Chapter 436 Surrender
After entering November, the wyverns are no longer adapted to the cold environment in the north of Prilan and are about to enter hibernation.
Dragonborn monsters don't like the cold very much. Except for the descendants of the white dragon, they have the habit of hibernating in temperatures of more than ten degrees below zero. Therefore, after late October, the wyvern knights can only be transferred from the Prilan area to the relatively warm East Coast Province for repairs.
The wyvern knights retreated, and the Harland Territory transferred magic airships.
This autumn, the first brigade of magic airships in the Harland Territory has been trained.
The magic airship force is based on the squadron as the basic unit, and one squadron is composed of four magic airships.
Each magic airship is composed of one pilot, three co-pilots, and the rest are combat soldiers. Including twelve archers, six grenadiers, two mechanics, one magician, three mage apprentices, plus the captain and deputy captain command level, a total of thirty people.
The magic airship brigade has seven squadrons, plus two magic airships on duty at the brigade headquarters, a total of 30 magic airships and more than 900 soldiers.
Compared with the Lion Duck Knight and the Wyvern, the magic airship unit is very average in air combat, but because the magic airship has a strong carrying capacity, it can carry dozens of tons of materials into the air, and its load is far greater than that of the Lion Duck and the Wyvern, and it can undertake a variety of combat missions. Not only can it be used as a bomber, but it can also serve as an airborne soldier and an air transport soldier.
Although the cost of forming a magic airship unit is very high, the equipment cost of a brigade alone is as high as more than 200,000 gold coins, which is dozens of times the cost of infantry, but Richard still decided to expand the number of magic airship units as much as possible, at least to successfully reorganize the three magic hot air balloon brigades.
This year, Harland not only formed the first magic airship brigade, but also established three magic crystal cannon squadrons. Now Harland has established twelve magic crystal cannon squadrons, with an artillery scale of more than 3,000 people.
One of the newly formed magic crystal cannon squadrons was deployed in Prilan City, and the remaining two squadrons were incorporated into the field artillery.
In addition, the construction of the navy is also expanding rapidly. This winter, the first large magic ship of Harland has been successfully built. In order to build this magic ship, Harland invested a lot of resources and used the magic core dug out from the legendary jackal.
Because the legendary magic core is used as the energy core, the magic power attached to this magic ship is extremely powerful, and the power is also at a very high level.
In addition, twelve magic crystal cannons were installed on the magic ship, and the combat effectiveness is stronger than that of ordinary magic ships.
After the magic ship was successfully built, Richard formed the Black River Fleet. By the end of the year, this navy had expanded to 2,000 people, including a large magic ship and four steam engines. This water force is enough to run rampant in the waters of the Black River.
With these newly formed troops, the size of Harland's army has expanded to 148,000 this year.
Because we went north to Prilan in the spring and fought a large-scale war with the orcs, the military expenditure soared to 3 million gold coins. The reason why the military expenditure increased by 1.2 million gold coins is that in addition to the construction of magic airships and magic crystal cannons, the rest was mainly spent on logistics and transportation.
After all, the front line was pushed to the Prilan area, and a legion of soldiers was stationed in this place, and the cost of logistics supply increased by 400,000 gold coins a year.
The remaining 500,000 was used partly for post-war rewards and partly for the maintenance costs of expanding the army.
This year, not only did the military expenditure increase greatly, but the investment in railway construction also increased sharply. According to statistics from the railway department, 290 kilometers of railways were built throughout the year, costing more than 600,000 gold coins. After all, most of the railways built this year are mountain railways, and the cost of building one kilometer is as high as 2,000 to 3,000 gold coins.
By the end of the year, the north-south longitudinal line will be completed. The northern section has been built to the No. 8 military station, and the southern section has also passed through the Losa Basin and built to the vicinity of the Hurricane Castle. By the summer of next year, this artery across the Eagle Mountains will be open to traffic.
After five years of construction, the railway in Harland has been opened to traffic for 800 kilometers and is still under rapid construction.
Military expenditures, railways, and industrial construction have increased a lot of investment. Although the cash income of Harland this year exceeded 5 million, there is not much surplus funds. Government expenditures reached 4.98 million gold coins, and only 60,000 gold coins were saved at the end of the year.
This year, Harland continued to sell a large amount of arms and exchanged 120,000 people from the southern nobles. By the end of the year, Harland directly controlled 7.78 million people and 2.8 million free people. Taxes increased to 980,000 gold coins, almost accounting for 20% of the total income of the territory.
