Chapter 353 The Undead Appears

Soon after the commodity fair, the flour manufacturing industry ushered in explosive development. Especially in areas not far from Harland Territory, the demand for white flour is extremely strong.

The situation of the Malan Nisolan family is not an isolated case. Many nobles not far from Harland Territory once again placed orders with the flour mill in Harland Territory. Whether it is the official enterprise Graveson Flour Mill or the Salamander Flour Mill founded by Odaye, they have ushered in rapid development.

In order to provide sufficient supply, not only the two major flour mills worked overtime, but also the mechanical processing plant was busy. Throughout the winter, several sets of steam mills were produced successively. The territory even built four new steam flour mills, half of which were private industries.

In just over a month, more than 20,000 tons of white flour were exported, bringing Harland Territory a gross income of 120,000 gold coins, and the net profit has exceeded 70,000 gold coins. Nearly 30,000 tons of food were consumed in a month. In order to avoid food shortages, Richard ordered the territory's business stations to purchase food in other areas and transport it back to the territory to earn processing money. Although this makes less money, it is safer.

One day in early December, Bellman, deputy commander of the Losa Basin garrison, personally crossed the snow-capped mountains and rushed to Fort William to deliver urgent intelligence.

Bellman is Sofia's distant cousin. Like Vito, he is from the Stob family, but his military exploits are not enough, and his family is not as prosperous as Vito's, so he is still far from being knighted.

Bellman has also served the Harland Territory for more than ten years. His talent is not outstanding. In more than ten years, he has only been promoted from a third-level warrior to a fifth-level warrior. Bellman is over fifty years old. He has only accumulated two major merits and six medium merits in these years. Even if he can serve the territory for another twenty years, it is estimated that this generation will not be able to be knighted.

Bellman, Vito, Soros and others are all from the aristocratic class. Their foundation is much better than that of professionals from the civilian class. They have a family breathing method, which does not require additional merits to exchange. Their family background is far better than Jennings and others. They can buy some basic potions from the market. Normally, they can go further than civilian professionals.

The Losa Basin is the key defense area of ​​the Harland Territory, with a total of six infantry battalions stationed there, including the 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 21st, and 22nd. In addition, there is the 1st Scout Cavalry Battalion, the 6th and 8th Magic Hot Air Balloon Squadrons, and the Guard Squadron stationed around the Losa Basin. In addition to two thousand auxiliary troops and one thousand city defense troops, the total force exceeds 13,000.

The garrison in the Losa Basin is temporarily under the command of the Central Corps, and Richard is their direct commander.

The commander of this army, Richard, appointed Graham, who is the general military judge of the Harland Territory. After Morgan retired and returned home to run the territory, he took over Morgan's position as the captain of the cavalry reconnaissance battalion. After more than ten years of hard training, Graham's professional level has been promoted to the sixth level.

Together with the 6,000 recruits who will complete training this year, the regular army of the Harland Territory has approached 50,000.

These more than 50,000 regular troops are reorganized into two and a half legions.

The Eastern Army is the Grotta Legion, with Thoros as the commander, responsible for operations in the direction of the Grotta River.

The Western Army is Richard's Central Legion, responsible for operations from the Fort William area to the northern part of the Losa Basin.

The Central Army is the weakest, with only half a legion, and its commander is Jennings, responsible for operations in the directions of Nitburg and Imburg.

In addition, nearly 30,000 city defense troops, security troops, and auxiliary troops operating catapults cooperate with operations in three directions.

Hearing that Berman personally crossed the snow-capped mountains, Richard thought to himself: "Could it be that the orcs chose to send troops in winter? This is too stupid."

With doubts in his mind, Richard immediately met with Berman.

Seeing Richard, Bellman saluted respectfully, solved Richard's doubts, and said directly: "Dear Duke, three days ago, the reconnaissance team discovered many undead creatures in the western part of the basin salt lake. Commander Graham did not dare to neglect it, immediately blocked the news, and ordered me to cross the snow mountain to inform the Duke."

Hearing this news, Richard's face changed suddenly. The Dawn Plane encountered an invasion by the Undead Lords in ancient times, and this invasion brought a lot of trouble to the Dawn Plane.

In order to control the Dawn Plane, the Undead Lords opened up many plane channels in the two worlds and left many relics, which were very troublesome to deal with.

