Whatever the name of Richard, it was impossible to hide the news that he had taken over Drifting Snow City, and the first to get the news was in the river valley adjacent to the Northlands.

The wealth of the valley was inversely proportional to its military power, and the valley, which was less than one-tenth of the area of the Northland, had a population of more than six million, and hundreds of nobles, large and small, which was already densely populated in this era.

It's just that these more than 100 nobles have long been commercialized, and with their wealth and population, they act more like a complex of landlords and merchants, and those who can pull out fifty soldiers are considered powerful nobles, and some of them have not even repaired the traditional castle and live in more comfortable manors.

As far as the eleven families in Bolai City have a limited ability to fight soldiers, they may be able to get together a few thousand, but in front of the Hunter family in the Northland, it is not like there is nothing, and now the main force of the River Valley Army is still Dane's 20,000 River Valley Army, and it is no secret that Dane has been eye-to-eye with Richard for a long time.

Since the news of Richard's annexation of Drifting Snow City came, the big nobles in Bolai City were a little uneasy, the four dragons, Richard did not hide them at all this time, as long as the whole kingdom is not deaf and blind, it should be known Richard's power now, and now the nobles in the valley are afraid that Richard will turn his face with the kingdom, and they will suffer first, and Dane can only urge the kingdom forbidden army that is still on the way.

That's right, the 20,000 forbidden troops that Wren decided to send to Zhenbei Pass to strengthen the defense have not yet arrived at this time, and Richard has already swept away the orcs who invaded the Northland, and now they have become the force to prevent Richard from breaking through the pass and entering the river valley.

And Jin Longdu's side also got the news about the Northland, and Wren even had a letter sent by Richard in his hand at this time, and there was no joy or anger on his face.

"Richard, this kid, do you really think that the kingdom can't help him?"

"I'm afraid we can't do anything for the time being."

Wren's tone was obviously not good, and only Thor dared to speak so straight at this time.

"Yes, my son-in-law's wings are stiff, and there are four dragons."

The place of deliberation is not in the main hall, but in a small room in the palace, only the left minister, the right minister and the absolute high-level of the kingdom such as Thor, etc., the discussion in the main hall is originally a formality most of the time, and the real decision on the big thing can accommodate a group of people to discuss it, and it is just a few people who have reached a consensus and then symbolically let more people discuss it.

"Your Majesty, the most important thing for us at the moment is to deal with the crisis of the orcs, and we must entangle the orcs on the front line of the Dragon's Breath Pass, otherwise the Central Great Plains will not be able to be saved."

"I know, anyway, there is Richard that kid in the north, the orcs should not be able to find a breakthrough, and I have already transferred back the forbidden army to Zhenbeiguan, so he can go to the northland."

The nobles of Blai City still don't know that the kingdom forbidden army they were looking forward to has been transferred back before it arrives.

"Speaking of which, at this time, Richard can stabilize the Northland and block the orcs in the Northland, which can be regarded as relieving the pressure on the kingdom."

"Hmph, then he's just doing it for his own benefit."

Although Wren was dissatisfied with Richard's actions, he was still quite rational in his behavior, and directly ignored the affairs of the north, and shrunk all his forces into the upcoming orc crisis.

It was also Richard who figured out Wren's character, knowing that Wren was a very rational king, no matter how excessive his behavior was now, Wren would not lift the table, if he changed to a more impulsive king, Richard might have to be a little more careful when he broke the rules.

"So, should we reject the request in Richard's letter?"

Wren had let everyone circulate the letter before, and Zuo Xiang also knew Richard's request in the letter, not only annexed Drifting Snow City, but also privately arranged a marquis heir, and what was even more shameless was that Richard even sent a letter asking the kingdom to recognize his arrangement.

"This kind of thing, I don't think you can start this way, just ignore it."

Although there is no way to take Richard on the side of the Golden Dragon Capital, but he has the ability to disgust him, although Richard can already decide anything in the Northland, but the Charman family of the Golden Dragon Kingdom for hundreds of years is particularly powerful, and the name of righteousness is still in Wren, if they do not recognize Lint's inheritance of the title, then Lint, the marquis, will have such a taste of unjustification, although no one in the Northland dares to say anything, but it is always a little less legitimate.

