Chapter 378 Scapegoat
In the battle of East Castle, the Harland Territory lost only 500 people, but it ate a large piece of fat meat.
After capturing East Castle, Richard ordered the counting of the population and the collection of supplies, while ordering the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade to collect people in the Duke of East.
After more than ten days of continuous fighting, the Warcraft Cavalry divided its troops to capture thousands of villages and three castles. According to the rough statistics of the staff officers, there are now 360,000 people concentrated near East Castle.
These 360,000 people are all captured prisoners of war. Except for 30,000 auxiliary soldiers and their families who are free people, the rest, whether nobles or civilians, will be classified as contract slaves as long as they cannot pay the ransom.
After swallowing such a huge piece of fat meat, Richard certainly wanted to keep the fruits of victory and tried to withdraw from the Kingdom of Delong.
Counting the 50,000 contract slaves purchased some time ago, this southward march to the Harland Territory was a great success, and the total population of the territory will increase by more than 400,000.
To feed 400,000 people, the annual food required is about 100,000 tons. Fortunately, Harland's army got the Duke of East's granary intact, plus the surplus grain collected from East Castle, totaling about 130,000 tons.
However, it is not an easy task to send 130,000 tons of grain and 400,000 people to the northern border, which requires a high degree of organization.
After conquering East Castle, Richard immediately began to register the people.
The contract slaves near East Castle were organized into a squadron of auxiliary soldiers for care in units of 1,000 households.
A thousand households had a population of about 5,000 to 6,000 people.
The 360,000 contract slaves were divided into 70 thousand households in total, and Richard dispersed 8,000 auxiliary soldiers among the 70 thousand households.
Among the 8,000 auxiliary soldiers, there were six squadrons of veteran soldiers led by Harland as the backbone, and Richard promised to distribute land to the auxiliary soldiers and make them free people. As long as they did not fight hard battles, the morale of the auxiliary soldiers could be barely maintained.
The reorganized auxiliary soldiers were divided into six squadrons, and with 800 casualties in two battles, only about 4,300 of the 6,000 elite soldiers in Harland's territory were left.
The combat force was reduced by a quarter, and a huge amount of spoils were eaten. From Richard to ordinary soldiers, everyone wanted to go home quickly.
With such morale, Harland's army no longer wanted to continue fighting in the Kingdom of Delong.
On the first day of April, Harland's army began to withdraw from the Castle of East.
With a population of 360,000, the speed of retreat was naturally not fast. The retreat of 70 thousand households stretched for more than 100 miles. Despite a lot of preparations, the road was still chaotic, and many contract slaves were trying to escape.
After only one day, more than a thousand fugitives were killed along the way. These fugitives were basically nobles in the Dukedom of East.
In order to protect the spoils, Harland's more than 4,000 elites were also restricted. If they encountered the enemy, they could hardly fight.
Fortunately, Harland had two-legged dragon cavalry, which could monitor the enemy's actions from a distance, allowing Richard to prepare in advance.
Otherwise, if the enemy cavalry rushed, hundreds of thousands of people would be in chaos, and the scene of Liu Huangshu's escape from Xinye might be repeated.
Driffin flew in the air on a flying dragon and saw the chaotic team of contract slaves.
In his sight, more than a dozen auxiliary soldiers brought up several escaped nobles, cut off their heads without hesitation, and then insulted their wives and daughters in front of everyone.
Seeing this scene, Driffin's face suddenly showed some pity.
Driffin was born into a noble family of the Kingdom of Delon. Logically, he hated the invaders of the Kingdom of Grant. But he became a contract slave. It was Richard who saved his life, gave him a second chance, and took his relatives back to Harland. As a noble who lost his fiefdom, he now has to fight for the second rise of his family.
Driffin turned his head, and after a little struggle in his heart, he still sympathized with the landless nobles in the Duke of East.
After all, many people could not accept the fall from nobles to slaves. It was a normal choice for the nobles to escape. If they were caught, they could be beheaded. Why insult their families?
Harland had a strict military system. The appearance of this scene actually meant that they had lost control of the situation.
Seeing this, Driffin immediately landed, stopped the atrocities, and saved seven or eight women and children.
Harland Territory has implemented the military rank system for more than ten years. Generally speaking, the rank of the captain is between major and colonel.
The captain of the main battalion of Harland Territory is generally colonel, the captain with a lower number is generally lieutenant colonel, the captain of the city defense army is usually major, and occasionally there is an auxiliary captain with the rank of captain.
Driffin's position as the captain of the wyvern cavalry is exactly the first-level position of the captain. In fact, as long as you are selected as a wyvern knight, you will be awarded the rank of major. Driffin's subordinates are all mid-level professionals. Although the number of wyvern cavalry is small, its importance is even slightly higher than that of the Warcraft Cavalry Battalion.
