Lord Harland

After withdrawing from the orc prairie, Richard hoarded his troops on the edge of the northern prairie.

When retreating, Richard considered occupying Puliland and expanding the Harland border to the north of the Puliland area. But after careful consideration, I gave up this plan.

The power of the Orc Royal Court is very great. The orcs in the Pulilan area suffered heavy losses, and they can get direct support from the grassland front army and even the Orc Royal Court.

Although the Dukedom of Harland has developed rapidly, it is only a strong ant compared to the huge Orc Empire. The Orc Empire can break through Haland as long as it focuses a little on this area and sends three or five legends to lead a few elite legions. The defense line of the Duchy of Rand.

After occupying the Pulilan area, the Prairie Governor-General will definitely not give up and will definitely mobilize elite troops to fight against the Harland leader in the future. At that time, it will be difficult for Richard to get reinforcements from the Grant Kingdom and the Holy Radiance Empire.

Although the conditions in the Pulilan area are very good, tens of millions of acres of farmland have been developed, and a system of ditches and reservoirs has been built. Occupying this area is equivalent to having the foundation of a king, but Richard still decisively gave up this area. A poisonous foundation.

A very important reason why Harland Territory can develop to this point is that Richard is not greedy.

After abandoning the Puliland area, the Harland territory still expanded hundreds of kilometers northward, pushing the border to the border between the northern part of the Eagle Mountains and the northern prairie.

At the level of border duke, the territory has been expanded mainly by oneself. Although nominally, the territory won in this battle nominally belongs to the royal family, the Haaland family can get at most one-third to half.

But if the royal family wants to truly control this tens of thousands of square kilometers of land, it must station a large army on it to develop the land, collect taxes, and have control.

The royal family stationing troops in this territory is equivalent to shouldering the pressure of defending against the orcs. As long as the Roger Kingdom is not a fool, it will certainly not be willing to do this.

In recent years, with the rise of the Harland family, the royal family has continuously transferred the central army to the south. They want to develop in the south. Naturally, they do not want to invest more power in the north. As long as Richard stands firm in this land, it will inevitably be destroyed. Entered the Duchy of Harland.

The border extended for hundreds of kilometers to the north, equivalent to the expansion of Harland's territory by more than 50,000 square kilometers. This land extended from the northern foot of the Eagle Mountains to the northern prairie.

To the north of several mountain roads, there are more than a dozen grain-tuning military stations.

Controlling these military depots is equivalent to reducing the amount of construction work for fortifications, which will undoubtedly greatly reduce the consumption of Harland Territory's logistic resources.

After Richard withdrew his troops, he stationed 40,000 regular troops and 20,000 auxiliary troops in more than a dozen military stations in the north of the Eagle Mountains. With more than a dozen military stations as the core, a new line of defense was deployed.

Holding the military stations along the line is equivalent to holding the natural line of defense of the Eagle Mountain Range.

Among the fourteen military stations, Richard arranged for all elite soldiers to be stationed there. Soros, Jennings, Roman, Wilde, Lost and others were all responsible for a section of the defense line.

In this battle of the orc invasion, Sutton's detachment made outstanding contributions, and his military exploits ranked first among the generals. Sutton, the detachment leader, became famous. The elves once again made ten great contributions and were awarded a baron. The territory has expanded a bit.

The officers under Sutton, such as Demon Hunter Squadron Leader Wilde, 1st Battalion 1st Squadron Leader Levine, and Special Forces Squadron Leader Langton all made outstanding achievements in combat and became famous in the military. Richard could also legitimately promote Wilde to an important position, responsible for commanding five infantry brigades and guarding the 11th and 12th military stations.

The meritorious services of Levin and Martin were enough to be knighted successfully.

In addition to Martin, the captain of the second group, Lost, was very lucky. He successfully killed an injured eighth-level orc deputy leader, made great military exploits, and was knighted together with Martin.

The two baronies of Martin and Lost are located in the north of Double Star Castle. Baron Martin is located in the east of Baron Vito, and Baron Lost is located in the north of Baron Martin and is connected to the elven territory of Bolton Viscounty.

Martin and Lost were both poor men, and their starting capital for running the territory was less than William's.

They don't have wives who are good at running businesses, and they have only saved very little money in recent years. The whole family relies entirely on military salary, and many years of risking life and death have made them not good at saving money.

Although as officers above the captain level, they have a lot of legal income every year, they have less than one thousand gold coins in their hands over the years.

One thousand gold coins can only buy two hundred serfs, including half of the old and young. With such a foundation, the territory cannot develop without thirty years of operation.

Fortunately, the external situation is very good now. Their territories are all south of the military station's defense line, which is relatively safe.

For these old subordinates, Richard personally borrowed five hundred gold coins, and the Duke's Bank also issued a low-interest loan of one thousand gold coins. However, running a barony with two to three thousand gold coins was still a drop in the bucket.

