Chapter 488: The Heart of Reform
After Richard refined the soul crystal, it was already August of the 3282nd year of the Dawn Calendar.
After two years of occupation, the situation in Rex Province gradually stabilized.
In more than two years, the pain caused by the war has been healed, production has been fully restored, and the Kingdom of Harland has also transferred part of its industry to Rex Province.
In the past two years, taking advantage of the power brought by the war, Richard easily migrated about two million people from Rex Province to the mainland. Although most of the migrated population were contract slaves, there were also some free people. Although these people were reluctant to leave their hometowns, they had to pack up and migrate to the wilderness under the coercion of power.
Due to the large number of immigrants in Rex Province, the development speed of the two provinces of East Coast and Prilan has accelerated rapidly. In just two years, hundreds of settlements have been newly built. In particular, the settlements along the railway have been filled with many people.
In the past two years, the railway line has continued to extend southward. Last month, it was built from Xinghui Castle to Xiaguang Castle.
Now, three trunk railways have started to operate in Harland Territory.
The first is the Xingpa Railway that runs through the east and west of the territory. This railway starts from the coastal port Xinghui Castle in the east and ends at Pading Castle in the border area of the Grand Duchy of Stannic in the west. The total mileage is 1,200 kilometers, passing through the five provinces of East Coast, Annis, Grotta, Central, and Vera.
The second is the Eagle Mountain Ring Railway. This railway is crisscrossed, not counting the two horizontal and three vertical branches, passing through the four provinces of Grotta, Central, Eagle, and Prilan, with a total mileage of more than 1,400 kilometers. It can easily deliver materials from the two provinces of Central and Black River to the northern border.
The last one is the Eastern Coastal Railway. This railway runs from Haikou Castle at the mouth of the Samba River all the way south, passing Xinghui Castle, and has been built to Xiaguang Castle, with a total mileage of 800 kilometers. After the opening of this railway, a large number of steamships will be able to free up space to transport urgently needed goods to the Rex Province.
In addition to the three major railways, Harland Territory also has some branch railways, such as the Black Victory Railway that runs through the Dragon Canyon, the Anshuang Railway on the southern foot of the Annis Mountains, etc., which add up to about 400 kilometers.
The Alo Railway in Rex Province has just completed its exploration and is also in the planning of the railway department.
According to Richard's idea, the coastal railway should continue to go south, along the Xiaguang Castle, through the three provinces of Allen, Guevara, and Klein in the Kingdom of Grant, through the Earldom of Charlotte, over the Andorra Mountains, and enter the Dukedom of William. Then continue south, cross the Dukedom of Nelson, and enter the Rex Province.
However, the negotiations with the Kingdom of Grant were not reached at all.
Although the relationship between the two countries is still good, and there is still a marriage between the royal families, King Roger still has a deep fear of Richard in his heart, and even fear.
As the saying goes, how can you let others sleep soundly beside your bed? With the powerful country of Harland Kingdom by your side, the neighboring country of Grant Kingdom naturally has to be cautious. Now the relationship between the two sides is good, and the royal family is still married. However, no one can guarantee how long this close relationship can last.
Once the railway is completed, life and death will be in the hands of others. Even if the Kingdom of Roger agrees, the nobles of the Kingdom of Grant will never agree.
Even if Richard is willing to sign a long-term peace agreement, it is difficult for the two countries to trust each other on major issues concerning the future of the country.
Due to the opposition of the Kingdom of Grant, the coastal railway can only be built to the southern border of the East Coast Province.
The Kingdom of Grant opposes the entry of the railway. The Grand Duchy of Stannic is weaker and dares not agree to the request of the Kingdom of Harland to allow the railway to pass through the border and be built to the Earl of Philip.
Since the railway cannot be built to the Earl of Philip, Richard weighed the pros and cons and began to reduce the garrison in the Earl of Philip in 3282 of the Dawn Calendar.
As of August, Wilde had withdrawn all the Fourth Corps, and more than 12,000 of the 20,000 auxiliary troops were withdrawn. Now there are only 8,000 auxiliary troops left in the Earl of Philip.
According to Richard's plan, this part of the auxiliary troops will be withdrawn, and only about 5,000 garrisons will be left in the end. Then recruit some new soldiers from the Earl of Philip and expand them to 10,000 people to transform them into local garrisons.
The local garrison of 10,000 people can be supported by the finances of the Earl of Philip.
Although Grant and Stannic prohibit the construction of railways, the magic airships of the Kingdom of Harland can fly freely over the two countries.
Although the Grand Duchy of Stannic imported some magic hot air balloons from the Territory of Harland, most of them have been destroyed in the war with the Kingdom of Ryan.
