With less than a quarter of the opponent's troops, the troops of the Unicorn Viscount of the Highlands were completely annihilated, and the pioneer knight Richard immediately gained a small reputation in the Sequoia Kingdom.

A few days later, hundreds of hired men and dozens of truckloads of wood and stone arrived at Richard's territory. They all came from Baronial Fontaine's domain, and as part of the ransom of Viscount Sim, Baron Fontaine the Younger was obliged to provide Richard with the necessary supplies at a low price.

As soon as the Barony received Richard's letter, it immediately and quickly sent the material without objection, which confirmed Richard's previous suspicion that the decisive figure in the Barony's fall to the side of the Duke of Glasburg was Viscount Sim.

After learning this reality, Richard slightly improved the strategic decision-making of the viscount's staff, and was able to resort to force at the same time, he thought of rebelling against the small Baron Fontaine, who had a special geographical location in the territory, in order to block the indirect passage between Richard and the Duke of the Blue Wolf, which not only prevented the duke's side from intervening in advance, but also intercepted Richard's back road, which can be regarded as a qualified strategist. But it's just qualified, because if you make such a big move, you won't get anything if you win, and you will lose a lot if you lose. So these strategists have tactical vision, but they have no strategic sense at all. Of course, the other possibility is that they do have a sense of strategy, but they can't do anything with the viscount.

But now, no matter which side Baron Petit Fontaine is on, whether it is the Duke of Glasburg or the Duke of the Blue Wolf, it has to temporarily become Richard's logistics base.

With the workers and materials in place, Richard's castle finally began. Richard visited the site every few days to inspect the progress of the work, occasionally making changes to the castle's drawings. In another four months, the prototype of the castle will be built, and the interior will be renovated and decorated.

Without waiting for the castle to be fully completed, Richard sent several messengers to prepare to turn the gold coins in his hands into combat power.

The purchase list issued to Baron Fontaine included a large quantity of grain and sophisticated weapons, in addition to wood and stone. Originally, Baron Fontaine did not want to provide weapons, but Richard included the sale as part of Viscount Sim's ransom, so the supply and demand between the two sides were immediately reversed. Not only did the little baron need to provide the standard equipment of 200 elite infantry at a low price, but the quality must also be the best.

The other envoy traveled to the Blue Water Oasis, where many of Richard's old friends were located.

Within a few days, Richard sent someone back with the latest news from the Bloodstained Lands.

Although several oases were swept away by Sinclaire stormy, it was also a loss of manpower, but large tracts of land and buildings were still intact. Sinclair was killed in battle at the Castle of Twilight in an instant, and as soon as she died, the forces that had succumbed to her power immediately regained their true colors and reoccupied the oases. However, the losses of various forces were not the same, some were almost unscathed, while others were greatly damaged.

As a result, the balance of the situation was broken, and all forces had requirements to redivide the pattern of interests, and the situation in the several oases in the bloodstained land was in danger, and there was a possibility of a melee at any time. The various human nations bordering the Bloodstained Lands are also eyeing this huge interest.

In this case, the prices of slaves, weapons, magic crystals, and alchemy equipment skyrocketed, while the prices of minerals, raw materials, and other rare materials decreased. For example, Richard wanted to hire a group of bandits to defend his territory, only to find that the price of the bandits was far beyond his budget. The rise in the price of cannon fodder is also an important sign that the war is approaching.

The few days that Richard spent in the territory were extremely busy. He needs to reorganize the rest of his forces so that the newly arrived Sandfolk knights and barbarians are accustomed to fighting with the Wind Tooth and the Grenadiers, and understand and listen to the body movements and howling language of the two elite Wind Fangs. The two elite tusks were able to receive orders indirectly from Richard's consciousness.

The reorganization exercise alone consumed most of Richard's time during the day. Fortunately, after a few days of high-intensity training, several different arms of the army were finally initially integrated and became a whole. With this step, the strength of the troops under Richard's command has been strengthened.

At night, it was time for Richard to clean up the fabrication. He now spends most of his time on that second-order spell penetration, and when he doesn't have the energy, he repairs the broken structure recovered from the Bear Rider. This simple task does not require much precision and magical manipulation, and Richard is completely able to do it by nature, and for him, changing to a less complex job is equivalent to resting. Eventually, Richard recovered two near-intact power builds and one defensive build. In addition, 3 secondary forces and 1 secondary defense were successfully repaired.

In the midst of the hectic and busy, time always flies. On this day, the messenger of the Duke of Blue Wolf came to Richard's territory.

The envoy sent by the Duke this time was still the middle-aged Sir Shanton Nordling. He was accompanied by thirty cavalrymen and hundreds of infantry, and a dozen wagons were also brought.

After exchanging greetings with Richard, Sir Sandon made a request to see the imprisoned Viscount Chim. Richard readily agreed, because this was actually equivalent to Duke Wolf showing his attitude and saying that he knew about it, so he eliminated a big hidden danger.

Since the Duke of Glasz, as Richard's lord, recognized the legitimacy of his defense of the territory, the Duke of Grassburg had to follow the rules of the nobles within the kingdom to deal with disputes, such as paying the ransom in full for Viscount Sim's invasion, and the revenge between the two sides would be limited to a reasonable range to avoid triggering an indirect war between the two dukes.

In principle, indirect wars between the three princes of the kingdom are not allowed, otherwise the royal family will intervene.

Viscount Sim was kept alone in a wooden house with a ** courtyard, except that he was not allowed to leave the courtyard, all other movements were free, so much so that a young maid was arranged to take care of the Viscount's daily life.

Sir Shanton looked at Viscount Sim's living conditions, chatted briefly with the Viscount, and listened carefully to the Viscount's grievances for a full ten minutes.

Chim's grievances are mainly focused on not being treated as he deserves, such as not having a dozen maids, a meal with as many as a dozen main courses, and so on. When the ten minutes were up, Sir Shanton left the chattering viscount and went to the prisoner's camp with Richard to take a look.

The more than 400 captives were not treated as well as Viscount Sim, and only the captain of the guard, the viscount's personal guard, and the junior officers were able to huddle a few people into a wooden house, and the rest of the soldiers had to be crammed into the tents. All their weapons and armor were taken away, and the range of activities was not allowed beyond the fence. Once out of bounds, the crossbowmen that Richard had placed on the turret would shoot them mercilessly. The prisoner of war camp was not large, so the more than 400 prisoners of war were very congested inside. Sir Shanton walked around the room, chatted briefly with a few prisoners of war, and then left the place for Richard to arrange for his lodgings.