Haldane is a legendary knight with a lot of experience in combat. The situation had developed to the point where he knew in his heart that there was no way for Linus Castle to hold on.

The war has been fought so far, and Haldan's losses are also very serious, and the army under his control, plus the city defense army, is more than 30,000 people. These soldiers had to guard one hundred and forty kilometers of river banks, thirteen camps, three front-line castles, in addition to the transfer of soldiers to defend Linus Castle, there were no extra soldiers at all.

The only one with the ability to maneuver was the two thousand Warcraft cavalry left.

Although the two thousand demonic beast cavalry under the command of Haldane are powerful, they are not good at attacking cities.

Moreover, these two thousand Warcraft cavalry were the last capital of the Linus family, and Haldane was unwilling to be easily consumed in siege warfare.

If the Warcraft cavalry is transferred to the southern front, the northern front will lose a decisive force. Once Duke Jonathan launched a general attack, relying on infantry would not be able to stop it for too long.

If you want to break the current situation, you can only rely on external forces.

Haldane's only hope is reinforcements from the Ryan Kingdom.

In the last hundred years, the Grand Duchy of Starnik has been closely related to the Kingdom of Lane, and several generations have married each other. As long as it can hold on, the Ryan Kingdom will naturally not sit idly by and watch the Grand Duchy of Starnik be controlled by the Grant Kingdom.

It's a pity that the war has been going on for nearly four months, and reinforcements from the Ryan Kingdom have not yet arrived.

The distance between the Ryan Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Stanic is slightly farther than that of the Grant Kingdom, and the information received is naturally slower.

The news of the formation of an intervention army by the Grant Kingdom reached the Lane Kingdom, and it was already late March, and by the time the Lane Kingdom had organized its army, it was already mid-April.

Originally, according to common sense, the intervention army of the Lane Kingdom would be able to rush to the battlefield in late May.

But now it's June, and reinforcements still haven't arrived.

Some time ago, Haldane received information, but the old king of the Ryan Kingdom had a problem with his body, and for a while, there was an undercurrent within the Ryan Kingdom, and he was powerless to interfere with the situation in the Grand Duchy of Starnik in a short period of time.

Without the reinforcements of the Ryan Kingdom, the situation has developed to the present, and the Linus family is defeated, and there is no way to save the situation.

Despite his chagrin, Haldane was still very calm, and seeing that Linus Castle could no longer hold on, he set fire to the castle and fled west with the Warcraft cavalry.

In order to be a soldier of speed, Haldane killed his own family and relatives, and abandoned the infantry of the Linus Praetorian Guard. The Warcraft cavalry under his command was extremely fast, and in just three days, they fled 600 kilometers and entered the territory of the Ryan Kingdom to seek refuge.

Haldane fled, the intervention forces of the Kingdom of Lane did not enter the war, and the war in the Grand Duchy of Starnik was coming to an end.

At this moment, the Linus family left Duke Jonathan with a mess.

Because of the impact of the war, the grain production of the Grand Duchy of Starnik has been severely reduced this year, and the war has caused more than two million refugees, hundreds of thousands of people have died of hunger, and half of the Starnik defense force has been lost.

Now that we are about to enter July, it is impossible to resume production this year because of the missed agricultural season, and Duke Jonathan can only try his best to clean up the mess and solve the problem of food shortage.

This big battle basically destroyed the capital of Stanik.

The central region has also become a blank field, and the 200,000 people have been robbed by the coalition forces of the three provinces, and it may take decades to recover.

Hundreds of thousands of serfs fled into the mountains and became war refugees, savages, or annexed by the great nobles of the south.

This battle was fought, although it defeated the Linus family, it also almost destroyed the central power of the Grand Duchy of Starnik, adding countless troubles to the Jonathan family's rule of the Grand Duchy of Starnik.

After taking control of Linus Castle, Duke Jonathan immediately dismissed the servant army, transferred back to the Iron Lion Legion, relieved the logistical supply pressure, and then incorporated about 20,000 Janissaries into the royal capital and added a legion.

In addition, Duke Jonathan immediately announced that Linus Castle had been changed back to its original name, St. Jonathan's Castle, which was the most important political correctness of the Grand Duchy of Starnik.

Because of the spread of the war, the territory that Duke Jonathan can now control is about 40,000 square kilometers, and the population is only 600,000 for the time being.

