Chapter 373 Friends and Enemies

Richard was in charge of the defense line in the northern part of the Eagle Mountains, and the daily affairs of the territory could only be entrusted to Sofia.

This year, Harland Territory expanded its land by 90,000 square kilometers, added a county and three counties, and once again recruited civil servants on a large scale, with a scale of 12,000 people by the end of the year.

Because Harland Territory has established many primary schools, civil servants will only be selected from those who can read.

Civil servants who graduate from primary schools can already read and write official documents, and have a general understanding of the geography of the territory. Although their quality is not as good as the elites cultivated by hereditary aristocratic families, they have become a very important class in Harland Territory by relying on their large number and the same origin.

However, this class is still relatively loose, and with the extraordinary power of the Dawn Plane, personal strength is extremely important. The bureaucratic class can only be placed behind the violent agencies such as the army, intelligence, and public security, and cannot take the lead. They can only become vassals of violent agencies.

Although the civil servant class has an increasingly important status in Harland Territory, compared with military professionals, Richard does not need to cede power to win them over for the time being.

After Richard went to the front, Sofia basically adopted a strategy of ruling by doing nothing. Relying on more than 10,000 bureaucrats to manage the territory, she successfully held a trade fair and built a 30-kilometer railway line. Her six months of administration were very successful.

After repelling the orcs, the Goddess' Birthday Festival soon arrived.

Richard has been in the north this winter. Seeing the Goddess' Birthday Festival, although he is homesick, it is impossible for him to abandon the soldiers and go home to celebrate the festival.

In this year's war, Harland's regular army lost more than a thousand soldiers. After repelling the orcs, Richard began to draw some soldiers from the city defense army and the security army to supplement the regular army.

The construction of the army is a systematic project, with complicated affairs and a myriad of things to manage.

In particular, building a strong army with high morale is often more difficult.

Richard had no military experience in his previous life, and the little knowledge he saw in books and movies could only be borrowed in small quantities. However, he clearly understood that an army without knowledge must be stupid.

Since Richard established the Harland Army, literacy work has been carried out. At the beginning, Richard, Hayden, and Wendy would personally give lectures to the soldiers, participate in literacy work, and teach the soldiers to read.

This work has been going on for eighteen years.

Nowadays, most soldiers in the Harland regular army can recognize a lot of words, and half of them can recognize thousands of commonly used words. The officers are basically literate.

Such soldiers who can recognize official documents, understand some simple mathematics, understand various rules, and have certain experience are slightly stronger. If they are placed in the Central Corps, they can serve as squadron-level officers.

The combat effectiveness of the Harland army is strong, and the officers and soldiers attach importance to knowledge. It is also an important reason.

Because the quality of the Harland regular army is very high, the backbones are drawn from the security army and the city defense army. Even if more than a thousand veterans are drawn, the impact on combat effectiveness is very large. The city defense army and the security army system have some complaints. In order to ensure the integrity of the main corps, Richard could only personally appease the officers of the second-line corps and require them to have a sense of the overall situation and obey the overall situation. Only then did he successfully draw a group of backbones from the security army and the city defense army to enrich the regular army.

Richard could not return to Fort William, so it would be difficult to hold the Christmas dinner of the Harland family this year. After all, the head of the family was not present, and the family members' gathering lacked a person in charge.

Moreover, last year Richard gave the family members a question, asking everyone to think carefully about who is a friend and who is an enemy?

Harland led the young people to think hard for a year, and they already had the answer in their hearts, ready to get the lord's affirmation at the Christmas dinner.

In the end, Sophia decisively decided to let the young members of the Harland family cross the Eagle Mountains, not only to temper their will on the road, but also to bring some supplies to the front line of the northern border to entertain the troops.

Of course, in order to protect the safety of these young people, Sophia and Wendy took a capable team and hid in the dark.

Now, the young generation of the Harland family has more than ten people. The oldest, George, is 24 years old and is already a second-level warrior. The youngest, Margaret, is 13 years old and has successfully been promoted to the official magician class.

