Chapter 459: War Breaks Out Again

A large-scale mobilization of troops is bound to be accompanied by a large amount of material mobilization. This situation naturally cannot be hidden from the opponent's scouts.

In February of the 3278th year of the Dawn Calendar, Richard discovered that the enemy troops in the rear were mobilizing a large number of troops to the front-line castles such as Pangle, Corolla, and Polya. Richard knew that once the enemy's mobilization was completed, the offensive would be very swift.

The front line was tight. Although the training of recruits had not been completed, Richard still incorporated 6,000 recruits into the army. At the same time, he immediately sent a letter to Green in the rear Luin Castle, asking Green to rule Sutton and continue to draw elite troops to reinforce the Red Moon Plane.

Limited by the cost of opening the plane portal, Harland County can only add one or two thousand troops to the Red Moon Plane per month. In order to avoid a large number of deaths from illness, Richard required that those drawn into the Red Moon Plane were elites.

Although Harland County has 170,000 troops, only 26,000 professionals and 35,000 high-level apprentices can be considered elites, adding up to more than 60,000 people.

These 60,000 people are the backbone of the entire army, and it is impossible to transfer all of them to the Red Moon plane to fight.

Now that Harland Territory controls more than one million square kilometers of land, the surrounding situation is also unstable. Richard carefully calculated that the elites who can be transferred to the Red Moon plane are only 24,000 at most. These 24,000 people need to be transferred separately for two to three years to facilitate the army to replenish the backbone.

Now Harland Territory, because of the successful development of Snow Crystal Lake, controls the entire Eagle Mountains, and the scale of hunting monsters has increased greatly. It can produce about 30,000 Tenghui potions each year, and can train about 3,500 warrior professionals a year. This promotion scale has exceeded the Kingdom of Ryan and is at the leading level among the eastern countries.

Although there are many warriors promoted in Harland Territory, it is very rare for knights to be promoted. As early as more than ten years ago, Harland Territory mastered the method of refining blood enlightenment potions, but refining this potion requires a lot of precious resources, and Harland Territory's production is not very large, and can only barely maintain basic supply.

Compared with Grant, Ryan and other countries, the number of knights promoted every year in Harland is relatively small. This is not only due to the limited production of blood enlightenment potions, but mainly because Harland does not have so many people with knight blood.

After all, the Harland family has not been prosperous for a long time, and they do not have much knight blood, and most of the backbones under their command do not have noble status. In the huge Harland, only 50 to 60 knights are promoted every year, while in the Grant Kingdom, more than 300 knights are promoted a year, and the Ryan Kingdom can reach 500.

To improve this situation, we can only rely on marriages from generation to generation to allow the high-level nobles of the territory to slowly have knight blood. To reach the scale of the Grant Kingdom, it will take at least hundreds of years of marriage.

Because of the comprehensive selection policy formulated by Richard, the magicians in Harland are trained quite well. As of the latest intelligence sent, the Harland Mage Association already has 527 magicians and 2,800 mage apprentices.

Among the eastern countries, the magical power of Harland has far surpassed that of Grant, Ryan and other powerful countries. It ranks second only to the East Coast United Kingdom.

Although Richard entered the Red Moon Plane, he could receive intelligence from Harland every ten days. Although this information was a little delayed, it did not affect the communication between the two planes.

Through frequent correspondence, the major events of Harland were mainly decided by Richard. However, in case of emergency, Richard granted Undine the right to make decisions on the spot. Undine could mobilize the power of Harland at critical times.

Recently, Rogge sent last year's economic report to Richard through Sutton and Green.

As of February 3278, the total population of Harland has exceeded 12 million, of which the population directly controlled by the territory is about 11.09 million, and the population owned by the vassal is 940,000.

Of course, the territory has expanded to this extent, and the population statistics can no longer be accurate, and can only be roughly estimated based on the household registration.

The household registers all record the population that has been taxed for land distribution. Now, the total number of illegal households in Harland is estimated to be one or two million. Even though Richard strictly prohibits private slavery and Harland has also issued laws, this kind of thing still persists, and private slavery still appears in the daily production of Harland.

There are more than 11 million direct populations, and the number of free people is as high as 7.4 million. The land tax alone can collect about 2.5 million a year. Together with other miscellaneous taxes, the tax alone collected 3.67 million last year. In addition to the income of various officially controlled enterprises, Harland’s fiscal revenue exceeded 6 million last year.

In terms of fiscal revenue, the Dukedom of Harland has surpassed the kingdoms of Delong, Grant, and Ryan, and is only slightly worse than coastal countries such as the East Coast and Sith.

