Harris went to the Duchy of York, and Simeone sent an envoy to the Duchy of Harland, asking Richard to send reinforcements.

Haaland and Edward are two nobles living in the same country, and sometimes they need to cooperate in the noble council, although the relationship between the two families is average, and the relationship between the two families is generally maintained.

Therefore, Simeone put forward the request of being willing to marry the Haaland family and marry the fief, but Richard could not refuse directly.

Now the situation is very obvious, Maple Leaf Castle is besieged, and it will inevitably be lost in the short term, Harris's position is already very prominent, and it is very likely that he will be the next Duke Edward. The marriage between the two families is completely compatible, but unfortunately the Haaland family has no suitable marriage candidates now, Philip and the royal princess Vivian are about to get engaged, and Richard can't let Harris's daughter give Philip as the court lady, which is completely humiliating for the Edward family.

It is even more impossible to find King Roger to repent of his marriage and offend the Grant royal family.

Richard has not yet given birth to a second boy, unless Margaret is married, but Margaret is extremely talented, has drunk the water of life, and has been promoted to a second-order professional at a young age, her marriage Richard is no longer easy to interfere with, and it is basically impossible for her to marry.

If other members of the Harland family were allowed to marry Harris, the status would be unequal, and the second would be equivalent to giving up a large territory, and Richard would not be able to agree.

Without a suitable candidate for marriage, letting the Edward family cede the territory is equivalent to a direct slap in the face.

As the saying goes, a person lives a face, a tree lives a skin, and the nobility attaches great importance to face, as long as the situation does not collapse, Edward's territory can still be supported, Simeone does not want the Haaland family to slap his face, and he can't hold his head up.

With the Duke of York leading two legions into the Duke of Edward's county, the situation has also improved greatly and gradually stabilized, Simeone is ready to wait and see how the situation develops before making the next decision.

Simone came to Haaland to ask for help, and there was also a messenger to the three northern provinces, because of the cold of lips and teeth, Gascoin Province formed a noble coalition. Although the provincial nobility suffered very heavy losses due to their involvement in the rebellion of the Venus family. However, the nobles of Gascoin Province are more profound, and they can still organize an alliance of 12,000 nobles to help the Edward family stabilize the situation.

In just half a month, 60,000 reinforcements entered the Duke of Edward's county, helping the remnants of the Duke of Edward's army to maintain the battle line.

In this way, the two sides held each other, and the time entered April, and the war had spread to the entire Duke of Edward, and a large number of displaced people entered the Harland territory in groups.

In just half a month, Haaland has led more than 30,000 war refugees. Richard knew that as the war continued, the number of refugees would increase dramatically, even tenfold.

In mid-April, the legendary gnoll saw that the situation was at a stalemate, and immediately mobilized two legions from the rear to join the front line, and as the orc forces of the two legions joined the battlefield, the Duke of York's reinforcements were suddenly unable to support it.

In just a few days, the Grant Kingdom's side suffered heavy losses, and the defense line was broken by the orcs, with more than 30,000 soldiers lost.

The Duke of Edward's defenders retreated again and again, and the orc strikers even penetrated the Duke of Edward's County and entered the territory of the Duke of York, which shows the danger of the situation.

The situation of the war suddenly changed, and Simeone immediately received an urgent letter from Harris.

Before Simeone could meet Richard, bad news followed, after half a month of onslaught, Maple Leaf Castle also fell two days ago, and the successor Duke of Edward, Prott, died in battle.

Plott is a powerful ninth-order epic knight and the first heir to the old duke. He had just inherited the title for more than ten days before he died at the hands of the orcs, and only two or three of Plott's children were not in Maple Leaf Castle and escaped.

Although according to the law of noble succession, Plott's children inherited first, but the reality is that only Harris can take on the responsibility and succeed Duke Edward.

If Plott's children are unwilling to give up their inheritance, they will most likely not be able to save their lives in the cruel struggle of the nobles. Fights between nobles are often very cruel and bloody, and blood and death are also shed between close relatives. In the face of great power, it is difficult for fathers, sons, and brothers to have real feelings.

In recent years, Plott and Harmon have been divided into two factions, fighting for inheritance, making Edward's collar a miasma, but I didn't expect that in this orc invasion, the two factions suffered heavy losses, and the leaders Harmon and Plott all lost their lives, but Harris inherited the title, and the result was quite magical and shocking.

The orcs intensified their offensive, and Haraland led more Duke Edward to lead the outcasts, and the number of outcasts exceeded 50,000 in late April.

Except for a few nobles, all of these 50,000 people were incorporated into the indentured slave ranks by Richard, and after entering Haaland's territory, they were asked to sign contracts and press their handprints.

The group settled on the west bank of the Rania River, on the southwestern border of the Dukedom of Haraland. This part of the population settled on the border, developed for a year or two, and with food supplies, it could provide logistics for the conquest of the ogre army.

In order to protect this population, Richard also sent 5,000 soldiers to the southwest of the Rania River.