Due to the existence of extraordinary power, women in the Dawn Plane can also become heirs of nobility.

After Margaret was promoted to a professional, she was already the heir to a duke and two earldoms. If she had a problem, it would be a heavy blow to the Harland Territory.

In addition, because Margaret was too talented, in order to avoid being outshined by others, the Harland Territory did not publicly promote magicians. After graduating from school, Margaret was restricted in her freedom and could only follow Sofia and be under the strict protection of the territory.

This time, going to the front line in the north of the Eagle Mountains to entertain the troops was the first time Margaret went out far away.

Every winter, the Eagle Mountains area always has a lot of snowfall, usually tens of centimeters thick. After the snowfall, there will be a few days of wind, and the snow in the valley is often two or three meters deep.

Crossing the Eagle Mountains mainly relies on mountain tunnels. Once snow falls, ordinary people cannot pass through.

However, most of the young people in the Harland family have learned breathing techniques, and their physical fitness is far superior to that of ordinary people. They can cross the mountains directly with tools such as rope ladders and flying claws instead of mountain tunnels.

Although Margaret is young and weak, her social status is far higher than others. Naturally, there are many uncles and cousins ​​who take care of her and show their courtesy along the way.

Besides, Margaret was wearing a magic cloak made by Richard himself, on which were painted three spells: Featherfall, Lightness, and Flying. There was also a sixth-level magic core in the pocket of the cloak for energy. Margaret only needed one-third of her magic power to use Lightness and Flying, which could save her life at critical moments.

In addition to the magic cloak, Margaret also had magic armor, a space bag, a magic wand, a magic dagger and many other magic props. There were also high-level magic scrolls in the space bag, which could be used to release the spells in the scrolls to escape when in danger.

For example, the most classic escape spells, Teleportation and Dimension Gate, were all stored in Margaret's space bag.

Although the Harland Mage Association had alchemists, pharmacists, and even trained array masters, it did not have a magic scroll maker. In order to buy a few escape scrolls, Richard paid a huge sum of 20,000 gold coins. The equipment on Margaret, big and small, was worth more than 100,000 gold coins in total.

Encountering this kind of white, rich and beautiful magician armed with gold coins, even a mid-level professional would feel a headache.

After nearly twenty years of development, including illegitimate children, the Harland family has more than fifty close members, and Richard's brothers and sisters and cousins ​​have more than thirty.

Father William, second uncle Powell, and third uncle Bernie are still working hard to expand the Harland family. By Margaret's generation, the number of brothers and sisters and cousins ​​also exceeded twenty.

It's just that some younger brothers and sisters and cousins ​​can hardly talk to Richard, the duke and patriarch, and have no feelings.

More than fifty family members are already a large family for ordinary people, but for the aristocracy, such a population size is far from enough.

Normally, a hereditary baron with a population of about 10,000 or 20,000 should have more than 100 close family members, more than 1,000 slaves serving the baron, 1,000 or 2,000 free people near the castle, some of whom are distant members with aristocratic blood, and more than 10,000 serfs outside the castle.

A hereditary baronial noble army often has more than ten noble officers, twenty slave officers who have served the baron for generations, plus a dozen professional officers, and three or four hundred cannon fodder serfs.

Such a population structure is considered stable for a hereditary noble territory.

However, it takes at least fifty or sixty years, two or three generations, to form such a stable population structure.

The rise of the Harland family was too short and the speed of development was too fast. It was impossible to effectively rule the territory by relying on blood and family members, let alone stop the orc army.

Therefore, Richard vigorously liberated serfs and supported freemen and professional classes. He could only hold his position firmly with the support of the freemen and military professionals who changed their lives and achieved class leap.

As the younger generation of Harland family members grew up, Richard had to let them know who was a friend and who was an enemy? As the ruling class of the territory, this must be seen clearly.

Walking on the steep ridge, George held Margaret's arm tightly with his left hand and held the trekking pole in his right hand, taking every step very carefully. He pricked up his ears and glanced behind him, always paying attention to the little ancestor behind him.