The entire Grand Duchy of Starnik has a territory area of 350,000 square kilometers, about 80,000 square kilometers of territory controlled by the border nobles in the northern region, and about 170,000 square kilometers of territory controlled by the four dukes in the south. The territory directly under the Linus royal family has a total of 70,000 square kilometers, and the nobles of the central border are members of the Linus family, and the territory they control is about less than 30,000 square kilometers.

Winning this battle, Duke Jonathan of course wants to reward meritorious deeds, and in recent times, many nobles have come to inquire about the news, and asked Duke Jonathan to make his opinion clear and give everyone a reassurance.

Even within the Jonathan family, there are many people who are eager to try and ask the Duke to listen to everyone's opinions.

The division of interests is bound to be very difficult, requiring Duke Jonathan to compromise with all forces.

The first to deal with were the four dukes of the south of Starnik.

Although the four dukes of the south of the Grand Duchy of Starnik did not do their best to support the Linus family, after all, they were politically on the side of the Linus family.

Of the four Duke's families in Starnick, only the Watson family defected to Duke Jonathan early, and the political side was correct and was not implicated, and the third son of Duke Watson was also named a hereditary viscount. At the same time, Edward, Fawkes, York, Lorraine, and Duran were the five dukedom families that sent troops, each of which was awarded a viscount in the south.

The area of these six viscounts is not very large, and the combined territory is about 9,000 square kilometers. This part of the territory needs to be ceded by the three dukes who failed to stand politically. In addition, each of the three dukes had to transport 8,000 tons of grain to St. Jonathan's castle in order to receive the Jonathans' pardon.

Eight thousand tons of grain can be easily taken out by the three dukes, but to transport it to St. Jonathan's castle, the consumption along the way is serious, and in fact, more than 20,000 tons of grain need to be paid, and a large number of draft animals and personnel need to be mobilized.

After this war, the three dukes suffered a lot of economic losses.

Although the Three Dukedoms did not fight any major battles, and did not delay the agricultural season because of the war, the loss of various materials was not small, plus the need to transport food to the castle of San Jonathan, the economic loss was about more than 200,000 gold coins.

Each of the three dukes lost one-fifteenth of their territory, and two viscounts were divided, and their power weakened somewhat.

But after all, the dukes in the south are strong, with more than 100,000 troops united, and they did not break their muscles and bones in the war, although there were some losses in strength, but they stabilized the situation in the turmoil of the country, and the balance of power increased a lot, and the right to speak also increased.

Most of the northern aristocracy of Starnik remained neutral, and some supported Duke Jonathan.

After the victory of Duke Jonathan, the neutral aristocracy was somewhat politically incorrect.

However, the northern nobles were more united, with 40,000 nobles as a backup, and Duke Jonathan could not punish them severely, so they could only hand over a part of the grain, which amounted to about 10,000 tons.

The northern grain producing area of Starnik is not far from the castle of San Jonathan, about 150 kilometers, and can also be transported to the castle of San Jonathan through the waters of the Nit River, and the transportation loss is relatively small.

The economic losses were relatively small, and these neutral nobles were basically acceptable, who let them not support Duke Jonathan.

The northern nobles who supported Duke Jonathan, because of the correct team, four nobles who had made great achievements in the war were made hereditary barons, and their territories were sealed to the central region, on both sides of the Ferramane Mountains.

Although the four marquis in the east of the Grant Kingdom did not directly send troops to participate in the war, they provided a large amount of food, weapons, armor, pack horses and other war materials, and mobilized more than 200,000 serfs to transport countless materials to the front line. Each of the four marquis families had one of them hereditary barons, and their domains were also located in the central region of Starnik.

Although the southern earl also paid all kinds of materials, his political influence was slightly smaller, and he did not get the title, but only received a gold reward and the right to act as an agent for elf black tea. These commercial benefits can bring thousands of gold coins per year, and in the long run, this investment is very profitable.

In addition to the great nobles, the role played by the coalition forces of the three northern provinces in this war was also very crucial.

The army led by Richard not only annihilated the coalition of nobles in central Stanik, but also cooperated with the Northern Route Army to seize the county of St. Jonathan.

