After Haaland led the army and the Grizzlies to win the crucial battle, the orcs immediately chose to withdraw from all fronts.

The first to withdraw was the legion of the kobold dukedom, and after the harpy detected the defeat of the main force, the orc legion in northern Salt Lake County immediately chose to retreat from the Tani Gorge, and then the orc legion in the swamp basin also got rid of the entanglement of the Harland army and retreated along the Pratos Valley into the mountains.

The two corps had the upper hand in the field, and the withdrawal was relatively easy.

Having lost the support of the main army, the two orc legions that entered the province of Gascoigne became dangerous. These two orc legions are facing off against the two legions of the Wild Lion and the North, and it will not be easy to retreat.

But in the current situation, a retreat is already imperative.

If Haraland's leading group and the Grizzly Legion are freed up to block the retreat of the two orc legions, the situation will become even more serious.

The two orc legions cooperated more tacitly, and decisively chose to alternately cover the withdrawal, withdrawing along the Kaia River in the direction of the county of Donny Martins. In the process of retreating, he also annihilated a brigade of the advancing Northern Legion, and his own losses were not too serious.

More than half a month later, the four orc legions successfully returned to the kobold dukedom.

This war kobold Duke Kiram invaded with six orc legions, and as a result, nearly 50,000 main troops were annihilated by the Grant Kingdom, and the losses of auxiliaries were also very serious, and 40,000 people were missing.

In just two months, the kobold dukedom had lost nearly 100,000 troops, and it was already extremely weak internally.

Without the cooperation of the kobold dukedom, the other two orc armies did not dare to advance, and retreated to their respective territories early, but had to defend against the invasion of the Grant Kingdom army.

After defeating the orcs in this battle, Li Mo and William naturally took advantage of the victory to pursue and weaken the national strength of the kobold duke and create a safe environment for Haaland's territory.

Haaland leads the joint command with the Grizzlies.

Richard pointed to an area on the map and said to his father, William, "The Lothar Basin, one hundred and thirty kilometers from Fort Garrison, is the base for the Kobold Duchy's advance over the Eagle Mountains.

According to the information we have from interrogating the captives, there are more than 200,000 human slaves living in this area. They grow oats, mine ores, and make weapons, and are a very important logistics base for the kobold dukedom, as well as a core supply base for the orcs to cross the Eagle Mountains.

My advice is to take advantage of the orc's unstable foothold to take the Lothar Basin, then seal off the Hurricane Canyon in the north, and build a castle to stop the orc army.

The geographical advantages of the Eagle Mountains are all within our grasp. ”

William looked at the map and suddenly his heart surged, although he was not particularly close to Richard, but he admired the ability of this son.

William is a person who thinks very highly of himself, thinking that he is already a rare person in the Grant Kingdom, from an ordinary person who is frugal to become the commander of the main army in Northern Xinjiang, he got the title of nobility, and changed the class with the Harland family.

But his ability is compared to Richard, as if Firefly and Haoyue, there is no comparison at all.

Normally, it takes at least a hundred years for a baron family to be promoted to an earl family, and it takes several generations of struggle to succeed.

Viscount Rohmon has talents in every generation, his ability is similar to William's, and his foundation is even stronger, and he has not been promoted to become an earl, obtain the status of a great nobleman, and change his class.

In the past 100 years, only the two families of Haaland and Martins have been promoted from small nobles to big nobles. And the big nobles who lost their territories were as many as three. The number of great nobles in the Grant Kingdom is one less than a hundred years ago. This shows how difficult it is to cross this level.

And the Earl is far from the end of the Haaland family.

After this battle, the Haraland family will receive a third county, which can be combined into a duke according to the decree of the Council of Nobles of the Kingdom of Grant.

In a few months, a new Duke will be born in the Kingdom of Grant.

The Haaland family will once again move up the ladder.

After listening to Richard's deployment, William did not object, he pointed to several mountain forks in the Haaland Valley and said: "I will take the Grizzly Bear Army to set up a camp here to defend the back road for you." The Lothar Basin is up to you to conquer, and the most important thing in this battle is speed, so you must take advantage of the orcs to take this area.

As long as you can take this area, we can ask Nolante to merge the Lothar Basin into the territory after the war, and then the Haaland family will be a powerful mountain duke across the north and south of the Eagle Mountains. ”

After the two discussed, they immediately decided to divide the troops. William led his troops to set up camps at several mountain forks in the Haaland Valley to prevent the orcs from cutting off Richard's back route, and Richard led his troops to attack the Lothar Basin.

