Lord Harland

Edmund was also a soldier and did not like politeness. He went straight to the point, hoping to pay the ransom and redeem the soldiers.

"Your soldiers have developed hatred for us. Letting them go back is like sending the tiger back to the forest. I will not do such a stupid thing." Edmund said a few words, but Richard immediately interrupted him. head, showing an impatient expression.

"Your Excellency the Duke is too exaggerated. If our soldiers are tigers, Your Excellency the Duke is a giant dragon. How can the dragon be afraid of tigers? Besides, it has been a tradition for thousands of years not to slaughter prisoners, but to pay ransoms to release officers and soldiers. If Your Excellency the Duke is If you don’t abide by tradition, you can’t have barbarian blood, right?”

As soon as these insulting words were spoken, the faces of Harland's leaders and ministers present suddenly changed. Many officers attending the meeting immediately drew their swords and cursed loudly to kill this person.

There is actually an underlying reason why Edmund is so reckless.

The United Kingdom on the East Coast also attaches great importance to military merit and has a tradition of nobles joining the military. Edmund's three sons were all in the army. In last year's war, all three of Edmund's sons died. Edmund hated the invaders of Grant Kingdom extremely deeply.

Richard and he had a blood feud, because both of Edmund's sons died at the hands of the army led by Harland. The more Richard's military exploits became, the more Edmund wanted to insult and kill his enemies.

He actually had a death wish for this mission, so he deliberately provoked the banquet, hoping that the Harlanders would take action first. Then he launched a surprise attack. If he could seize the opportunity to kill Richard, he would be avenging his sons.

Even if the assassination fails, Richard will definitely arouse criticism if he kills him, the messenger. Killing the messenger is an act of barbarians. In this world where the reputation of nobles is extremely important, this kind of thing will probably be laughed at for a long time. Even if he died, he could bring shame to the name Harland, make Richard embarrassed among the nobles, and damage the reputation of the Harland family with his own death. Although this could not kill Richard, it was still a method of revenge. .

Seeing that the atmosphere was tense, Edmund had a bit of a sneer on his face and deliberately provoked: "Why, is Lord Harland really a barbarian and wants to massacre the envoys?"

After hearing this, Richard said calmly: "Although I won't kill you, I can still change the east coast to a negotiator. Come here, catch him, cut off his tongue, and drive him out. Landlord."

Seeing the crowd gathered around him, Edmund suddenly changed his color and attacked Richard fiercely. It was rumored that Richard was a magician. If he were to kill this man unexpectedly in close combat, it would not only eliminate a problem for the United Kingdom of the East Coast, but also You can also succeed in revenge.

Although Edmund is a ninth-level knight, he still carries an enchanted sword. Because he was a messenger, no one searched him. He suddenly burst into flames, and his explosive power was extremely ferocious.

Although Edmund launched a sneak attack unexpectedly, he was unable to kill Richard instantly. Richard was already a seventh-level warrior with more than 20 points of strength. He had awakened his physical talent. Although he was not as good as Edmund in close combat, he was still the same. Magicians with weak bodies are fundamentally different.

Facing Edmund's sudden attack, Richard could still rely on his close combat ability to withstand Edmund's sudden attack, but Edmund's attack had no effect at all.

Without the suddenness of the attack, Edmund was soon unable to withstand the siege of many masters led by Harland. After all, not only Richard and Sophia were participating in the negotiations, but also Soros, Sutton and others.

Everyone rushed forward, and Edmund was quickly injured and captured alive. Richard had his tongue cut out and his eyes gouged out.

Although being an envoy is prestigious, it is also a very dangerous thing. Moreover, Richard is a man of two generations. The education he received since childhood did not have aristocratic manners and aristocratic etiquette. Of course, if he is offended, he will not give face to the United Kingdom of the East Coast and directly concoct it. Got this person.

Edmund was an important figure in the United Kingdom on the East Coast. After Edmund was disposed of, negotiations between the two parties were almost impossible.

Now Richard is the one who has the initiative in negotiations. He has 80,000 captive soldiers, 5,000 officers with noble status, and hundreds of magicians. If the United Kingdom of the East Coast is unwilling to redeem these people, Richard will They are used as slaves.

After swallowing up a large area of ​​territory, the strength of Harland Territory has greatly increased. Now Richard is sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai and can sit back and watch the storm.

On the other hand, the United Kingdom on the East Coast is in urgent need of redemption. In particular, noble officers and magicians are the core of the East Coast United Kingdom. If these people are not redeemed and there are not enough grassroots officers, the United Kingdom on the East Coast will be almost unable to restore its establishment and will not be able to stop the attack of the Grant Kingdom.

So even though Edmund had his tongue cut out and his eyes gouged out by Richard, the aristocratic council of the United Kingdom on the East Coast was excited and clamored to punish the leader of Harland.

