As the ogres raged for a long time, the Martins family could only abandon some villages on the periphery, shrink their forces, and concentrate the population near the castle.

Although it was safe, there was not much arable land near the castle, and if you wanted to feed tens of thousands of people and more than 10,000 soldiers, you could only transport food from the rear.

After a long time, the Martins family couldn't bear it at all.

The report of the Martins family's abandonment of the territory was once again on King Roger's desk.

Although he has become a big nobleman, his strength is not strong and his background is not enough, and the Martins family has not felt comfortable at all in the past ten years.

In just a few years, two heads of the family were killed in battle.

As the pressure from ogres grew, the Martins family weighed the pros and cons and decided to abandon the two castles of Golo and Songtao, as well as the territory of about 38,000 square kilometers west of the Lania River.

When King Charles demarcated the Earlland of Martins, he divided a huge territory, so that although the royal family threw off the burden, the Martins family could not hold such a huge territory at all.

In just a few years, the county of Martins has been completely lost, and the Martins family even wants to give up the territory and disgrace the family.

In the end, it was the Grant royal family who took responsibility, and Roger borrowed a large amount of gold to support the Martins family, and even sent a ransom army to assist the Martins family in garrisoning the territory.

After five years of equilibrium, the Martins family made up their minds to abandon a large territory close to the Ogre tribe and focus on the east, fighting each other with the province of Gascoigne, holding the territory of 23,000 square kilometers east of the Rania River.

After analyzing the situation, King Roger finally agreed to the request of the Martins family.

After all, the strength of this area is not enough, and if you want to expand your sphere of influence, you must have Nolan's full support. Nolan didn't want to invest, even if he extended his sphere of influence, once the ogre was ruthless, he couldn't hold it at all by relying on local forces.

With King Roger's consent, the Martins family demolished the castle and migrated the population to the east of the Rania River.

After the legendary ogre saw the humans leave, he did not continue to let the ogre cross the Rania River.

The Rania River is a very important tributary of the upper reaches of the Heihe River, with a strong flow of about fifty or sixty meters wide and a width of about fifty or sixty meters. The ogre wanted to cross the river, and it was not an easy task.

Moreover, after crossing the river, the ogre's range of movement decreased, and it undoubtedly became more difficult to use guerrilla tactics.

This area is about seventy or eighty kilometers away from the Flame Castle, and even if the level of development is very low, such a close distance is easy to get reinforcements from the Wild Lion Legion.

Legendary ogres are not fools and will not let their men duel head-on with the Human Central Legion.

After the county moved eastward, the Earl of Martins relied on natural rivers as a line of defense, and the situation was immediately reversed.

Although the two sides did not sign a contract, they acquiesced in each other's spheres of influence, and the situation in the region once again returned to balance.

After killing the necromancer, Richard returned to his territory, where the autumn harvest had begun.

This year can be regarded as a good wind and rain, and the entire northern Xinjiang region has ushered in a bumper harvest.

Because of the mining of potash mines, there is a large amount of potash fertilizer in the Haaland territory, and the 200,000 acres of experimental fields using potash fertilizer have once again increased the yield per mu. The yield per mu of wheat planted in paddy fields has increased to about 420 catties, and even in dry land where irrigation is difficult and depends on the weather for food, the yield per mu has also increased to about 240 catties.

The output of 200,000 mu of experimental fields is equivalent to 250,000 mu in previous years, an increase of about 25 percent.

Although natural chemical fertilizers are not as good as compound fertilizers and do not increase yields as well as nitrogen fertilizers, the effect is better than that of simple farm fertilizers. Mixed with farm fertilizer, the effect of increasing yield is better.

Seeing that the use of chemical fertilizers worked so well, Richard decided to increase the exploitation of potash lakes next year. But this will require more workers to be sent to Salt Lake County, and roads and transportation will need to be invested.

This year, about 2 million mu of farmland has been cultivated in the Haaland territory, and in addition to cotton, fruits, medicinal herbs and other cash crops, about 1.86 million mu of grain is heavier.

This 1.86 million mu of farmland produces about 225,000 tons of grain. Compared with last year, grain production has increased by about one-third.

This year, 400,000 mu of farmland has been reclaimed, and 200,000 mu of experimental fields have been given potassium fertilizer, and about 55,000 tons of grain have been increased in this part.

This year's rainfall is better than last year's, there are basically no natural disasters, and according to average statistics, the yield per mu has increased by about 6 percent compared with last year.

