Lord Harland.

After joining the coalition of nobles from Heihe County, Richard left a thousand soldiers to guard the rear, and led 6,000 main troops and 2,000 auxiliary troops to attack the logistics line of the orc army.

In the north of the military station, there is a mountain road. If you march twenty kilometers north, you will find a logistics base for the orcs.

Through the investigation of the magic hot air balloon, there are only three squadrons of sheep guarding this stronghold, and their strength is extremely weak.

Among the strongholds, there are about eight or nine thousand human slaves.

The reason why Li Cha wanted to attack this stronghold was to rescue these slaves.

In March of this year, the Duke of Guise sent 16,000 slaves. By April, he swallowed 23,000 refugees from the Viscount Nelson territory. Now the population of the Harland territory has exceeded 300,000.

Although the population growth rate is very fast, the situation of lack of population in the territory has not changed.

With the two rich lands of Gravessen and Swamp Basin, Harland's territory has a population carrying capacity of more than one million.

With a population of 300,000, it can't even fill Graveson and Swamp Basin. It will take more than ten years to fully develop the Haaland territory.

This year, the Harland territorial army fought three battles with the 59th Orc Legion, with more than 2,000 casualties.

However, the number of soldiers killed in the battle was relatively small, about 700. After treatment, most of the remaining wounded soldiers can return to the team.

The casualties among officers and soldiers were close to one-third, which had a huge impact on morale.

Defensive battles can still be fought, and the morale of the offensive battles is already a little low. If there are more casualties, it will be a bit embarrassing.

After all, intelligent creatures are afraid of death. Seeing that many familiar comrades and brothers died in battle, soldiers are certainly not robots, so they naturally feel fear in their hearts.

War is very cruel and destructive to humanity.Fighting inside the territory, soldiers cannot release their fear through killing, looting, rape and other atrocities. Coupled with the long-term absence of family members, they will become particularly depressed.The slightest disturbance would ignite sparks, causing soldiers to mutiny or even rebellion.

After heavy casualties, how to stabilize the morale of the military is very critical, and it tests a general's ability to lead troops.

If you don't have prestige and are not good at soothing the morale of the military, even if you can lead the soldiers to win the battle, the continuous accumulation of casualties will still make the soldiers rebel.

Richard is very prestigious in the army of Harland Territory.He chatted with soldiers at the grassroots level countless times, issued pensions for more than ten years, and spent a lot of time every year condolences to disabled soldiers.There is not much air in the barracks, and it has solved countless troubles for officers and soldiers.After each battle, as long as there is still enough magic power, Li Cha will also release healing spells to treat the wounded himself.

Although the casualties were not light, the officers and soldiers could still grit their teeth and launch a tough battle.

However, Richard had already felt the low morale, so he personally preached and mobilized before the battle.

"Through investigation, we found that there are only three squadrons of sheep-body people in the front stronghold. Everyone knows the combat effectiveness of the sheep-body people, even inferior to the serf soldiers. This time we attacked the orc logistics stronghold. It is quite easy, ten times the strength of the orcs, and we are still fighting weak sheep-body people. The casualties are estimated to be single digits. Besides, I will let the noble coalition army be the vanguard.

After the war, the veterans took turns taking half a month off, and each was rewarded with a gold coin, ten pounds of brown sugar, a jar of white wine, a piece of woolen cloth, and a sheep.

The indentured slave soldiers who made military exploits, together with their families, restored their status as free citizens in advance, and immediately divided the land from the official land. "

Richard's promise restored most of the soldiers' morale. Over the years, Richard has kept his promise and has a high reputation among the soldiers.

The material rewards plus half a month's vacation immediately made the soldiers in Haaland Territory very happy.

The attack on the orcs' logistics stronghold went very smoothly. The coalition of nobles from Heihe County broke through the Goat defense line in one charge. The stronghold was captured with almost no casualties and a large amount of logistical supplies were seized.

This included approximately 50,000 gold coins in grain, cotton, and iron materials, and even 20,000 to 30,000 gold coins were seized.

There was no shortage of ordinary materials in the Harland Territory. Except for food, Richard distributed everything to the coalition of nobles. As for the most valuable population, of course, the Harland Territory monopolized it.

After taking this stronghold, the morale of the officers and soldiers recovered a little because they captured a large amount of loot.

There are 7,000 regular troops in the Harland territory. Before the war, they also swallowed 600 soldiers of Viscount Nelson. The total force is close to 8,000. Now there are less than 6,000 soldiers left.

