Chapter 389: Post-War Rewards

After winning this battle, the orcs finally accepted the reality, gave up a large area of ​​territory, and retreated to the north bank of the Samba River.

After this battle, the area on the south bank of the Samba River completely belonged to the Harland Territory. This part of the land area exceeded 60,000 square kilometers, and it was all fertile. If the south bank of the Samba River can be developed, the population carrying capacity and war potential of the Harland Territory will double.

Last year, the Eagle Mountain Range defense battle was won, and the Harland Territory expanded to the northern grassland area. In addition, the royal family rewarded the Earl of Martins to the Harland Territory, adding 90,000 square kilometers of land.

This year, the victory of the Samba River Battle increased the territory of the Harland Territory by more than 60,000 square kilometers, and the total area has reached 280,000 square kilometers.

In terms of area, it is equivalent to three dukedoms.

Such a vast territory area, according to the unspoken rules of the Dawn Plane, is enough to establish a grand duchy.

Although the strength has reached the level of a grand duchy, it is not an easy task for Richard to wear the Grand Duke's crown and become independent from the Grant Kingdom.

The Dawn Plane is frequently in turmoil, and the nobles respect strength. Judging from military strength, the Harland family is capable of establishing themselves as a Grand Duke. However, the Dawn Plane has strict political rules, and the nobles' ideas are relatively conservative and traditional.

If a great noble wants to wear the crown of Grand Duke or King and leave the original feudal lord, he must be recognized by the Holy Glorious Empire and canonized by the Seven Gods Church.

Richard has a close relationship with the Dawn Church, and it should be relatively easy to be canonized by the Dawn Church, but if he wants to be recognized by the Holy Glorious Empire, he must make contributions to the human race.

Only by making contributions to the survival of mankind can he leave the Grant Royal Family.

Otherwise, the Harland family will inevitably be restricted by the royal family and obey the royal family's orders to a certain extent. Economically and politically, part of the benefits will be ceded to the feudal lord.

If Richard rebels, even if he has the opportunity to overthrow the Grant Royal Family, he will not be recognized by the nobles of nearby countries and domestic nobles. Instead, he will be attacked by the nobles and become a laughing stock.

Including the great noble vassals, the Grant royal family has more than 600 hereditary nobles, and the number of noble coalition forces adds up to more than 300,000. Although this force is loose, it is not weaker than the royal family. The great nobles add up to nearly 300,000 troops.

Without the recognition of the nobles, even if the military strength of Harland County exceeds that of the royal family, it must obey the orders of the royal family to a certain extent.

The influence of the Samba River Battle was very large. This battle not only repelled the orcs, but also extended the territory to the north bank of the Samba River. It also hurt the orcs so much that the orcs dared not easily invade Harland County.

This battle also brought great shock to the Grant Kingdom. When King Roger received the battle report, he couldn't believe it at the first time.

Nolan sent six groups of envoys in a row to inquire in the territory of the Duke of Harland. In order to get the real situation, the royal family even used some spies planted in the Duke of Harland. Some of these spies even became captains of the regular army and entered the ruling class of the Harland territory.

Since Harland Territory showed great potential, the great nobles of the Grant Kingdom have intended to place some people in Harland Territory. Although the intelligence department has cracked many spy cases, there are still many spies hiding in the dark, and some have even infiltrated the core departments.

The intelligence department has no good way to deal with the deeply hidden rats, and can only keep an eye on the territory.

The royal family has placed a heavyweight spy in Harland Territory. This person happened to have participated in this war and received a lot of intelligence. After repeated comparison and analysis, the royal family finally determined that Harland Territory defeated the orcs.

Through this battle, it was clearly revealed that Harland Territory’s army is now the strongest army in the Grant Kingdom.

Although the royal family has nine legions of elite soldiers and has trained six second-line corps, plus the total strength of the city defense army and security army in various places exceeds 400,000, the scale is far greater than Harland Territory.

The Harland Territory only has 65,000 regular troops, 40,000 city defense troops, security troops, and 6,000 new recruits. The army is far smaller than the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Grant royal family. The number of people is roughly equivalent to one-third of the level of the royal family.

However, through this battle test, the combat effectiveness of the Harland Territory has surpassed the royal family by a few points.

After all, even if the royal family puts all their efforts, the nine central legions will go into battle together, plus the second-line legions, it will be difficult to stop the fierce attack of more than a dozen legions of orcs.

Although the nobles of the Grant Kingdom have never heard of the saying that power comes from the barrel of a gun, the meaning of this sentence is that because of years of war, they have a deeper understanding of power.

