After converging with the allied forces of the nobles of Heihe County, Richard left 1,000 soldiers behind in the rear, with 6,000 main forces and 2,000 auxiliaries to attack the logistics line of the orc legion.

To the north of the fort, there is a mountain road, and twenty kilometers to the north, there is a logistics base of the orcs.

Through the detection of the magic hot air balloon, there are only three squadrons of sheep-like people stationed in this stronghold, and their strength is extremely weak.

Among the strongholds, there are about eight or nine thousand human slaves.

The reason why Richard wanted to attack this stronghold was to free the slaves.

In March of this year, Duke Guise sent 16,000 slaves, and by April, he swallowed 23,000 refugees from Viscount Nelson, and now the population of Haaland's territory has exceeded 300,000.

Although the population is growing very fast, the lack of population in the territory has not changed.

With the two rich lands of Graveson and Marsh Basin, the population carrying capacity of the Haaland territory exceeds one million.

With a population of 300,000, even the Greyforson and Marsh Basins cannot be filled. It will take more than ten years to completely develop Haaland's territory.

This year, the army of Haland's territory and the 59th Legion of the Orcs have fought three battles, and the casualties of soldiers have exceeded 2,000.

However, the number of soldiers killed in the battle was relatively small, about 700 people. The vast majority of the remaining wounded soldiers were able to return to the team after being treated.

Nearly a third of the officers and soldiers were killed or wounded, and the impact on morale was already significant.

Defensive battles can still be fought a dozen, offensive battles, morale is already a little low, and it is a little difficult to suffer more casualties.

After all, intelligent creatures are afraid of death, seeing that many familiar comrades-in-arms and brothers have died in battle, soldiers are certainly not robots, and they naturally have a feeling of fear in their hearts.

War is brutal and dehumanizing. Fighting within the territory, soldiers cannot release their fears through killing, looting, rape and other atrocities, and the long-term absence of family members can become particularly depressing. The slightest stir can ignite the sparks, causing mutinies and even rebellions among the soldiers.

After heavy casualties, how to stabilize the morale of the army is very crucial, and it tests a general's ability to lead troops.

If you don't have prestige and are not good at soothing the morale of the army, even if you can lead the soldiers to victory, the accumulated casualties will still make the soldiers rebel.

Richard was very prestigious in the army of Haaland's territory. He went down to the grassroots level countless times to chat with soldiers, continued to pay pensions for more than ten years, and spent a lot of time consoling disabled soldiers every year. There were also not many shelves in the barracks, which solved countless troubles for officers and soldiers. After each battle, as long as there was still plenty of magic left, Richard would also release healing spells to treat the wounded himself.

Although the casualties were not light, the officers and men were still able to grit their teeth and launch a tough battle.

However, Richard had already felt the demoralization and personally preached before the battle, doing pre-war mobilization.

"Through reconnaissance, we found that there were only three squadrons of sheep men in the forward stronghold. Everyone knows very well the combat effectiveness of the sheep-body people, and even the serf soldiers are inferior. This time we will attack the orc logistics stronghold is quite easy, ten times the strength of the orcs, the fight is still weak sheep-like, the casualties are estimated to be in the single digits, besides, I will let the noble coalition as the vanguard, they break through the camp, we can follow behind and capture the prisoners.

After the end of the war, the veterans took turns to take a leave of absence for half a month, and each person was rewarded with a gold coin, ten catties of brown sugar, a jar of liquor, a woolen cloth, and a sheep.

The indentured slave soldiers, along with their families, were restored to their status as freedmen ahead of schedule, and immediately divided the land from the official fields. ”

Richard's promise restored most of the soldiers' morale, and over the years Richard kept his promises and had a high reputation among the soldiers.

The material rewards and half a month's vacation suddenly made the soldiers of Haaland's territory elated.

The attack on the orc logistics stronghold was very smooth, and the allied forces of the nobles of Heihe County broke through the sheep-like defense line with a single charge. With few casualties, the stronghold was captured and a large number of logistical supplies were captured.

Among them, about 50,000 gold coins of grain, cotton cloth, iron, and even the coins of the Grant royal family were seized 20,000 or 30,000.

There is no shortage of ordinary supplies in the Harland territory, except for food, Richard has distributed it to the noble coalition, and as for the population with the highest value, of course, it was swallowed by the Haaland territory.

After the capture of this stronghold, the morale of the officers and men recovered a little because of the large amount of booty captured.