Now Stannic has only a small number of flying arms. Although domestic people of insight have realized the importance of air supremacy, the country is weak and has no ability to protect its airspace.
Although Grand Duke Jonathan sent people to Fort William several times to ask for the purchase of some magic airships, the arms sales of the Kingdom of Harland were attached with political conditions. Only if they agreed to build railways would they consider selling magic airships.
Stannic was unwilling to agree to the request to build railways, but they urgently needed flying arms. There was no way for Stannic's mage department to find a way to copy the magic airships of the Kingdom of Harland.
The magic airship has a high level of technology. First of all, the production of rare gas (helium) requires a relatively high level of industrial technology. Stanik has no industry, so even if the technology is sent to them, they can't understand it at all. Without systematic training, they don't even know chemical symbols, let alone chemical equations.
The second is the magic engine, which also requires a very high technical threshold. Even the super magic metal formula used in the engine is not clear to the Grand Duchy of Stannic, let alone the more profound magic energy conversion technology. To conquer this technology, not only a large amount of gold coins need to be invested, but also sufficient technical researchers are needed, and it will take a long time to succeed.
In addition, the calculation of fluid mechanics is also a difficult hurdle, requiring a large number of talents proficient in mathematics. There may be only three or five people in the Grand Duchy of Stannic who can undertake this task.
On the contrary, the attack and defense arrays arranged on the magic airship are still within the understanding of the magicians of the Grand Duchy of Stannic, and they are sure to copy it successfully.
Not to mention high-end weapons such as magic airships, even the relatively simple magic hot air balloons cannot be copied successfully by the Grand Duchy of Stannic.
First is the magic flame jet furnace, which contains sound control conversion rune technology and magic energy conversion flame rune technology. It may feel that the technical level is average in Harland Territory, but it is truly high-tech in the Grand Duchy of Stannic.
In particular, Richard also formulated anti-disassembly runes. Once violently disassembled. The internal rune core will be damaged. The magic flame jet furnace had quality problems, and the Grand Duchy of Stanik couldn't even repair it, so it had to be sent to Harland.
The second is large binoculars. Although the Grand Duchy of Stanik has a glass kiln, the quality of the glass fired is very low and cannot be used to make telescopes. Even if natural transparent crystals are mined, there are no good lens grinding craftsmen, and even a small telescope cannot be successfully copied by the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
Even the simplest silk balloons cannot be made by Stanik because of poor textile technology and the lack of suitable silkworms. Not to mention the rubber coating on the silk balloons.
If you want to copy magic hot air balloons and magic airships, you need your own magic civilization. The industrial civilization has developed to a certain level, and the implicit threshold is very high.
If the Grand Duchy of Stanik wants to emulate the Kingdom of Harland to carry out the Industrial Revolution, it must learn from the Kingdom of Harland, improve and innovate the political system, and issue a series of decrees suitable for the Industrial Revolution to create the soil for the Industrial Revolution.
Even if you pass the thresholds one by one, without Richard's special soul guidance, it will take more than twice the time to catch up with the level of the Kingdom of Harland.
Internal changes require external pressure.
In recent years, the Grand Duchy of Stannic has always been an ally of the Kingdom of Harland, and has also been in the upper hand in the war with the Kingdom of Ryan. The territory has expanded by 70,000 to 80,000 square kilometers, and now it has signed a long-term peace agreement with the Kingdom of Ryan. Without the pressure of a powerful external enemy, there is naturally no motivation for internal reform.
Any reform will touch the vested interest groups, and the pain of touching interests is greater than touching the soul. If the reform is not handled well, it is easy to cause internal war.
Although Duke Jonathan is also willing to reform, the decree of pardoning serfs alone cannot be implemented. If even a serf cannot be pardoned, it is naturally impossible to expand the market quickly, and there is no market. Naturally, there is no way to carry out the industrial revolution.
The Kingdom of Grant has the same problem.
In traditional kingdoms, interest groups have already taken shape. Compared with the powerful interest group of the nobles, the power of the Grant royal family does not prevail, and the Grant royal family does not support King Roger in carrying out the industrial revolution.
Although the knowledgeable people in the country are worried about the rapid development of neighboring countries, the rigid feudal slave system and conservative ruling class seriously restrict the development of the country, making the power gap between the two sides increasingly larger and seriously unbalanced.
On the contrary, the political system reform of the Kingdom of Delong, which has suffered a series of defeats, is still ongoing.
The Kingdom of Delong was originally an extremely corrupt kingdom.
The previous king Henry was old and confused, and he was very suspicious. Under his governance, the corruption in the Kingdom of Delong was extremely serious.
