Hiding gold coins in the treasury was actually of no use to the development of the economy. Of the 930,000 gold coins in stock, Richard was going to spend most of them on the purchase of serfs.

The one-time purchase of more than 100,000 serfs was undoubtedly a huge business, far exceeding the supply of slave markets in the Kingdom of Grant.

There are two major slave markets in the Kingdom of Grant, one is in Nolan, and the size of slaves can be sold for 30,000 people a year. One is in Heihe Fort, the market is smaller, and it can be sold for about 10,000 people a year.

Due to the size of the slave market, Duke Guise and Duke Duran would also sell slaves at St. Jonathan's Castle, and they could sell 20,000 people a year.

In fact, the nobles in the south of the Grant Kingdom can catch more than 100,000 slaves a year, more than half of them die on the road, and they can sell 60,000 or 70,000 a year.

In the last ten years, about 200,000 slaves have been sent to Haraland, and Richard has paid more than one million gold coins.

Since William led his troops south, the Haaland family has gained significant influence in the south. Relying on this layer of influence, the territory opened up a southbound commercial channel, which was not only capable of smuggling goods, but also smuggling people.

Thirteen trading posts have been established on this trade route, which are located in different territories, and many goods have been hoarded in the trading stations, which have extended the tentacles of the Haaland territory to different territories.

Through these trading stations, you can buy a large amount of supplies from nearby lords and merchants, and the cost of buying slaves will also drop a lot, if you go south with gold coins, counting the wear and tear along the way, it will cost about three gold coins and eight silver coins to buy one person on average.

Because the capacity of the slave market was insufficient, after the Goddess's Birthday, Richard decided to personally lead his troops south, negotiate with the Duke of Guise, Duke Duran and other southern nobles, and buy a batch of serfs with 500,000 gold coins.

In order to protect the safety of this huge amount of money, Richard dispatched the First Brigade, the Guard Brigade, the Twenty-eighth Brigade, and the Second Warcraft Cavalry Brigade with a total of 6,000 regular troops to the south.

The army marched south not only to protect Richard's safety, but also to maintain order and escort serfs on the return. The one-time relocation of more than 100,000 serfs will not work without the protection of elite soldiers.

500,000 gold coins, according to the current cost of Haaland to buy slaves, about 130,000 indentured slaves can be purchased.

This year, Haaland received enough rich food to feed the extra 130,000 indentured slaves, and Richard also needed to spend 100,000 gold coins to buy 50,000 tons of grain, with a total cost of nearly 600,000 gold coins.

As for the remaining 330,000 gold coins, the territory will be maintained.

Shortly after the Goddess's Birthday, the temperature has just warmed up in February, and the snow has begun to melt.

The 1st Brigade, the Guard Brigade, the 2nd Monster Cavalry Brigade and other elites crossed the Eagle Mountains, converged with the 28th Brigade, and marched south.

Before the transfer of troops to the south, Richard had already stepped up and sent an envoy to Nolan to explain the reason for the transfer of troops to the south.

By late February, Richard had already led his army into the Duchy of Guise.

In order to dispel the suspicions of the Duke of Guise, Richard ordered his soldiers to camp outside the city, and he himself entered the Duke of Guise's castle with a small retinue.

By the time he was heading south, Richard had already sent messengers to explain the reasons to the important nobles of the south.

The Duke of Guise welcomed Richard into the castle and, after arranging accommodation, immediately hosted a welcome dinner.

After a full meal, the Duke of Guise spoke, "Last year, the war was not going well, and we only caught 30,000 serfs in our territory, of which 10,000 serfs have been sold, and only 20,000 of the goods in my hands remain. Looking at the appetite of the Richard brothers this time, I am afraid that the goods in my hands are far from enough.

This time, since my brother has transferred troops to the south, it is better to act with me and go south to the Delong Kingdom to fight the Grass Valley, as long as you build a few castles, you will have all the things you want."

Hearing this, Richard immediately shook his head and said, "There is no intention to participate in the war when the troops are transferred south this time, and the preparation of materials is still somewhat insufficient. I'll talk to Duke Duran and a few Central Legions first, if we can get enough serfs, we won't have to go to war."

"If there aren't enough serfs in the hands of the southern aristocracy, the Richard brothers can't go back empty-handed, right?"

Richard

He smiled and replied, "If that's the case, I'll have to ask Brother Gis to be the host."

After the banquet, the next day Richard handed over the gold coins and bought twenty thousand serfs from the Duke of Guise.

