Lord Harland

After Richard completed the transaction with Duke Edward, he immediately negotiated with the Duke of Fox family.

The Fox family suffered relatively light losses in this year's orc invasion. The territory in northern Xinjiang now has approximately more than 90,000 square kilometers. Not counting the families of soldiers and bureaucrats, there are more than 900,000 serfs and free people.

Richard also wanted to take this territory, and finally completed the exchange with 60,000 square kilometers of land in the south and roughly the same population.

Compared with the serfs in the Delong Kingdom, Richard still prefers the people from northern Xinjiang.

People from Northern Xinjiang grew up in a difficult environment, and their personalities tend to be more simple and resistant, and they are more tolerant of suffering. Their personalities are tougher and they are more adaptable to the environment in Northern Xinjiang. Exchanging populations can save a lot of money and is a win-win for both parties.

Two wars broke out this year, and the situation in the Grant Kingdom has changed. Among the Duke's first-class nobles, the Edward family, which used to be in the middle, suffered heavy losses. Now it is at the bottom, ranking last among the Duke's family.

Slightly stronger than the Edward family is the Duke of Guise. The Duke of Guise also suffered heavy losses in last year's war. Not only did the old Duke, a ninth-level epic knight, die in the battle, but he also lost 15,000 elite soldiers. The only thing the Duchy of Guise did better than the Edward family was that the war took place in the Kingdom of Delon. The Duchy of Guise suffered little economic and population losses and maintained its basic base. Economic, population and other data far exceed those of the Dukedom of Edward.

Ranking third from the bottom is the Duke of Lorraine. The Duke of Lorraine is a household dog and does not have much ambition for expansion. This year, the Grant Kingdom devoted all its resources to launching a southern expedition, and the Duke of Lorraine did not invest much resources. Without ambition, there will naturally be little development in the territory. Although the Duke of Lorraine is not at the bottom in terms of strength, the area of ​​his territory is smaller than that of the Dukes of Guise and Edward. The territorial area is small, and the development potential is naturally not great. In the long run, the potential of the Lorraine family is not as good as that of the two great dukes, Edward and Guise.

Ranking fourth from the bottom is Duke Fox. Before the orc invasion this year, the two Dukes Edward and Fox ranked relatively high in strength. The strength of these two northern Xinjiang dukes is second only to Grant, Harland, and York. It is better than the Jonathan Dukedom which focuses on Stanik.

Unfortunately, the Orc invasion changed the balance of power in the Grant Kingdom. The Edward family fell to the lowest level, and the Fox family also suffered heavy losses, falling from fourth to sixth. As strength declines, the right to speak naturally decreases. Like the Edward family, the Fox family gave up its northern territory and completely completed a magnificent turn.

This year, the Grant Kingdom has experienced changes. The Dukedom of Jonathan has not declined or developed, but its ranking has risen one place compared to last year.

The Jonathan family was originally the second largest family in the Grant Kingdom. It was the Optimus Pillar of the Northern Xinjiang Defense Line twenty years ago, similar to the current Duchy of Harland. When Richard was serving in the Mad Lion Legion, Duke Jonathan could contain six orc legions. Its influence in northern Xinjiang is greater than that of the Grant royal family, which has three elite legions. Until now, the reputation of Grand Duke Jonathan is still spread in northern Xinjiang.

However, after retaking the Grand Duchy of Stanik, the Jonathan family mainly focused their efforts on the west. Sixty thousand elite soldiers have been mobilized into the Grand Duchy of Stanik. Their influence in the Grant Kingdom has become smaller and smaller, and their ranking has gradually fallen behind. In recent years, they have only been able to stabilize at fifth or sixth place.

Ranked fourth is the Duke of York. As a descendant of Duke Brener, the York family ranked second in the Grant Kingdom in the early years, and its territorial position is also better than that of several duchies on the northern frontier.

However, with the rise of the Jonathan family and the aging of Duke Brenner, his ranking gradually dropped to third place. In recent decades, the Duke of York's ranking in the Grant Kingdom has been very stable, and he has always been the third oldest.

However, the two wars this year have changed the situation. First, the Orcs invaded and severely damaged the Duke of York's regiment. Then the Grant Kingdom marched south. The Dukes who participated in the war were full of fat, and the Duke of York did not seize the opportunity. At this moment, the population, area, and number of soldiers of the Dukedom of Duran exceeded that of the Duke of York.

The three dukes in the southwest were originally weak and not as good as the Duke of Northern Xinjiang, but Duke Duran seized the opportunity and snatched hundreds of thousands of serfs last year and exchanged them with Harland for millions of gold coins. This year, the territory has been greatly expanded. Duke Duran once again led troops to join the war, expanding the land by 40,000 square kilometers and swallowing up millions of people from the Delong Kingdom.

Duke Duran was originally a great nobleman of the Delong Kingdom. He swallowed the land of the Delong Kingdom and easily digested and absorbed it, recruiting surrenders and rebels. Now their land, population, and military strength rank third in the Kingdom of Grant, surpassing the Duke of York.

