Chapter 367: Post-War Rewards

After withdrawing from the Orc Prairie, Richard hoarded his troops on the edge of the northern prairie.

When retreating, Richard considered occupying Prilan and expanding the border of Harland to the north of Prilan. But after careful consideration, he gave up this plan.

The power of the Orc King's Court is very great. The orcs in the Prilan area suffered heavy losses and could get direct support from the Prairie Front Army and even the Orc King's Court.

Although the Dukedom of Harland is developing rapidly, it is just a strong ant compared to the huge Orc Empire. As long as the Orc Empire focuses a little on this area and sends three or five legends to lead a few elite legions, it can break through the defense line of the Dukedom of Harland.

After occupying the Prilan area, the Governor's District of the Prairie will definitely not give up and will definitely mobilize elite troops to fight against Harland. At that time, it will be difficult for Richard to get reinforcements from the Kingdom of Grant and the Holy Glorious Empire.

Although the conditions in the Puriland area are very good, tens of millions of acres of arable land have been developed, and a systematic canal reservoir has been built. Occupying this place is equivalent to owning the foundation of a king, Richard still decisively gave up this poisonous foundation.

One of the important reasons why the Harland territory can develop to this point is that Richard is not greedy.

After giving up the Puriland area, the Harland territory still expanded hundreds of kilometers of land to the north, pushing the border line to the border between the northern Eagle Mountains and the northern prairie.

At the level of the border duke, the territory has mainly relied on its own expansion. Although nominally, the territory captured in this battle belongs to the royal family, and the Harland family can only get one-third to one-half at most.

However, if the royal family wants to truly control this tens of thousands of square kilometers of land, it must station a large army on it to develop the land, collect taxes, and have control.

The royal family stationed troops in this territory, which is equivalent to shouldering the pressure of defending against orcs. As long as the Roger Kingdom is not a fool, of course it is unwilling to do so.

In recent years, with the rise of the Harland family, the royal family has continuously transferred the central army to the south, wanting to develop in the south, and naturally did not want to invest more power in the north. As long as Richard stood firm, this land would inevitably be incorporated into the Harland Dukedom.

The border line extends northward for hundreds of kilometers, which is equivalent to the expansion of the Harland territory by more than 50,000 square kilometers. This land extends from the northern foot of the Eagle Mountains to the northern prairie.

There are more than a dozen grain storage stations distributed in the north of several mountain roads.

Controlling these stations is equivalent to reducing the amount of work to build fortifications, which will undoubtedly greatly reduce the consumption of the logistics resources of the Harland Territory.

After Richard withdrew his troops, he stationed 40,000 regular troops and 20,000 auxiliary troops in more than a dozen stations in the north of the Eagle Mountains. With more than a dozen stations as the core, a new line of defense was arranged.

Defending the stations along the line is equivalent to defending the natural line of defense of the Eagle Mountains.

Richard arranged elite soldiers to garrison all the fourteen military stations. Thoros, Jennings, Roman, Wilde, Lost and others were all responsible for a section of the defense line.

In this war of orc invasion, the Sutton detachment made outstanding contributions and ranked first among all the generals. The detachment leader Sutton became famous, and the elves under his command once again made ten great contributions, and were awarded a baronship, and the territory was expanded a little.

The officers under Sutton, such as the captain of the demon hunter squadron Wilde, the captain of the first squadron of the first battalion Levin, and the captain of the special squadron Landon, all made great contributions and became famous in the army. Richard can also legitimately promote Wilde to an important position, responsible for commanding five infantry battalions and guarding the eleventh and twelfth military stations.

The merits made by Levin and Martin father and son are also enough to be successfully awarded.

In addition to Martin, the captain of the second battalion, Lost, was very lucky. He successfully killed an injured eighth-level orc deputy legion commander, made great military achievements, and was knighted together with Martin.

The two baronies of Martin and Lost are both located in the north of the Twin Star Castle. The Martin Barony is in the east of the Vito Barony, and the Lost Barony is in the north of the Martin Barony, connected to the Viscount Bolton of the Elf Territory.

Martin and Lost are all paupers. The starting capital for their territory is less than William.

They don't have wives who are good at running business. In recent years, they have only saved a little money. The whole family relies entirely on military pay, and many years of life without fear of death have made them not good at saving money.

Although as officers above the captain, they have a lot of legal income every year, and the gold coins in their hands are less than one thousand in these years.

One thousand gold coins can only buy two hundred serfs, including half of the old and young. With such a foundation, it is impossible to develop without thirty years of operating the territory.

Fortunately, the external situation is very good now. Their territories are all in the south of the military station defense line, which is relatively safe.

Richard personally lent 500 gold coins to these old subordinates, and the Duke Bank also issued a low-interest loan of 1,000 gold coins, but relying on 2,000 to 3,000 gold coins to run a baron territory is still a drop in the bucket.

