Chapter 403 Palani County

After the demarcation, 30,000 square kilometers of land north of the Vera Mountains and west of the Gascoigne Province were incorporated into the Harland Territory. Including this part of the territory, the area of ​​the Harland Territory has exceeded 300,000 square kilometers, roughly equivalent to half of the Grand Duchy of Stannic.

However, there are no great nobles in the Harland Territory, and the territories of the vassals add up to less than 30,000 square kilometers. The territory actually controlled by Richard is even more than that of the Jonathan family. The population controlled by the Harland Territory is a few points larger than that of the Stannic Royal Family. However, the Jonathan family and the Dukedom of the Grant Kingdom control a population of about 4.3 million, far exceeding the Harland Territory.

After the new territory was demarcated, Richard established the Palani County, which covers an area of ​​more than 30,000 square kilometers and has a total population of more than 200,000.

These 200,000 people are all indentured slaves who have newly joined the territory this year, and 99% of them are real refugees from the Dukedom of Edward.

In order to feed these 200,000 people, the Harland Territory needs to invest a lot of money.

Fortunately, this land is already a mature territory. The arable land has been cultivated for hundreds of years and has been cultivated. Richard will not lose money in the first year of investing here.

The territory allocated by the Edward family includes an important castle, the Palani Castle.

This castle is a very important castle in the upper reaches of the Black River. In the past, the Edward family and the Harland family had a conflict over the passage of slaves in this castle.

Now, less than ten years have passed, but things have changed. The Duke Edward of that year has died in the court, and Harris County Magistrate has become the new Duke Edward.

Palani Castle, the pearl of the Edward family, is also inlaid on the crown of the Harland family.

Ten years have passed, and the two great nobles in the northern border have become clearly strong and weak, and there is almost no comparison.

Including the newly established Palani County this year, Harland Territory already has ten counties: East Grota County, West Grota County, Harland County, Losa Basin County, Salt Lake County, Southern Eagle Mountain County, Martins County, Palani County, Snow Mountain County, and Western Deep Forest County.

The ten counties together have more than 30 counties under their jurisdiction. As of late June, the total population is close to 2.8 million.

After the demarcation of the territory, Richard began to mobilize a large amount of food and fodder from Harland Territory to help the development of the new territory.

This year, due to the war, most of the land in Duke Edward's Territory was delayed for spring ploughing. By mid-June, after the demarcation was completed, Duke Edward's Territory was already in short supply.

Although Palani Castle's business was prosperous, the spring ploughing was also delayed this year. Richard settled 200,000 people in the new territory, and there was also a shortage of food.

Palani County is not far from the core territory of Harland Territory, and food can be drawn from the former Baron Harden Territory, which is about less than 100 kilometers away. For the insufficient part, Richard purchased grain from the nobles of Gascoigne Province. He spent 60,000 gold coins and bought 30,000 tons of grain to stabilize the situation in Palani County.

Since February this year, Harland Territory has continuously increased its investment in railways. By June, the number of indentured slaves building railways has exceeded 30,000.

More than 30,000 people built railways, and the scene was in full swing and grand.

After five months of hard work, the railway line has been built for more than 80 kilometers. The section from Malte Castle to Philip Castle was opened to traffic a few days ago. After this section of railway was opened to traffic, it was more convenient to mobilize materials from Harland Territory to Palani Castle.

This section of railway is in the plain area. As long as the materials can be supplied, the railway construction project is relatively simple. However, turning northwest from Philip Castle, it is about to enter the Eagle Mountain Range. Although the terrain in the Kaia River Valley is relatively flat, the difficulty of building the next 80 kilometers of railway will increase a lot, and it may not be completed this year.

Philip Castle is the original Baron Harden Castle. More than a decade ago, Baron Harden participated in the Venus family rebellion and was removed from the title by the Grant royal family.

Because Zakli led the Iron Lion Corps to station in Baron Harden's territory, the castle was named Iron Lion Castle.

