From the very beginning of the Free Trade Alliance, Zhou Ming had started considering Glan Territory's military defense.
As the various trade activities led by Glan Territory grew more numerous, Zhou Ming's business plans gradually came to fruition. In the coming years, Glan Territory would only become more prosperous, and it would inevitably become a land of wealth and "gold prospecting" coveted by countless wandering merchants, mercenaries, anonymous bandits, and other transient folk. So many chaotic elements—petty thieves, greedy schemers, ruthless criminals, and rule-breakers—would bring endless challenges to Glan Territory's public security and normal order.
And in the future, Glan Territory would have to answer wartime summonses issued by higher-ranking counts or the King, taking part in wars against other territories or national wars. It needed to field troops when called upon and ensure they could return with minimal losses after the war.
Thus, building a well-equipped, adequately staffed Territorial Army to protect the territory, maintain public order, answer higher summonses, and wage wars of expansion had become an urgent matter before Zhou Ming—not quite a crisis at hand, but close enough.
However...
This was completely different from his previous life. Back then, he had followed a path combining farming and soldiering, with every citizen a soldier. Its advantage was abundant troops and officers, broad mobilization, and enormous wartime potential. Its drawback was massive Resource Consumption, making it impossible to endure continuous campaigns year after year. Of course, every army had this problem; only the duration differed.
But in this life, as a member of the Noble Class, Zhou Ming could only rely on the knight-centered Noble Class to build up his territory's military. He could not ignore the knights' interests and recruit full-time farmers for training to establish a standing military force.
Once he did that, the knightly class