Chapter 346 Xia Shou Inspection 1

After Richard returned to the territory, it was already early June.

He went east to hunt in March, and midsummer had already arrived when he returned.

This autumn, the contracts of 240,000 indentured slaves expired. They had served Harland for more than four years, and were pardoned by Richard in advance as freemen in the spring. Together with this year's 240,000 freemen, the number of freemen in Harland will reach 680,000.

Each freeman was assigned six mu of wasteland, plus the task of reclaiming wasteland for the government-run farms this year, two million mu of arable land needed to be reclaimed this year. For the more than 900,000 indentured slaves in Harland, the task was very heavy.

After all, there were only 600,000 young and middle-aged indentured slaves, a large part of whom needed to engage in infrastructure construction, grazing, and working in factories. Only about 360,000 people could really participate in the reclamation.

It was not an easy task for each person to reclaim more than five mu of wasteland on average.

Reclamation required cutting trees, digging tree roots, repairing canals, picking up stones, and filling up swamps. Even with the help of large animals, it was still strong physical labor.

According to statistics from the territory's agricultural department, it takes eight and a half workers to reclaim one acre of wasteland, even with large animals. This is still in the plains. To build terraces on the mountain, it takes dozens of workers just to cut down trees and dig up tree roots, and building terraces is also not easy.

Harland Territory is now vast and sparsely populated, so there is no need to build terraces. The farmland reclaimed this time is mainly in the Tanit River Valley, the Im River Valley, the areas on both sides of the Grota River, the swamp basin, the Losa Basin, and Graveson has also reclaimed part of the wasteland.

In order to complete the task of reclaiming wasteland, Rogge found the territory garrison, hoping that the territory garrison could take on part of the task of reclaiming wasteland.

In the system of Harland Territory, the gun is almost completely in the hands of Richard.

The only thing that the City Hall can influence is the second-line troops, the city defense army, and even the cross-regional transfer of the city defense army requires Richard's approval.

Richard is not in the territory, and Rogge can't mobilize the garrison at all. Although the Stob family has a great influence in the Harland Territory, the garrison will not listen to Rogge at all.

In the end, Rogge could only find Audrey through personal connections, asking the Lion Cavalry to venture into the vicinity of the Gnoll Cave, delivering a letter explaining the whole story and bringing back Richard's order to mobilize troops.

Including the second-line auxiliary troops, the army of Harland has expanded to more than 70,000 people. There are many professionals in the army, and the strength of these people far exceeds that of civilians. With the help of the garrison, after more than half a month of voluntary labor, this year's land reclamation task was successfully completed.

After land reclamation, it is spring plowing. This year's spring plowing is relatively smooth. Not only did it have a perfect spring rain, but it also did not encounter war damage.

In the past ten years, peace has been a luxury for the people of Harland.

Fortunately, Harland has established basic industries and developed a relatively high level of magic civilization. New weapons are invented in an endless stream. Although it cannot crush the orcs, it can successfully defend the territory.

In recent years, the battles have basically been fought abroad, and the damage to the territory's production has not been serious.

The scale of this year's battle was smaller, with only more than 600 people being drawn in two battles, which had a lighter impact on the territory.

Many people made meritorious contributions in the two battles against the legendary dragon this year, among which Wendy and Vito have accumulated ten great merits and will be awarded a baronship respectively.

Wendy is Richard's sister from the same mother. Unlike other nobles, Richard is reluctant to put her territory on the border.

But it is not possible to seal Wendy's territory near William Castle, because the area near William Castle is the core of Harland Territory. In order to set an example for future generations, Richard made a rule that the core territory cannot be divided, and finally Wendy's territory was sealed near Eagle Castle.

This territory is located on both sides of the Black River and is adjacent to the Baron of Jose. The area is not very large, only more than 800 square kilometers, but the land is very fertile, more than 80% of which is flat land, and more than one million acres of good farmland can be reclaimed. The territory has been roughly developed, and there are 4,000 slaves purchased this year to cultivate in this territory.

According to the political system of the Kingdom of Grant, hereditary nobles have great independence. Although Wendy is his vassal, he can decide the policies and laws in the territory by himself.

Richard already has seven vassals under his name, and the laws and policies they have formulated are different. These vassals are basically very traditional. They will not distribute land to serfs, nor have they formulated laws to pardon free people.