As Richard entered the Red Moon Plane, Harland’s goods also began to enter the Red Moon Plane. Although the profit is relatively small in the short term, once Richard has gained a foothold in the Red Moon Plane, this market will gradually be monopolized by Harland.

After all, the Red Moon Plane has a population of nearly 200 million, and the population controlled by the Dawn Church and the Holy Light Empire has exceeded 70 million. Although very few of these 70 million natives have the ability to consume, once Richard takes over the power of the Holy Light Empire and develops the economy, the market size will also expand rapidly.

Whether the economy of Harland Territory can continue to develop rapidly depends on the evolution of the situation in the Red Moon Plane.

Through the report sent by Roger, Richard found that Harland Territory's steel production last year exceeded 300,000 tons, and the railway mileage exceeded 2,400 kilometers. Last year alone, Harland Territory built 500 kilometers of railways, and the investment in railways exceeded 700,000 gold coins, which is higher than the expenditure of civil servants in the territory.

Used in the maintenance of the army, it can increase two and a half main legions.

For more than ten consecutive years, large-scale investment has been made in the construction of railways, and the total investment has reached nearly 3.8 million gold coins.

Such a huge investment has promoted the great development of Harland Territory's railway project.

Now the section from Songtao Castle to Martins Castle has been opened to traffic, and the western loop of the Eagle Mountains has been connected to the central loop. The entire Eagle Mountains area has three railway lines running through the north and south, and all important towns and strongholds are connected in series.

Although the railway bridges across the Samba River and the Black River have not been built yet, they have connected three sections of the railway line from Prilan to Samba River, from Black River Castle to Light Castle, and from Flame Castle to Maple Leaf Castle.

Next, the focus of railway construction will be shifted to the west of Harland Territory, the 360-kilometer section from Maple Leaf Castle to Padin Castle.

When this section of railway is opened to traffic next year, the journey from Harland Territory to the border of the Grand Duchy of Stannic will be shortened to two and a half days.

Today, Harland Territory's daily necessities such as wine, brown sugar, steel products, soap, soap, glass products, etc. have sunk to the low-end market and popularized to the free class, which not only enriched the market and improved the living standards of the people, but also gave Harland Territory a stronger source of tax revenue.

Just as Richard was seizing the time to deploy troops and strengthen the Red Moon Plane, the situation in the Dawn Plane suddenly changed.

In February of the 3278th year of the Dawn Calendar, the three countries of Delong, East Coast, and Ryan all started a war.

Three years ago, because the orcs went south, the five countries signed a short-term peace agreement.

Now that the three-year peace agreement has not expired, the three countries have sacrificed the signatories and started a war again.

This time, they still besieged the Grant Kingdom from three sides.

The East Coast United Kingdom made the most efforts, dispatching 500,000 troops, which were still divided into three fronts.

The sea route had 160,000 troops, going upstream along the Oram River to fight against the coalition forces of the four eastern marquises.

In recent years, with the great development of the Grant Kingdom, the strength of the four eastern marquises has increased a lot. Not only have they divided into many branches, but they have also plundered a large number of serfs and reclaimed a lot of wasteland.

With the increase in population and food, the military strength of the four marquises has also expanded a bit, adding up to a total of 120,000 noble coalition forces.

Although the 120,000 noble coalition forces could not repel the 160,000 troops of the East Coast, they could barely stabilize the front line, and this time they did not ask for help from the Grant royal family.

In addition to the sea route, the East Coast United Kingdom drew 12 legions to attack the four neighboring earls of the Grant Kingdom, Paulus, Zachli, Marcel, and Charlotte.

The main direction of the troops was in the Andorra Mountains, and it was obvious that they wanted to regain lost territory and recapture the important strongholds in the south of the Andorra Mountains.

The four earls on the front line were short of troops and immediately asked for help from the rear.

After receiving the letter for help, the three earls William, Wimble and Steven immediately came out in full force. Under the command of William, they stationed troops along the Mara River, threatening the hinterland of the East Coast United Kingdom, forcing the East Coast United Kingdom to divide its troops, and supporting the four earls on the front line.

In this battlefield, the seven earls of the Grant Kingdom had a total of 150,000 soldiers, while the East Coast had an army of 240,000. However, the Grant Kingdom occupied the geographical advantage and could barely maintain the situation.

The last Western Route Army of the East Coast Kingdom had 200,000 soldiers and approached the royal southern direct territory, fighting against the four most elite armies of the Grant Kingdom: the North, the Grizzly, the Iron Lion, and the Crazy Lion.

