Chapter 434 Active Mercenaries
The news of Leader Harland's recruitment of mercenaries spread not only in the United Kingdom on the East Coast, but also in the Kingdom of Delon, the Grand Duchy of Stanik, and the Kingdom of Lane. Richard arranged secrets and dispatched intelligence agencies to carry out activities. Even in Nolan City, Harland Leader is recruiting mercenaries on a large scale.
In order to give full play to the subjective initiative of the mercenaries, Richard also formulated a special decree. As long as he can produce soul crystals, the Harland leader will reward him with meritorious deeds.
Such a decree has actually destroyed the military title system to a certain extent. After all, wealthy businessmen can purchase soul crystals at a premium and accumulate merit through money.
The promulgation of this decree was a decision made by Richard after careful consideration.
After the decree was promulgated, Odaye and other Haalandland capitalists also established mercenary groups one after another. In order to improve the quality of the mercenary groups, Haalandland capitalists paid high prices, cooperated with the intelligence agencies, and poached people from other territories.
After more than twenty years of development, not only the intelligence forces of the great nobles of the Grant Kingdom have penetrated into the Harland Territory, but the Harland Territory intelligence department has also successfully penetrated into the territories of other great nobles.
Since the establishment of Harland Leader, Richard has always attached great importance to the intelligence system.
When the territory was first established, Richard appointed Hayden to manage the intelligence department. Later, because Hayden was not suitable, he transferred the more capable Noel to take charge. Even the working methods of the intelligence department were formulated by Richard himself. After all, Richard had watched many spy movies in movies, TV shows, and novels in his previous life. His understanding of the intelligence department was far greater than that of people like William and Hayden.
At the beginning of the establishment of the intelligence department, a single-line contact work system was established for foreign intelligence work, and then it was organized into an organizational structure of intelligence groups and intelligence stations.
For internal intelligence work, the Department of Homeland Security has been established to disperse activities in various provinces and counties in the Harland territory. The Department of Homeland Security mainly performs general intelligence collection and counter-intelligence work within the territory.
In addition, Richard also established a Military Intelligence Bureau, which was subordinate to the military leadership and mainly collected military intelligence.
These three lines are not affiliated with each other. The combined intelligence system has more than 20,000 employees. The largest number of them is the Department of Homeland Security. This department has more than 4,000 armed forces, plus civilian personnel scattered throughout the territory. The total number of people has exceeded ten thousand.
But what Richard attaches most importance to is the foreign intelligence department. This department now has four branches, of which the Grant Kingdom branch is the largest, with thirteen intelligence stations under its jurisdiction. The East Coast United Kingdom Branch and the Delong Kingdom Branch have also developed rapidly, each with more than a thousand intelligence personnel.
The Lane Kingdom Intelligence Branch was established not long ago. It mainly relies on Stanik's intelligence activities. Together with the Stanik Grand Duchy Intelligence Station under its jurisdiction, the total number of people is only more than 300.
The General Directorate of Foreign Intelligence actually controls the Harland Territory smuggling department. It can not only collect intelligence and spread news, but also crack down on the enemy's commercial development and secretly promote the expansion of the Harland Territory market.
Due to the establishment of a single-line contact system, Haaland's intelligence department has been very cautious in its activities. Although it has suffered some losses in recent years, it has not been uprooted.
After discovering the legendary magical plant the Dream Tree three years ago, Haaland Intelligence has become even more elusive.
The dream tree is a very special magical plant that can be used on the spot magic radio station. After obtaining the dream tree, Richard immediately took off the leaves of the dream tree and let the station chiefs of the Foreign Intelligence Service take them. Richard has left a mark on the dream tree and can enter the subconscious mind of the heads of various intelligence stations in his sleep.
Leader Harland's current intelligence transmission mainly relies on dreams, and of course he will not leave any loopholes for the enemy.
At the beginning of September, Richard passed the dream and assigned the task of recruiting mercenaries to the person in charge of the intelligence station. By mid-October, more than 5,000 mercenaries had poured into Pulilan City intermittently.
The mercenary groups of the major kingdoms are deeply involved with the nobles. Harland Territory recruited mercenaries on a large scale, which actually weakened the strength of other kingdoms. Soon the major kingdoms issued decrees prohibiting mercenaries from leaving the country, and strengthened counter-intelligence work to crack down on Harland Territory's intelligence department.