Time passed day by day. Relying on the mercenaries who brought their own food, Harland County did not use much of its own strength to block the undead in the northern part of Prilan.
Entering the 3275th year of the Dawn Calendar, Harland County opened a new year of enrollment. Last year, Richard built eight new primary schools and two middle schools.
Now Harland County has 48 primary schools and 12 middle schools, with more than 110,000 primary and secondary school students.
This year, 26,000 new students enrolled. From these 26,000 new students, 253 preparatory magic apprentices were recruited and 253 apprentices were added. The Harland County Mage Association has expanded to more than 1,300 people.
Among them, there are 347 formal magicians.
Although Harland fought a large-scale war with the orcs last year, the casualties were not serious. Only two mages from the Sutton tribe were killed and five were injured. There were many small-scale wars with the undead, and the magicians were basically unscathed.
After the fall of last year, the undead poured into the vicinity of Prilan, and Richard made a decree to exchange soul crystals for merit. Because of the large amount of soul crystals, Harland refined hundreds of bottles of Styx potions, which not only enhanced the magic power of the territory's magicians, but also exchanged a lot of resources. In addition, last year Harland destroyed the ogre tribe and refined a lot of deep meditation potions with the ogre brains. With the increase in the supply of magic resources, forty-four magicians were promoted.
By this year, the number of magicians in Harland has exceeded that of the Grant royal family, roughly equivalent to one-sixth of the level of the East Coast United Kingdom. But it is a few points higher than the Kingdom of Bidron and the Grand Duchy of Stannic as a whole.
Soon after the freshmen entered school, in March of the 3275th year of the Dawn Calendar, Richard had already conferred seven barons in the north of Prilan, including the tycoons Odaye and Immorton.
Odaye and Immorton are both smart people who are good at seizing opportunities. They have similar experiences. They both joined the Harland army early and started doing business more than ten years ago, slowly accumulating the first pot of gold. Then they transformed into factory owners, opened flour mills, and made a lot of profits in Harland.
Now, the assets of both of them exceed 100,000 gold coins, which is much richer than many hereditary nobles.
Last year, Richard issued a decree to exchange soul crystals for merits. Odaye and Immorton seized the loophole, purchased a large amount of supplies and transported them to Prilan City, and then exchanged soul crystals with mercenaries with hemostatic ointment, brown sugar, white wine, cloth cotton clothes, armor and weapons.
With only 70,000 to 80,000 gold coins, they exchanged enough soul crystals and exchanged enough merits to be promoted to the hereditary noble class.
However, compared with the powerful hereditary nobles like Rand, Odaye and Immorton's foundation is not stable. Both of them are big businessmen. Although they have the financial resources to hire some professionals, it is impossible for a strong man with real ability and ambition to serve businessmen.
The armed forces under Odaye and Immorton are not strong. Once the territory is lost, their investment will be in vain.
Now Odaye and Immorton live in William Castle, and the territory is managed by their confidants. They are both burdened with huge foreign debts. The Duke Bank is the biggest creditor of the two. It has lent 130,000 gold coins and needs to repay 15,000 gold coins in interest every year. The pressure on Odaye and Immorton is extremely heavy.
Although Odaye and Immorton's life is not easy, their success in being ennobled has greatly encouraged the big and small businessmen in the Harland territory. Even many veterans who have been in the army for many years and have no development prospects have written retirement reports and are ready to devote themselves to business activities.
After entering April, the temperature has risen sharply, but the undead in the northern part of Prilan are still increasing.
Since last autumn, Harland's army and the recruited mercenaries have killed more than a million undead, but it seems to have no effect. The undead army is still moving south. The seven barons in the north of Prilan have written letters to Richard for help.
Seeing the temperature warm up, Richard is ready to send some elite troops to help the seven barons on the border to eliminate a large wave of undead. The first to attack are the magic airship brigade, the wyvern, and the lion cavalry.
Richard, Sofia, and Undine also took the territory mage group, the elven archers, the demon hunter brigade, the first brigade of the first legion, and the first brigade of the Warcraft cavalry to participate in this operation. The mercenaries in the north of Prilan and the seven barons on the border cooperated with the activities of the main force.
Richard, Sofia, and Undine all have legendary space props that can carry more than 700 tons of baggage. The Mage Corps also has a large number of space props, which can carry 1,200 tons of baggage in total. A portion of it can be loaded on the military carriages, which is enough for more than 6,000 elite soldiers to maintain combat for three months. Three months is just enough to eliminate a large number of infiltrating undead.
Just as Harland was preparing to fight the undead, the Kingdom of Delong was also training its troops and preparing to start a war to regain its lost territory.
