Lord Harland

Although the results of the Battle of Samba River were brilliant, Harland's casualties were not light at all. Counting the attrition of the Mad Lion Legion and the Noble Alliance, the Grant Kingdom's casualties exceeded 16,000.

After all, the Orcs dispatched 300,000 regular troops, which gave them a huge military advantage. The losses on all fronts were not light at all. Even on the main battlefield of the No. 10 Military Station, in order to defeat the Thirteenth Orc Army, the elite leaders of Harland also suffered heavy losses. The casualties also exceeded 4,000.

Sixteen thousand casualties, including about 1,200 from the Mad Lion Army, more than 3,000 from the Noble Alliance, and about 11,600 from Harland's army.

Among the 1,1600 casualties, about 4,200 were killed in action, and about 2,900 were disabled and needed to retire from active service to receive pensions. About 4,500 lightly wounded people were able to return to the army.

More than 7,000 regular troops were lost at one time, and pension expenditures will increase significantly this year. However, the Dragon's Nest was built this year, and the finances of Haaland's territory are very loose.

Seven thousand troops were permanently lost, of which nearly 6,000 were from the regular army.

This year's recruits have been training for ten months and will be filled in after the new year. Because of the heavy losses in this year's battle, Haaland's leadership is no longer able to expand its army this year.

The Eagle Mountains have entered mid-October, and the first heavy snow has fallen.

Although the mountains were blocked by heavy snow and the mountain roads were difficult to walk, doctors from more than a dozen hospitals in the Harland Territory still crossed the Eagle Mountains in groups with the help of professionals to treat wounded soldiers in frontline hospitals.

After more than ten years of development, the Harland Territory has reached the leading medical level in the Dawn Plane. The invention of various medical devices and the combination of magic and surgery have allowed Harland to significantly reduce the neonatal mortality rate.

According to the normal age of death according to statistics from the civil affairs department, the average life expectancy of residents in more than a dozen castles has reached sixty-two years. In the Dawn Plane, this data is already amazing.

But the average life expectancy of people living in rural areas is just over fifty years old. Because of the lack of medical resources, the average life span of indentured slaves is even lower, just over forty years old, which is still at a very low standard.

Shortly after the war ended, Duke Duran personally led a team and escorted 200,000 serfs to Harland Territory.

Including the harvest from the Delon Kingdom in the spring, Harland will have nearly 600,000 new indentured slaves and 30,000 free people this year.

Because the victory in the Battle of Samba River gave the officials and people of Northern Xinjiang great confidence, in recent times, a large number of free people have been brought in from the three Dukes of Jonathan, Fox, and Edward.

Most of these people come from professional families, and some of them also have skills. They are considered a high-quality population, and they have accumulated some capital in their hands.

The immigration of these middle-class social forces to the Harland Territory will undoubtedly increase the heritage of the Harland Territory.

Harland Territory only had a population of 1.8 million last year, and the new population increased by more than 600,000 in the new year, which put great pressure on the territory.

Although Richard used various methods, such as robbery and purchase, to get back more than 200,000 tons of grain, enough to feed the new population. But settling down more than 600,000 new people is still a very troublesome matter.

Fortunately, most of the new population were indentured slaves, and their living standards were very low. The indentured slaves were squeezed in, and the strong male slaves lived in tents, and the two hundred thousand new indentured slaves were finally able to settle down.

With the extensive use of steam machinery, coal production continues to surge. This year, two new mines have been put into operation. There are already seven mines in three coal mines, and the output has historically exceeded 400,000 tons.

Even though the coal consumption of railways is very serious, the Harland Railway has only been built for less than 60 kilometers, with only four steam locomotives, and now consumes more than 1,000 tons of coal a year. With enough coal, even if you live in a tent in winter, you can easily survive the cold.

After settling the new serfs, Richard personally entertained Duke Duran and sold some sensitive weapons, including thirty magic hot air balloons, six thousand alchemical bombs, and one thousand searing ray guns, deducting about Two hundred thousand gold coins.

This year is the first time that Harland has sold magic hot air balloons. With the completion of flying units such as wyverns and lion cavalry, Harland's air superiority has greatly increased.

The situation changed, and Richard began to sell lower-end flying units.

The core equipment inside the magic hot air balloon is the magic burning furnace and the telescope. The construction of these two equipments requires a very high threshold. Although the construction of the telescope is relatively easy, it is difficult to make it successfully without a good mirror grinder.

Richard asked for three thousand gold coins for a magic hot air balloon equipped with a standard telescope. Like the alchemy bomb, this kind of arms and supplies sold for almost ten times the profit. As long as the magical civilization of the great nobles of Grant Kingdom does not develop, this business will be monopolized by Harland leader for a long time and make a large amount of money.