Although it has not been long since he joined Harland Territory, Driffin's rank has been promoted from lieutenant colonel to colonel. Now he has not only regained his freedom, but has also accumulated two great merits and made a very good start.
Driffin carried the rank of colonel on his shoulders, far higher than the captain of the auxiliary troops. He ordered to stop the violence, and then in front of the captain of the auxiliary troops, severely punished several officers who violated the discipline and beheaded several auxiliary soldiers who insulted women. After settling the women and children, Driffin once again rode on the wyvern to carry out his reconnaissance mission.
At night, when visibility was no longer sufficient, Driffin returned to the team. He entered Richard's military tent directly and said: "Today I flew about 160 kilometers south and only saw some scattered reconnaissance teams from the Delong Kingdom. The enemies in the south do not pose much threat to us."
Not long after, the bipedal flying dragon cavalry who were conducting reconnaissance from different directions came back one after another. Through their reports, Richard knew that the number of enemies in the south was small, and the Duke of Orlando in the west was threatened by Duke Duran's troops, so no chasing team was sent.
Now the only thing that can threaten the safety of Harland's army is the mobile corps led by Duke Anton, which is located in the northeast. Duke Anton's position may cut off Richard's retreat.
Richard thought for a long time and arranged the tasks for tomorrow.
"Tomorrow's key investigation direction will be in the northeast. The Warcraft Cavalry Brigade must also be gathered together to break away from the serf team."
Seeing that Richard was still staring at the map, Drifen hesitated on his face, and finally gave his opinion: "Our marching speed is too slow, we only walked about ten kilometers today.
At such a marching speed, it would take about a month to rush back to the Duchy of Guise. There are too many loopholes in marching with hundreds of thousands of people. Otherwise, if we give up part of the population or half of the population, we can improve the organization of the auxiliary troops and move faster on the road. "
Before Drifen finished speaking, Richard waved his hand and said: "We haven't reached this point yet. If these 300,000 people are successfully sent back to the Harland Territory, we will have the foundation to develop the northern part of the Eagle Mountains. .
Moreover, the mobile corps led by Anton not only has one of our enemies, but also the Duke of Guise and the Northern Army nearby. Even if the Northern Army was restrained by the Second Front of the Kingdom of Dron and unable to send main reinforcements, the Duke of Guise still had about 20,000 people under his command. "
"But both we and the Duke of Guise have already grabbed a lot of loot. After the plunder, the soldiers may not be willing to bear the arduous battle. Besides, we and the Duke of Guise have no mutual trust, and both have the idea of making the other party a scapegoat. Both of us have no mutual trust. If the army cannot cooperate sincerely, I am afraid that it will not be Anton’s opponent.”
Anton himself is a legendary second-level knight. There are about 3,000 Warcraft cavalry under his command, and the remaining infantry cavalry are also elites drawn from the Kingdom of Delon. Whether it is the detachment headed south by Haaland or the Duke of Guise's regiment, there is no match for the Anton Mobile Corps in the field.
Although he has the legendary fourth-level magic item, the Star Necklace, in his hand, Harland leads a small army with only more than 4,000 combat-effective troops. Even if Richard released three star bombs and crippled Anton's three thousand Warcraft Cavalry, he still wouldn't be able to defeat the remaining opponents who were ten times more powerful.
The current situation is already a multiple-choice question. If Anton targets the Duke of Guise, Richard can take the opportunity to escape with the loot.
If Anton targets Richard, the Duke of Guise will probably flee first and not send troops to assist him.
The march on the second day was still very chaotic and as slow as a snail. The whole day was busy until night, and we only walked about ten kilometers. However, on the second day, the number of escaped slaves was much smaller, perhaps because the road was littered with headless corpses.
This slow march lasted for about five or six days.
Several thousand households in the rear finally left East Castle. The long march stretched for more than a hundred miles. Richard ordered the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade to act as the vanguard. The First Brigade was in the rear, and the Guard Brigade and the 28th Brigade were walking in the middle.
The three armies were tens of miles apart, and it was already difficult to concentrate and fight a large-scale battle at this time.
After leaving East Castle, the team finally picked up the pace. A week later, this huge marching team could already walk about thirty miles a day.
The slaves pushed wheelbarrows, carrying young and old, and slowly entered the buffer zone between the two countries. At this moment, through the investigation of the bipedal flying dragon cavalry, Richard already knew that a fierce battle broke out between the Duke of Guise and the Anton Corps.
After all, Anton is not a fool, and of course he will fight opponents who pose a greater threat.
The Duke of Guise is not only a traitor to the Kingdom of Delon, but also has territory in the south. Of course, he is a priority opponent to attack.
The Dukedom of Harland is in the north, and only occasionally goes south to thresh the valley. If it were Richard, he would also give priority to attacking the Duke of Guise.
In just a few days, Anton and his mobile corps had surrounded the Duke of Guise's troops.