Ranked second is naturally Duke Harland. Although the Harland family background is very shallow and it has only been six years since he was promoted to Duke, Richard has implemented a different set of economic policies, and industry and agriculture are developing rapidly. Magical civilization continues to advance, and new weapons are constantly invented. Three years ago, its strength was promoted to second place in the Grant Kingdom.

After two battles this year, Haaland's territorial area has reached nearly half a million square kilometers, and the population under its control is nearly eight million. Such a huge strength is enough to compete with Stanik's entire country.

There are still four great dukes, two great earls and other great nobles in Stanik who share power. The vassals under Richard's command are much weaker and cannot interfere with Richard's decision at all.

Now the power controlled by the Harland family is stronger than that of the Jonathan family.

The Jonathan family is a grand duke and a duke, and controls twelve earls. The Harland family holds four dukes and two earls, for a total of fourteen earls. It can be merged into one grand duke, one duke, and two counties. However, if Richard wants to take the crown of the grand duke and break away from the Grant royal family, he must also participate in a race and plane war and get the approval of the Holy Glorious Empire.

Ranking first is still the Grant royal family, although the military power currently controlled by the royal family may be worse than that of the Haaland family. However, the royal family has conquered more than 200,000 square kilometers of land in the south, and directly controls a population of nearly 16 million people, almost twice that of Harland.

In addition, the influence of the royal family far exceeds that of the Harland family. Earl Steven and the Duke of York are both members of the Grant family. The four eastern marquises are in-laws of the royal family for generations and are equivalent to part of the central ruling group.

The influence of the Grant royal family far exceeds that of the Harland family. According to Richard's estimation, in order to truly compete with the royal family, it will take at least five to ten years of development and an increase in strength of 50 to 60%.

Seeing Edward, both the Fox family and Richard completed the territorial exchange. King Roger also sent Earl Karen as a special envoy to find out Richard's opinion on exchanging northern territory.

In April this year, Richard's eldest son Philip was engaged to Roger Kingdom's youngest daughter Vivian.

After a nobleman got engaged, there was basically no such thing as regretting the engagement. On the contrary, if two families have grudges, murder is more common in marriages.

Marriage between nobles probably accounts for half the happiness and half the misfortune after marriage. If there is no major conflict of interest between the two nobles in the marriage, their married life will most likely be happier.

After Vivian got engaged to Philip, she planned to live in Fort William for a few years. Now she lives in Earl Karen's mansion and often plays and sees Philip. When Philip graduated from high school, Richard negotiated with King Roger to let him live in Nolan for a few years to keep the young Vivian company. When the two of them were about the same age, they returned to Fort William when they reached the age of marriage, taking over part of the government affairs for Richard and inheriting the family business.

Earl Karen proposed the idea of ​​exchanging territories, and of course Richard would not refuse.

Richard has always had the ambition to swallow up the three provinces of Northern Xinjiang and own the Black River system. Moreover, there is a plane passage in the Dragon Canyon. Richard has long wanted to control it reasonably and legally. King Roger did not want to waste energy in the northern Xinjiang region and wanted to develop southward.

The two sides almost hit it off, but the combined area of ​​the three provinces of northern Xinjiang is 80,000 square kilometers. Compared with the Haaland family's 100,000 square kilometers of land in the south, the value is of course much lower.

Although the three provinces in northern Xinjiang are mature areas with a population of about three million at their peak, when the three central armies moved south, their families and urban free citizens who migrated with them amounted to five to six million. As the territory exchange is completed, the Mad Lion Legion will also move south, and the population will be further lost.

In addition, there are dozens of nobles of all sizes in the three provinces. These nobles control nearly half of the fiefdoms and have a population of more than one million. The land under direct control of the royal family is only about 40,000 square kilometers, and the population is only 1.2 million.

As for Richard's fiefdom in the south, although it has been traded a lot, it still covers an area of ​​100,000 square kilometers and has a population of more than 3 million. The prices between the two parties were seriously different, and Richard directly requested to add the province of Sodamia before he was willing to exchange.

However, they were somewhat reluctant to ask King Roger to cede the land in the three provinces of Sodamia, Gabria, and Florda.

After all, the southern part of the three provinces of Sodamia is the administrative district of the capital Noland. If these three provinces are given up, the border of Harland territory will be not far from Noland, and the capital will be threatened by the Harlanders.

Since the territory in the core area could not be given away, the Roger Kingdom exchanged the coastal territory of more than 200,000 square kilometers in the eastern part of the Dukedom of Jonathan to Richard.

Although this part of the land nominally belongs to the Grant Kingdom, unfortunately, like the previous Eagle Mountains area, it has not received any development and is still deserted to this day.

It is rumored that within this territory, there are not only legendary red dragon activities, but also the appearance of elven tribes living in the eastern part of the mid-continent.

This land has basically no short-term value. If it is developed in the long term, it will be worth more than tens of thousands of square kilometers of land in the south.