There were 7,000 regular troops in Haaland's territory, and 600 soldiers of Viscount Nelson were swallowed before the war, with a total strength of nearly 8,000, and now there are less than 6,000 soldiers left.

More than a quarter of the casualties are already considered serious blood loss. The most important thing now is to take a break.

The soldiers of Haaland's territory are not the kind of serf soldiers, and it is more difficult to expand.

Upon returning to Fort Garrison, Richard immediately ordered 4,000 recruits to be recruited from the territory and to increase the strength of the territory to 11,000.

Of course, the recruits have little combat effectiveness, and they need to go through a year of training to be incorporated into the main force.

However, as the wounded soldiers gradually recovered, the combat effectiveness of the army in Haaland's territory finally recovered a lot.

According to the financial capacity of Haaland's territory last year, it was enough to support 11,000 regular troops.

With more than 10,000 regular troops in hand, it can be reorganized into a smaller corps.

The achievements of this battle were enough for Richard to be promoted to the rank of earl, if the territory did not have a legion, and there was no table for the great nobles.

After the war, Richard sent Raquel, the deputy commander of the orcs, to the royal capital Nolan.

Raquel is an eighth-order professional, and normally his head is worth five great merits.

A living orc high-ranking officer is of course worth more than a dead one, although Raquel was captured by Sophia and Wendy, in order to make Richard a great nobleman as soon as possible, the two gave up this credit, and the merit was counted in Richard's name.

King Roger issued an edict to capture Raquel alive and reward Richard for a miracle.

In this year's orc invasion battle, Haaland's territory single-handedly blocked the orc legion, and Richard even severely damaged this legion in several battles, stabilizing the northern defense line of Geda Province.

The soldiers of Richard and Haaland's territory can be said to have played a very important role, and they also rewarded Richard with a miraculous achievement.

In addition, Haaland's territory killed hundreds of orc professionals, a large part of which was counted in Richard's name, adding up to eight great achievements.

Counting some of the credits accumulated by Richard and Sophia before, Richard can be awarded a viscount after the war. Richard had three viscounts under his name, and after the war, he could merge his realms to become an earl.

Now the real needs of the northern frontier region of the Grant Kingdom require a new great nobleman to stabilize the situation.

Richard's political channels for promotion to the great nobles have all been opened, and in the current situation in the north, the royal capital noble council will only support the Harland family, and will not stop it.

With the merits accumulated by Richard and the strength of the Haaland family, it is already a certainty that the Haaland family will become a big nobleman after the war.

After more than ten years of struggle, Richard is about to achieve another leap in class.

After the defeat of the 59th Legion of the Orcs, calm returned to the Harland territory. When reporting his exploits, Richard deliberately overreported the casualties.

The above also takes into account the strength of Haaland's territory, and it is not easy to defeat a legion of orcs that have been severely damaged, and it has not put a heavier burden on him.

In the end, it was Duke Jonathan who broke the deadlock, defeated the orc front, and freed up his hands to change the situation in the province of Rach.

In this year's battle on the side of the Grant Kingdom, although the Orc Empire army suffered a lot of casualties, it broke through the defense line of Lahe Province, severely damaged the Grizzly Legion, conquered six noble territories, and robbed the population of Lahe Province from more than 100,000.

The orcs on the Western Front also had a lot of success, inflicting heavy losses on Duke Edward's army and robbing the population of 50,000, and the Duke of Fox was also captured by the orcs with two baronies, losing a population of 30,000.

Compared with the advertised results of annihilating 80,000 orcs, it is obvious that the Grant Kingdom has suffered a little loss.

A race like kobolds only takes three years to reach adulthood. It takes six years for wild boar people and snake people to reach adulthood, and ten years for werewolves, lion people, and harpys.

And it takes at least twenty years to train a human warrior.

The Orc Empire invades once every three years, in fact, it is also to consume the excess population and avoid internal population explosion, insufficient resources and civil strife.

After Duke Jonathan defeated the orc army, this year's orc invasion war is almost over.

The orcs slowly retreated to the northern part of the Eagle Mountains, and the Kingdom of Grant regained lost territory.

After August, the royal capital began a new round of rewards and punishments, and King Roger also knighted the new nobles.

This year's battle against the Haaland family was very successful, and Richard was successfully promoted to earl.

The uncle Soros family has also accumulated enough military exploits, and is about to obtain a fief and be promoted to a hereditary baron.

In order to obtain a better fief, William went to Nolan after the war to communicate with the Marquis of Allen, the speaker of the noble parliament, and expressed the demands of the Haaland family.

