Lord Harland

With the rapid development of Fort William, the great nobles purchased land near Fort William and established residential estates as temporary or long-term residences for family members.

Counting their family members, there are now thousands of foreign nobles, large and small, who are resident in Fort William. These people basically live on the mountainside outside the west city of Fort William, forming several villa areas.

After twenty years of development, the living area of ​​Fort William has now expanded a lot. As the Harland Territory develops faster and faster, the vacant land near Fort William has been filled. If you want to continue to develop, you can only go deep into the mountains.

Due to land supply constraints, Fort William is no longer suitable as the capital of the Harland Territory. The most suitable area now is actually the Losa Basin area.

The Losa Basin covers an area of ​​more than 3,600 square kilometers. The mountains on the east and west sides are relatively gentle, and there is a lot of room for expansion. To fill this basin, I am afraid it would take hundreds to tens of millions of people.

But moving the capital is a very troublesome matter.

Many scientific research institutes, precision factories, Master Towers, and many hospitals and schools were built near Fort William. Relocating so many institutions to the Losa Basin would require a huge relocation fund.

Moreover, there is a volcanic crater called Princess Mausoleum in the Losa Basin. If this problem is not solved, the conditions for moving the capital are not yet mature. However, Richard has already started to relocate some important factories.

Taking into account the great success of the Commodity Expo, Haaland is preparing to adjust the schedule of the Commodity Expo this year.

The Commodity Expo will be extended for three days, and a large-scale auction will be held on the last three days. Any items that pass the appraisal can be auctioned at the auction. Harland takes only 3% of the proceeds from the auction price to provide security guarantees for the auction transactions.

Harland Territory received a large number of dragon blood fruits this year and refined a large number of different levels of Styx potions, which will become the finale of the first auction.

Styx potions can directly increase magic power. Even low-level third-level Styx potions are precious commodities worth thousands of gold coins.

The price of a medium Styx potion can even be auctioned for 70,000 to 80,000 gold coins, and its price is comparable to high-grade enchanted armor.

In the market for extraordinary items, the items used by magicians are always very expensive. Potions that can increase spiritual power are even more valuable and are very scarce in the market for extraordinary items.

It is especially rare in a country like the Grant Kingdom.

In this auction, Harland Leader also acquired a variety of extraordinary items, which reduced the time of searching and purchasing.

After the commodity expo, Richard led some professionals over the snowy mountains and returned to Fort William.

Haaland led the construction of the first railway last year, and steam trains were put into use for the first time.

Although this railway can only be regarded as a dedicated line for transporting coal, the annual profit is very low, and it will take about 40 to 50 years to recover the cost. However, the emergence of steam trains increased the efficiency of road transportation and allowed Fort William to extend its power to remote grassroots areas.

For this new thing, the top management of Fort William put great enthusiasm into it.

According to Governor Rogge's plan, he originally planned to build only 30 kilometers of railway this year, extending from Fort William to Fort Depot. However, because of the construction of the Dragon's Nest, Harland's income increased sharply. The financial budget was very loose. Rogge discussed with Richard and decided to strengthen railway construction and extend the railway from Fort William to Castle Malte.

Because of the temporary adjustments to the plan, even in winter, the railway construction army was still rushing to meet the construction deadline.

Railway transportation has shown great advantages. In order to train personnel to build and manage railways, the Harland Territory established a railway school in March this year.

Because it has just been established, the railway school is still relatively small, with only 60 students recruited this year. However, the student pool of the railway school is very good, and they are rare middle school students in Harland.

This year, Harland Territory has once again expanded its enrollment scale. According to statistics from the education department, there are already 24 primary schools and six middle schools in operation in the Territory, with thousands of primary school students graduating every year.

With the expansion of middle school enrollment, more than 500 middle school students will graduate every year starting from this year. The number of middle school students has expanded, and higher education in the territory has also been put on the agenda, ushering in rapid development.

In March, Haaland led the establishment of the Railroad Academy.

After laying down the dragon's nest, Haaland led a significant increase in fiscal revenue. In September, steel, accounting, normal, mechanical, political and legal, textile, and agricultural colleges began preparations for full enrollment next spring.

Because in the first year of higher education, the eight major colleges and universities are not large in scale, with enrollments ranging from fifty to sixty students to twenty or thirty students. Based on the number of middle school students graduating this year, only half of the graduates can be recruited.

