Although Clement's professional rank is not high, he cannot get ahead in the army, but this person has always been the same, with a magnanimous personality, very enthusiastic in his work, and his speech is not only down-to-earth but also very prestigious.

Of the three core cadres of the railway department, Richard actually valued Clemen the most.

Richard and Clement walked around a few tents at random, and when they found that the tents were leaking badly, Richard turned to Clemen and said, "That's not going to work, you have to provide a shelter for the workers." Raining for a long time causes serious damage to the body, and every indentured slave is an important property of the territory.

In particular, indentured slaves who have a collective life and have carried out major projects are worth a few points higher than those who farm the land. After experiencing this kind of collective life training, it is easier to adapt to going to the factory."

"The railway line is moving forward every day, and the workers can say that they have no fixed place to live. Building settlements every 10 kilometres would undoubtedly add a lot of costs. Due to the limited construction funds, we can only live in tents, in fact, not only indentured slaves, but also overseers, engineers and technicians also have to live in tents."

Seeing that Clement's face was a little embarrassed, Richard turned his head and asked Green. "How much money do I have in my account?"

As government operations became more formalized, Richard's private spending was gradually separated from Haaland's government spending.

Today, the finances of Haaland's domain are managed by the government cabinet, but an annuity of 200,000 gold coins is given to the lord's court every year. In addition, Richard's Duke's Office has 300,000 mobile funds a year, and the Duke's Bank will also take out a part of the gold coins to distribute dividends to Richard every year, plus the income of some private farms, Richard's funds can be about 600,000 gold coins.

Richard now had more money at his personal disposal than an earldom.

Green is Richard's adjutant general, and his responsibilities are very heavy, and he now has more than a dozen office staff under his command, responsible for connecting with the army and various government departments. Greene was the head of the adjutant's office, and he controlled all the funds for Richard's mobility.

"The Duke Mobile Fund has invested 60,000 gold coins in the technology research and development department this year, and now there are 240,000 gold coins that can be used freely."

"Give Clemen 20,000 gold coins to establish two settlements along the railway line for indentured slaves." Before Green could finish speaking, Richard immediately gave the order.

Seeing the smile on Clement's face, Richard was afraid that he would stumble, so he deliberately woke up a few words and said, "The railway department will be established soon, and I plan to appoint you as the minister of railways, and my only requirement for you is to be fair and honest. I hope you can be worthy of my reuse and promotion, and not be sent to the gallows by me like many corrupt officials in the past.

The reason why I have disclosed this news to you in advance today is that I hope you can accept the test.

Don't let me down, Clement."

"Don't worry, Duke, I will always reflect, suppress greed, and be a loyal and honest person."

Richard waved his hand and said, "I hope you can do this, I don't want to hear it."

Returning from Graveson, Richard received letters from Drifen, Sutton, and others.

After being assigned to the East Coast Province last winter, Richard sent a team to explore the coastal areas.

Although the team was small in number, the members were carefully selected, with Sutton as the leader of the expedition and Drifen as the vice-captain. The expedition team has more than 60 members, each of whom is a professional with extensive experience in surviving in the wild.

Among the members of the squad are three bipedal wyvern knights, four high elves, plus Sutton, a ninth-order knight, and there are as many as eight high-level combat powers, as long as the legend does not interfere, they can run rampant in most areas.

The eastern coast province is a large province with little development, and there are no human settlements on this land, and there may be a small number of wild people.

The expedition led by Sutton and Drifen may be the first time that the human kingdom has penetrated into the East Coast Province.

Sutton and the others set out in January and headed along the Black River.

In the upper reaches of the Black River, because there are snow crystal fish back to spawn, it is very dangerous from August to October every year, and millions of snow crystal fish will swim upstream from the Black River, even if it is a legendary magician, in the face of such a huge population of snow crystal fish, they do not dare to act rashly.

Actually, to the snow crystal fish

During the spawning season, the 200-kilometer stretch of the river near the mouth of the Heihe River is not suitable for human activities at all.

In January, the Black River was still frozen, and during this time, the demonic beasts living in the Black River basically migrated to the deep sea, and Sutton and the others walked on the frozen Black River, but it was very easy.

It only took more than ten days to come to the vicinity of the mouth of the Heihe River. For the next period of time, Sutton and Drifin mainly reconnoitred the terrain near the mouth of the Heihe River.

In the middle of last month, Sutton spotted a teenage elf during a patrol.

Because Sutton has half elven blood, the elven characteristics are very obvious, and the two sides have had a brief communication. Shortly thereafter, Sutton took the initiative to take the High Elves and quietly entered the camp of this elven tribe.

