Allen Village is located at the foot of a mountain, backed by a forest. Most of the villagers are hunters who make a living by hunting.
This evening, the hunters who had gone out began to return one after another. They boasted about their catches, compared who had the most harvest today, and discussed how many silver coins they could exchange for a few precious furs at the shop set up by the lord in town. Speaking of this, everyone couldn't help but praise the lord's fairness and generosity, which had increased their income significantly and made their lives less difficult and frugal.
As the returning hunters gathered at the village entrance to relax and chat, the urgent and heavy sound of horse hooves suddenly broke the peaceful dusk.
The people at the village entrance looked up in the direction of the sound and saw five majestic silver figures riding tall warhorses, galloping towards the village at the end of the road in the red sunset.
When they got closer, the crowd could see their appearance clearly in the afterglow of the setting sun.
They were wearing heavy silver knight armor, which was dyed with a dazzling golden color in the golden sunset. The tall warhorses they rode were majestic and agile, covered in horse armor. On both sides of the saddles hung swords, shields, and lances, with the tips of the lances showing traces of crimson blood that seemed not to have dried yet, exuding a chilling aura in the sunset.
Everyone couldn't help but tense up, gripping their weapons tightly, ready to fight to the death to protect their wives and children in the village behind them.
Fortunately, someone first recognized the emblem on their armor.
"They are the lord's knights!"
With this shout, everyone looked at the chest of the leading knight and saw a black shield-shaped emblem with a nine-headed dragon engraved on it, with a sword inserted behind it, prominently displayed on his chest armor. The crowd's gaze towards the knights instantly softened, and they relaxed their grip on their bows and machetes, turning to look at these majestic knights with eager and respectful eyes.
Were these the legendary powerful knights who had followed their great lord in battles across the north and south, conquering vast territories and exterminating countless terrifying werewolves?
But why would these powerful and noble knights come to their remote little village? According to what they heard in town, only official knights were qualified to have the noble emblem representing the lord engraved on their chest armor. Even the black iron knights had to have personally killed an enemy knight on the battlefield to be knighted by the lord and become a noble.
According to the merchants, there were only a little over a hundred black iron knights in the lord's knight regiment, most of whom were soldiers from the lord's territorial guard who had followed him from the beginning.
As the crowd's excitement turned to confusion, the leading black iron knight among the five suddenly dismounted and walked briskly towards the gathered crowd.
Under everyone's gaze, the strong and majestic knight stopped in front of Old Jack. Then, to everyone's astonishment, this noble knight suddenly knelt on one knee before Old Jack.
Old Jack was also taken aback by this sudden turn of events. Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he looked at the knight kneeling before him with an excited expression.
After kneeling, the knight raised his hand and slowly removed his helmet, revealing a stern and familiar young face to everyone.
"Father, Oliver is back!"
The young knight's voice trembled slightly, his eyes red as he looked at Old Jack, but he held back his tears.
"Oliver! My son! I knew it! I knew it!.."
Old Jack was moved to tears, trying hard to pull his son up from the ground but found he couldn't move him.
Fortunately, Oliver stood up on his own, seeing his father's struggle. Old Jack touched the black emblem on his son's chest armor, nodding excitedly.
"Good! Good!.."
The surrounding people finally reacted, excitedly discussing among themselves.
"It's Oliver!"
"Old Jack wasn't bragging! His son really became a knight!"
"Our village finally produced a remarkable person!"
"Little Oliver wasn't this strong before, but his archery was the best in our village, even better than his father's!"
Women and children from the village, drawn by the commotion, gradually gathered around. The news that Old Jack's son Oliver had become a knight under the lord quickly spread throughout the village.
Oliver was one of the first members of the territorial guard selected by Chen Mo. In the first battle against Count Warren, although he killed many soldiers, he didn't manage to kill any of Count Warren's knights.
In subsequent battles, although his strength grew, he never got the chance to kill an enemy knight. Watching his comrades become knights one by one, he was determined to prove himself.
In a recent battle, Oliver fought bravely and finally succeeded in killing a knight on his own. Chen Mo then knighted him, making him an honored black iron knight, with four squire knights under his command.
This time, he was originally ordered to eliminate a werewolf that had appeared nearby. Learning that the destination was close to his hometown, he requested permission from Captain Andrew to visit his family after completing the mission.
