After signing a land exchange agreement, it also needs to be approved by the Council of Nobles before it can be legally validated.

The Jonathan family has a lot of influence in the noble council, and the Haaland family also has a high voting power in the noble council, and is the head of the nobles in Geda Province.

The Grant royal family facilitated the westward migration of the Jonathan family's power, and naturally would not oppose the exchange of territories.

After the exchange of territories was completed, Richard began to prepare for the withdrawal of his troops.

After a few months on the expedition, the homesickness of the soldiers was already very serious, and Richard was very strict with military discipline and forbade the soldiers to kill and indulge, and the morale was already very low.

Many aristocratic officers approached Richard for a letter, hoping to withdraw the army as soon as possible.

However, the situation in the Grand Duchy of Starnik was unstable, and the 100,000 intervention troops could not withdraw all of them.

The commander of the three-way army communicated several times and decided to withdraw the troops according to the priority.

The army on the northern front had the largest number of soldiers, Duke Jonathan's legion was already in full control of the situation, and the Iron Lion Legion was the first to begin withdrawing.

Next was the Three-Province Alliance, which began to withdraw in mid-July on the terms negotiated between Richard and Duke Jonathan.

The army on the southern front was the most fully supplied, and it was necessary to contain the great nobles in the south, and the withdrawal time was later, and it was necessary to wait until early September.

All three legions were withdrawn, and in the end, only Duke Jonathan's direct legions were left in the Grand Duchy of Starnik, and due to the attrition caused by the war, Duke Jonathan's soldiers numbered about 40,000.

However, after the war, Duke Jonathan collected about 20,000 Linus Praetorian Guards, and he directly controlled a total of 60,000 troops.

Compared to the forces directly controlled by the Linus family, the Jonathan family has about 40,000 fewer people.

Moreover, 20,000 troops were recruited, and the internal situation was also a little unstable.

Today, the Jonathans have far less control over the Grand Duchy of Stanik than the Linus family.

The power of the Jonathan family, compared to the great nobles of Starnik, is already a little unbalanced.

If you want to maintain the balance of the country, you can either continue to transfer troops from the Kingdom of Grant, or expand the army as soon as possible.

Duke Jonathan trained three legions of regular armies, two of which were transferred to the Grand Duchy of Stanik. It is impossible to give up the territory of the Grant Kingdom, and it is imperative to expand the army.

Fortunately, the territory directly under the direct jurisdiction of the Starnik royal family is relatively rich, the economic foundation is better, and the expansion of the army is relatively financially relaxed.

The only difficulty now is that the training of grassroots officers and elite soldiers is temporarily insufficient.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, more than twenty days had passed, and the coalition forces of the three provinces were ready and waiting for the order to withdraw their troops.

One day in mid-July, Duke Jonathan arrived at Ria Castle with his retinue and Jane.

For the last month, the Castle has been the headquarters of the tri-provincial coalition.

The vicinity of the castle was not affected by the war, and more than 8,000 tons of summer grain were harvested. Richard was given 2,000 tons of grain and completely got rid of the problem of food shortage.

During this month, the coalition forces of the three provinces lived very comfortably and calmly.

After arriving at the castle of ria, Duke Jonathan went around the barracks, and after the duke returned to Richard's camp with a blank face, he said: "The morale of the soldiers does not seem to be high. ”

"It's been five months since we started in February. The soldiers felt more homesick, and after winning the battle, they had received a lot of spoils, and now they all wanted to go home and had no heart to fight. ”

Duke Jonathan nodded and said, "To be able to win a battle with such a soldier, the earl's ability to lead the army is very clever, even I can't do this." ”

Although the coalition of the three provinces was not a rabble, it was the first time that Richard fought with soldiers with uneven hearts. The reason why he was able to firmly control the troops was that the fairness of rewards and punishments was the key reason.

In every battle, Richard did not avoid arrows, charged ahead, played a good leading role for the soldiers, and established a high prestige.

In several key battles, Richard and the soldiers of Haaland's territory acted as the backbone and played a decisive role.

Relying on the soldiers of Haaland's territory, he mastered the coalition forces of the three provinces. It was also fair and just in the distribution of the spoils of war that the majority of the noble officers could be united and balanced.

After fighting this war, Richard felt that his ability to lead troops had increased a lot, and his ability to unite officers had been greatly improved. However, in the next war, Richard was unwilling to continue to lead the aristocratic coalition to fight, and it was always necessary to weigh the pros and cons and do a good job of internal balance when fighting with the aristocratic coalition, which was too worrying.

