Haaland's territory is not strong enough, and Richard doesn't want to be in the limelight now.

Only when the territory develops to a higher level, to the level of a hereditary earl, is it time for Richard to become famous.

The reputation has spread, and it is very good for Haaland's territory to recruit talent.

The increase in fame can also reduce the hostility of the surrounding nobles and reduce the pressure on Richard to carry out reforms.

But there is a big premise, that is, the strength of Haaland's territory must be prominent.

At least to be promoted to earl, with a population of 300,000, 10,000 elite soldiers is the basic requirement.

The time entered March, and the orcs once again led their troops south.

The shouts of killing and the sound of trumpets continued to sound in every corner of the north.

The armies of the orcs have once again appeared in the northern part of the Haaland Valley.

This is the fourth orc invasion Richard has experienced, and compared to nine years ago, Richard has grown from a junior officer to the leader of an army.

The army of the Haaland Territory, which now has twenty-one infantry squadrons, four cavalry squadrons, plus headquarters personnel, totals more than four thousand.

In Geda Province, the aristocratic private army commanded by Richard was already an important military force in the province.

In Fort William, looking at the rising wolf smoke, Richard immediately gave the order to assemble, and informed several hereditary nobles of the orc invasion.

This time, Rice, Barton, Bazel, Dark, Sauron, and Sharp, the six Barons of Black River, were willing to accept Richard's command.

Fighting with Haaland's territory many times, Baron Rice and others did not suffer defeat, and Richard's command ability was recognized by nearby nobles.

Moreover, the Haaland family is powerful, and they are convinced to hand over the army to Richard to command.

Six hereditary barons, with fifteen thousand soldiers, were stationed at the castle of Malte. The supply of the noble alliance does not need to be borne by the Haaland domain.

Richard only needed to provide food, and after the war, the six hereditary nobles would settle in gold.

Now there is no shortage of food in Haaland's territory, which can supply 1,500 noble coalition troops for a long time.

The aristocratic coalition garrisoned Malte Castle and guarded the back road for Haaland's territory.

Richard concentrated his main forces at Fort William, the foremost Fort Garrison, which was garrisoned only by the 3rd Brigade.

The Third Brigade has five squadrons of infantry, one squadron of auxiliaries, plus guards and command personnel at the brigade headquarters, with a total strength of about 1,100 people.

"How about it, do you know the direction of the orc's main attack?"

Every time the orcs invaded, they would climb over the Eagle Mountains through different mountain passages.

In recent years, it is common to walk the Haaland Valley.

Now the Haaland Valley has been controlled by the Kingdom of Grant and has completely become the territory of the Harland family.

If the orcs want to enter the province of Geda, unless they attack the two castles of the Harland family station and William head-on, and open up the Haaland Valley, they can only take a detour.

"Opposite the Fort of the Garrison, there are three brigades of orcs stationed, and two other brigades of orcs have chosen to detour to the east, which should be through the valley north of Graveson."

After listening to the report of the intelligence staff officer, Richard still stared at the map: "What is the situation in the Pratos Valley?" ”

"The last two orc invasions did not go through the Platos Valley, and besides, the defense of the Platos Valley was handed over to the Ransom Legion, and we did not invest too many scouts in this direction, and the intelligence, intelligence is not clear for the time being."

Richard's inquiry immediately made the intelligence staff understand that there was a leak in the investigation of the previous intelligence. In the end, I was nervous and speechless.

Richard knocked on the table hard, and said a little angrily: "Regardless of whether others have defense or not, the Platos Valley is only a dozen kilometers away from the territory, and if there is a mistake here, our situation will become very dangerous. Immediately arrange manpower to strengthen the intelligence and reconnaissance force in the Pratos Valley, and be sure to figure out the key direction of the orc's attack. ”

In the face of the invasion of the orcs, the Harland territory has formulated a variety of plans, but in order to implement these plans, it is necessary to figure out the key attack direction of the orcs before there can be the next move.

Every time the orcs invade, the first thing to start is the three-plate axe, launching an all-out attack to test the holes in the defense line. After finding the loopholes, he invested his main military forces to tear through the defense line at the southern foot of the Eagle Mountains, and then began to annihilate the living forces of the Grant Kingdom, plundering a large number of people and property.

During the last Orc invasion, Captain Zachary annihilated the Orc Legion at Graveson Castle.

This battle was brilliant, and it was a rare victory for the Grant Kingdom in the past ten years, second only to the battle in which Count Martins annihilated the orc legion and laid out the battle to kill the orc legend.

Having annihilated the Orc Legion in two successive Orc Wars, the Northern Legion is now the opponent of the Orc's key research.

Because of the great achievements of the war, the Northern Legion has been replenished very quickly in recent years, forming a good cycle, and now it is fully manned, with a total of 24,000 soldiers, and the number of professionals exceeds 1,000.

Because of the successive victories in very important battles, the Legionnaires of the North were in a very good mental state.

The combat effectiveness of the Northern Legion has now surpassed that of the Wild Lion and Grizzly Bears, and it is the most important pillar of the Grant Kingdom in the northern provinces.

According to common sense, the Orc Empire is very vindictive.

