Initial Military Reforms

Reiner lay in his room. The flames in the fireplace danced up and down, devouring the wood provided for them and emitting a crackling sound from time to time; for the people of this era, however, this was the sound of warmth.

"System, perform the monthly draw!" Reiner said to the system in his heart. Every month, the system automatically granted one draw opportunity, which it called the monthly draw.

The available prizes were numerous, but in Reiner's view, most were useless things. In the more than three months since he arrived, the best thing he had drawn was merely an exquisite hand-and-a-half sword worth ten Merit Points.

However, adhering to the philosophy that it was better to draw than not to, Reiner still performed a draw every month, just in case his luck exploded one day and he pulled something good.

"Understood, Baron. The monthly draw begins!"

Reiner watched the spinning wheel before him intently. Even though it had disappointed him time and again, he still held a glimmer of hope for a good prize.

"Congratulations on drawing a hero character: Logan, leader of the Bar Empire's spies in the Resa region. He once helped the Bar Empire steal intelligence and successfully routed superior enemy forces. Loyalty: 95. Personality: Cruel. Overall evaluation: Four stars. Do you wish to manifest him?"

Reiner looked at the system interface before him, ecstatic. A massive sense of surprise almost made him jump with excitement; such a four-star character was absolutely rare and hard to come by.

In the system store, every hero character was worth a fortune; even the cheapest one-star hero cost thousands of Merit Points.

Not to mention a four-star hero who had planned famous events. Although he did not know what the Bar Empire was, how could a person capable of serving as a regional spy leader for a country be an ordinary individual?

For days, Reiner had felt a sense of unease. Perhaps it was because he was in a foreign land, but he always felt he could not grasp the big picture. Although the situations of other nobles were similar to Reiner's, he just felt uneasy.

But now it was fine. With this spy leader, he could finally be at ease. It would be a waste not to use such a hero character. Establishing a spy or intelligence organization was essential for him; he needed an "Embroidered Uniform Guard" to monitor his territory!

"Manifest him immediately!" Reiner said.

"Yes, Baron. Logan has appeared outside your castle. Please receive him promptly!" the system's mechanical, electronic voice rang out.

Reiner pushed open his door and said to the guard at the entrance, "There is someone waiting outside the castle. Go and bring him to me!"

Although the guard was curious about Reiner's order, he had to execute it.

Soon, Logan appeared before Reiner.

"May you sweep away all enemies and be ever-victorious. My dear and great master, your most humble servant Logan blesses you!" Logan said with exaggeration.

It made Reiner feel a bit embarrassed; he was currently just a small baron and hardly deserved such praise from Logan.

"Uh, very well, Logan. From today on, you are my spy leader. Help me build a powerful spy and intelligence organization. However, it is a pity that my finances are a bit tight right now, so you will need to help me control the territory without financial support for the time being!"

Reiner felt ashamed as he said these words. He felt like one of those unscrupulous bosses from his past life, wanting the horse to run fast without giving it any grass.

But there was no help for it; Reiner's current financial situation was indeed not optimistic. Although the taxes from the territory had been collected, they were all in kind. Fortunately, his knights did not require salaries, as they possessed fiefs granted by the Moreland Family.

However, the ordinary soldiers and the livestock in the castle needed grain to be fed, especially the warhorses in the castle, which required high-quality bean feed and occasionally needed to be mixed with minced meat and eggs to maintain their strength.

Added to that were the occasional banquets, so the Moreland Family's finances were actually quite strained. If not for the fact that they sold iron ore to the interior of the empire every year, they might already be struggling to make ends meet.

Reiner had previously manifested two junior blacksmiths, who had been working hard to forge chainmail for him. Chainmail was worth a fortune; if one were in the interior of the empire, it would take five gold coins to purchase a set. Furthermore, with the current tense situation in the empire and lords across the country at daggers drawn and eyeing the royal family, the price of iron armor had been climbing steadily.

However, Reiner did not intend to sell the chainmail. After all, winter had arrived, and the lords of the Northern Frontier had to guard against the invasions and looting of the Krad Barbarians every year.

The climate in the Frigid Forest was extremely harsh. Although it was less than a hundred kilometers away from the Northern Frontier, the temperature could differ by more than a dozen degrees.

The Frigid Forest, which was in the grip of a severe winter for half the year, could not support crops or livestock. Therefore, whenever winter approached, the Krad People would head south to loot the Northern Frontier of the empire.

If they could loot food, it would be easier for them to survive the winter. If they could not, the resulting casualties would reduce the weaker population of their tribes, which could save some grain.

In three months, the two junior blacksmiths, along with the two ordinary blacksmiths originally in the castle, had woven a total of eighteen sets of full-body chainmail. Reiner held a competition for the guards of the Moreland Family, and only the eighteen winners were allowed to wear the chainmail.

The Moreland Family's army was already fully equipped with leather armor due to their proximity to the forest and the abundance of animal hides from the Frigid Forest. With the newly woven chainmail, more than a third of the sixty armed guards were now equipped with iron armor.

Reiner had not been idle for the past three months. Streamlining the organization was something that had to be done quickly. Based on his knowledge from his past life, Reiner divided the sixty soldiers into four squads of fifteen men each. Each squad was further divided into three combat teams. Although the team leaders and squad leaders had not yet been selected, they had already undergone three months of coordinated combat training.

For this, Reiner had paid a considerable price, spending fifteen Merit Points to purchase the Elementary Infantry Combat Manual just to train their coordination and team combat capabilities. By now, they had mastered quite a few combat techniques and formations.

However, since the time had been short, they were only roughly proficient. To master them more skillfully would require more time for training.

The army's scale was not yet large, so they could continue to be organized as a single unit. If the army grew larger in the future, Reiner would have to mix the various branches of the military.

To ensure their nutrition kept up with the training volume, Reiner organized the Archers to go into the mountains to hunt every day. One reason was to hone their shooting skills, and the other was to bring back meat to supplement the army's nutrition.

Otherwise, Reiner could not afford the current diet of three meat meals a day.

What annoyed Reiner even more was that the system's previous reward had only included fifteen exquisite Recurve Bows, yet he had twenty Archers, forcing Reiner to spend another twenty Merit Points to make up the difference. He even suspected that the system was engaging in bundled consumption.