These funds were converted into food, population, livestock, and Warcraft horses, which greatly increased the strength of the Harland leader. In just three or four years, relying on commercial profits, Haaland doubled the size of his army, organized and trained multiple full-time soldiers, and now has become the strongest army in the Grant Kingdom.

Duke Duran returned to the southern region with a large amount of arms and 800,000 gold coins in cash. With enough gold coins, start recruiting troops immediately to prepare for next year's Grass Valley operation.

With the magic hot air balloon, Duke Duran's detection advantage will be greatly increased.

As the arms trade opens up, the nobles in the south will work for Harland.

Even the royal family was a little tempted when they heard that Leader Harland was selling magic hot air balloons. It's just that the royal family has a high level of magic civilization, so it's possible that a copycat magic burning furnace could be produced.

The royal family wants to buy a magic hot air balloon, but Richard has been hesitant. The two parties have already discussed the issue of technology transfer. However, Richard has opened his mouth and wants the province of Geda, but the Kingdom of Roger has not agreed.

After all, through the transaction with the Harland family, the royal family also cultivated the Lion Knight. With the Griffin Knights as a stronger flying unit, the royal family had low demand for magic hot air balloons and was not willing to pay too high a cost, so the two parties had been negotiating a deal for two or three years, but had not yet reached an agreement.

It was already late October when Duke Duran was sent away, and by the time the new indentured servants were settled, the time had entered November unknowingly.

In November, Harland Territory once again held a trade fair.

Thanks to the reputation accumulated over the years, the Harland Product Expo has become a business card. At this time of year, nobles of all sizes from the Grant Kingdom would flock to the Harland Territory, and the area near Fort William would be very prosperous.

In the past two or three years, even the Grant royal family has sent important members to participate in commodity expos and establish friendship with senior leaders of Haaland.

Some members of the royal family even began to marry into the families of important members of the Harland leadership, such as Powell, Hayden, Rogge, and Soros.

In fact, the royal family has a huge population. There are hundreds of close members within three generations. Many of them do not even have palace titles. In other words, they are superficially glamorous and far inferior to the lowest hereditary barons of the feudal nobles. In fact, their status, energy, and wealth are , the influence on the heavyweight nobles is not as good as that of Hayden, Rogge, Powell and others.

Richard is not opposed to the marriage between the top leaders of the territory and the royal family. In recent years, the Harland nobles have had many marriages with the Grant royal family, including Powell's most capable son Cohen, Soros' eldest grandson Merlin, and Hayden's second son Pei. Lun and Roger's daughter Freida were both married to members of Grant's immediate family.

As the next generation grows up, the bloodlines of the two families will inevitably gradually blend, and the Harland family will also be integrated into the Grant Kingdom's aristocratic system.

Unlike the Jonathan family, Richard believed that the Harland family had ordinary blood. The Harland family had no taboo against blood leakage and did not object to marriage with the kingdom's nobles.

In fact, even if there is no attribute panel, Richard and Wendy both have medium-to-high-level magic talents. Their mother's bloodline is not ordinary, and they are probably people with high magic talents. However, they are limited by their class and have limited access to them. To the magic inheritance. Sophia's magic talent is even better. A family like the Harland family with outstanding magical talent is somewhat more precious than the blood of knights.

At this year's commodity expo, Earl Karen of the Grant family tested Richard at the banquet and prepared to marry King Roger's youngest daughter to Philip.

Karen is the cousin of King Roger. He is in his forties and has pretty good talents and abilities. He has worked in the Northern Army for ten years and is now a Golden Knight, the commander of the Royal Guards, and a The status of court earl.

Because I have lived in northern Xinjiang for more than ten years, I have a common language with northern Xinjiang people like Richard. In the past few years, Karen often came to Harland to discuss sensitive matters with Richard.

The former special envoy Maurice Allen is now stationed in Fort William to facilitate quick communication between Richard and the Roger Kingdom.

Although Philip is Richard's son, his talent is far inferior to that of his sister Margaret, even though he used three bloodline enlightenment potions in three years to awaken the knight bloodline.

However, the knights who accumulate resources to awaken their bloodline are actually far less qualified than those who awaken naturally.

Richard and Sophia carefully examined Philip's body and found that his qualifications were relatively ordinary. Philip's innate mental strength is average, his elemental intimacy is very low, and he has no magical talent. The talents of knights are also inferior. For people with ordinary qualifications, even if they are provided with the best resources and conditions, it will be difficult for them to become a silver knight before the age of sixty.

Moreover, people who are born in a privileged position may not be able to endure hardships. They have strong perseverance and perseverance, and can not let up for decades, focusing on increasing their strength and seeking career advancement.

A considerable number of nobles, those who have been promoted to professional positions, and after gaining inheritance rights, tend to indulge in dances, banquets, and pomegranate dresses of beautiful female slaves.