In the spring of this year, because the pressure on the North Mountain Defense Line was reduced, Richard had drawn a large number of troops from the North Mountain Defense Line, and mobilized 11,000 soldiers to the western region to strengthen Haaland's sense of presence in the western region and consume the ogre soldiers.

At the beginning of this spring, the railway department also accelerated its operation, and went all out to the west, preparing to build a 160-kilometer railway from Malte Castle to Songtao Castle.

If this railway is completed, it will be easy for the Harland Lords to transfer supplies from the core area to the Earldom of Martins, and when the time comes, the Ogre tribe will be defeated, and the Pine Castle will be able to be converted into an advance base to provide sufficient resources for the army.

Although Simeone had agreed to cede the land and ask for reinforcements, Richard decided to dry him.

Since it has been decided to weaken the Duke of Edward, of course it must be fierce, anyway, the two sides will have a grudge, and it will be difficult to resolve the conflict, so of course we must strive for the greatest interests at this time. At this time, Richard was not afraid of offending people at all.

Richard directly opened his mouth and demanded that 30,000 square meters of public land be ceded before three legions were dispatched to help defeat the orcs.

As the situation became more and more critical, Simeone was forced to agree to Richard's request after communicating with Harris.

At this moment, it was already late April, and the army led by Haaland slowly assembled and appeared on the border of Duke Edward's county.

By the time Haaland led the army appeared, the orc army had already been plundered.

After more than a month of fighting, the orc army grabbed more than 600,000 people, untold grains, and baggage in the territory of the two dukes of Edward and Fox, and even the gold coins of the Grant Kingdom, which were captured in many battles and more than one million.

The finances destroyed and burned by the orcs are even more incalculable, and if all the losses are counted, it is estimated that Harris will vomit three liters of blood.

Although there are no Grant Kingdom gold coins in circulation in the Orc Empire, the Orc Empire has planted a lot of spies in the Grant Kingdom, and these gold coins can provide resources for the spy network. In addition, the orcs traded frequently with the Southwest Magical Kingdoms, and many multinational chambers of commerce were involved. The gold coins of the Grant Kingdom can also exchange resources with the Transnational Chamber of Commerce, and the gold coins of the Human Kingdom are also of great use to the Orc Empire.

The orcs were full of oil, and naturally they were unwilling to fight hard against the powerful Harland army.

Seeing Richard appear with his troops, the orc army instantly had a plan to retreat. It's just that the opponent of the orcs is Harland leading strong troops, and it is not easy to retreat.

On the sixth day of the fifth month, Richard appeared near Palani Castle with 50,000 Harland leading soldiers, directly threatening the logistics line of the orc army.

This year, the number of Haaland and the Lion Cavalry has been expanded again, increasing to sixty, and the number of Wyvern Riders has also increased slightly.

The strength of the flying class led by Harland has increased, and the orc side has not yet filled the vacancy because of the defeat last year. With the appearance of the lion cavalry and the bipedal wyvern on the battlefield, the harpy man was directly suppressed.

The lessons of last year have made the orcs afraid to fight a large-scale decisive battle with Haraland.

After discovering that the situation was not good, the two orc legions immediately chose to abandon the captives and disperse to break through.

Finding that the orcs had broken through with their troops, Richard did not make any effort to chase after him.

It is very troublesome to clear out the scattered orcs, and it is necessary for Haaland to lead the army to disassemble and disperse the forces to surround and intercept them.

Skirmishes will not take advantage of the Starlight Bomb, and countless battles will add up to a massive attrition of Haaland's army.

Anyway, this orc invasion lost the two dukedoms of Edward and Fox. Being able to drive out the orcs, Richard has fulfilled his promise to send troops. This time the troops were sent to pick up cheap, and it was impossible to fight a tough battle and fight for consumption.

In order to break through smoothly and gain time, the orcs did not slaughter the prisoners, but left the burden of more than 100,000 people to Richard to drag Richard's army.

A population of more than 100,000 is a very valuable resource, and in order to settle these populations, Richard did not send soldiers to chase after them, and after several battles, he only annihilated 3,000 orcs.

In late May, the orc army in Duke Edward's domain managed to return to the northern prairies.

This time the orc invasion directly changed the situation in the northern Xinjiang region and achieved a brilliant victory.

The same war directly hit the Duke of Edward.

In order to obtain reinforcements, the Edwards paid a great price, ceding 30,000 square kilometers of land to Harland and 16,000 to the Duke of York.

After the cession of the territory, the Duke of Edward's territory was reduced by a small half, and most of the remaining 60,000 square kilometers of territory were on the mountain front, and the strength had been weakened by more than fifty percent.

Even more serious was the loss of population, after the war, the Edward family gathered the displaced people, and found that the population of the territory was less than half a million people.

In recent years, the expansion of the Grant Kingdom has been smooth, and the ducal families such as Edward and Fox have all taken a ride and their strength has increased.