Unfortunately, it was still impossible to organize the dissemination of the news. A large number of mercenaries quietly entered the Harland Territory through various smuggling channels. In just two or three months, the Harland Territory strengthened 5,000 mercenaries.
Due to the addition of five thousand mercenaries, the food in the Puliland area was no longer enough. In order to replenish supplies for the Puliland area, Richard, Sophia, and Undine took action personally, using the Star Bottle and the Space Orb. , legendary space bags and other space equipment, it took half a month to replenish more than 3,000 tons of food for Pulilan.
Harland Territory already has three legendary space props, which can transport 700 tons of grain at a time. In addition, nearly forty ordinary space props have been accumulated, all of which are in the hands of territorial magicians. Together, these space props can transport 500 tons of food at a time. Just adding up the space props, one trip to Pulilan can transport 1,200 tons of supplies.
Richard took Harland to lead the mage group and rode the Iron Wildebeest. It only took five days to get from Fort William to Pryland City.
The high-level magician and the legendary space bag make the transportation efficiency a bit higher than that of a steam train. It's just that steam trains can be spread all over the Harland Territory, and the number of legendary space equipment is limited. Richard, Sophia, and Undine cannot serve as transport troops all year round.
As for handing over precious legendary props such as the Star Bottle and the Space Orb to a magician of average strength, Richard is not considering it at all. Once the precious space props are lost, the Harland leader will be unable to bear the burden.
The town of Berleni is located 80 kilometers north of Prilan. It is a newly built town.
This was originally a settlement for human slaves. Tens of thousands of acres of farmland have been reclaimed nearby. However, the planting technology of the Orc Empire is relatively primitive. Basically, they rely on the weather for food and slash-and-burn farming.
After all, most of the captives captured by the orcs are serfs. Serfs have basically not received any education and do not understand mathematics. Naturally, they cannot build water conservancy projects. It is also difficult for a small number of captured nobles to serve the Orc Empire. After all, under the rule of the orcs, the status of humans is very low. In many cases, they have to be reduced to food and cannot get any respect.
Therefore, although the Orc Empire has captured thousands of slaves, it lacks talents and productivity has not been greatly improved.
After Harland conquered Prilan this year, this human slave settlement was burned down by the orcs, and the human slaves were also slaughtered.
When Richard led his troops to the vicinity, he also found some ghosts with amazing resentment. The priest of the Dawn Church who accompanied the army purified the ghosts, and Harland led the army to station here for a period of time, and simply built some city defense fortifications. Later, this place was used as a logistics base.
When Harland led the army to withdraw to the northern border in May, Prilan's defense force was insufficient, so he gave up here.
In October, after various mercenary groups rushed to Prilan, they once again entered here and prepared to operate for a long time. In the end, Rand Borani, who was the most powerful, decided to name this base Borani Town.
Rand Borani also has aristocratic blood. He is from the Earl of Borani family of the East Coast United Kingdom, but the Borani family has been multiplying for more than 500 years, and the population with Borani blood is more than 50,000. By Rand's generation, they have long lost their aristocratic status.
But Rand's start is still far better than ordinary people.
Because Rand's lineage has a complete extraordinary inheritance, the White Bird Breathing Method in his hand can be cultivated to the legendary realm. Eugene Berleni, the first Earl of the Berleni family, was a legendary warrior who struggled from an ordinary person to a great noble. Although Rand's ancestors became impoverished, the complete breathing method was still left to future generations.
Rand was very talented in practicing breathing methods. Although there was no one to guide him, he relied on his own speculation to get into the door. At the age of more than 30, he had been promoted to a seventh-level warrior and became a person who did dirty work for Earl Berleni. But in his heart, he still wanted to restore his noble status and be promoted to the hereditary noble class.
Unfortunately, the reality of the East Coast United Kingdom left few opportunities for the middle and lower classes. The territory of the East Coast United Kingdom has been basically developed. If you want to be awarded a title for military merit and win over new nobles, you can only seize the territories of neighboring countries. Asking the great nobles of the East Coast to give up their territories and give them to officers who have made meritorious contributions is equivalent to cutting meat from the royal family and the great nobles, which is simply impossible.