A team that is not in line with the hearts of the people is a rabble.

Giving Richard 5,000 soldiers of Haaland's territory is enough to sweep through the coalition forces of the three provinces 15,000 people.

Hearing Duke Jonathan's praise, Richard hurriedly said modestly: "Your Excellency the Grand Duke has a good reputation. ”

Duke Jonathan said: "It's not an exaggeration, in my opinion, the officers who can lead the noble coalition to win the battle are all excellent generals." Moreover, in this war, you and the alliance of the three provinces also played a key role, otherwise I would not have given you a county.

You let the idlers and others go out, and I have something to talk to you about alone. ”

Richard waved his hand, drove out the staff officers and guards in the tent, and when he saw that the people had already walked away, he whispered, "What does the Grand Duke want to ask?" ”

"Did you invent a new type of alchemy bomb?"

"The Haaland Territory has indeed invented a new type of alchemy bomb." Because it was used more on the battlefield, Richard did not hide it and chose to tell the truth.

Since a large number of alchemy bombs were used in the war, Richard was mentally prepared in advance, and already had plans to trade with Duke Jonathan and the royal family of Grant.

"Is it expensive to refine this alchemy bomb?"

Alchemy bombs are not uncommon, and the cost is the key.

"The cost of making an alchemy bomb is not high, the cost of materials adds up to about sixteen silver coins, plus the labor cost, it is less than two gold coins, which is far cheaper than the alchemy bomb made by the elemental heart."

"Could it be that you don't need to use fire crystals for alchemy bombs like you?"

"Your Excellency Duke's guess is right, with the addition of fire crystal, the cost of materials will increase significantly, and it will definitely exceed thirty gold coins. The alchemy bomb made by the same elemental heart cannot compete at all. ”

Seeing that Richard knew everything, Duke Jonathan was very satisfied, and he said happily: "This kind of alchemy bomb manufacturing technology, are you willing to exchange it with me?" I will pay enough price to ensure that you are satisfied. ”

"Your Excellency the Duke, there is no shortage of ordinary resources for the Haaland family, unless it is a treasure that is very important to us, otherwise we are not willing to exchange. Even if we agree to exchange alchemy bomb manufacturing technology, we have strings attached. First of all, His Excellency the Duke cannot spread the alchemy bomb manufacturing technology, and secondly, the Jonathan family cannot sell alchemy bombs to the outside world.

In order to ensure that the transaction needs to sign a royal contract, the Duke family must have at least ten people to sign the contract, and these twenty people must be important members of the Jonathan family, and I need to ensure the security of the transaction. ”

The royal pact can only be used by professions below the legendary level.

Duke Jonathan is already a legendary second-order, if the duke signs a contract, as long as he is willing to pay a certain price, he can be exempted from the attack of the royal power seal. Therefore, what Richard asked to sign must be other important members of the Jonathan family.

If a minor nobleman negotiates a deal with the Jonathan family, Duke Jonathan can take out three melons and two dates to send it, and he will definitely not agree to harsh additional conditions.

But if you trade with the big nobles, you can negotiate relatively fairly. The Haaland family is already hereditary earls and has enough strength to negotiate terms with the Jonathan family.

The Jonathan family trades alchemy bombs primarily to defend their territory and fight their enemies.

Despite the defeat of the Linuss, the Grand Duchy of Starnik lost 80,000 soldiers, and even if the Jonathans entered the castle of San Jonathan with two legionnaires, the number of soldiers in the Grand Duchy of Starnik was 40,000 less.

In the face of the orc attack, with 40,000 troops missing, the pressure on the front line will increase a lot. Even if the Jonathan family expands its army immediately, the combat effectiveness of the newly formed legion two years later will be average, and it will not be able to fill the gap at all.

Whether he can stop the orcs in two years, Duke Jonathan is very worried.

Equipped with cheap alchemy bombs, the army's combat effectiveness can be increased by at least 30%. Each squadron is equipped with dozens of them, and even if the army is not expanded in two years, with the current strength of Duke Jonathan, he is sure to defeat the orcs.

Duke Jonathan said: "The Haaland family's request, we can consider it. Since I came here to negotiate the deal in person, I naturally have the resources that the Haraland family urgently needs, and I have a royal power seal here that can be exchanged for alchemy bomb manufacturing technology. ”

The royal seal is a replica of an artifact, and it is also an important resource for the royal power church to control the great nobles.

Each Throne Seal is worth as much as a Legendary Magic Item.