After receiving this information, King Roger knew that from now on, the relationship with the Harland Territory must be slightly adjusted.

Through this battle, the Harland Territory has proved that it does not need much support from the royal family, and can mainly rely on its own strength to withstand the orcs.

After the Battle of Samba River, the Grant Kingdom will gradually form two power centers, Nolan and Fort William.

In fact, as the Iron Lion, Grizzly, and Northern Armies were transferred to the south, the royal family's influence in the three provinces of the Northern Frontier was getting weaker and weaker. The nobles in the Northern Frontier were not fools, and they knew who was protecting them.

Especially the nobles near the Harland Territory, now basically obeyed Richard's military orders.

The orcs at the No. 10 military station were defeated, and the detachments in other directions naturally had to withdraw.

On the way of withdrawal, looking at the demoralized orc army, the commander of the grassland governor district, Melonla, said with a sad face: "Pulilan, the pearl of the grassland, will eventually fall into my hands."

Seeing that Melonla was in a very low mood, the legendary gnoll advised: "Perhaps, we should ask the royal court for reinforcements? As long as the royal court assigns us a few elite legions and adds a few legendary dukes, we will definitely be able to defeat Harland.

Melonla waved his hand, obviously disagreeing with what the gnoll said.

"The royal court's energy is mainly focused on the Holy Glorious Empire. In recent years, it has suffered many defeats and has been drawing soldiers from the six governors' districts. In the past 30 years, we have successively organized six legions to support the royal court. The royal court is under greater pressure than us and it is impossible to support us. After losing this battle, Prilan has become a waste and will soon fall into the control of Harland.

According to the intelligence we have, as long as the north bank of the Samba River is successfully developed, Lord Harland will definitely cross the river to the north and capture the city of Prilan. "

"Dear commander, how much time do you think Lord Harland can leave us? "

Melonla paused for a moment, thought for a moment and said: "According to the development speed and economic scale of Harland Territory, the south bank of Samba River should be able to be successfully developed in about ten years. By then, we will inevitably lose the Purilan area."

"With ten years of buffer time, we can withdraw the tribes in the Purilan area to the eastern grasslands."

Melonla shook his head and said: "In the long run, if we lose the Purilan area, the eastern grasslands will become a dead end and will eventually fall into the hands of Duke Harland. It is better to let the tribes in the Purilan area move westward, strengthen the power of the Silver Wolf Mountain Range, and compete with Stannic and Ryan Kingdom.

Although the Eastern Front suffered a defeat this year, the loss of troops was not serious. However, the soldiers have lost confidence in victory after failing to break through the defense line of Duke Harland for two consecutive years.

I decided to organize a large army next year and launch a fierce attack in the direction of the Eastern Front one year in advance. This time we will mainly pinch the soft persimmon and concentrate our forces to attack the two Dukes Edward and Fox. In the direction of Duke Harland Territory, we will stop the troops and rest. "

After hearing the decision made by Melonla, the legendary jackal was shocked. He was the commander of the Eastern Front and knew the situation of the Eastern Front. He knew that the Eastern Front's strength could no longer compete with the Grant Kingdom as a whole.

In the past two years, the Eastern Front of the Orc Grassland Governor's District organized a huge force and fought three wars with Harland, suffering heavy losses. Not only were the 17th and 13th Legions annihilated, but a large amount of food and fodder was consumed, almost wiping out the wealth accumulated by the orcs.

After a serious defeat, they should have rested and recovered in recent years. I don't know why Melonla still wants to start a war.

As a subordinate of a responsible person, the legendary jackal raised a question.

"We don't have much baggage to send out the army next year?"

"Without baggage, let the soldiers eat people, sheep-bodied people, and dog-headed people."

Hearing Melonla's determination, the legendary jackal was more cautious. "Isn't the risk too great? ”

The legendary jackal is one of Melonla’s important assistants. If he doesn’t do his job well and disobeys orders during the war, Melonla’s strategic goals will be difficult to implement.

If you want the legendary jackal to cooperate, you must do a good job of his thinking.

“Now we have suffered heavy losses and low morale. We must win a victory as soon as possible to restore confidence. Although Harland is very powerful, they have strong competition with human dukes such as Edward and Fox. They are not united internally and have deep contradictions.

In the past ten years, there has been almost no major cooperation between them. In the wars of the past two years, human dukes such as Edward and Fox did not send reinforcements to Harland, which shows their true relationship. In the war next year, we will focus on the two dukes of Edward and Fox. Lord Harland will most likely stand idly by and will not take the initiative to participate in the war.

I have great confidence in this.

