Chương 103: Fostering Bandits to Grind Levels

The militia was a temporary, makeshift force recruited entirely from the slums by Knight Leo. The people living in the slums were all wretched souls, just a single step away from selling themselves into serfdom. Many of their shacks had been torched by the nobles' private retainers, leaving them with no means of survival. Driven by sheer desperation, they joined the militia simply to earn a military ration.

Equipped only with a set of padded gambesons and a sword, their monthly wage was a mere two silver coins; their combat effectiveness was abysmally low, and their will to fight was practically non-existent. Fortunately, Li Qinwu never expected this auxiliary force to fight on the battlefield; his primary purpose was to use them to execute his errands.

For instance, right now, 500 militia soldiers were dispersed among the rural villages surrounding Poloia, making the news of the abolition of serfdom and the redistribution of land known to absolutely everyone. The news of freeing the serfs and dividing the land was like throwing a massive boulder into a tranquil pond, erupting into violent splashes. The serfs fell to their knees, weeping and cheering, believing this to be a divine blessing bestowed by the Goddess of Life—they had finally obtained their freedom!

Yet, true freedom was not something that could be secured by a mere verbal decree. One only had to look at the local gentry and landlords, whose faces were entirely ashen as they tightened their grips on their swords. Exactly as Li Qinwu had anticipated, the moment the decree spread, massive clusters of red enemy markers flared up across his map. The gentry and landlords of the various hamlets, villages, and rural estates had always maintained their own private armed retainers.

The moment the news broke and the serfs began to stir, these elites immediately utilized their regional ties and bloodlines to connect with one another, fortifying their manors and forming mutual defense pacts. Typically, a coalition of four or five landlords could muster between 100 to 300 soldiers. Thirty percent of these forces consisted of their personal retainers, fully equipped with leather armor, sabers, and swords.

The remainder were independent yeoman militia hired with coin, outfitted with basic gambesons and agricultural implements; those who fared better might receive a proper spear. Once these armed groups organized, they patrolled aggressively around the serfs day in and day out. The gentry and landlords sternly warned them that the so-called abolition of serfdom and redistribution of land was nothing more than a wicked, chaotic ploy by the monster army to disrupt the imperial court.

If anyone dared to take it seriously, the landlords' blades would instantly fall upon them to suppress the treason. After all, the gentry and landlords were the ones who monopolized armed force in this era. Through their mutual networks, the serfs truly did not dare to act rashly. Especially after the landlords publicly executed several rebellious serfs, everything quickly subsided back into a tense silence.

The gentry and landlords loathed the monster army to their very bones for daring to issue such a venomous decree, which filled their serfs' heads with wild, dangerous fantasies. Such abominations had to be resolutely exterminated!

However, the gentry and landlords also possessed a realistic measure of their own strength; while their forces were more than enough to handle submissive serfs, sending them against the monster army that had successfully captured Poloia would be nothing short of delivering lambs to the slaughter. Consequently, they planned to petition the greater nobility for imperial troops to purge this monstrous scourge.

It was then that they received exhilarating news: Count Fischer had already organized a grand punitive crusade. The moment their military rations were fully positioned, the grand army would commence its march! The gentry and landlords were overjoyed, frantically hoarding grain as they prepared to joyously welcome the royal army! But before the royal army could arrive, the monster army got to them first.

Li Qinwu had deliberately granted the gentry and landlords a full week to conscript and network their forces; now, it was finally time to move out and draw in the net. Leading a mixed force composed of 500 militia soldiers, 1, 000 Goblin recruits waiting to be leveled up, and 300 Punisher Army veterans, he marched aggressively toward the rural estates surrounding Poloia. Inside an estate closest to Poloia, several local landlords were currently drinking and making merry.

One of them slammed his fist viciously onto the wooden table.

"Damn it! Those accursed monsters, concocting what bloody nonsense about freeing serfs and dividing land! The serfs under my hand aren't even focusing on their farming anymore; our harvest yields are bound to suffer!" These words struck a deep chord with everyone present, prompting another landlord to curse furiously.

"At the beginning, when those monsters slaughtered that demon Count Cali and left us entirely unmolested, we actually thought it wasn't half bad. But looking at it now, monsters are monsters—they must be eradicated! Blast it all! My serf looks at me with an entirely wrong look now. A few of them even dared to publicly discuss dividing the land. It's my bloody land, what right do you have to divide it? It only quieted down after I personally executed over a dozen of them! Bah!"

The crowd unleashed another torrent of curses, venting the immense dissatisfaction festering in their hearts.

"Heh! Just you wait. Count Fischer's grand army is already fully organized. The moment the grain is ready, they will march. Jie-jie-jie, when that time comes, the monster army will be nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs!" This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. The men burst into raucous laughter. When Count Fischer's army arrived, they would bring their own troops and grain to join the fray, ensuring they could claim a piece of the pie.

They had heard through the grapevine that once the city walls were breached, the army would be permitted to plunder for three days and three nights, which meant everyone's purses would be bursting to the seams! Just as the gentry were fantasizing about the glorious aftermath of the city's fall, a scout suddenly burst into the grand hall.

"My Lords, disaster! The monsters! The monster army is here!" The landlords gasped in shock, frantically demanding to know how many troops had arrived.