However, the distance between the two sides is so far that the United Kingdom on the East Coast cannot use troops against Haaland at all.

Moreover, Richard has made many achievements in recent years, the morale of Haaland's army is at a high level, and the United Kingdom of the East Coast has suffered heavy losses. Even the legendary knight Mark Dean died at the hands of Richard. I am afraid that if he concentrates all his strength, he will not have the confidence to win.

Since it is impossible to actually punish the Harland Territory, the United Kingdom of the East Coast can only talk at the noble assembly and work with the nobles of the Delon Kingdom to publicize and tarnish Richard's reputation. It is said that the Harland family has barbarian blood. Richard himself is rude, cruel and cruel, and he is actually capable of insulting the envoy.

Richard never cared about the news that was making waves outside. He himself didn't attach much importance to the so-called noble reputation.

Under the pressure of reality, the United Kingdom of the East Coast could only send a messenger once again to negotiate ransom with Richard.

The envoy sent this time was named Zoff. This man was not from a very high background. He was only the second son of a baron. However, he was smart, capable, and had a very high emotional intelligence. He had already climbed to the top of the United Kingdom on the East Coast.

Zoff is a seven-ring magician. When he came to Harland, he kept his posture low and his figure relatively soft. After several arduous negotiations, he finally redeemed 4,300 noble officers and 10,000 Two thousand soldiers.

As for the magicians captured by Harland, because Richard asked for too high a price, a junior magician required a ransom of 5,000 gold coins, and the United Kingdom of the East Coast only ransomed more than 30 people.

These more than thirty magicians are basically from noble families.

In order to redeem this backbone, the United Kingdom of the East Coast spent a lot of money.

Because Richard did not accept gold coins from the United Kingdom of East Coast, he had to barter in exchange for various resources.

The United Kingdom of the East Coast paid 100,000 serfs, twenty 10-cubic-meter space bags, and 10 magic crystal balls to test qualifications in exchange for more than 16,000 captive officers and soldiers.

As for the remaining people, because no one in their family was willing to pay the ransom and they were not very talented people themselves, the United Kingdom of the East Coast simply gave up on them.

Among the more than 60,000 prisoners, there are actually many talents. There are more than 700 nobles and more than 60 magicians. Many soldiers have learned breathing techniques and have high-level military skills, so they can be used as veterans.

Even though Harland won this war last year, he still learned a lot of experiences and lessons.

Compared with the elites of the United Kingdom on the east coast and the soldiers of Harland, the biggest difference is actually in weapons and equipment.

Harland leads elite soldiers equipped with a lot of advanced weapons such as alchemy bombs, enchanted armor, enchanted swords, force field shields, searing ray guns, death ray guns, etc. The total set of weapons and equipment is worth more than a few hundred gold coins. Even if they are of the same professional level, they can defeat one against three, or even one against five.

Secondly, the two sides have completely different fighting wills. Leader Harland has established a complete logistics support system and has issued pensions to soldiers killed and injured in battle for 20 consecutive years. Compared with the nobles at all levels in the United Kingdom on the East Coast, Richard has completely won the hearts of Harland's leaders. The soldiers are willing to fight for Richard because Richard has changed their destiny.

The third is the difference in combat experience. Harland's soldiers often face major battles, and the war in northern Xinjiang is also more brutal. Compared with the United Kingdom on the east coast, they are more adaptable to large-scale wars.

The fourth is that the quality of soldiers is different. Haaland's army has a higher proportion of professionals and its quality is much better than that of the United Kingdom's army on the east coast. Today, the proportion of professionals in Haaland's team has exceeded one-tenth, while the proportion of professionals in the East Coast United Kingdom is about one-thirtieth.

The fifth is the role of the Star Necklace. In fact, even if Richard and Sophia released star bombs six times in a row, they would only kill or injure six to seven thousand elite soldiers. As long as there is no fear of casualties and morale can be maintained, starlight bombs may not necessarily play a decisive role in a decisive battle involving hundreds of thousands of troops.

It's a pity that the soldiers fighting are not emotionless robots. They are afraid and terrified. Once they suffer too high casualties, they will panic, retreat and flee, disrupting their own formation.

The sixth is that Harland has developed a flying unit with great advantages. Relying on the griffon and the wyvern, Harland's leadership is equivalent to opening a map, and the battlefield is completely one-way and transparent.

Seventh, the magic crystal cannon played an important role, especially when attacking fortresses, which made the United Kingdom's strong fortifications on the east coast lose their due role. In just a few days, they broke through the defense line that was hundreds of miles thick and captured five fortified cities. The magic crystal cannon was also the key reason for the victory. Without the magic crystal cannon, Richard would not have been so aggressive in his use of troops.