Besides, launching an attack next year is beyond the enemy’s expectations. In these years, we have launched an attack every three years. The enemy must not be prepared if we disrupt the rhythm. I think we can achieve greater results. "

After several detailed discussions, Melonla convinced the legendary gnoll to prepare for a major attack next year.

Richard had no way of knowing about the orcs' plan.

After the Battle of Samba River, Richard immediately mobilized the forces of Harland Territory to start cleaning up the battlefield and treating the wounded.

Although the Battle of Samba River achieved considerable results, only the No. 10 military station alone wiped out 20,000 elite orcs. If the whole territory is enlarged, Harland Territory, the Mad Lion Legion, and the noble coalition forces have wiped out more than 38,000 orcs.

After the war, the Grant royal family also awarded Richard a new earldom and nominally handed over the southern part of Samba River to Richard.

Now Richard has There was a duke and three earls. Richard had very few children, and he did not want to divide the territory among different children and issue the Enfeoffment Order. So the noble council divided the territory into two, the southern territory of the Eagle Mountains for the Duke of Harland, and the northern territory of the Eagle Mountains for the Duke of Sofia.

After winning the Battle of Samba River, Richard's reputation was a few points higher than King Roger's. The king naturally agreed to his reasonable request.

Now as long as Richard does not rebel openly, the royal family will win over the Duke of Harland.

After the Battle of Samba River, Richard's status in the Kingdom of Grant has been significantly improved again, even surpassing the former Grand Duke Jonathan.

Although they were jealous of Richard swallowing such a big piece of fat, the Harland family had now expanded into a behemoth, and the royal family was also very cautious about touching the interests of the Harland family.

Because Richard resisted the orcs in the north, the royal family could draw elite troops to the south and expand to the Kingdom of Delon. Compared with the powerful and fierce Orc Empire, it was naturally easy to expand to the south.

King Roger naturally saw this very accurately.

Richard got a lot of land, and his officers also made meritorious deeds. This time there were two people who were granted territory.

One was Viscount Romon, and the Romon family had made great contributions in several battles. After the Romon family discussed, it was decided to grant the new territory to Corian, the third son of Viscount Romon.

Viscount Romon was a vassal of the Grant royal family. It stands to reason that he should ask the royal family to reward him with territory for his military merits.

However, in recent years, the nobles of the Geda Province have basically followed Richard to fight, and the royal family has not expanded its territory in the northern border, and may not be willing to give Corian a territory.

After the war, Viscount Roman found Richard and prepared to go to the Noble Council to make his son Corian a vassal of Richard.

Corian was 35 years old, very close to Richard. Although he was Viscount Roman's bastard, he was the most talented person in the Roman family. At the age of 35, he was already a sixth-level knight. Because of his many meritorious deeds, he had a high prestige in Viscount Roman's army.

Corian was not the first heir of the Roman family, and the situation became awkward. In this case, once Viscount Roman died, I am afraid that the Roman family would inevitably face a cruel bloody struggle.

If the territory could be granted in Harland and the cake could be expanded, the Roman family could smoothly resolve the contradictions and also develop its influence to Harland.

As the Northern Army moved south and lost the deterrence of strong soldiers, the nobles in the Geda Province were seriously divided, especially the nobles near the Eagle Mountains. Although they were nominally vassals of the Grant royal family, they had actually become vassals of the Harland family.

After the Battle of Samba River, Harland obtained a large amount of unowned land. Richard readily agreed to Viscount Romen's request.

Another barony was granted to the Soros family, and Soros planned to let Audrey inherit this barony.

After following Richard for nearly 20 years, Uncle Soros has been granted three baronies successively. If the territories are merged, the Soros family will be promoted to Viscount and upgraded to the middle-class aristocracy.

Under normal circumstances, the titles should be merged, but the Soros family is special. It is not only Soros who has made contributions. Kent, Morgan, and Audrey have all made considerable military exploits. In order to maintain the cohesion of the family, Soros must treat them equally.

The two baronies of Corian and Audrey are both in the northern area of ​​the Twin Star Castle. Richard plans to leave this area to his vassal.

The Barony of Audrey is located in the south of Viscount Bolton and the east of Barony Lost. The Barony of Corian is located in the east of Barony Martin and the east of Barony Audrey.

The two baronies of Corinne and Audrey are not very large, only more than 800 square kilometers, and the territory is basically primeval forest.

Including Audrey and Corinne. There are already nine baronies and one viscount in this area.

After years of development, Richard already has powerful noble vassals under his command. The number of noble coalition forces adds up to more than 6,000 people, but compared with the 100,000 noble coalition forces directly under the royal family, it is not comparable.