Richard's demands were not high, and he did not put forward the conditions for the division of the Southern Territories.

The great nobles of northern Xinjiang, after making military exploits, will choose to develop to the south as much as possible, and divide the territory to their heirs to spread the risk.

The royal family, despite their reluctance, sometimes can't stop this trend. Every few years, a piece of fat will be given to the great nobles of Northern Xinjiang who have made war achievements, Edward, Fox and even Duke Jonathan, who have been operating in the hinterland of the Grant Kingdom for several generations, and have developed more than a dozen barons.

A few years ago, the three counts of the three parties rebelled, and the territory was swallowed by the Grant royal family. The two dukes of Edward and Fox took the lead and repeatedly stirred up trouble in the noble council, initiating proposals requiring the royal family to strengthen the northern military and assume greater responsibility.

King Roger couldn't resist the pressure and agreed to add a second-tier legion.

This second-line central legion, temporarily reorganized by the Toning Redemption Corps commanded by Zachary.

This time to repel the orc invasion, the two dukes strongly demanded that the new fief be placed in the south, and Duke Jonathan had the same intention.

The royal family needed to carve out three baronial domains in the south to meet the demands of the three dukes.

The territory in the south is different from that in the north, the climate is mild, the land is fertile, and there is basically no threat of war.

On the contrary, in the borderless land of the northern region, King Roger was eager to throw all the burden to the northern nobles, so that the strength of the northern nobles would be strengthened.

In the northern part of Geda Province, there is the Haaland family, which has pinned down a legion of orcs, greatly reducing the pressure on Geda Province and improving the strategic situation of the royal territory.

In recent years, the province of Geda no longer needs to worry about the troubles of the north.

Therefore, the Haaland family wants to choose the northern territory, whether it is the noble council or King Roger, it is very convenient for them.

More than 7,000 square kilometers of land northeast of the Flower Castle were assigned to Richard, and the salt lake that Richard had never forgotten was also assigned to the new territory.

Today, the territory of the Harland family has expanded to the north of the province of Lach, the northwest of the Viscount of Nelson.

Richard was preparing to develop the salt lake, refine salt and soda ash, and mine the potash ore in the salt lake, so he would inevitably build a castle and garrison troops in this area.

With Haaland's territory in the northwest, Viscount Nelson only needs to defend the northeast, and the pressure will be much lighter. Otherwise, the Viscounty of Nelson would have suffered a heavy blow and would not have the strength to manage the territory, so it would have to give up part of the land and move the border south.

In addition to expanding to the northeast, the salt lake area was taken. Haaland's territory also expanded to the southwest, swallowing the Barony of Harden, and the area between the provinces of Gascoigne and Geda was also given to the Haaland family.

The territory expanded in the southwest added up to more than 3,200 square kilometers.

After William's communication with the Council of Nobles was completed, Richard personally went to the royal capital, took the new nobles to participate in the regency, and took the lead in swearing allegiance to King Roger, becoming the hereditary earl of the Kingdom of Grant.

When it comes to the hereditary earl class, it can already influence the policy of the Grant Kingdom to a certain extent, and most of the fate of the territory is in their own hands, which can be regarded as the ruling class of a kingdom.

Promoted to earl, Haaland's territory has the right to mint copper coins, and the deflation of the territory can be much better, and he no longer accepts the jurisdiction of Geda Province, and has more freedom.

In the Council of Nobles, there was also more voting power.

However, in the political map of the Grant Kingdom, the earl family can only be regarded as a local overlord, and has no overall influence, except for the royal family, only a few powerful dukes can really stand firm. The Duke's family is considered to be the partner of the Grant royal family, and the earl and marquis are still subordinates of the royal family.

From the point of view of knighthood etiquette, the count still has to swear allegiance to the king, and the duke does not need to do so. In terms of strength, the strength of the earls and marquis is not much different, and the strength of the duke's family is much stronger, and the regular army under his command is at least tens of thousands.

After the demarcation of the territory, the Earldom of Harland had a total area of 29,000 square kilometers, and by the end of the year, the total population was 320,000.

Although the population was a little smaller than that of the southern earls, and when the army was expanded, the military strength exceeded that of the remaining four southern earls.

Although the southern earl's territory is smaller, there is more arable land, and a lot of cash crops are planted, and the output value of agriculture is almost two or three times that of Haaland's territory, but Haaland's territory also has some basic industries, and its income gradually exceeds that of the southern earl.

(End of chapter)