The reserves stored in the vault last year have not been spent, and now there are more than 100,000 gold coins in the vault.

One hundred thousand gold coins in cash in the vault had no effect on the development of the territory.

Richard found the agent of the Duke of Guise and decided to spend 80,000 gold coins to buy 16,000 slaves, and the remaining 20,000 gold coins to buy 10,000 tons of grain from several nearby nobles, raising the grain reserve in the granary to 100,000 tons.

In recent years, the Haaland Territory has been the largest grain merchant near Fort Heihe, selling tens of thousands of tons of grain every year. In order to avoid competition with the Haaland family, the grain fields of the nearby nobles have been decreasing, and there are more cash crops.

This year is another year of orc invasion, and the Haaland territory has actually purchased grain, which has caused the price of food in the vicinity to increase a bit.

After the Goddess Day, the primary school in Haaland's territory opened again.

Today, there are two primary schools in Haaland's territory. One is in Fort William and the other is at Fort Soldier's Station, and Flora has stepped down from her position as headmaster to oversee all the schools.

Combined, more than 300 new students are enrolled in the two primary schools this year, and one in 15 children of the same age are able to go to school.

As long as the conditions are good, the freedmen will grit their teeth and send the smartest and favorite children in the family to school.

Because children who graduate from elementary school can almost achieve a class jump.

There is an extreme shortage of talents in the Haaland territory, and the army staff office, logistics office, government departments, hospitals, schools, factories and mines and other public institutions recruit personnel from the graduates of the riverside primary school every year.

Because of the blockade of the nobles openly and secretly, the literacy rate of ordinary people in the Dawn Plane is very low, and it is roughly at the level of one thousandth.

Even in Haaland's territory, counting the students who graduated from Riverbank Primary School, the total literacy is less than a thousand, and a large part of them are still members of the nobility such as Haaland, Stoppa, and Dark.

Although there have been several literacy classes in the army, and the backbone officers and soldiers know some words, the study time of the literacy classes is relatively short, and many people cannot even recognize all the words.

In the statistics of the territory, these people are semi-literate and are not counted as literate people.

On the contrary, in primary schools, there are more than 1,000 students. To raise the literacy rate in the Haaland territory to five percent, to the level of ancient China, I don't know how many years it will take?

Riverside Primary School has been established for seven years and has only now produced more than 300 primary school graduates.

Compared to the demand for literacy in Haaland's territory, primary school graduates have been worth a lot in recent years.

However, according to Richard's estimates, in a few years, the territory's thirst for talent will not be so high.

When the talent is saturated, students who have graduated from primary school may face unemployment.

More than 300 new students, Sophia tested with a magic crystal ball and found five apprentices with magical qualifications. But these five people's magical qualifications are average, and they are all low-level qualifications.

However, the advancement of magicians, qualifications are only one aspect, and on the other hand, it is the thinking and specialization of magic.

If these children have the brains of Newton and Einstein, make groundbreaking discoveries in the study of magic, gain the love of the world, and have particularly good feedback on meditation, they may not become great magicians and enter the legendary ranks.

But this kind of super genius brain may not be seen once in hundreds of years.

Besides, if there are geniuses, there must be a suitable system for them to give full play, and the reforms that Richard made in Haaland's territory are to let these geniuses give full play to their talents.

When the spring flowers bloomed and March, when the Duke of Guise sent his slaves to the territory of Haaland, the population of the territory reached 278,000.

In three months, the number of newborns in the territory increased by four thousand.

Duke Guise has just sent slaves, and traces of the orcs have been discovered.

Now the scouts in Haaland's territory have Warcraft cavalry as the backbone, and even equipped with a magic hot air balloon team, and Audrey also has two lion cavalry under his command, which can barely ride a lion to take to the air.

Of course, the griffin cavalry is extremely valuable, and it is impossible for Richard to let the griffin cavalry with a clumsy territory fight the Harpy, but with the aerial scout class, the efficiency of reconnaissance is extraordinary.

The orc army had just entered the middle of the Eagle Mountains, one hundred and sixty kilometers away from the swamp basin, when it was detected by the hot air balloon team in Harland's territory.

Spotting the Magic Hot Air Balloon, the Harpy immediately flew up to chase after him, only to be shot and killed by the Magic Balloon Squad's archers.

The Harpy's magic missile can fly a hundred meters away at most, while the archer on the magic hot air balloon can shoot sharp arrows that can hit targets of three or four hundred meters.

