Chapter 376: Grass Valley

Hiding gold coins in the treasury is actually useless for economic development. Richard is going to use most of the 930,000 gold coins in stock to buy serfs.

Purchasing more than 100,000 serfs at a time is undoubtedly a huge business, and the quantity far exceeds the supply of the slave market in the Kingdom of Grant.

There are two major slave markets in the Kingdom of Grant, one in Nolan, where the scale of slaves can sell 30,000 people a year. The other is in Black River Castle, with a smaller market scale, which can sell about 10,000 people a year.

Because of the limitation of the size of the slave market, Duke Guise and Duke Duran will also sell slaves in St. Jonathan Castle, and can sell 20,000 people a year.

In fact, the nobles in the south of the Kingdom of Grant can capture more than 100,000 slaves a year, and more than half of them die on the road, and only 60,000 to 70,000 can be sold a year.

In the past ten years, about 200,000 slaves have been sent to Harland Territory, and the gold coins paid by Richard have exceeded one million funds.

Since William led his troops south, the Harland family has had a significant influence in the southern region. Relying on this influence, the territory opened up a commercial channel to the south, which can not only smuggle goods, but also people.

On this trade route, Harland Territory has established thirteen trade stations, which are located in different territories. Many goods are stockpiled in the trade stations, and Harland Territory has extended its tentacles to different territories.

Through these trade stations, a large amount of supplies can be purchased from nearby lords and merchants, and the cost of purchasing slaves will also be reduced a lot. If you go south with gold coins, taking into account the losses along the way, it will cost about three gold coins and eight silver coins to buy one person on average.

Because the capacity of the slave market is not enough, after the Goddess's Birthday Festival, Richard decided to lead his troops south in person to negotiate with the Duke of Guise, the Duke of Duran and other southern nobles to buy a batch of serfs with 500,000 gold coins.

In order to protect the safety of this huge sum of money, Richard dispatched a total of 6,000 regular troops from the First Battalion, the Guard Battalion, the 28th Battalion, and the Second Warcraft Cavalry Battalion to go south.

The army going south can not only protect Richard's safety, but also maintain order and escort serfs on the return journey. Migrating hundreds of thousands of serfs at one time cannot be done without elite soldiers to protect them.

500,000 gold coins, according to the current cost of purchasing slaves in Harland Territory, can purchase about 130,000 indentured slaves.

This year, the abundant food in Harland Territory is not enough. To feed the extra 130,000 indentured slaves, Richard needs to spend 100,000 gold coins to purchase 50,000 tons of food, and the total cost is close to 600,000 gold coins.

As for the remaining 330,000 gold coins, they are used to maintain the mobility of the territory.

Shortly after the Goddess’ Birthday Festival, the temperature in February has just warmed up, and the snow has begun to melt.

The elites of the First Battalion, the Guard Battalion, the Second Warcraft Cavalry Battalion crossed the Eagle Mountains, joined the 28th Battalion, and marched south.

Before the troops were transferred south, Richard had already galloped and sent an envoy to Nolan to explain the reason for the transfer of troops to the south.

In late February, Richard had led his troops into the Duke of Guise Territory.

In order to dispel the suspicion of the Duke of Guise, Richard ordered the soldiers to camp outside the city, and he entered the Duke of Guise’s castle with a small number of followers.

When heading south, Richard had already sent messengers to explain the reason to the important nobles in the south.

The Duke of Guise welcomed Richard into the castle, arranged accommodation for him, and immediately held a welcome dinner.

After having a good meal and a good drink, Duke of Guise said, "Last year, the war was not going well. We only captured 30,000 serfs in our territory, 10,000 of which have been sold. I only have 20,000 goods left. Looking at Brother Richard's appetite this time, I'm afraid that the goods I have are far from enough.

Since you are moving troops south this time, why don't you join me and go south to the Kingdom of Delong to attack the grass valley? As long as you take down a few castles, you will have everything you want."

After hearing this, Richard immediately shook his head and said, "This time we are moving troops south without the intention of participating in the war, and the preparation of supplies is still a little insufficient. I will talk to Duke Duran and several central legions first. If we can gather enough serfs, we will not need to participate in the war."

"If the number of serfs in the hands of the southern nobles is not enough, Brother Richard can't go back empty-handed, right?"

Richard smiled and replied, "If so, I have to ask Brother Guise, the host."