Finally, Richard gave them an idea, asking them to contribute their children and marry rich businessmen to borrow money.

After more than ten years of development, there are many rich people and first-generation capitalists in the Harland Territory. Although these people are rich, their political status is relatively low, and they have always been willing to expand their connections to the upper class.

However, although the Dukedom of Harland is politically enlightened, it is a feudal monarchy system like the Kingdom of Grant. Without military merit and nobility, you can't enter the upper class of the territory at all. Being able to marry with the first-generation military merit nobles, the rich and capitalists will also feel a little safe.

Fortunately, Martin and Lost had many children, so they could marry different capitalists and rich men. They borrowed a few hundred gold coins from each in-law, and with the low-interest loan provided by the Duke Bank, they finally bought seven or eight hundred people from the slave market and started their business with difficulty.

Because the family foundation was poor, Martin and Lost stayed in the Harland army to fight for Richard in order to make money, and the management of the territory was temporarily handed over to their wives and children.

In addition to Martin and Lost, Jennings was also not far from being knighted.

In this battle, Jennings first commanded half of the legion soldiers to defend the Nit Castle, and then commanded the Marcus unit to annihilate four orc battalions, accumulating two major merits and six medium merits. The merits have exceeded nine, and he is not far from being knighted.

After this year, the Duke of Harland has thirteen vassals kneeling down, including one viscount and twelve barons.

Compared with the royal family and Grand Duke Stannic, the noble coalition that Richard can command is still far behind.

After the army returned, the rescued slaves who followed the army were registered and divided into different regions. During the battle in the north, 260,000 slaves were rescued, including about 20,000 craftsman slaves who had mastered certain skills.

Richard would of course detain the craftsman slaves in advance and keep them in the territory. Most of these craftsmen had ordinary skills, mainly carpenters, stonemasons, masons, blacksmiths, and bamboo craftsmen. They were not worth much in the slave market, only a little more expensive than adult male slaves.

Veterinarians were more precious. There were many livestock in the northern prairie, and veterinarians were precious resources for the orc tribes. The Haland territory only captured a small number of prisoners after conquering the military station and annihilating the orc tribe.

After detaining 20,000 slaves, 30,000 people had to be allocated to other hereditary barons.

Not only the vassals of the Haland territory, but also the nobles of the Geda province, such as Baron Sharp, Viscount Romon, etc. Although 30,000 people were not small, each family could only get a few hundred or a thousand.

The gold coins seized from the Orc Empire add up to more than hundreds of thousands. In addition to rewarding the soldiers, more of these gold coins were distributed to the nobles.

It is not easy to stabilize the defense line and prevent the orcs from harming the territory in a war with the Orc Empire. It is also very difficult to make meritorious service and obtain material replenishment.

Only by entering the heartland of the Orc Empire can you get more or less.

In May, the Grant Kingdom had achieved a comprehensive victory in this war, but the southern territory was in trouble.

Shortly after the orc invasion, the Delong Kingdom and the East Coast United Kingdom took the opportunity to launch an offensive war together.

Fortunately, the Grant Kingdom has five central corps in the three southern provinces, and the two dukes of Gis and Duran helped in the war. It has stockpiled 150,000 heavy troops, plus the southern noble coalition led by Earl Steven, with a total force of 180,000.

Although King Roger did not appoint the commander-in-chief of the southern garrison, William is an old subordinate of Zakley and is willing to obey the old superior. The three Central Guard Corps are independent, and many of the officers inside are members of the Grant family, and they can also cooperate well in combat.

After the outbreak of the war, Zachley concentrated the Iron Lion and Grizzly Corps to defend, and let William lead the cavalry to fight outside, which greatly hit the logistics line of the Delong Kingdom Army.

However, Delong and East Coast countries dispatched 500,000 troops this time. After two years of training, the combat effectiveness of the Delong Kingdom has also improved a bit, and the situation has become very difficult.

The Delong Kingdom and the East Coast United Kingdom originally planned to use the power of the orcs to contain more than 200,000 elite soldiers in the northern border of the Grant Kingdom.

Unexpectedly, the orcs collapsed in this battle, and lost four and a half corps in just twenty days.

It has just entered May, and the war in the northern border has ended. King Roger issued an order requiring the Feiyan and Northern Border Corps to go south to participate in the war.

After the war of the orc invasion, it was time to reward merits. Now Richard is already a high-level lord. At this time, he needs to pay a certain amount of resources, whether it is land or gold coins, he has to pay some.

This year, Richard conferred two hereditary barons, more than thirty awards for great merit, and more than 800,000 gold coins, most of which were awarded to the noble coalition of Geda Province and the Knight Academy Corps.

