Chapter 441: Connected

The two orc armies cooperated to invade from the south of the Silver Wolf Mountains, and the pressure on the Grand Duchy of Stannic was heavier than that on the Kingdom of Ryan.

Although Grand Duke Jonathan withdrew 120,000 troops one after another, and Holden of the Linus family contained the enemy, the Grand Duchy of Stannic still suffered heavy losses. More than a dozen border castles were conquered by the orcs, and a large number of border baronies were lost.

Because of the sudden invasion of the orcs, Grand Duke Jonathan and the Linus family army were surrounded by the orc army.

However, Grand Duke Jonathan had sufficient reinforcements to contain a large number of orcs. Although the retreat was cut off by the orcs, the situation was not too serious.

However, the Linus family did not have the energy to make the Kingdom of Ryan risk sending reinforcements. The orcs did not care about the conflict between the two families of Jonathan and Linus. As long as they were human nobles, they were enemies of the orc army.

Seeing that the situation was critical, Holden had no choice but to risk breaking through. He is a legendary second-level knight, with amazing fighting power when he is ruthless. With Holdan leading the charge, he broke through the encirclement of three orc legions in one fell swoop. However, the Linus family suffered a great loss in this battle, losing more than 10,000 people.

In this war, the Linus family did not get any advantage. First, they lost 6,000 soldiers in the battle with Grand Duke Jonathan, and then more than 10,000 people were killed and injured because of the orcs' disruption. The Linus family itself only has 40,000 old foundations, and has lost more than 40% of its strength. It is impossible to replenish it in a short time.

After receiving the letter of assistance from Duke Jonathan, Richard decided to lead his troops north to help the Grand Duchy of Stannik defeat the orcs.

In this year's Five-Nation War, the casualties in Harland were not very serious.

The remaining army fought against the Yunhai Slave Catching Group of the Sith Kingdom and lost more than 3,000 people. The casualties mainly came from auxiliary soldiers, and the regular army suffered very little losses. Although the auxiliary soldiers suffered a lot of casualties, it is relatively easy to replenish them.

In addition, the main force of Harland in the north of the Eagle Mountains confronted the orcs of the Eastern Front of the Grassland Governor's District, and several small-scale battles broke out, resulting in more than 800 casualties. The defenders of the Prilan area fought against the undead from the northern ice field this year, and lost more than 400 people.

The southern expeditionary army led by Richard fought several battles with the Kingdom of Ryan, and the total loss was more than 6,000 people. Adding up all the fronts, Harland's army lost about 10,000 people.

Including the new recruits incorporated into the army this year, Harland's army has 156,000 people, including 112,000 regular troops and 44,000 auxiliary troops.

Last year, after conquering the Prilan area, Richard formed the Fifth Legion, successfully built the legendary magic ship, and formed the Black River Navy. These are all regular army formations, and the missing personnel can only be supplemented from the auxiliary troops.

156,000 troops, more than 10,000 casualties a year, the casualty rate is only about 6.5%, which is not very serious. In addition, more than half of the wounded soldiers can return to the army. The actual loss of personnel this year is only more than 3,000 people killed in battle and more than 1,800 people seriously injured and retired.

The army has relatively light casualties, so the combat effectiveness can be well maintained, and there is enough strength to help the Grand Duchy of Stannic repel the orcs.

There is another reason why Richard is willing to help. He is ready to negotiate with Grand Duke Stannic to exchange the territory of Duke Madison occupied this year for Duke Jonathan.

If this territory exchange is completed, Harland's territory in the northern border will be connected and very complete. Occupying a large area of ​​​​the north, it has the foundation to form a kingdom.

Richard led his troops to the north to reinforce, which can make the Grand Duchy of Stannic owe a favor.

The most important point is that Richard's reinforcement to the north is actually paid. If he wins the Grand Duchy of Stannic, he must reward him. Whether it is land or other resources, Harland must always give a share.

Richard led his troops to the north, and he also had to leave heavy troops in the newly occupied areas. After careful consideration, Richard decided to station Wilde's Fourth Legion in Novena Castle, and the Duke of Madison left 30,000 auxiliary soldiers to take charge.

Harland's auxiliary soldiers were also strong in combat, equipped with a large number of steel armor and alchemical bombs, because Harland could provide a large number of Tenghui potions. An auxiliary squadron had about three to five professional officers, which was equivalent to the level of the Sixth Battalion of the Mad Lion Legion where Richard served.

According to feedback on the battlefield, it can compete with the regular legion of the Kingdom of Ryan. But it is slightly worse than the border army of the Kingdom of Grant.