The achievements of the Central Route Army far surpassed that of the Southern Route Army, and Richard was also awarded a county. His domain was formed by the merger of the three viscounties of Nero, York, and Casaro.

The three viscounties did not border, and they varied in size, adding up to about 13,000 square kilometers in total, with the largest area of the Viscountate of Nero, exceeding 6,000 square kilometers, accounting for almost half.

Forty percent of the 13,000 square kilometers of land is plains, and 2 million mu of farmland has been reclaimed; the climate is relatively drier than that of the three northern provinces, and the grain output is also lower, and the development can carry hundreds of thousands of people.

Burton, Carlaney, Sharp and other nobles who had made great achievements in the war were all made hereditary barons this time. The rest of the nobles did not have enough credit, and could only share a little more in gold coins and population.

After obtaining the fief, Richard went to St. Jonathan's castle and decided to talk to Duke Jonathan. After weighing the pros and cons, he felt that the power of the Haaland family was not suitable for dispersion, and decided to use the land of the Grand Duchy of Starnik to exchange the territory with Duke Jonathan.

The county of Haaland is not far from the dukedom of Jonathan, especially the distance from the original Count of Roger, which is only a dozen kilometers.

The area of the county of Roger, about 27,000 square kilometers, is slightly smaller than the county of Haaland. If the two realms could be combined, the total area would be about 56,000.

Although the county of Roger is large, the development time is relatively short, and a large amount of land is mountainous, only the river valley area has a water source, and in terms of agricultural conditions, it is not at all comparable to the central Stanic region.

Moreover, the county of Roger is at the forefront of the war against the orcs, and although the territory is large, it is difficult to develop. The central region of Starnik is still more than 200 kilometers from the front line, which is relatively safe. Unless the orcs can penetrate the northern defenses, they won't raid the central region at all.

Despite the smaller size of the central county of Starnik, the true value is somewhat larger than that of Roger.

Richard met the new Grand Duke at St. Jonathan's Castle and informed him of his intention to exchange domains.

After the victory in the war, the power of the Jonathan family will tilt in favor of the Grand Duchy of Starnik.

If it weren't for the key role played by the alliance of the three provinces, Duke Jonathan would have been reluctant to divide a large territory and give Richard an earldom.

According to the terms negotiated between Duke Jonathan and King Roger, if the war is won, the Jonathan family will control the Grand Duchy of Starnik, Duke Jonathan will allocate 30,000 square kilometers of land to the royal family and establish a new province, Grotta. The Iron Lion Legion will be expanded into a central legion to be stationed in Grotta Province.

In terms of the area of land acquired, the Jonathan family did not make much money. But most of the territory under the royal family of the Grand Duke of Starnik was plains, far from the front lines of the orc invasion.

After taking this territory, the army can be expanded by 100,000, and the geographical advantage of the territory far exceeds that of the northern frontier front.

Integrating the power of the Grand Duchy of Starnik, the strength of the Jonathan family will usher in greater development.

Hearing the news, Duke Jonathan had a little joy on his face and immediately agreed to negotiate with the Haaland family.

The county of Roger was originally a fief of King Roger, and after the end of the civil war in the Kingdom of Grant, in order to repay Duke Jonathan's strong support, this domain was given to Duke Jonathan.

This territory has been established for a relatively short time, and it was still deserted more than ten years ago. Although King Roger invested a lot of resources in development, when Roger left, the population of the territory was only 60,000.

After the territory was incorporated into the Duke of Jonathan, it was not a key area for the development of the Duke of Jonathan, and although Duke Jonathan had migrated part of the population in recent years, the total population of the territory was less than 100,000.

And the central county of Starnik under Richard's name has been deserted because of the war. After the war, a small number of freedmen also returned to the cities, where they now live in only a few thousand people.

Normally, the exchange of territory in border areas and inland territories takes about one for three, and the exchange between mountains and plains is about one for two.

According to the unspoken rules of the Dawn plane, Richard was awarded a county in the central region of Starnik, which could be exchanged for 50,000 square kilometers of border territory. However, the northern region of the Grant Kingdom has abundant precipitation, rich forest and monster resources, which is very suitable for mountain aquaculture.

The Haaland family is bent on developing in the north, and the Jonathan family wants to focus on the west. The two families almost hit it off, and soon negotiated the terms and signed a territory exchange treaty.

(End of chapter)