A few years later, Baron Harden's territory was incorporated into Harland's territory, and Zakli led his troops to move to Grotta Province and built a new Iron Lion Castle. In order to avoid the same name, Richard renamed the original Baron Harden Castle to Philip Castle two years ago.

After the section from Malte Castle to Philip Castle was opened to traffic, the railway mileage in Harland has exceeded 220 kilometers.

The new thing of railways has only been around for less than three years and is still developing rapidly.

In June this year, the surveying and mapping work of the section from Malte Castle to Flying Eagle Castle has been completed and construction is about to begin. This section of railway is about 170 kilometers long, and the Black River Plain area is all along the way. According to the plan, it will be open to traffic in September next year. When the section from Flying Eagle Castle to Malte Castle is open to traffic and connected to the network, the railway mileage of Harland Territory may be close to 500 kilometers, connecting the east and west of the territory, which will greatly promote the economic development of the territory.

At that time, the goods from West Grota County can be transported to Martins County in one day, which is very convenient and easy.

This year, the two dukes of Edward and Fox suffered from war disasters and food shortages, but Harland Territory ushered in a bumper year.

In the past two years, Harland Territory has been very aggressive in land reclamation, and nearly 7 million acres of arable land have been reclaimed in just two years.

In addition to the 7 million acres of new arable land, Harland Territory already has 18 million acres of arable land.

More than half of the 18 million acres of arable land were distributed to free people. In the past two years, Harland Territory has added a million people, including 700,000 free people. 700,000 free people, plus fallow land, distributed 4.2 million acres of arable land at one time.

In general, the free people control more than 10 million acres of arable land, and the official control of official land is about 8 million.

June is the summer harvest season. Harland Territory mainly grows wheat, oats, soybeans, and potatoes. The grain output of summer harvest is higher than that of autumn harvest. This year's grain output is much higher than last year. After all, about 3 million acres of land has been reclaimed for the second year, and water conservancy facilities are also more complete. The output has increased significantly.

Moreover, the output of potash fertilizer is increasing steadily. It can fertilize 3 million acres of land a year. The increase in fertilizer output will greatly improve agricultural production. According to the rough statistics of the agricultural department, the summer harvest output should exceed 750,000 tons, which is enough for 2.8 million people in Harland Territory to eat for a year.

In the past two years, the population of Harland Territory has increased too fast. Although a large amount of grain has been imported, there is not much grain in the treasury.

As the saying goes, if you have food in your hands, you won't be worried. The summer harvest ushered in a bumper harvest, and Richard was finally relieved.

Soon after the grain harvest, good news came from the territory again. Members of the Harland Territory's Demon Hunting Team once again found a lion duck nest in the west of Martins Castle.

Although there are lion ducks in the Eagle Mountains, they are relatively rare on a daily basis, especially in the eastern part of the Eagle Mountains, because there are a large number of wyverns, and the environment is not suitable for lion ducks to reproduce.

Both wyverns and lion ducks have a strong sense of territory. They will prepare for a rainy day and kill their competitors in advance. Often in areas with dragon nests, lion ducks must choose to migrate, otherwise they will be targeted and hunted by the dragons.

The lion duck nests in the central area of ​​the Eagle Mountains were caught by the Harland Territory. This group of lion ducks has made outstanding contributions to the development of the Harland Territory.

There is also a lion duck nest in the western part of the Eagle Mountains. Although there are legendary ogres in the western part, ogres cannot fly, so it is difficult to hunt lion ducks and there is no competition with lion ducks.

Lion ducks have no natural enemies in this area, and the lion duck nest is also very large. After discovering the lion duck nest, the members of the demon hunting team did not act rashly, but immediately returned to the territory to report the news.

Now that Harland leads a strong army, it is no longer necessary for lords such as Richard and Sofia to personally go into battle to capture the lion duck.