Finally, Richard gave them an idea, asking them to contribute their children and marry a wealthy businessman to borrow money.

After more than ten years of development, the Harland Territory has many rich people and first-generation capitalists. Although these people are rich, their political status is relatively low, and they have always been interested in expanding their connections to the upper class.

However, although the Duchy of Harland is politically enlightened, it has the same feudal kingship system as the Kingdom of Grant. It has no military merits or titles, and cannot enter the upper class of the territory at all. Rich people and capitalists will also feel a sense of security if they can marry the first-generation military nobles.

Fortunately, Martin and Lost had many children and were able to marry different capitalists and wealthy men. Each in-law borrowed a few hundred gold coins, plus the low-interest loan provided by the Duke's Bank, and finally purchased seven or eight hundred people from the slave market. With great difficulty, Started a business.

Because the family foundation was poor, Martin and Lost both stayed in Harland's army to fight for Richard in order to make money, and the management of the territory was temporarily left to their wives and children.

In addition to Martin and Lost, Jennings is also not far away from being knighted.

In this battle, Zhan Ning first commanded half of the legionnaires to defend the Nit Castle, and then commanded the Marcus Division to annihilate four brigades of orcs. He accumulated two major merits and six medium merits. He has exceeded nine merits and is far away from the seal. The prince is not far away.

After this year, the Dukedom of Harland already has thirteen vassals on its knees, including one viscount and twelve barons.

Compared to the royal family and Archduke Stanik, the coalition of nobles that Richard can command is still far behind.

After the army returned, the freed slaves who accompanied the army were registered and assigned to different areas. This time they entered the north to fight and rescued 260,000 slaves. Among them, the number of craftsman slaves who had mastered certain skills was about 20,000.

Of course, the craftsman slave Richard will be detained in advance and kept in the territory. Most of the skills of this group of craftsmen are very ordinary, and most of them are carpenters, stonemasons, masons, blacksmiths, and bamboo fence workers. They are actually not valuable in the slave market, and are only more expensive than prime-age male slaves.

The more precious thing is the veterinarian. There are many livestock in the northern prairie, and the veterinarians are precious resources for the orc tribe. In the Harland Territory, they only laid down military stations, annihilated all the orc tribes, and captured a small number of prisoners.

After seizing 20,000 slaves, a population of 30,000 will be allocated to other hereditary barons.

This includes not only the vassals of the Harland territory, but also the nobles of the Gedda province, such as Baron Sharp, Viscount Romon, etc. Although the population of 30,000 is quite large, each family can actually only get a few hundred or a thousand.

The total gold coins seized in the Orc Empire exceeded hundreds of thousands. In addition to being rewarded to soldiers, these gold coins were distributed more to the nobles.

In a war with the Orc Empire, it is not easy to stabilize the defense line and prevent the Orcs from harming the territory. It is also very difficult to achieve meritorious service and obtain material supplements. Generally speaking, it is very difficult.

Only by entering the hinterland of the Orc Empire can one earn more or less.

Entering May, Grant's Kingdom had achieved a comprehensive victory in this war, but the southern territories were in trouble.

Shortly after the orcs invaded, the Delon Kingdom and the East Coast United Kingdom took the opportunity to launch an offensive together.

Fortunately, the Kingdom of Grant has five central legions in the three southern provinces, as well as the two dukes of Guise and Duran to assist in the battle. It has accumulated a heavy army of 150,000 troops. Together with the southern noble coalition led by Earl Steven, the total strength is as high as 18 Ten thousand.

Although King Roger did not appoint the commander-in-chief of the southern garrison, William was Zachary's old subordinate and was willing to obey the old commander. The three Central Guards Regiments form their own system, and many of the officers within them are members of the Grant family, and they can also cooperate well in combat.

After the war broke out, Zachary concentrated the Iron Lion and Grizzly Bear legions to hold on, and let William lead the cavalry to fight outside, which greatly affected the logistics line of the Delon Kingdom army.

However, Delong and East Coast deployed half a million troops this time. After two years of training, the combat effectiveness of the Delong Kingdom has also improved, and the battle situation has become very difficult.

The Delong Kingdom and the United Kingdom of the East Coast originally planned to use the power of the orcs to contain the more than 200,000 elite soldiers in the northern border of the Grant Kingdom.

Unexpectedly, the orcs collapsed in this battle, losing four and a half legions in just twenty days.

It has just entered May, and the war in Northern Xinjiang has ended. King Roger issued an order asking the Feiyan and Northern Territory armies to go south to join the war.

After the orc invasion battle was over, it was time to reward the merits. Now that Richard was a high-ranking lord, at this time, he needed to spend a certain amount of resources, whether it was land or gold coins.

This year Richard made two hereditary barons, awarded more than thirty meritorious services, and awarded more than 800,000 gold coins, most of which were awarded to the coalition of nobles of Geda Province and the knight academy corps.