The remaining half of middle school students will either become staff officers or civil servants, and a small number will enter factories and research institutes. In the future, scientific researchers will be slowly selected from universities.

For middle school students in Haaland, as long as they are admitted to the eight major colleges and universities, there is no tuition fee at all, and there is also a monthly subsidy of two silver coins. Students receive ten months of subsidy a year, which is equivalent to half of the average income of adult men.

This money not only allows college students to live worry-free, but can also use part of it to subsidize their families. Being admitted to the eight major colleges and universities is equivalent to passing the exam in ancient times.

According to Richard's request, the admissions rules of the eight major colleges are quite transparent and are completely determined by the scores of middle school students in various subjects.

Some of the teachers in the five major universities are middle school students who graduated a few years in advance, some are recruited from the backbone of scientific research institutes, and there are also a small number of external scholars who are hired by Richard at a high price.

Although Richard knew in his heart that some of the teachers were fake and their own knowledge level was not as good as fresh graduates from Harbin Middle School, there was a shortage of teachers in higher education, and Harland's leaders could only stumble forward.

It may take five or six years until outstanding students graduate to teach and have teaching experience before this situation can be alleviated.

As time enters late November, the 100-kilometer railway from Malte Castle to Depot Castle is about to be opened to traffic.

Richard entered the railway construction site early in the morning to inspect, and found that the indentured slaves were wearing thin clothes, and their hands and feet were red from the cold. Dozens of people were carrying heavy rails, moving with difficulty, and they looked very pitiful.

Richard looked through the list of indentured slaves for the renovation and construction of the railway and found that the death rate was relatively high. The indentured slaves were the important property of Harland Territory. The property loss was not small, and Richard immediately became embarrassed.

It was a very difficult task to conduct an inspection in the morning in the dead of winter. Many civil servants in the rear were unable to bear it, and even Rogge did not accompany him. After all, Harland is not in the habit of riding in a sedan chair, and riding horses in winter is very painful. The pampered middle- and high-level civil servants are not used to this kind of hard life.

Compared to territorial bureaucrats, Richard's life has been more difficult in the past two years.

In the past two years, Richard spent most of his time at Military Station No. 10 commanding operations. Although he was the commander-in-chief, Military Station No. 10 was, after all, the front line and the conditions were far inferior to those at the rear.

Most days, like ordinary soldiers, Richard had irregular meal times and had to lie on ice and drink snow.

Two years of hard work have already made Richard look a bit older. Fighting a war for one year requires ten years of mental effort. The war not only tortures the soldiers physically, but also tortures their hearts.

Especially for an army commander like Richard, the pressure is even greater. Every time a decision is made, the pros and cons must be carefully weighed.

Countless nights of dreaming, sweating profusely, and long hours of hard work. Although Richard is only thirty-five years old, he looks a bit older than his brother Hayden. Now his appearance is closer to that of William when he was forty years old. There are wrinkles on his forehead, but he is more dignified.

"Have labor insurance funds been distributed?" Seeing the lack of labor protection for indentured slaves, Richard's face suddenly became gloomy.

Realizing that Richard was in a bad mood, Adjutant Green said cautiously: "I don't know much about this matter yet. Your Excellency, please wait a moment. I'll ask first."

Not long after, Green hurried over and whispered: "According to the on-site management personnel, no labor protection items were issued."

"I'm right here. You send someone to inform Hayden, Rogge, that this matter must be investigated clearly at noon today and give an explanation to the railway construction personnel."

Under Richard's direct attention, this corruption case was quickly investigated.

According to the investigation, thirteen officials embezzled labor insurance funds and resold labor insurance items. The amount of gold coins embezzled by these people ranged from dozens to thousands. Such a large amount was enough to sentence them to death.

Richard would not tolerate any corruption. These people were beheaded on the spot and their heads were hung on wooden stakes to deter others. Stores that cooperated with them in selling labor protection items were also implicated. Businessmen and corrupt officials were executed together, and the goods in the stores were seized.

Their family members were also demoted as slaves, and their descendants could not be pardoned for a hundred years, let alone study and join the army.

It can be said that this policy is enough to ensure that their descendants will not be able to stand up. Being permanently reduced to slavery, according to the social situation of Harland's territory, is definitely a high probability. Even indentured servants would not be willing to marry the descendants of criminals. Indentured slaves have far more human rights than sin slaves.