More than a quarter of the casualties were considered severe blood loss.The most important thing now is to rest for a while.

The soldiers in Harland's territory are not the kind of serf soldiers, and it is more difficult to expand.

After returning to the military base, Richard immediately ordered to recruit 4,000 new soldiers from the territory to expand the territory's strength to 11,000.

Of course, the new recruits don't have much combat effectiveness yet, and it takes a year of training to be incorporated into the main force.

However, as the wounded soldiers gradually recovered, the combat effectiveness of the army in Harland's territory finally recovered a lot.

According to the financial capacity of Harland's territory last year, it was enough to support regular troops.

With more than 10,000 regular troops in hand, they can be organized into a smaller army.

The military exploits achieved in this battle were enough for Richard to be promoted to earl. If the territory did not have a legion, there would be no great nobles.

After the war, Richard sent someone to send Raquel, the deputy head of the orc army, to Nolan, the capital of the kingdom.

Raquel is an eighth-level professional. Normally, his head is worth five great merits.

Of course, a living high-ranking orc officer is worth more than a dead one. Although Raquel was captured by Sophia and Wendy, in order for Richard to become a great noble as soon as possible, the two gave up the credit, and the credit was counted. Under the name of Richard.

King Roger issued an edict to capture Raquel alive and reward Richard with a miraculous feat.

In this year's orc invasion battle, the Harland territory alone blocked the orc army. Richard even severely damaged this army in several battles and stabilized the northern defense line of Geda Province.

It can be said that Li Cha and the soldiers of Harland's territory have made great contributions and played a very important role. They also rewarded Li Cha with an extraordinary contribution.

In addition, hundreds of orc professionals were killed in the Harland territory, and a large part of them were attributed to Richard, which added up to eight great achievements.

Counting some of the credits that Richard and Sophia have accumulated in the past, after the war, Richard can receive a viscount.There are three viscount territories under Richard's name, and they can be merged to be promoted to earl after the war.

Today, the actual needs of the northern border of the Grant Kingdom require a new nobleman to stabilize the situation.

All the political channels for Li Cha to be promoted to the great nobles have been opened. In the current situation in the northern border, the noble council of the royal capital will only support the Harland family and will not hinder it.

With Richard's accumulated achievements and the strength of the Harland family, it is already certain that the Harland family will become a great noble after the war.

After struggling for more than ten years, Richard is about to achieve another class leap.

After defeating the 59th Orc Legion, peace returned to the Harland territory. When reporting his battle exploits, Richard deliberately overreported the casualties.

The above also took into account the strength of Harland's territory, and it was not easy to defeat a legion of orcs, so he didn't put a heavier burden on him.

In the end, it was Duke Jonathan who broke the deadlock, defeated the orc front army, and freed up his hand to change the situation in Lahe Province.

In this year's battle in the Grant Kingdom, although the Orc Empire army suffered heavy casualties, they broke through the defense line of Lahe Province, severely damaged the Grizzly Legion, conquered six noble territories, and robbed Lahe Province of more than people.

The orcs on the Western Front also achieved great results, severely damaging Duke Edward's army and taking away 50,000 people. The Duke of Fox also lost two baronies to the orcs, losing 30,000 people.

Compared with the advertised result of annihilating 80,000 orcs, Grant Kingdom obviously suffered a little loss.

For a race like the kobolds, it only takes three years to become an adult.It takes six years for a wild boar and a snake to become an adult, and ten years for a werewolf, a lion, and a harpy.

And it takes at least twenty years to train a human warrior.

The orc empire invades once every three years, in fact, to consume the excess population, avoid internal population explosion, and civil strife due to insufficient resources.

After Duke Jonathan defeated the orc army, this year's orc invasion war was roughly over.

The orcs slowly retreated back to the northern part of the Eagle Mountain Range, and the Kingdom of Grant took advantage of the situation to regain the lost ground.

After August, the capital began a new round of rewards and punishments, and King Roger also conferred titles on new nobles.

The Harland family made great achievements in this battle this year, and Richard was successfully promoted to Earl.

The uncle's Soros family has also accumulated enough military exploits and is about to obtain a fiefdom and be promoted to a hereditary baron.

In order to obtain a better fief, William went to Nolan after the war, communicated with the Marquis Allen, the speaker of the noble council, and expressed the demands of the Harland family.

Richard's demands were not high and he did not propose conditions for dividing the southern territory.