For the next period of time, Richard constantly sent emissaries to buy serfs from the minor nobles in the south.

The minor nobles of the south were all part-time slave traders, and the slave trade was an important income for the dukedoms such as Guise and Duran.

Even a few Central Legions, who had not been in the south for a long time, were engaged in the slave trade.

In order to earn this kind of bloody gold coins, the big nobles such as Guiss and Duran have to organize people to go to the Delong Kingdom to fight the Grass Valley every year.

The small aristocracy was not strong enough, and the number of serfs sold by each family was very small, because of the slave production area, the price of serfs here was very low, about one-third cheaper than that of the Nolan market.

If you buy a complete family of four, you only need about thirteen or fourteen gold coins.

Twenty thousand serfs were purchased from the Duke of Guise, and only about three thousand from the small nobles of the southern regions. The caravan under the command of Richard was active for more than ten days, and ran all over the southern region, counting Duke Duran and the Central Army, a total of about 50,000 people were purchased.

The number of serfs purchased was far from enough, so Richard had to agree to Duke Guise's request and go south to fight grass valley together.

During this time, Richard also took time to go to the front to see his father, William. Perhaps because of the tense situation and the high pressure on the front, Richard always felt that William's state was a little wrong, which made him a little worried.

On March 16, Richard and Haaland led the army into the land of the Delong Kingdom again.

After several years of tug-of-war, the border area of the Delong Kingdom has become deserted, and the country's population has lost about four million.

In the more than two years of war, the Delong Kingdom has strengthened the construction of the army, and the combat effectiveness is slightly higher than that of two years ago.

Nowadays, a buffer zone with a large width has been formed between the Kingdom of Delong and the Kingdom of Grant, and the width of the buffer zone has reached about 200 kilometers from the Dukedom of Guise to the southwest.

This buffer zone, which covers an area of tens of thousands of square kilometers, has become a no-man's land, and neither side can hold on to this area.

The morning sun slowly descended from the east, tearing through the darkness of the earth, and the hazy light reflected the frost on the ground.

March is already early spring, it is still a little cold in northern Xinjiang, the snow has not yet melted in some areas, and people who freeze early in the morning have joint pain, and it is not very comfortable to get up and move.

But in the territory of the Delong Kingdom, the climate will undoubtedly be much better, everything has recovered, grass has grown on large tracts of land, and the morning air is somewhat fragrant.

At four or five o'clock in the morning, before dawn, the Huotou army had already begun to light a fire and cook, and Richard and other senior officers also got up early and began to patrol the camp.

As an officer, you can't be lazy, diligence is the most important quality.

The reason why Haaland led the army to order and prohibit it was that Richard took the lead and set an example for the officers and soldiers, which was also a very important factor.

A buffer zone of 200 kilometers, through which normal infantry would need to walk for more than ten days.

The soldiers under the command of Haaland were well-trained and could walk sixty miles in a day. On the march in the field, there is no military station on the road to replenish supplies, and being able to walk sixty miles is already a strong soldier.

In the entire kingdom of Grant, marching in enemy-occupied areas without supplies, it is very rare for an army that can travel sixty miles a day.

Even a few Northern Frontier legions that have been fighting against orcs all year round have traveled about forty or fifty miles a day.

In fact, Haaland led the army, and spent most of his time camping. Building a camp is a very troublesome task, you need to find water, cut wood, dig trenches, and set up tents.

Walking dozens of miles a day, and building camps, the road is not easy.

It often takes six hours to build a camp, one hour to eat, one hour to pack the luggage and tents, two hours to rest on the road, and seven hours to sleep, and the time schedule is very full, and the time that can be used for marching is only six or seven hours.

If there are battalions and military stations along the way to replenish, Haaland's regular army can do it every day

and marched one hundred and twenty miles. But in enemy-occupied areas, the marching distance was only about half.

With the development of the territory's economy, the construction of Haaland's army is getting better and better.

Now a squadron has six to eight firehead troops, and the firehead squad carries more than ten war horses, three wagons, and generally carries half a month's rations.

Ordinary squads also had carriages with them, which were used to carry the soldiers' armor, weapons, tents, etc., and with heavy iron armor, the soldiers simply did not have the stamina to march long distances. Only when passing through dangerous roads such as canyons and woods will the soldiers put on iron armor and form a tight formation.