After the banquet, Richard paid the gold coins the next day and bought 20,000 serfs from Duke of Guise.

In the following period, Richard continuously sent envoys to buy serfs from the small nobles in the south.

The small nobles in the south were part-time slave traders, and the slave trade was an important source of income for the dukes of Guise and Duran.

Even several central legions, which had not been in the southern region for long, also started to trade slaves.

In order to earn this bloody gold coin, the great nobles such as Guise and Duran organized people to go to the Kingdom of Delong to forage every year.

The small nobles were not strong enough, and the number of serfs sold by each family was very small. Because of the slave production area, the price of serfs here was very low, about one-third cheaper than the Nolan market.

If you buy a complete family of four, you only need about thirteen or fourteen gold coins.

Twenty thousand serfs were purchased from the Duke of Guise, and only about three thousand people were purchased from the small nobles in the southern region. The caravan under Richard's command was active for more than ten days, and ran all over the southern region. Counting Duke Duran and the central legion, a total of only about 50,000 people were purchased.

The number of serfs purchased was far from enough, so Richard had to agree to the request of the Duke of Guise and go south to forage together.

During this period, Richard also took time to go to the front line to visit his father William. Perhaps because of the tense situation and the high pressure on the front line, Richard always felt that William's condition was a little wrong, which made him somewhat worried.

On March 16, Richard led Harland to lead the army and once again stepped into the land of the Kingdom of Delong.

After several years of tug-of-war, the border area of ​​the Kingdom of Delong has become deserted, and the country's population has lost about four million.

In more than two years of war, the Kingdom of Delong has lost many soldiers and generals. The Kingdom of Delong has strengthened the construction of the army, and its combat effectiveness is slightly better than two years ago.

Now, a wide buffer zone has been formed between the Kingdom of Delong and the Kingdom of Grant. From the Duke of Gis to the southwest, the width of the buffer zone has reached about 200 kilometers.

This buffer zone with an area of ​​tens of thousands of square kilometers has become a no-man's land. In this area, neither side can defend it.

The dawn slowly descended from the east, tearing open the darkness of the earth, and the hazy light reflected the frost on the ground.

March is already early spring, and it is still a bit cold in the northern border. In some areas, the snow has not melted yet. People who are frozen in the early morning have joint pain, and it is not very comfortable to get up and move.

But in the territory of the Kingdom of Delong, the climate is undoubtedly much better. Everything has revived, and green grass has grown on large tracts of land. The air in the morning is also somewhat fragrant.

At four or five o'clock in the morning, before dawn, the firemen have already started to make fires and cook. Senior officers such as Richard also got up early and began to patrol the camp.

As an officer, you can't be lazy. Diligence is the most important quality.

The reason why Harland's army can enforce discipline is that Richard personally practices and leads by example, setting an example for officers and soldiers, which is also a very important factor.

It takes normal infantry more than ten days to pass through the 200-kilometer buffer zone.

Harland's soldiers are well-trained and can walk 60 miles a day. In the field, there is no military station on the road to supply. If you can walk 60 miles, you are already an elite general.

In the entire Grant Kingdom, it is very rare to have an army that can walk 60 miles a day in an enemy-occupied area without supplies.

Even the Northern Frontier Legion, which has been fighting against the orcs for many years, only walks about 40 to 50 miles a day.

In fact, most of the time of Harland's army is spent on setting up camps. Building a camp is a very troublesome thing, which requires finding water sources, cutting wood, digging trenches, and setting up tents.

Walking dozens of miles a day and building a camp is not easy on the road.

It often takes six hours to build a camp, and it takes one hour to eat, one hour to pack luggage and tents, two hours to rest on the road, and seven hours to sleep. The time is very full, and the time that can be used for marching is only six or seven hours.

If there are camps and military stations along the way for supplies, Harland's regular army can march 120 miles a day. But in the enemy-occupied area, the marching distance is only about half.

With the development of the territory's economy, Harland's army is getting better and better.

Now a squadron has six to eight firemen, and the firemen team carries more than ten war horses and three carriages, generally carrying half a month's rations.

Ordinary squads also have carriages to carry soldiers' armor, weapons, tents, etc. The soldiers don't have enough endurance to march long distances with heavy armor. Only when passing through dangerous roads such as canyons and woods will the soldiers put on armor and form a tight formation.

