Chapter 402: Cessing Land and Seeking Help
Harris went to the Duke of York, and Simone went to the Duke of Harland to ask Richard to send reinforcements.
Harland and Edward, two noble families, live in the same country, and sometimes they need to cooperate in the noble council. Although the relationship between the two families is average, the face relationship must be maintained roughly.
So it is difficult for Richard to directly refuse Simone's request to marry the Harland family and give him a dowry of fiefdom.
The situation is very clear now. Maple Leaf Castle is under siege and will inevitably fall in the short term. Harris's status is already very prominent, and there is a high probability that he will be the next Duke Edward. The marriage between the two families is completely a match, but unfortunately the Harland family does not have a suitable candidate for marriage now. Philip and the royal princess Vivian are about to get engaged. Richard can't let Harris's daughter be Philip's court lady. This is a complete humiliation to the Edward family.
It is even more impossible to find King Roger to break off the engagement and offend the Grant royal family.
Richard has not given birth to a second boy yet, so he has to use Margaret for marriage. However, Margaret is extremely talented, has already drunk the water of life, and has been promoted to a second-level professional at a young age. Richard can no longer interfere with her marriage, and it is basically impossible for him to let her marry.
If other members of the Harland family are allowed to marry Harris, on the one hand, their status is not equal, and on the other hand, it is equivalent to giving up a large territory, and Richard is also unlikely to agree.
Without a suitable candidate for marriage, asking the Edward family to cede the territory is equivalent to a direct slap in the face.
As the saying goes, people live by their face, and trees live by their skin. The nobles attach great importance to face. As long as the situation does not collapse and Edward's territory can still support it, Simone does not want to let the Harland family slap their faces and not be able to raise their heads.
With the Duke of York leading two legions into the Duke of Edward's territory, the situation has also improved greatly and gradually stabilized. Simone is ready to wait and see the situation and make the next decision.
Simone came to Harland for help, and messengers also went to the three provinces in the northern border. Because of the lip-to-tooth factor, the Gascoigne Province formed a noble coalition. Although the nobles of this province suffered heavy losses due to their involvement in the Venus family rebellion. However, the nobles of Gascoigne Province have a deep foundation and can still organize a coalition of 12,000 nobles to help the Edward family stabilize the situation.
In just half a month, 60,000 reinforcements entered the Duke of Edward and helped the remnants of the Duke of Edward to maintain the front line.
In this way, the two sides were deadlocked. In April, the war had spread to the entire Duke of Edward, and a large number of refugees entered Harland in groups.
In just half a month, Harland had added more than 30,000 war refugees. Richard knew that as the war continued, the number of refugees would increase significantly, even more than tenfold.
In mid-April, the legendary gnoll saw that the situation was deadlocked, and immediately mobilized two legions from the rear to join the front line. With the two legions of orcs joining the battlefield, the Duke of York's reinforcements could not hold on.
In just a few days, the Grant Kingdom suffered heavy losses, and the defense line was breached by the orcs, with more than 30,000 casualties.
The Duke Edward's garrison retreated again and again, and the orcs' vanguard even broke through the Duke Edward's territory and entered the Duke of York's territory, which shows the danger of the situation.
The war situation suddenly changed, and Simone immediately received Harris's expedited letter.
Before Simone met Richard, bad news came. After half a month of fierce attacks, Maple Leaf Castle also fell two days ago, and the successor Duke Edward Plott died in the battle.
Plott is a powerful ninth-level epic knight and the first heir of the old duke. He had just inherited the title for more than ten days when he died at the hands of the orcs. Only two or three of Plott's children were not in Maple Leaf Castle and escaped.
Although according to the aristocratic inheritance law, Plot's children have the first right of inheritance, but in reality, only Harris can take on the heavy responsibility and succeed Duke Edward.
If Plot's children are unwilling to give up their inheritance rights, they will most likely not be able to save their lives in the cruel struggle of the nobles. The fights between nobles are often very cruel and bloody, and there will be bloodshed and death between close relatives. In the face of powerful power, it is difficult for fathers and sons, and brothers to have real feelings.
In recent years, Plot and Harmon have split into two factions, fighting for the right of inheritance, making Edward's territory a mess. Unexpectedly, in this orc invasion, the high-level leaders of the two factions suffered heavy losses, and the leaders Harmon and Plot all lost their lives. Instead, Harris inherited the title. The result can be said to be quite magical and surprising.
The orcs intensified their offensive, and more refugees from Duke Edward's territory poured into Harland. By the end of April, the number of refugees had exceeded 50,000.
Except for a small number of nobles, all of these 50,000 people were incorporated into the contract slave team by Richard. After entering the Harland territory, they were asked to sign the contract and press their fingerprints.
This group of people settled nearby on the west bank of the Rania River and the border of the southwest region of the Harland Dukedom. This part of the population settled in the border and developed for one or two years. With food and supplies, they can provide logistics for the expedition of the ogre army.