Arriving at the elven tribe, Sutton secretly thought to himself, "It seems that the rumors are indeed true, there is indeed a small amount of elven activity in the eastern coastal forests. Not long after our expedition entered the East Coast Province, we found an elven tribe, but the scale of this elven tribe is too small, the total number is only more than ten people, and half of them are still underage elves."

"Forgive us for being a little presumptuous, let me introduce myself first, my name is Sutton, my father is a legendary mercenary, and my mother is an elf of the Dawn tribe."

As soon as Sutton introduced himself, a seventh-order High Elf Sigoness continued, "Sutton's mother, Silver, is a great legendary elf and the queen of our Radiant tribe, which elven tribe are you from?"

The elven tribes of the Eastern Continent have always had a tradition of discriminating against half-elves. But for the Radiant tribe, Sutton and Sylph have saved their lives for the Radiant elves, and also created a safe habitat for them, although the elves need to contribute to Richard and participate in the war they don't like, but this is already the best living environment that the Radiant tribe has obtained over the years.

In order to prevent the strange elf from saying anything good, Sigoness preemptively interjected and pointed out Sutton's background.

Although the elves of the Eastern Continent discriminate against the half-elves and do not regard the half-elves as their own kind, they also have a tradition of respecting the strong. It is not uncommon for elves to have high-level professionals, and a larger elven tribe is full of high-level professionals, but it is also extremely difficult to promote the legendary elves.

A large elven tribe with more than a thousand people, the number of high-level elves exceeds hundred, and there are only one or two elves who can be promoted to legend. Small and medium-sized elven tribes, few legendary elves are in charge.

Originally, the leader of the elven camp secretly had some contempt for Sutton, but when he heard that his mother was a legendary elf, he was suddenly surprised.

Hearing Sigoness's question, the elf leader in the camp was slightly stunned and said, "I'm Artem, the elf of the Twilight tribe."

"I've heard of the Twilight tribe, and I've heard that your tribe is very large, with over two thousand elves, a tree of life growing on the tribe's site, and two legendary elves, the Night Ranger and the Sun Archer. How could you be so powerful, how could you be in such a predicament?" Hearing Twilight's tribe, Sigoness's face suddenly became a little surprised, and there was a hint of doubt on her face.

"You're talking about the past, fourteen years ago, the Twilight Tribe was invaded by the Elven Court, and we suffered heavy losses, lost our territory, and even the Tree of Life fell into the hands of the Elven Court. Shortly thereafter, the Twilight Tribe was attacked by the Slave Catchers, killing and wounding most of our remaining warriors, and more than sixty Elves fell into the hands of the Slave Catchers.

When the slave catcher returned, the magic ship was attacked by a deep-sea monster, and finally the magic ship was damaged and drifted to this sea, where we were rescued by a nearby elf tribe, and attacked the slave catcher group, and at this time there were only more than forty elves left in the twilight tribe. What about your Radiant tribe, what's going on?"

Sigoness recounted the situation of the Morninglight tribe, and when she heard that the Morninglight tribe and Sylph now only had twenty-seven elves left, Artem seemed to remember some tragic memory, and a painful expression appeared on her face.

"The camp is full of elves from the Twilight Tribe?" Sutton swept his eyes and found that there was a half-elf in the camp, and several treehouses were built differently, so he took the liberty of asking.

Artem shook his head and said, "No, the Twilight Tribe is a thing of the past, my tribe

There are sixteen members, from three different elven tribes. Now we all call ourselves the Coastal Highland Elves."

"Why are there half-elves in your territory?" Sutton finally couldn't resist his curiosity and asked.

"There are some captured elves who have been insulted by slave groups and have given birth to half-elves while pregnant." Artem reluctantly explained, and Sutton and Sigoness immediately showed expressions of sudden realization.

Because of their belief in the gods of nature and life, elves have a custom of forbidding abortion, and although some female elves dislike or even dislike these children because of this unbearable experience, they still follow the custom and raise half-elves.

Listening to the meaning of Artem's voice, Sigoness asked suspiciously, "Listen to the meaning of your voice, there are still many elven tribes in the eastern coastal forest, I don't know why they don't gather together, but choose to disperse."

"It's not that we don't want to concentrate, it's that there are slave hunters in the nearby waters. The slave hunters have domesticated some lions and even two-legged wyverns, and once we establish a larger settlement, we will face attacks from the slave catchers. In order to avoid the slave hunters, we can only disperse the tribes, reduce the time for making fires, and try to feed our hunger with fruits and vegetables.

