Chapter 416 Ransom
Edmund was also a soldier and did not like politeness. He went straight to the point, hoping to pay the ransom and redeem the soldiers.
"Your soldiers have developed hatred for us. Letting them go back is like sending the tiger back to the forest. I will not do such a stupid thing." Edmund said a few words, but Richard immediately interrupted him. head, showing an impatient expression.
"Your Excellency the Duke is too exaggerated. If our soldiers are tigers, Your Excellency the Duke is a giant dragon. How can the dragon be afraid of tigers? Besides, it has been a tradition for thousands of years not to slaughter prisoners, but to pay a ransom to release officers and soldiers. If Your Excellency the Duke is If you don’t abide by tradition, you won’t have barbarian blood, right?”
As soon as these insulting words were uttered, the faces of Harland's leaders and ministers present suddenly changed. Many officers attending the meeting immediately drew their swords and cursed loudly to kill this person.
There is actually an underlying reason why Edmund is so reckless.
The United Kingdom on the East Coast also attaches great importance to military merit and has a tradition of nobles joining the military. Edmund's three sons were all in the army. In last year's war, all three of Edmund's sons died. Edmund hated the invaders of Grant Kingdom very much.
Richard and he had a blood feud, because both of Edmund's sons died at the hands of the army led by Harland. The more Richard's military exploits became, the more Edmund wanted to insult and kill his enemies.
He actually had a death wish for this mission, so he deliberately provoked the banquet, hoping that the Harlanders would take action first. Then he launched a surprise attack. If he could seize the opportunity to kill Richard, he would be avenging his sons.
Even if the assassination fails, Richard will definitely arouse criticism if he kills him, the messenger. Killing the messenger is an act of barbarians. In this world where the reputation of nobles is extremely important, this kind of thing will probably be laughed at for a long time. Even if he died, he could bring shame to the name Harland, make Richard embarrassed among the nobles, and damage the reputation of the Harland family with his own death. Although this could not kill Richard, it was still a method of revenge. .
Seeing that the atmosphere was tense, Edmund had a bit of a sneer on his face and deliberately provoked: "Why, is Lord Harland really a barbarian and wants to massacre the envoys?"
After hearing this, Richard said calmly: "Although I won't kill you, I can still change the east coast to a negotiator. Come here, catch him, cut off his tongue, and drive him out. Landlord."
Seeing the crowd gathered around him, Edmund suddenly changed his color and attacked Richard fiercely. It was rumored that Richard was a magician. If he were to kill this man unexpectedly in close combat, it would not only eliminate a problem for the United Kingdom of the East Coast, but also You can also succeed in revenge.
Although Edmund is a ninth-level knight, he still carries an enchanted sword. Because he was an envoy, no one searched him. He suddenly burst into flames, and his explosive power was extremely ferocious.
Although Edmund launched a sneak attack unexpectedly, he was unable to kill Richard instantly. Richard was already a seventh-level warrior with more than 20 points of strength. He had awakened his physical talent. Although he was not as good as Edmund in close combat, he was still the same. Magicians with weak bodies are fundamentally different.
Facing Edmund's sudden attack, Richard could still rely on his close combat ability to withstand Edmund's sudden attack, but Edmund's attack had no effect at all.
Without the suddenness of the attack, Edmund was soon unable to withstand the siege of many masters led by Harland. After all, not only Richard and Sophia were participating in the negotiations, but also Soros, Sutton and others.
Everyone rushed forward, and Edmund was quickly injured and captured alive. Richard had his tongue cut out and his eyes gouged out.
Although being an envoy is a prestigious job, it is also a very dangerous thing. Moreover, Richard is a man of two generations. The education he received since childhood did not have aristocratic manners and aristocratic etiquette. Of course, if he is offended, he will not give face to the United Kingdom of the East Coast and directly concoct it. Got this person.
Edmund was an important figure in the United Kingdom on the East Coast. After Edmund was disposed of, negotiations between the two parties were almost impossible.
Now Richard is the one who has the initiative in negotiations. He has 80,000 captive soldiers, 5,000 officers with noble status, and hundreds of magicians. If the United Kingdom of the East Coast is unwilling to redeem these people, Richard will They are used as slaves.
After swallowing up a large area of territory, the strength of the Harland Territory has greatly increased. Richard is now sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai and can sit back and watch the storm rise.
On the other hand, the United Kingdom on the East Coast is in urgent need of redemption. In particular, noble officers and magicians are the core of the East Coast United Kingdom. If these people are not redeemed and there are not enough grassroots officers, the United Kingdom on the East Coast will hardly be able to restore its establishment and will not be able to stop the attack of the Grant Kingdom.