Alone, a Harpy is no match for the magical hot air balloon group.

However, the magic hot air balloon also has a lot of weaknesses, although the magic hot air balloon needs to rely on the wind, the speed of flight is relatively slow. If several Harpies attack from different directions, the Magic Hot Air Balloon will also be shot down by the Harppogens if they use the right tactics.

The number of magical hot air balloons in Haaland's territory is small, and only sixteen have been made in total, and it is impossible to fight a long-term war of attrition with the orcs.

Immediately after shooting the Harpy, the Magic Balloon Squad descended and joined up with the Scout Brigade soldiers to deliver the information to Fort William.

Upon receiving the news of the orc invasion, Richard immediately dispatched heralds to inform the Blackriver Fort side, and then carried out a full mobilization in Harland's territory.

The main force assembled on the northern front, and the auxiliary troops and second-line armed personnel such as intelligence and public security also stopped taking vacations, assembled in the main castles of the territory, received weapons and equipment, and were ready to fight at any time.

The reconnaissance team stepped up reconnaissance efforts, and the magic hot air balloon squadron rose into the air without interruption to observe the direction of the orc army.

Because of the loss in the direction of the fort last time, this time the orcs mobilized a large army in this direction, according to the intelligence of the early reconnaissance, the number of the orc army is as much as one legion, and the total number of auxiliaries exceeds 30,000.

The Haaland Territory now has six and a half infantry brigades, about five thousand two hundred infantry, one Warcraft cavalry brigade with six hundred soldiers, and one scout cavalry brigade with seven hundred troops.

In addition, there are mage regiments, magic hot air balloon squadrons, headquarters staff officers, logistics personnel, and the size of the main force exceeds seven thousand.

In addition, there are 3,000 auxiliary soldiers, 1,600 security forces, and nearly 1,000 intelligence officers.

Counting the second-line troops, the military strength of the territory is about 13,000.

The northern defense line of Haaland's territory, the fort of the military station is the focus of the defense.

Richard put the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 4th brigades in the garrison fort, and the garrison reached 5,000 troops, counting the auxiliaries who operated the trebuchets. Among them, the main combat force has 4,000 soldiers.

There are two mage towers in the swamp basin, which are also the focus of defense. A castle was built near the Tower of Lightning, where two squadrons of guards and two squadrons of auxiliaries were stationed.

The small castle near the Tower of Flames, in addition to the auxiliary squadron, is also stationed with the most powerful Warcraft cavalry brigade in the territory.

In addition, the magicians of Haaland's territory are also stationed in the two mage towers, and the command of this direction is in charge of Soros in the outer line of operations, and the inner line of garrison is under the control of Sophia.

The Fifth Brigade was stationed at Castle Greyson to defend the eastern part of Haaland's territory and prevent the orc army from breaking through from the direction of Fort Eagle, attacking the province of Geda from the province of Rach and attacking the rear of Haaland's territory.

Garrisoning a brigade in this direction can at least buy the main force for a while. To bolster the defenders, Richard stockpiled three hundred alchemy bombs at Greyford Castle.

Due to the limitation of the production of blood steel, the Haaland Territory only had a total of 1,200 alchemy bombs in stock, and a quarter of them were placed in Greyfordson Castle.

If the orcs want to conquer this castle, they will have to lose at least five or six thousand of their main forces.

Unless it is a commander with a resolute personality and does not give up until the goal is achieved, the average orc legion commander is simply ruthless and sacrifices so much capital.

After all, the orcs went south to plunder, not to gnaw hard bones.

Although Richard has struck the orcs several times, he is not a famous general, he has not killed the legend of the orcs, and he has not completely annihilated the main army of the orcs, so he is not a human commander that the orcs need to focus on.

Moreover, Greyson Castle is not far from Blossom Castle, and Jennings is stationed at Blossom Castle with the Sixth Brigade, ready to support Greyford Castle at any time.

After the army was deployed, Richard immediately ordered the allied forces of the nobles of Heihe County to assemble in the direction of Platos Castle.

The defense of Haaland's territory is very tight, and the combat effectiveness of the defenders is also very strong, relying on geographical advantages, and the equipment advantage is enough to block a main army of orcs.

But the Platos defense line to the west of Haaland's territory, Baron Sharp's strength is very average.

Although the army under Sharp's command can be called good at fighting, it only numbers five hundred, and one or two brigades of orcs can pass through the blockade of the fortress of Platos.

Although there is Zachary's Atonement Legion in this direction, the strength of Gascoin's province is weak, and it was affected by the royal strife a few years ago.

