Enfeoffment (1)

"Enfeoffment..." Karl murmured, his sharp gaze sweeping over that vast new territory on the map.

For now, this was the most feasible choice, and the one that best suited the present situation: granting lands to those loyal subordinates who had followed him all this way and rendered illustrious military service.

On one hand, it could inspire morale to the greatest extent, letting the soldiers see the value of fighting hard. Land was the most tangible reward in this world.

On the other, it could efficiently make use of the meritorious retainers' abilities, letting them personally manage, develop, and defend their own fiefs. They would certainly put far more heart and effort into it than any appointed official.

They would build and defend them as if they were their own homes, allowing actual control over the new territory to be established rapidly. By creating one loyal knightly fief and manor fief after another, nailing them into the peninsula like wedges, he could stabilize his rule.

Of course, the feudal noble system Carnford had built in Karl's mind possessed fundamental and profound differences from the traditional system of the Goldflower Kingdom, and even from the feudal systems commonly seen in many countries across the continent.

The root of this difference lay in the fact that Carnford's power structure had not been born from the classical feudal model of layer upon layer of enfeoffment and dispersed authority, but from a brutal defensive war, rising with a highly centralized standing army loyal to the lord personally as its core.

Its most central and most striking difference lay in where military authority belonged.

In Carnford, the rights to recruit, train, command, and deploy all armed forces were entirely and absolutely concentrated in the hands of the supreme lord—Karl alone.

Within the territory, there were no