Generally speaking, if a squadron of soldiers wants to move in enemy-occupied areas, they must carry at least fifty pack horses and more than a dozen carriages. If they are in the wild and mountainous areas with bad roads, they must increase the number of pack horses and have sufficient logistical supplies to move outside the military stations and strongholds.

Richard has the Starlight Bottle and Wendy has the Legendary Space Bag. Together, they can carry 500 tons of wheat.

500 tons of wheat may seem like a lot, but 6,000 strong men, 2,000 war horses, and 700 Warcraft war horses consume more than 30 tons of food every day, which can actually supply the army for about half a month.

Magnified to the entire 100,000 troops of Harland, even the legendary fourth-level magic prop, the Starlight Bottle, is a drop in the bucket and far from enough.

On the third day after Richard led his army into the Kingdom of Delong, they had walked halfway through the buffer zone and had just set up camp when Driffin landed in the camp on a wyvern.

This time, Richard did not withdraw the Lion Cavalry, but transferred the wyvern cavalry that had just finished hibernation to the south.

Although the number of wyverns in Harland is small, they have no natural enemies in the Kingdom of Delong and can dominate the sky. As long as they do not encounter legendary knights, they basically have no opponents.

"Is there any special situation?"

Seeing Driffin coming back from reconnaissance, Richard asked immediately.

"There is indeed an enemy. A cavalry of 3,000 people has appeared near us. This cavalry is about 40 kilometers away from us in a straight line, and should have met our scouts soon."

There are two types of scouts in the Harland territory, the sky and the ground. The cavalry reconnaissance brigade on the ground generally has an activity range within 30 kilometers of the main force. The magic hot air balloon in the sky depends on the wind direction and mainly plays an observation role. The reconnaissance range of the Lion Cavalry and the Wyvern Cavalry is very large, usually more than 100 kilometers. Sometimes the reconnaissance distance is very far, and they may even operate 300 kilometers away from the main force.

After hearing the enemy situation reported by Driffin, Richard immediately issued an order: "Let our scouts withdraw and only operate within 10 kilometers of the camp."

"Do you want to use this camp as a trap to attract this cavalry to attack?"

"Do you think they will be fooled?"

"If the enemy has a smart commander, they will not use cavalry to attack the infantry camp. As long as they appear near us and want to cut off our food supply, it will be a headache for us."

Richard pointed to the map and said to Driffin: "Since this cavalry appears near us, we must eat it. If the enemy does not fall for it, send out the Warcraft cavalry and take the initiative to attack and kill the enemy."

The speed of the Warcraft cavalry is very fast, and both endurance and combat effectiveness are far superior to ordinary cavalry. If you are targeted by the Warcraft cavalry, it is basically impossible to win without a numerical advantage of more than six or seven times.

The enemy has only 3,000 cavalry, which is not a match for the Warcraft cavalry brigade.

After discovering the enemy's traces, Richard showed weakness to the enemy, hid the Warcraft cavalry brigade, and deliberately let the reconnaissance cavalry be defeated, and indeed successfully attracted the enemy to the vicinity of the camp.

The cavalry commander of the Delong Kingdom was more cautious and did not rashly attack the solid camp. But at this time, the enemy had already approached, saving time to pursue the enemy. At this moment, caution was useless.

Richard led three infantry battalions to attack head-on, and the Warcraft Cavalry Battalion attacked the flanks, easily defeating the 3,000 cavalry of the Kingdom of Delong.

In this battle, Harland's soldiers lost less than 100 soldiers, and only 300 casualties defeated the enemy, killing more than 700 cavalry, capturing more than 2,000 war horses, and 1,400 soldiers. The scattered enemy army was about 900 people.

This cavalry of the Kingdom of Delong has been trained for a year and a half. Although its tactical skills are still very ordinary, it is also a regular army. Richard certainly cannot release such a combat-capable regular army on the spot. After release, it can only enhance the combat effectiveness of the Kingdom of Delong.

However, to send it back to Harland, it is necessary to draw troops from the main force to escort it. Now that the enemy situation is unclear, Richard is naturally unwilling to divide his troops.

Of course, there is also a simple and crude way, which is to kill prisoners, but first of all, it is a pity to kill prisoners. These prisoners are all young and strong, with certain military skills. They are worth more than 30,000 gold coins in the slave market. Secondly, killing prisoners will enhance the enemy's will to resist. Richard will not take this step unless it is absolutely necessary.