Count Martins killed the Orc Legend, and the Orcs immediately added four legions to invade the Kingdom of Grant, killing Count Martins and launching a tragic revenge on the county.

Now the Northern Legion has become a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh of the orcs, and according to the character of the orcs, it is inevitable that a large number of legions will be drawn to attack Geda Province.

Unexpectedly, the orcs did the opposite, and now the orc army that appears in the north of Geda Province is only five brigades, just over 10,000.

Although there is not much difference between the orc empire and the human army, the composition of the orc empire is still a traditional tribal form, and it is obviously more than a step behind in terms of the control and command ability of the army.

It's not that the orcs don't want to change, and they mix and group orcs of different races.

However, this military reform soon failed, and there were hundreds of tribes among the orcs.

Not only are there differences in language between the tribes, but there are also serious conflicts between the races, and there are often infighting and contradictions.

In order to make all the tribes contribute, in the end, they could only be divided into different tribes as a squadron.

A brigade has multiple orcs and tends to appear very chaotic.

Fortunately, in the last hundred years, the orc empire has implemented the orc lingua franca on a large scale, but because different orcs have different vocal organs.

The lingua franca is used across races, and sometimes many meanings are not clear.

The combat effectiveness shown by different orc races is even more different. Judging the direction of the orc army's main attack purely by the number of people may not be correct.

The real main direction of attack of the orcs is not necessarily the one that invests the most troops, but it must be the one that invests the most elites.

Generally speaking, the human scouts in that area have the most losses, and the orcs cover the battlefield the widest, and the less information they detect, the more likely it is to be the direction of the orc's main attack.

To put it more bluntly, the Harpy mainly appears in that direction, which is generally the focus of the orc attack.

Large armies were stationed near the Pratos Valley, and the situation could hardly deteriorate to the point of being out of control in a short time.

Zachary was stationed at Harden Castle with a legion of redeemers, and the Pratos Valley was also counted as his defensive area.

The Ransom Legion is a small legion with only four brigades and a total strength of about 9,000 men.

Because of the rebellion last spring, the Lions suffered the heaviest losses, so two Ransom Legions were stationed in the province of Gascoigne.

Zachary's headquarters was stationed at Baron Harden's Castle, and another legion, led by Commander Hosiux, was stationed in the Earldom of Martins.

Two ransom legions, one east and one west, plus the Legion of the Wild Lions, the private army of the nobles, and the first line of Gascoigne Province was garrisoned by more than 45,000 troops.

Since Geda Province was not affected by last year's rebellion, there was no Toning Legion stationed.

However, the defense of the Platos Mountains, the western border of the province, was given to the Legion of the Redeemers under the command of Zachry.

The main defensive force in the northern part of the province, in addition to the Northern Legion, is the aristocratic private army led by the two families of Harland and Rohm, with about 35,000 front-line garrisons.

There were two regular legions stationed on the front line of the province of Lahe, a regiment of redeemers, plus the private army of the nobles of the province, and the front-line garrison was the largest, adding up to more than 60,000 people.

Although Geda Province has the smallest front-line troops, Geda Province has the greatest geographical advantage.

To the north of Geda Province is the middle of the Eagle Mountains, with high mountain ranges and sparse valleys, a defense width of about 160 kilometers, and only three passages to the south.

By guarding these three passages, the orcs could not cross the Eagle Mountains and invade the territory of the province of Geda.

The Pratos Pass to the west was given to the Legion of the Toning Redeemers.

Geda Province only needs to defend two mountain passes.

Two castles have been built in the central Harland Valley, one to the south and one to the north. This passage was guarded by Richard.

The eastern valley, still a large wasteland, was not developed and was not given the title of hereditary nobility, and only the castle of Graveson was built in the northern part of the valley.

The geographical advantage of Graveson Castle is much less than that of Fort William.

Because the Black River flows eastward from this area, there is a large alluvial plain near Graveson Castle. The northern valleys are low, relatively flat, and more suitable for large armies to break through.

Stein, the new commander of the Northern Legion, is an outsider, an old subordinate of Duke Roger and a high-ranking official of the Imperial Guard.

Because of this connection, he was transferred by Duke Roger to the Northern Legion, responsible for purging the remnants of the former legion commander Zachary.

Zachary won the battle, had a high prestige in the Northern Legion, and promoted many officers.

After Stein took office, he severely suppressed these people, and many of them have voluntarily retired, because of the loss of some excellent officers, the combat effectiveness of the Northern Legion has also been affected.

Stein, who is an old man, knows this very well.

The last ten years have been a glorious decade for the Northern Legion, not only has one Legion Commander become a hereditary count and promoted to the rank of great noble, but there are also six or seven high-ranking officers within the Legion who have been promoted to hereditary nobility.

Stein didn't want to be disgraced and made a laughing stock in the North. However, in order to ensure the reliability of the Northern Legion, political retribution had to be carried out.

Especially since the status of the Northland Legion is so special, it is impossible to allow Zachary's influence to continue.

Because of the political turmoil, the morale of the Northern Legion was a little fluctuating during this time, and Stein was ready to let the Northern Legion rest for a while, Graveson Castle, Stein ordered Viscount Rohmon to garrison with the noble coalition army.

(End of chapter)