The living standards of serfs in vassal territories and free people in Harland Territory are very different, and their political status is even more different. In Harland Territory, as long as you work hard and have good luck, even if you are not talented, you have a high probability of achieving class leap.

Because it is too close to Harland Territory, news will naturally flow, and the problem of fugitive slaves is very prevalent in vassal territories.

In dealing with the problem of fugitive slaves, vassals and dukes often have some friction and contradictions. It's just that the gap in strength between the two sides is too large, and the vassals can't afford to provoke Harland Territory.

In fact, even his uncle Soros came to the door several times because of the problem of fugitive slaves. But Richard was determined not to give in. He only sent back the fugitive slaves and never modified the decree of Harland Territory.

Soros had been in the army for many years, and of course he knew that pardoning serfs would greatly improve the strength of the territory.

Turning serfs into freemen can not only increase production enthusiasm and greatly increase crop yields, but also improve the prestige of the territory among the people and greatly increase the morale of the serfs who joined the army.

The army led by Harland was powerful in combat, conquered more than 100,000 square kilometers of land, and severely damaged the orcs several times. In addition to the invention of new weapons and equipment that surpassed the orcs, high morale was also a key reason.

In order to maintain this high morale, Richard vigorously improved the social status of soldiers, established a soldier pension and security system, a soldier honor reward system, and a soldier clothing system. He also formulated a decree to pardon contract slaves and distribute land to free people to win the hearts of the people.

Soros is a high-level official in the territory and has participated in discussions on various policies many times. It is impossible for him not to understand. But he wants to maintain the monopoly of the Dark family, to be a noble for generations, to limit the upward channels of the lower class, and to avoid competition between the middle and lower classes and the Dark family.

Even if a person is very wise, once his own interests are touched, he will immediately fly into a rage. After all, touching interests is more painful than touching the soul.

Although Soros is Richard's uncle and has a very close relationship with Richard. When Richard was on the rise, the Soros family also helped him a lot, which can be called a deep favor.

But when it comes to major policies, Richard's will is very firm. As long as he lives one day, the system of pardoning serfs will definitely be implemented in Harland. Soros's opposition will not affect Richard's determination at all.

Wendy has been Richard's follower since she was a child. Her values ​​are deeply influenced by Richard. She has formulated the same laws as those of the Duke of Harland in her fiefdom.

She almost completely handed over the management of this territory to the bureaucratic class arranged by Richard. Wendy still lives in Fort William, focusing on magic and not enthusiastic about participating in the management of the territory.

Vito is Sofia's distant cousin. He is nearly seventy years old. He joined Harland very early and was one of the earliest captains in the territory. He fought under Richard for more than ten years and finally succeeded in being knighted before retirement.

Although Sofia's brothers Roger and Otto are in high positions in Harland and are the top few in the civil service system, the resources they can mobilize far exceed those of a hereditary baron. However, their social status and family honor are not comparable to hereditary nobles like Vito.

Vito's knighthood is regarded as a revival by the people of the Stob family.

The Kingdom of Grant is a country that attaches great importance to strength and military merit, and has an extremely stubborn militaristic tradition. Without military merit, if you are not a hereditary noble, you are an inferior person in political status.

Territory officials such as Rogge and Otto have to dismount and bow when they meet hereditary nobles. They cannot speak loudly during disputes and quarrels in meetings, and can only swallow their anger when they are beaten by hereditary nobles. In the future generations, as long as the Vito family defends the territory, they will still be the top leaders of the Dukedom of Harland, while the descendants of Rogge and Otto will most likely be mediocre and fall into the class of ordinary professionals.

Even if it is placed in Nolan, a court earl can influence the national policies, but when encountering hereditary barons in various celebrations, they must also give way to them. Because the court earl is only a reward from the kingdom, while the hereditary baron has made great contributions to the country.

In fact, when the Grant royal family selects court earls, they often select people from the hereditary aristocratic class who have made many military achievements.

The Vito Barony is located in the north of the Twin Star Castle, adjacent to the three baronies of Vida, Grumman, and Morgan. This territory covers an area of ​​1,100 square kilometers. Although it is larger in area, its population carrying capacity is far less than that of the Wendy Barony.