The Lothar Basin is already at the northern foot of the Eagle Mountains, and if you don't master the passage of the Harland Valley, if you want to attack the Lothar Basin, you need to climb over the main peak of the Eagle Mountains at a height of 4,000 meters.

It must be a very difficult thing for a large number of troops to march and without a suitable logistical supply base, walking hundreds of kilometers of mountain roads and climbing over a mountain peak with an altitude of 4,000 meters.

Moreover, the orc army has a large army stationed at the northern foot of the Eagle Mountain Range, and even if it crosses the Eagle Mountain Range, the situation will be extremely dangerous in the face of the orcs who are waiting for work.

Therefore, for hundreds of years, the Grant Kingdom has rarely been able to penetrate the Eagle Mountains and enter the orc territory.

In the past twenty years, counting this battle, there have only been two times when they have penetrated the Eagle Mountains and invaded the Orc Empire.

The first time was when Count Donnie Martins completely annihilated the orc legion, taking advantage of the orc army not reacting, occupying the Kailanian valley and entering the boar dukedom, and when retreating, the northern legion also successfully seized the fighter plane and killed the legendary boar man. It was also a rare victory for the Grant Kingdom against orcs in recent decades.

In that battle twelve years ago, Richard and William were both people who experienced it personally, when Richard served as the commander of the coalition of nobles in Heihe County, and William served as the captain of the main legion, both of whom were middle-level soldiers of the Grant Kingdom.

Richard also made great achievements in this war, obtained nobility, and obtained the first fief in his life. This fief was near Sophia Fort, and the discovery of iron ore from this fief gave a great boost to the development of the Haaland family.

After this battle, the Grant Kingdom actually has a chance to master this valley and share the location of the Eagle Mountains with the orcs.

It's just that if you want to hold a supply line of nearly 300 kilometers along the way, you must station a large army. At least one and a half main legions must be stationed to repel the orcs.

Garrisoning one and a half main legions in the barren mountains and wilderness consumes a huge amount of money every day. King Charlie, who made the decision at that time, couldn't make up his mind at all, and finally chose to withdraw his troops because of the increasing pressure of the orcs counterattack.

After the war, Donny Martins was made an earl, and the county of Donny Martins was established, which controlled half of the Kailania Valley, giving the Kingdom of Grant a great geographical advantage. It's a pity that the Martins family has a shallow background, Nolan didn't give him enough support, and he didn't hold the key fortress, and every time the orcs attacked, they could penetrate the Earl of Martins.

For more than 100 years, the Kingdom of Grant has been committed to expanding to the north of the Eagle Mountains, and the biggest result is the two major counties of Martins and Haaland.

Although the expansion of the county of Martins was not very successful, the development of the Haaland county was very impressive.

After more than ten years of encroachment, the Earldom of Haaland has expanded to the middle of the Eagle Mountains, steadily guarding several canyons, and protecting Geda Province well.

Because Haaland's territory has gained a firm foothold, the province of Geda has not been raided by orcs for almost ten years.

In recent years, with the expansion of Haaland's territory, it has also protected the provinces of Gascoigne, Lach, and Grotta.

As long as the development of the Haaland Territory gets better and better, and several key passages are blocked, the three provinces in the northern part of the Grant Kingdom will become three inland provinces, and the financial pressure and national defense pressure will be greatly reduced.

Due to the death of the legendary kobolds, the main army of half-orcs fled back to the Lothar Basin with only 6,000 men. The orc army has long been a frightened bird, and there are several dangerous military fortresses along the way, and there are no defenders left at all.

Richard led the main force with Haaland, chased the defeated troops along the way, and very easily broke through the Haaland Valley and came to the vicinity of the Lothar Basin.

Although the defeated orc army has been given a short rest, and although the Lothar Basin is the core of the kobold dukedom's operation, in the face of the attack of the army led by Haaland, the orc rout has no desire to fight.

Without holding out for even a day, the orcs fled the Lothar Basin.

After taking control of the Lothar Basin, Richard did not rush north to attack the core of the kobold dukedom.

Although the soldiers led by Haaland are elite, they are relatively small in number, and the Lothar Basin is an area that must be controlled, and it is necessary to divide the troops if they continue to move north.