If, as in the last orc invasion, the Zachary Department is transferred to other directions, and the Platos Valley is lost, the western part of Haaland's territory will be unprotected, exposing its weakness to the orcs.

Richard was a major general of the reserve of Geda Province and the commander of the first line of the northern defense line of Geda Province, and his orders were not disobeyed by the nobles of Heihe County, and Barons such as Rice, Dark, Bazel, and Barton mobilized their troops and rushed to the Platos defense line.

The strength of these barons is not weak, most of them have 500 troops, and some of them have 300 troops, these soldiers are not slave soldiers who are about to collapse, and they fight on a small scale, and the combat effectiveness of the noble private soldiers can even be compared with the main army.

The five barons combined had two thousand soldiers, enough to garrison the Pratos Line.

After receiving Richard's information, the Northern Legion and Viscount Rohmon also mobilized and prepared for battle.

Now there is the Harland leader, the Heihe County noble alliance is in the front, and the Northern Legion and the Viscount Rohman alliance are already the second-line troops in Geda Province.

Once the front line is tight, the Northern Frontier Corps can reinforce the front line at any time to fight.

The orc army slowly approached the fort, and the legion commander Pratt's face suddenly became a little ugly.

Although he only glanced at it, Pratt found that the fortifications of the fort were very complete, with dense antlers erected in front of the castle to resist horses, and hundreds of arrow towers fanned out on both wings of the city wall.

These towers are all within the range of trebuchets, and if you want to demolish them, you don't know how much blood will be shed.

The most troublesome thing was that on the slopes on both sides of the fort, masonry forts were also built, trebuchets were installed, and soldiers were stationed.

If the orcs attack the city, they will inevitably be hit by trebuchets on the slopes on both sides, and if they want to rush across this road, they don't know how much blood will be shed.

To forcibly attack the fort, you need to take the castle on the hillside on both sides first.

The castles on the hillsides on both sides have geographical advantages, and they can't put too many troops at all, and the orcs must be a tactic to add fuel to the attack, and the casualties will definitely be very heavy.

Pratt is one of the few lizardmen in the orc empire, and its ancestors are also lizardmen who survived the fall of the floating city, and after more than 10,000 years of reproduction, they gradually adapted to the climate of northern Xinjiang.

More than a thousand years ago, the Orc Empire defeated the Lizardmen Alliance, and some of the Lizardmen merged into the Orc Empire.

Although the lizardmen have adapted to the climate of northern Xinjiang, one of the changes brought by them is that it is difficult to reproduce, and they still need to hibernate in winter. Although they have bred in the Orc Empire for thousands of years, the number of lizardmen in the Orc Empire is still small, only a few hundred thousand in total, and the importance is not as important as that of humans.

Because of their small population, the lizardfolk are not very much of a threat to the orc race, and despite not being of the same bloodline as the mainstream orcs, the lizardfolk have a larger ascent channel than humans, and the invisible ceiling is a little higher.

Human beings have no chance to fight as soldiers in the Orc Empire, and the Orc Empire also forbids human slaves to wield extraordinary powers. The Orc Empire's defense of humans is almost visible to the naked eye. But for lizardmen, the defense of the orc empire is not very large, but lizardmen like Pratt who climb to the top of the orc empire are still very rare.

Lizardmen have very good eyesight, and twenty percent can awaken extraordinary visual talents.

Pratt's eyesight is better than that of the Hippogriff.

Even five miles away, he could still see the soldiers on the fort wearing iron armor, and their figures looming.

Judging from the weaponry, Pratt knew that the defenders must be the main army in the human kingdom.

Pratt has been in the army for many years and has the least dislike fighting with the main legionnaires. His favorite thing is to raid the defenseless human villages, kill the unarmed men, and watch the old and weak wail and cry bitterly, and the women relentlessly under his crotch.

And the main legionnaires of humanity, surrender is very rare. In the battle with the main army, many people died and countless blood were shed every time.

Pratt frowned, and saw trenches, ridges, and fences, heavy trebuchets scattered across the city, and occasionally a few heavy bed crossbows loaded with cold iron spears. The cold light of the gun head flickered, and it was rubbed very brightly, with a reflective feeling.

At a glance, it is clear that the soldiers regularly maintain their weapons, and their quality is extraordinary.

Such a strong city defense, plus elite soldiers to defend it. Even if Pratt took a legion of soldiers, he didn't have a good chance of winning.

(End of chapter)