At the same time, we can't be active in one area for a long time, we need to move frequently, and when the slave catchers come ashore, we have to dig holes and relocate to caves.

Listen to some of the elves who fled to this area in the early years, more than fifty years ago, there were more than 300 elves in this area, forming a medium-sized tribe, this tribe was renamed the Blood Moon Elves, and they were ready to develop to the western part of the coastal highlands in search of a natural magic well. As a result, before the Blood Moon Elves could make a move, they were discovered by a large slave hunting group, the Blood Moon Elves fought a failed war, and the captured slave group captured more than a hundred female elves, and almost all the adult male elves were slaughtered, only a few elves escaped the catastrophe, and the Blood Moon Elf tribe also disappeared in the long river of time.

Nowadays, among the coastal highland elf tribes, there are some people from the Blood Moon tribe. After this catastrophe, the elves in this region have no choice but to disperse."

Through Artem's narration, Sutton's mind was a little clearer about the surrounding situation. "What are the number and scale of slave hunting groups in the nearby waters? Which human kingdoms are they from, and have you figured out any information about this?"

"In the past ten years, we have also arrested some slave hunters and tortured some information. In recent years, more than a dozen slave hunters have been operating in the nearby area. These slave hunting regiments ranged in size, with larger groups numbering more than a few thousand and smaller ones numbering two or three hundred.

Generally speaking, large slave hunting groups are very expensive and will not stay in this desolate sea area for too long, while smaller slave hunting groups may continue to conduct reconnaissance activities in this sea area for three to five months.

There are slave catchers from all countries, but most of them are from the Divine Radiance Empire, a few are from the Parame Kingdom, and occasionally you can see the activities of the Archduchy Caroline. I heard that in recent years, there have also been nobles from the Sith Kingdom who have built magic ships and are involved in slave hunting."

Sutton knew in his heart that the so-called slave hunting group was basically the private army of the big nobles, and there were legendary professionals standing behind the few slave hunting groups, and even the elven royal court could only protect themselves and could not interfere with the private slave hunting activities of the human nobles.

At today's market price, capturing an elven girl can be sold for more than 10,000 gold coins in a large-scale auction, of which the profit belonging to the slave hunting group is as high as seventy or eighty percent, and the rest of the profit is shared by the multinational chamber of commerce and local nobles.

The profits are so high, even if the risk of catching elves is very high, countless coastal nobles have entered this industry one after another, and the large and small slave hunting groups are almost impossible to count, and the total number is estimated to be more than 100,000 people.

The slave hunting group is composed of professionals, and its combat effectiveness is also quite strong, if the human kingdoms can gather more than 100,000 professionals, it is enough to severely damage the orc army of a governor's district.

After finding out the situation of the elves in the East Coast Province, Sutton immediately became interested in soliciting them.

Silver's Radiant tribe now only has female elves, and it is not a way to continue in the long run, if the coastal highland elves can be brought under their command, the elves of the Morninglight tribe can quickly recover.

If the elven tribe becomes stronger, it will affect the development of the Sutton family in the Harland territory

The same is a good thing, the stronger your own strength, the higher the value of the united front.

Sutton's nearly 100-year experience is very clear about this.

Although they have the intention to annex the coastal highland elves, the relationship between the two sides is not familiar, and I am afraid that the coastal highland elves are also wary of Sutton. If you want to take the elf name under your command, you need a special opportunity. It's best to wait for the Highland Elves to act when the situation is critical.

After establishing a relationship with the coastal highland elves, Sutton immediately wrote a letter to Richard, asking for a stronghold near the mouth of the Black River, and hoping to let his mother Sylph come forward to make friends with the highland coastal elves in advance.

Sylph is a legendary elf after all, dealing with the elves of the eastern seaboard, and the cards are far superior to Sutton. The Sutton family is now Richard's in-laws, and the growth of the elven tribe is also beneficial to the development of Harland's territory.

After receiving Sutton's letter, Richard transferred a hundred professional soldiers from the witcher squadron, and then two hundred professional veterans from the army led by Haraland, and then asked Sylph to lead the team to form an advance detachment, establish a stronghold at the mouth of the Black River, integrate forces, and prepare to seize the opportunity to absorb the elves in the coastal areas.

To reinforce her supplies, Wendini lent her legendary space bag to her mother.

Wendini's legendary space bag has one hundred and twenty cubic meters of space, which is filled with food, enough for the advance team to eat for four months, with this part of the baggage guarantee, plus enough fishing and hunting for Sylph to take people to gain a foothold at the mouth of the Black River.