After the deal between Richard and Duke Edward, he immediately negotiated with the Duke of Fox's family.

In this year's orc invasion, the losses of the Fox family were relatively light, and now there are still more than 90,000 square kilometers of territory in northern Xinjiang, not counting the families of soldiers and bureaucrats, and more than 900,000 serfs and freemen.

Richard also wanted to eat this territory, and finally completed the exchange with 60,000 square kilometers of land in the south, with roughly the same population.

Compared with the serfs in the Delong Kingdom, Richard still preferred the people of Northern Xinjiang.

Growing up in a difficult environment, the people of northern Xinjiang tend to be more simple and war-resistant, have a stronger ability to endure hardships, have a more tenacious character, and are more adaptable to the environment of northern Xinjiang. The exchange of populations saves a lot of money and is a win-win for both parties.

Two wars broke out this year, and the situation in the Grant Kingdom has changed, and among the duke-level nobles, the Edward family, which used to be ranked in the middle of the ranks, has suffered heavy losses, and now its strength has been at the bottom, ranking last among the duke families.

Slightly stronger than the Edward family is Duke Guise, and Duke Guise also suffered heavy losses in last year's war, not only the old duke of the ninth-order epic knight was killed in battle, but also lost fifteen thousand elite soldiers. The only thing that the Dukedom of Guise is a little better than the Edward family is that the war took place in the Delong Kingdom, and the Dukedom of Guise suffered little economic and demographic losses and kept its basic territory. The economic, demographic and other figures far surpass the Duke of Edward.

Coming in third from the bottom is Duke Loraine, who is a keeper and doesn't have much ambition for expansion. This year, the Kingdom of Grant has launched a southern expedition with all its might, and Duke Lorrain has not invested much resources. Without ambition, the territory naturally has little development. Although the Duke of Loraine's strength ranking is not at the bottom, the territory area is already smaller than that of the two Dukes Guise and Edward. The territory is small, and the potential for development is naturally not large, and in the long run, the potential of the Lorrain family is not as good as that of the two dukes Edward and Guise.

In the fourth place from the bottom is Duke Fawkes, before the orc invasion this year, the two Dukes of Edward and Fawkes were relatively high in terms of strength. The strength of these two Northern Frontier Dukes is second only to Grant, Haaland, and York. It's a bit better than the Duke of Jonathan, which focuses on Starnick.

Unfortunately, the Orc invasion War I changed the balance of power in the Grant Kingdom, the Edward family fell to the lowest, and the Fawkes family also suffered heavy losses, falling from fourth to sixth. When the strength declines, the right to speak naturally decreases. The Fox family, like the Edwards, gave up the Northern Frontier territory and completely completed a gorgeous turnaround.

This year, the Grant Kingdom has changed, and the Duke of Jonathan has not declined or developed, but it has risen one place in the ranking compared to last year.

The Jonathan family was originally the second largest in the Grant Kingdom, and the Optimus Pillar of the Northern Frontier Defense Line twenty years ago was similar to the current Duke of Harland. When Richard served in the Lion Legion, Duke Jonathan was able to contain six legions of orcs. The influence in the northern Xinjiang is greater than that of the Grant royal family, which has three elite legions, and the prestige of Grand Duke Jonathan is still spread in the northern Xinjiang region.

However, after retaking the Grand Duchy of Starnik, the Jonathans focused their efforts on the west. Sixty thousand elite soldiers have been transferred into the Grand Duchy of Starnik, and his influence in the Grant Kingdom has become smaller and smaller, and his ranking has gradually fallen behind, and he can only stabilize at five or six in recent years.

The fourth place is the Duke of York, the York family, as the bloodline descendants of the Duke of Breener, ranked second in the Grant Kingdom in the early years, and the territory position is also better than several dukedoms on the northern frontier front.

However, with the rise of the Jonathan family, Duke Brainer has aged and gradually dropped to third in the rankings. In recent decades, the Duke of York's ranking in the Kingdom of Grant has been very stable, and he is the third oldest in 10,000 years.

But this year's two wars have changed the situation, first the orc invasion, which severely damaged the Duke of York's leading army, and then the Grant Kingdom marched south, and the dukes who participated in the war ate a mouthful of fat, and the Duke of York did not seize the opportunity. At this moment, the population, area, and number of soldiers in the Duchy of Duran surpassed that of the Duke of York.

The third duke in the southwest was originally weaker and inferior to the duke of northern Xinjiang, but Duke Duran seized the opportunity and grabbed more than 100,000 serfs last year, and exchanged it for one million gold coins with Haaland. This year, the territory was greatly expanded, and Duke Duran once again led his troops into battle, expanding 40,000 square kilometers of land and swallowing millions of people in the Delong Kingdom.

Duke Duran was originally a great nobleman of the Delong Kingdom, and he swallowed the land of the Delong Kingdom, which was easy to digest and absorb, and he surrendered and rebelled. Now their land, population, and military strength rank third in the Grant Kingdom, surpassing the Duke of York.