Because the nine elite legions under the Grant royal family are also equipped with a large number of alchemical bombs, although the royal family cannot sell them to the outside and compete with Harland for business, they are equipped with enough alchemical bombs, and their combat effectiveness is stronger than twenty years ago.

Especially the four legions of the North, Grizzlies, Mad Lions, and Iron Lions, which are considered first-class strong soldiers in the eastern countries of the Central Continent. With the same number of troops, they can defeat the orcs in the field.

Richard left 50,000 troops to defend the newly captured territory, and personally led 24,000 troops north to reinforce the Grand Duchy of Stannic.

Before going north, Richard also left the first brigade of magic airships, the Wyvern Knights, in Novena Castle to strengthen Wilde's reconnaissance power. With this power, Wilde can detect the enemy's movements in advance and request reinforcements when the enemy launches a large-scale attack and mobilizes supplies.

Harland owns the Dream Tree, which can be used as a magic radio station. The transmission of intelligence is very easy. Every night Richard will enter the dreams of important intelligence officers and have a brief communication with the stationmasters of important intelligence stations.

After the end of this war, Wilde finally gained enough merits and was promoted to the hereditary noble class. However, it is not yet certain where his territory will be sealed.

Because the war had just ended, the Kingdom of Grant had not had time to confer titles and rewards.

Richard had just led his troops into the Grand Duchy of Stannic, and good news immediately reached his ears. First, Sophia broke through the bottleneck after a meditation and was promoted to a nine-ring magician.

After being promoted to the ninth ring, Sophia's mental power increased to 49 points, and she was only one step away from awakening the fifth talent.

Sophia is three years older than Richard. She was promoted to the ninth ring at the age of 42, and she had a long time to impact the bottleneck of legend. She refined a bottle of water of life and had a life span of more than 200 years. With this foundation, as long as there is no major accident, the promotion to legend is basically a sure thing.

During this period, not only Sophia was promoted successfully, but Richard's eldest daughter Margaret also broke through the bottleneck. Margaret was promoted to a fourth-ring magician at the age of seventeen, and her meditation progress was a few points faster than Sophia.

In this war, in order to let the children receive training, Margaret went south with the army, while Philip stayed in the northern border. Under the care of Jennings and others, he personally felt the war. Even in the battle, Philip personally killed a dog-headed man.

Although Richard only led a legion and several thousand professional troops to the north, the attack power of this force was quite strong.

After entering the Silver Wolf Mountains area, Harland led the army to take the initiative to attack and captured Hawkins Pass in one fell swoop, cutting off the supply lines of the two orc legions.

Harland has magic crystal cannons, and Richard's starlight bombs are powerful and have strong frontal attack capabilities. The 6,000 orcs left behind can't stop Harland's army from attacking.

The supply lines of the two orc legions were easily cut off by Harland.

The main legion of Harland appeared on the battlefield, and Melonla decisively ordered a withdrawal.

After receiving the order from the headquarters, the orcs in the direction of Stannik retreated to the north of the Silver Wolf Mountains with rich spoils.

Richard and Harland led the army and decisively attacked westward, deep into the middle of the Silver Wolf Mountains, took the initiative to attack an orc army, defeated the enemy, and rescued 70,000 to 80,000 prisoners.

This time, the orcs invaded and took advantage of the civil war among the five human countries to gain a lot of benefits. Not only did they capture dozens of castles in the north of the Silver Wolf Mountains of the Kingdom of Ryan, expanding the territory by more than 100,000 square kilometers, but they also pushed the defense line across the center of the Silver Wolf Mountains and reached the southern foot of the Silver Wolf Mountains.

This battle made the expansion of the Kingdom of Ryan in the Silver Wolf Mountains for decades useless, losing more than 600,000 people, 80,000 troops, and dozens of border nobles suffered heavy casualties. In addition to the loss of more than 200,000 square kilometers of territory in the south, the Kingdom of Ryan lost nearly 400,000 square kilometers of territory, accounting for about a quarter of the total territory, which hurt the foundation.

In this war, King Ryan lost 120,000 soldiers and the population loss was also extremely serious, adding up to about 3 million. In this war launched this year, because of the orcs' disruption, the Kingdom of Ryan was defeated and lost a lot, and the national strength was seriously damaged.

The Kingdom of Ryan suffered a great loss, and the Grand Duchy of Stannic was also in a bad situation. The orcs invaded the royal territory, and the border nobles suffered heavy losses, and hundreds of thousands of people were robbed by the orcs. Although the Kingdom of Delong and the East Coast United Kingdom did not lose the war and maintained the front line, they did not take back the territory. They fought a fierce battle, wasted money and labor, but had no benefit.