"But the Hunter family has just won a great victory over the orcs, and successfully killed the orc's protector warrior Gelt, and now the human head is already on the way to the royal capital, which is the biggest result that humans have achieved against the orcs in more than a hundred years..."

Although Saul did not finish speaking, the meaning was obvious, the Hunter family had a great merit, and the current situation was not suitable for beating, Saul was speaking for Richard, although Saul was also a little dissatisfied with Richard's arbitrary behavior, but from the perspective of martial arts, he admired Richard very much.

There was Sol who reminded him, and several people on the field fell silent again, the orcs of the three legions plus a protector warrior, at this special time, let alone a marquis, in fact, it is not too much to give a duke, but Richard's behavior is too bad, he is overstepping his authority to act as the center of the kingdom, if it is a viscount or something, they will turn a blind eye, but the marquis is already the nobleman at the top of the kingdom, how should Richard arrange it.

"Let the House of Lords recognize this Lint's title first."

In the end, it was Wren who recognized the incident and set the tone. Others are no longer opposed, in the face of the threat of orcs, the top of the kingdom is still very sober, this is not the time for internal friction.

"Let's talk about Richard's reward."

"This time, Richard acted recklessly and annexed Drifting Snow City without authorization, and the kingdom's refusal to pursue it is already the greatest kindness to him."

"yes, at best, it's a matter of merit and demerit."

"Reward some money at most."

The following people all understand that in the face of Richard's merits, the kingdom is actually quite embarrassing, although the marquis still has the position of duke, but in fact the marquis is already the ceiling of the nobility, since the establishment of the kingdom, the kingdom has been crowned a total of two dukes, one is one of the three founding horsemen of the Duke of Ross, and the other is the dragon knight Thor of the town who is now present.

The dukedom of the Ross family, that is for historical reasons, and the dukedom of Sol is to some extent the most an honorary title, and he does not have an actual fief like the Ross family.

If you really turn the knighthood according to merit, you can only give Richard the title to the duke, a real duke with tens of millions of people and hundreds of thousands of people with armor? The center has an instinctive rejection of this kind of thing, it is enough for the kingdom to have a duke of the West, and this Richard is not too well-behaved, so Thor didn't speak to help at this time, just waiting for Wren to decide.

Unexpectedly, after Wren thought about it for a while, he said a decision that surprised everyone.

"Promote Richard's title to duke, add the title of guardian of the Northlands, and command all military forces in the Northlands and River Valleys."

"This?"

Everyone thought that they had heard it wrong, and it was already an exception to the duke, but it was also worthy of Richard's credit, but they couldn't understand the operation of packing the valley together with Richard.

"Your Majesty, the River Valley is a barrier between the Central Great Plains and the Northlands, and I'm afraid it's a little inappropriate to hand it over to Richard."

After making sure that he was not having auditory hallucinations, some people quickly stood up against this seemingly absurd decision.

"Yes, Zhenbei Pass is a Xiongguan that divides the north and south, and if Richard takes the river valley, there will be no one to check and balance."

If this is a bit more serious, that is, if Richard has any disobedience, it is much easier to go south from the river valley to the central great plain than from the north to the south, not to mention that the river valley is still a rich land, although compared with the central plain and the south of the royal capital, the wealth of the river valley is nothing, but it cannot be given to Richard in vain.

Instead, Thor seemed to have thought of something, frowning and not speaking.

"The kingdom values military merits, and it should be rewarded even more at such a time, no need to say more."

"This..."

"Let the House of Lords discuss the merits and send someone to prepare for the knighthood."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

That is, the authority of the king of the Golden Dragon Kingdom is strong enough, although the following people still oppose it in their hearts, but after Ren really made a decision, he did not dare to continue to oppose it, and could only implement it according to Wren's will, but Thor who was the only one who had the ability to oppose remained silent. The rest of the people thought that the uncle and nephew had reached some tacit understanding, so they didn't dare to say anything more.

"Okay, Uncle Sol stays for a while, and the others leave first if they have nothing to do, and announce the matter in the main hall tomorrow."

Hearing that Wren was left alone, the others retired very interestingly.

After everyone had left the room, Wren asked:

"Does Uncle Sol think it's possible for Richard to send troops to participate in the Crusade together?"