The second place is naturally Duke Haaland, although the Haaland family background is very shallow, and it is only six years after being promoted to the duke, but Richard has implemented a different set of economic policies, and industry and agriculture are developing rapidly. The magic civilization continues to advance, new weapons are constantly invented, and three years ago, the strength was promoted to the second place in the Grant Kingdom.

After the two battles this year, Haaland's territory has covered an area of nearly 500,000 square kilometers and controls a population of nearly 8 million, which is enough to compete with the entire country of Starnik.

There are also four major dukes, two earls and other big nobles in the country, and the vassal power under Richard is much weaker, and it is impossible to interfere with Richard's decision.

Now the Haaland family has more power than the Jonathan family.

The Jonathan family is a grand duke, a duke, and controls twelve counties, while the Haraland family holds the title of four dukes, two counts, for a total of fourteen counties. It can be combined into one archduke, one duke, and two counties, but Richard wants to take the crown of the archduke and break away from the Grant royal family, and must also participate in a racial and dimensional war, which is affirmed by the Divine Radiance Empire.

The first place is still the Grant royal family, although the current royal family may have less military power than the Haaland family. But the royal family has conquered more than 200,000 square kilometers of land in the south, and directly controls nearly 16 million people, almost double the number of Haaland's territory.

In addition, the influence of the royal family far exceeds that of the Harland family, Earl Steven, the Duke of York are all members of the Grant family, and the four marquis of the east are the in-laws of the royal family for generations, which is equivalent to part of the central ruling group.

The power of the influence of the Grant royal family far exceeds that of the Haaland family. According to Richard's estimates, if you want to really compete with the royal family, you will need to develop at least five to ten years, and your strength will increase by five or six percent.

Seeing Edward, both Fox and Fox completed the territorial exchange with Richard, and King Roger also sent Earl Karen as an envoy to explore Richard's exchange of views on the territory of the northern frontier.

In April of this year, Richard's eldest son, Philip, was already engaged to Vivien, the youngest daughter of Roger's Kingdom.

After the aristocracy got engaged, there was basically no such thing as repentance. On the other hand, if there is a grudge between two families, murder is more common in marriage.

The marriage between nobles is about half of the happiness and unhappiness after marriage. If there is no major conflict of interest between the two nobles who are married, there is a high probability that the married life will be happier.

After her engagement to Philip, Vivien planned to live in Fort William for a few years, and now lives in Earl Karen's mansion, where she often plays and meets Philip. After Philip graduated from high school, Richard consulted with King Roger to let him live in Nolan for a few years, with the young Vivien as his companion. When the two were almost old, when they reached the age of marriage, they returned to Fort William, took on part of the government affairs in place of Richard, and inherited the family business.

Earl Karen came up with the idea of wanting to exchange territories, and Richard certainly wouldn't refuse.

Richard has always had the ambition of swallowing the three provinces of Northern Xinjiang and owning the Heihe River system, and there is still a dimensional passage in the Dragon Canyon, and Richard has long wanted to control that side reasonably and legally. King Roger also did not want to waste his energy in the northern region, and was bent on developing to the south.

The two sides almost hit it off, but the combined area of the three provinces in northern Xinjiang is 80,000 square kilometers, and the value is of course much worse than the 100,000 square kilometers of land in the south of the Haaland family.

Although the three provinces of northern Xinjiang were mature areas with a population of about 3 million at their peak, the three central armies moved south, and the families who migrated with them were as many as 500,000 or 600,000 freedmen in the cities. With the completion of the exchange of territories, the Wild Lion Legion will also have to go south, and the population will be further lost.

In addition, there are dozens of large and small nobles in the three provinces, and these nobles control nearly half of the fiefs, and the population also exceeds one million. The land under the direct control of the crown is only about 40,000 square kilometers, and the population is only 1.2 million.

And Richard's fiefdom in the south, although it was traded a lot, still had 100,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 3 million. The consideration between the two sides was so unequal that Richard directly demanded the addition of the province of Sodamia before he was willing to exchange.

But they were reluctant to get King Roger to cede the lands of Sodamia, Gabria, and Floda.

After all, the southern part of the three provinces of Sodamia is the administrative region of the capital Nolan, and if these three provinces are ceded, the border of Haaland is not far from Nolan, and the capital will be threatened by the Haaland people at that time.

Since the territory of the core area could not be ceded, the Roger Kingdom exchanged more than 200,000 square kilometers of coastal territory in the east of Duke Jonathan's county to Richard.

Although this part of the land nominally belonged to the Kingdom of Grant, it was a pity that the area of the Eagle Mountains had not been developed in any way, and it was still uninhabited.

It is rumored that in this territory, there are not only legendary red dragon activities, but also elven tribes that have wandered to the eastern part of the Central Continent.

The short-term value of this land is basically non-existent, and if it is developed in the long run, the value is worth more than tens of thousands of square kilometers of land in the south.