So even though Edmund had his tongue cut out and his eyes gouged out by Richard, the aristocratic council of the United Kingdom on the East Coast was excited and clamored to punish the leader of Harland.
However, the distance between the two sides is so far that the United Kingdom on the East Coast cannot use troops against Haaland at all.
Moreover, Richard has made many achievements in recent years, the morale of Haaland's army is at a high level, and the United Kingdom of the East Coast has suffered heavy losses. Even the legendary knight Mark Dean died at the hands of Richard. I am afraid that if he concentrates all his strength, he will not have the confidence to win.
Since it is impossible to actually punish the Harland Territory, the United Kingdom of the East Coast can only talk in the noble assembly and work with the nobles of the Delon Kingdom to publicize and tarnish Richard's reputation. It is said that the Harland family has barbarian blood, but Richard himself is rude, cruel, and cruel, and he is actually capable of insulting the envoy.
Richard never cared about the news that was making waves outside. He himself didn't attach much importance to the so-called noble reputation.
Under the pressure of reality, the East Coast United Kingdom could only send a messenger again to negotiate the ransom with Richard.
The messenger sent this time was named Zoff. He was not from a high family, just the second son of a baron, but he was smart and capable, with a very high emotional intelligence, and had climbed to the top of the East Coast United Kingdom.
Zoff was a seven-ring magician. After he came to Harland, he was very humble and flexible. After several difficult negotiations, he finally redeemed 4,300 noble officers and 12,000 soldiers.
As for the magicians captured in Harland, because Richard asked for too high a price, a junior magician would have to pay 5,000 gold coins for the ransom, and the East Coast United Kingdom only redeemed more than 30 people.
These more than 30 magicians were basically from noble families.
In order to redeem this group of backbones, the East Coast United Kingdom paid a lot of money.
Because Richard did not accept gold coins from the East Coast United Kingdom, he could only barter and exchange various resources in the end.
The East Coast United Kingdom paid 100,000 serfs, 20 10-cubic-meter space bags, and 10 magic crystal balls for testing qualifications to exchange for more than 16,000 captured officers and soldiers.
As for the rest, because no one in their family was willing to pay the ransom and they were not very talented, the East Coast United Kingdom simply gave up on them.
Among the more than 60,000 captives, there are actually quite a few talents, including more than 700 nobles and more than 60 magicians. Many soldiers have learned breathing techniques and have high military skills, and can be used as veterans.
Although Harland County won the war last year, it still summed up a lot of lessons.
Compared with the elite soldiers of the East Coast United Kingdom and the soldiers of Harland County, the biggest gap is actually weapons and equipment.
Harland County's elite soldiers are equipped with a lot of advanced weapons such as alchemical bombs, enchanted armor, enchanted swords, force field shields, scorching ray guns, death ray guns, etc. The full set of weapons and equipment is worth more than a few hundred gold coins. Even if they are of the same professional level, they can fight one against three or even one against five.
Secondly, the fighting will of both sides is completely different. Harland has established a complete logistics support system and has paid pensions to soldiers who died or were injured in battle for 20 consecutive years. Compared with the nobles of the East Coast United Kingdom at all levels, Richard has completely won the hearts of Harland. The soldiers are willing to fight for Richard because Richard has changed their fate.
The third is the difference in combat experience. Harland's soldiers often face major battles, and the war in the northern border is also relatively cruel. Compared with the East Coast United Kingdom, they are more adapted to large-scale wars.
The fourth is the difference in the quality of soldiers. Harland's army has a higher proportion of professionals and is much better than the East Coast United Kingdom. Now, the proportion of professionals in Harland's army has exceeded one-tenth, while the proportion of professionals in the East Coast United Kingdom is about one-thirtieth.
The fifth is the role of the Starlight Necklace. In fact, even if Richard and Sofia released six consecutive starlight bombs, they only killed and injured six or seven thousand elite soldiers. As long as you are not afraid of casualties and can maintain morale, in the decisive battle of hundreds of thousands of troops, starlight bombs may not play a decisive role.
Unfortunately, the soldiers in battle are not robots without emotions. They will be afraid and terrified. Once they suffer too many casualties, they will panic, retreat and flee, disrupting their own formation.
The sixth is that Harland has cultivated a flying army with great advantages. Relying on the lion and the flying dragon, Harland is equivalent to opening a map, and the battlefield is completely transparent.
The seventh is that the magic crystal cannon played an important role, especially when attacking, making the strong fortifications of the East Coast United Kingdom lose their due role. In just a few days, the defense line with a thickness of 100 miles was broken through, and five strong cities were captured. The magic crystal cannon was also the key reason for the victory. Without the magic crystal cannon, Richard would not be so radical in using troops.
