Lord Harland

Richard is in charge of the defense line in the northern part of the Eagle Mountains, and the daily affairs of the territory can only be entrusted to Sophia.

This year, Harland's leadership expanded the land by 90,000 square kilometers, added one county and three counties, and once again expanded the number of civil servants on a large scale. By the end of the year, there were 12,000 people.

Because Leader Haaland built so many elementary schools, civil servants would only choose from those who were literate.

Civil servants who have graduated from primary school can already read and write official documents and have a general understanding of territorial geography. Although their quality is not as good as the elites cultivated by hereditary noble families, they have become a very important class in the Harland territory by relying on their large numbers and the same origins.

It's just that this class is still relatively loose. In addition, the plane of dawn has extraordinary power, and personal strength is extremely important. The bureaucratic class can only be placed behind violent agencies such as the army, intelligence, and public security. It cannot dominate and can only become a vassal of violent agencies.

Although the status of civil servants in the Harland Territory is getting more and more important, compared with military professionals, Richard does not need to transfer his rights to win them over for the time being.

After Richard went to the front line, Sophia basically adopted the strategy of ruling by doing nothing, relying on more than 10,000 bureaucrats to manage the territory, successfully held a commodity expo, and built a 30-kilometer railway line. The six months she has been in charge of politics can be regarded as very successful.

After repelling the orcs, the goddess's birthday soon arrived.

Richard has been in the north this winter and saw the goddess' birthday. Even though he was homesick, he couldn't leave his soldiers behind and go home to celebrate the festival.

In this year's war, Harland's regular army lost more than a thousand soldiers. After repelling the orcs, Richard began to transfer some soldiers from the city defense army and security army to add to the regular army.

The construction of the army is a systematic project, with complicated and intricate affairs, and it is not easy to manage.

In particular, building a strong army with high morale is often more difficult.

Richard had no military experience in his previous life, so he could only draw on a small amount of the knowledge he read in books and movies. But he clearly understood that an army without knowledge must be stupid.

Ever since Richard established the Haaland leadership team, literacy work has been ongoing. In the earliest days, brothers and sisters Richard, Hayden, and Wendy would personally give lectures to the soldiers, participate in literacy work, and teach the soldiers how to read.

This kind of work has been going on for eighteen years.

Nowadays, Harland leads the regular army. Most of the soldiers can recognize a lot of words, and half of them can recognize thousands of commonly used words. The officers are basically literate people.

This kind of soldier who can recognize official documents, understand some simple mathematics, understand all kinds of organization, and has a certain amount of experience is slightly stronger and can already serve as a first-level officer in the squadron in the Central Corps.

Harland leads the army with strong combat effectiveness, and the importance of knowledge among officers and soldiers is also an important reason.

Because of the high quality of the regular army led by Haaland, the people drawn from the security army and the city defense army were all backbones. Even if more than a thousand veterans were transferred, it would have a great impact on the combat effectiveness. There were some complaints from the city defense army and the security army system. In order to ensure the integrity of the main army's organizational structure, Richard could only personally appease the officers of the second-line army and asked the officers to have an overall awareness and obey the overall situation. Only then did he successfully transfer a group of backbones from the security army and city defense army to enrich the regular army establishment.

Since Richard cannot return to Fort William, it will be difficult to hold the Harland family Christmas dinner this year. After all, the head of the family is not present, and the family gathering lacks someone to take charge.

Moreover, last year, Richard posed a question to family members, asking everyone to think about who is a friend and who is an enemy?

Harland led the young people to think hard for a year, and he already had the answer in his mind, and was ready to get the lord's approval at the Christmas dinner.

In the end, Sophia made a decisive decision to allow the young members of the Harland family to cross the Eagle Mountains. Not only could they temper their willpower on the way, but they could also bring some supplies to work on the front line in northern Xinjiang.

Of course, in order to protect the safety of these young people, Sophia and Wendy led a capable team to hide in the dark.

Now there are more than ten young people in the Harland family. The eldest George is 24 years old and is already a second-level warrior. The youngest Margaret is 13 years old and has successfully been promoted to the official magician class.