By adding up all the advantages, Harland's army can defeat one against five and win a complete victory.

Among the 60,000 people who gave up on the east coast, Richard was ready to recruit some people to join the army led by Harland.

Six years ago, during the battle with the United Kingdom on the East Coast, Richard absorbed more than 10,000 captive soldiers, all of whom were eventually integrated into the Harland Territory.

In last year's war, although Harland's leadership achieved a brilliant victory, the casualties were also relatively serious.

Since the year before last, two battles of Samba River and Elsa Castle have been fought for two consecutive years, with a total of nearly 20,000 casualties. The Harland Territory has actually lost a lot of its backbone, despite the territory's best efforts to train troops in the past two years. , 16,000 recruits were added from the new barracks, but the size of the army still did not expand.

There are currently about 60,000 captives in the Delong Kingdom who cannot pay ransom, and Richard plans to select 20,000 of them to be incorporated into the Harland Territory. Especially the captured magicians and the noble officers who did not pay the ransom, Richard planned to take them for his own use. To this end, he even asked Driffin to personally introduce his experience, hoping to win people's hearts.

Driffin's situation is very similar to that of the captive soldiers. He also joined the Harland Territory as a slave. In just three and a half years, he successfully turned over, received a knighthood in Harland, and restored the hereditary nobility. identity. With a larger territory, there are more prospects for development.

Driffin recounted his experience and was immediately met with thunderous applause.

In addition to Driffin, Richard also mobilized many veterans of the United Kingdom's prisoner-of-war on the east coast to be responsible for organizing this surrendered force. These people have been members of Harland for many years, and some of the best officers have risen to the rank of captain.

The captain is already a very important position in the army, and his political status is second only to the top brass.

The political status of the county guards in the Harland civil service system is not as good as that of the army captain class.

When the two parties met on the street, the county guard had to bend down to salute, take off his hat and bow.

The status of ordinary civilian county guards in Richard's heart is no more comparable to that of army captains. Both of them violated the law at the same time, so the military captain was treated lightly, but the civilian official Richard was never merciful.

Because the reality of the Dawn Plane is aristocratic politics, with military officers being the most important.

Regardless of whether it is the Holy Glorious Empire, it is easy for military officers to be promoted to hereditary nobles, but it is basically impossible for civil servants.

Even Rogge, Prime Minister of Haaland's Cabinet, still needs to bow when meeting a hereditary baron.

The profound core of this social status quo is that military attachés possess extraordinary power, are preparatory nobles, and are the ruling class of the world, while civil servants are merely vassals of the nobles.

Compared with the traditional aristocratic-dominated army, Harland's leaders only valued talents and did not value blood. Many soldiers with ordinary backgrounds and talented soldiers stood out from this relatively fair selection and quickly made a name for themselves and won Richard's job. Reuse.

The most representative ones are Jennings, Sulla and a group of others. Among them, Jennings has been promoted to the eighth level and has become the third figure in the military system. Now he is the idol of many young people in the military and has a great influence. Batch people.

A 24-year-old young officer, O'Sullivan, is very representative. This man has excellent physical talent. He was only 18 years old when he was captured by Harland, and his status was just a serf soldier.

After joining the Harland Territory, he learned the breathing method and achieved many meritorious deeds in just six years. Now he is a fourth-level warrior, became the captain, and accumulated the next great merit and six medium merits.

Three years ago, Richard even married his third uncle Bernie's daughter to this man.

With O'Sullivan's talent and age, by the age of thirty or forty, promotion to the hereditary nobility is basically a certainty. Even if there is an accident along the way, with him laying the foundation, the starting line of the next generation will be far beyond that of ordinary people.

After listening to O'Sullivan's speech, everyone wanted to make military exploits, marry a woman from the Harland family, marry a duke, be promoted to the hereditary aristocracy, and make their families proud of me.

O'Sullivan and Jiang Bing have exactly the same background, and the experiences he recounted resonate highly with Jiang Bing. Even the knowledgeable noble officers and magicians were a little moved.

None of these noble officers and magicians are willing to pay ransom to them. In fact, it is equivalent to the family and the motherland giving up on them.

Richard is willing to work hard to win over, and he will easily be used by Leader Harland.

With the 20,000 surrendered troops integrated into Harland's territory, Harland's army has expanded to 130,000 people.

Among them, there are 70,000 regular troops and the remaining 60,000 auxiliary troops. The 20,000 surrendered troops collected did not gain Richard's full trust for the time being and could only be used as auxiliary troops.

The salary of the auxiliary soldiers is about half that of the regular army, with a starting salary of five silver coins a month. The salary of army soldiers becomes more valuable as they get older. Harland has veterans who joined the army more than ten years ago and have been unable to be promoted to professionals. Their annual salary is about 20 gold coins, which is a few points higher than some junior officers.