"Just over a hundred men! They are all those diminutive Goblins, but they are fully clad in chainmail, wearing kettle hats, and brandishing long spears." Hearing that there were only a hundred-odd enemies, the landlords let out a collective sigh of relief. With so few foes, and all of them being those pint-sized Goblins, what did it matter even if they wore armor? The combined forces of the estate numbered a full 300 men! The master of the estate laughed uproariously, unsheathing the longsword at his waist.

"Gentlemen! Our guests have arrived. Accompany me to slaughter the enemy!" The gentry assembled their 300 private soldiers and surged grandly out of the estate, intending to wipe out the invading Goblins in a single, decisive stroke. Seeing the enemy emerge from the manor, Li Qinwu ordered his troops to halt and form ranks to receive the attack.

He had only brought 110 system soldiers and 10 company commanders to hold the line; the main bulk of his army was entirely concealed within the forest behind them, as he feared exposing his true numbers would frighten the enemy into fleeing. When the landlords led their private forces out and saw that the enemy truly consisted of a mere hundred-odd Goblins, they practically laughed aloud. These diminutive Goblins looked exactly like small potatoes. What did it matter if they wore armor and helmets?

Adult humans possessed an absolute advantage in raw physical strength, and their numbers were threefold greater than the enemy's—the advantage was overwhelmingly theirs. The lead landlord sat atop a tall steed. As his eyes swept over the Goblins' armor and weapons, a greedy light gleamed in his gaze. These arms were equivalent to pure, gleaming silver; every single set could easily fetch over thirty silver coins!

"Charge! Slaughter them all! A reward of one silver coin for every enemy slain!" Hearing that killing Goblins yielded a silver bounty, the private soldiers grew ecstatic. Under the landlord's roaring commands, they formed ranks and advanced forward in tight coordination. Li Qinwu toggled his battlefield command system, dragging the phalanx of Goblin recruits forward to close the distance. Among the 110 Goblin recruits, 10 were company commanders, all wielding hand-cannons.

Just as the two forces were about to collide, Li Qinwu unslung the musket from his back and leveled it at the lead landlord riding high upon the steed. With the distance between them dropping below 50 meters, Li Qinwu pulled the trigger. BANG! Following a sharp report, the lead landlord let out an agonizing shriek and tumbled dead from his horse. The private soldiers had no idea what had just occurred, and a wave of chaotic panic rippled through their ranks.

Seizing the opening, Li Qinwu ordered his entire force to press forward. The units launched a fierce charge. Right before making contact, the 10 company commanders raised their hand-cannons, angling the barrels downward toward the enemies' legs, and fired! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! A massive hail of grapeshot erupted, sweeping violently across the 300-man phalanx, tearing their lower limbs into sprays of crimson mist.

The private soldiers collapsed in heaps; with their legs or abdomens completely shredded by the shrapnel, they shrieked in agonizing torment, and their formation shattered instantly.

"Forward! Forward! Forward! Kill them all! Exterminate them entirely!" Having discharged their hand-cannons, the company commanders stepped off to the side. Since they were not system troops, they could not absorb experience points; their role was merely to shatter the enemy's lines, minimize their own casualties, and act as a discipline squad on the flanks. The Goblin recruits howled as they charged, using their long spears to viciously impale the private soldiers who lay writhing on the ground.

These Goblins were exceptionally savage; with every thrust of their spears, the noble retainers were brutally harvested. Although the private soldiers swung their weapons frantically in return, the Goblins' chainmail and kettle hats provided substantial defense; these small potatoes were by no means easy to kill. The Goblin recruits fought with an utter disregard for their own lives, slaying dozens of retainers in the blink of an eye.

With their leader dead at the very opening and having swallowed ten barrels of grapeshot, the private soldiers' morale was completely annihilated. Devoid of any remaining will to fight, they cast down their weapons and broke into a mad sprint back toward the estate. Yet, before they could realize it, 20 spider cavalrymen had already flanked around, cutting off their avenue of retreat.

Although these 20 veteran riders were no longer bound by the system, they had spent so much time with their spider mounts that they operated in perfect, telepathic unison. Under the precise direction of their Goblin riders, the giant spiders used their sharp forelegs to spear through the thighs of the fleeing soldiers or simply rammed them off their feet.

The Goblin riders also packed their muskets with coarse sand, blasting it directly into the chests of the retainers to knock them flat onto the ground, leaving them completely incapacitated as they waited for the Goblin recruits to deliver the critical finishing blows. The veterans practically spoon-fed the experience directly into the mouths of the recruits. Living up to expectations, the Goblin recruits suffered only single-digit casualties while successfully annihilating all 300 private soldiers.

Li Qinwu brought up the soldier management interface: 74 recruits were now eligible for promotion. He tapped the upgrade key without a moment's hesitation, and 74 brand-new Hobgoblins materialized within his ranks. He kicked these Hobgoblins out of his immediate party, replenished his slots back to maximum capacity with fresh Goblin recruits from the main army waiting in the rear, and marched grandly toward the next village.

Once the main host departed, a detachment of over 30 militia soldiers remained behind, pulling heavy wagons into the estate. They located the manor of the gentry landlords, confiscated every single item of value, and flung open the granaries, distributing half of the stored grain directly to the local serfs on the spot. As the convoy prepared to return to the city fully laden with spoils, a trembling serf approached a militia soldier, asking uncertainty, "The masters are all dead... what are we supposed to do now?"

The militia soldier replied firmly, "From this day forth, you are free. The land belongs to you. Even without the nobility, you will live on!"