Due to the existence of extraordinary power, women from the plane of dawn can also become heirs to nobles.

After Margaret was promoted to professional, she was already the heir to a duke and two earls. If something goes wrong with her, the blow to Harland's leadership will be extremely heavy.

In addition, because Margaret was so talented, in order to avoid showing off, Leader Harland did not publicly promote herself as a magician. After graduating from school, Margaret's freedom was restricted and she could only follow Sophia. Behind him, he was under the strict protection of his territory.

This trip to the northern front line of the Eagle Mountains was Margaret's first trip.

Every winter, the Eagle Mountains always receive heavy snowfall, usually dozens of centimeters thick. After the snowfall, the wind blows for a few days, and the snow in the valley is often two to three meters deep.

Crossing the Eagle Mountains mainly relies on mountain tunnels. Once snow falls, it will be impossible for ordinary people to pass.

However, the young people of the Harland family have basically learned the breathing method, and their physical fitness is far superior to that of ordinary people. They can directly cross mountains and ridges using rope ladders, flying claws and other tools without taking the mountain tunnels.

Although Margaret was young and frail, her social status was far higher than others. Naturally, she had many cousins ​​along the way who cared for her and showed her attentiveness.

Moreover, Margaret is wearing a magic cloak made by Richard himself, with the three spells of Feather Falling, Light Spirit, and Flying spells drawn on it. There is also a sixth-level magic core in the pocket of the cloak for energy. Margaret only needs With one-third of the magic power, you can use the lightness and flying skills beyond the level, which can save your life in critical moments.

In addition to the magic cloak, Margaret also has magic armor, a space bag, a magic wand, a spell dagger and many other magic props. There is also a high-level magic scroll in the space bag, which can release the spells in the scroll when encountering danger. Run for your life.

For example, the most classic escape spells, teleportation and dimensional gate, are all stored in Margaret's space bag.

Although the Harland Mage Association has alchemists, pharmacists, and even trained formation mages, it does not have magic scroll makers. In order to buy a few escape scrolls, Richard paid a huge sum of 20,000 gold coins. Margaret's equipment, large and small, was worth more than 100,000 gold coins in total.

Even an intermediate professional would feel a headache when encountering such a white and beautiful magician armed with gold coins.

After nearly twenty years of development, including illegitimate children, there are more than fifty members of the Harland family, and Richard has more than thirty brothers, sisters, and cousins.

Father William, second uncle Powell, and third uncle Bernie are still working hard to expand the Haaland family. By Margaret's generation, the number of siblings and cousins ​​also exceeded twenty.

It's just that some of the younger brothers, sisters, and cousins ​​have difficulty talking to Richard, the duke and patriarch, and they don't have any feelings for each other.

With more than fifty family members, it is already a large family for ordinary people, but for the aristocracy, such a population size is far from enough.

Normally, a hereditary baron with a population of about 10,000 to 20,000 would have more than 100 close family members, more than 1,000 servants serving the baron, and 1,000 to 2,000 free people near the castle, some of whom are members of distant branches and have noble ancestry. , there were more than ten thousand serfs outside the castle.

A hereditary baronial aristocratic army usually has more than ten noble officers, twenty or so slave officers who have served the baron for generations, plus a dozen professional class officers, leaving three to four hundred cannon fodder serf soldiers.

Such a population structure is considered stable for a hereditary noble territory.

But it will take at least fifty or sixty years and two or three generations to form such a stable population structure.

The Harland family's rise was too short and its development speed was too fast. It was impossible to effectively rule the territory by relying on blood and family members, let alone stop the orc army.

Therefore, Richard vigorously liberated the serfs and supported the free people and professional class. Relying on the support of the vast number of free people and military professionals who have changed their lives and achieved a class jump, his position can be secure.

As the younger generation of Harland family members grow up, Richard must let them know who is his friend and who is his enemy? As the ruling class of the territory, this must be noted.

Walking on the steep ridge, George held Margaret's arm tightly with his left hand and held the hiking pole in his right hand, taking every step very carefully. He raised his ears and glanced behind him, paying attention to the little ancestor behind him all the time.