Before the war, the Duchy of Edward had a population of 1.4 million, and the Duchy of Fox had an even larger population, reaching 1.8 million.

After a war, the Duke of Edward lost nearly a million people, which is equivalent to the loss of five million gold coins if converted into gold coins.

Even the Haaland family, which is a big family, will suffer such a heavy blow, and its development will be stagnant for many years and collapse. The strength of the Duke of Edward was far inferior to that of the Duke of Haaland, and after suffering this heavy blow, the actual strength was already the same as that of the Southern Dukedom.

More than a million lost population, more than 300,000 were robbed by the orcs, and the Harland leader took advantage of the fire to loot and swallowed up about 200,000. The total number of people displaced to the province of Gascoigne is also seventy or eighty thousand. Some of the remaining lost population died of starvation and war, and some of them became displaced and fled to the mountains.

A large part of these people who fled to the mountains were hunted by ogres, and the population that could really survive in the Eagle Mountains was pitiful, and there were hardly many people.

The losses of the army were also very serious, before the war, the Duke of Edward had two legions of regular troops, 20,000 auxiliaries, and after the war, only 13,000 regular troops remained, and the auxiliaries were less than 8,000.

After the two armies were reorganized, they barely made up a corps with weak combat effectiveness.

This army has suffered a heavy blow, and it is very difficult to restore combat effectiveness.

Not to mention the loss of materials, hundreds of years of accumulation were ruined.

The Duke of Edward was almost destroyed by the Orcs, and the Duke of Fox did not escape the catastrophe.

Although the Dukedom of Fox lost relatively little land, after the war, the population also lost more than 200,000 and the army was reduced by 20,000.

Although the losses of the Dukedom of Fox can barely be beared, the most troublesome thing is that the situation has changed.

From this orc invasion, it can be found that the focus of the orcs' attack has shifted, from the Harland family to the two dukes Edward and Fawkes.

Although the strength of the two dukes Edward and Fox is not weak, they have a total of 100,000 troops. This huge force, even the Grant royal family, has to compromise with them. But when encountering strong orcs, this power is far from enough.

After this war, the situation in the north gradually became clear, whether it was Edward or Fox, it would become the situation of the Martins family. In one brutal war after another, the power was squeezed out by the orcs.

Unless the two dukes can get the rescue of the royal family and the Haaland family with all their might.

The two dukes, Edward and Fox, have a general relationship with the Harland family. The four dukes are all developing in northern Xinjiang, and the competition is very strong, and the two dukes, Edward and Fox, have a very general vision, and they do not have a discerning eye, so they befriend Richard before they make a fortune, which has caused an embarrassing situation today.

Compared with the two dukes of Edward and Fox, the Haaland family has a closer relationship with the Grant royal family and the Jonathan family, especially with the royal family, and marriages between the main members have been very common.

may be because the Haaland family has been around for a short time, and the two dukes, Edward and Fox, are jealous of the development speed of the Haaland family in their hearts, and on the other hand, they look down on the Haaland family, thinking that they are rude and barbaric.

From the Haaland family, it is difficult to get genuine support. Getting help from the royal family is also very difficult.

In the past ten years, since the Roger Kingdom took power, the Grant royal family has been bent on developing in the south, first quelling the rebellion of the three southern counts, seizing the three southern provinces, and then by fighting against the Delong Kingdom and the East Coast United Kingdom, they have captured three more provinces, and also divided a Count Steven.

For more than a decade, the royal family has expanded its territory to a smaller extent than Haaland's territory, but it has become richer and more valuable.

Because of the large expansion of territory in the south, the royal family directly transferred the central army in the north.

Now the royal family's garrison in the three northern provinces has only one mad lion legion left, and it is simply unable to help the two dukes Edward and Fox maintain the situation.

The Haaland family can't count on it, the royal family can't support it, and although the Duke of York wants to help Edward and Fox maintain the situation, their strength is average. None of the three legions could help Duke Edward and Duke Fawkes maintain the front.

The situation has developed to the present, and the two families of Edward and Fox have smart people, and they are all thinking about the future development.

If they don't think about it, the two dukes will also face the situation of Count Martins, and they will shed their blood in the cruel wars with the orcs.

After the war, Richard submitted an application to the Council of Nobles to redemarcate the border with the Duke of Edward.

Although the two sides signed an agreement before the war, the Haaland family still faced a lot of criticism in the noble council. Many of the nobles spoke generously at the meeting, believing that the Haraland family had disregarded the overall situation and demanded that Richard annul the signed contract.

In the Council of Nobles, the Haraland family is also very influential, and there are more than a dozen nobles under Richard's name, who have a lot of voting rights. The provincial nobility of Geda is also close to the Harland family, plus Richard already has two dukedoms under his name, William is still developing in the south, and the influence of the Haaland family is stronger than Edward and Fox combined.

The noisy clamor of the Council of Nobles did not affect the development of Haaland's territory at all, and by mid-June, Richard had already completed the demarcation of the border.

(End of chapter)