With all these advantages added up, Harland's army was able to fight one against five and win a great victory.
Richard was ready to absorb some of the 60,000 people abandoned by the East Coast into Harland's army.
Six years ago, when fighting against the East Coast United Kingdom, Richard absorbed more than 10,000 prisoners, and all of them were eventually integrated into Harland.
In last year's war, although Harland achieved a brilliant victory, the casualties were also serious.
Since the year before last, two battles have been fought in succession, Samba River and Esha Castle, with a total of nearly 20,000 casualties. Harland's backbone has actually lost a lot. Although the territory has tried its best to train soldiers in the past two years and added 16,000 new recruits from the new recruit camp, the size of the army has not expanded.
There are about 60,000 captives in the Kingdom of Delong who cannot pay the ransom. Richard is going to select 20,000 of them and incorporate them into Harland. In particular, Richard intends to use the captured magicians and noble officers who have not paid the ransom. For this reason, he even found Driffin and asked Driffin to personally introduce his experience, hoping to win people's hearts.
Driffin's situation is very similar to that of the captive soldiers. He also joined Harland as a slave. In just three and a half years, he successfully turned over, was awarded a title in Harland, and regained his hereditary noble status. With a larger territory, development is more promising.
Driffin told his story and immediately received thunderous applause.
In addition to Driffin, Richard also selected many veteran prisoners of war from the United Kingdom on the East Coast to be responsible for reorganizing this surrendered army. These people have joined Harland for many years, and the best officers have been promoted to the level of captain.
The captain is already a very important position in the army, and his political status is second only to the top.
The county governor in the civil service system of Harland Territory has a lower political status than the army captain.
When the two sides met on the street, the county governor had to bow and take off his hat.
The status of the general civil servant county governor in Richard's heart is not comparable to that of the army captain. Both of them violated the law at the same time. The punishment for the army captain was relatively light, but the civil servant Richard was absolutely merciless.
Because the reality of the Dawn Plane is aristocratic politics, and military officers are the most important.
Whether it is the Holy Glorious Empire, military officers can easily be promoted to hereditary nobles, but civil servants are basically impossible.
Even Roger, the prime minister of the Harland Territory, needs to bow when he meets a hereditary baron.
The profound core of this social status quo is that military officers have mastered extraordinary powers, are preparatory nobles, and are the ruling class of this world, while civil servants are just vassals of the nobles.
Compared with the traditional aristocratic-dominated army, Harland only values talent, not bloodline. Many soldiers of ordinary origin and great talent stand out in this relatively fair selection process, and soon become famous and are valued by Richard.
The most representative are Jennings, Sura and a group of people. Among them, Jennings has been promoted to the eighth level and has become the third person in the military system. Now he is the idol of many young people in the army and has influenced a large number of people.
A 24-year-old young officer O'Sullivan is very representative. This person has excellent physical talent. When he was captured by Harland, he was only 18 years old and was only a serf soldier.
After joining Harland, he learned breathing techniques and won many merits in just six years. Now he is a fourth-level warrior and has become a captain. He has accumulated one great merit and six medium merits.
Three years ago, Richard even married his third uncle Bernie's daughter to this person.
With O'Sullivan's talent and age, when he is in his thirties or forties, it is basically a foregone conclusion that he will be promoted to a hereditary noble. Even if something unexpected happened in the middle, with him laying a solid foundation, the next generation will start from a much higher starting point than ordinary people.
After listening to O'Sullivan's speech, everyone wanted to make military achievements, marry a woman from the Harland family, marry the Duke, and be promoted to the hereditary aristocracy, so that their family would be proud of me.
O'Sullivan and the surrendered soldiers had exactly the same origin, and the surrendered soldiers had a high resonance with his experience. Even the knowledgeable noble officers and magicians were a little moved.
No one was willing to pay ransom for these noble officers and magicians, which was actually equivalent to the family and the motherland giving up on them.
Richard was willing to spend time to win them over, and it was easy for him to be used by Harland.
With the integration of 20,000 surrendered soldiers into Harland, Harland's army has expanded to 130,000.
Among them, 70,000 were regular troops, and the remaining 60,000 were auxiliary troops. The 20,000 surrendered soldiers who were incorporated did not gain Richard's full trust for the time being, and could only be used as auxiliary troops.
The salary of auxiliary soldiers was about half of that of regular soldiers, starting at five silver coins a month. The older the soldiers in the army are, the more valuable their salary will be. Harland has a veteran who joined the army more than ten years ago and has never been able to be promoted to a professional. His annual salary is about twenty gold coins, which is several points higher than some officers with less experience.