The great nobles in northern Xinjiang would try their best to develop to the south after making military exploits and distribute their territories to their heirs to spread risks.

The Grant royals, despite their reluctance, have sometimes been unable to hold back this trend.Every few years, a piece of fat will be given to the great nobles of northern Xinjiang who have made military exploits. Edward, Fox, and even Duke Jonathan have operated in the hinterland of the Grant Kingdom for several generations, and have developed more than a dozen barons.

A few years ago, the three parties and three earls rebelled, and the territory was swallowed up by the Grant royal family.The behavior of eating alone made the nobles of northern Xinjiang very dissatisfied. The two dukes, Edward and Fox, took the lead and repeatedly made waves in the noble council, initiating proposals requiring the royal family to strengthen the northern military and shoulder greater responsibilities.

King Roger couldn't stand the pressure either, and promised to add a second-tier army.

This second-line central army is temporarily adapted from the Redeemer Army commanded by Zachary.

This time to repel the orc invasion, the two dukes strongly demanded that the new fief be placed in the south, and Duke Jonathan also had the same plan.

The royal family needs to divide three baron territories in the south to meet the requirements of the three dukes.

The territory in the south is different from that in the north. The climate is mild and the land is fertile. There is basically no threat of war. The surrender of three baronies has already made King Roger feel pain.

On the contrary, in the land of no man in the northern region, King Roger can't wait to throw all the burden on the northern nobles, so that the strength of the northern nobles can be strengthened.

The Harland family in the northern part of Gerda province restrained a legion of orcs, greatly reducing the pressure on Gerda province and improving the strategic situation of the royal territory.

In recent years, Gerda Province no longer needs to worry about the troubles in the north.

Therefore, if the Harland family wants to choose the northern territory, whether it is the Noble Council or King Roger, it will be convenient for them.

More than 7,000 square kilometers of land northeast of Flower Castle were allocated to Richard, and the Salt Lake, which Richard had never forgotten, was also included in the new territory.

Now the territory of the Harland family has expanded to the northern part of the Lach Province and the northwest region of Nelson Viscounty.

Richard planned to develop the salt lake, refine salt, soda ash, and mine the potassium ore in the salt lake. He would inevitably build castles and station troops in this area.

With Harland's territory in the northwest, Viscount Nelson only needs to defend the northeast, and the pressure will be reduced a lot.Otherwise, the Viscount Nelson suffered heavy losses and would not have the strength to manage the territory, so he could only give up part of the land and move the border southward.

In addition to expanding to the northeast, they captured the Salt Lake area. The Harland territory also developed to the southwest, swallowing up the Harden Barony. The area between the Gascoigne Province and the Gedda Province was also granted to the Harland family.

The territory expanded in the southwest totaled more than 3,200 square kilometers.

After William completed the communication with the noble council, Richard personally went to the royal capital, took the new nobles to participate in the ceremony, took the lead in swearing allegiance to King Roger, and became the hereditary earl of the Kingdom of Grant.

At the level of the hereditary earl, they can already influence the policies of the Grant Kingdom to a certain extent, and most of the fate of the territory is in their own hands. They can be regarded as the ruling class of a kingdom.

Being promoted to earl, the Harland territory has the right to mint copper coins, and the deflation situation in the territory can be improved a lot, and it will no longer accept the jurisdiction of the Gerda province, and the degree of freedom is greater.

In the noble meeting, there are also more voting rights.

However, in the political landscape of Grant Kingdom, the earl family can only be regarded as a local overlord and has no overall influence. Apart from the royal family, there are only a few powerful dukes who can really stand firm. The duke family is the partner of the Grant royal family, while the earl and marquis are still subordinates of the royal family.

From the perspective of knighthood etiquette, the earl still has to swear allegiance to the king, but the duke does not need to do this. In terms of strength, there is not much difference in the strength of the earl and marquis. The duke family is much stronger, with at least tens of thousands of regular troops under their command.

After the territory was demarcated, the earldom of Harland had a total area of ​​29,000 square kilometers. By the end of the year, the total population was 320,000.

Although the population is slightly smaller than that of the southern earls, after the army has been expanded, its military strength exceeds that of the remaining four earls in the south.

The economic forces have mutual advantages. Although the southern earls have a small territory, they have more arable land and plant a lot of cash crops. The agricultural output value is almost two or three times that of Harland's territory, but Harland's territory also has some basic industries, and its income gradually exceeds that of the southern earl.

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