The Grant Kingdom had the least troops along this route, with less than 100,000, but the four armies of the North were brave and good at fighting. They were able to easily fight against the 200,000 troops of the East Coast and easily blocked the enemy south of the Mara River.

The East Coast United Kingdom came out in full force, and the Delong Kingdom was also desperately mobilizing. In the past three years, King Anton has almost stayed in the army and trained soldiers in person. After several reforms and eliminations, the army of the Kingdom of Delon has reduced its size to 300,000, but these 300,000 troops have a brand new look and their combat effectiveness exceeds that of the previous million-strong army.

Even though Fox, Edward, and the three Dukes of Guise were stationed along the river, they still couldn't bear the pressure and began to ask for help from the Grant royal family. The royal family dispatched four guards corps and 80,000 troops to the south, and cooperated with the 120,000 troops of the three Dukes of Fox to barely defend the north bank of the Mara River.

The main force of the three-nation coalition is still the Kingdom of Ryan. This time, the Kingdom of Ryan dispatched 600,000 troops and aggressively killed the west of the Kingdom of Grant.

First is the northern army. The Kingdom of Ryan still uses the legendary knight Haldane of the Linus family as the vanguard, and leads 100,000 troops to advance eastward along the Silver Wolf Mountains. Grand Duke Jonathan led two corps, plus 40,000 northern noble coalition troops to stop the enemy.

Duke Jonathan had a total of 80,000 troops along this route. Although he had fewer troops than the enemy, he had a higher chance of winning in the internal battle.

The central army of the Kingdom of Ryan had about 200,000 troops, and they attacked the heart of the Grand Duchy of Stannic along the Oram River.

The commander in charge of this area of ​​the Kingdom of Grant was the eldest son of Grand Duke Jonathan, McMillan. He led two legions of the Jonathan family and 80,000 troops of the four Dukes of Stannic, but he could not stop the advancement of the Kingdom of Ryan.

In just over 20 days, seven letters of help were sent to the rear.

In desperation, the Duke of York led three legions to station in the Grand Duchy of Stannic, and only then blocked the enemy in this direction.

In the southern Mara River Basin, the Kingdom of Ryan deployed a heavy army of 300,000.

There are many defenders in this direction, including more than 20,000 people from the Fourth Legion of Harland, stationed in the Earl of Philip, and 6,000 second-line auxiliary troops. The Grant royal family also has two guards corps stationed in Novena and Campa. There are 60,000 elite troops and 20,000 auxiliary troops on the border alone.

In addition, after the war started, the two Dukes of Loran and Duran could not stay out of it, and looted 100,000 troops to reinforce the front line.

Although the front line has increased to 180,000 troops, facing the 300,000 troops of the Kingdom of Ryan, the pressure is still very heavy.

At this moment, except for the Harland Territory, the Kingdom of Grant has no available troops.

Although Richard entered the Red Moon Plane, the power of Harland Territory was deeply involved in the disputes of the Red Moon Plane, but Roger, who was stationed in the territory, knew that Harland Territory was now in the same boat with the Grant Royal Family, and they would prosper and suffer together.

Unless there was a way to break the Tripartite Alliance, Harland Territory could only act in a group with the Grant Royal Family.

Besides, the Fourth Legion under Wilde was still in the south, and it was impossible to give up this legion internally.

The reason why King Roger left this fertile territory to the Harland Family was for this reason.

The Earldom of Philip now has a population of more than 1.4 million, and it is still the Harland Family's grip in the southern region. Even Richard couldn't make up his mind to give up this territory.

The situation on the front line was tight, and there was no time to wait for Richard's decision. Roger reported to Undine and decided to use the right to make decisions on the spot granted by Richard to dispatch the Second Legion, the newly formed Sixth Legion, and 20,000 auxiliary soldiers, a total of 60,000 troops to reinforce the Earldom of Philip.

With the addition of Harland's 60,000 troops, the front line barely maintained a balance.

The key to this battle was the western battlefield, where both sides used a large number of flying troops.

First of all, the Lion Cavalry. The Kingdom of Ryan dispatched as many as 400 Lion Cavalry, and the two nobles of Harland and Grant also had 200 Lion Cavalry participating in the front-line battle.

In addition, Harland also dispatched two magic airship battalions, with more than 60 magic airships active on the front line. In addition, the great nobles of the Kingdom of Grant also used magic hot air balloon troops, and more than 500 groups of magic hot air balloons appeared in the sky above the front line.

Although the Kingdom of Ryan had more Lion Knights, it could not seize the air advantage, but fell into a brutal stranglehold. Just one month after the battle, the Lion Knights of the Kingdom of Ryan lost more than 60.