Recruiting Soldiers, Suppressing Bandits!

Once the two had reached an agreement, Ye Wei'an met with Lady Selina in the side hall of the temple.

When he offered to help clear the territory of hidden threats before his departure, the exhausted widow's eyes were filled with complex emotions.

With the Baron deceased and the new Baron still a child, the entire barony was currently a ship without a captain.

She was deeply worried that the neighboring Yelland family would disregard the late Baron's warnings and hire bandits to harass the territory.

Furthermore, she had promised Ye Wei'an that he could recruit troops. If he took too many men with him, she might be forced to cede territory to Raymond Yelland just to secure a chance to recover.

At this moment, Ye Wei'an's offer to take on the task felt like a timely gift in her eyes.

"Since you are willing to put in this effort, I have no reason to refuse." Selina sighed, a rare trace of sincerity appearing in her expression. "Ye Wei'an, perhaps I truly misjudged you in the past; you have more of a sense of responsibility as an elder brother than I imagined."

Watching Selina nod, Ye Wei'an felt nothing but a cold sneer in his heart.

As expected, no matter how shrewd she was, she remained a woman who stayed behind closed doors, her vision limited to the circles of nobility.

She had no idea who was actually standing behind the bandit gangs raiding the trade routes.

On the frontier, smuggling and banditry were two sides of the same coin. Combined with that map, he could easily determine that the Amarisk Family had, in all likelihood, reached a partnership with the Zhentarim.

In other words, to her, most of the "bandits" in Hurek Forest were actually her own people.

Without an order from the legitimate Baron, even as the son of the Xiaxing Baron, Ye Wei'an could not simply go around slaughtering those bandits at will.

After all, bandits didn't wear name tags; if you claimed you were wiping out bandits, who could prove otherwise?

In the Eastern Marches, the only ones who decided who was a bandit—besides the local lord—were the Purple Dragon Legion under the command of the Warden of the Eastern Marches.

And the position of Warden of the Eastern Marches was currently held by the Amarisk Family.

If he were to suppress the bandits on his own, he would be handing Count Wafred a pretext on a silver platter.

Since Count Wafred was already unhappy that he had walked away with twenty thousand gold coins of the inheritance, the Warden would have no trouble framing him for raiding caravans, and he would have no way to defend himself against the resulting punishment.

But now, with Lady Selina, the Baron's mother, issuing the order herself, everything was different.

In frontier regions, orders issued by the local lord were legally exempt from the oversight of the Purple Dragon Legion.

Once Ye Wei'an accepted the order, he would naturally clear out those bandits—suspected to be under the Yelland family—for his younger brother.

But whether or not he accidentally "misidentified" and wiped out some other bandits in the process was not something anyone else could dictate.

Of course, causing trouble for the Amarisk Family and retaliating against Count Wafred was only one of his goals.

Beyond that, this expedition offered three other benefits.

First and foremost was demonstrating his command ability: letting those knights and soldiers see his prowess in leading troops firsthand, so they would believe he could carve out a future for them in the frontier.

Secondly, it was for training. To establish a foothold in a dangerous frontier territory, ordinary troops would not suffice; Ye Wei'an wanted to forge an elite force.

For someone possessing the Companion System, the fastest way to train troops was to kill monsters for experience, and the simplest way to gain a large amount of experience was to suppress bandits.

Finally, there was the matter of "black-on-black" theft.

As the smuggling partner of the Amarisk Family, the Zhentarim surely possessed a significant amount of valuable contraband.

A criminal organization like that would never involve themselves in low-profit ventures.

The subsequent recruitment drive almost perfectly confirmed Morey's predictions.

Every recruitment point was packed with people.

When Ye Wei'an promised to provide settlers with land, farming tools, and seeds in the new territory, the entire Firefall Territory was shaken.

Farmers who had tilled the land in Firefall Town for a lifetime without owning a single inch of soil, and second sons destined to inherit nothing, flocked to the recruitment points like a rising tide.

At the same time, the recruitment of craftsmen and technical talent went exceptionally smoothly.

His reputation in Firefall Town played a role: blacksmith apprentices, carpenters, cobblers, brewers, scribes, engineers... many residents of Firefall Town voluntarily joined his ranks.

Some special figures also appeared in the crowd.

