my fields are three crops a year. Even ordinary civilians, with the help of goblin machinery, no matter how diligent they are, it is not a dream to be four crops a year. ”

"I have a much more sophisticated farming model that other noble lords can't replicate."

"That's why I can feed all of Lordaeron's army."

"If I have enough food, I will be able to recruit more soldiers who are out of production and save them from working in the fields, all they have to do every day is train! Training! Training! Will the combat effectiveness of the soldiers trained in this way be as low as that of the previous peasant soldiers? I think adults will understand. ”

"Most of my soldiers are like that, they don't need to work in the fields. But as non-labor soldiers, they also need to feed and feed their families, so I need to provide them with a monthly salary so that they can support their families and themselves. Locke looked at the nobles below lightly, "This is a disadvantage for the off-duty soldiers, but for the long-term planning of the kingdom, it is very cost-effective." ”

"Wait!" Tyrosos muttered to himself for a while, he looked at Locke with some surprise and said, "In other words, you also pay all the soldiers under your command every month?" ”

"Yes, it's not a small amount." Locke replied in the affirmative.

"Although I don't want to admit it, I still want to say that you, as a great lord, you spend all your money on the army, you..."

Locke's model is no stranger to an aristocratic general like him who leads troops all year round. Most of them have more or less professional soldiers under their subordinates. Their combat effectiveness is unquestionable, but the downside is that they need to be paid by the lords to provide for them. Locke is expanding this scope to the entire kingdom's army, and then again, if a nobleman invests all his money in the army, then what is the point of being a nobleman? What else can you enjoy?

Oh yes, Locke Future is king... Tairossos looked at Locke with a complicated expression. All of Lordaeron's unowned lands would be the domain of the king, and the kingdom would be able to collect taxes from merchants and lords to feed its army...

"I thought you were only paying a part of the core army." Terosos shook his head, his heart contrasting the silver dawn, most of his soldiers had no pay, not to mention only a small ration, and they often had to hunt in the woodlands in search of food. Fighting on the front lines with faith in the Light and hatred of the Scourge of the dead...

Thinking that Locke is in a hurry to reform the aristocracy, I'm afraid he can't afford the financial resources of the army, right? Tairosos looked at Locke knowingly, the professional soldier who was out of work was not just finished when he was full.

"In this top-down reform, I will take away the right of the noble lord to have a private army, and if you do not hold a military position in the kingdom, you cannot have an army, including private soldiers and guards. I will not take away all the existing nobles' territories, but those who have lost their territories will inevitably shrink and be replaced elsewhere. Locke said with a faint smile, "But as a nobleman of Lordaeron, allegiance to Lordaeron is inevitable, so the related taxes are as unavoidable as before." ”

"And! As I said, being a nobleman is the cornerstone of the kingdom. Each nobleman had to hold a certain position in the kingdom and dedicate his strength to the kingdom. ”

"Governor!"

"Governor?!" Kalia couldn't hold back any longer, and she asked out loud, "What does this mean?" ”

Locke smiled at her and explained to them, "This reform is all-encompassing, not limited to the army and the nobility. In fact, these reforms were in the service of the Kingdom. I'm just continuing what the kingdom of Terenus has done and what has not been done. ”

"In the future, the Scarlet Crusade will be officially organized as the army of the Kingdom of Lordaeron.... Subordinate to the royal family. After a slight pause, Locke added the royal family. Don't have any accidents in the future, the army is separated from the royal family and really belongs to the country, then the royal family is really hollowed out! There is a possibility that you will be pulled down from the throne at any time...

"After the unification of our kingdom, in addition to the army of the garrison of the royal city, the official army of Lordaeron will be scattered in various regions of the kingdom, and will exist as a field army to maintain the unity of every land in the kingdom. Avoid a recurrence of the rebellion of Hillsbrad, Viscount Dasalia. ”

"In the future, the large regions of the kingdom of Lordaeron will be divided into administrative districts, and each administrative district will have a nobleman who will serve as a political officer to govern the land. Each region will have a garrison of hundreds to thousands of people to be responsible for the security of the area. It was run by the military nobles who served as deputies to the local magistrates. The Governor of the region will be responsible for administering everything in the land, except for the military, from urging civilians to cultivate the land, to cracking down on crimes, to preparing for the kingdom's foreign wars, and so on. ”

"For better management, that small borough can be divided into smaller districts, with the lower nobles serving as administrators, oh, also administrative officers. His duties are the same as those of the administrative officer of each of his higher districts, but he is accountable to his superiors. And his superiors are accountable to me. ”

"They are not only the tax collectors and civil officials of the royal family, but also the representatives of the royal family at the grassroots level."

"This...."General Abydis listened in a daze, not knowing why. But Kalia immediately understood Locke's intentions, which was to strengthen the royal family's control over the place, which was very similar to the centralized military power of his father Terenus!

If this can be successful, then the kingdom of Lordaeron will definitely be monolithic!

But that's a big change! There's so much at stake...

.。 m.