The elf wizard Eve has just been promoted to the seventh ring. She brought Wendy and a group of 20 wizards to serve as the backbone of this capture of the lion duck.

Richard's cousin Audrey, with the lion duck cavalry as backup, the demon hunter squadron and the special squadron acted together with the magicians to help the magicians and do hard work.

The magicians used the red blood grass as a trap and successfully caught more than 20 lion ducks in one fell swoop.

Compared with lion ducks, humans are obviously smarter.

With this litter of lion ducks, the number of lion ducks in Harland has exceeded 100. However, there are only seven teams of adult lion ducks that can be ridden, totaling 81.

According to the reproduction rate of lion ducks, it will take about three years for Harland to increase the number of adult lion ducks to 100.

The cost of forming a lion duck cavalry is very high, because lion ducks need to eat magic beast meat every once in a while, otherwise their bodies will become listless. This is the nature of high-level magic beasts. Whether it is a wyvern or a lion duck, they like to be in places with abundant magic power, and their diet must also provide a certain amount of magic beast meat.

If there is really no magic beast meat, the magic crystal can be ground into powder and prepared into a special potion to replace magic beast meat for lion ducks to eat.

However, the cost of raising high-level magic beasts with magic crystals is too high.

The annual consumption of a lion duck is about 30 standard magic crystals, which is equivalent to the cost of raising 300 gold coins. The consumption of wyverns is higher, consuming hundreds of standard magic crystals a year, and the cost is as high as one thousand gold coins.

Even a regional power like the Kingdom of Ryan controls the number of Lion Duck Cavalry at 300.

The consumption of 300 Lion Duck Knights in a year is about the same as that of half of the main army. The cost of maintaining a Lion Duck Cavalry is roughly equivalent to 50 infantry.

On the front battlefield, a Lion Duck Cavalry is far from being the opponent of 50 elite infantry. However, the Lion Duck Knight can perform reconnaissance missions, and actually plays a role far beyond that of 50 infantry.

When it comes to the battlefield, it is still necessary to play to its own advantages and attack the enemy's weaknesses.

The reason why the Kingdom of Ryan maintains 300 Lion Duck Cavalry is that 300 Lion Duck Cavalry are enough to perform reconnaissance missions.

Whether it is fighting with orcs or suppressing nearby enemies, 300 beast cavalry are enough to run rampant.

Because Harland Territory controls the Eagle Mountain area, which is rich in magical beast resources, the number of lion ducks and wyverns in the territory was relatively small in the past few years, and the supply of magical beast meat was very abundant, so there was no need to consume additional magic crystals.

Now the number of wyverns and lion ducks has increased. Since two years ago, Harland Territory has developed the Snow Crystal Lake, which can catch 20,000 snow crystal fish every year. Together with the output of some other magical beast meat, it can supply hundreds of wyverns and 400 lion ducks.

In fact, even raising magical beast cavalry also requires high expenditures. The food consumed by an iron-horned horse alone is as high as 30 kilograms per day. The annual consumption of food exceeds more than 10,000 kilograms, which is roughly equivalent to the cost of ten gold coins.

In addition, the iron-horned horse must be fed with some low-level magic plants every once in a while. Magic plants are more expensive than food. An iron-horned horse consumes about 30 gold coins a year.

Thirty gold coins a year is already a high-income group in Harland Territory. Small businessmen, grassroots officers, and territory civil servants do not have such a high income level.

Ordinary high-income people can't afford to raise Warcraft horses. Even for the captain class of the army, the annual salary is about more than 100 gold coins, which is also difficult to afford the cost of raising Warcraft horses. Unless you like Warcraft horses very much, you will buy one to ride.

Those who can raise Warcraft horses are all wealthy nobles.

Most hereditary barons will buy ten or eight horses to charge at critical moments on the battlefield. For example, a great noble like the Duke of Harland, together with the Warcraft breeding base, raises 3,500 Warcraft horses, and the annual consumption is as high as 100,000 gold coins.