"If Margaret has a problem, even if my father protects me, I might lose my life under the anger of Richard and Sophia.

Take good care of this little ancestor, even if she says something casually, or reveals something from my fourth brother, it will play a very big role for me."

In recent years, George has been involved in the management of the southern territory.

Because of the support of the Duke of Harland, although it has been less than three years since he went to the new territory, this southern barony has been very prosperous.

In just three years, relying on a batch of arms and supplies provided by Richard, George has expanded the baron army of 600 people, and cooperated with the Duke of Harland in smuggling, which can also bring George more than 10,000 gold coins every year.

Although George does not have too deep feelings for Richard, his fourth brother, he is still very grateful and respectful in his heart.

Compared to George's complicated thoughts, Margaret was very happy after coming out of Fort William. Everything outside made her feel novel. Although she was very smart and matured more than her peers, she was still a thirteen-year-old child after all, and she still had a particularly strong curiosity.

In December, the climate in the northern border was already very cold, and the temperature in the mountains could even reach minus forty degrees Celsius at night.

Crossing mountains and camping in the open air in such weather was still a painful thing despite a lot of preparation.

The new generation of the Harland family had basically never suffered. They were pampered and had been clothed and fed since childhood, surrounded by servants. When they suddenly entered such a difficult environment, most people could not support it immediately and could not bear it in the evening of the first day.

Although they were not stupid and knew not to offend the Duchess, the biting cold wind blew on their nerves, making them unable to help but complain and say some resentful words. Some of the less sophisticated ones even deliberately ridiculed Margaret and even quietly cursed Margaret's mother.

Margaret herself has an extraordinary hearing talent, her ears are very sensitive, and she heard all these whispers. Originally, Margaret also blamed her mother in her heart, but after hearing the rumors from her companions, some people even cursed her mother, she suddenly understood her mother's decision.

Among the dozen or so young people of the Harland family, except for Margaret and George, only Simon, the eldest son of Ron, and Cohen, the fifth son of Powell, could endure the severe cold and withstood the test without complaining. Instead, they helped their brothers and relatives to light a bonfire and set up a tent.

Although George was also very hard-working, he had a tough character. He had ordinary conditions when he was a child. He had experienced the hardships of life and had been tempered in work. Unlike his younger brother and nephew, he was already quite cunning. He was very clear about the comparison between his social status and the power he had with Sophia. He knew that the mouth was the source of trouble and would not easily offend anyone.

Although Simon was William's eldest grandson, he was born as an illegitimate child and had no inheritance rights. Because the Harland family was not large, it needed to use some of its own family members. Although Simon was an illegitimate child, Richard and Sophia still treated him as their own family. When he came of age, they would invite him to every family Christmas dinner.

Because he had been looked down upon since he was a child, Simon had developed a cunning mind, and he respected Sophia very much, so he had no resentment.

Cohen's situation is different from George and Simon. He is the deputy captain of the third squadron of the Harland Reconnaissance Brigade. Although he is only 21 years old, he has experienced many wars.

For those who have experienced the hardships of war, climbing ice and lying in the snow are common, so it is impossible for them to blame their cousin.

After all, they are just marching in the mountains in winter in a safe area, while cousin Richard and his men have to fight with orcs in the ice and snow.

"After just a simple march, many uncles, aunts, cousins, and sisters began to resent my mother. They can have the glory today, isn't it because my father and mother fought against the orcs? As a result, they can't stand the slightest hardship, and they don't hide it from me. Some people even cursed my mother, and I'm afraid they just want my mother to die immediately.

When I become the lord, if I make a decision that slightly damages their interests, they will be even less likely to care about blood ties and I'm afraid they will want to fight me.

My father didn't tell me directly who my friends and enemies are? I'm afraid he wanted me to understand through this incident that even blood relatives of the Harland family may not be friends, but enemies.

As the heir to the lord, I'm afraid there are no friends, only enemies. Can a lord only become a lonely person?"