More than a decade ago, Richard participated in the battle to block the plane channel of the dead spirit world, and was almost taken away by the lich. Until now, he doesn't want to recall all this.

But after receiving the information about the activities of the undead, Richard couldn't ignore it. The undead were found in the territory, and as the lord, he had the responsibility to eliminate this scourge.

After receiving the news, Richard immediately went to the Morning Cathedral in the south of William Castle and informed the Archbishop in charge of the Harland Territory, Homera Yana.

Homera Yana is a high-ranking clergyman who entered the Harland Territory last year. She is over ninety years old and has reached the ninth level of priesthood. She is a rare female archbishop.

Ninth-level priests are considered high-ranking clergymen in the headquarters of the Church of Dawn, and they are rare. When Richard saw this white-haired, wrinkled archbishop, he seemed to see a sense of holiness on her face.

Since Richard was promoted to a great noble, the power of the Church of Dawn in the Harland Territory has been continuously strengthened.

Although the clergy of the church do not participate in the battles of secular nobles, they rarely go to the front line now. However, their magical power can be used to rescue a large number of wounded.

Generally speaking, a dukedom parish has about one senior priest and two to three hundred clergy.

However, most of these clergy are warriors and knights. There are only more than 30 priests and magicians, and only about 60 apprentices.

These clergy are scattered in six counties and more than a dozen counties, and they need to operate nine churches. Normally, there are only two or three legal clergy in the Dawn Church of a county. Some counties in border areas do not even have a Dawn Church.

After meeting Archbishop Homera, Richard asked Bellman to tell him the intelligence he had found. Hearing the news of the appearance of the undead creatures, Archbishop Homera also attached great importance to it. He personally wrote a letter to Archbishop Senna of the Grant Kingdom Diocese to explain the situation, and then began to transfer personnel from the Harland Diocese.

The current climate has already closed the mountains with heavy snow. If you want to go to the western part of Losa Salt Lake, you need to go into the mountains in winter.

Entering the mountains in winter is far more dangerous than in summer. Ordinary soldiers are physically weak and cannot enter the mountains in winter. Therefore, this operation can only be carried out by elite soldiers. It was finally decided to draw the first squadron and sixty iron-horned horses into the mountains. The Mage Association of Harland Territory also needs to draw backbones to participate in the war.

The Lion Cavalry will draw a squad to fight with the main force. The Wyvern Squadron cannot participate in this operation because it needs to hibernate.

The vassals of Harland Territory also need to draw elites to participate in the war. Viscount Bolton, Baron Vito, Baron Grumman, Baron Vida, Baron Sharp and other high-level professionals cannot stay out of it and must participate in the operation.

Richard prepared for three days, and on the eighth day of December, he led the team to cross the snow-capped mountains.

Because of the Starlight Bottle and the Legendary Space Bag, the team carried a large amount of supplies, and carried more than 30 tons of coal alone. With sufficient logistical support, the team did not lose personnel even in the extremely cold climate.

After crossing the Eagle Mountains, a large number of brick and tile houses began to appear.

Harland Territory has controlled the Losa Basin for two and a half years. Because the Losa Basin is rich in resources, it not only has a large amount of farmland, but also silver mines and magic crystal mines. The strategic location is also very important and is the focus of the territory's financial investment.

In two and a half years, a large number of new industries have been built in the Losa Basin. Rogge has transferred a large number of people from the Williamburg area to build brick kilns, lime kilns, and glass kilns in the Losa Basin. And set up a simple steel rolling mill and a steam engine maintenance station. In the past two and a half years, they have been building a lot. Because the Losa Basin is densely populated, a large number of brick and tile houses have been built. The simple huts and dugouts used for living have been eliminated and replaced, and even the wooden houses are pitifully few.

Last spring, the mineral exploration department of the Harland Territory made a new discovery. The second coal mine was discovered in the eastern part of the Losa Basin. A small amount of production began last autumn. This year, because of the use of steam engines, the output of the mine has been quite considerable, and the annual coal production has exceeded 20,000 tons.

This year, the new coal mine began to build the second mine, which will be put into production in October. Next year, the coal mine will produce more than 50,000 tons of coal. With the gradual production of the No. 3 and No. 4 mines, the output of this coal mine will reach 150,000 tons in three years, which is only slightly less than the coal mine near Fort William.