The Vito family is considered to be large and powerful, with more than 20 children and grandchildren who have reached adulthood, including 13 professionals, most of whom are in the army.

Even among the noble class, only a part of them have the inheritance of breathing methods, can endure hardships, are willing to practice breathing methods from an early age, and can persist. The northern border area is better. Because of the long-term war, most noble members can persist in practicing breathing methods. In the capital Nolan area, only about a quarter of the nobles can be promoted to professionals.

In order to avoid the degeneration of the nobles, the Grant Kingdom also formulated a professional inheritance decree. Those who cannot become professionals will not be able to inherit the title. Even so, some noble second sons and daughters who have given up their inheritance rights still spend their days in debauchery, keen to attend various banquets, and active in entertainment venues.

However, these nobles without military merits could not gain a firm foothold in the upper class of the Grant Kingdom, nor could they get any respect.

Richard never participated in various noble gatherings, nor did he like various noble activities. He even had conflicts with many nobles in the country, but it did not prevent him from being one of the top five powerful nobles in the Grant Kingdom. Even princes and princesses would take the initiative to bow to him and be careful when they saw him.

Vito's second son Warren had the best talent, surpassing his father. He was just over 40 years old and was already a fifth-level warrior. He served as the captain of the 15th Brigade, almost catching up with his father.

After Vito was knighted, he discussed with his children and grandchildren and decided to retire and manage the territory. Warren and some of his clansmen continued to stay in the army.

The Vito family was originally of noble origin, and with a large number of people and a strong economy, everyone tried their best to come up with 13,000 gold coins, plus part of Sofia's funding, and bought 3,000 people from the slave market in one go.

The Vito family itself has no shortage of professionals, and they recruited more than a dozen veterans from the army and accepted dozens of mercenaries. With these people as the backbone, they trained 500 soldiers.

Including the Vito Barony, there are already four baronies near the Twin Star Castle, and the number of noble coalition forces has added up to 1,600 people, which is also a significant supplement to the defense of the Harland Dukedom.

When Richard returned to the territory, the summer harvest had already begun. He looked around and found that this year the weather was good and there would be a good harvest.

This year, the focus of the Harland Territory's reclamation is near Nitburg and Imburg. These two castles are located in the valley and are surrounded by towering mountains.

Especially in the Imburg area, which is located near the ridge, the cliffs on both sides of the Im River are towering into the clouds.

Because there is a lot of meltwater from the mountains, the Im River has a relatively abundant amount of water, but due to the limitations of the terrain, it can only flow into the large salt lake, which is the most important water source around the salt lake.

There are also large areas of river valley flatland on both sides of the Im River, but the Im River is located deep in the Eagle Mountains, and it is difficult to develop.

This year, as many as 260,000 acres of farmland have been reclaimed on both sides of the Im River, and 36,000 new free people have migrated.

These free people are all civilians of the Grand Duchy of Stanik. They were captured in the Haaland Territory because of the war. After being indentured for four and a half years, they finally regained their freedom.

Some of these indentured slaves came from the upper and middle classes of the Grand Duchy of Stanik. Some of them are urban citizens, and some even come from professional families. Because of their abilities and knowledge, they gradually established prestige among their fellow countrymen and became managers and leaders of the same batch of indentured slaves.

Because the Grant Kingdom provoked a war and destroyed their hometown, the army led by Richard killed their relatives and reduced them to slaves, so they had resentment towards the Harland Territory in their hearts.

After more than four years of hard work, they gritted their teeth and persevered. This year, they finally became free people. At this moment, they were very happy in their hearts.

The higher the middle and upper classes, the deeper their knowledge. They were very satisfied with Richard's decree to pardon serfs, but they hated Richard for leading troops to invade their country and kill their relatives.

If there was a chance, this group of people would definitely stir up trouble and find a chance to take revenge, but the power disparity between the two sides was so great that it was like a firefly and a bright moon, so they didn't dare to have any resentment at all. After all, they had also experienced war and had a deep understanding of the troubled times, and they knew that Richard was not a kind-hearted person.

If they jumped out now, they would only die in vain. They didn't even dare to say bad things about the Harland Territory easily, and could only sing praises insincerely, feeling very aggrieved in their hearts.