The value of legendary magic items cannot be exchanged for gold coins or magic crystals at all.

Although the Haaland family has a shallow background, Richard's luck is very good, and now the family has three pieces of legendary magic equipment, whether it is the Thunderbolt Staff, the Starlight Bottle, or the Starlight Necklace, Richard is unlikely to exchange them for common resources such as gold coins and magic crystals.

Relatively speaking, the number of royal seals is large, and in the legendary magic equipment, the value is slightly lower.

But for the great nobles, the royal seal is still a very important magic item, which is related to the ruling power of the great nobles.

After Richard was promoted to count, he immediately reported to the Church of Monarchy and queued up, hoping to trade a seal with the Church of Monarchy. Normally, if the Earl wants to exchange a seal, he has to wait in line for thirty years.

The Jonathan family has a rich heritage and has been a great nobleman for more than 700 years. They were once the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Starnik and had seven seals of royal power in their hands.

Although the seal of royal power is very important to the Haaland family, for the Jonathan family, this treasure is not lacking.

After all, according to the strength of the Jonathan family, there is no way to expand the seven main central legions, and it will not use seven royal seals.

The royal seal that Duke Jonathan took out to trade came from the fleeing Linus family.

Although the Linus family has a slightly shallow background, after all, they are also great nobles for hundreds of years, controlling the Grand Duchy of Starnik for more than a hundred years, and they also have six royal seals in their hands.

Due to the internal strife in the Linus family's court, three royal seals were lost during the war.

After the Jonathan family took control of the Grand Duchy of Starnik, they found two lost seals of royal power through divination magic. After careful consideration, Duke Jonathan decided to exchange one with the Haaland family.

The treasure that Duke Jonathan took out immediately impressed Richard.

The Haaland family has grown to this point, and it is really in dire need of a royal seal.

Both parties were so satisfied with the deal that Richard immediately drew up a contract in the military tent, signed his name, and rode back to St. Jonathan's castle with Duke Jonathan on a wildebeest, so that important members of the Jonathan family could sign the contract.

After signing the contract, Richard wrote down the recipe for the alchemy bomb, the process of making shells, and the technology for making explosive runes, and obtained the ownership of a royal seal.

With the seal of royal power in your hands, you have control over the middle and lower levels.

Breathing, meditation spreads will become more difficult.

Some advanced industrial technology, magic technology, keeping secrets has become much easier, and the pressure of espionage has been reduced.

After completing the deal, Richard returned to northern Xinjiang with the allied forces of the three provinces, and after returning to the territory, the time had already entered the middle of August.

Starting from early February, he went out to fight for half a year, and finally returned to the territory. Returning with the coalition forces of the three provinces, there were 5,000 captive soldiers and more than 30,000 captive soldiers' families.

Although these captives have rich experience in warfare and can skillfully use all kinds of equipment, it is very rare to practice breathing, and there are few officers among them.

The noble officers of central Starnik were all of the Linus family, and these people rarely surrendered, and basically fled with Viscount Nero into the kingdom of Delon.

Most of the minor nobles do not like the spread of the breathing method, especially in the central region of the Grand Duchy of Starnik, where the pressure of orc invasion is less, and the nobles are mainly guarded against internal challengers.

Those who can practice the breathing method basically have noble blood and are members of the aristocratic branch.

Even if he did not practice the breathing method, his physical fitness was very average, and Richard was ready to recruit all of the captive soldiers.

Although the physical fitness of this group of people is average, after all, they have many years of war experience, and they only need to practice the breathing method to grow into qualified soldiers, and the training cycle is shorter.

After Richard returned to the territory, he began to hand over the territory with the Jonathan family.

The county of Roger has four castles, more than thirty villages, and a population of about 96,000. This territory is very close to Haaland's territory, and Richard easily gains control.

By the end of August, Richard had settled the families of the captives near the King's Castle in Dukedom Roger, and began a mixed group of soldiers.

Many of the newly recruited soldiers were illiterate, and if they wanted to practice the breathing method, they had to learn it from scratch. You need to learn the most common words to understand the content of the breathing method, and this process usually takes about a year.

A soldier with average talent can only be promoted to a professional and become a squadron officer after ten years of joining the army. If there is a complete breathing method, it will take three to five years for a more gifted soldier.

The intervention war lasted for half a year, and the casualties among the soldiers in the Haaland territory were small, with no more than 200 casualties, and there were not too many seriously wounded who retired from active service, which would not affect the expansion of the army.

(End of chapter)