Of the 225,000 tons of grain, 95,000 tons belonged to the freemen. The official grain in Haaland's territory is only about 130,000 tons.

Sixty thousand freedmen became freedmen this spring, and with the addition of these 60,000 freedmen, the number of freedmen in Haaland's territory is 225,000, which is already more than 35 percent of the total population.

Because of the epidemic, more than 40,000 serfs from other territories were incorporated in the Haaland territory, and the number of indentured slaves was as high as 410,000 with the population born in the territory. This is slightly higher than the peak number of indentured slaves last year.

Of the 130,000 tons of grain, 10,000 tons of grain need to be left for planting, 10,000 tons of grain for emergency reserves, 10,000 tons of 2,000 tons of military food, and 3,000 tons of grain for winemaking, and about 95,000 tons of grain that can really be eaten.

More than 90,000 tons of grain need to feed more than 400,000 people, more than 20,000 head of large livestock, and the surplus of grain is not very sufficient, and it is impossible to sell it to the outside world.

Richard didn't expect the territory to make money from agriculture this year, and the fact that agricultural production was self-sufficient and didn't need to buy food from outside the gold coins was already satisfying.

From last year to this year, more than 300,000 people have poured into Haaland's territory in two years, and it is not easy for the agricultural surplus to feed these 300,000 people.

Last year, it was able to support it all thanks to the support of animal husbandry and 20,000 tons of mutton in winter.

Although there was a bumper harvest in agriculture this year, the livestock sector suffered serious losses. Shortly after the plague epidemic in northern Xinjiang, there was an epidemic of sheep plague in Haaland's territory at the turn of spring and summer.

This time the sheep plague is very serious, the spread is very large, according to the general statistics of the territorial officials, more than 600,000 sheep have died, the real situation may be even more serious. A significant proportion of the sheep that die are ewes. After the sheep plague, the sheep population in the Haaland territory decreased by about 30 percent.

Because of sheep plague, burying dead sheep is a difficult task.

Not only has the production of woolen textiles been reduced this year, but the entire Haaland territory is estimated to have only 700,000 sheep slaughtered. Only about 500,000 sheep were slaughtered in government-run pastures, a decrease of about half compared with last year.

Fortunately, Haaland's territory is a two-legged walk in agriculture and animal husbandry, and it has a high ability to resist risks, so it will not cause turmoil in the territory because of heavy losses in animal husbandry, and the people have no way to live because of too many sheep deaths.

Last year Richard dealt with Donn, and a large number of officials in the agricultural system were held accountable. During this year's autumn harvest season, Richard began his inspection early, accompanied by Burrien, the new head of the agricultural system in Haaland's territory.

Burrion was the second group of slaves to come to Harland, and also served in the army. He lost three fingers in the war, could not shoot arrows with a bow, and became mildly disabled. After retiring from the army, Burrien entered the civil service. Starting from the grassroots position in the agricultural sector, he was slowly promoted to the middle level in ten years.

After Donn's problem, Richard sent a large-scale investigation of agricultural system officials. Bethleon withstood the test and was a very rare clean official.

With the fall of Donn, Burrion took the opportunity to rise to the top of the civil service and reaped the benefits.

Although he was over forty years old, Burrion was very studious, he attended literacy classes in the army, and his level of education was not high. After moving into the civil service, Burrion continued to enrich himself, learning new knowledge for more than ten years. In particular, the level of mathematics has improved very quickly, and now I can skillfully use trigonometric functions and plane geometry knowledge to complete the calculation of ballistics.

Despite retiring from the army, Burrien has been a reserve officer in Haaland's territory, and in recent years he has spent a month or two each year training in the reserves, training trebuchets for Haaland's territory.

Compared with Donne, Burlion's ability is obviously much stronger, and in the face of the methods of the lower-level bureaucrats to fool the superiors, Burlion will not be deceived at all.

With Buryon, an expert who came up from the grassroots level to follow, the real situation below is basically clear at a glance.

Richard has always been strict in dealing with corrupt officials, and Burrion is proficient in business, and this year the officials of the food system hardly dare to reach out, and there are many clean officials in a rare situation.

Richard and Burrion walked around the major grain depots, and only completed their inspection work when the autumn grain was in storage.

After returning to Fort William, Richard rested for two days, and once again came to the vicinity of Fort Salt Lake with a few relatives.

The vicinity of Fort Salt Lake has been the focus of development of the Harland Territory in recent years.