Only the Kingdom of Grant, although the national strength was greatly depleted, expanded more than 200,000 square kilometers of land after all, and was able to confer titles and land to the meritorious soldiers, without the great nobles and the royal family paying for benefits.

More than 200,000 square kilometers of land are enough to be divided into two duchies. Although this land was conquered by Harland, without the 600,000 troops of the Kingdom of Grant, Harland’s army could not get such a big benefit and defeat the enemy.

In the end, several great nobles of the Kingdom of Grant repeatedly communicated with each other, and after discussing with the Grand Duchy of Stannic, the newly expanded territory was transformed into one duchies and three earls.

Among them, Harland Territory had the greatest contribution and was allocated a duchy and an earldom. Of the remaining two earldoms, one was given to the royal family to establish a direct province, and the other was divided into six viscount territories and 24 baronies, which were distributed to nobles who had made contributions in the Kingdom of Grant. The remaining land in the province also belongs to the royal family.

Because a lot of land was captured in this battle, these three provinces are large in area, each of which is about 30,000 square kilometers. The mature land in the south was smaller when it was divided into fiefdoms. The viscount territories were only 2,000 square kilometers, and the barons were only about 300 square kilometers because they were easier to bully.

Six viscount territories, plus 24 baronies, have a total area of ​​19,000 square kilometers, and the remaining territories directly under the royal family are also about 13,000 square kilometers.

Moreover, although many of the nobles who received fiefdoms came from great nobles, such as the six viscount territories, they all came from the six duke families of the Kingdom of Grant. But these nobles who were granted fiefdoms were nominally directly under the royal family.

The essence of this war was that Harland expanded its territory by 130,000 square kilometers, the royal family directly expanded by about 45,000 square kilometers, and the remaining 46,000 square kilometers of land belonged to other great nobles and newly promoted nobles with military merit in the Kingdom of Grant.

For example, the four marquises in the east and the seven earls in the south all gained something after the war, and only 13 pieces of territory were granted to the newly promoted nobles with military merit, which was actually very rare.

Of course, with the vassal under the system of great nobles, this year's battle of over a million people promoted more than 20 hereditary nobles. For example, Wilde of Harland Territory had accumulated enough military merits in this battle, and Richard was also prepared to confer him to the southern territory. Richard was also prepared to let Wilde's Fourth Legion hold on for a long time.

After the demarcation of the territory was completed, Richard went directly to Grand Duke Jonathan and asked to exchange the southern dukedom for the Jonathan family's territory in the Grant Kingdom.

Although the Dukedom of Jonathan had the Dragon's Nest, a natural medium-sized magic well, which was of good value, in order to avoid becoming a thorn in Richard's eyes and a thorn in his flesh, and to concentrate the territory in one place, Grand Duke Jonathan thought for a day and decided to agree to Richard's proposal.

Richard had more than 1.2 million serfs in the southern territory, and the Dukedom of Jonathan also had a population of 1.6 million. The two sides reached a population exchange by the way. In the end, Duke Jonathan only needed to migrate two legions of soldiers and territorial bureaucrats, plus their families, about 300,000 people.

After the two duchies were exchanged, the territory of the Duke of Harland had been connected into one piece, with an area of ​​more than one million square kilometers. Including Richard's earldom in the south, the population had increased to nearly 10 million.

The three earldoms in the south were named Novena Province, Campa Province, and Philip Earldom. Since Richard was the biggest contributor to this battle, the right to name the new territory naturally belonged to him.

After the territories were divided, Roger Kingdom transferred a royal guard corps to Novena Castle, and Wilde withdrew the fourth corps to Philip Earldom for garrison.

Due to the transfer of the royal family and other noble troops, the Harland County also gradually reduced its garrison to the south, and finally maintained only about 32,000 people. However, the Wyvern Knights and the First Magic Airship Battalion temporarily stayed in the south.

This time it's not that Richard doesn't want to exchange the northern territory, but it's a pity that the Kingdom of Roger wants Lord Harland to focus part of his energy on the south. After all, the alliance between Ryan, Delon and the East Coast has put increasing pressure on the Kingdom of Grant. Without the full support of Lord Harland, the Kingdom of Grant can't stand it at all.

The royal family is unwilling to exchange territory, so Richard can only look for the neighboring Duke of York and Grand Duchy of Stannic.

Grand Duchy of Stannic also has this consideration, hoping that Lord Harland will put part of his troops on the border of the Kingdom of Ryan to protect its south. The Duke of York is also unwilling to exchange territory. After all, with Lord Harland blocking the north, the Duke of York does not need to face the threat of orcs, and of course he is unwilling to divide his energy to go to the south to fight with the powerful Kingdom of Ryan.

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