"If something goes wrong with Margaret, even with her father's protection, she might lose her life due to the anger of Richard and Sophia.

After taking good care of this little ancestor, even if she said something casually or revealed something from the fourth brother's hand, it would have a great effect on herself. "

In recent years, George has become involved in Southern Territory operations.

Because of the support of the Duke of Harland, even though it had only been less than three years since I moved to the new territory, this southern barony was already very prosperous.

In just three years, relying on a batch of arms and supplies provided by Richard, George had expanded the baron army to 600 people and cooperated with the Duchy of Harland for smuggling, which could also bring George more than 10,000 gold coins every year.

Although George did not have deep feelings for Richard, his fourth brother, he was still very grateful and respected in his heart.

Compared with George's complex thoughts, Margaret was very happy after coming out of Fort William. Everything outside made her feel novel. Although she was very smart and precocious than her peers, she was still a thirteen-year-old child after all. , also has a particularly strong curiosity.

By December, the climate in northern Xinjiang is already very cold, and the temperature in the mountains can even reach minus 40 degrees at night.

Crossing mountains and camping in the open air in this kind of weather is still a painful thing despite a lot of preparation.

The new generation of the Harland family has basically never experienced hardship. They have been pampered and lived in luxury since childhood, surrounded by slaves. When they suddenly entered such a difficult environment, most people couldn't stand it immediately. They couldn't stand it on the first evening. .

Although they were not stupid and knew not to offend the Duchess, the biting cold wind hit their nerves, making them unable to help complaining and saying some resentful words. Some of them even deliberately ridiculed Margaret, Even quietly cursing Margaret's mother.

Margaret herself was gifted with extraordinary hearing, her ears were very sensitive, and she heard these whispers. Originally, Margaret also complained about her mother in her heart, but after hearing the gossip from her companions, some of whom even cursed her mother, she suddenly understood her mother's decision.

Among the dozen young people of the Harland family, except for Margaret and George, only Ron's eldest son Simon and Powell's fifth son Cohen were able to endure the severe cold and withstand the test without any complaints. Instead, they help brothers and relatives build bonfires and pitch tents.

Although George was also very hard-working, he had a tougher character and had average conditions when he was a child. He had experienced the hardships of life and was trained at work. Unlike his younger brother and nephew, the city was already relatively deep. He is very clear about the comparison of social status and strength between himself and Sophia. He also understands the principle that trouble comes from words, and he will not offend others easily.

Although Simon is William's eldest grandson, he is an illegitimate son and has no inheritance rights. Because the Harland family is not large, they need to use part of their own family. Although Simon is an illegitimate son, Richard and Sophia still regard him as their own family, etc. He was invited to every family Christmas dinner throughout his adult life.

Because he had been looked down upon since he was young, Simon had gained experience in the city and had great respect for Sophia, so he had no resentment.

Cohen's situation is different from that of George and Simon. He is the deputy squadron leader of the third squadron of the Harland Reconnaissance Brigade. Although he is only 21 years old, he has experienced many wars.

It is normal for people who have experienced the temper of war to climb ice and lie in snow, so naturally they cannot blame their cousin.

After all, they were just on a mountain winter march in a safe area, while cousin Richard and the others had to fight the orcs in the ice and snow.

"I just experienced a simple march, and many uncles, aunts, cousins, and cousins ​​began to resent my mother. Didn't they achieve what they are today because of their father and mother's hard work with the orcs? As a result, they suffered a little bit. , I couldn't stand it anymore, and they didn't hide it from me. Some people even cursed their mother, and they just wished that their mother would die immediately.

When I become the lord, if I make a decision that damages their interests a little, they will be even less likely to care about blood and family ties, and they will just want to fight me.

My father didn't tell me directly who were my friends and who were my enemies? I'm afraid I also want to use this incident to make myself understand that even blood relatives of the Haaland family may not be friends, but may be enemies.

As the heir to the lord, I am afraid I have no friends, only enemies. Could it be that a lord could only become a lonely person? "