The eastern coastal plateau is covered with forests, and the human density is pitifully low. But Richard knew in his heart that developed coastal areas were far more valuable than inland areas. Ocean trade alone can bring countless profits and opportunities to Haaland.

Now Harland has developed steam engines and magic crystal cannons, and can easily build ironclads. By making some modifications to the ironclad ship, a magic ship can be created.

When the magic ship is built and enough naval forces are cultivated, they can go deep into the ocean, hunt deep-sea monsters, and obtain more extraordinary resources. They can even cross the East China Sea, enter the Eastern Continent to trade with the elven tribes, and even occupy colonies in the Eastern Continent, allowing the Harland Territory to achieve greater development.

After the land exchange was completed, Richard put forward an additional condition, hoping to move 500,000 serfs from the south to northern Xinjiang. Because of the serious inequality in population transactions, King Roger readily agreed to Richard's conditions. However, the Roger Kingdom also made a request, allowing the nobles of the three provinces of Northern Xinjiang to voluntarily choose to stay in Northern Xinjiang or develop in new territories in the south.

The northern nobles went to the south with their military power, which could bring considerable support to the Grant Kingdom. The royal family was also willing to hand over part of the southern territory to the southern nobles to help stabilize the situation.

After the exchange of territories, the nominal territory owned by the Duchy of Harland has reached 780,000 square kilometers. But the territory that has actually been developed to a certain extent is only about 540,000.

The two duchies of Edward and Fox, and the three northern provinces of Grant Kingdom were all swallowed up by the Harland family at the end of the Dawn Calendar 3272. According to rough estimates by the territorial civil affairs department, the population directly controlled by the ruling government is about six million, and the population controlled by the feudal nobles is roughly five to six million.

Because they agreed to King Roger's conditions and allowed the nobles of the three provinces to choose freely, most of the hereditary nobles would give up their northern territories and follow King Roger to the south. After all, the enemies in the south are much weaker than the Orc Empire and are relatively safer.

However, nobles and free people can move to the south, while ordinary serfs and most of the food must stay in the north. The kingdoms of Richard and Roger will use part of their resources to convert them into money in exchange. Anyway, Harland has some excess production capacity for the time being, and it is appropriate to use this excess production capacity in exchange for population resources.

Richard's estimate was very accurate. Most of the nobles from the three provinces were willing to move south. Especially in the two major provinces of Gascoigne and Lach, 90% of the nobles chose to move south. Nearly half of the nobles from Geda Province have also left.

The only ones who are willing to stay are the nobles from Heihe and Luomen counties. The nobles from these two counties have fought side by side with Richard many times. They feel that if they stay in the Duchy of Harland, the family will have better development.

Richard led his troops south in September, achieved a decisive victory in late October, and returned to Harland territory in mid-December.

In this battle of the Southern Expedition, many people made outstanding contributions. First of all, Sylph. Because she fought many times to kill the enemy, more than 300 professionals died at her hands. In the battle to kill Mark Dean, Sylph rose up. The role is also very crucial. This battle resulted in the title of a viscounty.

The Sutton family already owns two viscountries, plus the viscounty that Sylph was granted this time. If they choose to merge, they will be promoted to the great nobility and become the first earl among Richard's vassals.

Richard is still developing within the Grant Kingdom system, and there cannot be an earl among his vassals. Unless it breaks away from the Grant royal family and establishes itself as a Grand Duchy, it will naturally gain full autonomy by then. Not only can one be made an earl, but one can also be made a duke.

But in this way, without recognition from mainstream countries, he looks like a clown.

After discussing with Sylph, Richard decided not to merge the titles yet, but the territories would be sealed together, and they would make plans after Richard was promoted to Grand Duke and put on the crown.

In addition to Sylph being directly granted the title of viscount, two young men, Levin and Sox, also accumulated enough meritorious service with the support of their fathers and were granted the title of hereditary baron.

In addition, two high-ranking officers, Soros and Jennings, who killed enemies on the battlefield and led troops in combat, were also successfully granted a barony. Soros has been leading the war in Haaland for 20 years, and this is the fourth time he has been knighted. It's just that he granted the territory to different children and has not yet worn the crown of viscount.

Jennings' second fiefdom was located in the western area of ​​Halland Territory, not far from Martins Castle. This territory is 560 kilometers away from the first territory in a straight line. The two territories are so far apart that it is naturally very inconvenient to manage them.

Richard did not mean to make things difficult for Zhannings, but the northern territory of Double Star Castle has been sealed. If he continues to give him territory in this area, the No. 2 Military Station will be divided into the territory.

The No. 2 military station is a garrison fortress on the northern Xinjiang defense line. It is impossible to block it out and cause trouble for yourself.

Therefore, the new fief can only choose to be in the west. Whether it is Jennings, Thoros, Levin, or Sokes, the four baronies are not far from Martins Castle.

Because Wilde, Roman, and Sutton stayed in northern Xinjiang and did not make any military exploits, they missed this opportunity and could only wait for the next war.

After the complicated matters of exchanging territories and migrating people were completed, it was already February 3273 in the Dawn Calendar.