In a battle three years ago, the Kingdom of Grant fought one against two, and completely awakened the aging Kingdom of Delong. In this battle, the Kingdom of Delong lost 1,400 people and hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of fertile land. Although it relied on the desperate rescue of the East Coast to save the crown, it was actually in a desperate situation of life and death.
The land of the Kingdom of Delong is located in the center of the eastern region of the Central Continent. There are powerful kingdoms in the southeast, northwest, and northeast directions, and the military strength of each family is stronger than that of the Kingdom of Delong.
Although the Kingdom of Delong still wears a bright and beautiful crown, its national strength has actually fallen to the level of a grand duchy. Although the Kingdom of Delong still has a population of 28 million, its military strength is weaker than that of the Grand Duchy of Stannic.
The surrounding countries are all fierce and wolves, and the Kingdom of Delong is already in a precarious situation. Every knowledgeable person in the Kingdom of Delong is trying to save the country.
After the defeat of the Kingdom of Delong, Duke Anton decided not to be patient anymore and immediately launched a mutiny. With the support of the palace guards, he ascended the throne, and the old King Henry died in the palace coup.
After launching the palace coup, Duke Anton immediately decided to reform and issued a call for talents to recruit talented people who were frustrated.
And reorganized the Royal Guards of the Kingdom of Delong. This time, the nobles of King Delong finally stopped being stingy and taught breathing methods to all the soldiers. After three years of training, although the Guards of the Kingdom of Delong still lacked war experience, the quality of the army had been greatly improved.
Duke Anton was originally a legendary knight and had great prestige among the military nobles. His drastic reforms, coupled with the life-and-death external environment, made the Kingdom of Delong burst into a new life.
Although the strength has increased a lot, the Kingdom of Delong alone cannot compete with the Kingdom of Grant.
In order to regain the lost land, King Anton thought carefully and decided to introduce reinforcements from the Kingdom of Ryan.
In the past three years, he has continuously sent spies to the Kingdom of Ryan, collected all the news of the Kingdom of Ryan, carefully analyzed the political situation of the Kingdom of Ryan, and finally found that King Thomas of the Kingdom of Ryan was a person who loved to show off.
Knowing King Thomas's character, King Anton decided to cater to his preferences and sent a special envoy to deliver a letter of his willingness to surrender.
In this letter, Anton promised to give up his title and be a vassal of the Royal Family of Ryan. To show his sincerity, his children could marry the Royal Family of Ryan and send hostages to the Royal Palace of Ryan.
In addition, Anton also promised that the Kingdom of Delong would only take 30% of the territory recovered after the war, and the remaining 70% would be incorporated into the Kingdom of Ryan.
After two or three months of discussion, King Anton hid his tracks and personally entered the Royal Family of Ryan to communicate. With the dignity of a legendary knight, he flattered humbly and finally reached a consensus with the Kingdom of Ryan.
After the two countries reached an alliance, Anton gave the exquisite crown of the Royal Family of Delong as a gift to his new lord. The two countries signed a secret treaty, and the Kingdom of Delong was renamed the Grand Duchy of Delong, and legally became a vassal of the Kingdom of Ryan.
After reaching an agreement with the Kingdom of Ryan, King Anton sent a special envoy to communicate with the United Kingdom of the East Coast to discuss joint military operations.
After hearing about the conflict between the Kingdom of Sis and the Territory of Harland, the East Coast United Kingdom coordinated its position with the Kingdom of Sis and discussed the four countries to act together.
In mid-April of the 3275th year of the Dawn Calendar, the war that affected several countries finally broke out. The first to start the war was the army of the Kingdom of Delong and the coalition of the three Dukes of Fox, Edward and Gis.
In the past three years, the three dukes who bordered the Kingdom of Delong also felt that the situation was unstable and sold serfs to buy a large number of weapons and equipment from the Territory of Harland. The three dukes had a total of 100,000 troops under their command. They were not only experienced in combat, but also had better weapons and equipment than the regular army of the Kingdom of Delong.
However, shortly after the war began, the three Dukes of Edward discovered that their 100,000 troops could not defeat the 160,000 guards of the Kingdom of Delong in a field battle. This discovery immediately surprised the three dukes.
In the previous wars, the 100,000 regular troops of the Kingdom of Grant could suppress the 300,000 troops of the Kingdom of Delong. Unexpectedly, in three years, the combat effectiveness of the Kingdom of Delong’s army has been greatly improved.
Soon after the war started, the three dukes could no longer fight and began to request reinforcements from the rear.