However, the surrounding countries, the Grant Kingdom in the north and the Sith Kingdom in the south are obviously stronger than the East Coast. Although the Delon Kingdom in the west is weak, it is now resisting Grant's friendly forces. If you want to be a knight on the East Coast, you need to cross many invisible thresholds. Unless you are promoted to a legend, you may succeed.
Rand is now 46 years old. It has been almost five years since he was promoted to a ninth-level warrior, but the title of the Split Earth is still a long way off. Because it is very difficult to be a knight in the East Coast United Kingdom, Rand has always planned to go to other countries. After hearing the news that Harland was recruiting mercenaries, he ignored the opposition of Earl Belaini and came to Harland with his own mercenary group.
More than a thousand mercenaries in the East Coast United Kingdom entered Harland. When they came to a strange place, these people would naturally stick together. Rand has a high professional level, a great reputation, and is relatively fair in doing things. He soon became the core of this group of people.
In the Flame Heart Tavern, Rand just drank a glass of high-proof liquor. The hot liquor went down his throat into his body, making Rand's face turn red instantly.
"It's still more addictive to drink strong liquor in the northern border."
Rand put down the glass and muttered to himself, and then heard Stam, the squadron leader of the Blood Fang Mercenary Group, rushing into the tavern.
After entering the Haland Territory, Rand had changed the name of his mercenary group. After obtaining the consent of the main backbone, he named it the Blood Fang Mercenary Group, hoping to bid farewell to the past life and get a new life in the Haland Territory.
"What's the matter? Why are you so anxious?"
"A lot of undead were found in the forest 60 kilometers north of Berleni."
Stam is a sixth-level warrior, trained by Rand. Rand is a very open-minded person, and he has had the ambition to become a hereditary noble since he was a child. After being promoted to a mid-level professional in his twenties, he relied on the legendary breathing method to train ordinary people from serfs and civilians.
After more than 20 years of accumulation, Rand already has a reliable private army in his hands. It is precisely because many people were trained by him that Rand can pull this powerful mercenary from the hands of the nobles.
The Bloodfang Mercenary Group now has three squadrons, with a total of about 450 people.
"Is the news reliable?"
"Very reliable. The first unit to discover this group of undead was the Wyvern Knights, but because there were too many undead, six Wyvern Knights could not eliminate the enemy, so they issued a call for nearby mercenaries."
"Has the Wyvern Knights sent any other news?"
"The news has been notified to Prilan City. Commander Grumman has ordered the Lion Duck Knights to go out and intercept this large-scale undead. Through the reconnaissance of the flying troops, the number of undead is about 200,000. The ones that appear in the forest now may be the vanguard. No trace of intelligent undead has been found yet."
Hearing that the news was correct, Rand immediately stood up and summoned mercenaries to move towards the primeval forest 60 kilometers away.
Although there are a lot of undead, Rand himself is not worried at all.
Because the undead have no wisdom and act completely on instinct, a first-level human soldier may not be able to beat a first-level undead, but a hundred human professional soldiers can beat tens of thousands of undead.
Because humans have wisdom and can use their brains.
In war, especially on battlefields with a wide range of battles and large activity space, humans can use strategies to lure and ambush the undead.
Although the Bloodfang Mercenary Group led by Rand has not been stationed in the town of Berani for a long time, it has fought more than a dozen wars with the undead. In many battles, the Bloodfang Mercenary Group has only lost more than 30 people, but more than 5,000 undead have died at their hands.
More than five high-level undead have died at the hands of Rand.
From these undead, the Bloodfang Mercenary Group seized two high-level soul crystals, 16 medium-level soul crystals, and 160 low-level soul crystals. According to the reward standard of Harland, Rand not only exchanged more than a dozen enchanted armors and improved the equipment of the mercenary group, but also accumulated eight great merits.
Of course, these merits do not belong to Rand alone, but to the entire Bloodfang Mercenary Group of nearly 500 people.
Rand has reached an agreement with the core members of the Bloodfang Mercenary Group to first concentrate the merits, gather ten great merits as soon as possible, and seize the opportunity to exchange for a territory, which will not only allow Rand to be promoted to a hereditary noble, but also allow the Bloodfang Mercenary Group to obtain a piece of land for operation.
Now, upon hearing that a large number of undead had entered the vicinity of Berani, Rand's heart suddenly became very excited. He had never expected that after only two months in the territory of Harland, his dream of becoming a hereditary noble had come very close.