They were informants who had provided testimony in the "Gray Crow" case; although they had received amnesty from Ye Wei'an, their reputations were ruined locally, and they were shunned by their neighbors.

Ye Wei'an took them in as he had promised, allowing them to start over in the new territory.

To supplement his base labor force, Ye Wei'an even took away the thugs of Gray Crow who had been locked in the castle dungeon.

Although the laws of Cormyr strictly prohibited slavery, there were always ways around it.

Many merchants, nobles, and gangs would force people into "debt slavery" by saddling them with insurmountable debts.

These scoundrels were exactly that.

Ye Wei'an handed down heavy fines for them and personally "paid" these fines on their behalf.

The price was that these prisoners were forced to sign harsh contracts with him, becoming "contracted laborers" in name, but slaves in reality.

On the other hand, the recruitment of soldiers and knights was extremely cold.

Aside from trusted confidants like Volodya and the twenty or so soldiers who had followed Ye Wei'an from the start, not many others came to enlist.

The vast majority of those who did apply were soldiers familiar with Cain and his men.

After three full days of recruitment, the force under Ye Wei'an's command only reached about 40 men.

Yet, this did not mean Ye Wei'an had failed.

His reputation for being "clear in rewards and punishments" had indeed taken effect, and combined with the prestige of the Great Knight Morey within the army, many became interested in this bandit suppression mission.

"Have you heard? Lord Ye Wei'an is going to wipe out that bunch of scum in the forest?"

"Let's go and see! If he really has the ability, following him to the wilderness to earn some military merit is better than enduring the attitude of that Amarisk woman at Firefall Valley."

This mindset was highly representative among the veterans and knights.

Although they did not immediately swear allegiance, they were willing to temporarily follow Ye Wei'an's orders.

Adding these people together, another force of about forty men was assembled.

Morey had originally proposed that he personally lead the team to hold the line; after all, this ragtag army of eighty men was composed of complex elements, and without someone capable of keeping order, it would be easy for them to scatter in the forest.

At the end of the day, he was still worried about Ye Wei'an's ability to lead troops.

But Ye Wei'an refused.

"Knight Morey, recruitment and supply preparation are the most important tasks. For this suppression mission, I need to take Lina with me, so I must leave you here to hold the fort," Ye Wei'an explained.

"As you command." Even if Morey was uneasy, he could not forcibly defy his lord and had no choice but to agree. He then found Volodya: "You brat, remember to protect the lord and your sister. If anything goes wrong, don't bother coming back to see me!"

Volodya lowered his head and accepted the order.

On the training ground, the force of eighty men had already assembled.

In this temporarily patched-together armed force, there were thirty soldiers who were only [Lv.1 Militia], thirty [Lv.1 Warriors], and over a dozen [Lv.1 Rogues].

Serving as the backbone were seven or eight Lv.2 Warriors and Rogues, who were assigned to act as junior officers.

As for the top-tier combat power, besides Volodya and Cain, there were four knights (Lv.3 Warriors).

Although their attribute panels appeared slightly inferior to Cain and Volodya in the system, their rich combat experience made them fully capable of mid-level command.

Ye Wei'an had never received military training, and he was not familiar with most of them.

Therefore, he simply divided the army into three squads.

The captain of the first squad was Cain, who mainly led his old subordinates and those who had come to enlist under their influence, totaling nearly forty men.

Ye Wei'an also assigned him two Lv.3 knights as deputies.

The captain of the second squad was Volodya, leading those who had enlisted specifically for the bandit suppression.

This group did not have much confidence in Ye Wei'an, so to prevent them from disobeying orders and affecting tactics, Ye Wei'an had no choice but to have Volodya lead them.

In reality, this was to utilize his influence as the son of a Great Knight.

Ye Wei'an also assigned two Lv.3 knights as deputies for Volodya.

The remaining rogues formed a scout group, led personally by Ye Wei'an, with a Lv.2 rogue named Caleb acting as his deputy.

Morey watched from the side, his brows twitching.

Normally, a lord would stay in the center of heavy protection—especially when the commander was a fragile spellcaster.

Yet Ye Wei'an actually intended to lead the scouts to take the vanguard.

He wanted to find his daughter, Lina, to persuade the lord, but Lina refused.

"Lord Ye Wei'an has his own ideas; we just need to trust him."

With his daughter saying as much, what else could Morey say?