In this war, most of the noble coalition forces in Geda Province participated in the war under the command of Richard. The noble coalition forces in Heihe County were on the front line of Snow Mountain Castle, and the nobles in Luomen and Brenner counties guarded the southwest for the Harland territory.

There were more than thirty nobles in total, and each of them was awarded a lot of gold coins by Richard, adding up to a total of five hundred thousand.

The remaining more than 300,000 gold coins were awarded to the soldiers of the Harland Territory. The soldiers of the main army received an average of five gold coins each. The second-line army participated in less battles and also received a gold coin allowance.

A large amount of gold coins were distributed, which not only consumed all the captured orcs, but also 320,000 from the treasury of Harland Territory.

Fortunately, he had saved a large amount of gold coins in the past few years, and 690,000 gold coins had been accumulated in the treasury. Even if Richard generously gave away large sums of money, there were still 370,000 gold coins in the treasury.

After the war, Richard spent a lot of money in order to reward his merits.

The Grant royal family also has to expend resources.

Because of Richard's great military exploits, the Harland Territory annihilated three and a half legions of orcs, and the Grant royal family once again granted the Harland family a count.

Now Richard already has a dukedom and two counts under his name. In the Grant Kingdom system, it has voting rights second only to the royal family and Grand Duke Jonathan.

The duchy granted to Richard happened to be the Earl of Martins. Because the Martins family gave up the territory on the west bank of the Kelaniya River, the total area of ​​this county is less than 30,000 square kilometers.

The Harland family was far more powerful than the Martins family. After Richard obtained this territory, he immediately sent people across the river to develop to the west.

The Warcraft Cavalry Brigade and the Demon Hunter Squadron acted as the vanguard and entered the Kelania River to fight the ogres.

The number of ogres is small. Once casualties continue to occur, of course they will not be able to consume Harland's territory and can only give up part of the buffer zone.

After a period of entanglement, the Harland territory finally controlled two-thirds of the original Martins Earl territory, and the ogres controlled one-third.

Because they are aware of the difficulty of Harland's territory, the ogres try not to enter Harland's territory to plunder.

From the original Earldom of Martins, the land was expanded to 40,000 square kilometers, and the territory was expanded to 50,000 square kilometers to the north of the Eagle Mountains and the southern part of the northern prairie.

In this year's battle, Harland's territory increased by 90,000 square kilometers, while the three baronies that were sealed off only had a combined total of 4,000 square kilometers, which was very profitable in terms of territory.

The Duchy of Harland originally had 128,000 square kilometers of land, which has increased by 90,000 square kilometers this year. If the northern military station defense line is defended, the total area of ​​the territory will reach 218,000 square kilometers, second only to the Grant royal family. , Archduke Stanek, ranked before the Duke of York.

From all aspects, the strength of the Harland family has ranked third in the Grant Kingdom.

After obtaining the Earldom of Martins, Richard must of course guard the defense line of Kelania Valley. Taking advantage of the defeat of the orcs on all fronts, Richard led his troops to recapture Martins Castle and took control of the orcs station in the north of Martins Castle.

In order to commemorate the name of Earl Downey Martins, Richard did not change the name of the place in this earl territory. This territory was destroyed by orcs, and only seven or eight thousand of the population fled. Fortunately, the farmland and houses were not severely damaged. Richard planned to develop and multiply the 230,000 indentured slaves rescued from the Orc Empire this year in this territory.

The former Earldom of Martins was named Martins County by Richard to commemorate his contribution to the development of northern Xinjiang.

The No. 13 and No. 14 depots in northern Martins County were handed over to Roman by Richard to take over.

Now there are only two infantry brigades, the 25th and 26th, under Roman's command, which are very short of troops. For the time being, only some vassal nobles can be gathered to help Roman defend the defense line.

In this year's battle, 900 regular soldiers were killed in the Haaland territory, and the total number of minor and serious injuries was about 2,300. The city defense army and auxiliary troops also suffered some casualties, totaling less than 2,000. The total casualties of the Harland territorial army exceeded 5,000, but the permanent losses were not large, and only more than 2,000 people retired from active service.

After two months of recuperation in April and May, the lightly wounded soldiers had already returned to the team, leaving only five to six hundred seriously wounded soldiers who were difficult to recover from.

The regular army was permanently reduced to about 1,200 men. Judging from the number of 50,000 regular troops in Harland territory, the casualties were not too tragic.

Although fighting is going on this year, the new recruits in Haaland Territory are still training.

According to the planning of the Territorial Staff Office, a total of 6,000 new recruits will be trained this year. Because the territory has nearly doubled, and the north is 100 kilometers deeper, it will need to be expanded by 8,000 next year and 10,000 the year after that.

If the orcs still invade in three years, the regular army in Harland's territory will increase to 73,000, enough to be organized into three and a half legions.