This time when they went south to the Grass Valley, the Grant Kingdom's northern and Grizzly Bear regiments were restrained by the Delon Kingdom's First and Second Front Armies and did not achieve much results.
Earl Steven and the coalition of southern nobles were also blocked by the Ninth Legion on the East Coast and the army led by Duke Hubble.
Although Zachary's Iron Lion Army had snatched tens of thousands of serfs, and there were also the East Coast Thirteenth Army and the Sixth Army nearby, they could only barely maintain their victory.
Because Anton mobilized heavy troops from the western defense line and formed a mobile corps, the three Dukes of Harland, Guise, and Duran all led their armies into the belly of the Kingdom of Delon.
Among them, Richard achieved the greatest results, defeating the main force of Duke of East, annihilating 50,000 enemies and capturing a population of 360,000.
The Duke of Duran also invaded the two duchies of East and Orlando, capturing a population of about 100,000.
The Duke of Guise used his troops the most aggressively. He once invaded the vicinity of Saint Sith Castle and captured a population of 250,000. It's just that Taila's hatred was targeted by Duke Anton and surrounded by the buffer zone.
After being surrounded by Anton, the Duke of Guise sent a messenger first, requesting the nearby Northern Army and Harland's army to send troops for assistance.
After receiving the letter for help, the commander of the Northern Legion, Rab, reluctantly dispatched three battalions to support the Duke of Guise, but was blocked by the reinforcements sent by Anton.
When the letter for help was delivered to Richard, Richard had led his troops into the buffer zone for three days and walked about fifty kilometers.
At this moment, if troops were sent to rescue, it would be useless with fewer people. If Richard led the team himself, and Harland led the army to come out in full force, although it might be possible to save the Duke of Guise, hundreds of thousands of contract slaves would lose protection and have no ability to deal with risks.
Now Harland's army is already unable to take care of itself and barely controls the migration team of hundreds of thousands of people. Richard will certainly protect the interests of Harland's territory and will not send troops to help.
On the contrary, he took advantage of Anton's favorable opportunity to encircle and annihilate the Guise Legion, urged the auxiliary soldiers, and asked the contract slaves to speed up the march. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Duke of Guise being a scapegoat, he could reduce losses and escape with the spoils smoothly.
Taking advantage of the thirteen days that Anton had gained by encircling and annihilating the Giss Corps, Richard led hundreds of thousands of people to walk through 250 kilometers of land in one breath. When the news of the encirclement and annihilation of the Duke of Giss's troops came, Richard had already fled back to the interior of the Grant Kingdom.
It was already late April at this time. The war lasted for more than fifty days and finally ended.
In this battle, the Grant Kingdom army did not actually have a unified command. The various troops almost spontaneously went south to fight for grass and valleys. Although they lost the Giss Corps, they also invaded the hinterland of the Delong Kingdom. Several corps together grabbed about 500,000 slaves.
The hundreds of thousands of troops fought several good battles, which greatly hit the war potential of the Duke of East, and annihilated about 100,000 troops of the Delong Kingdom.
However, the Grant Kingdom lost the Giss Corps as a whole, and the total loss of each unit exceeded 40,000. According to the exchange ratio of wars in recent years, it is actually a big loss.
The population of the Kingdom of Delong is large, with a total population of more than 50 million. Most of the lost troops are third-rate teams such as provincial city defense troops. Even if 100,000 troops are lost, they can be replenished in a relatively short time.
Moreover, the Kingdom of Delong has been defeated many times in recent years, and there have been many battles with losses of more than 100,000. After many defeats, the threshold for bearing losses has been raised. In this battle, the main force of the Delong royal family was not damaged, but the Gis Corps was annihilated in an organized manner, improving the strategic situation on the border, and the cost is bearable.
The Duke of Gis was killed, and the main force of the Duke of Gis was lost by about half. The territory also has to face the struggle between the heirs. It is basically impossible to organize an army within ten years and go south to attack the grass valley.
The Duke of Gis lost a main army, and a large gap appeared in the southern defense line.
If this gap is not blocked, the cavalry of the Kingdom of Delong can break through this gap, enter the Kingdom of Grant to rob, and attack the grass valley in the opposite direction.
Now that the Duke of Gis is unable to block the gap, he can only continue to let the royal family work hard and dispatch a legion to block the gap southward.
The royal family got the biggest benefit from the expedition to the Kingdom of Delon. Of course, they could not stay out of it at this time. They had to continue to draw a guard corps from Nolan to the south to garrison in the border area of the Duke of Guise.
Now in the southern border area, the Grant royal family has stationed three guard corps and three border corps, and the total number of main forces has reached about 150,000.
The royal family has only one Mad Lion Corps left in the northern border area, with a total of 24,000. Without a large army stationed, the influence will naturally decline slowly, and will be surpassed by the Harland family.