The eastern coastal plateau, full of forests, has a pitiful low human density. But Richard knew in his heart that the coastal areas were far more valuable than the inland areas. The maritime trade alone can bring countless profits and opportunities to Haaland's leadership.

Now that Haaland has developed a steam engine and a magic crystal cannon, it is easy to build ironclad ships. By modifying the ironclad with a few modifications, you can create a magic ship.

When the magic ship is built and enough sailors are cultivated, they will be able to go deep into the ocean, hunt deep-sea monsters, and obtain more extraordinary resources. It can even cross the East China Sea, enter the East Continent to trade with the elven tribes, and even occupy colonies in the East Continent, so that the Harland Territory can achieve greater development.

After the land exchange was completed, Richard put forward an additional condition, hoping to move 500,000 serfs from the south to the north, because the population trade was seriously unequal, and King Roger happily agreed to Richard's conditions. However, the Kingdom of Roger also put forward a request, so that the nobles of the three provinces in Northern Xinjiang voluntarily choose to stay in Northern Xinjiang or go to the new territory in the south to develop.

The northern nobles went to the south with military forces, which could bring a lot of support to the Grant Kingdom, and the royal family was also willing to give a part of the southern territory to the southern nobles to help them stabilize the situation.

After the exchange of territories, the Duchy of Haaland nominally owned 780,000 square kilometers of territory. But only about 540,000 territories have actually been developed to a certain extent.

The two major dukedoms of Edward and Fox, and the three provinces of the northern frontier of the Grant Kingdom were all swallowed by the Harland family at the end of 3272 in the Dawn calendar. According to the rough estimate of the civil affairs department of the territory, the population that the ruling government can directly control is about 6 million, and the population controlled by the fiefdom nobles is about 500,000 or 600,000.

Because of the agreement to King Roger's conditions and the free choice of the nobles of the three provinces, most of the hereditary nobles will give up the northern territory and follow King Roger to the south. After all, the enemies in the south are much weaker than the orc empire, and they are relatively safer.

However, nobles and freedmen can migrate to the south, and most of the ordinary serfs and grain must stay in the north, and the kingdoms of Richard and Roger will give them a part of their resources and exchange them for money. Anyway, Haaland has some overcapacity for the time being, and he just uses this part of the excess capacity in exchange for population resources.

Richard's estimate was very accurate, and the vast majority of the nobles in the three provinces were willing to move south. In particular, in Gascoigne, the two major provinces of Lahe, ninety percent of the nobles chose to move south. The nobles of Geda Province also walked nearly halfway.

The only ones who are willing to stay are the nobles of Heihe and Luomen, who have fought side by side with Richard many times, and feel that staying in the Duke of Harland will make the family develop better.

Richard led his troops south in September, won a decisive victory in late October, and returned to Haaland's territory in mid-December.

In this battle of the Southern Expedition, many people have made outstanding achievements, first of all, Silver, because of the many battles to kill the enemy, more than 300 professionals died in her hands, and Silver's role in the killing of Markion was also very crucial. In this battle, he was awarded a viscount.

The Sutton family already has two viscounts, plus Sylph's viscountdom this time, if they choose to merge, they will be promoted to a great noble, becoming the first earl of Richard's vassals.

Richard is still developing within the Grant kingdom system, and there can be no earls among the vassals. Unless it breaks away from the Grant royal family and establishes itself as a Grand Duchy, it will naturally gain full autonomy at that time. Not only counts, but also dukes.

But in this way, it is not recognized by the mainstream countries, like a clown.

After consulting with Hilph, Richard decided not to merge the titles for the time being, but the realms would be sealed together, and Richard would wait for Richard to be promoted to Grand Duke and wear the crown before making plans.

In addition to Silver's direct viscount, the two young people, Levine and Sox, also accumulated enough merits with the support of their fathers and were made hereditary barons.

In addition, Soros and Jennings, two high-level officers, killed the enemy on the battlefield and commanded the army, and they were also successfully awarded a barony. Soros has been fighting in Haaland for 20 years, and this is the fourth time he has been knighted. It's just that he has given the domain to different children, and he has not yet worn the crown of viscount.

Jennings' second fief is located in the western part of the Haaland Territory, not far from Martins Castle. This territory is five hundred and sixty kilometers away from the first territory in a straight line, and the two territories are so far apart that it is naturally very inconvenient to manage.

Richard didn't mean to make things difficult for Jennings, but the northern territory of the Double Star Castle had been sealed, and if he continued to be given a fief in this area, he would divide the second military station into a fief.

The No. 2 military station is a garrison fortress of the northern Xinjiang defense line, and it is impossible to seal it off and make trouble for itself.

Therefore, the new fiefdom can only be chosen to the west, whether it is Jennings, Soros, or Levine, Sox, the four baronies are not far from Martins Castle.

Wilde, Roman, and Sutton missed this opportunity because they stayed in the north and did not make any achievements, so they could only wait for the next big war.

After the complicated things of exchanging territories and migrating people, the time has reached February 3273 in the morning calendar.

(End of chapter)