In order to protect this group of people who were reclaiming land, Richard also sent 5,000 soldiers to the southwest of the Rania River.
This spring, because the pressure on the Beishan defense line was reduced, Richard had already drawn a large number of troops from the Beishan defense line and mobilized 11,000 soldiers to the western region to strengthen the presence of the western region of the Harland Territory and consume the ogre soldiers.
In the early spring of this year, the railway department also accelerated its operation and went west with all its strength to prepare to build a 160-kilometer railway from Malte Castle to Songtao Castle.
If this railway is completed, it will be easy for Harland to transfer supplies from the core area to the Count of Martins. When the time comes to attack the ogre tribe, Songtao Castle can be transformed into a forward base to provide sufficient resources for the army.
Although Simone has agreed to cede land and request reinforcements, Richard still decided to leave him alone.
Since it has been decided to weaken the Duke of Edward, of course the attack must be fierce. Anyway, the two sides will have a grudge and it will be difficult to resolve the conflict. At this time, of course, we must strive for the greatest benefits. At this time, Richard is not afraid of offending people.
Richard directly asked for the cession of 30,000 square meters of public land before sending out three legions to help defeat the orcs.
As the situation became more and more critical, Simone was forced to agree to Richard's request after communicating with Harris.
At this moment, it was already late April, and Harland's army slowly assembled and appeared on the border of the Duke of Edward.
When Harland's army appeared, the orc army had already plundered.
After more than a month of fighting, the orc army robbed more than 600,000 people in the territories of the two dukes of Edward and Fox, countless food and fodder, and even more than one million gold coins of the Kingdom of Grant.
The financial damage and burning by the orcs are even more incalculable. If all the losses were counted, it would probably make Harris vomit three liters of blood.
Although the gold coins of the Kingdom of Grant are not circulated in the Orc Empire, the Orc Empire has planted many spies in the Kingdom of Grant. This batch of gold coins can provide resources for the spy network. In addition, the orcs have frequent transactions with the southwestern magic countries, and many multinational chambers of commerce are involved. The gold coins of the Kingdom of Grant can also exchange resources with multinational chambers of commerce, and the gold coins of the human kingdom are also very useful to the Orc Empire.
The orcs were full of oil, so they naturally did not want to fight hard with the powerful army led by Harland.
Seeing Richard leading his troops, the orc army instantly planned to retreat. However, the orcs' opponents were the strong soldiers led by Harland, so retreating was not easy.
On the sixth day of May, Richard led 50,000 Harlander soldiers and appeared near the Palani Castle, directly threatening the logistics line of the orc army.
This year, Harlander's Lion Cavalry was expanded again, the number increased to 60 people, and the number of Wyvern Knights also increased slightly.
The strength of Harlander's flying troops increased, and the orcs had not yet made up for the vacancies because of the defeat last year. With the appearance of Lion Cavalry and Wyvern on the battlefield, they directly suppressed the harpy.
Last year's lesson has made the orcs dare not fight a large-scale decisive battle with Harlander.
After discovering that the situation was not good, the two orc legions that were left behind immediately chose to abandon the prisoners and break out in a scattered manner.
When Richard found that the orcs broke out in a divided force, he did not work hard to catch up.
It was very troublesome to clear out the scattered orcs, and Harlander needed to split up the army and disperse the troops to chase and intercept.
Small-scale battles could not give full play to the advantages of starlight bombs, and countless battles combined would also cause large-scale casualties to Harlander's army.
Anyway, the orcs invaded this time, and the two dukes Edward and Fox suffered losses. Richard would have fulfilled his promise to send troops if he could drive away the orcs. This time he sent troops to take advantage of the situation. It was impossible to fight a hard battle and fight for consumption.
In order to break through smoothly and buy time, the orcs did not slaughter the captives, but left the burden of more than 100,000 people to Richard to delay Richard's army.
More than 100,000 people are very valuable resources. In order to settle these people, Richard did not send soldiers to chase them. After several battles, he only annihilated 3,000 orcs.
By the end of May, the orc army in the territory of Duke Edward successfully returned to the northern prairie.
This orc invasion directly changed the situation in the northern border area and achieved a brilliant victory.
This war also directly hit the Duke Edward's territory.
In order to seek reinforcements, the Edward family paid a huge price, ceding 30,000 square kilometers of land to Harland and 16,000 to the Duke of York.
After the cession of territory, the Duke Edward's territory was reduced by half, and most of the remaining 60,000 square kilometers of territory were on the mountain front, and its strength had been weakened by more than 50%.
Even more serious was the loss of population. After the war, the Edward family gathered refugees and found that the population in the territory was less than 500,000.
In recent years, the expansion of the Grant Kingdom has been very smooth, and the Duke families such as Edward and Fox have all taken advantage of it and their strength has increased.