Generally speaking, if the soldiers of a squadron want to operate in enemy-occupied areas, they must carry at least 50 pack horses and a dozen wagons, and if they are active in the field and mountainous areas where the roads are not good, they must also strengthen the number of pack horses, and have sufficient logistical material support so that the soldiers can operate outside the military station and stronghold.

Richard has the Starlight Bottle on his body, and Wendini has the Legendary Space Bag, and the two can carry five hundred tons of wheat together.

Five hundred tons of wheat seems like a lot, but six thousand strong men, two thousand war horses, and seven hundred Warcraft war horses consume more than thirty tons of grain every day, and they can actually supply this army for about half a month.

Zooming in to the entire Haaland leading an army of 100,000, even the legendary fourth-order magic prop of the Starlight Bottle is a drop in the bucket and far from enough.

On the third day of Richard leading his army into the kingdom of Delon, he had just set up camp halfway through the buffer zone, and Derifen landed in the camp on a bipedal wyvern.

This time to the south, Richard did not transfer the lion cavalry, but transferred the bipedal dragoons who had just finished hibernation to the south.

Although the number of bipedal wyverns led by Haaland is small, there are no natural enemies in the Delong Kingdom, and they can dominate the air, as long as they don't encounter legendary knights, there are basically no opponents.

"Are there any special circumstances?"

Seeing that Derry Fen had come back from reconnaissance, Richard immediately asked.

"There is indeed an enemy, and a cavalry of 3,000 men has appeared near us. This cavalry is about forty kilometers away in a straight line, and should be about to meet our scouts."

There are two kinds of scouts in Haaland's territory, heavenly and underground, and the cavalry reconnaissance brigade on the ground generally has an activity range of 30 kilometers from the main force, and the magic hot air balloon in the sky depends on the wind direction and mainly plays an observation role. The range of reconnaissance by the griffon cavalry and bipedal dragoons is very large, usually more than 100 kilometers, and sometimes the reconnaissance distance is very far, even 300 kilometers away from the main force.

Hearing Drifen's report on the enemy's situation, Richard immediately gave the order: "Let all our scouts be withdrawn and only operate within ten kilometers of the camp."

"You want to use this camp as a trap to attract this cavalry to attack?"

"Do you think they're going to be fooled?"

"If the enemy had a wise commander, he would not attack the infantry camp with cavalry. As soon as they appear near us and want to cut off our food routes, it will give us a headache."

Richard pointed to the map and said to Drifen, "Since this cavalry is near us, we must eat him. If the enemy is not fooled, send out the Warcraft cavalry and take the initiative to kill the enemy."

The speed of the Warcraft cavalry is very fast, whether it is endurance or combat effectiveness far beyond ordinary cavalry, it is basically impossible to win if it is not more than six or seven times the numerical advantage.

The enemy has only three thousand cavalry, and it is not yet an opponent of the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade.

After discovering the enemy's traces, Richard showed that the enemy was weak, hid the Warcraft cavalry brigade, deliberately defeated the reconnaissance cavalry, and successfully attracted the enemy army to the vicinity of the camp.

The cavalry commander of the Delong Kingdom was more cautious and did not rashly attack the fortified camp. But at this time the enemy army was already approaching, saving time to pursue the enemy, and the situation at this moment, it was useless to be cautious or not.

Richard led three brigades of infantry to attack head-on, and the Warcraft cavalry brigade attacked the flank, easily defeating the three thousand cavalry of the Delong Kingdom.

In this battle, Haaland led the soldiers to lose less than a hundred soldiers, and defeated the enemy with only three hundred casualties, killed more than seven hundred cavalry, and captured more than two thousand war horses

Fourteen hundred soldiers. The scattered enemy army was about 900 people.

This cavalry of the Delong Kingdom has been training for a year and a half, and although its tactical skills are still very mediocre, it is also a regular army. Of course, it is impossible for Richard to release this kind of regular army with combat effectiveness on the spot, and after release, it can only enhance the combat effectiveness of the Delong Kingdom.

But to send it back to Haaland's territory, it is necessary to draw troops from the main force to escort it. Now that the enemy situation is unknown, Richard is naturally reluctant to divide his troops.

Of course, there is a simple and crude way to kill the prisoners, but it is a pity to kill the prisoners, these prisoners are all young and strong, have certain military skills, and put them in the slave market is worth more than 30,000 gold coins, and second, killing the prisoners will strengthen the enemy's will to resist. Richard would not have taken this step unless he had to.