With the successful development of the coal mine in the eastern part of the Losa Basin, the territory's coal production will be close to 400,000 tons. The income from coal mining will also become more and more considerable.

Richard led the team all the way west, crossed the frozen salt lake, and came to the place where the undead were found.

Richard sent scouts to investigate for most of the day, but found nothing.

"Where are the scouts who found the undead?" Richard turned around and asked Graham.

"I sent three groups of scouts successively. Except for the first group of scouts who successfully returned, the next two groups of people all disappeared. Because the intelligence was unclear, I did not continue to send people."

Archbishop Homera pushed aside the guards on both sides and walked to the front. She pointed with both hands and released a powerful divine spell to detect negative energy. Suddenly, a holy white light appeared, and the white light fell on the ground in a large area, and a gray smoke came out in an instant.

The smoke slowly drifted away and gradually gathered at a place five kilometers away.

Archbishop Homera was old and weak, and needed to be carried by people and horses all the way. She wore a thick leather coat to keep warm. She looked like a dying old man, but the magic power in her body was very strong. Although the detection of negative energy was a ring of magic, it was very powerful when used in her hands.

"Negative energy gathered in this area, and it was buffered and dissolved by special methods. There must be a high-level magic circle arranged within a few hundred meters nearby. Everyone should look carefully and dig carefully."

Under the careful instructions of Archbishop Homera, everyone carefully searched within a radius of 500 meters with the core of negative energy gathering as the center, and soon made a great discovery.

With the negative energy gathering core as the center, six giant stones were dug within a few hundred meters nearby. These stones were about seven or eight meters high and had long been buried underground. If it weren't for the energy detection magic, it would be basically difficult to find.

The giant stone was black all over and the material was very hard. It was a common second-level extraordinary material on the market, obsidian.

The price of obsidian was not high, only a few gold coins per kilogram, slightly more expensive than mountain copper.

But the six giant obsidian stone pillars added up to more than hundreds of tons, and the value was probably more than one million. However, such a large number of obsidian on the market would greatly affect the selling price. In a short period of time, obsidian would probably become worthless in the area near the Grant Kingdom.

Generally speaking, obsidian is usually used to make magic mirrors. In addition to being a mirror, a second-ring positive energy spell can be added to the mirror surface. It is said that a large amount of obsidian is used as floor tiles at the headquarters of the Church of the God of Light.

With such a huge amount of obsidian discovered, the Harland Mage Association will not lack this material in a few hundred years. The second-level magic mirror Harland Mage Association can have one for each person.

The six obsidian stone pillars are just in the shape of a hexagon. It is estimated that there are special energy pipes connected at the bottom of the stone pillars, forming a special magic circle that traps the undead in a special environment.

Richard has more than 200 soldiers under his command. They are all powerful professionals. After two or three days of hard work, most of the ruins have been dug out.

This area is a battlefield in ancient times. The Undead Lord used a super-powerful forbidden spell to transform the dead into a huge army of kings, forming an extra-large cemetery.

After the ancient war, the surviving human mage organization arranged a magic circle to block this large cemetery.

As time went by, the magic circle gradually became damaged and could no longer seal all the undead. A few undead began to infiltrate the outside.

Just as everyone continued to dig, suddenly several strong explosions echoed around.

A large amount of soil was lifted up, and a huge cave appeared in the ruins.

Harland's first squadron was an elite infantry of all professions. After hearing the explosion, they immediately gave up the excavation work at hand, quickly assembled, and protected the magician behind.

Richard squinted his eyes and found that a large number of undead appeared in the underground cave. The diameter of this cave was 17 or 18 meters wide, like the highway tunnels that Richard often saw in his previous life. A huge white crystal coffin was placed at the entrance of the cave. The crystal coffin released a light curtain to block the army of undead in the cave.

A dozen liches and vampires released a large number of negative energy spells, impacting the magic restrictions in the ruins area. It seems that the blockade is already a bit shaky and can't be stopped for too long.

Homera looked at the sky and found that the sun was setting in the west, and it was not far from dark.

Richard stared at the undead behind the light curtain and thought secretly.

"Once it gets dark, the negative energy becomes more active, the power of the undead becomes stronger, and the power of the ban becomes weaker. I'm afraid these undead will be able to break through the ban."