In this war, most of the noble coalition of Geda Province participated in the war under Richard's command. The noble coalition of Black River County was at the front line of the Snow Mountain Castle, and the nobles of Romen and Brena counties guarded the southwest for the Harland Territory.

There were more than 30 noble families in total, and Richard rewarded a lot of gold coins to each family, adding up to a total of 500,000.

The remaining more than 300,000 gold coins were awarded to the soldiers of the Harland Territory. The soldiers of the main legion received an average of five gold coins per person, and the second-line legion participated in fewer battles and also received a gold coin allowance.

The large amount of gold coins distributed not only consumed the orcs' seizures, but also paid 320,000 to the treasury of the Harland Territory.

Fortunately, a large amount of gold coins were saved in the past few years, and the treasury has accumulated 690,000 gold coins. Even if Richard gave a large amount of money, there are still 370,000 gold coins in the treasury.

After the war, Richard spent a lot of money to reward merit.

The Grant royal family also had to pay resources.

Because Richard's military exploits were too great, the Harland territory annihilated three and a half legions of orcs, and the Grant royal family once again awarded the Harland family an earldom.

Now Richard has a dukedom and two earls. In the system of the Grant Kingdom, he has voting rights second only to the royal family and Grand Duke Jonathan.

The dukedom given to Richard happened to be the Martins Earldom. Because the Martins family gave up the territory on the west bank of the Kelaniya River, the total area of ​​this earldom is less than 30,000 square kilometers.

The strength of the Harland family far exceeds that of the Martins family. After Richard got this territory, he immediately sent people to cross the river and develop to the west.

The Warcraft Cavalry Brigade and the Demon Hunter Squadron acted as pioneers and entered the Kelaniya River to fight against the ogres.

The number of ogres is small. Once casualties continue to occur, they will certainly not be able to outlast the Harland Territory, so they can only give up part of the buffer zone.

After a period of entanglement, the Harland Territory finally controlled two-thirds of the original Martins Earldom, and the ogres controlled one-third.

Knowing the difficulty of the Harland Territory, the ogres also tried not to enter the Harland Territory to plunder.

The original Martins Earldom expanded 40,000 square kilometers of land, and expanded 50,000 square kilometers of territory to the north of the Eagle Mountains and the south of the northern prairie.

In this year's battle, Harland's territory increased by 90,000 square kilometers, while the three baronies that were sealed off only had 4,000 square kilometers in total, which was a great gain in terms of territory.

The Duchy of Harland originally had 128,000 square kilometers of land, and this year it increased by 90,000 square kilometers. If the northern military station defense line is defended, the total area of ​​the territory will reach 218,000 square kilometers, second only to the Grant royal family and Grand Duke Stannick, and ahead of the Duke of York.

In all aspects, the strength of the Harland family has ranked third in the Grant Kingdom.

After obtaining the Earldom of Martins, Richard must of course defend the defense line of the Kelaniya Valley. Taking advantage of the orcs' defeat across the board, Richard led his troops to recapture Martins Castle and control the orc military station north of Martins Castle.

In order to commemorate the name of Earl Donny Martins, Richard did not change the place name in this earldom. After the orcs' scourge, this territory had only 7,000 or 8,000 people who fled. Fortunately, the farmland and houses were not severely damaged. Richard planned to place the 230,000 contract slaves rescued from the Orc Empire this year in this territory for development and reproduction.

The former Martins Earldom was named Martins County by Richard to commemorate the contribution of this predecessor to the development of the northern border.

The 13th and 14th military stations in the north of Martins County were handed over to Roman by Richard.

Now Roman only has the 25th and 26th infantry battalions, and the manpower is very short. For the time being, he can only gather some vassal nobles to help Roman guard the defense line.

In this year's war, nine hundred regular soldiers of the Harland Territory were killed, and the total number of light and serious injuries was about 2,300. There were also some casualties in the city defense army and auxiliary soldiers, which added up to less than 2,000. The total casualties of the Harland Territory army have exceeded 5,000, but the permanent loss is not large, and only more than 2,000 people have retired from active service.

After two months of recuperation in April and May, the lightly wounded had already returned to the team, leaving only five or six hundred seriously wounded soldiers who were difficult to recover.

The permanent reduction in the regular army was about 1,200 people. Considering the number of 50,000 regular troops in Harland Territory, the casualties were not tragic.

Although fighting this year, the new recruits in Harland Territory are still being trained.

According to the plan of the territory staff, a total of 6,000 new recruits will be trained this year. Because the territory has been expanded by nearly double, and the depth in the north has increased by 100 kilometers, it will need to expand by 8,000 next year and 10,000 the year after.

If the orcs still invade in three years, the regular army of Harland Territory will increase to 73,000, enough to be reorganized into three and a half legions.