Before the war, the Duke Edward's territory had a population of 1.4 million, and the Duke Fox's territory had a larger population of 1.8 million.
After a war, the Duke Edward's territory lost nearly a million people, which is equivalent to losing 5 million gold coins if converted into gold coins.
Even the wealthy Harland family would stagnate for many years and never recover after suffering such a heavy blow. The Duke Edward's territory is far less powerful than the Duke Harland's territory. After suffering this heavy blow, its actual strength is the same as that of the Southern Earldom.
Of the more than one million people who were lost, more than 300,000 were kidnapped by orcs, and about 200,000 were annexed by Harland. The population that fled to Gascoigne Province totaled 70,000 to 80,000. Of the remaining lost population, some died of hunger and war, and some became refugees and fled to the mountains.
A large part of these people who fled to the mountains were hunted by ogres, and the number of people who could really survive in the Eagle Mountains was pitifully small, almost not many.
The army also suffered heavy losses. Before the war, Duke Edward had two regular armies and 20,000 auxiliary soldiers. After the war, only 13,000 regular soldiers were left, and less than 8,000 auxiliary soldiers.
After the reorganization of the two armies, they barely formed a legion with weak combat effectiveness.
This army suffered a heavy blow, and it was very difficult to restore its combat effectiveness.
Not to mention the loss of materials, hundreds of years of accumulation were destroyed in an instant.
The Duke Edward was almost destroyed by the orcs, and the Duke Fox did not escape the disaster.
Although the Duke Fox lost less land, after this war, the population also lost more than 200,000, and the army lost 20,000.
Although the Duke Fox's losses can be barely borne, the most troublesome thing is that the situation has changed.
From this orc invasion, it can be found that the focus of the orcs' attack has shifted from the Harland family to the two dukes Edward and Fox.
Although the two dukes Edward and Fox are not weak, they have a total of 100,000 soldiers. This huge force, even the Grant royal family has to compromise with them. But this force was far from enough when it came to the powerful orcs.
After this war, the situation in the northern border gradually became clear. Whether it was Edward or Fox, it would become the situation of the Martins family. In the brutal wars, the power was drained by the orcs.
Unless the two dukes could get the full rescue of the royal family and the Harland family.
The two dukes, Edward and Fox, had a general relationship with the Harland family. The four dukes were all developing in the northern border, and the competition was very fierce. In addition, the two dukes, Edward and Fox, had a very ordinary vision and did not recognize talents. They made friends with Richard before they became rich, which led to the current embarrassing situation.
Compared with the two dukes, Edward and Fox, the Harland family had a closer relationship with the Grant royal family and the Jonathan family, especially with the royal family. Marriage between the main members was very common.
It may be because the Harland family has been prosperous for a short time. The two dukes, Edward and Fox, were jealous of the development speed of the Harland family, and looked down on the Harland family's origin, thinking that they were rude and barbaric.
It is difficult to get sincere support from the Harland family. It is also very difficult to get help from the royal family.
In the past ten years, since the Roger Kingdom came to power, the Grant royal family has been committed to developing in the south. First, they quelled the rebellion of the three earls in the south and seized the three provinces in the south. Then, through fighting with the Delong Kingdom and the East Coast United Kingdom, they seized three more provinces and also divided out an earl of Steven.
In the past ten years, the territory expanded by the royal family is less than that of the Harland territory, but it is richer and more valuable.
Because a large number of territories have been expanded in the south, the royal family directly transferred the central corps in the north.
Now the royal family has only one mad lion corps left in the three provinces of the northern border, which is completely unable to help Edward and Fox maintain the situation.
The Harland family cannot be counted on, and the royal family cannot support it either. Although the Duke of York wants to help Edward and Fox maintain the situation, its strength is average. Investing three corps cannot help Edward and Fox maintain the front line.
The situation has developed to the present, and there are smart people in the two families of Edward and Fox, and they are all thinking about future development.
If they don't find a solution, the two dukes will also face the situation of Count Martins, and bleed to death in the brutal wars with the orcs.
After the war, Richard submitted an application to the Noble Council, requesting a new demarcation with the Duke Edward.
Although the two sides signed an agreement before the war, the Harland family still suffered a lot of criticism in the Noble Council. Many small and medium nobles spoke generously at the meeting, believing that the Harland family did not take the overall situation into consideration and asked Richard to abandon the signed contract.
In the Noble Council, the Harland family also has a great influence. There are more than a dozen nobles under Richard's name, with considerable voting rights. The nobles of the Geda Province also leaned towards the Harland family. In addition, Richard already had two dukedoms under his name, and William was still developing in the south. The influence of the Harland family was stronger than that of Edward and Fox combined.
The quarrels of the Noble Council would not affect the development of the Harland territory at all. By mid-June, Richard had completed the demarcation of the boundaries with a quick knife.