The Eastern Crusade plan is a plan secretly set by Thor and Wren, to take advantage of the dragon's presence to go out from the east of the Dragon's Breath Pass, launch a surprise attack, the five dragon knights and the two million elites of the Dragon's Breath Pass Corps came out together, and the orcs were caught off guard, and at least a local victory was achieved to delay the orc's attack.

Originally, the scope of knowledge of this plan was very small, only Wren, Thor and one or two high-ranking military officials involved knew about it, and the others were kept in a state of strict secrecy, it was originally a military adventure, and if they wanted to launch an attack before the dragon left, it was natural to prevent leaking the news and let the orcs be prepared in advance.

The concentration of money and food and the mobilization of troops are also on the grounds of strengthening the defense of the Dragon's Breath Pass, which is also reasonable in the case of the orcs being coerced step by step.

At the beginning, this plan did not involve Richard, even if Richard showed the power of the sky level at that time, and there was a giant dragon, but there were too many doubts on Richard, this kind of plan involving more than two million elites and related to the fortunes of the country could not be risked at all.

But now Wren is obviously willing to let Richard participate again, first, the power shown in Richard's hands is indeed enough, the four dragons, as well as the giant beasts and mysterious powerhouses that have appeared in the south, in terms of high-end power, if you exclude the young man in the palace, the high-end power that Richard has in his hands is stronger than the entire kingdom.

Second, Richard not only wiped out the army of the three legions of the orcs this time, but also killed Gelt, one of the two major protectors of the orcs. If Richard had brought the elites and dragons of the Northland into battle, the chances of success in this expedition would have been much greater.

Now the key to the problem is how to get Richard to send troops, the current Richard is not something that can be called by Wren's order, and there must be enough interests to make Richard move.

Wren opened his mouth, Sol was not surprised, when Wren was so generous to give the title and return the territory of the river valley, Thor probably guessed Wren's thoughts.

Titles and titles are things that are not paid lip service to the realm, and for the kingdom that now has to resist the orcs with all its might, it will be sealed out, but Wren's direct inclusion of the valley into Richard's sphere of influence is very interesting.

Ruling out the possibility that Wren is an idiot, there must be a plan, and the river valley is the benefit that Wren can come up with, in exchange for Richard sending troops to participate in the Eastern Crusade.

As for the interests of the nobles of the River Valley, it is not in Wren's consideration at all, and how much they can compete with Richard depends on the respective abilities of both parties.

"I'm not sure, but it's a possibility."

Richard's rise is too fast, Saul actually doesn't understand Richard, Richard was a responsible and capable young nobleman in Saul's eyes at first, but now he has become a prince on one side, to be honest, he is a little unsure whether this young man who behaved like a courtier in front of him will agree.

"It's okay, Uncle Sol will go to the Northland this time, and test it with the order of the knight, if he agrees to send troops, what about the valley land for him."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

…

south

Posey City

Paley is in a good mood these days, since the last expedition to the Sea Clan's clam farm was successful, the Sea Clan is indeed a lot more honest, with the prestige of the big victory, Paley has also completely subdued the nobles in the city of Boxi, and even the original thorn head Warayahou Mansion, since the expedition, has also entered a state of cooperation with Paley.

The volume of trade is rising, and the resources and power in his hands are also steadily increasing over time, as long as there is enough time, he can use Posey City as the center to accumulate enough advantages in the south to accumulate strength for the possible future battle for the throne.

Unfortunately, as the orc crisis approaches, the focus of all this has to shift to preventing orcs.

The most thing he thinks about now is how he can resist in the south if the orcs take the Central Plains, whether he wants to retreat into the swamp and join the trolls?

Thinking of this possibility, Parley had goosebumps on his body, and the wine glass in his hand was a little unstable.

"Lord Parley, there's news from the Northlands."

"Oh? Did Richard do anything big again? ”

As soon as Parley heard the information from the Northland, he subconsciously thought of Richard.

"The Hunters have taken over Snowdrift and made Lint the new Marquis."

"It's hard for him to put up with the fat in his mouth for so long."

Parley wasn't surprised at all, but felt that Richard's movements were a little slower than he expected.

He didn't have the consciousness of being a contender for the throne of the Charlemans, and he didn't have any mood swings about Richard's ambitious behavior.

In the future, it is difficult to say whether this kingdom will not be the Charman's family, and Richard is strong, and now it seems that it is also a good thing.