The civil and military officials in the country were at ease, and there was no sense of worry. The class promotion channel was seriously blocked, and the system of military merit was in name only.
The combat effectiveness of the army was extremely low and corrupt, and the millions of troops could not beat the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Grant Kingdom. Richard, Zach, Steven, William and other Grant generals entered the land of the Kingdom of Delong as if there was no one in the land, and they could play the style of famous generals and easily control the enemy.
Even Edward and Fox families, who were beaten by orcs in the north and could not stand, rushed to the south to pick up soft persimmons, conquered large tracts of fertile land, established feudal states and gained a firm foothold.
In just six or seven years, the Kingdom of Delong lost almost half of its territory, and the country was in a crisis of life and death.
In this environment of internal and external troubles, which seemed to be destroyed at any time, the Kingdom of Delong burst out with powerful energy. The legendary knight Anton could not bear it anymore and killed his old uncle with his own hands, and cleaned up Henry's incompetent courtiers.
In the following years, Anton worked hard to govern the country and issued a decree to pardon soldiers and their families, pardoning soldiers and their families who joined the army as free men, and then followed the example of Grant, Ryan and other countries to teach the breathing method mastered by the royal family to soldiers on a large scale. In just a few years, the combat effectiveness of the army increased rapidly, which put heavy pressure on the border dukes of the Kingdom of Grant.
After that, King Anton also exerted his strength in diplomacy, and united with the East Coast and Ryan to form a tripartite alliance. If it weren't for the fact that the Harland family's industry and magic civilization were already at a very high level, and their fighting power was so strong that they almost shouldered half of the heavy responsibility on their own, it is estimated that the Grant Kingdom would have been destroyed by the Three Kingdoms Alliance.
Now that the Triple Alliance has been dissolved, the East Coast United Kingdom has been annexed by Harland and Grant, but the Kingdom of Delong is still unwilling to accept it.
As the saying goes, one is born in trouble and dies in comfort. In the situation of internal and external difficulties, the Kingdom of Delong is determined to change.
King Anton frantically collected intelligence about the Kingdom of Harland, and was determined to learn from Richard, wanting to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and save the nation.
The capital of the Kingdom of Delong, the Palace of Saint Sis Castle.
King Anton clenched his fists and walked back and forth in the palace, unable to make up his mind for a while. Several important officials stood inside the palace, and they kept arguing with each other, obviously with different opinions.
King Anton was annoyed by the quarrel between the two sides and shouted: "Shut up!
Look at the information collected from the Kingdom of Harland. About thirty years ago, Richard, who did not have a hereditary title, issued a decree to pardon serfs and taught the breathing method to soldiers.
Twenty-eight years ago, Harland issued a decree to protect private property.
Twenty-seven years ago, Richard had just become a hereditary baron and began to formulate trade and commerce regulations.
Twenty-five years ago, Harland established education, founded public schools, and began to train a large number of talents. The Mage Association recruited a large number of talented people from all over the country. People with magical qualifications.
Twenty-four years ago, Harland established the principle of mandatory examinations for every promotion, which standardized the selection and promotion of officials.
Twenty-two years ago, Harland established an audit, inspection, and supervision system, and began to standardize the supervision and management of officials.
Eighteen years ago, Harland began to hold commodity fairs.
Eight years ago, Harland reformed again, and the humble merchants Odaye and Imorton were successfully knighted.
Until two years ago, the Kingdom of Harland issued a patent decree.
This country has been in rapid reform since the beginning of the 30th year. Every year, King Harland The country is constantly changing, and new things are emerging one after another.
As for us, we can't even implement a decree to pardon serfs. "
After listening to the complaints of the Kingdom of Anton, Prime Minister Raymond said solemnly: "Your Majesty, the internal and external situations of each country are different, and other people's experience may not be useful to us.
When King Richard was managing his territory, his reforms could be implemented because the internal and external opposition forces were not strong. However, there are many opponents in our country. Once we follow the example of the Kingdom of Harland to implement the decree to pardon serfs, I am afraid that the whole country will be shocked. "
"Yes, My situation is very difficult, but can it be as difficult as the Harland family thirty years ago? At that time, they had nothing and had to face the powerful and terrifying invasion of orcs.
Now thirty years have passed, and the Harland family has built a powerful kingdom from a border baron. Its power has frightened the nearby countries and made them tremble and dare not move rashly. Even the powerful orcs were afraid of them, gave up the Eagle Mountains, and fled to the northern prairie. Our country was beaten by a small army of others and was almost destroyed.
The example is here. If we don’t reform and regain the lost land, how can we survive in the future? "