Last year, the military expenditure of Harland was as high as 1.76 million gold coins, which is equivalent to 60% of the level of the Grant royal family.

In June this year, there was a constant good news from Harland Territory. First, silver mines were discovered in the Western Forest County.

Because Harland Territory does not have complete coinage rights, for Harland Territory, the value of silver mines is higher than that of gold mines.

The discovery of the new silver mine will allow Harland to mint more silver coins, which will greatly alleviate the deflation in the territory.

After all, in daily life, the most used coins are silver and copper coins. Nobles and big businessmen who use gold coins to pay are relatively rare in society and are rarely circulated.

According to the report of the silver mining department, at least nine tons of silver can be mined this year, and the profit earned from minting silver coins can be converted into about 15,000 gold coins.

Next year, the output of the silver mine can double, bringing more than 40,000 profits to the minting department. In the year after, the silver mining volume can increase, and more than 800,000 silver dollars can be minted, which can be converted into gold coins. Profits of more than 60,000.

According to rough estimates, this silver mine can be mined for more than 20 years and is worth more than one million gold coins.

Secondly, an exploration team member named Hart discovered an iron mine in Martins County. The reserves of this iron mine are much larger than those of Iron Mountain Fort. According to rough estimates, the reserves are close to one billion tons.

Such a huge reserve is enough for Harland to use for dozens or hundreds of years.

This mine is also associated with various rare earth resources, and there are also a small amount of magic crystals in the ore veins.

After receiving the news, Richard went to Hart Iron Mine in person, mobilized more than 60,000 people, and launched a major battle for iron mine construction, hoping that this giant iron mine can be successfully put into production next year.

An open-pit coal mine was discovered in the north of the No. 3 military station. The reserves of this coal mine are also very large, and the cost of mining is lower than that of mountain coal mines such as Tulun and Kasan.

In order to commend the captain of the exploration team who discovered the coal mine, Buren, Richard named this coal mine Buren Coal Mine. With the discovery of the Buren Coal Mine, the establishment of a county near the No. 3 Castle is very close.

After the war, Richard began another round of meritorious service and reward.

The first was the Sutton family. Because the elf warriors worked together, and Sylph was promoted to Legend, they got the second viscount in a very short time.

The territory of Sutton is all barren forests. The territory is very large. The two viscount territories together have an area of ​​more than 13,000 square kilometers. According to the current development speed, the Sutton family will soon be promoted to the earl class.

Unfortunately, the Sutton family has a small number of people and the elves are relatively closed. Although the territory is large, the economy has not developed much. There are only two or three thousand contract slaves to undertake some construction tasks, and few people are active.

In addition to Sutton, the lucky Driffin was also directly knighted this time.

In the battle with the orcs, Driffin led the two-legged dragon cavalry and caught up with the orcs' ninth-level legion commander. He got the head in a surprise attack. There were a total of six people participating in this battle. Among them, Driffin played a decisive role and was directly assigned five great merits. With the merits accumulated before, he was directly promoted to hereditary baron in Harland.

Driffin was originally a hereditary baron of the Kingdom of Delon. Unfortunately, he lost his territory due to the war and became a contract slave for a time. In the fourth year of joining Harland, Driffin successfully restored his family business.

Wilde, who was stronger, had worse luck. In addition, he had exchanged his merits for precious potions, and now he had only accumulated two great merits, so he was still very far from being knighted.

The Barony of Driffin was located in the east of the No. 2 military station, bordering the territory of the Sutton family. It covered an area of ​​1,300 square kilometers, which was three times larger than the fiefdom of the Kingdom of Delon.

It took a lot of money to run a territory. Driffin's family was in decline, and it was difficult to save money in recent years. He had no choice but to marry the flour mill owner Pirano and marry Pirano's short and fat daughter. In exchange for a dowry of 5,000 gold coins, he got the initial resources for developing the territory.