Once the forces are weakened, the risk of losing the battle increases dramatically.

After taking the Lothar Basin, Richard immediately ordered the soldiers to divide into several parts, control the key points of the Lothar Basin, and count the booty.

The Losa Basin covers an area of about 3,600 square kilometers, and in the north is the last ridge of the Eagle Mountains, which runs east-west, and the only entrance to the north is not suitable for survival because of hurricanes all year round.

The hundreds of square kilometers of land near Hurricane Canyon are also unusually cold in winter.

Richard personally went to the Hurricane Pass to check the terrain, he observed the trend of the mountain range, and said to Charlemagne, the captain of the guard brigade around him: "The terrain here is easy to defend and difficult to attack, as long as you build a castle at the entrance of the canyon, you can block the orc army." It's April, and the summer and autumn windows are very short, so it's important to finish the castle before winter.

You lead the guard brigade, and I will give you another 2,000 auxiliaries, and set up camp on the mountainside of the wind outlet. The conditions are more difficult, so bear with it first. ”

Charlemagne's injuries were not minor in the battle with the legendary kobold, but after being treated by magic, the wounds had healed, but he could not fight for a month or two.

Having been able to act, Charlemagne did not stay in the rear hospital and returned to the barracks.

Now the competition in the army of Haaland's territory is relatively fierce, and once Charlemagne goes to the rear to recuperate, the position of captain may be replaced by Baggett. Baggett was also a fourth-order warrior who was qualified to be the captain of the infantry brigade, and although Baggett was his old comrade-in-arms for many years and had saved his life in battle, Charlemagne still did not want to give up his position.

"Please rest assured, the Earl will overcome the difficulties and defend this mountain pass."

"You just got hurt, how are you doing?"

Charlemagne raised his head and said loudly: "As long as you don't shoot with all your strength, there is nothing wrong with your body." ”

Richard patted Charlemagne on the shoulder and gave him a reassurance.

"Don't worry, I don't plan to change the position of captain of the guard brigade, as for Baggett, I also have arrangements, this year's territory will expand the army by two brigades, and Bagatt will serve as the captain of the eleventh brigade. Now the territory is expanding every year, and good officers can rise. In the battle with the legendary kobold, the two of you bravely stood up and left a deep impression on me. As long as you work hard to improve yourself, your future is guaranteed. ”

Leaving the guard brigade and some auxiliaries to build a camp and guard the mountain pass, Richard returned to the Lothar Basin with the main army.

The Lothar Basin has many water systems, and orc slaves have cultivated a large amount of farmland, which is not low in yield and can feed hundreds of thousands of people.

With enough food, it is possible to support the garrison of a large army in the Haaland territory.

After taking control of the Lothar Basin, Richard immediately ordered a large number of grassroots officials to be drawn from the rear of Haaland's territory to enrich the Lothar Basin.

The time has entered June, and after more than a month of integrated statistics, the population of the Lothar Basin has been clearly counted.

"According to our statistics, there are 243,000 human slaves in the Lothar Basin, most of these people are the plundered population of our Grant Kingdom, a small number of them are from the Grand Duchy of Starnik, and there are also some people from the Kingdom of Lane.

From interviewing prisoners of war, we learned that most of the human slaves of the Kobold Principality lived in the Lothar Basin, which was already the economic center of the Kobold Principality.

In addition to human slaves, there are about 80,000 orcs living in the Lothar Basin, of which 20,000 are sheep-like people, 40,000 are kobolds, and 20,000 are orcs of other races.

……”

Richard listened to the reports of the officials and gave the order decisively.

"The captured orc prisoners of war were taken to the rear, the sheep people were sent to the animal husbandry department, and the remaining orc prisoners of war were left to mine, and the rest were sold for money.

The rescued human slaves, as long as they are sure to have a noble status, give them a gold coin to let them go home, and let them sign a five-year indentured servitude contract and serve Haraland for five years before they can become free people.

Agricultural production is the most important task and should be properly arranged. It is necessary to allocate manpower as soon as possible to speed up the construction of the tuyere castle and ensure that the castle is completed before the winter.

In addition, the castle garrison should reserve fuel for winter cold in advance, so that the rear can send people to transport it to the vicinity of the tuyere camp.

……”

(End of chapter)