The Antalya Plains was located in the eastern mountains of the Alvindale Empire. The entire plains belonged to the Antalya prefecture, and the entire Antalya prefecture belonged to the Counts Of Antalya.
Viscount Ferguson was a vassal of the Counts Of Antalya. His territory was located in the eastern part of the Antalya prefecture. Leo's father was a frontier knight conferred by Viscount Ferguson. His frontier territory was located in the eastern wilderness of Ferguson's territory.
Further east of Pedro's frontier knight territory was the endless Eastern Mountain Range.
The Eastern Mountain Range was also known as the East Coast Mountain Range. After passing through this enormous mountain range that spanned over a thousand kilometers, one would reach the East Coast of the Salen Continent.
This was the geographical knowledge that Leo learned in the wizard academy.
When the three of them climbed up the mountain ridge, the darkness before dawn had already passed and the sky was slightly brighter. The three of them stood at the top of the mountain and saw a vast and boundless plain. This was the Antalya Plains.
On this plain, within sight, there were a few castles and a town scattered about.
The closest to the three of them was Erik's frontier knight's castle.
It was a very simple and crude castle.
Although it was called a castle, it was actually a simple and crude wall that surrounded a slightly bloated circular defensive tower. This four-storey stone defensive tower was Leo's home.
The four-storey stone tower was about 15 to 16 meters tall and its diameter was about the same as its height.
The first floor of the stone tower was the military hall. The main function of this hall was defense. The interior was divided into two levels. If an enemy wanted to enter, they would have to pass through a 20 meter long narrow passageway between the inner and outer levels. Within this distance, every step an invader took would be met with a pike attack from the inner hall.
After passing through the passageway and entering the first floor hall, there was a staircase that led to the second floor.
The second floor was Leo's father's office. Of course, this was also the second line of defense of the stone castle. If an enemy occupied the first floor, then the defenders on the second floor would be able to pass through the atrium in the middle of the hall.
They attacked all the positions on the first floor from above.
The third and fourth floors were also separated into an inner and outer mezzanine. The inner mezzanine was the residence, the inner mezzanine on the third floor was the residence of Leo, his brother, and the maids, and the inner mezzanine on the fourth floor was the residence of Erik and Leo's mother.
There were shooting holes in the mezzanine outside the third and fourth floors. The soldiers could also climb to the top of the defense tower through this mezzanine and use crossbows to assist the militia on the outer walls of the castle.
In addition to a large portable ballista, there was also a combat platform that protruded out of the tower. The platform had a downward-facing shooting hole that could be used to attack enemies from above.
The outer perimeter of the stone castle was a simple, square earthen wall. The earthen wall was built with two layers of wood and wood, and the middle was filled with earth. In order to guard against the powerful Gnolls and the tall Ogres, the earthen wall was six meters tall and two meters thick.
It was said that the wood used to build the orchid had been treated with magic potions to prevent it from rotting.
Frontier Knight Eric's biggest wish was that one day, when he had money, he would use Mud to Rock to turn the mud wall outside the castle into a stone wall.
There were four stone towers that protruded from the four corners of the earthen wall. These towers were about three to four meters in diameter and seven to eight meters in height.
The stone castle and towers were built in the same way as Drow's Stronghold underground. They were built with stone and clay, and finally, with the use of Mud to Stone, the stone castle and towers were turned into a single large block of stone.
In the open space between the wall and the central stone castle, there were many houses made of wood and stone. These houses closer to the stone castle looked more decent, while those further away were much simpler.
The decent houses were for the commoner knights and squires under Leo's father, as well as the blacksmiths and merchants. The outer perimeter was for the residents.
There were about seventy households in the entire castle, about three hundred and sixty people.
Leo's father had four commoner knights and a dozen squires under him. Most of these people were companions he met when he was a mercenary.
This castle used to be Leo's nightmare. It was dirty, crowded, and always filled with a lingering stench. The rooms in the castle were small and dark, always emitting a musty smell. The maids with their black mouths and strong halitosis always affected his appetite.
The thing he hated the most was the annual long vacation of the Mage Academy, because he would have to return to this disgusting place during that time.
But today, when Feng Chou saw this familiar yet strange castle again, tears came out of nowhere, and he couldn't wipe them away.
Tasting the sorrow in his heart, Feng Chou helplessly found that when he received Leo's memories, it seemed that he had accepted some of his feelings.
A large amount of farmland was opened up around the castle. According to Qiankun Pagoda's estimation, this farmland was about seven thousand mu.
According to the expansion decree, as long as Leo's father continued to cultivate this farmland for twenty years, half of this farmland, plus the surrounding forest area that was twice the size of the farmland, would permanently belong to his family. His family would also receive a title that was commensurate with the area of the farmland.
The other half of the farmland would become the reward of the lord who issued the expansion decree.
Leo knew that these years, his father had been working hard to open up new farmland, in order to fight for the family's lowest hereditary title of a knight.
According to the aristocratic law of this world, a knight's territory had a minimum size of three square kilometers. In this three square kilometer territory, a third of the land had to be cultivated, which was one thousand five hundred mu.
Leo's father's territory had already reached this standard, but a knight was only a title for life, and the person who received the title had to obtain the professional title of "knight" in order to inherit the title of "knight".
To obtain the professional title of "knight", there were two prerequisites. First, you had to be a warrior above level 5. Second, you had to receive horsemanship, tactics, and etiquette training from a recognized organization (usually referred to as a knight school or the Temple of Knights), and obtain the recognition of the organization (obtaining a graduation certificate) to obtain the professional title of "knight". This title was usually bestowed by the Temple of Knights.
If a descendant of a knight couldn't advance into a level 5 warrior (this wasn't impossible, although warrior was the easiest profession to enter, but the proportion of warriors who could advance beyond level 5 was still only one in ten), then this descendant of a knight would lose the title of "knight", and thus lose their aristocratic status, becoming a squire between a commoner and a noble.
In the eyes of the commoners in the countryside, squires were masters, but in the eyes of the real aristocrats and the rich in the city, squires were synonymous with country bumpkins.
The lowest hereditary title was "knight". This title used to be called "Baron", and was regarded as a quasi-aristocrat, but now, the upper class basically recognized this title as an official aristocrat, and the title was changed to "knight".
Knight was a purely aristocratic title, and it had nothing to do with strength.
The minimum standard of a knight's territory was ten square kilometers, and there had to be five thousand mu of arable land in the territory.
If a frontier knight wanted to obtain the title of "knight", he had to work hard to open up more than ten thousand mu of arable land, so that after paying the lord half of the arable land, there would still be enough arable land left to obtain the title of "knight".
In these years, Knight Erik gave up on professional practice, gave up the comfortable life of a noble, and put all of his energy and money into the construction of the territory, seeing that his dream was getting closer and closer …