The treatment of sin slaves is the same as that of orc slaves. Their lives are like goods and they do not have any human rights. Sin slaves and orc slaves are not included in the statistics of the household registration department, and their status in Harland Territory is worse than that of satyrs.

Although today's inspection revealed a corruption case, Richard was not happy at all.

The railway department is the department that receives the most attention from the top in Harland's leadership. Corruption in this department is extremely serious. In other places that cannot be seen, there are probably swarms of rats. When you see a rat on the street, there are actually countless rats hiding in the dark.

As the size of the territory becomes larger and larger, the population increases, and the affairs become more and more complicated. It becomes increasingly difficult for Richard to manage the territory as meticulously as before.

In his previous life, Richard was just an ordinary person. Although he had gone through rigorous training in this life and his abilities were fundamentally different from those in his previous life, he and a few assistants could not change the stubborn problems of bureaucracy. Think about it, corruption is now rampant in the Haaland territory.

Even if Richard established an inspection system, promoted a large number of inspectors, and let his brother Hayden manage the inspectorate. But the Inspectorate is also part of the bureaucracy. With this system, corrupt officials cannot be controlled at all.

Corrupt officials were found, and under Richard's personal attention, the seized goods were confiscated and cotton shoes, cotton gloves, and winter coats were distributed to the indentured slaves building the railway.

Seeing that the indentured slaves had regained some morale, Richard also established public cemeteries on both sides of the railway, moved the slaves who died while building the railway into the public cemetery, carved stone tablets, and wrote articles to commemorate them.

Although the cemetery was not completed, Richard still returned to Fort William with a heavy heart.

Labor protection measures were added and a public cemetery was built. The indentured slaves were grateful to Richard from the bottom of their hearts and became more motivated to work. The progress of railway construction was accelerated a lot, and it was finally completed on the third day of December.

After the railway from Malte Castle to Depot Fort was opened, there are now two railway lines running in the Harland territory. One is the coal mine line, which runs about 30 kilometers and extends from the Tulum coal mine in the northwest of Fort William to the east city of Fort William.

One line runs along the Harland Valley, from the Castle of Malte in the plain area to the Fort depot. The accessible distance is 97 kilometers. The construction of this railway has greatly increased the supply capacity of Harland's northern mountain defense line and greatly shortened the supply line. Now the military depot has become an advance base and a material storage stronghold.

Richard participated in the celebration ceremony for the opening of the railway, and then wrote letters to Sutton, Silver and others. He also called Soros, Wilde and others back from the front line, preparing to enter the depths of Snow Crystal Lake to search for the ruins of the Star Alliance and find The key to opening the plane passage.

This matter has been delayed for such a long time, and now it is finally free. The snow crystal fish has finished spawning and returned to the sea.

With the snow crystal fish gone, the danger under the lake has been reduced a lot, and the time is ripe for exploration. In order to deal with the hidden crisis, this time Harland led almost all high-level professionals to dispatch. Although the expedition team that entered Snow Crystal Lake was not large in number, they were all elite soldiers and generals in the Harland territory.

There are only a dozen people in this expedition team. Richard and Sophia are equivalent to small legendary mages. Sutton and Silver are already ninth-level elves. Undine is an eighth-ring magician. Eve and Wendy are also the same. Promoted to Sixth Ring Mage.

Although Eve and Wendy are not yet high-level professionals, based on their experience in the Dawn Plane, the combat effectiveness of six-ring magicians is already somewhat more powerful than that of eight-ring golden knights.

Facing complex environments and various dangerous magic traps, sixth-ring magicians are even more survivable than ninth-level epic knights. When encountering danger, magicians can open dimensional spaces to take refuge. If you want to break the dimensional space, in addition to using magical means, brute force cracking must use legendary power.

Wilde has been promoted to an eighth-level golden knight. Thoros is the weakest in combat power. He is also an eighth-level warrior and has superb archery skills. The last two members of the team are Drifen and the eighth-level high elf Zora.

Although this team is not large in number, with a total of five magicians, four knights, and two warriors, due to the relationship between Richard and Sophia, and the Star Necklace, their combat power is somewhat more powerful than even the legendary second-level magicians. .

Legendary second-level mages and priests are already very rare in the plane of dawn.