A large amount of land here is saline, which is not suitable for agricultural production, but the discovery of potash mines has made potash mining a very important industry.

This year alone, 20,000 people have migrated from the Harland Territory to Salt Lake County, and the number of immigrants would have been even higher if it had not been for the road restrictions and the inability to transport various supplies.

In addition to Fort Salt Lake, this year the Harland Territory also built Fort North in the north of Salt Lake County, and built Fort Reindeer between Castle of Flowers and Fort Salt Lake to serve as a supply base between the two castles.

In order to speed up the development of Salt Lake County, Richard established brick kilns, cement kilns, and glass kilns near Salt Lake Fort and Reindeer Fort, and produced various building materials nearby. Preparations are also being made for the construction of a wide masonry road, and the section from Graveson to Copper Mountain has been built this year.

The section from Tongshan Town to Reindeer Fort needs to climb over two mountain beams, and I am afraid it will not be completed until next year.

Richard went to the potash mining camp and found that the camp was a full circle larger than last year. Several masonry houses have been built in the camp, which are where the grassroots managers live and work. Most of the remaining houses were made of wooden planks, and some of the newcomers had to live in tents.

Behind the rows of houses, a large amount of coal is piled up, and it seems that the fuel stored for the winter has been solved.

Richard directly found the official in charge of the camp, pointed to the tent outside, and said, "It's mid-August now, and winter is not far away." Living in a tent can not survive the winter, although the brick and stone houses are subject to local conditions, they cannot be built in a short time, and the wooden houses should be repaired more. If a large number of indentured slaves freeze to death, I will hold you accountable. ”

"Lord Earl, the construction task pressed down from above is too heavy. Drying grounds, office areas, warehouses, fences, and sheds have to be built, and our craftsmen are simply too busy. ”

"Other projects should wait first, and the construction of sheds should be given priority. Before winter, you must get the indentured slaves out of the tent, and if something goes wrong, I'll get you in trouble. ”

Coming out of the mining camp, Richard took the men around the neighborhood and returned to Fort Salt Lake. Bernard Luca, the civil affairs officer of Salt Lake County, was at the city gate early to greet him.

Bernard Luca has served the Harland Territory for many years and was previously the official of the Domain's Orcs.

He has lived in the Orc Empire for many years and is fluent in several orc languages.

Orc captives and made no small contribution to the development of Haaland's territory.

In particular, the sheep people tribe, 12,000 sheep people graze more than 800,000 sheep, and on average, each sheep people provide as many as nineteen silver coins, which is equivalent to six times that of ordinary humans. Not to mention the discovery of the Brown Sugar Tree by the Sheep, which brought an important industry to Haraland's territory.

Over the years in Haaland's territory, Bernard Luca has trained more than a dozen translators who are proficient in various orc languages, and the orc captive department managed has not made mistakes, and his contribution is not small. After the territory was divided into counties, Richard made him the sole ruler and appointed him as the civil magistrate of Salt Lake County.

Bernard had aristocratic ancestry, and he was Baron Luca's own uncle. After being captured by the orcs, he did not contact the members of Baron Luca's family in order to avoid dishonoring the nobility.

The civil affairs officer of a county is already the highest-ranking civil official in the local area, and with this step, Bernard has become a heavyweight in Haaland's territory.

Now an important civil servant of Count Haaland, Bernard has instead become a backer of the Luca family, and he has written a letter to Baron Luca last year to bring his family to Haaland's territory for development.

Bernard's eldest son, Blake, was already a fourth-order knight, and after joining Haraland's domain, he was appointed by Richard as the deputy captain of the 10th Brigade, becoming a mid-ranking officer. If outsiders want to become a regular position, they must make a war exploit and shed blood for Haaland's territory.

"How is your county doing this year?"

Bernard said: "The county has reclaimed 16,000 mu of dry land this year, with an average yield of only 90 catties per mu, and a total of 800 tons of grain have been harvested. As of this year's autumn harvest, the county's population has reached 42,000, and the food self-sufficiency rate is only 9 percent. Unless there is a magician who is good at life magic to improve the soil, agriculture in this county will not develop very well.

The lifeblood of Salt Lake County is the mining industry, and in addition to potash mines, our county produces table salt in large quantities. Salt production is also a large industry, with a market size of more than 20,000 gold coins this year. In the future, if you can sell it to the outside world, you can make more money. ”

(End of chapter)