In Richard's mind, he was more inclined to leave the territory to Margaret to inherit.

The Dawn Plane does not discriminate against women, only against the weak.

Margaret has outstanding talent in magic, and is practicing the legendary fourth-level meditation method. She is protected by Richard and Sophia. The conditions for learning magic are far better than those of her parents. Before being promoted to legend, it was almost a smooth journey. According to the meditation she is showing now The progress is far superior to that of Sophia and Richard when they were young. It is highly likely that they will be promoted to a nine-ring magician at the age of thirty.

After a few more years, the rights to the general territory will slowly be transferred to Margaret, and the rights to the Harland territory will be smoothly inherited.

If there are no problems with the second generation, the Duchy of Harland will be able to maintain stability.

Richard was mentally prepared to let Margaret inherit the territory, and of course he would not allow her to marry. Although Margaret was young, she firmly held the autonomy of marriage in his hands.

As for his younger son Philip, his talent was average, so Richard planned to make him the marriage tool. Richard readily agreed to Earl Karen's temptation.

Although Philip will only be twelve years old next year, he will be engaged to eight-year-old Princess Vivian next year.

"Philip is the only son of Duke Richard. The Duke agreed to let him marry the royal family. It is estimated that he has no intention of leaving the Grant Kingdom in the short term. However, the Harland Territory is becoming more and more prosperous and powerful. Eventually, it will It would be a good thing for both parties to challenge the royal family and let the Haaland family break away."

After Earl Karen returned to his apartment, he fell into long thought.

In fact, after receiving the news that the Harland Territory defeated the orcs in Northern Xinjiang, the Roger Kingdom had many secret talks with the Nolan nobles, and finally decided to let the Harland Territory break away from the Grant Kingdom. However, the good relationship between the two parties must be maintained to avoid Caught in conflict.

Most of the 280,000 square kilometers of Harland's territory were expanded by themselves. The territory granted to Richard by the royal family was mainly the two counties of Roger and Martins.

The two major counties of Roger and Martins were newly expanded lands in the past twenty years. The royal family did not invest many resources in development, so the losses were not serious.

If the Harland territory becomes independent, it can immediately become a natural shield for the Grant Kingdom and help the Grant Kingdom resist the orcs.

Once the Duchy of Harland becomes independent, the Grant royal family will be able to impose high tariffs on Harland's goods, which will not only increase the cost of Harland's goods, but also earn a huge amount of tax money.

King Roger saw this very clearly.

Although the royal family can get some political and economic benefits from Harland, Harland can also use the Grant Kingdom's huge market to make profits.

King Roger analyzed various intelligence, carefully weighed it, and finally made a decision to promote the independence of Harland Territory as soon as possible.

In addition to economic factors, there is also a very important political reason for doing so.

Although the Grant family has a long history, it started out as a rebel. Their situation then was very similar to now.

After overthrowing the rule of the Venus family, in order to be recognized by the Holy Radiant Empire, the first King of Grant, Wood, who was already a legendary fourth-level knight, participated in the battle to purify the undead, and eventually died in the tide of the undead.

After sacrificing their lives and performing meritorious deeds, the Grant family was canonized by the Church of the Seven Gods and recognized by the Holy Glory Empire.

In neighboring Stanik, the Linus family relied on supporting puppets and married members of the Jonathan family to control the government. They then stabilized the situation by buying off the domestic nobles and transferring a large amount of benefits. In the end, in order to gain recognition from the Holy Radiant Empire, he handed over the legendary weapon of Nicholas Jonathan, the ancestor of the Jonathan family, and gave away the dragon crystal of Nicholas' wife, the legendary third-order red dragon.

By buying it with treasures, he got the approval of the Holy Radiance Empire.

Because the country was founded incorrectly, the Linus family's rule was not stable, and they lost their crown in just over a hundred years.

Various cases tell the Roger Kingdom that if there are two powerful families in a kingdom, internal struggles will inevitably break out. It would be a good thing for both parties to take Haaland out on his own before the internal struggle breaks out.

But trying to make Haaland independent from the Grant royal family is actually a troublesome matter. First of all, Harland must have the will to be independent, secondly, it must be canonized by the Church of the Seven Gods, and finally, it must make meritorious deeds and be recognized by the Holy Glory Empire.

Now most of the Land of the Dead has been purified, and most of the Land of the Dead is in the Orc Empire.

The human race in the Dawn Plane has long been dominated by one family, with almost no racial merit.

In addition, the past few years have been a critical moment for the Grant Kingdom to expand its territory in the south. King Roger also wanted to use Richard to defeat the main force of the Delon Kingdom and let Harland lead the army to make the final decision. The independent operation of Haaland cannot be implemented for the time being.