Having been constantly at war, the knights had no chance to return home. This rare opportunity to visit his family was naturally approved by Andrew.
Thus, the previous scene unfolded.
…
After a year of expansion and construction, the territory under Chen Mo's control had undergone significant changes.
The territory's economic and military strength was far superior to all surrounding territories.
The promotion of new farming tools and methods greatly increased agricultural output, and Chen Mo only levied minimal taxes. For the first time, the commoners in the territory felt the happiness of having surplus food and not worrying about hunger.
Additionally, Chen Mo led the knight regiment in continuously hunting down werewolves within the territory, making werewolves almost extinct in Chen Mo's domain. Without the threat of these terrifying beasts, the safety of the commoners' lives was ensured, and they no longer lived in constant hunger and fear.
With ample food and security, the commoners lived and worked in peace, and their living conditions improved significantly. Unlike the pale and ragged commoners in other places, everyone in Chen Mo's territory had a renewed spirit and happiness on their faces.
Many commoners from surrounding territories secretly fled to Chen Mo's domain, hoping to become his subjects, escape the threat of werewolves, and fill their families' bellies.
Chen Mo welcomed all the peasants who came to seek refuge. At this time in Europe, productivity was extremely underdeveloped, the output of fields was limited, and they had to bear heavy taxes. Coupled with natural disasters, continuous wars, and the constant slaughter by werewolves over the years, the lives of peasants were extremely difficult, and the population remained very low, with the total population of Europe being less than ten million.
As the most important source of productivity and soldiers, peasants were very valuable assets to the lords.
Chen Mo allocated land, distributed farming tools, food, and seeds to all the peasants who admired the strength and stability of his territory and came to seek refuge, allowing them to quickly settle down and start production.
After continuously defeating several major lords in the surrounding areas, Chen Mo's territory now covered nearly ten thousand square kilometers, equivalent to several counties in England.
In addition to forest and mountain areas, there were large tracts of land available for development and cultivation, so the more population, the better.
Although Chen Mo spent a lot of military resources on exterminating werewolves as his territory expanded, his expansion did not stop.
With strong combat power, excellent equipment, and favorable conditions, Chen Mo's army advanced rapidly, conquering one territory after another. Many lords on the edge of Chen Mo's territory surrendered voluntarily before his army arrived.
For these nobles, Chen Mo required them to hand over all their territories and powers but allowed them to keep their wealth. After assessing them, Chen Mo would make further arrangements.
Those with abilities would be appointed as governors in different regions by Chen Mo, while those without abilities could stay in the city as leisurely nobles.
As for those with too much public resentment, Chen Mo would order the court to publicly execute them after a trial.
Chen Mo did not care whether this would deter other nobles from surrendering voluntarily. To him, their resistance or lack thereof made little difference. In the face of his powerful knight regiment, all forces would collapse, and more resistance would only give him more opportunities to train his troops.
It is worth mentioning that among the lords who wisely chose to surrender voluntarily under Chen Mo's overwhelming force was a man named Victor!
When Chen Mo finally saw him, he was even more convinced of his guess. This world was indeed the world of the movie "Underworld," and it was before Victor became a vampire.
Before this, Victor had always personally led his knight regiment to exterminate werewolves in his territory. His forty elite knights and he himself were experienced in battle and had strong combat power.
For this special and elite team, Chen Mo chose to directly incorporate them.
Chen Mo did not reorganize them as he did with other territorial troops but handed them all back to Victor to lead.
Chen Mo was not afraid of his betrayal. Not to mention that Victor's power could not threaten Chen Mo, this could also be seen as a test for him.
After thorough investigation and a period of personal contact and understanding, combined with the plot of the movie, Chen Mo found that Victor was a very principled and stubbornly traditional person.
To him, the rules of nobility and family honor were paramount. Even when his daughter Sonja violated the vampire family's laws, broke the purity of the pureblood lineage, fell in love with the werewolf slave Lucian, and became pregnant, as the vampire leader, he had no choice but to order her execution despite his deep reluctance, due to racial laws and his principles.
Most importantly, he did not have great ambitions, unlike the vampire progenitor Marcus, who dreamed of the undead ruling the world.
Victor always believed that humans were the true masters of this world.
Of course, now he was just an ordinary human noble under Chen Mo.